Adamawa Niger-Congo

Language in Africa 1(3), 2020, 125–154. doi: 10.
37892/2686-8946-2020-1-3-125-154
PLURALITY MARKING IN LEKO

AND YENDANG GROUPS
(ADAMAWA, NIGER-CONGO)
WITH SOME REFERENCE
TO NOUN CLASSIFICATION
Alexander Zheltov
St. Petersburg State University / Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography RAS
[email protected]
Abstract: The article presents the available data about plurality marking in two
groups (Leko and Yendang) of a hypothetical genetic unit known as Adamawa
languages. It shows various strategies that languages of these two groups use in
marking plurality. The main focus is made on Nyong and Maya (Bali) languages with
which the author worked during field research in Adamawa state (Nigeria). The data
of some other languages of these groups (Samba Leko, Kpasham (Sam), Kugama
(Wam), Yendang and Waka) are also taken into consideration. This study offers
a comparison of plurality strategies in these languages that helps in distinguishing
conservative and innovative elements in plurality marking. It also shows some cases
of possible plurality/noun class interaction.
Key words: Adamawa, Leko languages, Yendang languages, plurality, number, noun
classification
1. Introduction.
Some remarks about genetic affiliation
“Adamawa” is one of the most disputable units within the Niger-Congo
macrofamily. The formerly used (since Greenberg 1963) wider term
“Adamawa-Ubangi” (or “Adamawa-Eastern”) happened to be rejected.
Some language groups of this family tend to be compared with Gur
languages, some others appear to have common features with Benue-
126 Language in Africa. 2020. № 1 (3)
Congo.1 There are various versions of the classification of Adamawa

languages: (Greenberg 1963; Bennet 1983; Boyd 1989; Blench 2004;
2012; 2020; Lewis et al. 2014; Güldemann 2018; Kleinewillinghöfer
2019; Hammarström et al. 2019); they demonstrate rather substantial
differences originated from the lack of data for many of the languages.
This article is not supposed to contribute much to the discussion
about genetic affiliation of the Adamawa languages, but some working
preliminary lexicostatistic data received during field research are
presented in this section. They concern languages of two groups — Leko2
(marked as Group 2 in (Greenberg 1963), Group 8 in (Blench 2020) and
including Leko (Leeko), Nyong (Mumbake), Kolbila, Perema), and
Yendang3 (Mumuye-Yendang – marked as Group 5 in (Greenberg 1963),
Group 6 in (Blench 2020) and including Yendang (with Kusheki, Yoti),
Waka, Bali (Maya), Kpasham (Sam), Teme, Kumba (Sate, Yofo), Gengle,
Kugama (Wam)).4 In case of the Leko (Sambaic) group two languages
are under consideration — Samba Leko and Nyong, the latter being more
in focus as the author worked with it during his field work. We can be
sure about their rather close relations which are supported by lexico
statistics (see Table 1). These languages have about 65% of common
roots from the Swadesh list, and the speakers of Nyong consider Samba
1
Ulrich Kleinewillinghöfer and Dmitry Idiatov with Mark van der Velde
presented some arguments in favor of these connections at the First Adamawa
Conference in Mainz, September 2019.
2
Leko languages are a part of the larger group called Samba-Duru (Kleine
willinghöfer 2015; Güldemann 2018: 200, 207–208). The reviewer proposes to
call this sub-group “Sambaic” following (Hammarström et al. 2019). However,
the existence of different (and not related, see Bennet 1983) Samba Daka language
makes this name confusing.
3
Yendang languages are often considered to be a part of the larger group
called Mumuye-Yendang (Greenberg 1963; Blench 2000), but in (Güldemann
2018; Kleinewillinghöfer 2019) these groups are considered separately. The
reviewer proposes to call this sub-group “Yendangic” to avoid the confusion with
the language name.
4
See Appendix 2 for classificational tree of Central Adamawa, the group all
these languages belong to.
Alexander Zheltov. Plurality marking in Leko and Yendang groups... 127
Leko speakers as a culturally close ethnic group. The composition of the

Yendang group appears to be supported by lexicostatistics as well,
showing about 40-60% of cognates. Yendang is closer to Waka (75%)
and Maya to Kpasham (78% for 200-word list, see Table 2). In this
article, I deal mostly with Maya (Bali), while including some data from
Yendang, Kugama (Wam), Waka and Kpasham (Sam).
Table 1
Lexicostatistics (100-word list)
of some Leko (marked in bold) and Yendang languages5
100 Maya Samba
Waka Yendang Teme Gengle Kumba
word list (Bali) Leko
Yendang 75
Maya (Bali) 50 49
Teme 63 60 49
Gengle 51 50 52 48
Kumba 43 43 39 42 41
Nyong 24 24 25 26 24 21 65
Table 2
Maya, Kpasham, and Nyong 200-word list statistics6
200 word list Maya (Bali)
Nyong 13 %
Kpasham (Sam) 78%
5
For Maya and Nyong I used my own field data; for Waka and Yendang the
data are from the field work of Anastasia Lyahovich and Tatiana Anikina
correspondingly; for Samba Leko the data come from the dictionary in (Fabre
2004); for Teme, Gengle and Kumba I used the word lists of the Panlex project
(http://panlex.org/, date of application 08.05.2012). It is worth noting that these
data are very preliminary and are based on impressionistic comparison of word
lists rather than strict sound correspondences or automatic program.
6
The data are from my field work.
The relations between Leko and Yendang groups are also evident,
although much more distant (about 25% between Nyong and some
Yendang(ic) languages, see Table 1).
2. Data
The data on Nyong (ISO 639-3-muo) and Maya (ISO 639-3-bcn) which
are in the focus of this article were collected during three one-month
long field trips to Yola (Adamawa province, Nigeria) in 2012–2014.7
It is worth noting that the data presented in the article are very
preliminary: problems with transcription are far from being resolved,
it is still more phonetic than phonological, the tonal notation needs to
be specified, lexical data are not very rich and not all grammatical
rules and processes are clear. These data and the analysis presented in
this article, however, are likely to be the first documentation of the
languages under consideration.8
The Nyong language is spoken in Cameroon and Nigeria in two
non-contact enclaves. The work was carried out with two language
assistants, brothers Jonathan and Solomon Conleganyiga, and dealt
with Nigerian Nyong. The total number of speakers can be estimated
as several thousand (for Nigeria, excluding Cameroon), and the
center of Nyong people in Nigeria appears to be located in Mumbake
village where the initiation procedure for all Nigerian Nyongs takes
place.
Maya is a common name for a dialect cluster whose area includes
two dozen localities to the West of Yola, the largest of which is Bali.
The name of this locality is used in some survey papers as the language
name (Blench 2020). Yeti and Kpasham, also sometimes included in
These trips were sponsored by the research grant of St. Petersburg State
7
University, No. 2.38.524.2013.
8
There is one phonological survey of Cameroonian Nyong (not Nigerian)
(Kouonang 1983). For Maya (Bali) the only references are (A guide… 2007;
Blench 2009).
Maya, should be considered separate languages. According to my

