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Language contact with Khoisan languages has resulted in the adoption of click phonemes in certain southern African Bantu languages. Contact-induced changes outside the phonological domain, however, are less commonly recognized. This paper provides a first ever analysis of morphological influence from Khoisan languages in Yeyi, a Bantu language spoken in Botswana and Namibia. Firstly, Yeyi has a set of lexical verbs that take an obligatory prefix i- or ra-, and both these prefixes and many of the verbs on which they occur are of Khoisan origin. Secondly, Yeyi has four verbal derivational suffixes that have been copied from Khoisan languages. The description of these contact-induced changes in Yeyi shows that contact with Khoisan languages, especially those of the Khoe family, involved extensive bilingualism. Dialectal difference in Yeyi furthermore suggests that Khoisan contact was more intense in Botswana than in Namibia. As some linguistic changes appear to derive from Khoisan languages that are not spoken in the vicinity of Yeyi, the language contact situation in which they arose was quite different from the one that occurs today.

In this paper we present a new, lexicon-based phylogeny of 34 Southern Bantu languages, and combine it with previous insights from linguistics, archaeology, and genetics to study the history of Southern Bantu languages and their speakers. Our phylogeny shows all Southern Bantu languages to derive from a single, direct ancestor, which contrasts with archaeological evidence indicating separate migrations of Bantu speakers into southern Africa. This suggests that the Bantu languages spoken by the first migrants became extinct, and the ancestor of present-day Southern Bantu languages only emerged in southern Africa during the second millennium CE. We also map the distribution of previously established or suspected Khoisan-derived linguistic features in Southern Bantu languages onto this phylogeny. Evidence for intensive contact with speakers of Khoisan languages also comes from population genetics, which shows that Khoisan linguistic influence is mainly seen in languages spoken by populations displaying a higher degree of genetic admixture.

This study sets out to investigate the insubordinated infinitive in the Bantu language Makhuwa-Enahara (P31, northern Mozambique), which is used with feeling predicates that have passive experiencers. The expression of bodily feelings and emotions in Makhuwa serves as a foundation, highlighting the unique formal and interpretational properties of the insubordinated infinitive within the domain of feelings.

Bantu languages generally have noun-initial DP word order but they typically allow for demonstratives, and in some languages also the quantifier meaning 'each, every', to precede the noun. Beyond this, Bantu languages generally allow changing the relative order of the post-nominal modifiers, which leads to subtle (focus-related) changes in meaning. Bantu languages generally do not allow for adjectives, numerals, and possessives to appear before the noun. However, Xitsonga allows such orders and these orders trigger lengthening effects. In this paper, we discuss DP word order alternations in Xitsonga and their effects on prosody in terms of penultimate lengthening. We show that there is a stable, statistically significant effect on length which can be demonstrated experimentally.

Much work has been done in recent years on the prosody of relative clauses in Bantu languages (see among others Downing et al. 2010), and this is also the case for Shingazidja, a Bantu language of the Comoros (Patin 2010), for which it has been established that restrictive relatives differ from non-restrictive ones in that the latter, contrary to restrictives, have the relative separated from its head by a prosodic boundary, as in other languages (Cheng & Kula 2006, Cheng & Downing 2007). However, many aspects of the prosody of Shingazidja relatives remain to be established. In particular, the question of whether relatives are in this language aligned with the boundaries of Intonational phrases remained undetermined, as the H% boundary tone that characterizes these prosodic structures when they do not emerge at the end of an utterance (see O'Connor & Patin 2015) is not always observable in the data (Patin 2017). The descriptive exam of a corpus collected in 2009 indicates that a H% boundary tone does emerge at the right boundary of the relative, but that i. this tone is associated with the last surface tone and not with the last vowel, on the one hand, and ii. that it is absent from a restrictive if the restrictive relative is of reduced size, revealing that eurhythmic constraints condition the prosodic structure of these clauses.

Language contact between migrating Bantu speakers and resident Khoisan speakers has resulted in the adoption of clicks in various southern African Bantu languages. This paper uses the comparative method to show that for one particular cluster of Bantu click languages, the Nguni languages, a large number of phonemic clicks can be reconstructed to its putative ancestor Proto-Nguni, including a palatal click rarely found in Bantu languages and no longer used as such in any living Nguni language. Although clicks have undergone subsequent developments in individual Nguni languages, no new click phonemes were acquired through language contact, showing that clicks were already present very early in the history of the Nguni languages. This relative chronology provides new insights into how the relations between Bantu- and Khoisan-speaking communities in southern Africa developed over time.

In this paper I describe the surprisingly extensive range of choices Runyankore speakers have in “devaluative-frequentative” verb stem reduplication (“to sort of do X, to do X here and there, to do X a lot”). Analyzed as stem-compounding, both single (stem1-stem2) and multiple (stem1-stem2-stem3...) reduplication are possible of a stem such as furumuka “dash out” (furumuka-furumuka(-furumuka...)), with the possibility of left-aligned truncation (furu-furumuka, furumu-furumuka), right-aligned truncation (furumuka-muka, furumuka-rumuka) and both (furu-furumuka-muka). In addition, prefinal stems can alternatively end in “replacive [a]” (fura-furumuka, furuma-furumuka). Complementing these variants is a “mixed” system where both stems are truncated (furumu-rumuka), to which additional reduplicated stems can also be added (furu-furumu-rumuka-muka). While each reduplicated stem is free to choose its shape independently of the others (e.g. furu-furuma-furumuka, furuma-furu-furumuka etc.), the same three possible H(igh) stem-tone patterns are observed in different inflections, predictable from the input tones: /H/ on the first stem, /H/ on the last stem, /H/ on the second mora of any stem (au choix). I show that these facts require each stem to be independently derived from the same (complete) morphological and phonological input with tone assigned prior to truncation, thereby directly supporting both reduplication as compounding (Downing 2003) and morphological doubling theory (MDT) (Inkelas & Zoll 2005).

