Washington Academy of Sciences

Founded in 1898

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

President

James E. Spates

President-Elect

Robert H. McCracken

Secretary

Donald O. Buttermore

Treasurer

R. Clifton Bailey

Past President

Ronald W. Manderscheid

Vice President (Membership Affairs)

M. Sue Bogner

Vice President (Administrative Affairs)

Jo-Anne A. Jackson

Vice President (Junior Academy Affairs)

Marylin F. Krupsaw

Vice President (Affiliate Affairs)

John G. Honig

Academy Members of the Board of

Managers

William M. Benesch

Carl E. Pierchala

Lawson M. McKenzie

Marcia S. Smith

Jean K. Boek

Thomas N. Pyke

BOARD OF AFFILIATED

SOCIETY REPRESENTATIVES

All delegates of affiliated

Societies (see inside rear cover)

EDITORS

Irving Gray

Joseph Neale

Lisa J. Gray, Managing Editor

ACADEMY OFFICE

1101 N. Highland St.

Arlington, Va. 22201

Telephone: (703) 527-4800

The Journal

This journal, the official organ of the Washing-

ton Academy of Sciences, publishes historical

articles, critical reviews, and scholarly scientific

articles; proceedings of meetings of the Acad-

emy and its Executive Committee; and other

items of interest to Academy members. The

Journal appears four times a year (March, June,

September, and December)—the December is-

sue contains a directory of the Academy mem-

bership.

Subscription Rates

Members, fellows, and life members in good

standing receive the Journal without charge.

Subscriptions are available on a calendar year

basis only, payable in advance. Payment must

be made in U.S. currency at the following rates:

U.S. and Canada....... $19.00

Foreign i sa. nee 22.00

Single Copy Price....... 7.50

Back Issues

Obtainable from the Academy office (address

at bottom of opposite column): Proceedings:

Vols. 1-13 (1898-1910) Index: To Vols. 1-13

of the Proceedings and Vols. 1—40 of the Journal

Journal: Back issues, volumes, and sets (Vols.

1-75 1911-1985) and all current issues.

Claims for Missing Numbers

Claims will not be allowed if received more than

60 days after date of mailing plus time normally

required for postal delivery and claim. No

claims will be allowed because of failure to no-

tify the Academy of a change in address.

Change of Address

Address changes should be sent promptly to the

Academy office. Such notification should show

both old and new addresses and zip number.

Published quarterly in March, June, September, and December of each year by the

Washington Academy of Sciences, 1101 N. Highland St., Arlington, Va. 22201. Second

class postage paid at Arlington, Va. and additional mailing offices.

Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences,

Volume 79, Number 1, Pages 1-8, March 1989

French in Cote d’Ivoire: A

Process of Nativization

Paulin G. Djité

Department of Romance Languages Howard University

Washington, D.C.

Introduction

The revival of Francophonie has renewed interest in the study of French

outside of France. In recent years, linguists, educators, and the public have

focused considerable attention on Ivorian French, the ‘“‘non-native’’ variety

of French in Cote d’Ivoire.' However, the misconception remains that French

is the dominating medium for interethnic communication in the country.

This paper describes the sociolinguistic picture of Cote d’Ivoire with regard

to French and provides a better understanding of the place and role of Ivorian

French. It also shows how Ivorians bend the French language to suit both

their communicative needs and cultural schematas.

French in Cote d’Ivoire

At independence in 1960, the diversity of the local languages and the prestige

of French led to the adoption of the latter as the national and official language

of Cdte d'Ivoire. French was not only perceived as a neutral language, it was

also considered a proven medium of science and technology. To date, al-

though, it has neither substituted the local languages in everyday face-to-face

interactions nor spread in its standard form to the masses—only 10 percent

of the total population of Francophone Africa actually speaks French, all

varieties included*—the prestige of French has helped in its maintenance and

in the development of a number of “‘non-native”’ varieties.

Manessy (1974, 1978) subdivides Ivorian French into three major varieties:

(1) the French of the elite, a variety similar to the standard, (2) the French

of the educated, and (3) the French of the less educated or Popular French,

2 PAULIN G. DJITE

also called “francais de Moussa’’, “‘petit francais’, or ‘‘francais de Treich-

ville’’.* Lafage (1982:19) adds that the French of the elite is only spoken by

0.5 percent of the total population, the French of the educated by 5.3 percent,

and Popular French by 29.2 percent. More recent studies suggest that the

proportion of Popular French is rapidly increasing (Dyjité forthcoming; Hat-

tiger 1983).

Hattiger (1983 :51—53), along the same lines, subdivides Ivorian French into:

(1) the French of the radio, which serves as a model for the populations, (2)

the French spoken in professional situations, which is limited to the domains

of the office, the workplace, and to bargaining between the Europeans and

Africans in the marketplace, and (3) Popular French, a variety which covers

all domains of everyday life.

While his description of (3) (i.e., Popular French) is in line with most other

research on Ivorian French, the characterizations of (1) and (2) are not totally

accurate. With reference to (1), Hattiger implies that French is learnt through

the radio. It is not clear how the populations, most of whom do not read or

write French, can learn the language in this informal way. It is important to

realize that this is a context in which the radio also serves the social function

of showing off one’s material possessions and of postulating for some kind of

socioeconomic achievement. Thus, the radio is not, in most cases, for one to

listen to but for others to see.*

Moreover, since (2) is the French spoken for professional situations, one

would expect it to be used on radio. However, because it is further described

as a variety in which there is a great frequency of imperative verbal phrases,

creativity, tones and argotic lexical items and a systematic use of deixis (i.e.,

non-verbal and gestual language), it is not adequate for such use. Again, there

is a gross underestimation of the verbal performance—and even of the com-

petence—of the Ivorian “‘professional” here. Clearly, the variety used in the

office domain is not the same as that which is used on the marketplace and

the two cannot be equated.

What these subdivisions have in common is that they all reflect the socio-

economic stratification in Céte d’Ivoire. The description of each variety is

made along the lines of social (elite, educated, less educated) rather than

linguistic variables. The more prestigious varieties are associated with the elite

stratum, while the less prestigious ones are associated with speakers from

under-privileged, low-status groups.

A Continuum of Varieties

The problems of clearcut subdivisions and adequate descriptions bring to

light the fact that all these varieties of French are not discrete but rather points

on a continuum (Manessy 1984:14). In fact, it is difficult to establish a clear

linguistic break between Standard French (i.e., the norm) and the French of

the educated for instance, or the French spoken in professional situations and

Popular French. Only at each end of the continuum can distinct varieties,

sometimes not mutually intelligible, be isolated.

FRENCH IN COTE D’IVOIRE 3

The varieties on the continuum may be part of the verbal repertoire of the

same speaker. In that case, code-switching from one variety to the other is

possible whenever the situation requires it. The use of any of these varieties

in a given context is more a matter of appropriateness rather than correctness.

While the less educated speaker is likely to produce deviant structures in

attempting to speak (Standard) French, the educated speaker is equally likely

to perform poorly in Popular French. Nevertheless, only the use of the

“wrong” variety in a situation will constitute a social faux pas.° Thus, even

when the verbal repertoire of the speaker encompasses all the varieties on

the continuum, his/her actual performance is constrained by other social vari-

ables such as the level of education, the domain of the interaction, and the

interlocutor.

In Ivorian French, there are at least five points on the continuum. In addition

to the varieties mentioned above, there are two others: the Nouchis and a

student idiolect which bears no name. Like Popular French, the Nouchis is

attested in the local press (Ivoire Dimanche). Both are used by small speech

communities (groups of friends living in the same quarter or on the same

campus) to express a (transitory) group identity. Together with Popular

French, they are dynamic and innovative varieties of French.

The Process of Nativization

This broad range of “‘non-native”’ varieties attest to the linguistic phenom-

enon of nativization in Cote d’Ivoire. Kachru (1981:15-—39), with reference

to (World) English defines nativization as the “systematic changes that have

occured in the phonological, lexical, syntactic, discoursal, and stylistic features

of English that deviate from established ‘‘native speaker” varieties’’. I believe

this useful concept can be extended to the description of the evolution of

French outside of France. The Francophones, like their Anglophone coun-

terparts, have adapted the French language to their own expressive needs. In

the words of Manessy and Wald (1984: 13).

Tout leur effort tend a modeler cette forme sur son contenu, c’est-

a-dire a adapter la langue francaise 4 des maniéres de sentir et de

concevoir proprement africaines. . . . Le francais en Afrique serait

déja devenu en fait un francais africain.®

Ivorian French however could not (yet) be described as a totally nativized

form of French. It is an ongoing process that has not yet crystallized (Manessy

and Wald 1984; Hattiger 1983).

Victim of social prejudice early on, perceived as the dialect of the poor,

the uneducated and the unambitious, Ivorian French has established itself in

recent years as one of the two major linguae francae in Céte d’Ivoire.’ Even

the elite and the international community are now learning this “non-native”

variety in order to become fully functional in this society. In fact, it is almost

4 PAULIN G. DJITE

fashionable today in Céte d’Ivoire to be able to speak a “‘non-native”’ variety

of French, and Ivorians no longer feel embarrassed to use it. The pressure to

conform to the norm Is progressively decreasing.

Features and Functions of Ivorian French

Nativization has generally been attributed to transfer from speakers’ other

language(s) and simplication or overgeneralization of rules from native

speaker varieties. Some of these processes are illustrated below in Popular

French:

(1) Popular French: Tu veux mouiller mon pain.

French: ‘Tu veux me créer des ennuis.

English: You want to make trouble for me.

(2) Popular French: ‘Tu veux manger ton piment dans ma bouche.

French: Tu veux me créer des ennuis.

English: You want to make trouble for me.

(3) Popular French: Ancien du feu (pour allumer c’est pas fort).

French: Il est facile de raviver un vieil amour

English: It’s easy to rekindle an old flame.

(4) Popular French: Cabri mort (n’a pas peur de couteau).

French: Ventre affamé n’a point d’oreille.

English: It’s no use preaching to a hungry man.

Clearly, transfer from speakers’ other language(s) is operating in all the

examples above. The problem is to pinpoint which specific language is being

resorted to. In his extensive study of Popular French, Hattiger (1983) makes

the point that it is difficult to show the source of transfer in a multilingual

situation. In addition, most of the written texts in Popular French are artificial

reconstructions and stereotypical approximations of the spoken language (Du-

ponchel 1979:403-—411). ‘“‘La Chronique de Moussa’’, ‘“‘Dago’’, ““Zézé’’ of

Ivoire Dimanche, the comic strip Zazou, the tape-recorded materials of

L’ Abbé Paul Kodjo (‘“Le Saint Homme Job’’, and ‘“‘La Création’’) and similar

works are deliberate attempts by some intellectuals to give a picturesque

distortion of Popular French (Duponchel 1979:405). Their main purpose is

to achieve a comical effect. Needless to say, they are not authentic represen-

tations of the variety. No one in real life speaks like the characters in these

texts.

With this in mind, it is easy to understand the strong reactions from teachers,

educators, and parents when the first issues of ““‘La Chronique de Moussa”

came out in the early seventies. They were objecting to what they considered

a degenerate, careless and dangerously corrupted form of French and they

feared that it could negatively affect the acquisition process of their children.

FRENCH IN COTE D’IVOIRE =

Some examples of such stereotypical distortions are shown below:

(5) Popular French:

Lé Dié, i /é prend cing Ja journée . . . (La Création)

French: Dieu prit cing jours...

English: It took God five days...

(6) Popular French: i voyé dormiment lé Adam. (La Création).

French: Il vit Adam en train de dormir

English: He saw Adam sleeping

(7) Popular French: A condé quéilé content trop. (Le Saint Homme Job).

French: Parce quil était trés content.

English: Because he was very happy.

(8) Popular French:

. . Sl les yous i tiyaient les bris. (La Chronique de

Moussa)

. . $1 les policiers tuaient les brigands.

. . lf the policemen killed the robbers.

French:

English:

In (5), three articles have been inserted before a unique lexical item (Dié),

a verb (prend), and a lexical item modified by a quantifier (cing jours). In

(6), an article has been inserted just before a personal noun (Adam). This

shows disregard for the genuine processes that actually occur in Popular

French. As a general rule, Popular French would delete (and not insert) the

articles of the standard form of French. In (6), (7) and (8), the productive

process of lexical creativity is erroneously exaggerated. The authors often

have to explain such lexical items in footnotes. These examples show that the

general beliefs about Popular French, and Ivorian French for that matter, are

not always true. Deviations from the norm in Ivorian French (e.g, article

deletion, amalgamation, use of resumptive pronouns and of double emphasis)

are fairly limited and generally predictable.

In comparison with Popular French, the Nouchis and the student idiolect

have received less attention. Ivoire Dimanche has only started publishing short

dialogues in Nouchis in 1987. Both of these varieties are mainly characterized

by their creative lexicon. Examples of Nouchis below are a good illustration

of that creativity:

(9) Nouchis: J’ai lorgné ta go ce matin. (Ivoire Dimanche, n° 864,

30/8/87)

J’ai vu ta copine ce matin.