language assistants Zenon Joel and Dauda Martin, the language
differences between the dialects of other localities are rather little. The
term Maya is used to combine the variants of all localities and was
preferred by informants over the term Bali. The choice of this name
can be connected with the activity of translating the Bible and an
attempt to develop a single literary norm.
The data of Samba Leko (ISO 639-3- ndi) were taken from
a grammar by Fabre (2004).9 The data of Yendang (ISO 639-3-inq),
Wam (Kugama) (ISO 639-3-kow) and Waka (ISO 639-3-wav) were
collected during the same field trips by my colleagues Tatiana Anikina
(Anikina 2012), Lora Litvinova (Litvinova 2016)10 and Anastasia
Lyahovich (personal communication)11 correspondingly. As for Sam
(Kpasham) (ISO 639-3-pbm) data, I used the presentation by Eveling
Villa (Villa 2017).
The choice of languages of these two groups as an object for
analyzing plurality marking in this article is not based only on the
field experience of the author and the colleagues from the same team.
The languages of Leko and Yendang groups share an important
feature distinguishing them from many Niger-Congo families and
some other groups of Adamawa languages as well (e.g. Yungur):
9
It is worth noting that this is the only fundamental published description of
the languages under consideration, for the other languages the data are preliminary
and often not published.
10
Lora Litvinova after her first trip to Nigeria in 2014 continued her field
work as a PhD student of LLACAN (Paris) and shared with me some new data
on nominal morphology in Kugama in personal communication. I introduced some
changes into Kugama data according to her comments on my presentation about
this topic at the first Adamawa Conference in Mainz, September 2019. I am very
grateful to her for this consultation.
11
She has not published her data about plurality in Waka yet, but shared and
commented her field notes about plurality in Waka (for which I am very grateful).
It was not sufficient for making a special section, but allowed me to include some
Waka data into comparative tables.
they have practically no noun classes.12 This fact makes plurality

marking very important for discovering at least some elements of
noun classification. This common typological feature creates the basis
for presenting the comparative observation of plurality marking in
these two groups.
3. Theoretical background
In linguistic typology, the category of number is often considered as
rather simple comparing to such categories as case or noun class/gender.
Indeed, a superficial look at the expression of plurality in different
languages leads to a fairly clear picture: the singular is often not marked,
and the plural has a special universal marker for all names, as in the case
of English -s or Turkish -lAr. The singular marker can vary according
to gender (noun class), and in plural the gender cannot be distinguished,
as in Russian and many other Indo-European languages. The presence
of a dual number in some languages (as well as “triple” and “paucal”,
as in some Papuan languages, see Foley 1986) does not fundamentally
complicate the morphosyntactic characteristics of number. However,
a serious analysis of the morphosyntactic characteristics of the category
shows that number is an interesting and diverse category. As Greville
Corbett states in his monograph, “number is the most underestimated of
the grammatical categories. It is deceptively simple and is much more
interesting and varied than most linguists realize” (Corbett 2000: 1).
The Niger-Congo languages demonstrate a great variety in
morphosyntactic characteristics of number. At first glance, number in
many languages refers to two types: a uniform marking of number
only in the plural (Mande — similar to English); the distinction is
complicated by gender/class (Bantu — similar to Russian). However,
number in Mande and in Bantu is fundamentally different from number
in English and Russian and refers to different typological classes. In
About noun classes and plurality in other groups of Adamawa see, for
12
instance, (Kleinewillinghöfer 1992; van de Velde & Idiatov 2017).

Mande, the plurality clitics13 mark the whole NP and can occur either
on the noun or on dependent constituents (but only once), and disappear
when lexical pluralizers (numerals, ‘many’) are used, which is quite
different from English-like plurality. In Bantu, noun class distinctions
are not neutralized in the plural, Bantu languages having several plural
classes, comparing to just one in a language like Russian.
In addition, number and class are often syncretic categories in
Niger-Congo, and these syncretic class/number affixes are important
for historical-comparative studies of Niger-Congo languages being
(together with verbal extensions) an important argument in favor of
the existence of this macrofamily (Güldemann 2018).
Taking into account the problematic position of Adamawa languages
within Niger-Congo, the analysis of the ways they use to mark plurality
seems to be of great importance. The languages of the Leko and
(especially) Yendang groups are among the least studied even among
the Adamawa languages. Another consideration is that their nominal
morphology is not very rich, and plural markers often are the only
possible candidates for the traces of class markers. In the following
sections I present some preliminary analysis of plurality marking in
the afore-mentioned languages in connection with noun classification
and possible agreement. Namely, Leko and Yendang languages tend to
demonstrate a certain split for animate/inanimate nouns, some elements
of the agreement, or marking number only on dependent constituents
(adjectives). As it is stated in (Dryer 2013), “there are basically two
ways in which languages indicate plurality. The first (and most common)
involves changing the morphological form of the noun, as in English
dog, dogs. The second involves indicating plurality by means of
a morpheme that occurs somewhere else in the noun phrase…” As I
will show, the Adamawa languages demonstrate both these ways, and
rather often do it within one language.
13
The term “clitics” is used for such kind of morphemes in (Plungian 2011:
70; Vydrin 2017: 62), while in (Mel’čuk 1997: 287) the term “migrating affix” is
offered.
4. Number in the Leko group

