Negation in Egu N Language A Case Study

NEGATION IN ÈGÙN LANGUAGE: A CASE STUDY OF
GÙNGBÈ
PÓPÓỌLÁ, BABÁTÚNDÉ ỌLÁṢAYO ̣̀

Popoolababatunde17@gmail.com
DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS AFRICAN AND ASIAN STUDIES
UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS.
Abstract
Negation is a universal linguistic notion. Negation is the opposite of affirmation; (positive).

This term has generated a lot of investigations in the field of linguistics with respect to
many languages of the world. Unfortunately, the language of the Ègùn people with respect
to this subject has not been investigated. This study focus on Negations in the languages of
the Ègùn/Ògù/Gún/Gu1 people. This study also expose us to the geographical location and
genetic classification of the language of the Ègùn people. It reveal the numbers of negation
morpheme in Gùngbè dialect. The syntactic position of the negation markers in the
language. The numbers of the negation morphemes employed at a time in a construction
in the language.
Keywords: Negation, Ègùn, Gùngbè, language, diaclect.
Introduction
Negation in every languages is an important aspect. Cross linguistically each language have
a way of marking or denoting negative statements in their languages. Our concern here is
to look into the negation pattern of Ègùn language. How the language operate it negations
and various lexicons that is used to mark negation in the language.
Egun language has been classified to bé among the branch of the Gbè language family.
Like Yorùbá, all the languages under gbe is a member of Niger Congo language. Some of
these languages include: Ewegbè, Fongbè, Gungbe (or Egun), e.t.c. It must be noted that
the Gùngbé language are Fo ̣̀ngbè are founded to be the same, though native speakers had
drawn a vast distinction.
1
Ègùn will be adopted in the future to denote various names referring to this tribe.
1
We will start this work by giving a brief account about the Ègùn people and their languge.
We will mention dialects under Ègùn. We will mention the ethnic groups known as Ègùn
and some description about them. Since this work is about negation, we shall proceed by
explaining what negation is in languages. We will look into various lexicon that mark
negation in Ègùn language, where they can be found in their negative construction of the
language.
Ègùn language: the genetic classification and their geographical locations.
The Ègùn ethnic group, according to many accounts belongs to a race that comprises
many ethnic groups like the Adja, Ewe, Fon, among others. These ethnic group according
to Wikipedia are a descendant of those who migrated from Whydah, Allada and Weme
which are now part of the Republic of Benin as a result of the Dahomey war that
occurred during the 18th century.2 Their language is generally known as Ègùn.
H. Capo (1991) in Agboyinu (2012) asserted that; the Egun language has been a member
of Kwa Niger Congo proto language. These include: Ewe, Fon, Gungbe (or Egun) Adja,
Gen, Xwla, e.t.c. He further claimed that the Ègùn language is classified as a branch of the
“Gbé” language family.
According to oral tradition the major tribes of the Ègùn people includes; the Fon people,
the Gùn people, the Adja people, the To ̣̀lì people, the Allada people among others. The
term “language” in probably most of the languages of the just mentioned tribes is referred
to as “ogbè”. Hence the dialect of the Fon people is referred to Fo ̣̀ngbè, the dialect of the
Àllàdà is reffered to as Àllàdagbè, Gùn as Gùngbè and so on. An evidence to this is an
extraction of a bible verse which contain the word “language” within;
Gùngbè: Todin, gbẹtọ he tin to aigba ji lẹpo nọ do ogbè

dopolọ bosọ nọ yí hogbe dopolọ lẹ zan3
2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogu_people
3 https://wol.jw.org/guw/wol/b/r63/lp-eg/nwt/1/11#study=discover
2
Àllàdàgbè: Aihọn lẹpo sọ yín ogbè doponọ, podọ ohógbè
doponọ4
English: Now the whole earth spoke one language and

