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A DICTIONARY OF MADA, A PLATEAU LANGUAGE OF CENTRAL NIGERIA BASED ON THE RIJA DIALECT Mada-English with an English-Mada finderlist Roger Blench Barau Kato Kay Williamson Educational Foundation 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/ Fax. 0044-(0)1223-560687 Mobile worldwide (00-44)-(0)7967-696804 E-mail [email protected] http://www.rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm (Cambridge, 24 July 2010) Preface This dictionary is a preliminary attempt to record the richness of the Mada language. It is intended to help standardise the spelling of Mada words and to define words which are no longer in current use, especially cultural terms. The primary goal is to assist Mada speakers to use and spell words correctly. We hope also that the dictionary will be useful to students of the languages of Nigeria and of African languages in general. An introduction has been provided to facilitate the effective use of the dictionary. It covers Mada phonology; current orthography; sketch of Mada grammar; Mada language use; abbreviations; and the structure of individual entries. The appendices provide information of both cultural interest, such as Mada personal names, towns and villages; and words developed for Mada Bible Translation. The original source of the present document was a dictionary file prepared by Norman and Barbara Price in relation to the translation of the New Testament, a project finally finished and launched in 2000. However, the entries have been rechecked and in some cases retranscribed, many new items entered and it should be thus considered an essentially new document. We are aware that there are still many Mada words which have eluded us and that some words here defined may have secondary meanings that are not included. This is a draft circulated to interested individuals and therefore we would be grateful if any suggestions for amendment, correction and addition could be forwarded to the authors at the addresses given below. Roger Blench Barau Kato Jos 24 July 2010 i TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE........................................................................................................................................................I ABBREVIATIONS.......................................................................................................................................III 1. THE MADA PEOPLE AND THEIR LANGUAGE.................................................................................I 1.1 Location and Name...................................................................................................................................................i 1.2 Classification.............................................................................................................................................................i 1.3 Scholarly publication..............................................................................................................................................ii 1.4 Dialects...................................................................................................................................................................ii 2. THE SOUND SYSTEM OF MADA AND ITS ORTHOGRAPHY.......................................................II 2.1 Sound system..........................................................................................................................................................ii 2.2 Letters of the Mada alphabet..................................................................................................................................iii 3.3 Pronouns................................................................................................................................................................iii 3.3.1 Direct speech..................................................................................................................................................iii 3.5 Adjectives...............................................................................................................................................................vi 4. GUIDE TO USING THE DICTIONARY.............................................................................................VII 4.1 Structure of individual entries...............................................................................................................................vii 4.2 Scientific Names...................................................................................................................................................vii 4.3 Nigerian English