This long essay aims at studying questions formation in Ìjà-Kórò, it will cover the general introductions of the study, the sound inventory of the language, the distribution of those sound and transformational generative grammar, this research work is divided into 5 chapters.

Chapter one is the general introduction, presenting the background of the people, the status of the language and the historical background of the people. Also in chapter one, the socio-cultural profile and the genetic classification of the language are examined. The chapter also gives a brief discussion of the theoretical framework to be used in the work and explains the mode of data collection and analysis.

Chapter two discusses, the sound system, distribution of sounds, tonal system, syllable structure and lexical categories, phrase structured rule are also part of this chapter, namely noun, verb, adjectival and prepositional phrase. Sentence types are also discussed.

In chapter three, the topic of the research work will be revealed. Questions formation will be discussed bringing out examples from Ìjà-Kórò language.

Title Page          i

Certification          ii

Dedication          iii

Acknowledgements        iv

List of Abbreviations        vi

Table of Contents         vii

CHAPTER ONE: ÌJÀ-KÓRÒ LANGUAGE AND ITS SPEAKERS

1.0 General Background        1

1.1 Historical Background       1

1.2 Socio-Cultural Profile       2

1.2.1 Dressing Mode of Ìjà-Kórò     2

1.2.2 Religion of Ìjà-Kórò      2

1.2.3 Naming Ceremony of Ìjà-Kórò     2

1.2.4 Marriage System of Ìjà-Kórò     3

1.2.5 Burial Ceremony of Ika-Koro     4

1.2.6 Festivals of Ìjà-Kórò      4

1.2.7 Traditional Administration     5

1.2.8 Economic Activities of Ìjà-Kórò     5

1.2.9 Geographical Location of Ìjà-Kórò    6

1.3 Genetic Classification       6

1.4 Scope and Organization of Study     8

1.5 Data Collection        9

 

1.6 Review of Theoretical Framework      10

 1.6.1 X-Bar Theory        13

 1.6.2 Theta (Ө) Theory        14

 1.6.3 Case Theory        15

 1.6.4 Binding Theory       16

CHAPTER TWO: PHONO-SYNTAX OF ÌJÀ-KÓRÒ

2.0 Introduction         17

2.1 Brief Phonological Description and Distribution   17

 2.1.1 Ìjà-Kórò Sound System      18

 2.1.2 Distribution of Ìjà-Kórò Sounds     18

 2.1.3 Tonal System of Ìjà-Kórò      19

2.2 Vowels in Ìjà-Kórò        25

 2.2.1  Vowel Charts in Ìjà-Kórò      25

 2.2.2 Nasal Charts of Ìjà-Kórò      26

 2.2.3 Distribution of Vowels Segment in Ìjà-Kórò   26

2.3 Tonal System of Ìjà-Kórò       29

 2.3.1 Description and Distribution of Tone in Ìjà-Kórò  30

2.4 The Syllable Structure of Ìjà-Kórò     31

 2.4.1 Syllable Structure of Ìjà-Kórò     32

2.5 Lexical Categories        33

 2.5.1  Noun         34

 2.5.2 Intransitive Verb       38

 2.5.3 Preposition        38

 2.5.4 Pronoun        39

 2.5.5 Adjective        40

 2.5.6 Conjunction        40

2.6 Phrase Structure Rule       41

2.7 Basic Word Order        52

2.8 Sentence Types in Ìjà-Kórò      54

CHAPTER THREE: QUESTION FORMATION OF ÌJÀ-KÓRÒ

3.0 Introduction         58

3.1 WH-Question in Ìjà-Kórò       58

3.3. Yes/No Question        76

3.4 Echo Question        82

CHAPTER FOUR: TRANSFORMATIONAL RULES OF ÌJÀ-KÓRÒ

4.0 Introduction         87

4.1 Transformational Rules       87

4.2 Relativization        89

4.3 Focus Construction       94

 4.3.1 Subject Focus       97

 4.3.2 Object Focus       100

 4.3.3 Indirect Object       104

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.0 Introduction         106

5.1 Summary         107

5.2 Recommendations        108 

5.2 Conclusion         109

 References         110

Koro is the name of the main language, Ija is the name of the town that the speaker of Koro lives. The speakers are known as Ìjà-Kórò, sometimes they are often called Ìjà-Kórò. Majority of the speakers of this language resides at Ija, southern part of Abuja (FCT). The Ìjà-Kórò people are about 900,000 in population (this is from the head count of the year 2000 census population).

 Koro as a language that has three dialects: Ìjà-Kórò, Koto-shako and koto-kaffin. Koro-shako and koto-kaffin are spoken in Niger state in a small town called shako and kaffin respectively. But their dialect are not so different from each other both speakers (shako and kaffin) can speak Ìjà-Kórò, only Ìjà-Kórò speakers cannot speak koro-shako and koro kaffin because they are far from them.

 Ìjà-Kórò exists with two neighboring tribe Ijagwuari and Bwuari. Therefore Ìjà-Kórò people are multi-lingual; they speak Hausa, Gwuari and Ìjà-Kórò.

Ìjà-Kórò people migrated from Zuba as a result of looking for a fertile land for farming, Zuba is the largest town where so many farmers has occupied the land. So koro people moved to Ija in 1814. They settled at Ìjà-Kórò and started farming there till date.

The Ija koro people like many other tribes have their own unique cultural lifestyle. The Ìjà-Kórò have some unique way of life that are discussed below;

Before the intervention of the whites in time past the Ìjà-Kórò people wear leaves and animal skin but after the invention of the white, Ìjà-Kórò people started wearing cloth, meanwhile they are fond of native. Their major mode of dressing now is in native both the men and women.

Before the intervention of the white Ìjà-Kórò people were Idol worshippers, but after the invention of the white Christianity and Islamic religion became the religion of the Ìjà-Kórò. But Islamic religion is the dominant religion of the Ìjà-Kórò people.

In Ìjà-Kórò, like many other place in the world, when a child is born, the naming ceremony commence on the seventh day.

 

Their naming ceremony is usually a fun filled one or interesting one, the unique thing about their naming ceremony is that the grandfather and the grandmother of the new baby will prepare the food and bush meat for the ceremony, and send some of it to the grandfather and grandmother to the mother of the new baby. The naming ceremony is usually a cultured one, very lively and filled with merriment.

In Ìjà-Kórò, in time past just like in some other culture too, parent chooses wife for their sons. But now in this jet age the story is different, the man chooses the woman of his choice. After the agreement between the man and the woman to marry each other, the parent of the man will prepare echi (rice) and big cola-nut to give to the bride parent which they will accept. After, the mother of the man will come back at night with the bride price to give to the bride parent and to take bride to her husband’s house.

 In Ìjà-Kórò, marriage are done between families, in which the man in family A marry  the woman in family B and also the man in family B will marry from family A, it is just like an exchange marriage system. Ìjà-Kórò people do not have a particular age they get married, it all depends on the financial capability of the man and the maturity of the woman.