Dictionary of the Kanuri Language

227 Pages·1990·16.614 MB·

by  Norbert Cyffer, John P. Hutchison

Dictionary of the
Kanuri Language
Publications in African
Languages and Linguistics
The aim of this series is to offer, at regular intervals, carefully
worked out studies or collections of papers in African linguistics. In
this way, it is hoped that important work can be brought to the
attention of a wider linguistic audience including scholars who are
not primarily concerned with African linguistics but who wish to
keep abreast of recent advances in the fields of historical linguistics,
theoretical phonology and linguistic typology, all of which,
incidentally, tend to rely rather heavily on African language data.
At the same time, the editors intend to include occasional volumes
which offer general accounts of major language groups, hoping that
such surveys will be of assistance not only to linguists working on
African languages but also to those who specialize in other areas.
Throughout the series an attempt will be made to strike a healthy
balance between theory oriented and data oriented research.
Editors: Advisory board:
George N. Clements John Goldsmith (Chicago)
Didier L. Goyvaerts Claire Grégoire (Tervuren)
Frank Heny (Middlebury, Vermont)
Larry M. Hyman (Berkeley)
William R. Leben (Stanford)
Thilo C. Schadeberg (Leiden)
Other books in this series:
1. Ivan R. Dihoff(ed ). Current Approaches to African Linguistics (vol. 1)
2. Gerrit J. Dimmendaal. The Turkana Language
3. G.N. Clements and J. Goldsmith (eds). Autosegmentai Studies in Bantu
Tone
4. Koen Bogers, Harry van der Hulst and Maarten Mous (eds). The
Phonological Representation of Suprasegmentals
5. Jonathan Kaye, Hilda Koopman, Dominique Sportiche and André Dugas
(eds). Current Approaches to African Linguistics (vol. 2)
6. Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (ed ). Current Approaches to African Linguistics
(vol. 3)
7. David Odden (ed.). Current Approaches to African Linguistics (vol. 4)
8. Paul Newman and Robert D. Botne. Current Approaches to African
Linguistics (vol. 5)
9. Isabelle Haik and Laurice Tuller (eds). Current Approaches to African
Linguistics (vol. 6)
10. Mary M. Clark. The Tonal System of Igbo
11. John P. Hutchison and Victor Manfredi. Current Approaches to African
Linguistics (vol. 7)
12. Paul Newman. Nominal and Verbal Plurality in Chadic
Norbert Cyffer and
John Hutchison (eds)
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1990 1990
FORIS PUBLICATIONS UNIVERSITY OF MAIDUGURI
Dordrecht - Holland/Providence Rl - U.S.A. Nigeria
Published by:
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CIP-DATA KONINKLIJKE BIBLIOTHEEK, DEN HAAG
Kanuri-English
Dictionary of the Kanuri Language / Norbert Cyffer and John Hutchison (eds). - Dordrecht
[etc.] : Foris ; Maiduguri : University of Maiduguri. - (Publications in African Languages
and linguistics ; 13)
ISBN 90-6765-412-4
SISO afri 831 UDC (038) =966 =20
Subject heading: Kanuri language ; dictionaries.
Published in Co-operation with
The University of Maiduguri, Nigeria
ISBN 90 6765 412 4 (Paper)
© 1990 Foris Publications - Dordrecht
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and
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Printed in the Netherlands by ICG Printing, Dordrecht.
V
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The present dictionary represents the culmination of the
efforts of many people. The project was initially supported morally
and administratively by the Centre for the Study of Nigerian
Languages under the direction of Professor Paul Newman, and later
under Dr. Abdulkadir Dandatti. Subsequent support was provided by
the University of Maiduguri and by the Chair of the Department of
Languages and Linguistics, Professor C.M.B. Brann. The advice and
assistance of Shettima Bukar Abba and Tijani El-Miskin had a
profound impact on the make-up of the dictionary, as did the
incredible resources and knowledge of Wakkil Modu, who was the
primary Kanuri language consultant throughout the project. Those
working on the project were most enthusiastically supported by the
Kanuri people of Maiduguri, without whose help the project would
have been unrealizable. Their indefatigable patience under our
relentless questioning brought many new words for the dictionary.
