What Kind of Language Is Swahili?*
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Verbal Extensions in Bantoid Languages and Their Relation to Bantu
VERBAL EXTENSIONS IN BANTOID LANGUAGES AND THEIR RELATION TO BANTU Roger Blench Paper prepared for circulation at the Conference on: Reconstructing Proto-Bantu Grammar University of Ghent, 19-23rd November, 2018 DRAFT ONLY: NOT TO BE QUOTED WITHOUT PERMISSION Roger Blench McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research University of Cambridge Correspondence to: 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/ Ans (00-44)-(0)1223-560687 Mobile worldwide (00-44)-(0)7847-495590 E-mail [email protected] http://www.rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm Cambridge, 08 November 2018 Verbal extensions in Bantoid languages Roger Blench Draft TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction................................................................................................................................................. 1 2. The genetic classification of Bantoid ......................................................................................................... 2 2.1 Bantoid vs. Bantu.................................................................................................................................... 2 2.2 Bantoid within [East] Benue-Congo ....................................................................................................... 3 2.3 The membership of Bantoid.................................................................................................................... 4 3. Bantoid verbal extensions.......................................................................................................................... -
Trilingual Codeswitching in Kenya – Evidence from Ekegusii, Kiswahili, English and Sheng
Trilingual Codeswitching in Kenya – Evidence from Ekegusii, Kiswahili, English and Sheng Dissertation zur Erlangung der Würde des Doktors der Philosophie der Universität Hamburg vorgelegt von Nathan Oyori Ogechi aus Kenia Hamburg 2002 ii 1. Gutachterin: Prof. Dr. Mechthild Reh 2. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Ludwig Gerhardt Datum der Disputation: 15. November 2002 iii Acknowledgement I am indebted to many people for their support and encouragement. It is not possible to mention all by name. However, it would be remiss of me not to name some of them because their support was too conspicuous. I am bereft of words with which to thank my supervisor Prof. Dr. Mechthild Reh for accepting to supervise my research and her selflessness that enabled me secure further funding at the expiry of my one-year scholarship. Her thoroughness and meticulous supervision kept me on toes. I am also indebted to Prof. Dr. Ludwig Gerhardt for reading my error-ridden draft. I appreciate the support I received from everybody at the Afrika-Abteilung, Universität Hamburg, namely Dr. Roland Kießling, Theda Schumann, Dr. Jutta Becher, Christiane Simon, Christine Pawlitzky and the institute librarian, Frau Carmen Geisenheyner. Professors Myers-Scotton, Kamwangamalu, Clyne and Auer generously sent me reading materials whenever I needed them. Thank you Dr. Irmi Hanak at Afrikanistik, Vienna, Ndugu Abdulatif Abdalla of Leipzig and Bi. Sauda Samson of Hamburg. I thank the DAAD for initially funding my stay in Deutschland. Professors Miehe and Khamis of Bayreuth must be thanked for their selfless support. I appreciate the kind support I received from the Akademisches Auslandsamt, University of Hamburg. -
Cover Page the Handle Holds Various Files of This Leiden University Dissertation. Author: Lima
Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/85723 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation. Author: Lima Santiago J. de Title: Zoonímia Histórico-comparativa: Denominações dos antílopes em bantu Issue Date: 2020-02-26 729 ANEXO 1: TABELA RECAPITULATIVA DAS PROTOFORMAS Nas protoformas provenientes do BLR (2003) e nas reconstruções de outros autores (majoritariamente, Mouguiama & Hombert, 2006), as classes nominais em negrito e sublinhadas, são sugestões da autora da tese. Significados Reconstruções Propostas Propostas do BLR e de de correções (De Lima outros autores Santiago) *-bʊ́dʊ́kʊ́ °-bʊ́dʊ́gʊ́ (cl. 9/10, 12/13) °-cénda (cl. 