Narrative Structure and Deixis in Bura Oral Tradition: A Study of Storytelling in Borno State

This study analyses narrative structure and the deployment of deictic expressions in oral storytelling traditions of the Bura people of Borno State, North East Nigeria. The Bura are a significant ethnolinguistic community whose oral literary traditions have been poorly documented in formal linguistics literature, particularly at the level of discourse structure and deictic reference. The research employs an ethnographic discourse analysis methodology informed by Labov and Waletzky's narrative structure framework and the cross-linguistic study of deixis. Data were collected through community-based fieldwork in Biu and Hawul Local Government Areas, involving the recording of 25 storytelling sessions with identified oral narrative specialists across two age cohorts. The recordings were transcribed with community members' assistance and analysed for abstract, orientation, complicating action, evaluation, resolution, and coda structural components, as well as for the use of spatial, temporal, and person deixis in establishing and maintaining narrative reference. Findings reveal a consistent six-part narrative structure in Bura oral stories closely paralleling Labov and Waletzky's canonical structure, with culturally specific evaluation strategies involving proverbial insertions. Deictic switching is documented as a primary engagement strategy, with narrators shifting from third to first person to perform character speech. The research contributes original primary data on Bura narrative linguistics and recommends formal archiving of Bura oral traditions. Keywords: narrative structure, deixis, Bura, oral tradition, Borno State.