Morphological Adaptation of Hausa Loan Words into Kanuri

Article Citation: Musa Grema (2020). Morphological Adaptation of Hausa Loan Words into Kanuri. DEGEL: The Journal of the Faculty of Arts and Islamic Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1. ISSN 0794-9316

MORPHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF HAUSA LOAN WORDS INTO KANURI

By

Musa Grema

Abstract

The paper attempts to identify and study those linguistic items borrowed from Hausa into Kanuri language with special attentions to the morphological processes employed in incorporating the loan words. Borrowing is a phenomenon which is as old as human social, economic, and administrative contact. As far as contact is established between two or more different linguistic communities, there is the tendency for linguistic borrowing to take place. Therefore, despite the fact that the languages under study belong to different language phyla, there exists linguistic borrowing between them. The paper focuses on the morphological adaptation of the borrowed words. The research reveals that the target language (Kanuri) employed various morphological processes in incorporating the loan words. However, suffixation is the major morphological process used by the target language in incorporating the borrowed words. The research sought data from two sources. These sources are primary and secondary. The primary source includes unobtrusive observation when discourse is taking place in Kanuri language. Similarly, the researcher’s intuition plays significant role in identifying the loan words being a native speaker of the language. On the other hand, the secondary sources include written records, such as journal articles, dissertations, thesis, dictionaries etc. The paper concludes that Kanuri, a Nilo-Saharan language borrowed a fairly good number of lexical items from Hausa, a Chadic language. The borrowed words use some native morphemes of the target language in the process of incorporation. This made the borrowed words to behave like the native words of the target language.

Introduction

Hausa and Kanuri are among the African languages spoken predominantly in Nigeria. According to Greenberg (1966), Hausa is a member of the Chadic languages which belongs to the Afro-Asiatic phylum, while Kanuri is classified as a member of the Saharan branch which belongs to the Nilo-Saharan phylum. Despite the fact that Hausa and Kanuri belong to different language phyla, there exist borrowings of linguistic item(s) between them, because there is contact between the speakers of the languages for several decades. This paper is aimed at identifying those linguistic item(s) borrowed into Kanuri from Hausa and study the morphological processes they undergo before they are fully incorporated into Kanuri. It is therefore, expected to be a major contribution in the area of linguistic borrowing and Kanuri/Hausa Linguistics to be precise.

Borrowing lexical item(s) and sometimes even phrase(s) from one language or dialect to another is a common phenomenon. Undeniably, many scholars have made attempt to describe this trend. In the words of Bussmann (1998, p. 139) borrowing is seen as adoption of linguistic expressions (which can be lexical item, phrase or both) from one language into another, usually in a situation when no term exists for the new object, concept or state of affairs. Thomason & Kaufman (1988, p. 37) are of the view that, borrowing is a process of incorporating foreign features into a group’s native language by speakers of that language; the native language is maintained but is changed by the addition of the incorporated features.

Yul-Ifode (2001) in Nneji and Uzoigwe (2013, p. 9) maintains that, borrowing simply means an aspect of lexical change. However, this process involves adding new items to a language or dialect by taking them from another language or dialect. From these, therefore, it can be seen as a morphological process that improves the lexicon of the language. Thus, accordingly Yul-Ifode (2001) cited in Nneji and Uzoigwe (2013) affirms that, there is borrowing even between dialects of the same language. The borrowed item(s) usually undergo some modifications before they are fully incorporated into the receiving language. These modifications can be phonological or morphological. Morphologically, the foreign feature usually takes the native affixes of the receiving language so that they can equally behave as native lexical items. Most of the previous studies dwelt so much on phonological adaptation of the loan words. Examples of such studies include Shettima and Abdullahi (2010); Abbas (2013); Abdurahaman, Inusa & Buba (2014); Kukuri & Grema (2013); Grema (2017) and Tambai & Elega (2017) among others.

However, scholars like Yalwa (1992), Kukuri & Grema (2012), Oh & Kim (2012), Karuru, (2013a & 2013b) and Bukar and Jibir (2016) studied the morphological behaviours of loan words in other languages spoken on earth. In view of this, the present research work focusses on the morphological adaptation of Hausa loan words in Kanuri. Kanuri language has different dialects as pointed out by some scholars. The major dialects of Kanuri are Yerwa (standard form), Manga, Dagǝra, Bilma, Koyam and Suwurti (Bulakarima, 1997, 1999, 2001; Shettima and Bulakarima, 2012). The present study is based on the Yerwa dialect.