used the same words.5
As above, ogbè refers to language in both languages, but Gùngbè uses hogbe to denote
speech while Àllàdàgbè reffered to speech as ohógbè. This is a slight difference that may
be linguistically explained.
Ègùn language is the language of the Ègùn people. This language is spoken by the Ègùn
people also known as Gùn people in both Benin Republic and Nigeria. It must be mentioned
that the language is understood by all the other sub-ethnic groups under group. Wikipedia
affirmed that, Gùngbè is the second most spoken language of Benin Republic. It is taught
in school and has a standard orthography which is similar to that of Yorùbá and some other
languages of Nigeria, it uses the dot below diacritic to indicate certain sounds and it is also
a tonal language.
Ègùn Language Linguistic Area
Map showing Ègùn Language Linguistic Area
4 https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/2405/GEN.11.BWL23
5
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis%2011&version=AMP
3
Agboyinu (2012:8-9) highlighted the dialect spoken by the Ègùn people. He also showed
the family tree, the consonants chart and the vowel chart of Egun Language.
Ègùn Language family tree

Niger Congo
↓
Kwa
↓
Gbe proto language
Adja Ewe Egun Phla Phela Fon
Allada (Alathagbe) Toli gbe Setogbe Ajlagbe Ogugbe
Ègùn Consonants Chart

Place Bilabia Labio- Post Alveo Palat Alveo Vela Labio Uvula
Manner l dental alveol lar al la- r - r
ar palata velar
l
Stops p b t d k g kp
gb
Affricate t dz
Fricative f v s z X
s
Nasals
M N Ŋ
Trills
R L
Approxi J
mants w
4
Ègùn Vowels Chart
Front Central Back
ı (ĩ) u (ũ)
e ə o
ε (ẽ ) ɔ (ɔ)
ɑ (ɑ)
What is Negation?
The term “Negation” has been widely discussed among linguistics scholars with respect to
several languages. Ajiboye (2012) discussed the derivation of “ai-“ a negation marker in
standard Yorùbá language. Ẹlé ̣̀shin (2018) also dig deep on Yorùbá negation markers. Ìlo ̣̀rí
and Oyèbádé (2012) discussed Negation in Ìgalà. Sanusi and Oyewole (2019) also
contributed to this subject by analyzing it syntactic position in Tiv and Idoma. Likewise,
Olúmúyiwá (2013), Obiamalu (2013), Fábùnmi (2013), Oluchukwu and Angela (2015)
among others. As mentioned earlier, this subject has not been discussed with respect to the
languages of the Egun people.
Negation is a UG property which is parametrically realized cross-linguistically Ìlo ̣̀rí and

Oyèbádé (2012). Crystal (1980); Negation is a construction in grammatical and semantic
analysis that typically exposes the contradiction of some or all of the sentence meaning.
According to Alnawaisheh (2015);
“Negation is a universal linguistic notion. Indeed, it is one of

