The Nkoroo pronominal system

Ebitare F. Obikudo Department of Languages & Linguistics Delta State University [email protected]

Abstract The pronominal system of any language belongs to the closed class of lexical items. It does not permit new members and is most unlikely to undergo change in the face of no that is greatly endangered, reveals that retains all its pronoun forms. The only change seems to be phonological – the case of the palatal nasal [ɲ] being weakened to a palatal approximant [j] in the case of the independent possessive pronouns. This is obvious when compared to its linguistic relatives, , where the palatal nasal is still retained. ongoing grammatical description of the language. 1.0. Introduction

Th

(alongside Defaka) and in some other smaller villages. -

residence in the midst of the Andoni and by their proximity to the Ogoni a speaking groups may have given rise to a dialect that is a little divergent from its most closely related linguistic relatives; K , Okrika an . Not much linguistic work has been done on and there is no standard orthography for the language. As such, all the data presented in this work are a phonetic transcription of the sounds using the IPA symbols.

Pronouns refer to a closed class of lexical items that can be substituted for nouns. In other words, they have the same distributional potentials as nouns. Various types of pronouns exist in the languages of the world. The terminology however varies between grammars. The pronoun class after the noun. We can identify four types of pronouns ; the personal, reflexive, reciprocal, and indefinite pronouns. These four types of pronouns alongside their functions will be described in this paper. The fieldwork that produced the data for this work was made possible by an NSF grant 0553971 awarded to Akin Akinlabi and Bruce Connell to . The author also acknowledges the members of the project ː B C z -mekuri Ndimele, Inoma Essien and Will Bennett. 2.1. Personal pronouns The personal pronouns include subject, object and possessive. They exhibit the

grammatical categories of 'person', 'number' and 'gender'. There are two types of personal pronouns; the short pronouns and the long pronouns. The short pronouns are the normal forms used in non-emphatic contexts, although they may also occur in emphatic contexts, while the long pronouns are used in emphatic contexts. The short pronouns are actually a reduced form of the long pronouns derived from its first syllable. recognises a three-person distinction in pronouns. These are the first person which corresponds to the speaker, the second person which corresponds to the hearer and the third person which corresponds to the entity being talked about. The language also makes a two-way number distinction between singular and plural in its pronominal system. Each person is marked for number and so consists of a singular and a plural form, that is, first persons singular and plural, second persons singular and plural, and third persons singular and plural. In addition, there is a sex-based gender contrast in the third person singular pron – , and are used to mark possession. The possessive pronouns cliticise with their host nouns. Nouns are always HL with high toned pronouns and LL with low tone pronouns. Both short and long pronouns retain their forms and tones in all contexts regardless of the function they perform. However, there are some short pronouns whose forms vary depending on whether they are followed by a consonant-initial word, a vowel-initial word or a word beginning with a syllabic nasal. The following are the short pronoun forms as used in non-emphatic contexts. 2.1.1. Short (non-emphatic) personal pronoun forms All forms of the short pronouns are monomoraic bearing either a high or a low tone. The third person plural does not have a short form. remains the same in both emphatic and non-emphatic contexts. Only the short pronouns can be used to express possession. First person singular short pronoun ː

(cf. 1) when

followed by consonant-initial words and (cf. 2 & 3) when followed by vowel-initial words or words that begin with syllabic nasals. These forms are the same for subject, object and possessive. First person singular subject pronoun ( / 1.

)

'I ate food' 1SG food eat

2.

'I went' 1SG go

3.

ʒ dʒ 1SG fish sell

'I sold fish'

First person singular object pronoun ( /

)

4. t PN 1SG beat

'

5. t PN 1SG see

'

First person singular possessive pronoun ( / 6.

ʒ

)

'my book' ]1 'my bag'

ɡ

'my wealth'

When the 1st person singular possessive pronoun ( ) precedes a vowel-initial noun, the vowel [e] assimilates all the features of the following vowel. This results in a lengthened vowel which is often realised as a short vowel in rapid speech. 1

First person plural short pronoun The first person plural pronoun does not exhibit any inclusive/exclusive opposition. The short form is . It functions as subject, object and possessive. First person plural subject pronoun ( 7.

)

'We ate food' 1PL food eat

8.

'We went' 1PL go

9.

ʒ ʒ 1PL fish sell

'We sold fish'

First person plural object pronoun (

)

10. t PN 1PL beat

'

11. t PN 1PL see

'

First person plural possessive pronoun ( 12.

ʒ

)

'our book' 'our bag'

ɡ

'our wealth'

Second person singular short pronoun The second person singular personal pronoun also has two short forms identical to the first ː before consonant-initial words and

before vowel-initial words or words that begin with a syllabic nasal.

Second person singular subject pronoun ( / ) 13.

'You (sg.) ate food' 2SG food eat

14.

'You (sg.) went' 2SG go

15.

ʒ ʒ 2SG fish sell

'You (sg.) sold fish'

Second person singular object pronoun ( / ) 16. t PN 1SG beat

(sg.)'

17. t PN 1SG see

(sg.)'

Second person singular possessive pronoun ( / ) 18.

ʒ

2

'your (sg.) book' 'your (sg.) bag'

ɡ

'your (sg.) wealth'

2

This example reflects how possessive pronouns cliticise with their host nouns. All the nouns in the data above are HL because the second person singular possessive pronoun is high toned. Second person plural short pronoun The short form of the second person plural is . This is the form it takes when it functions as the subject, object and possessive. Second person plural subject pronoun ( ) 19.

'You (pl.) ate food' 2PL food eat

20.

'You (pl.) went' 2PL go

21.

ʒ ʒ 2PL fish sell

'You (pl.) sold fish'

Second person plural object pronoun ( ) 22. t PN 2PL beat

(pl.)'

23. t PN 2PL see

(pl.)'

Second person plural possessive pronoun ( ) 24.

ʒ

'your (pl.) book' 'your (pl.) bag'

ɡ

'your (pl.) wealth'

Third person singular short pronoun A three-way gender distinction – masculine, feminine and neuter, represented by , and respectively exists in the third person singular pronoun. Each consists of a vowel only and occurs with both vowel-initial and consonant-initial nouns and verbs. The third person singular is the only pronoun that is marked for gender. Third person singular masculine subject pronoun ( ) 25.

'He ate food' 3MSG food eat 'He went'

26. 3MSG go 27.

ʒ ʒ 3MSG fish sell

'He sold fish'

Third person singular feminine subject pronoun ( ) 28.

'She ate food' 3FSG food eat

29.

'She went' 3FSG go

30.

ʒ ʒ 3FSG fish sell

'She sold fish'

Third person singular neuter subject pronoun ( ) 31.

'It ate food' 3NSG food eat

32.

'It went' 3NSG go

33.

ʒ p 3NSG fish eat

'It ate fish'

Third person singular masculine object pronoun ( ) 34. t PN 3MSG beat

'

35. t PN 3MSG see

'

Third person singular feminine object pronoun ( ) 36. t PN 3FSG beat

'

'

37. t PN 3FSG see

'

Third person singular neuter object pronoun ( ) 38. t PN 3NSG beat

'

39. t PN 3NSG see

'

Third person singular masculine possessive pronoun ( ) 40.

ʒ

'his book' 'his bag'

ɡ

'his wealth'

Third person singular feminine possessive pronoun ( ) ʒ

41.

'her book' 'her bag'

ɡ

'her wealth'

Third person singular neuter possessive pronoun ( ) 42.

ɓ

'its leg' 'its teeth' ɡ

'its bone'

Third person plural pronoun The third person plural personal pronoun has two variants; vowel-initial and consonant-initial nouns.

'They ate food' 3PL

food eat

44.

'They went' 3PL

go

3PL

ʒ ʒ fish sell

45.

'They sold fish'

Third person plural object pronoun 46. t PN 3PL 47. t PN 3PL

) '

beat ' see

Third person plural possessive pronoun 48.