Shekgalagadi is an endangered Bantu language of the Sotho cluster spoken in Botswana. While it is known that the language shows extensive regional variation, very little documentation exists of smaller, more remote varieties. This paper provides a first ever description of the northern-most Shekgalagadi variety known as Shetjhauba, spoken along the Okavango panhandle close to the Namibian border. Using original field data, I provide a grammatical sketch of Shetjhauba. First, the segmental phonology of Shetjhauba is described, providing an overview of its phonemic consonants and vowels, as well as a major morphophonological process that occurs in several morphological environments, referred to as “strengthening”. A striking difference between the phonology of Shetjhauba and that of previously described Shekgalagadi varieties is its extensive use of click phonemes. Secondly, the nominal and verbal morphology of Shetjhauba are discussed, giving insights into noun classes, nominal derivation, and various pronouns and agreeing modifiers. Shetjhauba also has an extensive verbal morphology, with various verbal derivational suffixes, and inflectional affixes marking tense, aspect, mood, negation, as well as subject and object.

This paper examines the production of vocative calls in (Northern) Metropolitan French (MF) and Cameroonian French (CF) as it is spoken by native speakers of a tone language, Basaá. While the results of our Discourse Completion Task confirm previous descriptions of MF, they also further our understanding of the relationship between pragmatics and prosody across different groups of French speakers. MF favors the vocative chant in routine contexts and a rising-falling contour in urgent contexts. In contrast, context has little influence on the choice of contour in CF. A melody consisting of the surface realization of lexical tones is produced in both contexts. Regarding acoustic parameters, context only exerts a significant effect on the loudness of vocative calls (RMS amplitude) and has little effect on their F0 height, F0 range and duration. A target-use of vocative calls in CF thus does not amount to target-like use of the original standard target language, MF. Our results provide novel evidence for the transfer of lexical tones onto the contact variety of an intonation language. They also corroborate previous studies involving the pragmatics-prosody interface: the more marked a prosodic pattern is (here, the vocative chant), the more difficult it is to acquire.

The present article analyzes the polysemy of the element ti in Kituba from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, by applying the framework of dynamic semantic maps and waves. The qualitative and quantitative corpus study, enhanced by evidence provided by Kituba native speakers, demonstrates the following: although ti spans most parts of the typological map of the polysemy of conjunctive coordinators, its center of prototypicality is located in the initial stage (comitative) and two intermediate stages (possessive and certain types of coordinate-hood) available along the grammaticalization pathway underlying the map. This suggests a semi-advanced grammaticalization profile for ti. The study also proposes certain changes in the typological map of the polysemy of conjunctive coordinators, postulating new components of the map (or grammaticalization stages), and alternative linking directions. Additionally, a possible manner of introducing quantitative data (related to prototypicality) to the qualitative map of polysemy is presented. The resulting model is argued to exhibit properties typical of complexity: structural intricacy, gradience, fuzziness, and multi-causality.

The Bantu language Lugwere (Uganda, JE17) has what at first sight appears to be a typical three-way distinction in its demonstratives, with a proximal, medial, and distal series of demonstratives. Upon closer inspection, however, the second series in Lugwere can also be used for distal and anaphoric referents, whereas the third series has a more restricted use. We propose a better fitting semantic analysis in terms of the features [±proximal] and [±exterior], the latter referring to the status of a referent being inside or outside a certain perimeter, which is set by either the spatial environment of the conversation or the constantly updated discourse ground. This captures the semantic distinctions in the three series of demonstratives in Lugwere and provides an insight into the building blocks of demonstrative meaning.

This article presents the Bantu relative agreement (BRA) cycle, a scenario of recurrent morphosyntactic change that involves the emergence of relativizers, which are subsequently integrated into the relative verb form, where they can ultimately replace the original subject agreement prefix. All logical outcomes at every stage of the cycle are amply attested in the languages of the Bantu family. The BRA cycle makes sense of many of the puzzling characteristics of relative clause constructions in the Bantu languages, especially in the domain of agreement.