the most basic elements in human mind that makes it an
indispensable part of natural languages which are the tools for
human thoughts. Every language has negative particles or
expressions; statements that involve negative particles are
called negative statements. As it is known, negation is the
5
opposite of affirmation; (positive and negative) one sentence
or statement can be the negation or denial of another.”
Alnawaisheh (2015:1);
With all these claims, we can affirm that the idea of negation centered on the expression of
the denial or reverse of the state of affairs. It is important to note that negation is a subject
that cut across all the languages of the world. Every language has its own syntactic,
semantic and morphological devices expressing negation.
Negation in standard Ègùn/Gùngbè Language.
Every language has their own way of expressing negation. This is a process by which they
construct their statement in a way that will express contradictions of some or all of the
meaning of declarative or imperative construction, this might be done with the use of
certain inflectional morpheme, lexical items or tones.
Ìlo ̣̀rí and Oyèbádé (2012) assert that; there are also languages which express negation by
using free (i.e. non-inflectional) negative morphemes. Without no doubt, the Gùngbè and
To ̣̀fì languages or dialects as the case may be is among these languages that exercise this
process.
Negation in Gùngbè is expressed by “mà”, “àma-̀” together with other elements as the
case may be in various positions. It must be noted that these negator mentioned functions
as negative marker in Indicative constructions, Imperative, Focus, Declarative and Neg-
Normalizations.
Indicative Negations in Gùngbè
Indicative Negations occurs at the mid position of a sentence in Gùngbe ̣̀ language. These
negative marker mà is placed pre-verbally in a construction. This is exemplified with the
data below:
6
Example 1a:
Affirmative: Negative:
Kofí yì gìlìme ̣̀ Kofí mà yì gìlìme ̣̀
‘Kofí go farm’ ‘Kofí NEG go farm’
‘Kofí goes to farm’ ‘Kofí didn’t go to farm’
Example 1b:
Se ̣̀gbó ho ̣̀ kaná Se ̣̀gbó mà ho ̣̀ kaná
‘Se ̣̀gbo buy pap’ ‘Se ̣̀gbo NEG buy pap’
‘Se ̣̀gbo bought pap’ ‘Se ̣̀gbo didn’t buy pap’
Example 1c:
É dù lé ̣̀sì É mà dù lé ̣̀sì
‘3SP eat rice’ ‘3SP NEG eat rice’
‘3SP ate rice’ ‘3SP did not eat rice’
It is observed that this language indicates negation with the free morpheme “mà”. This low
tone morpheme is placed pre-verbally in a construction as exemplified above.
Imperative Negations in Gùngbè
Imperative negation in Gùngbè is marked with the use of “Mà” (LT) and an agreement
“blóù” which comes at the sentence final position.
7
Example 2a:
Ho ̣̀ kaná Mà ho ̣̀ kaná blóù
‘buy pap ‘NEG buy pap AGR’
‘Buy pap’ ‘Don’t buy pap’
Example 2b:
Nyìn àgán. Mà nyìn àgán blóù
‘Throw stone’ ‘NEG throw stone AGR’
‘Throw stone’ ‘Don’t throw stone’
Example 2c:
Dú òwè Mà dú òwè blóù
‘Dance Dance’ ‘NEG dance dance AGR’
‘Dance’ ‘Don’t dance’
Focus Negations in Gùngbè
Gùngbè uses “mà” to mark focus negation and uses “we ̣̀” as the focus marker as showed
in the examples below.
8
Example 3a:
É we ̣̀ dù kaná É mà we ̣̀ dù kaná
‘3SP FOC buy pap’ ‘3SP NEG FOC eat pap’
‘It was pap that Dosí bought’ ‘It wasn’t pap that He/She/It bought’
Example 3c:
É we ̣̀ nà mè Se ̣̀gbó mà we ̣̀ nà mè
‘3PS FOC tell 1SS’ ‘Se ̣̀gbo NEG FOC tell 1SS’
‘It was He/She/It that told me’ ‘It wasn’t He/She/It that told me’
Declarative Negations in Gùngbè
Gùngbè operate Negator marker and a progressive marker to mark declarative negation.
This example below can be considered;
Example 4a:
Mìí nọ hwù òdàn Mìí mọ nọ hwù òdàn
‘1PP PROG kill snake’ ‘Kofí NEG PROG kill snake’
‘We usually kill snake” ‘We don’t usually kill snake”
9
Example 4b:
Yèé nọ lì vávo Yèé mò nọ lì vávo
‘3PP PROG ground pepper’ ‘Kofí NEG PROG ground pepper’
‘They usually ground pepper’ ‘They don’t usually ground pepper’
Neg-Normalizations in Gùngbè
Gùngbè has a negative morpheme that is combined with verbs to derive a noun. The bound
morpheme {ama-} can be combined with most verbs in the language to derive a noun that
will have semantic relation with the verb. The following examples can be considered;
Example 5a:
Àmà + de ̣̀ (Àmàde ̣̀)
‘NEG fetch’
“Not fetching”
Example 5b:
Àmà + dù (Àmàdù)
‘NEG eat’
‘Not eating’
Example 5c:
Àmà + fíáwá (Àmàfiáwá)
‘NEG sleep’
“Not sleeping”
10
Further research also claimed that the morpheme {àmà-} is derived and the nominal
derived using this morpheme cannot be used unconsciously, it is mostly used during
interpretations or translations of technical terms.
3.1 Comparism of Negation Patern in Gùngbè to other Ègùn Dialect
As mentioned above the Ègùn language comprises of many dialect, however, the Gùngbè
is the standard and the language that is widely understood among various Ègùn ethnic
groups.
It must be noted that a High tone syllable (HTS) is always present in Tòfìgbè constructions.
This HTS precedes verbs but precedes negative markers in negative constructions. For
example;
Deep structure: /Kofí HTS yàn gìlìme ̣̀/

