Cite this article as: Mohammed Gambo M. & Adamu U. A. (2025). Semantic Sameness with Phonological Variation Between Some Kanuri and Dagaza Lexemes. Zamfara International Journal of Humanities, 3(1), 80-86. www.doi.org/10.36349/zamijoh.2025.v03i01.009
SEMANTIC SAMENESS WITH PHONOLOGICAL VARIATION BETWEEN
SOME KANURI AND DAGAZA LEXEMES
Mohammed Gambo
Usman Ali Adamu
Department of Languages and Linguistics,
University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria
Abstract: Linguistics is a scientific
study dealing with the vocabularies and other properties of languages, which is
subdivided in to units that include phonology, morphology, syntax and
semantics. These units of linguistics are in most cases interwoven, in the sense
that they always operate together. This paper examines semantic sameness with
phonological variation in some Kanuri and Dagaza lexemes with the aim of
investigating their linguistic sameness and variation. The research was
conducted by extracting words that have similar pronunciation in both
languages, and analyzes the phonological properties of both languages and then
relate them to the semantic components of the extracted lexemes. The outcome of
the research revealed that, there are many lexemes with different pronunciation
pattern with the same semantic reference. This due to the fact that many
languages shared linguistic properties as a result of many factors such as
Linguistic contact, migration, natural disaster and many others. This phenomena
lead to borrowing of words between languages. It has been established that
Kanuri and Dagaza shared many linguistic properties because of their ancestral
origin.
1.0
Introduction
The Dagazza or Daza people historically lived
in northern Chad, north eastern Niger, and southern Libya. They are sometimes
called the "black nomads of the Sahara". They are distributed across
a large area in the central Sahara, as well as the north-central Sahel. They
are particularly found north of the Tibesti mountains, which in old Tebu means
"Rocky Mountains". The Daza people are found primarily in the Sahara
regions around the borders of southeast Libya, northeast Niger and northern
Chad. They consider themselves a warrior people. The Daza consist of numerous
clans, which include; the Alala, Anakaza, Choraga, Dazza, Djagada, Dogorda,
Donza, Gaeda, Kamaya, Kara, Ketcherda, Kokorda, Mourdiya, Nara, Wandja, Yirah
and many more. There are diaspora communities of several thousand of Daza
people living in Omdurman, Sudan and many part Arica.
Kanuri (/kəˈnʊəri/) is a Saharan language
continuum of the Nilo–Saharan language, family spoken by the Kanuri and Kanembu
peoples in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, with approximate 9,700,000
speakers in Central Africa as well as by a diaspora community residing in Sudan.
Kanuri consist of two main dialects, Manga dialect and Yerwa dialect. It
belongs to the Western Saharan subphylum of Nilo-Saharan. Kanuri is the
language associated with the Kanem and Bornu empires that dominated the Lake
Chad region for a thousand years.
The kanuri and Dagazza languages shared many
linguistics aspect; such word order and tonal pattern. The basic word order of
Kanuri and Daza is subject–object–verb. It is typologically unusual in
simultaneously having postpositions and post-nominal modifiers. Kanuri has
three tones: high, low, and falling. It has an extensive system of consonantal
lenition; for example, sa- 'they' + -buma 'have eaten' → za-wuna 'they have
eaten'.
2.0
Literature Review
Lexicology is a branch of linguistics
concerned with the study of words as individual items, it deals with formal and
semantic aspects of words and their etymology and history.(Hoffer, 2002:11) in
other words. Lexicology is a part of linguistics dealing with the vocabulary of
a language and the properties of words as the main units of the language. It
also studies all kinds of semantic grouping and semantic relations: synonymy,
antonym, hyponymy, semantic fields, etc. Lexicology is concerned with dictionaries,
both with the processes of compilation and with the study of the finished
products. The latter is sometimes called “metalexicography” or “dictionary
research.” The distinction is also drawn by referring to the compilation of
dictionaries as “practical lexicography” and to the study of dictionaries as
“theoretical lexicography. Dictionaries come in many shapes and sizes, in many
forms and formats; and their study reflects their diversity. Which may be
either a particular type of dictionary (e.g., dictionaries for learners,
bilingual dictionaries, historical dictionaries, sign language dictionaries,
and slang dictionaries) or a particular facet of dictionary compilation (e.g.,
defining styles, usage notes, treatment of pronunciation). Lexicology has seen
wide-ranging and radical changes in the last couple of decades, as it has been
heavily influenced by the electronic reution, not only are most current
dictionaries now available in a digital version, many older dictionaries have
also been digitized and made accessible via the Internet. The goals or uses of
dictionary are not limited to the study of meanings only, it also includes the
etymology and transformational stages of words. To determine the origin of a
lexical item(s) the lexicographer must trace the origin of a word. Therefore,
borrowing is considered to be part of dictionary making because it enables the
lexicographer to trace and prove the etymology of a lexical item(s)
According to Encyclopedia Britannica (2010)
“languages borrow freely from one another” Language borrowing usually occurs
when languages come in contact either physically or through writings or some
new objects or institution developed for which the borrowing language has no
such word in its vocabulary or the institution does not exist or eve from the
society of the borrowing language.
