Ateso Grammar: A Descriptive Account of an Eastern Nilotic Language

302 Pages·2017·7.032 MB·

by  David Barasa

Ateso Grammar: A Descriptive Account of an Eastern Nilotic Language

David Barasa

Thesis presented for the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY n
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in Linguistics
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UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

15th March, 2017 e
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Supervised by: Prof. Ana Deumert
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Dr. Mantoa Smouse
Prof. Gerrit Dimmendaal
Dr. Helga Schroeder
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The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No
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quotation from it or information derived from it is to be

published without full acknowledgeement of the source.
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The thesis is to be used for private study or non-
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commercial research purposes only.

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Published by the Universit y of Cape Town (UCT) in terms
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of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author.
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Declaration
I declare that “Ateso Grammar: A Descriptive Account of an Eastern Nilotic Language” is my
own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this thesis from the work, or works,
of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced.
Signature: Date: 15th March, 2017

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Abstract
This study discusses the structure of Ateso, an Eastern Nilotic language. Based on interview and
recorded data from fieldwork conducted in both Uganda and Kenya, where Ateso is spoken, the
study provides the first comprehensive description of the phonology, morphology and syntax of
the language. The main findings of this study are as follows:
The key feature of Ateso’s phonological structure is that vowel alternation strategies are
constrained by three harmony rules: root-control, feature-control, and, finally, mid-vowel
assimilation. While Ateso shares this structure with the other Eastern Nilotic languages, it has its
unique features as well. For example, while the other members of the Eastern Nilotic family have
lost the vowel */ä/, Ateso has retained it phonetically.
Ateso’s noun morphology has noun-inflectional affixes associated with gender- and number
marking. The language employs noun prefixes for gender and uses suffixes to express number
and to derive words from others. With regard to its verbal morphology, Ateso verb forms are
inflected for a variety of functions. Inflectional categories such as person, number, tense, aspect
and mood are marked on the verb either segmentally or supra-segmentally. Tense is expressed
supra-segmentally by tone on the nucleus of verb roots, while different morphemes mark person,
number, aspect and mood. The discussion of Ateso verb morphology covers verbal derivations
and extensions; namely, causatives, ventives, itives, datives, iterative, passives and
instrumentals.
Regarding its syntactic structure, as a VS/VO language, Ateso allows for a complete clause made
up of an inflected verb only, or an inflected verb followed by one or two NPs/or an NP and a
pronoun. The language can also have sentence structures involving strategies such as
coordination, subordination and clause chaining.

