Masalit Grammar: With Notes on other languages of Darfur and Wadai

120 Pages·1989·20.513 MB·English

by  Edgar, John

SPKACHTI UNI) OKALITÄT IN A1'1<1I \
1:rankfurter Studicn zur Afrikanistik
Dritter Band
Herarisgegcbcn von
Herrmann Jungraithmayr
in Verbindung mit
Luc Bouquiaux (Paris) und W. J.G. Möhlig (Köln)
1)iv nriic Reihe »Sprache und Oralität in Afrika* hat zwei Schwerpunkte, auf die ihr
N.iiiir niisdrücklich hinweist: Sie konzentriert sich auf die Erforschung und Beschrei-
.ifr-iknni..;cherS prachen, und sie bemüht sich gleichzeitig um die in Afrika immer
I~iiii!:
.I it.1 icr n.c*rdendeD okumentation der mündlich überlieferten Literaturen.
8 11 111
1. 1.. \;,i.!..iiii:rnheit, seine geistigen und sozialen Institutionen, die rechtlichen und
,I-tivformenu nd -inhalte, Poesie und Musik sind Bestandteile der unge-
1 111 rii \l<iiltiirend ieses im Übergang zur Schriftlichkeit befindlichen Konti-
..I ,!:,. \Y;,lt des Afrikaners erschließt sich daher wesentlich aus ihrer oralen
. l ion. Dabei sind Stil und Technik der noch heute vom ~Hommdee s
I I .I, II
1 i I:,C.!:Ip.,r nktizierten Mündlichkeit durchaus derjenigen früher europni-
v~r~leichba»rS. pracheund Oralität in Afrika« hat sich die Aiif-
1 I I I, lii!:c.r
I. i Ir. I (11.1 I<<-ttiinga frikanischen Geisteserbes mitzuhelfen und es wissen-
! >+,I, #) ,\( ~~.III~~,-III~(~~~II.
DIETRICH REIMllll \'I I< 1 \( , I: 1 1' I 12;

I.tlgnr, John:
11\ l.~\alic) :rammar : with notes on other languages of Darfur
.~n<\Yi! .ltlai /John Iidgar. -Berlin : Reimer, 1989
(Sprac'lic und Oralitat in Afrika ; Bd. 3)
ISHN 3-496-00995-0
NI..: (;T
Gedruckt mit Unterstiitzung der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft
n 1989 by Dietrich Reimer Verlag
I )r. Friedrich Kaufmann
Linter den Eichen 57
1000 Rcrlin 45
LJrncchlaggestaltung: Thomas Rode, Frankfurt am Main
Allc Rcchrc vnrhrhalten
IYl\N 3-496-00995-0
/
,.'.I
M,,..,) I I t (;I l ~ m ~ j r
I I!'! ,\!!I' t l>,li I,
I I,. .I l,.I<>V...
\ . 1 .,11,11,:11/ If I
I 11, >L,Cl/ 11
. , r,1 , I I ,I 1 . 1 I ' n 1 1 . '
' 'Y>>lI,> I :
1 t , , , I 1 i l l 1 1 1
"*,I 11 h?, ! I ~ ~ I , ~ ~ ~ ~ U , ~ J '
,I l,,.l,<~+!I 11,
1 1'1 4.1 I xc.,, 4I11<1 t)<\'.~,; 111
. ::I11 1 I XI%*. ;' 1
' I.Ir~kitqr~ I, ?
1 ' :.II~I~It> '~ vor I),. :':\
N~,g,,tIl vv for m nf vvr h,. :")
I, I r ~r.f1 r i~~,;\tI.v {> C<,rm of v-rbr. 70
' .' [I,,, \ v1,1i ~0r-t)t> F3,-.<1,-, :? ?
!! I rivt.r~t.nr~ovf t h~ mnrphornl c
vrnc.nt.c of vclrhnl c.uf f txcc. 74
'I Ni>mlnnlc, drv l v ~ dfr om vcrbc, 36
10 (:i>[)llln 4 1
'L~IIv I1r hnl Mnr r)t~oOl ~ V :
Gc~nornl 45
1 Ni~mirii~l~; 45
' I n t clr r ~IRHI.1 V O'; 'ifi
' rl~>mor~t ,r -n, t 1 vcr. n
4 I'r ono~ir~nn~tl. prnnnm! nrr 1 s 62
' ' Aclv$'r !I' f c ~mrn t l nn 6.3
1, PJ,\rn! rtit 1.. delr I vt'ri from nnmlnnlr. hq
' Pl11n1~3r:fl it\fi fi 7
lI<>l8% - '.~,~,l,\Kf,
11 W.>l ?i 4)l ,l,8r 74
I ~.llI>[,~Cct> l>[ts<t ,ii. ti?l,tlf~Il ' '1
I ' I I, 1
P!G>~III1I1 I~II&~>I I1~,
4 QIIA 1 1 f 1( n t 1011 ' I
5 Spatial nnd temporal relation-
.;hips 77
6 'Lo~ical'r elationships 78
7 Relative constructions 80
8 Speech 80
Greetings and gestures:
0 Spoken greetings 82
1 Spoken 'social' formulae 84
2 Physical gestures 85
3 Dance postures 86
Oral Traditions of the Masalit
Introduction
Sayings
Songs
Commentary
Notes on the Mifsiirii Language
Introduction
Grammar notes
Vocabulary
Notes on the terms Maba, Borgu, Wadai
and Salih 111
Bibliography 119
Acknowledgements:
I would like to express my warm thanks to Prof.H . Jun~rnithmny~o f
rnnkfurt University for his continuing advice, encouraRernont nr\ct
ollaboration.
