plik

Chapter ##

FROZEN PLURACTIONALS

hapter ## describes three verbal pluractional formation processes in Bole—one
productive process of initial CV- reduplication, available for essentially all verbs,
and two active but non-productive processes, viz. infixing -Ki- within a verb root

and  geminating  the  second  consonant  of  a  root.    The  latter  two  active  processes  apply
only  to  a limited  number of CVC- verb roots.  Lexical evidence suggests  that the latter
two processes  at one  time  may have  been  more  productive  than they  now are  and  may
have applied  to  a  larger  range  of  root  types  than  they  now  do.    This  evidence  is  in  the
form  of  “frozen  pluractionals”,  for  which  unmodified  roots  are  no  longer  in  use  and
which  do  not  convey  obvious  pluractional  meaning  (see  the  introductory  section  of
Chapter ## for a description of canonical pluractional meanings).  This chapter presents
several  patterns  of  frozen  pluractionals.    The  concluding  section  presents  a
comparative/historical perspective in which we argue that all Bole geminate and infixed
pluractionals have their source in an infixed root consonant.

1. Frozen Pluractionals with a Geminate Consonant

1.1.    CVGV  verbs  (G  =  geminate  consonant).    A  feature  of  Bole  that  strikes  anyone
first approaching the language is  the large number of verbs of the form CVGV.  In our
currently available list of nearly 700 verbs, 117 are of this type, excluding those that have
an  active  relationship  to  roots  without  a  geminated  C

and those not found in the Fika

dialect.  Of the total 117, 107 are in Class A2 (the morphological correspondent to Class
A1 non-pluractionals) and 10 are in Class B2 (the morphological correspondent to Class
B non-pluractionals).   What  is  particularly  striking is the proportion  of CVGV  verbs in
the  verbal  lexicon.    The  total  number  of  verbs  with  two  distinct  root  consonants  (C

singleton or geminate) is 302. Thus, over one third of all biconsonantal roots have a
geminated C

. Additionally, there are 38 verbs of the type CVGV that have a transparent

connection  to  existing  CVCV  roots.    Below  are  some  examples  of  Bole  CVGV  roots.
Where available, we have included cognates from the  Yaya dialect of Ngamo (Ng) and
Karekare  (Ka)  to  show  that  Bole  has  not  inherited  geminate  consonants  in  these  verbs
from an ancestral language.

The forms are cited in the completive, marked by a suffix

that comes from earlier *-kò. In some cases the verbs belong to different classes (A1, A2,
B) in the different languages.

Cognate items with the same meanings are more readily available between Bole and Ngamo than between

Bole and Karekare because Ngamo is linguistically closer to Bole than is Karekare. In the Yaya dialect of
Ngamo, Class A2 verbs in the completive end in -ô, sometimes pronounced -o’ò < *-u-kò. Class B verbs
end in -â, sometimes pronounced -a’à < *-a-kò.

Class A2 verbs

boækku-wo¥yi

‘burn, roast’

Ng baæka]

daæppu-wo¥yi

‘gather, collect’

Ng da¥fo]

fioæppu-wo¥yi

‘follow’

Ng fia¥fo] Ka fia¥fu-kaæu

goæjju-wo¥yi

‘buy’

Ng kaæja]

goællu-woæ

‘for dawn to break’

Ng gol-kò Ka gàl-kâu ‘spend the day’

kaæppu-wo¥yi

‘plant, sow’

Ng kap-kò

kuænnu-wo¥yi

‘thank’

(Ngamo kuænno] bor. from Bole)

mbìttu-wo¥yi

‘extinguish (fire)’

Ng mbit-kò Ka mbìtu-kàu

noæssu-woæ

‘spend time, rest’

Ng nas-kò

oæppu-wo¥yi

‘dig’

Ng op-kò Ka aæfa\-kaæu

oæssu-wo¥yi

‘grind’

Ng es-kò Ka &yaæsu-kaæu

poæ&&u-woæ

‘dry up’

