CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

General Introduction

This work analysis and describes the social linguistic importance of folktale and proverbs in Nweh in other to attain this objective, it is important to note some essentials about the language

In this light, this first chapter presents the geographical location of language, the economic activities of the people, historical back grown, the linguistic situation of the language, the aims, as well as the mythology of the work and also the literature review. In general, this chapter lays the groundwork for the discussion of the Nweh language.

1.1. Situating The Language

Here, the focus world be on giving the history, geographical and genetic classification of Nweh

1.1.1. Geographical Location

Nweh is an ethnic group in Lebialem Division in the south west region of Cameroon. It comprises nine autonomous usefondom with each of them having its   dialect. The fondomes include; Njo, Agwi and Esso. Attah, which makes up the Fontem Sub Division and Nwemetaw, nwangang, Ndungateb, Lewah, Mmockbie and Mmeckngie which make up Alou sub dvision. Nweh is boundary in the North West by Mundani, North East by Bavoutous, South and South East by Mbo and West by Menoua (Brain1967).

1.1.2. Genetic Classification of the Language.

According to Levis,Simons and Fenning (2013), The Bantu Language constitute a small selection of the of the main language family called Niger Kordafanca is a large group occupies the southern portion of the African continent. Nweh language is classified under zone 9 which also includes Momo, Memchum language. Nweh also has alternativenames; Ngew, Gwe, Fontem, Fondeng, Fompea, but all refer to the same (newti).

1.1.3. Historical Classification of the language:

Ngew (New,Nweh) is a Grass field language spoken in Cameroon. As of 2001,Ngew had 73.200 speakers, which was an increase from the numbers of previous census.it is part of the Bamilekiedialect continuum, and its closest relative are Vamba and Ngiemboon.

1.1.4. The Economic Activities of The People

The economic activities of the Nweh people is cultivation that is the cultivate yam, plantains and even cocoyam. They also ray pigs and are into teaching.

1.1.5. The Aim And Objective of The Study

This research work aims at analyzing the power of language of proverbs and and their socio-linguistic importance value on the tradition, belief and norm in a folktale given society. It will, through the analysis of language as it affects the society. For example, AdimoraEzeigbo has used proverbs in her novel, trafficked to achieve some foregrounded effect on the characters

Folktales and proverbs analyzed in this researcher work will indicate the various function they perform or and used for it. It will also expose the reader of this work to variousclassifications and their ability to transfer African cultural values and heritage.

1.1.6.   Significance of The Study

Across centuries, researchers have studied the relationship that exist between language and the society. Since no speech community can exist without a code of communication, a sociolinguistic analysis will remain significant area of study. Various aspects have been research upon.

These include daily extinction of language, the effects of social variables such as age, sex, status on language use among users. Also various theories have been developed to give the study of sociolinguistic a sound back up. Among the famous exponent of sociolinguistic are Dell Hymes J.K Chambers, Sapir-Wharf, and Basil Bernstein etc.

1.1.7.Socio linguistic situation

Newh is a language spoken by the people of Libialem. This language is considered as the mother tongue in this community. The people of this community equally speak in English and are mostly used in official setting like in schools, church etc. whole Nweh is the language which is used in communicating throughout the whole Division. In this work we are going to look at folk tales and proverbs and their sociolinguistic importance in Newh. That is how folk tales and proverbs relate to language and society.

1.1.8. Theoretical Frame Work Of The Study

The research is carried out within a socio linguistic frame work and examines the socio- cultural and linguistic structure of Newh in relation to folktales and proverbs. It is guarded by the ideas expressed in Sapir Whorf hypothesis which states that “we dissect nature long lines load down by our native languages………by the linguistic systems in our minds”. According to Crystal (2008), the Sapir Whorf hypothesis is based on the linguistic relativity and actually cells of the relationship between language and thoughts.

However, this hypothesis is relevant in this work in folktales and proverbs are unique and we will be finding out how their structure and nature influence the work in the Nweh community.

Also, proverbs and Folktales are one of linguistic tools that represent social values or activities such as death ceremonies, child birth and marriages as well as family reunions so making the main reason which folk tales and proverbs are used to be cultural and traditional.

