Innovative features of nouns and pronouns in Chadic languages of the Nigerian Gongola-Benue basin
Innovative features of nouns and pronouns in Chadic languages of the Nigerian Gongola-Benue basin

Author(s): Sergio Baldi, Rudolf Leger
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: linguistic innovations; gender assignment; pluractionals; Intransitive Copy Pronoun; Bole-Tangale languages
Summary/Abstract: Many Chadic languages spoken in the Gongola Benue basin of North-Eastern Nigeria have undergone tremendous changes in the domain of their phonology, morphology and lexicon. This in particular concerns the languages Kwami, Kupto, Piya, Widala and Nyam, which are spoken in typical retreat areas by not more than fifteen thousand speakers. The vicinity of neighbouring Adamawa and Jarawan Bantu languages and the influence of Hausa may have led to linguistic innovations in their grammar as well as in the lexicon. The impact can often be proved by the inflation of sound systems, tone levelling in favour of the low tone and the loss of nominal plural, which generally is compensated by verbal pluractionals. The changes may be further observed in an enlargement of pronominal sets, the existence of logophoric pronouns and the use of Intransitive Copy Pronouns in the several languages.

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