NINETEEN SIXTY.
October nineteen sixty,
A new dawn emerged, deep in the heart of Africa,
History in the making,
As green white green flag substitute the red white blue one.
Bright smiles Balewa, Nnamdi and Awolowo
Proudly gazed at the no mean attainment.
Our pride, our home, our heritage
The treasure of their selflessness
The capital of the world’s natural resources
Endowed with honorable, happy, industrious inhabitants
From the courage and bravery of our survival,
In a hostile, humanless slave trade and colonialism,
Come a nation standing optimistically gallant,
Keenly nurtured now matured for earnest task.
Paisanos evince no perfidious deportment.
Instead wrap ourselves in the flag.
It’s Nigeria at 50,
Let’s put the flags out.
NOBODY MADE USELESS.
Every has something valuable,
To transport him to fame and fortune.
Nobody made useless.
Everybody is priceless.
Yesterday may be senseless,
Strive to start making sense.
Develop your character, your gift,
You are design a winner.
You are of essence.
No one can deny it or take it.
Put courage to emerge stronger.
Embrace wisdom to evolve better.
Show the gift don’t shot it.
Dress it, don’t dry it.
Water it, nurture it, cheritsh it to prominence.
Never waste it.
It is yours to shine not to shatter.
Stay calm, don’t be cruel
Stay studious don’t be sluggish
You never become something doing nothing.
He is my Shepherd.
Work up, time showed six.
Reflect on yesterday nothing in life is fix.
Before anything, God comes first.
Evening comes he makes me rest.
Days open and close, the lord my fortress.
Is a life of industry, am rewarded with progress.
Nothing distressing.
Am physically, mentally fit.
Its God’s graciousness,
Not my greatness.
My knees on the ground,
My head bow,
Tears poured,
I am humbled,
The devil crumbled,
My faith kindled.
God, my infinite gratitude,
From my baptized attitude.
FULLY NAKED.
As if to attest to a claim of wholeness,
She appeared naked, fully rounded,
Exposing the naturallity of her ecstasy,
Stealing the show in every vicinity.
Clothing her nakedness seems rather shameful
Instead, nude she freezed in the nucleus of the firmament,
Tempting all visible eyes,
Pouring with reckless abandonment,
Her acatalectic lack of decency with,
A vehement vigour of aggression.
Her glary nude display was as oppressive,
As she appeared to be abusive.
Plenty perspiration glide our burned skins.
Chilled litres of waters we consumed to regulate temperature,
As if it was an adventure,
Water outlets appreciate their venture.
Every experience served a clarion call.
Awakening the consciousness of global warning.
Halt smothering these trees, putting them on flame.
Decease emitting unnecessary carbon dioxide.
Perhaps tomorrow the sun will be half naked,
And all burned skins rejuvenated and restored.
SLEEPING GIANT.
Africa! Why these glaring grieve in your countenance,
Massacring the joy of hopes, the peace of trying,
Emaciating and making you pregnable.
You must have forgotten you are primus inter pares
Standing firm like a minaret, indispensable among pares,
With diligent, intelligent, collaborative populace,
Massive unfathomable deposit of coltant, diamond, gold and petroleum.
Africa! Why these sorrows every season,
You must have forgotten you are the cradle of human civilization,
With gigantic array of colourful cultures and traditions,
Exceptional exquisite exhibition of flora and fauna.
The land of the great Plotinus, Aquinas, Ken saro wiwa, Ahmed Ben bella, Dedan Kimathi and Mandela.
The home of priceless pyramids, terra cotta,
The habitat of congo basin forest, Killimanjaro, Sahara desert and Nile.
If they are the stars, you are the sky.
If they are the rain, you are the cloud.
You are the heavenly store house of world’s glory,
Let go of your grief.
Embrace peace and utilize your endowment
My esprit de corps to Africa
ONE NOT TWO OR THREE.
One not two or three
One god
One world
One love
We are one large family
One not two or three
One moon
One sun
One sky
One experience
We have reasons to live as one
One not two or three
One life
One heart
One choice
Which could be wise or otherwise
We all have choice.
YET ANOTHER QUEUE.
Hollow, transparent green white green boxes,
Once again standing on duty,
Patiently waiting to be bulge,
With judicious ballots.
Eligible electorates enroll en mass.
Wear the crown of patriotism perform civic chore.
Relinquish all barriers,
Let us tied as broom,
Wipe out debris,
Make this nascent democracy live.
It is time for sincere serious minds and ready hands.
Time to diligently pick and choose,
Those we give this rare mandate.
A seldom privilege, don’t ruin it.
Ours is not to stand and stare,
Ours is to steer and shape history.
Independent commission, folks of caliber and cando,
Bend over backward, focus on the assignment,
Play by the rules.
This Herculean task in your palms,
Bravely ignore intimidation to sell sincerity,
Corrupt candidates will try to kiss arse,
Hit the nail on the head,
And give to each as given,
No inflation or deflation.
EVERY DAY LIFE.
As the cock crows, a new dawn is born,
Gradually the world begins to lose its serenity.
As the sun appears as if to assert itself,
The world is fully awake.
Legs and hands busy to fulfill dreams.
The sun dies, the illuminating moon conquers the night,
Yet breathing hearts still working.
Heads never resting, sweat still dripping
Eyes stern on screen dreams of varied sorts.
Keen spirits delving hungrily to acquire more.
Polished minds seeking development, adding more value,
Asphexiating circle of ignorance, incompetence, mediocrity, and low productivity.
Self development is self progression, is society’s growth.
Is standing shoulders high above the common crowd.
People come and go,
But our purpose is to leave better what we met.
SIMPLY PERFECT.
A purge sleek complexion,
Came in my direction,
Looks was a perfection
Ours eyes made connection.
Has a life that light my life up
A heart so pure, peaceful, a bright smile and radiant face,
This is astonishing beauty beaming!
The moon is bright, the sun is brighter, but you are the brightest.
I adore you!
No animus to spoil you,
I knew I want you
The first minute I saw you,
Lucky to have a lady as royal!
The things you show me,
The way you hold me,
Certainly mold me.
I promise you, forever your man.
No lying, in love with you bad!
Cos you are something I never had,
Something don’t want to lose.
Something I have to have,
A kind of love that last forever.
Feelings we share don’t need no correction.
Together, no one can cause love abduction,
I be your angel, you be my angel!
Our world full of joy and protection.
ONE MUST DIE FOR THE OTHER TO DINE.
Each survives at the expense of the other.
Life scotched in one to start in another,
One must go for the other to come.
Two contraries, separate locations.
The exist of one is the existence of another
Either dove or dog breathless.
One day, comes a time to decide,
Who to keep, who to kick,
The deacons or the demons,
Jesus or Judas, peace or pain,
One must die for the other to dine.
Which we choose can make or mar us.
One day, some way we are faced with such decision.
SHE IS MALARIA.
She is malaria.
It does not matter the area,
She does not consider class, gender or size,
She can fire anywhere at anybody.
Titchy blood sucker,
Encroacher of peaceful privacy,
Scrawny, hideous night disturber,
Of demonic demeanors.
She flies with a screech of brutality announcing her intrusion,
Other times quietly creep and subjugate her victims,
With a fatal bite of surplus injuries.
She is never done; she flies with her oppressive siren.
When at night her preys are taking quiescent,
She is up and devouring,
Her dawn is come,
Hungrily ramsacking for the warm blood,
Of her bloody survival.
Turning the night nightmare is her speciality.
Never underestimate her size,
She sends to comma, sometimes dead preys thousand times her size.
Where she lands, she bites, she inject and sucks, it itches,
Prey scratches, malaria, yellow fever, filariasis, dengue unleashed.
Mosquito is malaria.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
ON THE RELEVANCE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE
It is a truism that language is one of the features that distinguishes human beings from animals. Language incontrovertibly relates to human activities and existence. It plays a significant function in aiding people to consummate their goals and aspirations. It therefore means that language is not just a mere pieces of words logically ordered to make comprehensible sound, it is a vehicle or an instrument that directs, informs, instructs, expresses, demonstrates and describes human thoughts, feelings, ideas, desires, and beliefs. Human beings cannot dispense with language.
Even though all languages are the same from linguistic perspectives, some languages like English are of greater importance and significance because of the rich and varied utility it has to people of different race and culture across the globe.
Wikipedia has it that “English language is one of the several West Germanic languages, a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European languages such as French, Portuguese and German. It originated from numerous dialects now collectively termed old English during the Angle Saxon era in the 5th century. ” This global language grew from a humble beginning to its present status of prestige in the universe. Columbia Encyclopedia says, “English is widely dispersed all over the world as a result of British exploration, colonialism and the growth of its empires from 17th through to the 19th century. It is also bolstered by the political, economic and military might of Britain and America. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia states that “English is the most widely spoken language in the world with an approximate population of 1.5 billion speakers and the mother tongue of above 350 million people”. Not even the Manderin Chinese can be at par with the global prevalence of the English language. This is because Chinese is less spoken outside the Chinese territory where as English is ubiquitous around the world as it transcends regional barriers, racial distinction, ethnic and social boundaries.
English studies as an academic discipline navigates through the territory of literature (whose eyes focuses on the society as its primary object of scrutiny) and linguistics, the scientific study of language which combines within its corpus of study, syntax, phonology, morphology, Semantics, pragmatics, stylistic, to mention but a few. It does not stop there it traverses honourably and responsibly into other fields and takes what it finds relevant to its domain and agglutinate them to its property. This basic fact stems from the verity that no field of study can successfully operate in isolation; the effectiveness of every discourse is in relation to other discourses. There is some sort of interdependence or mutual correspondence between them. It is this verisimilitude of the symbiotic relation existing among these various fields that bring about their dependence on language especially English language. This is because English language helps them communicate their essence and relevance. It is the instrument that ensures their sustainability and makes it possible for them to achieve maximum effect in their effort to be of significance within the scheme of things. The moment science makes new discovery it quickly runs to English language for comprehensive description, explanation and naming-without which it will be a useless object of valueless manifestation. Indeed that’s the language the historian, the philosopher, the psychologist, the mathematician, the biologists, the politician, the doctor utilises the more. This is factual because the preponderance of English language in the universe makes it the most utilized language of all academic activities without racial and geographic barrier.
In this contraption called Nigeria, the foundation of the educational system has been built around English language, so much so that today English is tantamount to literacy. Virtually all academic activities are conducted in English language from the pedagogy to the pedagogical paraphernalia. Be it in the sciences or the Arts. English language is the channel, the medium and the means of instruction and students are expected to write their assignments, tests and examinations in it except where they are dealing with another language as subject. Failure to do so will result to serious penalty. The required pass mark comes from using English to say the answer and whether the answer is right or wrong depends on how English is used to say the answer. Success in Education means success in English language as far as Nigeria is concern.
There is no institution public or private such as government ministries and parastatals, banks, companies, military and paramilitary organizations, N.G.O’s that do not require the services of a linguist. This is because of the serious implications of using language in formal documents, correspondences and transactions. Others may be able to speak the language fluently, but they cannot analyze it. It is the linguist who detects such fundamental errors and fashions out a carefully written and detailed language with clarity. At any given time, a true English student can confidently and properly speak or write to audience home or abroad with the accuracy and intelligibility of academic excellence. He/she is an abode or repository of creativity, hard work, discipline and good work.
Students of English hence have a lot of opportunities to explore after their studies apart from the noble and enriching occupation of teaching and journalism. They can even choose to be translators, authors, public speakers, speech writers to presidents, governors, ministers and members of house of assembly both Federal and State. And of course, they could become presidents, governors, ministers, Legislators and chief executive officers, CEO’s of companies or enterprises. For example, the Commonwealth and Caine Prize award winner Helon Habila read English. One time, Plateau State House of Assembly, Hon. Isa Chungwom Song read English. Also Mr. Manok James read English and is now the Director of Press Affairs Government House Jos. Mrs. Ramnap Joyce Lohya read English and is a member Plateau House of Assembly and a Deputy Chief Whip.
At the end of the four years rigorous study, the English student comes out as a full baked graduate of international delivery having gone through the intense study of the language, to the mathematical operations of syntax and morphology, to the philosophical discourses of literary criticism/theories and semantics, to the psychology of psycholinguistics, to the sociology of socio-linguistics and to the history of literature. The graduates’ purview is not for the indolent, uncreative, unimaginative and indiscipline student. He/she is an embodiment of true academic excellence.
Conclusively, English language as an academic field or discipline engages its students to wide range of intellectual probing inquiries that shapes, develops and transmits them as ambassadors of not only the field, but of the institution and society they emanate from. Contrary to wide held believe among other students especially those in the sciences that students of English do nothing serious and at the end of the day have no substantial contribution to the general development of the society is a grandiose fallacy that is expose from the reservoir of ignorance of such students. As had been shown above, students of English are everything that the modern society needs from the university graduates.
Even though all languages are the same from linguistic perspectives, some languages like English are of greater importance and significance because of the rich and varied utility it has to people of different race and culture across the globe.
Wikipedia has it that “English language is one of the several West Germanic languages, a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European languages such as French, Portuguese and German. It originated from numerous dialects now collectively termed old English during the Angle Saxon era in the 5th century. ” This global language grew from a humble beginning to its present status of prestige in the universe. Columbia Encyclopedia says, “English is widely dispersed all over the world as a result of British exploration, colonialism and the growth of its empires from 17th through to the 19th century. It is also bolstered by the political, economic and military might of Britain and America. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia states that “English is the most widely spoken language in the world with an approximate population of 1.5 billion speakers and the mother tongue of above 350 million people”. Not even the Manderin Chinese can be at par with the global prevalence of the English language. This is because Chinese is less spoken outside the Chinese territory where as English is ubiquitous around the world as it transcends regional barriers, racial distinction, ethnic and social boundaries.
English studies as an academic discipline navigates through the territory of literature (whose eyes focuses on the society as its primary object of scrutiny) and linguistics, the scientific study of language which combines within its corpus of study, syntax, phonology, morphology, Semantics, pragmatics, stylistic, to mention but a few. It does not stop there it traverses honourably and responsibly into other fields and takes what it finds relevant to its domain and agglutinate them to its property. This basic fact stems from the verity that no field of study can successfully operate in isolation; the effectiveness of every discourse is in relation to other discourses. There is some sort of interdependence or mutual correspondence between them. It is this verisimilitude of the symbiotic relation existing among these various fields that bring about their dependence on language especially English language. This is because English language helps them communicate their essence and relevance. It is the instrument that ensures their sustainability and makes it possible for them to achieve maximum effect in their effort to be of significance within the scheme of things. The moment science makes new discovery it quickly runs to English language for comprehensive description, explanation and naming-without which it will be a useless object of valueless manifestation. Indeed that’s the language the historian, the philosopher, the psychologist, the mathematician, the biologists, the politician, the doctor utilises the more. This is factual because the preponderance of English language in the universe makes it the most utilized language of all academic activities without racial and geographic barrier.
In this contraption called Nigeria, the foundation of the educational system has been built around English language, so much so that today English is tantamount to literacy. Virtually all academic activities are conducted in English language from the pedagogy to the pedagogical paraphernalia. Be it in the sciences or the Arts. English language is the channel, the medium and the means of instruction and students are expected to write their assignments, tests and examinations in it except where they are dealing with another language as subject. Failure to do so will result to serious penalty. The required pass mark comes from using English to say the answer and whether the answer is right or wrong depends on how English is used to say the answer. Success in Education means success in English language as far as Nigeria is concern.
There is no institution public or private such as government ministries and parastatals, banks, companies, military and paramilitary organizations, N.G.O’s that do not require the services of a linguist. This is because of the serious implications of using language in formal documents, correspondences and transactions. Others may be able to speak the language fluently, but they cannot analyze it. It is the linguist who detects such fundamental errors and fashions out a carefully written and detailed language with clarity. At any given time, a true English student can confidently and properly speak or write to audience home or abroad with the accuracy and intelligibility of academic excellence. He/she is an abode or repository of creativity, hard work, discipline and good work.
Students of English hence have a lot of opportunities to explore after their studies apart from the noble and enriching occupation of teaching and journalism. They can even choose to be translators, authors, public speakers, speech writers to presidents, governors, ministers and members of house of assembly both Federal and State. And of course, they could become presidents, governors, ministers, Legislators and chief executive officers, CEO’s of companies or enterprises. For example, the Commonwealth and Caine Prize award winner Helon Habila read English. One time, Plateau State House of Assembly, Hon. Isa Chungwom Song read English. Also Mr. Manok James read English and is now the Director of Press Affairs Government House Jos. Mrs. Ramnap Joyce Lohya read English and is a member Plateau House of Assembly and a Deputy Chief Whip.
At the end of the four years rigorous study, the English student comes out as a full baked graduate of international delivery having gone through the intense study of the language, to the mathematical operations of syntax and morphology, to the philosophical discourses of literary criticism/theories and semantics, to the psychology of psycholinguistics, to the sociology of socio-linguistics and to the history of literature. The graduates’ purview is not for the indolent, uncreative, unimaginative and indiscipline student. He/she is an embodiment of true academic excellence.
Conclusively, English language as an academic field or discipline engages its students to wide range of intellectual probing inquiries that shapes, develops and transmits them as ambassadors of not only the field, but of the institution and society they emanate from. Contrary to wide held believe among other students especially those in the sciences that students of English do nothing serious and at the end of the day have no substantial contribution to the general development of the society is a grandiose fallacy that is expose from the reservoir of ignorance of such students. As had been shown above, students of English are everything that the modern society needs from the university graduates.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
LANGUAGE DOCUMENTATION OF CHAM
Chapter One
Introduction:
Language documentation is the process of recording through writing or other forms the history, linguistic property and other peculiar information about a language spoken by a given speech community for the sake of posterity and revitalization. This kind of exercise “plays an important role in maintaining and revitalizing a language, helps in training native speakers as language teachers and writers and leads to future research” (Juliette: 2007). It provides the foundation on which linguistic analysis can be made from a citable set of materials in the language.
Unless a language is documented it can not be develop and when a language does not have the privilege of being documented and developed through conscious and concerted efforts of the language speakers or any other person or group of persons so interested in such a noble course, the language may be gradually given up In favour of more prestigious languages and with time it may be forgotten completely. These described the situation with the language, Cham as fewer people who are sons and daughters of this enthralling language speak it. Children as well as adults find it difficult if not impossible to read and write in the language. They abandoned it for the more prestigious languages like English and Hausa. It is obvious that Cham needs to be rescued from going into extinction. This dissertation is an attempt in that direction to contribute to the few literatures written mostly in this form to revitalize, develop and propagate the language.
BRIEF HISTORY OF CHAM AND HER PEOPLE
Cham is a small minority ethnic group found in Balanga local government area of Gombe state along Yola road, south of the state and Numan local government area of Adamawa state. Originally, ‘Cham’ is known as ‘Chum’ meaning brother. However, as a result of wrong pronunciation by the traders and neighboring tribes who find it difficult to pronounce ‘Chum’ correctly, instead pronounced it as ‘Cham’ which now becomes widely used”(Albashi: 1990).
According to Hassan Tom Firi quoted by Albashi (1990), the people of Cham migrated from Yamel in the east with some tribes like Lunguda, Tula, and Dadiya at about 1777. They came to Africa through Egypt and setlled at Wanda. As a result of poor agricultural land, bad climate and weather, the people of Cham being good agriculturalists decided to move from Wanda to a free and fertile land at Fitilai (Kuntur) in 1797. At Fitilai, Baba Dan Bulo, an informant said, “the people of Cham settled in groups according to their clans. In this small clans, ther is a type of disperse, cross or integrated relationship which is showed by ties of reputed kingship, chieftaincy and religious complexities. Major among these settlements were Fitilai to Bwelimi, and Fitilai to Dijimi, out of which the following small clans emerged: Jabe, Bwelimi, Kwasim, Lebe, Dungurang and Tiksir. These clans believed in peace and have a special love and care for one another and therefore regard themselves as brothers (Shete) plural of Chum, brother”.
According to another informant, Nurudin A.A., what precipitated the movement from Fitilai to Bwelimi and from Fitilai to Dijimi is conflict. He stated, “the movements marked the beginning of dialectal variation: one had settled at Mwona that is Bwelimi and the other at Tiksir which is kindiyo. These two have extended their territory to Bachama land in Adamawa state known as green village in Numan local government and Monatari in Lamurde local government. They finally settled in Kindiyo, Mwona present day Cham district in 1880”.
Cham people are majorly farmers, however today, they are found in virtually every sphere of public and private businesses. Traditionally, they are animists and ancestralogists, but in recent times, many of them have embraced Christianity and Islam.
“Apart from being a name of a tribe, Cham is also the name of one of the towns of the tribe. To the east, Cham is bounded by Lunguda. To the north, by Bachama and Pere. To the west by Waja and to the south by Tula and Dadiya tribes respectively. Cham is made up of many villages: Loja, Bwelimi, Dongaje, Kutare, Kwarge, Kuntur, Yolde, Kwasi, Lebe, Tiksir and Yadi to mention but a few. Cham people also refer to themselves as ‘Dijim’, a plural form of ‘Nidiji’ which connotes something that appeared or come out of the earth’s deep roots which can not be overcome”(Albashi, 1990).
LANGUAGE FAMILY.
(Greenberg: 1963) classified African languages into four language phyla: “Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Khoisan and Niger-Congo”. Out of these four and according to Ethnologue.com, Cham appertains to the Niger-Congo group which has according to (Encarta: 2009) an estimated 300 to 400 million speakers across West Africa and Central African Republic.
CHAM DIALECTS
According to these informants, mr and mrs Maila Odah. There are three mutually intelligible dialects in Cham language: Mwona dialect, Loja dialect and Cham dialect. These dialectal variations came as a result of migration. Generally, dialect describes a language variety where a user’s regional or social background appears in his/her accent, use of vocabulary and grammar; the dialects of Cham is not exception, but do not constitute a barrier for comprehension as there is mutual understanding despite the distinction in lexical items, phonology and syntax.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Cham language is no longer actively spoken by the younger members of the language community and very little literatures were written in or about the language. These situations are not favourable to an endangered language like Cham. If this language must survive, then there is the need to document it so that it can be revitalized and developed. The Cham Language and Bible Translation Committee state that “children from Cham or with Cham origin are not able to speak the language; they are not able to read and write in it. Instead, they use English and Hausa. This is indeed a precarious circumstance that threatens not only the survival of the language, but the rich cultural heritage and traditional values of the people. It is in this respect therefore, that the researcher attempts the documentation of some aspects of the Cham language.
SCOPE AND LIMITATION
This research investigation is limited to the linguistic items or vocabularies of Cham, Cham sound systems and basic sentence structure. The grounds covered by these sets carefully scrutinized vocabularies are words associated with the following domains: Wild Animals, domestic Animals, Bee-keeping, Fishing-Hunting-weapons, Horse and Equipments, Plants, Trees, Agriculture, Compound, Kitchen, Food, Brewery, Clothes and Jewelry, Weaving and Dyeing, Plaiting and Basketry, Leather work and Leather goods, Metal-working, Pottery, Wood-working, Market, Human being and Kinship Terms, Government and Law, Music, Dance and Play, Religion, Disease, Time and Reason, Environment and Finally Numbers.
