PLURALISATION IN THE UFIA LANGUAGE

Abstract

This paper investigates the strategies of plural formation in Ufia, a language spoken in Benue State (Nigeria). Pluralisation is the process of attaching number to persons, things and others to indicate that they are more than one. This is a fundamental feature of every natural language. Adopting a descriptive approach, the paper analyses data that were sourced through interviews, observation, intuition and introspection of fluent native speakers of the language. It reveals that Ufia language has five plural formation rules /strategies. These are vowel alternation, phoneme replacement/addition, reduplication, suppletion and ifa-suffixation. The paper reveals that the major plural markers in the language are /b-/ and /gb-/ prefixed to nouns. In some instances of vowel alternation, /o/ becomes /i/ and /e/ changes to /a/ in the pluralised forms. In phoneme replacement /addition, /b/ is prefixed to certain nouns to realise their plural forms. In these two strategies, it is observed that certain phonemes are completely deleted in the plural forms. While only a part of the word is copied in partial reduplication as pluralisation strategy in the language, it is copied wholly in full reduplication. It is further revealed that, in suppletion as a plural formation strategy, the pluralised forms are completely different from their singular counterparts. Moreover, it seems that zero affixation, as a plural formation strategy is not attested in the language. This needs further investigation.