Morphophonological Adaptations of Hausa loan words in the Gworok Language

Abstract: when two or more languages come in contact, there are a lot of
linguistic consequences; one of which is linguistic borrowing. The present study
examines the effect of the contact between Hausa (Chadic, Afro-Asiantic) and
Gworok (Genus Benue-Congo-Plateau, Niger-Congo).Preliminary investigations
show that a large chunk of Gworok lexical forms is borrowed from the Hausa
language. Thus, the contact between these languages has given rise to the loaning of
Hausa words into the Gworok language. These words undergo morphophonological
changes as expected. Thus, this study will examine the processes employed in such
modification. Also, the continuous usage of these Hausa loan words has resulted in
code mixing and switching during conversations as well as a language shift towards
the Hausa language by the native speakers of Gworok. The data for the study were
elicited from the conversation of native speakers, and the data was analyzed using
the descriptive method.