A MORPHOLOGY OF THE ÌKÁLẸ̀̀ DIALECT OF YORÙBÁ

Abstract

Morphology is central to the understanding of word meaning and structure in language. Extant literature on the I kále ̣ dialect of Yoru bá has treated morphology as an adjunct to phonology and syntax without a comprehensive morphological description of its word formation processes, which are crucial to the structures of the dialect. The study, therefore, investigated morphological processes such as inflection, affixation and reduplication in I kále ̣ with a view to providing an explicit description of the dialect. The study adopted Pulleyblank and Akinlabi's Weak Lexicalist Hypothesis (WLH), which interphases syntax and morphology, and McCarthy's Autosegmental Morphology in the analysis of reduplication and tone. Twenty seven native speakers were purposively sampled, three each from nine towns: Òkìtìpupa, Ìlútitun, Òde-ìrèlè, Igbótako, Iju-Odò, Erékìtì, Òde-Erínjẹ, Àyèká and Ìko ̣yà where this monolithic dialect is spoken. Data were acquired with the Ibadan 400 word list, syntactic paradigm and structured interview. This was complemented with 37 Ìkále ̣ indigenous Bírípo folksongs. Data, which consisted of Ìkálẹ words and phrases were subjected to interlinear-glossing and descriptive analysis. Ìkále ̣ has four inflectional morphemes: pronouns, emphatic markers, perfective markers and future tense markers. Pronouns inflect for negation, tense, aspect, number and person. Negative forms are: mé/ẹ́́, wé/ẹ́́nẹ́ n, é/ẹ́́ne ̣́n; future tense forms are: ma/a wa/ànán and á/ànán while the aspectual forms are: me/ẹ, we/e ̣́nẹ́́n and é/e ̣́nẹ́́n for 1st, 2nd and 3rd persons, respectively. The emphatic marker has two forms: me ̣́ẹ́́, used in continuous aspectual constructions and mà, used in other environments. Affixation employs prefixes and interfixes. Prefixes are grouped into classes I and I1. Class I prefixes are attached to verbs/verb phrases: à + hè  àhè 'banquet'; processual nominals: ò + gbígbàn ògbìgbàn 'siever'. olí-, the Class II prefix, which attaches to nouns, has lí- as its allomorph: olí/lí+ oghó ológhó/lóghó 'a rich man'. Two types of ù- prefixes are identified: ù1- + verb/verb phrase to derive abstract or concrete nouns: ù- + wàn  ùwàn 'measurement' and ù2-+ monosyllabic verbs to derive manner nouns: ù + re ̣́n  ùre ̣́n 'manner of walking'. Prefixes àì- and olí- are analysed as monomorphemic. There are partial and full reduplications.. Partial reduplication are either Ci or CV: go 'to be tall', gígo 'tallness', kéré 'to be small', kékeré 'small', kékeréèke 'extremely small'. Full reduplication includes: lá /lála 'to be big', ọma 'child(ren)', ọmama 'grandchild(ren). Reduplication is also used to denote plurality: lílálílá 'big ones'; agentive: gbóghó 'to carry money' gbóghógbóghó 'money carrier'; activity: wanle ̣́ 'to measure land'  wíwanle ̣́ 'land measuring'; emphasis:ibé „here‟  ibebé 'here emphatic'. Ìkále ̣ dialect is overwhelmingly agglutinating in nature and the affixation and reduplication of tones and segments are often mutually exclusive. Ìkále ̣ is an agglutinating dialect of Yoru bá as attested to in inflection, affixation and reduplication. The process of deriving nouns from processual nominals through prefixation provides evidence for the lexicalisation of such nominals in Yoruba.