I saw your girlfriend this morning.

French:

English:

(10) Nouchis: Son grand frére voulait me kourou hier. (Ivoire Di-

manche, n° 864, 30/8/87)

Son grand frére voulait me battre hier.

Her older brother wanted to beat me.

French:

English:

(11) Nouchis: Son vieux est déja venu pour m’embiancer .. .

(Ivoire Dimanche, n° 864, 30/8/87)

Son pére est déja venu me faire des reproches

Her father has already come to scold me...

French:

English:

6 PAULIN G. DJITE

(12) Nouchis: Il est tout de suite devenu cool. (Ivoire Dimanche,

n° 864, 30/8/87)

Il s’est tout de suite calmé.

He calmed down right away.

French:

English:

While the words “go” (girlfriend), “‘kourou” (beat), and ‘‘cool” (calm

down) are borrowings from other languages, “‘lorgner’’ (to see), “‘vieux”

(father), and “‘embiancer’’ (to scold) are French words that have taken on

new meanings. This is one of the reasons why the “‘non-native”’ varieties can

be unintelligible to the native speaker of French. Lexical creativity is also used

extensively in the student idiolect as shown from (13) through (18):

(13) St. Idiolect: Les politiciens se mettent au beurre

French: Les politiciens vivent dans le luxe

English: The politicians live in luxury

(14) St. Idiolect: Elle est allée voir son grimpeur

French: Elle est allée voir son copain

English: She went to see her boyfriend

(15) St. Idiolect: Il aime faire le caiman

French: II aime étudier sérieusement

English: He likes to study hard

(16) St. Idiolect: Ou est le chief-talker?

French: Ot est notre ami le bavard?

English: Where is our talkative friend?

(17) St. Idiolect: La semaine noire commence demain

French: Les examens commencent demain

English: The examinations begin tomorrow

(18) St. Idiolect: Ta soeur devrait se mettre au régime, elle est trop

nombreuse

French: Ta soeur devrait se mettre au régime, elle est trop

grosse

English: Your sister should diet, she’s too fat

Again, French lexical items are adapted and given new meanings in (13),

(14), (15), (17), and (18). In (16), “‘chief-talker’’ is an amalgamation of the

English words “‘chief”’, reinterpreted here to mean “‘friend’’, and “talker”, a

shortened form for “‘talkative’’.

This lexical creativity is a very dynamic and ongoing process. New words

are continuously being introduced in Nouchis and the student idiolect. In the

summer of 1987, while driving from the airport of Abidjan-Port-Bouét where

a friend picked me up around 4:30 a.m., we saw a man jogging across the

boulevard in the morning fog. To indicate that this was a dangerous thing to

do, my friend said: ‘“‘Ca c’est pas du jogging, c’est du morting!”. The new

word “‘morting”’ is an amalgamation of the French word “mort” (death), and

of the “ing” of the English word “‘jogging’’.

In contrast with the lexicon, the syntax of both Nouchis and the student

idiolect are not always deviant with reference to the norm. This is because

FRENCH IN COTE D’IVOIRE 7

the speakers of these varieties generally have some level of formal education.

In most cases, beyond (Standard) French, they also have some knowledge of

other foreign languages such as English.

Some research suggest that these kinds of idiolects that are used essentially

for a ‘‘phatic function”? (Malinowski) are usually short lived. It is not clear if

this will be the fate of these two varieties of Ivorian French. In response to

the question ‘“‘Peut-on détruire les patois?” (Can patois be eradicated?),

L’Abbé Grégoire quotes one of his respondents as saying: “(Le patois) est

une langue de fréres et d’amis . . . . Pour le détruire, il faudrait détruire le

soleil, la fraicheur des nuits, . . . homme tout entier.”’* Personally, I use the

student idiolect whenever I write a letter to or get together with a member

of my old circle of friends. I am not sure that I will ever stop using it.

Conclusion

This description of the nativization of French in Cote d’Ivoire shows that

a main function of language is that of establishing and maintaining social

relationships. Although (Standard) French remains an important social re-

source, Ivorian French is increasingly being called upon to play a greater role

as a social dialect. To date, it has clearly established itself as a viable alternative

for interethnic communication, and it is considerably reducing the domains

of (Standard) French.

The development of Ivorian French should be welcomed as an enrichment

of the French language. After all, it is the nativization of English in countries

such as Tanzania, India, and Jamaica that has made it an international language

spoken by approximately 400 million people who are not native speakers of

English (Strevens 1982).

Notes

'The word Ivorian French is a cover term for all ‘‘non-native varieties of French in Cote d’Ivoire.

*Cf. A. Salon, L’Action culturelle de la France dans le Monde Paris, Nathan, 1983.

*Manessy was quoted in Lafage (1982:19). Also Cf. Duponchel (1979:385-417) for other subdivisions

of French in Cote d'Ivoire. ‘““Moussa” is the main character of ‘‘La Chronique de Moussa’’ published in

the weekly sports magazine Ivoire Dimanche. “‘Treichville” is a popular quarter of Abidjan (former capital

of Cote d’Ivoire). The word ‘‘Petit”’ of “‘Petit francais” is used to draw attention to the fact that this variety

is not autonomous and is the result of the erroneous approximation of (Standard) French.

‘In fact, the radios are often turned on “‘full blast” in order to achieve that goal.

°Cf. P. Djité. ““The Spread of Dyula and Popular French in Céte d’Ivoire: Implications for Language

Planning”, forthcoming.

*“All their effort tends to mould this form on its content, that is to say to adapt the French language in

order to suit concepts and feelings that are purely African. . . . In fact, French in Africa might already

have become an African French.” My own translation.

’The other lingua franca is Dyula.

*“(The patois) is a language of brothers and friends . . . To eradicate it, one would have to destroy the

sun, the coolness of the nights, . . . the entire human race.” My own translation. Cf. J.-Y. Lartichaux,

“Politique linguistique de la Révolution Frangaise,”’ in Diogéne, 97, 1977:77-96.

Works Cited

Bamba, S. 1987. “‘Les Nouchis”’ Ivoire Dimanche n° 864, Société Ivoirienne d’Imprimerie-SPECI, Abidjan,

30 Aott, 1987:49.

8 PAULIN G. DJITE

Djité, P. Forthcoming. “The Spread of Dyula and Popular French in Cote d’Ivoire: Implications for

Language Planning”’.

Duponchel, L. 1979. “‘Le frangais en Cote d'Ivoire, au Dahomey et au Togo”’, Le Francais hors de France,

Valdman, A. (ed.), Paris: Champion, 385-417.

Hattiger, J.-L. 1983. Le francais Populaire d’Abidjan: Un cas de pidginisation, n° 87, Abidjan: I.L.A., 348

pages.

Kachru, B. 1981. ‘““The Pragmatics of non-native varieties of English.”, English for Cross-cultural Com-

munication, Larry E. Smith (ed.), New York: St. Martin’s Press, 15-39.

Kodjo, P. ‘“Textes de ’ Abbé Paul Kodjo: Le Saint Homme Job et La Création.”, Antares Records 13,

Toulouse, n.d.

Lafage, S. 1982. ‘‘Esquisse des relations interlinguistiques en Céte d’Ivoire.”, Bulletin de Il’ Observatoire

du francais Contemporain en Afrique Noire, n° 3, Abidjan: I.L.A./C.N.R.S., 9-27.

Lartichaux, J.-Y. 1977. ‘“‘Politique linguistique de la Révolution Frangaise.”’, Diogéne, 97, 1977:77-96.

Manessy, G. 1978. ‘“‘Le francais d’Afrique Noire, francais créole ou créole francais?” Langue francaise n°

37, 91-105.

. “Programme d’enquéte linguistique.” Bulletin du Centre d’Etudes des Plurilinguismes, n° 1, Nice,

Décembre, 2-13.

Manessy, G. et P. Wald. 1984. Le francais en Afrique Noire: Tel qu’on le parle, tel qu’on le dit Paris:

L’Harmattan, 115 pages.

Moussa, (La Chronique de). 1987. “‘A fakaya! Bitcho! Si les yous i tiyaient les bris comme ga, ga allait de

étre trop bon quoi?” Ivoire Dimanche n° 864, Société Ivoirienne d’Imprimerie-SPECI, Abidjan, 30 Aoat,

1987:43.

Salon, A. 1983. L’action culturelle de la France dans le monde Paris: Nathan.

Strevens, P. 1982. ‘““World English and the World’s English--or, whose language is it anyway?” Journal of

the Royal Society of the Arts, June, 418-431.

Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences,

Volume 79, Number 1, Pages 9-13, March 1989

Market Encounters as Social

Events in the Open Markets of

Dakar, Senegal

Hayib N. Sosseh

Northern Virginia Community College, 8333 Little River Turnpike,

Annandale, VA 22003

Introduction

Dakar, the capital of the Republic of Senegal, is situated on the western-

most point of the continent of Africa. The city has at all times a large number

of tourists from Europe, the U.S., and other African countries. Senegalese

from the various administrative regions go to Dakar in great numbers to visit,

find work, or as market and/or street vendors. Open market and street vending

is the livelihood of thousands of Senegalese. Other market vendors come from

neighboring countries such as Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, or as far away as

Niger.

Open markets are designated areas where people go to buy, sell, and barter

goods and services of their choice. Such market places are mostly associated

with bargaining: a process whereby two parties negotiate the price of goods

or services between them. However, in this paper, I will propose and discuss

that open markets are settings in which social events including bargaining

occur, and that there is more to bargaining as a speech event than striking a

deal. The open market community interact on two levels: socially, to discuss

topics of interest; and on the business level, as customers and vendors, they

bargain for goods and services.

Dakar has over ten open markets, some of which are relatively small neigh-

borhood open markets and others which are in business districts and are for

larger crowds. The main market, Sandaga, is located in the down town section

of the city. The Sandaga spreads for acres. Hundreds of permanent stalls

surround the main market building. In addition, vendors set up shop on the

10 HAYIB N. SOSSEH

sidewalks, the curb and in some areas, even on the streets. Other markets in

the city include The Kermel, Cours des Maures (The Mauritanian Silver Mar-

ket), The Tilene, Village Artisanal (The Artisan’s crafts village), Salle des

Ventes (Auction-Room), Daral Ba (Livestock market), Grand Dakar, HLM,

Colobane, and Castor. All the markets offer a variety of goods and/services.

Dakar open market prices are not fixed. Prices of all goods and services

are bargained for. Vendors try to sell their goods with a maximum profit and

customers try to buy them at a minimal price. As a result, shopping in the

open markets is interactive. The customer and the vendor are in constant

contact, and interactions are not limited to price negotiations. Interactants

carry on conversations, discuss politics and other issues of interest. At market,

business is social and interactive. Bargainers often deviate from the content

focused forms of hard bargaining to involvement focused forms of interaction:

conversations, tete-a-tetes, and arguments. The ability to maintain the fragile

yet critical balance between the two is what is expected of both buyer and

seller.

A cross section of Senegalese society (people of all ethnic backgrounds,

male and female, young and old, rich and poor) go to market daily as vendors,

customers, laborers or simply to exchange news. Vendors often have seats at

their stalls or vending areas for people to sit and argue, yak or tell stories.

Family members that keep a stall often sit around and converse among them-

selves or with friends, next-stall-neighbors, or customers when there is no

bargaining being performed. In the process of bargaining customers may switch

to other topics as the need arises, or as a strategic move to reach a settlement.

I witnessed a bargaining event between a vendor and a customer which had

started in the middle of a conversation about the first Negro Arts Festival in

Dakar, Senegal. The customer became an active participant in the conver-

sation. After many exchanges that went on for almost an hour, the customer

turned to the vendor and said ‘‘do ko wani’’ (will you reduce the price?).

Bargainers often engage themselves in conversations or other speech events

that will help them to get to know each other, thus increasing their chances

of coming to terms. Some onlookers simply stand around and listen to other

people bargain.

Bargaining: A Social Speech Event

Bargaining is a persuasive and dialogic form of discourse in which inter-

actants, as co-participants who share the same language, cultural background

and conventionalized open market bargaining repertoire, use speech and be-

havior in order to reach a settlement. Bargaining in the open market is, as

Rubin and Brown (1975) put it, “the cardinal illustration of social interaction”.

In the open markets, there is more to being in business than making a sale

or purchasing an item or services. This observation has been made in a number

of works. Horace (1953), writing about the city of Timbuctoo, states that

MARKET ENCOUNTERS AS SOCIAL EVENTS 11

‘“commerse of course was the activity that brought the heterogenous popu-

lation of Timbuctoo together and functioned to maintain the communication

for centuries”’ (p. 53). Frank (1961), states that in the city of Dakar, “‘business

is not so much a means of earning a living as it is a form of social intercourse.

It perpetually leads to fascinating contacts and conversations and is the best

antidote against loneliness and seclusion, which is probably what the African

dislikes most. If you do sell something, it is of course even more wonderful.

