1 handout 9 th Biennial International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages (LLACAN-CNRS Villejuif, Paris, 7-8 September 2017) C Verbal classes and TAM system in Kushi (Nigeria)* Gian Claudio BATI 1 1. A note on Kushi Kushi (fɔ̀k Gòjì ‘mouth of Kushi’, ISO 639-3 <kuh>, Glottocode <kush1236>, West Chadic, Bole-Tangale, Tangale proper) is spoken on the northeastern fringe of the Muri mountains (Nigeria, Gombe State, Chonge District, Shongom LGA, N9°35.542' E11° 11.242'). As a toponym, Kushi is used to indicate the ‘village area’, i.e. the area encompassing the hamlets of Kauri and Kommo (westwards) and Dirang and Gomle (eastwards). The four hamlets are spread relatively far apart from each other and this distance is in a certain sense also mirrored in the perception the inhabitants of Kushi have regarding their language: the Kushi of Gomle and Dirang is considered more conservative and closer to the language spoken by the ancestors, whereas the Kushi spoken in Kauri and Kommo seems to be more open to lexical borrowing (from Hausa and Pero) and phonetic change. Feature Description Tones High (H) and low (L). Tone levelling towards low tones (cf. Tangale, Piya and Widala, Leger 2014: 233). Word order Clause constituents: underlying SVO with the possibility of VOS. Phrase constituents: Genitive: NGen Adjectival: AdjN Gender All nouns are feminine. Noun plurality Noun plurals are not productive. Only two suppletive plurals have been found. Verbal plurality Subject plurality is not marked in the verbal form. The language has instead developed verbal derivations to mark pluractionality (duration and/or iteration of action). Verbal extension Altrilocal (or ventive/destinative) extension. Altrilocal is marked with two different morphemes depending on the aspect. Intransitive copy pronouns Productive in a significant number of verbs. Logophoric pronouns Productive. TAM system TAM is marked by satellite markers and the final vowel of the verbal form. Table 1 – Typological profile 2. Verbs and verbal classes Kushi verbs can be either disyllabic or monosyllabic. For operational reasons, the citation form used throughout this paper is the imperative form. The imperative is the most stable form across the Kushi TAM system and allows for derivation of other verbal forms. * This paper would have been impossible without the assistance and patience of my Kushi teacher, Malam Alhassan Shehu Kuro. 1 University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’, gcbatic@unior.it