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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.

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

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 article is the first in a trilogy that deals with corpus-driven Bantu lexicography, which is illustrated for Lusoga. The focus here is on the building of a so-called 'organic corpus' from scratch, while the next two instalments will deal with the use of that corpus on the macrostructural and microstructural levels, respectively. Not many detailed descriptions of corpusbuilding efforts exist for Bantu languages, so each and every step is discussed in detail, paying particular attention to the parameters that have to be taken into account, while not losing sight of the need to log the metadata either.

This article is the third instalment in a trilogy of studies that deal with corpus-driven Bantu lexicography as applied to Lusoga. Having dealt with corpus-building in Part 1, and macrostructural aspects in Part 2, we now focus on the microstructure of a dictionary and in particular on the concept of Mapping Meaning onto Use. The starting point is Patrick Hanks's book chapter by the same title, which we transpose to a study of the high-frequent motion verb -v- in Lusoga. Our detailed analysis is as much practical as it is methodological.

This article is the second in a trilogy that deals with corpus-driven Bantu lexicography, which is illustrated for Lusoga. The focus here is on the macrostructure and in particular on the building of a lemmatised frequency list directly within a dictionary-writing system. The programming code for the parts of the lemmatisation that may be automated is included as addenda. A second focus is on the embedded part-of-speech and alphabetical rulers, for which it is shown how these may be used to plan the actual compilation of the dictionary entries.

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.

This paper presents the results of a micro-variation project in which linguistic diversity of the Eastern Cape of South Africa is examined. It shows that regional variation in the Xhosa dialect cluster is minimal and that many older forms and sounds that have previously been reported on are no longer in use. With a specific focus on morpho-syntactic variation, the paper gives examples from a corpus of recorded, transcribed and glossed speech collected across the Eastern Cape. It is argued that spontaneous speech is crucial in analysing morpho-syntactic variation when it is on a fine, intralinguistic level. The paper gives a detailed overview of previous publications on the dialects of the area and relates this to current findings based on the recordings. It is shown that the presumed decline in dialectal differences is not paired with a decrease in linguistic identity which is connected to separate clans and kingdoms. The dwindling use of regional variables is explained by a longstanding situation of personal mobility, standardization and schooling. This paper contributes to our understanding of the linguistic complexities of the Nguni subgroup of Bantu languages. It concludes that any experienced differences between standard Xhosa and the language spoken at home is not due to regional variation, and that their causes should be sought elsewhere.

Abstract Background High salt intake increases blood pressure (BP) and hypertension risk. This study aimed to examine association of urinary sodium excretion with BP and hypertension correlates among Cameroonian pygmies under hunter-gatherer subsistence mode and Bantus, living in urban area under unhealthy behavioral habits. Methods In this cross-sectional cluster sampling study, we randomly enrolled rural pygmies living in Lolodorf and urban Bantus living in Douala. The World Health Organization steps questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic and lifestyle data. Height, weight, BP and single overnight spot urine samples were obtained in all participants. BP was measured in triplicate. Urinary sodium and potassium excretion was determined by flame photometry. Data were recorded and analyzed using SPSS 16.0. Results We included 150 Pygmies and 150 Bantus aged 38 ± 12 years and 33 ± 11 years, respectively (p