Ng ho&i-koæ

poæyyu-woæ

‘break, shatter’

Ng hoi-kò

roækku-wo¥yi

‘drive away’

Ng ràkâ Ka ràku-kàu

suærru-wo¥yi

‘fry’

Ng sur-kò Ka sìr-ka]u

tuæbbu-wo¥yi

‘push”

Ng tu¥bo]

Class B2 verbs

baætta\-wo¥yi

‘trick, scare’

bìtta\-wo¥yi

‘expand an opening’

kaæbba\-woæ

‘swell’

Ng kàbâ (also Bole kaæwa\- ‘be sated’)

maæssa\-woæ

‘remain, be left’

sìfifia\-wo¥yi

‘wipe, wipe off’

Ng sa&a-koæ ¶safi-koæ¶ ‘rub’

The distinction between frozen pluractionals and “active” geminate pluractionals is

blurry. Among active pluractionals we have included some verbs where there is a clear
form and meaning relationship between an underived verb and a verb with geminate C

but where one or both verbs have shifted in meaning such that the geminated form does
not bear a canonical pluractional relationship to the simple form. Consider the following
examples.

Class A1 verb

Class A2 verb

ga&yu-woæ

‘feel sudden pain’

gaæ&y&yu-wo¥yi

‘chop’

go∫-wo¥yi

‘sip’

goæ∫∫u-wo¥yi

‘consume liquid with hand’

moyu-wo¥yi

‘observe, look’

moæyyu-wo¥yi

‘wait for’

pulu-woæ

‘boil; be angry’

puællu-wo¥yi

‘abuse’

washu-wo¥yi

‘nip off’

waæccu-wo¥yi

‘trim (e.g. hair)’

Bole has had considerable influence on Ngamo. The fact that Ngamo has few words with geminate

consonants and does not form pluractionals with gemination makes it certain that this word is borrowed.
Most Yobe State languages have borrowed the Hausa root gode to mean ‘thank’.

Class B verb

Class B2 verb

bìfia\-wo¥yi

‘untie’

bìfifia\-wo¥yi

‘untangle’

kuæla\-wo¥yi

‘widen pot mouth’

kuælla\-wo¥yi

‘scrape out’

zuæla\-woæ

‘protrude’

zuælla\-wo¥yi

‘glare at’ (protrude eyes?)

In some of these verb pairs, it is difficult to see what is “pluractional” in meaning

about the geminated form. Thus, while the relationship of goæ∫∫u-wo¥yi ‘consume liquid
with hands’ to go∫u-wo¥yi ‘sip’ could be understood as “taking repeated sips”, it is not so
obvious how puællu-wo¥yi ‘abuse’ could be understood as “repeated boilings” or “repeated
angerings” from pulu-wò.

As for frozen CVGV pluractionals with no extant CVCV counterpart, most have no

obvious element of plural action.  Although some verbs like kaæppu-wo¥yi ‘plant’ or
oæssu--wo¥yi ‘grind’ involve repetitive action and thus could credibly have their origin in
pluractional derived forms, no such natural relationship to plural action holds for fioæppu-
wo¥yi  ‘follow’, suærru-wo¥yi ‘fry’, kaæbba\-woæ ‘swell’, or, in fact, most of the 117 CVGV
verbs  that  we  have  identified.    Bole  has  numerous  morphological  environments  that
create  geminate  consonants  (see  for  example,  ##,  ##,  ##).    It  seems  that  Bole  has  a
Sprachgefühl that welcomes gemination.  Once Bole developed gemination as a method
of pluractional formation, some of these geminate pluractionals became the primary verbs
and the underived bases were lost, obscuring the origin in pluractionality.  The door was
then opened to geminating C

of certain verbs just because it “sounded good”, without the

requirement that plural action be a necessary semantic corollary.

