Neighborhood and ancestry -variation in the spoken Arabic of Maiduguri, Nigeria

411 Pages·1998·18.07 MB·English

by  Jonathan Owens

NEIGHBORHOOD AND ANCESTRY
IMPACT: STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY
IMPACT publishes monographs, collective volumes, and text books on topics in
sociolinguistics and language pedagogy. The scope of the series is broad, with
special emphasis on areas such as language planning and language policies;
language teaching and language learning; language conflict and language death;
language standards and language change; dialectology; diglossia; discourse stud­
ies; language and social identity (gender, ethnicity, class, ideology); and history and
methods of sociolinguistics
GENERAL EDITOR
Kirsten Malmkjær (University of Cambridge)
ADVISORY BOARD
Lars-Gunnar Andersson (Göteborg University)
Laurie Bauer (Victoria University of Wellington)
Paul Drew (University of York)
Rod Ellis ( University of Auckland)
Margarita Hidalgo (San Diego State University)
Richard A. Hudson ( University College London)
Björn H. Jernudd (Hong Kong Baptist University)
Rudi Keller f University of Düsseldof)
William Labov ( University of Pennsylvania)
Robin Lakoff ( University of California, Berkeley)
Joseph Lo Bianco (NLLIA, Belconnen)
Peter Neide (R.C.M. Brussels)
Adama Ouane (UNESCO, Paris)
Dennis Preston (Michigan State University)
Jan Renkema (Tilburg University)
Muriel Saville-Troike (University of Arizona)
Elaine Tarone ( University of Minnesota)
Humphrey Tonkin (University of Hartford)
Vic Webb (University of Pretoria)
Ruth Wodak (University of Vienna)
Volume 4
Jonathan Owens
Neighborhood and Ancestry
Variation in the spoken Arabic of Maiduguri, Nigeria
NEIGHBORHOOD
AND ANCESTRY
Variation in the spoken
Arabic of Maiduguri, Nigeria
JONATHAN OWENS
University of Bayreuth
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM / PHILADELPHIA
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Owens, Jonathan.
Neighborhood and ancestry : variation in the spoken Arabic of Maiduguri, Nigeria /
Jonathan Owens.
p. cm. -- (Impact : studies in language and society, ISSN I385-7908 ; v. 4)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
I. Arabic language-Dialects-Nigeria. I. Title. II. Series.
PJ6901.N53089 1998
492.7'7--dc2I 98-29002
ISBN 90 272 1834 X (Eur.) / 1 556I9 853 1 (US) (alk. paper) CIP
© Copyright 1998 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O.Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America • P.O.Box 27519 • Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 • USA
Table of Contents
Table of Contents v
Preface xi
List of Abbreviations xiii
CHAPTER 1 1
Introduction 1
1.1 Lethem: Revenge 1
1.1.1 The western variationist model: standard, prestige, vernacular . . 2
1.1.2 X-Y norms 6
1.1.3 Functional diglossia 10
1.1.4 Urban neighborhood, ancestry and kinship 11
1.1.5 The concept "urban" 12
1.1.6 Summary of book 12
1.2 Data, Methodology, Terminology 13
1.2.1 Data . . . 13
;
1.2.2 Methodology and statistical procedures 14
1.2.3 Terminology 15
1.3 The Arabs in the Lake Chad Basin 16
1.4 Arabic in Nigeria 21
CHAPTER 2 23
The Peculiar Unity of Nigerian Arabic 23
2.1 -t Perfect 23
2.2 Verb-internal Epenthesis: Making a Rule of an Exception 26
2.3 Splitting Paradigms, Regularly 30
2.4 Irregular Innovation 37
VI TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 3
The Linguistic Variables
3.1 The Variables and Their Variants
3.1.1 Three phonological features
3.1.1.1 Short high vowels: i vs. 
3.1.1.2 *ħke vs. *ħka
3.1.1.3 Stress: cvcvc/cvcvc
3.1.2 Morphological Variation
3.1.2.1 Feminine singular: -aaya, -á
3.1.2.2 Preformative vowel: H-L
3.1.2.3 'we', n-/n...u
3.1.2.4 T, ba-/n-
3.1.2.5 Modal: b-/Ø
3.1.2.6 Active participle + object suffix: 0/intrusive -in-
3.1.2.7 3 masculine singular object pronoun: -a/-e ....
3.1.2.8 3fsg object suffix: -ha/-he
