Difference between revisions of "Igala Grammar"
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===== Serial Verb Constructions ===== | |||
Below is an example of a serial verb construction in Igala. | Below is an example of a serial verb construction in Igala. |
Revision as of 15:28, 2 March 2022
Disclaimer
This wiki is currently under construction. The information on this page stems from the research that began with the field methods class taught at the McGill Department of Linguistics in Winter 2021.
Cultural Information
Background Information
Igala, known to the Igala people as “àbó ígálâ [àbóogálâ] in their language” is both an ethnic nationality and language (Ẹ̀jẹ̀bá 2016:1)[1]. Certain cultural groups such as the Bassa people maintain an Igala identity while other groups such as the Inoma or Ebu do not view themselves as Igala people (Ẹ̀jẹ̀bá 2016:2). These divergent identities result from different historical interactions between these groups and the Igala people of the Kogi State (Ẹ̀jẹ̀bá 2016)[1]. Igala is distantly related to other Yoruboid languages.
Spoken by approximately 1,600,020 people (Ethnologue), Igala is one of the nine main languages in Nigeria (Williamson 1990). The name Igala refers to the people as well as their language (Boston 1968, Williamson 1989b, Ukwedeh 1989 and Etu 1999). The Igala language belongs to the New Benue-Congo branch within the Niger-Congo phylum. It is coordinate with such languages as Yoruba, Itsekiri, Igbo, and Idoma. (Ẹ̀jẹ̀bá 2016)[1]. Igala is distantly related to other Yoruboid languages.
The Pear Story
The Pear Story is a six-minute film that was produced at the University of California at Berkeley in 1975 and shown to speakers of a number of languages, who were asked to tell what happened in it. In the meantime it has been used in a variety of other studies across other languages. The goal has been to present cinematically a series of more or less natural events to multiple viewers, who are then asked to verbalize what they remember. (UCSB Linguistics) [1].
A native (first language) speaker of Igala, recorded herself telling the pear story. The Winter 2021 Field Methods class, transcribed the story based on her recording [2].
Phonology
The phonology of Igala consists of a mid sized inventory of consonants and vowels. Igala is a tonal language. (Main page: Tone)
Phonological Inventory
Consonants
The consonants in Igala are given below.
Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Co-articulated velar labial | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | p pʲ b bʲ | t d | k kʷ g gʷ | |||||
Nasal | m mʲ | n | ɲ | ŋ ŋʷ | ||||
Fricative | f fʲ | h | ||||||
Affricate | tʃ dʒ | |||||||
Approximant | w | ɹ | j | |||||
Lateral Approximant | l lʲ |
As shown above, Igala contains labialized plosives such as /gʷ/ and palatalized plosives such as /lʲ/.
Igala additionally contains the co-articulated phonemes /kp/ 'voiceless labiovelar plosive' and /gb/ 'voiced labiovelar plosive'.
Vowels
According to Ejeba (2016), there are seven vowels in Igala. [1] The vowels in Igala are given below.
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i | u | |
Mid | ɛ e | o ɔ | |
Low | a |
Syllable Structure
Syllables in Igala are in the form V, VC, or CVC. The maximal syllable in Igala is CVC.[1]
The majority of syllables in Igala are open syllables of CV or V form.
There are distributional restrictions on where each syllable can appear. According to Ejeba (2016), CVC form is limited to ideophones. CV can occur word-initially, word-medially, word-finally, or in isolated form. V can occur in all cases except for word medially. Negation in Igala occurs as a syllabic nasal: /n/.
Phonotactics
Vowel Hiatus
From a preliminary overview of Igala, it appears that Igala does not tolerate vowels in hiatus. Resolution usually consists of the deletion of the initial vowel of the VV. Take for example, the following:
(1) ɹɔ ākʷū > [ɹākʷū] ‘cry a cry’
(2) ra ɔ́mɛ̀ > [rɔ́mɛ̀] ‘pay debt’
(3) kɔ uɲi > [kuɲi] ‘build a house’
(4) kpɛ útʃɛ̀ > [kpútʃɛ̀] ‘send message’
(5) wɔ ɛ́dɔ̀ > [wɛ́dɔ̀] ‘get angry (lit. foam heart)’
(6) gba ìlɛ́tà > [gbìlɛ́tà] ‘receive a letter’
(7) du ēdʒū > [dēdʒū] ‘take eye (part of a SVC)’
Note: The deleted vowels are put in bold
The exception to this pattern of deletion is when the initial vowel of the sequence is i, in which case the hiatus becomes diphthongized. In other words, the initial high front vowel becomes a glide and yields a jV string, as seen in the following:
(8) li ɛ > [lʲɛ] ‘see you’
(9) hi odʒe abatʃa > [hʲodʒabatʃa] 'cook cassava morsel'
(10) bi ɔ̌nà> [bʲɔ̌nà] ‘open door’
There are other instances where hiatus is not repaired such as between a subject and aspect marker.
