Mwaghavul expressives

Roger Blench1

1. Introduction
1.1 Background to ideophones in Africa
One of the most distinctive features of African languages are the
abundance of ideophones, words that describe sensory experiences. The first
clear reference to a class of ideophones in African languages was in the mid-
nineteenth century, where they are touched on in Vidal’s preface to the
Yoruba Dictionary of Crowther (1852). Vidal describes ideophones as a
“peculiar and appropriate adverb which denotes the degree or quality
attaching to it” and mistakenly claims they are unique to Yoruba. Koelle
(1854) noted the presence of these “peculiar adverbs” in Kanuri, perhaps the
first documentation for a non-Niger-Congo language. McLaren (1886) called
ideophones “indeclinable verbal particles”. Banfield & Macintyre (1915),
whose documentation for Nupe is particularly rich, use the term “intensitive
adverbs”. Doke (1935) defined them as “a vivid representation of an idea in
sound” perhaps the first author to get away from the notion that ideophones
must be adverbial. Childs (1994) lists some of the other terms occurring in
the literature, such as “echo-words” (in relation to Semitic), “emphatics”
(used by Lutheran Bible translators) and impressifs in Francophone pub-
lications. Blench (2010) reviews the literature on African ideophones in
greater detail. Although ideophones (or ‘expressives’ in Asian terminology)
are now of some interest to the broader scholarly community (e.g. Hinton et
al. 1994; Voeltz & Kilian-Hatz 2001) they have hardly excited the attention
they merit in terms of their overall importance in the lexicon of many lan-
guages (see review in Dingemanse 2011).
Dingemanse (2011:3) defines ideophones as ‘marked words that depict
sensory imagery’. In many languages, ideophones have distinctive phonotactics,
but they always have highly specific applications to the sensory world and
describe visual, aural and emotional experiences in ways hardly paralleled
elsewhere in the lexicon. They tend to fill an adverb-like slot, and they usually
have no clear etymologies. Historically, they are hard to treat, as they do not
seem to be lexically cognate across languages. However, typical sensory
experiences can be identified semantically across languages and even phyla.
African languages commonly have ideophones describing analogous ex-
periences, for example, the noises made by objects falling onto different surfaces
or specific aspects of body shape. Ideophones are thus crucial to a broader
understanding of the perceptual world implicit in African languages.

1. Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.

2 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES

Most publications on African ideophones have focused on Niger-Congo

languages; a great deal less is known about Nilo-Saharan and Afroasiatic,
although Chadic languages are clearly as rich as their Niger-Congo neigh-
bours. Only Hausa could be said to be well-studied in this respect (e.g.
Newman 1968). Although it is not entirely clear, dictionaries suggest that
Afroasiatic and Khoisan are less replete with ideophones and that it is inter-
action with Nilo-Saharan and Niger-Congo that increases their repertoire.
Because of their failure to play a major role in syntax, all types of
expressive vocabulary remain poorly studied in many African languages.
Even lumping together a mosaic of sensory words under a single category of
ideophones is clearly problematic. This paper2 focuses on the broader class
of such expressive terms in Mwaghavul, a West Chadic language of Central
Nigeria. As part of a large-scale dictionary project (Dapiya et al. forth-
coming), numerous expressives have been collected, together with examples
of use, and this paper analyses both the morphology of ideophones and their
syntactic context. It is preceded by a general discussion of the semantics of
expressives and their classification, as well as their word classes and
morphology.
1.2 Conceptual classes of ideophones
Our discussion of these orphan words remains unsophisticated; given the
role they play in actual speech, their treatment in conventional grammars is
inadequate, to say the least. Ideophones not only fall into different word
classes, but also into a range of conceptual classes. They may demonstrate a
characteristic phonology, morphology or canonical form, but this is absent in
some languages, even where the ideas they express are conserved. To
characterise this richness, it is helpful to switch to a larger class of ‘ex-
pressives’ (a characteristic Asian terminology) to encompass these ideas;
ideophones would just be a subset. Table 1 shows the important conceptual
classes characteristic of languages in the Nigeria/Cameroun area;

Table 1. Conceptual classes of expressive in Nigeria/Cameroon area

Class Characteristics
Onomatopoeia direct imitation of sound
Ontophones terms that indicate states of mind or sensory experiences
Body epithets descriptive terms applied to body parts, with a generally
mildly insulting character
Ophresiophones descriptive terms applied to odours
Colour intensifiers terms added to basic vocabulary for red, black and white to
denote different intensities

2. I would like to thank Nathaniel Dapiya and Jacob Bess, with whom I work on
the Mwaghavul dictionary project, for helping establish the words themselves
and for the sentence examples of their use.
 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES 3
The terms ‘ontophone’ and ‘ophresiophone’ are not found in the literature
and are proposed here, although neither are particularly elegant. Onom-
atopoeic words and ontophones usually form a convergent class in terms of
morphology; the existence, morphology and syntax of the others seem to
unpredictable in individual languages. It should be strongly emphasised that
this is provisional; this is a fecund area for invention and it is positively
likely further classes may be identified.
1.3 Word classes of expressives
Syntactically, it is not always easy to assign expressives to the conven-
tional parts of speech 3 . Newman (1968) discussing Hausa, argues that
ideophones are identified by their morphology and phonology and the
syntactic element is secondary. This argument has a danger of circularity;
ideophones are identified by their shape, and then any word lacking this
shape is excluded. Newman’s point that expressives can show up across a
wide range of syntactic categories is well taken, but identifying expressives
by shape clearly does not work for many languages.
Broadly speaking, onomatopoeic terms, direct imitations of sound,
function as a type of adverb. Thus, ‘the bell sounded xx’. Other expressives
can be placed at the end of a clause or sentence; thus ‘the heavy man walked
along the road xx’. This can be analysed as qualifying the verb ‘walk’ but
without the information about the heavy man the sentence would not be
well-formed or pragmatically possible. Blench (2010) argues that discus-
sions of ideophones have tended to overemphasise their adverbial status.
The other important word-class is adjectival. In a typical construction in
Mwaghavul and many other languages of Central Nigeria, expressives
follow the copula, in this case aasí ‘is’. There is no clear boundary between
ideophonic adjectives and more standard qualifiers in terms of morphology,
since in neither case do they agree with the noun. So classifying an
adjectival form as ideophonic is largely based on semantics. Body epithets
are clearly adjectival since they qualify nouns directly. Colour intensifiers
qualify stative verbs, although in neighbouring languages they can also
qualify other adjectives.
Ophresiophones are a particularly problematic class; in a languages such
as Tarok and Kuteb, Benue-Congo languages in the same general area as
Mwaghavul, they are a type of non-concordial adjective (Blench & Longtau
1995; Koops 2009). However, in Mwaghavul, their word-class and their role
in the sentence appears to be highly variable. The moral, inasmuch as one
may be drawn, is that description and exemplification should be primary,
and analytic categories developed post hoc.