. It occurs with both

)

Third person plural subject pronoun 43.

and

ʒ

)

'their book' 'their bag'

ɡ

'their wealth'

2.1.2. Long (emphatic) personal pronoun forms all long pronouns (except for the third person plural which remains

) when they occur

in emphatic contexts. While the short forms are monomoraic, the long forms are bimoraic and exhibit two tone patterns – either low-low (LL) or high-high-downstepped high (HH H) ː 49. Long emphatic pronouns LL 1st

HH H 2nd

ː

3rd

ː

3rd

ː

ː

3rd

ː

1st

ː

2nd

ː

Although the long emphatic pronouns can function as the subject of a sentence, they are not used to express possession. 'I did it'

50. 1SG.Emp 1SG SM do 51.

ɓ 2SG.Emp 2SG lie.person

'You a e a lia ǃ'

2.1.3. Possessive pronouns and nouns (as well as the long forms) retain their underlying tones and may or may not affect the tones of the following morphemes (usually, they do not), but in expressing pos nouns they modify. Further examples are seen below. 52.

ː

ɓ

'ear'

ː

t

'fish'

ɓ

'my ear'

ʒ

'my fish'

ɓ

'his ear'

ʒ

'his fish'

ɓ

'your ear'

ʒ

'your fish'

ɓ 53. H

ʒ

'our ear (s)'

ʒ

'our fish'

'child' 'my child'

'your child'

'his child'

'our child'

54. H

ː

l

'nose'

'plank'

'my nose'

l

'my plank'

'his nose'

l

'his plank'

'your nose'

l

'your plank' l

'our nose' 55. H H

ː

l

'door'

'kolanut'

'my door'

l

'my kolanut'

'his door'

l

'his kolanut'

'your door'

l

'your kolanut' l

'our door' 56. HH

ː

'our plank'

'our kolanut'

f r

'canoe'

'plate'

'my canoe'

r

'my plate'

'his canoe'

r

'his plate'

'your canoe'

r

'your plate' r

'our canoe'

'our plate'

Some nouns however, pose an exception to this pattern. T H HH

)

H )

n alienable and inalienable possession but these exceptions may be a pointer to an extinct system of alienability versus inalienability. 57.

ɡ

'mother'

ɡ

'father'

'my mother' ɡ

59.

58.

'our mother'

'my father' )

'our father'

'wife' 'my wife' 'your wife'

The word for 'husband' also belongs to this category of exceptional nouns but it does not become LH after a low tone pronoun. Rather, it is H when occurring with both low and high ː ʒ and ʒ . The fact that both variants take high tones and not LH after low tone pronouns suggests that monomoraic.

ʒ

ʒ

is

60. ʒ

ʒ

'husband'

ʒ

ʒ

'my husband'

ʒ

ʒ

'her husband'

2.1.3.1. Independent possessive pronouns . Ig

ː

–

)

ː 1st

ː

1st

ː

2nd

ː

2nd p

ː

3rd

ː

3rd

ː

ː

– 47)

H actually derived through a combination of the short personal pronouns and the noun 'thing'. Interestingly, the form for 'thing' used in the 1st and 2nd 'thing' combines with the 1st and 2nd persons singular to form independent possessive

when

pronouns suggests that diachronically, ɲ other positions.

was realised as 'thing' in all

61. 1st

ː

1st

ː

2nd

ː

2nd

ː

3rd

ː

3rd

ː

3rd 3rd

ː ː

Some attributes of the independent possessive pronouns include: i) The independent possessive pronouns can function syntactically as the subject of a sentence. 62a.

'Give me mine/my own' (lit. 'Give me my thing') my.thing AUX 1SG give

b.

'Give him yours/your own' (lit. 'Give him your thing') your.thing AUX 3MSG give

c.

'Give them theirs/their own' (lit. 'Give them their thing') their.thing AUX 3PL

give

ii) The independent possessive pronouns can also function syntactically as the object of a sentence. 63a.

'The land is mine' (lit. 'The land is my thing') land the my.thing

b.

