Morphophonemic Realization in Indigenous Languages: The Plural Formation in Tiv Language

Abstract

There has been increased interest in the study of indigenous languages; oneof such languages is Tiv which is a language and name of the Tiv tribe of Benue State in Nigeria. These studies concentrate on the aspects of morphology, syntax, semantics and phonology. This paper is concerned with the alternations that take place at two levels of language study, namely; phonology and morphology. The work is focused on the different and various shapes that morphemes and phonemes assume as a result of morphological and phonological conditioning, particularly in Tiv languagewhere; morphemes can either be morphologically or phonologically conditioned as it is also obtained in English language. To show how this works, the paper has discussed some selected Tiv words based on these two aspects. The selected words are discussed to particularly show how plural is formed in Tiv language andalso to show that allomorphic variation in Tiv is not possible, because English language mostly makes use of inflectional suffixes, while Tiv in most cases makes use of inflectional prefixes and these can either be morphologically or phonologically influenced as the case may be. The paper also detailed the rules governing pluralformationin Tiv language, showing the complex nature of how some of the words achieve plural shape. The paper therefore concludes that it is possible to carry out a morphophonemic study of indigenous languages with the Tiv language example. It also established that the dynamics of morphophonemic operation in Tiv is unique to the language. The study then recommends that learners of the Tiv language should make themselves conversant with this aspect of the language, which is intriguing and overly complex, but could enhance the understanding of the language.