These words are given side by side their English counterparts to facilitate the meaning behind each word.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
This dissertation aims to attain the following:
1. The documentation of some aspect of the Cham Language for posterity and revitalization.
2. To contribute to the development of the Language.
3. To make effort toward making sure it does not become a victim of extinction.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Every language carries with it, the traditional values, norms and cultural heritage of the people. It is a marker of identity that gives a people a sense of belonging in the world. When this language goes into extinction, the peoples’ culture and traditions will also vanish with it because it is embodied in it. At the end, it becomes impossible to trace the existence of this group of people. Drawing from this perspective therefore, the significance of this long essay is the preservation of the language, culture and tradition of the people of Cham, a part or segment of human existence. It will also contribute to the body of human language especially linguistics by showcasing the unique and rich linguistic property of a language hitherto unknown.
METHODOLOGY
For the purpose of this project, the researcher made used of two methods for the collection of data. These are: Oral interview and questionnaire. The oral interview was to aid easy flow of communication between the researcher and the aged persons who are unable to read the questionnaire. It was also considered that using the questionnaire method only will not give sufficient coverage hence the need to combine the two methods. After the collation, the data are carefully analyzed by presenting them in their sub-group along side their English translation.
Chapter Two
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION:
This chapter attempts to review relevant literatures that are related to endangered languages and language documentation. Nonetheless, before going any further, it is imperative to know what a language is. Language is the repository of the culture, norm and ideology of a people and it serves as the means of transmitting knowledge from generation to generation. Austin (2008: pp 4) says, “Each language expresses the history, culture, society and identity of the people who speak it and each is a unique way of talking about the world”. “All languages have developed to express the needs of their users and in a sense all languages are equal” (Crystal: 1987, pp 91). Once man is without language, he is fundamentally reduced from his elevated position of a human being.
Sadly, some languages are not able to live-up to those responsibilities or functions not because they are intrinsically deficient, but because the language speakers failed to engage it into its full utility. This circumstance is peculiar to series of languages around the globe that heavily encroach on their potency. Thus, these languages start fading away gradually into oblivion.
ENDANGERED LANGUAGE
According to Unesco’s Adhoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages, “a situation where speakers of a language cease to use the language, instead use I in increasingly reduced number of communicative and ceased to pass it from one generation to the next constitute language endangerment” (2003: par, 2). Anthony Woodbury (2006: par, 2) is of the notion that “an endangered language is one that is likely to become extinct in the near future. Many languages are failing out of use and are being replaced by others that are more widely used in the region or nation”. Wikipedia the free encyclopedia on its part sees endangered language as “a language that is at risk of failing out of use. When a language is not spoken or learned by children, then that language is endangered” (par, 1). For Philipp Strazny (2005: pp, 212) endangered language or what he calls ‘language attrition’ is “the situation where the native language is used in increasingly fewer domains with few functions such as at home, with friends, and at social events”.
Linguists as stated by Whalen and Harrison (2000: par, 7, 8 & 9) divided languages into three categories: Healthy, Endangered and Extinct. A healthy language they say is “one that is currently being learned by children as a first language. Healthy languages are generally used in all works of life; at home, in school, at work, and in other private and public settings. Endangered language is further divided into various levels of endangerment. In the first level of endangerment in which language is still considered healthy, the percentage of children who speak the language typically falls below the percentage of the adults who speak the language. If parents stop or are forced to stop teaching their children their native language, the language may become severely endangered. The most endangered languages are called Moribund. A moribund language still has native speakers, but it is not being learned by children; often, just a few elderly speakers remained. An extinct Language on the other hand is one with no living native speakers”.
Following the above classification, Cham language appertains to the moribund class. This position is based on the fact that children no longer learn the language; there are just a handful of elderly and adult speakers. Cham as a language has unfortunately fallen into this precarious situation which threatens not only the survival, security, and existence of the language, but also the global linguistic canon and world’s cultural diversity. What precipitated this condition is the long years or period of neglect combined with the exclusive used of Hausa and English for conducting their daily activities in school, politics, business/trading, religious worship and social events. Indeed, there is also the spread of the mass media that brought an insidious new threat on it. To day even the remotest house in Cham has either a radio or television or both. The language often utilized in these media from morning to evening is Hausa and/or English. This by it self has a psychological effect on the children and adults who will graciously imbibe it as the language of prestige and of the elite which they home to reach.
Crucial to all the views aforementioned are:
The limited use of the language by its speakers in their daily activities.
The language’s operative competence is restricted to fewer domains such as ceremonial and formal functions.
The language is not transmitted to younger generation.
A Unesco report (1993) has it that half of the approximated 6700 languages spoken today are in danger of disappearing before the century ends. In 1992, another Unesco report states that “the International Congress of Linguist (CIPL) meeting in Quebec Canada discussed the topic of endangered languages as a result of which it formed the endangered language committee under the authority of Unesco. In 1993 this committee came up with “The Red Book of Endangered Languages”, which was published by Unesco and contained a comprehensive lists of the world’s languages currently facing extinction and endangerment. Hundreds and thousands of languages facing extinction and endangerment are reported in this Red Book of Endangered Languages. Some of these endangered languages in Nigeria include: Bassa, Kontagora, Bete, Fali of Baissa, Defaka, Kiong, Kuducamo, Labir,Lere, Lufu,Luri, Njerep, Odut, Putai, Rono and many others. Whalen and Harrison (2000) also reported that “as the new millennium comes to a close more than 6000 distinct human languages are in used world wide. Many linguists predict that the year 2100, only half of the languages will be spoken, a lost of one language every twelve days”.
Linguist, M. Krauss (2007) argues that for a language to survive it needs at least 100,000 speakers. Krauss view puts emphasis on just the number of speakers that are available to speak the language. However, this can not provide us with sufficient assurance. For example, linguist, L.R. Storto (2003) who worked on endangered languages in Brazil says that “the ‘Karitiana’ language in Brazil has only 185 speakers out of a total population of 191. Even though 185 is not a large number, Karitiana speakers both young and old make up 96% of the population of the community. Yet, the language is not endangered because there is transmission and active usage of the language by the younger generation. At the other extreme end, Yiddish, the international language of the Jews from Central to Eastern Europe until the middle of the 20th century, with around 3 million speakers is considered by linguists as an endangered language. This is as a result of its similitude position with Cham language with many elderly speakers with no children learners or the language is not transmitted to the younger generation. Austin (2008: par, 2) points out to this truism when he says that “in order to judge if a language is endangered, the number of the speakers is less important, what is important is its transmission to younger generation”.
The implication of all these is that adults and children are a veritable medium that provide the safest way of promoting, sustaining and propagating a language. Nonetheless, as Philipp (2005: par, 2) states, “language vitality is ranked in terms of number and generations of speakers”. It is this that Crystal (1987: 281) meant when he posits that “for a language to count as living, there obviously have to be active speakers alive who use it. Therefore, simply counting the number of speakers is not the best way to decide if a language will survive or not. Rather, the vitality of a language depends on how well a language is transmitted to younger generation”.
REASONS BEHIND LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT
The causes of language endangerment are complex and vary with individual situations. In Cham territories for example, the primary cause is language shift, a situation where speakers of a language cease to speak their native or local language in favour of the language that is perceived to be the most influential culture politically, socially and economically. The situation usually comes into being when there are no such values or prestige attached to the local or heritage language. In most cases Philipp (2005: 286) says, “Such a shift can occur over a number of generations; the oldest generation, the grand parents speak the heritage language as their first and primary language. The middle generation has some knowledge about the local language, but uses the dominant/influential language primarily, and the younger generation has little or no knowledge of the local language and may at most know a few words or phrases”.
This state of affairs has greatly reduced the performative abilities of such languages like Cham; thereby, forcing them to play a second fiddle in an environment where Hausa and English are becoming the order of the day
Accordingly, Crystal (1987: 111) remarks that “economic prospects attract younger members of a community away from the villages; so also educational pursued. Inevitably, circumstance will create the motive for them to start using the language of their new environment”. This idea of adapting to the language of ones new environment is inevitable according to Melting Pot Theory. One can further buttress this point by looking at Nigeria’s Home Movies which only show young men and women progressing after they desert their villages for the city centre. This is sending wrong signals to the youths. Austin (2008, par, 1) “This quest for human progress which they (the community people) feel they can not locate in their local language drive them away from their major essence and means of universal identity to what they feel can provide them with the much craved progress”. This is what Philipp (2005: 287) meant by saying that “members of a language community often believed that knowledge of the dominant language like Hausa in the North and Pidgin in the south is a necessary tool for success in the dominant culture and that knowledge of the heritage language is a hindrance to socio-economic advancement”. It is a common phenomenon today that people only tend to speak languages that are socially and economically useful. Anything contrary they look at it as a waste of time.
The situation is further compounded as local celebrities are themselves not encouraging the younger ones to speak in their local languages; instead they speak Hausa, Pidgin or English depending on their regional orientation. This situation should not be slightly considered because these celebrities are a major influence to the younger ones.
In addition, parents sometimes don’t encourage their children by teaching them their local language. In this case, the child is left with no option but to learn the language readily available to him at his disposal in school, in the street, at church or mosque and on the radio or television. This breached in generation to generation transmission of the local language seriously jeopardize its existence.
LANGUAGE DOCUMENTATION
Because a society’s history and culture is contained in its language and because as a language disappears, it carries with it everything that is contained within it, it becomes crucial that conscious effort is make to prevent a situation where the major essence of human, dignity, pride and identity is completely lost without trace. Trask (1995: 207) declares this fact when he says “the most obvious outward sign of our identity is our language”. Whalen and Harrison (2000, par, 17) also note that “important clues to human history are buried in language”. If so, it is therefore essential that languages are put in black and white to eschew such situations where they die alongside what they carry in them.
“One response to language endangerment has been the creation of a new discipline within linguistics called Language Documentation (or Linguistic Documentation). It is often said to have been catalyzed Nikolaus P. Himmeimanne” (the Hans, par, 2). Nikolaus wrote in his book, Documentary and Descriptive Linguistics (1998: 166) that “the aim of a language documentation is to provide a comprehensive record of the linguistic practices characteristic of a given speech community…This…differs fundamentally from language description which aims at the record of language as a system of abstract elements, construction and rules”. The Unesco’s Adhoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages (2003, par, 4)looks at language documentation as “the process by which a language is documented in terms of its grammar, its lexicon and in terms of its oral traditions(stories, songs and religious texts)”. On its part, Wikipedia states that “once a language is determined to be endangered, there are two basic steps that need to be taken in order to stabilize or rescue the language. The first Wikipedia claims is language documentation which is the process by which a language is documented in terms of its grammar, vocabulary and oral traditions like tales and riddles. The second is language revitalization which means that a language community through political, community and educational means attempts to increase the number of active speakers of the endangered language. This process, Wikipedia further states is termed language revival or reversing language shift.
To Lehmann (2001) quoted by Sascha (2007, par, 2) says language documentation “is part of the overall documentation of a culture or as part of the comprehensive presentation of a language”. Himmelmann (1998) also quoted by Sascha views language documentation as an independent field of research for linguistic and linguistic anthropology which focuses on the collection of primary data (language data) with special emphasis on endangered languages. To Sascha (2007) “the term is geared towards gathering an amount of data that is representative of the linguistic system of a language as a whole”.
Finally, language documentation is a conscious attempt undertaking to write down the linguistic property of a language in order to keep it safe from being lost and for posterity.
Language endangerment on its part is a highly dangerous phenomenon that could happen to a language. It shrinks and renders a language invalid, incapacitated and inactive; thereby forcing it to loose effectiveness. It is necessary and a matter of urgency that such a language is documented to ensure its continuous survival.
Chapter Three
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
This section presents the data collected in the field. They comprise of linguistic items or words from different fields and areas of study. They are given side-by-side their English translation. This chapter also contains the vowels and consonants description of Cham as well as the Cham basic sentence structures. The first word in each line is in Cham followed by its English translation.
WILD ANIMALS:
Namte - Animal
Namte se - Wild animal
Kullon - Crocodile
Namwalai - Hippopotamus
Namriguwon - Antelope
Pyau - Gazelle
Grima se - Buffalo
Korose - Giraffe
Namkiya - Wart-hog
Fun - Baboon
Fun - Monkey
Fun - Chimpanzee
Tu - Cobra
Kweram - Python
Dullon - Squirrel
Tu - Mouse
Tu - Rat
Gum or Killeya - Owl
Ta or Turitifi - Porcupine
Babuwe - Rabbit
Babuwe - Hare
Ta - Hedgehog
Jinijirti - Wild cat
Namkiya - Leopard
Gano - Elephant
Muglo - Dove
Turum or Dumbo - Lion
Nam ribirsan - Jackal
So - Snake
Grissinte - Viper
Buntar - Lizard
Bwilin bwilin - Agama Lizard
Guba gubari - Gecko
Sala - Monitor
Semi semi - Chameleon
Gantan - Crab
Chunboi - Frog
Bete chumboi - Toad
Kirga - Snail
Gurya yili - Tortoise
Laate - Fish
Dasar - Mudfish or cat fish
Kille - Bird
Kaita kille - Nest
Kille kwiwi - Cattle egret
Kille kuse - Crested crane
Kwakwa - crow
Kille gimi - Duck
Kolon kase - bush fowl
Weser - Falon
Weser - Kite
Jelburin - Vulture
Nam walai - Ostrich
Sengsengyi - Bat
Minte sutti - (big black)ant
Minte kwiyu - (red)ant
Mimi - ant
Minte - (small black) ant
Buri - Termite
Buri - Ant-hill
Suru da burin - Termite pile
Dugor - Insect
Yi - Fly
Mimi - Mosquito
Lauri - Tsetsefly
Bulo bulogi - Butterfly
Gulgo waniyu - Caterpillar
Gulgo - Worm
Dugor - Bug
Kilgunte - Louse
Lauri - Flea
Kutiri - Tick
Kitakeri - Cricket
Lingate - Grashopper
Lingate - Locust
Lirinte - Spider
Yuglon - Mantis
Teeri - Scorpion
Te – Sting (bee, ant,scorpion)
DOMESTIC ANIMALS
Namta kai - Domestic animal
Namta chuwi - Female animal
Namta wubari - Male animal
Joi - Dog
Tu - cat
Tinga - Cattle
Gumtul - Bull
Befuri - Ox
Betinga - Calf
Koro - Donkey
Bi - Goat
Bi wuchiwe - She-goat
Gumbar - He-goat
Bebi - Kid
Ma - Sheep
Ma - ewe
Bugtor - Ram
Yiri - Pig
Yiri chiwe - Sow
Yinti kasi - Enclosure
Yiwa gimi - Water place
Damur - Stick
Yawi - Chicken
Kolong - Cock
Chul - Guinea-fowl
Klekai - Domestic pigeon
Nam - Meat
Jum - Horn
Winang - Tail
Dungar - egg
Fumni - Wing
Fumwakle - feather
Bote ta biti - Dung
Mugte or Ju - Kill
Kli - Bite
Kummarang – Ruminate
Buwon - Give birth
Totan - herd
Kusam - Milk
Buwong - Call
Musaran wa bite - Tame animals
Ka - Drive away
Gum naji - Fly
Mua - Jump
BEE KEEPING
Yite - Bee
Ni ti yite - Apiaristor bee keeper
Mumangteor Kaita yite - Apiary or bee house
Gimi yite - Honey
Munda Yite - Honeycomb
Kurgaran ka yite - Swarm of bees
FISHING, HUNT, WEAPONS
Yogi wa lati - Fishing net
Kublon - Hook/fishtrap
Ni tuwa lati - Fishman
Duwi - Hunt
Ni tari namti - Hunter
Na - Footprint
Jinia kuni - Weapon
Bak - arrow
He - water
Kun - War
Kwelam - warriors
Nub - people
Kublon - Bow
Dun - Quiver
Ya - Spear
Dunbo - Sword
Lagu - Dagger
Lagu - knife
Te lagu - Throwing knife
Gum - Club
Gursa - Gun
Finjila - Sling
Bwigate - Combat
Kun - Attack
Kursa - Dress of a warrior
Kursa - Armour
Kursa - Shield
Dala kuni - Helmet
Kwelum ba kunum - Warriors
Fun risik - Chase
Te - shoot
Bau - hit
Mau wer - Throw stone
Mau ya - Throw spear
Kur - stab
Mai atum - Over power
HORSE AND EQUIPTMENT
Mungor - Horse
Be mungor - Stallion
Dukka mungor - Bit
Jini dukka mungor - Bridle
Dukka mungor - Stirrup
Gu chiri - Saddle
Sa guchiri - Saddle bag
Umbi-Riding - whip
Lubrite-Riding - boots
Jinia mungor - Harness
Filin damungor - Flag
Filin da mungor - Banner
Ya - Lance
Ni mungor - Horseman
Gwi - Ride
PLANTS
Se - Bush
Lagar - Forest
Yir - Grass
Riank - Tree
Riank - Wood
Haki - Branch
Bwi-riank - Trunk
Sagari - root
Wula ka riank - Bark
Wang - Leaf
Filin da riank - Flower
Beta riank - Fruit
Tuk - Thorn
Jam - Grain
Namta yawi - Mushroom
Lumte - Marrow
Chulun da ni kwiwi - Pawpaw
Jini lumanyi - Orange
Mukrimuk - Lemon
Gulum - Groundnut
Gungoji - Bambaranut
Beta riank kadikadin - Kolanut
Riank ka chulu - Banana
Klanyi - Beans
Kusante - Garden egg
Laatum - Onion
Chulun - Pumpkin
Jini chulu - Melon/watermelon
Yute - Yam
Yin - Broom
Jam - Guinea corn
Jam - Millet
Jam – Late millet
Butali - Maize
Kurgote - Okra
Kausitikausi - pepper
Kwali - Red sorrel
Segete - Beniseed or sesame
Jamba nabalam - Wheat
Jam ba nubalam - Rice
Jimank ka cilu - Sugar-cane
Landir - Cotton
Wurang - Tobacco
TREES
Lulugte - Baobab-tree
Kumon - Sycamore or fig tree
Jwangte - Indian tamarind
Binri - Jujubetree
Buboite riank - Locust-bean-tree
Kumol - Silk-cotton tree or red flowers
Memte - Shea-butter or shea-nut-tree
AGRICULTURE
Kweliya - siyari-Peasant
Se - Field
Se - Farm
Se wa jiniya yalte - Garden
Se sarmini - Cultivated land
Gume jusiyer wi - Fallow
Tam - soil
Yinte kashi - Fence
Duwum - Seed
Damur wa sutan - Planting stick
Tan - Hoe
Hartang - Harvest
Yun ke yir giri - Sickle
Dumpo - Machete
Tim - Threshing
Damur da timin - Flail
Ju siyar - Cultivate or till
Ju tum - Till soil
Yir - Weed
Gula tum - Dig
Gula - Dig or excavate
Wurila - Ridge-up
Wautang - Sow
Daga - Plant(tomato)
Diga- Plant(tubers)
Digarang - Transplant
Fitang - Wet
Kusitang - Dry up
Jitang - Germinate
Ciptir - Unripe
Bitang - Mature or ripe
Tese - Pluckout
Jigtang - Pick
Butimin - Strip off
Helen - Bundle
COMPOUND
Kai - House or compound
Kanda juwi - entrance hut
Fugon ka juwi - Doorway
Fugon - Door
Kali - Fence
Kanda wete - Stone wall
Kunwor - Grass-hut
Kan - Room
Kuleya kani - Wall9of house)
Hiltang - Roof
Libang - Veranda
Kulo - Abandoned compound
Kulgurun - Bench
Dintilin - Chair
Swete - Bed
Siri - Mat
Kublo kunta - Blanket
Tan - Cornbin or granary
Duun - Rubbish heap
Nuwa gemiyu - Well
Soriya gemiyu - Vessel to draw water
Gurin harji girin - Bucket
Kinde - Storage pot
Sabonte - Soap
Fatin - Bottle
Nyu jiga kam rigi - Mirror
Bwaka tilang - Clay-pot
Tila - Mud-brick
Mutang - Build(house)
Yinamin - Sweep
Bautan wa jinni - Wash
KITCHEN
Karang/mugon - Fire
Silin da karang - Flame
Bwebi - Fire-place
Rita karangyi - Firewood
Yon - Smoke
Bugum - Ash
Yuwar - Axe
Gurda muran - Cooking pot
Ser - Water storage pot
Kubtar - Cup
Kasi - Dish
Gur/kande - Pot
Sau - Cook
Lagu - Knife
Jau - Eat
