Download MORPHOLOGY SKETCH OF CHICHEWA”

Musanganya, Philbert
The University of Western Ontario
Department of French Studies
PhD Program (linguistics), 1st year
Academic year 2009-2010
ASSIGNMENT: “MORPHOLOGY SKETCH OF CHICHEWA”
Course: Morphology 9640a
Lecturer: Prof. Chet Creider
Tuesday, November 17th 2009
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I. GENERAL REMARKS
Chichewa is an African language which belongs to the Niger-Kordofanian language family,
Benue-Congo branch in Bantu group. It is located in Zone N with N 31 index (Guthrie’s Bantu languages
classification). This language is spoken in central- east and southern Africa in four countries: in Malawi,
Chichewa is the national language; in Zambia, it is the second most used local language after ChiBemba. In Zimbabwe, it is recorded third local most used language after Shona and Ndebele. There are
also some Chichewa speakers in Mozambique. Except in Malawi, the other speaking area of Chichewa
calls it Chinyanja. In literature, both names are used to name the same language entity. Sometimes, they
are even combined: Chichewa/Chinyanja (Mchombo, 2004: 1-2).
The only way to make verb derivation with prefix is to use the reflexive pronoun to make
pronominal verbs. When this is possible, the reflexive is the nearest prefix to the stem. This and some
other aspects of Chichewa are left behind. The verbal inflection is far complex and requires more
attention to examine how it works. To be short, Chichewa is prominently an initial inflection language.
Underlyingly, Chichewa class morphemes swim to have law tone but some are high toned in realization.
In this paper though, data are taken as they are without any critical thinking on that point.
This short text presents other prominent morphological features. In section two, the general
feature of Bantu languages is outlined. Section three is far bigger than others. It discusses Chichewa
morphology (both derivation and inflection). Data and most of ideas developed are from Mchombo
(2004) and Watkins (1937). Some pieces of thoughts come from my background as speaker of two
Bantu languages (Kiswahili and Kinyarwanda) and I had courses on/in them. In the gloss, the following
short forms are used: CL = class; PC=Pronoun Classier; POSS = possessive; SM = Subject maker and
OM = Object Maker. In the examples, low tone is not marked.
II. GENERAL FEATURES
Chichewa is very close to the general patterns of Bantu languages. The former are said to share
major features in common. They all group nouns into various classes –a short form of “nominal classes”
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or “classes of agreement” depending on the focus made (on noun morphology or grammatical general
features of the language) -. Beside a particular numbering system of classes initialized by Bleek (in the
second part of 19 century) which is now taken as standard, there are still difficulties to clarify whether
class morphemes are meaningful or purely formal. They participate in both processes but their formal
use is prominent and most plausible than the semantic contribution. As Watkins writes, “certain of the
noun classes are more formal than semantic in application” (Watkins, 1937:19).
Another issue related to Bantu classes is that those languages do not have all numbered classes.
Chichewa, for example, has 17 classes in possible 24(?) and, in proto-Bantu 18 first classes, it lacks
class 11 reconstructed as du-. Also full of meaning is the fact that Bantu languages agreement system
rimes with classes. Noun modifiers agree with the head noun. That is to say, two nouns can have the
same singular noun prefix but affixing different morphemes in plural or in the agreement with other
categories (data and discursion in (16).
The verbal morphology has an elaborate agglutinative nature: it may contain syntactic
information like negation, arguments, tense, aspect, modals and such alike. The word order is
determined in part by information structure. In general, Bantu languages have two tones with complex
tone spreading and tone interaction. In this group then, toneless languages, Kiswahili being the most
cited in literature, are seen as exception to the rule.
The verbal structure of Chichewa is typical of Bantu verb. Its root accepts many suffixes (also
named “extensions” if they do not add a special meaning to the base). The root and suffixes form the
verb stem. At least in great lakes, eastern and southern Bantu languages, a prefix ku- and a final vowel –
a affixed to the verb stem fulfill the infinitive feature. Extensions affect the argument structure denoted
in the verb. Morphonologically speaking, verbal stem manifests aspects of vowel harmony.