The Bantu language Rukiga (JE14, Uganda) shows tonal reduction on the verb in a subset of tenses, similar to the conjoint/disjoint alternation in Haya. Whereas in other languages the conjoint/disjoint alternation is usually marked by segmental morphology in at least one tense, Rukiga is unique in showing only tonal reduction. Nevertheless, our analysis shows that tonal reduction in Rukiga is not merely a phonological rule, but it encodes the conjoint/disjoint alternation. Furthermore, we show that tonal reduction in Rukiga is determined by constituent-finality, and there is no direct relation to focus

This paper aims to provide an overview of our current understanding of depressors by offering a comparative perspective of the types of depressors from Bantu, Khoisan and Chinese Wu. Depressor effects in Bantu/Khoisan, on the one hand, and Chinese, on the other, are hardly dealt with together leaving a more holistic approach untapped. This paper begins to bridge that gap by bringing together current findings to establish the full scope of depressor effects, from which future analyses can then build on. It is systematically observed that depressors in these languages are not restricted to voicing only. Rather, they range from voiced and breathy sounds – the most unmarked – to voiceless unaspirated sounds and even voiceless aspirated sounds as the most marked depressor type. The expansion of depressors to voiceless aspirated sounds is particularly interesting, since these sounds are traditionally assumed to correlate with a high pitch which is characteristic of high tone. Thus, the laryngeal configurations for voiceless depressors are examined and compared between Bantu, Khoisan and Chinese Wu. Proposed feature analyses for depressors are also discussed and compared.Keywords: depressors, Bantu, Khoisan, Chinese Wu, laryngeal specification

This is a review of Bantu applicative constructions by Sara Pacchiarotti. CSLI Publications, Stanford California.

In this study we offer a detailed synchronic and diachronic account of the hitherto un(der) documented numeral systems of the four closely related (Eastern) Bantu language varieties: Ikoma, Nata, Ishenyi, and Ngoreme – together forming the Western Serengeti subgroup. We describe the essentially identical formation and organization of numerals in these language varieties while also noting the morphosyntactic behaviour of numeral expressions and their extended uses. Based on an extensive quantity of comparative data, we furthermore disentangle the historical background to the numerals and their systematization in Western Serengeti, connecting this specific linguistic domain with the wider genealogical profile of this subgroup.

The existence of both morphological templates (Hyman 2003) and Mirror Principle (Baker 1985) compliant behaviour in the same language presents an interesting case of grammatical principles at odds. The two principles sometimes predict opposite orderings for the surface form of valency-changing derivational morphology in Bantu languages. In Kinyarwanda, this tension is unresolved, leading to certain forms being unavailable, rather than favouring one principle over the other. Independently available periphrastic forms are used to convey the problematic meanings. This paper presents an alternative to syntactic movement or Optimality Theoretic analyses for templatic morphology that have been proposed in the literature. It argues that syntactic selection by heads can better derive the facts of Kinyarwanda. Independent syntactic properties of the heads that underlie the derivational morphology suggest a particular set of selectional properties for these heads in Kinyarwanda, independent of the data showing their ordering. An analysis based on syntactic selection is sufficient to account both for the orders of the morphemes and their syntactic properties. This result suggests, in line with recent work, that syntactic selection is an alternative mechanism by which seemingly templatic behaviour in the morphology can be realised (Pylkkänen 2008; Harley 2013; Jung 2014). Keyword: Morphology; Template; Syntax; Selection; Bantu, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Doctoral Fellowship 752-2017-0069)

The systematic comparison of the different types of progressive Vowel Height Harmony (pVHH) attested within the Kikongo Language Cluster (KLC) leads to the conclusion that this common Bantu process of long-distance assimilation cannot be reconstructed to Proto-Kikongo. The ‘(a)symmetric-pVHH’ and ‘back-pVHH’ patterns, the two main and structurally different kinds of pVHH within the KLC, emerged independently and relatively late within two distinct subgroups, viz. South Kikongo and North Kikongo respectively. Moreover, the ‘(a)symmetric-pVHH’ pattern further spread from a South Kikongo focal area coinciding with the heartland of the Kongo kingdom to other parts of the KLC through contact-induced dialectal diffusion. Furthermore, the historical-comparative evidence from the KLC suggests that neither symmetric nor asymmetric pVHH should be reconstructed to Proto-Bantu, the most recent common ancestor of all Bantu languages.

Ncane is an underdocumented Bantoid language, which offers speakers multiple choices for referring to aforementioned participants. Anaphoric reference is usually made through a noun and an accompanying anaphoric demonstrative. Two anaphoric demonstratives are observed in the language and a speaker’s choice of demonstrative often reflects the speaker’s attitude toward the participant. This article presents examples illustrating the expression of various kinds of speaker judgments of participants through the use of anaphoric demonstratives. Accounting for such expression of attitude appears to be lacking in proposed demonstrative typologies like that of Diessel (1999). Therefore, the article concludes with a suggestion for expanding typological categories to address such subjective encoding.

This paper gives a descriptive account of the lexical semantics of seven basic verbs of translational motion in Nyakyusa (Bantu, M31), together with a description of the meaning and use of another motion verb that has grammaticalized to a marker of associated motion. The findings include, among other things, that Nyakyusa’s most simple verb of motion encodes solely a motion path and that only the ʻcomeʼ-verb, but none of the ʻgoʼ-verbs, encodes reference to the deictic centre. Applying a microcomparative perspective, the choice of ʻgoʼ-verb that has grammaticalized to a marker of associated motion is explained based on the relative salience assigned to the goal vis-àvis the path.

