MORPHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF HABITUAL MARKER IN HAUSA VERBS BORROWED INTO KAMUKU: FROM PRE-VERBAL TO POST-VERBAL POSITION

Abstract

Abstract In order to enhance effective communication and for the purpose of lexical expansion, languages borrow from other neighbouring languages with which they are in contact. Therefore, borrowing occurs out of necessity. This paper examines borrowing and adaptation of the Hausa tenses into Kamuku. The tenses in Hausa are eight. The subjunctive and relative past tenses do not necessarily have tense markers. When Hausa verbs are borrowed into Kamuku the eight Hausa tenses are reduced to four in Kamuku. The habitual aspectual marker in Kamuku is post-verbal while it is pre-verbal in Hausa. According to Dahl (1985, pp.95-102), some languages have tenses that are specialized to the expression of habitual aspect. In line with this assertion, we have discovered in this study that some tense marker could be used as habitual marker. Also, habitual marker in Hausa which is originally pre-verbal is changed to appear post-verbal when borrowed into Kamuku. It is the morphology of this change that this paper intends to examine within the morphological framework of ‘fixed order of elements’.