A Dictionary of Mada (Mada-English). A Plateau Language of Central Nigeria

108 Pages·0.719 MB·

by  Blench Roger.

A DICTIONARY OF MADA,

A PLATEAU LANGUAGE OF
CENTRAL NIGERIA

BASED ON THE RIJA DIALECT

Mada-English

with an

English-Mada finderlist

Roger Blench Barau Kato
Kay Williamson Educational Foundation
8, Guest Road
Cambridge CB1 2AL
United Kingdom
Voice/ Fax. [phone]
Mobile worldwide (00-44)-(0)7967-696804
E-mail [email protected]
http://www.rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm

(Cambridge, 24 July 2010)
Preface

This dictionary is a preliminary attempt to record the richness of the Mada language. It is intended to help
standardise the spelling of Mada words and to define words which are no longer in current use, especially
cultural terms. The primary goal is to assist Mada speakers to use and spell words correctly. We hope also
that the dictionary will be useful to students of the languages of Nigeria and of African languages in general.

An introduction has been provided to facilitate the effective use of the dictionary. It covers Mada
phonology; current orthography; sketch of Mada grammar; Mada language use; abbreviations; and the
structure of individual entries. The appendices provide information of both cultural interest, such as Mada
personal names, towns and villages; and words developed for Mada Bible Translation.

The original source of the present document was a dictionary file prepared by Norman and Barbara Price in
relation to the translation of the New Testament, a project finally finished and launched in 2000. However,
the entries have been rechecked and in some cases retranscribed, many new items entered and it should be
thus considered an essentially new document.

We are aware that there are still many Mada words which have eluded us and that some words here defined
may have secondary meanings that are not included. This is a draft circulated to interested individuals and
therefore we would be grateful if any suggestions for amendment, correction and addition could be
forwarded to the authors at the addresses given below.

Roger Blench
Barau Kato
Jos 24 July 2010

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE........................................................................................................................................................I
ABBREVIATIONS.......................................................................................................................................III
1. THE MADA PEOPLE AND THEIR LANGUAGE.................................................................................I
1.1 Location and Name...................................................................................................................................................i
1.2 Classification.............................................................................................................................................................i
1.3 Scholarly publication..............................................................................................................................................ii
1.4 Dialects...................................................................................................................................................................ii
2. THE SOUND SYSTEM OF MADA AND ITS ORTHOGRAPHY.......................................................II
2.1 Sound system..........................................................................................................................................................ii
2.2 Letters of the Mada alphabet..................................................................................................................................iii
3.3 Pronouns................................................................................................................................................................iii
3.3.1 Direct speech..................................................................................................................................................iii
3.5 Adjectives...............................................................................................................................................................vi
4. GUIDE TO USING THE DICTIONARY.............................................................................................VII
4.1 Structure of individual entries...............................................................................................................................vii
4.2 Scientific Names...................................................................................................................................................vii
4.3 Nigerian English Usage........................................................................................................................................vii
4.4 Etymology and Loan-words.................................................................................................................................viii
4.5 Parts of Speech.....................................................................................................................................................viii
BIBLIOGRAPHY.........................................................................................................................................IX
1. PUBLICATIONS IN MADA...................................................................................................................IX
2. LANGUAGE, ETHNOGRAPHY AND LINGUISTICS.......................................................................IX
MADA-ENGLISH DICTIONARY................................................................................................................1

TABLES

Table 1. Mada subject pronouns......................................................................................................................iii
Table 2. Mada subject pronoun paradigm........................................................................................................iv
Table 3. Mada pronouns re-ordered.................................................................................................................iv
Table 4. Mada present tense subject pronouns.................................................................................................iv
Table 5. Tones on Mada polysyllabic verb-stems............................................................................................iv
Table 6. Mada uncompleted past paradigm: monosyllabic stem.......................................................................v
Table 7. Mada uncompleted past paradigm: polysyllabic stem.........................................................................v
Table 8. Mada verb-stem paradigm ‘come’.......................................................................................................v
Table 9. Tones on Mada polysyllabic verb-stems............................................................................................vi
Table 10. Mada imperfective verb-stem paradigm ‘was coming’....................................................................vi
Table 11. Mada concordial adjectives..............................................................................................................vi