In this article we reconstruct the actuation and transmission of a phonological innovation known as prefix reduction within the Kikongo language cluster situated in the wider Lower Congo region of Central Africa. We argue that this change spread from a focal area coinciding with the heartland of the Kongo kingdom as a classical process of dialectal diffusion. Thanks to a unique Kikongo corpus that starts in the 17th century, we can provide diachronic empirical evidence for different phases of the process, which has been otherwise difficult, if not impossible, in Bantu historical linguistics. What is more, and also quite exceptional in African linguistics, we have a fairly good insight in the ‘social ecology’ of this language change and argue that political centralization and economic integration within the realm of the Kongo kingdom facilitated such a contact-induced diffusion between closely related language varieties. Résumé Dans cet article, nous reconstruisons le déclenchement et la diffusion d’une innovation phonologique au sein du groupe kongo situé dans la proximité de l'embouchure du Congo en Afrique centrale, à savoir la réduction préfixale. Nous soutenons que ce changement linguistique s'est répandu à partir d'une région focale qui coïncide avec le centre même du royaume Kongo, et ceci selon un processus classique de diffusion dialectale. Nous fondant sur un corpus unique du kikongo qui commence au XVIIe siècle, nous avons pu faire ce qui est d'habitude difficile, voire impossible en linguistique historique bantoue : réunir des preuves empiriques étayant différentes phases de ce processus diachronique. En outre, et de manière aussi exceptionnelle en linguistique africaine, nous avons une idée assez claire de « l'écologie sociale » de ce changement linguistique. Nous argumentons que la centralisation politique et l'intégration économique dans le royaume Kongo ont facilité le transfert de ce changement dû au contact ainsi que sa diffusion à travers des variétés linguistiques étroitement apparentées. Zusammenfassung In diesem Artikel rekonstruieren wir die Aktuation und Vermittlung einer phonologischen Innovation die bekannt ist als Prefix-Reduktion innerhalb des Kikongo Sprachen-Clusters, das in der weiteren Region des unteren Kongo in Zentralafrika zu situieren ist. Wir argumentieren, dass sich diese Veränderung als klassischer Prozess dialektaler Diffusion von einem zentralen, mit dem Landesinneren des Königreiches Kongo übereinstimmenden Gebiet ausbreitete. Durch einen einzigartigen Kikongo Korpus der im 17. Jahrhundert beginnt, können wir - was in der historischen Linguistik der Bantusprachen bislang schwierig, wenn nicht unmöglich war – diachron-empirische Nachweise für verschiedene Phasen dieses Prozesses vorlegen. Überdies ist es für Afrikanische Linguistik außergewöhnlich, dass wir einen recht guten Einblick in die “soziale Ökologie” der Sprachveränderung haben. Wir argumentieren, dass die politische Zentralisierung und die ökonomische Integration innerhalb des Königreiches Kongo die kontaktbedingte Diffusion zwischen eng verwandten Sprachvariationen unterstützten.

How languages solve the grammatical problem of agreeing with conjoined arguments is a well-known area of cross-linguistic variation. This paper describes these patterns for Kuria (Bantu, Kenya), documenting a pattern of agreement that has not been previously reported. We show the relevant patterns involving a range of noun classes, showing that human noun classes trigger different effects than non-human noun classes. We also demonstrate distinctions in the grammar between subject marking and object marking: whereas subject marking allows for resolved agreement forms, object marking does not. The paper also includes a brief survey of notable patterns in other Bantu languages to put Kuria in a relevant context.

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)1. IntroductionThis paper2 accounts for the numerous surface tonal melodies found on the verb in Babanki, a Grassfields Bantu language of northwestern Cameroon. An examination of the verb system reveals that, depending on the construction type, up to three tonal patterns may be found on both low and high tone verbs (See §3.3 where it is shown that Babanki verbs have two lexical tones: high and low). An underlying high tone may surface normally as high, but unexpectedly as low, or falling while underlying low tones surface as high, falling, but normally as low. For this reason the low tone verb can have a L(L), HL, or even H(H) surface melody while the high tone verbs can be L(H), HL, or H(H). Sometimes, a high tone can be downstepped while a low tone can undergo upstep. Accounting for these melodies in order to reconstruct the underlying forms is necessary for a proper understanding of Babanki verb tone in particular and the tonal system of Centre Ring Grassfields Bantu languages in general. This is so because most of the work on tone in Babanki has focused on the nominal system (Hyman 1979, 1980; Akumbu 2011). A treatment of verb tone will therefore provide a more complete picture of Babanki tone and also lay the groundwork for analyzing the tone systems of the other languages in the group. This paper demonstrates that five tone rules (Downstep, Tone Docking, High Tone Spread, Low Tone Spread, and Upstep) and one segmental rule (Schwa Insertion) are necessary to account for the apparently complex tonal system of Babanki verbs. The theoretical frameworks used in the analyses are Register Tier Theory (RTT) and Autosegmental Phonology (AP). This paper is structured as follows: An overview of RTT is given in §2 and the Babanki verb system is introduced in §3 while §4 contains a presentation of tense, aspect and mood. The phonological processes that are recurrent in the verb system are discussed in §5. An expansion of the discussion to verbal reduplication is found in §6, which is followed by a conclusion.2. An overview of register tier theoryRegister Tier Theory (RTT) (Inkelas 1987; Inkelas et al. 1987; Snider 1988, 1990, 1999; Akumbu 2011) recognizes the following autosegmental features and tiers: the register features h and l on a REGISTER TIER, the tonal features H and L on a TONAL TIER, a TONAL ROOT NODE TIER (TRN), and a TONE-BEARING UNIT TIER (TBU). These tiers are geometrically arranged according to the configuration in Figure 1 taken from Snider (1999: 23).The geometry in Figure 1 and the features in Figure 2 make it possible to specify up to four logically possible tonal distinctions, namely, a high tone on a high register, a high tone on a low register, a low tone on a high register, and a low tone on a low register. The register feature of any given TBU is specified in relation to that of the preceding register. The register of the initial TBU for its part is construed to be higher than or lower than the reference point that native speakers usually have in mind when beginning an utterance. Secondly, the tonal feature associated to any given TBU specifies whether the tone is low or high in relation to the current register. RTT is used in this paper to insightfully explain the tonal processes, given that within this theoretical model features on each tier can behave independently of one another.3. The verbIn this section the structure of the Babanki verb is shown. The section comprises a presentation of the verb root, verbal extensions, and tone groups, which are relevant to the discussion of verb tone in the language.3.1. Verb root. According to Akumbu & Fogwe (2012) only one-syllable roots are attested in Babanki except when there is verbal reduplication. The verb roots that appear to have two syllables always have a CV ending, which can be interpreted as an extension (see §3.2). Nevertheless, there are formal extensions that can be considered part of the root. …