Yalte - Soup
Tirite - Bitter
Kwa - Grind
Swiyer - Work
Kubtar - Spoon
Tag - Stirring stick
Wer din kwaner - Grinding stone
Busi - Mortar
Kwang - Pestle
Sori busi - Winnow
Sori/kasi - Calabash
Nyergo - Lid(circular mat)
Gulong - Bottle gourd
Swa - Bag
Sur - Stamp or pound
Surtang - Thresh
Yumin - Winnow
Wuwe he - Drawwater
Bau karang - Strike
Dup karang - Carry fire
Yiro rite - Split
Mitang - Spread out in sun to dry
FOOD
Jini jauri - Food
Mon - Mush
Bir - Gruel
Yalte - Stew/sauce/soup
Mim - Flour
Nung - Oil
Riank - Kwiyu-Palm-oil
Nunka tinga - Butter
Brang - Fat
Nyu jig nugtinga - Butter-churn
Fugilte - Foam
Bomkanim - Salt
Kusulo - Boil
Fugilte - Bubble
Har - Roast/grill
Wutugo - Divide(share out)
BREWERY
Kanda cuwa - Beer-pot
Yogi - Filter
Cuwa - Palm-wine
Kasi/sori - Calabash for drinking
Gun - Ferment
Yogtang - Strain
CLOTHES AND JEWELLRY
Dute - Clothe
Dala - Cap
Dugge – Robe (man’s gown)
Dutita wutem - Woman’s clothes
Dug – Shirt
Bubwi - Belt
Bangti - Trouser
Kublo - Woman’s loincloth
Dug ka dur - Scarf(headcloth)
Wangnin - Head-pad
Libirte - Shoe
Damur da yomin - Walking stick
Cini - Ring
Jini kaniyu - Bracelet
Jini naniyu - Anklet
Jini kwiri - Necklace
Jini suniyu - Earring
Gisum - Beads
Batari - Needle
Maitan a jinni – Wear (clothes)
Satang - Sew
Muksate - Embroider
Muksate - Adorn
Kisantan adur - Plait hair
Hala - Rope
WEAVING/DYEING
Landir - Cotton
Satang - Weaver
Nyu sa dug rigi - Loom
Landir - Warp (thread)
Landir - Woof/weft
Kaita landir - Spinner
Riyang ka landir - Spinning stick/distraff
Mulong mulong - Multi-coloured
Fi - dye
PLAITING/BASKETRY
Kisitang adur - Plaiting
Kuto - Basket
Jidari - Mat
Duk - Rope
Jur duk - Make braid rope
Niga - Knot
LEATHER WORK/LEATHER GOODS
Biyang - Skin
Nisa jinni ri biyang - Leather worker
Jini biyang - Leather goods
Kur - Pricker/awl
Batal - needle
Kublo - Tanner
METAL-WORKING
Go kori - Smithery/forge
Sumtang - Brass-casting
Ni suni kori - Blacksmith
Bua - Furnace
Silin - Bellows
Yilba - Blaze
Julni - Charcoal
Sira - Melt
Cimmar - Iron/money
Jini kwiyu - Bronze/brass
Cinni – Tin (metal)
Cinni - Siver
Cinni - Cpper
Cinni - Gold
Jeni - Hammer
Cinni - Chain
POTTERIE
Ni mau gur - Potter
Tila - Clay
Ni furi buri - Kiln
Juri - Place of burning (pit)
Kande/gur - Pot
Kan ka gur - Handle of pot
Nyu gulon - Spout/nozzle
Fu - bake
WOOD-WORKING
Lagu - Saw
Yuwar da suli
Riank - wood
Sultang - Sculture
Banduwa - Market
Nidu wa banduwa - Chief of market
Kandi mi jinni - Shop
Duwon - Trade
Cimmar - Money/cowry
Nuwan da gunon - Ivory
Ni banduwa - Merchant
Ni wura namte - Butcher
Yatang - profit
Bunai - loss
Suni - debt
Suta - buy
Mi - Sell
Mur - Pay
Yir - Barter
Fulgo - Change(goods)
Suni - Lend
Yu suni - Borrow
Kwau - Measure
Funotang - Cheat
Yom - Journey
Mungor - Car
Mungor da kuntang - Lorry
Jini - Load
Bongtulon - Boat/canoe
Sur - Paddle
Ni sur bongtulon - Row
Yoyom - Travel
HUMAN BEINGS AND KINGSHIP TERMS
Dukkamin - Relative
Numba jirai - Ancestors
Ti - Father
Tai - My Father
Nai - My mother
Na - Mother
Bwe - Child
Yugoyi - Widow
Gitini - Widower
Dukka min - Lineage
Lang-ir - Tribe
Kilaki - Harlot
Niyulu - Blackman
Ni kwau - Whiteman
Niri buni - Poor
Niri jinni - Rich
Kewe - Slave/servant
Jarum - Prisoner
Ni totimi - Spy
Nifuwi - Guest
Cigo bwigate - Enemy
Wuri jugur - Mid wife
Gitimi - Bachalorhood
Kewete - Slavery
Bwoili - Youth
Nate - Marriage
Murjini - Dowry
Ni’a nate - Marry
Bugarte - Twin
Bwe cuwi - Daughter
Bwe - Baby
Nibari - Husband
Wuri - Woman/wife
Dagori - Co-wife
Cigira - Brother(elder)
Cisini - Brother(younger)
Cia nai - Mother’s brother
Cia tai - Father’s brother
Cigira - Sister(elder)
Cisini - Sister(younger)
Cisini - Mother’s sister
Ciciwi - Father’s sister
Nigra - Grandmother
Tagra - Grandfather
Yigra - Grandson
Nagra - Granddaughter
Senior - Cigra
Na kani - Mother-in-law
Timiri - Father-in-law
Nyile - Sister-in-law/brother-in-law/
Bwewi - Bride
Bwewi - Maiden/virgin
Bridegoom - bweli
Kumbe - Orphant
GOVERNMENT AND LAW
Nidu - Chief/King
Kwanyu - Queen
Dute - Chieftancy
Royal family - Kaita dute
Kurgaran - Reception
Dute - Title
Palace - Kaita nidu
Niyum - Obey
Ka jaubur - Conquer
Sori - Law
Lejuwi - Offence/violation
Kaita duti - Court
Ni ke yumi - Judge
Yum akaita duti - Legal case
Fung riyum - Accusation
Niya mau wuri - Plaintiff
Ni fung yimi - Prosecutor
Totan - Defence
Duute - Judment/sentence
Jamun kan - Divorce
Kute - Theft
Niku - Thief
Ni juniu - Murderer
MUSIC, DANCE, PLAY
Kur - Drum
Damur da kur - Drumstick
Ni bauri kur - Drummer
Glen’irin - Bell
Yil - Dance
Siang - Xylophon
Siang - Flute
Fir - Algeta/horn/trumpet
Ni yiyilang - Dancer
Weni - Masquerade
Wuri - Shouting
Fiang - Song
Nima fiang - Singer
Ni bari kuri - Musician
Ma fiang - Sing
Baukur - Beatdrum
Ni’a yute - Play
Jum - Horn
RELIGION
Weni ma weni - Priest
Niri weni - Rainmaker
Ni funri weni - Divinator
Ni weni - Oracle
Ni yilo - Sorcerer
Yilo - Witch/witchcraft
Weni - Ordeal/fetish
Nia ju - God
Weni - gods
Cingu - Ghost
Weni - Spirit
Jiniya kewete - Religious objects
Yunong - Charm/amulet
Gu yulgoi - Heaven
Gu bura - Hell
Fiang - Chant
Wura takka wuri - Excision
Jiri kunni - Curse
Buyate - Death
Niya buya - Corpse
Su - Grave
Digtang a su - Funeral
Gun digtan a su - Place of burial
Kanda lahadin - Ritual place
Yuro - Facial markings
Nar - Soul
Kau kute - Cut marks
Kok - Taboo
Lagriga - Book
Bara - bury
Kewete - Worship
Duwe - Avoid
Wutugo jinni - Sacrifice
Gun kur duwi - Mosque
Ni wari yum agun kurduwi - Imam
Ruwatang ayini - Prayer
Gulong - Kettle
Tunu sohi - Fast
DISEASE
Niyim ri bwaute - Medicine man
Yinang - Medicine
Sam - Poison
Wuri - Cough
Nitang akitirin - Fever
Der - wound/sore
Delinde - Scar
Der - Abscess
Ritang - Swell
Kwara - Heal
Bwaute - Disease
Bwaute wa bwitibi – Disease (of children)
Klatang a mimite - Malaria
Turi - Dysentry
TIME AND SEASON
Gusute - World
Korung - Sky
Be songyi - Star
Song - Moon
Ko - Sun
Kwetere a ko - Sunshine
Simba - Wind
Wuleng wuleng - Storm
Korung ka gwe - Cloud
Korang kafiye - Raincloud
Gimna jiu - Rain
Nyelba - Lighting
Mar - Dew
Gu - Harmattan
Jir - Year
Kaan - Dry season
Tam - Earth
Ko - Day
Ga - Place
Far - Swamp
Sila - Tomorrow
Bulun - Dust cloud (of harmattan)/fog
Twong - West
Jiong - East
Kang - Side
Flageri - Seasons
Juswang - Wet season
Fla - Time
Ri-ko - Daylight
Kigulong - Shade
Duuni - Spring
Marnang - Summer
Tamguram - Winter
Sanang - Autum
Yawi siri - Dawn
Mori - Morning
Jugur da ko - Noon
Riyu - Evening
Yu - Dusk
Kum - Night
Lugum - Darkness
Nin dari - Yesterday
Ku - Today
Cire - Last year
Hann - Next year
Kasu - Past
ENVIRONMENT
Tam - Country
Tam - Ground
Yik - Border
Bir - Town
Kai - Village
Jiwi - Road
Bwe juwi - Roadway
Juwi - Track
Nuwahe - Spring of water
La - River
La rijisong - Seasonal river
Nyiya la - Riverbank
Buksor - Marsh(land)/Swamp
Lagar - Forest
Bang - Hill
Jwi - Compound
Ying - Mountain
Fi - Plateau
La - Valley
Wer - Rock/stone
Hun - Cave
Jusai - Sand/gravel
Betuwai - Pebble
Kur - Dust
Ketire - Shine
DAYS OF THE WEEK AND MONTH
Banduwa sitami/laduwi - Monday
Banduwa bwilami - Tuesday
Banduwa dijimi - Wednesday
Banduwa bubi - Thursday
Banduwa kambi - Friday
Banduwa bwi la mangngi - Saturday
Kokunta - Sunday
Song ka kwanang - January
Song ka suwi/suwang - February
Song ka bwanbiying - March
Song ka gwarang - April
Song ka nuwang - May
Song ka nukunung - June
Song kaNyibiying - July
Song ka naruwong - August
Song ka Wurwinang - September
Song ka Kuwong - October
Song ka jiri kwanang - November
Song ka Jirsu wang - December
COLOUR TERMS
Kwiyu - Red
Yilu - Black
Kwau - White
Cintaran - Green
Karma - Blue
Bubwete - Yellow
Nyara karma - Purple
Karma kuga bwiyu - Violet
Tam tam - Bown
Karma Yiluwi - Indigo
Biyute - Orange
Me kwiyu ra kwani - Pink
NUMBERS
Kwan - One
Su - Two
Bwanbi - Three
Gwar - Four
Nu - Five
Nukun - Six
Nyibi - Seven
Naru - Eight
Wurwin - Nine
Kwu - Ten
Jir kwan - Eleven
Jir su - Twelve
Jirta bwanbi - Thirteen
Jirta gwar - Fourteen
Jirta nu - Fifteen
Jirta nukun - Sixteen
Jir nyibi - Seventeen
Jir naru - Eighteen
Jir wurwin - Nineteen
Far ta su - Twenty
Far ta su ajir kwan - Twenty one
Farta bwanbi - Thirty
Farta gwar - Fourty
Farta nu - Fifty
Farta nukun - Sixty
Far nyibi - Seventy
Far naru - Eighty
Far wurwin - Ninety
Bee kwan - 100
Beeta wurwin - 900
Nee kwan - 1000
Neeta kwu - 10000
Neeta bee kwan - 100000
Nee frang - 1000000
Nee frangte - 1000000000
The above lists are some of the linguistic items (words) of Cham Language. By no means is this exhaustive, a zillion others were not able to get entry here due the space and time constraint. As might have been notice above, some of the words do not have word to word translation, but a phrase or even a clause. For instance, butter-churn is translated ‘nyu jig nunka tinga’. Meaning, ‘an object use in extracting a cow’s butter’. Mirror is translated thus: ‘Nyu jiga kam rigi’. Meaning, ‘an object used for looking at one’s face.’ Indeed, this situation is not a problem as it only constitutes how language speakers decide to refer to an object or item.
Moreso, the possibility of certain words existing in one language and lacking in another is not a strange phenomenon. In Cham language, these English words are not found in it: Bullet, bustard, ink, penis sheath, malt, orion etc. This may relate to the fact that the language did not come into contact with such material objects or abstract concepts. Except there is a notice of an object it is practically impossible to describe or name such an item. Where the reverse is the case, every language is inherently sufficient enough to adequately describe its surroundings and the various things contained there in. But again, this does not take away the possibility of borrowing from other languages. This situation happens when two languages or cultures come into contact with each other. For example, Cham borrowed from Hausa the following words: ‘Beli’ (bail), ‘Alwalaa’ (ablution), ‘Rawani’ (turban) etc.
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS DESCRIBTION OF CHAM
This research has discovered that Cham has a total of 23 alphabets: /a/ /b/ /c/ /d/ /e/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /i/ /j/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /o/ /p/ /r/ /s/ /t/ /u/ /w/ /s/ /y/. These are the alphabets that Cham use in writing. The alphabets, /q/ /v/ and /z/ do not exist. While there are a total of 39 sounds: /a/ /b/ /c/ /d/ /e/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /i/ /j/ /k/ l/ /m/ /n/ /ng/ /ny/ /o/ /p/ /r/ /s/ /t/ /u/ /u/ /w/ /y/ /bw/ /jw/ /oi/ /ai/ /au/ /uu/ /gw/ /kw/ /mw/ /ee/ /aa/ /pw/ /sw/ /a/. Out of these 13 are vowel sounds:/a/ /a/ /u/ /u/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /ai/ /oi/ /au/ /ee/ /aa/ /uu/. While 26 are consonant sounds:/b/ /c/ / /d/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /j/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /ng/ /ny/ /p/ /r/ /s/ /t/ /w/ /y/ /bw/ /jw/ /gw/ /kw/ /mw/ /pw/ /sw/ .
Examples of vowel souds as they occur in words:
/a/
Ga - place
Ma - sheep
Ta - old
/a/
Sar - to cut
Latam - fall on ground
Tam - earth
Kablang - bow
/aa/
Taam - potash
Taan- hoe
Laatam - onions
Kaan - dry season
Saam - poison
/au/
Sau - fear
Pyau - gazelle
Sau - to cook
Mau - to stone
Fau - search
/oi/
Noi - nurse me
Koi - reject me
Toi - care for me
Yoi - escort me
/ai/
Kai - house or kind of snake
Nai - my mother
Fai - search for me
Mai - wear
Tai - father
/uu/
Duute - judgement
Kuumni - strenght
Duuni - spring
/ee/
Bee kwan - one hundred
Nee kwan - one thousand
Teeri - scorpion
/u/
Susu - beard
Gum - owl
Fur - stomach
Dute - reign
/u/
Dur - head
Su - grave
Yilu - black
/e/
Wer - stone
Se - bush
Nyele – in-laws
Bwe - child
/i/
Biyir - porridge
Yingi - house fly
Nyibi - seven
/o/
Koro - donkey
Ko - day
Yon - smoke
Out of the 13 vowel sounds 10 are pure vowels:/a/ /i/ /u/ /e/ /o/ /ee/ /aa/ /uu/ /u/ /a/. The first 5 are short vowels while the last 5 are long vowels. The remaining 3 are dipthongs:/ai/ /oi/ /au/. The two vowels, /u/ and /a/ are distinguished from /a/ and /u/ that are both obtained in Hausa and English by the straight line under them which also make them long vowels.
The 26 consonant sounds are represented thus:
/b/ as in bi - goat, bak - arrow, Bwanbi - three, bang - hill
/c/ as in cilu - sweet, cuwa - wine, cimar - money, cimi - friend
/d/ as in dun - knee, di - go, jidari - mat, dugum - blood
/f/ as in figu - new, furtasu - twenty, far - swamp, fan - monkey
/g/ as in gur - pot, lagu - knife, muglo - dove, gano - elephant
/h/ as in ham - look, hanang - skin, he - water
/j/ as in jau - eat, jir - come out, ju - kill
/k/ as in kun - war, kang - hand, kak - face, nukun - six
/l/ as in lamar - navel, sila - tomorrow, yalte - soup
/m/ as in mimi - mosquito, mu - build, mai - wear
/n/ as in nu - eye, na - leg, yinang - medicine, nar - liver
/p/ as in pyau - gazelle, pise - bend, patpat - quickly
/r/ as in teeri - scorpion, dungar - egg, hatar - hyena
/s/ as in suta - buy, susu - beard, kosi - skull, su - ear
/t/ as in tai - father, turum - lion, swete - bed, tirite - bitter
/w/ as in wuman - open, wang - leaf, wurang - tobacco
/y/ as in ya - spear, yak - give to, layuwi - electric fish
/ng/ as in nungan - tooth, yunang - tail, ngari - pig
/ny/ as in nyi - mouth, nyele - in-law, nyelba - lighting, nyibi - seven
/bw/ as in bwal - kind of spear, bwa - hole, bwi - body, bwe - child
/jw/ as in jwi - compound, jwal - kind of stick, jwonte - tamarind
/gw/ as in gwi - climb, gwal - hatch, gwali - sorrel, agwe - here
/kw/ as in kwelam - warriors, kweram - pythorn, kwa - to grind
/mw/ as in mwiya - cut into pieces, mwara - grass for roofing,mwa - run
/pw/ as in pwal - sound from breaking something.
/sw/ as in swete - bed, swiyer - work
All the consonant sounds can occur at word initial and medial, but not all can occur at word end. Only 9 out of the 26 consonant sounds can occur at word final position:
/b/ as in nab - people, dab - to take, kub - to desire.
/p/ as in kap - to turn upside down, lap - to frighten, wup - to pass suddently.
/g/ as in bug - to cultivate, sag - to bring down, jig - to remove.
/k/ as in kak - face, tuk - thorn, buk - back
/m/ as in jum - horn, saam - poison, turum - lion
/n/ as in kun - war, fan - monkey, yin - broom
/ng/ as in yunang-tail, wang-leaf, bang-hill
/l/ as in cul - guinea fowl, yil - dance, mungul - potash
/r/ as in mar - dew, tir - year, dasar - catfish
CHAM BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURE
Cham has a basic sentence structure thus: sv (subject + verb), svo (subject + verb + object) and svoo (subject + verb + indirect object + direct object) similar to those of English. The following are the examples of Cham basic sentence structure with their English translation.
Ka tau klete. – He caught birds.
S v o s v o
Koro ka jau far. – The donkey ate the grass.
S v o s v o
Kan sau jinijauri. – I cook food.
S v o s v o
Rhada ne nai kaita jiyu. – Rhoda gave her mother their house.
S v i.o d.o s v i.o d.o
Peace ne Simon nee frangte. – Peace gave Simon one billion.
S v i.o d.o s v i.o d.o
Kata di. – They go.
S v s v
Kwanyu yi yilang. – Kwanyu dances.
S v s v
Kanan mwaa sak. – We run.
S v s v
Ka mauwuri. – She shouts.
S v s v
Chapter Four
CONCLUSION
It is lucid from the data presented that many of the world’s languages are facing serious thread everyday. Thread in form of language endangerment, language shift and language extinction. This situation is further compounded as the necessities of living keep on surfacing in all ramifications of human activities forcing people to make choices that sometimes are inimical to the survival of their language. Human beings are a central factor, an imperative and vital instrument that ensures the existence or otherwise of a language. The correlation between humans and language is such that one can not be divorce from the other without serious negative impact on each. This is particularly so because the two are mutually interdependent on each other with a serious bound that determine the completeness of each other. Indeed, when humans are devoid of language they have being rendered less human because language plays pivotal role in their existentialism. Likewise it becomes totally difficult if not impossible for a language to exist without human beings making adequate use of it in their daily activities.
A significant negative effect with a deadly impact on the survival of a language happens when the functions performed by a language is reduced to some meager events in the community. This condition comes up when other language considered to be of higher prestige is used to substitute the varied roles previously played by the former language. These situations as has being discussed earlier mitigate the efficacy of the former language which subsequently leads it to an endangered position.
It is without doubt every language is inherently imbued with inept ability to express its surroundings, environment and every thing that is within and around it. No language is in it self except that as it is forced on it by it speakers. To a large extent therefore, the users of a language are responsible to the growth or devaluation of their language. Every language has the requisite credential to live successfully and operate well unless when its users decide to make it play a second fiddle.
Consequently, all endangered languages like Cham needs to be revitalized and put back to track by their very people, so that its full utility will be well harness and exploited not only for the benefit of sons and daughters lf the immediate language users but also for the benefit of the world’s linguistic canon. Otherwise, these languages risk extinction and the people will wake-up one day without defining who they are, without knowing their true identity and without any sense of their historic pass that will help them shape them their present and prepare them for the future.
RECOMMENDATION
There is a need, an urgent one to inform local people and indeed people in general, but particularly the younger generation by the authority’s responsible federal, state and local level that it never pays for one to draw his language to the dustbin while embracing other language for the sake of whatever it possesses. They should be well conscientized to come to the awareness that their indigenous language is their means of identity and pride because within it lies their beliefs, cultures and value system. Learning another language is not evil, but caution should be exercise that it does not or replace or take away their indigenous language.
Traditional institutions should be at the centre of this; they should inform their people to be mindful of the fact that their local language can give them the progress and advancement they need if they make it to. If other languages can, theirs too can; this is because the intrinsic values of all languages are the same. China and other Asian countries are not known today because they speak English or French, but because of how they are able to use the property of their language to engineer creativity and productivity among themselves.
Finally, it is also recommended that government should make it compulsory for the teaching and learning of an indigenous language in its primary community. This will help in the propagation of the language as children grow and socialize in it. The language should not only serve as a course of study, but also as a means of instruction since it is globally acknowledged that children learn faster in their own language. In this regard, government (using the prominent members of the society) should encourage the production of relevant literatures in the language so as to serve the purpose of preservation, reading, writing and learning in the language. If you can not operate in your language, then you are not fully empowered.
REFERENCE
Carmen Lla mas, Louise Mullany and Peter Stockwell. (2007). The Routledge Companion of Sociolinguistics. London and New york, Routledge.
David, Crystal. (1987). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. New york, Cambridge University Press.
Dough, Whalen and K. David Harrison. (200). The World’s Endangered Languages. Encarta Yearbook.
D. C. Anthony Woodbury. (2006). Endangered Language. Retrieved from http://www/sadc.org/infor/ling-fags-endanger.cmf. On 02/02/2011.
Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 16th ed. Retrieved from http://www.ethnologue.com/show-country.asp?name=Nigeria. On 15th/01/2011.
Greenberg J.H. (1963). Languages of Africa. Bloomington, Indian University Press.
Juliette Blevins. Endangered Sound Patterns: Three Perspectives on Theory and Description. Vol. 1. Retrieved from http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii-education/htm/10125/1721/blevins.html. On 15th/01/2011.
Krauss, Michael E. (2007). Keynote-Mass Language Extinction and Documentation: The Pace Agaist Time. London, Oxford University Press.
Nikolaus P. Himmelman. (1998). Documentary and Descriptive Linguistics. Berlin, de Gruyter.
R.I. Trusk. (1995). Language: The Basics. 2nd ed. London and Newyork, Routledge.
Miyim, Albert, Albashi. (1990). The Socio-cultural Impact of the Missionary Activities in Cham District of Balanga Local Government of Bauchi State. (unpublished) Final Essay. Department of Christian Religious Studies, A.B.U. Zaria.
Philipp, Strazny. Ed. Encyclopedia of Linguistics.vol.1.New york, Routledge.
Peter K. Austin. (2008). Top Ten Endangered Languages. Retrieved from http://www.guadian.co.uk/book/2008/August/27/ endangered. Languages. On 23rd/02/2011.
Peter, Trudgill. (1974). Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society. 4th.ed. England, Penguin.
Storto, L.R. (2003). Interactions Between Verb Movement and Agreement in Kuritiana (Tupi Stock); Revista Letras.60:411-33.
Sascha, Griffiths. (2007). Language Documentation: A Research Seminar on Language Endangerment and Documentation. Canterbury, Oxford.
The Hans Rousing Endangered Languages Project (2009). Retrieved from http://www.hrelp.org/documentation/what is it- what is language documentation. On 22/02/2011.
Unesco and Adhoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages. Language Vitality and Endangerment (pdp)2003. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangered languages. On 27th/4/2011.
Introduction:
Language documentation is the process of recording through writing or other forms the history, linguistic property and other peculiar information about a language spoken by a given speech community for the sake of posterity and revitalization. This kind of exercise “plays an important role in maintaining and revitalizing a language, helps in training native speakers as language teachers and writers and leads to future research” (Juliette: 2007). It provides the foundation on which linguistic analysis can be made from a citable set of materials in the language.