This paper contributes to the study of the structural distinctiveness of the category of ideophony. The author analyzes the extent to which Xhosa ideophones exhibit the so-called extra-systematic properties, which cross-linguistically tend to distinguish ideophones from other lexical classes. The analysis demonstrates that ideophones are relatively extra-systematic in Xhosa, although their extra-systematicity is not unitary. It is the largest in morphology, slightly less visible in phonology, and only residual in syntax. It is proposed that the distinct degrees of extrasystematicity are related to differences in grammaticalization and a gradual integration of ideophones into the Xhosa grammar - with the adjustment in syntax occurring faster than the morphological adaptation. In this paper - the second in a series of two articles - the author introduces evidence related to syntax, answers the research question, and explains the contributions of this research to the general theory of ideophony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper analyzes the system of laughter-based interjections (L-INTJs) in Xhosa. By drawing on corpus and fieldwork evidence, the author concludes the following: the systems of L-INTJs consists of five types of constructions built around the segments ha, he, ho, hi, and yha, the satellites te and ti, as well as a number of replicative templates. The pattern hVhVhV with a short vowel is the most productive. Other replicative patterns, patterns involving (extra-)long vowels and the pattern tVhV, are less productive. Overall, L-INTJs are the canonical members of the interjective category. The presence and range of uses of L-INTJs result from the interjectionalization of laughter-based onomatopoeias or the onomatopoeization of non-laughter-related interjections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge production in apartheid-era South Africa was a profoundly collaborative process. In particular, throughout the 1930s–1950s, the joint intellectual labor of both Africans and Europeans created a body of knowledge that codified and celebrated the notion of a distinct realm of Zulu religion. The intertwined careers of Swedish missionary to South Africa Bengt Sundkler and isiZulu-speaking Lutheran pastor-turned-ethnographer Titus Mthembu highlight the limitations of overly clear demarcations between "professional" versus "lay" anthropologists as well as between "colonial European" versus "indigenous African" knowledge. Mthembu and Sundkler's decades-long collaboration resulted in a book called Bantu Prophets in South Africa ([1948] 1961). The work is best understood as the joint output of both men, although Sundkler scarcely acknowledged Mthembu's role in the conceptualization, research, and writing of the book. In an era of racial segregation, the idea that African religion occupied a discrete, innately different sphere that the book advanced had significant political purchase. As one of a number of African ideologues supportive of the apartheid state, Mthembu mobilized his ethnographic findings to argue for innate racial difference and the virtues of "separate development" for South Africa's Zulu community. His mysterious death in 1960 points to the high stakes of ethnographic research in the politically fraught climate of apartheid South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a theoretically informed description of the expression of modality in Logoori (Luyia; Bantu). We document verbal and non-verbal modal expressions in Logoori, and show how these expressions fit into proposed typologies of modal systems (Kratzer, Angelika. 1981. The notional category of modality. In Hans-Jurgen Eikmeyer & Hannes Rieser (eds.), Words, worlds, and contexts: New approaches in word semantics, 38–74. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, Kratzer, Angelika. 1991. Modality. In Armin von Stechow & Dieter Wunderlich (eds.), Semantics: An international handbook of contemporary research, 639–650. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter; van der Auwera, Johan & Vladimir Plungian. 1998. Modality's semantic map. Linguistic Typology 2. 79–124. https://doi.org/10.1515/lity.1998.2.1.79; Nauze, Fabrice. 2008. Modality in typological perspective. Amsterdam: Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation PhD thesis). We show that Logoori's modal system raises some interesting questions regarding the typology and theoretical analysis of modality and its relationship to other kinds of meaning. Our study contributes to the nascent but growing research on modal systems cross linguistically by adding data from an understudied Bantu language. Kuloma sia linyalika na lidemadema, kya kulanganga "imiima" ("modality"), gavoleka mu Lulogooli. Lulogooli ni lulimi lwa ihiri ya avaluhya, na lumolomwa mu vivala vya imugwi wa Afrika. Ulusuma ilu lunduta kutula ku zisaabu na lilekanya lya uvuhandiki na uvwimiridzu vwa imiima. Kulangama sia livugirirana lya tsingulu ("force") na lifunya ("flavor") kutula ku Kratzer, Angelika. 1981. The notional category of modality. In Hans-Jurgen Eikmeyer & Hannes Rieser (eds.), Words, worlds, and contexts: New approaches in word semantics, 38–74. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, Kratzer, Angelika. 1991. Modality. In Armin von Stechow & Dieter Wunderlich (eds.), Semantics: An international handbook of contemporary research, 639–650. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter limannywa mu Lulogooli, na kuviika imiima djia Lulogooli mu vugeri vwa imiima djia tsinyimi tsya lilova. Misingi minene djia likaladasi yili ni: (a) Amang'ana gamannya imiima djia amakuva ga Lulogooli gamannya mativuli manyingi. Mala gaveye na luvera na imiima na khandi si gaveye navwo dave. Yagandi gavuula he, ni mativuli galiha gavoyong'ana na imiima gya amang'ana (henza Bowler na Gluckman. To appear. Gradability across grammatical domains. Linguistic Variation); na (b) imiima mu Lulogooli gyavukanya mugati mwa imiima msi mwa umundu ("participant-internal") na imiima ikyova wa mundu ("participant-external") sia Nauze, Fabrice. 2008. Modality in typological perspective. Amsterdam: Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation PhD thesis na Auwera, Johan & Vladimir Plungian. 1998. Modality's semantic map. Linguistic Typology 2. 79–124. https://doi.org/10.1515/lity.1998.2.1.79 vaahandika. Mu goosi ndio, likaladasi lyetu limeda ku igasi ineneha imannya imiima mu tsinyimi tsya Avaafrika (Kawalya, Deo, Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, & Koen Bostoen. 2019. A corpus-driven study of the expression of necessity in Luganda (Bantu JE15). Southern African Linguistics and Language Studies 37. 361–381). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Luganda (Bantu, Uganda), a sequence of vowels in successive syllables (V.V) is not allowed. If the first vowel is high, the two vowels are joined together in a diphthong (e.g., i + a ia). If the first vowel is non-high, it is deleted with compensatory lengthening of the second vowel in the sequence (e.g., e + a a). This paper presents an acoustic investigation of inter-word V#V sequences in Luganda. It was found that the vowel interval in V#V sequences is longer than that in V#C sequences. When the first vowel in V#V is non-high, the formant frequency of the outcome is determined by the second vowel in the sequence. When the first vowel is high, on the other hand, the sequence is realized as a diphthong, with the transition between the two formant patterns taking up most of the duration. The durational patterns within these diphthongs provide evidence against the transcription-based claim that these sequences are reorganized so that the length lies in the second vowel (/i#V/[jV]). The findings bring into question a canonical case of compensatory lengthening conditioned by glide formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the study of structural distinctiveness of the category of ideophony. The author analyzes the extent to which Xhosa ideophones exhibit the so-called extra-systematic properties, which cross-linguistically tend to distinguish ideophones from other lexical classes. The analysis demonstrates that ideophones are relatively extra-systematic in Xhosa, although their extra-systematicity is not unitary. It is the largest in morphology, slightly less visible in phonology, and only residual in syntax. It is proposed that the distinct degrees of extrasystematicity are related to differences in grammaticalization and a gradual integration of ideophones into the Xhosa grammar - with the adjustment in syntax occurring faster than the morphological adaptation. In this paper - the first in a series of two articles - the author deals with methodological issues and introduces evidence related to the phonology and morphology of ideophones in Xhosa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper analyzes the category of interjections in Xhosa within a prototype approach. The evidence demonstrates the robustness and internal complexity of the interjectional category. Interjections ranges from canonical and asystematic to non-canonical and (relatively) systematic, with emotive primary interjections entertaining the highest extent of interjectionality and asystematicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a descriptive analysis of an aspectual periphrasis in Xhosa (Bantu S41). The construction in question consists of a form of ya 'go' plus a verb in the subordinate imperfective paradigm. It is argued that this construction works at the level of actionality ("lexical aspect" or "aktionsart"), rather than constituting an aspectual operator sensu stricto. The overall actional profile of this verbal unit is that of a degree achievement (Dowty 1979) or directed activity (Croft 2012), i.e. a process of change along a property scale. This change is construed as involving a plurality of successive steps. The contribution of the lexical item and its arguments is that of a property scale and/or target state. Throughout the description remarkable semantic parallels to a structure-wise comparable construction in Spanish (Romance, Indoeuropean) are pointed out. These structural and semantic parallels have implications for an oft-mentioned grammaticalization path leading from a motion-based construction to a marker of progressive aspect (Heine and Kuteva 2002, among others). The description of the construction is complemented by a note on a frequent collocation with an instrumental infinitive of the same verb stem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North-Angolan Bantu language Kisikongo has a present tense (Ø-Rang- a; R=root) that is morphologically more marked than the future tense (Ø-R-a). We reconstruct how this typologically uncommon tense-marking feature came about by drawing on both historical and comparative evidence. Our diachronic corpus covers four centuries that can be subdivided in three periods, viz. (1) mid-17th, (2) late-19th/early-20th, and (3) late-20th/early-21st centuries. The comparative data stem from several present-day languages of the "Kikongo Language Cluster." We show that mid-17th century Kisikongo had three distinct constructions: Ø-R-a (with present progressive, habitual and generic meaning), Ø-R-ang-a (with present habitual meaning), and ku-R-a (with future meaning). By the end of the 19th century the last construction is no longer attested, and both present and future time reference are expressed by a segmentally identical construction, namely Ø- R-a. We argue that two seemingly independent but possibly interacting diachronic evolutions conspired towards such present-future isomorphism: (1) the semantic extension of an original present-tense construction from present to future leading to polysemy, and (2) the loss of the future prefix ku-, as part of a broader phenomenon of prefix reduction, inducing homonymy. To resolve the ambiguity, the Ø-R-ang-a construction evolved into the main present-tense construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differences in socioeconomic conditions and health have been reported for African Pygmies and their sympatric populations of other ethnic groups. We collected anthropometric data in southern Cameroon from Baka and their Bantu neighbours, and also extracted data from the five available and representative Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in sub-Saharan African countries that have Pygmy populations..Our results show that the Baka exhibited a weak but significant decline of body mass index (BMI) with age (p = 0.003) without a sex difference. At a larger geographical scale, all five DHS surveys revealed flat or negative slopes for Pygmy BMI with age. Except for one non-Pygmy ethnic group, the slope was less than for all DHS- surveyed non-Pygmy African ethnicities. Pygmy populations were the least wealthy in all surveys, but no pattern for anaemia levels versus BMI emerged. We argue that the declining or stagnant trajectory of Pygmy BMI over age is most concerning, since this sets them apart not only from all other ethnic groups in the region, but from the general trend of increasing body weight over age. We suggest that our results do not reflect the influence of ethnicity per se, but the fact Pygmy populations are socially and materially deprived groups. These findings are fully aligned with the extraordinary high premature death rate among the Baka and need to be addressed for sustainable development initiatives to be effectively implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the syntax of the phrase-final focus particles kuphela and qha 'only' in Zulu and Xhosa (Nguni; Bantu). We show that kuphela's and qha's associations with a focused constituent respect the complex topography of information structure in Nguni and, like English only, a surface c-command requirement. However, unlike English only, the Zulu and Xhosa particles typically follow the focus associate they c-command, a fact that poses a serious challenge for Kayne's (1994) antisymmetry theory. We demonstrate that the Nguni facts are incompatible with recent Linear Correspondence Axiom–inspired approaches to phrase-final particles in other languages and, after weighing the merits of several approaches, we conclude that kuphela is an adjunct and that syntax is only weakly antisymmetric: adjuncts are not subject to the LCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cuwabo (Bantu P34, Mozambique) illustrates a relativization strategy, also attested in some North-Western and Central Bantu languages, whose most salient characteristics are that: (a) the initial agreement slot of the verb form does not express agreement with the subject (as in independent clauses), but agreement with the head noun; (b) the initial agreement slot of the verb form does not express agreement in person and number-gender (or class), but only in number-gender; (c) when a noun phrase other than the subject is relativized, the noun phrase encoded as the subject in the corresponding independent clause occurs in post-verbal position and does not control any agreement mechanism. In this article, we show that, in spite of the similarity between the relative verb forms of Cuwabo and the corresponding independent verb forms, and the impossibility of isolating a morphological element analyzable as a participial formative, the relative verb forms of Cuwabo are participles, with the following two particularities: they exhibit full contextual orientation, and they assign a specific grammatical role to the initial subject, whose encoding in relative clauses coincides neither with that of subjects of independent verb forms, nor with that of adnominal possessors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

