Emai | |
---|---|
Native to | Nigeria |
Region | Edo State |
Native speakers | between 25,000 and 35,000 (2018) |
Niger–Congo?
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | ema |
Emai, a language of the Niger-Congo language family and one of the approximately 25 or more Edoid languages, is spoken in ten villages in South Central Nigeria by roughly 25,000-35,000 members of the Emai clan.[1]: viii The ten villages that Emai is spoken in span approximately 250 kilometers of agriculturally rich land between the present-day Edo State's Edion and Owan rivers. In addition to Afuze, which is the predominant "political village"[1]: viii of the Emai clan, Emai is also spoken in the nine following villages: Eteye, Evbiame-New-Site, Eviame-Old-Site, Ogute, Ojavun-New-Site, Ojavun-Old-Site, Okpokhunmi, Ovbionwu, and Uanhumi. The level of endangerment of Emai is 4, meaning that it is actively used and that its use is supported by educational institutions.[2]
Phonology
editThe consonant and vowel inventories of Emai are orthographically represented in the tables below and annotated with the corresponding symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) placed in brackets when appropriate.
Vowels
editEmai has 12 vowels, including front, central, and back vowels as well as nasalized vowels.[1]: 1 In the table below, the orthographic representation conveys nasalization with the letter n following the vowel and the IPA representation conveys nasalization with the symbol ~. For both front and back half-close vowels (e and o), there exists no contrast on the basis of nasalization. Emai exhibits no vowel harmony, unlike many neighboring languages, and has no phonemic diphthongs.[1]: 2
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i [i] | u [u] | |
Nasal (Close) | in [ĩ] | un [ũ] | |
Half-Close | e [e] | o [o] | |
Half-Open | e [ɛ] | o [ɔ] | |
Nasal (Half-Open) | en [ɛ̃] | on [ɔ̃] | |
Open | a [a] | ||
Nasal (Open) | an [ã] |
Consonants
editEmai's consonant inventory contains 28 consonants and contrasts sounds across eight places of articulation and six manners of articulation.[1]: 3
biliabial | labiodental | alveolar | alveopalatal | palatal | velar | labiovelar | glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop (plosive) | p [p],
b [b] |
t [t],
d [d] |
k [k],
g [g] |
kp [k͡p],
gb [g͡b] |
||||
Fricative | f [f],
v [v] |
s [s],
z [z] |
sh [ç],
y [ʝ] |
kh [x],
gh [ɣ] |
||||
Affricate | ch [tʃ], | |||||||
Approximant | vb [β] | r [ɹ] | y [j] | w [w] | h | |||
Nasal | m [m] | n [n] | ny [ɲ] | nw | ||||
Lateral | l [l] |
Syllable Structure
editEmai allows for the following syllable structures:[1]
- V
- CV
An example of each of these allowed syllable structures is shown in the table below with the template syllable bolded.
Template | Instantiation | Translation |
---|---|---|
V | á.wà[1]: 7 | 'dog' |
CV | gbé[1]: 325 | 'kill' |
Notes on Syllable Structure
The above table represents the allowed syllable structures in Emai as a whole. However, there is another level of specification in the allowed syllable structures for different parts of speech. For instance, all nouns begin with a vowel whereas most verbs tend to begin with a consonant (with only a few beginning with a vowel). Like verbs, adjectives also typically begin with a consonant while adverbs begin with both vowels and consonants. A few instances of these parts-of-speech-based restrictions on syllable structure are illustrated in the table below.[1]: 5
Word | Translation | Part of Speech | Initial syllable structure |
---|---|---|---|
ì.wè[1]: 5 | 'house' | noun | V |
é.ghó'[1]: 5 | 'money' | noun | V |
kpa[1]: 7 | 'to vomit' | verb | CV |
sha.sha[1]: 4 | 'to scrape' | verb | CV |
Tone
editEmai uses high, low, and down-stepped high tone.[1]: 4 For some word classes in Emai, words that are identical in every other way are distinguished from one another in meaning on the basis of tone, and tone contrasts can be used to encode both for lexical and grammatical meaning.[1]: 4 The table below shows how tone is orthographically represented in Emai.
Type of Tone | Tone representation | Instantiation | Translation |
---|---|---|---|
High Tone | acute accent | òkpá[1]: 5 | 'one' |
Low Tone | grave accent | òkpà[1]: 5 | 'rooster' |
Down-stepped High Tone | acute accent followed by a single quote | òvbéé'[1]: 5 | 'trickery' |
Morphology
editEmai contains both inflectional and derivational morphological processes.
