ASPECTS OF YUKUBEN MORPHOLOGY
BALOGUN OLADAPO OLUSEGUN
07/15CB048
A LONG ESSAY SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS
AND NIGERIAN LANGUAGES, FACULTY OF ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF
ILORIN, ILORIN, NIGERIA
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
FOR BACHELOR OF ARTS (HONS) LINGUISTICS
MAY, 2011.
CERTIFICATION
This project work titled aspects of Yukuben morphology, has been read
and approved as meeting the requirements for the award of Bachelor of Arts
(B.A.) Degree of the Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, Faculty
of Arts, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.
___________________________
DR. (MRS.) B. E. AROKOYO
Project Supervisor
________________________
DATE
___________________________
PROF. A. S. ABDUSSALAM
Head of Department
________________________
DATE
___________________________
EXTERNAL EXAMINER
________________________
DATE
ii
DEDICATION
I solemnly dedicate this long essay to the almighty God by whose
ordination I owe my existence till today, and also to my parents, most
especially my late father; late Pa. Samuel Adebayo Balogun J.P. and Mrs. C.O.
Balogun, who God has placed as overseer upon my life and to all fellow
Linguists throughout the age.
iii
ACKNOLWEDGEMENTS
“Praise awaited thee oh God in Zion unto you shall our vows be paid”. It
has not been the Lord who has been on my side, I would have been mocked.
All majesty and Excellency, I ascribe to Him that was and is and is to come. The
only true God, the ancient of days.
My utmost gratitude also goes to my God given supervisor, Dr. (Mrs.)
Arokoyo. She painstakingly went through the initial drafts of this essay and
offered useful corrections and advice that enhanced this final work. How can I
thank you enough for your immeasurable kind gestures. I pray that heaven will
be upon you and the good continence of Jehovah.-El-Shaddai (The all sufficient
God) will rest upon you family and pursuit in life in Jesus name.
I must also be thankful to the Head of Department, Prof. A S
Abdussalam, all the lecturers and non academic staff in the department and
also all the lecturers in other departments in Faculty of Arts for their academic
guidance and mental development.
I will be an ingrate if I do not acknowledge the moral and social support
of my very special friends in school whose memory would be kept very close to
iv
my heart even though we do not see again, thus I say a big thank you to a
friend, my room mate, Akinjide Alaka, Idowu Kingsley, Abolurin Sheririf,
Adaramola Morenikeji (Wayne), Abifade Tosin (Bayarn) Abdukadir Kehinde
(Kenny velli), Dare (Dre) friendship with you is like an oar that has helped to
drive my boat to a desired destination. May Almighty God shower his blessings
over you all.
I also appreciate all my class mates, you are all special people with very
unique character, I would have missed a lot if I wasn’t a member of that class,
thus I acknowledge my class rep Akeem (Hay Kay), Olohunoje Kazeem (Orilo),
Rashidat, I would miss you all, you are all lovely and wonderful people, may
God Almighty see you through all your endeavours.
I appreciate everybody who generously no matter how small has
contributed to my success, even though your names were not mentioned, may
almighty God remember your names in his book of blessings.
BALOGUN OLADAPO OLUSEGUN
JUNE, 2011.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
i
Certification
ii
Dedication
iii
Acknowledgements
iv
Table of Contents
vi
CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.0
Introduction
1
1.1
Historical Background of the Yukuben
2
1.2
Geographical Location and Population
4
1.3
Genetic Classification
6
1.4
Socio-Linguistic Profile
8
1.4.1 Dressing
11
1.4.2 Funerals
11
1.4.3 Marriage
12
1.5
Research Methodology
12
1.6
Scope of the Study
13
1.7
Organization of Study
13
vi
CHAPTER TWO: BASIC PHONOLOGICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS
2.0
Introduction
15
2.1
A Review of the Related Literature
15
2.3
Basic Phonological Concepts
17
2.4
Sound Inventory
17
2.4.0 Consonant Sounds
18
2.4.1 Vowel Sounds
20
2.5
Tone Inventory
22
2.6
Combination of Tones
23
2.7
Syllable Inventory
24
2.8
Sound Inventory
27
2.8.0 Distribution of Yukuben Consonants Sounds
27
2.8.1 Distribution of Yukuben Vowel Sounds
31
Basic Morphological Concepts
32
2.9
2.10 Morphemes
33
2.11 Types of Morphemes
35
2.11.0 Free Morphemes
35
2.11.1 Bound Morphemes
36
vii
2.12 Structural Function of Morphemes
38
2.13 Structural Position of Morphemes
39
2.14 Language Typologies
39
CHAPTER THREE: YUKUBEN MORPHOLOGY
3.0
Introduction
41
3.1
Morphology
41
3.2
Morphemes
42
3.3
Types of Morphemes
43
3.3.1 Free Morphemes
43
3.3.2 Bound Morphemes
44
3.4
3.3.2.1 Prefixes
44
3.3.2.2 Suffixes
45
3.3.3 Derivational Morphemes
45
3.3.4 Inflectional Morphemes
46
Parts of Speech in Yukuben Language
46
3.4.1 Noun
47
3.4.2 Pronoun
48
3.4.3 Verbs
48
viii
3.4.4 Adverbs
49
3.4.5 Adjectives
49
3.4.6 Prepositions
50
CHAPTER FOUR: MORPHOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN YUKUBEN LANGUAGE
4.0
Introduction
51
4.1
Reduplication
51
4.1.1 Total Reduplication
52
4.1.2 Partial Reduplication
52
4.2
Compounding
53
4.3
Borrowing
54
4.4
Refashioning
56
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.0
Introduction
57
5.1
Summary
57
5.2
Observations
59
5.3
Conclusion
59
5.4
Recommendations
60
References
62
ix
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.0
INTRODUCTION
This chapter is centered on the introductory part of the whole essay. It
shows brief historical background of the Yukuben language speakers. As a
matter of introduction to a general survey of the study of the Yukuben
language morphology, on attention is drawn to the family head of the various
sub-sections of the language which is the Jokon. Yukuben is closely related to
the Kogon and as a matter of fact, reviewing the genetic classification of Africa
languages, Yukuben is a language from the Jokonoid family. The Yukuben are
majorly found in the eastern edge of Nigeria, which is in the Western part of
Africa (West Africa).
This chapter will give the reader a brief introduction on the speakers of
Yukuben language and the language itself. The historical background of the
language and its speakers, genetic classification, the method used in getting
our data for analysis and lots more are some things that will be treated in this
x
chapter.
1.1
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE YUKUBEN
The Yukuben were said to have migrated from a village called ‘Ideu’ in
Taraba in the North neighbouring Cameroon. That was several years ago. They
claimed to have been in existence before the death of Jesus Christ (BC). This
movement was said to have been caused by the British merchant. These
merchants trade on slaves. They buy slaves in thousands, claim them and lead
them to their heavy ships, where they will be taken to Britain where they will be
used as slaves to work in their sugar cane farms. The name Yukuben means
“the child in which the spirit lives” or “a spiritual being”.
A female slave refused to work, so the British slave trader ordered her to
be beaten. While beating the female slave, a swain of bee busted out from no