Kofí í yàn gìlìme ̣̀
Kofø í yàn gìlìme ̣̀
Surface structure: [Kofí yàn gìlìme ̣̀]
Deep structure: /No ̣̀yo ̣̀ HTS yàn gìlìme ̣̀/

No ̣̀yo ̣̀ ó ̣̀ yàn gìlìme ̣̀
No ̣̀yø ó ̣̀ yàn gìlìme ̣̀
Surface structure: [No ̣̀yó ̣̀ yàn gìlìme ̣̀]
As exemplified in the examples above, the high tone syllable is always covert whenever
the subject has HTS ending. This is because the deletion and contraction processes that
occurred within does not bring about change in the form of the subject. However, for
subject that has LTS or MTS ending, there is always change in form and it will be overt.
11
It must be mentioned that the HTS syllable that is always present in Tòfìgbè constructions
takes on the features of the final vowel in the subject. As mentioned, it is always overt for
subject that has LTS or MTS ending, but covert whenever the subject has HTS ending.
However, in declarative negation, it is compulsory for this HTS to feature. As below;
Kofí í yàn gìlìmè

Dosí í hò kanna
1. Conclusion
Our focus in this study has been to show the negation in Ègùn language where we used
Gùngbè and To ̣̀fìgbè dialect as a case study. We give a report of negation in both dialects.
We started by spelling out the description of Ègùn language. We gave report on the speaker
of the language, the geographical location and those dialects it contained. We were able to
bring an account on the language family, and the consonant and vowel chart of the
language.
Our major focus has been on various negation morphemes present in Gùngbè dialect. We
have been able to point out those negative markers in the dialect, their syntactic positions
and the negation pattern the Language employed. All these were shown clearly with
copious examples.
However, there is no research that can claim to be exhaustive. This means that there is still
much to be done. It is strongly believed, based on what has been done in this study; that
this should form the foundation on which further research into the Ègùn languages and the
dialects focused should be laid.
12
REFERENCES
Agboyinu (2012) Linguistic Performance of Educated Egun English Speakers as a

Correlate of Phonemic Similarities between English and Egun: A
Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English, University of Ibadan
in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Award of Master of Arts in
English of the University of Ibadan, Ibadan.
Alnawaisheh (2015): The Semantic- syntactic Scopes of Negation in English language:

International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 5,
Issue 9, September 2015 1 ISSN 2250-3153 www.ijsrp.org
Ajíbóyè, O. (2012). À-ì-derived nominlas in Yorùbá. In: Lagos Notes and Record. Vol 18.
A. Nwankwere ans F. Asadu (2015): Comparative Study of Negation in Igbo nd French:

Current Issues In Linguistics, Language and Gender Studies. A Festschrift in
Honour of Professor Cecilia Eme, Nkpor: Brystevang Publishers, Nnamdi
Azikiwe University.
B. Oshodi (2016): Tense-Aspect and Negation in Ọ̀ wò: A Yorùbá Dialect: Adekunle Ajasin
University Akungba Akoko. Nigeria.
Ẹlé ̣̀shin (2018): Negation and Normalization in Standard Yorùbá: Ihafa: A journal of
African Studies 9:1 June, 2018, 199 – 213
Fábùnmi (2013): Negation in Sixteen Yorùbá Dialects: Open Journal of Modern

Linguistics 2013. Vol.3, No.1, 1-8 Published Online March 2013
J.F. Ilori and Oyebade (2012) Negation in Igálà: Entrepalavras, Fortaleza - ano 2, v.2, n.1,
p. 25-40, jan/jul 2012
T. Adebayo (2021) Yorùbá Sentential Negative Markers Studies in African Linguistics

Volume 50 Number 1, 2021. Tulane University
13
SOME PICTURES ON THE RESEARCH TRIP
Researcher with Pa Anthony
Researcher with Mrs. Iyabo John
Researcher with Miss. Bose Agboho
14

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NEGATION IN ÈGÙN LANGUAGE: A CASE STUDY OF

PÓPÓỌLÁ, BABÁTÚNDÉ ỌLÁṢAYO ̣̀

Negation is a universal linguistic notion. Negation is the opposite of affirmation; (positive).