1.2.  CVGVCV  verbs  (G  =  geminate  consonant).  In  modern  Bole,  the  only  active
geminate  pluractionals  are  based  on  class!A1  and  class!B  verbs,  i.e.  verbs  with  root
structure  C

¨C-. Likewise, most underived verbs that have the same form as geminate

pluractionals (CVGV) have just two root consonants. There are, however, a few verbs
with three root consonants where C

is geminate. Since both comparative Chadic and

internal Bole evidence point away from inheritance of underived geminate consonants,
these CVGVCV roots suggest that geminate pluractional formation may have at one time
applied to a larger set of verbs than just those of classes A1 and B. The list below is
exhaustive for currently available materials.

bìccìru-wo¥yi

‘expand s.th. circular, e.g. fan’

fiuækkuæru-wo¥yi

‘knead, form into balls’

= fiuækku-wo¥yi

gìccìyu-woæ

‘be crooked, be tilted’

koællìmi (noun)

‘drumming’

cf. kòlmò ‘praise singing’

kuæsshìmu-wo¥yi

‘wad up’

A few Bole CVGV verbs may come from *C

V, with assimilation of C

to C

, e.g. Bole

shàttu- ‘uproot’—cf. Ngamo shapto ‘extract, pull out’. However, nearly all Bole CVGV verbs with
identified cognates in other languages correpond to CVC- roots in those languages. Moreover, the most
common way for Bole to resolve undesirable consonant sequences is epenthesis, e.g. Bole yaæ∫ìru- ‘scatter’,
Ngamo ya∫ro.

laækkìleæ (noun)

“jacks”

(a game involving flipping and

catching a stone)

lìkkìtu-woæ

‘descend en masse, e.g. flock of birds’

loækkìfiu-woæ

‘become entangled’

= loækku-wo¥yi

muækkuæfiu-wo¥yi

‘stuff the mouth with food’

muæmmusu-wo¥yi

‘rub back and forth between palms’

= muærmuæsu-wo¥yi

taækkìlu-woæ

‘become flustered’

toæggìfiu-wo¥yi

‘stitch’

yaækkìnu-wo¥yi

‘recognize’

zuæ&y&yìru-wo¥yi

‘purse the lips (to show disdain)’

Most of these verbs involve inherent plural action of some sort—repetitive action

and/or action by several individuals—reinforcing the notion that they are frozen
pluractionals. A couple have the form of verbal nouns but the source verb, if there ever
was one, is no longer in use.

Two of the verbs (‘knead’ and ‘become entangled’) are related to verbs of the CVGV

type.  Bole, like other West Chadic languages, has a number of “remnant verbal affixes”
(##)—non-productive suffixes of uncertain function.  For the two verbs in question, it is
hard  to  say  whether the  affixes  -r-  and  -fi-  have  been  attached to  a  CVGV stem  or  the
medial consonant of the affixed verb was geminated.  Another verb pair not included in
the table is goæjju-wo¥yi ‘buy’ vs. goæjjìtu-wo¥yi ‘sell’.  In this case, we know that a semi-
productive causativizing affix -t- (##) has been added to a CVGV stem.  In the case of the
verb meaning ‘rub back and forth between palms’ it is hard to be sure whether this is a
CVGVCV verb or a verb with an infixed copy of the initial CV, described in §3.

2. Frozen Pluractionals with an Infix -Ki-

Chapter ##, §2.1 describes pluractional verb formation by infixation of a syllable

-gi-  in  the  Fika  dialect,  e.g.  &yoærangoæ  ‘they  stopped’,  pluractional  &yoægìrangoæ  ‘they
stopped  one  by  one’.    That  section  also  mentions  that  the  Gadaka  dialect  productively
forms pluractionals of Class A1 and B verbs by infixing -ki-/-ku-/-k- (quality of vowel or
absence  of  vowel  determined  by  context).    Bole  has  numerous  verbs  with  an  internal
syllable  -Ki-  (K!=  a  velar  stop,  “i”!=  [i],  [u],  or  in  a  few  cases,  Ø)  which  formally
resemble infixed pluractionals and many of which, like the geminated verbs described in
§1.2,  involve  inherent  plural  action.    The  lists  below  are  exhaustive  for  currently
available  materials,  omitting  pronunciation  variants.    Those  on  the  left  are  formally
identical  to  active  infixed  pluractionals,  i.e.  the  -Ki-  syllable  is  sandwiched  in  a  frame
CV__CV.    Those  on  the  right  have  an  additional  consonant  abutting  the  -Ki-  syllable.
We  have  grouped  the  latter  verbs  according  to  the  consonant  that  precedes  the
-Ki- syllable.