where and sting all the slave traders. With this, they believe God was on their
side and the other slaves believed God his living in them.
Another version indicates that the Yukuben migrated from their initial
kingdom due to the on-ending territorial war with the Kuteb. The Kuteb claimed
xi
to be the owner of the territory and that the Yukuben should leave and find or
create their own territory. The only solution to this misunderstanding then, was
that the Yukuben should leave the Koteb territory which they later did after a
lot of pressure.
The native speakers of Yukuben refers to themselves as Uhomkiji. They
believe this should be their real name. They call also be called names like
Nyikobeu, Nyikobe, Ayikibeu, Boritsu, Balaabe, Balaabeu, Oohom, Uohom,
Uuhom-Gigi and Uhomkhegi.
The interaction they had with other neighbouring communities brought
different languages to the Yukuben community. They call these languages
stranger languages. Lufu, Malam-SLie, and Kapia are some of these stranger
languages. They are said to have migrated from the Jokon speaking
communities.
Apart from the territorial misunderstanding that splitted the Yukuben
people from the Koteb, there arouse another misunderstanding that led to
another blood shedding war. This war was majorly on leadership and
chieftaincy titled. The Kuteb claimed to be
the
xii
head
over
the
Yukuben
people. They wanted to have the king while the Yukuben should be lead by an
ordinary chief. The Kuteb does not want the Yukuben to have a king of theirs
so as to keep their own territory as the headquarter and have the central head.
1.2
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION AND POPULATION
The Yukuben are particularly located in the Northern part of Nigeria, in
West Africa. They are regionally located in the North West province; Taraba
state to be precise. In Taraba state, the speakers of this language are located
in Takom local government area, between Katstina Ala-and Gawana rivers. The
speakers are found in more than 20 villages in Nigeria and few villages in
Cameroon.
Cameroon is the second country with the highest member of speakers of
Yukuben language. with three hours, we can get to Cameroon from Taraba
state in Nigeria.
As given by “Ethnologue:- Languages of the World”, in 1992, the
speakers of Yukuben language had a total population of 15,000 in Nigeria only
and about 1,000 in Cameroon. In 1994, another population census was
xiii
conducted, and the result given was that, the speakers of this language was
23,000 in Nigeria and 2,000 in Cameroon and other countries of the world. We
had another census, and the native speakers of Yukuben language claimed to
have increased. As given by the informant, he said they are now more than
500,000.
As a result of inter-tribal marriages, the population of the speakers of
Yukuben language increased. With this, the population of the native speakers of
Yukuben language; according to the first report, was about 25,000, while the
later report which was a recent report which could be probably be present
approximated population of the Yukuben says it has increased to half a million.
Below is a map showing the geographical location of the speakers of
Yukuben language.
xiv
Source: World Language Mapping System
1.3
GENETIC CLASSIFICATION
Yukuben language belongs to the Niger-Kordofanian family by the way of
the African language classification. Other classes of language family are Nilo
Saharan, Khoisan, and the Afro-Asiatic families. Niger Kordofanian is a family of
the sub-Saharan African language. it has about 100,000,000 speakers of
xv
different languages.
Some linguists argues that the Benue Congo in which Yukuben belong
and the Kwa language family belong to the same group, that is a single branch
of the Niger Congo family. Nevertheless, for the sake of this study, Yukuben is
known as a Benue Congo group of languages according to Comrie (1987).
In conclusion, Yukuben is genetically classified as a version of one of the
Benue Congo group and finally traced up to the Niger-Kordofanian family of the
African languages classification.
Below is a diagram illustrating the genetic classification of Yukuben
language.
xvi
Niger Kordofanian
Niger Congo
West Atlantic Mande Gur Kwa
Plateau
Kordofanian
Benue Congo Adamawa Ubangian
Jukunoid
Cross River Bantoid
Yukuben
1.4
SOCIO-LINGUISTIC PROFILE
The Yukuben speaking community has peculiarities as far as occupation
is concerned, with close relationship with the family head of Yukuben language
at Kuteb. There is a close link between them and among most of the speakers
of all the languages emanating from Kuteb.
With the few relationship the Yukuben had with the Kuteb before they
splitted, their social life was affected and they took on some socio-cultural
characteristics or features of the Kuteb people.
There is a concentration of the Yukuben language speaking community
xvii
on farming. This is the major occupation found in the community. Large
percentage of the language speakers are involved in farming. Farming of
several forms, such as crop farming like, tuber (yam, cassava etc.),grains (rice,
guinea corn, maize, etc.) and little vegetables (okro, pepper, etc.).
Some minorities among the speakers are also involved in some other
occupation, apart from farming, such as trading either within their immediate
community or outside their community, but it is common among the women.
Others are found in blacksmithing, carpentry, hunting, bricklaying and
weaving which is dominated by women. As western education gained
prominence, the language speakers also found themselves in teaching,
engineering works, and other professions.
Equally, the Yukuben language speaking society is known for certain
social lives. They are known to be good Christians, but there are still groups of
people who are still deeply rooted in paganism in the form of masquerades.
Kukyib is the major masquerade they worship. This festival is performed
annually in remembrance of the dead relatives who are said to come from
heaven to visit the earth and bestow blessings on the living. They also believe
the masquerade protects and blesses them.
xviii
Before the introduction of Christianity in the early 20th century, the
masquerade festival also came with circumcision (Kamang). This circumcision
festival is called Kukyib-Kamang. From ages 10 – 15 years, they believe they
should be circumcised. The introduction Christianity did some abolition to these
practices. We are also told some Yukuben speaking communities are still
circumcising their female children.
Today, Christianity is said to be the second religion after idols and
paganism to the native speakers of Yukuben language. They believe in idols like
Oogun for protection against witchcrafts, Klumia protects them against thieves
and his also known as their god of thunder.
Some of the peculiar native meals of the Yukuben are boiled maize,
guinea-corn, boiled cassava, yam, plantain and rice. Their major meal is made
from rice. They enjoy eating over-boiled rice which all refer to it as Banana.
Beasen; this is the only known wine to all Yukuben. This wine is a local wine,
made from guinea-corn and it is also called Burukutu.
1.4.1 DRESSING
