2014
178 pp.
2 maps, 28 colour photos, 16 drawings, 1 diagram
Text language: English
Bure is a West Chadic language spoken in the village of Bure (Kirfi Local Government Area) in Bauchi State, Nigeria and in small settlements nearby. As consequence of the pressure exerted by Hausa, the number of Bure speakers have been decreasing dramatically over the last few decades. Out of a population of about 500 souls, today the speakers of Bure number less than 50. Bure is a critically endangered language on the verge of extinction: the language and the few elders, belonging to the great-grand-parental generation, who can still speak it will pass away together. The group is not represented in media, nor is the language, and Bure is seldom used in everyday linguistic exchange even by its few speakers.
Identified as a Bole-Tangale language belonging to the Bole sub-group by Rudolf Leger during a survey of the Gongola river area in the 1980s, Bure shares many grammatical and lexical features with the neighbour languages Kirfi and Deno. The language is largely undocumented, and no overall grammatical description has ever been produced.
This book aims at providing a socio-linguistic and grammatical sketch of Bure and is meant to be the first comprehensive approach of the language. The description covers the following grammatical aspects: phonology, nominal morphology, pronominal system, verbal system, syntax, and semantic themes. The descriptive section is preceded by a sociolinguistic profile of the language. The sketch also includes two texts with interlinear analysis and a Bure-Hausa-English vocabulary.
Under these links you will find the proceedings volumes of the BICCL Biennial International Colloquia on the Chadic Languages, strong>publications of the author and descriptions of further Nigerian languages from various language families:
