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Aspects Of Uneme Morphology
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1.2 Sociocultural profile
The following could be observed among the
Uneme. The language Uneme is used as a means of communication in
the market and it is also used in teaching in primary schools.
Culture:
The
Uneme people are united by common traditions of origin. Their
traditional craft as smith in their dialects and in other social and
cultural features. They are well known for blacksmithing, casting of
bronze, ornament, selling and manufacturing of war weapons used for
security purposes. In addition to these occupations the southern Uneme
engaged in fishing and trading in the Niger creeks while the northern
Uneme engage in farming and oil palm production.
The peoples favorite
food is pounded yam called ema with melon soup called usomhikpigba.
Their best native attire for women is blouse and wrapper while the men
dress in buba and sokoto.
The people:
The people indulge in
traditional and religious practices such as sacrifice to ancestors and
initiation of boys and girls into manhood and womanhood respectively.
They believe in supreme being whom they call “osanobular†meaning God
the creator. It is believed that the supreme being cannot be
communicated with directly, except through the ancestors who act as link
between the supreme being and the people. It is also believed that the
Almighty God hears and answers prayer through ones ancestors.
Occupation:
The
people of Uneme engage themselves in craft works like blacksmithing,
casting of bronze and ornament, selling and production of weapons. They
also engage in farming and trading and they also engage in oil palm
production and selling of iron implement.
FESTIVAL:
The Uneme
people come together to celebrate so many festivals, such as ogun
festival Ukpekinimi festival, New yam festival and ukpekema festival.
Ogun
festival is the festival of the god of iron while ukpekinimi is the
festival of masquerades which is celebrated twenty one days before the
new yam festival. The celebration comes up between the month of July and
September of every year. Since they are predominantly farmers, this
festival precedes the incoming of the new yam. During the celebration,
they use the old yam for the celebration after which they are now free
to eat the new yam.
The Uneme people also have the burial festival
which involves performing a second burial ceremony for their parents
most especially the father. This ceremony can happen after so many years
that the person had died. If you have not done the second burial of
your father you can not attain any title. In the burial you must gather
the elders together for the ceremony. This burial is done kindred by
kindred every year and you will give the elders some certain amount of
money. According to the informant other kindred’s can also attend the
second burial ceremony, and they will be served food but will not share
out of the money and other things offerd to the elders during the
burial. The second burial ceremony is called “orintomiâ€
MARRIAGE:
The
Uneme people believe that every man must marry a virgin. When a man
marries a new bride and is a virgin the man will mark the teeth by
breaking part of the front teeth. Anybody that sees her will know that
she is married. This tradition of teeth breaking is called Etsako; that
is where the Uneme Local Government name was derived.
During the
marriage of the virgin, the girl dresses naked and beads of different
kinds are used to cover the girls private parts, Ashids which are gotten
from the bush are used to decorate her and a reddish substance called
Ume is used to decorate her and brighten her up and with a lot of bead
on her head like the Benin people.
GENETIC CLASSIFICATION
This is a systematic way of grouping language that share something in common into the same family.
According
to Ruhelen (1991:4-5), a genetic classification is a sub grouping of
all relevant languages into Genetic nodes. A genetic node is a group of
languages each of which is closely related to others in that group than
to any language outside the group.
The Uneme language is grouped with the languages in the Benue Congo where we later end up having Edo and Ghotuo.
Fig 1.1 A chart showing genetic classification of Uneme. Adapted from www.Ethnologue.com
Scope and organization of the study
This
research focuses on the aspects of Uneme Morphology. It attempts to
discus the arrangement or combination of words to form sentences in
Uneme language. This description will also focus on some of the peculiar
features of the language.
The work constitutes five chapters.
Chapter one deals with the introductory aspects of the study, that is
the sociolinguistic profile, genetic classification scope and
organization of the study and the theoretical frame work adopted. The
second chapter centers on the basic morphological concepts such as
morphemes and its type and Language typology. However considering the
significance of phonology to grammatical analysis, a brief description
of the phonology of the language is carried out in order to establish
the segmental phonemes, the tone inventory and syllable structure in
Uneme language.
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