In the olden days, the Yukuben people wear leaves, and the back of
trees. They cover their nakedness with this. The women fashion leaves to cover
xix
their nudity and the men uses the back of tree which must have been beaten to
soften and make it tender. They tie it round their waist. It is called Isang.
The British colonial masters had a great influence on these people and
Nigeria at large. They brought real wears to Nigeria and the Yukuben. They
were shown how to get cotton and weave. Now, weaving is one of the major
occupations done by women in any Yukuben speaking community. Ukya, this is
the name given to any weaved cloth (Ofi).
1.4.2 FUNERALS
The Yukuben also have their own custom of burial and funerals at various
kinds. Like the Hausa speaking communities, they do their funerals in the
Islamic manner while the Yukuben people have their own according to the
Christians.
xx
1.4.3 MARRIAGE
Marriage is another ceremony observed traditionally by the Yukuben. For
the introductory part of the wedding ceremony, the mate family will provide
palm-oil in a calabash and a cock to the in-laws. Later, bush meats like grasscutter will be taken to the family. After the approval, a date will be chosen for
the main wedding. The male family will make wine, Beasan, and put honey in it
and drink as they celebrate.
1.5
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The data used for analysis in this long essay are collected through
competent bilingual informant of Yukuben language. Major parts of the
information were gotten through a personal contact. The informants are not
only from one district of the language division, so as to give room for adequate
analysis.
Since this work is aimed at the study of Yukuben morphology, all data
collected either through personal contact or questionnaire is morphologically
analyzed. The analysis was made in the direction of description purely, some of
which are derivational analysis, word formation processes; especially the
processes that are attested in the formation of words in Yukuben language.
xxi
1.6
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study essentially corners the aspects of morphology of Yukuben
language alone. For further explanation of the word structure of the language
some syntactic analysis are made. It equally includes a brief phonological
analysis as the case demands; take for instance, a consideration of the
segmental and supra-segmental phonemic relationship in the arrangement of
morpheme, especially the tonal system as it relates to the language.
1.7
ORGANIZATION OF STUDY
This long essay is divided into five different chapters. Each chapter treats
different aspect of the essay.
Chapter one centers on the introductory part. It treats the general
background of the study. The language and it’s speakers. Within this chapter,
we have the historical background of the language and its speakers. Their
socio-linguistic profiles, genetic classification, population and geographical
location. It also shows how the data was collected and analyzed.
Chapter two deals with basic morphological and phonological concepts.
These concepts include the meaning of morphology itself, types of morphemes,
the structural function and position of morphemes.
xxii
Chapter three gives an explicit explanation of the two major types of
morphemes in relation to the language of study. Chapter four is referred to as
the main body of the essay. It is this chapter we will be able to analyze the
collected data comprehensively. It gives the basic morphological processes
relating them to the language of study.
The last chapter, which is chapter five, will cover the concluding part of
the essay. A brief summary of this essay will be done in this chapter.
xxiii
CHAPTER TWO
BASIC PHONOLOGICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS
2.0
INTRODUCTION
This chapter will focus our attention on both the morphological and
phonological approaches to the study of Yukuben language as our target
language. Although, this long essay is centered on the study of the
morphological aspects of Yukuben language, there is need for us to also look
into the phonological aspect of the language because the language does not
have written form i.e. it is not yet formalized. With this, we will be able to
familiarize ourselves with the sounds in the target language.
The second part of this chapter will be centered on the morphological
aspects of Yukuben language. This will assist us in concluding an in-depth study
of the word structure of the target language.
2.1
A REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE
It is ultimately essential and important to examine some works that
earlier linguistic researchers had done in regard to the morphological aspects of
Yukuben language. This is because this work is a further work or a continuation
of the earlier works on the language. Therefore, one cannot but acknowledge
xxiv
the foundation service that these earlier works had rendered.
A discovery of about thirty-one alphabets was made in Yukuben language
with twenty-four (24) consonants and seven (7) vowel sounds. It was further
ascertained that the language is a tonal language with three levels of tones.
They are high [/], low [\], and mid with is unmarked in the language
orthographical convention.
Another work affirms that morphemes show up and manifest in various
phonological shapes as a result of the influences of the general phonological
processes. The syntactic aspects of the language were also torched. They
identified changes in the syntactic class of words which are derived compare to
the class of the base form. This occurs as a result of the derivational
morphological operation from the inflectional morphology.
More often than not, reference is made to a group of people; Ilianna
projects, who had done lots on the Yukuben people and the language itself.
They gave a detail enumeration of the district divisions and the smaller units
(villages) that constitute the head districts.
2.3
BASIC PHONOLOGICAL CONCEPTS IN YUKUBEN LANGUAGE
Phonology is said to be one of the sub-despises of linguistics concerned
xxv
with the sounds of a language. That is, the systematic use of sound to encode
meaning in any spoken human language.
It is viewed as the subfield of linguistics that deals with the sound system
of languages. Whereas, phonetics is about the physical production, acoustic
transmission and perception of the sounds of speech; phonology describes the
way sounds function within a given language or across languages to encode
meanings.
2.4
SOUND INVENTORY
The sound inventory refers to how sounds are classified in any given
language. Yukuben is said to have both consonant and vowel sounds.
xxvi
2.4.0 CONSONANT SOUNDS
According to Abercrombie (1966: 42), he described consonants as
segments of different syllables. It we have a situation whereby any part of the
tongue did approach a part of the mouth so as either to block the airstream or
to course friction as the air stream was forced through the gap, you would have
made a consonant sounds.
Yukuben language is known with only twenty four (24) consonant
sounds. The chat below will give the description of these sounds.
xxvii
v
s
m
k g
z
Lateral
l
Trill
r
Kp gb