I would also like to express my thanks to Dr.H.Carter of tt16~
Ilniversity of Wisconsin for her encouragement, practical advice anil
tl~lp, also to M.C.Gouff6, M.G.Dumestre and M.M.Aghali of I.N.A.L.C.O.,
-8ris for their inspiring lessons.
INTRODUCTION
This is a study based mainly on my own field research in Dar
I~<alit, W. Sudan in 1979-80 and 1982-83. Where they have seemed
~l~vanatnd helpful I have added footnotes of material from R.Davies'
lanuscript notes on Masalit from the 1920s, I.Yahyals MA thesis on
TasaIit grammar and P.Doornbosl manuscript Masalit word list (all kindly
)rovided by Dr. Doornbos), J.ArkellVs scanty manuscript material on
I) ..a1 it (at S.O.A . S. library, London), G.T renga's grammar of Maba,
I Ilkas' articles on Maba, R.C. Stevenson's material on Masalit as
;11nlm3r17~idn Tucker and Bryan and P.Nougayrol's article on Kibet and
91 11 ions with him about Aiki ('Rungs') and Kibet.
,)rm ants:
11'
\',l~~lhafUimza r Shariif, Uthman Musa Abdurrahman Shariif, Muhammad
'lrnriif (male high school students of Daju ancestry, of Habila
, past of Geneina), Bishara Ahmad Abdullah Hussein (male student
r
* r,tln-ant farming family of Mogorn~), Abdulaziz Abubakr Yaqub (male
t~lrir\nt of Habila), Adam Goro (male artisan, 26, of Habila Kajangiso),
ht~aluma (male farmer, illiterate, 30s, of Libiri, east of Geneina),
llndija (female farmer, wife of Abajuma, of Libiri), Kultuma and Ajda
(female teenagers, illiterate, farmers, of Libiri). All the information
was gathered largely through the medium of Arabic in the village of
Libiri (where I stayed with friends), or in Geneina (where I was a
teacher of English in the high school).
The language (autonym kana masara):
Masal i t, a language of the Maba group of the ~i lo-~aharan ensemble,
15 spoken mainly in Dar Masalit, the western district of Dar Fur, Sudan,
nnd in the east of Wadai, Chad. It is also spoken in a few migrant
communities in the east of Sudan and around Nyala, Dar Fur.
Th~ros eems to be a diglossia in Masalit as the Masalit distinguish
I ~ lwt6. c.n ' 1 i ~ h t ' and ' heavy' 1an~u~p;e:k ana walwala and kana l~rc.
: , 4 , , '1 , t 8 , 8 I. .'I,,'. I ,.I 11, ,I,,. I, .I, ,. '
.
111 ltl,* Fltl k4,*, n l l b ~ ~'I~ t . 1 t,~):.; t 18.i~ >I 'II.. !ni[ 1 1 , I' '
I ~ ~ , ~ ~ ~ , 1L.91I .II IOIII 1 t'..11 11111 Ir.)nr , ,,I 10~1111:11 "IIP~~II~.~ Ar .~l)l, , 1l1~, ! II..~I~
f r nrli.,~o f lt111 1 i~wr~.,II,II I -11 I1n u,<L,wt.~ tbr 1% t t~ct (if I f tar11 TI~III Ar I! ! I I I I
ml x. Tt1r1 ' ~P;IVV ' I,III~T,III\~(~ I,, r\i>r( PI vvrl ,\*. I~~~lrlmga r 0 01)t1 1. t 1 I 1 c 1,
~~r.!r~mnvr r. t nrnp1f.x ~r i~mmiati c-nl ronr.t.rrlrt lonr. ;\nil :\ wl i11.r r .IIICI,> ! ! I I
fonr;~,;w,i th f~wc.r loan word<: it ir, ur;erl t)y tho hl~t~~sr r. II,~. , I I),,
~)mple- thc sultan, his clansfolk (~abo), tt~o fir-<ha., ('m III~)I ' +
vl l la~m)a nd Is sald to be spoken more widely by the. ~C.~II,\I!r~l 'I..