4.1. Number in Samba Leko (Fabre 2004: 81)
There are two ways of marking plurality in Samba Leko:
1) standard pluralizer bә̄d,
2) suffixed labial consonant for human nouns.
Standard pluralizer is bә̄d: yagә̄d ‘dog’ ~ yagә̄d bә̄d ‘dogs’. It
appears to be a lexical unit (plural word) rather than an affix, but its
etymology is unclear. The word for ‘many’ is different. At the same
time some plural forms for humans with a final labial consonant are
also attested:
nɛ́ŋ ‘person’~ nɛ́b ‘persons’
kên ‘woman’ ~ kɛ̂m ‘women’
vân ‘man’ ~ vɔ̂m ‘men’
wà ‘child’ ~ yɛ̄b ‘children’
Ɂɔ̀d ‘friend’ ~ Ɂɔ̀b ‘friends’
These forms can be optionally used with bә̄d. Both nɛ́ŋ ‘person’
and nɛ́b ‘persons’ can be used as the derivative agentive without plural
meaning.
4.2. Number in Nyong14

In Nyong, there are three ways of marking plural on nouns:
1) -foro, the standard plural marker,
2) -(ri)pa, a plural marker limited to a specific semantic class,
3) suppletion, where the singular and plural form are expressed with
different stems.
In Nyong there is a standard plural form -foro. It is combined with
all nouns, but for lexemes that have special irregular plural forms (see
below), its use is considered not grammatical. The final vowel of the
singular form usually falls out: pãŋá ‘door from cane’ ~ pãŋforo ‘doors
14
Some elements of Nyong grammar are presented in (Zheltov 2014).
from cane’15, sometimes a whole syllable is truncated (in all recorded

cases the truncated final syllable is -ra): wãrá ‘stream, river’ ~ wãforo
‘streams, rivers’. It is an argument in favor of considering this form
as a suffix rather than a plural word, but this problem is not clear yet.
There is also a suppletive form: wa ‘child’ – yefera ‘children’.
The plural forms with -pa suffix, sometimes having the form of
-ripa (e.g. maŋsa – maŋsə́-ri-pá ‘friend - friends’), the -ri- element
being facultative in some cases (e.g. bùsá – bùsá-(ri)-pá ‘frog – frogs’)
seems to be of particular interest. They are formed in a limited semantic
group of names, including the designations of humans and animals,
but animals are almost exclusively domestic. This group includes the
following lexemes:
nà ‘cow’ ~ nà-pá ‘cows’
ya ‘dog’ ~ ya-pá ‘dogs’
maŋsa ‘friend’ ~ maŋsə́-ri-pá ‘friends’
ko ‘chicken’ ~ ko-pá ‘chickens’
vùa ‘goat’ ~ vù-pá ‘goats’
bùsá ‘frog’ ~ bùsá-(ri)-pá ‘frogs’
The suppletive pairing nìɗiŋa ‘person’ ~ nɛpá ‘persons’ seems to
have the same suffix in the plural. Perhaps the same suffix with some
assimilative nasalization should be postulated for the forms nɛkémmà
‘women’ (cf. nɛkénna ‘woman’) and nɛvɛmmà ‘men’ (cf. nɛvɛnna
‘man’). However, the low tone of the final syllable in both of these
forms witnesses against this interpretation.
Interestingly, this class does not include words for domestic animals
with the meaning of ‘horses’, ‘cats’, ‘ducks’, ‘pigs’, which form the
standard plural with -foro, like all wild animals. On the other hand, it
is quite puzzling that this class includes bùsá ‘frog’ ~ bùsá-(ri)-pá
‘frogs’, suggesting the question, why is a frog more “domestic” than
a cat.
15
The tonal notation is very preliminary. The absence of tone marking indicates
middle tone.
The following semantic justification for this formal class can be

offered: it unites people and animals related to the human environment.
Cats, ducks, and pigs were not included into this class since they are
identified with their wild counterparts and most likely the same word
is used for the corresponding wild animals (in the case of ‘pig’, this
is confirmed by the language assistant), while pets whose names fall
into the formal class described above do not have wild counterparts
that Nyong speakers would identify them with. Horses are evidently
strange for Nyong culture and are not treated as “domestic”. Getting
frogs in the class of “domestic” animals is due to the large number of
frogs that live in this area quite close to human habitation, besides,
according to the language assistant, they are used for food. Similar
proximity to humans (as opposed to wild cats and pigs that do not live
near human habitation) and functional analogy (use for food) with other
pets “domesticated” frogs for Nyong speakers.
Thus, Nyong demonstrates an interesting “split” in the expression
of number according to animacy hierarchy: names with the semantics
of “human” have a special marking together with the words for some
domestic animals closely related to human life.
We can also observe a sort of verbal agreement for plural pronouns
(1)–(2) and nouns (3)–(4).
(1) Yò bé nà-kò
3sg see cow-ref
‘He sees a cow.’
(2) Và bé-ri nà-kò
3pl see-pl cow-ref
‘They see a cow.’
(3) Bùsá bé nà-kò
frog see cow-ref
‘The frog sees a cow.’
(4) Bùsǝ’-(rí)pá bé-ri nà-kò
frog-pl see-pl cow-ref
‘The frogs see a cow.’
Interestingly, this agreement marker coincides with the -ri- element

which is used in nouns (see above), sometimes facultatively (as for
‘frog’), or obligatorily (as for ‘friend’).16
4.3. Conclusion on the Leko group