The paper describes three verbal reduplication paradoxes in Malawian Tonga, a southern Bantu language spoken in the northern part of Malawi. The reduplicant (RED) is either total or partial and is either prefixed or suffixed to the base. The problem of whether the relevant level of prosodic (reduplicative) stem analysis is the syllable or the mora and thus whether the minimal size of RED should be two syllables or two moras is considered. The paper argues that this language offers three possibilities for reduplication, namely partial prefixal reduplication, total suffixal reduplication, and partial suffixal reduplication. Thus, reduplication in the language is optionally prefixal or suffixal, although the latter appears to be the default. The paper also argues that the relevant unit of prosodic stem analysis is typically the syllable and that reduplicative prosodic stems, like the base stem, are therefore required to be minimally bisyllabic, as in many other Bantu languages.

This study investigates a low-frequency verbal inflection called the “narrative past” in child and child-directed speech in the Bantu language Sesotho. Since the function of the Sesotho narrative past is not well-described, this study aimed to illuminate both function and acquisition trends in the Demuth Sesotho Corpus (Demuth, 1992). The narrative past form has been assumed to be under-specified for tense, comparable in function to the better-known Swahili -ka- inflection. The Swahili form, in turn, has been said to function in “clause chains” that are functionally and structurally similar to such chains in Papuan and other languages. We expected that, if the Sesotho narrative past is indeed functionally similar to Swahili -ka-, its distribution in child-directed speech and acquisition by children may pattern similarly to tense-less verb forms in non-Bantu clause chaining languages such as the Papuan language Nungon, where such verb forms can comprise over 20% of all verb tokens in child-directed and child speech at age 3;3. This study thus examined the conversational interactions of four children acquiring Sesotho in a village setting, aged 2;1–4;7. All 492 tokens of the narrative past form were coded for syntactic and discourse categories. Results show that the Sesotho narrative past generally occurs in much “looser” discourse chains than the clause chains of languages like Nungon; for Sesotho, other turns or elements can intervene between narrative past-framed mentions of previously-introduced topics. Further, the Sesotho narrative past has very low frequency in both child and child-directed speech, representing

