CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction
In this chapter, we shall discuss the language and its speakers, historical background of Kofyar people, the socio cultural profile of Kofyar people, the geographical location and the genetic classification of Kofyar language.
Other areas covered in this chapter are data collection and analysis, scope and organization of study and review of the chosen framework.
1.1 General Background
Language is the fabric that ties every member of the society together. It also serves as instrument used by man for specific and distinguishable purposes. It is a psychological or cognitive property of human being.
As observed by Thomas and Wareing (1999:3) ‘human words which can nevertheless be understood by others who are familiar with the culture in which the new word was developed’.
Therefore, language is a vital tool in human and societal development. The dynamic nature of language requires studies in order to keep pace with developments and expand the frontier of knowledge.
Morphology is the branch of linguistics that studies the word formation process in Language.
According to Crystal (1990:225), morphology is the branch of linguistics which studies the structures or forms of words through the use of morphemes.
The people and the language spoken by them are known as Kofyar. The Kofyar people live in the middle belt of Nigeria which is plateau state. They are mostly found in Doemak, Quaan pan local government area of plateau state.
The population known as Kofyar actually comprises three different tribes as designated by British colonial officers, the Doemak, Merriang and Kwalla.
However the three groups have a common language, economic pattern and origin myth and had formed into a union called the Koffyer Federation in the 1940s.
1.3 Historical Background
Kofyar means ‘the home state of the ancestors’. Kofyar payar is the ancestral home of Kofyar language. Their ancestor was Dafyar, he migrated from the eastern part of the country to plateau state. He came together with Angas, Mahuul, Ankwe, Gimai,Pachin and Bokous. They settled at Daika in Mangul Local government. They had a disagreement at a point and the Bokous and Pachin moved to another district while Dafyar moved to Garam, At Garam, another disagreement ensued on the issue of chieftaincy. Dafyar had a brother, Daram, and they both moved from Garam to Chip. In Chip, Dafyar left Daram. Daram gave birth to Fomtel and Fomtel gave birth to Gawai nation.
When Dafyar left Chip, he settled at a place known today as Kofyar. Dafyar gave birth to twelve children in Kofyar among which were twins; Dajan and Dajin. Dajan went to Namu while Dajin stayed in Doemak (meaning my movement ends here).
Pan is a ruling counsel group that covered the whole districts of Kofyar. The seven districts in Quaan pan are: Doemak, Kwa, Kwang, Kwalla, Namu, Jepan and Doka.
1.4 Socio Cultural Profile
There are several festival celebrations in Kofyar land. The Maap festival is the final funeral rite of a great person and it is done by slaughtering a horse. During the Kwakwa festival, the whole stock of the land is used for thanking the gods.
The Kaatar festival is celebrated to thank the gods for making a bountiful harvest. Finally, the Koemtoeng festival is performed for the celebration of mystical powers that are built in the Kofyar man, Darridan, the originator of Koemtoeng (a secret cult).
Darrian Koemtoeng : he was a person but it was believed in Kofyar that he ascended to heaven.
Na’an :the Almighty God.
Koemgwar : God that catches evil people .
Koemtoeng : the oracle.
Religion
The Kofyar people are mostly Christians and evangelical to be precise. They also have traditional worshippers and few Muslims.
In Kofyar, wedding ceremony is called Samwang. The bride is called namwar and the groom is misnamwar. After paying the bride price, the wedding is celebrated at the groom’s place.
In the ancient days, they dress putting on animal skin. But now with the advent of civilization, western clothes are worn.
Their best food is pounded yam with traditional soup of Bwazgugur, Lemchik and Guzeti. Other soups such as Baala and Naveh are also used.
Their soups and ingredients are, Tookmang made up of pumpkin leaves, Toorlem made up of bean seed, Toompur, made up of mushroom and Tookunlung. Best drinks are Muos, Wdargoebung, Wa’ardachant and Burukutu.
Occupation
The main occupation in Kofyar is basically farming. Women in Kofyar society appear to have considerable independence and social power through their institutionalized roles in patrilineal kin groups and a uniquely male occupation. The women perform major role and they engage in farming and trading to feed their family. Also, the Kofyars engage in hunting as a secondary occupation.
This research is made possible through a bilingual informant. The Ibadan four hundred word list and some sentences constructed were used to derive the necessary information on the language from the speaker. The method was direct translation from English to Kofyar language.
The fact that my informant was bilingual really enhanced speedy and correct interpretation of the data collected. He speaks about three languages fluently. These are English, Hausa and Kofyar language.
1.6 Data analysis
The four hundred word list was translated from English to Kofyar language. Some sentences were also collected in Kofyar language. Also Articles, prepositions, conjunctions, and pronouns were collected. Tenses were also included. Some superlative and comparatives were also collected.
All the above listed terms were collected to aid in analyzing the morphological processes and word formation in Kofyar language.
1.7 Geographical location and population
The Kofyar are found in Quaan Pan and Mangu L.G.A. of Plateau state and also in Lafia LGA of Nassarawa state. They live in the hilly and mountainous part of Plateau state. The village head and chiefs live at the extreme end of the mountain.
The population of the Kofyar is approximately 148,000 speakers according to the 2006 census of Nigeria.
Genetic classification is the sub grouping of all relevant languages into a genetic node. Genetic is from the word’ genesis’ meaning origin. In other words, genetic classification is the way we classify all languages that are related into one group, domain or node. This classification is made possible when there is an assessment of some set of feature languages share in common (Comrie 1987: 108).
The genetic classification of Kofyar has been traced to the Afro- Asiatic family. The classification is shown diagrammatically;
GENETIC CLASSIFICATION OF KOFYAR
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