Noun classes in bantu languages pdf download

Bantu online resources, jacky maniacky, 7 july 2007, including list of bantu noun classes with reconstructed protobantu prefixes in french ehrets compilation of classifications by klieman, bastin, himself, and others pp 20409, ucla. Linguistic ties between ancient egyptian and bantu. Tanzanian newspapers newspapers in bantu languages on the web. Classes 56 for objects that come in pairs or larger groups. One of the identifying characteristics of bantu languages is a system of noun classes. Click download or read online button to get the niger congo languages book now. Sharmans work is the first of its kind in showing that many of the seemingly hardtopronounce names and words in ancient egyptian have survived in. Just as gender accord is required in many indoeuropean languages e. A look at the grassfields borderland blasius achiritaboh university of buea, cameroon abstract as is well known, bantu nouns typically consist of a stem each with an overt or covert prefix arranged in classes of singular and plural pairs called genders. Classes 34 for plants, trees and natural phenomena. Originally, bantu languages had over 20 noun categories. Bantu languages are usually divided into west and east bantu. The niger congo languages download ebook pdf, epub, tuebl, mobi. Starting from the monosyllabic, isolating tonal languages of the guinea coast as typical, meinhof disregards, or is unaware of, the numerous languages of the sudanese.

Swahili is one of many hundreds of languages in the bantu language family. For example, proto bantu class 10 contains plurals of class 9 nouns and class 11 nouns, while class 6 contains plurals of class 5 nouns and class 15 nouns. Classes 110 and 12 were paired, the first member of the pair was for singular nouns, the second for plural nouns. The bantu attribute noun class prefixes and their suffixal.

Bantu definition, a member of any of several peoples forming a linguistically and in some respects culturally interrelated family in central and southern africa. The class 2 noun basemane boys governs the subject concord ba in the verb ba ka bala they may read 1, as well as the class prefix ba in the adjective bagolo big 2, and the demonstrative pronoun ba, preceding the adjective 3. Title accounting for the morphophonological alternations. First, in many languages whenever a speaker produces a noun for a basiclevel object, he or she must also produce another element, typically called a classifer, that provides a more general level. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the attributive noun classes, as well as their suffixal counterparts, firstly in bantu, and secondly in zulu.

These languages are spoken in the equatorial forest, modern zambia and southwest africa. Noun classes are similar in concept to grammatical gender in many european languages, as the noun class determines how other words are inflected in concordance with the. This work is based on central cuwabo spoken in the district of quelimane. Swahili nouns are, like those in other bantu languages, noted for a system of semantically based classing, which affects not only nouns but also their modifiers adjectives, numbers, demonstratives and verbs. Download the niger congo languages or read online books in pdf, epub, tuebl, and mobi format. The definition of the bantu cornes from a variety of sources, most. The system used in this book was devised by carl meinhof in his study of a. Middle passage bantu languages slang black english africanamerican vernacular english play the dozens. East bantu comprises languages of zones e, f, j, n, p and s.

Bantu noun classes and the system of grammatical agreement the noun class systems presented in table 1. The concept of noun classes is similar, except while romance languages have 23 genders. What is a noun class sil glossary of linguistic terms. Studies in african linguistics 157 semantic reality of. The nouns are divided in classes and numbered from 1 to 24, without 20, 21, 22, and 23 meeussen, 1967. It is numbered p34 in guthries classification, and thus belongs to the p30 makhuwa group. In the northern caucasian languages noun classes can express the category of number and may be found in nouns and words with which they agree. This shift explains aspects of changes in the siswati locative system.

A noun class system is a grammatical system that some languages use to overtly categorize nouns. Noun classes article about noun classes by the free. A comparison of approaches to word class tagging in this sentence, three structural relationships can be identified. Pluralizing nouns across agglutinating bantu languages acl. Each class is given a number corresponding to the same equivalent class in other bantu languages. In changana, each noun things, animals, abstracts etc. Although noun classes are not easy to grasp they reveal the beauty and depth of the language like nothing else. The references are sorted into familiar subgroupings of nigercongo. Bantu languages are hypothesized to have descended from one mother language, proto bantu. Classes 6 and 10 are inherited as polyplural classes by most surviving bantu languages, but many languages have developed new polyplural classes that are not widely shared by other languages. All nouns comprise a stem and one of a set of singular and plural.

