A Grammar of Ma'di (review)

Blackings and Fabb have written a very interesting and useful grammar of Ma’di, a Central Sudanic language of northern Uganda and southern Sudan. Matti Miestamo in a LinguistList review (LinguistList 14.3264, November 28, 2003) rightly calls it a reference grammar, but it is also a practical grammar. It is written by linguists and based on good analysis, but it describes in understandable language the way Ma’di people speak. It could be the basis of a course in spoken Ma’di, or a student could go straight to it for answers to questions and examples for practice. It is packed with examples, owing to the fact that B is a native speaker of Ma’di and a linguist.

Following a broad introduction to the Ma’di people and language, B&F give an overview of the language from phonetics to sentence structure. Then they take up each part in greater detail from the phonology of ATR vowel harmony and tone to the syntax of three different clause types and three subject pronoun sets. In the midst of much clear description, parts read like a puzzle with solutions still in question. For example, what previous linguists described as two word orders—SVO for perfective and SOV for imperfective—B&F reject in favor of uninflected verbs expressing past tense, inflected verbs expressing nonpast, and a ‘directive’ type used in commands, prohibitions, and wishes. This last type has the SVO order of the uninflected clause, but resembles the inflected verb type if one assumes that its low-tone prefix floated back onto the subject pronouns at some point. To the outsider, the uninflected verbs appear to be the most inflected, having a full set of subject pronouns bound like single-vowel prefixes, but described as ‘short’ pronouns. These are the most grammaticalized pronouns, while the subjects of the other types can be separated from their verbs or cliticized to them. Independent ‘nonsubject’ pronouns as well as other noun phrases that precede what the authors call the ‘true pronominal subjects’ are called ‘adjoined subjects’.

Ma’di grammar has a variety of particle-sized complexities as well. For example, definite markers, specific markers, and focus markers can occur in different positions and combinations, resulting in different meanings or subtle nuances of meaning. B can discuss these details from the vantage point of native-speaker insight as well as on the basis of analysis and acknowledges the many interpretations that the grammar allows which can only be disambiguated in discourse or in a wider context.

The grammar of Ma’di is well covered in this book with descriptions of the phonology and morphology, word classes, noun and postposition phrases, clausal complements and their verbs, modals and negations, adverbials, focus, and questions. This volume is invaluable for its descriptions of grammatical differences among the three main dialects. Finally, there is a lexicon containing a word list and special lexical classes of verbs, nouns, and color adjectives. There are four interlinearized texts, references, and an index.