A Lexicographic Approach to the Study of Pabәr (Babur) East and Pabәr (Babur) West Lexical Variation

Citation: Dr. Saleh JIBIR, Dr. Abdulrahaman Idriss ABDULWAHEED, Nasir Usman NASIR & Sani SAIDU (2025). A Lexicographic Approach to the Study of Pabәr (Babur) East and Pabәr (Babur) West Lexical Variation. Yobe Journal of Language, Literature and Culture (YOJOLLAC), Vol. 13, Number 1. Department of African Languages and Linguistics, Yobe State University, Damaturu, Nigeria. ISSN 2449-0660

A LEXICOGRAPHIC APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF PABӘR (BABUR) EAST AND PABӘR (BABUR) WEST LEXICAL VARIATION

BY

DR. SALEH JIBIR

DR. ABDULRAHAMAN IDRISS ABDULWAHEED

NASIR USMAN NASIR

SANI SAIDU

Abstract

The major focus of this study is to investigate the salient issues on Pabǝr East and Pabǝr West dialects variation, from phonological paradigm through lexicographical approach. Multiple methods were used in collecting the data for this research which involves interview and interaction with speakers of the dialects as well as questionnaire which consists of 200 vocabulary items of Swadesh word list. This study adopts The modern lexicographic theory developed by researches from Centre for Lexicography at Aarhus School of Business since the early 1990. The adaptation of lexicographic approach became necessary as put forward by Mahanta (2019), because its significant source of language exploration inasmuch as it provide the meaning of words, spellings, correct pronunciation along with many other necessities. The findings of this research have recorded about four interested lexical differences between Pabər East and Pabǝr West dialects which includes: lexical differences due to sound changes, uniqueness of lexical changes, lexical similarities and lexical difference on borrowed lexical items. The researchers concluded that the two dialects are kind of languages family that are affected by some factors like geography, social status and culture of some neighboring societies which shows some influence on the two dialects.

 Keywords: Pabǝr/Bura, dialects, variation, Generative, phonological, and Difference.

1.0 Introduction

Languages across the world are noted for dialectal diffusion, therefore every language presents its internal differences among its speakers. These differences vary in terms of pronunciation (phonetics/phonology) or choice of lexical formation (morphology) and their meanings (semantics) and sometimes the use of syntactic rules (Syntax) (Abu Shareah, Mudhsh and Al-Takhayinh 2005).

Ethnologically, there are estimation of 250 ethnic groups in northern Nigeria, Pabǝr/ Bura area contains among other co-dwellers: (Babur with variant name as Pabǝr, Bura), Chibok, Marghi, Pidlimdi, Tera, Jara, Kanakuru, Kombari, Fulani and Kitaku or settled Fulani (Usman, 2015).

The major focus of this research is to investigate the salient issues on Pabǝr East and Western Pabǝr dialects variation, from phonetics/phonological paradigm through lexicographic approach in order to bring to the fore illuminating findings on whether Pabǝr East and Pabǝr west are different dialects linguistically. Pabǝr East and Pabǝr West are dialects of Bura language spoken in some parts of Biu Emirate northern part of Borno State, and some parts two Local Government Areas of Gujba and Gulani of Yobe State.

1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

The aim of this work is to study the dialect variation of Pabǝr East and Pabǝr West from their phonological resources. Through the following objectives:

i.Identify the variation in the phonetic inventory of Pabǝr East and West and their phonological difference in their lexical inventory.

ii.Classify the identified variations in both phonetics and phonology of the language according to the processes involved.

iii.Delineate and explain the similarities and differences of Pabǝr and East and West from their phonological variations.

iv.To organize the identified lexical items through lexicographic approach. So as to preserve the vocabularies from the problem of extinction facing the language.

