Domains of Kanuri Loanwords in Margi

Abstract

The socio-cultural contact between Kanuri and Margi led to an inevitable borrowing of words from Kanuri to Margi. As such, this research paper deals with the investigation of the different domains of incidence in that the borrowing took place. In collecting data for the research, an unstructured interview was used (along with a tape recorder) to record the articulation of the informants for transcription purposes. Brann’s (2006) 16 Domains of Incidence was adopted as the model of approach in this research. The data collected showed that there are eight domains where loanwords from Kanuri to Margi took place. The domains include school, office, market, temple, club, home, color, time and direction, weather and climate. The work identified 78 Kanuri loanwords in Margi. The numbers of loanwords identified in each of the domains are: school 7, office 6, market 10, temple 8, club 2, home 29, colour time and direction 13, weather and climate 3. The findings of the research established that the domain of home has the highest number of Kanuri loanwords in Margi. Finally, this paper claims that the early contact that led to borrowing between Kanuri and Margi was in their place of residence, customary or official location. Therefore, the knowledge acquired can serve as a valuable reference material for linguists who might be interested in the study of loanwords and comparative linguistics between Kanuri, Margi and other African languages.