| Makary Kotoko (MK), a Central Chadic B language, is spoken in the north of Cameroon just south of Lake Chad. Published works on MK to date include about a dozen articles on different aspects of the grammar of the language, primarily by H. Tourneux. The present work, which is based on a substantial corpus of recorded texts, is a systematic description of many aspects of the phonology, morphology, and syntax of the language. The description makes use of the framework of Basic Linguistic Theory as described in Dixon (2010a,b).;MK has six vowels and twenty seven consonants, including a series of implosives and a series of ejectives. The tone system (including a high, low, mid, and falling tone) functions both lexically and grammatically.;Nominal morphology is limited, coding plurality, a diminutive, and three nominalization processes. The language has lexicalized a basic ontological distinction between concrete things and abstract things. Verbal morphology is also limited, coding plurality, an applicative, and a causative. The language codes aspectual/modal distinctions on the subject marker which precedes the verb. Means, manner, and reason are coded through the use of a marker which occurs within the verb phrase, and indicates that a previously mentioned entity is either the means or manner or reason (as conveyed by context) for the situation of the clause in which the marker occurs.;There are four primary non-verbal predication constructions used to express notions of identity, attribution, possession, location, and existence.;MK places noun phrases in pre-subject position, followed by a small number of markers, to code pragmatic information for the clause. Combining clauses is done through various means, including the use of two sequential markers which code (in different domains) the succession of events in the discourse. |
