Abstract
This study investigates the inflectional morphology
of the Hyam language, which belongs to the Plateau subgroup of the Benue-Congo
language family spoken in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria.
Inflectional morphology refers to the grammatical modification of words to
express categories such as number, tense, aspect, person and agreement without
changing their lexical meaning or grammatical class. The study adopts a
descriptive qualitative research design and draws its data from native speakers
of the Samban dialect through elicitation, interviews, participant observation,
and recorded natural speech. A mixed methodology utilizing both primary and secondary sources was
employed for comprehensive data gathering. The data are analysed
within the framework of the Item-and-Arrangement model of morphology, which
views words as combinations of meaningful morphemes arranged in systematic
patterns. The analysis focuses on the identification of inflectional markers.
The study contributes to the documentation of the Hyam language by providing a
detailed account of the inflectional system of the Samban dialect. It also
enriches existing scholarship on Plateau language morphology and offers
valuable data for comparative linguistic research. The results reveal
that Hyam exhibits a variety of affixation processes, including prefixation and
suffixation, alongside modifications involving consonant substitution.
Keywords: Morphology, Prefixation,
Suffixation, Hyam, Plateau languages.
DOI: 10.36349/sojolics.2026.v02i02.010
author/Abdulkadir, S., & Makama, R.
journal/Sokoto JOLICS 2(2) | August 2026 |