n
ts
Glottal
f
Labio
velar
Velar
Palatal
t d
Affricates
Approximants
Palatal
alveolar
p b
Fricatives
Nasals
Alveolar
Labiodental
Bilabial
Stops
ɲ
t
ŋ
dʒ
w
h
xxviii
2.4.1 VVOWEL SOUNDS
These are sounds produced without any obstruction, closure or
narrowing. There is a free flow of air in vowel production. We have four
different parameters used in describing vowel sounds. They include;
(i)
Position of the soft palate
(ii)
Posture of the lips
(iii)
The raised parts of the tongue
(iv)
Tongue height
In Yukuben language, we have twelve (12) vowel sounds. These sounds are
divided into two. We have the oral vowels which are seven in number and five
nasal vowels.
xxix
Oral Vowels
Front
High
Central
i
Mid-high
u
e
o
ɔ

Mid-low
Low
a
Nasal Vowels
Front
High
back
Central
back
ĩ
ũ
Mid-high
Mid-low
Low
ɔ

ã
xxx
2.5
TONE INVENTORY
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical
meaning, i.e. to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to
express emotional and other such features in what is called intonation, but not
all languages use tones to distinguish words or their inflections, analogously to
consonants and vowels.
Yukuben language is said to be a tonal language and has the three major
types of tone. The high, low and mid tone are the three major tones in
Yukuben language.
The high is represented with a rising sign (/) while the low tone is
represented with a falling slant line (\). The third type of tone is generally
unmarked.
Examples:
High tone (/)
1. [kĩ]
‘come’
2. [sí]
‘walk’
3. [tú]
‘climb’
Low Tone (\)
xxxi
1. [là]
‘lick’
2. [kà]
‘bite’
3. [tù]
‘cooking’
Mid tone
1. [ʒa]
‘see’
2. [tu]
‘carry load’
2.6
COMBINATION OF TONES
In Yukuben language, words can have the three types of tone; i.e. high,
low and mid. In the given examples, we could see that words like, [kĩ] ‘come’,
[là] ‘lick’, [ʒà] ‘see’, have only one tone.
Examples of words with two tones include:
High-High (HH)
[kítdú]
‘neck’
[dʒí]
‘eye’
High-Low (HL)
[kúuù]
‘dust’
[kílià]
‘story’
Low-Low (LL)
xxxii
[bɔgɔg]
‘cassava’
[kìdà]
‘bag’
Low-High (LH)
[kètí]
‘mortar’
[kìhó]
‘grinding stone’
We can also have words with three similar or different tones. Words like
this way have the high (/) or the low (\) at the initial position or at the medial
or final position. Examples:
High-Mid High (HMH)
1. [kítuní]
‘knee’
High-High-Mid (HHM)
1. [íʒíbla]
‘charcoal’
Low-Low-High (LLH)
1. [kìsàpú]
2.7
‘door’
SYLLABLE INVENTORY
A syllable can be defined as a unit of organization for a sequence of
speech sounds. Is a basic unit of written and spoken language. It is a unit
consisting of uninterrupted sound that can be used to make up words. For
xxxiii
example, the word [kìlàbú] has three syllables
kì/là/bu

[kìlàbú]
‘jaw’
á/yá/hú

[áyáhú]
‘click’
with the examples above, we could conclude that, a syllable is a word or part of
a word that can be pronounced with one impulse from the voice. A syllable
always contains a vowel sound, and most syllables have consonants associated
with the vowel.
in Yukuben language, the commonest syllable structure is the consonantvowel (CV) structure.
Examples:
[kìlàbí]
‘jaw’
kì /
là/
bí



CV
CV
CV
[kida]
‘bag’
xxxiv
kì/
da


CV
CV
We also have a consonant-vowel-consonants (CVC) structure. Examples:
[bauji]
‘oil’
Bau/ ji
 
CVC CV
[kídu]
kit /
‘bread’
du
 
CVC VC
A vowel sound can stand on its own as a syllable. this is common in Yukuben
language. Examples of words with a vowel sound standing as a syllable include:
[áyáhɔ]
‘chin’
xxxv
a/
ya/
hɔ



