MANUAL IX
Ozo·mekuri Ndimele (Ed.)
Co-ordinated by
Dr. Tony Enyia
PUBLISHED BY:
N.IGERIAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL 2a~~
69
!bani Orthography p~AN1
Orthography
Isaac Eyi Ngulube (PhD) English Department, University of Port Harcourt E-mail:
[email protected] Mobile: 08075220804 1.0 INTRODUCTION The knock-on effect of the recent workshop held on 17 September 2009 at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology by the Rivers Readers Project in collaboration with the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council was that efforts should be made by the stakeholders to develop Jl;mnt orthography and for the Rivers Readers Project to secure the approval of the orthography. The Jl;ian.i. Language Committee was charged with the responsibility of producing the draft copy of the Jl;iant orthography under the supervision of Dr Isaac Eyi Ngulube to be considered at a joint meeting between the Jl;>ant people and the Rivers Readers Project. According to the 1963 census, there were 26, 879 J9ant in Bonny District, and 35, 458 in Opobo. The ancient city of Bonny is remarkably unique in its history of being a major trading post for the palm oil and later the slave trade. Its location at the vantage position on the Bonny River close to the Atlantic Ocean meant that European colonial and trading powers had easy access to the trading hub. This early historical vantage position has over the years given way to the notable role of Bonny as leading crude oil tenninal in Nigeria and indeed in the west Arrican sub-region. This makes Bonny one of the major trading centres of repute to the Nigerian nation in general and the Niger Delta region in particular (Enyia, 2006: 4, mss). This is made even more prominent by the siting of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company in Bonny, thus making the study of the Jl;>ant language an urgent necessity in order to have a better understanding of the socio-cultural dimensions of the H>ant nation and people. This paper focuses on the JJ?ant people, namely: Bonny and Opobo kingdoms. Both kingdoms were originally of one stock until the secession of Opobo in 1870 led by King Jaja. Bonny is the traditional and administrative headquarters of Bonny Local Government Area and the ]]?ant nation. Opobo is the capital of the Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area of Rivers State. Both Bonny and Opobo are located within the southern coastal plain of the Niger Delta. It is a seaport with humid surroundings, a lot of creeks and rivers and it occupies a strategic location at the estuary close to the Atlantic Ocean - a vantage position and hub for water-borne overseas trading.
70
lbani Orthography
1.1 ETHNOGRAPHIC INFORMATION Speculation has it that the glant originated from Jj9 in the Central Niger Delta. They journeyed from their primordial homeland because of 'devastating civil war'. Prominent men who led the migration were Opuamakuba, his brother Alagbariye and Asikunuma 'alias Okpara Asimini'. Alagoa and Fombo ( 1972: 3) suggested that these leaders took 'their families and followers through the Central Delta northwards, and later, south-eastwards through Ndoki area'. Some of the men stayed behind at Okoloma, Azuogu or Oruama, and Osobie all in the Azumini or Imo River Valley. Okpara Ndoli is said to have joined the migrants at this point. It is also reported that Prince Edimini, great grandson of Opuamakuba, was born here. It is from Ndoki that they journeyed into the Ogoni area stopping only ' at the site of Opuoko town'. Because the Ogoni people were hostile, they moved southwards into the basin of Essene Creek, Otumo (a place now called Whydah near Egwanga in Opobo District (Alagoa, et al. 1972: 3)). 'Alagbariye was a hunter who ranged far and wide in the whole region'. He, by chance, came upon the site of Bonny town and saw many birds, Okolo (Curlew). He returned to report to Opuamakuba. They decided to 'leave their mainland site and return to a delta site'. It was at Orupiri they first settled (about a mile from Bonny town). They eventually made it to B01my town, which they named Okoloama, which means curlew town. Speculation has it that at this time the Ijo peoples of Tombia were leaving near the site of Finima, and the Abalama were at the place now called Abalamabie (Alagoa, et al. 1972: 3). The name Bonny, which was originally J9ant, was corrupted by the Europeans. The language of the people is also known as J9ant . The lgbo traders, who came from the hinterland to do business with the Bonny people, corrupted it to Ubani. The original name of Okoloama is replaced by the name Bonny. 1.2 GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION J9ant is spoken in. Bonny and Opobo. Geographically, Bonny lies within 1 1 32°.15 Sand 24°.32 E. Opobo, on the other hand, has two distinct entries in the Macmillan Nigeria Atlas; Opobo, Rivers is within 4°.35 1 N and 7°.34 'E, while Opobo, Akwa-Iborn is within 4°.38 'N and 7°.33 'E. Bonny is about 46 nautical miles from Okrika in the Niger Delta area of southern Nigeria. Hlant is spoken in an area that neighbours several different communities whose boundaries oft en reflect ethnic cum linguistic groupings. Its immediate territory is bounded by the neighbouring kingdoms of Elem Kalabari to the west and northwest, and Okrika to the northeast. To the east were the Andoni who have had long historical