,;outh of Dar Masal it (who are thus percniv~d t.o t>i~vel irrl ' 1111[1~$1 . ! , '
ncc~nt). My informants were not in aKrPPment. nc. to wtl(.l t1r.r I t \.I, ,
prwtige symbol alone (and that there is a trrl~ dlp;l~<.~IIrlo MI,1 1 1 .
or that it was merely the dialect of the so11t.t1o f t h ~ wtrltt~
I),lr 'I,'
~cquired prestige through power. Apart from thfc, my lnfnr m:trit, ,IVI# ,*,,!
that there were three 'dialects' of Masalit: northern (sl~)k~>rl 'll6.
111
north and east of Geneina) and western (spoken by thp Mn~;al11 of W,,,i t I.
Chad), which both frequently substitute /k/ for /t/ in v~rh;rl ,.II(~ ,
and southern (spoken south of Geneina aro~lnd Misterr ,3nii II.\t\ I ! .I
KaJangis~). This concurs with the remark by Freqn~l (p.7:) tt1.11 111.
informants (Abdallah Masselaati and Abdallah of Waarn) c,nlrl t.h;lt Itic5r5,
were 'no less than three Masalit dialects'. Fresnel ~lvnc,n o I lr~u,l1r, !
data however. No other written sources mention dialects. Thl? t-.l~~rIl.v
based on the southern dialect.
The language is, 1 i ke many other Sudanese langua~es,u nder prv .,.II~c
from Arabic which, as well as being the commercial lin~uaf rrrnrn, 1'
II,S.
sole language of education. No local languages are nncoura~od ttv .I~I.;
official institution and their use is actively discourapd in srt~riol~..
Their survival in the face of continuing 'arabisntion' wo~~l,d. ~~iI~,'m
depend on their remoteness from central gov~rnrn~nta.n d t h ~,; t.r.clr~p,tt~
111
oral traditions. (see Doornbos' discussion of this situntion in n,~rf 'l~r
Wadai (1983)).
According to the estimate of Tucker (h Rrynn (lC)qF,) tt~rlr,, I! <,
approximately 27,000 Masalit: accordin8 to thc 1055-6 ron?\~r,n r. IIII.~~,~!
In Directions in Sudanese Lin~uistic r, anrl Folklorn ( Ir2'/'~~ t t111r 6. .jr
162,524 Masalit.
.I~IIIAIIIII A I ~ ~ I11I11 I A N l r I
M 1. it l l t ~IR.. no morpt~olnplrnl1 y r>xprclt, 1b1i pc~r~rlor rl 1, t l r11 I l r\rl rtricl tlrlq.
I bnr,lr rynt~ctic arran~ernent of the ordcr [ Suhject -nomlr~nlO:b ject-
1orntna1:Verbl or [Predicate:Verba!l, commonly known as SOV. Qualiflers
ollow the nominals they qualify. Nominal and verbal morphological
,tructures are agglutinative in character (by compound suffixation for
hc ~reater part - similar to Turkish), their affixes form mutually
~xclusive sets. I have found it most convenient to divide the
iorphological description that follows into two parts: verbal and non-
rerbal, as the 'verbs' form a lexical category quite distinct in
iorphological terms from all other categories.
TRANSCRIPTION
7'h~t ranscription used is as IPA except for the following signs:
'
II $ = $
C
I I( t =
I n I = &
\lor abbreviations:
'1'
:pro affix D = deletion (see Verbs 1.2)
consonant V = vowel
- transitive I = intransitive
I - high tone L = low tone
)x = prefix sx = suffix
,j = subject oj = object
~r = Arabic B = base (see Verbs 1.0)
'he following abbreviations are used to indicate material from the
;ources rnentionned in the first paragraph:
LR = Arkell NG = Nougayrol
)R = Doornbos SN = Stevenson
)V = Davies TR = Trenga
.K = Lukas YA = Yahya
I
f r icat ive (v)* f s (z)+ (x) t 11
l~teral
rolled
semi- (w)
vowe 1 s (Y)
*
these occur very rarely indeed (in my data): P.R. ndot (q~~rklrr~lrp)l e I,
made by infant at the mother's breast), Oui 'thing'.
+ these occur only in words of Arabic origin.
R non-phonemic: the glottal stop is initial in all wordq whlrtr wnt~lrl
otherwise be V-initial.
Notes:
1. Medial In/ is very rare in ~ndi~enoums~ sa~ilt~ xemeq,f inal /h/ rl71>
not occur in my data. /h/ occurs mainly in l~x~rneosf Arnblr nrlwlt~
7. /h/ and /f/ are rare in indiuenou% Mas~lit lexern~?
3. /k,m,n,r],ra/r e the Cs which occur in final position rnnC.t frr~q~~irS~tr ~t
4. /b, t,s,l ,f/ occur very rarely In f inn1 poc,ltlon in Intllvc~rrr~~~s
Mer,all t.
'I. 0thr1rwlr.oa ll the ronc;onptnt~m ny occur in lnltlnl, mc-ritnl nr t t r ~ r l
poc 1 t ion, tt~ouph / t/ npponrc to orc 111 In f lnrrl orrlv, /I]/ ,uuI I
Inl t lnl only