V
CV
CV
[pò] ‘hat’
/
pò


V
CV
2.8
SOUND INVENTORY
This shows how sounds are distributed in a word. The positioning of both
the consonant and vowel sounds in words. A sound can occur at any position in
a word i.e., the initial, medial or the final position of a word. There are some
sounds cannot occur at the initial position of words but can occur somewhere
else.
2.8.0 DISTRIBUTION OF YUKUBEN CONSONANT SOUNDS
/p/
/b/
Word initial position:
[pá] ‘put on’
[buna]
Medial position:
xxxvi
‘food’
[àpábá]
‘shoe’
[abie]
‘rain’
[ʒeb]
‘tie rope’
Final position:
[utép]
‘spear’
/t/
/d/
Initial position
[tanara]
‘eight’
[dĩ]
‘plant’
[kítdú]
‘neck’
Medial position
[itato]
‘hunter’
/k/
/g/
Initial position
[kitdu]
‘neck’
[górò]
‘kolanut’
[kogu]
‘snake’
[bɔgɔ]
‘yam’
Medial position
[ìkírí]
‘mat’
Final position
[kĩdàk]
/f/
‘cow’
/v/
xxxvii
Medial position
[ɔfá]
‘rainy season’
/s/
[kúvù]
‘dust’
/z/
Initial position
[sí]
‘walk’
[ʒim]
‘turn around’
[ʒónàʒì]
‘spin’
Medial position
[kesi]
‘long’
/m/
/n/
Initial position
[mbãk]
‘taste’
[uá]
‘he’
[ábáná]
‘hot’
Medial position
[kema]
‘red’
Final position
[belim]
‘children’
/ŋ/
Final position
[kubɔŋ]
‘song’
xxxviii
/ts/
Initial position
[tse] ‘shoot’
Medial position
[ùtsí] ‘wall’
/t/
/ʤ/
Media position
[utiũ]
‘penis’
/l/
[kiʤu]
‘thing’
/r/
Initial position
[lemu]
‘orange’
Medial position
[àlà]
‘fat’
/w/
[ɔrúp]
/h/
Initial position
[wũ]
‘jump’
Medial position
xxxix
‘heart’
[nwó]
‘take off’
[ihim]
‘guinea corn’
2.8.1 DISTRIBUTION OF YUKUBEN VOWEL SOUNDS
/i/
/u/
Initial position
[ikiri]
‘mat’
[úlég]
‘rope’
[kúbú]
‘arm’
[uku]
‘navel’
Medial position
[kire]
‘basket’
Final position
[uti]
‘tree’
/e/
/o/
[épí]
‘groundnut’
[ómí]
‘tongue’
[utep]
‘spear’
[kodip]
‘toad’
[kive]
‘basket’
[hó]
‘soak’
//
/ɔ/
[djí]
‘eye’
[ɔrúp]
‘heart’
[kmbæ]
‘belly’
[bugɔ]
‘longer’
[bʒ]
‘wine’
xl
/a/
xli
Word initial
[ábà]
‘father’
Word medial
[itato]
‘hunter’
Word final
[ìyá]
2.9
‘mother’
BASIC MORPHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS IN YUKUBEN LANGUAGE
Morphology deals with the internal structure of words. According to Lyons
(1971: 180-187), morphology is simply the study of forms. It is the field of
linguistics which studies word structure and formation. The term morphology,
as lie, Lyons, said was introduced into the linguistic arena in the nineteenth
(19th) century. The term was invented by a man called Geothe and was first
applied in Biology to the study of the “forms” of living organisms.
Hence, we discover from this, and as posited by some early linguists like
Lyons that from the middle of the nineteenth century, linguistics was very much
influenced by evolutionary biology. The study of phonology and phonetics also
affirms this, through the study of articulation of sounds.
xlii
According to Spencer (1991), the domain of morphology in its study
encapsulates the possible arrangement of morphemes to form words. He
further explains it as the relationship or reactions of several morphemes in the
processes of word formation.
MORPHEMES
MORPHOLOGY
ARRANGEMENT
2.10 MORPHEMES
Nida (1946: 6) defined morphemes as minimal meaningful unit of which a
language is composed and may be part of a word or constitute a word on its
own. Equally, in the tradition of American structuralist linguistics established by
Bloomfield (1993), a morpheme is generally defined as “the minimal meaningful
elements”. That is, the smallest unit of a language which has a meaning.
Yusuf (1987; 1988) described morphemes as building blocks of words in
any human language. He defined morphemes as the minimal meaningful
grammatical analysis.
It could be decoded from these definitions that a morpheme is
xliii
characterized by certain features. Firstly, morpheme is seen as the smallest
breaded own unit of discourse in any language which must be able to make
meaning.
In summary, a morpheme is the smallest disjointed or individual unit in a
language which has a meaning or grammatical function joined together to build
a word on its own.
Examples of morphemes in Yukuben language:
1. èjí
‘eye’
2. omein
‘tongue’
3. kozin
‘leg’
4. ala
5. úkú
‘fat’
‘navel’
xliv
2.11 TYPES OF MORPHEMES
There are two major types of morphemes. The destruction between
these types of morphemes is basically of the nature of composition, structural
position and structural function. These two basic types of morphemes are
discussed below.
LEXICAL
FREE
FUNCTIONAL
MORPHEMES
BOUND
DERIVATIONAL
INFLECTIONAL
2.11.0
FREE MORPHEMES
This is a type of morphological unit that could stand on its own. It
appears as independent words. It also acts as roots (or stem). A free
morpheme is meaningful on its own and stands as a grammatical unit of any
given language. It could occur in isolation in a normal discourse and be
xlv
meaningful. The English word “antidestablishmentarianism”, is a good example.
The root morpheme is “establish”. This is so because, “establish” could occur in
isolation and be meaningful while the other components can not. Below are
examples of free morphemes in Yukuben language.
1. mí
‘breast’
2. two
‘abuse’
3. aham ‘dry’
4. beran ‘fear’
5. àpába ‘shoe’
It should be noted that in each of the above examples, the morphemes
could stand in isolation. Each of the above, listed morphemes is meaningful as
used in discourse in the language.
2.11.1
BOUND MORPHEMES
These are units of word formation that do not occur in isolation as
against the free type. It can only be recognized or identified when they are
joined to other morphemes. It is not meaningful on its own except when it is
attached to another morpheme. Bound morphemes do not constitute
independent words, but are attached to other morphemes or words. They are
xlvi
also called affixes.
Affixes are classified into inflectional and derivational as shown in the
diagram above. On the other hand, affixes are divided into three different
types. This include: the prefixes, suffixes and the infixes. Prefixes are attached
to a word at its initial position; suffixes are added at the final position of a word
while the infixes are attached in the medial position of words.
Examples
(a) English language
1.
book + s