3. It is noteworthy that despite forty years’ work on the Ịzọn language, the most
recent manuscript of the dictionary of the language (Williamson and Blench
ined.) still contains numerous queries about the correct part of speech of some
ideophonic-like terms.
4 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES

1.4 Morphology and phonology

Expressives are often characterised as having a particular shape, phonol-
ogically and morphologically. This is often true, but its incidence varies
from language to language. The main distinctive features attested are;

Table 2. Distinctive features of expressives

Category Feature
Phonology Unusual phonemes
Unusual distribution of phonemes
Unusual or characteristic tonology
Morphology Reduplication, triplication
Ad libitum repetition
Unusual canonical shape
Syntax Lack of agreement as opposed to concordial adjectives
Etymology Low number of expressives with transparent etymological source

Two related aspects of ideophones that are hard to capture in a table like
this are templatic morphology and the embedding of phonaesthemes. In
some languages, Ijoid for example, there is a strong correlation between
ideas or concepts and templatic morphology reflected in a triliteral root
(Blench & Williamson forthcoming). This can be compared to the templatic
formulae that characterise Semitic languages, although their application is
much less systematic and is not recognised overtly by speakers. Similarly,
ideophones can exemplify phonaesthemes, combinations of segments that
suggest feelings or sensations to speakers. Little has been written about this
in the analysis of African ideophones, partly because it seems to be only
sporadically present, and partly because it only emerges with a very large
corpus. A small set of elicited ideophones is unlikely to provide adequate
evidence for such underlying structures.
1.5 Why is Mwaghavul interesting?
Mwaghavul, a West Chadic language, appears to have some unusual
features, inasmuch as there is comparative evidence. These are:

Low emphasis on short ideophonic elements that can be repeated ad libitum

Large number of trisyllabic expressives
An apparently regular relationship between single fronted adjectival
ideophones and clause-final reduplicated ideophones
Relatively high number of expressives with transparent etymologies
Expressives are almost always clause-final

2. Background to Mwaghavul
Mwaghavul is a relatively large West Chadic language spoken in Mangu
Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria. The main towns of the
 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES 5
Mwaghavul are Mangu and Panyam. There are generally estimated to be some
150,000 speakers of Mwaghavul, although such a figure is largely guesswork.
Mupun, often considered a distinct language, is very close to Mwaghavul and
the division may be more ethnic than linguistic. Although there is some
geographic variation, Mwaghavul does not really group into distinct dialect
areas. The closest relatives of Mwaghavul are Cakfem-Mushere and Miship and
it falls within the same group as Ngas and Goemai. The Mwaghavul are known
as ‘Sura’ in much of the older literature. Mwaghavul is bordered by Plateau (i.e.
Benue-Congo) languages to the north and west, notably Berom and Izere.
Mwaghavul (under the name Sura) was first described in modern linguistic
terms by Jungraithmayr (1963/4). Frajyzngier (1991, 1993) has published a
dictionary and grammar of the Mupun language. Blench (2011) is an overview
of the complex system of verbal plurality.
First attempts to write the Mwaghavul language date back to the 1920s,
when scripture portions were first published. There is an active literacy
programme associated with a Bible Translation Project and a collaborative
project to produce a dictionary is also under way. However, no phonological
analyses associated with the orthography have ever been published. There
are six vowels in Mwaghavul, the cardinal vowels and an additional central
vowel /i/. Phonetically, the mid-vowels are /ɛ/ and / / but they are not in
contrast with /e/ and /o/ and are thus represented by ‘e’ and ‘o’ in orthog-
raphic practice.

Degree Front Central Back

Close i ɨ u
Half Open ɛ
Open a

Vowel length is contrastive, but there are no nasal vowels.

Mwaghavul consonants are as follows:

A B C D E F G H
Plosive p b t d k g /
Implosive ɗ
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Fricative f v s z ʃ ʒ [ɣ] h
Affricate tʃ dʒ
Approx. y w
Trill r
Lateral l
Approx.
A: Bilabial; B: Labio-dental; C: Alveolar; D: Post-alveolar; E: Palatal; F: Velar;
G: Labio-velar; H: Glottal.
6 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES

There are three level tones; glide tones usually characterise double
vowels and occur mainly with kin terms.

3. Mwaghavul data
3.1 Ideophonic adjectives
Mwaghavul adjectives typically precede the noun. Thus;

àà cuk naked (knife)

àà wus naked flame

However, Mwaghavul ideophonic adjectives are those which qualify

nouns in equative sentences. The most common adjectives follow the copula
aasí. Thus the term cèlpèt describes someone who does things carelessly. A
typical sentence context can be;

wurí aasí cèlpèt

he is thoughtless

Ideophonic adjectives can also be the complement of the perfective

copula sɨ;

wurí shang mee lèè dúghúríí sɨ mùndùlùng

he dug out a certain large yam tuber that was mùndùlùng

The adjective can also be fronted, behaving like a head noun. For
example:

cèlpèt ɗín mɓut

thoughtless without stomach
i.e. without manners

An ideophonic adjective can also follow the repeated copula a;

a làà funu a gùrùmgúrúm ni ɗak

is child our is truly great it only
only our candidate is truly great

More rarely, an ideophonic adjective can follow the noun directly;

mèn h làkh làk artificial beauty

 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES 7
Table 3 shows the range of Mwaghavul ideophonic adjectives so far
identified, with án impressionistic description of their semantic content and
an example sentence with translation.

