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Bantu languages: Difference between revisions
From Chalo Chatu, Zambia online encyclopedia
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The most prominent grammatical characteristic of Bantu languages is the extensive use of affixes (see Sotho grammar and Ganda noun classes for detailed discussions of these affixes). Each noun belongs to a class, and each language may have several numbered classes, somewhat like grammatical gender in European languages. The class is indicated by a prefix that is part of the noun, as well as agreement markers on verb and qualificative roots connected with the noun. Plural is indicated by a change of class, with a resulting change of prefix. | The most prominent grammatical characteristic of Bantu languages is the extensive use of affixes (see Sotho grammar and Ganda noun classes for detailed discussions of these affixes). Each noun belongs to a class, and each language may have several numbered classes, somewhat like grammatical gender in European languages. The class is indicated by a prefix that is part of the noun, as well as agreement markers on verb and qualificative roots connected with the noun. Plural is indicated by a change of class, with a resulting change of prefix. | ||
The verb has a number of prefixes, though in the western languages these are often treated as independent words.<ref>Derek Nurse, 2008. ''Tense and aspect in Bantu'', p 70 (fn). In many of the Zone A, including Mbam, the verbs are clearly analytic.</ref> In Swahili, for example, ''Mtoto mdogo amekisoma'' (also ''Kamwana kadoko karikuverenga'' in Shona language) means 'The small child has read it [a book]'. ''Mtoto'' 'child' governs the adjective prefix ''m-'' and the verb subject prefix ''a-''. Then comes perfect tense ''-me-'' and an object marker ''-ki-'' agreeing with implicit ''kitabu'' 'book' (from Arabic ''kitab''). Pluralizing to 'children' gives ''Watoto wadogo wamekisoma'' (''Vana vadoko vakaverenga'' in Shona), and pluralizing to 'books' (''vitabu'') gives ''Watoto wadogo wamevisoma''. | |||
Bantu words are typically made up of open syllables of the type CV (consonant-vowel) with most languages having syllables exclusively of this type. The Bushong language recorded by Vansina, however, has final consonants,<ref>Vansina, J. ''Esquisse de Grammaire Bushong''. Commission de Linguistique Africaine, Tervuren, Belgique, 1959.</ref> while slurring of the final syllable (though written) is reported as common among the Tonga of Malawi.<ref>Turner, Rev. Wm. Y., ''Tumbuka–Tonga$1–$2 $3ictionEnglish Dictionary'' Hetherwick Press, Blantyre, Malawi 1952. pages i–ii.</ref> The morphological shape of Bantu words is typically CV, VCV, CVCV, VCVCV, etc.; that is, any combination of CV (with possibly a V- syllable at the start). In other words, a strong claim for this language family is that almost all words end in a vowel, precisely because closed syllables (CVC) are not permissible in most of the documented languages, as far as is understood. | |||
This tendency to avoid consonant clusters in some positions is important when words are imported from English or other non-Bantu languages. An example from [[Chewa language|Chewa]]: the word "school", borrowed from English, and then transformed to fit the sound patterns of this language, is ''sukulu''. That is, ''sk-'' has been broken up by inserting an epenthetic ''-u-''; ''-u'' has also been added at the end of the word. Another example is ''buledi'' for "bread". Similar effects are seen in loanwords for other non-African CV languages like Japanese. However, a clustering of sounds at the beginning of a syllable can be readily observed in such languages as Shona,<ref>Doke, Clement M., ''A Comparative Study in Shona Phonetics'' University of Witwatersrand, Johannesberg, 1931.</ref> and the Makua languages.<ref>''Relatório do I Seminário sobre a Padronização da Ortografia de Línguas Moçambicanas'' NELIMO, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane. 1989.</ref> | |||
===Reduplication=== | |||
Reduplication is a common morphological phenomenon in Bantu languages and is usually used to indicate frequency or intensity of the action signalled by the (unreduplicated) verb stem.<ref>Abdulaziz Lodhi, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20090325021837/http://www.african.gu.se/aa/pdfs/aa02004.pdf Verbal extensions in Bantu (the case of Swahili and Nyamwezi)]". ''Africa & Asia,'' 2002, 2:4–26, Göteborg University</ref> | |||
*Example: in Swahili ''piga'' means "strike", ''pigapiga'' means "strike repeatedly". | |||
Well-known words and names that have reduplication include | |||
*Bafana Bafana, a football team | |||
*[[Zambia national football team|Chipolopolo]], a football team | |||
Repetition emphasizes the repeated word in the context that it is used. For instance, "Mwenda pole hajikwai," while, "Pole pole ndio mwendo," has two to emphasize the consistency of slowness of the pace. The meaning of the former in translation is, "He who goes slowly doesn't trip," and that of the latter is, "A slow but steady pace wins the race." Haraka haraka would mean hurrying just for the sake of hurrying, reckless hurry, as in "Njoo! Haraka haraka" [come here! Hurry, hurry]. | |||
In contrast, there are some words in some of the languages in which reduplication has the opposite meaning. It usually denotes short durations, and or lower intensity of the action and also means a few repetitions or a little bit more. | |||
*Example 1: In Xitsonga and Shona, ''famba'' means "walk" while ''famba-famba'' means "walk around". | |||
*Example 2: in isiZulu and SiSwati ''hamba'' means "go", ''hambahamba'' means "go a little bit, but not much". | |||
*Example 3: in both of the above languages ''shaya'' means "strike", ''shayashaya'' means "strike a few more times lightly, but not heavy strikes and not too many times". | |||
*Example 4: In Xitsonga, ''hasahasa'' means "chaos". ''Hasa'' does not have a meaning. | |||
*Example 5: In Shona ''kwenya'' means "scratch", ''Kwenyakwenya'' means "scratch excessively or a lot". | |||
