Testing the Intelligibility of Nigerian Fali to Cameroonian Fali, Bana and Gude Listeners
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53103/cjlls.v4i2.160Abstract
Using the word ‘Fali’ to identify a group of people and languages in northern Cameroon and Nigeria has caused significant challenges to the classification of the languages and the description of the link between those communities. This study aims at testing the intelligibility of Nigerian Fali to Cameroonian Fali (CamFali), Bana and Gude speakers in order to bring out the relationship between the languages. Participants to the study include 88 Cameroonian native and fluent speakers of the above listed languages, made up of 46 CamFali speakers from the Bossum, Kangu, Peske-Bori and Tinguelin communities, 35 Gude speakers from Gude dialect (Gude D), Djimi and Njanyi, and 7 Bana speakers. The informants were met either in-person or online (through WhatsApp), and they listened to 3 recordings from 3 dialects of Nigerian Fali, namely Vimtim, Bahuli and Muchalla which were obtained from Global Recordings Network to test the listeners’ recognition and comprehension of the languages. The findings indicated that the 3 languages are neither intelligible to CamFali nor to Bana listeners, but they are rather variants of Djimi which in turn is a dialect of Gude. The study also revealed that from the 3 dialects of Gude, Djimi is more related to Gude D than Njanyi. It was therefore concluded that Nigerian Fali is not related to CamFali and Bana, but it is rather Gude, which confirms that the word ‘Fali’ does not refer to specific people with common ancestral or linguistic background.
References
Atechi, S. N. (2006). The intelligibility of native and non-native English speech: A comparative analysis of Cameroon English and American
and British English [Unpublished Doctorate dissertation]. Technischen Universität Chemnitz
Bamgbose, A. (1998). Torn between the norms! Innovations. World Englishes, 17(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-971X.00078
Barreteau, D., & Dieu, M. (2005). Linguistique. In C. Seignobos & O. Iyébi-Mandjek (Eds.), Atlas de la province Extrême-Nord Cameroun. (pp. 64-70). IRD Éditions. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.irdeditions.11562.
Blench, R. (1998). The status of the languages of Central Nigeria. In M. Brenzinger (Ed.), Language Diversity Endangered (pp. 187–205). Mouton de Gruyter.
Blench, R. (2011). An atlas of Nigerian Languages (3rd ed.). Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
Catford, J. C. (1950). Intelligibility. ELT Journal, 5(1), 7-15. https://doi.org/oi:10.1093/elt/V17
Carlin, E. (1993). The So Language. (Afrikanistiche Monografeien (AMO), 2). Institut für Afrikanistik, Universität zu Köln.
Chumbow, S. B., Atindogbe, G. G., Domche, E., & Luther Bot, D. M. (2007). Classification of the languages of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea on the basis of lexicostatistics and mutual intelligibility. African Study Monographs, 28(4), 181-204. https://www.doi.org/10.14989/6863
Dieu, M., & Renaud, P. (1983). Situation linguistique en Afrique Centrale. Inventaire préliminaire: Le Cameroun. ACCT-Cerdotola-DGRST, 475 p., cartes.
Global Recordings Network (GRN). (2023, 15 December). Good News [Audio recording]. Available at https://www.org/globalrecordings.net/en/language/fli
Gooskens, C. (2013). Experimental methods for measuring intelligibility of closely related language varieties. Workshop on NLP for similar languages, varieties. In R. Bayley, R. Cameron, & C. Lucas (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Sociolinguistics (pp. 195-213). Oxford University Press. https://www.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199744084.013.0010paysan
Greenberg, J. H. (1963). The languages of Africa. Mouton & Co.
Hallaire, A. (1991). Summary: Mountain farmers in Northern Cameroon. In Paysans montagnards du Nord-Cameroun: Les monts Mandara. IRD Edition: https://www.doi.org/10.4000/books.irdeditions.15084
Hoskison, J. T. (1983). A grammar and dictionary of the Gude language [Unpublished Doctorate Dissertation]. Ohio State University, USA.
Newman, P. (1977). Chadic classification and reconstruction. Afroasiatic Linguistics, 5(1), 1-42.
Newman, P. (2013). The Chadic language family: Classification and name index. Mega-Chad Research Network: Electronic Publication 1-11.
Seignobos, C., & Iyébi-Mandjek, O. (Eds.). (2005). Atlas de la province Extrême-Nord Cameroun. New edition [online]. Marseille (Accessed on February, 19, 2024). https://doi.org/10.4000/books.irdeditions.11540
Yakan, M. (Ed.). (1999). Almanac of African peoples and nations (1sted.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351289320
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Abbo Garou, Michael Etuge Apuge
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All articles published by CJLLS are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This license permits third parties to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon the original work provided that the original work and source is appropriately cited.