71
!bani Orthography
contacts with Bonny. The inhabitants of the other towns and villages of the kingdom belong to an Ijo sub-tribe or ibe. They therefore refer to themselves collectively as J9ani. Their dialect of Ijo is also Jl;mni (Alagoa, et al., 1971: viii). The Opobo landmass is similar to the Bonny landmass from where they originated. Opobo, like Bonny, is an Island. A few other islands like Queenstown, Minima and K.alaibiama form part of Opobo kingdom. Because of the nature of the secession, which involved some Bonny chiefs, some of the villages in Bonny are replicated in Opobo. The principal occupation of the JJ;>ani speakers is fishing, trading and fanning. Its vegetation, like the Oluika, is the mangrove forest. Ibigoni Allison (n.d : 136) observes that: Bonny Kingdom consist of over forty-eight villages that extent through west and north of New Calabar River, Nmaminatoru up to · the Isiokpo confluence Igirabie known as Alakikiagha. From Isiokpo confluence to the right, it follows with the tidal flow of Bonny River, extending to northeast to Bodo Creeks and bursting into Sara Bipi organic regions. Opobo, on the other hand, has over fourteen villages and its domiciled in the east flank through_ Asaramatoru to the Andoni River via Strongface and Ikuru Creeks that make a confluence at Imo River.
1.3 GENETIC AFFILIATION The closest linguistic relatives to Jl?ant are r i.k~, Kala9ar t. and Nk9n;:. The linguistic classification of Jl;mni dates back to Greenberg (1963) who
Ki
grouped the Jj 9 (Ijaw} languages as Kwa.
But, Williamson (1968) classified
Kala9ar i, Nk9r9 and Okrika as southeast Jj 9. Williamson (1976: 137) observes that: The language group most typically associated with the [Rivers] State is the Jj 9 (Ijaw) group. This is commonly regarded as a single language, and its speakers regard its various fonns as merely dialectal differences. My own research, however, leads me to consider it as a group of four closely related languages , as follows: Eastern Delta /Jq. This name has been suggested by C.E.W. Jenewari for a group of mutually intelligible dialects,
!bani Orthography
72
which have no common name. Three dialects in the Rivers State belong to this language: Okrika, Kalabar i and Ibani. 0
0
0
0
0
Recent classification of these languages groups them as ljoid, Bcnuc-Congo within the Niger-Congo phylum. 1.4 HISTORY OF THE ORTHOGRAPHY Before 1950, the study of Jl?ant was totally neglected. This is perhaps because there were no readers in Jl?ant for the schools. The consequence is a total lack of interest and neglect of the language. It is on this note that the contribution of Adad9nye F9m99 is very significant. Adad9nye F9m}?9's (1950) /l;>anj bjbj daw9 dir i and its adjunct publication Par j go dir i are pioneer efforts designed to encourage the study ofJ}?ant. In 1971, Adad9nye F9m}?9 translated and published the/l;>anj Teghe na nume diri, while in 1972, Adad9nyc F9m}?9 wrote and published A chronicle of grand Bonny. Rev. Ibigoni T. A. T Allison compiled and published the first/qanj dictionary. The J9an~ Translation Committee, which was set up in 1970, elected Mr. Johnson T. Hart as secretary. In 1971, Johnson T. Hart published /f?anj go diri under the auspices of the Rivers Readers Project. It is pertinent to point out here that the"' orthography used in all these publications was that devised by Mr. Adad9nyc F9m99. As the forward to the new edition of JIJanj bjbj daw9 di r i elucidates it was professor E.J. Alagoa who first drew Professor Kay Williamson's attention to the book and suggested that it should be revised and republished. It was Mr. Adadt;;mye F9m}?9 who appointed Mr. Johnson T. Hart to work with Professor Kay Williamson on the revision and consequent republication. The orthography, which he devised was therefore extensively revised and brought into line with the recent development in the orthography of ]}?ant and republished by the Rivers Readers Project in conjunction with Rivers State Council for Arts and Culture in 1975. It is this revised and updated orthography that l present below. 1.5 DIACHRONIC VS. SYNCHRONIC ANALYSIS OF SOME SEGMENTS IN g)an~ I begin a detailed consideration of Jl?ant orthography with a discussion on the diachronic and synchronic status of some segments in J9ant. It is hoped that this approach will help clarify some of the later arguments. The voiced bilabial implosive [ 5] orthographically represented as 9 does not occur before the close
73
,,,
!hani Orthographv
front vowel [ i], but it should be regarded as a distinct sound from the voiced bilabial plosive [ b] because both consonantal segments can occur in the environment of other vowels, as in Ex. I: Ex. l ~b~
'altar, shelf' vs. bf bf 'mouth' vs.