Comparing the plurality in Samba Leko and Nyong we can trace one
common feature: labial stops (voiced in case of Samba Leko, unvoiced
in case of Nyong) are used for human plural. Nyong keeps also /a/ as
a final vowel for this affix. These forms seem to be the remnant of
a possible human plural class which can be compared with the human
plurality marker in many Niger-Congo languages.17 Regular plural forms
bә̄d (Samba Leko) and -foro (Nyong) look like recent innovative
elements. It is also worth noting that according to the preliminary
analysis of Wom (Perema) (which seems to be the closest relative of
both Nyong and Samba Leko) plurality marking, according to (Blench
2000), shows similar features, especially with Nyong, including the
labial stop for human plurals.18
5. Number in the Yendang group

5.1. Number in Maya19
There are four ways of expressing plural in Maya:
(1) some plurals are formed with an -a suffix on the noun,
(2) more frequently, plurals are formed with a suffix -a on attributive
modifiers,
16
An anonymous reviewer mentions (with reference to Elders 2000: 392ff.)
that “in Mundang, an Adamawa language spoken in Cameroon and Chad, a similar
system is found: the nominal plural marker -rā is also found as plural agreement
suffix/clitic rá on verbs”.
17
For instance, bɛ for Proto-Atlantic (Pozdniakov 2015: 76), ba for Proto-
Benue-Congo (de Wolf 1971: 155).
18
The Perema data are just mentioned here, as the article I refer to (Blench 2000)
presents a preliminary analysis and has a remark “not to be quoted without permission”.
19
Some elements of Maya grammar are presented in (Zheltov 2016).
(3) there is a singular (ɓi-) and a plural (zi-) diminutive marker,

(4) some plurals are suppletive.
For most Maya nouns, the singular and plural forms of the noun
do not differ: soo ‘basket/baskets’. The quantifier kàm ‘many’ can be
added (according to the language assistant, this is a modern form,
previously the word gúnì with the same meaning was used). In the
Maya wordlist published on the website of Roger Blench (Blench
2013)20 we can find some regular pairings which seem to form regular
plural with -rɔ̀:
pə̀rə́m ‘forehead’ ~ pòrɔ̀ ‘foreheads’
tɛ́ ‘ear’ ~ tɛ́rɔ̀ ‘ears’
ɲɛ́ ‘mouth’ ~ ɲɛ́rɔ̀ ‘mouthes’
tón ‘father’ ~ tónrɔ̀ ‘fathers’
ɲɔ́ŋ ‘mother’ ~ ɲɔ́rɔ ‘mothers’
At first glance, we are dealing with a regular plural, but the lexical
semantics of words with these forms (body part terms and kin
ship terms — a group of words with relative semantics) leads to
a completely different interpretation. In all the forms of this “pseudo-
plural” there is a fused possessive pronoun, according to my
transcription -ròˀ ‘our’ (with a glottalized stop at the end; the openness
of the /o/ is tentatively represented as positional-phonetic, not
phonological). As for singular forms, the vocabulary forms are given,
except for the form pərəm, which is most likely to be translated ‘my
forehead’ (cf. ú ‘head’, úm ‘my head’). It is body part terms and
kinship terms that are typologically most commonly used with
possessives, and it is with them that Maya nouns merge with
possessive pronouns (cf. these forms with the words with autosemantic
meaning: soo ɗìm ‘my basket/s’, soo ɗeròˀ, ‘our basket/s’ with
independent, non-affixed possessive pronouns).
20
Along with a very brief brochure on the Maya language prepared during
the workshop on spelling development for this language (A Guide…2007), this
list is the only source of data known to the author about the Maya language.
At the same time, there are several plural forms in Maya (usually
names of humans) formed by an -a suffix, which is sometimes
accompanied by assimilative or dissimilative changes in the basic root:
ŋsé(e) ‘woman’ ~ ŋsià ‘women’ (regressive dissimilation – e+a>ia),
ŋɓí ‘man’ ~ ŋɓià ‘men’,
wen ‘person’ ~ wanà ‘people’ (regressive assimilation – wen+a>wana).
There is also a special model for diminutives, where the prefix ɓi-
(sometimes pronounced as ɓǝ-21) is used for singular, and zi- for plural:
ɓi-see ‘daughter’ ~ zi-sià ‘daughters’ from ŋsé(e) ‘woman’ ~ ŋsià
‘women’,
ɓi-ɓii ‘son’ ~ zi-ɓià ‘sons’ from ŋɓí ‘man’ ~ ŋɓià ‘men’,
ɓi-ɓe ‘small goat’ ~ zi-ɓe ‘small goats’ from ɓe ‘goat’ / ‘goats’.
The model is fairly regular. Possibly ba ‘child’ ~ zàà ‘children’
with secondary diminutives ɓǝba ‘small child’ ~ zizàà ‘small children’
also belong to this model.
With more regularity, the plural is expressed in Maya not in the
head nouns, but in dependent attributes:
ŋsee gelee ‘big woman’ ~ ŋsi(a) gel-a ‘big women’,
wen gelee = ŋgelee ‘big person’ ~ wan-a gel-a ‘big persons’ (in the
plural a morphological nominalizer was not found).
Moreover, this model also works for other nouns – those that do
not have a plural marking in the head noun:
ti gele ‘big tree’ ~ ti gel-a ‘big trees’.
The gele-form can be both an adjective and a qualitative verb.22
However, in a predicative function, unlike an attributive one, the forms
of the gele type do not have any plural marker (5).
21
At the moment it is hard to say if it is an optional or a positional variant.
22
As a qualitative verb it is used as a predicate of qualitative constructions
without a copula and with verbal pronouns, rather than independent pronouns,
which are used in nominal predication.
(5) ŋsee a gelee