Kejom [k̀ɘd͡ʒɔ́m], the preferred autonym for the language more commonly known as Babanki, is a Central Ring Grassfields Bantu language (ISO 693-3: [bbk]) spoken in the Northwest Region of Cameroon (Hyman 1980, Hammarström et al. 2017, Simons & Fennig 2017). The language is spoken mainly in two settlements shown in Figure 1, Kejom Ketinguh [k̀ɘd͡ʒɔ́m ↓kɘ́tÍⁿɡ̀uʔ] and Kejom Keku [k̀ɘd͡ʒɔ́m ↓kɘ́k̀u], also known as Babanki Tungoh and Big Babanki, respectively, but also to some extent in diaspora communities outside of Cameroon. Simons & Fennig (2017) state that the number of speakers is increasing; however, the figure of 39,000 speakers they provide likely overestimates the number of fluent speakers in diaspora communities. The two main settlements’ dialects exhibit slight phonetic, phonological, and lexical differences but are mutually intelligible. The variety of Kejom described here is the Kejom Ketinguh variant spoken by the second author; all data and examples which we take into account are based on his speech.

This article aims to give a semantic study of the reflexes of one specific tense/aspect form, namely the so-called*-a-B-aconstruction, in a cluster of about 40-odd Kikongo language varieties spoken in a wide area around the mouth of the Congo River in Central Africa. We first present a detailed analysis of the multiple uses of these cognate constructions at sentence level, in order to arrive at a formal and semantic reconstruction for the most recent common ancestor of the Kikongo Language Cluster, namely Proto-Kikongo. The analysis departs from the overall aspectual meaning of the linguistic expression in which the tense-aspect construction is used. Therefore, we also take into consideration the contribution of different aspectual tiers, such as lexical and grammatical aspect, adverbials and taxis constructions. Through the discussion of the multiple uses of the-a-B-aconstruction, we argue that its overall meaning is complex, combining both temporal and aspectual semantics. It is furthermore shown that a lexical-aspect distinction between states-of-affairs with transitional versus non-transitional temporal structure is crucial in order to understand the various uses of the-a-B-aconstruction. Methodologically, the formal and semantic reconstruction to Proto-Kikongo are based on a thorough comparison of a multitude of existing data sources, some of which several centuries old, as well as original fieldwork. This bottom-up approach has rarely been pursued over the past half century in Bantu grammatical reconstructions.

The main goal of our paper is to give a first, general description of middle voice in Bantu. As will be shown, this language group has a set of verbal derivational morphemes that challenges some of the concepts related to the middle domain. First of all, as of yet no description has been found of a language having more than one middle marker, yet many Bantu languages have up to four or five derivational morphemes that cover several parts of the semantic domain of the middle. Secondly, provided that the polysemy patterns of these morphemes only partially cover what is generally considered the “canonical” middle domain, we will call these “quasi-middle” markers. The fact that these verbal morphemes also convey notions that are usually not considered to belong to the domain of the canonical middle calls for a reassessment of what constitutes the semantic core of this voice category cross-linguistically. Although the theoretical implications of these new data are not the central focus of our paper, the basic description that we aim to provide of the middle in Bantu can nevertheless contribute to further discussion on this intricate voice category.

This paper proposes an approach to bounded tone shift and spread as found in Bantu languages. Its core intuition is that the bounding domain is delimited by foot structure. The approach uses layered foot representations to capture ternary phenomena, following Martinez-Paricio & Kager (2015). A set of licensing and structural constraints regulate tone-foot interactions. Harmonic Serialism is adopted as the grammatical framework, to allow for an account of opaque patterns (Prince & Smolensky 1993/2004; McCarthy 2010a).The present approach improves on previous accounts in two ways. Firstly, the size of the tonal bounding domain follows from independently motivated foot representations, rather than being stipulated in the constraint set. Secondly, the approach obviates the need for markedness constraints that refer to underlying structure, because all relevant lexical information is reflected in foot structures.The approach is demonstrated on Saghala (Patin 2009). Saghala shows both shift and spread in a trisyllabic domain. There are six tone patterns, dependent on the contact or near-contact of tones, and the position of word boundaries. An analysis is presented that accounts for all patterns. The success of the analysis shows that the foot-based approach is equipped to deal with a variety of bounded tone phenomena.