J;i~r~ 'case
J;ifpf
'front'
As in other lj oid languages, [ r] is restricted from occurring word-initially m J9an+. Despite this constraint, it is regarded as a phoneme. [ h] occurs only in exclamations. This is included in the new orthography as a marginal phoneme. [ z] is a very rare sound whereas [ j ] is preponderant. The voiceless affricate [ t S ] represented 01ihographically as ch is an older sound in J9an-t; it is recorded in some of the old manuscripts in the language (Gottingen , 1948; S. Koelle, 1954 and K. Willi amson, 1966). Williamson postulates that this segment developed in Eastern Jj 9 from Proto- Jj 9 It I when this occurs before the close [±Back] vowels Ii i u 1JI , as can be seen by contrasting the Nembe and Central Jj 9 forms of these words, where the original /t/ is preserved. 'ch' survives today in these words in the Okrika language but in Kala 9a rt it has undergone a phonological process and is realised as 's '. According to Williamson, J1?an+ seems to stand in an intermediate position; in most cases 'ch' has changed to 's', but in a few words the old 'ch' survives as an archaic pronunciation. In F9m99 (1975), it was given as an alternative to 's'. Besides, the younger generation do not use it; therefore, I suspect that it is rapidly It is also heard dying out. In the current orthography, I recommend 's'. occasionally in words borrowed from English, for instance, ch6ch. But there is a tendency to replace such words with J9ant equivalents . The alveolar nasal bar fi is employed in JJ?ant to indicate the process of nasalization in certain words, as in: ifi 'yes '. None of my informants seems to tell me what the bar represents. I recommend that a slight simplification of the otihography can be achieved by allowing 'n' to serve this function , as is done in most Jj 9 languages, as in: iin 'yes'. This will agree with what happens in Okrika, Kalabari and Nembe. The voiceless palatal fricative [ S] represented in the orthography, as ' sh' seems to be used by ce1tain speakers before the close front vowel [ i ] instead of 's'. It does not; however, seem to be a distinctive sound of its own. The sound 'gh' is not heard from younger speakers. Thus, the word spelt is actually
saghi
pronounced
sai.
However, I recommend that ' gh' be retained in the spelling,
!bani Orthography
74
because (i) it shows the relationship of gmnt to other Jj 9 languages, which have gh, g, or kin this position. (ii) If it is omitted, many words would be written with vowel sequences, for instance, sughu 'to dig' would be written suu (F911199, 1975).
LO CUR,RENT ALPHABET lt is pertinent to note here that the letters presented below arc in strict alphabetical order. The digraphs follow the single letter counterpart as in gb coming after g and the dotted letters follow their undotted counterparts as in q coming after o. The alphabet presented here represents all the sound segments found in the language. 1. Upper case letters
A
B
~
D
E
E
.
F
G
GB
GH
GW
H
I
J
J
K
L
M T
N
NW
NY
0
Q
KP p
KW R
u
lJ
v
w
y
z
\>
d
e
e
.
gb
}
J
f k
g
gh
b gw
kp
kw
1
111
n
nw
ny
0
0
.
p
r
u
it
v
w
y
z
s
2. Lower case letters
a
s
h
2.1 VOWELS
J\>ant
exhibits a vowel system that consists of nine (9) oral vowels. The oral vowels do not contrast with their nasalized counterparts. The nasalized vowel differs from the oral vowel only with respect to nasality. Both sets of vowels arc in complementary distribution; whereas the oral vowels occur in non-nasal environment their nasalized counterparts occur in nasalized environment. I present the vowels on Table I and exemplify them in Ex. 2.