But if you don’t and people just stop and bargain for hours, at any rate you

have not lost your day” (p. 8). Ong (1982), states that “in primary oral cultures,

even business is not business: it is fundamentally rhetoric. Purchasing some-

thing at a Middle East souk or bazaar is not a simple economic transaction,

as it would be at Woolworth’s and as a high-technology culture is likely to

presume it would be in the nature of things. Rather, it is a series of verbal

(and somatic) maneuvers, a polite duel, a contest of wits, an operation in oral

agonistic” (p. 69). As indicated above, open market bargaining does not only

function as a tool for negotiating prices, but fosters social intercourse.

Bargainers fulfill personal needs: to make a profit, or purchase an item or

services; and social requirements: to greet, negotiate in a sociable manner,

take leave, give lagniappe, and the like. In a study of 86 bargaining encounters

in the open markets of Dakar, Senegal, (Sosseh, 1987) I found that interactants

may perform one or more of six functional units: Summons, Greeting, Inquiry,

Price Setting, Service, and Leave-Taking. The performance of Price Setting

with any of the other units provides the bargainer with the opportunity to

interact in a sociable manner. Some of these functional units are used more

often than others as indicated below.

The functional units and their frequency of occurrence in 86 recorded encounters

Summons Greeting Inquiry Price Setting Service Leave-Taking

23 79 39 86 47 18

(26.74%) (91.86%) (45.34%) (100%) (54.65%) (21.93%)

The chart above indicates that Summons is performed in 23 of the 86 en-

counters; Greetings in 79 of the encounters; Inquiry in 39 of the encounters;

Price Setting in all 86 encounters; Service in 47 of the encounters; and Leave-

Taking in 18 of the encounters. Indicated below each number is the corre-

sponding percentage of frequency that unit is performed in the 86 bargaining

events.

These units are constituent parts of open market discourse and all of them

may occur in a bargaining encounter. As many different speech events take

place at market, some of these individual units occur in events other than

bargaining.

The following matrix shows the open market bargaining functional units,

speaker turns as initiator or respondent, structural segments, and whether or

not a functional unit is recurrent.

12 HAYIB N. SOSSEH

Functional Structural segments :

Units Structure (Language functions) Recurrence

I(B,S)

Summons R(B,S) Phatic R

Greeting I(B,S) Salutation Request prayer R

R(S,B) Response Response ratification

Inquiry I(B,S) Request R

R(S,B) Response

Beco sc tine oe Request negative resp./counter offer

z Response affirmation/another offer + R

Service I(B,S) Transit R

R(S,B) Receipt +

Leave-taking I(B,S) Bid farewell Response y

R(S,B) Acknowledge Request +

The first column of the bargaining matrix above shows the Functional

Units of the speech event: Summons, Greeting, Inquiry, Price Setting, Service,

and Leave-Taking. The second column indicates possible Speaker Turns as

initiator (1) and respondent (R), with either buyer (B) or seller (S) taking

these roles. The function column indicates adjacency pairs and their attendant

language functions. The plus sign (+) means that other structural segments

may be used in the performance of that unit. The minus (—) means that the

corresponding unit is not recurrent. A bargainer performs one or more unit

in the course of a bargaining encounter. An encounter includes the social

interaction, “‘the factor that leads bargainers to understand one another’s

expectations, to submit to each other’s influences and to collaborate on joint

settlements” (Putnam and Jones, 1982 p 264).

An open market, as shown above, functions as a social milieu where people

interact on issues not limited to business. Greenwood (1974) puts it best when

he concludes that “‘successful bargaining is most likely in a cooperative social

climate permitting unrestricted communication”. While bargaining, interac-

tants may perform other speech events or shift to an entirely different topic

with all as part of the ‘“‘global’’ event of bargaining.

Senegalese society is communal. Many aspects of the culture are performed

marked by collective adherence to Senegalese custom. Bargaining is no ex-

ception. Bargainers greet, converse, and can be sociable just as if participating

in traditional social settings. Shopping in the open markets fosters human

relations.

Bibliography

Frank, Frederick, S. 1961. African Sketch Book Holt, Rinehart and Winston/Newe

York.

Greenwood, J. G. 1974. “Opportunity to communicate and social orientation in

imaginary reward bargaining” in Speech Monographs. 41 (1), pp. 79-81.

Horace, M. 1953. The Primitive City of Timbuctoo. American Philosophical Society.

Ong, Walter. 1982 Orality and Literacy. Methuen.

Putnam, L. L. and Jones, T. S. 1982. “The role of communication in bargaining”

in Human Communication Research 8, 3. Spring. pp. 262-280.

Rubin, J. Z. and Brown, B. R. 1975. The Social Psychology of Bargaining and

Negotiation. New York, Academic Press.

Sosseh, Hayib. 1987. Bargaining As a Speech Event in The Open Markets of Dakar,

Senegal. Dissertation. Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.

Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences,

Volume 79, Number 1, Pages 13-19, March 1989

Classifiers in Wolof

Solomon Sara, S. J.

Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University,

Washington, DC 20057

Wolof is the language spoken primarily in Senegal and Gambia. It has two

major dialects: the Senegalese dialect, often referred to as Dakar Wolof (Stew-

art, 1966), and the Gambian Wolof. Most of the attention has been given to

Dakar Wolof. Gambian Wolof has been left practically undisturbed by both

the native and the nonnative linguists. The reasons for this oversight are many.

It may be due to the fact that the cosmopolitan capital city of Senegal, Dakar,

makes it a natural place with which to begin; Senegal happens to be a larger

country than Gambia, and with the greater number of Wolof speakers; and

the fact that there are many more studies of Wolof done in French by the

French linguistics reflects the linguistic status of French in the country as the

second language of choice among the speakers. In Gambia, however, the

second language of choice is English. The French linguists have been active

in the analysis of Wolof for a long time, while the English linguists have not.

Dakar Wolof became the preferred field of study. Many other considerations

may be mentioned that led to this imbalance, but this is not the proper forum

for such a discussion.

The present paper is concerned with Gambian Wolof. I began collecting

data on Wolof of Gambia over ten years ago from Mr. Hayib Sosseh, a native

14 SOLOMON SARA, S. J.

speaker of Wolof, and a doctoral candidate at the School of Languages and

Linguistics, Georgetown University. This paper will concentrate on the noun

classifiers in Gambian Wolof. It will account for their number, and some of

the lexical contexts of their occurrences as much as can be determined at this

time. What is intriguing about Wolof and the other Bantu languages is the

fact that many of the classifiers occur with nouns with homophonic initial

consonants. There is, for example, a preponderance of /si/ and /mi/ classifiers

with words that begin with /s..../ and /m. .. ./ respectively. They do not,

however, neither consistently nor exclusively occur in this fashion. Moreover,

not all the words that begin with /s... ./ or /m. . . ./ command /si/ or /mi/

classifiers, nor are /si/ and /mi/ classifiers restricted to words that begin with

/s..../and/m..../. This general pattern is observed with the rest of the

classifiers with various degrees of variation as the following lists will indicate.

All the examples given below are taken from the dictionary of WOLOF_

ENGLISH and ENGLISH_WOLOEF based primarily on the speech of Mr.

Sosseh. This dictionary will eventually be published (Sara, to appear).

There are some indications that the initial consonants have or may have

had some determining influence on the selection of the classifiers. The fol-

lowing examples, however, will indicate that the selection of the classifier is

a far more subtle and complex process than matching the choice of the classifier

with the initial consonant of the noun.

Gambian Wolof has the following nine singular noun classifiers:

/f- s- k-/

/b- |- g-/

/m- j- w-/

which follow the noun in discourse. They will be discussed and exemplified

below.

Wolof has also two plural markers: /n-, y-/.

The classifiers occur with the vowels: /-i, -a, -u/. The significance of the

choice of the vowel will not be dwelt on here, but in brief, these vocalic

specifiers indicate the degree of the proximity of the referent to the speaker.

enue

/fas wi/ ‘horse, close to the speaker’

/fas wa/ ‘horse, far from the speaker’

/fas wu/ ‘horse, referred to in its absence’

THE CLASSIFIER /fi/:

/fEnEn fi/ ‘other place’

/fEna fi/ ‘individual place’

/fi/ occurs with a limited number of lexical items. It may or may not be

relevant to include /fi/ among the classifiers that are much more productive.

Any general statement with reference to /fi/ would be otiose in this context.

It is included here for completeness sake and for the sake of consistency of

the pattern.

CLASSIFIERS IN WOLOF 15

THE CLASSIFIER /b-/:

/bOrOm bi/ ‘owner’ /daan bi/ ‘raid’

/forfor bi/ ‘kidney’ /jOIOF bi/ ‘Wolof

/kOI bi/ ‘glue’ /ligey bi/ ‘work’

/maaNgo bi/ ‘mango’ /nax bi/ ‘trick’

/Os bi/ ‘hook’ /pimpi bi/ ‘soot’

/tTEEn bi/ ‘root’ /saga bi/ ‘tiger’

/toy bi/ ‘fool’ /wEEr bi/ ‘moon’

/xuf bi/ ‘hunger’ /yax bi/ ‘bone’

As it can be seen from the above list, /bi/ occurs with words that begin

with /b. . ./, and consonants other than /bi/. It should be pointed out that /

bi/ is often the alternate choice with the other classifiers, i.e. when a noun

permits more than one classifier.

THE CLASSIFIER /mi/:

/borombutigimbaga mi/ ‘hawker’ /caax mi/ ‘thread’

/domimuus mi/ ‘kitten’ /feey mi/ ‘swim’

/joy mi/ ‘brawl’ /kaf mi/ ‘jest’

/mbaga mi/ ‘wing’ /Nax mi/ ‘grass’

/ndenda mi/ ‘large drum’ /pica mi/ ‘bird’

/reew mi/ ‘nation’ /sow mi/ ‘sour milk’

/taga mi/ ‘nest’ /xEl mi/ ‘intellect’

/mi/ is among the frequently used classifiers. It is as frequent and free in

its occurrence as the /bi/, /wi/ and the /gi/ classifiers as the above examples

show.

THE CLASSIFIER /si/:

/cuuj si/ ‘chick’ /caaku si/ ‘sacule’

/dEnaak si/ ‘early morning’ /fudan si/ ‘henna’

/jaaNgOrOsixat si/ ‘tuberculosis’ /mOOI si/ = ‘pony’

/nalla si/ ‘footpath’ /ndaw si/ ‘lady’

/NgOOn si/ ‘evening’ /pax si/ ‘hole’

/safara si/ Ee’ /xurfaan si/ ‘cold’

/xalOg si/ ‘puppy’ /yax si/ ‘ossicle’

The classifier /si/ occurs most frequently with nouns that being with

/s.../, even though it co-occurs with other consonants, as the above examples

indicate.

THE CLASSIFIER /li-/:

/cat li/ ‘tip’ /najig li/ = ‘price’

/ndiga li/ ‘waist’ /tistin i/ ‘heel’

/xojox li/ ‘climber squirrel’ /yuxa li/ ‘yoke’

/li/ occurs most frequently with nouns beginning with /n-, n-, t-, c-/, and

in rare cases, with /x-/.

16 SOLOMON SARA, S. J.

THE CLASSIFIER /ji-/:

/baay ji/ ‘dad’ /caaf j1/ ‘roasted peanuts’

/dOIE ji/ ‘power’ /gErtEbaxal ji/ ‘boiled peanuts’

/jiko ji/ ‘behavior’ /kumpa ji/ ‘secret’

/legi ji/ ‘instant’ /mag ji/ ‘older sister’

/njabOOt ji/ ‘family’ /naNgam ji/ ‘sum’

/papa ji/ ‘papa’ /TEE ji/ ‘laugh’

/tata ji/ ‘castle’ /wax ji/ ‘speech’

yOmba ji/ ‘pumpkin’

The overall occurrence of /ji/ is not very frequent, nor does it occur with

nouns that begin with fricatives.

THE CLASSIFIER /k-/:

/kEna ki/ ‘somebody’ /kinu?ay ki/ ‘guilty person’

/kujaanga ki/ ‘educated person’ /nit ki/ ‘person’

Even though /ki/ is more frequent than /fi/, it has a very restricted occur-

rence. It occurs with nouns that begin with /k . . ./, or nouns that refer to

‘person’.

THE CLASSIFIER /gi/:

/bObO gi/ ‘hive’ /cafka gi/ ‘flavor’

/dEK gi/ ‘fever’ /gaal gi/ ‘rowboat’

/jil gi/ ‘drum’ /Kemij gi/ ‘ledge’

/lEKa gi/ ‘food’ /muj gi/ ‘result’

/NEmEn gi/ ‘valor’ /naanu gi/ ‘pipe’

/pEEI gi/ ‘shovel’ /rOn gi/ ‘bottom’

/sixa gi/ ‘rooster’ /tEfEs gi/ ‘shore’

/wEt gi/ ‘side’ /xEn gi/ ‘smell’

/yuur gi/ ‘brain’

The occurrence of /gi/ rivals that of /bi/, /mi/ and /wi/ in its freedom of

occurrence with the other consonants. It occurs with a variety of consonants

and with vowels.