Inflectional Morphology
editIn Emai, inflectional morphology affects the following word classes: nouns, pronouns, nominal modifiers, verbs and a subclass of adverbs.[1]: 21
Noun Inflection
editNumber in Emai is expressed by contrastive vowel prefixes attached to nominal roots belonging to the following categories: human, animate, inanimate, body-part locus, and abstractions. These prefix pairs that encode for singularity and plurality form a system of 11 noun class pairs that reflect "a remnant gender system."[1]: 21 Singular tends to be marked by the vowels (o- and o-), plural tends to be marked by the vowels (i-, e-, e-), and the vowel (a-) can be used to mark for both singular and plural.[1]: 21 Some examples of this system are shown in the table below with the relevant contrastive prefix bolded.
Contrastive Prefix Pair | Singular Expression | Translation | Plural Expression | Translation |
---|---|---|---|---|
o- ~ i- | òmòhè[1]: 23 | 'man' | ìmòhè | 'men' |
a- ~ e- | áwà[1]: 22 | 'dog' | éwà | 'dogs' |
o- ~ a- | óbò[1]: 23 | 'hand' | ábò | 'hands' |
Pronoun and Modifier Inflection
editNumber inflection for pronouns and modifier roots in Emai relies on a similar, albeit more restricted system of contrastive vowel prefixes that only uses the o- ~ e- gender prefix pair.[1]: 25 Not all modifiers and pronouns, however, show number prefixation. For instance, certain demonstratives take the same form in both singular and plural, such as the word nà, which can mean both 'this' and 'these' and áìn which can mean both 'that' and 'those' depending on the context.[1]: 25 Some examples of pronouns and modifiers that do inflect for number according to contrastive vowel prefix pairs are shown in the table below.
Contrastive Prefix Pair | Singular Expression | Translation | Plural Expression | Translation |
---|---|---|---|---|
o- ~ e- | ólìyó[1]: 25 | 'that kind' | élìyó | 'those kind' |
o- ~ e- | ónóì[1]: 25 | 'next one' | énóì | 'next ones' |
o- ~ e- | óvbèé[1]: 25 | 'another' | évbèé | 'others' |
Ideophonic Adverbs
editInflection for ideophonic adverbs functions to indicate whether the adverb takes on a clause final or clause initial position in the statement. If the ideophonic adverb is in the clause final position, no prefix is attached to the adverb, and for the adverb to take on a clause initial position, the prefix i- is attached to it. This inflectional rule only applies to ideophonic adverbs referring to "rate of movement, spatial position, posture or sound"[1]: 26 and is demonstrated in the example below, using the ideophonic adverb of khùó, meaning 'whoosh.'
Clause Final Ideophonic Adverb:
Clause Initial Ideophonic Adverb:
Verb Inflection
editVerbs are inflected in a number of ways, for instance encoding for tense, mood restrictions, distribution, etc. A common inflectional affix found in Emai is the Factative (F) suffix -i which attaches to bare verbs in monotransitive and intransitive clauses.[1]: 27 Another way that inflection is applied to verbs in Emai is with the aspect markers of imperfect continuous (C) ó and prospective predictive (PRED) ló.[1]: 27 Examples of these aspect markers are shown below.
Continous:
Predictive:
There are typically pre-verbal markers in Emai, and tone on verbs is entirely inflectional as well.[1]: 4, 116
Derivational Morphology
editDerivational morphology in Emai affects verbs, nouns and adverbs.[1]: 21
Verbal Affixation
editThere are two derivational verbal affixes in Emai. The first of these verbal affixes is the Perseverative (PERS) prefix, translating to the English equivalent of "still." The prefix takes the form of Cí- where C is the verb initial consonant.[1]: 30, 31 The second derivational affix is the Distributive (DS) suffix, which takes the form of lo/lo/no. The Distributive suffix can be used to distribute over the transitive object or the intransitive subject and can encode for both a conventional distributive meaning such as "each of them" or "one after the other" or a repeated meaning such as "repeatedly."[1]: 30, 33 Some examples of each of Emai's derivational affixes are shown below with the relevant affix bolded.
