Possible infixes, such as the passive w in northern sotho which is said to be inserted into the past tense suffix ile forming ilwe, can easily also be subsumed under the term. Sesotho sa leboa english online northern sotho english dictionary pukuntsu ya sesotho sa leboa seisimane. Further, these noun classes are not only expressed on nouns and adjectives, but also on verbs, prepositions, and more. Zulu s42 is a bantu language of the nguni subgroup, spoken primarily in south africa and to a large extent mutually intelligible with xhosa, swati, and ndebele.
Bantu languages the reader wiki, reader view of wikipedia. Feb 11, 20 the structure of all bantu languages is built around noun classes, comparable to gendered nouns in the romance and germanic languages, and their related concords, single words that stand in as a combined pronoun and helping verb. Agreement is a well studied phenomenon in bantu languages. Introduction the systematic study of bantu language acquisition began with lwandle kunenes 1979 dissertation on the acquisition of swati. Each noun class has both a singular and a plural form, to make 18 total. Shape is divided into extended, curved, nonextended, etc. Aunio presents a synchronic analysis of the microvariation of noun tone systems in three bantu varieties of the mara region tanzania. Though the extent to which the system operates varies greatly, it is nonetheless found in some form in languages. Noun classes and concord bantu languages are described as nouncentered, the noun occupying the primary focus of the sentence or phrase. Noun classes article about noun classes by the free dictionary.
Because there is no verb conjugation, but instead verb construction, the noun classes tend to be the most difficult part of the language. For example, proto bantu class 10 contains plurals of class 9 nouns and class 11 nouns, while class 6 contains plurals of class 5 nouns and class 15 nouns. Although there are known principles for agreement in bantu languages, each language has a somewhat unique behavior that form restrictions to applying these principles. The semantics of bantu noun classification mark dingemanse the semantics of bantu noun classification. The first, and in my opinion less important one is that of redundany. For instance, in swahili the word rafiki friend belongs to the class 9 and its plural form is marafiki of the class 6, even if most nouns of the 9 class have the plural of the class 10. A note on bantu extensions and syntactic word formation jochen zeller, university of kwazulunatal, durban. A note on bantu extensions and syntactic word formation. The system of noun classes is probably the characteristic most widely found in nigercongo languages and best known to those interested in language phenomena.
Classes 110 and 12 were paired, the first member of the pair was for singular nouns, the second for plural nouns. The notation 1114 indicates a class that has arisen from a merger of what. Roots generally do not begin with nc clusters and in protobantu, c is nearly always voiced in tautomorphemic nc clustersreconstructed roots like ntu person, thing are extremely rare. He mentions 34, note 19 a proposal to merge guthries zones d. These noun prefixes have, for ease of analysis, been divided into classes with numbers by historical bantu linguists and represent an internationally accepted numbering system. Whats the purpose of having noun classes in languages. Comparative bantu online dictionary includes a comprehensive bibliography. Part ii as this was my final semester of my undergraduate studies, i completed the capstone for the linguistics major. Bantu languages definition bantu languages are a subset of nigercongo languages mostly spoken in the center and south part of africa english oxford living dictionary, n. One of the identifying characteristics of bantu languages is a system of noun classes.
These are languages spoken from limbe to campo and inland. In xhosa, for example, the prefix on a noun generally begins with a vowel in all the classes, e. A noun class system is a grammatical system that some languages use to overtly categorize nouns. Bantu contains hundreds of languages that are spoken by 120 million africans in the congo basin, angola, the republic of south africa, mozambique, zimbabwe, zambia, malawi, tanzania, and kenya. Nc clusters can arise by combining the prefix nfor classes 9. The system of organization is drawn up showing that divisions are made between unit and mass. Although noun classes are not easy to grasp they reveal the beauty and depth of the language like nothing else. Bantu languages are spoken largely east and south of the present day country of cameroon.
In the hypothetically reconstructed bantu parent language there are 23 noun classes. English to xhosa translation page a website that translated words and phrases to and from xhosa by martha r. Bantu noun classes and the system of grammatical agreement the noun class systems presented in table 1. The name was coined to represent the word for people in loosely reconstructed protobantu, from the plural noun class prefix bacategorizing. Each noun belongs to a class, and each language may have several numbered classes, somewhat like grammatical gender in european languages.
For instance, the kiswahili noun kitabu book is composed of a noun prefix ki and a nominal root tabu. List of bantu noun classes with reconstructed protobantu prefixes in french ehrets compilation of classifications by klieman, bastin, himself, and others pp 20409, ucla. The structure of the bantu noun phrase find and share. Ha is a typical bantu language with a noun class system and fairly complex verbal morphology, both inflectionally and derivationally. The bantu languages or narrow bantu languages are a branch of the nigercongo languages. A comparative analysis of runyankorerukiga and luganda. For my capstone paper, i chose to undertake a databased analysis of noun class semantics in bantu languages. Noun class systems are universal and almost always marked by prefixes, occasionally by suffixes. Pluralizing nouns across agglutinating bantu languages acl. The meinhof numbering tends to be used in scientific works dealing with comparisons of different bantu languages. These classes have been designated in various ways.