CVKiCV

CVCKiCV

baægìdu-wo¥yi

‘pound grain 2

time’

baængìlu-woæ

‘become confused’

buækuælu-wo¥yi

‘roll along’

deæænkìfiu-wo¥yi

‘stuff into’

joægìlu-wo¥yi

‘stir a thin substance’

dìnkìfiu-woæ

‘be crowded’

juæguælu-wo¥yi

‘churn milk’

fiaængìlu-wo¥yi

‘cling to, adhere to’

leækìtu-wo¥yi

‘disperse; spread (news, etc.)’

fiaængìlu-woæ

‘put on airs’

moækìtu-wo¥yi

‘get wet; moisten’

fiìngìmu-woæ

‘submerge’

njeækì∫u-woæ

‘become sloppy’

laænkìnu-wo¥yi

‘rinse’

pìktun-go

‘come to (after fainting)’

rìnkì∫u-woæ

‘be well dressed’

ruæguæzu-wo¥yi

‘raze, destroy’

shaænkìlu-wo¥yi

‘rinse’

sìkìtu-wo¥yi

‘reduce in amount’

suænkuænu-wo¥yi

‘sniff at, smell’

taækuæmnu-wo¥yi

‘chew’

zuænkuænu-wo¥yi

‘singe’

toækìlu-wo¥yi

‘stir with small motions’

baærgìlu-woæ

‘dislocate, become sprained’

yaækìlu-wo¥yi

‘lack’

bìrkìtu-wo¥yi

‘confuse, become confused’

zoægìnu-wo¥yi

‘toss, flip’

buærgìlu-wo¥yi

‘stir with swizzle stick’

zuækuælu-wo¥yi

‘stir thin subtance’

∫oærkìtu-wo¥yi

‘locate a gap or soft spot’

maærkìfiu-wo¥yi

‘wring out, twist’

za¥gìru-woæ

‘shout’

pìrkìtu-wo¥yi

‘make hole by prodding’

baæskìnu-wo¥yi

‘curse’

muæskuæfiu-woæ

‘feel nauseous’

paæskìfiu-wo¥yi

‘translate’

wìlkìfiu-wo¥yi

‘pick apart, pick open’

At our current state of knowledge, we cannot be sure that all of these are frozen

pluractionals with a -Ki- infix rather than a root that happened to have a velar stop as one
of  its  consonants.    For  example,  corresponding  to  buærgìlu-  ‘stir  with  swizzle  stick’  is
Gadaka  buærgu-,  which  may  or  may  not  be  a  borrowing  from  Hausa  burga¥.    The  verb
fiaængìlu- ‘put on airs’ may be related to fiìngu-woæ ‘have a concave back’ (referring to
the  posture  of  someone  who  puts  on  airs?).    Note  also  that  the  final  consonants  of  the
verbs in the lists above comprise a restricted set of the Bole consonant inventory, esp. l
(14 cases!), n, t, and fi.  These are among the most frequent “remnant affix” consonants
(##) and hence could be additions to a CV(C)KV- root rather than being the original final
consonant of a root containing an infixed -Ki-.  Still, there is evidence that at least some
of  these  do  derive  from  infixation.    The  verb  maærkìfiu-  ‘wring  out’  coexists  with
maærfiu- in the same meaning.  The verb muæskuæfiu- ‘feel nauseous’ has a Gadaka dialect
counterpart muæsfiu-.  The verb wìlkìfiu- ‘pick apart, pick into’ may be related to yùllu-
‘investigate’.    The  verbs  sùnkùnu-  ‘sniff  at’  and  tàkùmnu-  ‘chew’ look  to  be  cognate
with Hausa sansaæna\ and tamna¥ (= tauna¥ in “Standard” Hausa) respectively.

