THE CICIPU LANGUAGE
Cicipu texts
The texts listed below were collected in Acipuland between 2006 and 2008. As you can see, the corpus covers several different genres. Clicking on the text name will, in most cases, display a transcription, free translation and interlinear glosses. The texts are not to be redistributed elsewhere - please contact the Cicipu.org webmaster if you have a question concerning this. The following genres are represented:Folktales
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Amos Bako | 10 minutes | Copying | Big Spider takes Small Spider hunting. Because of Big Spider's tricks and cunning they catch rats, make water appear, and escape from a leopard. After they come home, Small Spider tries to copy Big spider. He takes Monitor Lizard as a companion and of course everything goes wrong! |
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Amos Bako | 5 minutes | Fiancée | Spider is after Lion's fiancée, but he accuses Monkey of doing this, setting Lion against him. Meanwhile Spider is enjoying his first day together with the fiancée, until Lion tracks him down... |
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Amos Bako | 7 minutes | Fall from heaven | Big Spider takes Small Spider to a festival in the sky. But Small Spider offends Big Spider and so he has to make his own way home. He is given simple instructions but of course he can't stick to them... |
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Amos Bako | 6 minutes | Chewing-gum girl | The chief's fed up of someone (Spider, of course) eating his groundnuts. So he makes a special kind of scarecrow to catch the thief. |
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Amos Bako | 25 minutes | Spider's bitch | Small Spider is content being married to a dried-up old dog who serves him water made of shit. That is, until Big Spider succeeds in bringing home two beautiful young wives. Small Spider does away with his wife and sets out to emulate Big Spider... |
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Ayuba Sani (Tidipo dialect) | 7 minutes | Stuck | Fed up of being exploited by his wives, a hunter decides to eat his meals out in the bush. He can't find anywhere to sit down without the shade demanding a share of his food. Angry enough already, the hunter refuses but suffers humiliating consequences. |
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Ayuba Sani (Tidipo dialect) |
3 minutes | Sleepy | Two hunters have a competition to see who's the sleepiest. |
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Ayuba Sani (Tidipo dialect) |
4 minutes | Who's the best? | Five people perform increasingly-incredible tasks as they try to prove who among them is the best. |
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Markus Yabani | 3 minutes | Water babies | A farmer discovers that water babies are stealing his food and lays a trap. |
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Markus Yabani | 3 minutes | Monkey-woman | A man with two wives finds out that one of them turns into a monkey in order to exploit her rival. |
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Markus Yabani | 3 minutes | Sword 1 | Markus made this story about a sword up on the spot |
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Markus Yabani | 3 minutes | Sword 2 | Markus made this story about a sword up on the spot |
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Hussaini Sale | 2 minutes | Cat dies the world is happy | Story was prepared beforehand (written out in Cicipu) |
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Hussaini Sale | 1 minute | Four magics | Story was prepared beforehand (written out in Cicipu) |
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Histories
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Yabani Galadima Markus Yabani |
40 minutes | Bazama and Korisino | Baba Yabani Galadima interviewed by his son, covering the settlement of Galadima village and the history of Korisino | |
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Mohammed Mallam | 17 minutes | Economic development | Mohammed Mallam's take on the economic development and history of the Acipu | |
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Tene Magaji Mohammed Mallam |
12 minutes | Oldendays | Account of some aspects of
life when Tene Magaji was a young girl, and an uncomplimentary account
of the origin of the Damakawa people. |
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Bigi Magaji Mohammed Mallam |
3 minutes | Family status in Mataari | Mohammed interviewing his uncle about their family's status in Mataari. | |
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Markus Yabani | 2 minutes | Capt. Norman Biggs' grave | Markus Yabani's account of
the death of Captain Norman Biggs of the British Army, who was killed
by a poisoned dart and buried in Sakaba in 1908. |
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Garkuwa Bawa Mohammed Musa (Tikula dialect) |
30 minutes | Ukula history | Account of the history of the Akula division of the Acipu | |
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Malli Iɗanbanya Mohammed Musa (Tikula dialect) |
17 minutes | Ukula history | Account of the history of the Akula division of the Acipu |
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Riddles
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Markus Yabani Ishaya Audu |