3.1.2.9 3 feminine plural object suffix: -hin/-han
3.1.3 Summary of 13 indices
3.2 The Variants: Examples
3.3 Quantity of variation
CHAPTER 4
The Comparative Dialectology of the 13 Linguistic Variables
4.1 Afghani-Nigerian Arabic Isoglosses
4.1.1 Afghani Arabic, very rare isoglosses
4.1.1.1 Phonology
4.1.1.2 Morphology
4.1.2 Rare isoglosses
4.2 The Linguistic Variables and Arabic Dialectology
4.2.1 Short high vowels
4.2.2 *ħ, *?a
4.2.3 Stress
4.2.4 -a ~ -aaya f. singular
4.2.5 AP + suffix: intrusive -in-
4.2.6 Preformative vowel, a ~ i
4.2.7 Modal b-, Ø .
4.2.8 lpl, n-, n-...-u
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
4.2.9 lsg, ba-, n- 80
4.2.10 Object pronoun variants 81
4.3 Cameroonian and Chadian Dialects 82
4.4 Overview of Western Sudanic Arabic Dialects 84
CHAPTER 5 86
Rural Nigerian Arabic 86
5.1 The Villages 86
5.2 Linguistic Summary 94
5.2.1 Non-significant differences 94
5.2.2 Significant differences 95
5.2.3 Ngala or no Ngala? 99
5.3 Detailed Cases 101
5.3.1 Individual speakers and migration 101
5.3.2 The interpretation of two variable features 102
5.4 Dialect Maps 106
CHAPTER 6 115
Maiduguri and the Basic Sample 115
6.1 Background 115
6.1.1 General history of Maiduguri 115
6.1.2 Arabs in Maiduguri 117
6.2 Arabic in the Borno Media 122
6.3 The Sample 122
6.4 Data Collection 135
6.5 The Linguistic Variables in Maiduguri 138
6.5.1 An overview 138
6.5.2 Non-significant correlations 142
6.5.3 Less significant linguistic variables 142
6.5.4 Non-significant extra-linguistic features 143
6.6 Significant Extra-linguistic Correlations 146
6.6.1 Residential area 146
6.6.2 Ancestry 150
6.6.3 Isolates 154
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
6.7 Symmetrical Variation: Individuals, Linguistic Purity and Majority
Variants 155
6.7.1 The linguist's intervention 155
6.7.2 Purity index 158
6.7.3 Majority index 159
CHAPTER 7 167
Urban and Rural: towards a characterization of neo-ancestral norms . . 167
7.1 Ancestral Homeland, Urban Residence 167
7.2 An Urban Effect 168
7.2.1 Tabular comparison 168
7.2.2 Patterns of contrast 173
7.2.3 Rural-Maiduguri vs. Maiduguri internal contrasts 174
7.2.4 The linguistic variables, a typology 178
7.2.4.1 Asymmetric target: singular object suffixes (-e/-a,
he/ha) 178
7.2.4.2 3 Flexible targets: asymmetry and complementarity .181
7.2.4.3 Symmetric targets 183
7.2.4.4 Complementary targets: i_AP, i_I 187
7.2.4.5 Types of targets 188
7.3 Consistency Indices 189
7.3.1 Purity 189
7.3.2 The imperfect paradigm 190
7.4 Summary • 196
CHAPTER 8 199
Non-Corpus Data 199
8.1 Two Tests 199
8.2 Plural Patterns 201
8.3 Feminine Singular Variation 204
8.4 Summary 204
CHAPTER 9 205
Variation and Language Attitudes 205
9.1 A Matched-Guise Test 205
9.1.1 The test 205
9.1.2 Results 208
9.1.3 From perception to folk dialect 215
TABLE OF CONTENTS ix
9.2 Language Attitudes 216
9.2.1 Domains of use 216
9.2.2 Mixed marriages 217
9.2.3 Multilinguality 219
9.2.4 Dialect assessment 221
9.3 Caveats and Conclusion 229
CHAPTER 10 231
Linguistic Variation and Socio-Politics 231
10.1 Macro-linguistic and Socio-political Factors 233
10.2 Demography, Genealogy and Linguistic Variation 237
10.2.1 Arabic clans and marriage 237
10.2.2 Polygamy 241
10.2.3 Itinerant scholars 242
10.2.4 An extended compound 243
CHAPTER 11 247
Setting and Linguistic Variation 247
CHAPTER 12 258
Three Micro Studies .258
12.1 Linguistic Network Analysis 258
12.2 Recording in Two Residences and One Neighborhood 261
12.3 A Household: An Isle of Purity 262
12.4 A Neighborhood . 272
12.5 An Extended Compound: Kin-lects 278
12.6 Individual Variables and Types of Variation 290
12.6.1 LAP: 'pure' variation 290
12.6.2 i_3msg, i_3fsg: asymmetric varieties? 291
12.6.3 Fixed and flexible targets 292
12.6.4 Two asymmetric variables: i_θ, laryngeal deletion 294
CHAPTER 13 296
Expanding the Typology of Urban Linguistic Variation 296