Table 3. Ideophonic adjectives

Mwaghavul English Example sentence
ɓwàghàlàk, describes lukewarm àm shwaa ni aasí ɓwàghàlàk
ɓwàgàl- water the drinking water is lukewarm
ɓwàgàl
bwághap describes s.t. soft lááwúr ni táp bwágháp
sweet potato cooked in the right way is soft
bwágháp describes mouth with no dɨkaam wuríi ɗéé a pò bwágháp
teeth the old man has become toothless
cèlpèt describes s.o. who does wurí aasí cèlpèt
things carelessly he is thoughtless
cèlpèt describes s.o. cèlpèt ɗín mɓut
thoughtless lit. thoughtless without stomach
i.e. without manners
dùkùlùm ignorant, not knowing
s.t.
g n nòn describes s.o. who looks wurí ɗéé aasí g n nòn
sickly [rare] He looks very sick
gùrùmgúrúm tough, great (person) a làà funu a gùrùmgúrúm ni ɗak
it is only our child [candidate] who is
truly great
h làkh làk describes artificial mèn h làkh làk
appearance to be artificially beautiful
mmòghòɗìsh describes s.t. very ugly til máár ni mó bísh aasí mmòghòɗìsh
the ridges of the farm are misshapen,
ugly
mmòghòɗìsh describes s.t. tasteless mbìì sé ni bísh aasí mmòghòɗìsh
the food is bad, tasteless

mùndùlùng describes how a long fat wurí shang mee lèè dúghúríí s mùndùlùng
worm or other legless he dug out a large yam tuber, mùndùlùng
animal or a plant like a
yam tuber lies in one
place inert but without
projections
zhàrmàn describes the condition wurí sham yaghal mbut àm ɓòòk ni
of the clothes of s.o. who zhàrmàn
falls into dirty water he rises out of the muddy water zhàrmàn
zíɗíɗyás describes s.o. lean and
emaciated
An important subset of adjectives are those applied to supposedly mis-
shapen body parts, ‘insultatives’. Similar insultatives have been reported
from nearby Tarok and ɛBoze, Benue-Congo languages (Blench 2010). Such
8 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES

adjectives are invariant, and do not seem to be cognate across language

boundaries. Nonetheless, there is a strong community of ideas; the notion
that certain animals, such as the owl or the red patas monkey, have deepset
eyes and that this is an insulting attribute when applied to humans is found in
many regional languages. Table 4 shows a sample of typical Mwaghavul
body idioms.

Table 4. Body idioms

Mwaghavul English Example sentence
báán describes s.o. with a flat
head
dùghùl describes s.o. who is flat mwaan nii cɨghɨr màà shii dùghùl
footed s.o. who is flat-footed easily gets tired
when walking
gùjùrùk describes a face with deep- nyììyìì ɗii ɗéé sɨ ni k yit gùjùrùk
set eyes or a deep hole that owl has deepset eyes
a táp k yit ɗii gùjùrùk sɨ
be careful with your deepset eyes [insul-
ting expression]
jéghérékjég describes s.o. who is thin d -káá wurí sɨghɨt wéél ntóók jéghérék-
hérék and fragile-looking jéghérék
the man with the big head now has a
thin neck jéghérékjéghérék
kaamkaam very wide (ears) kom kaamkaam kaa kútùt sɨ
ears as wide as a winnowing tray
koryòng crooked (limb) koryòng k baal; baal koryòng
crooked arm! [abusive remark, but
reversed it becomes a nickname]
koryòng- describes how people mó ɗirang kɨ shii mó koryòngkoryòng
koryòng with crooked legs stand they stood there with crooked legs
kàt cin ɓe wùrá mwaan gùrùm mó a yit
koryòngkoryòng
she is not ashamed to move backwards
and forwards in public despite her
koryòng-koryòng legs
mondòs describes the snout of a mondòs kɨ pòò kaa as sɨ
pig or a dog your mouth is mondòs like a dog
mondòs- describes a projecting wurí mwaan kɨ pòò mondòsmondòs
mondòs mouth [the sense is that he walks with his mouth mondòsmondòs
someone is angry but
won’t come out and
express it, so they purse
their mouth]
rongshòng describes s.t. that is a yaghal kɨ káá ɗi rongshòng sɨ, kaa góór sɨ
branching such as the get away from here with your horn-like
horns of an antelope head. [e.g. someone with sticking out
strands of hair]
 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES 9
Mwaghavul English Example sentence
vùkmùn describes s.t. ill-looking vùkmùn kɨ shwoop
and dusty messy hair
vùrmùs describes s.t with a loghom kɨ se sar mó ɗéé vùrmùs
rounded end such as an leprosy has eaten his hands and only the
amputated hand, a leper stump remains
without fingers or a blunt
hoe
vwàplàs describes s.t. that is wurí kɨ shii vwàplàs
oversized, such as extra- his feet are very wide [like a duck]
wide feet or mouth
vwàplàs describes a very flat nose p g zɨŋ vwàplàs
flat-nose
vyàngràghàs describes a mis-shapen laa nii wurí kɨ káá vyàngràghàs
head his child has a mis-shapen head