Borrowing of words can go in both directions
between the two languages in contact, but often there is lop-sidedness, such
that more words go from one side to the other. In this case the source language
community usually has some advantage of power, prestige and/or wealth that
makes the objects and ideas it brings desirable and useful to the borrowing
language community. The actual process of borrowing is complex and inves many
usage events. (Hall, 1977). Generally, some speakers of the borrowing language
know the source language too, or at least enough of it to utilize the relevant
words. They adopt them when speaking the borrowing language. If they are
bilingual in the source language, which is often the case, they might pronounce
the words the same or similar to the way they are pronounced in the source
language. For example, English speakers adopted the word CLIQUE from French, at
first with a pronunciation nearer to the French pronunciation than is now
usually found. Most probably the very first speakers who used the word in
English knew at least some French and heard the word used by French speakers.
(Kemmer, 2009).
1.2 Factors
Responsible for Language Borrowing
Geographical and Economic mobility are among
the major factors responsible for borrowing among languages of the world. As a
result of trading activities of the various language groups across the world,
there are so many borrowings
across languages. Hausa language like English
is one of the languages that borrowed from almost all languages it got contact
with. The language has been in contact with Arabic, English, Kanuri, and
Fulfulde, etc, this accounted for large number of borrowings in to Hausa
vocabulary.
1.2.1
Language contact
By language contact, refers to a situation
where groups, or individuals, are using different languages and their use of
language is modified as a result. This can occur in several different ways.
Clyne, M.(1972) Asserts that, English, has borrowed a great deal of vocabulary
from French, Latin, Greek, and many other languages, in the course of its
history without speakers of the different languages having actual contact; book
learning by teachers causes them to pass on the new vocabulary to other
speakers via literature, religious texts, dictionaries, etc. But many other
contact situations have led to language transfer of various types, often so
extensive that new contact languages are created. In some communities, the
ability to manipulate two or more languages can lead to very intricate patterns
of linguistic swopping. Some communities have highly regular patterns of what
is known as ‘diglossia’, where one language variety is used in informal
contexts such as the home, neighborhood, etc., and another is used in more
formal situations, usually due to prestige. Sometimes, specific words or
phrases alternate in the same sentence, and not whole languages.
1.2.2
Inter-language
According to Vivian (2009) Inter-language is
a theory that explained how non-native speakers acquire, comprehend, and use
linguistic patterns (or speech acts) in a second language.
Interlanguage reflects the learner's eving
system of rules, and results from a variety of processes, including the
influence of the first language ('transfer'), contrastive interference from the
target language, and the overgeneralization of newly encountered rules. Crystal
(1997) states that, the process of learning a second language (L2) is
characteristically non-linear and fragmentary, marked by a mixed landscape of
rapid progression in certain areas but slow movement, incubation or even
permanent stagnation in others. Such a process results in a linguistic system
known as 'interlanguage. Corder (1974) states that, inter-language is
metaphorically a halfway house between the first language (L1) and the Target
language (TL) The L1 is purportedly the source language that provides the
initial building materials to be gradually blended with materials taken from
the TL, resulting in new forms that are neither in the L1, nor in the TL. This
conception, though lacking in sophistication in the view of many contemporary
L2 researchers, identifies a defining characteristics of L2 learning, initially
known as fossilization (Selinker, 1972). The significance of interlanguage
theory lies in the fact that, it is the first attempt to take into account the
possibility of learner’s conscious attempts to control their learning. It was
this view that initiated an expansion of research into psychological processes
in interlanguage development whose aim was to determine what learners do in
order to help facilitate their own learning, i.e. which learning strategies
they employ. Selinker, (1972) states that, a fundamental concern in L2 research
has been that, learners typically stop short of target-like attainment, i.e.,
the monolingual native speaker's competence, in some or all linguistic domains,
even in environments where input seems abundant, motivation appears strong, and
opportunity for communicative practice is plentiful.
