A grammar of Cuwabo (Mozambique, Bantu P34)

Cuwabo is a Bantu language, spoken by more than 800,000 people (INE 2007) in the north-eastern part of Mozambique. It is numbered P34 in Guthrie’s classification, and thus belongs to the P30 Makhuwa group. Cuwabo can be subdivided into five main varieties: central Cuwabo, Karungu, Mayindo, Nyaringa, and Manyawa. This work is based on central Cuwabo spoken in the district of Quelimane. First-hand data were recorded from 10 speakers in the course of three fieldtrips realised between 2011 and 2013, achieving a total duration of 10 months. This thesis provides a grammatical description of the language, covering in detail its phonology and its morphosyntax. Phonology is divided into two chapters: the first is devoted to segmental phonology whereas the second describes the tonal system of the language. Note that Cuwabo is the only P30 language whose nominal and verbal stems have retained a lexical tone contrast. Morphologically, the noun phrase is marked by a rich agreement system ruled by the noun classes, as typical in Bantu. Cuwabo has a highly agglutinative verbal morphology, which conveys a rich Tense-Aspect-Mood system combining both prefixes and final suffixes. Note the existence of several enclitics depending on the constructions (locative enclitics, personal pronoun enclitics in relative clauses, comitative or instrumental enclitics). The last three chapters address syntactic issues: the first presents a description of the basic clause structure, involving verbal and non-verbal predication; the second looks into the relative constructions in close interaction with question formation; the last one investigates word order and information structure in Cuwabo. Preverbal and postverbal constituents are examined, as well as their interaction with the morphological marking on the verb, distinguishing conjoint and disjoint tenses. The appendix contains seven Cuwabo texts glossed and translated into English, which allow to illustrate in context many of the grammatical items presented in the descriptive chapters

Patterns and developments in the marking of diminutives in Bantu

This paper presents an overview of diminutives in the Bantu language family, with an emphasis on the role of the noun class system in diminutive formation. It charts different processes of language change which have shaped the present-day situation, as well as highlighting instance in which language contact has played a role in the development of diminutive systems. It also addresses semantic and pragmatic processes underlying the change and variation in Bantu diminutives. The comparison is based on a cross-Bantu typology, examining a sample of 48 languages widespread across the linguistic domain

Variation in Bantu copula constructions

This chapter provides an overview of variation in Bantu non-verbal predication and copula constructions. These constructions exhibit a wide range of fine-grained micro-variation against a backdrop of broad typological similarity across the Bantu family. Variation is seen in the function of copulas, in their morphosyntactic properties, and with respect to the elements with which they combine. A key feature of Bantu copula constructions is the presence of several morphologically distinct copulas in many languages, often with different interpretations and restricted distribution. After surveying copulas found in Bantu, the chapter focuses on five languages—Mongo, Rangi, Digo, Swahili, and Cuwabo—and shows differences in complementation for the different copula forms, with tighter restrictions on locative, existential, and possessive interpretations across the sample, as compared to identificational and attributive interpretations. The data presented in the chapter are relevant for theoretical studies of copulas and the study of language change and language contact

Conditional constructions in Cuwabo

This paper provides a syntactico-semantic characterisation of conditional structures in Cuwabo, a Bantu language spoken in northern Mozambique. The different types of conditionals attested in the language are compared on the basis of several parameters such as semantic interpretation (including degrees of hypotheticality), morphological marking of conditionality, time reference, and interaction with the tense/aspect system

The locative system in Cuwabo and Makhuwa (P30 Bantu languages)

This article presents the locative morphosyntax of Cuwabo and Makhuwa (Bantu, North Mozambique), in a comparative perspective with a sample of other Bantu languages. The analysis is based on a number of parameters assessing the existence of the three historical locative affixes (classes 16 to 18) in both nominal and verbal morphology, the question of agreement in modified locative phrases, the existence of locative inversion constructions, the development of an expletive subject marker, etc. Through this comparative analysis, this paper has two main aims: first it provides evidence of morphosyntactic micro-variation among Cuwabo and Makhuwa, which are genetically related; second it shows how the two languages relate to the wider panorama of Bantu languages, by locating them along the continuum between typical locative systems (e.g. in Bemba, Kagulu) and reorganized locative systems (e.g. in Swati).Cet article présente le système locatif du cuwabo et du makhuwa (bantou, Mozambique du Nord), dans une perspective comparative et sur la base d’un échantillon de langues bantoues. Les analyses proposées sont fondées sur divers paramètres prenant notamment en compte l’existence des trois affixes locatifs historiques (classes 16 à 18) au sein de la morphologie nominale et verbale, la question des paradigmes d’accord commandés par les noms locatifs dans le syntagme nominal, l’existence de constructions locatives inversées, le développement d’une marque de sujet explétif, etc. Au travers de cette étude comparative, cet article répond à deux objectifs principaux : il met tout d’abord en évidence la micro-variation morphosyntaxique existant entre le cuwabo et le makhuwa, deux langues génétiquement apparentées ; par ailleurs, il montre comment ces deux langues s’inscrivent dans le cadre plus large des langues bantoues, notamment en les situant sur le continuum qui existe entre des systèmes locatifs typiques (p. ex. en bemba et en kagulu) et des systèmes locatifs restructurés (p. ex. en swati)

Enjeux de l’information territoriale locale ouverte et participative

Ce dossier est une invitation à explorer les enjeux de l’information territoriale locale ouverte et participative. Cette proposition s’appuie initialement sur des questions discutées lors de séminaires et d’ateliers animés par l’axe Information Territoriale Locale du Collège International des Sciences du Territoire (CIST). La création d’un axe propre à l’échelon local répond à la nécessité d’y voir plus clair dans les enjeux soulevés par la multiplication récente de données locales de natures..

Built-up structure criticality

The built-up land represents an important type of overall landscape. In this paper the built-up land structure in the largest cities in the Czech Republic and selected cities in the U.S.A. is analysed using the framework of statistical physics. We calculate the variance of the built-up area and the number variance of built-up landed plots in discs. In both cases the variance as a function of a disc radius follows a power law. The obtained values of power law exponents are comparable through different cities. The study is based on cadastral data from the Czech Republic and building footprints from GIS data in the U.S.A.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure

Morphosyntactic variation in Bantu: Focus on East Africa

Recent studies have developed a systematic approach to morphosyntactic variation among Bantu languages, taking well-known and widely attested construction types as a starting point and sketching their distribution across the family. One such approach, Guérois et al. (2017), utilises 142 morphosyntactic parameters or features, across a sample of some 50 Bantu languages (Marten et al. 2018). The present paper builds on this work and focusses on 10 parameters of variation where there is a significant difference between the values for East African Bantu languages and non-East African Bantu languages of the sample. The parameters relate to areas such as noun class morphology, agreement, and word order and so cover a wide range of morphosyntactic structures. The paper shows that the differences overall can be used for an initial characterisation of East Africa as a morphosyntactic area, with its own specific language change and language contact dynamics