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Abbreviations

Amer. American (for Americanisms)
arch. archaic
dial. dialect
et. etymology
euph. euphemism
fig. figurative
hum. humorous
id. idiom
id. ideophone
ins. insulting
lit. literally
NE Nigerian English
Ng. Ningo dialect
Sh. Shugbu dialect

Apart from the abbreviations, symbols are used to indicate particular features;

see Appendix for further detail


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Mada dictionary: Front matter
INTRODUCTION

1. The Mada people and their language
1.1 Location and Name
The Mada people live primarily in the region between Anjida and Akwanga on and around the road leading
from Fadan Karshi to Akwanga in Nasarawa State, Central Nigeria. Their numbers are hard to estimate but
probably now exceeds 100,000. Earlier literature refers to the Mada as ‘Yidda’ (e.g. Temple 1922:260) but no
such term is used today. In colonial times a distinction was made between ‘Hill Mada’ and ‘Plains Mada’. The
‘hill Mada’ were however, part of Eggon and as such unrelated to the Mada proper. These terms have now been
dropped and today’s Mada now refers to the ‘Plains Mada’ of earlier sources.

The Mada have tribal marks on their faces – 3 straight lines on the upper jaw on both sides, one on the forehead
and one on the upper cheek close to the left eye. Women have tiny marks of straight lines drawn close to the
mouth (lower cheek) on both sides. These days the marks are not seen on young ones any longer because it is
considered cruel to have the marks especially due to the instruments used to draw the marks. These days also,
most Mada women have all kinds of marks that are alien to the Mada culture due to influences of other cultures.
In the olden days, women used to pierce one nostril and their ears for earrings.

During the Nigerian civil war which broke out in 1967, almost all the children born at the time were given
marks so as not to mistake them to be Igbos, especially someone who was light skin. Also, those young adults
who were not previously given the marks, were given during the war.
1.2 Classification
Mada was classified as part of the Plateau language group by Greenberg (1963) and Williamson (1971),
Hansford et al. (1976), Gerhardt (1989) and Crozier and Blench (1992) have all followed this view. Mada was
put together with Ninzam, Ayu, Che, Ninkyop and some other languages as part of Plateau IV. More recently,
this group has been christened ‘Ninzic’ in the light of the numerous languages with a –nin- element in their
ethnonym (Blench 2000).

Greenberg’s (1963:9) original list was Rukuba (Kuche), Ninzo (Ninzam), Ayu, Mada, Kaninkwom. The current
list of Ninzic languages is as follows;

Ninzo
Ce [=Rukuba]
Mada
Bu-NiNkada
Numana-Nunku-Gwantu-Numbu
Ningye
Kanufi
Ninkyop-Nindem

Doubtfully

Vaghat-Ya-Bijim-Legeri
Ayu?

Data on many of these languages is too weak to be confident of their place within the group. However, on
Ninzo and Ce relatively extensive data means that we can be sure these are the closest relatives of Mada.
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Mada dictionary: Front matter
1.3 Scholarly publication
The principal modern work on the Mada language is Price (1989)1. This work covers the phonology and
orthography of Mada spoken in Rija, a village central to Mada country and the dialect chosen for New
Testament translation. Price (1989) gives a valuable comparative wordlist in different dialects, which shows
that at least some of them have markedly different phonology from Rija Mada.
1.4 Dialects
Mada has an extensive dialect network and there is quite high level of variation from village to village. Price
(1989) gives a valuable comparative wordlist in different dialects, which shows that at least some of them have
markedly different phonology from Rija Mada. The following dialects are listed;

Rija, Gbugyar, Anjagwa, Ancho, Buhar, Akwanga, Ungwar Zaria

of these, Akwanga and Ungwar Zaria are markedly different from the others. Nonetheless all dialects are easily
mutually intelligible and Mada speakers are used to adjusting to different lects.
2. The Sound System of Mada and its Orthography
2.1 Sound system
Mada has twenty consonant phonemes:

Labial Labio- Alveolar Velar Labio-
dental velar
Plosives vls p t k kp
vd b d g gb
Fricatives vls f s
vd v z
Affricates vls ts
vd dz
Nasals m n ŋ
Laterals (cid:31)
Vibrants r
Approximants vls ʍ
Approximants vd y w

The voiceless approximant, /„ / is written ‘hy’ in the orthography but always sounds labialised. It is often
written hyw in other Plateau languages, but there is no contrast with /hy/ so it is redundant.