12/13) Philantomba °-cótɩ́ monticola (cl. 12/13) *-kùengà > °-kùèngà (cl. 11/5, 7/8) °°-cécɩ/ °°-cétɩ (cl. 9/10, 12/13) *-pàmbı ́ °-pàmbɩ́ (cl. 9/10) °-dòbò Cephalophus (cl. 3+9/4, nigrifrons 5/6) *-pùmbɩ̀dɩ̀ °-pùmbèèdɩ̀ (cl. 9/10, 9/6) 730 Significados Reconstruções Propostas Propostas do BLR e de de correções (De Lima outros autores Santiago) *-jʊ́mbɩ̀ (cl. 9/10, 3/4) °°-cʊ́mbɩ (cl. 9/10, 5/6, 7/8, 11/10) *-jìbʊ̀ °-tʊ́ndʊ́ Cephalophus (cl. 9/10) (cl. 9/10) silvicultor °°-bɩ́mbà °-bɩ̀mbà (cl. 9/10) °-kʊtɩ (cl. 9, 3) *-kʊ́dʊ̀pà/ °-bɩ́ndɩ́ *-kúdùpà (cl. 9/10, 7/8, (cl. 9/10) 3, 12/13) Cephalophus dorsalis °°-cíbʊ̀ °-pòmbɩ̀ (cl. 7/8) (cl. 9/10) °°-cʊmɩ >°-cʊmɩ́ °-gindà (cl. 9) Cephalophus (cl. 3/4) callipygus °°-cábè >°-cábà (cl. 9/10, 7/8) °°-bɩ̀jɩ̀ (cl. 9) 731 Significados Reconstruções Propostas Propostas do BLR e de de correções (De Lima outros autores Santiago) *-bengeda >°-bèngédè °-cégé (cl.9/10) (cl. 9/10) °°-àngàdà >°-jàngàdà Cephalophus (cl. -
Swahili and the Dilemma of Ugandan Language Policy*
ASIAN AND AFRICAN STUDIES, 5, 1996, 2, 158170 SWAHILI AND THE DILEMMA OF UGANDAN LANGUAGE POLICY* Viera PAWLIKOVÁ-VILHANOVÁ Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia The language situation in East Africa is characterized by the widespread use of Swahili. While both in Tanzania and Kenya Swahili has been systematically promoted in all spheres of everyday life, Uganda has lacked a coherent government policy on language development and the position of Swahili in Uganda has always been very ambiguous. The continued vacil- lation over language policy and the Luganda/Swahili opposition threatening to carve the country into two major camps of language choice which is characteristic of the Ugandan lan- guage situation suggests that the language issue is not likely to be solved in the near future. Africa probably has the most complex and varied language situation in the world. It is a well known fact that the national boundaries of African countries drawn arbitrarily by the colonial powers at conferences in Europe during the time of the imperial partition of the African continent, pay little regard to the historical, cultural and linguistic affinity of the Africans. Few African states are known for their linguistic homogeneity.1 Given a very complex language situa- tion in Africa south of the Sahara with African languages co-existing and com- peting with European languages as well as with various lingua francas, Pidgins and Creoles, multilinguism and hence multilingualism is a feature of most Afri- can countries and it seems that it will remain the norm for a long time to come. -
Learning Swahili Morphology, with Fidele Mpiranya. 2018
Learning Swahili morphology John Goldsmith and Fidèle Mpiranya July 23, 2018 1 Introduction In this paper we would like to explain some of the things that we have learned from a project on the learning of morphology. “Learning of morphology” in this context means using an algorithm which takes a large amount of text from a language, and draws conclusions about what are the roots, affixes, and principles of word construction (from roots and affixes) in this particular language. The crucial fact to bear in mind is that the algorithm is to have no prior knowledge of the language that we give to it. If the language is English or is Swahili, the learning algorithm starts from the same point; any differences that it draws between the two derive entirely from the data, and not from anything that we have given to the algorithm. That sounds like a tall order, and in some ways it is. But we can offer the following as motivation for this work. When we teach an introductory course on linguistics, we always reserve the second class on morphology for an experiment. We begin by putting a word on the board: ninasema, but we do not tell them this is from Swahili. We ask if anyone knows what it means or what language it comes from; if someone does know, we tell them to be quiet for the rest of the class. Then we ask everyone else to divide it into morphemes. There is silence, of course, because the students think they have no idea what the right answer is. -
The Geomorphology of Southeast Kenya
