The morphosyntax of Mada, an endangered Niger Congo language of North-Central Nigeria

语法描述对于语言文档来说是至关重要的，它减轻了语言濒危的挑战。马达语是尼日利亚中北部的一种尼日尔-刚果语，由于文献不足和母语人士普遍存在语言外婚制，马达语处于高度濒危状态。本研究从短语、从句和句子三个层面详细描述了MADA的语法范畴以及它们之间的关系。这些数据基于研究人员构建的公开和私人独白和对话语料库。稳健的形态句法描述是开发语言教与学的基础，也是改善母语人士对语言的态度的基础。这项研究通过解决全球南方和全球北方语言记录的不平衡问题，参与了非殖民化事业，并展示了母语人士在调查、振兴和回收濒危语言方面的作用。

Grammatical description is crucial for language documentation, which mitigates the challenge of language endangerment. Mada, a Niger-Congo language in North-Central Nigeria is highly endangered due to insufficient documentation and the prevalence of linguistic exogamy among its native speakers. This study offers a detailed description of the grammatical categories of Mada and their relationships at phrasal, clausal and sentential levels. The data is based on a corpus of public and private monologues and dialogues constructed by the researcher. A robust morphosyntactic description is a foundation for developing primers for language teaching and learning, and improving native speakers' attitudes to the language. This research participates in the decolonising enterprise by tackling the imbalance in the documentation of languages of the Global South compared to the Global North, and demonstrates the role of native speakers in investigating, revitalising and reclaiming endangered languages.