Kolokuma ideophones.pdf - Roger Blench

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Roger Blench Izọn templatic ideophones Circulated for comment Static sakeléè sakaláà lower limbs are smaller than the body tall, thin with a badlyproportioned body and tiny legs not very tall; thin and delicate in posture Moving, unbalanced unbalanced person sákelesàkele not attested tall -a-e-e sákalasàkala not attested medium -a-a-a Exact segmental reduplication with a polar tone is used to contrast static and moving objects. Vowel height a→e→o indicates the height of the thing described, with the low central vowel suggesting the least height. Combinations of vowels are applied to signify elements of what is described, such ‘tall but with thin legs’, suggesting something out of proportion. Nzọn also uses the switch between ±ATR vowel qualities to signify an overall size distinction, hence the alternation o/ọ in the derivations of sókoroò. Paradigms are never perfect; two potential forms are not attested and are given in italics in a reconstructed form, following the logic of the other items. 5. Are there parallels elsewhere in Njọ? Given the density of the system in Nzọn it can reasonably be asked whether such systems exist elsewhere in the Njọ group. Maduka (1988) has explored the ‘phonosemantics’ of ideophones in Nembe and reached similar conclusions concerning the correlation of vowel height with size and shape. Documentation is an issue; only very large dictionaries cite enough material to provide evidence for more recondite types of ideophone and Nembe is the other language for which such a dictionary exists (Kaliai 1964; rev. ed. Kaliai, Williamson & Blench ined.). The Nembe dictionary has the problem that ideophones are not specifically marked, and are listed under adjectives, adverbs and sometimes verbs. Moreover, Nembe has a morphological process for marking adverbs, the addition of a suffix, -mọ, which is a verbal extension in Nzọn. The revised version of the dictionary does indicate ideophones through secondary re-analysis. With these caveats in mind, it seems there are certain pan-Njọ similarities. For example, there is clearly a consonantal frame to denote unsteady walking, related to the examples in Table 8. Table 10 shows a related set of Nembe ideophones around the notion of walking an unsteady manner or tottering. ̣ Table 10. A Nembe template t-k-r describing unsteady entities Nembe Gloss tẹrẹ to support; keep from falling téketéke totter; walk unsteadily and fast (especially of child learning to walk, or somebody staggering) tekéke unsteady; insecure téperetépere unsteady; tottering wekélewekéle unsteady (of canoe) yẹkérẹyẹkéṛẹ unsteady; restless (behaviour) kérekére unsteady in behaviour kérekére léelée unsteady lékeléke unsteady; restless leketélekete wavering, oscillating unsteadily; becoming unsteady The basic verb underlying these may be tẹ(ke)rẹ ‘support; keep from falling’ although the ATR vowel alternation is unexplained. This can be reduplicated in various ways and then shortened to produce such forms as tekéke. The k→p alternation in téperetépere almost certainly reflects original k→kp, attested in Nzọn and then a loss of the velar onset. As with the examples in §3.5, the initial consonant can undergo mutation (t → w,y) to describe slightly different types of unsteadiness. Strikingly, in Nembe, both syllable metathesis and complete syllabic reversal (C 1 /C 2 /C 3 → C 3 /C 2 /C 1 ) are permitted, hence leketélekete, which is in turn shortened to lékeléke and then léelée, creating forms which have hardly any surface similarities to the orginal template. Nembe does not seem to use word-internal shifts in vowel height to signify size properties of the entity described. The Nembe system has yet to be fully documented, but it is clear that it 10
Roger Blench Izọn templatic ideophones Circulated for comment bears more than passing similarities to the Nzọn system, both at the structural and segmental levels. Eventually, more detailed descriptions of other Ijoid languages may permit a deeper analysis of the system at a family level. 6. Conclusions Ideophones in Nzọn are a rich lexical field which has so far lain undescribed. Although Nzọn resembles other branches of Niger-Congo in general morphology, it has a number of distinctive features which seem to be characteristic of Njọ in general and which are not necessarily widespread in Africa. The most striking of these is the use of consonant templates, with a basic triliteral system, which can be modified by the application of different vowels, and by deletion of one or more consonants from the template, as well as reduplication and triplication. There are also a number of low-incidence processes, which seem to have expressive content, such as final vowel-lengthening, nasalisation and initial consonant replacement. However, examples are too few to make effective generalisations. Expressive systems in African languages are often complementary; where morphological loss in one area causes a lacuna in the semantic repertoire, another part of the system is rebuilt to express those same ideas using different means. The structuring of ideophones is relatively unusual and Nzọn has gone further in this direction than most Niger-Congo languages, although the system could never be described as a truly inflectional. Nonetheless, by taking structural elements found across ideophones in West Africa, Nzọn is moving away from the depictive pole towards a descriptive system. Evidence from related languages such as Nembe suggest there are still other strategies in the morphological repertoire which can be systematised to enrich it. References Awoyale, Yiwọla 1989. Reduplication and the status of ideophones in Yoruba. Journal of West African Languages, XIX:15-34. Blench, R.M. 2010. The Sensory World: Ideophones in Africa and elsewhere. In: Perception of the Invisible: religion, historical semantics and the role of perceptive verbs. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 21. Anne Storch ed. 271-292. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. Blench, R.M. in press. Mwaghavul expressives. In Selected papers from the Sixth Conference in Chadic Lingusitics. H. Tourneux ed. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. Blust, Robert 2001. Thao triplication. Oceanic Linguistics, 40(2): 324-335. Bynon, J. 1970. A class of phonaesthetic words in Berber. African Language Studies, XI:64-80. Childs, G. Tucker 1988. The phonology of Kisi ideophones. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 10(2):165-190. Childs, G. Tucker 1994. African ideophones. In Sound symbolism. Hinton, Leanne, Nichols, Johanna and John J. Ohala eds. 178-204. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Crowther, Samuel Ajayi 1852. A Vocabulary of the Yoruba language, Together with Introductory Remarks by the Rev. O. E. Vidal, M.A. London: Seeleys. Diffloth, Gérard 1976. Expressives in Semai. Austroasiatic Studies 1, Oceanic Linguistics. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, Special Publication 13: 249-264. Diffloth, Gérard 1994. i: big, a: small. In: Sound symbolism. L. Hinton, J. Nichols & J. Ohala eds. 107-114. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dingemanse, Mark 2011. The meaning and use of ideophones in Siwu. Ph.D. University of Nijmegen. Enfield, Nick J. 2007. A Grammar of Lao. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Fortune, George 1962. Ideophones in Shona. Oxford University Press: London. Hinton, Leanne, Nichols, Johanna and John J. Ohala 1994. Sound symbolism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Johnson, Marion M. 1976. Towards a definition of the ideophone in Bantu. Working papers in linguistics, 21: 240-253. Ohio State University. Kakehi, Hisao, Ikuhiro, Tamori & Lawrence C. Schourup (eds) 1996. Dictionary of Iconic Expressions in Japanese. Trends in Linguistics Documentation. Berlin/New York : Mouton de Gruyter. 11
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