'The land is his' (lit. 'The land is his thing') land the his.thing

c.

ɡ bone

'The bone is its (own)' (lit. 'The bone is its thing') the it.thing

iii) The independent possessive pronoun can be negated when it occurs in the object position. 64a. ʒ book PL my.thing-NCL b.

'The books are not mine'

land the their.thing-NCL

'The land is not theirs'

iv) The 'thing' component of the independent possessive may be modified by the definite article . 65a.

'Give him his (own)' his.thing the AUX 3MSG give

b.

i

'Give her hers (own)'

her.thing the AUX 3FSG give 2.1.4. Environments in which short and long personal pronouns occur Both the short and long pronoun forms do have some restrictions on the environments in which they can occur. As observed in earlier data, although both long and short forms may function as the subject of a sentence, the short forms occur in non-emphatic contexts while the long forms occur in emphatic contexts. The short forms are also used in expressing possession while the long forms are not. Apart from these, the long and short pronouns can function in other environments. These include;

i) The long pronouns may be negated but the short forms may not. 66a.

1SG.Emp-NCL

'It is not me'

b.* 1SG-NCL ii) The short forms can occur with the existential morpheme k 67a.

k 3FSG EXIST

but not the long forms.

'She is there/in'

b. k 3FSG.Emp EXIST iii) Both the short and long forms may be used in issuing commands. However, only the short forms can be followed by the hortative marker which precedes the verb. 68a.

ɓ 2SG Hort come

Y

)

ǃ

b. ɓ 2SG.Emp Hort come iv) The short plural pronouns may be followed by the plural marker plural forms. 69a.

w 3FSG 1PL PL see

, but not the long

'She saw many of us'

b. 3FSG 1PL.Emp PL see 2.2. Reflexive pronouns are derived from a combination of the short personal pronouns and the nouns ɓ 'self' and 'skin of animal/hide'. 70.

ɓ

'myself'

ɓ

'yourself'

ɓ

'himself'

ɓ

'herself'

ɓ

'itself' ɓ

'ourselves'

ɓ

'yourselves' ɓ

'themselves'

Reflexives may function as the subject of a sentence. 71. ɓ 'He did it himself' him self skin SM do 72.

ɓ my self skin SM-SCL say-PRG

'I am saying it myself'

The short personal pronouns may optionally be used in addition to ɓ 'self' only to express the reflexive. 73.

ɓ this child teeth AUX him self bite

74.

ɓ ɓ male.man the and dog the and them self kill 'The man and the dog killed themselves'

'This child bit himself'

2.3. Reciprocal pronouns Reciprocity in is expressed by reduplicating the first syllable of the numeral 'one' ɡb . The reduplicated form ɡb ɡb which means 'one another' is usually preceded by a short personal plural pronoun. 75.

ɡb ɡb 1PL one.another see

76. 3PL

ɓ r ɡb ɡb word say one.another give

'We saw one another'

'They spoke to one another'

2.4. Indefinite pronouns pronouns are generic noun-based. They are of two types: the first type is derived by combining the numeral ɡb 'one' with a generic noun while the second type is derived by combining a universal quantifier with a generic noun. The nouns used refer to a person, thing or place thus resulting in nominal indefinite expressions and adverbial indefinite

expressions. 2.4.1. Nominal indefinite expressions Nominal indefinite expressions may either be positive or negative. The positive nominal indefinite expressions are derived in three ways. The first type of positive nominal indefinite expression is derived by combining ɡb 'one' and either ɓ 'person' or 'thing' to mean 'somebody' and 'something' respectively. Positive nominal indefinite expressions A. ɡb ɓ /ɡb ɓ 'somebody' 77. ɡb ɓ one person house stay

'Somebody is at home'

78. ɡb ɓ ɓ one person come-PRF

'Somebody has come'

B. ɡb 79.

'something'

ɡb 3FSG one thing AUX 1SG give

'She gave me something'

Apart from the above, the generic nouns 'person' and mean 'somebody' and 'something' respectively. 80.

'thing' may also be translated to

'Somebody is in the house/at home' person house stay

81.