Note in the right hand column that the range of consonants that precede putative infix

-Ki- is restricted to the alveolar sonorants (n, r, l) and s. In the left hand column, all the

The stem pikt- is used only with the ventive extension (##), parallel to Hausa fa®fafio\, with the same

meaning.  Furthermore, the Hausa verb is pluractional in form with no transparently related simple stem in
current use.  The typological parallel of verbs in certain meanings having the form of frozen pluractionals
holds between Bole and Hausa (and undoubtedly for other Chadic languages) for a number of verbs.  Note
in  the  lists  here,  for  example,  Bole  suænkuænu-,  Hausa  sansaæna\  ‘sniff  at’  (with  a  cognate  root)  and  Bole
zuænkuænu-, Hausa babbaæke\ ‘singe’, the latter cognate with Bole bòkku- ‘burn, roast’, which has the form
of a frozen CVGV pluractional.

This verb has an additional final stem consonant, probably a remnant affix (##).

verbs except za¥gìru- ‘shout’ have short vowels in the intial syllable. We return to the
significance of these skewings in section 4.

3. Verbs of the form C

Several verbs have what appears to be an infixed -Ci- syllable, where C = repetition

of the first stem consonant rather than K. The lists below are exhaustive for currently
available data. In addition to verbs, there are a few nouns that looka as if they could be
verbal nouns.

bÏbìyu-wo¥yi

‘swing around, whirl’

buæmbuælu-wo¥yi

‘roll on the ground’

gÏgìyu-wo¥yi

‘tie rope tightly around’

muærmuæsu-wo¥yi

‘rub between palms’

ja¥jìnu-wo¥yi

‘groom a horse’

ngìrngìru-wo¥yi

‘cling to’

ka¥kìlu-wo¥yi

‘suck particles from teeth’

ko¥kìlu-wo¥yi

‘gnaw’

mu¥muæsu-wo¥yi

‘roll thing around’

ngu¥nguæru-wo¥yi

‘mumble, murmur’

pÏpìlu-wo¥yi

‘nibble at’

pu¥puæru-wo¥yi

‘shake dirt loose from roots’

rÏrìmu-wo¥yi

‘become quite, abate’

sa¥sìlu-wo¥yi

‘touch lightly’

so¥suwu-wo¥yi

‘touch lightly with hand’

su¥suæwu-wo¥yi

‘whisper’

te¥tìyu-wo¥yi

‘try hard’

la¥luæmoæ

‘dried guinea corn leaves’

pu\puro

‘lumps of flour in atti’

ro¥rìyoæ

‘trembling, shivering’

Like CVGVCV verbs described in §2.1 and CV(C)KiCV verbs described in §3, most

of the verbs with infixed -Ci- involve inherent plural action of some kind, and though we
have not yet found relationships between any of these verbs and CVCV stems, some of
them have meanings that other languages express with verbs that are pluractional in
form—cf.ko¥kìlu- ‘gnaw’ with Hausa gwêgwìya\ in the same meaning.

4. Historical Perspective on Bole Pluractional Formation

Frozen pluractional morphological types are in near complementary distribution

corresponding to the structure of the hypothetical bases from which the pluractionals
were derived:

In labializing environments, a few of the frozen pluractionals have -u- in the infixed syllable rather than

the -i- in the schemata below. We list only patterns for verbs with two or more original base consonants.
There apparently are no frozen pluractionals derived from monoconsonantal bases.