Unless a language is documented it can not be develop and when a language does not have the privilege of being documented and developed through conscious and concerted efforts of the language speakers or any other person or group of persons so interested in such a noble course, the language may be gradually given up In favour of more prestigious languages and with time it may be forgotten completely. These described the situation with the language, Cham as fewer people who are sons and daughters of this enthralling language speak it. Children as well as adults find it difficult if not impossible to read and write in the language. They abandoned it for the more prestigious languages like English and Hausa. It is obvious that Cham needs to be rescued from going into extinction. This dissertation is an attempt in that direction to contribute to the few literatures written mostly in this form to revitalize, develop and propagate the language.
BRIEF HISTORY OF CHAM AND HER PEOPLE
Cham is a small minority ethnic group found in Balanga local government area of Gombe state along Yola road, south of the state and Numan local government area of Adamawa state. Originally, ‘Cham’ is known as ‘Chum’ meaning brother. However, as a result of wrong pronunciation by the traders and neighboring tribes who find it difficult to pronounce ‘Chum’ correctly, instead pronounced it as ‘Cham’ which now becomes widely used”(Albashi: 1990).
According to Hassan Tom Firi quoted by Albashi (1990), the people of Cham migrated from Yamel in the east with some tribes like Lunguda, Tula, and Dadiya at about 1777. They came to Africa through Egypt and setlled at Wanda. As a result of poor agricultural land, bad climate and weather, the people of Cham being good agriculturalists decided to move from Wanda to a free and fertile land at Fitilai (Kuntur) in 1797. At Fitilai, Baba Dan Bulo, an informant said, “the people of Cham settled in groups according to their clans. In this small clans, ther is a type of disperse, cross or integrated relationship which is showed by ties of reputed kingship, chieftaincy and religious complexities. Major among these settlements were Fitilai to Bwelimi, and Fitilai to Dijimi, out of which the following small clans emerged: Jabe, Bwelimi, Kwasim, Lebe, Dungurang and Tiksir. These clans believed in peace and have a special love and care for one another and therefore regard themselves as brothers (Shete) plural of Chum, brother”.
According to another informant, Nurudin A.A., what precipitated the movement from Fitilai to Bwelimi and from Fitilai to Dijimi is conflict. He stated, “the movements marked the beginning of dialectal variation: one had settled at Mwona that is Bwelimi and the other at Tiksir which is kindiyo. These two have extended their territory to Bachama land in Adamawa state known as green village in Numan local government and Monatari in Lamurde local government. They finally settled in Kindiyo, Mwona present day Cham district in 1880”.
Cham people are majorly farmers, however today, they are found in virtually every sphere of public and private businesses. Traditionally, they are animists and ancestralogists, but in recent times, many of them have embraced Christianity and Islam.
“Apart from being a name of a tribe, Cham is also the name of one of the towns of the tribe. To the east, Cham is bounded by Lunguda. To the north, by Bachama and Pere. To the west by Waja and to the south by Tula and Dadiya tribes respectively. Cham is made up of many villages: Loja, Bwelimi, Dongaje, Kutare, Kwarge, Kuntur, Yolde, Kwasi, Lebe, Tiksir and Yadi to mention but a few. Cham people also refer to themselves as ‘Dijim’, a plural form of ‘Nidiji’ which connotes something that appeared or come out of the earth’s deep roots which can not be overcome”(Albashi, 1990).
LANGUAGE FAMILY.
(Greenberg: 1963) classified African languages into four language phyla: “Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Khoisan and Niger-Congo”. Out of these four and according to Ethnologue.com, Cham appertains to the Niger-Congo group which has according to (Encarta: 2009) an estimated 300 to 400 million speakers across West Africa and Central African Republic.
CHAM DIALECTS
According to these informants, mr and mrs Maila Odah. There are three mutually intelligible dialects in Cham language: Mwona dialect, Loja dialect and Cham dialect. These dialectal variations came as a result of migration. Generally, dialect describes a language variety where a user’s regional or social background appears in his/her accent, use of vocabulary and grammar; the dialects of Cham is not exception, but do not constitute a barrier for comprehension as there is mutual understanding despite the distinction in lexical items, phonology and syntax.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Cham language is no longer actively spoken by the younger members of the language community and very little literatures were written in or about the language. These situations are not favourable to an endangered language like Cham. If this language must survive, then there is the need to document it so that it can be revitalized and developed. The Cham Language and Bible Translation Committee state that “children from Cham or with Cham origin are not able to speak the language; they are not able to read and write in it. Instead, they use English and Hausa. This is indeed a precarious circumstance that threatens not only the survival of the language, but the rich cultural heritage and traditional values of the people. It is in this respect therefore, that the researcher attempts the documentation of some aspects of the Cham language.
SCOPE AND LIMITATION
This research investigation is limited to the linguistic items or vocabularies of Cham, Cham sound systems and basic sentence structure. The grounds covered by these sets carefully scrutinized vocabularies are words associated with the following domains: Wild Animals, domestic Animals, Bee-keeping, Fishing-Hunting-weapons, Horse and Equipments, Plants, Trees, Agriculture, Compound, Kitchen, Food, Brewery, Clothes and Jewelry, Weaving and Dyeing, Plaiting and Basketry, Leather work and Leather goods, Metal-working, Pottery, Wood-working, Market, Human being and Kinship Terms, Government and Law, Music, Dance and Play, Religion, Disease, Time and Reason, Environment and Finally Numbers.
These words are given side by side their English counterparts to facilitate the meaning behind each word.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
This dissertation aims to attain the following:
1. The documentation of some aspect of the Cham Language for posterity and revitalization.
2. To contribute to the development of the Language.
3. To make effort toward making sure it does not become a victim of extinction.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Every language carries with it, the traditional values, norms and cultural heritage of the people. It is a marker of identity that gives a people a sense of belonging in the world. When this language goes into extinction, the peoples’ culture and traditions will also vanish with it because it is embodied in it. At the end, it becomes impossible to trace the existence of this group of people. Drawing from this perspective therefore, the significance of this long essay is the preservation of the language, culture and tradition of the people of Cham, a part or segment of human existence. It will also contribute to the body of human language especially linguistics by showcasing the unique and rich linguistic property of a language hitherto unknown.
METHODOLOGY
For the purpose of this project, the researcher made used of two methods for the collection of data. These are: Oral interview and questionnaire. The oral interview was to aid easy flow of communication between the researcher and the aged persons who are unable to read the questionnaire. It was also considered that using the questionnaire method only will not give sufficient coverage hence the need to combine the two methods. After the collation, the data are carefully analyzed by presenting them in their sub-group along side their English translation.
Chapter Two
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION:
This chapter attempts to review relevant literatures that are related to endangered languages and language documentation. Nonetheless, before going any further, it is imperative to know what a language is. Language is the repository of the culture, norm and ideology of a people and it serves as the means of transmitting knowledge from generation to generation. Austin (2008: pp 4) says, “Each language expresses the history, culture, society and identity of the people who speak it and each is a unique way of talking about the world”. “All languages have developed to express the needs of their users and in a sense all languages are equal” (Crystal: 1987, pp 91). Once man is without language, he is fundamentally reduced from his elevated position of a human being.
Sadly, some languages are not able to live-up to those responsibilities or functions not because they are intrinsically deficient, but because the language speakers failed to engage it into its full utility. This circumstance is peculiar to series of languages around the globe that heavily encroach on their potency. Thus, these languages start fading away gradually into oblivion.
ENDANGERED LANGUAGE
According to Unesco’s Adhoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages, “a situation where speakers of a language cease to use the language, instead use I in increasingly reduced number of communicative and ceased to pass it from one generation to the next constitute language endangerment” (2003: par, 2). Anthony Woodbury (2006: par, 2) is of the notion that “an endangered language is one that is likely to become extinct in the near future. Many languages are failing out of use and are being replaced by others that are more widely used in the region or nation”. Wikipedia the free encyclopedia on its part sees endangered language as “a language that is at risk of failing out of use. When a language is not spoken or learned by children, then that language is endangered” (par, 1). For Philipp Strazny (2005: pp, 212) endangered language or what he calls ‘language attrition’ is “the situation where the native language is used in increasingly fewer domains with few functions such as at home, with friends, and at social events”.
Linguists as stated by Whalen and Harrison (2000: par, 7, 8 & 9) divided languages into three categories: Healthy, Endangered and Extinct. A healthy language they say is “one that is currently being learned by children as a first language. Healthy languages are generally used in all works of life; at home, in school, at work, and in other private and public settings. Endangered language is further divided into various levels of endangerment. In the first level of endangerment in which language is still considered healthy, the percentage of children who speak the language typically falls below the percentage of the adults who speak the language. If parents stop or are forced to stop teaching their children their native language, the language may become severely endangered. The most endangered languages are called Moribund. A moribund language still has native speakers, but it is not being learned by children; often, just a few elderly speakers remained. An extinct Language on the other hand is one with no living native speakers”.
Following the above classification, Cham language appertains to the moribund class. This position is based on the fact that children no longer learn the language; there are just a handful of elderly and adult speakers. Cham as a language has unfortunately fallen into this precarious situation which threatens not only the survival, security, and existence of the language, but also the global linguistic canon and world’s cultural diversity. What precipitated this condition is the long years or period of neglect combined with the exclusive used of Hausa and English for conducting their daily activities in school, politics, business/trading, religious worship and social events. Indeed, there is also the spread of the mass media that brought an insidious new threat on it. To day even the remotest house in Cham has either a radio or television or both. The language often utilized in these media from morning to evening is Hausa and/or English. This by it self has a psychological effect on the children and adults who will graciously imbibe it as the language of prestige and of the elite which they home to reach.
Crucial to all the views aforementioned are:
The limited use of the language by its speakers in their daily activities.
The language’s operative competence is restricted to fewer domains such as ceremonial and formal functions.
The language is not transmitted to younger generation.
A Unesco report (1993) has it that half of the approximated 6700 languages spoken today are in danger of disappearing before the century ends. In 1992, another Unesco report states that “the International Congress of Linguist (CIPL) meeting in Quebec Canada discussed the topic of endangered languages as a result of which it formed the endangered language committee under the authority of Unesco. In 1993 this committee came up with “The Red Book of Endangered Languages”, which was published by Unesco and contained a comprehensive lists of the world’s languages currently facing extinction and endangerment. Hundreds and thousands of languages facing extinction and endangerment are reported in this Red Book of Endangered Languages. Some of these endangered languages in Nigeria include: Bassa, Kontagora, Bete, Fali of Baissa, Defaka, Kiong, Kuducamo, Labir,Lere, Lufu,Luri, Njerep, Odut, Putai, Rono and many others. Whalen and Harrison (2000) also reported that “as the new millennium comes to a close more than 6000 distinct human languages are in used world wide. Many linguists predict that the year 2100, only half of the languages will be spoken, a lost of one language every twelve days”.
Linguist, M. Krauss (2007) argues that for a language to survive it needs at least 100,000 speakers. Krauss view puts emphasis on just the number of speakers that are available to speak the language. However, this can not provide us with sufficient assurance. For example, linguist, L.R. Storto (2003) who worked on endangered languages in Brazil says that “the ‘Karitiana’ language in Brazil has only 185 speakers out of a total population of 191. Even though 185 is not a large number, Karitiana speakers both young and old make up 96% of the population of the community. Yet, the language is not endangered because there is transmission and active usage of the language by the younger generation. At the other extreme end, Yiddish, the international language of the Jews from Central to Eastern Europe until the middle of the 20th century, with around 3 million speakers is considered by linguists as an endangered language. This is as a result of its similitude position with Cham language with many elderly speakers with no children learners or the language is not transmitted to the younger generation. Austin (2008: par, 2) points out to this truism when he says that “in order to judge if a language is endangered, the number of the speakers is less important, what is important is its transmission to younger generation”.
The implication of all these is that adults and children are a veritable medium that provide the safest way of promoting, sustaining and propagating a language. Nonetheless, as Philipp (2005: par, 2) states, “language vitality is ranked in terms of number and generations of speakers”. It is this that Crystal (1987: 281) meant when he posits that “for a language to count as living, there obviously have to be active speakers alive who use it. Therefore, simply counting the number of speakers is not the best way to decide if a language will survive or not. Rather, the vitality of a language depends on how well a language is transmitted to younger generation”.
REASONS BEHIND LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT
The causes of language endangerment are complex and vary with individual situations. In Cham territories for example, the primary cause is language shift, a situation where speakers of a language cease to speak their native or local language in favour of the language that is perceived to be the most influential culture politically, socially and economically. The situation usually comes into being when there are no such values or prestige attached to the local or heritage language. In most cases Philipp (2005: 286) says, “Such a shift can occur over a number of generations; the oldest generation, the grand parents speak the heritage language as their first and primary language. The middle generation has some knowledge about the local language, but uses the dominant/influential language primarily, and the younger generation has little or no knowledge of the local language and may at most know a few words or phrases”.
This state of affairs has greatly reduced the performative abilities of such languages like Cham; thereby, forcing them to play a second fiddle in an environment where Hausa and English are becoming the order of the day
Accordingly, Crystal (1987: 111) remarks that “economic prospects attract younger members of a community away from the villages; so also educational pursued. Inevitably, circumstance will create the motive for them to start using the language of their new environment”. This idea of adapting to the language of ones new environment is inevitable according to Melting Pot Theory. One can further buttress this point by looking at Nigeria’s Home Movies which only show young men and women progressing after they desert their villages for the city centre. This is sending wrong signals to the youths. Austin (2008, par, 1) “This quest for human progress which they (the community people) feel they can not locate in their local language drive them away from their major essence and means of universal identity to what they feel can provide them with the much craved progress”. This is what Philipp (2005: 287) meant by saying that “members of a language community often believed that knowledge of the dominant language like Hausa in the North and Pidgin in the south is a necessary tool for success in the dominant culture and that knowledge of the heritage language is a hindrance to socio-economic advancement”. It is a common phenomenon today that people only tend to speak languages that are socially and economically useful. Anything contrary they look at it as a waste of time.
The situation is further compounded as local celebrities are themselves not encouraging the younger ones to speak in their local languages; instead they speak Hausa, Pidgin or English depending on their regional orientation. This situation should not be slightly considered because these celebrities are a major influence to the younger ones.
In addition, parents sometimes don’t encourage their children by teaching them their local language. In this case, the child is left with no option but to learn the language readily available to him at his disposal in school, in the street, at church or mosque and on the radio or television. This breached in generation to generation transmission of the local language seriously jeopardize its existence.
LANGUAGE DOCUMENTATION
Because a society’s history and culture is contained in its language and because as a language disappears, it carries with it everything that is contained within it, it becomes crucial that conscious effort is make to prevent a situation where the major essence of human, dignity, pride and identity is completely lost without trace. Trask (1995: 207) declares this fact when he says “the most obvious outward sign of our identity is our language”. Whalen and Harrison (2000, par, 17) also note that “important clues to human history are buried in language”. If so, it is therefore essential that languages are put in black and white to eschew such situations where they die alongside what they carry in them.
“One response to language endangerment has been the creation of a new discipline within linguistics called Language Documentation (or Linguistic Documentation). It is often said to have been catalyzed Nikolaus P. Himmeimanne” (the Hans, par, 2). Nikolaus wrote in his book, Documentary and Descriptive Linguistics (1998: 166) that “the aim of a language documentation is to provide a comprehensive record of the linguistic practices characteristic of a given speech community…This…differs fundamentally from language description which aims at the record of language as a system of abstract elements, construction and rules”. The Unesco’s Adhoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages (2003, par, 4)looks at language documentation as “the process by which a language is documented in terms of its grammar, its lexicon and in terms of its oral traditions(stories, songs and religious texts)”. On its part, Wikipedia states that “once a language is determined to be endangered, there are two basic steps that need to be taken in order to stabilize or rescue the language. The first Wikipedia claims is language documentation which is the process by which a language is documented in terms of its grammar, vocabulary and oral traditions like tales and riddles. The second is language revitalization which means that a language community through political, community and educational means attempts to increase the number of active speakers of the endangered language. This process, Wikipedia further states is termed language revival or reversing language shift.
To Lehmann (2001) quoted by Sascha (2007, par, 2) says language documentation “is part of the overall documentation of a culture or as part of the comprehensive presentation of a language”. Himmelmann (1998) also quoted by Sascha views language documentation as an independent field of research for linguistic and linguistic anthropology which focuses on the collection of primary data (language data) with special emphasis on endangered languages. To Sascha (2007) “the term is geared towards gathering an amount of data that is representative of the linguistic system of a language as a whole”.
Finally, language documentation is a conscious attempt undertaking to write down the linguistic property of a language in order to keep it safe from being lost and for posterity.
Language endangerment on its part is a highly dangerous phenomenon that could happen to a language. It shrinks and renders a language invalid, incapacitated and inactive; thereby forcing it to loose effectiveness. It is necessary and a matter of urgency that such a language is documented to ensure its continuous survival.
Chapter Three
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
This section presents the data collected in the field. They comprise of linguistic items or words from different fields and areas of study. They are given side-by-side their English translation. This chapter also contains the vowels and consonants description of Cham as well as the Cham basic sentence structures. The first word in each line is in Cham followed by its English translation.