Notes on Contact Between Hausa and Kanuri People

The relationship between Hausas and Kanuris began well before the fifteenth century during the reign of Mai Ibrahim B. Uthman, as a result of military encounter. Apart from the military encounter between Hausa States and Kanem Borno, there were also other forms of relationship that existed between them. One of such relationships was the arrival of a very powerful Borno immigrant to the city of Kano during the reign of Sarkin Kano Dauda xan Kanajeji in the fifteenth century (Usman, 1983).

Similarly, during the reign of Sarkin Kano Muhammadu Kisauki, another group of immigrants from Borno came to Kano under the leadership of ‘Goron Duma’. This group of immigrants settled near ‘Kurmi’ market. The migrations of learned men from Borno were also witnessed in Zazzau and Katsina.

Amongst the factors that encourage travels and relationships between Hausa States and Borno were environment and economy. They buy and sell commodities from one another. Potash, salt, hides and skin were among the items of trade between them. Usman (1983) also adds that Borno was regarded as a major source of horses supply to Hausa states.

In view of these, one would understand that there has been a relationship between the Hausa and Kanuri speakers for many centuries. To further buttress this point, Brann (1998) states that it is likely that some Hausa pilgrims, traders and scholars came to Ngazargamu and later to Kukawa on their way to the Holy city of Mecca, and some of them subsequently settled there.

This indicates that, there was much contact between the Hausas and the Kanuris and eventually the Kanuris adopted the Hausa language and much of their culture. This has contributed immensely to the considerable regional homogeneity found in the northern states of Nigeria today.

Reasons for Linguistic Borrowing

In fact, there are various reasons that compeled one language to borrow linguistic item(s) from another. One of the major reasons is contact with another language, when the contact is fully established usually the culture with greater prestige is the source language in most cases while the other language is considered as the target language. Similarly, the need and desire to designate new items, animals, places and concepts; is also considered as reason of linguistic borrowing, because people consider such lexical items as ready-made designations for that borrowed item. Another reason for linguistic borrowing is prestige; because mostly people believed that they take loan words from a language which they consider as prestigious. Abu-Manga (1978) affirms that Fulfulde and Hausa have extensively borrowed from Arabic due to its prestigious nature.

It is also believed that, replacement of lost words is one of the reasons that require one language to borrow linguistic item(s) from another. To buttress this point, Zarruk (1978) opines that, Hausa lost lexical items such as gòomiyaa shidà (sixty), gòomiyaa bakwài (seventy), zambàr xarii (million), etc. during the contact with the Arabic language. As a result, the language has to borrow from the other languages namely; Arabic and English in order to replace the lost ones. Other reasons for linguistic borrowing are semantic extension, solving the problems of homonyms, low frequency or low currency of words, feeling of inferiority, enhancement of communication competence among languages and promotion of scientific and technological developments (Weinreich 1963) and Olaoye 2007).

Morphological Adaptation of Loanwords

Yalwa (1992) establishes that, at the morphological level Arabic loan words in Hausa, do not produce any noticeable change or effect on Hausa with the exception of the –iyaa suffix. This is because when the lexical items are borrowed, they automatically fall into the morphological pattern of the native Hausa words. Both masculine and feminine nouns in Arabic when borrowed into Hausa, behave like their counterparts in Hausa. According to him, masculine nouns are loaned into Hausa by adding the vowels /-i/ or /-u/ while the feminine nouns end in vowel /-a. This assertion is true, because Faatsimὰ, Hὰdiizὰ, Hajὰra, Sὰfiyὰ etc. can serve as example of such loans. The Arabic proper nouns mostly end in vowel /-u/ as in Muhammadu; Ibraahiimù; Yusufu, etc. On the other hand, Kukuri & Grema (2012) worked on the morphological adaptation of Kanuri loan words into Hausa. They identify and discuss three morphological processes adapted by Hausa in nativization of Kanuri loan words. These processes are pluralization, gender formation and derivation. In pluralization processes some Hausa native suffixes (-ooCii, -unaa, -ai and aayee) are used in incorporating the Kanuri loan words. Some of the examples provided are bulaamoomii ‘village heads’, faatoomoomii ‘host’, fallunaa ‘grass roofs’, kallamai ‘foods put aside for alms’, raafanai ‘uncles’, gwaanaayee ‘experts on field of study’ etc. The native feminine morpheme -aa and –iyaa are suffixed to the masculine loan word to form the feminine nouns in Hausa, as in gwanaa ‘expert’ and waziiriyaa ‘a traditional title’. Turning to the derivation process they are able to identify the derivation of abstract noun from another noun and derivation of verb from adjectives. In this case they cited examples like ciroomaa > ciromantakaa, mairan > mairantakaa and gwanii > gwanancee.