THE CLASSIFIER /wi/:

/bOriyOOn wi/ ‘wayside’ /bOrOmaay wi/ ‘criminal’

/caaxaan wi/ ‘joke’ /day wi/ ‘dung’

/far wi/ ‘fiance, m’ /gub wi/ ‘wheat ear’

/jin wi/ ‘fish’ /kapa wi/ ‘buttock’

/leeb wi/ ‘story’ /melin wi/ ‘fashion’

/Nam wi/ - ‘food’ /naat wi/ ‘turkey’

/pelit wi/ ‘slice’ /rab wi/ ‘animal’

/sax wi/ ‘worm’ /teen wi/ ‘louse’

/WEEr wi/ ‘month’ /XEER wi/ ‘gravel’

/yika wi/ OD.

/wi/ is among the four most frequently used classifiers, i.e. /bi, mi, gi,

wi/. With the illustrations for /wi/ the list of classifiers is completed.

CLASSIFIERS IN WOLOF 17

The above examples illustrate the occurrence of all the classifiers in a sum-

mary fashion. They are arranged in a manner that indicates if a specific clas-

sifier co-occurs with words that begin with certain consonants. /bi/ is the most

frequently used classifier and has the least number of restrictions on its oc-

currences. /fi/ is the least frequently used, and has the most restrictions. /fi/

occurs only with words that begin with /f . ./ and with only very few words.

/gi/ is frequent with no restrictions except that it does not occur before words

that begin with /f. ./. /ji/ is not frequent, nor does it occur with words that

begin with a fricative. /ki/ is more frequent than /fi/ but restricted to words

beginning with /k . ./ or to words that refer to ‘person’. /li/ occurs primarily

with words that begin with /n-/, /n-/, /c-/, stop /t-/ and fricative /x-/, with

very rare exception with other sounds. /mi/ is a frequently occurring classifier

with very few restrictions, e.g. it does not occur with nouns that begin with

/p-/. /si/ occurs most frequently with words beginning with /s-/. /wi/ is a

free occurring classifier that does not have restrictions.

There are also semantic and derivational restrictions on the selection of the

classifiers. By way of exemplification, when a noun refers to a tree or the fruit

of the same tree, there is a consistent occurrence of two different classifiers.

e.g.

/gi/ bi/

/garab gi/ “thee: /garab bi/ ‘fruit’

/pOm gi/ ‘apple tree’ /pOm bi/ ‘apple’

/banaana gi/ ‘banaanatree’ /banaana bi/ ‘banana’

/sanaana gi/ ‘pineapple tree’ /sanaana bi/ ‘pineapple’

The diminutive nouns generally take the classifier /si/, e.g.

/Ci/ /s1/

/Ngalaw li/ ‘wind’ /Ngalaw si/ ‘breeze’

/yax bi/ ‘bone’ /yax si/ ‘ossicle’

/pax mi/ ‘hole’ /pax si/ ‘pore’

/xaj bi/ ‘dog’ /xaj si/ ‘puppy’

/ganaar gi/ ‘chicken’ /cuuj si/ ‘chick’

In addition to semantic criteria for selecting the proper noun classifier, there

are derivational considerations that need to be mentioned in this context. By

way of exemplification, the derivational suffixes: /-kay, -aay, -kat/ take the

Classifier /bi/. This is exemplified below:

NOMINAL DERIVATIVES:

/saNgukay bi/ ‘bathroom’

/karantikay bi/ ‘blockade’

/xamEkay bi/ ‘brand’

/citaxawaay bi/ ‘abruptness’

/mbootaay bi/ ‘association’

/dEkuwaay bi/ ‘habitation’

18 SOLOMON SARA, S. J.

/waxalkat bi/ ‘advisor’

/naaNkat bi/ ‘appelant’

/atkat bi/ ‘arbitrator’

The lexical data point to a hierarchy of choice in the selection of the clas-

sifiers. As a rule, semantico-morphological criteria seem to prevail over the

phonological.

We must mention two antithetical tendencies in Wolof in the use of the

classifiers. On the one hand there is a free alternation among several classifiers

for the same lexical item without any semantic difference, e.g.

/Keyit wi/ ‘paper’

/Keyit gi/ ‘paper’

/Keyit bi/ ‘paper’

This is coupled with the opposite tendency to differentiate the same lexeme

by the sole use of the classifiers, e.g.

/garab bi/ ‘fruit’

/garab gi/ ‘tree’ .

/garab wi/ ‘medicine’

/yax bi/ ‘bone’

/yax si/ ‘ossicle’

/yax bi/ ‘dog’

/xaj si/ ‘puppy’

THE PLURAL MARKERS:

The plural is marked by the use of a classifier, and there are two forms:

/yi/ and /ni/.

THE PLURAL MARKER /jyi/:

/garab yi/ ‘trees’

/fas yi/ ‘horses’

/paaka yi/ ‘knives’

THE PLURAL MARKER /ni/:

This plural marker occurs with a very restricted class of nouns. Formally

with singular nouns that have a /k-/ classifier, or with a restricted class of

humans referring to person. e.g.

/kena ni/ ‘people, someones’

/nit ni/ ‘person’

To further determine the phonological conditioning of the classifiers by the

initial consonants, a list of all the words beginning with a vowel was drawn

up and the co-occurring classifiers tabulated. All the classifiers occur with

words beginning with one of the vowels with the exception of /fi, ki, li/

classifier. e.g.

{DIS hapa bi; ‘limit’ /uus bi/ ‘neglect’

/gi/ /waajur gi/ ‘household’ /umu gi/ ‘misfortune’

CLASSIFIERS IN WOLOF 19

Mile ne Pal qi ‘goods’ /aaxa ji/ ‘fault’

/li/ = /waccu li/ ‘puke’ (yuxaliy “yoke

/mi/ /warEEf mi/ ‘cause’ /at mi/ ‘age’

/si/ — /opa si/ ‘illness’ /ilig si/ ‘morning’

/wil /Et wi/ ‘stick’ /aat wi/ = ‘quarrel’

If the classifiers are not phonologically predictable, then the other options

are morphosyntactic and semantic. There is some justification for the claim

that there are semantic categories that are marked with specific classifiers,

e.g. the tree category. Trees have the classifier /gi/, while the fruit of the tree

is indicated by the same morphemic sequence with a different classifier, i.e.

/bi/. With the fruit of the tree the classifiers may be refined a bit. The usual

classifier is /bi/ if one is talking about a single type fruit. When the fruit comes

in bunches one may find /ji/ classifier/ or /li/; other exemplification can be

given to illustrate that the semantic classification will have to be a refined one

in terms of subclasses within categories. This is merely a sketch based on the

lexicon with no account taken of the great majority of morphological or syn-

tactic considerations that will need to be considered in a complete account of

the classifiers.

Bibliography

LEXIQUE WOLOF-FRANCAIS. 5 VOLS. 1976. Dakar: IFAN

Sara, Solomon I. WOLOF-ENGLISH, ENGLISH-WOLOF LEXICON. [to ap-

pear]

Sauvageot, Serge. 1965. DESCRIPTION SYNCHRONIQUE D’UN DIALECTE

WOLOF; LE PARLER DU DYOLOF. Dakar: IFAN.

Stewart, William A. 1966. INTRODUCTORY COURSE IN DAKAR WOLOF.

Washington, D.C. Center for Applied Linguistics.

Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences,

Volume 79, Number 1, Pages 20-28, March 1989

The Interface Between Writing

and Speech in West Africa

Simon P. X. Battestini

Georgetown University

1. Introduction.

In The Interface Between the Written and the Oral (1987) Jack Goody states

that:

Since I am dealing mainly with the results of linguistic and psycho-

linguistic research, I shall concentrate on the two main issues that

have been of immediate concern to contributors to these fields, namely

(1) differences between the written and oral registers of the same

language, and (2) differences between the performance of individuals

in the written and in the oral registers.

Neither of these issues is directly related to the one that concerns

us most closely, namely, the differences between those languages

that have been written and those that have not. It is one we will

return to later but it should be said that little attention has been paid

to this linguistically since the nineteenth century, although at the

semantic and pragmatic levels the problem has been raised by an-

thropologists. . . pp. 262-3.

This paper is an attempt to partially remedy this state of affairs. Goody

declares that little research has been conducted by linguists. Yet he based his

own work on these grounds. The bibliographies of his two latest books do

not include linguistic descriptions of languages but instead references to gen-

eral theories of linguistics. Curiously, Goody does not refer to the series of

articles by David Dalby on West African systems of writing (1966, 1967, 1968,

1969, 1970, 1986), to Scribner and Cole’s unique and extensive study of the

Vai (1981) or to Kotei (1972 and 1981) and he chooses to ignore the research

conducted since World War II in applied linguistics. Goody’s generation of

researchers, as typified in I. J. Gelb (1952), belongs to an episteme dominated

by a logocentric perception of the world, rooted in one type of writing and

INTERFACE BETWEEN WRITING AND SPEECH 21

in the mythic perfection of the latin alphabet and its numerous adaptations.

(Anon.:1986)

We will attempt to show that the imposition of the Latin alphabet on until

then ‘‘unwritten” West African Languages (Migeod: 1913; Dalby: ;1966, 1967,

1968, 1969, 1970, 1986; Battestini: 1988), while solving economically a fair

amount of problems such as rapid Christianization, actually generated im-

portant transformations of the local languages at all levels of the linguistic

analysis (Zima: 1974; Diri-Kidiri: 1983).

By examining a few of the systems of writing and other systems of com-

munication native to or long implanted in West Africa, we will show that most

of these systems were either logographic or syllabic (See Griaule & Dieterlen:

1951; Calame-Griaule & Lacroix: 1969; Calvet: 1984). Their relatively recent

modifications into alphabetic notation occurred under the combined influences

of the Latin alphabet and of a type of Arabic script.

Our intention here is also to expose certain stereotypes with regard to writing

in Africa, and to show the relationships between the written and the oral in

West Africa and their implications.

2. On Writing.

Africa, nature and culture, did not provide much of the experience from

which our sciences emerged. It is well known that Africa was a terra incognita

to Marx and, until Malinovsky, to most social scientists. If we admit that all

our sciences, institutions, frames of reference and many of the so-called uni-

versal patterns of thinking, behaving and feeling slowly emerged from chaos

and then from confrontations with other cultures, we must remember that for

most of us, Africa, until recently, was thought to have little if anything to

contribute to humanity (The first history of Africa course was offered in the

States in 1965 and the first African Linguistics course offered in French-

Speaking Africa in 1966). Less than a generation ago slavery was still accepted

in many parts of the world and the prejudices towards the black people are

still with us today. They shade not only our interpretations of African data

but even our methodologies based on erroneous perceptions, lack of infor-

mation, indigence of our tools of description and interpretation, definitions

and classifications. The Africanist discourse is still ideologically a colonialist

one. According to Derrida “‘writing” is at the core of our episteme and delin-

eates our frames of reference, our categories said to be “‘logocentric” (Bat-

testini: 1988)

Let us take an example. It is common to many social scientists, including

linguists, to believe that the more literate a society is the more complex its

language and therefore its institutions and means of reflexion are. All of

Goody’s work tends to make this point. Lévi-Strauss, many years back, con-

cluded a series of lectures at the Collége de France on “primitive cultures”

with these words: ‘‘And then there was the Greek miracle’’. It is appropriate

that one distinctive criteria between the written and the oral of a given language

is the greatest complexity of the sentence and “‘consequently” of the articu-

22 SIMON P. X. BATTESTINI

lation of the system of thought. In a literate society a sentence may express

more than one or two ideas. Clauses are logically and syntactically linked by

grammatical words unknown to cultures dominated by oral tradition. I be-

longed to a European society in which my parents’ generation proceeded from

an ‘“‘oral culture” to a “‘written” or literate one, and in a foreign language. I

have spent thirty two years in Africa, mainly West Africa. Based on my

repeated observations, I may state that any recourse to a hierarchy of values

which could lead us to conclude that oral cultures produce simpler sentences

than cultures where the written medium is largely in use is a grave error loaded

with prejudice. West African story-tellers use complex sentences. But since

the type of communication used is verbal and within a manipula they resort

to supra- and infra-linguistic features, gestures, mimicry and connotations.

Semiotically, certain of these paralinguistic elements may be equated to

these morpho-syntactic linking elements. Rather, it is our mode of recording

(still the blind tape-recorder) and our linguistic definition of what language

is to us, the literate peoples, which are taking away the complexity of the

sentence, which are preventing us from seeing that our data has been reduced

to what it is not. So we establish that these removed features are absent and

demonstrate the simplicity of the data. The presence of “‘unsuitable”’ verbal

features (such as tones, vowel harmony, clicks, labio-velars) for the written

medium do not permit to infer an intrinsic primitiveness or poverty of the

simplified data. The written medium is different from the oral medium not

superior. Relative clauses exist in both if expressed differently. It may be

unscientific to apply a method or a frame of reference to data totally foreign

to the cultures from which these methods and frameworks originated.