There are eight vowel phonemes:

Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-Mid e o
ə
Open-Mid ε ɔ
Open a

1 Gerhardt (1983:112 ff.) includes some notes on the phonology and noun-class systems of two Mada dialects, but these have been
comprehensively superseded by Price (1989).
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Mada dictionary: Front matter
but five corresponding nasalised vowels;

Front Central Back
Close ĩ ũ
Open-Mid ɛ ̃ ɔ̃
Open ã

It is striking that this is identical to the vowel system of Ninkyop, the other language in the Ninzic group to
have lost its nominal affix system.

In the original orthography of 1985, the symbol ñ was adopted to mark nasalisation following a vowel, but this
has been simplified to n. Thus ã is written ‘an’. The reason for this, is that the free ‘n’ is very rare and usually
would not take word final following special vowels.

Mada has three level tones and a rising and falling tone. Tones are marked as follows:
high tone is unmarked
/¯/ mid tone is shown by a macron
/`/ for a low tone
/ˆ/ for a falling tone
/ / for a rising tone.
ß

The rising tone is uncommon compared with the other times. Mada is highly tonal and many lexical and
grammatical distinctions are made only by tone. The orthography therefore marks tone on all syllables.
2.2 Letters of the Mada alphabet
The alphabet is phonemic and is made up of 34 letters. These are arranged as follows:

a, b, c, e, ε, ə, d, f, g, gb, h, hw, i, j, k, kp, l, m, n, ng, ny, o, ɔ, p, r, s, sh, t, u, v, w, y, z, zh.

These correspond to the IPA symbols used in the phonology via the following conventions;

ng ŋ
c tsʸ
j dzʸ
sh sʸ
ny ŋʸ
h ʍ before o~u
hw ʍ elsewhere

3.3 Pronouns
3.3.1 Direct speech
3.3.1.1 Subject Pronouns: intransitive

Mada subject pronouns in intransitive constructions are;

Table 1. Mada subject pronouns
1s Ngə̄ 1p tə̄
2s wə̄ 2p gyə̄
3s (persons) gu 3p bə
3s (objects) yə 3p yə

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Mada dictionary: Front matter
The existence of a neuter pronoun in the third person seems to be rather unusual in the context of Plateau
languages.

Mada recognises a completed and uncompleted past. The completed past has no inserted TAM and thus can
represent the simplest verbal paradigm (Table 2).

Table 2. Mada subject pronoun paradigm
1s Ngə̄ car I wrote
2s wə̄ cǎr You wrote
3s (persons) gu cǎr He wrote
3s (objects) yə̄ cǎr It wrote
1p tə̄ car We wrote
2p gyə̄ cǎr You wrote
3p (persons) bə car They wrote
3p (objects) yə cǎr It (pl.) wrote

Table 3 shows the pronouns re-ordered to reflect this pattern.

Table 3. Mada pronouns re-ordered
2s wə̄ 1s Ngə̄
2p gyə̄ 1p tə̄
3s gu 3p bə

This grouping then occurs in all combinations of subject pronoun and TAMs. To mark tense/aspect, Mada
inserts particles between the pronoun and verb. Table 4 shows a typical present tense marked by the auxiliary
là;

Table 4. Mada present tense subject pronouns
pron. am writing
2s wə̄ là cǎr
3s gu là cǎr
2p gyə̄ là cǎr
1s Ngə̄ là car
1p tə̄ là car
3p bə là car

The same stem-tone changes are paralleled on polysyllabic verbs. For example, the verb debə, ‘to give way’ has
the following paradigm (Table 5);

Table 5. Tones on Mada polysyllabic verb-stems
pron. am giving way
2s wə̄ là dèbə̀
3s gu là dèbə̀
2p gyə̄ là dèbə̀
1s Ngə̄ là debə̀
1p tə̄ là debə̀
3p bə là debə̀

The ordering of the pronouns is the same, but a low-high opposition replaces the rising-high of monosyllabic
stems. This resembles the imperfective contrasts found in the irregular verbs ‘come’ and ‘go’ (Table 10)
although the connection between these two sets is less than transparent.