The acquisition of bantu languages katherine demuth brown. A comparative study of bantu noun classes institutionen. Download the classification of the bantu languages ebook pdf or read. The noun class system classifies nouns into a number of noun classes, as signalled by prefixal morphemes also known as noun prefixes. Swahili is one of many hundreds of languages in the bantu language family. The bantu languages technically the narrow bantu languages, as opposed to wide bantu, a loosely defined categorization which includes other bantoid languages, are a large family of languages spoken by the bantu peoples throughout subsaharan africa. Depending on how one counts, there are between 300 and 600 bantu languages, spoken in an area south of a line between cameroon in the west and kenya in the east.
The system used in this book was devised by carl meinhof in his study of a. Most words in a bantu sentence are marked by a prefix indicating the category to which. Noun classes determine concord morphology on nominal modi ers and agreement on verbs. The xhosa language, as all the bantu languages, is structured around the noun. In the northern caucasian languages noun classes can express the category of number and may be found in nouns and words with which they agree. Bantu language article about bantu language by the free. Notes on the nounclasses of some bantu languages of ngamiland yeei, subia, gova, and gcereku. The various bantu languages have different numbers of noun classes. Nc clusters, which are usually one of the only two consonantal clusters in bantu languages, have some interesting phonological properties. List of bantu language names with synonyms ordered by guthrie number. Isizulu course work in the department of african languages at the university of pretoria by linkie mohlala supervisor.
All nouns are assigned to a noun class, where the number of noun classes varies between 12 and 20. The names of animals in the bantu languages 95 west, of the wapokomo and wanika are the akikuyu and akamba. Marking of noun class is never entirely within the noun word. The similarity between dispersed bantu languages had been observed as early as in the 17th century. The most prominent grammatical characteristic of bantu languages is the extensive use of affixes see sotho grammar and ganda noun classes for detailed discussions of these affixes. Most bantu languages exhibit 15 or 16 noun classes, normally arranged into at. Bantu language noun classes form a basis for agreement marking. Introduction studies of the noun in bantu languages have traditionally concentrated on the morphology of the noun with its elaborate class system and the underlying semantic strands.
Congobrazzaville national languages online dictionary, bantu web site. The bantu attribute noun class prefixes and their suffixal. In changana, each noun things, animals, abstracts etc. A beginners guide to studying african languages, part 1. Bantu noun class systems in comparative and diachronic perspective scholars of bantu languages have long posited a common proto bantu pb source from which modernday bantu languages have evolved. The noun class systems in the bantu languages is characterized by, among other. The semantic system of noun classes in protobantu eric. The concept of noun classes is similar, except while romance languages have 23 genders, bantu languages can have up to 23 noun classes. Noun classes may be coded as affixes, or as separate grammatical words or clitics such as articles, or noun markers in dyirbal. Classes 56 for objects that come in pairs or larger groups. For example, protobantu class 10 contains plurals of class 9 nouns and class 11 nouns, while class 6 contains plurals of class 5 nouns and class 15 nouns. Relative clause formation in the bantu languages of south africa article pdf available in southern african linguistics and applied language studies 2212. Understanding the origin of nasal classes in bantu since greenberg 1963.
Although one of the main points of interest is the fascinating variation in the family, a couple of generalizations can be made with respect to bantu morphosyntax. A look at the grassfields borderland blasius achiritaboh university of buea, cameroon abstract as is well known, bantu nouns typically consist of a stem each with an overt or covert prefix arranged in classes of singular and plural pairs called genders. To keep it simple, i have divided them into 9 groups. Bantu online resources, jacky maniacky, 7 july 2007, including list of bantu noun classes with reconstructed protobantu prefixes in french ehrets compilation of classifications by klieman, bastin, himself, and others pp 20409, ucla. Locative noun classes in bantu to understand locative inversion in bantu languages and the analytical issues they pose, it is crucial to first understand something about bantu noun classes, and specifically the peculiarities of the locative noun classes. While the grammatical structure of the protobantu noun class system is welldefined, any. Kiswahilis vowel harmony there are 9 noun classes in kiswahili. Full text of the names of animals in the bantu languages. As we just saw, merging the root vlik with a v projection in syntax and associating. The singular form of a noun belongs to a di erent noun class than the plural form of that noun does. The classification of the bantu languages bound with bantu word division.