books
2.
mis + lead

mislead
3.
dis + qualify(y) + ed

disqualified
4.
mis + manag(e) + ed

mismanaged
(b) (Yukuben language)
1.
béyén
‘blood’
2.
béyén-ágá ‘lots of blood’
2.
bògó
‘yam tuber’
bògò-ágá
‘yam-tubers’
The above examples show the effects of affixes on words. The first set of
xlvii
examples (a); shows how the addition of a suffix “s” to the stem “book”
changing it to “books”. This marks plurality. The other examples are also
changed from their initial form to another. The addition of both prefix changed
the meaning of the word “lead” to “mislead”. The three types of affixes we
have can be used on a stem (word) to change it meaning.
2.12 STRUCTURAL FUNCTIOON OF MORPHEMES
From our earlier discussions on the role of morpheme on word formation,
each of these morpheme types has certain role they play in this combination
and processes. As earlier noted, free morphemes function as root morphemes
to which other morphemes can be added, to form different words.
Some bound morphemes function as negation while others as agentive
marker, changing the syntactic class of the word (establish, disestablish,
antidisestablish) from a verb to a noun, as found in “establishment”,
disestablishment” etc.
Furthermore, this view word “antidisestablishment” serve as a stem to
receive [-arianism] which derives “antidisestablishmentarianism”. As it can be
noticed, morphemes can be added either before or after the root in English
language to derive different word. This best explains the structural position of
xlviii
morphemes in the language.
2.13 STRUCTURAL POSITION OF MORPHEMES
In the process of combining morphemes together to form a word in a
language, there is a need to take a look at the knowledge of positioning the
morphemes. A morpheme can be added to root before, after or even in
between a stem or two stems to join them together to form a different word.
The structural positioning of morphemes is generally referred as affixation.
2.14 LANGUAGE TYPOLOGIES
Language typology can be defined as a way of classifying languages on
linguistic grounds. Variations in linguistics features. Language typology and
morphological typology are two different processes. Morphological typology is
based on classifying language morphologically, while language typology is a
general way of classifying languages.
According to this typology, some languages are isolating; have little to no
morphology, others are agglutinative, the words tend to have lots of easily
separatable morphemes, while others are inflectional or fusional because their
inflectional morphemes are focused together. This lead to one bound
morpheme conveying multiple pieces of information. The classic example of an
xlix
isolative language is Chinese, example of an agglutinative language is Turkish;
both Latin and Greek are examples of fissional languages.
Considering the variability of the world’s languages, it becomes clear that
this classification is not at all clear cut, and many languages do not neatly fit to
any of these types, and some fits in more than one type.
Yukuben language can be concluded to be an agglutinative language.
The morphemes in this language can be easily separated.
l
CHAPTER THREE
YUKUBEN MORPHOLOGY
3.0
INTRODUCTION
We shall look into situations that accounts for a case where phonological
forms of words and morphemes can be mobilized to realize morphological
categories. The morphological categories as earlier discussed will be further
examined in an attempt to see the variety of words and morpheme structure in
the language, some inconsistence or arbitrariness are evident in the categories
of the morphology of the language as the categories relate with and to the
parts of speech in the language.
3.1
MORPHOLOGY
Thomas (1997: 20) defines morphology as the study of shapes in
languages. Morphology in linguistics has to do with shapes of words as destruct
from those operations represented by lexical or analytic processes. It deals with
the internal structure of words. Morphology is the study of morphemes
(George, 2003).
Lyons (1971: 180-187) defines morphology as the study of forms. It is
the field of linguistics which studies word structure and formation of words.
li
3.2
MORPHEMES
George (2003) define morphemes as words, words stem, and affixes,
basically the unit of language one up from phoneme. Although, they are often
understood as units of meaning, they are usually considered a part of a
language’s syntax or grammar.
Lyons (1994: 81) defines morphemes as the minimal unit of grammatical
analysis, the units of lowest rank out of which higher rank of words are being
produced.
Examples of morphemes in Yukuben language are:
kìda
‘bag’
írím
‘back’
ketìn
‘leaf’
ègev
‘thorn’
kivé
‘basket’
kìsàpú
‘door’
kitsinim
‘village’
ìbú
‘dog’
ìzúr
‘rat’
lii
3.3
TYPES OF MORPHEMES
As said earlier, morpheme is divided into two major types, these are:
1. Free morpheme
2. Bound morpheme
3.3.1 FREE MORPHEMES
A free morpheme is generally referred to as the base or root in a word.
According to Odebunmi (2003: 23), he describes a free morpheme as a
morphological unit which can exist in isolation. Free morphemes are
independent in terms of forms and meaning and equivalents of words in their
unaffixed forms. Examples are:
koʒìn
‘leg’
báyí
‘oil’
ketin
‘leaf’
ìzur
‘rat’
kítsìnún
‘village’
kíré
‘basket’
The above examples are indivisible. These words can also act as root
forms for the addition of other morphemes to produce new words.
liii
3.3.2 BOUND MORPHEMES
Bound morpheme, according to Yusuf (1992: 83), is a type of morpheme
which does not occur in isolation but can only be recognized when joined to
other morphemes. Bound morpheme in general tend to be prefixes and suffixes
(Spencer, 1992).
3.3.2.1 PREFIXES
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly
in the study of Semitic languages, a prefix is called a reformative, because it
alters the form of the words to which it is affixed. Examples:
1.
2.
/k/
/k/
ivon 
‘nail’ (singular)
Kivon
‘nails’ (plural)
itja