Perseverative Prefix:
1:
2:
Distributive Suffix:
1:
2:
In Emai, nominals can be derived from verbs by attaching a prefix consisting of a single vowel to the verb root. These prefixes consist of all of the basic (non-nasalized) vowels in Emai, and each prefix serves a different function in terms of meaning and has a different set of constraints regarding when and how it can be attached to verb roots. Some examples of nominalization are shown in the table below.[1]: 39
Prefix | Function of Prefix | Verb Root | Translation of Verb Root | Verb Root with Prefix | Translation of Verb Root with Prefix |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
e- | To change VERB to "force characterized by VERB"[1]: 39 | fioo | 'to blow' | éfiòò | 'wind, breeze, gale, storm' |
e- | To change VERB to "mental state characterized by VERB"[1]: 39 | hio | 'to be arrogant' | èhìò | 'arrogance, pride' |
o- | To change VERB to "place characterized by VERB"[1]: 40 | va | 'to escape' | òvá | 'outlet, hole, escape' |
Another type of nominalization that functions differently is gerundive nominalization which involves attaching the ú-...-mi circumfix to a verb to change the verb into a noun meaning "human activity characterized by verb" like in the the example of la, meaning 'to run,' which can undergo gerundive nominalization to become ú-là-mí, which translates to "running."[1]: 48
Emai has various types of compounds, including analytic compounds, phrasal compounds, and synthetic compounds.[1]: 54
Analytic Compounds
Analytic compounds can be applied to semantic classes belonging to the following categories: flora, fauna, fish, insects, birds, containers, location, time units, food items, traditional belief, kin relations and social role and are formed by either combining two noun stems (N-N) or three noun stems (N-N-N), where the left-most noun stem denotes a more general referent that the other noun stem or stems serve to add a level of specification to.[1]: 54, 55 Some examples of analytic compounds are shown below.
Left Noun Stem | Right Noun Stem | Compound |
---|---|---|
ìùmì
'weed' |
émèlá
'cow' |
íúmémèlá[1]: 55
'cow weed' |
ómò
child |
ògbòn
'new' |
ómògbòn[1]: 57
'new-born child' |
òkpòsò
'woman' |
ódíòn
'elder' |
ókpósódíòn[1]: 57
'female elder' |
Phrasal Compounds
Phrasal compounds can be applied to semantic classes belonging to the following categories: place, time, human social structure and animal. They are formed by combining two nouns stems and placing in between those noun stems a "grammatical morpheme" like in the following example:[1]: 64
Synthetic Compounds
Synthetic Compouns can be applied to semantic classes belonging to the following categories: household artifacts, natural world entities, social roles, locations and time conditions. They are formed by combining a vowel prefix, a verb root and a noun stem (prefix-V-N). All basic vowels except for e- can serve as prefixes in synthetic compounds in Emai and each prefix performs a different function in terms of changing the meaning of the relevant attached verb root and noun stem.[1]: 54, 67 Some examples of simple synthetic compounds are shown in the table below.
Prefix | Verb Root | Noun Stem | Compound |
---|---|---|---|
a- | ka
'to dry' |
éhòn
'ear' |
ákáéhòn[1]: 67
'eardrum' |
o- | mie
'to discover with' |
èò
'eye' |
ómìèò[1]: 69
'prophet, fortune teller' |
o- | la
'to flow with' |
èhèìn
'lie' |
òléhèìn[1]: 69
'liar' |
Reduplication in Emai occurs in the form of verb root reduplication and noun stem (NS) reduplication.[1]: 83
Noun Stem Reduplication
editThere are five structural classes of stem reduplication in Emai, all of which consist in NS-1+NS-2 sequences. Each class of stem reduplication has a different function. For instance, some classes of stem reduplication serve an emphatic function and others serve to take an aspect of the referent's meaning and "maximally extend" that meaning.[1]: 84 In addition, each class of stem reduplication exhibits a different extent of reduplication. For instance, in one class the entire noun stem is reduplicated while other classes only show partial reduplication. In cases where there is only partial reduplication, it is in most cases the NS-1 that is affected by processes of vowel and syllable deletion.[1]: 83 An example of each of the five classes of stem reduplication is shown below.
Process of Reduplication | Noun Stem | NS1+NS2 |
---|---|---|
Entire stem reduplication | óvbì
'offspring of' |
óvbíóvbì[1]: 84
'grandchild' |
Partial stem reduplication
(final vowel of NS-1 replaced by copy of initial vowel of NS-2) |
éhòn
'ear, edge' |
éhéèhón[1]: 84
'extreme edge of' |
Partial stem reduplication
(final vowel of NS-1 deleted) |
èrà
'father' |
érèrà[1]: 85
'paternal grandfather' |
Partial stem reduplication
(initial vowel of NS-2 deleted) |
ònà
'this one' |
ónánà[1]: 85
'this very one' |
Partial stem reduplication
(final consonant and vowel of NS-1 deleted) |
ósò
'certain one, some one' |
óósò[1]: 86
'someone' |
Verb Root Reduplication
editThe reduplication of a verb root attached to a vowel prefix changes a verb into a noun. There is no "obvious pattern" evidenced in the way reduplicated verb roots combine with vowel prefixes[1]: 86 . Some examples of root reduplication are shown below.
