Word Formation Constraints Between English and Bornou Language

Abstract

The study was conducted in University of Kordofan during (1916-19) It aims to illustrate and compare word formation constraints between English and Bornou (Kanuri) language. It is one of Nilo-Saharan Families Language. More than ten million of populations in Africa speak Bornou language. The study followed prescriptive, comparative and analytical method. The data were collected from secondary resources which include references and web sites and primary resources include (50) Bornou native speakers who were chosen randomly out of (150) from different parts of Sudan. The data were analyzed via SPSS and content. SPSS is used to analyze the questionnaire, through which the study has come to results: 100% of the respondents agree Bornou uses Latin scripts, Affixation, borrowing, onomatopoeic, reduplication and compounding to form words.100% agree the sounds / ɍ, ɽ, ɸ/ effect in forming spoken words 46% agree tone affect forming words.98% of respondents agree conversion is a process of word formation. Content analysis is used to show the similarities and differences in the level of word formation so; the study extracted the following results: Both English and Bornou use Latin scripts expect are not used in Bornou. The two languages use affixes to form words. English prefixes change the word meaning while in Bornou change the word class (un +happy- nem +tata) means childish. The two languages use borrowing, clipping, onomatopoeic, inversion, reduplication and compounding to form words. Acronym, abbreviation blending and word manufacture are found in English but not found in Bornou. English compounding is right headed while left headed in Bornou as in: (chair+ man- kam+ kura) The study concluded that there are many processes that constraints word formation in English and Bornou language, also there are similarities and differences in these levels. Accordingly the study recommends there should be more comparative studies in linguistics between English and other African languages for the benefits