1.3 Significance of the Study

The importance of this study lies in the fact that it is relevant to the study of the two dialects Pabǝr East and Pabǝr West particularly on the issue and types of lexical differences. It is also significant to linguists that have interest specifically in dialect variation and lexicography. It will be a revelation to scholars in the field of language and linguistics in preserving the vocabulary of language, and the government in safeguarding the problem of languages extinction facing the language. It will pave way for further research in the area of lexicographic linguistics. It will also pave way for further research in the area of lexicographic linguistics. Moreover, it will facilitate the understanding of students, scholars, researchers and academics researching in the field of lexicography. It will also contribute to the existing body of knowledge in the field. Finally, the result of the research can be used as a written document to preserve the subdialect extinction of language loss due to the growth of language use in modern life.

1.4. Scope and Limitation of the Study

This research is on Pabǝr East spoken in some part of three District of Buratai, Gunda and Mirnga of Borno State, and Pabǝr West dialects spoken in some part of three District also of Bara, Bularafa and Gujba of Yobe State. It is delimited to lexical differences of the dialects from the lexico-semantic and phonological aspect through lexicographical approach.

2.0 Literature Review

Every language has its varieties or dialects, when a certain variety of a language is used according to the users then it is called dialect, dialects are normally determined by speaker’s geographical background. O. Grady et al as in Abu shareah et al (2015: p2) defines dialect as “A regional or social variety of a language characterized by its own phonological, syntactical and lexical properties”. If we take English as an example in Britain, there are huge numbers of dialect of English which differ from each other according to the geographical area e.g. the Scottish dialect, Yorkshire dialect, Lancashire dialect.

In other words, dialect is a distinctive form of a language, it is associated with some social, regional, group and ethnic, it differs from other varieties of a language by its own linguistics features such as vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar. It is a different way of saying the same thing where it reflects the social structure as gender, class or origin.

Abu shareah et al (ibid) concluded by saying no human language is stable, unvarying or uniform, all languages present internal differences. Actually usage varies from people to people, and user to user, in terms of the pronunciation, or the choice of lexicon and meaning of those lexicon and even the use of syntactic rules. 

Dialect can be regarded as subdivision of particular language (Chamber and Trudgill 2004 as in Tesa and Rosa 2019). Since human produces language for communication’s need, the language continually changes. The changes of a language produce the difference way of using the language which is introduced as dialect. People who live in one area usually use the same language, but they have different way of deliver messages. The different way of deliver messages can be referred as dialect.

According to Crystal (1997) dialect is a system of language used by a particular society in order to distinguish them to the other society in the same language. In each dialect, there might be sub-dialect. Sub-dialect is a sub-division of dialect, sub-dialect can be divided further, ultimately down to idiolects. Normally, subdialects of one dialect are quite close to each other, mainly different in pronunciation and certain local word.

On the other hand, according to Mahanta (2019:269), Lexicography is the art and science of making dictionaries. The term “Dictionary” is derived from Greek word “Lexicographos” from Lexicon. Lexicon is defined as Dictionary especially of an ancient language. A dictionary deals with the individual words of a language so as to set forth their orthography, pronunciation, derivation, history etc. the lexical stock of a particular language comprises the sum total of all the word available in the language. But word has its own entity. It becomes related to other lexical items. All these things are to be scientifically treated in lexicography.

2.1 Pabәr/Bura Study

It is observed that there is no much study on dialectal variations of the Pabǝr-Bura language within the frame work of linguistics. Badejo (1987) is the first study that investigates the dialectal differences between Pabǝr and Bura using phonetic description to assert his assumptions. In his findings, he observes that there are two dialects of Bura language viz: Bura and Pabǝr. Badejo argues along homographic and homophonic conflict between the two dialects of the language using tone to justify his claims. 