woman 3sg big
‘A woman is big.’
(6) ŋsi(a) ni gelee
women 3pl big
‘Women are big.’
It is possible that number marking is blocked by the presence of
the corresponding pronoun of verbal series which can already contain
plurality in its semantics.
Thus, the Maya language has a special type of plurality marking,
in which the most regular marking is observed in the attributive
agreement, while just a small number of nouns with human semantics
can mark plurality on the head noun. However, it is worth mentioning
that a much bigger lexical corpus must be taken into consideration.
5.2. Number in Kpasham (Sam) (Villa 2017)23

Plural in Kpasham can be expressed:
1) with the plural suffix -á for humans,
2) with the plural prefix zá- for kinship terms,
3) with the plural prefix gún-,
4) with irregular and suppletive forms.
We can find some common features between Sam and Maya (which
can be expected if taking into account their close genetic relationship
according to lexicostatistics): -á plural suffix for humans, zá- plural
prefix and ɡún- as a regular pluralizer (though in Maya it is regarded
by speakers as outdated, and is not used) and quite a few nouns without
special plural form (e.g. body parts).
23
In this section I used the presentation made by Eveling Villa at the 47th
Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics (Leiden, Netherlands), available
on the AdaGram site. In her examples, the author uses phonetic transcription which
is kept in this article too.
The plural suffix -á can be realized as Ø ~ -á pairing, or it can

substitute the final vowel of a noun:
túŋ ‘widow’ ~ túŋ-á ‘widows’,
ɲɔ̀bláŋ ‘traveler’ ~ ɲɔ̀bláŋ-á ‘travelers’,
ɲɛ́sūm ‘messenger’ ~ ɲɛ́sūm-á ‘messengers’,
wámmáŋ ‘encounter’ ~ wámmáŋ-á ‘encounters’,
ǹdɛɡɛpɛ́í- ‘weaver’ ~ ǹdɛɡɛpɛ́á ‘weavers’,
ǹdʷɛ́nɛ́ ‘white-man’ ~ ǹdʷɛ́ná ‘white-men’,
sɔ́ɾɛ́ ‘fellow-wife’ ~ sɔ́ɾ-á ‘fellow-wives’.
It is not clear if it is possible to include the example ǹsʷɛ́nuíɾí
‘wife’ ~ ǹsʷɛ́nuíɾɔ́ ‘wives’ (with í → ɔ́ change) to the same class
(the pluralizing still makes the vowel more open, but the quality is
different).
As for the zá- prefix, in example ɓɛ́-bɛ́lɛ́ ‘son-in-law’ ~ zá-bɛ́lɛ́
‘sons-in-law’ it is very similar to Maya examples with ɓi- ~ zi- pairings
for plural marking for animate diminutives ɓi-ɓii ‘son’ ~ zi-ɓià ‘sons’.
However, in Sam the meaning of this prefix is not restricted to
a diminutive meaning (rather to kinship terms). In examples ɲíná
‘mother’ ~ zá-ɲíná ‘mothers’, tùŋ ‘father’ ~ zá-tùŋ ‘fathers’, sɔ̀ɣɛ̄
‘sister’ ~ zá-sɔ̀ɣɛ̄ ‘sisters’ there is no diminutive meaning, and the
pairing is not ɓɛ́- ~ zá-, but Ø ~ zá-.
There is another sg ~ pl pairing for which we cannot find any analogues
in Maya: ɓúŋ ‘firstborn’ ~ ɛ́-ɓúŋ ‘firstborns’, kánám ‘nephew’ ~ ɛ́-kánám
‘nephews’. This model also seems to deal with kinship terms.
According to the presented examples, plural with ɡún-, e.g. ɡún-
ɓɛ̄nʷɛ́ ‘flock (of birds)’, ɡún-nàɣɛ́ ‘herd (of cows)’, appears to be rather
lexical than grammatical as it is evidently derived from ɡúnì ‘crowd’.
In addition, some nouns have irregular plural forms:
wákɓĩi ‘she-goat’ ~ ǹzáwākɓiĩ̀ ̃̀ ‘she-goats’,
wɔ̀n-náá ‘rich man’ ~ ǹnáá ‘rich men’,
sìʲáá ‘threshing floor’ ~ síá ‘threshing floors’.
The pair síí ‘mourning’ ~ wúú ‘mournings’ seems to be suppletive.
5.3. Number in Kugama (Litvinova 2016; p.c.)