More so, Bukar and Jibir (2016) observe that, Babur-Bura uses affixation and reduplication as morphological processes in incorporating Hausa words loaned into Babur-Bura. In an attempt to explain how affixation is used in incorporating the loan words, they were able to identify some native prefixes and suffixes which are attached to the loan words before they are fully incorporated into Babur-Bura language. According to them the prefix mdər- which stands for ‘person’ (singular) and mjir ‘people’ (plural) are attached to loan words to derive noun of agent as in macuci > mdərchuce ‘cheater’ and ‘yansiyasa > mjirsiyasa ‘politicians’. The plural marker –ayeri is suffixed to the singular loan word in order to have its corresponding plural form as in bukka > bukkayeri ‘grass huts’. The other morphological process used in incorporating Hausa loan words in Babur-Bura as mentioned earlier is reduplication where they cite examples like maza-maza ‘quickly’, dalla-dalla ‘clearly’ among others. However, Bukar and Jibir (2016) considered these example as morphologically derived but in real sense they are directly adapted from the source language. Since Hausa uses these lexical items with the same meaning and spelling.

Methodology

This research is qualitative and synchronic in nature since it focuses on the study of morphological integration of Hausa loan words into Kanuri. The data was sourced through two different sources; namely primary and secondary. The primary source involved unobtrusive observation by the researcher. The researcher’s intuition is also of great importance in gathering the data from the field. Written records such as journal articles, thesis, dissertations and dictionaries are used as secondary sources of data. Similarly, in the process of gathering the data many Hausa loan words in Kanuri were identified but only those that are relevant to the present research are used as examples in this research work.

The Result of the Study

In this part of the paper, the result (data) of the research is presented and explained. As mentioned earlier the research is qualitative in nature and unobtrusive observation is used to sought primary data. Seventy-five (75) Hausa loan words were identified from the field through unobtrusive observation. The loan words are identified and picked when a discourse in Kanuri language is taking place. The researcher being a native speaker of the target language (Kanuri) that made it easier to identify and record the loan words. After recording the loan words their etymology was checked and confirmed in the dictionary. The relevant loan words were selected and used as data of the research work.

Discussion

In this sub-section of the paper, discussion on the morphological aspect of the Hausa loan words into Kanuri is provided. It is clear that at the morphological level, Hausa words loaned into Kanuri produce some changes. The majority of the Hausa words loaned into Kanuri are nouns. Here, we are going to discuss the inflectional and derivational morphology of the loan words, as adaptation processes employed by Kanuri in incorporating Hausa loan words.

Inflectional Morphology of the Loan Words

Inflection is a branch of morphology which is mainly concerned with inflecting lexical items without bringing any change in the class of the affected lexical item. According to Abubuakar (2001), the domains of inflection are the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. But in the Kanuri language the domains of inflection are in nouns and verbs (Fagge, 1993, Abubakar, 2001, Shettima and Bulakarima, 2012). We will therefore, discuss the noun plurals of the Hausa words loaned into Kanuri in particular.

Pluralization of the Loan Words

The singular forms of the Hausa words loaned into Kanuri form their plurals by suffixing the bound morpheme –wa which is phonetically realized as [-á] due to a predominant phonological process of weakening in Kanuri language. However, it is important at this juncture to mention that as far as the high tone plural morpheme (- wá) is concerned, once it is suffixed to any stem, the preceding tones of the nominal becomes low (Shettima and Bulakarima 2012, p. 69). In other words, there is tonal polarity in this context. Consider the following examples:

(1)        Pluralization of Hausa Loan Words

	Hausa			Kanuri	Gloss
		Base	Suffix	Plural
1.	ámálánkée	ámálénké	-wa	ámálénkewá	carts
2.	agóogó	agógó	-wa	Agógowá	watches
3.	atamfá	atǝmfá	-wa	atamfawá	type of clothing fabric
4.	bargóo	borkó	-wa	Borkowá	blankets
5.	búutaa	búta	-wa	bútawá	kettles
6.	dábíinoo	dìfíno	-wa	Dìfínowá	dates
7.	farántìi	farántì	-wa	Farántiwá	plates
8.	fítílaa	fàtǝla	-wa	Fàtǝlawá	lamps
9.	gwándaa	gónda	-wa	Góndawá	pawpaws
10.	góoro	góro	-wa	górowá	kola nuts

 

In some of the examples provided above it is observed that, the high tone of the stem-final syllable turns low in the plural forms as in examples (1 – 10). This is as a result of suffixing the plural morpheme as mentioned earlier.