Tone
Main page: Tone
There are four level tones (Low (à), Mid (ā), High (á), and Super High (a̋)) and two contour tones (Falling (ǎ) and Rising (â)).
In Igala, tones are involved in morphological processes.
Morphosyntax
Igala is a dominantly isolating language. The main word order in Igala is SVO. However, in certain cases alternative word orders, such as SOV, may occur. For instance, in the presence of fV the word order is modified. This morpheme appears to surface in the usual verb slot, while the matrix verb appears sentence-finally. See fV & mV for futher information.
Morphological Processes
Main Page: Morphological Processes
fV & mV
Main page: fV & mV
tʃɛ/tʃe
The morphemes tʃɛ and tʃe appear as verbal elements in Igala. tʃɛ adds the meaning that something has already been done to a sentence.
(1)
ū | gbɔ̋ | kàkīnī | ɛ̀ | tʃɛ̀ | wā | mɛ̂ |
1SG | hear | C | 2SG | already | come | now |
‘I heard that you have already come.' |
(2)
The morpheme tʃe is a copular element translated as do/does.
ido | e | ta | tʃe | ɛŋʷu | ɔla | mi |
dance(N) | NMLZ | dance(V) | do | thing | body | 1SG.OBJ |
‘Dancing is my favorite thing (to do).' |
In certain cases tʃ(e) seems to note additional emphasis in a situation. Often added to reinforce past tense with eventives and statives. It possibly takes a nominalized VP (tʃ+e VP).
(3)
i | tʃe | uwɛ | dʒɛ | ɔda | lɛ | i | n | : |
3SG.NEG | do.EMPH | 2SG.STR | eat | pear | DEF.DIST | EMPH | NEG.SFP | ? |
‘Are you not the one who ate the pear?’ |
Negation
When a sentence is negated in Igala, the subject of the negation bears an extra-high tone. Additionally, sentence-finally there is a syllabic nasal n 'NEG' in negated sentences.
(1)
i̋ | l | ɛ́ŋwú | du: | n̋ |
3SG.NEG | buy | thing | every | NEG.SFP |
‘He didn't buy anything’ | ||||
The morpheme ma 'NEG' occurs before the verb in sentences with fronting and negation.
(2)
i̋ke̋tiì | o1.5ŋʷūi | ɔ̄jà | pítà | má | mà | kàkíní | pítà | k(a) | ɔ̀là | kp(ai) | óŋʷūi | n | î |
Kate | 3SG.STR | wife | Peter | NEG | know | C | Peter | say | word | with | 3SG.STR | NEG | EMPH |
It is Kate that Peter’s wife does not know that Peter met. | |||||||||||||
Nominalization
Main page: Nominalization
In Igala, nominalization occurs with the addition either the morpheme ɛ/e or the morpheme a, as shown in the examples below.
In this example, ido ta alone means 'to dance,' while the additional of the morpheme e gives the nominal meaning 'dancing' to the word.
(1)
ido | e | ta | tʃe | ɛŋʷu | ɔla | mi |
dance(N) | NMLZ | dance(V) | do | thing | body | 1SG.OBJ |
‘Dancing is my favorite thing (to do)' (D:193). |
(2)
é | n(ɛ) | ɔ́bē | álādì | n(ɛ) | ɔ́bē | kp(a) | ādʒūwɛ̄ | lɛ̀ |
NMLZ | use | alado | use | knife | kill | chicken | DEF.DIST | |
‘It was the use of knife that aladi used knife to kill the chicken’ |
Reduplication
Often non animate nouns that may be reduplicated for plurality (Ejeba 2016).
(1)
úwó |
mountain |
mountain |
(2)
úwó | úwó |
mountain | mountain |
mountains |
Full reduplication can be used derivationally in Igala to mark added intensity (Ejeba 2016).