2.1
loanwords
Loanwords are words adopted by the speakers
of one language from a different language (the source language).
Languages are always on the change, and loans
must be considered as those words which were not in the vocabulary at one
period and are in it at a subsequent one, without having been made up from the
existing lexical stock of the language or invented as entirely new creations
(Robins 2000).
A
loanword can also be called a borrowing. The abstract noun borrowing refers to
the process of speakers adopting and/or adapting words from a source language
into their native language. "Loan" and "borrowing" are of
course metaphors, because there is no literal lending process. There is no
transfer from one language to another, and no "returning" words to
the source language. They simply come to be used by a speech community that
speaks a different language from the one they originated in.
However, in time more speakers can become
familiar with a new foreign word. The community of users can grow to the point
where even people who know little or nothing of the source language understand,
and even use the novel word themselves. The new word becomes conventionalized.
At this point we call it a borrowing or loanword. (Not all foreign words do
become loanwords; if they fall out of use before they become widespread, they
do not reach the loanword stage.) Conventionalization is a gradual process in
which a word progressively permeates a larger and larger speech community. As
part of its becoming more familiar to more people, with conventionalization, a
newly borrowed word gradually adopts sound and other characteristics of the
borrowing language. In time, people in the borrowing community do not perceive
the word as a loanword at all. Generally, the longer a borrowed word has been
in the language, and the more frequently it is used, the more it resembles the
native words of the language. (Hoffer, 2002:53)
Loanwords always enlarge the lexical stock of
the borrowing language. Borrowing is one of the most frequent ways of acquiring
new words, and speakers of all languages do it (Camrie, B.1981). English has
borrowed up to five thousand words (5000) from other languages, including 1,488
Chinese loanwords. Between 5,000 and 10,000 Chinese characters are used in
Japanese while Chinese borrowed more than 1,000 neologies from Japan in return.
(Ruikuo, 2005: 57)
There are uncountable numbers of words
borrowed by Hausa language from the English language. As earlier stated, after
the colonial conquest, the Hausa language came in contact with a system of
Government and administration which was unknown to the people and the language,
therefore it was inevitable for it to borrow from the language that came with
the system.
3.0 Data
presentation and analysis
This section consists of data presentation
and analysis, the data consist of some selected words in Kauri and Daza
languages
3.1
Voicing: /k/ → /g/
Voicing as phonological rule, is a process in
which voiced or voiceless sound loses or gain a voicing feature as a result of
assimilation or other phonological process. In the following Dazaga and Kanuri
data, the voiceless velar stop /k/ in Dazaga becomes voiced in Kanuri. Consider
the following examples:
Dazaga kanuri gloss
1 /aga/ /akalan/ outside
2 / kaka/ / kaga/ grandparent
3 / cugu/ /cukku/ cheese
4 /hakku/ / hagu/ right
The phonological variations that can be seen
from the above data is that, both languages maintained the velar stop /k/ and
/g/. However, in Dazaga, the intervocalic voiceless velar stop /k/ doesn’t
assimilate in term of voicing while in Kanuri, the intervocalic voiceless velar
stop /k/ of Dazaga becomes voiced in Kanuri in conformity with the phonological
voicing rule as seen in the above examples.
Additionally, when the inter vocalic stop in
Dazaga precedes a high-back rounded vowel /u/, the voiceless velar stop
intervocalic is germinated as seen in examples 3 and 4 above.
3.2
Consonant deletion: /l/→Ø
Consonant deletion inves the erasing of
consonant sound at the initial, medial, or final positon in a syllable or word.
Various phonological conditions are responsible for such process such as
phonological constrains etc. The following examples show the variation in
Dazaga and Kanuri. Consider the consonant deletion: /l/→ø:
Dazaga Kanuri Gloss
/ babal / / balbal / courtyard
/batalla/ /batala/ holiday/break
/dugulum/ /dogum/ hornless cow
In the above examples, the alveolar lateral
/l/ of Dazaga is deleted when it occurs as the coda of word initial or word
medial syllable in kanuri as seen in examples 1 and 2. However, when the
alveolar lateral /l/ occur as the unset of a closed syllable in word final
position, both the alveolar lateral /l/ and its nucleus are deleted in kanuri ,
living the coda of the syllable to become the coda of the open syllable that
precedes it as seen in example 3.