WILD ANIMALS:
Namte - Animal
Namte se - Wild animal
Kullon - Crocodile
Namwalai - Hippopotamus
Namriguwon - Antelope
Pyau - Gazelle
Grima se - Buffalo
Korose - Giraffe
Namkiya - Wart-hog
Fun - Baboon
Fun - Monkey
Fun - Chimpanzee
Tu - Cobra
Kweram - Python
Dullon - Squirrel
Tu - Mouse
Tu - Rat
Gum or Killeya - Owl
Ta or Turitifi - Porcupine
Babuwe - Rabbit
Babuwe - Hare
Ta - Hedgehog
Jinijirti - Wild cat
Namkiya - Leopard
Gano - Elephant
Muglo - Dove
Turum or Dumbo - Lion
Nam ribirsan - Jackal
So - Snake
Grissinte - Viper
Buntar - Lizard
Bwilin bwilin - Agama Lizard
Guba gubari - Gecko
Sala - Monitor
Semi semi - Chameleon
Gantan - Crab
Chunboi - Frog
Bete chumboi - Toad
Kirga - Snail
Gurya yili - Tortoise
Laate - Fish
Dasar - Mudfish or cat fish
Kille - Bird
Kaita kille - Nest
Kille kwiwi - Cattle egret
Kille kuse - Crested crane
Kwakwa - crow
Kille gimi - Duck
Kolon kase - bush fowl
Weser - Falon
Weser - Kite
Jelburin - Vulture
Nam walai - Ostrich
Sengsengyi - Bat
Minte sutti - (big black)ant
Minte kwiyu - (red)ant
Mimi - ant
Minte - (small black) ant
Buri - Termite
Buri - Ant-hill
Suru da burin - Termite pile
Dugor - Insect
Yi - Fly
Mimi - Mosquito
Lauri - Tsetsefly
Bulo bulogi - Butterfly
Gulgo waniyu - Caterpillar
Gulgo - Worm
Dugor - Bug
Kilgunte - Louse
Lauri - Flea
Kutiri - Tick
Kitakeri - Cricket
Lingate - Grashopper
Lingate - Locust
Lirinte - Spider
Yuglon - Mantis
Teeri - Scorpion
Te – Sting (bee, ant,scorpion)
DOMESTIC ANIMALS
Namta kai - Domestic animal
Namta chuwi - Female animal
Namta wubari - Male animal
Joi - Dog
Tu - cat
Tinga - Cattle
Gumtul - Bull
Befuri - Ox
Betinga - Calf
Koro - Donkey
Bi - Goat
Bi wuchiwe - She-goat
Gumbar - He-goat
Bebi - Kid
Ma - Sheep
Ma - ewe
Bugtor - Ram
Yiri - Pig
Yiri chiwe - Sow
Yinti kasi - Enclosure
Yiwa gimi - Water place
Damur - Stick
Yawi - Chicken
Kolong - Cock
Chul - Guinea-fowl
Klekai - Domestic pigeon
Nam - Meat
Jum - Horn
Winang - Tail
Dungar - egg
Fumni - Wing
Fumwakle - feather
Bote ta biti - Dung
Mugte or Ju - Kill
Kli - Bite
Kummarang – Ruminate
Buwon - Give birth
Totan - herd
Kusam - Milk
Buwong - Call
Musaran wa bite - Tame animals
Ka - Drive away
Gum naji - Fly
Mua - Jump
BEE KEEPING
Yite - Bee
Ni ti yite - Apiaristor bee keeper
Mumangteor Kaita yite - Apiary or bee house
Gimi yite - Honey
Munda Yite - Honeycomb
Kurgaran ka yite - Swarm of bees
FISHING, HUNT, WEAPONS
Yogi wa lati - Fishing net
Kublon - Hook/fishtrap
Ni tuwa lati - Fishman
Duwi - Hunt
Ni tari namti - Hunter
Na - Footprint
Jinia kuni - Weapon
Bak - arrow
He - water
Kun - War
Kwelam - warriors
Nub - people
Kublon - Bow
Dun - Quiver
Ya - Spear
Dunbo - Sword
Lagu - Dagger
Lagu - knife
Te lagu - Throwing knife
Gum - Club
Gursa - Gun
Finjila - Sling
Bwigate - Combat
Kun - Attack
Kursa - Dress of a warrior
Kursa - Armour
Kursa - Shield
Dala kuni - Helmet
Kwelum ba kunum - Warriors
Fun risik - Chase
Te - shoot
Bau - hit
Mau wer - Throw stone
Mau ya - Throw spear
Kur - stab
Mai atum - Over power
HORSE AND EQUIPTMENT
Mungor - Horse
Be mungor - Stallion
Dukka mungor - Bit
Jini dukka mungor - Bridle
Dukka mungor - Stirrup
Gu chiri - Saddle
Sa guchiri - Saddle bag
Umbi-Riding - whip
Lubrite-Riding - boots
Jinia mungor - Harness
Filin damungor - Flag
Filin da mungor - Banner
Ya - Lance
Ni mungor - Horseman
Gwi - Ride
PLANTS
Se - Bush
Lagar - Forest
Yir - Grass
Riank - Tree
Riank - Wood
Haki - Branch
Bwi-riank - Trunk
Sagari - root
Wula ka riank - Bark
Wang - Leaf
Filin da riank - Flower
Beta riank - Fruit
Tuk - Thorn
Jam - Grain
Namta yawi - Mushroom
Lumte - Marrow
Chulun da ni kwiwi - Pawpaw
Jini lumanyi - Orange
Mukrimuk - Lemon
Gulum - Groundnut
Gungoji - Bambaranut
Beta riank kadikadin - Kolanut
Riank ka chulu - Banana
Klanyi - Beans
Kusante - Garden egg
Laatum - Onion
Chulun - Pumpkin
Jini chulu - Melon/watermelon
Yute - Yam
Yin - Broom
Jam - Guinea corn
Jam - Millet
Jam – Late millet
Butali - Maize
Kurgote - Okra
Kausitikausi - pepper
Kwali - Red sorrel
Segete - Beniseed or sesame
Jamba nabalam - Wheat
Jam ba nubalam - Rice
Jimank ka cilu - Sugar-cane
Landir - Cotton
Wurang - Tobacco
TREES
Lulugte - Baobab-tree
Kumon - Sycamore or fig tree
Jwangte - Indian tamarind
Binri - Jujubetree
Buboite riank - Locust-bean-tree
Kumol - Silk-cotton tree or red flowers
Memte - Shea-butter or shea-nut-tree
AGRICULTURE
Kweliya - siyari-Peasant
Se - Field
Se - Farm
Se wa jiniya yalte - Garden
Se sarmini - Cultivated land
Gume jusiyer wi - Fallow
Tam - soil
Yinte kashi - Fence
Duwum - Seed
Damur wa sutan - Planting stick
Tan - Hoe
Hartang - Harvest
Yun ke yir giri - Sickle
Dumpo - Machete
Tim - Threshing
Damur da timin - Flail
Ju siyar - Cultivate or till
Ju tum - Till soil
Yir - Weed
Gula tum - Dig
Gula - Dig or excavate
Wurila - Ridge-up
Wautang - Sow
Daga - Plant(tomato)
Diga- Plant(tubers)
Digarang - Transplant
Fitang - Wet
Kusitang - Dry up
Jitang - Germinate
Ciptir - Unripe
Bitang - Mature or ripe
Tese - Pluckout
Jigtang - Pick
Butimin - Strip off
Helen - Bundle
COMPOUND
Kai - House or compound
Kanda juwi - entrance hut
Fugon ka juwi - Doorway
Fugon - Door
Kali - Fence
Kanda wete - Stone wall
Kunwor - Grass-hut
Kan - Room
Kuleya kani - Wall9of house)
Hiltang - Roof
Libang - Veranda
Kulo - Abandoned compound
Kulgurun - Bench
Dintilin - Chair
Swete - Bed
Siri - Mat
Kublo kunta - Blanket
Tan - Cornbin or granary
Duun - Rubbish heap
Nuwa gemiyu - Well
Soriya gemiyu - Vessel to draw water
Gurin harji girin - Bucket
Kinde - Storage pot
Sabonte - Soap
Fatin - Bottle
Nyu jiga kam rigi - Mirror
Bwaka tilang - Clay-pot
Tila - Mud-brick
Mutang - Build(house)
Yinamin - Sweep
Bautan wa jinni - Wash
KITCHEN
Karang/mugon - Fire
Silin da karang - Flame
Bwebi - Fire-place
Rita karangyi - Firewood
Yon - Smoke
Bugum - Ash
Yuwar - Axe
Gurda muran - Cooking pot
Ser - Water storage pot
Kubtar - Cup
Kasi - Dish
Gur/kande - Pot
Sau - Cook
Lagu - Knife
Jau - Eat
Yalte - Soup
Tirite - Bitter
Kwa - Grind
Swiyer - Work
Kubtar - Spoon
Tag - Stirring stick
Wer din kwaner - Grinding stone
Busi - Mortar
Kwang - Pestle
Sori busi - Winnow
Sori/kasi - Calabash
Nyergo - Lid(circular mat)
Gulong - Bottle gourd
Swa - Bag
Sur - Stamp or pound
Surtang - Thresh
Yumin - Winnow
Wuwe he - Drawwater
Bau karang - Strike
Dup karang - Carry fire
Yiro rite - Split
Mitang - Spread out in sun to dry
FOOD
Jini jauri - Food
Mon - Mush
Bir - Gruel
Yalte - Stew/sauce/soup
Mim - Flour
Nung - Oil
Riank - Kwiyu-Palm-oil
Nunka tinga - Butter
Brang - Fat
Nyu jig nugtinga - Butter-churn
Fugilte - Foam
Bomkanim - Salt
Kusulo - Boil
Fugilte - Bubble
Har - Roast/grill
Wutugo - Divide(share out)
BREWERY
Kanda cuwa - Beer-pot
Yogi - Filter
Cuwa - Palm-wine
Kasi/sori - Calabash for drinking
Gun - Ferment
Yogtang - Strain
CLOTHES AND JEWELLRY
Dute - Clothe
Dala - Cap
Dugge – Robe (man’s gown)
Dutita wutem - Woman’s clothes
Dug – Shirt
Bubwi - Belt
Bangti - Trouser
Kublo - Woman’s loincloth
Dug ka dur - Scarf(headcloth)
Wangnin - Head-pad
Libirte - Shoe
Damur da yomin - Walking stick
Cini - Ring
Jini kaniyu - Bracelet
Jini naniyu - Anklet
Jini kwiri - Necklace
Jini suniyu - Earring
Gisum - Beads
Batari - Needle
Maitan a jinni – Wear (clothes)
Satang - Sew
Muksate - Embroider
Muksate - Adorn
Kisantan adur - Plait hair
Hala - Rope
WEAVING/DYEING
Landir - Cotton
Satang - Weaver
Nyu sa dug rigi - Loom
Landir - Warp (thread)
Landir - Woof/weft
Kaita landir - Spinner
Riyang ka landir - Spinning stick/distraff
Mulong mulong - Multi-coloured
Fi - dye
PLAITING/BASKETRY
Kisitang adur - Plaiting
Kuto - Basket
Jidari - Mat
Duk - Rope
Jur duk - Make braid rope
Niga - Knot
LEATHER WORK/LEATHER GOODS
Biyang - Skin
Nisa jinni ri biyang - Leather worker
Jini biyang - Leather goods
Kur - Pricker/awl
Batal - needle
Kublo - Tanner
METAL-WORKING
Go kori - Smithery/forge
Sumtang - Brass-casting
Ni suni kori - Blacksmith
Bua - Furnace
Silin - Bellows
Yilba - Blaze
Julni - Charcoal
Sira - Melt
Cimmar - Iron/money
Jini kwiyu - Bronze/brass
Cinni – Tin (metal)
Cinni - Siver
Cinni - Cpper
Cinni - Gold
Jeni - Hammer
Cinni - Chain
POTTERIE
Ni mau gur - Potter
Tila - Clay
Ni furi buri - Kiln
Juri - Place of burning (pit)
Kande/gur - Pot
Kan ka gur - Handle of pot
Nyu gulon - Spout/nozzle
Fu - bake
WOOD-WORKING
Lagu - Saw
Yuwar da suli
Riank - wood
Sultang - Sculture
Banduwa - Market
Nidu wa banduwa - Chief of market
Kandi mi jinni - Shop
Duwon - Trade
Cimmar - Money/cowry
Nuwan da gunon - Ivory
Ni banduwa - Merchant
Ni wura namte - Butcher
Yatang - profit
Bunai - loss
Suni - debt
Suta - buy
Mi - Sell
Mur - Pay
Yir - Barter
Fulgo - Change(goods)
Suni - Lend
Yu suni - Borrow
Kwau - Measure
Funotang - Cheat
Yom - Journey
Mungor - Car
Mungor da kuntang - Lorry
Jini - Load
Bongtulon - Boat/canoe
Sur - Paddle
Ni sur bongtulon - Row
Yoyom - Travel
HUMAN BEINGS AND KINGSHIP TERMS
Dukkamin - Relative
Numba jirai - Ancestors
Ti - Father
Tai - My Father
Nai - My mother
Na - Mother
Bwe - Child
Yugoyi - Widow
Gitini - Widower
Dukka min - Lineage
Lang-ir - Tribe
Kilaki - Harlot
Niyulu - Blackman
Ni kwau - Whiteman
Niri buni - Poor
Niri jinni - Rich
Kewe - Slave/servant
Jarum - Prisoner
Ni totimi - Spy
Nifuwi - Guest
Cigo bwigate - Enemy
Wuri jugur - Mid wife
Gitimi - Bachalorhood
Kewete - Slavery
Bwoili - Youth
Nate - Marriage
Murjini - Dowry
Ni’a nate - Marry
Bugarte - Twin
Bwe cuwi - Daughter
Bwe - Baby
Nibari - Husband
Wuri - Woman/wife
Dagori - Co-wife
Cigira - Brother(elder)
Cisini - Brother(younger)
Cia nai - Mother’s brother
Cia tai - Father’s brother
Cigira - Sister(elder)
Cisini - Sister(younger)
Cisini - Mother’s sister
Ciciwi - Father’s sister
Nigra - Grandmother
Tagra - Grandfather
Yigra - Grandson
Nagra - Granddaughter
Senior - Cigra
Na kani - Mother-in-law
Timiri - Father-in-law
Nyile - Sister-in-law/brother-in-law/
Bwewi - Bride
Bwewi - Maiden/virgin
Bridegoom - bweli
Kumbe - Orphant
GOVERNMENT AND LAW
Nidu - Chief/King
Kwanyu - Queen
Dute - Chieftancy
Royal family - Kaita dute
Kurgaran - Reception
Dute - Title
Palace - Kaita nidu
Niyum - Obey
Ka jaubur - Conquer
Sori - Law
Lejuwi - Offence/violation
Kaita duti - Court
Ni ke yumi - Judge
Yum akaita duti - Legal case
Fung riyum - Accusation
Niya mau wuri - Plaintiff
Ni fung yimi - Prosecutor
Totan - Defence
Duute - Judment/sentence
Jamun kan - Divorce
Kute - Theft
Niku - Thief
Ni juniu - Murderer
MUSIC, DANCE, PLAY
Kur - Drum
Damur da kur - Drumstick
Ni bauri kur - Drummer
Glen’irin - Bell
Yil - Dance
Siang - Xylophon
Siang - Flute
Fir - Algeta/horn/trumpet
Ni yiyilang - Dancer
Weni - Masquerade
Wuri - Shouting
Fiang - Song
Nima fiang - Singer
Ni bari kuri - Musician
Ma fiang - Sing
Baukur - Beatdrum
Ni’a yute - Play
Jum - Horn
RELIGION
Weni ma weni - Priest
Niri weni - Rainmaker
Ni funri weni - Divinator
Ni weni - Oracle
Ni yilo - Sorcerer
Yilo - Witch/witchcraft
Weni - Ordeal/fetish
Nia ju - God
Weni - gods
Cingu - Ghost
Weni - Spirit
Jiniya kewete - Religious objects
Yunong - Charm/amulet
Gu yulgoi - Heaven
Gu bura - Hell
Fiang - Chant
Wura takka wuri - Excision
Jiri kunni - Curse
Buyate - Death
Niya buya - Corpse
Su - Grave
Digtang a su - Funeral
Gun digtan a su - Place of burial
Kanda lahadin - Ritual place
Yuro - Facial markings
Nar - Soul
Kau kute - Cut marks
Kok - Taboo
Lagriga - Book
Bara - bury
Kewete - Worship
Duwe - Avoid
Wutugo jinni - Sacrifice
Gun kur duwi - Mosque
Ni wari yum agun kurduwi - Imam
Ruwatang ayini - Prayer
Gulong - Kettle
Tunu sohi - Fast
DISEASE
Niyim ri bwaute - Medicine man
Yinang - Medicine
Sam - Poison
Wuri - Cough
Nitang akitirin - Fever
Der - wound/sore
Delinde - Scar
Der - Abscess
Ritang - Swell
Kwara - Heal
Bwaute - Disease
Bwaute wa bwitibi – Disease (of children)
Klatang a mimite - Malaria
Turi - Dysentry
TIME AND SEASON
Gusute - World
Korung - Sky
Be songyi - Star
Song - Moon
Ko - Sun
Kwetere a ko - Sunshine
Simba - Wind
Wuleng wuleng - Storm
Korung ka gwe - Cloud
Korang kafiye - Raincloud
Gimna jiu - Rain
Nyelba - Lighting
Mar - Dew
Gu - Harmattan
Jir - Year
Kaan - Dry season
Tam - Earth
Ko - Day
Ga - Place
Far - Swamp
Sila - Tomorrow
Bulun - Dust cloud (of harmattan)/fog
Twong - West
Jiong - East
Kang - Side
Flageri - Seasons
Juswang - Wet season
Fla - Time
Ri-ko - Daylight
Kigulong - Shade
Duuni - Spring
Marnang - Summer
Tamguram - Winter
Sanang - Autum
Yawi siri - Dawn
Mori - Morning
Jugur da ko - Noon
Riyu - Evening
Yu - Dusk
Kum - Night
Lugum - Darkness
Nin dari - Yesterday
Ku - Today
Cire - Last year
Hann - Next year
Kasu - Past
ENVIRONMENT
Tam - Country
Tam - Ground
Yik - Border
Bir - Town
Kai - Village
Jiwi - Road
Bwe juwi - Roadway
Juwi - Track
Nuwahe - Spring of water
La - River
La rijisong - Seasonal river
Nyiya la - Riverbank
Buksor - Marsh(land)/Swamp
Lagar - Forest
Bang - Hill
Jwi - Compound
Ying - Mountain
Fi - Plateau
La - Valley
Wer - Rock/stone
Hun - Cave
Jusai - Sand/gravel
Betuwai - Pebble
Kur - Dust
Ketire - Shine
DAYS OF THE WEEK AND MONTH
Banduwa sitami/laduwi - Monday
Banduwa bwilami - Tuesday
Banduwa dijimi - Wednesday
Banduwa bubi - Thursday
Banduwa kambi - Friday
Banduwa bwi la mangngi - Saturday
Kokunta - Sunday
Song ka kwanang - January
Song ka suwi/suwang - February
Song ka bwanbiying - March
Song ka gwarang - April
Song ka nuwang - May
Song ka nukunung - June
Song kaNyibiying - July
Song ka naruwong - August
Song ka Wurwinang - September
Song ka Kuwong - October
Song ka jiri kwanang - November
Song ka Jirsu wang - December
COLOUR TERMS
Kwiyu - Red
Yilu - Black
Kwau - White
Cintaran - Green
Karma - Blue
Bubwete - Yellow
Nyara karma - Purple
Karma kuga bwiyu - Violet
Tam tam - Bown
Karma Yiluwi - Indigo
Biyute - Orange
Me kwiyu ra kwani - Pink
NUMBERS
Kwan - One
Su - Two
Bwanbi - Three
Gwar - Four
Nu - Five
Nukun - Six
Nyibi - Seven
Naru - Eight
Wurwin - Nine
Kwu - Ten
Jir kwan - Eleven
Jir su - Twelve
Jirta bwanbi - Thirteen
Jirta gwar - Fourteen
Jirta nu - Fifteen
Jirta nukun - Sixteen
Jir nyibi - Seventeen
Jir naru - Eighteen
Jir wurwin - Nineteen
Far ta su - Twenty
Far ta su ajir kwan - Twenty one
Farta bwanbi - Thirty
Farta gwar - Fourty
Farta nu - Fifty
Farta nukun - Sixty
Far nyibi - Seventy
Far naru - Eighty
Far wurwin - Ninety
Bee kwan - 100
Beeta wurwin - 900
Nee kwan - 1000
Neeta kwu - 10000
Neeta bee kwan - 100000
Nee frang - 1000000
Nee frangte - 1000000000
The above lists are some of the linguistic items (words) of Cham Language. By no means is this exhaustive, a zillion others were not able to get entry here due the space and time constraint. As might have been notice above, some of the words do not have word to word translation, but a phrase or even a clause. For instance, butter-churn is translated ‘nyu jig nunka tinga’. Meaning, ‘an object use in extracting a cow’s butter’. Mirror is translated thus: ‘Nyu jiga kam rigi’. Meaning, ‘an object used for looking at one’s face.’ Indeed, this situation is not a problem as it only constitutes how language speakers decide to refer to an object or item.
Moreso, the possibility of certain words existing in one language and lacking in another is not a strange phenomenon. In Cham language, these English words are not found in it: Bullet, bustard, ink, penis sheath, malt, orion etc. This may relate to the fact that the language did not come into contact with such material objects or abstract concepts. Except there is a notice of an object it is practically impossible to describe or name such an item. Where the reverse is the case, every language is inherently sufficient enough to adequately describe its surroundings and the various things contained there in. But again, this does not take away the possibility of borrowing from other languages. This situation happens when two languages or cultures come into contact with each other. For example, Cham borrowed from Hausa the following words: ‘Beli’ (bail), ‘Alwalaa’ (ablution), ‘Rawani’ (turban) etc.
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS DESCRIBTION OF CHAM
This research has discovered that Cham has a total of 23 alphabets: /a/ /b/ /c/ /d/ /e/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /i/ /j/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /o/ /p/ /r/ /s/ /t/ /u/ /w/ /s/ /y/. These are the alphabets that Cham use in writing. The alphabets, /q/ /v/ and /z/ do not exist. While there are a total of 39 sounds: /a/ /b/ /c/ /d/ /e/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /i/ /j/ /k/ l/ /m/ /n/ /ng/ /ny/ /o/ /p/ /r/ /s/ /t/ /u/ /u/ /w/ /y/ /bw/ /jw/ /oi/ /ai/ /au/ /uu/ /gw/ /kw/ /mw/ /ee/ /aa/ /pw/ /sw/ /a/. Out of these 13 are vowel sounds:/a/ /a/ /u/ /u/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /ai/ /oi/ /au/ /ee/ /aa/ /uu/. While 26 are consonant sounds:/b/ /c/ / /d/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /j/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /ng/ /ny/ /p/ /r/ /s/ /t/ /w/ /y/ /bw/ /jw/ /gw/ /kw/ /mw/ /pw/ /sw/ .
Examples of vowel souds as they occur in words:
/a/
Ga - place
Ma - sheep
Ta - old
/a/
Sar - to cut
Latam - fall on ground
Tam - earth
Kablang - bow
/aa/
Taam - potash
Taan- hoe
Laatam - onions
Kaan - dry season
Saam - poison
/au/
Sau - fear
Pyau - gazelle
Sau - to cook
Mau - to stone
Fau - search
/oi/
Noi - nurse me
Koi - reject me
Toi - care for me
Yoi - escort me
/ai/
Kai - house or kind of snake
Nai - my mother
Fai - search for me
Mai - wear
Tai - father
/uu/
Duute - judgement
Kuumni - strenght
Duuni - spring
/ee/
Bee kwan - one hundred
Nee kwan - one thousand
Teeri - scorpion
/u/
Susu - beard
Gum - owl
Fur - stomach
Dute - reign
/u/
Dur - head
Su - grave
Yilu - black
/e/
Wer - stone
Se - bush
Nyele – in-laws
Bwe - child
/i/
Biyir - porridge
Yingi - house fly
Nyibi - seven
/o/
Koro - donkey
Ko - day
Yon - smoke
Out of the 13 vowel sounds 10 are pure vowels:/a/ /i/ /u/ /e/ /o/ /ee/ /aa/ /uu/ /u/ /a/. The first 5 are short vowels while the last 5 are long vowels. The remaining 3 are dipthongs:/ai/ /oi/ /au/. The two vowels, /u/ and /a/ are distinguished from /a/ and /u/ that are both obtained in Hausa and English by the straight line under them which also make them long vowels.
The 26 consonant sounds are represented thus:
/b/ as in bi - goat, bak - arrow, Bwanbi - three, bang - hill
/c/ as in cilu - sweet, cuwa - wine, cimar - money, cimi - friend
/d/ as in dun - knee, di - go, jidari - mat, dugum - blood
/f/ as in figu - new, furtasu - twenty, far - swamp, fan - monkey
/g/ as in gur - pot, lagu - knife, muglo - dove, gano - elephant
/h/ as in ham - look, hanang - skin, he - water
/j/ as in jau - eat, jir - come out, ju - kill
/k/ as in kun - war, kang - hand, kak - face, nukun - six
/l/ as in lamar - navel, sila - tomorrow, yalte - soup
/m/ as in mimi - mosquito, mu - build, mai - wear
/n/ as in nu - eye, na - leg, yinang - medicine, nar - liver
/p/ as in pyau - gazelle, pise - bend, patpat - quickly
/r/ as in teeri - scorpion, dungar - egg, hatar - hyena
/s/ as in suta - buy, susu - beard, kosi - skull, su - ear
/t/ as in tai - father, turum - lion, swete - bed, tirite - bitter
/w/ as in wuman - open, wang - leaf, wurang - tobacco
/y/ as in ya - spear, yak - give to, layuwi - electric fish
/ng/ as in nungan - tooth, yunang - tail, ngari - pig
/ny/ as in nyi - mouth, nyele - in-law, nyelba - lighting, nyibi - seven
/bw/ as in bwal - kind of spear, bwa - hole, bwi - body, bwe - child
/jw/ as in jwi - compound, jwal - kind of stick, jwonte - tamarind
/gw/ as in gwi - climb, gwal - hatch, gwali - sorrel, agwe - here
/kw/ as in kwelam - warriors, kweram - pythorn, kwa - to grind
/mw/ as in mwiya - cut into pieces, mwara - grass for roofing,mwa - run
/pw/ as in pwal - sound from breaking something.
/sw/ as in swete - bed, swiyer - work
All the consonant sounds can occur at word initial and medial, but not all can occur at word end. Only 9 out of the 26 consonant sounds can occur at word final position:
/b/ as in nab - people, dab - to take, kub - to desire.
/p/ as in kap - to turn upside down, lap - to frighten, wup - to pass suddently.
/g/ as in bug - to cultivate, sag - to bring down, jig - to remove.
/k/ as in kak - face, tuk - thorn, buk - back
/m/ as in jum - horn, saam - poison, turum - lion
/n/ as in kun - war, fan - monkey, yin - broom
/ng/ as in yunang-tail, wang-leaf, bang-hill
/l/ as in cul - guinea fowl, yil - dance, mungul - potash
/r/ as in mar - dew, tir - year, dasar - catfish
CHAM BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURE
Cham has a basic sentence structure thus: sv (subject + verb), svo (subject + verb + object) and svoo (subject + verb + indirect object + direct object) similar to those of English. The following are the examples of Cham basic sentence structure with their English translation.
Ka tau klete. – He caught birds.
S v o s v o
Koro ka jau far. – The donkey ate the grass.
S v o s v o
Kan sau jinijauri. – I cook food.
S v o s v o
Rhada ne nai kaita jiyu. – Rhoda gave her mother their house.
S v i.o d.o s v i.o d.o
Peace ne Simon nee frangte. – Peace gave Simon one billion.
S v i.o d.o s v i.o d.o
Kata di. – They go.
S v s v
Kwanyu yi yilang. – Kwanyu dances.
S v s v
Kanan mwaa sak. – We run.
S v s v
Ka mauwuri. – She shouts.