On another hand, Mohammed, Dikwa and Babikkoi (2007), revisit the issue of dialect variations of Pabǝr-Bura language within the paradigm of descriptive phonology. From the phonological rules, Mohammed et. al (2007) discover that the two dialects differ in phonological operations that distinguish them into two different dialects. These phonological operations include: retroflexation, affrication, palatalization, and consonant deletion. Similarly, Mohammed, Shettima and Mu’azu (2002) in their paper titled ‘assimilation processes in Bura’ identified four types of assimilation processes that operate in the language namely: palatalization, labialization, nasal assimilation and vowel assimilation. While, Mu’azu and Balami, (2010) discovered two major distinctions between the two dialects namely: lexical and phonological variations

As local language Bura has two sub-dialects Eastern and Western pabər dialects. The Eastern dialect is widely spoken in Biu Emirate which comprises four District areas of Biu, Mirnga, Buratai and Gunda in southern part of Borno State. While, the Western dialect is found in three district of Gujba, Bularafa and Bara all in Yobe State.

3.0 Research Methodology and Theoretical Framework

This section of the of research focuses on the methodology and theoretical framework. Data collection procedure and analysis. The area covered for the research the number and description of informants in each town/village based on the age –group, sex, and educational background.

3.1 Resarch Methodology:

This research which is based on lexico-semantic variation in Pabǝr East and Pabər West Dialects involves field work research. Multiple methods were used in the collection of data for this research, which involved a number of visitation, interviews, observation and interaction with the native speakers. The interviews involve verbal and written questionnaires. Questionnaires for this research is the guiding instrument of the interview. The questionnaires consist of vocabularies (Swedish word list) arranged alphabetically asking for it equivalents, pronunciation and meanings in either Pabǝr East and Pabǝr West Dialect.

The questionnaire for the interviews is design in such a way to find out about words that are common across the two dialects. Words whose pronunciation differ but whose meaning remains the same, and words whose pronunciation and meaning differ. Similarly, words that are localized to a particular dialect or area. The researcher carryout unobtrusive observation in the word list or vocabularies collected in order to validate them.

3.2 Study Area:

This research is limited to the areas covering some Districts of Biu Emirate which is in Southern Borno State, which include: Mirnga, Gunda and Buratai. Biu Emirate had about more than 500,000 populations. There were equally quite a large number of villages in these three Districts. Among the villages some are predominately domicile by Pabǝr East dialects/speakers. The research area also includes three (3) Districts of the two Local Governments Areas of Yobe State which includes: Bara, Bularafa, and Gujba respectively which has large number of Pabǝr West Dialect/speakers.

3.3 Population of the Study Area

The population of this research includes all the native speakers of Pabər (Babur) East and Pabər West living within the study area.

3.4 Procedure for Population Selection

Forty (48) informants were considered as respondents for this research, eight (8) from each Districts of the Biu Emirate, Gujba and Gulani respectively. The criterion for the selection of informants is based on age, sex, educational background, and occupation. To avoid being bias in the selection, the population will be divided into two, 4 males and 4 females using random sampling techniques.

The table below shows representation and distribution of informants in each of the Local Government Areas.

DISTRICTS	INFORMANTS’ GENDER			INFORMANTS’ AGES AND GENDER
				25-35		35-40		40-60		over 60
	M	F	TOTAL	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F
MIRNGA	4	4	8	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
GUNDA	4	4	8	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
BURATAI	4	4	8	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
BARA	4	4	8	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
BULARAFA	4	4	8	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
GUJBA	4	4	8	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
TOTAL	24	24	48	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6

 

3.5 Theoretical Framework:

The modern lexicographic theory was adopted for this research. This theory was developed by researches from Centre for Lexicography at Aarhus School of Business since the early 1990. (Bergnhehatlz 1998, Tarp 2002, Bergnhehatlz /Karfimnn 1997, Bergnhehatlz/Nulsen 2002, Bergnhehatlz/ Trap 2002, as in Mahata 2019). The development of the theory lies in the fact that it provides tools for better understanding of the concept and production of the lexicographical work. Scholars like Yukio Tono, Russian lexicographer, various South African Lexicographers Czech American lexicographer support the need for lexicographic theory. This theory like general theory considers lexicography as an independent scientific discipline. It is now no more considered as a branch or sub discipline of linguistics though it has much inter-related with linguistics. According to Zgusta (1971), lexicographers should be with linguistics in much broader sense. The theory of lexicography is connected with all the disciplines which study the lexical, semantics, lexicology, grammar and stylistics. Lexicography and Dictionaries are meant to fulfill certain needs of human beings. Therefore, all the considerations related to lexicography, theoretical or practical alike, must be based upon these needs. It should aim at specific problems for specific target users with specific characteristics in specific user situation. The basic area of a lexicographer’s study is human activities; it finds out needs that can be satisfied by the dictionary. 

