English - Lekongho Dictionary

English - Lekongho Dictionary
Author: Sentemong Mehpah
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2019-10-22
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 9956551856

In 2005, a United Nations study reported that half of the worlds languages (estimated at 6,000) would disappear by the end of this century. A third of these endangered languages are in Africa where, according to the same study, nearly 250 languages have disappeared in the last century. Language is the heart, identity, storage system for the collective and unique memory and experience of every culture, people, including their natural habitat. Loss of language means loss of the ability to retain and pass on not just a belief system but also invaluable knowledge to future generations. This English-Lekongho/Lekongho-English Dictionary is a modest first attempt to minimize the envisaged sad phenomenon of language loss. Nkongho-Mbo people speak Lekongho, one of the five variants of the Mbo language of the Mbo ethnic group of Cameroon, with their ancestral home in the Kupe Muanenguba Administrative Area of the South-west Region. With this book, the authors fervent hope is that there will no longer surface any justification to continue to refrain from speaking Lekongho on a daily basis. This effort will help to regionalize, nationalize and internationalize the Lekongho language since Nkongho people are spread all over the country, Africa and the world.

The Fundamentals of Lekongho

The Fundamentals of Lekongho
Author: A. B. K. Kasozi
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2024-04-26
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9956554014

This book stems from a compilation of two separate research projects. The first was A Long Essay entitled Meaning of the Names of People in Mbo, Department of Linguistics, University of Buea and the other was an Essay entitled Time in Lekongho. The authors succinctly presented Nkongho- Mbo traditional names, their meaning and socio-cultural implications in the Nkongho-Mbo Speech Community. Most importantly, the researchers examined the impact of the Nkongho- Mbo names to the bearers. They explored the positivity and negativity of the selected Nkongho- Mbo names, including the meanings portrayed through the Lekongho language. In addition, they demonstrated the wealth and diversity of African languages, cultures and traditions and how they are fast losing their richness and diversity to the domineering influence of European colonialism and modernization which has drastically altered the socio-cultural, socio-economic and political conditions in Africa and given rise to a new generation of Africans who take greater pride in imbibing and promoting Europeans rather than fostering African values. The authors also addressed the Nkongho conception of time and names in a succinct analysis of how the Nkongho-Mbo people conceived, interpret and use them. The concept of time in most African cultures is very elusive, fluid and imprecise but this book has demonstrated that careful research and patient analysis can reduce that elusiveness, fluidity and imprecision. The authors have moved away from that colonial frame of mind and have shown great interest in reviving certain of the African values that have fallen prey to modernization.

A Dictionary of Popular Bali Names

A Dictionary of Popular Bali Names
Author: John Koyela Fokwang
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2010
Genre: Bali (African people)
ISBN: 9956616478

A Dictionary of Popular Bali Names is an exceptional minefield of Chamba names, meticulously assembled and expatiated for the curious user. As a pioneer in the field of dictionary-writing in the Cameroon grassfields, Fokwangís third edition counts for more than a regular dictionary. It skilfully combines a short history of the Chamba people in Cameroon as well as ethnographic issues on the naming ritual. John Fokwangís work stands in a class of its own and will serve as reference material for people of Chamba descent and those who favour the use of African names in general. This edition is an exceptionally worthy contribution to the ethnography of the Cameroon grassfields and of course, the growing literature and interest on African names and languages.

Durorp-English Dictionary

Durorp-English Dictionary
Author:
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2013
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 995679094X

Durorp-English Dictionary is probably the first attempt at compiling a comprehensive Dictionary of Durorp, the language of the people of Korup. It is a bilingual Dictionary aimed at stimulating literary interests in the study and development of Durorp as a linguistic entity in particular and promotion of Durorp literature in general. Durorp is an interesting and linguistically distinct semi-Bantu or Bantoid language spoken by a minority group of people known as Bororp or people of the Kororp ethnic group. A part of this ethnic group inhabits the Southwestern part of Cameroon while the other occupies the Southeastern tip of Nigeria. A minority group, Kororp has continued to suffer not only cultural and socio-economic shrinkage but also linguistic marginalisation characterised by an obvious erosion of some key elements of the language. Like any other language, however, Durorp has borrowings from languages such as Efik, Ejagham, and even English. This Dictionary has introduced quite a number of new but understandable words.

In the Linguistic Paradise

In the Linguistic Paradise
Author: Ndimele, Ozo-mekuri
Publisher: M & J Grand Orbit Communications
Total Pages: 674
Release: 2019-02-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9785644014

In the Linguistic Paradise is the second volume in the Nigerian Linguists Festschrift Series. The motivating force behind the establishment of the Festschrift Series is to honour outstanding scholars who have excelled in the study of languages and linguistics in Nigeria. This volume is dedicated to Professor E. Nolue Emenanjo, a celebrated linguist and a pioneer professor of Igbo Linguistics. The book is organised in five sections, as follows: Language, History and Society; Literature, Stylistics and Pragmatics; Applied Linguistics; Formal Linguistics; and Tributes. There are 15 papers in the first section the majority address the perennial problem of language choice in Nigeria. Section two contains 10 papers focusing on literature, stylistics and pragmatics. Section three contains 17 papers a sizeable number of which focus on language teaching and learning, two are on lexicography, while others are on language engineering. Section three contains 16 papers focusing on the core areas of linguistics. In section four a biographical profile of Professor E. Nolue Emenanjo and list of publications is presented, while Nwadike examines the contributions of Emenanjo in Igbo Studies.

