Reduction in remoteness distinctions and reconfiguration in the Bemba past tense

Bantu languages are well-known for having multiple remoteness distinctions in both the past and the future. This paper looks at the 4-way remoteness distinction of Bemba (central Bantu) showing that the system is undergoing change that is resulting in the loss of an intermediate past tense, by merger with the remote past. Two factors are central in driving this change; a merger of forms by tone loss and neutralisation and a shift in the scope of semantic function. Because the Bemba tense-aspect system manifests the so-called conjoint-disjoint alternation, there is also some reconfiguration of the TA system that accompanies the merger. The different factors involved in this change are unified under a cognitive multi-dimensional approach to tense, which is here extended to account for language change in tense systems

Phonemic Split in Nen (A44)—A Case of Tonal Conditioning of Glottalic Proto-Bantu Consonants

This article is published with the permission of the author

Towards a Typology of DIE Verbs in African Languages

This paper constitutes an essay in comparative lexical semantics and typology, comparing DIE verbs in nine African languages: Arabic, Tigrinya, Hausa, Dinka, Maa, Chindali, Kinyarwanda, Yoruba, and Akan. Cross-linguistically, DIE verbs, although referring to the same human event, differ in their aspectual structure. Primary DIE verbs, representative of Vendler's class of achievement verbs, provide not only an interesting case study of a single lexical verb, but also an excellent exemplar of the class type. The author proposes that the four types of DIE verbs identified also constitute the potential range of all achievement verbs

The Historical Relation of Cigogo to Zone J Languages

This article is published with the permission of the Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.Cigogo, a Bantu language of Tanzania, is classified as G11 in the system developed by M. Guthrie. Since then other authors – Heine (1972), Hinnebusch (1973), Nurse and Philippson (1980), Ehret (1984) – have supported a close relationship between Cigogo and the eastern or southern Bantu languages. These analyses, however, are inconclusive (Hinnebusch 1980). According to phonological, morphological and lexical evidence, I propose that Cigogo is better considered to be related to the languages of the southern J zone, that is to say, to J22-23 languages. These facts suggest, moreover, that there exists a link between Cigogo and J61 and J22-23 languages. They indicate that the zone F languages arrived later