Table 1: !bani vowel inventory [-Back} [+Back] u u {+High} {+High} i I [-Highl e
£
a o o [-Highl
___,
!bani Orthography
75
Ex. 2 Orthography
Phonetic
i
e 0
a
u ,, ,
/l;Jan:j.
[ i] {I} [e] {Ej [o] [o] [a]
k.{ri kjrj keke pale k6r6 f¢n9
[kiri] [kiri] [kereJ [pt1t1 [k6r6] [f6no]
[u} [u]
funJ. [ furuJ
nyana[Jlana]
n¢n¢ [nunu J
English 'ground' 'to slice, pare' 'to store' 'to cut' 'to go down' 'to pull, drag' 'to have' 'to steal' 'to pull, tug'
I recommend that ~ and l.J should always be dotted to distinguish them from i and
u with which they contrast in minimal pairs, as in Ex. 3 below. In other words, these sets of vowels are different sounds and therefore should be differentiated in writing: /
Ex. 3 piri 'bush'
fii kiri i;Juru f uru
bu 0
piri
vs.
0
0
'to give'
/
'to jump' 'ground'
vs. vs.
'yam
vs. vs.
'to steal' 'to drink'
VS.
f:j.:j.
kiri . /
0
'to die' 'to slice, pare'
buru 'to be rotten ' f~r~ 'to smell bad, stink' 'self' 9~ 0
•
0
2.1.1 VOWEL LENGTH has both shortened and lengthened vowels . A shortened vowel is represented with a single vowel symbol, while a lengthened vowel is represented with a double vowel symbols, as in a vs. aa. Consider the example below.
JJ?ant
Ex. 4
b6 mu
' naa
vs.
ri
'to come' 'to go' 'to eat'
bu
'to drink'
vs. vs.
soo ' sii dii
vs.
b~9
0
/
0
/
Y9 /
Sft
'place ' ' country
,
/
'to hear' ' yii 'to bear, beget' 'to cook' 'to call' /
VS.
vs.
/
'night' 'leg, foot'
76
'"
!bani Orthography
The data below indicates that J9an~ makes use of contrastive vowel length; in other words, the differences between a shortened vowel and a lengthened vowel results in a difference in the meaning between two words. Ex. 5
'
/
SJ.
f
i.
mingi 'f;m
/
'twenty' 'to eat'
VS.
sii
vs .
f
'to drink water'
vs.
mingi J;uu 'drink water'
jj
'to call' 'to die'
2.1.2 VOWEL AMITY (HARMONY) J9an~ exhibits an active synchronic vowel harmony system, that is, the vowels are divided into two sets which, (F9m'l?s» 1975) designates as 'heavy' and 'light'. I shall refer to these as wide (expanded) vowels and naITow (non-expanded) vowels; this is in keeping with the latest trend in African linguistics. In a simple word, vowels from the two sets do not co-occur. This phenomenon is referred to as vowel amity (Ngulube, 2008). The nine vowels are exemplified in the two amity sets, as shown below in Table 2 and exemplified in Ex. 4 below. In J9an~ vowel amity system, the [-High] vowel [a] is neutral, that is, it can occur with the wide vowels as well as with the narrow vowels in a simple word. Although [a] is shown below as belonging to either harmony set, it is articulatorily and acoustically associated more with the narrow (non-expanded) vowels than with the wide (expanded) vowels . Table 2: Vowel amity sets in .fl:;an.j. Wide (Expanded) Narrow (Non-expanded) [-Back} [+Back} [+High] i u I u [+High] E (a) o [-High] [-High] e (a) o For simplicity the two sets are presented without table below (Ex. 6).
Ex. 6 Wide (Expanded) i
Narrow (Non-Expanded)
.j.
"u
~
e
e
0
9
.