Kugama features the following number marking strategies:
(1) suppletion, in three nouns and their derivatives;
(2) the nouns wɛ̄m ‘person’ and wɛ̄nī ‘people’ mark singular and plural
for human nouns;
(3) there is a singular (fáà) and a plural (sáà) diminutive marker.
Most of the nouns do not have any morphological plural. Only three
words and their derivatives appear to have suppletive forms of plural.
The words wɛ̄m ‘person’ and wɛ̄nī ‘people’ are used to mark number
distinction of human nouns. These forms, i.e. wɛ̄m/wɛ̄nī, are involved
in compound formation with a simple noun or a verbal noun. These
compounds denote professions and occupations: wɛ̀ pɔ̄kī ‘farmer’ ~
wɛ̄nì pɔ̄kī ‘farmers’ (pɔ̄kī ‘farming’) literally ‘person/people of farming’,
wɛ̀ nɔ́ɔ́lɛ̄y ‘soldier’ ~ wɛ̄nì nɔ́ɔ́lɛ̄y ‘soldiers’ (nɔ́ɔ́lɛ̄y ‘gun’).
The modifier24 fáà ~ sáà can be analyzed as a diminutive marker:
fáà yēɓáákā ‘small old lady’ (yēɓáákā ‘old lady’). It means “small
(in size)” when used with inanimate words: fáà ɗyéké ‘small house’ ~
sáà ɗyéké ‘small houses’ (ɗyéké ‘house’). When it modifies words
such as insects, small and middle-sized animals, it has the meaning of
‘child’ ~ ‘children’: fáà dā̰á̰ ‘lamb’ ~ sáà dā̰á̰ /lambs’ (dā̰á̰ ‘sheep’).
It means ‘young’ in following examples: fáà wɛ̄véērī ‘boy’ ~ sáà
wɛ̄nīvéērī ‘boys’ (wɛ̄véērī ‘man’ ~ wɛ̄nīvéērī ‘men’), fáà wɛ̄sóōrī ‘girl’ ~
sáà wɛ̄nīsóōrī ‘girls’ (wɛ̄sóōrī ‘woman’ ~ wɛ̄nīsóōrī ‘women’). There
are few kinship terms which include fáà ~ sáà. In this case, the meaning
of the noun is ‘younger’: fáà ɲɔ̄ɔ̄kī ‘younger daughter’, fáà tɛ̄ɓáámē
‘mother’s younger brother’, fáà sènɛ̄ ‘father’s (younger?) brother’.
The noun váā ‘child’ has a suppletive plural form: sīzáā ‘children’.
These forms are also used in compounding, and therefore they
distinguish singular and plural forms of nouns: váà vyépī ‘orphan’ ~
sīzáà vyépī ‘orphans’, váā sóōrī ‘fiancée’ ~ sīzáā sóōrī ‘fiancées’, etc.
Its morphosyntactic status (word/prefix) is not clear yet. fáà / sáà differ
24
from other nouns like wɛ̄m ‘person’ ~ wɛ̄nī ‘people’, váā ‘child’ ~ sīzáā ‘children’
in that they cannot be used on their own as a subject or object.
Another example which can be interpreted as a sort of agreement

in Wam is the possessive copula ɓì/ì that occurs in a predicate position
before a possessor noun or noun phrase. This marker agrees in number
with the possessee noun: ɓì (sg) (7) and ì (pl) (8).
(7) náákyérɛ̄ ɓɔ̀ ɓì Àlí

cow.dem.prox 3sg.nhum poss.sg.cop Ali
‘This cow belongs to (is of) Ali.’
(8) náákyérɛ̄ ɔ̀ ì Àlí
cow.dem.prox 3pl.nhum poss.pl.cop Ali
‘These cows belong to (are of) Ali.’
5.4. Number in Yendang (Anikina 2012)25

There are the following plural marking strategies in Yendang:
1) -i suffix,
2) -ri ~ -ti alternation,
3) suppletion.
The most productive form of pluralizing in Yendang is the
suffixation of -i with a high tone (sometimes with some morphophono
logical and tonal changes): ayàɓa ‘banana’ ~ ayàɓaí ‘bananas’, tukʔ
‘ear’ ~ tuí ‘ears’, kún ‘bone’ ~ kúni ‘bones’.
In addition to -i form, -ri ~ -ti alternation is also actively used for
plurality marking: e.g. ɲada-ri ‘road’ ~ ɲada-tí’ roads’. They do not
form any semantic unit (e.g. road, door, pestle, etc.) and are characterized
by Tatyana Anikina (Anikina 2012) as a historical alternation.
To refer to people and their professions, Yendang uses a composite
form with the initial element wɛŋ, which can be translated as ‘person’.
The plural of such nouns is formed by adding standard -i suffix to the
form wɛŋ, the second part of the composite name does not change:
(cf. wɛ̀ŋ haki ‘peasant’ ~ wɛ̀ŋì haki ‘peasants’).
25
According to Anastasia Lyahovich (personal communication), plurality
marking in Waka is very similar to that of Yendang.
Yendang also has some suppletive singular/plural pairings (e.g. vaki

‘child’ ~ yɛbɛ ‘children’). Some nouns traditionally considered in many
other languages as Singularia Tantum, can form plurals in Yendang. In
this case, an additional expressive value appears: numálɔrɛ ‘rice’ ~
numálɔríí ‘a lot of rice (a lot of plates/bags of rice)’. The plural of
some words coincides with their singular form (yànki ‘spider’ ~
‘spiders’, hɛŋyídi ‘blacksmith’ ~ ‘blacksmiths’).
The concept of singularity in Yendang is closely related to the
category of referentiality and can be expressed by a -bi suffix (takarta-
bi ‘book’, lɛ-bi ‘house’, na-bi ‘hand’), which occupies the final position
in the word. It has a sort of cumulative singular/referential meaning:
tà-bi ‘one particular monkey’ and ta ‘some non-specific monkey’. This
suffix is not used with demonstratives (9), in presentative (10) and
possessive (11) constructions.
(9) takarta ɛkɛ
book dem
‘this book’
(10) a tà
dem.sbj monkey
‘this is the monkey’
(11) takarta lɛ Ali
poss Ali book
‘book of Ali’.
Another function of -bi is nominalization, in particular, the formation
of verbal nouns (e.g. ura ‘to run’ > urabi ‘running’).
We can also observe a sort of agreement of a copula (12)–(13).
(12) Ta-bi bɛ(kʔ) bíŋtàŋ

monkey-sg cop.sg big
‘Monkey is big’.
(13) Ta-i ɛ(kʔ) bíŋtàŋ
monkey-pl cop.pl big
‘Monkeys are big’.
For human nouns, similar constructions copulas also agree with the
subject in singular (14) and plural (15), but the forms of the copulas
are different from non-human nouns.
(14) Wɛŋ á bíŋtàŋ

person.sg cop.sg big
‘Person is big.’
(15) Wɛ̀ŋ-ì lɛ̀ŋ bíŋtàŋ
person-pl cop.pl big
‘Persons are big.’
5.5. Conclusion on Yendang group

