A LINGUISTIC DESCRIPTION OF FISHING TERMS IN ǸKÒ̩RÓ̩Ò̩

Abstract

Nko̩ro̩o̩ is an Eastern I̩jo̩ language spoken in Rivers state, Nigeria, where fishing forms part of the traditional ecological knowledge. However, there is a decline in fishing activities due to factors such as migration, education, and urbanisation which has translated into a loss of the associated vocabulary. This paper aims to identify the language used within the domain of the fishing culture and to describe the linguistic processes employed in deriving the vocabulary. The data was collected via participant observation and oral interviews with competent native speakers of Nko̩ro̩o̩ who are also engaged in fishing. The study utilises the Righthand Head Rule within the framework of generative morphology to analyse the internal structures of the fishing terms. The findings reveal that the derived vocabulary employs three-word formation processes, namely clipping, compounding, and reduplication. Both apheresis or fore-clipping and apocope or final clipping are employed to derive disyllabic clipped words. The compounds are right headed and exhibit both simple (binary) and complex structures. The study addresses the need to preserve the vocabulary associated with the fishing culture of the Nko̩ro̩o̩ people and contributes to the literature in Ijoid linguistics.