NJALA UNIVERSITY

INSTITUTE OF LANGUAGES AND CULTURAL STUDIES

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION-BO CAMPUS

SUBJ: LINGUISTICS
SUBJ. CODE: 631
SUBMITTED TO: DR. SAIDU CHALLAY
COURSE LECTUTRER
SUBMITTED BY: JAMES D. BORDOLO

DATE OF SUBMISSION: AUGUST 20, 2020

This paper discusses the morphological process in the Mano Language.

Mano is an ethnic group of Liberia. The group speaks the Mano language, which
belongs to the Mande language family. Mano is a South Mande language spoken
by approximately 400,000 people in Guinea and Liberia.
Mano people in Liberia.
The Mano ethnic group occupy the northeastern part of Liberia known as Nimba
County and some parts of modern day Guinea , in the forest section of that
republic. According to John Gbatu, (1919-2010), a prominent Mano tribal leader,
the name Nimba originates with the Mano dialect which in Mano is Niemba Tun.
The meaning is "hills on which young maidens will slip and fall".
This is so because the Mano used to worship their god up what is today known as
Mt. Nimba in Liberia. They occupied major cities and towns in Niemba such as
Ganta, Yekepa, Sanniquellie, and Scalepea amongst others.
According to Stanley Delano Quaye (1985-), a Liberian Historical Economist and
Banker and grandson of John Gbatu, the Mano belongs to the Mande speaking
group and has had a long history. He narrated that the tribe migrated from Sudan
and settled in the Mali empire and subsequently to the republic of Guinea where
they formed a Kingdom in the Youmou area. They later migrated to what is Liberia
during the term of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a larger portion arrived
during the turn of the sixteenth and seventeen centuries.
Stanley Delano Quaye has done research in anthropology and the political structure
of the Mano and Gio tribes. His noted paper discusses the political and economic
governance of the tribes. The Manos are also warriors and excellent in the arts and
crafts. In modern day Liberia, they occupy positions in national government,
banking and engineering. They are among Liberia's best doctors and engineers.
Origins
The tribe originated from the Mali empire and traveled to what is present day
Liberia through the Republic of Guinea at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries.
They helped defend the empire against invaders from mainly North Africa. The
Mano have two traditional schools: the poro for men and the sande for women.
As Christianity spread to Northern Liberia during the 19th century, many Mano
abandoned their traditional practices and took to western religious groups such as
the Methodist and Catholic churches. Dr. George Way Harley, a missionary from
the United States settled in Ganta and started the Ganta United Mission which later
grew to high schools, hospitals and colleges (the mission station now houses the
Winifred J. Harley School of Nursing named after his wife). Dr. Harley was also
amused by the Mano culture mask ceremony. He bought many masks from the
locals and established a museum in Cleveland, United States. He died on
November 7, 1966. His ashes were flown to Ganta to be buried near the mission
station having spent over 35 years in Ganta.
The Mano are excellent in arts and crafts; they are also gifted musicians and
farmers. Mano are also in Guinea; it is common to see Mano towns in Guinea to
have similar names cultures with that of their Liberian brothers. This is why during
the Liberian Civil War, most Liberian Manos were welcomed and treated with
great pity and hospitality by their Guineans brothers. In fact, during the great siege
of Ganta, high ranking Manos in the Guinean Army provided military aid to Mano
defenders in Liberia.
Today, the region they occupied have common bustling towns in terms of trade
and commerce mainly by their Dan brothers. The Manos have close culture and
language similarity with the Gios (Dan). They are the two major tribes in Nimba
county.

We are going to deal with the morphological process and how it leads to lexical
expansion chronologically as morphology is concerned in Mano.
Coinage – as Linguistics is concerned, is involved with the invention of entirely
new words, the Mano is of no exception. However, the following are some
examples:
 Car,
 Hello to answer phone
 Gas
Lexical borrowing – The Mano language has a record of borrowed words from
languages spoken by countries it borders with. Some are as follow:
Borrowed from English
 Sese for sensors
 Korba for Cover
Borrowed from French
 ampi for amplifier
Affixation - is one of the morphological processes in Mono. However, suffixes are
used on the general level. The use of prefix and infix are not common in the Mano
language.
 Soor meaning playful
Sor means play and the soor the long vowel is a suffix attached to pronounce
the word playful.
 Lormi meaning stranger
Lor is a verb means strange while the mi is the suffix attached to the root word to
form noun stranger.
Compounding - is one type of morphological process that is common in the mono
language. Some are as followed:
 Baymi meaning crazy man
 Sorpeh meaning torn clothes
In Mano the adjective comes after the noun (the word it modifies)
In the example sor means clothes and peh means torn
In the case of verb plus noun, it takes regular form as in English.
 Taami walking man
 Taa means walking and mi means man.
Reduplication - - in reduplication the Mano language reduplicatewords to
emphasis meaning.
 Deadea meaning myself/him/herself
In mano, the third person does not consider gender.
 Sonkon sonkon meaning not at all
 Kpokpobo meaning for sure

Conversion – In mano, conversion exist mostly in N derived from V

Example:

Noun Verb
 Yar seat
 Yaatan sit

Clipping - this does exist in Mano to avoid polysyllabic by deleting one or more
syllables
Eample
 Noo __ Noko meaning mother
 Non __ Lehmon meaning right here
 Lee __ Leedia meaning senior brother/sister
Note, In Mano, the third person pronoun does not consider gender.
Compounding - compounding in Mano is basically concerned with Adjective +
Noun and Verb + Noun. For the standard way to modify is - the noun comes
before the modifier.
 Baymi meaning crazy man
 Bay meaning crazy while mi means man
 Soorpeer meaning torn clother
 Taami meaning walking man
  Taa means walking mi means man
 Soor means clothes and peer means torn
The first examples above is Adjective + Noun and the second and third are Verb
+ Noun.

Backformation is done with very few words in mano, but not limited to the
following:
 Goangooan for Nyagoangoan meaning thousand legs

Acronyms is not usual in the Mano Language, but what is common that may be be
closely associated with it is how names are given to provide historical information
about an individual.
Example
If a man were born by a Mah woman, he will be named to provide information
about the origin of his mother.
 Mahlaygbay meaning Mono woman son

References

 Cohen, Yehudi A. (2010-01-01). Human Adaptation: The Biosocial

Background. AldineTransaction. p. 238. ISBN 9781412844499.
 Jr, Karl DeRouen; Heo, Uk (2007-05-10). Civil Wars of the World: Major
Conflicts Since World War II. ABC-CLIO. p. 490. ISBN 9781851099191.