Derivation of the Loan Words

Derivation is a sub-field of word formation (lexical morphology) which is mainly concerned with the formation of a new word from an existing lexeme by the use of a derivational suffix. The result of such process is a derived word which acquires a different grammatical class from its base form (Abubakar, 2001, p. 21). In the case of the Hausa loan words in Kanuri some cases of derivational process are identified.

Noun of Place Derived from Common Noun

In this particular case, the derivational suffix –ri with a high tone is used in order to derive a noun of place. The derived form usually describes the residence or home of the noun base. Consider the following examples:

(1)               Derivation of Noun of Place from Common Noun.

	Hausa		Kanuri		Gloss
		Base	Suffix	Derived form
11.	Háusá	Háusá	-ri	Háusárí	Hausa ward
12.	fáawaa	fáwa	-ri	fàwarí	butcher’s ward
13.	káatáakóo	kátákó	-ri	kàtàkórí	a place where timbers are kept/sold
14.	rakée	reké	-ri	rekérí	a place where sugarcane is kept/sold
15.	keekée	keké	-ri	kekérí	where bicycles are kept/sold
16.	aléewa	aléwa	-ri	aléwarí	where sweets are kept/sold
17.	bandáa	bandá	-ri	bandárí	where smoked fish or meat are prepared/sold
18.	kárta	kárta	-ri	kártarí	where cards are played
19.	móolóo	móló	-ri	mólórí	where small type of lute is played

 

NOUNS DERIVED FROM NOUNS

A case where a derivational suffix –ram with a high tone is suffixed to the Hausa noun loaned into Kanuri in order to derive another noun describing instrument or place is also identified. Consider the followings as some of the examples:

(2)               Derivation of Nouns from other Nouns

	Hausa		Kanuri		Gloss
		Base	Suffix	Derived form
20.	asháanáa	arsháná	-ram	Arshánárám	matches box
21.	dálmaa	dálma	-ram	Dálmarám	lead container
22.	fítílaa	fàtǝla	-ram	Fàtǝlarám	where kerosene lamp is kept
23.	qúusaa	kúsa	-ram	Kúsarám	nail container
24.	rishôo	rishô	-ram	Rishôrám	where stove is kept
25.	ásúsu	ásúsu	-ram	Másúsurám	where money box is kept
26.	áwárwáróo	wórówóró	-ram	wórówórórám	bracelet container
27.	díilaa	àdìla	-ram	Àdìlarám	where bales of cloth are kept
28.	bandáa	bandá	-ram	Bandárám	where smoked fish/meat are kept
29.	taabàa	táwa	-ram	Táwárám	cigarette container

 

ANIMATE NOUNS DERIVED FROM NOUNS

A situation where a derivational suffix –ma is used to derive animate noun from another noun is also identified as one of the morphological processes used in incorporating Hausa loan words into Kanuri. Consider the following as examples:

(3)               Derivation of Animate Nouns from other Nouns.

                       

	Hausa	Kanuri			Gloss
		Base	Suffix	Derived form
30.	ámálánkée	ámálénké		Ámálénkéma	cart pusher
31.	adudu	adudu		Aduduma	metal box seller
32.	akwaatí	akute		Akutema	box seller
33.	bandáa	bandá		Bandáma	fish/meat seller
34.	varnáa	banná		Bannáma	Spoiler
35.	aléewa	aléwa		Aléwama	sweet seller
36.	ásúsu	ásúsu		Ásúsuma	money box seller/maker
37.	áwárwáróo	wórówóró		wórówóróma	bracelet seller
38.	dákóo	dákó		Dákóma	one who carry loads for money
39.	búutaa	bútà		bútàma	kettle seller

Conclusion

From the above discussion it is clear that Kanuri, a Nilo-Saharan language borrowed a fairly large number of words from Hausa, a Chadic Language. The loan words are from various sources ranging from large number to just a few. An attempt is made to show that, the borrowed words were absorbed into the morphological system of the target language. In the process of incorporating the Hausa loan words morphologically, it is established that the singular forms take the suffix –wa in forming their plural counterparts as in the native words of the receiving language. The derivational morpheme –ri on the other hand is employed to derive a noun of place as it is obtainable in the Kanuri words. It is also apparent that the suffixes - ram and – ma are employed to derive instrumental, locative and animate nouns respectively. It is important to mention that all the suffixes discuss in this present work perform the same function of inflection and derivation in Kanuri language and they are native morphemes in the language. Thus, the major finding of the research is native suffixes are used in incorporating Hausa loan words in Kanuri.

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