Mada can express future action in two ways, either;

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Mada dictionary: Front matter
Ngə̄ lə car
I will write

or;
Ngə̄ lə sə̀ car
I will be write

In both cases, the tone-pattern on the verb follows the pronominal pattern outlined above and the TAM is
invariant.

However, in the case of the uncompleted past and the conditional, the auxiliaries undergo tone-changes that
reflect the verb-stem tone-changes. Table 6 shows the paradigm for the uncompleted past;

Table 6. Mada uncompleted past paradigm: monosyllabic stem
pron. was writing
2s wə̄ sə̀ cǎr
3s gu sə̀ cǎr
2p gyə̄ sə̀ cǎr
1s Ngə̄ sə̄ car
1p tə̄ sə̄ car
3p bə sə̄ car

In the case of a polysyllabic stem, comparable changes occur on the second syllable of the verb-stem (Table 7);

Table 7. Mada uncompleted past paradigm: polysyllabic stem
pron. was escaping
2s wə̄ sə̀ gbojùn
3s gu sə̀ gbojùn
2p gyə̄ sə̀ gbojùn
1s Ngə̄ sə gbojun
1p tə̄ sə gbojun
3p bə sə gbojun

The conditional, which inserts the auxiliary də between pronoun and verb, follows the same pattern of
mimicking the verb-stem tones. Thus;

Ngə̄ də̄ car
I if write
wə̄ də̀ cǎr
You if write

Mada appears to encompass at least one pair of ‘irregular’ verbs where the tone-pattern is somewhat different
although it still confirms to underlying assignment of number. These are the verbs ‘come’ and ‘go’. Table 8
shows the verb-stem tones for the present tense for ‘to come’;

Table 8. Mada verb-stem paradigm ‘come’
pron. am coming
2s wə̄ là nyə̌
3s gu là nyə
2p gyə̄ là nyə̌
1s Ngə̄ là nyə
1p tə̄ là nyə
3p bə là nyə

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Mada dictionary: Front matter
These are evidently very similar to the paradigm in Table 4 except for the 3s. In the case of polysyllabic verb-
stems, these very nearly mimic the monosyllabic paradigm except that the 3s is no longer irregular. For
example, the verb gbojun, ‘to escape’ has the following paradigm (Table 9);

Table 9. Tones on Mada polysyllabic verb-stems
pron. am escaping
2s wə̄ là gbǒjǔn
3s gu là gbǒjǔn
2p gyə̄ là gbǒjǔn
1s Ngə̄ là gbojun
1p tə̄ là gbojun
3p bə là gbojun

The uncompleted past is more distinctive however, compared with Table 6. The distinctive tone-changes in the
auxiliary sə have been neutralised and the tone-oppositions marked on the verb-stem become a simple high-low
opposition (Table 10);

Table 10. Mada imperfective verb-stem paradigm ‘was
coming’
pron. was coming
2s wə̄ sə nyə̀
3s gu sə nyə̀
2p gyə̄ sə nyə̀
1s Ngə̄ sə nyə
1p tə̄ sə nyə
3p bə sə nyə

The same changes apply to the verb ywe ‘to go’ but no other monosyllabic verbs of this type have yet been
identified.
3.5 Adjectives
Adjectives in Mada appear to be of two major types, those which follow a noun directly and show tonal concord
with it and those which follow the copula or verb to be, sē. The first type is comparatively rare and those
identified so far are shown in (Table 11);

Table 11. Mada concordial adjectives
s. pl. Gloss Example
kukwɔ kukwɔ̄ small, young mbu kukwɔ small mat mbu kukwɔ̄ small mats
nggɔ̀n nggɔn nggɔn big mbu nggɔn large mat mbu nggɔn nggɔn large mats
bəbə̄ — decayed, rotten krī bəbə̄ mē this rotten yam
goglo — hot te mə̀sər goglo cà nggə̄ m... fetch water hot bring me
kənàn — much kə̄jī kənàn much money

The first two, ‘small’ and ‘big’ show tonal concord with the noun qualified, while others do not. Some of these
adjectives can also act as complements to sē;

kūkwɔ̌ yə̀mē sē kūkwɔ̌ this is small
kənàn kə̄kə̄ nggə̄ sē kənàn chickens my are many

An unusual case is;

pwà undeveloped, referring to peanuts bencwē ku pwà groundnuts fell undeveloped

which might be better treated as an adverb, despite its qualifying a noun.

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