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Acknowledgements
My research has been a long exciting journey which enjoyed immeasurable support from my
supervisors, colleagues, family and friends. They have in different ways contributed positively in
the writing of this thesis.
I owe special thanks to my family who have always prayed for me, provided me with financial
support and encouraged me all through this work. I am particularly grateful to my mother for
being a great consultant on the Ateso language and for her support and encouragement during
my study. I also appreciate the support and patience of my father, brother and our ‘daughters’
(Stacie and Maya) when all my energy and attention was taken away by this work. May all
relatives and friends who have ever thought of and prayed for the completion of this study find
here the deepest expression of all the gratitude they deserve.
My sincere gratitude goes to all the consultants (native speakers of Ateso) for their patience in
providing primary language data and perceptive comments throughout my fieldwork period. I am
grateful to my main consultants: Tom Ekisa, Sylivester Ekali, Gorety Ong’ala, Stephen Omare,
Evans Ogut, Letisha Amoit, John Okedi, Christine Ekutu, John Ikokonyi, Willy Ipapat and
Tobias Barasa. Their unreserved volunteerism and tireless contribution are highly appreciated.
Furthermore, I thank Ekisa, Okinyang’, Okedi and Ogut who provided me with extra support by
verifying all the data collected and used in this study.
I was lucky to have a panel of supervisors who were an incredible source of ideas, practical
suggestions, comments and constructive criticism. I would like to express my gratitude to Prof.
Ana Deumert (University of Cape Town), Prof. Gerrit Dimmendaal (University of Cologne), Dr.
Mantoa Motinyane-Masoko (University of Cape Town) and Dr. Helga Schroeder (University of
Nairobi) for their individual effort and much needed invaluable feedback. Throughout the
writing of the present thesis, their constructive feedback and comments improved its quality.
More importantly, I would never have had an opportunity to write this thesis at the University of
Cape Town without the financial support I received from CALDi, the Centre for African
Language Diversity based at the University of Cape Town. This centre was established with
financial support from the AW Mellon Foundation in 2013. I am deeply indebted to CALDi for
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their support. I also appreciate the additional financial support I received from the Lestrade
Scholarship.
The writing of this thesis would never have been possible without the support from my teachers,
colleagues and friends at the University of Nairobi, the University of Oregon, the University of
Cologne and the University of Cape Town. My sincere appreciation goes to Dr. Alfred Buregeya
and Dr. Jane Oduor (University of Nairobi), and Prof. Doris Payne (University of Oregon) for
the useful suggestions and comments; Monika Feinen (cartographer, University of Cologne) for
helping me to draw the Ateso language map; Aurelie Tabart and my post-graduate colleagues at
the School of African and Gender Studies, Anthropology and Linguistics (Linguistics Section) at
UCT and CALDi members whose feedback always stimulated me to work harder and explore
new dimensions in the analysis and development of this grammar. Their scientific contribution
and critical appraisal of my work at (and after) the post-graduate meetings in Linguistics greatly
enhanced the quality of this thesis.
My sincere thanks go to Terrill Schrock who collected data on the tenth vowel and offered them
to me for use in this study. He started a discussion on an important component of the language
that would otherwise have been overlooked in the analysis.
Finally, I would like to thank the University of Cologne for providing me with an exciting two-
month stay at Cologne, during which I worked with Prof. Gerrit Dimmendaal, Prof. Anne Storch,
Nico Nassenstein and many other scholars. I must mention that working with Prof. Dimmendaal
both during his one-month stay at UCT and during my visit to Cologne has been most exciting
episode in the writing of this thesis. Prof. Dimmendaal has been the best mentor and guide that I
could have had. I will forever be grateful!
May God bless you all.