As with other ideophonic adjectives, insultatives have a strong tendency

to be sentence final. They can qualify a noun directly, but they can also be
fronted, as in mondòs kɨ pòò káá as sɨ ‘mis-shapen your mouth like a dog’s
is’. An idiosyncrasy of these adjectives is the sentence-final copula sɨ, which
is not usual in Mwaghavul grammar and is apparently a feature of these
abusive utterances.
In addition to these adjectives, Mwaghavul can apply a prefix to body
parts which emphasises their strange shape. The prefix is different for men
and women, reflecting the almost vanished gender system. Thus d is used
for men (from dàá) and n for women;

d g n, n g n describes fat cheeks

d jet, n jet describes a protruding back of the head
d kom, n kom describes wide ears

These are more noun-like since they are used as the subject of the main
verb accompanied by the appropriate pronoun;

Ngn wùrá shwaa wáár ɗimo le ǹlaa ni

fat-cheeked [woman] she drink gruel that it for child the
the woman with fat cheeks drank the gruel they left for the child

3.2 Onomatopoeiac ideophones

Mwaghavul also has a very impressive range of onomatopoeiac imitations of
natural sounds. A sample of these is shown in Table 5:
10 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES

Table 5. Onomatopoeiac ideophones

Mwaghavul Gloss Example sentence
bài sound of hitting a fat wurí shwoor shaar fɨri mɓut bài
person in the stomach he hit his friend in the stomach, bài
b r sound of a bird taking off nyer ni sham yaghar b r
the bird took off b r
b lásh sound of a light person pee mɨlam ɓe wùrá sham pal b lásh
falling down the place was slippery and she fell down
b làsh
b làsh sound of heavy person ngù nan ni táá can shii ɗe wurí pal sɨ
falling down in a b làsh
slippery place the old man stumbled and fell b làsh
ɓùk sound of a ripe fruit làà koon ɗiinung ni sham táá ɓùk
falling on the ground the ripe fig fell to the ground, ɓùk
cóicói sound of frying s.t. in oil wùrá naka sughur lwaa mbut mwòòr cóicói
she is frying the meat in oil cóicói
cùrèt sound of s.o. sucking ni làà nwura mɓut ɓe wùrá ɗwas pòò cùrèt
their teeth in annoyance she was angry and she sucked her teeth,
cùrèt
dàì sound of a big bundle of wurí táá vwèt ɓwàghàt kàs ni sɨ dài
millet falling onto the he dropped the bundle of millet onto the
ground ground, dài
d gh sh- sound of flapping clothes ngù tár wurí jwa nɨghɨn léé mó nkaa
d gh sh when s.o. is walking shin ɗáng wurí mwaan d gh shd gh sh
the madman wore many clothes and as he
walked made the sound, d gh shd gh sh
dùbúm- sound of a building lú ni shíp sham táá dùbúmdùbúm
dùbúm falling to the ground the house collapsed and fell to the
ground, dùbúmdùbúm
dùbúm- sound of s.o.’s feet as wurí nkaa kam táá lung dùbúmdùbúm
dùbúm they learn to swim he is learning to swim, dùbúmdùbúm
fíyóótfíyóót sound of a flute made a dàá kaa long wurí ka tààn ɓél fíyóótfíyóót
certain species of grass an expert is blowing the flute el, fíyóót-
fíyóót
fwàà sound of water pouring àm ni sham ɓeer fwàà
out the water poured out fwàà
ghòghò noise of frogs nningkoro ni a zàrgong dini kɨ wál mɓut
àm ghòghò
frog sp. that cries inside the water
ghòghò
g rg r sound of a large and wu kɨling wal kɨ mota ni kɨ kàà sɨ Ndai
rather old truck creeping g rg r
along hear the sound of the lorry at Ndai
coming along g rg r
gùɗyàk- the sound of gruel being wurí ɗilang wáár ni nkyennkyen gùɗyàk-
gùɗyàk swallowed quickly gùɗyàk
he swallowed the gruel quickly, gùɗyàk-
gùɗyàk
 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES 11
Mwaghavul Gloss Example sentence
gùk sound of a stone falling jwak ni sham laa gùk
to the ground the rock falls down gùk
gùkgùkgùk sound of running wu kɨling wát nɨ wurí su cɨghɨr si
footsteps mɓwoon lú gùkgùkgùk
hear the thief running behind the house!
gùlúng- sound of gruel sloshing wáár nii wál sɨɗi mbut mbeen ni gùlúng-
gùlúng around, either in a gourd gùlúng
or in the stomach of a the gruel is making noise in the gourd,
child gùlúnggùlúng
gunggung sound of a big drum kung nii wál sɨ njwak gunggung
the big drum is sounding gunggung in
the rocks
gùùl sound of a fist hitting a gwàr ni shwoor wát ni shi dùghùl sár gùùl
person the man hit the thief with his fist, gùùl
gwíshgwísh sound of a cow tail used màt céer mó kàt ɗáng n ng kɨ mó gwísh-
by performing artistes gwísh ɗi pòò
the female dancers are waving the cow tails
gwùy sound of hitting s.o. on wurí shwoor shaar fɨri nk nòk gwùy
the back he hit his friend on the back, gwùy
hàgàsh- sound of a piece of meat lwaa miir ni sham táá mɓut kom pee ɗii