THE GEOMORPHOLOGY OF SOUTHEAST KENYA A. P. Oosterom STELLINGEN 1. Bij de vorming van de uitgestrekte planatievlakken in Oost-Kenia heeft marine en lacustrine abrasie een belangrijke rol gespeeld. Dit proefschrift. 2. De schaarste aan fossielen van hominiden in Oost-Afrika over de periode van ongeveer 500 000 tot 50 000 jaar BP is schijnbaar. 3. Voor de toepassing van geografische informatiesystemen op bedrijfsniveau in reliefrijke gebieden is het essentieel om programmatuur te ontwikkelen die identificatie van de geologische en geomorfologische positie van een gekozen punt mogelijk maakt. 4. De klink van het Basis- en het Hollandveen is er medeverantwoordelijk voor dat er in Nederland geen aanwijzingen worden gevonden voor hoge holocene zeestanden. 5. De geringschatting van het belang van onderwijs en onderzoek in de geologie en geomorfologie aan de Landbouwuniversiteit te Wageningen is een uiting van onwetenschappelijk doe-het-zelf-denken. 6. Zolang de programmatuur voor het opnemen, opslaan en opvragen van kaarteringsgegevens minder flexibel is dan een veldboekje staat het gebruik van handterminals en veldcomputers vernieuwing in de weg. 7. De betrouwbaarheidsgrens van 25 000 jaar voor de datering van organische carbqnaten met behulp van de 14C-methode is te hoog.. Dit proefschrift. 8. Het woord automatisering wekt onjuiste verwachtingen als het gaat om de invoering en het gebruik van computers. 9. Kerkelijke liedboeken behoren losbladig te zijn. 10. De stelligheid waarmee waarheden worden verdedigd is eerder een maat voor onkunde dan voor inzicht. Stellingen behorende bij het proefschrift: The Geomorphology of Southeast Kenya. A.P. Oosterom Wageningen, 20 april 1988 THE GEOMORPHOLOGY OF SOUTHEAST KENYA Promotoren: Dr. -
Non-Situational Functions of Demonstrative Noun Phrases in Lingala (Bantu)
Pragmatics 22:1.147-166 (2012) International Pragmatics Association NON-SITUATIONAL FUNCTIONS OF DEMONSTRATIVE NOUN PHRASES IN LINGALA (BANTU) Michael Meeuwis and Koen Stroeken Abstract This paper examines the non-situational (i.e., non-exophoric) pragmatic functions of the three adnominal demonstratives, óyo, wâná, and yangó in the Bantu language Lingala. An examination of natural language corpora reveals that, although native-speaker intuitions sanction the use of óyo as an anaphor in demonstrative NPs, this demonstrative is hardly ever used in that role. It also reveals that wâná, which has both situational and discourse-referential capacities, is used more frequently than the exclusively anaphoric demonstrative yangó. It is explained that wâná appears in a wide range of non-coreferential expression types, in coreferential expression types involving low-salience referents, and in coreferential expression types that both involve highly salient referents and include the speaker’s desire to signal a shift in the mental representation of the referent towards a pejorative reading. The use of yangó, on the other hand, is only licensed in cases of coreferentiality involving highly salient referents and implying continuation of the same mental representation of the referent. A specific section is devoted to charting the possible grammaticalization paths followed by the demonstratives. Conclusions are drawn for pragmatic theory formation in terms of the relation between form (yangó vs. wâná) and function (coreferentiality vs. non-coreferentiality). Keywords: Demonstratives; Anaphora; Deixis; Bantu languages; Grammaticalization. 1. Introduction1 Lingala, a Bantu language spoken in Central Africa and classified under Bantu zone C, has three demonstratives, óyo, wâná, and yangó (Meeuwis 2010, in press).2 Like other 1 This article is based on talks delivered at “Bantu 3: Third International Conference on Bantu Languages” (March 2009, Tervuren, Belgium) and the “5th Łódź Symposium: New Developments in Linguistic Pragmatics” (May 2010, Łódź, Poland). -
Classification of the Languages of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea on the Basis of Lexicostatistics and Mutual Intelligibility
