Phonological templates in Migaama verb structure
James Roberts
The advantages of templatic analysis were first demonstrated for morphology and phonology
of Semitic languages, and subsequently, in many other languages. However, research in
Chadic languages (a sister family to Semitic within the Afroasiatic phylum) has not to date
exploited these insights as it might. This paper shows the relevance of the templatic approach
to the analysis of verbal forms in Migaama, an Eastern Chadic language of central Chad.
More than 1200 Migaama verbs have been inventoried and classified as to their structure by
Semur (1983, Essai de classification des verbes migaama). The principal classes of verbs are
shown in the table below; these are the data to be treated in this paper. Note further that each
verb has two basic forms, or bases, to which suffixes can be added: its simple base and its
imperfective base. In the table, the simple base is used in the “infinitival” or nominal form, to
which the suffix –aw/–o is added; the imperfective base is used in the incompletive form,
which is further marked by the suffix –Ca. (Tone is independent of the issues discussed here,
and has been omitted in this table.)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
“Infinitive”
--
-
-
-
-
-
-
Incompletive
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Gloss
to kill
to prepare food
to send away
to meet
to learn
to hate
to chew on
Apart from Class 1, which is a small class of notoriously exceptional verbs from a panChadic perspective, there are striking similarities of structure across the different verb
classes. The “melody” of any given verb root can be seen to be composed of a sequence of
consonants (one consonant in Class 1; two consonants in Classes 2, 3, and 4; three
consonants in Classes 5 and 6; and four consonants in Class 7) and just one vowel. Note also
that, despite the differences of root melody, the imperfective base is invariably characterized
by the very rigid template CVCVC. The vowel of the root spreads to fill both V slots. Verbs
which have only two consonants (Classes 2, 3, and 4) must allow the insertion of a third
consonant (k or w, the choice being determined by well-defined principles) in order to satisfy
the template. Verbs with more than three consonants (Class 7) likewise must find a way to
incorporate their extra segmental material into the template.
We are further led to reconsider the structure of the simple verb base. Despite the variety of
surface classes, it can be shown that the structure of simple bases is much more unified, and
that a template can also be proposed to account for them. The template for simple verb bases
is not as rigid as that for the imperfective bases, however.
Finally, in the context of a constraint-based approach, we note that this study of Migaama
verbs shows that faithfulness to templatic structure is in general more highly valued
(‘ranked’) than faithfulness to the segmental material in this language.