Ibani Orthography
77
Note that the narrow vowels are all dotted, whereas the wide vowels are not. Observe that a is omitted, since it can combine with vowels of either set, but very often with those of the narrow set. (Fsnn9s» 1975) made the following observation with regard to J9ant vowels: In a simple word (i.e. not a compound) vowels from either the heavy set or the light set will be found, but vowels from different sets will not (in the great majority of words) be mixed together. That is, the heavy vowels agree together or 'harmonize', and the light vowels also harmonize with each other. Ex. 7
Words with wide vowels furo 'belly ' pulo 'oil' 'storm' irise 'evening' 9upiri .1., 'smoke' onwi
kuna otume sara
i;Jap6
'root' 'tail'
'chin·
vs.
Words with narrow vowels 'sun .j.qza 'open space n~ng¢ 'monkey' 91Jk9 'fowl' 9bj9 -: 'feather' l-Pl}9 'moon aka1¢ 'thorn' nang.j. 'stone, rock' dapiri /
/
..
In the language some of the possessive pronouns have dual fonns, which harmonize with the vowels of the following words, as in Ex. 8: Ex. 8 .j.-daa
9-taa
'my father' 'his wife'
This is because a is normally a narrow vowel; but one often hears people say, as illustrated in Ex. 9: Ex. 9 i-nyingi
'my mother'
o -nyingi
'his mother'
This is because i is a wide vowel. 2.2 CONSONANTS Table 3 below provides a list of the consonant segments m J9ant and is exemplified in Ex. I 0.
!bani Orthography
78
Table 3: /f;;an.j. consonant inventory
Plosive
Labial p b
Implosive
5
Nasal
m
Alveolar t d
Palatal
n
Jl
tS
Affricate Fricative
v
f
s
y
d3
h
z
w
j
kp g'""'b kw gw
Labial velar Labialised
Glottal
g
1 r
Lateral Rhotic Semivowel
Velar
k
IJ w
Ex. IO Jt?an~
Orthography Phonetic
English
b.iri [biri] 9~1~ [5£1£]
'to bathe'
dos:f. [ dos:f.] r~ [ft] g66 [g66]
'to jump'
gbi
'to sew'
dig hi [ dighl] gwaa [gwaa.]
'to look at'
gw
[b] [ 5] [ d] [ f] [ g] [gb] [gh] [gw]
h
[ h]
heen [hi.in]
J
[ d3]
Jee
'word used at the begi1rning of a story' 'fifteen'
k kp kw
[k] [kp] [kw]
kaka [kakaJ kpc}c} [ k'""'poo J kwaa [kwaa.]
'to tie'
1
[l]
laa [ laa J
'to arrive'
m
[m]
mu
'to go'
n nw
[n] [nw] [ Jl]
nimi [nimi]
'to know'
nwaa [nwaa]
'to tie cloth'
nye [Jle]
'thing'
b b d f g gb gh 0
ny
[ g'""'bi]
[ d3ee]
[mu]
'pot' 'to buy' 'to read'
'to mix'
'to tie' 'to conceal'
79
,,,
!bani Orthography
p
[ p]
pu
[puJ
r
[r ]
ori
[ori]
s
t v w y
[s] [t ] [ v] [ w] [j ]
z
[ z]
s9n9 [s6n6] tii [tii] val a [vala] wiri [wirl] yaa [jaa] abaj i [ abaj i] /
/
'to split' 'he' 'five' 'to play' 'sail'
/
'to abuse' 'to marry on dowry' 'ocean'
2.2.1 SYLLABIC NASAL There arc certain syllables in Jl;ian.t- that are made up of only a nasal consonant, with no vowel, that is, they can bear tones, as do vowels. This type of nasal is written as bilabial m when it occurs before a labial sound such as: b b gb kp m p, but alveolar n elsewhere, examine the data below in Ex. 11.
.
Ex. 11 m-m~~
'two'
m-gbaru.u.