The presented analysis demonstrates that a substantial part of nouns
does not have morphological plural in all the languages of the Yendang
group. Maya and Sam share a common feature, that is the -a suffix
for the plurality of human nouns. In Maya, it can be regularly observed
in adjectival agreement with all the nouns (no data about Sam). The
-a suffix is absent in Kugama, Yendang and Waka which, on the other
hand, have -i suffix for a few words with various semantics (in Kugama
only for ‘persons’). In contrast, in Maya, Sam and Kugama there is
a subsequent initial alternation of (bi)labial and fricative alveolar
consonants as a singular/plural pairing for diminutives (in Kugama only
for two words): /ɓ/ ~ /z/ in Maya and Sam, /f/, /v/ ~ /s/, /z/ in Kugama.
Kugama and Yendang have b(ɓ) ~ Ø alternation for singular/plural
pairing in copulas (in Yendang only for non-human subjects). In
Yendang this alternation can be observed for nouns too: ta-bi
‘monkey’ ~ ta-i ‘monkeys’.
6. Plurality and human-nonhuman distinction

in pronouns
Besides nominal plurality which was analyzed in the previous sections,
we can observe the distinctions in number for third person pronouns
(see Table 3).
Table 3
Third person pronouns in some Leko and Yendang languages
Yendang Waka Kugama Maya Sam Nyong
3sg Human wɛ̀ŋ â ɗɛ nyoŋ/a a yò
3sg Non- ɛkʔ ɓê ɓɔ̀ au/ɓi ɓe Ø/yò
human (ɓo, ɓə)
3pl Human lɛ̀ŋ ɗɛ̀ŋ ɗi nyóŋ né yá
3pl Non- ê ɔ̀ au/ɓi Ø
human (ɓo, ɓə)
Analyzing the forms presented in Table 3, we can conclude that

all the languages under consideration have human/non-human distinction
for third person singular and almost all for third person plural as well
(except Yendang and Sam, see Villa 2019). Only Samba Leko (Fabre
2004) does not have any human/non-human distinction in the pronominal
system. On the other hand, we can see that Maya and Nyong neutralize
number distinction for non-human pronouns, Nyong tending to use
a zero form in this context. Waka, Maya and Sam seem to have similar
forms for 3sg, human; Waka, Kugama, Maya, and Sam: for 3sg, non-
human (which looks related to the corresponding nominal affix);
Yendang, Waka and Kugama: for 3pl, human.
7. Conclusion
In Table 4 I am making an attempt to summarize all the available data
on number marking in the languages of Leko and Yendang groups
including both general rules and specific patterns.
Table 4
Comparative analysis of number marking in some Leko and Yendang languages26
Samba
Leko
Singular no / bi no / bi no no no no no
non- human non- human
(+REF) (+REF)
Default plural -i -i no no ? no / ɡún-26 -foro bә̄d
Plural for wɛ̀m -a (not -á -(ri)pa -b (some
humans ‘person’ ~ regular, túŋ ‘widow’ (humans, humans)
(sometimes wɛ̄ŋī humans) ~ túŋ-á some
also for ‘persons’ wen ‘widows’ animals)
animals) ‘person’ ~ (humans)
wanà ɛ́-
‘persons’ ɓúŋ
‘firstborn’ ~
ɛ́-ɓúŋ
‘firstborns’
(kinship
Alexander Zheltov. Plurality marking in Leko and Yendang groups...
terms?)
26
1 It is not quite clear from the available data if there are sufficient reasons to characterize ɡún- as a
145
“generalized plural marker”, as it is called in (Villa 2017).

End of Table 4
146
Samba
Leko
Other plural -ri ~ -ti no plural fánòy diminutive diminutive no no
markers sg ~ pl with body ‘bird’ ~ ɓi-ɓii ~ ɓɛ́/Ø ~ za
(semantically (‘road’, parts; sánòy zi-ɓià
ambiguous) ‘stone’, no plural ‘birds’
‘door’, with some
‘hair’) sg nouns
with -ri
Plural marking no no copula -a (regular) ? ri in verbs ?

on adjectives ti gele ‘big with
and verbs tree’ ~ ti humans in
gel-a ‘big pl
trees’
Nominalizer bi (non- gi (non- ? ŋ- (human) ? ? ?
human) human) ŋ-gelee ‘big
person’ from
gelee ‘big’
Language in Africa. 2020. № 1 (3)
The analysis of the data presented in Table 4 suggests that the