Usage........................................................................................................................................vii 4.4 Etymology and Loan-words.................................................................................................................................viii 4.5 Parts of Speech.....................................................................................................................................................viii BIBLIOGRAPHY.........................................................................................................................................IX 1. PUBLICATIONS IN MADA...................................................................................................................IX 2. LANGUAGE, ETHNOGRAPHY AND LINGUISTICS.......................................................................IX MADA-ENGLISH DICTIONARY................................................................................................................1 TABLES Table 1. Mada subject pronouns......................................................................................................................iii Table 2. Mada subject pronoun paradigm........................................................................................................iv Table 3. Mada pronouns re-ordered.................................................................................................................iv Table 4. Mada present tense subject pronouns.................................................................................................iv Table 5. Tones on Mada polysyllabic verb-stems............................................................................................iv Table 6. Mada uncompleted past paradigm: monosyllabic stem.......................................................................v Table 7. Mada uncompleted past paradigm: polysyllabic stem.........................................................................v Table 8. Mada verb-stem paradigm ‘come’.......................................................................................................v Table 9. Tones on Mada polysyllabic verb-stems............................................................................................vi Table 10. Mada imperfective verb-stem paradigm ‘was coming’....................................................................vi Table 11. Mada concordial adjectives..............................................................................................................vi ii Abbreviations Amer. American (for Americanisms) arch. archaic dial. dialect et. etymology euph. euphemism fig. figurative hum. humorous id. idiom id. ideophone ins. insulting lit. literally NE Nigerian English Ng. Ningo dialect Sh. Shugbu dialect Apart from the abbreviations, symbols are used to indicate particular features; see Appendix for further detail  iii Mada dictionary: Front matter INTRODUCTION 1. The Mada people and their language 1.1 Location and Name The Mada people live primarily in the region between Anjida and Akwanga on and around the road leading from Fadan Karshi to Akwanga in Nasarawa State, Central Nigeria. Their numbers are hard to estimate but probably now exceeds 100,000. Earlier literature refers to the Mada as ‘Yidda’ (e.g. Temple 1922:260) but no such term is used today. In colonial times a distinction was made between ‘Hill Mada’ and ‘Plains Mada’. The ‘hill Mada’ were however, part of Eggon and as such unrelated to the Mada proper. These terms have now been dropped and today’s Mada now refers to the ‘Plains Mada’ of earlier sources. The Mada have tribal marks on their faces – 3 straight lines on the upper jaw on both sides, one on the forehead and one on the upper cheek close to the left eye. Women have tiny marks of straight lines drawn close to the mouth (lower cheek) on both sides. These days the marks are not seen on young ones any longer because it is considered cruel to have the marks especially due to the instruments used to draw the marks. These days also, most Mada women have all kinds of marks that are alien to the Mada culture due to influences of other cultures. In the olden days, women used to pierce one nostril and their ears for earrings. During the Nigerian civil war which broke out in 1967, almost all the children born at the time were given marks so as not to mistake them to be Igbos, especially someone who was light skin. Also, those young adults who were not previously given the marks, were given during the war. 1.2 Classification Mada was classified as part of the Plateau language group by Greenberg (1963) and Williamson (1971), Hansford et