(3)
imɔtɔ | onɛkɛlɛ | lɛ | rulɛ | ti | itʃekbulu | jè | jè | jè | jè |
young boy | DEF.DIST | run(V) | run(N) | to | school | slowly | slowly | slowly | slowly |
‘The young boy ran to school very slowly'. |
Verbs & Verb Phrases
Verbs in Igala begin with a consonant.
Verbs
Igala has multiple verb phrase constructions, such as serial verb constructions, split verbs, and cognate objects.
The serial verb construction, also known as (verb) serialization or verb stacking, is a syntactic phenomenon in which two or more verbs or verb phrases are strung together in a single clause.
Verb Tense
Eventive verbs by default are interpreted as past tense (example 1). Stative verbs are by default interpreted as present tense (example 2).
(1)
ù | fɛ̄dɔ̄ | má |
1SG | love | 3PL |
‘I loved them’ (DAT:281) |
(2)
ì | m(a) | eli | lɛ́ |
3SG | know | song | DEM.DIST |
‘He knows that song.’ |
Serial Verb Constructions
Below is an example of a serial verb construction in Igala.
(1)
aladi | kpa | adʒuwɛ | dʒɛ |
aladi | kill | chicken | eats |
Alali killed and ate the chicken (D:22). |
Splitting Verbs
The split verb is a verb that sentence-finally appears as one word, however can be split so part of the verb appears earlier in the sentence.
Below is an example sentence containing a split verb in Igala.
(2)
dorkas | kp | lɛ | ɔna | fɔ |
Dorcas | break | door | DEF.DIST | break |
Dorcas, break the door! |
Cognate Objects
COs are true arguments of their predicate
This is shown by runing tests on the distinction between adjuncts and arguments. One of these tests is the ’do so test’ It shows that in an example like (1), the noun ’dance’ is an argument of the verb ’dance’ because ’do so’ functions as a proform for V’: “when do so is used as a substitute, it must stand for the verb and all its arguments”, (Macfarland 1995:104).
(1a)
ū | t(a) | ídō | (u)jɔ̀ | ókō | úbī | mī | ǒchálà | ŋʷɔ̀ | tʃ(e) | ǎlɛ̄ | gɛ |
1SG | dance(V) | dance(N) | cheerful | farm | back | my | Ochala | and | do | so/same | again |
'I danced a cheerful dance in my garden and Ochala did so too.' |
(1b)
*u | t(a) | ído | (u)jɔ | oko | ubi | mi | Ochala | ŋʷɔ | tʃ(e) | alɛ | ɛdo | dudu/ɛdo | ɛkpabjɛ |
1SG | dance(V) | dance(N) | cheerful | farm | back | my | Ochala | and | do | so/same | sad | ||
Intended: I danced a cheerful dance in the garden and Ochala did so a sad dance. |
COs can be modified, including in relative clauses
(2)
u | t(a) | ido | k(i) | a | tʃ(e) | ujɔ |
1SG | dance(V) | dance(N) | C | IMPF | COP1 | cheerful/joy |
‘I danced a cheerful dance’ |
COs in Igala only occur with unergative verbs, and not with unaccusatives
Nouns & Noun Phrases
Nouns in Igala begin with a vowel.
Pluralization
In Igala, the morpheme àma pluralizes an animate noun. An example of noun pluralization in Igala is shown below.
(1)
ū | tʃě | n(ɛ) | ám(a) | ēwú |
1SG | do | have | PL | goat |
‘I have goats’. |
According to Ejeba (2016), the morpheme abo means 'the people of'. The morpheme abo is used to pluralized nouns that are human.
(2a)
ìgbɛ̀lɛ́ |
young.woman |
'Young woman' |
(2b)
àbó | ǐgbɛ̀lɛ́ |
PL | young.woman |
'Young women.' |
Determiners
Igala has indefinite and definite articles.
Indefinite Article
There are usually no indefinite articles in Igala. Optionally (o)ka 'one' an occur after a noun.
(1)
ú lʲ a̅bʲà (o)kǎ n |
1SG see dog one NEG |
‘I didn’t see one dog.’ |
Definite Article
Definiteness is encoded in the morpheme lɛ. lɛ seems to have a similar meaning to English's 'the' or 'that.' Definiteness is encoded in the morpheme lɛ.
