Jukun of Wukari and Jukun of Takum

- kh

3» Verbs, Verb Phrases, and Pronouns*

3.0. A verb stem is a stem which may he used with tjhe
bound morpheme /ri/ before it, or /vk/ after it, or with .
certain other bound morphemes described in this section. A
verb phrase is a... series of two or more verb stems with a
single subject. A verbal construction is the use. of a verb
stem or phrase with one or more bound morphemes which may be
termed "aspect particles". A verbal sentence-is a verbal
construction used as a command or used with a subject, noun
or pronoun. It is convenient to dovetail the description of
pronouns with that of verbs, -since pronoun .forms other than
posse-ssives (for which see 2.6 above) are used almost exclu-
sively with verbs.

3.1. Independent, subject, and object pronouns are
basic to several verbal constructions, and to other pronoun
forms to be introduced later.

3.1.1. Independent pronouns may be used in isolation
with an emphatic demonstrative force. They may also be used
before verbs as emphatic subjects. For the use of at least
two of them before nouns, see 2.10 above. The following forms
are identical for the two dialects in general. However, one
Wukari informant usually says /gfx/ for /'kh/ in rapid speech;

- 45 "

he also substitutes /g/ for /k/ in many other common words
such as locatives and adverbs.

Independen t Subject Independent Subject

l.s. /W /m/ l.pl. /ai/ ^ /i/
2.s. /W /u/ 2. pi. y&ii/ . /nl/
3 • s . /&&/ Aft/ 3 . Pi . /fib*/ A*/

These subject pronouns are used before verb stems except
as opecif ied for some aspects below. The third person pronoun-
may be used after a noun subject for emphasis or clarity.

3.1.2. Object pronouns are used after verb stems, as
noun subjects also are. They are identical in^fornj with the
subject pronouns except that in Wukari mid tone is replaced
by mid to low falling (/ku, i, ni, bb/) at the end of a
sentence. Before an object pronoun with low tone (/m, u/) 9
mid tone^ in a verb stem changes to high. For example:
Takum Wufcarl

/yk kft/ /yi ku/ 'give (it) to him 1
/yd m/ . /y^ m / 'give (it) to me'.

/sk zh b6/ /ts4 za b&/ 'help them'
/kft sk za u?/ Aft tsa za u?/ 'Did he help you? f

3.1.3. Verbs that usually take an object are sometimes
used without an object where the third person singluar pronoun
object might be expected; the translation T it f is usually

- kS - .

required:

Takum Wukari

/ze bl/ /nde bi/ 'bring it'; lit., 'take come'

cf # /zc zape bi/ /nde dyape t>i/ f "bring water'

/yd m/ /yi m/ 'give it to me'

cf. /yd m fyekS/ /yl m fyekg/ 'give me some peanots'

3.1»U» As illustrated in the last sentence above, a
pronoun object may be used before a noun object. However,
this is common only when the noun object is a single word.
The following construction is used for longer objects;

Takum Wuftari

/ze kiina 'pina yd »/ /nde kwf pyina yl m/ f give me two

knives 1

JUKUN of WUKARI
and

JUEUN of TAKUM

William B. Welmers

Occasional Publication No. 16

Institute of African Studies
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
1968