African Study Monographs, 28(4): 181-204, December 2007 181 CLASSIFICATION OF THE LANGUAGES OF CAMEROON AND EQUATORIAL GUINEA ON THE BASIS OF LEXICOSTATISTICS AND MUTUAL INTELLIGIBILITY S. Beban Chumbow University of Yaounde I Gratien G. Atindogbe University of Buea Engelbert Domche University of Dschang Dieudonne Martin Luther Bot University of Douala ABSTRACT This work clusters genetically related speech forms in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, and determines to which speech forms within these clusters are sufficiently and mutually intelligible to be grouped together in order to ease harmonization and standardization. The analysis of the linguistic situation in the two countries revealed that while clustering the speech forms on the basis of genetic relations via lexicostatistics has been quite fruitful, clustering on the basis of mutual intelligibility of at least 85% does not seem to significantly reduce the number of speech forms. Intelligibility surveys and testing have not been carried out in many of the clusters. However, it is important to continue the exercise in order to ascertain the exact situation. Key Words: Cameroon; Equatorial Guinea; Classification; Lexicostatistics; Genetic relation; mutual intelligibility. INTRODUCTION This work is carried out within the context of the project on “Harmonization and Standardization of African Languages” initiated by the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS), Cape Town, South Africa. The overall objective of the CASAS research project is “to cluster African speech forms into sets which display an 85% level of intercomprehension” as a first step to the development, based on the economics of scale, of large literate communi- ties. More specifically, CASAS is of the view that given evidence of a high level of mutual intelligibility between several speech forms, it should be possi- ble to harmonize the standardization of those languages, i.e. -
The International Status of Kiswahili: the Parameters of Braj Kachru's
The International Status of Kiswahili: The Parameters of Braj Kachru’s Model of World Englishes by Patrick Lugwiri Okombo, MA [email protected] Nairobi, Kenya & Edwin Muna, MA [email protected] Nairobi, Kenya Abstract This paper critically examines the status of Kiswahili as an international language within the parameters of Braj Kachru’s sociolinguistic construct – “Model of World Englishes”, that works to analyze how sociolinguistic histories, multicultural backgrounds and contexts of function influence the use of English in different regions of the world. In our view, such a model yields fairly objective results. Thus, the results of this paper are that Kiswahili perfectly meets the standards of an international language within Braj Kachru’s model, albeit with few disparities. The paper concludes that Kiswahili’s growth into an international language is clearly taking the trends taken by English as examined by Kachru. Hence, the findings reinforce Kiswahili’s geo- political significance as it recommends the creation of conditions that would encourage its spread and influence in the world. Key words: Kiswahili, international language, world Englishes, native speaker 55 Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol.10, no.7, September 2017 Introduction Kiswahili is an indigenous African language whose origin, according to many researchers, is the coast of Eastern Africa. Traditionally, it was regarded as the language of the coastal communities of Kenya and Tanzania. It remained the language of the people of East African coast for a long time. It is argued that the early visitors and traders, such as the Arabs and Persians who came to the East African coast, used to speak with the natives in Kiswahili. -
The Emergence of Tense in Early Bantu
The Emergence of Tense in Early Bantu Derek Nurse Memorial University of Newfoundland “One can speculate that the perfective versus imperfective distinction was, historically, the fundamental distinction in the language, and that a complex tense system is in process of being superimposed on this basic aspectual distinction … there are many signs that the tense system is still evolving.” (Parker 1991: 185, talking of the Grassfields language Mundani). 1. Introduction 1.1. Purpose Examination of a set of non-Bantu Niger-Congo languages shows that most are aspect-prominent languages, that is, they either do not encode tense —the majority case— or, as the quotation indicates, there is reason to think that some have added tense to an original aspectual base. Comparative consideration of tense-aspect categories and morphology suggests that early and Proto-Niger-Congo were aspect-prominent. In contrast, all Bantu languages today encode both aspect and tense. The conclusion therefore is that, along with but independently of a few other Niger-Congo families, Bantu innovated tense at an early point in its development. While it has been known for some time that individual aspects turn into tenses, and not vice versa, it is being proposed here is that a whole aspect- based system added tense distinctions and become a tense-aspect system. 1.2. Definitions Readers will be familiar with the concept of tense. I follow Comrie’s (1985: 9) by now well known definition of tense: “Tense is grammaticalised expression of location in time”. That is, it is an inflectional category that locates a situation (action, state, event, process) relative to some other point in time, to a deictic centre. -