Ndendeule, a Bantu language spoken in southern Tanzania, has six conditional constructions identified by conditional markers. Construction I is marked by the subordinating conjunction anda ‘if,’ while Construction II is characterized by the conditional prefix nga- which appears on both the protasis and apodosis. The dependent -aka- in the if-clause marks Construction III. Construction IV is a negative conditional where the negative is marked in the subordinated clause. Construction V is identified as a directive conditional in which the protasis is either imperative or subjunctive and the main clause is subjunctive. Construction VI is a concessive conditional characterized by biclausal subjunctive protasis. It is argued that reality or unreality is expressed by the choice of the conditional marker on the protasis. Conditional markers express the speaker’s assumption about whether is factual or counterfactual. Constructions marked by anda ‘if’ and the dependent prefix -aka-, and the negative conditional express factual and probable conditions, while the use of nga- expresses counterfactual conditions. Tense, aspect and mood markers do not contribute to the conditional interpretation. They relate the protasis the time and completion of the event. Semantically, Ndendeule conditionals appear on Taylor’s (1997) gradient on three points, namely, factual, hypothetical and counterfactual.

This paper serves as an introduction to the special issue of Studies in African Linguistics devoted to conditional constructions in African languages. I first describe the motivation for this volume and the common terminological conventions used in the papers, before discussing some of the more influential attempts to categorize conditional constructions together with some of the functions of conditional constructions. I then present an overview of conditional constructions in African languages, noting the various kinds of conditional meanings that are distinguished grammatically in different languages, and types of isomorphism between conditional constructions and other categories. I conclude with a note on concessive conditionals.

In this paper I analyze Swahili conditional constructions via corpus analysis. Previous works on Swahili conditional markers categorize ki as a high possibility marker and ikiwa as a low possibility marker. In this corpus based study, I show that Swahili conditional markers cannot be imbued with specific pragmatic implicatures. Further, I extend the analysis to include the relationship between the protasis and apodosis and how this relationship impacts the choice of Swahili conditional markers. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the results indicate that both ki and ikiwa may be used in conditionals with a high as well as neutral possibility of realization. However, the conditional conjunction ikiwa significantly differs from the ki conditional morpheme in the analysis based on the relationship between the protasis and apodosis. While ki is more frequently used in content and speech act conditionals, ikiwa is more frequently used in epistemic conditionals. The study is also extended to include the Swahili subjunctive morphemes nge, used in conditionals with a low possibility of realization (hypotheticals) as well as counterfactuals, and ngeli/ngali, predominantly used in counterfactuals.

This paper explores a connection between Romance and Greek on the one hand, and Bantu on the other. More specifically, we look at auxiliary placement in Rangi and clitic placement in Tobler Mussafia languages, with a special emphasis on Cypriot Greek, and argue that a common explanation for their distribution can be found once a move into a dynamic framework is made. Rangi exhibits an unusual word order alternation in auxiliary constructions under which the position of the auxiliary appears to be sensitive to an element appearing at the left periphery of the clause. A similar sensitivity to a left-peripheral element can be seen to regulate clitic placement in Cypriot Greek (and generally in the so-called Tobler Mussafia clitic languages). The paper presents a parsing-oriented account of these two phenomena in the Dynamic Syntax framework, arguing that the similarities in syntactic distribution are the result of the encoding in the lexicon of processing strategies that were potentially pragmatic preferences in earlier stages of the respective languages. The account thus leans on the role played by the lexical entries for auxiliary and clitic forms, as well as the assumption that underspecification is inherent in the process of establishing meaning in context. The account is further supplemented by possible pathways of diachronic change that could have given rise to the systems found in present day varieties.

Demonstratives are an important feature of many eastern Bantu narrative texts. In addition to a basic tracking use, in which demonstratives are used to refer to different participants in a narrative, at least four additional functions can be identified: specifying the activation status (activated vs. reactivated) of major participants; distinguishing participants with agent semantic roles from those with non-agent semantic roles; distinguishing different kinds of participants and different episodes; and marking key thematic developments. These functions are described for 10 eastern Bantu languages based on analyses of original (i.e. non-translated) narrative texts.

Partant de la définition proposée par (Doke, 1935) de l’idéophone comme représentation vivante d’une idée en sons, nous décrivons, dans cet article, les aspects phonologiques, morphologiques et syntaxiques des mots idéophoniques en Ebwela, langue bantu (C42), d’un peuple minoritaire habitant quelques villages dans le territoire de Lisala, au nord-ouest de la RD Congo. Nos analyses indiquent que l’idéophone, dans cette langue, n’appartient pas à une catégorie spécifique, pour la simple raison qu’il prend selon l’emploi des préfixes de classe et peut se réinterpréter en substantif, adjectif ou verbe.

This paper provides a syntactico-semantic characterisation of conditional structures in Cuwabo, a Bantu language spoken in northern Mozambique. The different types of conditionals attested in the language are compared on the basis of several parameters such as semantic interpretation (including degrees of hypotheticality), morphological marking of conditionality, time reference, and interaction with the tense/aspect system.