• *C

¨C

> C

V (§1.1), C

¨KiC

V (§2)—see below for further comment

• *C

> C

V (§3)

• *C

V > C

V®

KiC

V (® = n, r, l, s) (§2), C

V (G ≠ n, r, l, s) (§2)

Gimba (2000:161) pointed out that only verbs with a sonorant or fi as the second root

consonant have active infixed pluractionals (##).  Most of the verbs listed in §2 likewise
conform to this restriction, the only exceptions being verbs where the final consonant is t,
one of the most common remnant affixes as well as being a semi-productive transitizing
affix  (##),  and  the  verb  ruæguæzu-  ‘raze,  destroy’,  where  the  -g-  may  be  an  original  root
consonant  rather  than  an  infix  (cf.  Hausa  rugu®guæza\  ‘smash;  crumble’,  a  frozen
pluractional from a base *rug(u)za).  The complementarity in frozen pluractionals would
cover all verbs with two or more base root consonants if the C

V pattern applied only

to C

¨C

V roots where G

is a consonant

OTHER THAN

a sonorant or fi. This is not the

case, but in §1.1, we provided evidence that the C

V pattern has taken on a life of its

own, and Bole has extended this pattern lexically to many verbs where plural action is not
a factor.

Comparative evidence points to the path which Bole has followed to arrive at this set

of pluractional patterns from a single source. In the Chadic languages of Yobe State
other than Bole, the prevailing pattern for pluractional verb formation is

REDUPLICATIVE

INFIXATION

. This is true of both the West Chadic B languages, Bade and Ngizim, and the

West Chadic A languages, Karekare and Ngamo. We present data from Karekare and
Ngamo (Yaya dialect), the languages most closely related to Bole within Yobe State.
Boxes enclose the reduplicative infixes.

KAREKARE

Verb class

Base form

Pluractional

fiaæfu\-si-kaæu

fiaæ faæfu\-si-kaæu

‘he spoke’

aæsu\-si-kaæu

aæ saæsu\-si-kaæu

‘he picked up’

baæsa\-si-kaæu

baæ saæsa\-si-kaæu

‘he shot’

fiìbaætu\-si-kaæu

fiìbaæ taætu\-si-kaæu

‘he sold’

NGAMO

nì dugo-k koæsu

nì duædgo-k koæsaæsaæ

‘I killed a mouse/mice’

at-na\"

aæ kti-na\"

‘he bit me’

nì baæsa-k ra¥yi

nì baæ bsa-k ra¥yaæku

‘I shot a bird/birds’

tu¥bo-k aæmba

tuætu¥bo-k bìya

‘he sent a boy/peopleÆ

nì aædgo-k zuægoæno

nì aæ&aædgo-k zuægoæno

‘I scratched my body’

In the Karekare forms, -si- is the mark of the totality extension when no object is expressed; -kàu is the

completive suffix. A common feature of Yobe State languages is to use the completive plus the totality
extension when translating Hausa sentences in the completive.

In the Ngamo forms, -k is the mark of the totality extension before nominal objects. See the previous

footnote for use of the totality extension.

Karekare derives all pluractionals with two or more consonants by infixing

-Ca- where C = the final stem consonant. Ngamo forms pluractionals of C

¨C

V roots

(i.e. verbs of Class A1 and B) by infixing a copy of C

after the first CV. If the verb has a

Ø onset, the verb infixes -k- after the first CV. For longer verbs, i.e. those of Class A2,
Ngamo prefixes a copy of the first CV-, with V being short for all verbs, including those
with a long vowel in the first syllable of the base. For bases wih Ø onset, glottal stop is
the default onset separating the initial syllable of the base from the reduplicated syllable.

Using this evidence, we hypothesize that all the frozen pluractionals in Bole as well

as all active CVGV and CVKiCV pluractionals (##) derive from a pattern
[XC

pluractional

, i.e. infixation of a root consonant. The -i- that shows up in pluractionals

other than the CVGV type is epenthetic.  Ngamo is far more tolerant than Bole in terms
of permissible consonant sequences.  Bole has resolved consonant hiatus in two ways, viz.
epenthesis of -i- or complete assimilation, resulting in a geminate.  Epenthesis is always
the choice when the syllable preceding the infixed consonant is/was heavy (C

V®

KiC

V, C

V patterns). Current evidence also suggests that epenthesis was

the choice if infixation would have resulted in a sequence [obstruent]-[sonorant],

sequence also disallowed in some otherwise “sequence tolerant” languages, such as
Ngizim. Other consonant sequences have resulted in geminates. We reiterate the
observation that at some point, Bole began extending geminate formation as a process in
its own right without requiring a source form a C

sequence. This tendency in Bole has

obscured the reconstructed source for geminates.