Morphological and Phonological Structure in Zulu Reduplication
University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2013 Morphological and Phonological Structure in Zulu Reduplication Toni Cook University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Cook, Toni, "Morphological and Phonological Structure in Zulu Reduplication" (2013). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 745. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/745 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/745 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Morphological and Phonological Structure in Zulu Reduplication Abstract This dissertation provides an account of Zulu reduplication within the derivational framework of Distributed Morphology (DM). New Zulu data challenge the idea of reified domains like the D(erivational)- Stem and Macrostem as relevant constituents for reduplication (Downing 1997, Hyman, Inkelas, and Sibanda 2009). Instead, a crucial distinction is made between morphemes that fall within the scope of reduplication, and those that are outside of it. Reduplication is assumed to be an operation that copies segmental material to a bare disyllabic template, and only has indirect access to morphosyntactic structure through phonological operations. I claim that reduplication can take place as soon as the RED morpheme undergoes Vocabulary Insertion and Linearization, or at a later point in the derivation. Chapter 1 introduces the material, and chapter 2 presents an argument that the variation between the default Bantu verbal final vowel -a and the vowel from an extension suffix iselated r to the presence of two v heads in the structure. I show that the variation in the final owelv is absent with lexicalized causatives. -
Chapter 6 Third Person Pronouns in Grassfields Bantu Larry M
Chapter 6 Third person pronouns in Grassfields Bantu Larry M. Hyman University of California, Berkeley “In linguistic theory, the 3rd person has had bad luck.” (Pozdniakov n.d.: 5) In this paper I have two goals. First, I propose a reconstruction of the pronoun system of Grassfields Bantu, direct reflexes of which are found in Eastern Grass- fields, with a close look at the pronoun systems, as reflected across thisvaried group. Second, I document and seek the origin of innovative third person pro- nouns in Western Grassfields. While EGB languages have basic pronouns inall persons, both the Momo and Ring subgroups of WGB have innovated new third person (non-subject) pronouns from demonstratives or perhaps the noun ‘body’. However, these languages show evidence of the original third person pronouns which have been restricted to a logophoric function. I end with a comparison of the Grassfields pronouns with nearby Bantoid and Northwest Bantu languages as well as Proto-Bantu. 1 The problem While Eastern Grassfields Bantu, like Narrow Bantu, has an old and consistent paradigm of pronouns, Western Grassfields Bantu has innovated new third per- son forms, often keeping the original forms as logophoric pronouns. The major questions I address in this chapter are: (i) Where do these new third person pro- nouns come from? (ii) Why were they innovated? (iii) What is the relation, if any, Larry M. Hyman. Third person pronouns in Grassfields Bantu. In JohnR. Watters (ed.), East Benue-Congo: Nouns, pronouns, and verbs, 199–221. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1314329 Larry M. Hyman to logophoricity? In the following sections I first briefly introduce the subgroup- ing of Grassfields Bantu that I will be assuming, then successively treat thirdper- son pronouns in the different subgroups: Eastern Grassfields, Ring Grassfields, and Momo Grassfields.