Book Title: Nupe Ta (Nupe Grammar)
Author: Adamu Idris Manarakis
Publisher: Amana Publishers Minna
Year: 2018
Pages: 52
Genre: Linguistics
Reviewer: Hassan Usman
Introduction
According to Winston Churchill, 15th May 1938, “The greatest tie of all is language… Words are the only things that last forever. The most tremendous monuments or prodigies of engineering crumble under the hand of time. The pyramids moulder, the bridges rust, the canals fill up, grass covers the railway track; but words spoken two or three thousand years ago remain with us now, not as mere relics of the past, but with all their pristine vital force.”
The above energetic words highlight parts of the significance of language to us and why its preservation and promotion must always be accorded great priority. This is a melodious song, one brilliant and indefatigable Adamu Idris Manarakis has been singing for about a decade now. The crescendo of which is this great book, NUPE TA (Nupe Grammar), he has produced to ease not only the understanding and better speaking but also the formal writing of Nupe language.
This pioneer minute grammar book by the prolific indigenous writer dazzles with its apt brevity, simplicity, quality and high sense of variety in addressing some grammatical issues of Nupe language. The book is a very light academic material that is equally handy to leisure-readers of both the Nupe and non-Nupe backgrounds.
An uncover of the table of contents gives the reader a promise of an educative and entertaining ride to, not necessarily a mastery, but an appreciable level of competence in the revered language. The book doesn’t waste its precious time to bore its readers with the rich history of Nupe Language and how its pragmatic Grammar formally evolved. It just dives straight into the practicality of the rules of the grammar for the readers to obtain a sound ability in their spoken and written Nupe Language. Hence, it begins with the 24 Nupe alphabets, showing clearly that Nupe language doesn’t make use of letters while the English language has only 21 consonant letters, the Nupe language uses 61, to probably prove itself as a richer and broader tool of communication, and probably why it’s self and ethnocentric preservation process is faster than others.
Clear examples of morphemes, two, three, four and even five letter words as well as their English translations are given in the book. Also, various examples of names of animals; doko (horse), nangi (goat), etc, colours; dofa (blue), galya (purple), cancarya (indigo), etc and shapes, greetings, computer accessories and terminologies are abundantly provided. We live in the computer age, Nupe speakers must know the Nupe words that mean the same as the English Language computer jargons they are used to. It is also interesting to note that virtually all household materials, school, hospital and other items are one by one delineated in Nupe and translated in English so that readers never get confused. Sentence formation formats, stripped of technicalities, are glaringly exemplified towards the end of the book. In addition to the examples of other group words, their synonyms and antonyms that are explained.
Reading Nupe Ta will make beginners know the difference between “Ndagi” and “Nnagi” in Nupe, which mean “uncle” and “aunty” respectively in English, as well as what paternal and maternal uncles and aunties are called in Nupe, and many other family relationship terms.
Another merit of the book is seen between pages 28 and 49 where tenses, parts of speech, syllables, mathematical symbols, intonations, words and opposites, names of foods, parts of the body, days of the months and weeks and many other common things are given their most appropriate Nupe names and translated into English for the delight of Nupe and English Language audience.
Every Nupe speaker, who is up to 75 years old and above, who reads this book will confirm it that his vocabulary has improved tremendously. And for the beginners, this will only be like a magic wand in effecting an instant improvement in their day to day use of the language.
Conclusion
Our indigenous languages, which are our first and foremost languages, are the tools that easily and readily make themselves available to us to conveniently use in defining our paths to glory and passing them down to posterity. This is why efforts like Nupe Ta, despite their being too small in size with other linguistic short-comings must be appreciated by, not only Nupe speakers, but everyone else because a language preserved is preserved for the benefit of humanity. And there’s no better way to preserve a language than to promote its grammatical soundness…