S v s v
Chapter Four
CONCLUSION
It is lucid from the data presented that many of the world’s languages are facing serious thread everyday. Thread in form of language endangerment, language shift and language extinction. This situation is further compounded as the necessities of living keep on surfacing in all ramifications of human activities forcing people to make choices that sometimes are inimical to the survival of their language. Human beings are a central factor, an imperative and vital instrument that ensures the existence or otherwise of a language. The correlation between humans and language is such that one can not be divorce from the other without serious negative impact on each. This is particularly so because the two are mutually interdependent on each other with a serious bound that determine the completeness of each other. Indeed, when humans are devoid of language they have being rendered less human because language plays pivotal role in their existentialism. Likewise it becomes totally difficult if not impossible for a language to exist without human beings making adequate use of it in their daily activities.
A significant negative effect with a deadly impact on the survival of a language happens when the functions performed by a language is reduced to some meager events in the community. This condition comes up when other language considered to be of higher prestige is used to substitute the varied roles previously played by the former language. These situations as has being discussed earlier mitigate the efficacy of the former language which subsequently leads it to an endangered position.
It is without doubt every language is inherently imbued with inept ability to express its surroundings, environment and every thing that is within and around it. No language is in it self except that as it is forced on it by it speakers. To a large extent therefore, the users of a language are responsible to the growth or devaluation of their language. Every language has the requisite credential to live successfully and operate well unless when its users decide to make it play a second fiddle.
Consequently, all endangered languages like Cham needs to be revitalized and put back to track by their very people, so that its full utility will be well harness and exploited not only for the benefit of sons and daughters lf the immediate language users but also for the benefit of the world’s linguistic canon. Otherwise, these languages risk extinction and the people will wake-up one day without defining who they are, without knowing their true identity and without any sense of their historic pass that will help them shape them their present and prepare them for the future.
RECOMMENDATION
There is a need, an urgent one to inform local people and indeed people in general, but particularly the younger generation by the authority’s responsible federal, state and local level that it never pays for one to draw his language to the dustbin while embracing other language for the sake of whatever it possesses. They should be well conscientized to come to the awareness that their indigenous language is their means of identity and pride because within it lies their beliefs, cultures and value system. Learning another language is not evil, but caution should be exercise that it does not or replace or take away their indigenous language.
Traditional institutions should be at the centre of this; they should inform their people to be mindful of the fact that their local language can give them the progress and advancement they need if they make it to. If other languages can, theirs too can; this is because the intrinsic values of all languages are the same. China and other Asian countries are not known today because they speak English or French, but because of how they are able to use the property of their language to engineer creativity and productivity among themselves.
Finally, it is also recommended that government should make it compulsory for the teaching and learning of an indigenous language in its primary community. This will help in the propagation of the language as children grow and socialize in it. The language should not only serve as a course of study, but also as a means of instruction since it is globally acknowledged that children learn faster in their own language. In this regard, government (using the prominent members of the society) should encourage the production of relevant literatures in the language so as to serve the purpose of preservation, reading, writing and learning in the language. If you can not operate in your language, then you are not fully empowered.
REFERENCE
Carmen Lla mas, Louise Mullany and Peter Stockwell. (2007). The Routledge Companion of Sociolinguistics. London and New york, Routledge.
David, Crystal. (1987). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. New york, Cambridge University Press.
Dough, Whalen and K. David Harrison. (200). The World’s Endangered Languages. Encarta Yearbook.
D. C. Anthony Woodbury. (2006). Endangered Language. Retrieved from http://www/sadc.org/infor/ling-fags-endanger.cmf. On 02/02/2011.
Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 16th ed. Retrieved from http://www.ethnologue.com/show-country.asp?name=Nigeria. On 15th/01/2011.
Greenberg J.H. (1963). Languages of Africa. Bloomington, Indian University Press.
Juliette Blevins. Endangered Sound Patterns: Three Perspectives on Theory and Description. Vol. 1. Retrieved from http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii-education/htm/10125/1721/blevins.html. On 15th/01/2011.
Krauss, Michael E. (2007). Keynote-Mass Language Extinction and Documentation: The Pace Agaist Time. London, Oxford University Press.
Nikolaus P. Himmelman. (1998). Documentary and Descriptive Linguistics. Berlin, de Gruyter.
R.I. Trusk. (1995). Language: The Basics. 2nd ed. London and Newyork, Routledge.
Miyim, Albert, Albashi. (1990). The Socio-cultural Impact of the Missionary Activities in Cham District of Balanga Local Government of Bauchi State. (unpublished) Final Essay. Department of Christian Religious Studies, A.B.U. Zaria.
Philipp, Strazny. Ed. Encyclopedia of Linguistics.vol.1.New york, Routledge.
Peter K. Austin. (2008). Top Ten Endangered Languages. Retrieved from http://www.guadian.co.uk/book/2008/August/27/ endangered. Languages. On 23rd/02/2011.
Peter, Trudgill. (1974). Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society. 4th.ed. England, Penguin.
Storto, L.R. (2003). Interactions Between Verb Movement and Agreement in Kuritiana (Tupi Stock); Revista Letras.60:411-33.
Sascha, Griffiths. (2007). Language Documentation: A Research Seminar on Language Endangerment and Documentation. Canterbury, Oxford.
The Hans Rousing Endangered Languages Project (2009). Retrieved from http://www.hrelp.org/documentation/what is it- what is language documentation. On 22/02/2011.
Unesco and Adhoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages. Language Vitality and Endangerment (pdp)2003. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangered languages. On 27th/4/2011.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Analysis of Sentence Structure in Abubakar Gimba’s Innocent Victims
CHAPTER ONE
1:0 INTRODUTION
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs and symbols (known as writing medium). A written language is most certainly a very important way to share information and communicate ideas and knowledge in the contemporary world. It provides the avenue for writers to express their views, design new concepts and propagate ideologies they so choose. Wells (1986) points out that “A written text is the writer’s ability to put agreements, laws, and commandments on record”. Poets, novelists, and playwrights utilized this important medium to get their massages across to the intended audience. Most often, these writers make use of literary or poetic license which enable them to use language in a way contrary to its standardized format to communicate their intended massages to their will be audience.
However, sometimes the audiences are unable to comprehend what has been written not only as a result of the use of the literary or poetic license but because of the type of sentence structures the writer used in his work. These sentence structures could be simple, compound or complex sentence. Each has a particular effect on the way in which the written text is perceived and understood by the audience. It therefore goes to say that there is a peculiar impact created in a literary text based on what sentence structure a writer decides to use and show how imperative these sentence structures are in discovering the semantics of every written text.
The word order of English sentence generally follows a subject – verb - object pattern, as in the sentence “The dog (subject) bit (verb) the man (object)”. A general characteristic of language is that words are not directly combined into sentences, but rather into intermediate units called phrases which are further combined into sentences. The sentence “The shepherd found the lost sheep” contains at least three phrases: “The shepherd” “Found” “The lost sheep”. This hierarchical structure that group words into phrases and phrases into sentences serves as an important role in establishing the relationship within sentences. It is of these relationships that make up the meaning of the sentence.
Angela and Philip (1989: 27) view the term structure as “the relationship that exists between the small units that make up a large unit. They stress further that everything in our lives has structure. It is natural that language which is a spoken and a written representation of our experiences also manifest in structured form”. Linguistic sentences are described in terms of semantic function of their various elements and the syntactic forms and relationship expressing them.
Boadi et al (1977) hold that “the grammatical structure of a language results into systematization of what actually happens when we speak or write.” The study of grammatical structure is therefore the study of the systematic patterns in underlying every utterance. What all these mean is that structure is the subject matter of grammar, the set of patterns in which the words of language are arranged in order to convey meaning or the way in which words are organized together to form phrases into sentences. It is important to note that each language has its own sentence structure. For example, the Hausa Language has the sentence structure: subject – verb - object as in “Musa ya buga doki” translated “Musa hit the horse”. On the contrary, Japanese has a basic word order subject – object - verb as in “Wataku shi –wa hon-okau” which literarily translates “I book buy” (Encarta 2009).
It is in line with these facts that the researcher seeks to find out the type of sentence structures used by Abubakar Gimba in Innocent Victims (1988), how they affect the overall composition of the novel and their implications to the reader who is in search of meaning.
1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Most written texts are made-up of multiple sentences that are logically synthesized to express certain ideas. Most often, these sentences are too long and complex or in some cases too short that the reader finds it difficult to make a meaning out of written text. This is likely to be so if the reader does not have a grasp of what sentence structure is used, how it is composed and the kind of effect it creates. It is in view of these that the researcher embarks on the study of sentence structure so as to have good understanding on them.
1.2 PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANT OF THE OF THE STUDY
Every literary text written is intended to be read and understood by the reader so that the writer shares his views with the reader. However, most times this is not achieved as a result of complications arising from language use. For example, works of Wole Soyinka, William Shakespeare, John Done, etc are infused with verbose words and complex sentences which make understanding difficult. The researcher hence feels the need to research into how a sentence structure can affect a literary work and enhance good understanding of the massage intended.
1.3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
It is hoped that this work will provide a clue or a hint to students and readers of literary works alike to appreciate the given thematic concerns and ideological views of a writer. It will indeed also serve as a complement of order works done in like manner.
1.4 SCOPE AND LIMITATION
Areas covered in this study include simple, compound and complex sentences. It also goes further to identify the presence of each of them in chapter four of Innocent Victims (1988).
1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research investigation is undertaken by analyzing sentences in Abubakar Gimba’s Innocent Victims (1988). Excerpts from the novel will be used for the purpose of identifying the particular sentence types and how they help in making the novel either simple or difficult to grasp. The researcher engages in library and internet research to successfully discuss this research topic.
1.6 AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Abubakar Gimba (OFR) was born in 1952 in Nassarawa, Lapai Local Government area of Niger State. He attended Government College keffi, Amadu Bello University, Zaria (B.Sc Economics) (1977). He joined the Civil service in 1975 as a planning officer first in the North Western State, then later Niger State, rising to the position of the permanent secretary in 1987. He served in that capacity till his retirement in 1987. The Federal Ministry Government appointed him as an Executive Director of Union Bank of Nigeria PLC in February 1988. Gimba as a prolific writer has published several novels and collection of poetry:
Trials of Sacrifice (1985).
Witness to Tears (1987).
Innocent Victims (1988).
Sunset for Mandarine (1992).
Sacred Apples (1994).
Foot Prints (1998).
Innocent Victims (1988) is selected to serve as the data through which the researcher seeks to explore how English sentence structures operate in a literary text. It provides the material resource that will better and more practically show how these sentence structures enhance or hinder meaning. As a literary text of the prose genre, it encompasses the various ways in which language is used in its actual sense and therefore it will serve as a good data for the type of analysis in question. Indeed Abubakar Gimba has written numerous books, but this is chosen because it serves the purpose intended.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 INTRDUCTION
Sounds are combined to form words, words are integrated in a logical manner to form phrases and phrases into sentences that carry meaning with them which help both the writer and reader to communicate and understand what is communicated respectively. Sentence is therefore noticeable in all written works and it serves as an important medium through which ideas or concepts, instructions, orders, emotion and information are shared between the writer and his readers. This is only by the varied elements that come together to make it up. It is the structure of a sentence that allows for the possibility of comprehension because it is well ordered, well arranged and well synthesized according to the linguistic pattern of that language. Boadi et al (1999: 61) write that “The totality of meaning of every stretch of language consist of some of the meaning of the unit which occurred within the stretched plus the meaning contributed by the way in which the units are organized or in order word the meaning of their structure.”
The term sentence just like other terms in linguistics does not have one standard generally agreed upon meaning by all scholars. Just like Andrew (1994: 54) observed, “linguists have problem in agreeing with how to define the word sentence. Sentence is a sequence of words whose first word starts with a capital letter and whose last word is followed by an end punctuation mark (period/full stop, exclamation mark or question mark)”. Key to Andrew’s definition is sentence as a sequence of words, the first word starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark or question mark. This definition is all encompassing except that it fails to say whether it makes a complete meaning or not. And whether these words that begin a sentence can be form word (but, because, the, an, a, and others) or content words (car, man chair, tree, house, and others) or all of them is not explained.
Ebest et al (1994: 442) defined sentence as “An independent unit of an expression”. Iscribe (2010: 54) agrees that “it is the basic unit of written English Language communication”. Ebest et al on their part look at the sentence from a semantic angle and fail to give the kind of detail clarification Andrew gave. However, it does not misrepresent what the sentence stands for.
Eyisi (1981: 34) points out that “a sentence is the chief unit of speech”. She further goes on to say that it is a minimum complete utterance and therefore may consist of one word; ‘come’, ‘run’, ‘fire’ or ‘stop’. To her, all these are sentences. But usually, a sentence consists of more than one word; they therefore have two or more elements that include the subject of a statement and a predicate. It then implies that a sentence is a unit of Language that makes a complete sense, thought or meaning.
Crystal (2003: 331) puts it that “In real life, a sentence is rarely used in isolation. Normally, sentence which “coheres” in this way is called a text – a term which applies to both spoken and written works”.
2.1TYPES OF SENTENCES ACCOURDING TO STRUCTURE
2.1.1SIMPLE SENTENCE
A simple sentence refers to an independent clause; an independent clause is a sentence that stands alone. It is autonomous and has a simple structure of subject and verb combination that expresses a single idea. This implies that a simple sentence carries one meaning or thought.
Enigle and Afrangideh (2001: 48) stated that “A simple sentence expresses only one thought or idea and contains only one clause. For example:
1. Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.
2. Examination is not the true test of knowledge.
3. The notorious robber has been apprehended.
These clauses carry only a single thought or idea. However, from the definition of a simple sentence by Enighe and Afrangideh, they fail to state whether the clause that carries a single idea is an independent clause that makes a complete sense or a dependent clause which also carries meaning but incomplete meaning or if the clause contains a subject and predicate, or even marked by a punctuation within the clause.
Banjo et al (2004) view the simple sentence as a sentence that contains one idea. It usually consists of one independent clause. Idowu (2001) agrees with this view that a simple sentence has a one clause structure; it expresses a complete meaning or thought. Purkis (1981: 48) consequently holds that “A simple sentence stands alone and makes sense by itself”. Purkis added that a simple sentence contains a finite verb”. Likewise, Boadi (1977: 156) agrees that “A ‘simple’ sentence is a sentence which contains one finite verb only”; a finite verb is a verb that functions as the verb of a clause or sentence” (Ebest et al 1994: 494). For example:
1. Ishaku played football.
2. Steve and Sarah read the book.
3. I won the competition.
‘Played’, ‘read’ and ‘won’ in sentence (1), (2) and (3) are finite verbs, telling about the action performed by the subjects as well as showing the time of the action or the tense.
According to Chukwuma and Otaburuagh (2002:114) “The two basic elements –the subject (noun) and the predicate (verb) will give a simple sentence.” Similar to this view is Jackson’s (2005) remarks which says that simple sentence is the minimal form of a sentence, it contains a subject plus (+) a verb. The subject can either be an animate or inanimate object and the verb must agree with the subject in terms of number and person. For example:
1. Maryam + laughed.
2. The water + has dropped.
3. The room + has been cleaned.
Jackson went ahead to explain that the subject slot is normally filled by a noun phrase and the verb slot by a verb phrase.
Similarly, “a simple sentence is one that contains only one subject and only one predicate” (Ayodele 2001). However, it does not matter the number of subject that is contain in the subject slot so long as they stand as a subject of a single predicate which expresses a single thought.
Finally, Crystal and Davy (1969: 46) believe that “A simple sentence consists of a subject and a predicate, with or without a complement depending on the class of verb occurring as predicate with or without one or more adverbials, and with or without vocative, direct address.”
From all the views presented and discussed, the simple sentence is a sentence structure that has one, two or more subjects and a predicate. The predicate could just contain one main verb or it may be composed of an auxiliary and a lexical verb or just a lexical verb. Also the verb may carry an object if it is transitive or without an object if it is intransitive. It only expresses a single thought or idea and it is generally devoid of complexity. Hence, its basic components are the subject and predicate with or without a complement. There is no use of conjunction in simple sentence.
2.1.2 COMPOUND SENTENCE
The word compound means something made by combining two or more things together to form a whole. Compound sentence is formed when two simple sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction such as ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘yet’, ‘or’ or by a suitable punctuation like the semi-colon or comma are fused together. For example:
1. Simon came and he conquered.
2. Nao’mi passed the exam yet she did not stop reading.
3. The teacher promise to come early, but he came late.
The underline words ‘and’, ‘yet’, and ‘but’ in the sentences above give a basic and common usage of the coordinating conjunctions used in forming a compound sentence.
“When two independent clauses containing related ideas are joined, it is referred as a compound sentence (Banjo 2004:104). For example:
1. The cage was opened, but the birds did not fly out.
2. Clean the floor or you will be punish.
3. I am strong and I am healthy.
Crystal (2003), says in compound sentences, the clauses are linked together by coordination-usually by the coordinating conjunctions: and, or, but. Each clause can in principle stand as a sentence on its own-in other word; it acts as an independent clause, or main clause.
Chukuma and Otagburuagh (2002: 89) are of the opinion that “Compound sentence has two sentence elements (clauses) that can be treated as equal partners”. But where the first clause of the sentence is an independent clause and the other that precedes it is a dependent clause then the clauses are not of equal parts and can therefore not be refer to as compound sentence. This signifies that a compound sentence combines two clauses of equal rank and is of related meaning. A sentence like:
Grace was happy while she was dancing at the party.
The inappropriateness of this sentence is that it combines an independent clause and a dependent clause as a result of using the subordinating conjunction ‘while’. The second sentence can not stand alone because of the presence of the subordinating conjunction attached to the second clause; hence they are not of equal rank. Chukuma and Otagburuagh further state that transitional words can equally be used between clauses of a compound sentence. But though such words have slight connecting force, they are not pure coordinating conjunction. These transitional words include: nevertheless, infact, however, more over, as a result, and on the other hand. For example:
Andrew’s father built him a house; infact, he provided him with all that he will need for life.
From the above example, it shows that the transitional word ‘infact’ belongs to the independent clause, it introduces and it is preceded by a semi-colon, and there is a comma to set it apart by showing that it is an independent element.
Jackson (2005) holds that a compound sentence must contain two or more principal clauses that are independent; they maybe joined by a comma and a conjunction or by a semi-colon or a colon.
As stated by the various definitions and illustrations above, the compound sentence is a sentence structure that combines two simple sentences or independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction. These clauses must be of equal structure (simple) consisting of single idea each. Unlike the simple sentence, the compound sentence also uses punctuations such as comma (,) and semi-colon (;) to join clauses together.
2.1.3 COMPLEX SENTENCE
The complex sentence behaves rather in a complex dimension than the two already discussed. The need for a complex structure arises when ideas that need to be expressed are themselves complex in nature. Human thoughts and creativities are not always simple and hence could be far beyond what the simple sentence or the compound sentence can express. This is because there are complex communicative conditions and requirements. In this situation the complex sentence becomes necessary. Also to avoid monotony of usage of the simple form the complex structure becomes indispensable.
The term complex can refer to something made up of many interrelated parts and these parts are brought together to form a whole. Complex sentence is one that contains an in dependent clause and a subordinate clause. The independent clause functions as a complete sentence. The subordinate clause also contains a subject and a verb, but can not stand alone as an independent clause. For example:
1. I saw the huge man who was lying across the road.
2. The guests enjoyed the food that was prepared by the hostess.
3. After we finished studying, Daddy and I went to the cinema.
In each of these sentences above, (1) and (2), there is an independent clause that appears first followed by the dependent clause introduced by “that” and “which”. Except in sentence (3) where it begins with a dependent clause introduced by “after” followed by the independent clause.
According to Fabb (1994: 104) “A complex sentence consists of a main clause and one or more subordinate clause”. In a similar vain, Enighe and Afrangideh (2001: 64), agree that “Complex sentence contains one main clause and one or more subordinate clauses”. Likewise, Visionite.Magazine.com (2010), states that “complex sentence has only an independent clause and other subordinate clause(s); that is the main verb plus (+) a subordinate clause(s)”. Common to these definitions is the presence of an independent or main clause and one or more subordinate clause(s). The independent or main clause functions as a complete sentence. The subordinate clause however does contain a subject and a predicate, but it cannot function as a main clause. The subordinate clause depends on the independent clause for its complete meaning. Other subordinate conjunctions are “because”, “for”, “so that”, “in other to”, and “while”. For example:
Rahila traveled abroad so that she could raise the children.
“Rahila traveled abroad” is the main clause. “So that” introduces the subordinate clause, which explains “why” “So that” she could raise the children. This clause is incapable of standing alone to make a complete sense.
Jackson (2005: 211) maintains that “A complex sentence is one in which the sentence element-clauses, no longer functions as equal partners as in the case of compound sentence. He believes that one clause is involved within the structure of another clause and so it becomes dependent. When this happens the subordinate clause depends on the rest of the sentence for its meaning since it is not capable of standing alone.
Banjo et al (2004) follows suit by saying that the complex sentence expresses at least two ideas, one which is the major idea while the other(s) is/are supplementary. To them, the major idea is contained in the independent (main) clause. While the minor or supplementary clauses are contained in the dependent or subordinate clause. This means that the complex sentence result from the inclusion of one sentence as an element in another. The included sentence is said to be “embedded” and it is term as a “subordinate”. The sentence in which it is embedded is called the main clause.
Crystal and Davy (1969: 48) remark that “A complex sentence consists of one main clause of the simple type with the adverbial element of its structure expounded by at least one dependent clause. Similarly, Purkis (1981:43) states that “Complex sentence can be made up of a single clause plus one or more nouns, adjective or adverbial clause”.
In conclusion, the basic constituent elements of the complex sentence are one independent plus one dependent clause. Due to its complex form, complex sentence expresses multiple ideas or communicates numerous information. For this reason, it has multiple subjects and predicates. It is as well characterized by subordinating conjunctions that introduce the dependent clause in the structure.
CHAPTER THREE
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION3
3.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter focuses on the procedural steps and the method used in carrying out the investigation. This study which is employed in analyzing chapter four, the middle chapter among seven others of the fictional work of Abubakar Gimba’s Innocent Victims (1988) formed the procedural methodology.
3.1 SOURCE OF DATA
The text Innocent Victims is the only source from which the analysis is undertaken. Chapter four is specifically the chapter that is analyzed. The choice of this chapter is due to the fact that it is the longest chapter and the tendency to have the most common sentence structure of Gimba is high. Focusing attention on just one of the chapters of the book does not mean that the researcher did not read the entire text. Rather, it is the limitation of time and space that has constrained the researcher to focus on the selected chapter.
