A Grammatical Description of the Engenni Language

Abstract

This thesis presents a systematic description of the grammar of the Engenni language. The first chapter gives a general introduction to the Engenni people and language and describes the linguistic model which is used for the analysis. The phonology of the language including the main features of the tonal system, and the transcription used in the thesis are outlined in Chapter Two. Chapter Three describes the features of the largest unit in the grammar, the discourse. Chapter Four is an account of the sentence, and Chapters Five and Six an account of the clause. Chapters Seven to Nine describe the three phrase classes. Chapter Seven is an account of the verbal phrase; Chapter Eight an account of the nominal phrase; and Chapter Nine an account of the adverbial phrase. The major word classes are described in Chapter Ten, and the minor word classes in Chapter Eleven. Chapter Twelve contains an analysed text. The thesis ends with a list of abbreviations, a bibliography and an index.