In this study I present a comparative and historical analysis of “frequentative” Bantu verb-stem reduplication, many of whose variants have been described for a number of Eastern and Southern Bantu languages. While some languages have full-stem compounding, where the stem consists of the verb root plus any and all suffixes, others restrict the reduplicant to two syllables. Two questions are addressed: (i) What was the original nature of reduplication in Proto-Bantu? (ii) What diachronic processes have led to the observed variation? I first consider evidence that the frequentative began as full-stem reduplication, which then became restricted either morphologically (by excluding inflectional and ultimately derivational suffixes) and/or phonologically (by imposing a bisyllabic maximum size constraint). I then turn to the opposite hypothesis and consider evidence and motivations for a conflicting tendency to rebuild full-stem reduplication from the partial reduplicant. I end by attempting to explain why the partial reduplicant is almost always preposed to the fuller base.

Demuth and Harford (1999) contend that in Bantu relatives, the verb raises from I-C if the relative morpheme is a bound morpheme while the subject remains in spec-IP resulting in subject –verb inversion. Ikalanga, a Bantu language spoken in Botswana has no subject verb inversion in relatives although the relative morpheme appears to be a bound morpheme. This observation challenges the conclusion reached in Demuth and Harford (1999). This raises the question, What then is the structure of the relative clause in languages like Ikalanga and Luganda? This paper argues that Ikalanga relative clauses differ from other Bantu relative clauses in that the projection that houses the relative feature (RelP) projects below TP while in Bantu languages where subject verb inversion is observed such as Shona it projects higher than TP. Thus, the variation in the structures of Bantu relative clauses can be accounted for if we understand that there is a parametric variation in the position in which RelP projects; lower than TP or higher than TP.

Although facts about grammatical relations in many Bantu languages have been established since the early 1970s, there are still languages in this family which have not benefited from such studies. One of these is Ikalanga, spoken in Botswana and Zimbabwe. This paper examines the core grammatical relations of Ikalanga, exploring its typological status in terms of double object constructions. In prototypical ditransitive constructions, the Recipient NP has all of the properties of Direct Object, whereas the Theme NP has only some of those features. The conclusion is that Ikalanga is an intermediate language if object symmetricity is scalar. However, it is shown that in marked applicative constructions where the Benefactive is non-human and the Theme is human, there is reason to argue for 'split direct-objecthood', reflecting the impact of animacy in the assignment of direct objecthood.

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Mauritian Creole displays an alternation between a short and a long form of the verb, which is reminiscent of the conjoint–disjoint alternation found in some eastern Bantu languages. Based on comparison with other French-based creoles and socio-historical evidence, we conclude that the Bantu substrate must have had an impact on the grammatical system of Mauritian Creole. We compare the synchronic properties of the alternations in Mauritian Creole and the most likely substrate Bantu languages of northern Mozambique and examine two possible scenarios for the influence of Bantu on the Mauritian verbal alternation, concluding that probably only the (syntactic) basics of the Bantu alternation motivated the persistence of the alternation in Mauritian Creole.

Antipassive constructions are commonly associated with languages with a predominantly ergative alignment. In this article, we show that antipassive constructions can also occur in predominantly accusative languages such as Cilubà, a Bantu language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is expressed by the verbal suffix-angan-, deriving an intransitive clause from a transitive one by omitting the object noun phrase. This suffix functions canonically as a reciprocal marker and is also used to express sociativity/reciprocity and iterativity. An analysis of the suffix’ polysemy is provided on three levels: We argue that (i) plurality of relations is the underlying concept that semantically accounts for its different meanings, (ii) that its use in an antipassive clause is syntactically derived from its use as a canonical reciprocal marker by the demotion and omission of the second participant, and (iii) that the suffix is diachronically bimorphemic and originally consisted of two suffixes that still exist in Cilubà today, with the sum of its individual meanings not straightforwardly reflecting the synchronic polysemy of-angan-.

The antipassive, an object-demoting diathesis commonly associated with ergative languages, has so far largely gone unnoticed in Bantu languages, which are of the accusative type. In this article, comparative evidence is raised to demonstrate that the antipassive is a voice construction to be reckoned with in Bantu. A robust typology of Bantu voice constructions is developed on the basis of the scarce data available in the literature. This evidence is reinterpreted in the light of original data from a number of Bantu languages, such as Cilubà and Kirundi, which were the subject of a more in-depth analysis. It is shown how the antipassive generally developed as a specific reading of the highly polysemous verbal suffix -an-, which is more commonly used as a reciprocal/associative marker. These and other functions can be accounted for by the underlying notion of “plurality of relations”, which is characterized by a low degree of participant/event elaboration. From a syntactic point of view, it is argued that the development of antipassives out of plurality constructions results from the gradual demotion of the second participant of a co-participative event.

In this article, we show that the influence of Khoisan languages on five southwestern Bantu click languages spoken in the Kavango-Zambezi transfrontier area is diverse and complex. These Bantu languages acquired clicks through contact with both Khwe and Ju languages. However, they did not simply copy these Khoisan clicks words. They adapted them phonologically, resulting in a reduction of the click inventory and also integrated them into Bantu morphosyntax through the unusual process of paralexification. What is more, clicks do not only occur in words of Khoisan origin, but also spread to native vocabulary as a language-internal change, among other things through sound symbolism. Finally, calques and head-final nominal compounds in a number of these Bantu languages point to structural influence, most likely from Khwe. We argue that the contact-induced changes observed in the southwestern Bantu languages can be partly accounted for by the language shift of native Khoisan speakers who imposed certain features from their native language on the Bantu language they acquired. In addition, Bantu speakers may have used clicks and other Khoisan-derived elements as an emblem for marking a separate identity, as they were not only maintained, but extended to native structures as well.