5 minutes | Riddles | A riddle game - if you
can't guess, you must forfeit a town to the other player. |
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Amos Bako Musa Bigi |
4 minutes | Riddles | A riddle game - if you can't guess, you must forfeit a town to the other player. |
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Prayers
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Markus Yabani |
1 minute | Opening prayer | Opening prayer for
folktales and riddles session |
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Ishaya Audu | 1 minute | Closing prayer | Closing prayer for folktales and riddles session |
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Sermons
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Markus Yabani |
24 minutes | Sermon | Sermon given in Tungan
Magajiya UMCA church |
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Local news
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Ibrahim Danjuma |
6 minutes | Crocodile-killing | The story of Ubandawaki
and Araba, who killed one of the sacred crocodiles from Korisino in 2006 |
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Hussaini Sale | 1 minute | Armed robbery | Story was prepared beforehand (written out in Cicipu) |
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Descriptions
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Markus Yabani | 4 minutes | Dog | Description of the dog |
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Markus Yabani | 3 minutes | Camel | Description of the camel |
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Markus Yabani | 4 minutes | Priest | Description of the priest |
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Markus Yabani | 4 minutes | Bible | Description of the Bible |
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Amos Bako | 3 minutes | Monkey | Description of the monkey |
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Amos Bako | 3 minutes | Fire | Description of fire |
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Amos Bako | 3 minutes | Beer | Description of beer |
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Amos Bako | 4 minutes | Witches | Description of witches |
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Amos Bako | 3 minutes | Slaves | Description of slaves |
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Amos Bako | 2 minutes | Crocodile | Description of the crocodile |
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Amos Bako | 2 minutes | Lightning | Description of lightning |
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Garba Daniel | 3 minutes | Camel | Description of the camel |
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Markus Yabani | 3 minutes | Tortoise | Description of the tortoise |
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Garba Daniel | 1 minute | Iodine | Description of iodine |
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Mallam Magaji | 15 minutes | Koran | Description of the Koran |
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Mallam Magaji | 15 minutes | Fish | Description of the hippopotamus, fish, and water sources |
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Mohammed Mallam | 3 minutes | Gin | Description of gin |
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Mohammed Mallam | 4 minutes | Tobacco | Description of tobacco |
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Murna Musa | 1 minute | Beer | Description of beer |
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Murna Musa | 1 minute | Gin | Description of gin |
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Murna Musa | 1 minute | Water | Description of water |
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Murna Musa | 2 minutes | Dog | Description of the dog |
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Pear stories
These narratives were elicited using Wallace Chafe's Pear Film. The first four texts are the most reliable and cross-linguistically comparable, since the interviewer had not seen the film before. The fifth text was elicited by Stuart McGill from the interviewer Markus Yabani after he had conducted five interviews (four of which are presented here - the fifth was very short), but before he had seen the film itself. It is probably the most comprehensive and accurate of all the re-tellings. The last four interviews were conducted on another occasion, after the interviewer had seen the film (although he told the interviewees that he had not).| Maza | 2 minutes | Pear story | Session 1 | |
| Haruna | 1 minute | Pear story | Session 1 | |
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Tambaya Wakala | 2 minutes | Pear story | Session 1 |
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Lawali Sale | 1 minute | Pear story | Session 1 |
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Markus Yabani | 2 minutes | Pear story | Interviewing the interviewer |
| Danjuma Araba | 2 minutes | Pear story | Session 2 | |
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Garba Daniel | 1 minutes | Pear story | Session 2 |
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Tabitha Markus | 2 minutes | Pear story | Session 2 |
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Ishaya Audu | 2 minutes | Pear story | Session 2 |
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