This dissertation is a comprehensive description of Tafi, one of the fourteen Ghana-Togo Mountain (GTM) languages, spoken by approximately 4,400 people in the southeastern Ghana. The description... Show moreThis dissertation is a comprehensive description of Tafi, one of the fourteen Ghana-Togo Mountain (GTM) languages, spoken by approximately 4,400 people in the southeastern Ghana. The description consists of thirteen chapters and is based on a corpus gathered during two fieldwork periods totalling fifteen months in the Tafi area.. The language has a nine-vowel system with root controlled Advanced Tongue Root (ATR) harmony and a complex tonology. The noun class and agreement systems display change in progress. This study also accounts for several distinctive features of the language__a small class of underived adjectives; two adpositional classes and their grammaticalization histories, and a rare split possessor system where singular possessors of kin are marked differently from other possessors; utterance particles; conversational routines; interjections, and ideophones. The form, function and meaning of serial verb constructions, split predicate constructions for some modal-aspectual meanings and a medio-passive construction for predicating properties of undergoers and topic and focus constructions are also covered. The influence of Ewe, the dominant lingua franca, on the structures in Tafi and the distinctions between Tafi and its closest neighbour Nyagbo are highlighted. A selection of glossed and translated texts__ folktales, proverbs, riddles and procedural genres__is also included. The thesis is of interest to Africanists, typologists and contact linguists. Show less
Mambay is an Adamawa (Niger-Congo) language spoken by 15,000 people in Chad and Cameroon. The study opens with historical and linguistic background. A phonological inventory of the language is then... Show moreMambay is an Adamawa (Niger-Congo) language spoken by 15,000 people in Chad and Cameroon. The study opens with historical and linguistic background. A phonological inventory of the language is then presented and distribution patterns are examined. Some striking phenomena include a profoundly phonologized labial flap and a rich vowel inventory with contrastive length, nasalization, glottalization and pharyngealization. Special consideration is given to nasality and an underlyingly two-level tone system which exhibits tonal downstep as well as pragmatic employment of intonational register shift. In the description of the morphology, nouns are treated first, with attention dedicated to a “free vs. linked” distinction in noun forms and a series of noun prefixes unrelated to wider Niger-Congo noun class prefixes. A rich system of TAM (tense/aspect/mode) inflection is marked on both pronouns and verbs. Adverbs, adjectives and ideophones are treated together, as are the remaining minor word classes of numerals, demonstratives, and prepositions. A section on clauses and clause combinations concludes the dissertation, situating word classes within the context of syntax and discourse. Interlinearized texts rich in cultural information are selected from a variety of genres: song, legend, fable and proverb. The appendices catalogue inalienable noun possession paradigms and verb conjugations. Show less