Across Bantu, several polysemic markers expressing progressive aspect and so-called predication focus have been reported (Güldemann 2003; Hyman and Watters 1984). In this article, we examine two such markers in Kikongo (Bantu, H16), i.e. the fronted-infinitive and the locative-infinitive constructions. We provide an in-depth synchronic description of the pragmatic and syntactic behaviour of both verbal constructions and suggest a historical evolution for each of them. We evoke the term ‘event-centrality’ to cover the different uses of both constructions and suggest that the fronted-infinitive construction’s progressive meaning evolved from its use as predication focus marker, and vice versa, that the locative-infinitive construction’s predication focus meaning evolved from its use as a progressive marker.

The main object of research described in this paper is Rangi, a scarcely investigated Bantu language of Northern Central Tanzania. Rangi phonology and morphonology are briefly sketched, including a classification with regard to both Vowel Height Harmony and Advanced Tongue Root activity. The main body of the paper consists of a detailed description of Rangi derivational processes, which follows the pattern established in Maganga and Schadeberg's description of Nyamwezi, a closely related language. Both verbal derivation, which exclusively uses the extensional slot of the verb structure, and nominal derivation, which employs noun class prefixes and a few suffixes, are covered.

The vowel harmony systems of the Bantu A.60 languages of Cameroon provide an extraordinary wealth of uncommon properties not yet exploited by linguistic theory. In this paper, the author focuses on one variant of the Yambasa cluster, Gunu A.62a, as described by Ambadian [1990, 1991], Orwig [1989], Quilis et al [1990], and Robinson [1979, 1983]. An analysis of long-distance ATR and rounding harmonies in Gunu is presented in terms of the privative features ATR, Front, Round, and Open. Both the featural representations and their "direct mapping" onto outputs account for the derivational opacity as well as transparency of front vowels to Round harmony.

The paradigm of tense and aspect contrasts in Ruhaya, an eastern Bantu language, shows considerable regularity, indication of an ordered system of contrasts. The examination of what appear to be anomalies in the system of contrasts leads to a refinement in the analysis: to the recognition of a tense system that is organised in two stages, based on a model proposed by Gustave Guillaume. Aspectual contrasts are prioritized at the first stage, tense contrasts at the second. Compound forms, which are typically combinations of Stage 2 + Stage 1 (in that order), are complex representations that are marked for both tense and aspect.

This paper examines objects which are licensed by the applicative affix in the Bantu languages of Kindendeule and Kiswahili. The data show that all verbs can take the applicative suffix deriving transitive verbs from intransitive verbs, and ditransitive verbs from transitive verbs. The applied objects can be interpreted as beneficiary, maleficiary, goal, instrument, reason, motive, ingredient, location, or theme. Only the agent role cannot be licensed by the applicative suffix. On the basis of object order, object marking, passivization, reciprocalization and reflexivization, the objects are classified into: (a) the benefactive type, (b) instrumental type, and (c) locative type.

In this article the semantic evolution of the modal verb -sobol- in Luganda is examined through the analysis of a diachronic corpus spanning the last 120 years. It is shown that the usage frequency of this verb increased exponentially between the early 20th century and the present, and that its use as a lexical verb has dramatically decreased during the same time span. The corpus data furthermore substantiate that its modal uses have been extended from the exclusive expression of dynamic possibility until the 1960s to deontic possibility. Methodologically, this is the first full-scale article within the young field of Bantu corpus linguistics in which a corpus-driven study is performed on a diachronic corpus. The approach is not only shown to be feasible, but the encouraging results will hopefully entice colleagues working on the Bantu languages to undertake the building and analysis of such diachronic corpora for linguistic purposes.

In Chichewa (Bantu, Malawi), there are three differences in fundamental frequency (£0) between questions and statements: (a) questions have a fmal rise, while statements have a final fall, (b) questions do not display the strong downdrift trend found in statements, and (c) questions are produced in a higher pitch range than statements. A quantitative model is proposed that captures these generalizations through a dependency of the bottom of the current pitch range on the boundary tone. It is argued that such a model accounts for the distinction between question and statement better than a model in which pitch range distinctions are encoded in the phonological representation.

We examine the origin of labial-velar stops in Lingombe, a language from the northern Bantu borderland. Labial-velar stops are uncommon in Bantu. It is generally believed that they were acquired through contact with neighbouring non-Bantu speakers, in casu Ubangi languages. We show that the introduction of labial-velar stops in Lingombe is indeed a contact-induced change, but one which could not happen through superficial contact. It involved advanced bilingualism, whereby Ubangi speakers left a phonological substrate in the Bantu language to which they shifted. Once adopted, these loan phonemes underwent a further language-internal extension to native vocabulary, a process known as ‘hyperadaptation’. Both conventional sound symbolism and the deliberate attempt to differentiate the speech of one’s own social group were important for the further proliferation of labial-velar stops in Lingombe. This type of conscious analogical sound change is at odds with Neogrammarian principles of regular sound change.