A Grammar of Igala

A Grammar of Igala
Author: Ejeba, Salem Ochala
Publisher: M & J Grand Orbit Communications
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2017-01-17
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9785431185

The book establishes 28 phonemic consonants and 7 vowels, as well as lexical and grammatical tones in Igala. It shows the canonical syllable types as V and CV with no complexity, and relates resyllabification to the retiming of segments as tone bearing units and the duration of their mora. The work discusses nine word classes, as well as ideophones and clitics in Igala. There are splitting verbs of various structures and fully-fledged pronouns with morphologically toneless clitic counterparts that are toned in their syntactic context, among other elements of the Igala morphology. The work establishes clitics as generally bearing the grammatical tones of various categories as a result of their morphological tonelessness and their availability for post-lexical tone assignment. It also accounts for the generally complex interaction of clitics and tones in the organisation of the morphosyntax and the tone-syntax interface. Igala has both verbal and nominal extensional affixes with various semantic features. Some interesting discussions in the Igala syntax include the structural and functional types of serial verb constructions, the detransitivizing process of verb movement in object demoting structures, coreferentiality in relativised constituents and the future/non-future temporal distinction. Complementary binominals are conjoined with a specified binominal morpheme, and their rigidly irreversible structures have implications in the Igala semantics. The binominals demonstrate a grammatically specified pattern defined over a conceptual space, showing the network among conceptual categories, such as kinship, marital, social, hunter-hunted, more-less and cause-effect relationships as reflected in the Igala grammar.

The Numeral Systems of Nigerian Languages

The Numeral Systems of Nigerian Languages
Author: Ozo-mekuri Ndimele
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2016-04-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9785421538

The papers in this collection present the numeral systems of more than twenty Nigerian languages. The papers mainly emanate from a workshop on the numeral systems of Nigerian languages organised by the Linguistic Association of Nigeria during its 23rd Annual Conference which was held at the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The workshop arose from awareness created by Dr. Eugene S.L. Chan on the need for Nigerian linguists to document this severely endangered but very important aspect of natural languages. The quantum of mathematical computations - addition, multiplication, subtraction, or a combination of two or all of these - involved in the numeral systems of Nigerian languages is remarkable. The papers reveal that a variety of numeral systems do exist, such as: binary, decimal, incomplete decimal, duodecimal, quinary, quaternary, ternary, mixed, body-part tally systems, and much more. The book is a resource about how different languages manipulate their numeral systems.

Affixation and Auxiliaries in Igbo

Affixation and Auxiliaries in Igbo
Author: Chinwe Onumajuru
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2015-12-29
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9785421546

This study focusses on affixation and auxiliaries in Igbo, drawing on data mainly from Onicha (Onitsha) Igbo. It identifies prefixes, suffixes, interfixes, circumfixes, super/suprafixes, extensional suffixes and auxiliaries in the variety of Igbo studied. The work is presented in two sections: Section 1 discusses affixation, while Section 2 is focused on auxiliary verbs. Section 1 contains five chapters. Chapter 1 is a general introduction that provides some background information regarding O? ni?cha [make sure this word is correct i.e. represented in the spelling of the language, and not just Onicha] Igbo and the speakers of the lect. Chapter 2 an overview of affixation as an important word formation process in world languages. Chapter 3 is the morpho-syntactic analysis of inflectional affixes. Chapter 4 discusses the morphosyntactic characteristics of derivational affixes, while Chapter 5 is concerned with the morpho-syntactic as well as the semantic charateristics of verbal extensions in Igbo. Section 2 is a sole chapter which discusses in a systematic manner the different types of auxiliary verbs, their uses and the effect of their co-occurrence with perfective verb forms.

Convergence: English and Nigerian Languages

Convergence: English and Nigerian Languages
Author: Ndimele, Ozo-mekuri
Publisher: M & J Grand Orbit Communications
Total Pages: 922
Release: 2016-02-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9785412709

The present volume, which is the 5th in the Nigerian Linguists Festschrift Series, is devoted to Professor Munzali A. Jibril, a celebrated icon in university administration, and an erudite Professor of English Linguistics. The title of this special edition was specifically chosen to crown Professor Jibril’s academic prowess in both English and indigenous Nigerian languages, and to mark and laud his official departure from active university lectureship. 72 assessed papers are included from the many submitted. Papers cover the main theme of the volume, i.e. the interaction between English and indigenous Nigerian languages, and there are a number of papers on other secular areas of linguistics such as: language and history, language planning and policy, language documentation, language engineering, lexicography, translation, gender studies, language acquisition, language teaching and learning, pragmatics, discourse and conversational analysis, and literature in English and African languages. There is also a rich section devoted to the major ‘traditional’ fields of linguistics - phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics.