silesr2012 040.
DigitalResources
Electronic Survey Report 2012-040
Rapport sur une Enquête
Sociolinguistique Parmi les
Mokoulou dans le Guéra
au Tchad
With a review in English
by David Sharp
William Chesley, Heather Coates,
Mark Vanderkooi, Rachel Mundfrom, and
David Pearson
Rapport sur une Enquête Sociolinguistique
Parmi les Mokoulou dans le Guéra au Tchad
William Chesley
Heather Coates
Mark Vanderkooi
Rachel Mundfrom
David Pearson
With a review in English by David Sharp
SIL International®
2012
SIL Electronic Survey Report 2012-040, December 2012
© 2012 SIL International®
All rights reserved
Abstract
A 1990 sociolinguistic survey of the Mukulu [moz] speaking people of Chad (Mokoulou in French
spelling) is presented here along with an update and review of the original survey, twenty two years
later, by David Sharp who lived with the Mukulu people over a ten-year period ending in 2003 and has
worked with them from a distance since then.
The purpose for the original survey was two-fold. A high level of bilingualism with Chadian Arabic had
been reported so it was desired to know whether this was true generally for the whole population. The
other goal was to learn the level of comprehension between speakers of the several dialects within
Mukulu—and find which dialect could be considered for eventual standardization.
It was found that a large part of the population would not likely learn to read or write Chadian Arabic.
Development of the language seemed desirable, standardizing the dialect spoken in Mukulu village.
Sharp comments from his experience that the report has proven to be technically sound and the final
recommendations have proven to be correct. He notes specific development achievements in the years
since the survey. He also comments on dialectal distinctions and the influence, not only of Chadian
Arabic on Mukulu, but also of the neighboring language of Kenga.
Mukulu Survey Report Comments by David Sharp
The following comments are based on my experiences while living among the Mukulu people for ten
years and helping to facilitate a language development project. I lived in the village of Mukulu with my
wife and three children from November 1992 to early 2003.
Some significant steps in the language development project have been: an orthography statement, the
publication of a first and second level primer, two transition primers (French-Mukulu and MukuluFrench), a maths booklet, and various health booklets and folktales to use as readers. A mother-tongue
literacy program has been operating successfully for the last ten years, with both adult and preschool
classes presently running in fourteen different locations within the Canton.
The following comments are of a general nature and are not meant in any way to disparage a report
which is technically sound and whose final recommendations have been proven to be correct. Linguistic
references at the time were extremely limited, and an important work on the language, the Lexique
Mokilko (Jungraithmayr 1990), was published only after the survey report was written.
1.1
Localisation
‘le nom “Mokoulou” signifie “montagne” dans leur langue’ (page 1)
The word for mountain is, in fact, ‘mokkolo’.
Footnote 1. Le terme “Mokoulou” s’emploie dans trois sens différents. Comme ici, il s’applique au peuple. Il est
également utilisé pour faire référence à la langue parlée par tout le peuple Mokoulou, et finalement, il s’agit du
dialecte parlé par les habitants du village appelé “Mokoulou”. (page 1)
Here the term “Mokoulou” is used in four different senses, not just three—the people, the language in
general, a particular dialect, and a village. This observed use of the name is more by or for “outsiders”
than “insiders”. If the people use an umbrella term for themselves it is geergagi (the people who live
around Mount Guera). The umbrella term they use to refer to their language (that is, the collection of
different dialects) is geergiko (the language spoken by the geergagi). The principal village referred to is in
fact mukulu or mookul, and the dialect spoken there is mookilko.
…les villages ont été choisis de telle sorte que chacun des quatre dialectes ou “accents3” reconnus par les
Mokoulou eux-mêmes soit représenté dans le corpus. Les quatre villages retenus étaient Mokoulou et Doli à
l’extrême Sud et à l’extrême Nord, Seguine à l’Est, et Djerkajei à l’Ouest. (page 4)
Footnote 3. Nous adoptons le terme “accent” ici avec le sens d’une variété d’un dialecte qui se distingue des
autres “accents” par une variation phonétique considérée comme insuffisante pour justifier sa désignation
comme un dialecte différent. Chaque village à généralement son propre “accent”. (page 4)
The above comments about the dialect situation are generally supported by Herrmann Jungraithmayr in
his Lexique Mokilko (1990), where he notes the following : “On constate selon les villages mentionnés cidessus les dialectes ou les façons de parler suivants dans la langue mokilko: móòkìlkó de Moukoulou,
séègìnkó de Seguine, dóòlìkó de Doli, móorìkó de Morgué, mézìmkó de Djerkatché et gùugìkó de Gougué.
Les différences dialectales sont si légères qu’elles ne rendent pas difficile l’intercomprehension entre les
diverses sections” (page 17). The choice of the four villages used by the survey team is reasonable
considering that Gougué is quite a small village to the south of Djerkatché, and Morgué is quite close to
Doli and is somewhat smaller than it. The local name for the village of Djerkatché is mézìmé. I believe
Djerkatché is an Arabic name.
1
2
4
4.3
Tests de Textes Enregistrés
Conclusions
…il y a au moins quatres dialectes de la langue…on devrait pourtant admettre que l’on n’a pas encore
déterminé la nature de la différence entre ces parlers, et il n’est pas faux d’avancer l’hypothèse selon laquelle
certains ou tous ces “dialectes” seraient considérés plus justement comme “accents”. (page 13,14)
…le mokoulou doit être considéré comme le dialecte “standard” de la langue puisqu’il est compris par tous, mais
que tous ne le comprennent pas toujours bien. (page 14)
Concernant la possibilité d’utiliser une seule orthographe pour ces parlers quelque peu différents…un des
intellectuels de Mokoulou…a confirmé que, selon ses estimations, la différence avec le parler djerkajei est
principalement d’ordre phonétique. La structure phonologique des mots et la syntaxe sont fondamentalement les
mêmes que celles du parler de Mokoulou … (page 14)
In my experience, the difference between the different varieties of the language is indeed slight. Further,
the choice of the language variety or dialect spoken at the village of Mukulu as the standard for
developing the language has been borne out in practice. A broad range of literacy materials (primers,
readers, health booklets, etc.) is being used without significant problems in all the major villages of the
language area. While I have not done a study of dialectal differences, I can confirm that the main areas
of difference are relatively minor, being in vowel quality and length and in certain items of vocabulary.
For example, in Mukulu one typically uses the response bee ɗey (‘still well’) in greetings, whereas in
Seguine one says bee ɗii. Such differences are only to be expected when one considers that in the distant
past the various villages were located on different mountain peaks and at times were in a state of conflict
with each other. However, I have also noted that even speakers from different sections of the village of
Mukulu (which has a large population and covers an extensive area) can have slight differences in
pronunciation, and insist that theirs is the correct way of saying it!
5
5.2
Questionnaires sur le Bilinguisme
Analyse
En général, les hommes et les “jeunes” ont souvent été compétents à un niveau plus élevé en arabe que les
“vieux” et les femmes. Les seuls scores vraiment décisifs étaient parmi les hommes de Mokoulou où tous les dix
ont obtenu un score de niveau 4 ou au-delà. Ce n’est pas évident à première vue de savoir pourquoi cela était le
cas : Mokoulou est le village le plus éloigné de Bitkine, et le centre commercial le plus proche est Melfi, encore
plus loin au sud… (page 16)
While it is true that Mukulu is the village in Canton Djonkor-Guera which is farthest from Bitkine, that
distance is only 16 kilometers, which one would think would not have a significant impact on this issue.
It is also inaccurate to say that Melfi is the next closest commercial centre after Bitkine. Melfi is about
100 kilometers by road south of Mukulu, and at the time the survey was done the road was in very poor
condition, making Melfi inaccessible during rainy season. On the other hand, the main regional town of
Mongo is 80 kilometers to the east and basically accessible all year round. It is probably of more
importance to note that Mukulu is the only village in the Canton with a major weekly market (every
Monday), to which traders come from a wide area to conduct commerce, using Chadian Arabic. Of
further importance is that Mukulu is the home of the top administrative official for the canton, the Chef
de Canton. Lastly, it should be noted that Mukulu has a sizeable Arab quarter and that significant
numbers of Arabs also live in the bush to the south of the mountain. To the north of the mountain this is
not so much the case. That part of the Canton borders hard on the Kenga language area.
3
While the report does not have a lot to say about the impact of the Kenga language, it does say in the
sociolinguistic questionnaire on multilingualism that the people of Djerkajei are remarkably multilingual,
with more than 20 percent speaking Kenga. This is because of their proximity to Kenga villages on the
north side of the mountain. In fact, there are at least two villages in the canton where Kenga is the
preferred language—these are Ambazira (the village closest to Bitkine on the north side of the mountain)
and Bokoyo 2, to the east of Seguine. This shift happened at some time in the past due to intermarriage
of Mukulu men with Kenga women. The people of Ambazira have shown some interest in trying to
regain proficiency in speaking Mukulu, but not so the people of Bokoyo 2. They have passed the point of
no return and are happy to have Kenga as their mother tongue.
Electronic Survey Report 2012-040
Rapport sur une Enquête
Sociolinguistique Parmi les
Mokoulou dans le Guéra
au Tchad
With a review in English
by David Sharp
William Chesley, Heather Coates,
Mark Vanderkooi, Rachel Mundfrom, and
David Pearson
Rapport sur une Enquête Sociolinguistique
Parmi les Mokoulou dans le Guéra au Tchad
William Chesley
Heather Coates
Mark Vanderkooi
Rachel Mundfrom
David Pearson
With a review in English by David Sharp
SIL International®
2012
SIL Electronic Survey Report 2012-040, December 2012
© 2012 SIL International®
All rights reserved
Abstract
A 1990 sociolinguistic survey of the Mukulu [moz] speaking people of Chad (Mokoulou in French
spelling) is presented here along with an update and review of the original survey, twenty two years
later, by David Sharp who lived with the Mukulu people over a ten-year period ending in 2003 and has
worked with them from a distance since then.
The purpose for the original survey was two-fold. A high level of bilingualism with Chadian Arabic had
been reported so it was desired to know whether this was true generally for the whole population. The
other goal was to learn the level of comprehension between speakers of the several dialects within
Mukulu—and find which dialect could be considered for eventual standardization.
It was found that a large part of the population would not likely learn to read or write Chadian Arabic.
Development of the language seemed desirable, standardizing the dialect spoken in Mukulu village.
Sharp comments from his experience that the report has proven to be technically sound and the final
recommendations have proven to be correct. He notes specific development achievements in the years
since the survey. He also comments on dialectal distinctions and the influence, not only of Chadian
Arabic on Mukulu, but also of the neighboring language of Kenga.
Mukulu Survey Report Comments by David Sharp
The following comments are based on my experiences while living among the Mukulu people for ten
years and helping to facilitate a language development project. I lived in the village of Mukulu with my
wife and three children from November 1992 to early 2003.
Some significant steps in the language development project have been: an orthography statement, the
publication of a first and second level primer, two transition primers (French-Mukulu and MukuluFrench), a maths booklet, and various health booklets and folktales to use as readers. A mother-tongue
literacy program has been operating successfully for the last ten years, with both adult and preschool
classes presently running in fourteen different locations within the Canton.
The following comments are of a general nature and are not meant in any way to disparage a report
which is technically sound and whose final recommendations have been proven to be correct. Linguistic
references at the time were extremely limited, and an important work on the language, the Lexique
Mokilko (Jungraithmayr 1990), was published only after the survey report was written.
1.1
Localisation
‘le nom “Mokoulou” signifie “montagne” dans leur langue’ (page 1)
The word for mountain is, in fact, ‘mokkolo’.
Footnote 1. Le terme “Mokoulou” s’emploie dans trois sens différents. Comme ici, il s’applique au peuple. Il est
également utilisé pour faire référence à la langue parlée par tout le peuple Mokoulou, et finalement, il s’agit du
dialecte parlé par les habitants du village appelé “Mokoulou”. (page 1)
Here the term “Mokoulou” is used in four different senses, not just three—the people, the language in
general, a particular dialect, and a village. This observed use of the name is more by or for “outsiders”
than “insiders”. If the people use an umbrella term for themselves it is geergagi (the people who live
around Mount Guera). The umbrella term they use to refer to their language (that is, the collection of
different dialects) is geergiko (the language spoken by the geergagi). The principal village referred to is in
fact mukulu or mookul, and the dialect spoken there is mookilko.
…les villages ont été choisis de telle sorte que chacun des quatre dialectes ou “accents3” reconnus par les
Mokoulou eux-mêmes soit représenté dans le corpus. Les quatre villages retenus étaient Mokoulou et Doli à
l’extrême Sud et à l’extrême Nord, Seguine à l’Est, et Djerkajei à l’Ouest. (page 4)
Footnote 3. Nous adoptons le terme “accent” ici avec le sens d’une variété d’un dialecte qui se distingue des
autres “accents” par une variation phonétique considérée comme insuffisante pour justifier sa désignation
comme un dialecte différent. Chaque village à généralement son propre “accent”. (page 4)
The above comments about the dialect situation are generally supported by Herrmann Jungraithmayr in
his Lexique Mokilko (1990), where he notes the following : “On constate selon les villages mentionnés cidessus les dialectes ou les façons de parler suivants dans la langue mokilko: móòkìlkó de Moukoulou,
séègìnkó de Seguine, dóòlìkó de Doli, móorìkó de Morgué, mézìmkó de Djerkatché et gùugìkó de Gougué.