Each word must end in a vowel though in some mod ern dialects in eastern equatorial, west and south africa the ter minal vowel may be elided in rapid pronunciation, or be dropped, or absorbed in the terminal. Meeussens protobantu reconstructions can be downloaded from following. However, there are languages, like semitic, slavic or bantu languages, that have nn without having an indefinite article. Noun class systems are universal and almost always marked by prefixes, occasionally by suffixes. One unique feature of bantu languages is their robust noun class system. In many atlantic languages the initial consonant of the noun takes alternates according to the noun class prefix with which it occurs. To keep it simple, i have divided them into 9 groups. African languages and linguistics n2 soas research online.

Abstract cuwabo is a bantu language, spoken by more than 800,000 people ine 2007 in the northeastern part of mozambique. The internal classification of the bantu languages is problematic, but by and large the bantu languages can be subdivided in an eastern, a western and a northwestern group. See swahili for the semantic motivations for an elaborate nounclass system. Intensive chichewa pdf files a 1969 grammar published by likuni press of malawi distributed for noncommercial use only. The classification of african languages by joseph h. Other readers will always be interested in your opinion of the books youve read. There are over 20 noun classes, although most languages use fewer nurse and. This is emblematic for all bantu languages that have between 10 and 23 noun classes, depending on the language.

Introduction verb stems in bantu languages may include a number of derivational suffixes called extensions that express various functions, such as causative, applicative, reciprocal or passive. New developments in the classification of bantu languages. Sesotho sa leboa english online northern sotho english dictionary pukuntsu ya sesotho sa leboa seisimane. Thanks to the recently released book by fergus sharman, linguistic ties between ancient egyptian and bantu.

All nouns are assigned to a noun class, where the number of noun classes varies between 12 and 20. Pdf this article presents a comparative study of noun class, gender, and lexiconsyntaxmorphology. The investigation will be done with reference to aspects such as the following. Zulu, for example, has nine pairs of singular and plural prefixes. The name of the family of languages was coined by wilhelm bleek in 1857 in his manuscript entitled zulu legends, since it is a word in a large portion of these languages meaning people abantu a.

These classes have been designated in various ways. Classes 6 and 10 are inherited as polyplural classes by most. Depending on how one counts, there are between 300 and 600 bantu languages, spoken in an area south of a line between cameroon in the west and kenya in the east. English to xhosa translation page a website that translated words and phrases to and from xhosa by martha r.

As the source of bantu languages is generally argued to be in southwest adamawa, new data on bantu and related languages is important to the. Is lemon su cient for building multilingual ontologies for. This can be seen in the noun class system of sesotho, presented in table 2. Bantu noun class systems in comparative and diachronic perspective scholars of bantu languages have long posited a common proto bantu pb source from which modernday bantu languages have evolved. In these languages, nn seem to occur as terms without numelements, the semantics of nonplural numeral nps implying that of an article. A comparative analysis of runyankorerukiga and luganda. You are probably familiar with the femininemasculine gender system in romance languages. Agreement is a well studied phenomenon in bantu languages. Gkeenberg 0 f the more recent attempts at the classification of african languages which followed the pioneer period of lepsius, muller, and cust, the one which has gained widest currency in this country, and therefore the one which. Whether youve loved the book or not, if you give your honest and detailed thoughts then people will find new books that are right for them. Dec 18, 2018 zulu nouns, like nouns in other bantu languages, are divided into noun classes. These noun prefixes have, for ease of analysis, been divided into classes with numbers by historical bantu linguists and represent an internationally accepted numbering system. Bantu words in american english montclair state university. Nouns in bantu languages are made up of a prefix followed by a noun stem.

Noun classes article about noun classes by the free dictionary. In the hypothetically reconstructed bantu parent language there are 23 noun classes. The noun class system classifies nouns into a number of noun classes, as signalled by prefixal morphemes also known as noun prefixes. This paper investigates whether lemon can be used to model these characteristics to create multilingual ontologies with bantu languages terms. Uncovering symbiotic affinities and relationships in vocabulary, my interest has peaked. An analysis of noun classes in tikar, a benuecongo language spoken in west central cameroon, looks at patterns in the noun class system, concord system possessives, demonstratives, demonstrative adjectives, demonstrative pronouns, thirdperson pronouns, relative pronouns, copula, adjectivals, and numerals with an eye to determining whether tikar is a bantoid language or not. Congobrazzaville national languages online dictionary, bantu web site. The reflexes of the proto bantu noun class prefixes of the form mu,mi, and ma are compared in 84 bantu languages. African linguistics, bantu languages, tanzania, kwere, noun class, nominal class.