III. CHICHEWA MORPHOLOGY
Chichewa has two types of nominal stem: purely nominal stems and a “double face” stem which can
form both verb and noun stems -see example in (11) and comments before it-. A noun from a pure noun
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stem consists of a stem itself and a noun prefix. An illustration of this is given in (1-2). In (1), a. chi‘singular and b. zi- stands for plural. In (2) a. m- is ‘singular’, (2) b. mi- ‘plural’.
(1)
a.
chi- soti
CL 7
b.
zi - soti
hat
CL 8
‘hat’
(2)
a.
m-
hat
‘hats’
kóndo
b.
mi- kóndo
CL 3 spear
CL 4 spear
‘spear’
‘spears’
Data in (3) show agreement. Noun modifiers agree with class feature of the head noun chisoti
‘hat’ in (3) a. and mkondo ‘spear’ in (3) b. : chi- marks the agreement with the former and u- with the
later. Phonetically, i in chi is elided when followed by a vowel, and u is replaced by the glide w in a
similar environment :
(3)
a. Chi- soti chi -ángá chi- áCL 7 hat
tsópanó chi- ja chí- ma -sangaláts-á
7PC me PC 7 POSS now
a-lenje
PC 7 that 7SM HAB please fv CL2 hunter
‘That new hat of mine pleases hunters’
b. M-kóndó u -ángá u- á -tsópanó
CL3-spear
u-a- já
u-ma-sangaláts-á a-lenje.
PC3-my PC3-POSS-now PC 3-that
3SM-HAB-please-fv CL2-hunter
‘That new spear of mine pleases hunters.’
As well as those in (1-2), data in (4) show number inflection in noun morphology. Words on the
left are singular and those on the right hand are plural :
(4)
a.
m-
nyamaáta
CL 1
boy
‘boy’
a-
nyamaáta
CL 2
boy
‘boys’
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m-
lenje
a-
lenje
CL1
hunter
CL2
hunter
‘hunter’
‘hunters’
m-
kázi
a-
kázi
CL 1
woman
CL 2
woman
‘woman’
b.
‘women’
m-
kóndo
mi-
CL3
spear
CL4
‘spear’
spear
‘spears’
m-
kángo
mi-
kángo
CL3
lion
CL3
lion
‘lion’
c.
kóndo
ø-
‘lions’
tsamba
ma- samba
CL5 leaf
CL6 leaf
‘leaf’
‘leaves’
ø- duwa
ma-
CL5 flower
CL6
luwa
‘flower’
‘flowers’
ø- phanga
ma-panga
CL5 cave
Cl6 cave
‘cave’
‘caves’
flower
In (4) c., there is no prefix in singular (CL 5) but it is provided in plural. This is the case in
Kiswahili CL 5 too. For some nouns of this class, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi have an initial vowel, called
augment, prefixed to the class affix. Some researchers say it functions as noun class prefix. The debate is
still open to know how operate nouns in class 5 in Bantu languages.
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Though not always true, CL 1and 2 denote people and animate things. They even do not have the
same morphemes within some languages. That’s why some Bantu languages have an a particular CL 1 a.
Chichewa is among the later. Class 1a. in Chichewa groups nouns whose agreement patterns are those of
CL 1 but lack the m(u) prefix. Their plural is indicated by prefixing a- to the word (5). In tales, formal
CL 2a. bears no plural connotation. It holds a personification meaning when used with a common noun
denoting animal, whereas it stands for name when used in normal life and refers to respect when
prefixed to people’s name :
(5)
a. ø- kalúlu
b. a-kalúlu
CL1a. hare
CL2a, PL
‘hare’
‘hares’/ Mr. Hare
Examined in terms of the whole system of agreement, CL markers of the same class may vary
depending on the syntactic category of the modifier. In (6) illustration is made with CL1:
(6)
M-
lenje
m-
módzi
CL1
hunter
PC1 one
a-
na-
SM1 PST
bwél- á ndí
mí-kóndo.
come fv with CL4-spears
‘One hunter came with spears.’
The Noun stem –lenje ‘hunter’ and the numeral stem -módzi ‘one’ are marked with m- on one hand; on
the other hand the verb –bwel- ‘come’ takes a- to agree with the subject –lenje ‘hunter’.