Verb Root | Reduplicated Verb with Vowel Prefix Bolded |
---|---|
gbulu
'to roll' |
ágbúlúgbùlù[1]: 86
'cart, vehicle' |
funo
"to extinguish, flicker' |
ìfùnòfúnó[1]: 86
'unsteadiness, instability' |
gbo
'to shiver' |
ògbògbò[1]: 87
'pneumonia' |
Borrowed Lexemes
editWhile there are not many verbs in Emai that are borrowed from other languages, noun classes of concrete and "highly abstract" entities reveal some lexical borrowing from English, Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, in addition to other languages.[1]: 87 For instance, borrowing from English can be seen in the word in Emai for sugar, which is ìshúgà, and borrowing from Igbo can be seen in the word in Emai for money, which is égó in Igbo and éghó' in Emai.[1]: 89
Syntax
editBasic Word Order
editThe basic word order in Emai is subject/verb/object (SVO) for transitive clauses and subject/verb (SV) for intransitive clauses, as illustrated in the following examples:[1]: 9
Examples of Transitive Clauses:
1:
2:
Examples of Intransitive Clauses
1:
2:
Word Order for Specific Phrase Types
editPossessees and Possessors
To form sentences in Emai referencing possession, the possessee (or the thing being possessed) is placed before the possessor:
Determiners and Noun Phrases
Emai contains both predeterminers and postdeterminers. The definite article, which translates to the English equivalent of "the," is a predeterminer in Emai, meaning that it comes before its corresponding noun phrase. An example of a predeterminer in Emai is shown below.
Other types of determiners in Emai, such as demonstratives and quantifiers, follow their corresponding noun phrase like in the following example.
Auxiliaries and Verb Phrases
In order to construct auxiliary and verb phrase pairs in Emai, the auxiliary comes before the verb phrase:
Comparative Adjectives and Standards
In Emai, the comparative adjective comes before the standard:
Adpositions and Noun Phrases
Emai uses prepositions, meaning that in adposition/noun phrase pairs, the adposition comes before the noun phrase:
Position of Adverbs in Clauses
editAs discussed in the section on inflectional morphology, there is a class of ideophonic adverbs that can inflect to be clause initial. However, adverbials in Emai are overwhelmingly postverbal, like in the following example:[1]: 288
In addition to being postverbal, the position of adverbs in clauses is also governed by order relations corresponding to the specific adverb class. Postverbal adverbs in Emai fall into the following nine adverb classes: Temporal Deixis, Temporal Frequency, Temporal Quantity, Temporal Extent, Aspectual Extent, Place, Manner, Reason, and Rate/Sound. There is preferred word order in Emai that governs the positions of these different adverbial classes when more than one adverb appears in a single clause.[1]: 288, 340 For instance, if adverbs of Aspectual Extent, Place, and Temporal Deixis show up in a single clause, they will appear in that order.[1]: 340 This is illustrated in the following example, where the Aspectual Extent adverb (vììn) is bolded, the Place adverb (vbí ékóá) is italicized, and the Temporal Deixis adverb (òdè) is written in all caps:
ó
he
nwú'
PAP.take
ólí
the
ewe
goat
den
tie
vììn
tightly
vbí
LOC
ékóá
room
ÒDÈ.
yesterday
'He tied up the goat tightly in the room yesterday.'[1]: 341
Corresponding Question Frames
editThe aforementioned adverb classes (excluding the ninth class of Rate/Sound) each correspond to a specific information question frame.[1]: 288 The class of Temporal Deixis has two possible question frames, but all of the other seven classes exhibit a single corresponding frame for forming questions. The following table illustrates these frames and gives an example for each.
Adverb Class | Corresponding Question Frame | Example |
---|---|---|
Temporal Deixis | éghè re
'when' í yi 'which one' |
|
Temporal Frequency | ísékà
'how often' |
|
Temporal Quantity | NP ékà
'how much' |
No relevant example |
Temporal Extent | ébé'/ébí' i tee se
'how long' |
|
Aspectual Extent | ébé'/éb í' se
'to what extent' |
|
Place | ébé'/ébí
'where' |
|
Manner | ébé'/ébí i
'how' |
|
Reason | émé'/émí' ze khi/li
'why' |
émé' what ó it zé-í' PAP.cause-F khí IND ólí the ómóhé man gbé' PAP.kill ólí the ói? thief 'Why did the man kill the thief?'[1]: 335 |
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt bu bv bw bx by bz ca cb cc cd ce cf cg ch ci cj ck cl cm cn co cp cq cr cs ct cu cv Schaefer, Ronald P.; Egbokhare, Francis O. (2017). A Grammar of Emai. Germany: Mouton Grammar Library. ISBN 978-3-11-048966-8.
- ^ "Emai-Iuleha-Ora". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
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