1.2. Statement of The Problem.

An associated consequence of globalization proverbs and folktales and their socio-linguistic importance in Nweh has been elaborated upon which implies much work still has be done regarding this topic. This is due to the believes that, importance linguistics communication is practice of the old since modernization has been brought to the community. So these proverbs and folktales now face a decline it’s in its usage by the native speakers.

Again, it is against this back drop that this study seeks to reveal the Nweh folktales and proverbs that are wearing out in the community. However, the problem here is to reveal the Nweh folktales and proverbs and see their importance to the society and culture.

1.2.1.   Scope And Limitations of the Study

This work is delimited as followers;

This work investigates the different stylistic device that characterizes folktale and proverb in Nweh and also establishes a typology for them.

Also, it handles folk tales and proverbs in Nwweh and their socio-linguistic importance. It equally focuses on the structure and functions of this kind of speech. Again there is a consideration of only proverbs and folktales and there is no existence to riddles which is closely related to them.

1.3. Methodology

As far as this research is concern, data collection on the field was done using a bilingual approached where, the language consultant had the ability to speak both Nweh the language am working on and English language.

However, there were basically two instruments used to facilitate the collection of data. These instrument included interviews and direct observation (watching a movie in Nweh which consisting of proverbs and folktales).

Also an interview was conducted with elderly people of community who were learned as well. This was done to get information on how and when folktale and proverbs are used in the society and their importance to culture and society. Also, the data that was collected was later inverted into information which was used in analyzing proverbs and folktales and their socio- linguistic importance.

1.4. Literature review

It is but obvious that much work has already been carried out in Nweh. There are loads of works which have been done in Nweh but only a few of them will be mentioned below.

Manjuh(2010)  present a structural description of idiomatic expression in Nweh. In her work, she identifies the different patterns and shapes of different idiomatic expressions in the language. She also states that this kind of expression inthe language. She also states that this kind of expression has varicose structures in the language and they range between those of sample, complex and compound sentences. This work is going to help me in my research in the sense that I will be able to differentiate between and idiomatic expression and a proverb which is part of my work.

Ngalla(2015) on the other hand investigation the sociolinguistic importance of personal names in Nweh. In her work, she present the structure, meanings and pronunciation of personal names and she equally geos further to present a dialect variation as to how these names are pronounce differently. Finally she establish the relationship of personal names to the Newh society. This work is going to be of  help  in my research because it is going to provide me with some knowledge on the Nweh sound system and how some certain words are pronounce.

WICUDA-USA(2006) call their work “Nwensung” . the literature of Newh; wherein they studied the reason behind certain names in the Nweh community.

However, beside the socio-linguistic study of Nweh, most other works in language are purely linguistic and structural. Such work include Fransen (1995), Bardley(1995),Fiore (1887), Nforgwei (2004), and Tabah (1997).

Moreover, since most work has been done in thelanguage , it is worth nothing and mentioning here that little or no work has be done so far on proverbs and folktales inNweh. So our present work  will therefore focus on the structure of folktales and proverbs in Nweh and their socio-linguistic importance. I will equally look at the circumstance in which proverbs and folktales are used as well as the various types of proverbs and folktales that exist in the language.

1.5. Over View Of The Work

Chapter one focuses on the general introduction of Nweh, and a brief discussion Made on the historical, geographical and linguistic classification of the people. It equally covers the methodology, scope of work, theoretical frame work and literature review.

Chapter two discusses the sound system of Nweh that is the consonants, vowels,  tones and syllabus  structure of Nweh.

Chapter three discusses the morpho-sysntaxof the language. That is verb morphology, noun morphology and sentence structure.

Chapter four discusses the sociolinguistic importance of folktales and proverb and their meaning. It equally presents the linguistic feature and their stylistic feature that are notice in Nweh folktale and proverb.

Finally, chapter five which generally conclude the work by presenting a summary of al that has been done including the findings relating to the structure, function and relevant languages and features of folktales and proverbs in the language