All of Gelb’s “‘historical’’ categories are simultaneously present in West

Africa today, mocking his chronological organisation. Some systems of writing

such as the Mum of King Njoya evolved from ideographic to alphabetic in a

few decades, yet managed to retain, at each state of the transformation, some

of the features of the preceding stages. Therefore our concept of diachrony,

which relativizes events in terms of time, and is often combined with a sense

of continuum from origin, simple, primitive, to achievement, complex, mod-

ern, is inapplicable to many parts of West Africa. As one of my Senegalese

students stressed in the 1960’s: “‘According to the system of classification of

your history book, my mother is definitely a prehistoric woman, my father a

medieval character and I believe that I would be a 20th century citizen of my

newly created country. It’s a wonder that we may communicate and live

together”. Africa is so pluralistic and diversified that it challenges our minds.

African systems of writing are numerous and yet they have been ignored or

repressed (See Fédry: 1977 and compare to Dalby’s works).

3. West African Systems of Writing.

3.1 Arabic.

The Arabic script has been in use in West Africa since the end of the first

millenium, maybe earlier. For many centuries a few clerks, malams, qadis,

INTERFACE BETWEEN WRITING AND SPEECH 23

traders . . . were able to read and write in this script. To the masses, Arabic

writing was seen as a concrete and yet strange manifestation of control of

surrounding forces, cultural as well as natural. The people used (and many

still do) this script for geomancy, divination, astrology and amulet-making.

Some literates had names known all over the Islamic world (Battestini: 1986).

I described elsewhere the impact of this medium on literary forms, showing

that initially the content was indigenized. The addition of many exotic terms

into the medium led to the conviction that the script had to be adapted to the

local pronunciation of Arabic and finally a radically modified script was used

to reduce African languages to writing. This ’Ajami, or non-Arab script,

resembles the Arabic script but with—not mentioning additions and subtrac-

tions—a precise vocalisation absent from the original. We see that over the

centuries islamized Africans could not accept a system of writing which would

be almost uniquely consonantal. The notation of the syllable seems to have

appeared indispensable. We will come back to this point.

3.2 Tifinagh.

Another system of writing is the tifinagh of the Tamashek language of the

Touareg. These people were crossing the Sahara for the Romans and the

Phoenicians in Antiquity. Their language is Berber. All written letters are

read and each letter is a consonant pronounced with a centralized vowel.

Watching a young Targui attempting to read a word is astonishing. It goes

like this for + [| :. + iéTé..€é, éMmé.éé, eNné.. é., iéR...ésSé..€6.€. étT then

while singing his process of discovery he/she uncovers the meaning of the

melody and may pronounce it correctly: Tamanrasset or phonemically

/temenreset/ (Blaguernon: 1955). Here we must pay attention to the fact that

the reading is syllabified and sung. In the West it is commonly accepted that

certain schoolchildren learned the “song” of their multiplication tables and

the alphabet to memorize them. Poetic meters were initially mnemonic de-

vices. There was a written literature in this script clearly deriving like our

alphabet from the Phoenician. Actually the terms /tefener/, /fenisian/ and

/fonetic/ have a common base which is /F-N/ of /fon-/ for sound.

3.3 Nsibidi.

Created around 1700 in the Cross River Basin of what is today the South

East of Nigeria, the Nsibidi script is logographic or ideographic and is men-

tioned here uniquely because it may be read in at least 5 distinct languages:

Efik, Ekoi, Efut, Igbo (Some igbophones of Aro-Chukwu) and Annang. |

have not found any trace of literature in this script but there are archives,

court cases and Ekpe recordings (Battestini: forthcoming). This system is used

by a secret society and is known only to its members (Dugast & Jeffreys:

1950). Signs are shown in public as a manifestation of the power of the Ekpe

society. The non-initiates recognize them as being Nsibidi signs but cannot

read them. This secrecy of knowledge considered as a source of power is quite

common to many West African societies. Exclusively used by a ruling minority,

it is respected and/or feared by the majority (Campbell: 1983).

24 SIMON P. X. BATTESTINI

3.4 Vai.

The Vai script, mainly from Liberia, as it is known and used today derives

from a set of ancient symbols (Massaquoi: 1911). It is mainly a syllabari. Most

of the signs stand for a syllable of the CV type but seven signs are for vowels

to which can be added a diacritic for nasal, including labiovelar stops such as

kpV, nkpV, kpnV, gbV, labionasals such as mbV, palatonasal as njV and others

of the types dhV, thV, IbV, hnV, shV, zhV. Punctuation exists. All together

there are approximately 273 signs, some of which have allographs.

Signs denotating similar sounds—sharing one or more phonological fea-

ture(s)—show graphic similarity. This suggests an accurate phonological anal-

ysis of the medium. Arabic, Latin and even Cherokee influences have been

invoked but no one went further than suggesting the borrowing of some

principles which is common to all systems of writing. The system looks like

an inventory of all the possible syllables of the Vai language. A fair amount

of local literature has been written in this system as well as the Bible, the

Iliad and the Qur’an. The Vai script is widely used today for posters, correspon-

dence, contracts, shop notices, in schools, road signs.

It was believed that Vai could become the written medium of a lingua franca

for West and Central Africa but it has never been used outside Sierra Leone,

the North of Liberia and some neighbouring parts of these two countries.

Massaquoi wrote in 1911:

It might appear to some that, since on the advent of the English

language all native languages must vanish, the sooner Vai and others

disappear the better. But it should be borne in mind that it is one

thing for a man to die a natural death and another for him to be

strangled or starved. To neglect these languages on the ground that

some day they must die is to starve them to death, and thereby

commit a philological crime. I wonder what would have been the

state of things if great poets, scientists, philosophers and other ge-

niuses were all neglected and suffered to die in the cradle on the

grounds that man must die. p. 466.

Migeod noticed that “It will take only a fraction of the time that it takes

to learn to read with an alphabet . . .”, conclusion with which we agree for

linguistic reasons. The Vai script does not seem to take into consideration the

tonal characteristic of the Vai language but illustrates clearly the marked

preference of West Africans for the syllabari. Some other scripts of this sub-

region of West Africa such as the Mende, the Loma, the Kpelle, the Bete,

the Bassa and the Gola may have been influenced by the Vai script, as they

share some or many of.its features. However, each is modified to a point of

non-recognition and truly adapted to the reduction to writing of its own lan-

guage. Adoption in Africa is never blind; it is rather an adaptation.

3.5 Mum.

This script, created by the King Njoya, had 466 signs. This logographic

system evolved rapidly. In 25 years it reproduced the complete history of

INTERFACE BETWEEN WRITING AND SPEECH 25

writing. The third version (1902) was largely a syllabari. Schools were training

adults as well as children. Njoya wrote a book of pharmacopeia and one on

the history of his people in the third version of the script. In 1918 schools

were closed and destroyed, books burned. Njoya was arrested and exiled to

the new capital of the colony. He died two years later. He was condemned

by the powerful colonial tenants of the Latin alphabet.

5. Diversity.

It is true that linguists have created numerous languages in West Africa.

Long before the notions of mutuality and degree of intelligibility were con-

ceived, dialects of the same language were considered as different languages.

It may be said that there are as many languages in Africa as dissertations

about them in the West. A written language, and a literary one for that matter,

the Pular or Fulani, is in use in a territory as wide as Europe. The diversity

of West African languages is a myth. The diversity of the imposed systems of

writing invented by the West, on the contrary, is just another source of chaos.

We may mention the Romanist adapted system, the many adapted versions

of the IPA, the World Orthograph formerly the African Alphabet . . . none

exhibiting the slightest interest for the local scripts (See Lepsius: 1883/1981;

Taylor: 1928; International Institute of African Languages and Cultures: 1930;

Burssens: 1972; UNESCO: mainly 1966, 1976 and 1981; Oyelaran & Yai:

1976; Gregersen: 1977 and personal communication). A rapidly emerging

consensus for homogeneity is to be noticed at UNESCO’s level as well as by

regions and language clusters (Bot-Ba-Njok: 1974). African linguists, willing

to preserve their languages in their authenticity, multiply graphic signs to

denote minute phonological features and produce irrealistic and uneconomical

scripts. Let us imagine a vowel being open, slightly centralized and nasalized,

long, affected with a raising-falling tone, potentially harmonized and included

in a climb of some sort, the linguist will have to make a selection among the

features (Jegede: 1986, personal communication). The chosen sign to repre-

sent this amalgam of sounds will nevertheless be much too complex. The

relative unity of the phonological systems of West Africa authorizes the ho-

mogenization of the orthographies (Bamgbose: 1983) now in use and those

to be created.

6. Evolution of Their Interface.

We have seen that local systems evolved from earlier forms and were made

to suit the actual needs of the majority of the population of Africa except for

the 5 to 20% of the westernized élite in power.

Let us consider a proto-writing system, the mythograms of the Yoruba or

Aroko (Bloxam: 1887). Jensen explains: ‘‘A group of six cowrie shells has the

primary meaning “‘six’’, efa. Since, however, efa means ‘“‘attracted”’ (from fa

“to draw’’), a cord with 6 cowrie shells sent by a young man to a girl means:

26 SIMON P. X. BATTESTINI

“T feel myself drawn to you. Eight cowrie shells means ‘8’, ejo. The same

word, however, also means “agreeing” (from jo “‘to agree’’, “‘to be alike’’);

hence the sending of eight cowrie shells on the part of the girl to the lover

means: I feel as you do, I agree.” (1970:31). In this case, there is a rebus not

a written language. Nevertheless, a lexical unit is represented in a referential

object, reduced to a “‘string’”’ of sounds, now free to symbolize anything else

having approximately the same pronunciation as the one of the lexical units.

Taking an object with the acoustic image of its name of which only the

“graphic” signifier is kept and then using it to denote a new signified is but

a manner of writing. It is not a common understanding of what should be

writing but it is logically the same process. Not many Westerners are aware

of that the letter ““A”’ did stand for a cow and the letter “‘F” for a snail. In

fact, we are used to it, we ignore it or we do not see any primitiveness in

these historical relics. Would it be the same if by a strange modification of

history Africans were trying to impose these animal symbols on us? It was

André Breton who said that the word “knife” never murdered anyone and

another surrealist, Magritte, who painted a pipe and wrote under it “‘this is

not a pipe’.

Let us examine two results of the impact of the Latin alphabet on African

languages. A town of Senegal bears the name of /Xombol/ spelled by the

French as Khombole. Westernized Senegalese speaking French would say or

read /kombol/ but in Wolof they would say /Xombol/ (See Alexandre: 1983).

Syntactically the acquisition of new forms from written languages leads to

interesting results. A double deductive hypothesis such as “If I went to the

meeting, I would have met Jack” was not unthinkable in Africa before the

arrival of the Europeans but was never uttered. I tested this on my students

in Linguistics at Calabar and later with some African friends. They all agree

that such a thought sounds bizarre but it could be expressed in most African

Languages. The difference is that the speaker would be immediately identified

as a Westernized person or as very weird. None of the criteria invoked to

distinguish oral and written forms is acceptable for the Fulani language. We

have systematically compared the text of the Ma’dinus-Sa’aadati to phonol-

ogical transcriptions of other texts such as those we studied elsewhere (Bat-

testini: 1986). The list of distinctive features is long: preferential usage of

elaborate syntactic and semantic structures, especially nominal constructions

(noun groups, noun phrases, nominalizations, relative clauses) and complex

verb structures, preference for subordinate rather than coordinate construc-

tions, preferential usage of passive rather than active verb voice, preferential

usage of subject-predicate constructions, instead of reference-proposition,

preferential usage of declaratives and subjunctives rather than imperatives,

interrogatives, and exclamations, preferential usage of definite articles rather

than demonstrative, modifier and deictic terms, higher frequency of gerunds,

participles, attributive adjectives, modal and perfective auxiliaries . . . Need

to make all assumptions explicit, reliance on a more deliberate method of

organizing ideas, using such expository concepts as thesis, topic sentence,

supporting evidence, preferential elimination of false starts, repetitions,

INTERFACE BETWEEN WRITING AND SPEECH 27

digressions, and other redundancies which characterize informal spontaneous

speech. It must be said that the text, written in “Ajami, was created to be

read aloud and/or recited. The written and oral forms of this African language

do not differ significantly. From Gilgamesh, the Ilyad and the Odyssey to

Flaubert, narratives were to be read aloud. This is the type of book found

today in local libraries of traditional scholars in West Africa. And it has to

be so in societies where a large proportion of the population does not read

and venerates the uttered text read and discussed by a respected scholar.

Bibliography

Alexandre, P. 1983. Sur quelques problémes pratiques d’onomastique africaine:

toponymie, anthroponymie, ethnonymie. Cahiers d’ Etudes Africaines. XXIII, 1—2:89-

90, 175-188.

Anon. 1986. Yoruba alphabet. West Africa, January 20.

Bamgbose, A. (ed.). 1983. Orthographies of Nigerian Languages: Manual I (Hausa,

Ibibio, Yoruba). Lagos: National Language Centre, Ministry of Education.