'wrestling'
m-btakpa
'maize, com' 'one'
n-gt~
n-d~~ n-ct~~
'four hundred' 'how many'
2.0TONES J9ant has a system of tonal contrast, that is, 'the pitch of the voice can make a difference to the meaning of words or sentences even when the vowels and consonants are all the same' (F9m99, 1975: 9). Consider the word ar:i-, with lowlow tonal pattern, meaning 'poison, witchcraft'; with high-high tonal pattern meaning 'hook', or 'to see'; with high-low tonal pattern meaning 'she'. Failure to indicate the various tonal patterns will lead to ambiguity . Secondly, 'there will be no way to show the difference between these words'. Tones are an essential part of the grammar of Jl;?ant and should be indicated. Previously, a lot of indigenous Rivers languages were written without indicating the tone marks; 'this has made it difficult to know what meaning was intended in many cases' (F9m99, 1975: 9). This is probably because people were copying the English orthography without realizing that the structures of the languages differ. For instance, English is a stress language not a tonal language, and therefore there
ar.i
ar i
80
lbani Orthography
'' •
is no need to use tone marks in wntmg it. I recommend that in the current orthography tone be indicated wherever they are needed to capture the actua l pronunciation of an Jl?ant. word. F~nn99 (1975: 9) has suggested that: If we try, however, to mark the tone of every syllable the number of marks makes the page appear very complicated, while if we mark tones only here and there it is unsystematic. What we need is a system of marking tones, which is both simple and systematic. When we study Jl?ant closely, we find that the structure of the language suggests such a way of marking the tones . If we study simple nouns, we find that they belong to a number of different patterns. For instance, some nouns have all their tones low while others have their tones high when they are pronounced in isolation. The low tone nouns are written without any tone mark whereas the high tone nouns are written with high tone mark over each syllable. Jl~>ant for the present orthography, except that l have changed the labels from 'low nouns' and 'high nouns' to 'low tone nouns' and 'high tone nouns' respectively and exemplify them in Ex. 12.
I accept this recommendation for
Ex. 12
Low tone nouns de 'husband'
vs.
High tone nouns di .i. 'night'
Y9
ta yaa suo biri mingi
'wife' 'marriage'
tnt
'fire' 'monkey' 'snail' 'beard'
9\19
'shoulder' 'parrot'
9r\i99
f
9vk9 osi ewe le abana ~k9l9bt
'sky' 'ear' 'water'
'place' 'thing'
nye s~
s.ib.i
aka ~r~
t9r\i
bi.bi •
0
ngala
'country' 'head' 'tooth' 'leg, foot' 'name' 'river' 'mouth' 'woman' 'mangrove'
He further observes that 'a third group of nouns have a high tone near the beginning of the word, followed by a slightly lower tone (called a step-down tone) on the last syllable. This is called step-down nouns, and will be written with high
81
lboni OrthogroJJhy
tone n;iark over the syllable, which is high in tone and the mark - over the stepdown syllable'. He also identified a group of nouns with mixed tones , these he labelled 'mixed nouns'. I have also changed this term to a more current terminology 'polarity tone' or 'split tone' (cf Ngulube, 2008). He too recommends that these nouns with mixed tone should be written with the high tone mark over each of their syllables, which is high, and no mark over the low tone syllables. This is adopted for the current mihography.
Ex. 13 Step-down nouns / .= 'body' OJU
6nwo , imo bar a kiri
'sand'
war~
'house '
. ..
'fowl'
, = , -
obio
vs.
Split tone nouns 'plank' dupo
..
val a kuu , irise irucJ. akalv ikirlnga
'sweat' 'hand, arm' 'ground'
'sail' 'cocoyam' 'storm' 'sun '
'moon' 'harmattan'
It has been observed that J9ant verbs and other word-classes behave like the nouns, that is, they fit into these same four groups as far as their tonal pattern is concerned. For instance, the verbs can be divided into four groups as shown below. Note that, like the nouns, I prefer that 'low verbs' be known as 'low tone verbs', as exemplified in Ex. 14 below. It is pertinent to point out here that these low tone verbs when articulated in isolation the final syllable of a low tone verb is high. 'In other respects, however, they behave like low tone nouns' (F9111J.19, 1975: 13).
Ex. 14 Low , tone verbs stt, 'to call' naa 'to hear' ,
vs.
yii 'to bear, beget' , yaa 'to marry' , soo 'to cook' pisi 'to be wet' mang,i 'to run' ctosi 'to jump' 0
0
High tone verbs 'to come' 96, mu 'to go'
ri
bu . daw6 . , ,. ari
'to eat' 'to drink' 'to dream' 'to sec'
p~l~ 'to cut' teme 'to create, mould'
..
82
!bani Orthography
Ex. 15 Step-down verbs
f