Ègùn language: the genetic classification and their geographical locations.

Gùngbè: Todin, gbẹtọ he tin to aigba ji lẹpo nọ do ogbè

English: Now the whole earth spoke one language and

Ègùn Language Linguistic Area

Map showing Ègùn Language Linguistic Area

Ègùn Language family tree

Adja Ewe Egun Phla Phela Fon

Allada (Alathagbe) Toli gbe Setogbe Ajlagbe Ogugbe

Ègùn Consonants Chart

Front Central Back

Negation is a UG property which is parametrically realized cross-linguistically Ìlo ̣̀rí and

“Negation is a universal linguistic notion. Indeed, it is one of

Negation in standard Ègùn/Gùngbè Language.

Indicative Negations in Gùngbè

Kofí yì gìlìme ̣̀ Kofí mà yì gìlìme ̣̀

‘Kofí go farm’ ‘Kofí NEG go farm’

‘Kofí goes to farm’ ‘Kofí didn’t go to farm’

Se ̣̀gbó ho ̣̀ kaná Se ̣̀gbó mà ho ̣̀ kaná

‘Se ̣̀gbo buy pap’ ‘Se ̣̀gbo NEG buy pap’

‘Se ̣̀gbo bought pap’ ‘Se ̣̀gbo didn’t buy pap’

É dù lé ̣̀sì É mà dù lé ̣̀sì

‘3SP eat rice’ ‘3SP NEG eat rice’

‘3SP ate rice’ ‘3SP did not eat rice’

Imperative Negations in Gùngbè

Ho ̣̀ kaná Mà ho ̣̀ kaná blóù

‘buy pap ‘NEG buy pap AGR’

‘Buy pap’ ‘Don’t buy pap’

Nyìn àgán. Mà nyìn àgán blóù

‘Throw stone’ ‘NEG throw stone AGR’

‘Throw stone’ ‘Don’t throw stone’

Dú òwè Mà dú òwè blóù

‘Dance Dance’ ‘NEG dance dance AGR’

‘Dance’ ‘Don’t dance’

Focus Negations in Gùngbè

‘3SP FOC buy pap’ ‘3SP NEG FOC eat pap’

É we ̣̀ nà mè Se ̣̀gbó mà we ̣̀ nà mè

Declarative Negations in Gùngbè

Mìí nọ hwù òdàn Mìí mọ nọ hwù òdàn

‘1PP PROG kill snake’ ‘Kofí NEG PROG kill snake’

‘We usually kill snake” ‘We don’t usually kill snake”

Yèé nọ lì vávo Yèé mò nọ lì vávo

‘3PP PROG ground pepper’ ‘Kofí NEG PROG ground pepper’

‘They usually ground pepper’ ‘They don’t usually ground pepper’

Àmà + de ̣̀ (Àmàde ̣̀)

3.1 Comparism of Negation Patern in Gùngbè to other Ègùn Dialect

Deep structure: /Kofí HTS yàn gìlìme ̣̀/

Deep structure: /No ̣̀yo ̣̀ HTS yàn gìlìme ̣̀/

Kofí í yàn gìlìmè

Agboyinu (2012) Linguistic Performance of Educated Egun English Speakers as a

Alnawaisheh (2015): The Semantic- syntactic Scopes of Negation in English language:

A. Nwankwere ans F. Asadu (2015): Comparative Study of Negation in Igbo nd French:

Fábùnmi (2013): Negation in Sixteen Yorùbá Dialects: Open Journal of Modern

T. Adebayo (2021) Yorùbá Sentential Negative Markers Studies in African Linguistics

Researcher with Pa Anthony

Researcher with Mrs. Iyabo John

Researcher with Miss. Bose Agboho

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