3.2 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
The researcher uses excerpts from chapter four and subjects them to sentence structure analysis. This is done in other to investigate the type of sentence structure the author has employed in the text. However, it is typical of Gimba’s style to use non sentence structure in his literary work that does not belong to any of the English sentence structure. The researcher intends to analyze only structures that satisfy normal English sentences structure. For example, the simple sentence structure consists of ‘subject’ and ‘predicate’ with or without a modifier. It also expresses only a single idea:
1. Simon bought a car.
Subject predicate
2. She will be home soon.
Subject predicate
3. The village Headmaster is now a governor.
Subject predicate
The compound sentence structure has two simple sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction such as ‘and’ ‘yet’, ‘but’, and ‘or’. For example:
1. Sarah is a doctor, but she hates to see sick people.
2. Ponon washed cloths and Samuel cleared the grasses.
3. Read your books or you will fail your exams.
While the complex sentence structure comprises of one main clause and at least one or more subordinate clause(s). The clauses are separated by a comma (,), a semi-colon (;) or a subordinating conjunction. For example:
1. The sky is cloudy; it may rain.
2. The guests enjoyed the food which was prepared by the hostess.
3. After we finished studying, Daddy and I went to the cinema.
To analyze chapter four, ten excerpts consisting of thirty one sentences are analyzed. This work goes to show the most common sentence structure in the text Innocent Victims and the kind of effect it has on the work.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS
4:0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter puts attention in presenting and analyzing Gimba’ sentence structures and how they affect the overall thematic concern of Innocent Victims.
4:1 EXCERPT ONE
The Jumma’et Prayers were just over. Mamman was still contending with the trauma of yesterday’s raw deal meted out to Bakatsoro. Hitherto, he had not been able to discourse the episode with anybody. Not even his wife. He had told her that the Director for Agro-Industrial Projects fell foul of the new Military Overseer of his department. And that was all. He did not allow her to draw him into a question-and-answer session.
COMMENT:
From the above excerpt, there are seven sentences; four are simple sentences, one is a complex sentence and three do not belong to any of the normal English sentence structure. See illustration below.
The Jumma’et prayers were just over.
Mamman was still meted out to Bakatsoro.
He had not been able to discuss the episode with anybody.
He did not allow her to draw him into a question-and answer session.
The first sentence, ‘The Jumma’et prayers were just over’, expresses a single idea. Apart from this idea typical of simple sentences, the sentence just like sentence two, three and four has a subject and a verb.
COMPLEX SENTENCE
‘He had only told her that the Director for Agro-Industrial Project fell foul of the new Military Overseer of his department.’
This structure is typical of a complex sentence. The sentence expresses multiple ideas which are conveyed in the predicate part of the sentence. The sentence begins with the main clause followed by the relative clause introduced by that which makes it a dependent clause. In a complex sentence the minimum numbers of clauses are two such as in the example above.
From excerpt one; there are structures that do not belong to any of the English sentence structures. For example:
And that was all.
Not even his wife.
Hitherto.
According to Fabb (1994) the structure of every normal English sentence is the subject (noun) and predicate (verb). In line with this the constructions above lack this basic form; they are merely conversational in nature introduced in the fictional work. Hence they do not form part of the analysis.
4:2 EXCERPT TWO
“Yes. He didn’t go with his car…There he is coming”, said the girl, pointing towards an approaching Mercedes Benz of light green colour.
COMMENT:
Excerpt two consists of two simple sentences:
1. He didn’t go with his car.
2. There he is coming.
Each of these sentences expresses just a single idea. As a simple sentence, it can stand alone because a simple sentence is an independent sentence. Both sentence one and two have the S+V pattern that is the subject and verb pattern.
From excerpt two, ‘Yes’ is not classified as a complete sentence because it is a response to what was asked. Likewise it lacks a subject and a verb. The construction, ‘said the girl’, pointing towards an approaching Mercedes Benz of light green colour is mere authorial narration and not part of any of the sentence structure because it does not have any feature of the English sentence structure.
4:3 EXCERPT THREE
Faruk came out of the car. It seemed his friend would not stop over, as he immediately began to reverse out of the gate. Faruk waved him good-bye, even though he did not seem to notice.
COMMENT:
Excerpt three has one simple sentence and two complex sentences:
Simple Sentence
Faruk came out of the car.
This is a simple sentence and it tells what the subject, ‘Faruk’ did which is in the predicate, ‘came out of the car’. A simple sentence hence shows a single action which is the idea being expressed.
Complex Sentence
1. It seemed his friend would not stop over, as he immediately began to reverse out of the gate
2. Faruk waved him good-bye, even though he did not seem to notice.
Here sentences one and two express multiple ideas. As a complex sentence, both sentences begin with an independent clause. In sentence one; ‘it seemed his friend would not over’ is an independent clause expressing a single idea. The use of ‘comma’ separates the ideas and hence introduced another clause which is the dependent one. The dependent clause on its part expresses an idea that can only be meaningful when joined with the first clause expressed. Sentence two also begins with the main clause followed by the subordinate clause being introduced by the subordinating conjunction ‘even though’ which cannot stand alone.
4:4 EXCERPT FOUR
“I heard the bad story about Hali Bata”. Faruk normally called his director for the Agro-Industrial Project Division by his name.
COMMENT:
There are two simple sentences expressed in excerpt four. Sentence one expresses a single thought. Sentence two although it is lengthier than sentence one, also expresses a single idea. A simple sentence is not determined by its length just like sentence two, but the idea that is expressed and the properties contained in the sentence in terms of subject and predicate.
4:5 EXCERPT FIVE
“Honestly, I believe that the way the Civil Service works could turn an over-zealous Military reformer into a radical revolutionary, who would shoot his way out of any obstruction…We asked for all these things. Of course, I don’t condone physical humiliation of civil servant; I hate it with all my heart”.
COMMENT:
Excerpt five comprises of three simple sentences and one complex sentence.
Simple Sentence
1. We asked for all these things.
2. I don’t condone physical humiliation of civil servant.
3. I hate it with all my heart.
From excerpt five, the above sentences make complete meaning on their own. Just like every simple sentences, they express a single idea and are introduced by a subject followed by a predicate. Sentence one begins with a subject ‘we’ followed the predicate ‘asked’ that carries the remaining part of the sentence. This is also applied to sentence two and three.
Complex Sentence
I believe that the way the civil service works could turn an over-zealous Military reformer into a radical revolutionary, who would shoot his way out of any obstruction.
This sentence is typical of a complex sentence. It expresses multiple ideas in three parts. The first part of the sentence is the main clause because it makes a complete sense ‘I believe’. The second part of the sentence is a relative clause introduced by ‘that’ and the third part is introduced by ‘which’ a subordinating conjunction. Part two and three, when taken independently will not stand on their own except when they are joined to the independent clause.
However, there are constructions that are not classified in any of the normal English sentence structure, ‘of course’ and ‘honestly’. These phrases cannot stand on their own; they lack a subject, a predicate or even a modifier to make meaning.
4:6 EXCERPT SIX
Otherwise you know that he’s never late for any official assignment. The most punctual, efficient officer in the department… I don’t normally want to talk too often about him; people will say that it’s because we’re from the same Local Authority Area, indeed the same village… I tried seeing him in the hospital, but they said he wouldn’t be allowed to see anybody yet… That’s at the Emergency ward. He shrugged his shoulders.
COMMENT:
In excerpt six, there are five sentences contained. Two sentences are simple, one is a compound sentence and two are complex.
Simple Sentence
1. He shrugged his shoulders.
2. That’s at the Emergency ward.
Sentence one and two are independent expressing one idea. The subject ‘He’ in sentence one performed a single action expressed in the predicate part, ‘shrugged his shoulders’. Sentence two begins with a demonstrative pronoun ‘that’ referring to what happened at the Emergency ward.
Compound Sentence
I tried seeing him in the hospital, but they said he wouldn’t be allowed to see anybody yet.
This sentence comprises of two simple sentences:
1. I tried seeing him at the hospital.
2. They said he wouldn’t be allowed to see anybody yet.
These sentences are of equal rank because the express single idea each and the ideas make complete sense. The presence of the coordinating conjunction ‘but’ makes it a compound sentence.
Complex Sentence
Otherwise you know that he’s never late for any official assignment.
I don’t normally want to talk too often about him; people will say that it’s because we are from the same Local Area Authority; indeed the same village.
A complex sentence is one that has one main clause and at least one or more subordinate clause(s). It is joined by either by a comma, semi-column. As seen in the sentence one has one main clause and a subordinating clause by introduced by ‘that’. Sentence two has one dependent and one independent clause separated by a comma. Only a complex structure such as the ones above can be referred to as a complex sentence.
4.7 EXCEPT SEVEN
Zaalim was trying to go through the day’s newspapers Mamman got to his house. It was a busy day at the office, he said, that was why he couldn’t read any of the newspapers beyond the passing glance he had over the headlines of only a couple of them.
COMMENT
There are two complex sentences in excerpt seven.
1. Zaalim was trying to go through the day’s newspaper when Mamman got to his house.
2. It was a busy day at the office, that was why he couldn’t read any of the newspapers beyond the passing glance he had over the headlines of only a couple of them.
As a complex sentences, sentence one begins with a main clause which can stand alone, followed by the subordinating clause which begins with ‘when’ to the end of the sentence. The subordinate clause give an incomplete idea except it is connected to main clause before it can be comprehensible. Likewise, sentence two has two parts. The first part is the main clause while the second part which begins with a subordinating conjunction ‘that’ is the subordinate clause because it is incomplete.
4:8 EXCERPT EIGHT
“How’s your overseer?” Asked Zaalim, quickly interrupting Mamman incipient thought-train. He closed his newspaper and threw it on the round center-table of the sitting-room. A kind of teasing smile appeared on his face.
COMMENT
This excerpt consists of two simple sentences and one compound sentence.
(1). How is your overseer?
(2). A kind of teasing smile appeared on his face.
A simple sentence can be a statement or a question. Sentence one presents a simple question, ‘how is your overseer? Which does not need a complex answer? Hence, the sentence expresses a single ides.
Compound Sentence
He closed his newspaper and threw it on the round center-table of the sitting-room.
In this sentence, there are two simple sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction ‘and’ which is one of the basic element of a compound sentence. The coordinating conjunction separate two independent ideas.
However, there are constructions that are not considered as sentences:
(1). Asked Zaalim.
(2). Quickly interrupting Mamman incipient thought-train.
The sentences do not carry the Basic English sentence structure that is the subject and predicate. They are classified as authorial narration.
4:9 EXCERPT NINE
And together with the clerk, they left the secretariat happy. He would inform Zaalim the next morning on what had happened.
COMMENT
Excerpt nine has two complex sentences:
1. And together with the clerk, he left the secretariat happily.
2. He would inform Zaalim the next morning on what had happened.
Sentence one begins with a dependent clause which is incomplete, followed by the dependent clause which stands alone. Sentence two begins with the main clause followed by the relative clause introduced by ‘that’ giving an incomplete sentence.
4:10 EXCERPT TEN
The young man’s voice, when hitherto had been deceptively calm, betrayed the critic in him. Zaalim was quick to observe this and did not like it one bit. He nonetheless controlled his emotion.
COMMENT
The above excerpt comprises of three sentences, a simple, a compound and a complex sentence.
Simple Sentence
He nonetheless controlled his emotion.
This sentence carries a single verb ‘controlled’ hence it expresses a complete thought. Taking in isolation the sentence can still stand alone without depending on other parts to make meaning.
Compound Sentence
Zaalim was quick to observe this and did not like it one bit.
A compound sentence normally expresses two ideas. These ideas usually are in the simple sentence structure. The sentences are joined by a coordinating conjunction ‘And’.
Complex Sentence
The young man’s voice, which hitherto had been deceptively calm, betrayed the critic in him.
This sentence has an independent clause at the beginning, ‘the young man’s voice’ a subordinate clause ‘which hitherto had been deceptively calm’ and a dependent clause ‘betrayed the critic in him’. The combination of these ideas makes it a complex sentence.
From the ten analyzed excerpts above, a total of 31 sentences are analyzed. 19 are simple, 9 are complex and 3 are compound sentence. As shown above, Abubakar Gimba used more of simple sentences to convey his massage to his audience. Indeed, nothing in literature is said to happen by mistake; everything is deliberately created to achieve a particular purpose. Gimba may have decided to employ this type of sentence structure to dominate others in other to enhance clarity and avoid vagueness. The preponderance of simple sentence in the novel has made it easily understandable and straight forward. It is within the grasp of an average reader and its purpose is less likely to be misunderstood.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
5:0 INTRODUCTIONS
Chapter five seeks to summarize and conclude the study by highlighting on the major findings of the work.
5:1 SUMMARY
This research investigation focuses on the study and analysis of sentence structure in relation to literary work. It becomes essential for a research like this to be undertaking since there is a high correlation between Language (English) and literature. If the end result of every literary work is to be understood by its readers then a comprehensive understanding of how the syntax of the Language operates and affects every text is cardinal.
This study therefore investigates sentence structure in Abubakar Gimba’s Innocent Victims with the aim of clearly showing how either of the sentence types uniquely affects such literary composition.
It has been discovered that Abubakar Gimba uses more of simple sentences in this novel. His particular choice of using simple constructions instead of compound or complex is not arbitrary, but a conscious attempt to keep his readers reading and appreciating its thematic concerns. If presented otherwise, for instance in complex sentences, understanding will be probably blurred.
Equally, this research simplifies the discussions on what sentence structures are. It goes further to unambiguously depict the constituent elements of each sentence type so as to demystify the seeming difficulties that most readers encounter while reading a literary text.
5.2 CONCLUSION
Conclusively, every text or discourse is made up of words, phrases and clauses which are carefully integrated to form a unique blend of thought that captures the essence of the discourse or writing. A writer or speaker usually based on his/her intended subject matter and intended audience employs a particular sentence type that will enable him/her to appropriately transmit massages. This means that knowing the type of sentence used by a writer or speaker is of paramount importance. This work hence concludes that every text has a unique sentence structure and such structures should be appreciated before adequate, clear and true understanding of the work can be grasped.
written by Peace Kyauta Solomon.
References
Andrew, M. (2003). A Grammar of Today. Ibadan, University Press.
Ayodele, S. O. et al. (2001). Evans Qualifying Course in English Language. Nigeria, Evans Brothers.
Banjo, A. et al. (2004). Exam Focus English Language. Ibadan, University Press.
Boadi et al. (1977). Grammatical Structure and its teaching. Lagos, African University Press.
Chukwuma, H. and Otagburuagu, E. (2002). English for Academic Purpose. Nigeria, African-FEB.
Crystal, D. (2003). The Cambridege Encyclopedia of the English: Language.2nd .ed. USA, Cambridge University Press.
Crystal, D. and Devy, D. (1969). Investigating English Style. Honkong, Longman.
Ebest, S. B. et al (1994). Writing from A-z. 3rd. ed. London and Toronto, Mayfield Publishing Company.
Enighe, M. J. and Afrangideh, M. E. (2001). A Guide to Basic English. Jos, Lecaps.
Fabb, N. (1994). Sentence Structure.2nd.ed. London and New York, Routledge.
Sentence structure. Retrieved from http://www.iscribe.org/english/sent.html on 16th october, 2011.
Idowu, O.O. et al. (2001). Round –up-English. Nigeria, Longman.
Jackson, H. (2005). Good Grammar for Students. London, Sage Publication.
Purkis, R. (1981). English grammar Nigeria. Spectrum Book.
1:0 INTRODUTION
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs and symbols (known as writing medium). A written language is most certainly a very important way to share information and communicate ideas and knowledge in the contemporary world. It provides the avenue for writers to express their views, design new concepts and propagate ideologies they so choose. Wells (1986) points out that “A written text is the writer’s ability to put agreements, laws, and commandments on record”. Poets, novelists, and playwrights utilized this important medium to get their massages across to the intended audience. Most often, these writers make use of literary or poetic license which enable them to use language in a way contrary to its standardized format to communicate their intended massages to their will be audience.
However, sometimes the audiences are unable to comprehend what has been written not only as a result of the use of the literary or poetic license but because of the type of sentence structures the writer used in his work. These sentence structures could be simple, compound or complex sentence. Each has a particular effect on the way in which the written text is perceived and understood by the audience. It therefore goes to say that there is a peculiar impact created in a literary text based on what sentence structure a writer decides to use and show how imperative these sentence structures are in discovering the semantics of every written text.
The word order of English sentence generally follows a subject – verb - object pattern, as in the sentence “The dog (subject) bit (verb) the man (object)”. A general characteristic of language is that words are not directly combined into sentences, but rather into intermediate units called phrases which are further combined into sentences. The sentence “The shepherd found the lost sheep” contains at least three phrases: “The shepherd” “Found” “The lost sheep”. This hierarchical structure that group words into phrases and phrases into sentences serves as an important role in establishing the relationship within sentences. It is of these relationships that make up the meaning of the sentence.
Angela and Philip (1989: 27) view the term structure as “the relationship that exists between the small units that make up a large unit. They stress further that everything in our lives has structure. It is natural that language which is a spoken and a written representation of our experiences also manifest in structured form”. Linguistic sentences are described in terms of semantic function of their various elements and the syntactic forms and relationship expressing them.
Boadi et al (1977) hold that “the grammatical structure of a language results into systematization of what actually happens when we speak or write.” The study of grammatical structure is therefore the study of the systematic patterns in underlying every utterance. What all these mean is that structure is the subject matter of grammar, the set of patterns in which the words of language are arranged in order to convey meaning or the way in which words are organized together to form phrases into sentences. It is important to note that each language has its own sentence structure. For example, the Hausa Language has the sentence structure: subject – verb - object as in “Musa ya buga doki” translated “Musa hit the horse”. On the contrary, Japanese has a basic word order subject – object - verb as in “Wataku shi –wa hon-okau” which literarily translates “I book buy” (Encarta 2009).
It is in line with these facts that the researcher seeks to find out the type of sentence structures used by Abubakar Gimba in Innocent Victims (1988), how they affect the overall composition of the novel and their implications to the reader who is in search of meaning.
1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Most written texts are made-up of multiple sentences that are logically synthesized to express certain ideas. Most often, these sentences are too long and complex or in some cases too short that the reader finds it difficult to make a meaning out of written text. This is likely to be so if the reader does not have a grasp of what sentence structure is used, how it is composed and the kind of effect it creates. It is in view of these that the researcher embarks on the study of sentence structure so as to have good understanding on them.
1.2 PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANT OF THE OF THE STUDY
Every literary text written is intended to be read and understood by the reader so that the writer shares his views with the reader. However, most times this is not achieved as a result of complications arising from language use. For example, works of Wole Soyinka, William Shakespeare, John Done, etc are infused with verbose words and complex sentences which make understanding difficult. The researcher hence feels the need to research into how a sentence structure can affect a literary work and enhance good understanding of the massage intended.
1.3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
It is hoped that this work will provide a clue or a hint to students and readers of literary works alike to appreciate the given thematic concerns and ideological views of a writer. It will indeed also serve as a complement of order works done in like manner.
1.4 SCOPE AND LIMITATION
Areas covered in this study include simple, compound and complex sentences. It also goes further to identify the presence of each of them in chapter four of Innocent Victims (1988).
1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research investigation is undertaken by analyzing sentences in Abubakar Gimba’s Innocent Victims (1988). Excerpts from the novel will be used for the purpose of identifying the particular sentence types and how they help in making the novel either simple or difficult to grasp. The researcher engages in library and internet research to successfully discuss this research topic.
1.6 AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Abubakar Gimba (OFR) was born in 1952 in Nassarawa, Lapai Local Government area of Niger State. He attended Government College keffi, Amadu Bello University, Zaria (B.Sc Economics) (1977). He joined the Civil service in 1975 as a planning officer first in the North Western State, then later Niger State, rising to the position of the permanent secretary in 1987. He served in that capacity till his retirement in 1987. The Federal Ministry Government appointed him as an Executive Director of Union Bank of Nigeria PLC in February 1988. Gimba as a prolific writer has published several novels and collection of poetry:
Trials of Sacrifice (1985).
Witness to Tears (1987).
Innocent Victims (1988).
Sunset for Mandarine (1992).
Sacred Apples (1994).
Foot Prints (1998).
Innocent Victims (1988) is selected to serve as the data through which the researcher seeks to explore how English sentence structures operate in a literary text. It provides the material resource that will better and more practically show how these sentence structures enhance or hinder meaning. As a literary text of the prose genre, it encompasses the various ways in which language is used in its actual sense and therefore it will serve as a good data for the type of analysis in question. Indeed Abubakar Gimba has written numerous books, but this is chosen because it serves the purpose intended.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 INTRDUCTION
Sounds are combined to form words, words are integrated in a logical manner to form phrases and phrases into sentences that carry meaning with them which help both the writer and reader to communicate and understand what is communicated respectively. Sentence is therefore noticeable in all written works and it serves as an important medium through which ideas or concepts, instructions, orders, emotion and information are shared between the writer and his readers. This is only by the varied elements that come together to make it up. It is the structure of a sentence that allows for the possibility of comprehension because it is well ordered, well arranged and well synthesized according to the linguistic pattern of that language. Boadi et al (1999: 61) write that “The totality of meaning of every stretch of language consist of some of the meaning of the unit which occurred within the stretched plus the meaning contributed by the way in which the units are organized or in order word the meaning of their structure.”
The term sentence just like other terms in linguistics does not have one standard generally agreed upon meaning by all scholars. Just like Andrew (1994: 54) observed, “linguists have problem in agreeing with how to define the word sentence. Sentence is a sequence of words whose first word starts with a capital letter and whose last word is followed by an end punctuation mark (period/full stop, exclamation mark or question mark)”. Key to Andrew’s definition is sentence as a sequence of words, the first word starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark or question mark. This definition is all encompassing except that it fails to say whether it makes a complete meaning or not. And whether these words that begin a sentence can be form word (but, because, the, an, a, and others) or content words (car, man chair, tree, house, and others) or all of them is not explained.
Ebest et al (1994: 442) defined sentence as “An independent unit of an expression”. Iscribe (2010: 54) agrees that “it is the basic unit of written English Language communication”. Ebest et al on their part look at the sentence from a semantic angle and fail to give the kind of detail clarification Andrew gave. However, it does not misrepresent what the sentence stands for.
Eyisi (1981: 34) points out that “a sentence is the chief unit of speech”. She further goes on to say that it is a minimum complete utterance and therefore may consist of one word; ‘come’, ‘run’, ‘fire’ or ‘stop’. To her, all these are sentences. But usually, a sentence consists of more than one word; they therefore have two or more elements that include the subject of a statement and a predicate. It then implies that a sentence is a unit of Language that makes a complete sense, thought or meaning.
Crystal (2003: 331) puts it that “In real life, a sentence is rarely used in isolation. Normally, sentence which “coheres” in this way is called a text – a term which applies to both spoken and written works”.
2.1TYPES OF SENTENCES ACCOURDING TO STRUCTURE
2.1.1SIMPLE SENTENCE
A simple sentence refers to an independent clause; an independent clause is a sentence that stands alone. It is autonomous and has a simple structure of subject and verb combination that expresses a single idea. This implies that a simple sentence carries one meaning or thought.
Enigle and Afrangideh (2001: 48) stated that “A simple sentence expresses only one thought or idea and contains only one clause. For example:
1. Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.
2. Examination is not the true test of knowledge.
3. The notorious robber has been apprehended.
These clauses carry only a single thought or idea. However, from the definition of a simple sentence by Enighe and Afrangideh, they fail to state whether the clause that carries a single idea is an independent clause that makes a complete sense or a dependent clause which also carries meaning but incomplete meaning or if the clause contains a subject and predicate, or even marked by a punctuation within the clause.