Kitja
‘fish’ (singular)
‘fishes’ (plural)
3.3.2.2 SUFFIXES
Spencer (1992) defines suffix as an affix which is placed after the stem of
a word.
1.
khara +
men 
kharamen
dance
tns M
‘danced’
liv
2.
3.
gbira +
men 
gbiramen
buy
tns M
‘bought’
aham +
men 
ahammen
dry
tns M
‘dried’
3.3.3 DERIVATIONAL MORPHEMES
Andrew (1992) defines derivational morphemes are morphemes that can
be added to a word to create (derive) another word. Obviously, nominal forms
are derived from verbs in Yukuben language like some other languages of the
world in various ways. Derivational operation is seen as various ways and
processes of deriving or forming new words with the addition of a derivational
affix. This typically induces a change in the grammatical class and function of
the word. These affixes are referred to as derivational morphemes, which are,
many of the times, bound morphemes.
3.3.4 INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES
Inflectional morphemes modify a word’s tense, number, aspect, and so
on, without deriving a new word or a word in a new grammatical category
(Spencer, 1992). They carry grammatical information. This type of morpheme is
not common in Yukuben language.
lv
3.4
PARTS OF SPEECH IN YUKUBEN LANGUAGE
Speech, which is referred to as forms of conversation, is made up of
several individual components. These components are what is universally
known as “parts of speech”. This refers to the positioning, arrangement and
functions of a unit of word in a sentence and their meaning presentation. The
breakdown of the syntactic study in a language at sentence level results to the
parts of speech or (parts of sentence) as I may put it.
As said earlier, some of these speech parts are basic word while others
are derived through morphological operation. It should be noted that the
context of use or relationship between a particular word and another reveals
actually what part of speech it belongs, since some words could fall into more
than one class.
3.4.1 NOUN
Boeree (2003) defines nouns as words that value or denote a person,
thing, action, or quality. They are “thing” words, although, “things” can include
all sorts of abstract ideas that might otherwise look more like verbs or
adjectives. In various languages, they are marked, by affixes or particles, as to
their number, gender, definiteness, and especially cases. Going by traditional
lvi
analysis, noun is said to be any word that labels name on anything. It could
name a human being, an idea, a philosophy, a place, a religion, quality, actions
or anything that could be name.
Examples are:
1. kìjá
‘fish’
2. boùgòug
‘yam’
3. bakpa
‘maize’
4. épí
‘groundnut’
5. ikírí
‘mat’
6. ùzíkí
‘needle’
7. àpábà
‘shoe’
3.4.2 PRONOUN
Pronouns are words that serve as place holders for nouns. Instead of
referring to a person by his or her name, we use he or she; instead of naming
something repeatedly, we refer to it as it (Boerce (2003).
Examples include:
1. àmà ‘I’
2. ukẹp ‘she’
lvii
3. àwú ‘you’
4. abí
‘they’
5. aʒí
‘we’
3.4.3 VERBS
George (2003) define verbs as words which express action taken by
something, the state something is in or a change in that state, or an interaction
between one thing and another. It often expresses events, actions, processes
etc. Lexical verbs that perform lexical functions in Yukuben language are as
follows:
1. kúle ‘sit’
2. dìùg ‘go’
3. bá
‘come’
4. gja
‘laugh’
5. ʒau
‘see’
3.4.4 ADBERVS
George (2003) defines adverbs as words or phrases which modify verbs,
adjectives, or even other adverbs.
A good example in Yukuben language is “awau” meaning “here” in
lviii
English language.
3.4.5 ADJECTIVES
Adjectives are words which modify nouns. In many languages, adjectives
have affixes that must agree with their nouns in case (George (2003). A word
or combination of words that modifies a noun.
Below are examples of Yukuben adjectives;
1. alìb
‘heavy’
2. ahau ‘old’
3. kikaw ‘short’
4. kesi
‘long’
3.4.6 PREPOSITIONS
Richard (2011) defines prepositions as words that show the relationship
between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. Examples are;
1.
kafin ‘before’
[kafin John]
‘before John’
2.
eʒi
‘from’
[eʒí
koʒo]
lix
From farm
‘from the farm’
3.
írím
‘beside’
[írím kìʒàpú]
beside door
‘beside the door’
The above mentioned parts of speech are the parts of speech noticeable
in Yukuben language.
CHAPTER FOUR
MORPHOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN YUKUBEN LANGUAGE
4.0
INTRODUCTION
In proceeding further from the kind of morphological operations that is
highly productive and attested in Yukuben language as it is critically examined
and compared in the previous chapter. There is a need for this research work to
take a look also at some various morphological process or operations that work
alongside the discussed operation in the process of word formation in the target
language.
Morphological processes, otherwise known as word formation processes
lx
are the major processes by which words are formed in language (Odebunmi,
2001). These word formation processes include, reduplication, compounding,
borrowing, and refashioning.
4.1
REDUPLICATION
Yusuf (1992: 86) defines reduplication as a process that involves copying
the whole or part of root as prefix or suffix. There are two types of
reduplication; these are total and partial reduplication.
lxi
4.1.1 TOTAL REDUPLICATION
This process involves copying the whole word from the root. Here, the
entire segment of a word is being copied or reduplicated to derive a new word
(Yusuf, 1992). Below are examples of total reduplication in Yukuben language.
1.
/kpa/
/kpakpa/
no
not at all
ndá
ndanda
now
now-now
3.
cha-cha
‘tin’
4.
pam
pam-pam
2.
(sound of a drum)
4.1.2 PARTIAL REDUPLICATION
In partial reduplication, it involves a reduplication of only part or segment
of a word. According to Yusuf (1992), not all the segment of the word will be
copied. Partial reduplication may come in a variety of forms, from simple
consonant germination or vowel lengthening to nearly complete copy of a base.
In Yukuben language, partial reduplication is not common unlike the
other type of reduplication; full or total reduplication.
lxii
4.2
COMPOUNDING
Hudson (2000) defines compounding as one of the morphological process
that involves the combination of two or more words. The combined forms can
be with a hyphen (-) or without it. It implies bringing together independent
words to form or derive new words. Free morphemes are mainly and freely
collocated and string together to express a new concept or word.
Examples are;
1.
idun +
ibau
son
husband
idun-ibau
2.
kekem
‘legitimate child’
+
twenty
one
kekem-ketin
‘twenty one’
palm
oil
baugibawa
4.
ketim
kekem
‘oil palm’
+
twenty
kekemapau
apau
two
‘twenty two’
lxiii
5.
abie +
ofau
rain
season
abieofau
6.
‘rainy season’
eman +
kivvi
goat
male/he
emankivvi
4.3
‘he goat’
BORROWING
Gumperz (1984) defines borrowing as the introduction of single words or
short, frozen, idiomatic phrases from one variety into the other. Borrowed
words are known as loan words which are made to adapt to the phonological
structure of the borrower language.
Words could be borrowed as a result of introducing a view concept that is
foreign to the culture of the host language. Probably, as a result of
modernization, colonialism migration, international trade, religious influence etc.
The major source of borrowing attested in Yukuben language Yoruba and few
in English and Hausa language.
Below are some lists of borrowed words in Yukuben language.
Borrowed word
Source language
Gloss
lxiv
èpí
Yoruba
‘groundnut’
kíja
Yoruba
‘fish’
ìyá
Yoruba
‘mother’
lá
Yoruba
‘lick’
lò
Yoruba
‘swallow’
kàdá
Yoruba
‘marchet’
bréédì
English
‘bread’
tebru
English
‘table’
boru
English
‘ball’
mádàkí
Hausa
‘chief’
górò
Hausa
‘kolanut’
íjákì
Hausa
‘donkey’
lxv
4.4
REFASHIONING
In refashioning, a phrase of a word is named by description. Examples in
Yukuben language are as provided below:
a.
b.
c.
moto +
kuchin
car
up
kidʒu +
aki
this
thin
bemang
+
water