hàgàsh falling on dry leaves fii kuni wal hàgàshhàgàsh
the meat of a python fell inside the dry
leaves and made the noise hàghàsh-
hàgàsh
hàgàsh- noise of sand in acca yíl nii wál si ɗi mɓut ngwom fwoon ni
hàgàsh when it is poured or it is hàgàshhàgàsh
in your mouth sand makes the noise hàgàshhàgàsh
when it is in the fonio cuscus
hííkhíík sound of coughing laa ni teer mmààp kkuni kɨ sighim dak
hííkhíík
the child cried all night and was coughing
hííkhíík
hwat sound of a dry stick yoghom ɗiifi ni tep hwat
breaking the dry stick snapped hwat
júm sound of a light object gɨɨl kwaghar sham táá mbut àm júm
falling in water the pebble fell into the water júm
jùm sound of a heavy object wurí met sham mbut àm kuur ni jùm
falling in water he jumped into the pool of water jùm
k còr sound of a dead frond of kwak ngàng sham táá k còr
the Borassus palm falling the Borassus frond fell down, k còr
to ground
k pétk pét sound of flip-flops when gwaghazak k pét nii wal sɨ k pétk pét
walking the flip-flops are making the sound, k pét-
k pét
k rètk rèt sound of s.o. grinding wurí nkaa ɗyees àghàs k rètk rèt
their teeth he is grinding his teeth, k rètk rèt
kúléng- sound of a bell ringing kungguleng ni wál sɨ kúléngkúléng
kúléng the bell rings kúléngkúléng
12 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES
Mwaghavul Gloss Example sentence
kúrásh- sound of scraping burnt laa reep wùrá nkaa aar tughul kúrásh-
kúrásh porridge from a pot [a kúrásh
sound well known to the girl is scraping the pot kúráshkúrásh
dogs]
kúráshkúrás sound of s.o. scratching wùrá sám pyághál kúráshkúrásh
h their thigh she scratched her thigh, kúráshkúrásh
[implies lying]
kwàà sound used to drive birds sak máár ɗáng nyer mó shwaa wèètwèèt.
away Kwàà kwàà nyer oo!
I made my farm and the birds came and
‘drank’ it all.
Go away birds! [Children’s song]
kwááskwáás noise of girls dragging wa kɨling shii k laa reep ni wùráá jì sɨ
their shoes on the ground kwááskwáás
hear the sound of the foot of the girl
coming along kwááskwáás
kwàsh sound of a bundle of ɓwàghàt yóghóm ni sham táá kwàsh
firewood falling to the the bundle of firewood fell down kwàsh
ground
kwáshkwásh sound of striking a wurí cut shàghàl wus kuni wál kwásh-
flintstone to make fire kwásh
he struck the flintstones against each
other, kwáshkwásh
kwengkweng sound of metal being pee nii wál kwengkweng dàá ndùng
hammered kɨlom cáán
the place sounds kwengkweng when
father forges a hoe
l pàtl pàt sound of the ears tum ni nsùshíí ɓe kom nii wal l pàtl pàt
flapping when án animal the sheep is running and its ears are
such as a sheep is making the noise l pàtl pàt
running. Also when the
ancestors who weren’t
wearing clothes were
running, those with fat
thighs would make this
noise.
mbyar sound made by the hands jìrááp sɨ mó nkághán fwo mbyar
of women slapping the girls are competing to make the
against the pestle while sound mbyar
pounding grains in the
mortar
njung describes a place that pee ni ɗok títík njung
becomes suddenly quiet the place became extra quiet, njung
pàshpàsh sound of splashing water jép mó cìn tan mbut àm ɗi a naar pee ni
as you run along or play in pàshpàsh
it with your feet, or water children play in the water on the ground,
coming out of a spring pàshpàsh
 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES 13
Mwaghavul Gloss Example sentence
rùghùs- sound of crunching food jép mó nkaa sum bángkúr ni rùghùs-
rùghùs rùghùs
the children are eating the dry peanut
cakes rùghùsrùghùs
shùrètshùrèt describes a woman mó bàà wàt putughup ɗi mmat poo furu
crying and constantly ni ku wùrá ɗéé saa a làà piit ɗak
sniffling shùrètshùrèt
they upset the new wife so she is snif-
fling continuously
shwèrshwèr sound of rain or other mó teer nfwam kuni ɓeer sham sɨ
liquid dripping shwèrshwèr
it rained all night and it is still dripping,
shwèrshwèr
shwètshwèt describes s.o. who weeps màt káá nɨ wùrá kɨ baa ɓɨlang ɗi mme la
continuously fra ni ɗéé wùrá teer shoor a map ɗak
shwètshwèt
the widow has lost another child and she
has been crying all night shwètshwèt
t ràtt ràt sound of sipping hot nɨgɨn nkaa mwak wáár ɗiital ni t ràtt ràt
gruel the woman with fat cheeks is sipping hot
gruel, t ràtt ràt
tùlulúút- sound of a fruitshell jép mó nkaa làà ndùtúghút tùlulúút-
tùlulúút ocarina tùlulúút
the children were playing the ocarina,
tùlulúúttùlulúút
tùmbulúng sound of a stone falling gh k ni sham táá mbut àm ni tùmbulúng
into deep water the stone fell into the water tùmbulúng
zhùrùm- sound of small plants wurí shwat kom ni zhùrùmzhùrùm
zhùrùm being uprooted he uprooted the groundnuts zhùrùmzhùrùm

