CHAPTER ONE

General Introduction

1. Introduction

This work sets out to critically examine the assimilatory processes in the Mokpe language. Some
research has been done in the language especially in the phonological aspect of the language.
The focus here will be on all the assimilatory processes taking place in the language, examining
not just the segmental forms of assimilation but equally looking at supra- segmental forms of
assimilation like tonal assimilation. Since attention to assimilation has not been so much paid in
all aspects of the language, there was a need to carry out more research on the assimilatory
aspect of the language since it plays a vital role in the phonology of the language. It is imperative
for us to know the uniqueness of assimilation in Mokpe and to easily identify the various forms
distinguish its assimilatory functons assimilation can take which is different from other
languages.

1.2 Geographical Location

Looking at the geographical location of Mokpe and its people, Mopke is spoken by the Bakweri
people who liveis in the south west region precisely in the Fako Division. Atindogbe (2013)
reveals that the Mokpe community occupies about 85 villages in the Fako Division. He notes that
Mokpe is surrounded by languages such as Duala, Bubia, Bakole and Womboko Adinear
(1958) on his own part indicates that the Bakweri people 104 villages along the southern slopes
of Mt. Fako which lies of about 1500-30000 feet above sea level. The following maps extracted
from Atindogbe (2013) shows the location of Mokpe and its surrounding languages.
Location of Mokpe speakers
Mokpe and surrounding

Source: Atindobge(2013)

1.3 Genetic classification of Mokpe

Lewise (2016) classifies Mokpe as a narrow Bantu language of zone A, precisely A22, under the
Doula group (A20). Gregenson (1977) also considers African languages and his classification
groups them into 4 major language families, which arenamely , Niger-Kordofanian, Nilo-
Saharan, Afro-Asiatic and Khoisan. The Niger-Kodofadian is divided into 2, Niger-Congo and
Kodofanian. The Niger-Congo is made up of West Atlantic, Volta, Mande ,Atlantic, Kwa,
Benue-Congo and Adamawa. Bantoid which falls under the Benue-Congo sub family encompass
the Bantu language which includes both Grass fields and coastal Bantu languages ands Mokpe
being a Coastal Bantu language. This can be diagrammatically represented belowas follows:
Looking at the social life of the people, the Bakwerians belief in a supreme God from whom the
entire universe originates. They also believe in impersonal spirits and ancestors, as well as are
involved in ritual practices. However, the coming of Christian missionaries and the introduction
of Christianity has made most Bakwerians to abandon these practices which is rare in other
villages.

1.4 Statement of the problem

Many researchers who have worked on Mokpe (Connell 1997, Abangma 2004; Chie 2004 and
Atindogbe, 2013) have looked at phonological processes going on in the language including
assimilation but none has done a detailed worked on all the assimilatory processes in the
language. Focus has been just on the segmental assimilatory processes of the language and very
little has been done on the auto-segmental assimilatory behavior in Mokpe. For example, tone
assimilation, tone spreading. Therefore an assimilatory analysis of Mokpe will help shed light on
some of these controversial and current issues. And as such,’ this work will help to bring clarity
and provide information to those who are interested in verifying these issues in the language.

1.4 Aim and Objectives

This work sets out to critically examine both segmental (place assimilation, manner
assimilation, voicing assimilation, vowel harmony) and tonal assimilation in the Mokpe
language. The objectives of this study are to;

 Identify and analyze place assimilation processes in the language

 Identify and analyze manner assimilation
 Identify and analyze vowel assimilatory processes in the language
 Identify and analyze tonal assimilatory processes in the language.
1.5 Significance of the study
This study is important because it touches areas of phonology which has not been really looked
at before. This study is important as it will clarify doubts in the minds of some scholars of the
language and those interested in doing further research in the language.

1.6 Scope of the study

This work focuses on the phonology of Mokpe, looking specifically at assimilatory processes in
the language. The main reason for this delimitation in scope is we cannot look at the
phonological processes in the language within the time frame available for an undergraduate
research project.