Many Bantu languages have the plural-honorific suffix *-Vni and the imperfective morpheme *-a(n)g-. In most of these languages, *-Vni is reported to be clearly encoded at POST-FINAL position. On the other hand, *-a(n)g- is said to be ambiguously encoded, either at EXT (extension) in one language or FV (final vowel) in another language. Still in others it coexists at both EXT and FV; there has also been a suggestion that it is encoded at POST-FINAL in several others. This article argues that the status of both the plural-honorific suffix -ani (*-Vni) and the imperfective -anga (*-a(n)g)- in CiTonga is fluid, it prevaricates between EXTENSION (suffix), FV (the commonest), and POST-FINAL (clitic). Although these formatives can be encoded at these positions, they are shown to be functionally different from extensions, inflectional vowel suffixes and clitics

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).

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.

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 Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) has been shown to both motivate certain tonological processes, as well as act as a constraint, blocking an otherwise productive process. In this paper, we describe and analyze the role of the OCP in Malawian CiTonga, an under-described Malawian Bantu language. We show that OCP violations involving High tones are sometimes repaired and sometimes not. When they are repaired, there is not a single repair strategy, but five possible ones, where the strategy employed depends on two crucial factors: 1) the morpho-syntactic domain containing the two High tones, and 2) whether the H autosegments in question are linked to a single TBU or multiple TBUs. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Ji-N’dembu fue un pueblo rebelde, de origen bantú y asentado al norte de Angola, que resistió heroicamente la penetración portuguesa. El presente artículo ofrece una caracterización de la vida de Ji-N’dembu en períodos previos a la llegada de los portugueses a la región, destacándose su organización política y militar estructurada acorde a las necesidades de su pueblo, y con denominaciones propiamente africanas. De igual suerte, se analiza la economía de Ji-N’dembu, sus principales producciones, así como el orden social reinante en la mayoría de los subgrupos, que se basa en el sistema patriarcal, aun cuando predomina la línea materna de parentesco.

This paper provides an analysis of the phenomenon commonly known as external possession in the Bantu languages. On the basis of comparative data, I argue for a prototype approach to the intricate problem of determining the conditions of use of such constructions, which I rename Concernee-Concern constructions, introducing two new terms for the thematic roles involved. Situations can be expressed by means of Concernee-Concern construction if they correspond to the prototypical situation that involves somebody's body part being affected by an action, or if they show a family resemblance to this situation. I argue against the relevance of alienability. The paper also provides a formal typology of Concernee-Concern constructions in the Bantu languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bantu languages employ a combination of simple and compound verb forms to encode tense-aspect-mood distinctions. Compound constructions typically involve an auxiliary form followed by an inflected main verb. However, the six East African Bantu languages under examination in this paper exhibit a word order in which the auxiliary appears after the verb. This order is typologically unusual for languages with SVO word order and comparatively unusual in the context of the Bantu languages. This paper presents a synchronic description of this word order and develops an account of its possible origins. It is proposed that the verb-auxiliary order originated from a verb-fronting construction which was used historically to convey predication focus. The account further corroborates the claim that the progressive aspect is an inherently focal category in Bantu and, from a wider perspective, shows the interplay between the encoding of information structure and tense-aspect information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lexical and phrasal dimensions of aspect and their interactions with morphosyntactic aspectual operators have proved difficult to model in Bantu languages. Bantu actional types do not map neatly onto commonly accepted categorizations of actionality, although these are frequently assumed to be universal and based on real-world event typologies. In this paper, we describe important characteristics and major actional distinctions attested across Bantu languages. These, we argue, include complex lexicalizations consisting of a coming-to-be phase, the ensuing state change, and the resultant state; sub-distinctions of coming-to-be phases, and other issues of phasal quality. Despite these fine-grained distinctions in phasal structure and quality, evidence for a principled distinction between activity- and accomplishment-like predicates is mixed. We review the current state of evidence for these characteristics of Bantu actionality and sketch methodological directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]