Mwaghavul onomatopoeic ideophones are almost exclusively clause or

sentence-final and generally can be said to reflect the entire content of the
utterance rather than just the verb.

In a case of sound-symbolism, there is an association between tone and

the weight of the object or person. Thus in the two cases shown in Table 6,
high tone symbolises light and low tone heavy in weight.

Table 6. Tonal symbolism in ideophones

Mwaghavul Gloss
b lásh sound of a light person falling down
b làsh sound of heavy person falling down in a slippery place
júm sound of a light object falling in water
jùm sound of a heavy object falling in water
14 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES

3.3 Adverbial ideophones

The most common form of ideophone in Mwaghavul is the adverbial
which corresponds broadly with the ontophones characterised in Table 1.
These are usually the classic reduplicated adverbials and describe motion,
behaviour or experience. Table 7 shows the list of those so far recorded;

Table 7. Adverbials
Mwaghavul English Example sentence
abetabet immediately a sò abetabet kus a tàng làà ni wurí ɗi
you go at once and find the boy
bìcìcìt, bùcìcìt very wide (space, piece kom milom ni kaam bùcìcìt
of cloth) The leaves of the cocoyam are very
wide
cukcur describes being very kòòk pughal ni doghon shang mɨghɨn
excited màt funu no zam har ni kàá wùrá
cukcur
yesterday our old woman danced the
Pughal dance so much that she became
very excited cukcur
cwètcwèt describes walking a mwaan mmun cwètcwèt
quickly lit. walk quickly for us, i.e. Hurry up!
ɗemɗem describes a compulsive làà sɨ ɗemɗem zam
desire for meat and This child desires meat excessively
other things
ɗìɓ làkɗìɓ làk describes s.o. who talks wurí kàt pòò ɗìɓ làkɗìɓ làk
too fast and who rep- he speaks too fast without thinking
lies without thinking
d gh r kd gh r k describes how a lazy sèèr sɨ wùríí mwaan kaa sɨ d gh r k-
person walks d gh r k
see that lazy man walking d gh r k-
d gh r k
ɗíisɨzòk hidden shàghàl fɨna ni a ɗíisɨzòk
my money is hidden
ɗik ɗik repeatedly, again and a kàt pòò nkaa ni ɗik ɗik
again you talk about it repeatedly
gàrmàs describes a very large mú kár wurí, ɓe wurí jì ɗár sɨ gàrmàs
person who stands in a we incited him and he stood there
challenging posture gàrmàs
gashɓáng describes a light person wùrá sham pal gashɓáng
falling to the ground she [a light person] fell on her back
g d ɓìsg d ɓìs describes how a very mee lwaa kɨ sham sɨ g d ɓìsg d ɓìs
large person or animal a big animal is dragging itself along
walks with a sluggish over there
movement
gìdìrìkgìdìrìk describes how a lazy dialect version of d gh r kd gh r k
person walks
 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES 15
Mwaghavul English Example sentence
g jìnàng- describes how a crab kwàng kíɓél ni kɨ mwaan sòr sɨ
g jìnàng walks sideways and g jìnàngg jìnàng
tentatively that crab over there is walking
g jìnàngg jìnàng
g n nòn describes s.o. with a aghas kɨ gunan ni kɨ liyoon kyes kú
mouth with few teeth pòò ni ɗéé g n nòn
the old man has lost almost all his
teeth and his mouth is now just empty,
g n nòn
g n nòn describes s.o. with d gyók pal sham meen kɨpák g n nòn
superficial wounds on the delinquent child fell and wounded
the skin, e.g. after the side of his face g n nòn
falling on gravel
g shìshash describes struggling mpè ɗés kɨ léé ni ɗéé mó g shìshash kɨ
with a load ni ɗák
due to the size of the load, they had to
struggle g shìshash to lift it
g shìshash describes how people mó yak shak g shìshash g shìshash
hold each other when They held on to each other g shìshash-
fighting g shìshash
g shìshash- describes difficult to mó aasí g shìshash-g shìshash
g shìshash control like a violent they are very violent
mad person.
g t tàt describes scrambling out jép mó swa put g t tàt ndang wát mó
of a house, or struggling they scrambled out, g t tàt, in pursuit
to climb a hill of the thieves
g t tàt describes s.o. who is wurí ɓál aasí g t tàt
strong and will not he is very strong and difficult to calm
yield easily down
gòkshiròk describes a person or as disi ni yém nɗin biise kuni ɗéé sɨ
animal that is very thin gòkshiròk
the dog has not been fed for some time,
and it is looking emaciated, gòkshiròk
gòkshiròk describes s.o. who is nɨghɨn màt ɗíísí wùrá ɗéé sɨ gòkshiròk
very old and worn out kaa gok tìp sɨ
the old woman looked worn out like án
old jute bag
gùghùtùk suddenly, unexpectedly wàghà jì mmun a gùghùtùk
you have come to us unexpectedly
gùsmètgùsmèt describes sluggish dee wurí kɨ mwaan aase gùsmètgùsmèt
movement of a well- [as a result of over-eating] he now
fed person or animal walks sluggishly gùsmètgùsmèt
gùtùtùt describes people or randong mó ɗel pwat nkuut long
animals rushing out gùtùtùt
from somewhere the cows came out of the pen gùtùtùt
16 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES
Mwaghavul English Example sentence
gwíshɓ r ng imitates a short person aa kam a we kɨsɨ gwíshɓ r ng
walking along and gwíshɓ r ng ye?
falling who are you imitating, that walks
gwíshɓ r ng gwíshɓ r ng?
gwíshɓ r ng describes how a short rep gwar si sham pal gwíshɓ r ng
person falls the small person fell down gwíshɓ r ng
gwíshgwísh describes how a very rèp màt sɨ wùráá sò sɨ gwíshgwísh
short person walks there goes the short woman walking
gwíshgwísh
hàghàphàghàp describes walking in kom pee ɗii fii kɨ túng pee hàghàphàghàp
dry leaves dry leaves are making hàghàphàghàp
when moved by the wind
hámhóghósh describes s.o. with dry, shii kɨ nìgh n màt fúú ni fès ɓàk aase
cracked feet hámhóghósh
your old woman’s feet have cracked so
much they are hámhóghósh
hàthàt describes struggling to nyèm ɗák ni o cìn a hàthàt ɗang mó
do s.t. kyes ɗák ni
the workers had to really struggle in
order to finish the work
h làkh làk describes s.t. shiny tájì yi pwos mwòòr cáán pee kás, ji yi
reflecting the sun mɨlep h làkh làk
do not use bleaching cream otherwise
you will shine artificially
jéghérék- describes appearing or doghon wán náá me yèr sham ɗel
jéghérék moving like a big bird jéghérékjéghérék
with long neck as if it I saw a bird with long neck moving
is about to break around, tossing itself here and there
jéghérékjéghérék
jirakjirak describes s.t. scattered jép ni mó jirak máár ni a jirakjirak
around like maize when children move here and there in
grains the farm they do it jirakjirak
jìrèngjìrèng describes the way a tall reep waazaa wuraa sham sɨ jìrèng-
person moves jìrèng
there comes the [tall] girl who plays
the metal rattle for velang, walking
jìrèngjìrèng
jwèèt intensifies verbs of
tightening esp. applied
things tied in a bundle
k ndingding describes being mwòòr funu nii kyes k ndingding
finished completely our oil is completely finished k nding-
ding

