Cameroon

Mada is a Central-Chadic language spoken in the Far-North Region of Cameroon. The language exhibits a number of interesting features, reflecting its Chadic roots, in the domain of Tense, Aspect and Mood (TAM). This research presents a different take on the tone and TAM system of the language than what has been previously documented. There is no grammatical tense marking in Mada, but the language has a complex aspectual system built around the imperfective-perfective distinction. The imperfective is the unmarked form that is by far the most common verb form in discourse while the perfective is marked and is often used in background material. In addition to these primary aspects, Mada also has secondary and tertiary aspects marked by affixation. The modal system of the language is built around the dichotomy of realis-irrealis. Negation as well as speaker and agent-oriented modalities are subgroups of the irrealis. The different aspects and modalities interact with each other and their marking relies on grammatical tone and affixation resulting in a very complex verbal word. The findings of this research have noteworthy implications for language development and have led to some concrete suggestions regarding the marking of grammatical tone in the orthography.