languages within the Leko and Yendang groups have much more in
common than the languages from different groups.
Comparing the plurality in Samba Leko and Nyong we can trace
one common feature, namely that labial stops (voiced in case of Samba
Leko, unvoiced in case of Nyong) are used for human plural. Nyong
keeps also /a/ as a final vowel for this affix. These forms seem to be
the remnant of a possible human plural class which can be compared
with the human plurality marker in many Niger-Congo languages (for
example, bɛ for Proto-Atlantic (Pozdniakov 2015: 76), ba for Proto-
Benue-Congo (de Wolf 1971: 155). It is also worth noting that according
to the preliminary analysis of plurality marking in Wom /Perema (which
seems to be the closest relative of both Nyong and Samba Leko)
(Blench 2000), it has similar features, especially with Nyong, including
the labial stop for human plurals.
As for the Yendang group, the substantial part of nouns does not
have morphological plural in all the languages of this group. Maya and
Sam share the common -a suffix for the plurality of human nouns. In
Maya, it can be regularly observed in adjectival agreement with all the
nouns (no data about Sam). -a suffix is absent in Kugama, Yendang,
and Waka which, on the other hand, have -i suffix for a few words
with various semantics (in Kugama only for ‘persons’). In Maya, Sam,
and Kugama there is an initial alternation of (bi)labial and fricative
alveolar consonants as a singular/plural pairing for diminutives (in
Kugama only for two words): /ɓ/ ~ /z/ in Maya and Sam, /f/, /v/ ~
/s/, /z/ in Kugama. Kugama, Yendang, and Waka have b(ɓ) / Ø
alternation for the singular/plural pairing in copulas (in Yendang and
Waka only for non-human subjects). In Yendang and Waka this
alternation can be observed for nouns too: Yendang ta-bi ‘monkey’ ~
ta-i ‘monkeys’. This analysis confirms a very close relation between
Maya and Sam, on the one hand, and Yendang and Waka, on the other
hand, Kugama taking some intermediate position.
With this comparison of the languages of different groups we can
conclude that there are only two common features among them. First,
Maya, Sam (Yendang group), Nyong and Perema (Leko group) have
a common /a/ vowel for human plurality marking. Taking into account
that Samba Leko has a labial stop suffix for some nouns with human
semantics and that Nyong and Perema also have a labial stop together
with /a/, it is possible to argue that Nyong and Perema have preserved
the CV suffix for human plural. Samba Leko lost the vowel, Maya and
Sam lost the consonant, and the other Yendang languages lost both the
consonant and the vowel, but possibly after the split from the Leko
group.27
The second common feature seems to have structural character,
namely that almost all languages of both groups have a human/non-
human distinction for third person pronouns. However, the forms
marking this distinction are different in these two groups.
It is worth noting that this article is just the very first step in
analyzing plurality in some groups of Adamawa languages. The analysis
should be supported by much more data from the languages of Leko
and Yendang groups and comparative data from other groups of
Adamawa languages.
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to anonymous reviewers and editors of the issue
for valuable comments and critics.
Appendix 1
Languages of Eastern Nigeria (Lewis et al. 2014)
Languages under consideration are: Nyong — 284, Samba Leko —
294, Bali (Maya) — 276, Yendang — 291, Kugama — 290, Waka —
282, Kpasham (Sam) — 278.
It is worth noting that this scenario is just a very preliminary possible

27
hypothesis.
Appendix 2
Classification of Central Adamawa
(Hammarström et al. 2019)
Languages under consideration are underlined.
▼Central Adamawa (29)

▼Mumuye-Yandang (11)
Gengle-Kugama
Kumba
►Mumuyic (3)
▼Yandang (6)
▼Bali-Kpasam (3)
Bali (Nigeria)
Kpasam
Yotti
▼Waka-Yendang-Teme (3)
Teme
▼Waka-Yandang (2)
Waka
►Yendang
▼Samba Duru (18)
►Northern Samba Duru (7)
▼Southern Samba Duru (9)
►Diic (3)
Longto
►Peere
▼Sambaic (4)
Kolbila
▼Samba-Leko-Perema-Mumbake (3)
▼Perema-Mumbake (2)
Nyong
Wom (Nigeria)
►Samba Leko
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Received 11.03.2020. Received in revised form 18.06.2020. Accepted 04.08.2020

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Language in Africa 1(3), 2020, 125–154. doi: 10.

PLURALITY MARKING IN LEKO

Congo.1 There are various versions of the classification of Adamawa

Leko speakers as a culturally close ethnic group. The composition of the

Maya, should be considered separate languages. According to my

they have practically no noun classes.12 This fact makes plurality

instance, (Kleinewillinghöfer 1992; van de Velde & Idiatov 2017).

4. Number in the Leko group

4.2. Number in Nyong14

from cane’15, sometimes a whole syllable is truncated (in all recorded

The following semantic justification for this formal class can be

Interestingly, this agreement marker coincides with the -ri- element

4.3. Conclusion on the Leko group

5. Number in the Yendang group

(3) there is a singular (ɓi-) and a plural (zi-) diminutive marker,

(5) ŋsee a gelee

5.2. Number in Kpasham (Sam) (Villa 2017)23

The plural suffix -á can be realized as Ø ~ -á pairing, or it can

5.3. Number in Kugama (Litvinova 2016; p.c.)

Another example which can be interpreted as a sort of agreement

(7) náákyérɛ̄ ɓɔ̀ ɓì Àlí

5.4. Number in Yendang (Anikina 2012)25

Yendang also has some suppletive singular/plural pairings (e.g. vaki

(12) Ta-bi bɛ(kʔ) bíŋtàŋ

(14) Wɛŋ á bíŋtàŋ

5.5. Conclusion on Yendang group

6. Plurality and human-nonhuman distinction

Analyzing the forms presented in Table 3, we can conclude that

“generalized plural marker”, as it is called in (Villa 2017).

Plural marking no no copula -a (regular) ? ri in verbs ?

The analysis of the data presented in Table 4 suggests that the

It is worth noting that this scenario is just a very preliminary possible

▼Central Adamawa (29)

Dryer, Mathew S. 2013. Coding of Nominal Plurality. In Dryer, Matthew S.

ver­sity. (M.A. thesis.) http://llacan.vjf.cnrs.fr/AdaGram/publications/

Linguistics: materials of expeditions to Africa], 130–140. St. Petersburg:

Received 11.03.2020. Received in revised form 18.06.2020. Accepted 04.08.2020

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versity. (M.A. thesis.) http://llacan.vjf.cnrs.fr/AdaGram/publications/