k rk r describes s.t. going nyer nii sò sɨ k rk r kɨ pòò fùng ni

straight ahead the bird is flying straight towards the
window
 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES 17
Mwaghavul English Example sentence
k rk r describes s.t. going wurí pùs pas ni sò k rk r kɨ nyer ni
straight at s.t. he shot the arrow straight at the bird
k shk sh describes bursting into wùrá ji ɗel sò ɓe mó piin shwar
laughter k shk sh
she walked by and they burst out
laughing k shk sh. N.B. you use a
singular verb as they all burst out
laughing at the same time
k shk sh describes breaking tughul ni sham táá ɓe ni pyan k shk sh
apart and smashing, the pot fell and it broke k shk sh [the
also describes s.t. that verb is plural because it breaks into
is completely scattered many pieces]
or spoilt
kudùnùng protruding like a cow kudùnùng kɨ tughus kaa randong si
hump protruding like the hump of a cow
kudùnùng- describes the way a níí ni sù sò nd g n shi yeep mó
kudùnùng heavy person or animal kudùnùngkudùnùng
runs the elephant ran into the trees, kudùnùng...
kùràsh describes when s.o. kaa ɗi mó ɗoo àm nkaa làà ni ɓe wurí
gets up suddenly sham yághál ɗak kùràsh
when they poured water on the boy he
got up suddenly
kwààk describes s.t that mó cɨghɨr sak máár ni kyes kwààk
finishes very quickly or they finished farming kwààk
vanishes
leelee bit by bit, in small
increments
nɗághám- describes how s.o. wurí kàt pòò nɗághámnɗághám nkaa
nɗághám grumbles or murmurs shaar fɨri
he speaks grumblingly against his
friend
nd rend re properly, correctly, wùrá cèt gwóm mwòòr ni nd re nd re
well she cooked the oily food correctly
yit kɨ ngunan ni moo náá pee nd re
nd re
the eyes of the old man see very well
nfúmvúm blindly, blindfolded doghon, ɗyéél páá péé ni ku mó swa
pwat nfúmvúm
yesterday, smoke covered the place, so
they had to run out blinded
ngaangaa for a very long time, ba mìsh kághám ni wùrín ntong ɗi a
for ever and ever ngaangaa kás
the chief will not live for ever
ntíítntíít describes things that mó ji wul a ntíítntíít
are very similar or at they arrived at exactly the same time
the same time
18 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES
Mwaghavul English Example sentence
plotplot describes how the flesh mó téér dùm mílóm ku ni fes ret pun
of a cocoyam pops out plotplot
of the skin they cooked the cocoyam overnight so
that it was so good [soft] it popped out
plotplot
ròòjòròòjò describes s.t. very tall mee lwaa yil kɨ sò sɨ ròòjòròòjò
a really tall animal is moving over
there
rùskùl describes a very fat wùrá doghon mét táá rùskùl
person falling down yesterday, she fell down on her side
sideways ruskul!
rùtùtùt describes hasty mó ɗel pwat rùtùtùt ɓut kɨɨr muut
movement of animals, they rushed out, rùtùtùt, as a result of
rushing in somewhere fear
rùtùtùt describes hasty long ni mó ɗel pwat ɗak rùtùtùt
movement of animals, the animals rushed out in a disorderly
rushing in somewhere manner, rùtùtùt
sàlmùtàt describes a very lazy wurí mét tong sɨ sàlmùtàt
person, sitting there he sits there, sàlmùtàt
almost helpless
shìdààrshìdààr daily, every day ni rét kú wu se yil Naan shìdààrshìdààr
it is good for you to worship God
every day
shìlúshìlú describes moving from nyèm ɗák yen mó nkaa cín yen ni a
house to house shìlúshìlú
the health workers are treating people
in every house
shìnishìni different, variety of a pèè ɗyik ni ɓe mó ji kɨ mbìì sé mó
shìnishìni
at the wedding, they brought different
varieties of food
shìpeeshìpee describes moving from nyèm sòr ndang Naan no kɨ mwaan sat
place to place pòò Naan ní ngùrùm mó a shìpee-
shìpee
Christians go around preaching to
people from place to place
shìyílshìyíl describes moving from gùrùm mó shìyílshìyíl kɨ ár bilip nyèm
one country to another sél furu mó
or from one place to people in different countries have
another different ways of electing their leaders
twéttwét first, only one, singled a wùrá shee ji nlú kɨ Naan ni gùrùm
out, unique mó twéttwét
she was the first to come to church
before all the others
vwàmvwam describes scrambling jép mó bwot vwàmvwam káá rèp sé ɗi
for things without mó cín mó
being orderly children scrambled vwàmvwam for the
small amount of food they were given
 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES 19
Mwaghavul English Example sentence
wàshwàsh describes performing a màt ɗii sɨ wuraa cìn mbìì wàshwàsh
task energetically this woman does her tasks energetically
wéél slim, slender, thin
wéélwéél very thin mó kɨ tàng a ngo ɗi wéélwéél mpe táá
lúng
they look for a very slim person to swim
wèètwèèt describes s.t. that cf. kwàà
finishes very quickly or
vanishes
wúrwúr straight without turning o ceen láá hɨɨ fina ni ɓe ni sù sòr tùlú
wúrwúr
they drove away my goat and it ran
straight to the house
wùrwùr describes preparing nɨghɨn màt ni wùrá wùrwùr a ár sòr
oneself kasuwa
the old woman prepared herself to get
on road to the market
yàlpàtyàlpàt describes s.t. hanging mee kɨ sham ɗel mpèè si kɨ kom
loose or flapping like a yàlpàtyàlpàt
curtain a certain goat just passed down here
with its ear hanging yàlpàtyàlpàt
yángyáng extremely well ɗi yèm fina wurí gyar man tààn veláng
ni yángyáng
my son knows how to blow velang
extremely well
yingyíng describes s.o. who is Koghorong làà yingyíng4 màng ghà
mad put ɓwot mmo shwar
Koghorong [a hero] has given birth to
an insane person, which makes him
become a laughing-stock
yìngyìng describes s.o. who is gyet mó kwár lop wurí mákáránta a
mentally retarded, mpe yìngyìng fɨri ni
mental retardation last year they refused to send him to
school because of his mental retar-
dation
zángzáng describes s.t. straight màt ni wùrá man ɓwàghàt yóghóm
and tight zángzáng
the woman knows how to tie firewood
zángzáng
zéénzèèn truly a sát án a zéénzèèn, a we cin wát
niyee?
tell me truly, who committed the theft?
zhìrìkzhìrìk, describes a person or làà tum ni yághál mɨrep shi rét nyit
jìrìkjìrìk animal who jumps zhìrìkzhìrìk
from a height to the the child jumped up and down with
ground without fear excitement zhìrìkzhìrìk

