Kingdom of Mankon: Aspects of History, Language, Culture, Flora and Fauna

Content

 v Content Mankon in Cameroon --------------------------------------------------------- ii Tables and Figures ------------------------------------------------------------xi Signs and sounds used----------------------------------------------------- xiii Signs --------------------------------------------------------------------- xiii Mankon sounds compared to English sounds ------------------ xiv Preface ------------------------------------------------------------------------- xix Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------- xxv Chapter One: Mankon geographical location and history 1.1. Origin of the word ‘Mankon’-------------------------------------------- 1 1.2. Geographical setting ---------------------------------------------------- 2 1.3. Origin and migration of the people ----------------------------------- 4 1.4. The Mankon confederacy -------------------------------------------- 12 1.5. Mankon colonial contacts--------------------------------------------- 13 1.6. Migrant settlers in Mankon ------------------------------------------- 17 Chapter Two: Mankon political, economic and social structure 2.1. Mankon traditional rule------------------------------------------------ 21 2.2. Enstoolment-------------------------------------------------------------- 24 2.3. Economy------------------------------------------------------------------ 26 2.4. Social aspect ------------------------------------------------------------ 34 2.5. Religion ------------------------------------------------------------------- 36 2.5.1. A ritual: From Ala’nkyi to Samn --------------------------- 37 2.5.2. A brief history of Ala’nkyi ------------------------------- 37 2.5.3. The Nkyìmali ----------------------------------------------- 39 2.5.4. Back on the hill ---------------------------------------------- 39 2.5.5. After Ala’nkyi------------------------------------------------- 40 2.5.6. The Musongong rite------------------------------------------- 41 2.5.7. The Dance proper --------------------------------------------- 44 2.6. The Mankon language --------------------------------------------- 46  vi Chapter Three: M Mankon phonology 3.1. Phonetics ----------------------------------------------------------------- 49 3.1.1. Identification and classification of sounds --------------- 50 3.1.2. Description of sounds----------------------------------------- 57 3.1.3. Position of sound occurrence in a word------------------ 62 3.1.4. Comments------------------------------------------------------- 64 3.1.5. Mankon alphabet ---------------------------------------------- 65 3.2. Distinctive features: phonemes ------------------------------------- 66 3.3. Phonemes vs. Allophones-------------------------------------------- 72 3.4. Assimilation, elision and deletion ----------------------------------- 74 3.5. A review of sound distributions-------------------------------------- 76 3.5.1 C1 and C2 consonants ----------------------------------------- 78 3.5.2. Vowels------------------------------------------------------------ 86 3.6. Vowel elision and deletion-------------------------------------------- 91 3.6.1. Elision ------------------------------------------------------------ 92 3.6.2. Deletion ---------------------------------------------------------- 92 3.7. Some Mankon morphophonemic rules---------------------------- 96 3.7.1. Rules concerning nouns ------------------------------------- 96 3.7.2. Rules concerning verbs -------------------------------------- 98 3.8. Reduplication -----------------------------------------------------------102 3.9. Morphological function of Mankon reduplicants----------------106 3.10. Mankon phonotactics -----------------------------------------------108 3.10.1. The concept of phonotactics -----------------------------108 3.10.2. Mankon syllabic structure ---------------------------------111 3.11. Mankon tonology-----------------------------------------------------112 3.11.1. Level tones ---------------------------------------------------113 3.11.2. Grammatical tones------------------------------------------114 3.11.3. Super high tones --------------------------------------------114 3.11.4. Contour tones------------------------------------------------115 3.11.5. Some uses of tone------------------------------------------121 3.12. Autosegmental phonology -----------------------------------------122  vii Chapter Four: Mankon orthography 4.1. Introduction--------------------------------------------------------------131 4.2. Orthographic principles ----------------------------------------------132 4.3. Mankon tone orthography -------------------------------------------137 4.4. Ways of limiting tone marking in Mankon------------------------146 4.5. Orthographic Depth and Grain Size Theory --------------------150 Chapter Five: Morphology 5.1. The notion of morphology -------------------------------------------155 5.1.1. Derivational morpheme -------------------------------------155 5.1.2 Inflectional morpheme/declension-------------------------156 5.1.3. Free morpheme -----------------------------------------------156 5.1.4. Bound morpheme---------------------------------------------156 5.1.5. Lexical morpheme--------------------------------------------157 5.1.6. Functional morpheme ---------------------------------------157 5.1.7. Affixation --------------------------------------------------------158 5.2. Word formation---------------------------------------------------------159 5.2.1. Through loaning/borrowing---------------------------------160 5.2.2. Through compounding --------------------------------------161 5.2.3. Through affixation --------------------------------------------163 5.3. Parts of speech/word classes --------------------------------------166 5.3.1. Nouns (including demonstratives and plurals)---------166 5.3.2. Quantifiers------------------------------------------------------180 5.3.3. Partitives --------------------------------------------------------182 5.3.4. Articles ----------------------------------------------------------183 5.3.5. Quantity: every, all, the whole -----------------------------185 5.3.6. Quantity: small, a little ---------------------------------------185 5.3.7. Quantity: much, a lot of, plenty of ------------------------185 5.3.8. Quantity: enough ---------------------------------------------186 5.3.9. Quantity (negation: no/nothing) ---------------------------186 5.4. Noun classes and pronouns ----------------------------------------187 5.5. Pronouns ----------------------------------------------------------------188 5.6. Noun agreement with adjectives-----------------------------------198 5.7. Associative or genitive constructions -----------------------------200 5.7.1. Singular associative markers ------------------------------202 5.7.2. Plural associative markers ---------------------------------204 5.8. Verbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------206 5.9. Adverbs ------------------------------------------------------------------211  viii 5.10. Preposition-------------------------------------------------------------212 5.11. Negation ---------------------------------------------------------------213 5.12. Only ---------------------------------------------------------------------214 5.13. Mood--------------------------------------------------------------------215 5.14. What/Which -----------------------------------------------------------215 5.15. Colours -----------------------------------------------------------------216 Chapter Six: The proverb in Mankon 6.1. Purpose of study-------------------------------------------------------219 6.2. Methodology, data collection, and analysis ---------------------220 6.2.1. Methodology----------------------------------------------------------220 6.2.2 Data analysis----------------------------------------------------------221 6.3. Review of literature----------------------------------------------------221 6.4. Origin and meaning of the Mankon ‘proverb’ -------------------225 6.5. Semantic structural analysis of the proverbs according to typology ------------------------------------------------230 6.5.1. Instructive/Declarative; Informative/Advisory types --231 6.5.2. Curse types ----------------------------------------------------237 6.5.3. Rhetorical types-----------------------------------------------239 6.5.4. Retributive types ----------------------------------------------240 6.5.5. Descriptive types----------------------------------------------241 6.5.6. Remunerative types------------------------------------------242 6.5.7. Personificative types-----------------------------------------243 6...