3.3 /ʧ/ →
/s/
The voiceless alveolar affricate /ʧ/ in
Dazaga is replace with a voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ in Kanuri when it
occur as the unset of a syllable. Consider the following examples:
Dazaga Kanuri Gloss
/ʧaʧalti/ /sasalti/ shine
/ʧaja/ /sasa/ game of chance
/ʧugurom/ /suwuran/ key
3.4 /g/ →
/w/
The assimilation of the voiced velar stop /g/
in Dazaga to bilabial approximate consonant /w/ in Kanuri occur when the /g/
sound occur as the unset of an open or closed syllable that has a high back
rounded vowel /u/ as its nucleus. Consider the following examples:
Dazaga Kanuri Gloss
/kasugu/ /kasuwu/ market
/sugur/ /ʃuwur/ sugar
/faguna/ /fuwuro/ student/pupil
3.5 /b/ →
/w/
In the following examples, the voiced
bilabial stop /b/ in Dazaga becomes bilabial approximate /w/ in Kanuri when it
occurs as the unset of word medial syllable. Consider the following examples:
Dazaga Kanuri Gloss
/labar/ /hawar/ information/ news
/labarti/ /lawartə/ inform
/teber/ /tewur/ table
3.6 /ʤ/ →
/z/
The syllable initial, voiced palate-alveolar
affricate /ʤ/, in Dazaga is realized as voiced alveolar fricative fricative /z/
in Kanuri. Consider the following examples:
Dazaga Kanuri Gloss
/ʤanna/ /zanna/ paradise
/ʤuʤukti/ /zozoktə/ counter
/ʤurti/ /zurtə/ pound
The first six phonological variations
mentioned above inve variations associated with consonants.
However, the following are variations
associated with vowel between Dazaga and Kanuri.
3.7 /i/
→/ə/
There are various variations that are
associated with vowels between Dazaga and Kanuri. The short high front vowel
/i/ in Dazaga is realized as mid central vowel /ə/ in Kanuri when it occur as
the nucleus of the last syllable of a word. Consider the following examples:
Dazaga Kanuri
Gloss
/amanti/ /amantə/
Trust
/asarti/ /asartə/ lost
/ajapti/ /ajaptə/ being amazed
/basarti/ /basartə/ abuse
3.8 ø → /a/
The deletion of the Dazaga low central vowel
/a/ in Kanuri occur at the environment where it appears syllable initial of a
word. Consider:
Dazaga Kanuri Gloss
/araktide/ /rakkata/ ability
/arakti/ /raktə/ be able
/ampadi/ /faida/ useful
3.9 /e/ → /a/
One of the various variations that are
associated with vowels between Dazaga and Kanuri is that of the mid front vowel
/e/ becoming low central vowel /a/. In Dazaga, the mid front vowel /e/ is
realized as low central vowel /a/ in Kanuri when it occured as the nucleus of
the first syllable of a word. Consider the following examples:
Dazaga Kanuri Gloss
/kedela/ /kazala/ District head
Kederi/ /kadara/ Destiny
/kederti/ /kadartə/ Restore
/kenti/ /kantə/ Shop
/nebi/ /nawi/ Prophet
4.
Conclusion
This paper examines the phonological
variations between Dazaga and Kanuri which both belong to the Nilo-Sahara phyla
of the African language classification. However, literature were reviewed and
data were presented and analyzed. We have seen that the variations inved both
consonants and vowels sounds. These include the variation of consonants: /k/ →
/g/; /l/→Ø; /ʧ/ → /s/; /g/ → /w/; /b/ → /w/; /ʤ/ → /z/; and variations which
inve vowels: /i/ →/ə/; ø → /a/; /e/ → /a/.
Lastly, this paper attempted to explore the
phonological variations that exist between these two Nilo-Sahara languages.
However, this paper doesn’t exhaust the variation between these languages.
Thus, we recommend that further studies should be carried out in order to
contribute to the codification of these languages.
Reference
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4. Toure B. (1975) Dazaga: A language of Chad.
5. MacMichael, H.1922) A history of the Arabs in
the Sudan and some account of the people
who preceded them and of the tribes
inhabiting Darfur. Jarul salam press Niami
6. Raymond W. (1994). Africa's Wars and Prospects for Peace. Sharpe printing press.
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