An example of lɛ
(2)
ɔnɛkɛlɛ | lɛ | nɛ | imoto |
man | DEF.DIST | drive | car |
‘The man drove a car.’ |
In Igala, ji is a proximal definite article.
An example of ji.
(3)
tʃɔ́tʃì | jī |
church | this |
‘This church.’ |
The determiner follows the head noun:
(4)
ɔ̋nɛ́kɛ̄lɛ́ | l(ɛ) | a̋ | f(a) | ītébùlù | lɛ́ | ī: |
man | DEF.DIST | IPFV | pull | table | DEF.DIST | EMPH |
What does this sentence mean? |
Personal Pronouns
The citation forms of Igala personal pronouns are on initial low and final mid tones for subjects/objects, and on initial rising and final mid tones for genitive pronouns. In discourse reference however, cliticized forms of the subject, object and genitive pronouns are used. The genitive pronouns are formed from the sequence of the genitive clitic and any of the pronominal genitive clitics – ordered as genitive Clitic+ Pronominal genitive clitic combination. (Ẹ̀jẹ̀bá 2016)[1].
Person | Number | Personal Pronouns | Gloss | Subject Clitics | Gloss | Object Clitics | Gloss |
1st | Singular, Plural | omi, awa | 'I/me', 'we/us' | u, a | 'I', 'we' | mi, wa | 'me', 'us' |
2nd | Singular, Plural | uwɛ, amɛ | 'you(sg)', 'you(pl)' | ɛ, mɛ | 'you(sg)', 'you(pl)' | ɛ, mɛ | 'you(sg)', 'you(pl)' |
3rd | Singular, Plural | oŋʷu, ama | 'she/he/it/her/him', 'they/them' | i, ma | 'she/he/it', 'they' | U, ma | 'she/he/it'/'them' |
Non-Person | Non-Number | ~ | ~ | V | ~ | ~ | ~ |
Possessives
Possession is not marked tonally. Possessives in Igala are marked by a tonal downstep.
Compounding
There are two types of compounding in Igala noun+noun to create a compound noun and noun+adjective compounds. All words used in compounds have meaning independently.
(1) Noun + Noun Compounding
ɔ̀là | ɔ́dʒɔ́ |
word | God |
'The Gospel' |
(2) Noun + Adjective Compounding
ómi | òfòfo |
water | ordinary |
'Ordinary water' |
Multiplier Morpheme
Main page: Multiplier Morpheme
Adjectives and Adverbs
The morphemes mɛ and gɛ in Igala pattern as adverbs.
mɛ
The morpheme mɛ patterns as an adverb meaning now or already depending on the context.
An example of mɛ with the meaning 'now.'
(1)
ma | wa | mɛ |
3PL | come | now |
‘They are now coming.’ |
An example of mɛ with the meaning 'already.'
(2)
ū | gbɔ̋ | kàkīnī | ɛ̀ | tʃɛ̀ | wā | mɛ̂ |
1SG | hear | C | 2SG | already | come | already |
‘I heard that you have already come.’ |
gɛ
The morpheme gɛ patterns as an adverb in Igala meaning 'again.'
An example of gɛ.
(3)
a | dabi | ta | ido | gɛ |
1PL | turn.back | dance(V) | dance(N) | again |
‘We danced again.’ |
Sentence-Final Particles
More information on Sentence-Final Particles: Sentence-Final Particles
Focus and Topicalization
Topicalization
In topic constructions, topicalized DP always comes before focused one Topic is marked by a following tʃe, which separates it from the following focus
(1)
ùdʒɛ̄ŋʷū | lɛ́ | tʃ(e) | òkʷɔ̄ | mì | ònòbȕlɛ̀ | hȉ | í |
meal/food | DEF.DIST | AUX | grandparent | 1SG.POSS | female | cook | EMPH |
“(What about the lamb curry?) [That dish]TOP was cooked by my grandmother.” |
Focus
Focused DP always appears sentence initially. Focused DP is optionally followed by a strong pronoun coindexed with the focused DP (in the above sentences this is òŋʷū). When there is a focused DP, the sentence must appear with an SFP i.
(2)
i̋ î | ōdʒ(i) | [ɔ̄lɔ̀ | ŋʷū]i | òŋʷūi | ì | gʷù(gʷú) | ì |
No | top | [neck | 3SG.POSS]i | 3SG.STRi | 3SG | sit(.sit) | EMPH |
“No, she’s sitting on his neck.” |