New developments in the classification of bantu languages and. Postverbal subject in the nzadi relative clause larry m. Greenberg the classification of african languages 25 hamitic, nonsemitic languages north of the bantu line. Isizulu course work in the department of african languages at the university of pretoria by linkie mohlala supervisor. A note on bantu extensions and syntactic word formation jochen zeller, university of kwazulunatal, durban. Pdf noun classes in sari, a beboid language wide bantu. I chose manjaku rather than the bantu languages usually adduced when it comes to noun. Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, or visit the webmasters page for free fun content. Pdf nigercongo noun class studies free download pdf. This site is like a library, use search box in the widget to get ebook that you want. Guthrie, the classification of the bantu languages 1948, repr. Hyman abstract this paper addresses a curious condition on nonsubject relative clauses nsrcs in nzadi, a previously unstudied b.

The system of noun classes is probably the characteristic most widely found in nigercongo languages and best known to those interested in language phenomena. Protobantu class 17 noun prefix ku, but rather the reflex of kudi ou est lit. Most words in a bantu sentence are marked by a prefix indicating the category to which. Gender, in esahie, number, as a syntactic feature, triggers agreement. One of the hallmark features of bantu languages 1 is a noun class system, a phenomenon in which singular and plural nouns are assigned to different noun classes, which then participate in a complex system of agreement or concord. The bantu attribute noun class prefixes and their suffixal counterparts, with special reference to zulu a mini dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree magister artium. Acquisition of noun class systems in related bantu languages, in children. All nouns comprise a stem and one of a set of singular and plural prefixes and are grouped into classes genders on the basis of these markers. This book presents a very educative and very helpful meaning in everyday life. Cuwabo is a bantu language, spoken by more than 800,000 people ine 2007 in the northeastern part of mozambique. Bantu languages definition bantu languages are a subset of nigercongo languages mostly spoken in the center and south part of africa english oxford living dictionary, n. Bantu language article about bantu language by the free. Most bantu languages exhibit 15 or 16 noun classes, normally arranged into at least ten singularplural or individuatednonindividuated pairings some noun. Reading a noun classes in the grassfields bantu borderland book is very important to learn a new language, because foreign languages use foreign words to help them speak and write.

The various bantu languages have different numbers of noun classes. Bantu languages root, prefix, prefixes, vowel and language. The general issue on representing lexical information. A polyplural noun class is a plural class for more than one singular class. A note on bantu extensions and syntactic word formation. The niger congo languages download ebook pdf, epub. Bantu words in american english terms you should know for week 11 part 02 are. Boun classes in fefe in bantu languages the noun class membership of a specific noun is. The main characteristic of changana are the noun classes which are common for all bantu languages.

Noun classes are similar in concept to grammatical gender in many european languages, as the noun class determines how other words are inflected in concordance with the noun. Bantu noun class systems in comparative and diachronic perspective scholars of bantu languages have long posited a common protobantu pb source from which modernday bantu languages have evolved. The reflexes of the protobantu noun class prefixes of the form mu,mi, and ma are compared in 84 bantu languages. Pdf noun class, gender, and the lexiconsyntaxmorphology. Bantu language noun classes form a basis for agreement marking. Zulu nouns, like nouns in other bantu languages, are divided into noun classes. Introduction studies of the noun in bantu languages have traditionally concentrated on the morphology of the noun with its elaborate class. In languages without inflectional noun classes, nouns may still be extensively. Although there are known principles for agreement in bantu languages, each language has a somewhat unique behavior that form restrictions to applying these principles.

Bantu languages may have as many as 21 different noun classes, though some have significantly fewer maho, 1999, katamba, 2003. Question 3 structural overview of the african languages 31 up to 23 noun classes can be distingmshed for the bantu languages, some classes being productive and others nonproductive. Introduction studies of the noun in bantu languages have traditionally concentrated on the morphology of the noun with its elaborate class system and the underlying semantic strands. West bantu includes zones h, j, k, l, r, parts of d and usually m. Though the extent to which the system operates varies greatly, it is nonetheless found in some form in languages. Thus it is highly instructive to consider the status of bamileke noun classes. It is probably the origin of rap and has its own origin in the.