motokuchin
‘aeroplane’
+
odufe

air
moto
kidʒuakiodufe
‘fan’

car
bemang-moto
‘boat/ship’
lxvi
CHARPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.0
INTRODUCTION
This chapter gives the summary and conclusion of previous chapters. It
also includes observation and recommendations based on the researcher’s
findings.
5.1
SUMMARY
This research work starts with an introductory chapter (chapter one) that
gives information about the language of study starting with the historical
background of Yukuben language and the speakers, where they originated from
to settle in their various present location, population, genetic classification,
socio-linguistic profile, research methodology, scope of the study and then to
the organization of the whole research work.
In this essay, attempt has been made to look into the morphology of
Yukuben language. The work started by analyzing phonology, the basic
phonological concepts, sound inventory where we talked about the consonant
and the vowel sounds. Also talked about the tone inventory of Yukuben
language, how the tones are combined in any given word, the syllable inventory
lxvii
which describes the structure of syllables in Yukuben words.
In the same chapter, morphology serves as the second part of this
chapter. Defined morphology, morphemes and some other basic morphological
concepts. I also described the class of language Yukuben belong to on linguistic
grounds. Yukuben language is concluded to be agglutinative.
The third chapter deals with morphology in general. The available
morphological operations in relation to the target language, Yukuben. I also
give a brief description of the available parts of speech in Yukuben language.
Chapter four centers on the morphological processes used in this
language in forming new words or how words are generated. Morphological
processes like reduplication which is divided into two; the partial and the total
reduplication, compounding, borrowing and refashioning. A detailed work was
carried out on morphological processes using examples in Yukuben language.
5.2
OBSERVATIONS
At the end of this research, the following observations are registered on
word formation of Yukuben language.
(a)
In this language, the bound morphemes perform only inflectional
functions.
lxviii
(b)
Looking at the morpheme types of the language, it could be observed
that the language is an agglutinative language.
(c)
It could be observed that the language has move free morphemes
compared to that of bound morphemes.
(d)
It could be observed that there are lots of borrowed words in the
language from neighbouring languages which the speakers of
Yukuben language are used to.
5.3
CONCLUSION
Our focus in this study is to describe the word formation processes in
Yukuben language. we have achieved this through ample and copious data to
illustrate how each of these processes is attested in Yukuben language. This
also proves the fact that the morphological processes of compounding,
borrowing, reduplication and refashioning are quite productive in the language.
In this essay, the researcher recognized twenty four (24) consonant
sounds and twelve vowels (made up of seven oral vowels and five nasal vowels
present in Yukuben language.
Conclusively, as part of contribution to learning, this long essay could be
a useful guideline and reference book for future researchers, textbook writers
lxix
and teachers of Yukuben language.
5.4
RECOMMENDATIONS
The researcher presents the following recommendations upon completing
this research work:
(a)
National language policy of education should recognize Yukuben
language as a subject to be taught in areas populated by Yukuben
people.
(b)
The native speakers of Yukuben language should be trained as
teachers of the language to encourage the language development.
(c)
Linguists are implore to make adequate research work on Yukuben
language so as to make materials such as dictionaries and readers
available for students, teachers and researchers to learn more about
the language.
lxx
REFERENCES
Andrew, S. (1991). Morphological Theory. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell
Publishers
Ltd.
Bamgbose, A. (1963). A Study of the Structure and Word Classes in the
Grammar of Modern Yoruba. Ph.D. Thesis, Edingburg.
Bloomfield, L. (1933). Language. New York: Henny Hold and Co.
Colling, N. E. (ed.) (1990). An Encyclopedia of Language: London and
New
York: Routledge.
Crystal, D. (1990). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. London:
Blackwell.
Crystal, D. (1987). The Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge:
Cambridge
University Press.
Douglas, P. (1987). The World’s Major Languages. London: British Library
Cataloging.
Eka, D. (1994). Element of Grammar and Mechanics of the English
Language.
Uyo: Samuf (Nig.) Ltd.
Greenberg, J.H. and Spencer, J. (1967). West African Language
lxxi
Monograph
Series. Cambridge University Press.
Gumperz,
J.
(1984).
Discourse
Strategies:
Studies
in
Interactional
Sociolinguistics 1. London: Cambridge University Press.
Hyman, L. (1975). Phonology: Theory and Analysis. New York: Hort,
Rinehart and Winston.
Lyons, J. (1968). Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics. London:
Cambridge
University Press.
Mathews, P. H. (1974). Morphology: An Introduction to the Theory of
Word Structure. Cambridge Cap.
Nida, E. (1949). Morphology: The Descriptive Analysis of Words. Ann
Arbor, The University of Michigan Press.
Siegel, D. (1979). Topics in English Morphology. New York: Garland.
Yusuf,
O.
and
Oyebade,
F.O.
(1989).
Basic
Morphology and Syntax. University of Ilorin. MS.
lxxii
Grammar:
Phonology,