Abstract

This work sets outs to examine negation in Aghem. The aim is to discuss the phenomenon of negation in the language, the various means to express it, the syntactic distribution of negation markers and the various changes that the negation marker may cause on the morphological and syntactic structures of sentences.

Research in this work was carried out using primary and secondary data: Primary data are data collected from the field with the help of a language consultant. Two languages were used during the process: The English language being the intermediate language and Aghem the main language in concern. Secondary data was obtained from books that the researcher came across, information from the internet and dictionaries.

This work found out that there are two negation morpheme in the language [yɔ́] and [kà] which alternate depending on tense. The [yɔ́] is used for the present and future tense while the [kà] is used for the past tense. This brings out contrast between other languages with many negation markers.

CHAPTER ONE

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1.1 General introduction

This work is aimed at accounting fornegation in Aghem. The language spoken in a particular community is viewed as the reflection of the cultural identity of that community. In chapter one, we will handle the introduction of the work and it will contain the various topics: geographical classification, historical background, economic life of the people, socio-linguistic classification, methodology, literature review, scope of the work, expected results and conclusion.

1.2 Geographical location

Wum, where the main Aghem dialect is spoken, is the administrative and economic center of Menchum division found in the North West Region of Cameroon. It lies on a plateau at an elevation of about 1,100m near the edge of the western highline of Cameroon.

It is 80km (50mi) north of the regional capital Bamenda (by road). It lies near LakeWum, one of the five small crater lakes within 15km of the town in the hilly, volcanic landscape. Lake Nyos, a crater lake from which a limbic eruption killed nearly 2,000 people in 1986, is 25km to the east.(Kebei,2007:25).

SIL (1982) in Grimes (1992:176) evaluates the population to be 14,000. Aghem shares boundaries with Bu, Weh, Befang, Mudele, Esimbi, Kuk, Kumfut and Fundong

1.3 Economic life

The Aghem people are mostly subsistence farmers, growing plantain, maize, groundnuts, bananas, sugar cane and beans for their own consumption with very little that they can use to trade for other commodities. A large number of them move to town and cities to try to gain a better standard of living.

Apart from farming, they also carryout activities like raring lives stock, goat, chicken and normal hunting. Aghem plays an important part in regional food trade connecting with the seaport of Douala in the south with Fulani and Hausa traders in the north.

1.4 Historical background

Oral tradition (literature) and Aghemethno genesis from Kopytoff (1975:371) holds that the people from Aghem-Wum are said to have left the Congo basin due to land dispute andclass distinctionatthe place that bore the name Si-nndong.

They are said to have settled among the Mundani people at Bauchi plateau wheretheir continuous power mongering attitude caused a division amongst them. A division brought about by a war after the death of one of their chiefs occurred. Being unable to replace the next ruler provokedgenocide with a section of the Mundani tribe, the people who escape upland wereknown as “Bafum” meaning “brothers gone upland”.

The lossagain of another chiefbrought about the struggle to seat another chief which caused another division. The groups were now divided into three, some settled in Bazi, others in Bambe near Balin in the Akwaya subdivision and the third movedNorth West ward.

The third party moved throughOkoromonjang-Mukuru-Befang and settled in the Njooh region, where they met Kengoho who paidtribute to the UkpwaEmpire. That was a land that was believed to have been full of milk and honey and no insect bites. Being jealousof this empire, they wagedanothergenocide in the surrounding village to occupy the present site Wum.

The name of this site was a German renditionof the Kom pronunciation of “Aghem”. The Germans on their way to Aghem, were astonished to see a woman carrying so much load on her head and a child on her back while the man moved with his walking stick majestically behind the woman. Theythen exclaimed “Wum”, which means “women under men”. The alternate names for Aghem are Wum and Yum and the antonym is Aghim.(Kopytoff,1975:371).