Daily visits to our offices in the Borno Local Authority compound
yielded an endless supply of new information. We greatly benefited
from the support of the Borno Local Authority in the person of the
Shehu of Borno. The then Waziri of Borno, the late Abba Sadiq, was
most encoraging to us at all stages of our work. The Kanuri
Language Board, under the chairmanship of Alhaji Idrissa Kadi,
provided an official sounding board for the Kanuri language research
that was carried out in Maiduguri during the 1970s.
We are extremely grateful to Foris Publications for making it
possible for this publication to finally see the light of day.
John P. Hutchison (Tijani Gamboru) and Norbert Cyffer (Ali Gamboru)

vii
INTRODUCTION
1. HISTORY OF THE DICTIONARY OF THE KANURI LANGUAGE.
The preparation of this dictionary was begun in 1974 and finally
published in 1988. It was one of the first Kanuri research projects
initiated by the Kanuri Research Unit of the Centre for the Study of
Nigerian Languages. The Centre was then on Abdullahi Bayero
College campus, and was part of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The
Centre hired the two principal authors of this work in 1974, and they
established its branch in Maiduguri for the purpose of carrying out
research on Kanuri. As Research Fellows employed by the Centre,
they chose as one of their first priority projects, that of developing a
dictionary of the Kanuri language. At the time, Maiduguri (Yerwa)
was already the capital of the North-Eastern State, and had become
established as the major city of the Kanuri world in Nigeria,
historically and synchronically. The dictionary project was later
continued and completed under the auspices of the Department of
Languages and Linguistics of the University of Maiduguri. The
project followed immediately on the heels of the project establishing
the Standard Kanuri Orthography (SKO).
While this represents the first major attempt at producing a
dictionary, there do exist some significant vocabularies such as that
of S.W. Koelle which appeared in his Africant Native Literature or
Proverbs, Tales, Fables, and Historical Fragments in the Kanuri or
Bornu Language (1854), and that of J. Lukas in his A Study of the
Kanuri Language: Grammar and Vocabulary (1937). These very
significant works have certainly influenced the present dictionary.
2. THE STANDARD KANURI ORTHOGRAPHY. As recorded in this
dictionary, written Kanuri is represented according to the the
spelling rules and conventions which were established by the
Standard Kanuri Orthography (SKO). This orthography was
developed by the Kanuri Research Unit and the Kanuri Language
Board, and officially adopted by the latter in 1975. The elaboration of
the Standard Kanuri Orthography was carried out by the
Orthography Committee of the Kanuri Language Board, under the
Chairmanship of the late Waziri of Borno, Abba Sadiq. This dictionary
will therefore not only serve as the first major bilingual dictionary of
the language, but will also function as a reference book for the
correct writing and spelling of the Kanuri language. The orthography
is rooted in the Kanuri dialect of Maiduguri (Yerwa), which for many
DICTIONARY OF THE KANURI LANGUAGE Vili
reasons has emerged as the widely recognized standard form of
Kanuri in Nigeria.
In order to avoid ambiguity in meaning and to provide the
correct pronunciation for the non-Kanuri speaker, tone marks have
been added to the basic SKO representation of the words in this
dictionary. The are not normally included in the SKO.