Battestini, S. P. X. 1986. Muslim Influences on West African Literature and Culture.

Journal, Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, VU, July, 2:476-502.

Battestini, S. P. X. 1988. Ecritures africaines: inventaire et problématique. In: Actes

de la Table Ronde Internationale CNRS-HESO: Pour une théorie de la langue écrite,

23-24 octobre 1986, Paris, Catach, N. (ed.), 1988.

Blanguernon, C. 1955. Le Hoggar. Algérie: SNED et Paris: Arthaud.

Bloxam, G. W. 1887. Exhibition of African Symbolic Messages. Journal of the

Royal Anthropological Institute XV1:295-299.

Bot-Ba-Njock, H. M. 1974. La transcription moderne des langues africaines. In:

Les langues africaines, facteur de dévelop-pement. Actes du séminaire pour |’enseigne-

ment des langues africaines, 43-54.

Burssens, A. 1972. La notation des langues négro-africaines: signes typographiques

a utiliser. Bruxelles: Académie Royale des Sciences d’Outre-Mer.

Calame-Griaule, G. and P. F. Lacroix. 1969. Graphie et signes africains. Semiotica

5200-272.

Calvet, L.-J. 1984. La Tradition orale. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. ‘““Que

Sais-Je?”’.

Campbell, K. F. 1983. Nsibidi Update: nsibidi actualisé, A Recent Study on the

Old Communication System of the Ejagham Peoples of the Cross River Region of

Eastern Nigerian and Western Cameroon. Arts d’Afrique Noire (Arnouville) No. 47

(automne):33-46.

Dalby, D. 1966. An Investigation into the Mande Syllabari of Kisimi Kamara.

Sierra Leone Studies n.s. 19:119-123.

Dalby, D. 1967. A Survey of the Indigenous Scripts of Liberia and Sierra-Leone:

Vai, Mandé, Loma, Kpellé, Bassa. African Language Studies, 8:1-51. (with map).

Dalby, D. 1968. The Indigenous Scripts of West Africa and Surinam. Their Inspi-

ration and Design. African Language Studies, 9:156-197.

Dalby, D. 1969. Further Indigenous Scripts of West Africa: Manding, Wolof and

Fula Alphabets and Yoruba “Holy Writing”. African Language Studies 10:161-181.

Dalby, D. 1970. The Historical Problem of the Indigenous Scripts of West Africa

and Surinam. Language and History in Africa. New York: Africana Publishing Cor-

poration, 109-119.

28 SIMON P. X. BATTESTINI

Dalby, D. 1986. L’ Afrique et la lettre. Paris: Karthala

Diki-Kidiri, M. 1983. Réflexions sur la graphématique. Cahiers d’études africaines,

13:1-2, 89-90, 169-174.

Dugast, I. 1950. La langue secréte du sultan Njoya. Etudes Camerounaises. III

(septembre-décembre), 31-32, 232-260. |

Dugast, I. and M. D. W. Jeffreys. 1950. L’Ecriture des Bamum: sa naissance, son

évolution, sa valeur phonétique, son utilisation. Douala: IFAN, Centre du Cameroun.

Fédry, J. 1977. L’Afrique entre l’écriture et loralité. Etudes. Tome 346 (mai): 581-

600.

Gelb, I. J. 1952. A Study of Writing: The Foundations of Grammatology. London:

Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Goody, J. 1986. The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society, Studies in

literacy, Family, Culture and the State, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Goody, J. 1987. The Interface Between the Written and the Oral, Studies in Literacy,

Family, Culture and the State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gregersen, E. A. 1977. Languages of Africa: An Introductory Survey. London:

Gordon and Breach.

Griaule, M. and G. Dieterlen. 1951. Signes graphiques soudanais. L’Homme, Ca-

hier d’Ethnologie, de Géographie et de Linguistique, 3.

International Institute of African Languages and Cultures. 1930. Practical Orthog-

raphy of African Languages: Memorandum I. London: Oxford University Press.

Jegede, E. 1986. Personal Communication, June 20.

Jensen, H. 1970. Sign, Symbol and Script: An Account of Man’s Efforts to Write.

Transl. G. Unwin. London: Allen and Unwin.

Kotei, S. I. A. 1972. The West African Autochthonous Alphabets: An Exercise in

Comparative Paleography. Ghana Social Science Journal 2, 1:1-13. Also in Advances

in the Creation and Revision of Writing Systems, A. Fishman (ed.). The Hague:

Mouton, 1977, 55-7. Also in: The Book Today in Africa, S. 1. A. Kotei, Paris:

UNESCO, 1981, 11-30.

Lepsius, R. 1863 (1981). Standard Alphabet: for reducing unwritten languages and

foreign graphic systems to a uniform orthography in European letters. (Ast edition:

1858; 2nd revised with an introduction by Kemp, A. J.). London: William and Nor-

gate. In: Amsterdam Classics in Linguistics. vol. 5. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Massaquoi, M. 1911. The Vai People and Their Syllabic Writing. Journal of the

Royal African Society, X: 459-466.

Migeod, F. E. H. 1909. The Syllabic Writing of the Vai People. Journal of the

African Society 9:46-58.

Migeod, G. 1913. The Languages of West Africa Vol II. London: K. Paul, Trench

and Trubner.

Scribner, S. and M. Cole. 1981. The Psychology of Literacy. Cambridge, MA:

Harvard University Press.

Sow, I. 1971 Le Filon du bonheur éternel (par Thierno Mouhammadou-Samba

Mombéya). Paris: Armand Colin, “‘Classiques Africains’’.

Taylor, F. W. 1928. The Orthography of African Languages with special reference to

Hausa and Fulani. Africa 28:241—252.

UNESCO. 1966. Rapport final sur la réunion d’un groupe d’experts pour [unification

des alphabets des langues nationales. Bamako: UNESCO (28 février-5 mars).

UNESCO. 1981. Proceedings of the meeting of experts on the transcription and

harmonization of African languages. Niamey, Niger, 17—21 July 1978. Paris: UNES-

CO, “African Languages’.

Zima, P. 1974. Digraphia: The case of Hausa. Linguistics. 124:57-69.

Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences,

Volume 79, Number 1, Pages 29-34, March 1989

Tones of Yoruba Language“

Adetokunbo Adekanmbi

Georgetown University Washington, D.C. 20057

The Yoruba language is spoken mainly in Southwestern Nigeria and parts

of the Dahomey (now Benin Republic), on the West Coast of Africa. It is

spoken by approximately 35 million people and has various dialects, some of

which are mutually intelligible and some of which are not. However, the

speakers of the variant dialects of Yoruba communicate with each other in

either the Oyo dialect or the Lagos dialect. The Oyo dialect is considered the

more proper, albeit slightly more archaic dialect and is the dialect used in the

media-audio, video as well as print. Yoruba belongs to the Kwa language

family and has been described as a tonal language. This paper will discuss the

tones of the Yoruba language and the different functions that these tones

have. But first, what is a tonal language?

Pike 1945: 1 defines a tonal language as:

“one having significant contrastive pitch on each syllable” Thus, the high

or low tones of a tonal language contrast with each other just as the b, d, g

in big, dig, and gig do. Ward 1956: 29 also defines a tone language as

a. “one which makes use of the pitch of the voice as an essential element in

the formation of words and in connected speech. Tone shows itself in the

following ways: As part of the ‘make-up’ of a word: e.g. the word for dog

is aja [--], and the tones (mid-level followed by high-level) are as much

part of the word as the vowels and consonant.

b. Following on (a), as a distinguishing factor in meaning:

ewa [__] with two low tones, means bean;

ewa [-_] the same vowels and consonant sounds, with a mid-level followed

by a low-level tone, means beauty;

ewa [--] with mid-level tones is meaningless.

The difference between the first two words is as important as a difference in

vowel and consonant would be... .”

To say that a language that lacks the aforementioned tonal contrast is non-

tonal would be erroneous. Every language has some sort of tonal character-

istics that are unique to it. I will describe three different types of tones.

* Presented at 39th Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics, April 9, 1988.

30 ADETOKUNBO ADEKANMBI |

Rhythmic Tones:

These may also be called intonation or contour. This is the undulation of

the human voice when it is engaged in speech. This type of tone, or rather

intonation, is easily detected when a speaker of a language A, for instance,

Chinese or Swedish, speaks a language B, for instance English, with the accent

and intonational contours of language A. Intonation may also display the

emotions of the speaker, as in

egbon ¢ I’6 yan j¢ his "ther cheated him

eebon & |’6 yan je his bro““er cheated him?

“gbon € / l’6 yan je. his brother cheated him!

(Examples are modifications and translations of english sentences from Bol-

inger 1972.)

The first example is a statement of fact or report of a fact. The second

example is a question of a fact or report of a fact. The third example, however,

portrays the speaker’s disbelief that the concerned person’s own flesh and

blood could do such a thing.

As I said earlier, all languages have this intonation feature.

Syntactic Tones:

These are the tones that differentiate between the variant syntactic meanings

of a sentence or types of sentences, for example, the difference between a

declarative and an interrogative.

O ti lo he/she/it has gone

O ti lo has he/she/it gone?

However, in the interrogative, the tones are at a slightly higher pitch than in

the declarative and this results from the dropping off of the interrogative

particle ‘se’ or ‘nje’.

Sé 6 ti lo? has he/she/it gone?

The difference between the declarative and interrogative of utterances such

as in the above example may also be signaled by a raising of the eyebrows

and may depend on who says it first, like if a person A was asking person B

about the whereabouts of a person C and asks ‘O ti 10?’, then it is a question,

but if person B answers with the same utterance or walks into a room to

announce the departure of person C, then it is a declarative. Alternatively,

if person B walks into the room and says the utterance, it may be a question.

It all depends on the height of the tones in the question. The tone that

TONES OF YORUBA LANGUAGE 31

differentiates between the statement and the question is the same but the tone

of the question is higher than that of the statement because of the dropping

of the interrogative particle ‘se’. The tone of the interrogative particle is

transferred to the first word in the question and this intensifies the tone and

signals that dropping of the interrogative particle has taken place and that the

sentence is a question.

Semantic Tones:

The third type of intonation involves semantic tones. Semantic tones are

tones that establish a different semantic reality for words that are spelt and

pronounced the same way, but which have different tones on them. These

semantic tones are Pike’s ‘significant contrastive pitches’. The Yoruba lan-

guage has four tone levels or tonemes.

falling \ do

mid or level - re

rising / mi

falling/rising Fe

Semantic tones are superimposed on rhythmic tones. All languages have

rhythmic tones, but not all languages have semantic tones. None of the four

tones in Yoruba has any inherent semantic realities, i.e. by themselves, they

do not mean anything. However, when applied to words in various combi-

nations, they change the meanings of the words. Thus we have

1gba ‘calabash or display of wares’

igba ‘eggplant-like fruit’

igba ‘time, era’

igba ‘200’

fo awO ‘wash the plate’

{6 awo ‘break the plate’

fo awd ‘wash the guinea fowl’

{6 awo ‘to betray’ (literally: break up a

secret society or cult by revealing

secrets or behaving in a manner

inappropriate to the members of the

society or cult).

There does not seem to be a restriction on the place in a word to which a

toneme is limited. Any of the four tones can occur in any syllable of a word.

32 ADETOKUNBO ADEKANMBI

The fourth toneme, the falling/rising toneme is a combination of any two or

all three of the preceeding tones. It’s occurrence seems to signal

a. that ellision or dropping of a consonant or vowel has taken place

égba from @gbawa _—“2,000’

egba ‘cane’

egba ‘bracelet’

egba ‘a member of the

Egba tribe’

orun from oorun ‘sun’

orun ‘ oorun ‘odor, smell’

orun if oorun ‘sleep’

b. The circumflex also appears at the boundary of two words, replacing any

of the first three tones that appear on the last syllable of the first word in

a boundary pair

baba ------------------ baba Bodse¢ ‘Bose’s father’

bata ------------------ bata baba ‘father’s shoes’

In the above example, the circumflex also signals a lengthening of the last

vowel in the first word in a boundary pair. It does not signal ellision in this

instance because the lengthened vowel or second vowel did not exist as part

of the word originally before it became part of the word originally before it

became part of the boundary pair.

Words whose meanings are differentiated by semantic tones seem to be

limited to groups of two to four words. That I have not found groups of five

words or more does not mean that they do not exist. Also, the differentiating

function of semantic tones seem to be largely limited to bi-syllabic words,

although I found only one instance of a tri-syllable word.

obi ‘female’

obi ‘kolanut’

obi ‘parents’

agbada ‘large flowing gown worn by men’

agbada ‘large platter’

Semantic tones are not to be confused with stress. In English, regardless of

the placement of the stress, the word jump, as a noun or as a verb, still

involves the same reality, i.e. the act of jumping. The Yoruba tones, however,

involve a complete change in the semantic realities of the word.

eré ‘play’

ere ‘statue’

eré ‘beans’

TONES OF YORUBA LANGUAGE 33

Ambiguities in Meanings.

Ambiguities in the meanings of words or sentences sometimes arise as a

result of the multiple meanings that tones bestow on words or sentences in

Yoruba. In Yoruba, semantic tones are a very significant element in the dif-

ferentiation between the different meanings of a word or utterance. However,

sometimes, this is not enough. In some cases, it is not the tonemes of the

language, but rather the context of the utterance that makes the meaningful

difference between the two meanings of an utterance, e.g.

Obinrin na l’éw

Obinrin na Pew

the woman has beauty

a the woman has beans.

Translations From Other Languages.

The Yoruba language was first reduced to writing by church missionaries

from England and America. Consequently, the first written records of the

language were translations of the bible and various hymn books. When trans-

lations of the hymn books were being made from English to Yoruba, the

importance of the tones of Yoruba in meaning was not ignored. However,

some tones sometimes ended up being substituted for others in the translators’

attempt to fit the Yoruba words into the tunes of the English songs. An

example of this substitution of tones is seen in the song ‘O weary heart’,

translated into Yoruba with the following tones:

Okan are ile kan mbé

heart weary home one 1s

spoken, the tones should be

okan are ilé kan mbé

If one were to use the tones of the translated song in speech, it would yield

Okan are ilé kan mbé

? commander hardness meet jumping!

The gloss is as follows:

okan ‘heart’ are ‘weariness’

Okan ‘one’ are ‘commander of

Okan 2 armed forces’

ilé ‘home’ kan ‘one’

ile ‘hardness’ kan ‘meet’

mbeé ‘is/exists’

mbé ‘jumping’

34 ADETOKUNBO ADEKANMBI

In the refrain to the song, we have:

Duro, roju duro ma Se kun

wait, meekly wait do not murmur

Duro, roju duro ma S kun

wait, meekly wait do not (be) full!

Duro, duro, sa roju duro ma Se kun

wait, wait, hack meekly wait do not (be) full!

(just)

The gloss is as follows:

kun ‘murmur’ Sa ‘just’

kun ‘full’ SA ‘hack’ (with axe)

In lines two and three of the refrain, we have wrong meanings instead of

meanings similar to the one we get in line one. Regardless of the abberant

meanings the tunes bestow on the words in the song, the message of the song

still gets through. This is so because the aberrant meanings of the tones on

the translated tunes make no sense to the Yoruba singer, thus they are ignored

or do not come into play. Secondly, the tones of the english tune would never

be used in speech or when a Yoruba speaker is translating the song for non-

english speakers or when she is reading the song for non-readers to sing, so

the aberrant meanings do not come into play.

Finally, the rhythmic and semantic tone patterns of the Yoruba language

may be transferred from a vocal medium to a non-vocal medium, e.g. the

talking drums. This phenomena of the talking drums is a valid mode of com-

munication among people who speak the same dialect.

Bibliography

Bamgbose, Ayo. 1965. Yoruba Orthography. Ibadan University Press.

Bolinger, Dwight. 1964. Around the Edge of Language: Intonation. in Intonation.

Selected Readings. ed. Dwight Bolinger. Penguin Books.

Jeffreys, M. D. W. 1945. Some Historical Notes on African Tone Languages. Re-

printed from African Studies, Sept. 1945.

Lasebikan, E. L. 1962. Learning Yoruba. Oxford University Press, London.

Pike, Kenneth L. 1945. Tone Languages. Summer Institutes of Linguistics, Glen-

dale, CA.

Ward, Ida C. An Introduction to the Yoruba Language. W. Heffer & Sons Ltd.

Cambridge.

Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences,

Volume 79, Number 1, Pages 35-45, March 1989

The Processes in the Formation of

a Lexicon.

Bafut: A Study

Ambe Suh Achuo

Linguistics Department Georgetown University

Introduction

Bafut is a Kingdom in the Republic of Cameroon. Its language (bdfd:)' is

still oral and has been classified by the Grassfields Bantu Working Group as

belonging to the Ngemba sub-group of the MBAM NKAM, a sub-division of

the Grassfields Bantu Language family (see Stallcup 1980*, Leroy 1977°). The

processes of lexical formation in this language is examined here in three parts.

PART 1: Illustrates a general phenomenon operating in most Grassfields

Bantu languages. The processes involved are the use of either a phonemic

glottal stop (’)*, the relative duration of sound or length on vowels (:), the

use of lexical tones (‘high, low, mid) or a combination of either of these to

expand the lexicon by providing semantic differentiation on words which are

otherwise segmentally identical.

PART 2: Deals with the derivation of words from other word classes by

the use of affixes.

PART 3: Treats the compounding of words in and outside different word

classes to give meanings other than the ones carried by the original com-

pounding words.

Part 1.

Both the glottal stop, length and tones can be used (though not all of these

apply on all cases) on a morphological word to give several meanings. In the

following examples, the neutral or mid tone is unmarked. The words with

AMBE SUH ACHUO

asterisks are homonyms.

BAFUT GLOSS BAFUT GLOSS

aba scar ala: the smithy

aba: flour ala’a country

aba: bag ala’a a wound

*aba’a door alu: foams

*aba’a a half alu’u a punch

abo hand ati a tree

abo: a hunt party ati: waist

abo: weavels atu head

abi: profit atu: refused

abil luggage aye’ée a broom

abé sore throat aye’é a type of fruit

*abeé: a housing plot aya mine

*abeé: fault finding aya why

abé: outside aya: a path

abe’e shoulder ayo yours

abu wood ash ayo: something

abu: ridge ayo’o a place for basking

abu: ribs *ayl his/hers

abu’u slave *ayl knowledge

aki a wooden bowl *ayl'l ours

aki: a trench *ayi'l a hurdle

ak’ a stool

Part 2

Word Derivation

Although the corresponding verbs may not always be found anymore, it

seems the basic word class in Bafut is the verb, from which the rest of the

classes are derived, either directly or indirectly, by the use of a number of

affixes.

The data presented here illustrates the use of affixes such as: N_, Ni-,

mi-, a-, l-, ta-, ma-, -no, -ka, -sa, -to, -9, -si and -ti for lexical derivation.

2.1 Noun Derivation

The affixes used for noun derivation are dependent on the root of the noun

class membership. The examples in this paper are grouped according to their

derivational affixes.

THE PROCESSES IN THE FORMATION OF A LEXICON 37

2.1.1 The Derivational Prefix | N-/

Prenasalization is a frequent derivational device found principally with noun

classes 9, 10, and to a lesser extent with classes 1 and 3. There are four semantic

relationships associated with this derivation - actor, object, abstract and par-

ticipial. These are illustrated as follows:

VERB GLOSS NOUN GLOSS S.RELATION

fwi: thatch m-fwi: thatcher actor

swye peck n-swye pecking part

fa’o blow m-fa’o a cold object

ki’ slice N-kvi operation abstr.

kweti help N_kweti helper actor

li poison n-li’i poison object

2.1.2 The Derivational Prefix /ni-/

The derivational prefix ni- is the prefix for noun class 5. It derives nouns

from verbs as in the following:

VERB GLOSS NOUN GLOSS

gha: speak ni-gha speech

Zi come ni-Zi journey

gho: beat ni-gho: sickness

dori play ni-dori a play

we laugh ni-we laughter

2.1.3 The Derivational Prefix /mi/

The derivational prefix mi- is the prefix for noun class 6. It derives nouns

from verbs as in the following:

ji eat mi-ji food

tu spit mi-twe saliva

tu: pay mi-tu-ni payment

ic: urinate mi-je: urine

2.1.4 The Derivational Prefix /a-/

The derivational prefix a- is the prefix for noun class 7. It derives nouns

from verbs as in the following:

kwe’e cough a-kwe’e a cough

bri carry a-bi1 luggage

fani miss a-fani abomination

to’o support a-to’o pillar

diiti advise a-di’ti advice

38 AMBE SUH ACHUO

2.1.5 The Derivational Prefix /1-/

The derivational prefix i- is the prefix for noun classes 3 and 8. It derives

nouns from verbs as in the following:

VERB GLOSS NOUN GLOSS

fa’a work 1-fa’a work

ywi breathe 1-ywi souls

ko’o climb i-ko’o ladder

Iwi isi end 1-lwiisi the end

sa’a judge I-sa’a a case

2.1.6 The Derivational Morphemes /ta-/ and /ma-/

The morphemes ta- and ma- can both be used as prefixes and pre-prefixes

to derive nouns. They have a masculine/feminine contrast and do not feature

as noun class prefixes as the ones examined above. The semantic relationship

found in these morphemes are those of actor and actress respectively. Ex-

amples of their occurrence are found in the following:

VERB GLOSS NOUN NOUN GLOSS

fi remove m-f11 ta-m-fi’1 remover

fa’a work a-fa’a ta-a-fa’a employer

ji eat mi-ji ma-mi-ji a glutton

gha: speak ni-gha: ma-ni-gha: orator

dori play ni-dori ma-ni-dori player

2.2 Verb Derivation

Instances of verbs which are derived from other word classes have not been

noticed. There are, however, derivations found from intransitive to transitive

and from transitive to intransitive verbs. Both these derivations involve the

use of suffixes.

2.2.1 Changing Transitive Verbs to Intransitive Ones

The verb suffixes -no and -ka when used can convert transitive sentences

into intransitive ones. The agent of the sentence is often deleted while the

object of the transitive sentence becomes the subject of the intransitive verb.

Examples 7a and 8a below are transitive while 7b and 8b are intransitive.

Ta ma Na’a mo aba’a

I open — pl door

‘““T have opened the door.

7b aba’a ya Na’a-no

door the open

“The door has opened.”

THE PROCESSES IN THE FORMATION OF A LEXICON 39

8a ma fe; njo: ja

I untie things my

“T have untied my things.”

8b njo: ja feN-koa

things my loose

‘““My things got loose.”

2.2.2 Changing Intransitive Verbs to Transitive Ones

The verb suffixes -so and -ta when added to intransitive verbs convert them

to transitive ones. Examples 9a and 10a are intransitive while 9b and 10b are

transitive.

9a mu noN (nibi:)

baby suck breast

“The baby sucked (the breast).”’

9b ndi li noN-sa mu

mother p2 suckle baby

‘Mother suckled the baby.‘

10a a is: manji

he stand road

“He is standing on the road.”

10b a ta:te mikori me

he stand feet my

“He trampled on my feet.”’

2.2.3 Deriving a Verb From Another Verb

The suffix -no which bears the semantic relationship of excessiveness can

derive a verb from another verb.

lla a yuu anu

he hear something

‘He heard something.”’

lib a yu’u-no ta: yl

he obey father his

‘He obeys his father.”

12a a ke’e nibu’u

he untie bundle

He untied a ‘“‘bundle.”’

40 AMBE SUH ACHUO

12b a ke’e-no wumbo

he inform him

‘‘He informed him of. . .”’

2.3 Derivation of Adjectives

Most adjectives in Bafut are derived from verbs through a process of affix-

ation. Some of them are homophonic with the verb while others are simply

verb roots.

2.3.1 Adjectives as Verb Roots

Despite the assertion in 2.2, the possibility is that the verbs below whose

roots are adjectives might have actually been derived from adjectives through

affixation.

13. VERB GLOSS ADJ. GLOSS

baN-o be red baN red

fu’u-si whiten fuw’u white

fwe-ti be cool fwe cold

fo’o-ni be blind fo’o blind

faN-a be fat faN fat

2.3.2 Verbs Used as Adjectives

Some adjectives are homophoneous with their verbal counterparts, that 1s,

they have the same spellings and the same pronunciation with the verbs from

which they are derived.

14. ya:ri select ya:ri selected

bo:ni be gentle bo:ni gentle

jeNni be sorry jeNni SOITY

saNni be happy saNni happy

mi’.i abandon mii abandoned

2.3.3 Adjectives Derived Through Affixation

A few of the adjectives are derived from verbs through a process of affix-

ation.

2.3.3.1 Adjectives Derived Through Prefixation

15 VERBS GLOSS ADJ. GLOSS

kwEti help N-kwEti adjunct

tswisi make seated ti-tswi-wu absent

bi:ti abide m-bi:ti abiding

THE PROCESSES IN THE FORMATION OF A LEXICON 41

2.3.3.2 Adjectives Derived Through Suffixation

16 twEo twist

bri popped

sa’a tear

gori bend

waki-si shake loose

2.3.4 Reduplicated Adjectives

twEo-ki

bi’i-ki

sa’a-k1

gori-ki

waki-ki

twisted

exploded

torn

arched

loose

Some adjectives are derived from verbs through a process of reduplication.

When the reduplicated word is an adjective, the first part functions as an

intensifier.

2.3.4.1 Reduplicated Verbs

burnt

laughing stock

17 khi burn khikhi

WE laugh wEwE

Nki (noun) water NkiNki

yao cry ya yo

ji eat yi

2.3.4.2 Reduplicated Adjectives

18 ADJ GLOSS ADJ

fi: black ident

baN red baNbaN

fu’u white fu’ufu’u

sa’a long sa’asa’a

li: sweet lish:

watery

sobbing child

gluttonous

GLOSS

very black

very red

very white

very long

very sweet

Alternatively, an intensifying suffix /-mo:/ could be used to produce the same

meanings as the intensified adjectives above. Thus, we have baN-ma: “very

red’’, fu’u-ma: ‘“‘very white’, etc.

2.4 Derivation of Adverbs

A number of adverbs are formed by a process of pronoun and adjective

reduplication while a few may be identified as derivations from verbs.

2.4.1 Reduplication

19 PRONOUN

GLOSS

him/her

you

them

ADVERB GLOSS

moma alone (1)

yuyu alone (she/he)

wowo alone (you)

bobo alone (they)

AMBE SUH ACHUO

ADJ GLOSS ADVERB GLOSS

S17 much SVISI1 too much

la like lala like that

IE:ti foolish JE: tHE: ti foolishly

mba’a cloudy mba’amba’a early

ta’aki stagger ta’akita’aki staggerly

2.4.2 Derivation of Adverbs From Verbs

Part 3

VERBS GLOSS ADV GLOSS

bu’usi wake bu’wni aback

WI inl be awake Wi 1 ki aback

kirl look kirl awake

biri be ablaze biri ablaze

kwusi add kwusi again

3 Compound Morphology

Some compounding has already been seen in 2.3.4 and 2.4 above in relation

to the derivation of adjectives and adverbs. Most of the compounding words,

however, are from noun and noun related classes.

3.1 Noun and Noun Compounds

The most common type of compound is the combination of two nouns.

Typically, a prefix which means ‘the people of’, combines with the name of

a place.

22 ba + awum — Bawum ba + niko: — Baniko:

ba + nji: — Banji: ba + akosia — Bakosia

ma + nka’a ~ Manka’a ma + nji: ~ Manji:

ma + nka: — Manka: ma + nkwi — Mankwi

a3 Some compounds are identified because the second noun modifies the

first one.

mbi + ndoN — mbi ndoN nte’e + nda — nte’e nda

goat horn ‘goat’ pillar house ‘pillar’

nda + nwi — nda nwi atu + nda — atu nda

house God ‘church’ head house ‘roof’

Some compounds are formed by reference to a location and then the

name of the location itself.

THE PROCESSES IN THE FORMATION OF A LEXICON 43

24 ntsu + Nki— ntsu Nki atu + Nki — atu Nki

mouth water ‘river bank’ head water ‘up stream’

ni + abE: => nti abE: atu + abE: — atu abE:

compound ‘lower compound’ head compound ‘upper compound’

Many compound words are found with the word mu “‘child’’, which

may be added to almost every noun (with the exception of abstracts).

It has a diminutive function. The word mu always precedes the other

noun, although it is the modifying element.

25 mu + maNgyE— mu maNgyE mu + ati— mu ati

child woman “girl” child tree “seedling”

mu + mbaNni— mu mbaNni mu + Ngo’o ~ mu Ngo’o

child man “boy” child stone small stone

mu + swEyakori ~ mu swEakori

child foot “LOG;

The opposite of the diminutive, that is, the augmentative, also occurs.

It is formed by compounding nouns with the word ma “‘mother.”’

26 ma + mbi— ma mbi ma + kwiyam — makwiyam

mother goat “‘nanny”’ mother pig “sow”

Ma + kau — makau ma + Ngu— ma Ngu

mother cow “cow” mother hen “hen”

3.2 Verb and Noun Compounds

Another, but less common, type of compound is composed of a verb and

a noun.

Za swi: + mbo: — swi mbo:

suck egg “egg-eating snake”

leat Nida {Ee ned

urinate house ‘a bed-wetting child”’

(nea — njinda

eat house “successor”

bwuti + ati— bwuti ati

peck tree— ‘“wood-pecker”’

3.3 Compound Pronouns

Compound pronouns in Bafut are mostly dual and plural, formed by com-

pounding two simple free pronouns.

44 AMBE SUH ACHUO

28 bri + ni— brini

we you-pl we-inclusive

bri + yu - sg —> briyu

we he we-exclusive

bu + bo > bubo

you-pl they you-pl-exclusive

bu + yu buyu

you-pl he-sg you-pl-exclusive

It should be noted that the exclusive pronouns either exclude the speaker or

the listener.

3.4 Compound Possessive Pronouns

The possessive pronoun in Bafut has a well developed compounding system

which reflects the noun class membership of the nouns they represent. It is

possible, for example, to compound the Ist and 2nd persons, the 1st and 3rd

persons, the 2nd and 3rd persons and the 3rd and 3rd persons, all of these

showing a singular/plural dichotomy.

Because the possessive has to reflect the noun class of the object involved,

the initial consonant of the possessive identifies the noun class membership

(of the head noun), while the remaining fragment identifies the person/number

distinctions of the pronoun (although the free pronoun form cannot always

be recognized).

—_ jp

mine + yours = ours mine + yours mine + his mine + theirs

exclusive of others = ours = ours =: ours

inclusive exclusive exclusive of

of the the listener

listener

THE PROCESSES IN THE FORMATION OF A LEXICON 45

yours + his yours + theirs his + his his + theirs

= yours = yours = theirs = theirs

exclusive of exclusive of exclusive exclusive of

the speaker the speaker of the the speaker/

speaker/ listener

listener

It is worth noting that quite a number of the affixes seen in this paper can be

used on the same stem to derive various meanings. This is evident in the

following examples.

bin “dance!” ji “eat!”

m-bin-a “dancing” m-jl “eating”

a-bin “a dance”

mi-ji “food (sing.)

ka: vbe tired ni-ji ‘food (pl.)

N-ka: “tiring” a-ji “something to eat for

ni-KE4: “tiredness” Hee.”

This paper has attempted to document the various processes involved in the

formation of a Bafut lexicon. It cannot be claimed that the processes have

been adequately described. It is however believed that, since this is an initial

work on this topic in Bafut, ground work has been laid on which further and

more detail research can be carried out.

Notes

1. The Bafut people call themselves bofa: and their language bofa: as well. Bafut is an anglicised form of

bofa:.

2. Stallcup, Kenneth. 1980. La Geographie Linguistique des Grassfields. in L7EXPANSION BANTOUE,

S.E.L.A.F, Paris, pp. 43-57.

3. Leroy, Jacqueline, 1977. Morphologie et Classes Nominales en Mankon, S.E.L.A.F., Paris pp. 61-62.

4. In this paper examples are given in the currently used orthography for Cameroon languages. There are

the following deviations from the IPA system:

Ct Saad [x] —— gh

[yt]: => ‘ny il ¥

[s] —— sh [e]—- E

iy on i! bay

ree chang

‘boot’

Avail aang 8h

Py Ui

Mea

ies el hy

3 a a uevow

wenheny’

brit) }

2 en 1 ie yratean 9 %

Ae DATE it Age vt rll

DELEGATES TO THE WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES,

REPRESENTING THE LOCAL AFFILIATED SOCIETIES

MIMI HENOCIENV EOL VV ASIA GCOM GZ acres ols Noes lene Sayecn sietoiaie saint Sas Rvs bee! Goaray a aeiaie wile Sela RM Vacant

RM e Al SGCICCY OleVVASMINPTOM: 6. cs. he a be oie Se mms ears en's len ke ewieiew es & Vacant

PESEESMEICEY OL NV ASMINGTONG ro. on) stevie ok tres a ede ee tie Oeale ieee as ees Austin B. Williams

SC MENIICIC EVOL WV ASIN TOM ye 2 16 gis eje 3 ofa: Wists clade d)s Ucimie vausee o Ua Bie eo, Bt Ia Jo-Anne A. Jackson

SIME AE SOCICLY (OF, WaASKINPLOM 4 255 eich sa). ee Sak soy Sands lobe pew cece ane Gace Vacant

MINE EAT EE AENRIC GOCE E YS Fs ey theirs Sc eve) ie eke MeO ial oof ote Papen ee yoo « cere nee niurave oe SWIC aie g Vacant

ERE PSCC LY OL WNASHINGTOM crc iia edn Sie od elec Sicttisie seis isl ala we bivttve e pyes@hetiderdn eaiteee « Vacant

ne eray OL tHe DISITICL OF COMMMDIAG 5 5 fic Pele onic bw oe ch oe ole isles ses vin eda v eraied wns owe Vacant

SEEMED STREET SOCIG UV tote ne arora Oe Te ete tec Ech eN ob Ooeue go mL Spl wpb cimie oe oe Samael ee Vacant

SE SMCICTVEOL, VV AS MIN OCOM cities < Somer tys Se cis ew leon atohcee no 08 Mager oe elles we eiraleraias Gere» Vacant

meen on American Foresters, Washington Section ..................25-s2000% Forrest Fenstermaker

SP NEMMENOCIE WY Ol ENOINECIS 2 15 cits 0s) 2 a2 ele aos Ge Gale + rds Shs + Aladisleg sas Sieye ese George Abraham

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Washington Section................ George Abraham

American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Washington Section.....................00-. Michael Chi

PEMA IC Alc SOGCICLY Of WaSMIN STON: . oc... cia os ass iste s Sos ss Soe iel tye wee seberedoiet a Kendall Powers

eemenecan socicty for Microbiology, Washington Branch..............2..2.0.0be ees eee ete Vacant

Society of American Military Engineers, Washington Post...................... Charles A. Burroughs

American Society of Civil Engineers, National Capital Section................... Herbert A. Pennock

maciery tor Experimental Biology and Medicine, DC Section :.................... Cyrus R. Creveling

eeeeanesociccy tor Metals, Washington Chapter ...........2 2. 25.00.62 3c ck eee ete cones ee Vacant

American Association of Dental Research, Washington Section..................... J. Terrell Hoffeld

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Capital Section....... Reginald C. Smith

eaeeernvicrcorolopical Society, DC Chapter ... ...... 5... e ee ee ee ee ee eee A. James Wagner

PP IMEBOCIE AOI VV ASIN OTON \c ei. Roe dele k ole. 4 suede Soe a a «eee eee Albert B. DeMilo

Memesicay society Of America, Washington Chapter...............2..c0e cece e eee Richard K. Cook

Per mneicar SOCicty, Washington SECON... 05.2.2... cee ees eee eee bette eee ceees Paul Theiss

eer ood Technologists, Washington Section ...)/.........5.. 2 eee ee ede ee Vacant

famencan Ceramic Society, Baltimore-Washington Section................2--2 nee ese ce eee Vacant

0) PET ERAE | SOCTSG ES eis meses clots eer iy Rac en ade ea Er eRe Ponenren gee eae Vacant

SP eTHMELUSIOny OL SClence) CIID! o:s.1s 6 seis Soe glee cae Sowers aie adits Os wa sie eae 3 Albert Gluckman

American Association of Physics Teachers, Chesapeake Section ..................... Peggy A. Dixon

muaneal society of America, National Capital Section...................00.200008- William R. Graver

American Society of Plant Physiologists, Washington Area Section.................00ee eee eee Vacant

Washington Operations Research/Management Science Council ...................... John G. Honig

mmMediesocicty of America. Washington Section... 2... =.....20%- 32s 2 0 sn ec ed ede w ese dees Vacant

American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, Washington Section ..... Vacant

SPM MEO ARIE AIVANSITONOMENS co 9. fee aes wis oli ow hls cae dans we eeecese Robert H. McCracken

Mathematics Association of America, MD-DC-VA Section....................0005 Alfred B. Willcox

IIS PATER REG HE TINISIS) sete tue ge RE ony fro, Sic ios eas eva eed Su ds eee wie Moca ee Vacant

EP MGNCT OI ALE ASSOCIAGION) 3 aiec es eles yepsinie sch. esie' ss ed w 4 ee Edad alate bv eein es wlela'etore Beas Jane Flinn

SEN AEE art PCCUMICAl ATOUP) 1) 4.5 42 Ne see cis fh diate a oon gh nine Sse WE see ewe ame Robert F. Brady

mene Ehyiopatnological Society, Potomac Division.............2.---s0.cseeee ewer ee ects Vacant

Society for General Systems Research, Metropolitan Washington Chapter .... Ronald W. Manderscheid

Human Factors Society, Potomac EAPC Tee yes oie te ep eon tess Cae bier tease eeataretes cee Stanley Deutsch

Pemesesthistictics) Socicty., Potomac Chapter 6. 2... sc. ce ee ceed ew tins oSnibn Se emis Seen Vacant

Beeeittontorscience, Lechuolopy and Innovation.....:......:..-...000-00es ere eeee Ralph I. Cole

Remo eM eGIC AU SOCICIN Ae hs COM iie te cl ow cele big as been nee es Ronald W. Manderscheid

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Northern Virginia Section............. Ralph I. Cole

Association for Computing Machinery, Washington Chapter..................00 ec ee eee eeee Vacant

Be Ones EC IES LE SEIG AL PSTN) a ee elo G4 in sic ar oheya cs + + Re Gin ve Shweta oS Carl Pierchala

Delegates continue in office until new selections are made by the representative societies.