1.5 Sociolinguistic situation

According to (Gray 2018), Aghem has a population of 26,700 increasing.It has the language code ISO 639-3. Aghem has a little language variation reportedly similar to Weh with minimal regional differences in speech.

According to Thormoset (2007) Pidgin English is used as second language by Aghem, Wey and Esu speakers. The Aghem language is mostly used in gatherings like meeting groups or house, market places and ceremonial grounds. It is taught in   primary, secondary and even high schools. The language has been used to translate the bible. Pidgin English is used for communication to those who can neither speak nor understand the language.

1.6 Linguistic classification

Aghem, the language under study, can be divided as follows:

The phylum it belongs to is Niger Kordofania with the Niger-Congo sub phylum, the Benue-Congo family, the Bantoid sub family, the Bantu branch, the grass field west sub branch, the ring group under zone language [810].

According to, (Fennig 2018) and (Dieuetal.1983:69). Aghem and its “dialects”are spokenovera wide area of the Menchum division in the following communities: Wum, Zoa, Kumfutu, Kung, Kuk, Chaz and Nyos. To this, ALCAM adds the villages of Weh, Esu and Fungom.

1.7 Methodology

The present work made use of two kinds of data collection methods:The primary and the secondary. Primary data methodology collects materials from the language. The data was collected by interviewing native speakers of the language and was done with the use of a pen, pencil, and notebook. This was done through the bilingual approach with English being the intermediate language of communication. Affirmative sentences with their negative form where collected and transcribed, simple process words that collocated with pronouns, verbs and nouns in isolation where collected then tense in their various perspectives.

The data was collected from informants’age 55 years and 23 years, both native speakers of the language who had lived in the village for a very long period of time and spoke the language fluently. The secondary data on the otherhand was obtained from many books that the author came across, information from internet, Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and dictionaries.

1.8 Scope of the work

The prime concern of this research is to examine negation in Aghem. In doing so, we are going to search for all the morphemes that are used to express negation in the language. We will furthermore examine how these morphemes operate before looking at the effectof negation in aspects such as sentence(interrogative, active, passive, and declarative) and tense. By implication, this sentential level will be our unit operation.

1.9 Literature review

Linguistically and literature wise, much has not been done on the Aghem language. In 1979, a phonological, morphological and grammatical sketch of Aghem entitled “Aghem Grammatical Structures” was published in the Southern California’s Occasional Paper in Linguistic (SCOPIL), a journal edited by Larry Hyman.

It is divided into three parts, the first part written by Larry Hyman, the second by StephenAnderson and the third part by John Watters. This work is considered as the most notable work in the Aghem language.

Other research works include a rapid appraisal survey of languages in the Aghem group carried out by Grant and Griffin (1993) and published by SIL; a rapid appraisal survey of Mmen (ALCAM 8210) and Aghem dialect (ALCAM 810)was also carried out by Troyler and Huey (1995) published by SIL.

Some literature is also available in Aghem,          

In an article by Kibang (1992) A short history about Aghemians, the author discusses the Aghem lineage and the literature related to the Aghem culture.

Still in this light, Kopytoff(1975) in “contribution de la RechercheEthnologiqueà l’Histoire des Civilisations du Camerounˮtalks about Aghemethnogenesis and the grassfieldecumene where an official history of the origins of the Aghem and their trade links in 1900, pre-colonial trade and local development is given.

Again, Thermoset (2000) in some AghemCultural attributes to consider when designing, developing and implementing a literacy development program for Aghem women, talks about the activities of a woman in Aghem within the family circle and those outside her home.

In all the above cited linguistic and literature review little has been done on negation in Aghem by Anderson in his work the structure of verb. Much is still to be done following the subject matter (negation in Aghem).

1.10 Conclusion

This chapterhas presented the background information of the Aghem language. In the second chapter we will discuss the sound system of Aghem and some categories, while the third chapter will treat negation in Aghem. The forth chapter is the closing or concluding chapter in which we will discuss the findings of our research.