'She gave me something' 3FSG thing AUX 1SG give

The second type of positive nominal indefinite expression is derived via a combination of the universal quantifier meaning 'all' or 'every' and a generic noun. C. 82.

D.

'everybody' ɓ person all/every come-FUT

'Everybody will come'

'everything'

83. j ɓ thing all/every EXIST 1SG hand LOC

'Everything is with me' (lit. 'everything is in my hand')

84.

thing all/every finish-PRF

'Everything is finished'

The third type of positive nominal indefinite expressions is derived through a combination of meaning 'any' and a generic noun.

ɓ

E. 85.

ɓ

ɓ ɓ ɓ anyperson anyperson SM come-FUT

F. 86.

'anybody' 'Anybody will come'

'anything' 1SG anything anything SM eat-FUT

'I will eat anything'

Negative nominal indefinite expressions Negative nominal indefinite expressions are derived through a combination of the universal quantifier , meaning 'none' and either 'person' or 'thing'. G.

'nobody'

87.

'Nobody is in the house/at home' person none house LOC

H. 88.

'nothing' ɓ thing none pot inside LOC

'Nothing is in the pot'

2.4.2. Adverbial indefinite expressions Adverbial indefinite expressions are a combination of either of the generic place nouns j or with the numeral 'one' ɡb or a universal quantifier. A. ɡb

/ɡb

89. t ɡb PN one B. 90.

'somewhere'

place go-PRF 'everywhere'

ɓ l key the self LOC 1SG place every look.for-PRF 'I have searched for the key everywhere'

'

j

C.

'anywhere'

91.

'Don't go anywhere!' anywhere anywhere go

IMP\Neg

3.0. Conclusion personal pronoun forms, the short forms being a reduction of the long forms with the exception of the third person plural which remains the same in all environments. While the short forms occur in nonemphatic sentences and function in the subject, object and possessive case, the long forms occur in emphatic contexts and can only function as either the subject or object of a sentence. The long forms may be negated but the short forms may not. The short forms may occur with the existential morpheme k but the long forms may not. Both long and short forms may be used in issuing commands but only the short forms may occur with the hortative marker in an imperative construction. Furthermore, in expressing possession, the short pronouns cliticise with their host nouns. This is seen in the tone patterns of the resultant compound. Nouns are always HL with high toned pronouns and LL with low toned pronouns regardless of their inherent tones. However, a study of the tone patterns that occur when the short pronouns combine with such kinship nouns as 'moth ) . Although is an endangered language, it still retains all its pronoun forms. There is however a phonological change in the form for 'thing' ( ) used in deriving st the independent possessive pronouns. With the 1 and 2nd persons singular, this form corr 'thing' but is realised as with other persons. This ɲ 'thing'. Abbreviations and Symbols Down-stepped high tone AUX Auxiliary verb EXIST Existential morpheme FUT Future time marker H High tone Hort Hortative marker IMP\Neg Negative imperative marker L Low tone LOC Locative morpheme NCL Negative clitic PL Plural marker PN Personal name PRF Perfective marker PRG Progressive marker SCL Subject clitic

SM 1PL 1SG 1SG.Emp 2PL 2SG 2SG.Emp 3FSG 3FSG.Emp 3MSG 3NSG 3PL

Subject marker 1st person plural pronoun 1st person singular pronoun 1st person singular emphatic pronoun 2nd person plural pronoun 2nd person singular pronoun 2nd person singular emphatic pronoun 3rd person feminine singular pronoun 3rd person feminine singular emphatic pronoun 3rd person masculine singular pronoun 3rd person neuter pronoun 3rd person plural pronoun

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ː Obikudo, Ebitare F. 2012. "The o oo Pronominal System". In Ozo-mekuri Ndimele (ed.). Language, Literature and Communication in a Dynamic World: A Festschrift for Chinyere Ohiri-Aniche. Port Harcourt: The Linguistic Association of Nigeria and M & J Grand Orbit Communications Ltd, pp. 511 – 527.