Banjo et al (2004) view the simple sentence as a sentence that contains one idea. It usually consists of one independent clause. Idowu (2001) agrees with this view that a simple sentence has a one clause structure; it expresses a complete meaning or thought. Purkis (1981: 48) consequently holds that “A simple sentence stands alone and makes sense by itself”. Purkis added that a simple sentence contains a finite verb”. Likewise, Boadi (1977: 156) agrees that “A ‘simple’ sentence is a sentence which contains one finite verb only”; a finite verb is a verb that functions as the verb of a clause or sentence” (Ebest et al 1994: 494). For example:
1. Ishaku played football.
2. Steve and Sarah read the book.
3. I won the competition.
‘Played’, ‘read’ and ‘won’ in sentence (1), (2) and (3) are finite verbs, telling about the action performed by the subjects as well as showing the time of the action or the tense.
According to Chukwuma and Otaburuagh (2002:114) “The two basic elements –the subject (noun) and the predicate (verb) will give a simple sentence.” Similar to this view is Jackson’s (2005) remarks which says that simple sentence is the minimal form of a sentence, it contains a subject plus (+) a verb. The subject can either be an animate or inanimate object and the verb must agree with the subject in terms of number and person. For example:
1. Maryam + laughed.
2. The water + has dropped.
3. The room + has been cleaned.
Jackson went ahead to explain that the subject slot is normally filled by a noun phrase and the verb slot by a verb phrase.
Similarly, “a simple sentence is one that contains only one subject and only one predicate” (Ayodele 2001). However, it does not matter the number of subject that is contain in the subject slot so long as they stand as a subject of a single predicate which expresses a single thought.
Finally, Crystal and Davy (1969: 46) believe that “A simple sentence consists of a subject and a predicate, with or without a complement depending on the class of verb occurring as predicate with or without one or more adverbials, and with or without vocative, direct address.”
From all the views presented and discussed, the simple sentence is a sentence structure that has one, two or more subjects and a predicate. The predicate could just contain one main verb or it may be composed of an auxiliary and a lexical verb or just a lexical verb. Also the verb may carry an object if it is transitive or without an object if it is intransitive. It only expresses a single thought or idea and it is generally devoid of complexity. Hence, its basic components are the subject and predicate with or without a complement. There is no use of conjunction in simple sentence.
2.1.2 COMPOUND SENTENCE
The word compound means something made by combining two or more things together to form a whole. Compound sentence is formed when two simple sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction such as ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘yet’, ‘or’ or by a suitable punctuation like the semi-colon or comma are fused together. For example:
1. Simon came and he conquered.
2. Nao’mi passed the exam yet she did not stop reading.
3. The teacher promise to come early, but he came late.
The underline words ‘and’, ‘yet’, and ‘but’ in the sentences above give a basic and common usage of the coordinating conjunctions used in forming a compound sentence.
“When two independent clauses containing related ideas are joined, it is referred as a compound sentence (Banjo 2004:104). For example:
1. The cage was opened, but the birds did not fly out.
2. Clean the floor or you will be punish.
3. I am strong and I am healthy.
Crystal (2003), says in compound sentences, the clauses are linked together by coordination-usually by the coordinating conjunctions: and, or, but. Each clause can in principle stand as a sentence on its own-in other word; it acts as an independent clause, or main clause.
Chukuma and Otagburuagh (2002: 89) are of the opinion that “Compound sentence has two sentence elements (clauses) that can be treated as equal partners”. But where the first clause of the sentence is an independent clause and the other that precedes it is a dependent clause then the clauses are not of equal parts and can therefore not be refer to as compound sentence. This signifies that a compound sentence combines two clauses of equal rank and is of related meaning. A sentence like:
Grace was happy while she was dancing at the party.
The inappropriateness of this sentence is that it combines an independent clause and a dependent clause as a result of using the subordinating conjunction ‘while’. The second sentence can not stand alone because of the presence of the subordinating conjunction attached to the second clause; hence they are not of equal rank. Chukuma and Otagburuagh further state that transitional words can equally be used between clauses of a compound sentence. But though such words have slight connecting force, they are not pure coordinating conjunction. These transitional words include: nevertheless, infact, however, more over, as a result, and on the other hand. For example:
Andrew’s father built him a house; infact, he provided him with all that he will need for life.
From the above example, it shows that the transitional word ‘infact’ belongs to the independent clause, it introduces and it is preceded by a semi-colon, and there is a comma to set it apart by showing that it is an independent element.
Jackson (2005) holds that a compound sentence must contain two or more principal clauses that are independent; they maybe joined by a comma and a conjunction or by a semi-colon or a colon.
As stated by the various definitions and illustrations above, the compound sentence is a sentence structure that combines two simple sentences or independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction. These clauses must be of equal structure (simple) consisting of single idea each. Unlike the simple sentence, the compound sentence also uses punctuations such as comma (,) and semi-colon (;) to join clauses together.
2.1.3 COMPLEX SENTENCE
The complex sentence behaves rather in a complex dimension than the two already discussed. The need for a complex structure arises when ideas that need to be expressed are themselves complex in nature. Human thoughts and creativities are not always simple and hence could be far beyond what the simple sentence or the compound sentence can express. This is because there are complex communicative conditions and requirements. In this situation the complex sentence becomes necessary. Also to avoid monotony of usage of the simple form the complex structure becomes indispensable.
The term complex can refer to something made up of many interrelated parts and these parts are brought together to form a whole. Complex sentence is one that contains an in dependent clause and a subordinate clause. The independent clause functions as a complete sentence. The subordinate clause also contains a subject and a verb, but can not stand alone as an independent clause. For example:
1. I saw the huge man who was lying across the road.
2. The guests enjoyed the food that was prepared by the hostess.
3. After we finished studying, Daddy and I went to the cinema.
In each of these sentences above, (1) and (2), there is an independent clause that appears first followed by the dependent clause introduced by “that” and “which”. Except in sentence (3) where it begins with a dependent clause introduced by “after” followed by the independent clause.
According to Fabb (1994: 104) “A complex sentence consists of a main clause and one or more subordinate clause”. In a similar vain, Enighe and Afrangideh (2001: 64), agree that “Complex sentence contains one main clause and one or more subordinate clauses”. Likewise, Visionite.Magazine.com (2010), states that “complex sentence has only an independent clause and other subordinate clause(s); that is the main verb plus (+) a subordinate clause(s)”. Common to these definitions is the presence of an independent or main clause and one or more subordinate clause(s). The independent or main clause functions as a complete sentence. The subordinate clause however does contain a subject and a predicate, but it cannot function as a main clause. The subordinate clause depends on the independent clause for its complete meaning. Other subordinate conjunctions are “because”, “for”, “so that”, “in other to”, and “while”. For example:
Rahila traveled abroad so that she could raise the children.
“Rahila traveled abroad” is the main clause. “So that” introduces the subordinate clause, which explains “why” “So that” she could raise the children. This clause is incapable of standing alone to make a complete sense.
Jackson (2005: 211) maintains that “A complex sentence is one in which the sentence element-clauses, no longer functions as equal partners as in the case of compound sentence. He believes that one clause is involved within the structure of another clause and so it becomes dependent. When this happens the subordinate clause depends on the rest of the sentence for its meaning since it is not capable of standing alone.
Banjo et al (2004) follows suit by saying that the complex sentence expresses at least two ideas, one which is the major idea while the other(s) is/are supplementary. To them, the major idea is contained in the independent (main) clause. While the minor or supplementary clauses are contained in the dependent or subordinate clause. This means that the complex sentence result from the inclusion of one sentence as an element in another. The included sentence is said to be “embedded” and it is term as a “subordinate”. The sentence in which it is embedded is called the main clause.
Crystal and Davy (1969: 48) remark that “A complex sentence consists of one main clause of the simple type with the adverbial element of its structure expounded by at least one dependent clause. Similarly, Purkis (1981:43) states that “Complex sentence can be made up of a single clause plus one or more nouns, adjective or adverbial clause”.
In conclusion, the basic constituent elements of the complex sentence are one independent plus one dependent clause. Due to its complex form, complex sentence expresses multiple ideas or communicates numerous information. For this reason, it has multiple subjects and predicates. It is as well characterized by subordinating conjunctions that introduce the dependent clause in the structure.
CHAPTER THREE
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION3
3.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter focuses on the procedural steps and the method used in carrying out the investigation. This study which is employed in analyzing chapter four, the middle chapter among seven others of the fictional work of Abubakar Gimba’s Innocent Victims (1988) formed the procedural methodology.
3.1 SOURCE OF DATA
The text Innocent Victims is the only source from which the analysis is undertaken. Chapter four is specifically the chapter that is analyzed. The choice of this chapter is due to the fact that it is the longest chapter and the tendency to have the most common sentence structure of Gimba is high. Focusing attention on just one of the chapters of the book does not mean that the researcher did not read the entire text. Rather, it is the limitation of time and space that has constrained the researcher to focus on the selected chapter.
3.2 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
The researcher uses excerpts from chapter four and subjects them to sentence structure analysis. This is done in other to investigate the type of sentence structure the author has employed in the text. However, it is typical of Gimba’s style to use non sentence structure in his literary work that does not belong to any of the English sentence structure. The researcher intends to analyze only structures that satisfy normal English sentences structure. For example, the simple sentence structure consists of ‘subject’ and ‘predicate’ with or without a modifier. It also expresses only a single idea:
1. Simon bought a car.
Subject predicate
2. She will be home soon.
Subject predicate
3. The village Headmaster is now a governor.
Subject predicate
The compound sentence structure has two simple sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction such as ‘and’ ‘yet’, ‘but’, and ‘or’. For example:
1. Sarah is a doctor, but she hates to see sick people.
2. Ponon washed cloths and Samuel cleared the grasses.
3. Read your books or you will fail your exams.
While the complex sentence structure comprises of one main clause and at least one or more subordinate clause(s). The clauses are separated by a comma (,), a semi-colon (;) or a subordinating conjunction. For example:
1. The sky is cloudy; it may rain.
2. The guests enjoyed the food which was prepared by the hostess.
3. After we finished studying, Daddy and I went to the cinema.
To analyze chapter four, ten excerpts consisting of thirty one sentences are analyzed. This work goes to show the most common sentence structure in the text Innocent Victims and the kind of effect it has on the work.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS
4:0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter puts attention in presenting and analyzing Gimba’ sentence structures and how they affect the overall thematic concern of Innocent Victims.
4:1 EXCERPT ONE
The Jumma’et Prayers were just over. Mamman was still contending with the trauma of yesterday’s raw deal meted out to Bakatsoro. Hitherto, he had not been able to discourse the episode with anybody. Not even his wife. He had told her that the Director for Agro-Industrial Projects fell foul of the new Military Overseer of his department. And that was all. He did not allow her to draw him into a question-and-answer session.
COMMENT:
From the above excerpt, there are seven sentences; four are simple sentences, one is a complex sentence and three do not belong to any of the normal English sentence structure. See illustration below.
The Jumma’et prayers were just over.
Mamman was still meted out to Bakatsoro.
He had not been able to discuss the episode with anybody.
He did not allow her to draw him into a question-and answer session.
The first sentence, ‘The Jumma’et prayers were just over’, expresses a single idea. Apart from this idea typical of simple sentences, the sentence just like sentence two, three and four has a subject and a verb.
COMPLEX SENTENCE
‘He had only told her that the Director for Agro-Industrial Project fell foul of the new Military Overseer of his department.’
This structure is typical of a complex sentence. The sentence expresses multiple ideas which are conveyed in the predicate part of the sentence. The sentence begins with the main clause followed by the relative clause introduced by that which makes it a dependent clause. In a complex sentence the minimum numbers of clauses are two such as in the example above.
From excerpt one; there are structures that do not belong to any of the English sentence structures. For example:
And that was all.
Not even his wife.
Hitherto.
According to Fabb (1994) the structure of every normal English sentence is the subject (noun) and predicate (verb). In line with this the constructions above lack this basic form; they are merely conversational in nature introduced in the fictional work. Hence they do not form part of the analysis.
4:2 EXCERPT TWO
“Yes. He didn’t go with his car…There he is coming”, said the girl, pointing towards an approaching Mercedes Benz of light green colour.
COMMENT:
Excerpt two consists of two simple sentences:
1. He didn’t go with his car.
2. There he is coming.
Each of these sentences expresses just a single idea. As a simple sentence, it can stand alone because a simple sentence is an independent sentence. Both sentence one and two have the S+V pattern that is the subject and verb pattern.
From excerpt two, ‘Yes’ is not classified as a complete sentence because it is a response to what was asked. Likewise it lacks a subject and a verb. The construction, ‘said the girl’, pointing towards an approaching Mercedes Benz of light green colour is mere authorial narration and not part of any of the sentence structure because it does not have any feature of the English sentence structure.
4:3 EXCERPT THREE
Faruk came out of the car. It seemed his friend would not stop over, as he immediately began to reverse out of the gate. Faruk waved him good-bye, even though he did not seem to notice.
COMMENT:
Excerpt three has one simple sentence and two complex sentences:
Simple Sentence
Faruk came out of the car.
This is a simple sentence and it tells what the subject, ‘Faruk’ did which is in the predicate, ‘came out of the car’. A simple sentence hence shows a single action which is the idea being expressed.
Complex Sentence
1. It seemed his friend would not stop over, as he immediately began to reverse out of the gate
2. Faruk waved him good-bye, even though he did not seem to notice.
Here sentences one and two express multiple ideas. As a complex sentence, both sentences begin with an independent clause. In sentence one; ‘it seemed his friend would not over’ is an independent clause expressing a single idea. The use of ‘comma’ separates the ideas and hence introduced another clause which is the dependent one. The dependent clause on its part expresses an idea that can only be meaningful when joined with the first clause expressed. Sentence two also begins with the main clause followed by the subordinate clause being introduced by the subordinating conjunction ‘even though’ which cannot stand alone.
4:4 EXCERPT FOUR
“I heard the bad story about Hali Bata”. Faruk normally called his director for the Agro-Industrial Project Division by his name.
COMMENT:
There are two simple sentences expressed in excerpt four. Sentence one expresses a single thought. Sentence two although it is lengthier than sentence one, also expresses a single idea. A simple sentence is not determined by its length just like sentence two, but the idea that is expressed and the properties contained in the sentence in terms of subject and predicate.
4:5 EXCERPT FIVE
“Honestly, I believe that the way the Civil Service works could turn an over-zealous Military reformer into a radical revolutionary, who would shoot his way out of any obstruction…We asked for all these things. Of course, I don’t condone physical humiliation of civil servant; I hate it with all my heart”.
COMMENT:
Excerpt five comprises of three simple sentences and one complex sentence.
Simple Sentence
1. We asked for all these things.
2. I don’t condone physical humiliation of civil servant.
3. I hate it with all my heart.
From excerpt five, the above sentences make complete meaning on their own. Just like every simple sentences, they express a single idea and are introduced by a subject followed by a predicate. Sentence one begins with a subject ‘we’ followed the predicate ‘asked’ that carries the remaining part of the sentence. This is also applied to sentence two and three.
Complex Sentence
I believe that the way the civil service works could turn an over-zealous Military reformer into a radical revolutionary, who would shoot his way out of any obstruction.
This sentence is typical of a complex sentence. It expresses multiple ideas in three parts. The first part of the sentence is the main clause because it makes a complete sense ‘I believe’. The second part of the sentence is a relative clause introduced by ‘that’ and the third part is introduced by ‘which’ a subordinating conjunction. Part two and three, when taken independently will not stand on their own except when they are joined to the independent clause.
However, there are constructions that are not classified in any of the normal English sentence structure, ‘of course’ and ‘honestly’. These phrases cannot stand on their own; they lack a subject, a predicate or even a modifier to make meaning.
4:6 EXCERPT SIX
Otherwise you know that he’s never late for any official assignment. The most punctual, efficient officer in the department… I don’t normally want to talk too often about him; people will say that it’s because we’re from the same Local Authority Area, indeed the same village… I tried seeing him in the hospital, but they said he wouldn’t be allowed to see anybody yet… That’s at the Emergency ward. He shrugged his shoulders.
COMMENT:
In excerpt six, there are five sentences contained. Two sentences are simple, one is a compound sentence and two are complex.
Simple Sentence
1. He shrugged his shoulders.
2. That’s at the Emergency ward.
Sentence one and two are independent expressing one idea. The subject ‘He’ in sentence one performed a single action expressed in the predicate part, ‘shrugged his shoulders’. Sentence two begins with a demonstrative pronoun ‘that’ referring to what happened at the Emergency ward.
Compound Sentence
I tried seeing him in the hospital, but they said he wouldn’t be allowed to see anybody yet.
This sentence comprises of two simple sentences:
1. I tried seeing him at the hospital.
2. They said he wouldn’t be allowed to see anybody yet.
These sentences are of equal rank because the express single idea each and the ideas make complete sense. The presence of the coordinating conjunction ‘but’ makes it a compound sentence.
Complex Sentence
Otherwise you know that he’s never late for any official assignment.
I don’t normally want to talk too often about him; people will say that it’s because we are from the same Local Area Authority; indeed the same village.
A complex sentence is one that has one main clause and at least one or more subordinate clause(s). It is joined by either by a comma, semi-column. As seen in the sentence one has one main clause and a subordinating clause by introduced by ‘that’. Sentence two has one dependent and one independent clause separated by a comma. Only a complex structure such as the ones above can be referred to as a complex sentence.
4.7 EXCEPT SEVEN
Zaalim was trying to go through the day’s newspapers Mamman got to his house. It was a busy day at the office, he said, that was why he couldn’t read any of the newspapers beyond the passing glance he had over the headlines of only a couple of them.
COMMENT
There are two complex sentences in excerpt seven.
1. Zaalim was trying to go through the day’s newspaper when Mamman got to his house.
2. It was a busy day at the office, that was why he couldn’t read any of the newspapers beyond the passing glance he had over the headlines of only a couple of them.
As a complex sentences, sentence one begins with a main clause which can stand alone, followed by the subordinating clause which begins with ‘when’ to the end of the sentence. The subordinate clause give an incomplete idea except it is connected to main clause before it can be comprehensible. Likewise, sentence two has two parts. The first part is the main clause while the second part which begins with a subordinating conjunction ‘that’ is the subordinate clause because it is incomplete.
4:8 EXCERPT EIGHT
“How’s your overseer?” Asked Zaalim, quickly interrupting Mamman incipient thought-train. He closed his newspaper and threw it on the round center-table of the sitting-room. A kind of teasing smile appeared on his face.
COMMENT
This excerpt consists of two simple sentences and one compound sentence.
(1). How is your overseer?
(2). A kind of teasing smile appeared on his face.
A simple sentence can be a statement or a question. Sentence one presents a simple question, ‘how is your overseer? Which does not need a complex answer? Hence, the sentence expresses a single ides.
Compound Sentence
He closed his newspaper and threw it on the round center-table of the sitting-room.
In this sentence, there are two simple sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction ‘and’ which is one of the basic element of a compound sentence. The coordinating conjunction separate two independent ideas.
However, there are constructions that are not considered as sentences:
(1). Asked Zaalim.
(2). Quickly interrupting Mamman incipient thought-train.
The sentences do not carry the Basic English sentence structure that is the subject and predicate. They are classified as authorial narration.
4:9 EXCERPT NINE
And together with the clerk, they left the secretariat happy. He would inform Zaalim the next morning on what had happened.
COMMENT
Excerpt nine has two complex sentences:
1. And together with the clerk, he left the secretariat happily.
2. He would inform Zaalim the next morning on what had happened.
Sentence one begins with a dependent clause which is incomplete, followed by the dependent clause which stands alone. Sentence two begins with the main clause followed by the relative clause introduced by ‘that’ giving an incomplete sentence.
4:10 EXCERPT TEN
The young man’s voice, when hitherto had been deceptively calm, betrayed the critic in him. Zaalim was quick to observe this and did not like it one bit. He nonetheless controlled his emotion.
COMMENT
The above excerpt comprises of three sentences, a simple, a compound and a complex sentence.
Simple Sentence
He nonetheless controlled his emotion.
This sentence carries a single verb ‘controlled’ hence it expresses a complete thought. Taking in isolation the sentence can still stand alone without depending on other parts to make meaning.
Compound Sentence
Zaalim was quick to observe this and did not like it one bit.
A compound sentence normally expresses two ideas. These ideas usually are in the simple sentence structure. The sentences are joined by a coordinating conjunction ‘And’.
Complex Sentence
The young man’s voice, which hitherto had been deceptively calm, betrayed the critic in him.
This sentence has an independent clause at the beginning, ‘the young man’s voice’ a subordinate clause ‘which hitherto had been deceptively calm’ and a dependent clause ‘betrayed the critic in him’. The combination of these ideas makes it a complex sentence.
From the ten analyzed excerpts above, a total of 31 sentences are analyzed. 19 are simple, 9 are complex and 3 are compound sentence. As shown above, Abubakar Gimba used more of simple sentences to convey his massage to his audience. Indeed, nothing in literature is said to happen by mistake; everything is deliberately created to achieve a particular purpose. Gimba may have decided to employ this type of sentence structure to dominate others in other to enhance clarity and avoid vagueness. The preponderance of simple sentence in the novel has made it easily understandable and straight forward. It is within the grasp of an average reader and its purpose is less likely to be misunderstood.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
5:0 INTRODUCTIONS
Chapter five seeks to summarize and conclude the study by highlighting on the major findings of the work.
5:1 SUMMARY
This research investigation focuses on the study and analysis of sentence structure in relation to literary work. It becomes essential for a research like this to be undertaking since there is a high correlation between Language (English) and literature. If the end result of every literary work is to be understood by its readers then a comprehensive understanding of how the syntax of the Language operates and affects every text is cardinal.
This study therefore investigates sentence structure in Abubakar Gimba’s Innocent Victims with the aim of clearly showing how either of the sentence types uniquely affects such literary composition.
It has been discovered that Abubakar Gimba uses more of simple sentences in this novel. His particular choice of using simple constructions instead of compound or complex is not arbitrary, but a conscious attempt to keep his readers reading and appreciating its thematic concerns. If presented otherwise, for instance in complex sentences, understanding will be probably blurred.
Equally, this research simplifies the discussions on what sentence structures are. It goes further to unambiguously depict the constituent elements of each sentence type so as to demystify the seeming difficulties that most readers encounter while reading a literary text.
5.2 CONCLUSION
Conclusively, every text or discourse is made up of words, phrases and clauses which are carefully integrated to form a unique blend of thought that captures the essence of the discourse or writing. A writer or speaker usually based on his/her intended subject matter and intended audience employs a particular sentence type that will enable him/her to appropriately transmit massages. This means that knowing the type of sentence used by a writer or speaker is of paramount importance. This work hence concludes that every text has a unique sentence structure and such structures should be appreciated before adequate, clear and true understanding of the work can be grasped.
written by Peace Kyauta Solomon.
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