Linguistics Department

Permanent URI for this community

https://hdl.handle.net/1911/21841

Browse

Browsing Linguistics Department by Subject "Bantu"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Homorganic NC sequences in Kibena: Pre-nasalized consonants, consonant clusters, or something else?
    (Rice University, 2009-02-11) Morrison, Michelle; Linguistics Department
    In Bantu linguistics, one topic of great debate concerns the segmental status of homorganic NC sequences. Traditionally, on the basis of durational properties, the phonological behavior of such segments, and native speaker syllabification, such sequences are considered to be prenasalized consonants. More recently Downing (2005) has taken the opposite position, arguing instead that NC sequences in Bantu languages should be treated as clusters. In this paper I present an analysis of NC sequences in Kibena, a Bantu language spoken in southern Tanzania. I consider acoustic duration, syllable structure, distribution, and native speaker intuitions about syllabification and conclude that these sequences are best treated as single segments in Kibena, rather than as a series of two distinct segments.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Negation in Metta
    (Rice University, 2009) Mihas, Elena; Linguistics Department
    Recent typological studies of clausal negation not only focus on the basic standard negation strategies that languages use to negate declarative verbal main clauses but also discuss typology of asymmetric negation in declaratives. Asymmetric negatives may have changes in the form of the lexical verb, tense and aspect marking or other clausal modifications while symmetric negatives differ from the affirmatives only due to the addition of (a) negative marker(s). Here it is shown that asymmetric negatives in Metta (Narrow Grassfields Bantu), similar to a majority of other languages, include modifications of the perfective forms; symmetric negative constructions are prevalent, another cross-linguistically common phenomenon in negation. This paper supports findings of cross-linguistic studies on negation by showing that Metta extends its standard negation strategy to other environments such as subordinate, existential, locative, possessive, and non-verbal clauses but uses non-standard negation strategy in imperatives.