4. A proverbial expression.
20 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES
Mwaghavul English Example sentence
zòkmònzòkmòn describes s.o. who has wurí mwaan ndín nnaashwoop
done s.t. to be ashamed zòkmònzòkmòn
of but shows no shame he walks around without shame
in fact
zonzón describes s.o. who a zonzón a sò ku mó tù ghà ɗi ɗak
follows another person you are following them zonzón and
thoughtlessly or they are going to kill you
without taking care
zònzòn to walk aimlessly, mó lop wùrá mpe séét kóm ɓe wùrá
foolishly wét zònzòn ɗi kasuwa ni
they send her to buy groundnuts and
she wandered about aimlessly in the
market
zònzòn to go ahead without wán sát ǹwùrí nne món ǹtù wurí ɓe
paying attention to wurí sát a nso ɗak zònzòn
what is happening I told him they were going to kill him,
but he kept on going zònzòn
zònzòn naa wùrii sò sɨ zònzòn
there he goes zònzòn

4. Other expressives
4.1 Tastes and smells
Some languages in this region have elaborate ophresiological vocabulary
to describe smells, for example Tarok (Blench & Longtau 1995).
Mwaghavul is quite restricted in this respect, apparently having just three
words, each of which functions in a slightly different syntactic slot.
Mwaghavul has a general verb ɗu ‘to smell’, which can also function as a
noun. It also has the noun fwààp ‘characteristic odour, smell’ which is
usually the head noun in a sentence. Thus,

fwààp pèl ɗíísí ni a mu ǹlaaghɨr the smell of the flower is that of Plateau berry

Table 8 shows the three terms:

Table 8. Odour terms

Mw. Gloss Example sentence
càf describes a pungent odour gòghor nfùt ni ɗu aasí càf
the grass sp. its smell is pungent
tàghàs to have a bad taste, bad smell léé ɗíís ni tàghàs nzutur
this cloth, it smells of bedbugs
v r very bad smell tughun ni ɗu v r
the pit has a very bad smell
Càf resembles an adjectival ideophone and indeed is also a colour
intensifier for ‘red’ (Table 10). Tàghàs is a verb followed by a nominal
 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES 21
complement, and v r fills an adverbial slot after the verb ɗu. Unlike Tarok
where these terms fill a standard syntactic slot, Mwaghavul seems to have
developed only a haphazardly constructed repertoire.
4.2 Colours and colour intensifiers
Mwaghavul has four stative verbs marking the three basic colour terms.
Three of them have extended meanings representing luck or importance, as
shown in Table 9:

Table 9. Stative verbs for colour and their extended meaning

Mwaghavul Colour Symbolism
nààt to be red to be serious (issue/matter)
pyáá to be white, fair to be lucky
rap to be black, dirty, dark (complexion) to be unlucky
tùp to be black colour, dark, obscure —

Each of the three basic colour terms has an intensifier, which follows the
verb, like an adverb. However, no intensifier has been recorded for rap,
although that is the verb that participates in colour symbolism as shown in
Table 9. Table 10 shows these colour intensifiers:

Table 10. Colour intensifiers

Mwaghavul Colour Intensifies Example, comment
càf extremely red nààt also used to describe an intense odour
bítbít very black tùp fwaat ni a tùp bítbít
the cloth is very black
péngpéng extremely white pyáá
pétpét extremely white pyáá

Apart from the core colour terms, Mwaghavul adopts nouns or noun
phrases to describe the colour of persons or animals, above all horses, which
have a high cultural value (Table 11). The table shows the application of
these terms and their probable etymology. All of these are used in equative
sentences with the copula aasí.
Table 11. Non-standard colour terms
Mwaghavul Colour Etymology
àm mès yellow colour water of locust bean powder
bèèn mwòòr light brown complexion of person lit. ‘gourd oil’
ndúmoghol colour of a horse grasshopper sp.
ngármoghol colour of horse (reddish/brown) ? grasshopper sp.
njwèè colour of reddish-brown horse ?
shiit mwòòr dark brown colour of animals lit. ‘pounding oil’
(especially goats)
vuun foggy, cloudy, ash colour horse fungus sp.
22 MWAGHAVUL EXPRESSIVES

5. Conclusions
Mwaghavul has an elaborate array of expressive terms, both covering the
standard field of ideophones and also including odour and colour terms, as
well as body epithets. Capturing their syntactic function is often problematic
as they seem to occur in a variety of pragmatic contexts. In part this is
because the distinction between noun and verb is not well established in
Mwaghavul, with many CV(C) lexemes apparently occupying multiple slots.
Expressives go well beyond onomatopoeic ideophones into a wide range of
experiential concepts. Clearly these have phonaesthetic component for
speakers, which remains to be fully characterised. This paper suggests that
this is a rich field in the study of African languages, which research has
hardly begun to investigate.
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