Does Hausa really have infixation?

• Authors: Al-Hassan Bello S.Y.
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Hausa is often indicated with the three most common types of affix, viz. prefix, infix and suffix. Whereas the availableness of prefixes and suffixes in the language is not in doubt, that of infixes may have resulted from erroneous perspectives. The so-called infixes in Hausa are, in truth, a relay of suffixes that became obscured by phonology or deletion, envisaged parallactically as infixation. In two other instances, infixation either arose as a simple case of unscrupulous use of terminology or was established on a seemingly irrelevant premise, namely the non-occurrence of a tonal phenomenon. Conclusively, the existence of infixation in Hausa is extraevidential, and therefore questionable.

Keywords

EN

Hausa; infixation

• Publisher: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
• Journal: Studies in African Languages and Cultures
• Year: 2011
• Issue: 45
• Pages: 7-21

Dates

published

2011-12-10

Contributors

author

Al-Hassan Bello S.Y.

• Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

References

• Abubakar A., 2000, An Introductory Hausa Morphpology, Maiduguri: Department of Languages and Linguistics, University of Maiduguri Desktop Publishing.
• Al-Hassan, B. S. Y., 1983, Intensivization: A Study of the Pho-nology and Semantics of a Category of Hausa Reduplicants, M. A. dissertation, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
• Id., 1988, Reduplication in the Chadic Languages: a Study of Form and Function, ( European University Studies; Series 21: Lin-guistics 191), Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang.
• Id., forthcoming “Transfixation in Hausa.”
• Bargery, G. P., 1993, A Hausa-English Dictionary and Eng-lish-Hausa Vocabulary, Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press.
• Crystal, D., 1987, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of language, Cambridge: Cambridge University.
• Id., 1991, A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Haspelmath, M., 2002, Understanding Morphology, London: Hodder Education.
• Jungraithmayr, H., 1970, “On Root Augmentation in Hausa” Journal of African Languages 9, 83-88.
• Leben, W., 1976, “Doubling and Reduplication in Hausa Plu-rals”, in: A. Juilland (ed.), Linguistic Studies Offered to Joseph Greenberg on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday, Saratoga: Anna Libri.
• Id., 1977, “Parsing Hausa Plurals”, in: Paul Newman and Roxana Ma Newman (eds.), Papers in Chadic Linguistics, Leiden: Afrika-Studiecentrum, 89-105.
• Marantz, A., 1982, “Re Reduplication”, Linguistic Inquiry 13, 435-482.
• Matthews, P. H., 1974, Morphology: An Introduction to the Theory of Word-Structure, London: Cambridge University Press.
• Id., 1997, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Newman, P., 1972, “Syllable Weight as a Phonological Varia-ble”, Studies in African Linguistics 3, 379-97.
• Id., 1990, “Nominal and Verbal Plurality in Chadic”, (Publica-tions in African Languages 12), Dordrecht: Foris Publications.
• Id., 2000, The Hausa Language: An Encyclopedic Reference Grammar. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Sapir, E., 1970, Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech, London: Hart-Davis.
• Schuh, R. G., 1972, “Rule Inversion in Chadic”, Studies in Af-rican Linguistics 3, 379-97.
• Id., 1983, HA 302: Ilimin Harsuna, Mimeo, Department of Nigerian and African Languages, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
• Trask, R. L., 1996, A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology, London: Routledge.
• Wolff, E., 1993, Referenzgrammatik des Hausa: zur Begleitung des Fremdensprachenunterrichts und zur Einfuhrung in das Selbststudium. Hamburg: LIT.
• Zarruk, R. M., 1996, Aikatau a Nahawun Hausa, Zaria: Institute of Education Press, Ahmadu Bello University.