The adaptation of lexicographic approach became necessary as put forward by Mahanta (2019), because its significant source of language exploration inasmuch as it provide the meaning of words, spellings, correct pronunciation along with many other necessities. It is one of the most powerful tools providing the readers the best and most comprehensive information about words. 

4.0 Research Findings

4.1 Lexical Differences:

The researchers identified several interested lexical differences between Pabər East and Pabər West sub-dialects, which includes: lexical differences due to sound changes, uniqueness of lexical changes, lexical similarities and lexical difference on borrowed lexical items.

(1) Lexical difference due to sound change: These kind of changes words from Pabər East dialect undergo some processes such as deletion, insertion and suffixation at the initial, medial or final positions of some segments before finally become Pabər West words. The affected words in Pabər West will maintain similar meaning despite the changes in some segments as can be seen in the table (1) below:

Table: (1) lexical difference due to sound changes

S/no	Word	Pabər East		Pabər West
		Word	Phonetic	Word	Phonetic
1	Where	Amari	[ʔáamáarí]	Amma	[ʔáammà]
2	Not	Awo	[ʔáawò]	Awa	[ʔáawá]
3	Far	Cicu	[ʧíʧù]	Ciju	[ʧíʤù]
4	Farm	Faku	[fákù]	Fowu	[fówò]
5	Inlow	kəsi	[kəˋsì]	kəsai	[kəˋsaì]
6	Star	Sasilka	[sásìlká]	Sasirka	[sásìrká]
7	Smell	Shuri	[Ṡùrí]	Shiwur	[Ṡíwùr]
8	Seed	Wulfu	[wùlfù]	Hulfu	[hùlfù]

 

It can be observed from the above data that, some words in Pabər East undergo some processes such as deletion, insertion and suffixation at the initial, medial or final positions of the words in Pabər west due to factors like geography and social which have some impacts on their dialect. Eg. The word /Amari/ (where) in Pabər East becomes /Amma/ after deletion of /ri/ syllable at the final position. Meanwhile, /m/ segment is suffixed to the root word to become /amma/. Similarly, the word /awa/ (not) become /awo/ after the deletion of final vowel /o/ in Pabər East then the vowel /o/ is suffixed in Pabər West.

(2) Uniqueness of Lexical difference: This changes affect words that are synonymous with the one in other dialect. The vocabulary uses of Pabər East become unique words that sometimes really different from the Pabər West, i.e. related in meaning not in lexical. The examples of the difference can be seen in the table (2) below:

Table: (2)

S/no	Word	Pabər East		Pabər West
		Word	Phonetic	Word	Phonetic
1	Foot	Pli sil	[plì sìl]	Mandaɓa sil	[màndàɓà sìl]
2	Dust	birɓir	[bìtɓìr]	Kalau	[kàlaú]
3	Thought	Dzama	[dzàmà]	koma	[kòmà]
4	Wedding	Wujir	[wùjír]	Lorsa	[lòrsá]
5	Condolence	Vi tuwa	[vì tùwà]	Taji	[tájí]
6.	In-low	kəsi	[kəˋsì]	Tiwu	[tíwù]
7.	Discussion	Gari	[gàrí]	Səmana	[səˋmànà]

 

From the data in the above table (2) shows how word in Pabər East differ from the words in Pabər West. In other words, they are synonymous because they have the same meaning or sense. Eg. The word /Pli sil/ (foot) and /birɓir/ (dust) in pabər East become /mandaɓa sil/ and /kalau/ in Pabər West respectively. Despite these changes and uniqueness of the affected words they still have similar meaning or sense which is foot and dust in the two dialects.