Les différences dialectales sont si légères qu’elles ne rendent pas difficile l’intercomprehension entre les
diverses sections” (page 17). The choice of the four villages used by the survey team is reasonable
considering that Gougué is quite a small village to the south of Djerkatché, and Morgué is quite close to
Doli and is somewhat smaller than it. The local name for the village of Djerkatché is mézìmé. I believe
Djerkatché is an Arabic name.
1
2
4
4.3
Tests de Textes Enregistrés
Conclusions
…il y a au moins quatres dialectes de la langue…on devrait pourtant admettre que l’on n’a pas encore
déterminé la nature de la différence entre ces parlers, et il n’est pas faux d’avancer l’hypothèse selon laquelle
certains ou tous ces “dialectes” seraient considérés plus justement comme “accents”. (page 13,14)
…le mokoulou doit être considéré comme le dialecte “standard” de la langue puisqu’il est compris par tous, mais
que tous ne le comprennent pas toujours bien. (page 14)
Concernant la possibilité d’utiliser une seule orthographe pour ces parlers quelque peu différents…un des
intellectuels de Mokoulou…a confirmé que, selon ses estimations, la différence avec le parler djerkajei est
principalement d’ordre phonétique. La structure phonologique des mots et la syntaxe sont fondamentalement les
mêmes que celles du parler de Mokoulou … (page 14)
In my experience, the difference between the different varieties of the language is indeed slight. Further,
the choice of the language variety or dialect spoken at the village of Mukulu as the standard for
developing the language has been borne out in practice. A broad range of literacy materials (primers,
readers, health booklets, etc.) is being used without significant problems in all the major villages of the
language area. While I have not done a study of dialectal differences, I can confirm that the main areas
of difference are relatively minor, being in vowel quality and length and in certain items of vocabulary.
For example, in Mukulu one typically uses the response bee ɗey (‘still well’) in greetings, whereas in
Seguine one says bee ɗii. Such differences are only to be expected when one considers that in the distant
past the various villages were located on different mountain peaks and at times were in a state of conflict
with each other. However, I have also noted that even speakers from different sections of the village of
Mukulu (which has a large population and covers an extensive area) can have slight differences in
pronunciation, and insist that theirs is the correct way of saying it!
5
5.2
Questionnaires sur le Bilinguisme
Analyse
En général, les hommes et les “jeunes” ont souvent été compétents à un niveau plus élevé en arabe que les
“vieux” et les femmes. Les seuls scores vraiment décisifs étaient parmi les hommes de Mokoulou où tous les dix
ont obtenu un score de niveau 4 ou au-delà. Ce n’est pas évident à première vue de savoir pourquoi cela était le
cas : Mokoulou est le village le plus éloigné de Bitkine, et le centre commercial le plus proche est Melfi, encore
plus loin au sud… (page 16)
While it is true that Mukulu is the village in Canton Djonkor-Guera which is farthest from Bitkine, that
distance is only 16 kilometers, which one would think would not have a significant impact on this issue.
It is also inaccurate to say that Melfi is the next closest commercial centre after Bitkine. Melfi is about
100 kilometers by road south of Mukulu, and at the time the survey was done the road was in very poor
condition, making Melfi inaccessible during rainy season. On the other hand, the main regional town of
Mongo is 80 kilometers to the east and basically accessible all year round. It is probably of more
importance to note that Mukulu is the only village in the Canton with a major weekly market (every
Monday), to which traders come from a wide area to conduct commerce, using Chadian Arabic. Of
further importance is that Mukulu is the home of the top administrative official for the canton, the Chef
de Canton. Lastly, it should be noted that Mukulu has a sizeable Arab quarter and that significant
numbers of Arabs also live in the bush to the south of the mountain. To the north of the mountain this is
not so much the case. That part of the Canton borders hard on the Kenga language area.
3
While the report does not have a lot to say about the impact of the Kenga language, it does say in the
sociolinguistic questionnaire on multilingualism that the people of Djerkajei are remarkably multilingual,
with more than 20 percent speaking Kenga. This is because of their proximity to Kenga villages on the
north side of the mountain. In fact, there are at least two villages in the canton where Kenga is the
preferred language—these are Ambazira (the village closest to Bitkine on the north side of the mountain)
and Bokoyo 2, to the east of Seguine. This shift happened at some time in the past due to intermarriage
of Mukulu men with Kenga women. The people of Ambazira have shown some interest in trying to
regain proficiency in speaking Mukulu, but not so the people of Bokoyo 2. They have passed the point of
no return and are happy to have Kenga as their mother tongue.