al. (1976), Gerhardt (1989) and Crozier and Blench (1992) have all followed this view. Mada was put together with Ninzam, Ayu, Che, Ninkyop and some other languages as part of Plateau IV. More recently, this group has been christened ‘Ninzic’ in the light of the numerous languages with a –nin- element in their ethnonym (Blench 2000). Greenberg’s (1963:9) original list was Rukuba (Kuche), Ninzo (Ninzam), Ayu, Mada, Kaninkwom. The current list of Ninzic languages is as follows; Ninzo Ce [=Rukuba] Mada Bu-NiNkada Numana-Nunku-Gwantu-Numbu Ningye Kanufi Ninkyop-Nindem Doubtfully Vaghat-Ya-Bijim-Legeri Ayu? Data on many of these languages is too weak to be confident of their place within the group. However, on Ninzo and Ce relatively extensive data means that we can be sure these are the closest relatives of Mada. i Mada dictionary: Front matter 1.3 Scholarly publication The principal modern work on the Mada language is Price (1989)1. This work covers the phonology and orthography of Mada spoken in Rija, a village central to Mada country and the dialect chosen for New Testament translation. Price (1989) gives a valuable comparative wordlist in different dialects, which shows that at least some of them have markedly different phonology from Rija Mada. 1.4 Dialects Mada has an extensive dialect network and there is quite high level of variation from village to village. Price (1989) gives a valuable comparative wordlist in different dialects, which shows that at least some of them have markedly different phonology from Rija Mada. The following dialects are listed; Rija, Gbugyar, Anjagwa, Ancho, Buhar, Akwanga, Ungwar Zaria of these, Akwanga and Ungwar Zaria are markedly different from the others. Nonetheless all dialects are easily mutually intelligible and Mada speakers are used to adjusting to different lects. 2. The Sound System of Mada and its Orthography 2.1 Sound system Mada has twenty consonant phonemes: Labial Labio- Alveolar Velar Labio- dental velar Plosives vls p t k kp vd b d g gb Fricatives vls f s vd v z Affricates vls ts vd dz Nasals m n ŋ Laterals (cid:31) Vibrants r Approximants vls ʍ Approximants vd y w The voiceless approximant, /„ / is written ‘hy’ in the orthography but always sounds labialised. It is often written hyw in other Plateau languages, but there is no contrast with /hy/ so it is redundant. There are eight vowel phonemes: Front Central Back Close i u Close-Mid e o ə Open-Mid ε ɔ Open a 1 Gerhardt (1983:112 ff.) includes some notes on the phonology and noun-class systems of two Mada dialects, but these have been comprehensively superseded by Price (1989). ii Mada dictionary: Front matter but five corresponding nasalised vowels; Front Central Back Close ĩ ũ Open-Mid ɛ ̃ ɔ̃ Open ã It is striking that this is identical to the vowel system of Ninkyop, the other language in the Ninzic group to have lost its nominal affix system. In the original orthography of 1985, the symbol ñ was adopted to mark nasalisation following a vowel, but this has been simplified to n. Thus ã is written ‘an’. The reason for this, is that the free ‘n’ is very rare and usually would not take word final following special vowels. Mada has three level tones and a rising and falling tone. Tones are marked as follows: high tone is unmarked /¯/ mid tone is shown by a macron /`/ for a low tone /ˆ/ for a falling tone / / for a rising tone. ß The rising tone is uncommon compared with the other times. Mada is highly tonal and many lexical and grammatical distinctions are made only by tone. The orthography therefore marks tone on all syllables. 2.2 Letters of the Mada alphabet The alphabet is phonemic and is made up of 34 letters. These are arranged as follows: a, b, c, e, ε, ə, d, f, g, gb, h, hw, i, j, k, kp, l, m, n, ng, ny, o, ɔ, p, r, s, sh, t, u, v, w, y, z, zh. These correspond to the IPA symbols used in the phonology via the following conventions; ng ŋ c tsʸ j dzʸ sh sʸ ny ŋʸ h ʍ before o~u hw ʍ elsewhere 3.3 Pronouns 3.3.1 Direct speech 3.3.1.1 Subject Pronouns: intransitive Mada subject pronouns in intransitive constructions are; Table 1. Mada subject pronouns 1s Ngə̄ 1p tə̄ 2s wə̄ 2p gyə̄ 3s (persons) gu 3p bə 3s (objects) yə 3p yə iii Mada dictionary: Front matter The existence of a neuter pronoun in the third person seems to be rather unusual in the context of Plateau languages. Mada recognises a completed and uncompleted past. The completed past has no inserted TAM and thus can represent the simplest verbal paradigm (Table 2). Table 2. Mada subject pronoun paradigm 1s Ngə̄ car I wrote 2s wə̄ cǎr You wrote 3s (persons) gu cǎr He wrote 3s (objects) yə̄ cǎr It wrote 1p tə̄ car We wrote 2p gyə̄ cǎr You wrote 3p (persons) bə car They wrote 3p (objects) yə cǎr It (pl.) wrote Table 3 shows the pronouns re-ordered to reflect this pattern. Table 3. Mada pronouns re-ordered 2s wə̄ 1s Ngə̄ 2p gyə̄ 1p tə̄ 3s gu 3p bə This grouping then occurs in all combinations of subject pronoun and TAMs. To mark tense/aspect, Mada inserts particles between the pronoun and verb. Table 4 shows a typical present tense marked by the auxiliary là; Table 4. Mada present tense subject pronouns pron. am writing 2s wə̄ là cǎr 3s gu là cǎr 2p gyə̄ là cǎr 1s Ngə̄ là car 1p tə̄ là car 3p bə là car The same stem-tone changes are paralleled on polysyllabic verbs. For example, the verb debə, ‘to give way’ has the following paradigm (Table 5); Table 5. Tones on Mada polysyllabic verb-stems pron. am giving way 2s wə̄ là dèbə̀ 3s gu là dèbə̀ 2p gyə̄ là dèbə̀ 1s Ngə̄ là debə̀ 1p tə̄ là debə̀ 3p bə là debə̀ The ordering of the pronouns is the same, but a low-high opposition replaces the rising-high of monosyllabic stems. This resembles the imperfective contrasts found in the irregular verbs ‘come’ and ‘go’ (Table 10) although the connection between these two sets is less than transparent. Mada can express future action in two ways, either; iv Mada dictionary: Front matter Ngə̄ lə car I will write or; Ngə̄ lə sə̀ car I will be write In both cases, the tone-pattern on the verb follows the pronominal pattern outlined above and the TAM is invariant. However, in the case of the uncompleted past and the conditional, the auxiliaries undergo tone-changes that reflect the verb-stem tone-changes. Table 6 shows the paradigm for the uncompleted past; Table 6. Mada uncompleted past paradigm: monosyllabic stem pron. was writing 2s wə̄ sə̀ cǎr 3s gu sə̀ cǎr 2p gyə̄ sə̀ cǎr 1s Ngə̄ sə̄ car 1p tə̄ sə̄ car 3p bə sə̄ car In the case of a polysyllabic stem, comparable changes occur on the second syllable of the verb-stem (Table 7); Table 7. Mada uncompleted past paradigm: polysyllabic stem pron. was escaping 2s wə̄ sə̀ gbojùn 3s gu sə̀ gbojùn 2p gyə̄ sə̀ gbojùn 1s Ngə̄ sə gbojun 1p tə̄ sə gbojun 3p bə sə gbojun The conditional, which inserts the auxiliary də between pronoun and verb, follows the same pattern of mimicking the verb-stem tones. Thus; Ngə̄ də̄ car I if write wə̄ də̀ cǎr You if write Mada appears to encompass at least one pair of ‘irregular’ verbs where the tone-pattern is somewhat different although it still confirms to underlying assignment of number. These are the verbs ‘come’ and ‘go’. Table 8 shows the verb-stem tones for the present tense for ‘to come’; Table 8. Mada verb-stem paradigm ‘come’ pron. am coming 2s wə̄ là nyə̌ 3s gu là nyə 2p gyə̄ là nyə̌ 1s Ngə̄ là nyə 1p tə̄ là nyə 3p bə là nyə v Mada dictionary: Front matter These are evidently very similar to the paradigm in Table 4 except for the 3s. In the case of polysyllabic verb- stems, these very nearly mimic the monosyllabic paradigm except that the 3s is no longer irregular. For example, the verb gbojun, ‘to escape’ has the following paradigm (Table 9); Table 9. Tones on Mada polysyllabic verb-stems pron. am escaping 2s wə̄ là gbǒjǔn 3s gu là gbǒjǔn 2p gyə̄ là gbǒjǔn 1s Ngə̄ là gbojun 1p tə̄ là gbojun 3p bə là gbojun The uncompleted past is more distinctive however, compared with Table 6. The distinctive tone-changes in the auxiliary sə have been neutralised and the tone-oppositions marked on the verb-stem become a simple high-low opposition (Table 10); Table 10. Mada imperfective verb-stem paradigm ‘was coming’ pron. was coming 2s wə̄ sə nyə̀ 3s gu sə nyə̀ 2p gyə̄ sə nyə̀ 1s Ngə̄ sə nyə 1p tə̄ sə nyə 3p bə sə nyə The same changes apply to the verb ywe ‘to go’ but no other monosyllabic verbs of this type have yet been identified. 3.5 Adjectives Adjectives in Mada appear to be of two major types, those which follow a noun directly and show tonal concord with it and those which follow the copula or verb to be, sē. The first type is comparatively rare and those identified so far are shown in (Table 11); Table 11. Mada concordial adjectives s. pl. Gloss Example kukwɔ kukwɔ̄ small, young mbu kukwɔ small mat mbu kukwɔ̄ small mats nggɔ̀n nggɔn nggɔn big mbu nggɔn large mat mbu nggɔn nggɔn large mats bəbə̄ — decayed, rotten krī bəbə̄ mē this rotten yam goglo — hot te mə̀sər goglo cà nggə̄ m... fetch water hot bring me kənàn — much kə̄jī kənàn much money The first two, ‘small’ and ‘big’ show tonal concord with the noun qualified, while others do not. Some of these adjectives can also act as complements to sē; kūkwɔ̌ yə̀mē sē kūkwɔ̌ this is small kənàn kə̄kə̄ nggə̄ sē kənàn chickens my are many An unusual case is; pwà undeveloped, referring to peanuts bencwē ku pwà groundnuts fell undeveloped which might be better treated as an adverb, despite its qualifying a noun. vi