This account has ducked two questions: why does Bole infix -Ki- rather than -C

and which base consonant is it that was infixed?  Ngamo suggests an answer by the fact
that it infixes -k- as a default for verbs with onsetless first syllables.  If this was a feature
of  proto-Bole-Ngamo,  Bole  has  simply  extended  the  default  pattern  to  all  infixed
syllables.  Another possibility, not mutually exclusive with this one, is that -K- originally

WAS

one of the root consonants. In a verb like gowu- ‘beat’, the still active infixed

pluractional  is  gògìwu-.    The  syllable  -gi-  is  potentially  ambiguous  as  to  source—is  it
reduplication  of  the  initial  g-  or  is  it  an  infix  of  invariable  form?    If  Bole  speakers
interpreted it in the latter way, it would automatically be the pluractional marker for any
verb,  replacing  reduplicative  infixation.    Both  these  sources  for  -Ki-  infixation  fail  to
answer the question as to why the infix is -k- rather than, say, -s-.  We will not attempt to
answer this question, since any answer would be idle and unproductive speculation.

The second question raised above is which base consonant was reduplicated.

Karekare reduplicates the last consonant, a type of reduplication that could account for
most of the Bole forms, e.g.

*pata-

> pa-t(V)-ta-

> patta-

‘go out’

*&yoru-

> ’yo-r(V)-ru- > ’yogiru-

‘stop’

*pas(i)fiu- > pas-fi(i)-fiu- > paskifiu-

‘translate’

An advantage of this source is that it would get the common CVGV pattern directly,

i.e. the geminate consonant would be, literally, a doubling of the last consonant. It would

Epenthesis also applies before fi. This is not a sonorant, of course, but implosive/laryngealized

consonants pattern with sonorants in a number of ways in Chadic languages and elsewhere.

be hard to understand, however, why words like ’yogiru- ‘stop repeatedly’ (from ’yoru-)
would have an infix rather than a geminate *’yorru-. It seems more likely that the
infixed consonant was C

, as in Ngamo. Not only is Ngamo a closer cousin of Bole than

is Karekare, but also Bole still has a remnant of C

infixation in verbs like rÏrìmu- ‘shake

dirt loose’ < *rêmu-. The path for deriving the modern geminate and -Ki- pluractionals
from C

infixation would thus be as follows:

*pata-

> pa-p(V)-ta-

> patta-

‘go out’

*&yoru-

> ’yo-’y(V)-ru- > ’yogiru-

‘stop’

*pas(i)fiu- > pas-pi-fiu-

> paskifiu-

‘translate’

As described in Chapter ##, the productive pattern of pluractional formation for all

classes of verbs in modern Bole is initial CV- reduplication, e.g. baæsa\- ‡

baæbaæsa\- ‘shoot’. This pattern has its counterpart in Ngamo Class A2 pluractionals. The
simplest explanation for why modern Bole has initial CV- reduplication for

ALL

verb

classes  is  that  Bole  has  extended  a  pattern  that  was  at  one  time  more  restricted.    The
motivation  for  such  an  extension  would  be  simplification  of  the  complex  system
pluractional  formation  that  had  developed  where  some  verbs  formed  pluractionals  by
gemination,  some  by  -K-  infixation,  and  some  by  C

infixation. This suggestion raises

the question, however, of where initial CV- reduplication came from in the first place.
This is a restricted pattern at best in West Chadic (Hausa being one of the few languages
where it is dominant). We put the answer to this question aside as a subject for future
research.