A DICTIONARY OF MADA, A PLATEAU LANGUAGE ... - Roger Blench

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Mada dictionary: Front matter These are evidently very similar to the paradigm in Table 4 except for the 3s. In the case of polysyllabic verbstems, these very nearly mimic the monosyllabic paradigm except that the 3s is no longer irregular. For example, the verb gbojun, ‘to escape’ has the following paradigm (Table 9); Table 9. Tones on Mada polysyllabic verb-stems pron. am escaping 2s wə̄ là gbǒjǔn 3s gu là gbǒjǔn 2p gyə̄ là gbǒjǔn 1s Ngə̄ là gbojun 1p tə̄ là gbojun 3p bə là gbojun The uncompleted past is more distinctive however, compared with Table 6. The distinctive tone-changes in the auxiliary sə have been neutralised and the tone-oppositions marked on the verb-stem become a simple high-low opposition (Table 10); Table 10. Mada imperfective verb-stem paradigm ‘was coming’ pron. was coming 2s wə̄ sə nyə̀ 3s gu sə nyə̀ 2p gyə̄ sə nyə̀ 1s Ngə̄ sə nyə 1p tə̄ sə nyə 3p bə sə nyə The same changes apply to the verb ywe ‘to go’ but no other monosyllabic verbs of this type have yet been identified. 3.5 Adjectives Adjectives in Mada appear to be of two major types, those which follow a noun directly and show tonal concord with it and those which follow the copula or verb to be, sē. The first type is comparatively rare and those identified so far are shown in (Table 11); Table 11. Mada concordial adjectives s. pl. Gloss Example kukwɔ kukwɔ̄ small, young mbu kukwɔ small mat mbu kukwɔ̄ small mats nggɔ̀n nggɔn nggɔn big mbu nggɔn large mat mbu nggɔn nggɔn large mats bəbə̄ — decayed, rotten krī bəbə̄ mē this rotten yam goglo — hot te mə̀sər goglo cà nggə̄ m... fetch water hot bring me kənàn — much kə̄ jī kənàn much money The first two, ‘small’ and ‘big’ show tonal concord with the noun qualified, while others do not. Some of these adjectives can also act as complements to sē; kūkwɔ̌ kənàn yə̀mē sē kūkwɔ̌ this is small kə̄ kə̄ nggə̄ sē kənàn chickens my are many An unusual case is; pwà undeveloped, referring to peanuts bencwē ku pwà groundnuts fell undeveloped which might be better treated as an adverb, despite its qualifying a noun. vi
Mada dictionary: Front matter Adjectives following sē are common, and indeed this construction is widespread throughout Plateau, occurring for example in Berom and Izere. Many of these adjectives have plurals and thus agree in number with the head noun. cīnji cinji black bàbər nggə̄ sē cīnji motorcycle my is black hū hūhū wide nkɔ̀n sē hū the gate is wide. kə̄ nkɔ̀n sē hūhū the gates are wide hwyε hwyεhwyε narrow Adjectives can take diminutive prefixes like nouns and show concord with the noun they qualify; (fə-)nyεn small fəvɛ̀n mū sē fənyεn boy that is small Apart from showing agreement in number, reduplicated adjectives can indicate intensity; nyɛ̂ nnyɛ̄ n very small and animacy; hyur close (people) tə̄ sē hyur bə̄ kəywə̀ we are close to one another hyuhyur close (objects) nkɔ̀n sē hyuhyur bə̄ tə̀ the gate is close to us 4. Guide to using the dictionary 4.1 Structure of individual entries Each entry has the following order; Mada word part of speech Class Meaning Hausa other information Singular Plural n. v. Plural verbs are rarer than nouns, but they are listed in the second column where they occur. Mada also has plural adjectives. Parts of speech are given in §4.5. Class is a semantic classification used to identify different fields of meaning. It will be deleted in the printed version. Hausa is included in some cases, but will probably also be eliminated from the printed version. The final column gives examples of the words in use, but also scientific names and other types of information. Mada words are always in boldface. 4.2 Scientific Names In this dictionary, many scientific names are given for plants and animals. Scientific names are in Latin, and they are written in italics to show they are not English. Scientific names are intended to be an international language so that researchers in all countries will have a single name for a living creature, although the name in their own language will vary. For example, when the definition of a word is baobab, Adansonia digitata this means that baobab is the common English name corresponding to the Latin or scientific name following. These may not be familiar to Mada speakers, but it is important to try and identify correctly those plants and animals that people experience in their everyday life. 4.3 Nigerian English Usage Certain usages in Nigerian English have now diverged from international English, and this is a potential source of confusion in definitions. For example, 'follow' in Nigeria generally means 'to go along with', whereas in International English it means to 'go after' or 'go behind'. Similarly ‘use to' has the sense of 'customarily' in Nigeria, so 'he use to go to market' implies a practice. In International English the sense is rather 'formerly', implying that the action referred to no longer takes place. In this dictionary, International English is used for the primary definition throughout. Where Nigerian usage is given, it is always in apostrophes, thus; ‘use to' or 'fox'. vii
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Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF C O N T E N T S PREFACE ..
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A DICTIONARY OF MADA, A PLATEAU LANGUAGE ... - Roger Blench

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