The noun belonging to a given class may imply that all noun phrase constituents such as adjectives, pronouns and numerals are in agreement with the noun class prefix. There are over 20 noun classes, although most languages use fewer nurse and. As part of the southern bantoid group, they are part of the benuecongo language family, which in turn is part of the large niger. The article starts by defining the zulu noun class system and briefly discusses the classification criteria. Notes on the nounclasses of some bantu languages of. Originally, bantu languages had over 20 noun categories. Pdf relative clause formation in the bantu languages of. Although these sounds are less frequent in bantu languages, they do occur in northwest bantu as well as in east bantu, both on the northeastern coast and in the southeast maddieson 2003. There are about 520 languages in the bantu family, 670 languages in the southern bantoid branch which includes bantu, and 1,532 in nigercongo. It was as a result of this process that the nguni relative marker adopted properties of a clitic and turned into a phrasal affix. The definition of the bantu cornes from a variety of sources, most.
The former use two words for lion, murothi, which i can find nowhere else, except that mololhi, given as the kamba for notes. Setswana is a bantu language in the south eastern zone zone s in doke. Fsm2 and the morphological analysis of bantu nouns first. Bantu online resources, jacky maniacky, 7 july 2007, including. I chose manjaku rather than the bantu languages usually adduced. Bantu online resources by jacky maniacky, including list of bantu noun classes with reconstructed proto bantu prefixes in french continimorava, ellen. Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, or visit the webmasters page for free fun content. Bantu noun class systems in comparative and diachronic perspective scholars of bantu languages have long posited a common protobantu pb source from which modernday bantu languages have evolved. In some bantu languages the prefix on a noun can be broken up into two or more components.
Guthrie, the classification of the bantu languages 1948, repr. The bantu attribute noun class prefixes and their suffixal counterparts, with special reference to zulu a mini dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree magister artium. The investigation will be done with reference to aspects such as the following. What is a noun class sil glossary of linguistic terms. Thus, a comparison of the acquisition of bantu languages offers an extremely rich area for research, providing insights not only into how language is learned, but also into the possible impact that language learning may exert on processes of historical change.
Subsequent studies of other languages nguni languages zulu and xhosa, sotho languages sesotho henceforth. Guthrie, 1971 and one of the eleven official languages of south africa. New developments in the classification of bantu languages and. Swahili noun classes noun classes ngeli za kiswahili nouns in kiswahili are grouped into various noun classes because of two main reasons. Bantu languages, group of african languages forming a subdivision of the benueniger division of the nigercongo branch of the nigerkordofanian language family see african languages. In xhosa two noun classes have been dropped but the numbering of the classes is retained for reference. The tonal system of ha has been analyzed as a pitchaccent system harjula 2004. Introduction verb stems in bantu languages may include a number of derivational suffixes called extensions that express various functions, such as causative, applicative, reciprocal or passive. Since nouns in sothotswana do not have prevowels, relative complementisers in these languages never adopted prevowel properties and hence never became phrasal affixes. All nouns comprise a stem and one of a set of singular and plural. There are two advantages a language with noun classes has over one without them. Noun classes are said to have semantic content and be organized on a semantic basis. Ha is a typical bantu language with 16 noun classes and complex verbal morphology. Click download or read online button to the classification of the bantu languages book pdf for free now.
The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the attributive noun classes, as well as their suffixal counterparts, firstly in bantu, and secondly in zulu. Noun classes article about noun classes by the free. A polyplural noun class is a plural class for more than one singular class. For this reason, noun classes are often referred to by combining their singular and. A brief summary of the bantu acquisition literature by language is provided below.
Nyangali language, nyungwe language, polyplural noun class, seki language, sena language. The main characteristic of changana are the noun classes which are common for all bantu languages. Bantu languages simple english wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The work reported on in this article forms part of a larger project aimed at the technological development of setswana.
Classes 34 for plants, trees and natural phenomena. In many atlantic languages the initial consonant of the noun takes alternates according to the noun class prefix with which it occurs. Although some writers say that the semantic productivity of bantu noun classes has reduced, this may need further research because some bantu languages are not well documented. Pdf noun class, gender, and the lexiconsyntaxmorphology. Classes 6 and 10 are inherited as polyplural classes by most. Pdf this article presents a comparative study of noun class, gender. We will be looking in detail at the most salient structural properties of bantu languages, such as the noun class system, the structure of verbs, and topics in phonology and syntax. The internal classification of the bantu languages is problematic, but by and large the bantu languages can be subdivided in an eastern, a western and a northwestern group. Zulu, for example, has nine pairs of singular and plural prefixes. Which class a noun belongs to is visible in the prefix on the noun itself and in the concord and agreement. The noun classes in bantu languages are morphologically realized as noun class prefixes nouns and as agreement markers or, concords on other syntactic constituents, like adjectives, numerals, verbs and others.
This can be seen in the noun class system of sesotho, presented in table 2. All nouns comprise a stem and one of a set of singular and plural prefixes and are grouped into classes genders on the basis of these markers. The main approach of the module is comparativetypological, and we will also look at. Introduction studies of the noun in bantu languages have traditionally concentrated on the morphology of the noun with its elaborate class. Download pdf the classification of the bantu languages. Bantu languages simple english wikipedia, the free.
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