Reviewed by Elly van Gelderen, Arizona State University

Kilba is a Chadic member of the Afro-Asiatic family, also known as Huba. The people call themselves Kϕlba and Hϕba (1), and their origin remains a matter of debate. The introduction describes the current homeland of the Kilba in Nigeria and discusses theories that they migrated there from Yemen, Egypt, or Ethiopia. The classification within Chadic that Mu’azu presents has four main groups, with Kilba a member of the Central-Chadic branch (Biu-Mandara). The population numbered 175,000 in 1991–92 (11) and Mu’azu mentions two dialects, Hong and Gaya, of which Hong is the more prestigious one. The dialectal differences appear to be mainly lexical and phonological, and do not lead to unintelligibility.

After the introductory chapter, there are three chapters, on phonology and tone (around forty pages), morphology (around seventy pages), and syntax (about twenty pages). The chapter on phonology has three parts: the phoneme inventory of Kilba, phonological processes, and an explanation of the tone system. The Latin alphabet has been modified for the Kilba writing system and the modifications give some indication of the phonological inventory: several digraphs are used (dl, dz, gy, gh, hy, ky, sh, tl, ts, zh), ‘y and ‘w on their own, the implosives ɗ and б, and ə. Mu’azu provides helpful charts for the fifty consonant sounds (34) and for the six vowels and four diphthongs. The assimilatory processes are described well, as is the tonal system.

The chapter on morphology describes nouns, compound nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbal morphology, inflectional morphology, reduplication, verbal aspect, adverbs, prepositions, and many other topics. Unfortunately, very few example sentences are given. Kilba adjectives are hard to distinguish from nouns (74), e.g. kùshù ‘small’ can be both a noun and an adjective. Adjectives can also be derived from verbs and from nouns (through reduplication), as in KìlbàKìlbà ‘of the Kilba’ from Kìlbà ‘the Kilba’ (76). Subject pronouns can be long and short (80), and are phonologically modified depending on the verbal tense in ways that this section does not entirely clarify. Object pronouns are cliticized onto the verb, and possessives are suffixed to the noun with the help of à, as in kər-à-ɗà [head-my] ‘my head’ (85).

The chapter on syntax is relatively short and primarily concerns word order, with SVO as the unmarked order. The nominal phrase is also head-initial, but adjectives can be in pre-N or post-N position (141).

In conclusion, there is much of interest in this book. It serves as a great overview of Kilba and can serve as a basis for further work, e.g. on pronouns, possessives, and constituent order within the noun phrase.