Possessives also comprise a stem to which a pronoun marker is prefixed. An example is shown in (7).
The glide w replaces u when a vowel follows, regardless of the function associated with that vowel:
(7) M-lenje u-á-nú
CL1 hunter
PC1 POSS
u-
ja
u-
you PC1 that
á
n-thábwala u-
a- thyol-a
mi- kóndo
PC1. POSS CL9/10 humor SM 1 PERF break fv CL4 spear
‘That humorous hunter of yours has broken the spears.’
In (8) a further prefix added to an already prefixed noun marks diminution: ka- ‘diminutive,
singular’ and ti- ‘diminutive, plural’ added to nouns convey the sense of diminutive size and then
control agreement (in Kinyarwanda and Kirundi, class morphemes are mutual exclusive).
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(8) Ka- m- lenje
k-á- nú
ka-ja
ka- á-
n- thábwala
ka-
a- thyol-a
ti-mi- kóndo.
CL 12 CL1 hunter CL12 PC- POSS you CL12 that CL12 POSS CL9/10 humor SM12 PERF break-fv
CL13 CL 4 spear
‘That small humorous hunter of yours has broken the tiny spears.’
As illustrated in (9) a.- c., Chichewa locatives are class markers and control agreement patterns:
(9)
a. Ku
mu- dzi
ku- á- ánu ku-
LOC17 (at) CL3 village PC 17 you
ma- sangaláts-á aleéndo
SM17 HAB please
fv CL2 visitors
‘Your village (i.e. the location) pleases visitors.’
b. N- jóoka
CL9 snake
i-
a-
gón-
á
SM 9 PERF sleep
pa
fv
m-
kéka.
lOC 16 (on) CL4 mat
‘A snake is sleeping on the mat.’
c. Pa
LOC 16 (on)
m-
kéka
pa- a-
gon -´a
n-jóoka.
CL4
mat
SM 16 PERF sleep FV 9 snake
‘On the mat is sleeping a snake.’
However, as indicated in (10), locatives may be used as derivational affixes: pa-, ku-, and muare bound to stems -nsi, -nja, and -no :
(10)
a. Pa-nsi
b.
CL16 down
‘down’
d.
pa-no
CL16 here
‘here (at this spot)’
e.
pa-nja
c. ku- nsi
CL16 outside
CL 17 down
‘outside of a place’
‘underneath’
ku-nja
CL 17 outside
f. ku-no
CL17 here
g. mu-no
CL18 here
‘(the general) outside’ ‘here (hereabouts)’ ‘in here.’
Contrary to purely nominal stems, nouns like m-lenje ‘hunter’ and a-leendo ‘visitors’ have three
morphemes: prefix, stem and final vowel. They share stem with verbs. It may act as verbal or nominal: –
leénd- means ‘visitor’; (to) visit’. In (11), affixes specify its contextual meaning:
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(11) a
-leend- o
CL2 visit
‘visitors’
Nominal ending
CL 9/10 nouns begin with a nasal. Nothing in their morphological composition indicates the
number. This one is reflected in the agreement markers: Examples of CL 9/10 are given in (12):
(12) n-yuúmba ‘house(s)’ ; n-thenga ‘feather(s)’; m-phíini ‘tattoo(s)’ ; n-khóondo ‘war.’
CL 15 ku- consists of infinitive verbs. It constitutes a separate class with minor exceptions. In
(13) the agreement with the infinitive marker ku- is exemplified:
(13)
Ku- ímb- á
ku-
CL15 sing fv
a
-anú
15PC POSS you
kú- ma-
sangaláts -á a-lenje.
SM 15HAB
please
fv
CL2-hunters
‘Your singing pleases hunters.’
The infinitive morpheme is in mutual exclusion with a combination of a subject and a
tense/aspect maker –see examples in (8) [ka- (SUBJ) a- (PERF) thyol-a] ‘(he/she/it) has broken’ and in (9)
[ku- (SUBJ)ma- (HAB) sangaláts- á ‘it (a place) pleases’. The final vowel is meaningful in three
morphemes nouns and helps to make the difference with the verb. On verbal morphology, it helps to
distinguish a subjunctive/imperative form from the indicative. It even denotes aspects in Kinyarwanda
and Kirundi. But the real meaning of the final vowel in noun morphology is still a mater of discussion.
In derivation, a Chichewa verb can perform different operations with suffixes: applicative,
causative, passive, causative applicative, causative applicative passive… The suffixes are in fixed order :
(14)
a. ku- tylol- a
b. ku- tylol-
CL15 break- FV
CL15 break applicative
‘ break’
c. ku- tylol- esh-
a
FV
‘ break for’
a
CL15 break- causative FV
‘ make break’
el-
d. ku- tylol- tse-
el- a
CL15break- causative applicative FV
‘ get something breaken for someone’
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e. ku-
tylol-
CL15
break
(o )etscausative
el-el(d)-
w-
a
applicative passive FV
‘ have something broken for one by’
CONCLUSION
The core content of this paper is an outline of some morphological features of Chichewa. As in
other Bantu languages, Chichewa is organized in a system of agreement classes. Two famous scholars
write about this that: “the basis for this classification of nouns is an issue that still awaits a definitive
response” (Mchombo, 2004: 6). The noun prefixes indicate number, with certain exceptions, and together with the
agreement constitute morphological systems which divide the nouns into several ‘classes’ or ‘class genders’. They are also
employed derivationally, forming words with new meanings (Watkins, 1937:21). In sum, prefix change goes with
meaning. This is made clear with data in (15):
(15) a. m-chéwa, CL1: ‘a Chewa person’
(15) b. a-chéwa, CL 2: ‘chewa people’
(15) c. u-chewa, CL 14 : ‘the Chewa country’ ; (15) d. Chi-chéwa, CL 7: ‘Chewa language’
Many nouns are identical in noun prefixes or in lack of noun prefixes but require different
concord systems. As shown in (16) a. and (16) b., the word tóngo, have the same form but different
classes and there for different meaning. On contrary, in (16) c. and (16) d. the nouns have the same
system of agreement whereas in (16) e. the noun which on first look is similar to (16) c-d singular forms,
has the same agreement system as (16) a.:
(16)
a. tóngo ‘ball-s of porridge’ (CL 9/10)
b. tóngo (CL 5- ‘singular’); matóngo (CL 6- ‘plural’) : ‘pus secreted by the eyes’,
c. bwáto, cl 5 ‘canoe, singular’; mabwáto, CL 6 (canoes Class)
d. bwézi, CL 5- ‘singular, mabwézi, CL 6- ‘plural’ : ‘formal friend’
e. mímba CL 9/10 'belly/bellies'
Watkins explains the importance of taking into account the whole system of agreement when
dealing with Bantu classes: The frequent lack of noun prefixes in Chichewa must be well remembered when speaking
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of noun systems (…) we cannot regard the prefix, nor its absence, as the sole or primary determinant of a noun class. It is
rather the whole system of concordances, which (…) may or may not include such affixes that must be taken as the
fundamental basis of classification. This systematization is conventional and largely, though perhaps not entirely, arbitrary,
as are other types of classification (Watkins, 1937; 22-23).
REFERENCES
Mchombo, Sam. 2004. Chichewa syntax. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Watkins, Mark Hanna. 1937. A grammar of Chichewa: a Bantu language of British Central Africa.
Language 13 (2), Language Dissertation (24): 5-158
Annex: Noun classes in Chichewa
class
Prefix
SG
PL
SG
1
2
3
PL
Subj.
Obj.
Maker
Maker
SG
PL
SG
m(u)- a-
a-
a-
m(u) wa
4
m(u)- mi-
u-
i-
u
i
5
6
*li-
ma- li-
a-
li
wa
7
8
chi-
zi-
zi-
chi
zi
9
10
*N-
*N- i-
Zi-
i-
Zi-
12
13
ka-
ti-
ti-
ka
ti
14
6
u-
ma- u
a
u
wa
chi-
ka-
15
ku-
ku
ku
16
pa-
pa
pa
17
ku-
ku
ku
18
m(u)-
m(u)
m(u)
PL
10