4.2 Lexical Similarities:

Pabər (Babur) East and West have several lexical similarities, the similarities of each area (district) are the same in lexical and meaning. When the speakers of East and West dialects speak to each other, they can understand every word or utterances easily without misunderstanding or ambiguities. Some examples of similarities can be seen in table (3) below:

Table: (3)

S/no	Word	Pabər East		Pabər West
		Word	Phonetic	Word	Phonetic
1	All	Shang	[Ṡáŋg]	Shang	[Ṡáŋg]
2	Ashes	Pijiu	[pìnʤìu]	Pijiu	[pìnʤìu]
3	Animal	mwoɓi	[mw òɓì]	mwoɓi	[mw òɓì]
4	Back	bwahili	[bwàhìlì]	Bwahili	[bwàhìlì]
5	Belly	Kuta	[kwùtá]	Kuta	[kwùtá]
6	Child	Kyer	[kyèr]	Kyer	[kyèr]
7	Day	Viri	[Vìrí]	Viri	[Vìrí]
8	Die	Mta	[mtá]	Mta	[mtá]
9	Eat	səma	[səˋmá]	səma	[səˋmá]
10	Egg	Thithi	[thìthì]	Thithi	[thìthì]
11	Far	chichiu	[ʧíʧíu]	Chichiu	[ʧíʧíu]
12	Fear	Hiviri	[hìvìrì]	Hiviri	[hìvìrì]

 

As can be seen from the data presented, despite the differences in district areas and other factors like geography, social and others, it causes no changes of the lexical or the entire words, these words are still the same in lexical and in meaning. This has also shown that there is mutual intelligibility between the two dialects.

4.3 Borrowed Words

One of the most frequent processes in word creation in any language is through borrowing. The early contact between Pabər and Hausa has made Pabər to borrow from Hausa language. Similarly, such words have undergone many phonological and morphological processes before adaptation into the two dialects as can be seen in table (4) below:

Table: (4)

S/no	HAUSA	GLOSS	Pabər East		Pabər West
			Word	Phonetic	Word	Phonetic
1	Dabara	Plan	Daɓara	[dàɓárá]	Dabari	[dàbárá]
2	Dabino	Date	Dibino	[dìbìnò]	Dibinau	[dìbìnáu]
3	Bariki	Barrack	Bargi	[bárgì]	Balgi	[bálgì]
4	Dankali	Potato	Dangali	[dàngàlì]	Dangari	[dángárì]
5	Asibiti	Hospital	Azibiti	[ʔázìbìtì]	Asibidi	[ʔásìbìdì]
6	Labule	Curtain	laɓəle	[láɓəˋlé]	labəle	[lábəˋlè]
7	Almakashi	Scissors	Makasu	[mákàsù]	Magasu	[mágàsù]
8	Shinkafa	Rice	Shingafa	[Ṡìngáfá]	Shinkafa	[Ṡínkáfà]

 

The data above shows the lexical variation borrowed from Hausa language. Where borrowed words like /dabino/ (date) and bariki (barrack) become /dibino/ and /bargi/ in Pabər East and /dibinau/ and balgi/ in Pabər West respectively. In this process the final vowel /o/ in /dibino/ in Pabər East is change to diphthong /au/ Pabər East to become /dibinau/. Similarly, flap /r/ in /bargi/ in Pabər East is deleted and replaced with lateral /l/ in Pabər West. Etc. 

5.0 Conclusion

The above findings have recorded about four interested lexical differences between Pabər East and Pabǝr West dialects which includes: lexical differences due to sound changes, uniqueness of lexical changes, lexical similarities and lexical difference on borrowed lexical items.

The researchers concluded that the two dialects are kind of languages family that are affected by some factors like geography, social status and culture of some neighboring societies which shows some influence on the two dialects.

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