2.1. THE ALPHABET. Words for which there is a significant
discrepancy between the orthographic (SKO) representation and the
phonetic pronunciation are indicated first in the SKO, and second
with a phonetic transcription. The phonetic symbols used in
presenting the letters of the alphabet of the SKO are the following:
B voiceless bilabial fricative
/ voiceless alveolar palatal fricative
d voiced alveolar palatal affricate
i retroflex lateral
y voiced velar fricative
i] velar nasal
n palatalized nasal
3 mid-central vowel
A lowered central vowel
[ ] phonetic transcription
vowel length
nasalization
I glottal stop
2.1.1. THE VOWELS.
phonetic transcription: [a] [A] [e] [a] [i] [o] [u]
SKO: a a e s 1 o u
2.1.2. THE CONSONANTS.
SKO phonetic SKO word meaning
[¿] ^¿indimi] kan'lndimi the second
2none [¿] [¿Indi] Indi two
b [b] [bara] bara hunt
cc [£] [¿firn] cam milk
dd [d] [dà] da meat
ff [f] [fi to] fato house
f [<|>] [<J>iI4>u] fufu lungs
DICTIONARY OF THE KANURI LANGUAGE IX
g [g] [gdro] goro kola nut
g [y] [Ciya] clga fly
h [h] [hawfir] hawar news
J W M Je rope
k [k] [kS] ka stick
1 [1] [ldmbo] lambo leaf
1 [1] [kali] kali wet
m [m] [miisko] musko hand
n In] [ni] na place
ny [n] [ni] nyi you (sing.)
P [p] [lApsfii] lapsal they load
r [r] IT6] r 0 life
s [s] [si] s a time
t [t] [f ¿to] fato house
w [w] [rrfwa] rawa uncle
y [yl [yfkin] yikln I give
1 in medial position
2 in word-initial position
2.2. THE SKO AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE KANURI SOUND
SYSTEM. In developing the Standard Kanuri Orthography, special
attention had to be given to a number of linguistic features and
processes which have a great influence on phonetic realizations in
the Kanuri language. These features and processes which had an
important impact on the rules and conventions of the SKO are the
following:
1. With regard to morphological typology, Kanuri is an agglutinative
language, i.e. most meaningful grammatical units occur as bound
morphemes applied to roots through affixation.
2. A general process of consonant weakening is ongoing throughout
the language, and is conditioned by morphophonemic, phonemic and
phonetic contexts.
3. Apart from normal dialect variation, there also exists the problem
of idiolects causing phonetic variation within the target Maiduguri
(Yerwa) dialect.
The following are examples of sound alternations due to
prefixation and suffixation:
DICTIONARY OF THE KANURI LANGUAGE x
phonemic phonetic SKO meaning
ns+s+d+kdr+na [nzdwdrina] nzoworana they have asked you
kazia+Ki+Ka [kaza:da] kazaawaa having spears
Consonant weakening is characterized by several stages which can
be demonstrated through the application of rules capturing common
phonological processes. Consonant weakening occurs most
frequently in intervocalic position, as represented in the following
examples:
a) degemination: kaKKé [kakê] mine
b) voicing: ¿Ta [¿da] this
c) fricativization: ssKarfn [sa"yarfn] he or she carves
d) voicing: zdBln [ziwin] they eat
e) deletion: saKarfn [saarfn] they carve
2.3. IDIOLECTAL VARIATION IN THE MAIDUGURI (YERWA)
DIALECT. For a significant number of basic lexical items there is
considerable idiolectal variation in the target dialect. The SKO, and
also this dictionary, propose standardized forms for such items
represented in the following selection of examples:
base form idiolectal variations SKO meaning
miisko [mdsko, miikko, miiko] musko hand
krfrGe [kärye, kärye, kirre, k3re] kirge region
kiilGii [külwü, küllü, külü:] kulwu gown
lenSKfn [leqîn, leyîn, lêfîn, lein] lengln I go
2.4. SKO CONVENTIONS FOR WRITING INTERVOCALIC g AND k.
The underlying phonemes g and k are not realized as g and k in all
environments. This can of course be explained by the ongoing
process of consonant weakening. The following table shows the major
changes which were taken into account in the development of the
SKO, and the orthographic representations which were adopted: