Socio-linguistic Borrowing in Etunọ in Akoko-Edo, Nigeria
Oluwafemi Emmanuel Bamigbade
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2023
Pages:
47-53
Received:
26 May 2022
Accepted:
16 June 2022
Published:
5 August 2023
Abstract: Etuno is a dialect of Ebira located in Igara the headquarters of Akoko-edo local government area of Edo state. Etuno by migration found itself in a linguistic enclave surrounded by a dominant regional language; Yoruba, and other Akokoid languages such as Okpameri, Somorika, Uneme, Ososo, Ẹtunọ, Ikpeshi, Okpe, Akan, Enwa among others. The contact situation of Etuno and these other minority languages and dialects in the continuum, also with English and the official language and Naija (Nigeria Pidgin) as a form of regional lingual franca, accounts for the a hybridization of lexical items in Etuno. Against this background, this research therefore aims at examining the contact situation of Ẹtunọ, a dialect of Ebira language spoken in Ìgarà, Akoko-Edo local government area of Edo state Nigeria. The main objective of the work is to identify the extent of linguistic and socio-cultural borrowing from other dialects and languages within the linguistic enclave. Lexical and sentential data were elicited from selected natives of Ìgarà dominantly in a relaxed context. The researcher engaged in a participant observation to record the data conversation. The recorded data were transcribed and descriptively analysed. The study showed that there is heavy loan-words found in Ẹtunọ from English, Naija (Nigeria Pidgin) and Yoruba. This reveals a pattern of code-mixing and code-switching in the conversation of the natives. The study also showed that socio-cultural items are also borrowed which is a reflection of the socio-linguistic hybridisation among the natives in the mixed community they found themselves.
Abstract: Etuno is a dialect of Ebira located in Igara the headquarters of Akoko-edo local government area of Edo state. Etuno by migration found itself in a linguistic enclave surrounded by a dominant regional language; Yoruba, and other Akokoid languages such as Okpameri, Somorika, Uneme, Ososo, Ẹtunọ, Ikpeshi, Okpe, Akan, Enwa among others. The contact si...
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The Common Features of Transitivity Systems in English and Myanmar
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2023
Pages:
54-75
Received:
7 August 2023
Accepted:
21 August 2023
Published:
31 August 2023
Abstract: In transitivity studies, the current existing problem of adopting different upward approaches to the description of the experiential metafunction has resulted in the abortive discourse analysis of texts. This study, therefore, attempts to observe the common features of English and Myanmar transitivity systems from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). It is found that: English and Myanmar transitivity systems share five common features: richness, hierarchicalness, flexibleness, metaphoricalness, and abstractness. With respect to the feature of richness, the two transitivity systems can construe the experience of the physical, social, mental and abstract world by a variety of different process types and participant roles. In terms of the feature of hierarchicalness, all the different processes of the two languages are categorized into superordinate, basic and subordinate level processes. With respect to the feature of flexibleness, in English and Myanmar transitivity configurations, process types can change from one type to another depending on context, background knowledge, life experience, etc. even though they construe the same domain of world experience. With respect to the feature of metaphoricalness, when the congruent form is reworded into metaphorical form, the process, participant roles and circumstances may change in English and Myanmar transitivity configurations. Regarding the feature of abstractness, each level of process differs from one another in terms of the degree of abstractness, that is, English and Myanmar transitivity systems are relatively similar in the identification of superordinate and basic level processes, whereas their transitivity configurations which are subordinate to basic level processes vary greatly between the two languages. This study helps to deepen the understanding of the nature of the two languages. It also makes an important contribution to the further study of comparing the transitivity configurations of transitivity systems in English and Myanmar and their realizations.
Abstract: In transitivity studies, the current existing problem of adopting different upward approaches to the description of the experiential metafunction has resulted in the abortive discourse analysis of texts. This study, therefore, attempts to observe the common features of English and Myanmar transitivity systems from the perspective of Systemic Functi...
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