Abstract
This paper describes the structures and functions of prefixes in southern Bade, a dialect of Bade language. Bade is the West Chadic-B language of Afro-Asiatic phyla, mainly spoken in the northern part of Yobe State, Nigeria. Prefixation, as a morphological operation, is a process whereby a bound morpheme is attached before a root or a stem to derive a new lexeme or inflect the existing one. In addition to the researcher’s innate knowledge as a native speaker, the data were obtained through an oral interview and unobtrusive observation, mainly from dialect speakers of the language. Generative Approaches (Chomsky and Halle, 1968) formed the theoretical framework of the study. From the data obtained, the paper identified and discussed five derivational prefixes found in the nominal system of the dialect {ma-} prefix is used in deriving agential nouns, personal and instrument names, {ga(a)-} in forming participial adjectives and adverbs, {saa-} in deriving female namesake and circumstantial names. {tÉ™-} and {dÉ™-} are used in deriving personal names and adjectives respectively from a verb base. The morphophonological alternations that occurred in the prefixation processes include the weakening of voiced velar /g/ to becoming labial velar [w]; schwa [É™] deletion re-syllabification; insertion of link element; deletion, labialization; and palatalization. It argues that some of the prefixes simultaneously co-occur with varying suffixes, depending on the word class derived, in the formation process, while a few are not.
Keywords: Bade, Bound morpheme, Derivation, Generative, Prefixation
DOI: www.doi.org/10.36349/tjllc.2023.v02i02.001