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Table of contents
Declaration ...................................................................................................................................... ii
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iv
List of figures ............................................................................................................................... xiii
List of tables ................................................................................................................................. xiii
Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................ xv
Chapter One: Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1
Background to and rationale for the study ................................................................ 1
Research questions .................................................................................................... 3
Outline of the study ................................................................................................... 3
Chapter Two: The Iteso people and the Ateso language ................................................................ 5
The Iteso .................................................................................................................... 5
Origin of the Iteso and their alleged migration routes .............................................. 5
Demographic information ......................................................................................... 6
Geographical distribution .................................................................................. 6
Population size ................................................................................................... 8
Economic activities ................................................................................................... 9
General information about the Ateso language ........................................................ 9
The external variation ............................................................................................. 10
Regional variation (dialects) ................................................................................... 12
The Iteso people’s language repertoire and patterns of use .................................... 13
Literature review ..................................................................................................... 17
Previous research on Ateso ..................................................................................... 17
Studies on Eastern Nilotic languages ...................................................................... 19
The Ateso orthography ........................................................................................... 22
Research methodology ............................................................................................ 24
Data collection ........................................................................................................ 24
Data analysis ........................................................................................................... 26
Ethical considerations ............................................................................................. 27
Theoretical framework ............................................................................................ 28
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Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 30
Chapter Three: The phonology of Ateso ...................................................................................... 31
The phoneme inventory .......................................................................................... 31
The vowels .............................................................................................................. 31
The status of the tenth vowel ........................................................................... 33
Distribution of single vowel phonemes ........................................................... 37
Voiceless vowels ............................................................................................. 37
The consonants ........................................................................................................ 40
Consonant contrasts ......................................................................................... 40
Distinctive features for consonants .................................................................. 45
Glides ............................................................................................................... 46
Consonant distribution ..................................................................................... 46
Tone ........................................................................................................................ 47
Syllables and moraic units ...................................................................................... 50
The structure of syllable onset ................................................................................ 52
Vocalisation of glides ............................................................................................. 53
The syllable nucleus ................................................................................................ 54
Vowel sequences ............................................................................................. 54
The coda .................................................................................................................. 57
Moraic units ............................................................................................................ 58
The syllable structure of assimilated loan words .................................................... 59
Vowel harmony ....................................................................................................... 62
Root-control ............................................................................................................ 64
Feature-control ........................................................................................................ 66
Mid-vowel assimilation .......................................................................................... 68
Distinctive features for vowels ............................................................................... 69
Vowel deletion ........................................................................................................ 69
Combination of vowels and consonants in words ................................................... 70
Contextual nasalisation ........................................................................................... 71
Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 71
Chapter Four: Noun morphology and the structure of the noun phrase ....................................... 73
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Noun inflection ....................................................................................................... 73
Gender marking ...................................................................................................... 74
Number suffixes ...................................................................................................... 76
Plurative marking ............................................................................................ 76
Singulative marking ......................................................................................... 79
Replacive marking ........................................................................................... 81
Non-alternating nouns ..................................................................................... 83
Irregular or semi-irregular nouns ..................................................................... 86
Summary of the noun inflectional paradigm ................................................... 86
Kinship terms .......................................................................................................... 88
Noun derivation ...................................................................................................... 89
Diminutisation......................................................................................................... 89
Augmentation .......................................................................................................... 90
Verb to noun derivation .......................................................................................... 91
Derivation of abstract nouns from concrete nouns ................................................. 94
Nominal modifiers .................................................................................................. 95
Demonstratives ....................................................................................................... 95
Quantifiers ............................................................................................................... 99
Numerals ............................................................................................................... 102
Cardinal numerals .......................................................................................... 102
Ordinals ......................................................................................................... 104
Noun plus cardinal numbers .......................................................................... 105
Adjectives ............................................................................................................. 106
Stative verbs .................................................................................................. 107
Relative clause and noun derivation .............................................................. 108
Colour terms .................................................................................................. 110
Possessive noun modifiers .................................................................................... 111
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 113
Chapter Five: Pronouns and pronominal alignment ................................................................... 114
Personal subject pronouns ..................................................................................... 114
Inflectional personal prefix pronouns ................................................................... 115
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Independent personal pronouns ............................................................................ 120
Functions of independent personal pronouns ................................................ 122
Pronominal alignment ........................................................................................... 125
Marked-nominative alignment .............................................................................. 126
The hierarchical system of person marking .......................................................... 127
Possessive pronouns ............................................................................................. 128
Relative pronouns ................................................................................................. 131
Interrogative pronouns .......................................................................................... 133
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 134
Chapter Six: Minor word categories ........................................................................................... 135
Adverbs ................................................................................................................. 135
Temporal adverbs .................................................................................................. 135
Adverbs of manner, degree and probability .......................................................... 138
Adverbs of manner ........................................................................................ 138
Adverbs of degree .......................................................................................... 140
Adverbs of probability ................................................................................... 140
Prepositions ........................................................................................................... 141
Attitude markers .................................................................................................... 143
Restrictives ............................................................................................................ 145
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 145
Chapter Seven: Overview of verb structure and derivational morphology of the verb .............. 147
The structure of Ateso verbs ................................................................................. 148
Verb classes and person marking .......................................................................... 148
Infinitives .............................................................................................................. 150
Verb root ............................................................................................................... 152
Morpho-syntactic analysis of the verb .................................................................. 154
Causatives ............................................................................................................. 155
Causatives derived from stative verbs ........................................................... 156
Causatives in intransitive verbs ..................................................................... 156
Causative derived from mono-transitive verbs .............................................. 157
The ventive and itive ............................................................................................. 160
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