A Study of the Kanuri Language

Grammar and Vocabulary

Johannes Lukas

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351598088
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Langues et linguistique
• Subtopic: Syntaxe en linguistique

Originally published in 1937, this book is a practical manual of Kanuri which will be of use to both the layman and the linguist. This analysis makes it clear that kanuri is a tone-language and the author urges the reader to observe the tone-system of the language so that the accidence can be fully understood, as grammatical tone sometimes forms an integral part of it. As this is a practical study, a practical orthography has been chosen - i. e one that uses only letters that are absolutely necessary. This system improved Kanuri orthography, as it was based on scientific principles.

CHAPTER I

THE SOUNDS

1. The Kanuri Vowel sounds are represented by the following letters: G., a, e, i, o, u, ә.

α. is an open back Vowel resembling a in Engl. ‘father’; e.g. kâm man.

a is a front Vowel similar to the a in French ‘casser’ break, but slightly centralized. It is more forward than Engl. a. in ‘father’; e.g. kál alike.

In the neighbourhood of Velar consonants or vowels it is centralized and further back; e.g. bákcìn he beats, kâu stone.

Before i it is closer; e.g. mâi king.

e is a half-close front Vowel, not quite as close as in French ‘bébé’, nor as open as in Engl. “bet’; e.g. fê cow.

i is a close front vowel, closer than in Engl. ‘fee’; e.g. cî mouth.

o is a half-open back vowel, a little closer than ou in Engl. ‘ought’, but not as close as o in French ‘mot’; e.g. sónìn they die.

It is made with strong lip-rounding, thus giving the impression of a slight u preceding.

The Kanembu dialect of the east difierentiates between open and close o; here it would be necessary to Write the open variety ɔ; cf. § 113.

u is a close back vowel, closer than in Engl. ‘boon’; e.g. bû blood.

ә is a close central Vowel, closer than the 0 in Engl. ‘command’, e.g. kәm

m

g

stammering.

In the neighbourhood of bilabial consonants or vowels it is further back; e.g. b

ne night, len

u you go (and . . .).

2. The following diphthongs occur in Kanuri: ai, ei, oi, ui, au, au, ea, әi, әu, io, iu, oa, ou; e.g. mâi king, díyei we did, dôi swift, kugûi hen, kâu stone, yâu you (pl.) drink, meâ hundred, wûnz

geiyen we expect you, Wún

u you look at, dio the act of doing, S

Ɩiu spec. adverb, so

. well, kάtrou spec. adverb.

3. The Kanuri consonants are represented by the following characters:’, b, c, d, f, ƒ, g, h, j, 1, Ɩ, m, n, ny, ŋ, p, r, s, sh s, sh, t, v, w, x, y, z.

Long consonants are written by doubling the letter; e.g. kúttù unpleasant.

̕ represents the glottal stop; e.g. ά’

no.

b is a bilabial plosive, fully voiced as in Engl. ‘obey’ ; e.g. bâ no.

c is a voiceless palato-alveolar affricate; e.g. cî mouth. It is made with the blade of the tongue against the back part of the upper front gums and the front part of the palate.

d is a voiced alveolar plosive as in Engl. ‘adder’ ; e.g. dê empty.

f is a labio-dental fricative as in Engl. ‘feet’; e.g. fíndi twenty.

ƒ is a bilabial fricative, that is to say, formed with both lips, and not by bringing the lower lip close to the upper teeth as is done in the case of f. The lip position is the same as in blowing out a match; e.g. ƒógo cloud.

g is (1) a voiced velar plosive at the beginning of words and after ŋ ; e.g. gád

skin I grumble, ŋg

là good. (2) Slightly fricative when between two voiced sounds (except when the preceding and following vowels are identical, see (3)); e.g. s

digà bottom.

(3) Omitted when standing between two identical vowels; e.g. sag

year, wúnogo^! look at! (pl.). But it is often retained in re- duplicated syllables; e.g. gégè whiskers.

In careful speech the g may be pronounced throughout and when malams write Kanuri in Arabic script they write the letter g.

In some dialects i...