The Phonology and Morphosyntax of Kol

by

Bonnie Jean Henson

B.A. (Seattle Pacific University) 1994

M.A. (University of California, Berkeley) 2001

A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the

requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

in

Linguistics

in the

Graduate Division

of the

University of California, Berkeley

Committee in Charge:

Professor Larry M. Hyman, Chair

Professor Sharon Inkelas
Professor Lynn Nichols
Professor Johanna Nichols

Spring 2007

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 The Phonology and Morphosyntax of Kol

© 2007

by Bonnie Jean Henson

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 Abstract

The Phonology and Morphosyntax of Kol

by

Bonnie Jean Henson

Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics

University of California, Berkeley

Professor Larry M. Hyman, Chair

The Maka-Njem [A. 80] languages of Cameroon are still very understudied

compared to the better known Bantu languages. Many variants are

endangered by virtue of their contact with both French, the language of

education and government, and more prestigious neighboring languages. In

this study, I describe one such language, Kol [A.832], focusing on its

phonology, morphology and basic syntax. In addition, Kol is compared to

neighboring (and closely related languages) and the historical development of

Kol is explored by examining sound correspondences with reconstructed

Proto-Bantu words and grammatical structures. In the course of the

description, it is shown that Kol has important consequences not only for our

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 understanding of Bantu descriptive and historical linguistics but also for

certain grammatical issues in general linguistic theory. An appendix includes

texts and a Kol-English lexicon.

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 Acknowledgem ents.................................................................................................xx

Abstract........................................................................................................................1

1 Introduction........................................................................................................... 3

1 Background Information................................................................................. 5

1.1 The Language..............................................................................................5

1.2 The people and their culture.................................................................... 8

2 Previous Research.......................................................................................... 12

3 Methodology of Current S tudy .................................................................... 13

4 Organization of current study...................................................................... 15

2 Phonology.............................................................................................................19

1 Phonemic Inventory....................................................................................... 19

1.1 Synchronic V ariation.............................................................................. 22

2 Syllable structure and Phonotactics............................................................24

2.1 Phonotactics..............................................................................................25

2.1.1 Consonants....................................................................................... 25

2.1.1.1 O nsets......................................................................................... 25

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 2.1.1.2 Codas.......................................................................................... 27

2.1.2 Vowels................................................................................................28

3 Ambiguous Segments......................................................................30

3.1 NC = Prenasalized Stop........................................................................... 30

3.2 Consonant + Glide (Cw / C y )...............................................................32

3.3 The High Central Vowel.......................................................................... 36

4 Phonological ru les........................................................................ 38

4.1 Avoiding Consonant Clusters................................................................38

4.2 Vowel h iatu s.............................................................................................39

4.2.1 Gliding................................................................................................40

4.2.1.1 Mid vowels become glides.......................................................40

4.2.1.2 Glide insertion...........................................................................41

4.2.2 Deletion............................................................................................. 41

4.3 Vowel Assimilation..................................................................................42

4.3.1 Vowel centralizing before nasals and alveolar fricatives.......... 42

4.3.1.1 Centralization of the back mid vow el....................................43

4.3.1.2 The front mid vow el.................................................................45

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 4.3.2 Front mid vowel raisin g .................................................................. 46

4.3.3 High vowel Rounding.......................................................................48

4.4 Phrase-finally...........................................................................................49

4.4.1.1 Devoicing....................................................................................50

4.4.1.2 Phrase-final tone lowering..................................................... 50

4.5 Tone R ules............................................................................................... 51

4.5.1 General tone association rules........................................................51

4.5.2 Downstep.......................................................................................... 53

4.5.3 Optional H tone absorption rule................................................... 54

4.5.3.1 Polar to n e ...................................................................................58

4.6 Lexical vs. postlexical phonology..........................................................59

3 Morphosyntax of the Noun P hrase................................................................ 60

1 Noun Classes.................................................................................................. 61

1.1 Classes 1 /2 ................................................................................................63

1.2 Classes 3 /4 ............................................................................................... 65

1.3 Classes 5 / 6 ........................................................................................ 67

1.4 Classes 7 /8 ............................................................................................... 73

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 1.5 Class 9 ........................................................................................................ 74

1.6 Class 10...................................................................................................... 76

2 Pronouns.......................................................................................................... 77

2.1 Subject Pronouns..................................................................................... 79

2.2 Object Pronouns....................................................................................... 82

2.3 Reflexive Pronouns.................................................................................. 83

2.4 Locative Pronoun..................................................................................... 84

3 Concord system s............................................................................................ 87

4 Modifiers..........................................................................................................89

4.1 Determiners............................................................................................... 90

4.2 Dem onstratives........................................................................................ 92

4.3 Another, A different One.........................................................................94

4.4 Genitives....................................................................................................95

4.5 Q uantifiers................................................................................................ 98

4.5.1 'Each, a ll'.......................................................................................... 98

4.5.1.1 Emphasis.....................................................................................99

4.5.2 N um erals........................................................................................ 100

iv

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 4.6 Interrogati ves........................................................................................ 102

4.7 Adjectives.............................................................................................. 104

4.7.1 Dimensions...................................................................................... 106

4.7.2 A ge................................................................................................... 108

4.7.3 V alue................................................................................................108

4.7.4 Physical property............................................................................109

4.7.5 Human propensity..........................................................................110

4.7.6 Quantification................................................................................. I l l

4.8 Other nouns (in AssociativePhrases)................................................. 112

4.8.1.1 Ordinal N um bers.................................................................... 116

5 Derivational morphology...................................................................... 117

5.1 Noun to Noun Derivation.....................................................................117

5.1.1 Diminutive.......................................................................................118

5.2 Deverbal Nouns.................................................................................... 118

5.2.1 Agentive nouns...............................................................................118

5.2.2 Result nouns................................................................................... 120

6 Word order within the noun p h rase ............................................................ 124

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 6.1 Multiple Postposed Modifiers..............................................................124

6.2 Relative Clauses.................................................................................... 125

6.2.1 Clefting Construction..................................................................... 129

6.2.2 Relative Clause Enclitic.................................................................130

4 Elements of the Verb P hrase......................................................................... 133

1 Verb Stem .....................................................................................................134

1.1 Extensions............................................................................................... 138

2 Tense, Aspect, and M ode........................................................................... 144

2.1 Tense........................................................................................................ 145

2.1.1 The Far Past....................................................................................146

2.1.2 The Recent P ast............................................................................. 147

2.1.3 The Immediate Past...................................................................... 149

2.1.4 The Present Tense..........................................................................149

2.1.5 The Near F u tu re............................................................................ 150

2.1.6 The Distant Future......................................................................... 151

2.1.7 Tense tonal concord......................................................................151

2.2 A spect......................................................................................................156

vi

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 2.2.1 Perfect.............................................................................................. 157

2.2.2 Im perfective.................................................................................... 158

2.2.3 Progressive...................................................................................... 159

2.2.4 Persistive..........................................................................................161

2.2.5 Habitual............................................................................................ 162

2.3 M ode........................................................................................................163

2.3.1 Subjunctive...................................................................................... 164

2.3.1.1 The subjunctive enclitic..........................................................164

2.3.1.2 F a................................................................................................165

2.3.2 Conditional...................................................................................... 166

2.4 Consecutive............................................................................................ 167

3 Auxiliaries......................................................................................................169

3.1 Copular V erbs........................................................................................170

3.1.1 Locative Copula.............................................................................. 171

3.1.2 Equative and Attributive Copula................................................. 172

3.1.3 Change of sta te ............................................................................... 175

3.1.4 Basic Form....................................................................................... 177

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 3.1.5 Negative Copula............................................................................. 179

3.2 Phasal Auxiliaries................................................................................... 179

3.2.1 'Come' = Inceptive.........................................................................180

3.2.2 'Go' = Continuous..........................................................................181

3.2.3 'Return' = Repetitive..................................................................... 183

3.2.4 Do first.............................................................................................. 185

3.3 Modal Auxiliaries................................................................................... 185

3.3.1 Optative mode (need, w ant)......................................................... 185

3.3.2 Deontic mode (m ust)..................................................................... 186

3.3.3 Potential mode (can )..................................................................... 186

3.3.4 R eally............................................................................................... 187

4 N egation.......................................................................................................188

4.1 Perfective Clauses.................................................................................. 190

4.1.1 Non-Past Perfective Negation.......................................................191

4.2 Distant Future Negation........................................................................194

4.3 Past Negation..........................................................................................195

4.3.1 Negation in the Recent P a s t........................................................ 195

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 4.3.2 Negation in the Far P ast................................................................196

4.3.3 Negation in the Very Far Past.......................................................197

4.4 Imperfective Clauses............................................................................198

4.4.1 Present (Non-Past) Imperfective.................................................. 198

4.4.2 Past Imperfective............................................................................200

4.5 Progressive Clauses..............................................................................200

4.6 Negative Prefix..................................................................................... 201

4.7 Negative A dverb.................................................................................. 202

4.8 Negative + Adverb..............................................................................203

5 Adverbials.................................................................................................... 203

5 Morphosyntax of the Verb Phrase............................................................... 208

1 Structure within the Verb P h rase............................................................ 209

1.1 Word-Hood in the Verb Phrase......................................................... 213

1.2 Clitic Positioning..................................................................................217

1.2.1 Inflection vs. the M acrostem ....................................................... 218

1.2.2 Second Position............................................................................. 219

1.3 Exceptions to the Templatic Nature of the Kol v e rb ........................221

ix

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 1.3.1 A dverbs............................................................................................222

1.3.2 K a......................................................................................................226

1.4 Embedded Prepositional P hrases........................................................227

1.5 The Status of Non-Main V erbs............................................................ 230

2 Valence and word o rd e r............................................................................234

2.1 Complements......................................................................................... 235

2.1.1 Nominal Complements..................................................................235

2.1.1.1 Direct Object........................................................................... 235

2.1.1.2 Locative object........................................................................236

2.1.1.3 Two object constructions...................................................... 237

2.1.2 Infinitival Complements............................................................... 238

2.1.2.1 Object infinitival complements............................................238

2.1.2.2 Subject infinitival complements...........................................239

2.1.3 Complement clauses...................................................................... 239

2.1.3.1 Reported speech..................................................................... 240

2.2 Adjuncts..................................................................................................241

2.2.1 Temporal Adjuncts........................................................................ 242

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 2.2.1.1 Temporal nouns......................................................................243

2.2.1.2 Temporal Prepositional Phrases........................................... 244

2.2.1.3 Temporal Relative Clauses....................................................245

2.2.1.4 Temporal verb phrases...........................................................245

2.2.2 Locative A djuncts..........................................................................246

2.2.2.1 Locative Relative Clauses...................................................... 246

2.2.3 Manner A djuncts...........................................................................247

2.2.4 Purpose Adjuncts...........................................................................247

2.2.4.1 Purpose noun phrases............................................................247

2.2.4.2 Purpose clause........................................................................ 248

2.2.5 Discourse Adjunct..........................................................................249

2.2.5.1 Discourse linking................................................................... 249

3 The Verb vs. the Verb P h rase................................................................... 250

3.1 Tense Concord Revisited............................... 251

3.2 O perators...............................................................................................255

3.3 Serial Verbs............................................................................................262

6 Situating Kol within the A.80 language fam ily.........................................265

xi

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 1 Sociolinguistic Situation.............................................................................268

2 Phonology..................................................................................................... 273

2.1 Syllable Shapes...................................................................................... 273

2.2 Vowel Inventories................................................................................. 275

2.3 Consonant Inventories..........................................................................279

2.4 Tonology................................................................................................. 285

3 Nominal m orphosyntax..............................................................................290

3.1 Noun Classes.......................................................................................... 290

3.2 Pronouns................................................................................................. 292

3.3 Relative Clauses.....................................................................................295

4 Verbal morphosyntax.................................................................................. 298

4.1 Loosely bound verbalsequence............................................................ 300

4.2 Agreement...............................................................................................308

4.2.1 Subject Agreement..........................................................................308

4.2.2 Object agreem ent........................................................................... 311

4.3 Tense/Aspect/Mode Constructions.................................................... 312

4.3.1 Im perfective....................................................................................316

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 4.3.2 Habitual Constructions.................................................................317

4.3.3 Negation......................................................................................... 319

4.4 Copula Verbs...........................................................................................322

4.5 Extensions..............................................................................................324

5 Conclusion.................................................................................................... 327

7 Correspondences to Proto-Bantu..................................................................329

1 Introduction.................................................................................................. 329

1.1 Sources.....................................................................................................329

1.2 Methodology.......................................................................................... 330

2 Modern Kol................................................................................................... 330

2.1 Synchronic V ariation...........................................................................332

3 Consonant correspondences....................................................................... 334

3.1 Labial Consonants................................................................................. 335

3.1.1 *b......................................................................................................335

3.1.1.1 Summary...................................................................................338

3.1.2 *p......................................................................................................339

3.1.2.1 *p in Cj position...................................................................... 339

xiii

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 3.1.2.2 *p in C2 positio n .....................................................................342

3.1.2.3 Summary.................................................................................. 343

3.1.3 * m .................................................................................................... 343

3.1.4 * m b .................................................................................................. 344

3.1.5 * m p .................................................................................................. 345

3.2 Alveolar Consonants............................................................................ 345

3.2.1 *d.......................................................................................................345

3.2.1.1 *d in Ca position.....................................................................346

3.2.1.2 *d in C2 position .....................................................................351

3.2.1.3 Summary..................................................................................353

3.2.2 * t ...................................................................................................... 354

3.2.2.1 *t in Cj position......................................................................354

3.2.2.2 *t in C2 position......................................................................359

3.2.2.3 Summary..................................................................................359

3.2.3 * n ..................................................................................................... 360

3.2.4 * n d ................................................................................................... 361

3.2.5 * n t.................................................................................................... 362

x iv

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 3.3 Palatal Consonants.............................................................................. 363

3.3.1 * j ....................................................................................................... 363

3.3.1.1 *j in Cj position.......................................................................363

3.3.1.2 Summary..................................................................................366

3.3.2 *c....................................................................................................... 366

3.3.2.1..... *c in Cl position.................................................................... 366

3.3.2.2......*c in C2 position.................................................................... 369

3.3.2.3 Summary..................................................................................369

3.3.3 *ji....................................................................................................... 370

3.3.4 * n j.....................................................................................................370

3.4 Velar Consonants..................................................................................371

3.4.1 *g....................................................................................................... 371

3.4.1.1 *g in Cx position....................................................................371

3.4.1.2 *g in C2 position....................................................................373

3.4.1.3 Summary................................................................................. 373

3.4.2 *k.......................................................................................................374

3.4.2.1 *k in Cj position....................................................................374

xv

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 3.4.2.2 *k in C2 position......................................................................376

3.4.2.3 Summary.................................................................................. 377

3.4.3 *ng.................................................................................................... 377

3.4.3.1 Summary..................................................................................379

3.4.4 *nk.....................................................................................................379

3.5 General Observations on Consonant Correspondences.................379

3.5.1 N asals...............................................................................................380

3.5.2 Voiced NC...................................................................................... .380

3.5.3 Voiceless NC....................................................................................381

3.5.4 Voiced oral stops............................................................................382

3.5.4.1 When in Cj position...............................................................382

3.5.4.2 When in C2 position...............................................................385

3.5.5 Voiceless oral stops........................................................................ 386

3.5.5.1 When in Cx position...............................................................386

3.5.5.2 When in C2 position...............................................................388

4 Vowel correspondences............................................................................. 389

4.1 High Vowels.......................................................................................... 389

xvi

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 4.1.1 * i..................................................................................................... 389

4.1.2 * u .................................................................................................... 390

4.2 Mid Vowels............................................................................................391

4.2.1 *e..................................................................................................... 392

4.2.2 *o..................................................................................................... 393

4.2.3 *e..................................................................................................... 394

4.2.4 *d..................................................................................................... 395

4.3 Low Vowels............................................................................................398

4.4 General Observations on Vowel Correspondences..........................400

5 Grammatical Correspondences.................................................................402

5.1 Nouns......................................................................................................403

5.1.1 Noun Classes and A greem ent.....................................................403

5.1.2 Noun derivation........................................................................... 406

5.1.3 Word O rd er...................................................................................408

5.2 Verbs.......................................................................................................410

5.2.1 Agreem ent..................................................................................... 410

5.2.2 Negation........................................................................................ 411

xvii

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 5.2.3 T ense............................................................................................... 412

5.2.4 Extensions....................................................................................... 413

6 Sum m ary....................................................................................................... 414

References.............................................................................................................. 415

A ppendices............................................................................................................. 421

Texts......................................................................................................................... 421

1 A Deadly Sickness.........................................................................................421

2 A Funeral at Bidjombo.................................................................................428

3 Bidjombo....................................................................................................... 435

4 How Families Used to Be.............................................................................438

5 A History of Bidjombo.................................................................................444

6 An Invitation..................................................................................................451

7 Joy After U ncertainty..................................................................................459

8 The Panther and the R am ........................................................................... 469

9 The Perils of Drunkenness.......................................................................... 480

10 The Serpent and the Antelope.............................................................. 500

xviii

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 Kol-English Lexicon.............................................................................................. 509

x ix

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 Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the members of the Kol community who welcomed me

and worked with me, particularly the Papa Benoits, Benoit MBAGUE and

Benoit Beboma MOANKOEN. Without them, this study would not have been

possible. All errors are of course my own. This study was much improved by

the help and encouragement of Dan and Teresa Heath, who graciously

consented to mentor me during my time in Cameroon. I hope this study

proves to be helpful to them in their future endeavors. A special thank you

goes to Beth Knapp, my good friend and teammate during the course of this

fieldwork. Without you, I would not have survived, body and sanity (mostly)

intact! Finally, I would like to thank my committee for their guidance

through the research and writing process and my friends and family for

supporting me through thick and thin. Tuncez no bubu!

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 2

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 1 Introduction

The purpose of this work is to offer a description of Kol, a narrow

Bantu language spoken in Cameroon, in the Upper Nyong division of the

Eastern Province. The morphosyntax of Kol has been previously undescribed.

Bantu languages are spoken south of a line extending from Cameroon

in the west across the continent to southern Somalia in the east. The Bantu

language area extends down to the southern tip of Africa. There are between

400 and 500 Bantu languages. Nearly a third of Africans today speak a Bantu

language as their first language (Nurse 2001).

The Kol language is spoken in eastern Cameroon, primarily around the

town of Messamena. Kol speakers refer to themselves and their language as

Bokol. Both the language and the speakers are called Bikele in French. A map

is given below.

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 Map 1.1 Cameroon and Kol

Kol differs from many Bantu languages in that its preverbal morphemes

are words or clitics and not prefixes. Morphologically, it is of typological

interest because many of its tenses illustrate a tonal concord throughout the

verbal sequence. Additionally, while Kol has a number of proclitics and

enclitics, it also has a typologically rarer circumclitic, marking the non-past

perfective negative. Syntactically, Kol is of interest because it offers evidence

that it is one of the languages where second position is important, which in Kol
4

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 is the first position within the verb. Phonologically, Kol is interesting because

it has a postnasal devoicing process in its nouns, and it allows long vowels in

closed syllables.

1 Background Information

1 .1 T he L anguage

Kol belongs to the A. 80 Maka-Njem language family. The authors of

the Cameroon Linguistic Atlas (Dieu and Renaud 1983) listed Kol as a dialect of

Makaa (A. 83). More recently, it has been recognized as a distinct language

and has been given its own classification num ber of A.832 (Maho 2003).

Its Ethnologue (Gordon 2005) classification is as follows:

Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid,

Southern, Narrow Bantu, Northwest, A, Maka-Njem (A.80), Kol (BIW)

The Kol language area is surrounded by other A.80 languages. It is

bordered by the Makaa area to the north and by Badwe'e, one of the

Konzime/Njem subvarieties, to the south and east. Kol is bordered on the

west by the So language area.

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 There are a number of Kol dialects. Speakers agree that there are at

least four distinct varieties of Kol, but some report that there are as many as

seven. Those who report that Kol has four distinct dialects divide the Kol

language area into a western dialect, a central dialect, and two eastern

dialects, as shown in the map below.

Those speakers who make further distinctions separate the central

dialect into two zones using the river as their boundary. Other speakers

believe that the villages in the southeastern quadrant can be further

subdivided, with those along the Bidjombo road (Labba, Meba, Koum and

Apadjop) forming one group and those on the southern road (Messamena

village, Akoumou, and Djuebla) forming the other. Data for this study was

elicited from villages in the central dialect area.

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 • Mfoilok U
i
Hlpskt lYfcmWjo^
Hfe*u *S° l^ ) f rttetk k 1
* •‘Sa.wdjok. *
~~ -~ *'StSS<X)<V
**Jaf'el \ mpcuxi" *MeujoS
0M6SS**4€WA
. HeSs*ywova_>
ViHewje.
trtfct5’**- • Akew*«>U
♦''bjye.UioL.

Map 1.2 Kol dialects

Kol is a SVO language. In general, Kol phrases are head-initial, e.g.

objects, other complements and adjuncts follow verbs, most noun modifiers

follow the noun, and complements of prepositions follow the preposition.

(See chapters 3 and 5 for more information.)

The Kol orthography uses 28 letters to express the 40 phonemes found

in Kol. These letters are given below.

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 p, b t, d c, j k, g u

f, V s, z h e 3 o

m n £ a o

w y

In general, the values of most orthographic symbols are consistent with

the International Phonetic Alphabet. The exceptions are found in the palatal

sounds. The alveopalatal affricates [tj] and [d3 ] are represented in Kol with

the letters | c | and |j | respectively. Additionally, the alveopalatal fricative [J]

is written as |sh| and the palatal glide [j] is written as |y|. Though the Kol

orthography uses |ny| for the palatal nasal [ji], this study will use the IPA

symbol so as to reserve Cy clusters for representing palatalization. For more

information on Kol phonology, see chapter 2.

1 .2 T h e p e o p l e a n d t h e ir c u l t u r e

There are between 12,000 and 16,000 Kol speakers in eastern

Cameroon. The Kol live in a densely-forested, hilly region which is the

headwaters area of the Nyong river. One of the larger rivers divides the Kol

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 language area in two, but the whole region is criss-crossed with smaller

bodies of water. The waterways are still frequently used for transportation,

being often more direct than the roads.

Many houses are made using wood. Wood planks are readily available

since the Kol region is near an area known for its logging industry. More

traditional houses made with poles and mud are also common. Roofs are

either made of tin sheeting or thatched with palm leaves.

The economy in the Kol region is primarily agricultural. Families grow

their own food, and there are also many coffee and cocoa plantations, though

most of these are not currently being tended or harvested due to lower prices

on the world market. Men clear the fields, but women are responsible for

planting, weeding and harvesting. Meat comes from domesticated animals,

fishing or hunting in the surrounding forest.

The Kol region was colonized by the Germans in the early 1900s. The

Eastern Province took nine years to subdue; much longer than was originally

anticipated (Mveng 1985:52). Colonial brick buildings can still be seen on

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 the outskirts of Messamena. After World War I, this part of Cameroon

became a French colony.

Unlike other people groups in Cameroon, the peoples of eastern

Cameroon, including the Kol, do not have a traditional hierarchical authority

structure. Communities are run by groups of elders. Specific elders have

authority only as long as they can persuade people to follow them. Colonial

powers assumed that the eastern people groups were like the coastal people

groups and wanted to govern through local kings or chiefs. When asked to

send them their chiefs, the Kol complied in that they sent someone, but this

person did not necessarily have any more authority than any other adult

member of the community. This set up tensions between the colonial

structure and the traditional egalitarian structure. While I am unaware of any

indepth anthropological studies on the Kol people, a number of articles and

books have been written on the Makaa, their close neighbors (Geschiere 1982,

1993a, 1993b).

10

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 The Kol were traditionally animists. The Catholic church arrived soon

after colonization. Today a number of Protestant churches are also present in

the Kol region.

Elementary schools are found in many Kol villages. However, for a

secondary education, Kol children must travel to the towns of Messamena,

Ayos, or Abong Mbang. Travel is not easy in the Kol region, so most children

board with relatives or family friends in the bigger towns during the school

year.

Marriages are exogamous. Families belong to clans, and marriages

occur outside of the clan. It is also common for the Kol to marry people from

other people groups. After a marriage, a wife always moves to where her

husband lives, traditionally to his father's compound. If any children are born

to the marriage, they belong to the father's family. That is to say, should the

husband die, the children stay with his family, while the wife may stay or

may go back to her family of origin.

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 2 Previous Research

Previous work on Kol has been limited to Kol's sociolinguistic situation

(Johnson 1989) and its phonology (Begne 1980, Fokou Tamafo et al 2004).

Johnson (1989) reports that a majority of Kol speakers who

participated in intelligibility testing demonstrated high levels of

comprehension for both Makaa and Badwe'e. However, there were a few

speakers who had very low levels of comprehension, suggesting that there

may be high levels of bilingualism (vs. high levels of mutual intelligibility).

Accompanying sociolinguistic questionnaires showed positive attitudes

towards Kol and both of the neighboring languages (Makaa and Badwe'e).

The Bokol responding to the questionnaires stated that children begin to learn

the neighboring languages between the ages of 6 and 10.

Begne's (1980) phonology of Kol provides inventories of consonants,

vowels & tonal phonemes as well as a discussion of phonotactics in each

domain. While it contains a lot of good information, it also has some gaps.

For example, Begne, though ethnically Kol, does not give any

information as to what dialect of Kol he speaks or to what level. Additionally,

12

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 he includes basic associative phrases in his discussion of noun root shapes. In

his lexicon, he glosses over the fact that there is not a one-to-one

correspondence between singular and plural noun classes. Both class 5 and

class 9 nouns mark their plurals in class 6. This merger and the lack of

traditional noun class numbers makes his lexicon not especially useful in

identifying class membership of various nouns.

The phonology sketch written by Fokou Tamafo et al (2004) was

intended to be the basis for orthographic decisions. It was not intended to be

an in-depth phonological study.

3 Methodology of Current Study

This current study is based on 18 months of fieldwork in the Eastern

province. While for practical reasons, I did not live in the Kol language area,

I made regular trips to the Kol region from the neighboring subdivision of

Abong Mbang. Additional work was done with Kol speakers who traveled to

visit me in either Abong Mbang or Yaounde.

Kol is primarily spoken in the Messamena arrondissement. Where the

Kol language area borders the Makaa and the Badwe'e language areas, the

13

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 variety of Kol spoken is reportedly strongly influenced by these neighboring

languages. Therefore, efforts were made to collect data only from speakers

who lived in an area where Kol speakers in general report that "good" Kol is

spoken. This area was that of the central dialect, located west of Messamena,

along the Nyong river. (A map of Kol dialects was given above in Map 1.2.)

On the map below, villages found in the central dialect area are

underlined. Data was primarily collected from speakers from four of these

villages: Bidjombo, Ebade, Leh and Ngoulemakong. These villages were

chosen due to relative ease of access from the main road.

t&Usleril
♦t'tWiSok.H
Tiovyne

/ wwsoki
r& toj'ajek, *

jVJMfiSSAM'ENiik
Skade.
\HesseaonenaL
\ Vittage
Kburn 4AKovmou
Vfej ueloliSU

Map 1.3 Source villages

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 4 Organization of current study

This current study is organized into seven chapters. Chapter two

describes the phonology of Kol: its phonemic inventory, syllable structure and

phonological rules. Chapter three introduces the reader to nouns, describing

their internal structure as well as the structure of the noun phrase. Chapter

four contains information on the elements found in Kol verb phrases, e.g.

verbs, auxiliary verbs, copulas, adverbs, and tense, negation and aspect

markers. Chapter five describes the syntactic structure of the verb phrase.

Chapter six looks at the bigger picture of how Kol fits into the A.80 language

family, i.e. its similarities and differences with its neighbors. Chapter seven

will examine how Kol has changed over time by comparing Kol today with

what is known about Proto-Bantu. A num ber of texts and a lexicon may be

found in the appendices.

Examples are numbered separately in each chapter. Throughout this

study, in Kol examples, the hyphen is used to mark boundaries between

roots and affixes, while the equal sign ' = ' marks the boundary between clitics

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 and roots. Grammatical morphemes are glossed in small caps while lexical

ones are in lower case. Floating tones are marked by the ' + ' plus sign.

(1) ji = a = kw = e nag... di duk.

jia = a = kwo = e + h nag + h di dug
he/she-NEG-again-NEG more stay forest
'He doesn't stay in the forest anymore.'

In all of the Kol examples, the first line given will represent the way

the speaker actually said the phrase. If morphophonological processes have

blurred the forms of the morphemes found in a particular example, the

second line will show the underlying representations of the morphemes

involved. Examples taken from texts in the appendix have a reference to the

text and its sentence number in parentheses.

Below is a list of the abbreviations used in glossing examples.

Abbreviations used to gloss grammatical morphemes are in small caps, while

those used for lexical morphemes will be in lower case.

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 (2) Abbreviations

adj - adjective Fut - future

adv - adverb gen - genitive

Appl - applicative Imp - imperative

Assoc - associative marker Impf - imperfective

att - attributive Inf - infinitive

aux - auxiliary verb Incl - inclusive

chg - change (of state)

interr - interrogative

Cond - conditional
Loc - locative

conj - conjunction
loc - locative (copula)

Def - definite determiner

n - noun

dem - demonstrative
N eg - negative

det - determiner
num - numeral

Emph - emphatic pronoun Obj - object

F2 - distant future PI - near past

Foe - focus Pass - passive

Fr - French

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 P2 - far past RelCl - relative clause

Perf - perfect spec - specific

pi - plural Sg - singular

Poss - possessive
Sub - subject

Pres - present
Subj - subjunctive

Qual - qualificative
TAM - Tense, Aspect, Mood marker
quant - quantifier
v - verb

Recip - reciprocal

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 2 Phonology

This chapter will provide a summary of the Kol phonological system.

In the first section below, an overview of the phonemes found in Kol will be

given. This will be followed by a discussion of ambiguous segments,

synchronic variation, and phonological rules.

1 Phonemic Inventory

Kol has 32 consonants, 8 phonemic vowels and two underlying tones,

high (H) and low (L). Below is a consonant chart for Kol.

labial alveolar palatal velar labiovelar

stop (P),b t, d c [tj], j [d3] Kg kp

prenasalized mp, mb nt, nd nc, nj 9k, r)g f)kp, rjgb

stop
nasal m n J» 9

fricative f,(v) s, z I

approximant U y w

Table 2.1 Kol consonants

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 The sounds {p, v, kp, qkp, and ggb} are quite rare. Most of the words

with these sounds can be identified as borrowings, particularly from Ewondo

(Begne 1980:32). Word-finally, voicing distinctions are neutralized thanks to

a rule devoicing consonants before pause. (See section 4.2.5.1.)

If borrowed words are excluded, there is only one voicing distinction in

the fricative series, at the alveolar place of articulation, unlike the stop series,

/ s / and / z / only contrast root-initially. Additionally, / { / is weakened to [h]

in some words for some speakers. (See section 1.1)

Kol has a nearly symmetrical vowel system, with three front vowels,

two central vowels and three back (and round) vowels.

front central back

high i (i) u

mid e 9 o

low £ a 0

Table 2.2 Kol Vowels.

The status of a ninth vowel, the high central vowel, is questionable, as

represented by the parentheses in the table above. It will be discussed in

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 section 2.2.1. Below are words illustrating the phonemic difference between

the eight vowels.

(1) bi 'startle, surprise' bii 'be scarce'

be 'toilet, latrine' bd 'be' bo 'place'

be 'sow, cultivate' bd 'cut' bog 'lip'

Length is phonemic for 7 of the vowels given above, all but the schwa.

Some minimal pairs are given below (from Begne 1980:47-60). It is

interesting that these long vowels can occur in closed syllables, since that is

typologically rare.

(2) ji 'ask, inquire' kug 'waist, shape'

jii 'cry, desire' kiiug 'uncle'

nee 'panther, leopard' soij 'vegetables (greens)'

ncee 'who?' soong 'father'

Kol has two tones, high (H) and low (L). These may combine to form

the contour tones HL and LH on single vowels. LH primarily occurs in

environments where a grammatical H tone has been added to a L tone

syllable.

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 (3) bd 'a little' adverb

bd 'two' numeral

bd 'marry' verb

In addition to the lexical tones, Kol has other tones which carry

grammatical information. Grammatical tones within the noun phrase are

discussed in chapter 3, while grammatical tones within the verb phrase are

discussed in chapters 4 and 5.

1.1 S y n c h r o n ic V a r ia t io n

As was mentioned above, voicing distinctions are neutralized for

obstruents before pause. However, word-finally (not before pause), there is

also an optional process which transforms voiced stops to voiced continuants,

with the exception of /b /.

(4) / ti d / 'animal' (7) -> [tir]

/e-b u g / 'holiday' (5) -> [ebuy]

Fokou Tamafo (2004:11) observed that some words show variation of

[g] when it is the second consonant, but not word finally. He gives a rule

where [g] becomes the voiced fricative [y] when it is found between two

occurrences of the low central vowel [a] but stays [g] everywhere else.

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 Examples are given below in (5a), followed by examples of other

environments where no alternation is possible. (Examples taken from Fokou

Tamafo et al (2004:11).)

(5) a. [mpaya] from /m p a g a/ 'route, path’

[pkpaya] /q k p ag a/ 'fishing pole'

b. buga 'hope'

ligib 'accompany'

While / b / is not weakened to a voiced continuant before pause (it is

consistently devoiced), it may be weakened between vowels when it is the

second consonant.

(6) /e-sab / -> [ e-sa|)a ] ‘illness’ (5)

Two other sources of variation may be found within the fricative series.

Some dialects have / s / where other dialects have /J-/ , as shown below.

(7) fu varies with su 'fish' (7/8)

e-Jwi e-swe 'death' (5)
jilo silo 'young w om an'(1)

Additionally, the fricatives /£ / and / h / are in free variation for many

speakers.

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 (8) fama varies with hams 'true, real'

fa ha Hortative

2 Syllable structure and Phonotactics

Kol allows both open and closed syllables, with the following syllable

shapes being represented in the language: V, CV, CVC, and CWC. Below are

some examples of words illustrating the different syllabic structures allowed.

There are no monosyllabic words which illustrate the V syllable type though

there are proclitics which then form V syllables at the beginning of prosodic

words.

(9) V a= Negative (proclitic half of circumclitic)

a.ba 'vulture' (1/2)

CV jo 'tooth' (5/6)
ko 'go'

CW jii 'cry, weep'

CVC kap 'guinea fowl' (3)
deg 'see'
CW C toob 'sheep'
bill 'trap (an animal)'

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 Vowel initial words in general are quite rare. There are a num ber of

vowel-initial nouns, which are either borrowings or possibly examples of a l a

class prefix a-, as shown below. There are no examples of vowel-initial verbs.

(10) aba 'vulture'

abyolo 'traitor'
abwomb ndale 'mud wasp'
aduqgu 'toad'
adwam 'frog'
afiyo 'lemon'
ampiga 'dragonfly'

2 .1 P h o n o t a c t ic s

Phonotactic constraints for both consonants and vowels are discussed

in the sections below. Generalizations are made on the basis of a lexicon of

approximately 2000 entries.

2.1.1 C o n s o n a n t s

Kol has more phonemic consonant contrasts word-initially than it does

word-medially or word-finally.

2.1.1.1 Onsets
Most of the phonemes in Kol may occur word-initially. The exceptions

are / q / and /%/. / q / never occurs word-initially, and / g / only occurs word-

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 initially in two words, shown below. One is definitely a borrowing from

English, and the other is most likely a borrowing from an A. 70 trade languaeg

like Ewondo (‘catfish’ is ijgol in Fang (A.75)).

(11) gyondo 'catfish, mudfish' golod 'gold' (from English)

Within a word, as the onset to a word-medial syllable, / g / is common,

but /r)/ is not. Voiceless obstruents are rarer at the beginning of a word-

medial syllable than they are at the beginning of a word.

The two alveolar fricatives / s / and / z / only contrast at the beginning

of a word (or root).

(12) bi-sa '8-thing' from /be-sa/

bi-zuq '8-our'

More oddly, the palatal stop / j / does not occur as the onset of a word-

medial syllable (or as a coda). Only the prenasalized / n j / occurs in those

positions.

Secondary articulations, i.e. labialization or palatalization, are

extremely common for word-initial consonants (Cls) and extremely rare for

non-word-initial consonants (C2s). (Evidence for these being secondary

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 articulations and not consonant clusters is given below in section 3.2.)

Example (13) lists all of the words with secondarily articulated C2s in my

lexicon. These may be all originally Cl s. The first example is definitely a

case of reduplication, where the reduplicated consonant (now C l) has lost its

secondary articulation. The rest (except for the latter) look like examples of

reduplication, but for most of them there are no obvious bases in the lexicon.

Jufwog 'in front of ( fwog = 'be in front')

kukwD lu 'skull of head'
lulwuq 'flute' ( lwug = 'vine')
pupw5 'pawpaw, papaya'
mbumbwa 'poor man, poverty'
mpimpyaq 'red pepper, hot pepper'
sujwaaz 'naked'

2 .1 .1.2 Codas

The distinction between voiced and voiceless obstruents is neutralized

word-finally, thanks to the devoicing rule discussed in section 4.2.5.1. Word-

medially and word-finally, [r] is an allophone of /d /, as discussed above in

section 1.1.

The voiced velar consonants, both oral and nasal, are the most

common consonants word-finally. / I / is the third most common consonant

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 found at the end of words. The palatal consonants are rarer than obstruents

at other places of articulation.

Coda Consonants

b 57 d 39 g 147 j 1

mb 44 nd 34 ng 10 nj 20

m 69 n 46 0 112 Ji 2

s 45

1 106

Table 2.3 Coda consonants

2 . 1.2 V ow els

For disyllabic words, the most common vowels found in the initial

syllable (Vis) are {i, u, a} while the most common vowels found in the

second syllable (V2s) are {a, a, a}. However, the tendency is more extreme

for verbs, especially when the overall number of verbs (580) vs the total

number of nouns (1016) is taken into account. Compare the two tables

below.

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 i e e u o D 3 a

VI 48 23 2 69 11 11 14 55

V2 16 20 10 28 15 40 38 81

Table 2.4 Vowel counts for nouns

i e e u o D 3 a

VI 34 11 10 52 5 13 4 46

V2 2 2 3 2 4 65 60 50

Table 2.5 Vowel counts for verbs

For nouns, it is much more common to have the high vowels {i, u} in

the first syllable than the second syllable. The mid vowels {e, 3, o} are

somewhat more evenly distributed, though the central mid vowel is more

commonly found in the second syllable. All of the low vowels {e, d, a} are

much more common in second syllables than in first syllables.

For verbs, the most common vowels in the first syllables are the vowels

at the three corners of the vowel space {i, u, a}, while the only vowels which

are commonly found in the second syllable are the central vowels {a, a} and

the low back vowel [d] .

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 3 Ambiguous Segments

Kol has a number of sound sequences which are ambiguous as to

whether they should be analyzed as a single phonemic unit or as a series of

phonemes. In this section, I will discuss the nasal plus consonant series in

section 3.1, the consonant plus glide series in section 3.2 and the status of the

high central vowel in section 3.3.

3 .1 NC = P r e n a s a l i z e d S to p

Researchers in the A.80 language family differ as to whether NC series

should be analyzed as prenasalized stops or as homorganic nasal consonant

clusters. I believe that these NC series in Kol are prenasalized stops for the

following reasons.

First of all, there are no clear consonant clusters in native Kol words.

Below are some examples of borrowed words, containing consonant clusters.

(14) alkol 'alcohol'

brik 'mud block'(Fr. brique)
kristus 'Christ'
klije 'x-ray' (Fr. cliche)

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 The only candidates for consonant clusters in Kol are the NC series

currently under discussion, or the Cw / Cy units discussed in the section

below.

Additionally, the prenasalized series contains more sounds than the

oral series, / p / is rare in Kol, occuring primarily in borrowings and

ideophones. However, /m p / is very common.

(15) paar 'threshing floor' paga 'cane'

pe 'totally' pysb 'winnow'
pupw5 'pawpaw' puu 'calm'

The other piece of evidence for asserting that Kol has prenasalized

stops and not consonant clusters is from a reduplication process. In Kol, a

diminutive can be formed by reduplicating the first C of the root and inserting

a templatic vowel (usually schwa, the epenthetic vowel) between the prefixed

reduplicant and the root.

(16) kag 'child' (7) kakag 'small child'

fog 'wisdom' (9) fofog 'small wisdom'
mwan 'son/daughter' (1) momwan 'small son'
nta 'grandchild' ntinta 'great grandchild'

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 As can be seen in the word for 'great-grandchild', the prenasalized stop

is reduplicated. This contrasts with the word for 'small son' where only the

[m] is reduplicated. This is not a perfect minimal pair though since [mwan]

is a complex word made up of /m w -an/, the class 1 prefix and the root.

While neither reason for treating NC series as prenasalized stops is

conclusive, together, along with the lack of clear underlying consonant

clusters in native Kol words, they are indicative that NC series should be

considered as a single unit and not a consonant cluster.

3 .2 C o n s o n a n t + G l i d e (C w / C y )

Also ambiguous are the sequence of consonants plus glides. These are

very common in Kol, and the question is to whether these are consonant

clusters, secondary articulations, or consonants followed by diphthongs.

To begin with, the consonant cluster analysis will be rejected for the

same reason that it was doubted for the NC series. Kol has no other

consonant clusters, which makes it unlikely that these are underlyingly

consonant clusters.

The question as to whether these consonant plus glide sequences are

secondary articulations or consonants plus underlying vowels is harder to

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 determine. The reduplication process described above in section 2.1 suggests

that [mw] does not form a single phonemic unit, since it is not reduplicated.

However, as was mentioned above, [mwan] is a complex word, so there may

be differing analyses depending on whether the consonant and glide series is

in a single root or not.

Kol also has a productive gliding rule which will be discussed in more

detail in section 4.2.1.1 below. These gliding rules show that many glides

following C in complex words are underlyingly vowels. Examples are given

below, with examples on the left showing gliding and examples on the right

showing the underlying form of the prefixes.

(17) a. [byes] b. [beba]

/be-ez/ /b e-b a /

8-all 8-two

c. [bwan] d. [bokol]
/b o -a n / /bo-kol/
2-child, offspring ('children') 2-sister ('sisters')

Fokou Tamafo (2004:12) suggests that labialization is underlyingly a

consonant followed by the high back vowel [u]. However, the synchronic

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 gliding process of the nominal prefixes [Co-] to [Cw-] argue that maybe

labialization should be considered to be underlyingly a consonant followed by

the close-mid back vowel [o].

If there were any apparent co-occurrence restrictions, that would be

evidence for the contrary analysis of consonant plus glide sequences being

secondary articulations. However, almost all Kol consonants may be

labialized. Aside from the rare stops {kp, qkp, and qgb}, the only other gap in

the stop series is the palatal affricate /c /, i.e. *cw. Only the velar nasal does

not allow labialization, but / q / also does not occur word-initially. In the

approximant series / l / is the only approximant to co-occur with labialization.

There does not appear to be a phonetic reason why / c / should be

excluded from labialization when /n c /, / j/ , and / n j/ allow it. This may be an

accidental gap in the lexicon. Below are examples of labialized consonants.

(18) pupw5 pawpaw, papaya bweya 'everywhere'

mpwam 'python' mbwo 'arm'
fwsn 'corn, maize'
mwaz 'daytime'
twamba 'elder' (n) dwob 'day'
ntwomb 'fight' (n) ndwaqg 'valley'

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 nwi 'rain' (v)

lwag 'bail' (v)

jwabora 'tangle' (v)

ncwaq 'mold pottery' (v) njwap 'river'
'river'
Jwel 'lizard'
jiwel 'drink' (v)

kwe 'help' (v)

rjkweij 'leopard' qgwala 'town'

Palatalization is much more restricted than labialization. The table

below shows the consonants that may be palatalized. Note that these are all

articulated toward the front of the mouth.

t ,d
nt

f s

Table 2.6 Kol consonants allowing palatalization

These include almost all labial and alveolar consonants. The

exceptions are {nd, n, 1}. The exclusion of / n / is not surprising since a

palatalized / n / could be confused with the palatal nasal already existing in

the Kol phonological system. The absence of / n d / and / l / is harder to

understand.

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 (19) pyeb 'winnow' (v) bya 'beget (child)’
mpyo 'dog' mbyel 'relative' (n)
myeg 'fish dam' (n) fyal 'test' (v)
tycl 'love' (n) dya 'chair, seat' (n)
ntye 'who?' sye 'work' (v)

Palatalized consonants are excluded for obvious reasons. The absence

of velars can be explained on historical grounds, namely that the Proto-Bantu

voiced velar *g corresponds to synchronic {c, j} when the *g would have

occurred before front vowels. For more information, see chapter 7.

In the absence of strong co-occurrence restrictions for labialization or

palatalization and with the evidence of the existence of a regular gliding rule,

I suggest that consonant plus glide sequences are neither consonant clusters,

nor secondary articulations, but rather consonants followed by an underlying

/ e / or /o /. The mid vowels are glided to avoid vowel hiatus situations. See

section 4.2 below for more details.

3 .3 T h e H ig h C e n t r a l V o w e l

In the summary of the vocalic phonemic inventory above, Kol was

reported to have eight vowel phonemes. However, there are at least 9

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 phonetic vowels. The central vowels in particular have been analyzed

differently by different linguists.

One area of debate is with respect to the epenthetic vowel (see section

4.1 for details as to where it occurs). Fokou Tamafo et all (2004) suggest that

the epenthetic vowel is the high central vowel [i], and that [i] is therefore not

a distinct vowel in Kol. Begne (1980) agrees that [i] is the epenthetic vowel

but also lists [i] as a distinct phoneme.

In contrast to the above analyses, my own data suggests that the schwa

is the epenthetic vowel and not [i] as suggested by Fokou Tamafo and Begne.

However, it is also the case that the distribution of the high central

vowel [i] is predictable, and it is therefore not a distinct phoneme, but an

allophone of /e /. [i] only occurs before nasals and the alveolar fricatives / s /

and /z /. This environment is a common one for vowel centralization (see

section 4.2.3 for more details). Below are examples where the underlying

form of the central vowel can be seen from other contexts followed by

examples in (d) where the environment is suggestive that the surface [i]

corresponds to an underlying /e /.

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 (2 0 ) a. [bimpanc byag] 'my sides'
/be-mpanc be-aq/
8-side 8-my

b. [bi nde] you were

/b e nd e/
you (pi) be (loc)

c. [bisa] 'thing'
/b e-sa/
8-thing

d. kwind possibly from A w end/ 'fish hook' (3)

mpwiqg /m pw eqg/ 'problems' ( 1 0 )

4 Phonological rules

In this section, I will discuss phonological processes which are found in

Kol. This section is organized by the environments in which the rules

operate. This wll be followed by a summary of the domain in which the rules

operate (lexical vs post-lexical).

4 .1 A v o id in g C o n s o n a n t C l u s t e r s

As has been previously mentioned, Kol does not have clear examples of

consonant clusters within morphemes. Additionally, when the environment

for a consonant cluster arises, with two consonants meeting across a

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 morpheme or word boundary, an epenthetic vowel is inserted to repair the

cluster, as described in the section below.

(2 1 ) /j-ob bug/ * [joba bug]

7-their 7-place
'their place' (focus on possession)

The schwa is also common as the first vowel of the relics of verb

extensions (for more on these, see chapter 4 section 1.1). This suggests that

the epenthetic vowel may be inserted between morphemes as well as between

words.

(2 2 ) juloba 'go down river' from Jul5 'descend, go down'

jwagara 'hear' jw5g 'hear, feel'

jabalo 'call' jab 'call'

4 .2 V o w el h ia tu s

Kol allows CV or CVC syllables. Kol has phonemic long vowels, but

non-identical vowel hiatus situations are avoided, either by transforming one

of the vowels into a glide, or by deleting one of the vowels. The first strategy

will be discussed below in section 4.2.1, and the second strategy will be

discussed in section 4.2.2.

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 4 .2 .1 G lid in g

The majority of vowel-final or vowel-initial morphemes have mid

vowels. A common solution to the problem of vowel hiatus is to either

transform the mid vowel into a glide (if it is a prefix) or to insert a glide

between the two vowels in order to provide an onset to the second vowel.

4 .2 .1 .1 M id vowels become glides

As mentioned above, prefixal / e / and / o / become their corresponding

glides ( /y / and /w /) when they occur before vowels. This is most frequently

seen in class 1 nominal prefixes and in class 4, 6 and 8 concord markers.

Compare the glided versions of the concord markers on the left with their

non-glided versions on the right.

(23) a. [myoob] b. [meton]

/m e-oob/ /m e-to n /
4-which 4-five

c. [mwez] d. [mozuq]
/m o-ez/ /mo-zur)/
6 -all 6 -our (dual)

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 4 .2 .1.2 Glide insertion

When vowel hiatus occurs across word boundaries, and one of the

vowels is a high-mid vowel [e], the palatal glide is inserted. Two examples

are given below.

(24) /b e o k5 + h ye/ * [be yo ko ye]

you (pi) Pres go where
"Where are you going?"

(25) /ji = a = waza = e / ► [jiawazaye]

he/she-NEG-forget-NEG
'He doesn't forget.'

4 .2 .2 D e le t io n

An alternative solution to the "problem" of vowel hiatus is deletion.

Surprisingly, deletion may occur in a similar environment to that of glide

insertion. Relative clauses in Kol are marked by a H boundary tone on the

left and by an enclitic on the right. When this enclitic / = e / is hosted by a

verb which ends in the vowel [a], the final vowel of the verb is deleted, as

shown in (25).

(26) /m -ur ba h + ji = e = waza = e / * [mur ba juwaze]

l-man be RELCL+ he-Pl-forget-RELCL
'This is the man that he forgot.'

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 4 .3 V o w e l A s s im il a t io n

Cross-linguistically, assimilation processes are very common. Kol has

three active assimilation processes seen in vowels. A centralizing process

targets mid vowels before nasals and alveolar fricatives, as described in 4.3.1.

A raising process targets / e / when it precedes or follows palatal consonants,

as described in 4.3.2. A rounding process targets high front vowels in the

environment of the labiovelar glide, as described in 4.3.3.

4 .3 .1 V o w e l c e n t r a liz in g b e f o r e n a s a ls a n d a lv e o la r f r ic a t iv e s

The mid vowels / e / and / o / are centralized before nasals, as shown by

the examples below. Compare the phonetic forms on the right with those

(minus a nasal) on the right.

(27) a. [bi-mpanc] b. [be-kak]

/be-mpanj/ /be-kag/
8-side 8-child
'sides' 'children'

c. [ba-ne] d. [bo-ba]
/bo-ne/ /bo-ba/
2-that 2-two
'those' 'two'

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 However, this centralization process is not exactly parallel for both mid

vowels. To begin with they correlate to different central vowels, with the

front mid vowel being both centralized and raised. Therefore, the mid vowels

will be discussed independently below.

4 .3 .1.1 Centralization o f the back m id vowel

The back mid vowel [o] becomes the mid central vowel [a] when it

appears before a nasal or a prenasalized stop.

(28) a. [ba-ne] b. [bo-ba]

/bo-ne/ /bo-ba/
2-that 2-two
'those' 'two'

c. [ma-pga] d. [mo-lol]
/m o-qga/ /m o-lol/
6-this 6-three
'these' 'three'

The back mid vowel [o] is also centralized before the alveolar and

palatal fricatives. In (29) below, the same concord prefixes shown above are

given before a modifier beginning with /s /.

(29) a. [ba-sis] b. [ma-sis]

/bo-sfs/ /mo-sfs/
2-another 6-another
'another, different' 'another, different'

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 Additionally, [o] is centralized before the palatal fricative, as shown by

the nouns below. Compare the forms of the noun class prefixes on the left

before / f / with those on the right before other consonants.

(30) a. [ba-j’wo] b. [bo-wal]

/bo-(w5/ /bo-w al/
2-friend 2-cookie
'friends' 'cookies'

Teresa Heath notes for Makaa, a neighboring and related language,

that:

"The fricatives are not prenasalized as in neighbouring

languages such as Ewondo (A70). However, when z and zh occur

medially or finally, they always occur following phonetically

nasalized vowels. It may be that z and zh were prenasalized

historically, but now the prenasalization is reflected in nasalation of

the preceding vowels." (Heath 2003a:336)

Therefore, it may be a characteristic of this language family that the

alveolar and palatal fricatives pattern with nasal consonants (nasal stops and

prenasalized stops).

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 4 -3-1 2 The fr o n t m id vowel
The front mid vowel [e] becomes the high central vowel [i] before

nasals or prenasalized stops, as shown by the examples below.

(31) a. [bf nde] b. [be fyal]

/be nde/ /b e fyal/
you (pi) be (loc) you (pi) test
'you are' 'you test'

(32) a. [bi-mpanc] b. [be-kak]

/be-mpanj/ /be-kag/
8-side 8-child
'sides' 'children'

As was for the case for the other mid vowel /o /, this same centralizing

process occurs before the alveolar and palatal fricatives / s / and /J /.

[bi-sa] b. [be-kekena]
/be-sa/ /be-kekena/
8-thing 8-proverb
'things' 'proverbs'

[ma-juk] d. [me-kaq]
/m e-jug/ /me-kai]/
4-stem, stalk 4-guinea fowl
'stalks' 'guinea fowl' (pi)

kwis
A w e s/
'cough'

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 Interestingly, this process is consistently avoided by the class 5 noun

prefix e- (or le-). Below are class 5 nouns which begin with a nasal,

prenasalized stop or alveolar fricative. In none of these is the / e / of the

prefix ever centralized.

(34) le-mpyab 'wing'

e-nek 'summit'
e-nto 'crop (of bird)'
e-seb 'illness'

4 .3 .2 F r o n t m id v o w e l r a is i n g

Additionally, the front mid vowel / e / may be raised (but not

centralized) to [i] before or after palatal consonants.

(35) a. [mi-Jumb] b. [me-lela]

/me-Jumb/ /m e-lela/
4-brook, stream 4-shiver
'brooks' 'shivers'

c. [mi-nja]
/me-nja/
4-intestine
'intestines'

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 d. [bi-jwala] e. [be-kak]
/be-jwala/ /be-kag/
8-banana 8-child
'bananas' 'children'

f. [ji-i] g. [m-e]
he/she-Pl I-Pl

Again, this raising process does not apply to the class 5 prefix, even

though it contains the mid vowel /e /.

(36) le-Ju 'sake'

le-Jwi 'death'
le-c3nj 'broom'
le-jige 'lesson'

Additionally, some speakers raise / e / to [i] before the alveolar

fricatives. This is may be because some dialects have / s / where others have

/ \ / as was noted in section 1.1. This also functions as a way for some

speakers to m aintain the distinction between w hat would otherwise be

identical prefixes (for class 2 and class 8 or for class 4 and class 6 ) if both the

/ o / and / e / centralized to the schwa.

(37) a. [mi-sis] b. [me-ba]

/m e-sfs/ /m e-ba/
4-another 4-two
'other ones' 'two'

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 c. [bf-zuq] d. [be-ton]
/be-zug/ /be-ton/
8-our (dual) 8-five
'our' 'five'

However, it should be noted that these processes are optional, as

shown below.

(38) a. [bi-sa] [bi-sa] [be-sa]

/be-sa/
8-thing
'things'

b. [mi-sis] [me-sis]
/m e-sis/
4-different
'different ones'

c. [mi-sisim] [ma-sisim]
/me-sisim /
4-spirit
'bad spirit'

4 .3 .3 H ig h v o w e l R o u n d in g

Additionally, the vowel / i / is rounded when it precedes or follows the

glide /w /.

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 [w-uz] b. [d-iz]
/w -fz/ /d -fz/
3-our 5-our
'our' 'our'

[w-un] d. [b-m]
/w-rn/ /b-rn/
3-your (pi) 2-your (pi)
'your (pi)' 'your (pi)'

Interestingly, this rounding process may target a derived [i] as shown

below.

(40) a. ji = u waza b. ji —i bwogo

he-Pl forgot he-Pl collect
'he forgot' 'he collect'

4 .4 P h ra s e -fin a lly

Cross-linguistically, a number of phonological processes occur at the

end of a word or sentence. In Kol, the crucial environment is at the end of a

sentence, i.e. before pause.

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 4-4-1-1 Devoicing
Kol obstruents are devoiced when they occur before pause.

middle before pause gloss

(41) dug diik 'forest'

-ob -op 'their'

-ez - es 'each,all'

4 .4 .1.2 Phrase-final tone lowering

Intonationally, pitch is lowered at the end of phrase. The result is to

have a low tone where one would expect a high or rising tone, or to have a

superlow tone where one would expect a low tone.

(42) ji = i si nco bara.

ji = e se + h nco + h bara + h
he/she-Pl Perf come greet
'He came to greet.'

(43) ji = a nca di duk.

ji = a- nco di dug
he/she-P2- come stay 7-forest
'He came to stay in the forest.'

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 4 .5 To n e R u l e s

Tone rules in Kol almost always involve high tone - spreading,

absorption or lowering. The only tone rule where a low tone is part of the

trigger is downstep.

4 .5 .1 G e n e r a l t o n e a s s o c ia t i o n r u le s

Floating tones in Kol may associate to either the right or the left.

Though it appears that speakers have a choice as to the direction of

association, in general, associations are made in such a way as to avoid

downstep (described in section 4.5.1.2) and increase the num ber of tonal

contours.

In example (44) below, the grammatical tone (marked by a + h )

associates to the right, delinking the underlying low tone. The new floating

low tone merges with the following low tone. The underlying high tone at

the end of the sentence is lowered due to the phrase-final tone lowering rule

described above. In (45), which is unattested, the grammatical tone

associates to the left. This would result in a downstepped high tone, followed

by two low tones. This is apparently less optimal than the attested (44).

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 (44) toob a=j = e di duk.
toob a = ji = e + H di dug
7-sheep NEG-be (att)-NEG stay 7-forest
'Sheep don't stay in the forest.'

(45) *toob a = j = !e di duk.

toob a = ji = e + H di dug
7-sheep NEG-be (att)-NEG stay 7-forest
'Sheep don't stay in the forest.’

In the example below, the grammatical high tone associates to the left,

merging with the previous high tone. If the grammatical tone had associated

to the right, the result would be three high tones in a row. Again, merging

the floating high tone with the high tone of the verb results in more variation

in the overall tonal contour.

(46) muuz, ji = o dek le-kan.

muuz ji = o deg le-kan
today he/she-PRES see + H 5-antelope
'Today, he sees an antelope.'

Again, in the example below, the grammatical high tone associates to

the left, docking on the epenthetic vowel. If it had associated to the right, it

would have resulted in an overal H-L-L-H contour, which is apparently less

optimal than the H-L-H-L contour attested below.

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 (47) ji = 0 bwoga kwan.
ji = o bwDga+ h kwan
he/she-PRES harvest 9-honey
'He harvests honey.'

If a floating high tone associates to the left and the preceding tone is a

low tone, it will delink the low tone and trigger downstep. This is described

in the section below.

4 .5 .2 D o w n ste p

In Kol, whenever there is a floating low tone between two high tones,

the second high tone is lower than the first high tone. Most grammatical

tones in Kol are high. In the example below, the grammatical tones marking

the recent past tense (shown by + h ) are added. The first tone associates to

the left, delinking the underlying low tone of the verb ji 'be'. The resulting

floating low tone triggers downstep on ji.

00

nco... kabo miyog se

JI

yo

P= e ji + h nco + H kabo imyorj se yd

he/she-Pl be (att) come but 1-brother Perf die
He was coming but his brother died, (coming to see his brother)

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 Below is another example of downstep, followed by a chart of its pitch

contour. Note the drop between the tense vowel [i] and the following

syllable kd.

(49) ji = i k'o bw5gs kwan.

ji = e ko + H bwDg + H kwan + h
he/she-Pl go harvest 9-honey
'He went to harvest honey.'

Phonetic.

mm 1320.400 1320.830 1320.800 1321.800 1321.200 1 321.400 1321.800 1321.800

4 *5*3 O p t io n a l H t o n e a b s o r p t io n r u le
In general, in Kol, if two underlying H's are next to each other on the

tonal tier, the first H tone may be merged into the second. This has the effect

of reducing the number of contour tones.

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 Paradigms of low tone verbs show that the underlying tone of the far

past (P2) tense marker is a H tone, as shown in (49) and (50) below.

mw-an a di duga rjgumba fum

mw-an a di dug ggumba fum
1-child P2 stay 7-forest entire 3-night
'The child stayed in the forest all night.'

(51) Jl = a nca di duk.

ji = a nca di dug
he/she-P2 come stay 7-forest
'He came to stay in the forest.'
Similarly, the underlying tone of the prefixal portion of the non-past

negative marker is a H tone, as illustrated by the following examples.

(52) toob a=j = e di duk.

toob a = ji = e + H di+ H dug
7-sheep NEG-be (att)-NEG stay 7-forest
'Sheep don't stay in the forest.'

(53) ji = a = waza = ye.

ji = a = waza = e + H
he/she-NEG-forget-NEG
'He doesn't forget.'

When these H tone grammatical markers precede a H tone verbs (or

any lexically H tone morpheme), the H tones of the tense/negation may be

absorbed into the H tone of the verb. The low tone of the subject pronoun

remains on the vowel of the tense/negation marker. Examples (53) and (54)
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 illustrate what happens with the underlyingly H tone of the far past marker

precedes a high tone verb. Example (54) also illustrates the schwa epenthesis

rule.

(54) mbwa laqge ji = a bara mur.

mbwa laqge ji = a bara m-ur
3-year last he/she-P2 greet 1-man
'Last year, he greeted the man.'

v\
(55) mbwa lagge ji = a bina JIO.

mbwa lagge ji = a bin J>o

3-year last he/she-P2 raise him/her
'Last year, he lifted him up.'

Below, examples (56) and (57) illustrate what happens with the H tone

of the prefixal portion of the non-past negative marker precedes a H tone

verb.

(56) ji = a = bara = ye nag m-ur.

jia = a = bara = e nag m-ur
he-NEG-greet-NEG +H more + H 1-man
'He doesn't greet the man anymore.'

(57) muuz, ji = a = deg = e le-kan.

muuz ji = a = deg = e le-kan
today he-NEG-see-NEG + h 5-antelope
'Today, he didn't see the antelope.'

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 This absorption process is optional, as may be seen by the examples

below where it fails to apply.

(58) ji = a bara mur.

ji = a bara m-ur
he-P2 greet 1-man
'He greeted the man.'

(59) ji = a bino jio.

jr = a bln jio
he/she-P2 raise him/her
'He raised him.'

This process is not restricted to these two markers, but it may occur

with any H tone. Below are examples illustrating a similar process with the

near future tense marker e and the present tense marker o.

(60) ji = e bwo bara.

ji = e bwo + H bara + H
he/she-FUT F2 greet
'He will greet.'

(61) m=o lcr) log m = a jok no dek kwar-e.

m= o leg + H log + H m=a H+jwog no deg kwad-e.
I-Pres tell 5-speech I-P2 RELCL-hear and see 9-village-RELCL
'I tell about what I heard and saw in the village.'

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 4-5 3 1 Polar tone
The Near Past (or P I) tense marker e is unique in the Kol Tense-Aspect-

Mode (TAM) system in that it appears to be a polar tone, sensitive to the

underlying tone of the word on its right.

(62) m=e nde ke dulo siga...

m= e nde + H ke + h dula + h siga
I-Pl be (loc) Neg smoke (v) cigarette
'I neither smoked (..nor drank).' (Illness.15)

(63) ba le nco... kabo ji = f biya.

ji = e ba + H le + H nco + H kabo ji = e biya + H
he/she-Pl be Impf come but he/she-Pl- be.seized
'He was coming but he got caught (in route).'

However, an alternative description would be that the Near Past tense

marker has an underlying H tone but that this is the only tense that requires

the normally optional H tone absorption rule.

(64) ji = l j !f nco... kabo mfyoq se yo.

ji =e ji + h nco + H kabo nriyog se + H yo + H
he/she-Pl be(att) come but 1-brother Perf die
'He was coming but his brother died.' (coming to see his brother)

It is more elegant to have an already existing rule be required by a

particular morphological environment than it is to posit a completely new

kind of tone in the Kol tonal system.

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 4 .6 L e x ic a l v s. p o s tle x ic a l p h o n o lo g y

The table below organizes the rules discussed above by the domain in

which they apply.

B etw een Betw een w ords an d clitics Post-lexical

m orphem es

Glide creation Glide insertion Glide insertion

Vowel deletion Vowel epenthesis

Vowel raising Vowel raising

Vowel rounding Vowel rounding

Vowel centralizing Vowel centralizing

H tone absorption H tone spreading

Final tone lowering

Final devoicing

Downstep Downstep

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 3 Morphosyntax of the Noun Phrase

Simple noun roots in Kol may be monosyllabic or disyllabic. Nouns

longer than two syllables are derived from verbs or other nouns. Simple noun

roots have the following shapes: CV, VC, CVC, VCV, CVCV, and CVCVC. For

the examples below, most occur with a zero noun class prefix. (This is

possible for all singular classes; see section 1 below for details.) Noun class

membership is given in parentheses.

(1) CV roots1
da 'father, ancestor' ( 1 )
ku 'foot' (5)
ju 'fish' ( 1 )

CVC roots VC roots

dig ’bush (land),rural area' (7) mw-an 'child, offspring' ( 1 )
kag 'child' (7) m-ur 'person, man' ( 1 )

1 There are 110 CV roots, 2 CW roots, 3 VC roots, 399 CVC roots, 38 CWC roots, 3 VCV roots, 205 CVCV
roots, 4 CWCV roots, 43 CVCVC roots, 1 CWCVCV root, 58 CVCVCV roots and 2 CVCVCVCV roots in
the lexicon.

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 CVCV roots VCV roots
e-wala 'hour' (5) mw-ara 'woman, wife' ( 1 )

kala 'goat' (7)

kubo 'chicken' ( 1 )

CVCVC roots
fafem 'wall' (7)
tutul 'old man' (3)

slsim 'soul, spirit' (3)

There are also roots which have been created from complex verb

stems. These are primarily CVCVCV roots. Derived nouns are described in

more detail in section 5.

1 Noun Classes

Kol nouns are distributed among 10 noun classes. This is a relatively

small number of noun classes when compared to the amount found in some

eastern Bantu languages, and many of the noun class prefixes are themselves

phonologically reduced.

The table below shows the prefixes which mark each noun class, as

well as the ways in which the noun classes are grouped in singular/plural

pairs (or genders).

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 Singular P lural
1 0 kol 'sister of man' 2 bo- bo-kol 'sisters'

mw- mw-ara 'woman' bw-ara 'women'

m- m-ur 'man, person' b- b-ur2 'men, people'

3 0 mbil 'hole' 4 me- me-mbil 'holes'

5 e-, le- e-bura 'sweet potato' 6 mo- mo-bura 'sweet potatoes'

0 ku 'foot' mo-ku 'feet'

d- d-u 'nose' m- m-u 'noses'

7 0 kag 'child' 8 be- be-kag 'children'

7 0 bumo 'fruit' 10 m- 3 m-pumo 'fruits'

9 0 kwad 'village' 6 md- mo-kwad 'villages'

Table 3.1 Noun Class Prefixes (NPx) and Gender Pairings

Some speakers reduce the distinctions among the plural prefixes, saying

[ma-] for both class 4 and class 6 noun prefixes and [ba-] for both class 2 and

class 8 . This is probably due to a reinterpretation of the mid vowel

centralization rule.

2 May also appear as [bwur], unlike the singular which never occurs as * [mwur].
3 Class 10 is marked by a homorganic nasal prefix as well as devoicing of the initial root consonant. See
section 1.6.

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 There are semantic tendencies for some of the noun classes. These will

be discussed below, along with the phonological conditioning of the different

forms of the noun prefixes.

1 .1 C la s s e s 1 /2

Nouns indicating people tend to be found in classes 1/2, though a few

nouns referring to people can be found in classes 3/4, 7 /8 and 9. Below are

singular and plural pairings of Kol class 1 and 2 nouns. Singulars (class 1) are

given first, followed by their plurals, and then the gloss.

(2 ) mw-ara bw-ara 'woman'

m-ur bw-ur, b-ur 'man, person'

kol bo-kol 'sister (to a brother)'
mw-an bw-an 'child, offspring'

However, not all nouns found in classes 1 and 2 are people. It is also

common to find animals in this gender.

(3) kubo bo-kub5 'chicken'

Jfi bd-Ju 'fish'

Additionally, there a number of inanimate nouns found in class 1 with

their plurals in class 2 .

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 (4) kwondo bo-kwdndo 'stripe (insignia of rank)'
Jumo bo-Jumo 'construction (site)'

wal bo-wal 'cookie'

Class 1 nouns which begin with a consonant are zero-marked, as shown

above. These nouns are marked by the class 2 marker bo- in the plural.

Before most vowel-initial roots, the class 1 marker is mw- and the class

2 prefix surfaces as bw-. For the class 2 prefix it is clear that there is an [o] in

the underlying form of the prefix which is glided before most vowel-initial

noun roots. This may also be true for class 1 nouns, but since consonant-

initial roots are zero-marked, the form /m o -/ never appears in a surface form.

(5) mw-an bw-an 'child, offspring'

If the noun root begins with a [u], the class 1 prefix surfaces as m-, while

the vowel of the class 2 prefix is optionally deleted. If the vowel is not

deleted, then it is glided. This is shown below in example (7).

(6 ) m-ur bw-ur, b-ur 'man, person'

Some speakers have an additional allomorph for the class 2 prefix,

namely [ba-]. This allomorph occurs before nasals and the alveolar fricative.

(While this may not seem like a natural class cross-linguistically, it is common

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 for the alveolar fricative to trigger similar changes to neighboring vowels as

nasals in both Kol and at least one neighboring and closely related language.

See chapter 2 for more information on Kol phonology.)

(7) seer ba-soer 'nun' (French loan4)

jioggo ba-jiopgo 'mother'
mpyo bs-mpyo 'dog'

1 .2 C la s s e s 3 / 4

There is no clear semantic tendency for the nouns found in classes 3 and

4. Below are some sample nouns.

(8 ) mbil me-mbil 'hole'

silo me-sild 'girl'
nop me-noq 'kilometer'

Class 3 nouns are zero-marked. However, a number of class 3 nouns

begin with a nasal, which may be a rem nant of the historical *mu- class 3

noun prefix. The vowel of the historical prefix *mu- has been lost completely,

and the nasal has assimilated in place to the initial root consonant.

1This French loan still has the French vowel and not one of the eight Kol vocalic phonemes.

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 (9) mbi ma-mbi 'type, sort'
mbil me-mbil 'hole'

nja mi-nja 'intestines'

njab me-njab 'house'
njond mi-njond 'trip'

In contrast to the consistent zero-marking of class 3, the class 4 prefix

has 3 common allomorphs: [me-], [m-], and [ma-]. [me-] occurs in the widest

number of phonological environments and will therefore be considered to be

the underlying form. In addition, for a num ber of nouns, the other two

allomorphs alternate with [me-].

(1 0 ) kaq me-kaq 'guinea fowl'

mir ma-mir, me-mir 'medicine'
nja mi-nja, me-nja 'intestine'
sisim mi-sisim, ma-sisim 'bad spirit'

However, generalizations can be made as to where the latter two

allomorphs occur, namely that [ma]- occurs before nasals and the alveolar

fricatives, while [mi-] occurs before palatals (and the alveolar fricatives for

some speakers).

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 1.3 C la s s e s 5 /6

Semantically, classes 5 and 6 are more homogenous than classes 3/4.

Many (but not all) nouns referring to body parts belong to classes 5 /6

( 1 1 ) jo mo-jo 'tooth'
d-u m-u 'nose'
ku mo-ku 'foot'

Classes 5 /6 also include many nouns referring to trees and plants, as

shown below.

( 1 2 ) e-bura mo-bura 'sweet potato'

d-umo m-uma 'kapok tree'

e-lat mo-lat 'palm tree'

e-15b mo-15b 'blade of grass'

Additionally, the infinitives in Kol are marked with the class 5 noun

prefix, and some nouns found today in classes 5 /6 are derived from infinitival

verbs.

(13) e-ba mo-ba 'marriage' pi. ‘marriages’

le-lwf mo-lwf 'insult' p i ‘insults’

Modifiers marking infinitives take class 5 concord markers as shown by

the associative phrase example below.

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 (14) e-fyal le-jukul
iNF-exit 5Assoc-school
'school leaving' or 'graduation'

Finally, the class 6 prefix is used to mark a number of mass nouns which

have no singular counterpart.

(15) mo-dibo 'water'

mo-nci 'blood'
md-jiog 'wine'

However, the semantic tendencies given above still do not completely

account for the members of classes 5/6, as shown below.

(16) dw-ob m-ob 'day'

d-aag m-aag 'crab'

d-m5 m-ino 'name'
d-5mb m-5mb 'war'
lal mo-lal 'ethnic area'

Phonologically there is a wide range of variation in the way that class

5 nouns are marked. They may be marked with a d- prefix, with a le- prefix

(which alternates with e-) or zero marked. In spite of the different noun class

prefixes, these nouns all trigger the same concord marking on their modifiers,

showing that they do indeed belong to the same class.

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 (17) a. dw-ob d-55qg5 b. e-sab d-55qg5
5-day 5-Def 5-illness 5-Def
‘the day’ ‘the illness’

Many class 5 /6 nouns begin with the alveolar consonants {d, 1}. This

is not surprising since the proto noun prefix for class 5 has been reconstructed

as *di, and many *d's correspond to / l / in Kol. (For more information on the

historical development of Kol, see chapter seven.) However, these two initial

consonants behave very differently, as shown below in (16).

(18) d-iz m-iz 'eye'

lu mo-lu 'head'

[d-] functions as an allomorph of the class 5 marker for vowel-initial

roots. It always corresponds to the plural allomorph [m-] of class 6 . Below is

a full list of the pertinent nouns.

d-aag m-aag 'crab'

d-m5 m-ino 'name'
d-iz m-iz 'eye'
d-5gbo m-5gbo 'headpad'
d-5g m-5g 'nest'
d-5mb m-omb 'war'
d-u m-u 'nose'
dug m-ug 'hornbiir
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 d-umo m-um5 'kapok tree'
d-unj m-unj 'fist

d-uip m-upa 'pelican'

d-uug m-uug 'beak'

dw-ob m-ob 'day'

However, class 5 nouns that begin with a consonant can be split into two

lexical classes. In one, the synchronic noun prefix is 0 , while for the other

class, the synchronic noun prefix is e (or le). All zero-marked class 5 nouns

begin with [1] as shown below.

(2 0 ) lag mo-lag 'horn'

lal md-lal 'ethnic area'

lara mo-lara 'difficulty'
13r) mo-15q 'speech'
lu mo-lu 'head'
lut mo-lut 'wrinkle'
liiug mo-luug 'dew'
lwo mo-lwS 'ear'
lwuij mo-lwup 'beehive'

Other class 5 nouns beginning with / l / behave like the majority of class

5 nouns and are marked with the le- prefix (which alternates with e-).

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 (21) e-lamb mo-lamb 'trap'
e-lat mo-lat 'palm tree'
e-15b md-15b 'blade of grass'
e-lund 'palmnut tree'
le-luqo md-luqd 'woven construction'
le-lwi mo-lwi 'insult'

In addition to the zero prefix and the d- prefix, the class 5 marker has an

additional two forms, [le-] and [e-], which occur with all non-liquid-initial

roots. These two are in complementary distribution with each other with [e-]

appearing after words ending in a consonant and [le-] appearing after words

ending in a vowel. The following examples are taken from a single folktale,

about a serpent and an antelope.

(2 2 ) a. #e-kan ma nco
5-antelope be (chg) come
'Antelope came.'

b. jia na le-kan
he with 5-antelope
'he and Antelope'

Speakers vary as to which form they use after pause, suggesting that

the choice of the underlying form varies from speaker to speaker. Speakers

themselves are aware that there are two forms, though they do not seem to be

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 aware of individual variation due to phonotactics. Some suggest that others

are lazy and 'drop' the / l / , while others suggest that those who 'add' the / l /

are imitating the French definite article le. Historically, [le-] is the more

conservative form, being the most clearly derived from the historical prefix

*di-.

It is interesting that the class 5 marker does not participate in the

otherwise regular centralization (or raising) process triggered by the front

mid vowel /e /.

The class 6 marker also has two allomorphs, [md-] and [ma-]. As is the

case for the preceding plural markers discussed, the non-reduced vowel

allomorph, that is to say md-, occurs in the widest number of phonological

environments and is therefore the underlying form. The allomorph ma-

occurs before nasals, just as was seen above with respect to the other plural

marker allomorphs.

Class 6 also has some "double-marked" nouns. These appear to have

belonged to class 10 at one point. (Class 10 nouns are marked with an initial

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 voiceless prenasalized stop.) However, these nouns are now marked with the

class 6 plural marker and trigger class 6 concord.

(23) Double-marked nouns

bal ms-mpal 'bowl'

be ma-mpe 'toilet, latrine'

dfbo mo-ntiba 'brook, fountain'

dig ma-ntig 'bush (land)'

b55g ma-mp55g 'hoe'

1 .4 C la s s e s 7 /8

Class 7 is the default class for inanimate objects.

(24) sa be-sa ’thing’

famb be-famb 'farm, field'
kekena be-kekena 'story, proverb'

However, there are some exceptions to this trend, as shown below.

(25) kag be-kag 'child'

sinj bi-sinj ’squirrel'

Class 7 nouns are consistently zero-marked, but the class 8 noun prefix

marker has three allomorphs, parallel to w hat was seen for class 4: [be-],

[bi-], and [ba-].

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 (26) kunda be-kunda 'cultivated ground'
ntwomb be-ntwomb, ba-ntwomb 'fight'
sa be-sa, bi-sa 'thing'

Begne (1980) consistently marks the plural of class 7 nouns as beginning

with bi-. In my corpus, the pattern for class 8 is very similar to that seen for

the class 4 noun prefix, [be-] occurs in the widest number of phonological

environments (as was the case for the class 4 allomorph [me-]) and will

therefore be considered to be the underlying form, [bd-] occurs before nasals

and the alveolar fricatives, while [bi-] primarily occurs before palatals (or for

some speakers the alveolar fricatives).

ntwomb be-ntwomb, ba-ntwomb 'fight'

rmshwan ba-mishwan 'church'
si ba-si 'land'
sa bisa, besa ’thing’
Jwel bi-Jwcl ’lizard'
jwala bi-jwala 'banana'

1 .5 C la s s 9

Classes 9 and 10 are identical in their concord agreement. They have

been kept distinct in this analysis because class 9 nouns are singular, with

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 their plurals formed in class 6 , while class 1 0 nouns are all collective nouns

(and therefore plural), primarily formed from class 7 stems.

Below are some examples of class 9 nouns with their corresponding

class 6 plurals.

(28) kwad mo-kwad 'village'

fog mo-fog 'wisdom'

Many class 9 nouns have a prenasalized stop as their initial consonant.

This is probably a historic rem nant from the Proto-Bantu class 9/10 noun

prefix which has been reconstructed as a non-syllabic homorganic nasal.

(29) mpwag 'family line, succession'

nkeg ma-nksg 'promise'

ndu ma-ndu 'virgin'

nji ma-nji 'frontier, border'

In contrast to class 10 nouns, discussed below, class 9 nouns begin with

both voiced and voiceless prenasalized stops. However, a few of the derived

nouns which end up in class 9 show evidence of the devoicing process seen

with class 1 0 nouns.

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 (30) bwag 'be big' mpwaag 'bigness, fatness' (9)
duga 'agonize' ntiiga 'agony' (9)

jam 'destroy' ncam 'leprosy (destroyer)' (9)

1 .6 C la s s io

As was noted above, class 10 nouns are all plural. All class 10 nouns

begin with a voiceless prenasalized stop, which is in part a reflex of the

homorganic nasal prefix reconstructed for both class 9 and class 10 nouns in

Proto-Bantu. However, for those nouns which have a singular form, a

difference can be seen between the historic nasal prefix and the synchronic

situation in that the class 1 0 plural is marked both by a prenasalization and a

devoicing of the initial consonant, as shown by the example below.

(31) Class 7 /10 nouns

baanj mpaanj 'bamboo stick'
buumb mpuumb 'palm branch'
buund mpuund 'skin of fruit'

bumo mpumo 'fruit'

Some nouns contrast a countable class 8 plural and an uncountable

class 1 0 plural, as shown below.

(32) class 7 /8 buund 'skin, shell' bebuund (as in eggshells)

class 1 0 mpuund (as in peanut shells)

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 Oddly enough, all the class 10 nouns in my lexicon also begin with

/m p / as can be seen below.

mpumo 'fruits'
mpwiqg 'problems'
mpanj 'bamboo'

mpi 'palmnuts'
mpiglba 'suppository'
mpyel 'trousers'
mpuga 'fracture'
mpwaj 'com grain'

2 Pronouns

Pronouns in Kol are marked for noun class, number and person. They

do not mark gender (masculine vs. feminine). Personal pronouns (first and

second person) are extremely common in Kol discourse, as are third person

pronouns for classes 1 and 2 , with pronouns for the other classes occurring

much less frequently. First and second person pronouns are reserved for

human referents or for animal protaganists in folk tales and proverbs.

Coordinate noun phrases which include a pronoun (e.g he and she)

require that the first pronoun be plural, to reflect the plurality of the entire

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 group. In these constructions, the third person pronoun is replaced by the

noun nob meaning 'other,' banob in the plural. It is interesting that this

morpheme bears a strong resemblance to the genitive stem for 'their,' i.e. -ob.

(34) a. biza nob 'we (dual)'

we other

b. biza ba-nob 'we (plural)'

we 2-other

In the example sentence below, the narrator refers to a time when he

and his wife were both gravely ill but recovered.

(35) bw = a Jurja biza nob ba-b-ez.

they-P2 discuss us other 2-2-each, all
'They saved both of us.' [intended 'me and her, each of us'] (Joy.37)

It is interesting to note that this construction does not require that the

second participant also be referred to by means of a pronoun, as in the

example above. In the example below, the second participant in the

coordinate subject noun phrase is a full noun.

(36) m s = na "ki nap na two d-ul dw-ap

me that neg still and even,if 5-another 5-day

le-sis, biza na ma-jiok e kwo bwame."

5-different we and 4-wine fut again meet
'I said that, "Never again will wine and I meet.'" (Perils.97)

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 2 .1 S u b je c t P ro n o u n s

Personal pronouns are common in Kol discourse. When the tense

marker immediately follows a pronoun, the pronoun cliticizes to the tense

marker, forming a single phonological unit.

(37) e-man-e p=e bara m-ur.

o n -m o m in g - F o c h e /s h e -F l greet 1 -p e r so n

'Tomorrow, he will greet the man.'

When a full noun phrase (NP) is present as the subject of a clause, no

additional subject marker is required, as shown in (38) and (39). This is

evidence that these morphemes are not subject agreement markers.

(38) le-wug a ba le-byol.

5-hole P2 be in-canoe
'There was a hole in the canoe.'

(39) mpu e banda nwi.

7-rain Fut really fall (rain)
'It will certainly rain.'

However, when the subject noun phrase is longer than a single noun, a

subject pronoun may also be used, as shown below.

(40) mo-kwabala ma-ne mw = o se ya jid fok.

6-problem 6-that (spec) 6-Pres Perf give him/her 9-wisdom
'Those problems gave him wisdom.'

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 (41) bi-mpaanc by-ag by = a se ba fuban
8-side (of body) 8-my 8-P2 Perf be (be) clean
'My sides were clean.'

A table giving the subject pronouns is below. The first person dual is

obligatorily inclusive, referring only to the speaker and the hearer. If the

hearer is not included, the speaker must use bizo, even if only referring to

himself and one other person.

Singular Plural
1 st person excl. m= bizo
incl. biza
du al incl. ncwa
2 nd person w= be
3rd person (1/2) T= bwo
3 /4 w= myo
5 /6 dw = mwo
7 /8 jw = byo
9 /1 0 Ji = bwo
N on-ref y=

T a b le 3 .2 S u b je c t P r o n o u n s

The last pronoun given is a non-referential pronoun. It is commonly

used in cleft constructions. An example of its use is given below.

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 (42) yo = ji konoko na mpu e nwi.
Non-ref Sub be (att) true that 7-rain FI fall (rain)
'It is certain that it will rain.'

Subject pronouns are analyzed as clitics, as syntactic words (not

affixes) who are not independent phonological words. Most subject pronouns

can be analyzed as being phonologically reduced. If they appear before the

vowel initial tense markers, they form a phonological unit with the tense

markers, as can be seen in (43). However, if subject pronouns appear before

a consonant-initial word, the regular schwa epenthesis rule applies, as shown

in (44).

(43) by = a le di nji le-md-kok

8SUB-P2 Im p f stay only in-6-enclosure
'They [animals] stayed only in enclosures.' (History. 10)

(44) no mpwak jiw s= ko = k Jwok.

that family.line 9sub go-SuBj + H front (of s. th.)
'..that the family lines continues.' (History. 10)

Subject agreement markers are typically prefixes, but syntactically, Kol

subject pronouns do not act like prefixes. If they were prefixes, we would

anticipate that they would have specific selectional requirements. However,

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 subject pronouns may appear before any element in the verbal sequence, e.g.

tense markers, verbs, adverbs, or even a prepositional phrase, as shown

below.

(45) ms = no kwo ncs ter le-jwok be-wal.

I with again come start iNF-feel 8-fear
'I started to be afraid.'

To summarize, since subject markers can be analzyed as phonologically

reduced and do not have the strict selectional criteria of affixes, they can be

analyzed as clitics.

2 .2 O b je c t P ro n o u n s

Object pronouns may only appear after the verb stem. They may not

occur before the verb.

(46) tcm ba be-dop bwa = a sa wu m = ancogo yim na da byo.

even be 8-food they-P2 do there I-NegP2 can and eat 8 0 bj

'I couldn't even eat the food that they prepared there.' (Joy.08)

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 Normal Emphatic
Singular Plural Singular Plural
1st person mo biza me

incl biza

dual ncw9
2nd person wo be we

3rd person (1 /2 ) J™ bwo S& bwe

3 /4 wo myo we mye
5 /6 dwo mwd dwe mwe
7 /8 yo, jwo byo jwe bye
9 or 10 J™ Jto jiwe jiwe

T a b le 3 .3 P o s tv e r b a l O b je c t P r o n o u n s

Kol has an emphatic form which is in complementary distribution with

the normal form for almost every class, but not necessarily for every person.

(47) be tugo le numb 9 jie

you (pi) N eg Impf know him (emph)

'You don't know it (the giraffe).' (History.07)

2 .3 R e fle x iv e P r o n o u n s

These pronouns, which mean 'him alone' are formed by adding m e to

the emphatic form of the object pronoun. Personal pronoun versions use a

reduplicated form of the emphatic object pronoun.

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 (48) m = ancogo nag le jwogara me me me
I-NegP2 still Impf feel me me self
I didn't feel like myself anymore.

Singular Plural

1 st person me me me biza be me

dual ncwo me

2 nd person we we me be be me

3rd person (1/2) jie jie me bwe bwe me

3 /4 we me mye me

5 /6 dwe me mwe me

7 /8 jwe me bye me

9 or 10 jiwe me jiwe me

Table 3.4 Exclusive Pronouns

2 .4 L o c a tiv e P r o n o u n

The locative pronoun te is unlike the other pronouns in that it bears no

resemblance to either the object pronoun stems or to the concord markers.

However, it functions as a pronoun in that it replaces noun phrases referring

to a location. It is invariable. Its form does not change in accordance with

the noun class of the head noun in the locative noun phrase that it replaces.

Below is an excerpt from a text.

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 (49) Te bo m = a ter bi-sye.
Loc be I-P2 start 8-work
'That's where I started my job.'

Antecedents for the locative pronoun can be proper nouns, one of Kol's

locative nouns, or a non-locative noun modified by the locative prefix le-. A

partial list of locative nouns is given below.

(50) fag 'place' kel 'side'

bur) 'place' tarn 'middle'
mwo 'center' ('stomach') si 'earth'
wu 'there' tu 'inside'

Kol has a distinction in its locatives meaning 'here' between a specific

location and a general location. There are two words used: kog and wog. The

former is used to refer to a general location, while the latter is used to refer to

a specific location and is frequently accompanied by a gesture indicating the

location referred to. Below are some examples.

(51) m a = ji jiwai] wo kan le-bi-sa biza nde le dek

I want take you story in-8-thing H+ we be (loc) Impf see

wok na tjaaqga na bam ipq b-iz-e.

here that now with 2-brother 2-our-RELCL
'I will tell you a story about something that we see here today with our
brothers.'

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 (52) "es ko ms = ji no qkul yb wogb ?"
est-ce que I be with power die here (spec.)
"Will I die here?" (Illness.23)

Example (51) above also illustrates the locative prefix le- which can be

glossed as 'in, on, or about.' Another example is given below.

(53) "mpwam bo wok le-mbil ga ?"

python be here Loc-hole this
"The serpent was here in this hole?" (Serpent.026)

Additionally, some of these locative nouns can function as locative

particles or prepositions. One example of this is si whose primary sense is

'ground, earth.' However, si is also used to express 'down,' as in example (54)

and 'under' as in example (55).

(54) m a= jf = k bug mg ko ko ja si.

m a= ji = g + h bug H+ mo ko ko ja si
I ask-SuBJ place RelCl-I go go lie 1-earth
'[I didn't have enough sense to] ask where I could go lie down.'
(Perils. 36)

(55) no mb = nii = gk si jwoq.

no m a= nil = g + H si jwoq
and I enter-SUBj 1-earth bed
'...and should I go under the bed?

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 3 Concord systems

Noun modifiers (such as determiners, demonstratives and

possessives/genitives) agree with the class of the head noun. Kol does not

have a large set of adjectives, but those that it does have do not show any

concord with the head noun.

There are two large categories of concord systems which are

phonologically determined. One pattern has a different prefix for every noun

class (except for class 9 and class 10 which share the same concord marker).

This pattern is found for all of the vowel-initial modifier stems, i.e.

determiners, genitives, pronouns and the words for 'which' and 'each, all.'

The second pattern is found with all consonant-initial modifier stems.

It only marks plurals (numerals and the interrogative 'how many') or marks

plurals and the single class 5 (demonstratives, associative markers, and the

word for 'different'). Below is a chart showing concord prefixes for those

modifiers which mark every noun class. The singular class 1 exhibits the most

variation. It has three different prefix possibilities with slightly different

distributions. The concord markers for class 1 differ from those for class 3

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 only when it conies to the indefinite determiner and the interrogative 'which'.

They share the same prefix for the definite determiner, all genitives, and the

quantifier 'each, all.'

Noun indefinite definite 3sg Example phrase

Class determiner determiner genitive &
& 'which' & genitives 'each, all'
1 J> w- y- jiulaga mwara 'another woman'
ntum waij 'my brother'
muryiz 'each person'
2 b- b- b- bwara bbijgb 'those women'
3 w- w- y- mya wbrjgo 'that time'
njab ye 'his house'
4 mi- miy- me- [my-] miLbga mirnya 'certain times'
menjab miyoijgd 'those houses'
menjab myo 'your (sg) houses'
5 d- d- d- dwob dbijgo 'that day'
6 m- m- m- mob miz 'all the days'
7 j- j- j- kagjiz 'our child'
8 be- biy- be- [by-] bbkag byob 'their children'
9 J> Ji- b- jiob kwad 'which village?'
10 Ji- J1' Ji- mpiimo jtiz 'all fruit'

Table 3.5 Concord Pattern 1 - before V-initial stems

Below is a chart showing the concord prefixes which exhibit the second

pattern, where most singular noun classes are zero-marked.

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 Noun demonstratives, numerals, Example phrase
Class associative how many
markers, 'another'
1

2 bo- bo- bwara bona 'four women'

3
4 me- me- memya meton 'five times'
menjab misis 'different houses'
5 le- ebura lesis 'a different potato'
6 ma- mo- mdkwad. maqga 'those villages'
mdbura momye 'how many
sweet potatoes?'
7
8 be- be- besa bisis 'different things'
bekag bena 'four children'
9
10

Table 3.6 Concord Pattern 2 - before C-initial stems

4 Modifiers

Kol is an SVO language. In general, Kol phrases are head-initial. For

example, objects follow verbs, and complements of prepositions follow the

preposition. While most noun phrases in Kol are head-initial, there are also

three modifers which precede the head. These preposed modifiers tend to

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 give new information or request new information. Additionally, when

demonstratives or genitives are put in focus, they are moved from their

default position after the noun to a position before the noun.

4 .1 D e te rm in e rs

Kol has both an indefinite and a definite determiner. The determiners

always agree with the noun class of the noun they modify. They follow the

first concord pattern described above because both stems begin with a vowel.

Class D efinite Indefinite Exam ples

-ulsga

1 w5qgo jiulaga jiuldga mward 'a certain woman'

2 baqgo bilaga bwara bbrjgo 'the women'
3 waqgD wulaga wuldga mbi 'a certain type'
4 miyopgo milaga menjab miyoijgb 'the houses'
5 daqga dulaga dwdb dbrjgp 'the day'

6 maqgo mflaga mdkwad moijgo 'the villages'

7 P9g3 julaga juldga kekena 'a certain proverb'

8 biyaqga bilaga benun biydrjgo 'the birds'

9 jwrjga jiulaga jiuldga kwad 'a certain village'
10 jwqgs jiulaga mpumo joijgo 'the fruits'

Table 3.7 Kol Determiners

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 The definite determiner /-5qg5/ is used to refer to old or given

information, e.g. 'the aforementioned.' The indefinite determiner /-uloga/ is

used to introduce new participants in a text, and is generally glossed as 'a

certain, another.' The definite determiner always occurs after the head noun,

while the indefinite determiner always occurs before the head noun.

Both determiners may be abbreviated without any change of meaning.

The full form of puldga for example may be abbreviated as pula or pul. The

definite determiner may be abbreviated as boij instead of bbrjgd.

The definite determiner may be used pronominally, as shown in the

following example. When this occurs, the initial vowel is lengthened, and

the final vowel is deleted.

(56) bw-an ji boaqg ma miyai] w-aip.

2-child be(att) 2-Def 2-Poss 1-sibling 1-my
'The children are my nieces and nephews.' (lit. those of my younger sibling)

This pronominal form of the definite determiner can itself be modified

as shown by the examples below.

(57) a. e-j-55 r)g9 j-e.

LOC-7-DEF 7-his (BD.38)
'in his one’

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 V \ /
b. w-DDqga w-o
3-Def 3-your
'your one’

4 .2 D e m o n s tra tiv e s

Kol has two demonstratives, indicating 'this' /ga, q g a / and 'that' /n e /.

Both demonstratives follow the head noun unless they are in focus, in which

case they are moved to before the noun as shown in (59).

(58) a. da qga ‘this father’ (1)

be-kekena be-qga 'these parables' ( 8 )

b. b-ur ba-ne 'those people' ( 2 )

dw-ab e-ne 'that day' (5)

(59) mya bwo nca bwaant ma-ba, ne njum ...

3-time they Incp create 6-sexual.relations that (Spec) husband
'When they began an affair, th a t husband...'

As was mentioned above, demonstratives in general show fewer

concord distinctions than the determiners (or quantifiers). They all begin

with a consonant and thus follow the second concord pattern described

above, primarily marking the plural classes.

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 Class th is th a t Exam ples

ga, rjga ne

1 ga, rjga ne da rjga 'this father'

2 bsrjga bane bur bme 'those people'

3 ga, pga ne njab ne 'that house'

4 meqga mene menjab metjga 'these houses'

5 lepga, lega lene, ene dwab ene 'that day'

6 maga, maqga mane mdwara mdga 'these vacations'

7 ga, rjga ne kdga ne 'that child'

8 bepga bane bekekena berjga 'these parables'

9 ga, rjga ne kwar ne 'that village'

10 ga, rjga ne mpiimo rjga 'this fruit'

Table 3.8 Kol Demonstratives.

The stem for the first demonstrative, meaning 'this,' may begin with

either the voiced velar consonant [g] or the prenasalized [rjg]. Speakers

report that there is no difference in meaning between the two forms. Some

speakers report that the underlying form is only the non-nasalized one, that

those who add the velar nasal are doing it to "make the liasion" (as in French

where final consonants are pronounced before vowel-initial words).

However, the centralization of the [o] of the concord marker in class 2 and

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 class 6 suggests that the prenasalized allomorph is the underlying one, which

would then provide a trigger for the mid-vowel centralization rule.

(60) a. [baqga] b. bo-ba

/bo-qga/ 2 -two
2 -this

c. [maga] d. mo-lol
/m o-gga/ 6 -three
6 -this

4 .3 A n o th e r, A d if f e r e n t O ne

The morpheme sis, meaning 'another' or 'a different one,' is difficult to

categorize. Semantically, it seems to be closest to the demonstratives or the

determiners. Since it begins with a consonant, it shares the consonant-initial

concord pattern with the demonstratives (but not the determiners). It also

occurs after the head noun, as do the demonstratives and the definite

determiner. In this study, it is being kept distinct from both the determiners

and the demonstratives because it can co-occur with both sets of modifiers, as

illustrated by the examples below.

(61) d-ul dw-ap le-sis

5-a certain 5-day 5-another
'a certain other day' (Perils. 97)
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 (62) mpwo ne sis
9-accusation 9-that 9-another
'that other accusation' (Perils. 82)

Below is a chart illustrating the concord patterns found with sis. Those

classes who do not show overt concord have been excluded (classes 1, 3, 7, 9

and 1 0 ).

Class 'different' Exam ples

2 basis bdkubd bdsis 'other chickens'

4 misis menjab misis 'different houses'

5 lesis ebura lesis 'different potato'

6 masis mdbura masis 'other potatoes'

8 bisis besa bisis 'other things'

Table 3.9 Examples of sis 'another, a different'

4 .4 G e n itiv e s

Kol speakers may express possession by using a modifer marked for the

person of the possessor, i.e. the genitives described in this section, or by using

a possessive associative phrase in which the possessor is expressed by means

of a full noun, as described in section 4.8.

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 Genitives must also agree with the class of the noun that they are

modifying (in Kol, the possessed item), as shown in the example below.

(63) p = e sa jwo le-shu d-ag.

he-FuT do H + 7 OBJ 5-sake 5-m y

'He will do it for my sake.' (Elicitation.46)

Class 1SG 2SG 3SG 1PL 1PL 1PL 2PL 3PL

excl. incl dual
-og -o -e -ez -eza -zitrj -era -ob
1 w-ag W -0 y-e w-uz w-uza wu-ziig w-un w-ob
2 b-ag bw-o b-e b-ez b-iza be-zug b-in, b-in b-ob
3 w-ag W -0 p-e, y-e w-uz w-uza wu-zug w-un w-ob
4 my-ag my-o my-e m-iz m-fza mi-zug m-in my-ob
5 d-ag dw-o d-e d-fz d-iza de-zug d-in d-ob
6 m-ag mw-o m-e m-ez, m-iza mo-zug m-tn m-ob
m-iz
7 j-ag jw-o j- e j- iz j-iza ji-zug j-in j- 6 b
8 by-ag by-o by-e b-iz b-iza bi-zug b-in by-ob
9 Ji-ar) J lW -0 P -e p-fz p-iza pi-zug p-in p-ob
10 P-ag jiw-o P-e p-iz p-iza pi-zug p-in p-ob

Table 3.9 Kol Genitives

Genitives follow the first concord pattern, with markers for every class,

as shown in the table above. Genitives also have the only exception to the

phonologically-conditioning of the concord system, since the 1st person dual

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 genitive begins with a consonant and yet patterns with the rest of the

genitives which are all vowel-initial.

Genitives follow the head noun as in (64) unless they are in focus, in

which case they are moved to before the noun as in (65).

(64) ntum war) 'my brother' ( 1 )

qkwoq jie 'his responsibility' (9)
bompam biz 'our ancestors' (2 )
biyol job 'their canoe' (7)

(65) byaq beyabara 'my efforts' ( 8 )

je tie 'his position' (7)
wuz mbi 'our manner' (3)
bob bwan 'their children' ( 2 )

Possessive constructions with a noun phrase (NP) possessor are

syntactically associative phrases. Associative phrases are constructions which

associate or link a head noun with a modifying noun. The associative marker

or connective agrees with the head noun. Kol has three different associative

phrase constructions (to be discussed in section 4.8).

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 In the possessive associative phrase, the head noun is the possessed

item.The possessive associative marker has a low tone when the head noun

is class 1,9 or 10, and a high tone in all other classes.

(6 6 ) a. miyoq ms njum
1-brother lPoss 1-husband
‘my husband’s brother’

b. sisim ms nciimbe
3-spirit 3Poss God
‘the spirit of God,’ ‘the Holy Spirit’

c. le-wala ms nciimbe
5-hour 5POSS God
‘God’s time’

4 .5 Q u a n t if ie r s

In addition to numerals, Kol also has a modifer which can mean 'each' or

'all.' All quantifier modifiers follow the head noun.

4 .5 .1 ’E a c h , all'

The quantifier -iz meaning 'each, all' begins with a vowel and therefore

follows the first concord pattern, as illustrated below.

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 Class each, all Exam ples

-ez

1 y-ez m u ryiz 'each person'

2 b-cz, bobez

3 y-cz njdp y iz 'each house'

4 my-cz

5 d-ez ebiira dcz 'each sweet potato'

6 m-cz mdkwar m iz 'all the villages'

7 j-ez ka g jiz 'each child'

8 by-ez besa byiz 'everything'

9 ji-ez kwdrjiez 'each village'

10 Jl-SZ

Table 3.10 Kol Quantifier 'each, all'

As illustrated by the example phrases in the table above, this modifier

means 'each' if modifying a singular noun or 'all' if modifying a plural noun.

4 .5 .1.1 Emphasis

The quantifier may be emphasized by reduplicating the first consonant

of the noun concord prefix. This can be seen in (59) below, where the noun

class prefix is doubly marked in each example.

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 (67) a. biza nop ba-b-ez
us other 2-2-each, all
'both of us' (intended 'me and her, each of us') (Joy.37)

b. le jw a jf-j-ez
7-wood 7-your 7-7-all
'all your wood'

c. gkul ji-op jri-ji-ez

9-power 9-their 9-9-all
'all their power' (Joy.33)

4 .5 .2 N u m e r a ls

In Kol, certain numerals have a different form in isolation than they do

when they appear as modifiers to a noun. This is common to the whole Kol-

Makaa-Konzime family.

N um ber counting w /a g re e m e n t 5 Examples:

1 fog qgurug, wurug sa wurug 'one thing' (7)

2 be boba bwara boba 'two women' (2 )

3 lei bolol ncoo 161 'three times' ( 10 )

4 na bona bekagbena 'four children' (8 )

5 ton boton memya meton 'five times' ( 4 )

6 twob twob bwara twob 'six women' (2 )

7 tabel tabel menjab tabel 'seven houses' (4)

8 mwom mwom bokwont mwom 'eight months' (2 )

5 Agreement in chart is for classes 1 and 2.

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 9 ebu ebu men ter ebu 'nine hundred' (4)

10 ewum ewum bonta ewum 'ten grandchildren' (2 )

11 ewum na

fog

20 mowum
maba

100 nter

1000 toyir)

Table 3.11 Kol Numbers.

As modifiers, the numbers 2-5 agree with the head noun and occur

post-nominally. Numbers 1 and 6-9 also occur post-nominally but do not

show any concord. The num ber 10 is actually a noun and not a modifier. It

therefore forms an associative phrase with the noun being counted.

Associative phrases will be discussed below in section 4.8.

If the num ber ten is the second noun in the associative phrase, the

phrase means '1 0 ,' but if the number ten is the first noun in the associative

phrase, then it means 'approximately 1 0 .'

(6 8 ) a. be-kag e-wum
8-child 5-ten
'10 children'

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 b. e-wum e be-kag
5-ten 5Assoc 8-child
'approx. 10 children' (in French 'une dizaine d'enfants')

Below is a chart showing the concord patterns for the four numerals

which exhibit concord, i.e. numbers 2-5.

Class Ex w ord 2 3 4 5

2 bwdra boba bolol bona boton

4 menjeb meba melol mena meton

6 mdbiird moba molol mona moton

8 bekag beba belol bena beton

Table 3.12 Concord for Kol Numbers

4 .6 INTERROGATIVES

Kol interrogatives do not all behave the same way morphosyntactically.

The Kol interrogative meaning 'which', i.e. -dob, precedes the noun (and is

requesting new information) and is marked by the first concord pattern for

vowel-initial roots. The interrogative -niye 'how many?' follows the noun and

is marked by the second concord pattern for consonant-initial stems.

Below is a table showing the concord patterns of the two interrogatives

which agree with the head noun.

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 Class w hich? how m any? Exam ples

-oob -niye

1 ji-oob jioob mward? 'which woman?'

2 b-oob bo-niye bwara bornye? 'how many women?'
3 w-oob woob njab? 'which house?'
4 my-oob me-niye menjab memye 'how many houses?'
5 d-oob doob ebura? which sweet potato?'
6 m-oob mo-niye moob mdkwad? 'which villages?'
7 j-oob joob sa? 'which thing?'
8 by-oob be-niye byoob bekag? 'which children?'
9 ji-oob jioob kwad? 'which village?'
10 ji-oob niye mpumo niye 'how many fruit?'

Table 3.13 Kol Interrogatives

The quantifier meaning 'which' has differing tone patterns if it occurs

with its head noun or stands alone as a pronoun. If it occurs with its head

noun, it occurs prenominally and has a H tone (as shown in the chart above).

However, if it occurs as a stand-alone question 'which one?' then it has a LH

tonal melody and occurs with a final vowel e.

(69) woob njab? 'which house?' (3) woobe? 'which one?'

byoob bekag? 'which children?' (8 ) byoobe? 'which ones?'

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 While Kol does have other interrogatives, these are not words which

modify a noun but rather question words which stand alone. These include

the words ye meaning 'where', nee meaning 'who' and wo mbl meaning 'how'.

These question words remain in situ, as shown by the example below.

(70) tir ji ye?

meat be (att) where
'Where is the meat?'

4 .7 A d j e c t iv e s

Kol has very few adjectives. A list is given in (63). These do not show

any concord, which distinguishes them from other nominal modifiers. They

occur before the noun as shown in the examples below. A num ber of them

are derived by means of total reduplication. The source word may be a verb

(as in the case of ‘big’) or a noun (as in the case of ‘good’ and ‘bad’). These

will be discussed in more detail in section 4.7.1 and 4.7.3 below.

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 (71) Adjectives Examples

beda 'big' beda kwad 'big village'

bwagbwag 'big' bwagbwag mo-kwad 'big villages'
fam ‘real, true, good’ fams bijol ‘good canoe’
fuban ‘be clean’
mbapmbap ‘bad, evil’ mbapmbap sisim ‘evil spirit’

jiwarjjiwaq ‘good, holy’ jiwaqjiwaq lam ‘sacred heart’

ntula 'a lot' (uncountable) ntula be-sa 'a lot of things'

bubu 'a lot' bubu me-njab 'a lot of houses'

qgumba ‘entire, whole’ qgumba fum ‘entire night’

Adjectives can also occur post-nominally, as shown in (64).

(72) biyol ancogo ba faama.

7-canoe NegP3 be good
'The canoe wasn't in good condition.'

Dixon (2004) gives a list of the semantic types most typically

associated with members of an adjective word class. Kol adjectives fit into

the dimension subtype (the first in Dixon’s list),the value subtype (third on the

list), and the quantification subtype (number 11 in Dixon’s list).Many of the

other semantic types associated with adjectives in other languages are

associated with nouns or verbs in Kol. The various subtypes will be

discussed in the sections below.

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 4-7*1 D im e n s io n s
As was mentioned above, the semantic subtype of dimension is very

commonly associated with the adjective word class. This is the case for Kol,

though there are also verbs which convey information about size. The second

adjective listed is clearly derived from the verb bwag ‘be big’ via a total

reduplication process.

(73) Adjectives
beda 'big' beda kwad 'big village'

bwagbwag 'big' bwagbwag mo-kwad 'big villages'

Verbs
bwag ‘be big’
twagsba ‘be small’

ja ‘be long, be tall, be far’

Nouns
mwa ‘small’ (derived from mwan ‘child’)

Many qualities are described by verbs. In the example below, the

adverb ijkone modifies bwag 'to be big,' the main verb and is preceded by ncd

the auxiliary 'come.' For more on verbs, see chapters 4 and 5.

(74) jio nca qkone bwag.

h e /sh e com e Incr (be) big

'He became big (little by little).'

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 Comparative and superlative constructions are also formed verbally,

using the verb Idujg ‘to pass’ as shown by the two examples below.

(75) mw-an ga ji bwag lagg miyog

mw-an qga ji bwag lagg miyog
1-child 1-this be (att) (be) big pass 1-sibling (same sex)
‘This child is bigger than his brother.’ (or ‘her sister’)

(76) mw-an ga ji bwag lag beloga.

m w -an gga ji bw ag lagg be-ulaga
1 -child 1-this be (att) (be) big pass 8 -Indef

‘This child is the biggest.’ (lit. ‘passes any others’)

In Kol, smallness can either be described using the verb twagdbj as

shown in example (77) below or by using an associative phrase construction

with the noun mwa ‘small thing’ as its head noun. A plural example is given

in (78), and a singular non-human example is given in (79). This noun is

clearly derived from the word for ‘child,’ mwan, but the / n / has been lost.

(77) miyog ji twagsbo lagg jio.

mfyaij ji twagabo lagg jia
1-sibling be (att) (be) small pass him/her
‘His brother (or her sister) is smaller than him (her).’

(78) bwa bo ntdmp

2-small 2Assoc 7-younger
‘small children’

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 (79) mwa log
1-small 5-speech
‘little story’

4 .7 .2 A ge

Most words which fit into the semantic subtype of age which is

commonly associated with adjectives are nouns. These words are classified as

nouns because they have plurals, trigger concord agreement on their

modifiers and may be the heads of associative phrase constructions.

Ibor) ‘new thing, news’ (5/6)

ntdmb ‘younger person’ (7/8)
le-ses ‘girl, young woman (immature, no children)’ (5/6)
silo ‘young woman (mature, with children)’ (3/4)
Jwanj ‘young m an’ (3/4)

tutul ‘old m an’ (3/4)

twamba ‘elder person’ (1/2)

There is also a verb jwem ‘to become old, to age’ and a verb ntwoma ‘to

be young.’

4 .7 .3 V a lu e

There are three Kol adjectives which fit into the semantic subtype of

value. However, two of these are reduplicated forms of nouns. An example of

the nouns is given in (82).

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 (81) Adjectives
fam ‘real, true, good’

mbapmbap ‘bad, evil’

jiwaryiwaq ‘good, holy’

Nouns
mo-jiwap ‘good things’ (6 )
mo-mbab ‘bad things’ (6 )

(82) jia ji dek ma-bap m-ez nde kok ba-si,

jia ji deg mo-mbab m-ez nde kog bo-sf
he be (att) see 6-bad 6-all be (loc) here 2-ground

ma-jiwaq mez nde kok ba-si.

mo-jiwaq m-ez nde kog bo-sl
6-good 6-all be (loc) here 2-ground
‘He sees all the bad things here on earth and all the good things here on
earth.’

4 .7 .4 P h y s ic a l p r o p e r t y

One of Kol’s adjectives, fuban ‘be clean,’ fits into this semantic subtype.

Below is an example where this adjective is coordinated with a value

adjective.

(83) bi-mpaanc by-ar) by = a se ba fuban na jiwap jiwaq.

be-mpanc be-aq be = a se ba fuban na jiwaq jiwaq
8-side 8-my 8Sub-P2 Perf be clean and good good
‘My sides were clean and good.’ (Illness.30)

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 Other physical properties are described using nouns or verbs as shown

below.

(84) Nouns
bul ‘rotten thing’ ( 1 / 2 )
dilo ‘fullness’
mo-bwez ‘wetness’ (6 )
mpwoge ‘health’ (9)
ntwi ‘loose thing’ ( 1 / 2 )
titim ‘blind person’ (3/4)

Verbs
bwaz ‘be w et’

b51 ‘be bald’

kaz ‘be wrinkled’
tega ‘be tired’

4 .7 .5 H u m a n p r o p e n s it y

There are no Kol adjectives which describe character traits or what

Dixon calls the “human propensity” semantic subtype. Character traits are

described using either nouns or verbs.

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 (85) Verbs
bizaba ‘be patient’

yag ‘be unaware’

Jwaag ‘be crazy’
Jwaaz ‘be happy’

Nouns
ksq ‘wise one’
lad ‘crazy person, fool’
‘brave one’
wagala ‘stupid one’

There are also two nouns which are used to describe wealth, which is

neither a character trait nor a physical property. These are given below.

(8 6 ) kukum ‘rich m an’ (3/4)

mbumbwa ‘poor m an’ (3/4)

4 .7 .6 Q u a n tific a t io n

Three Kol adjectives fit into this semantic subtype. These are given

below.

(87) ntula 'a lot' (uncountable)

bubu 'a lot, many'

qgumba ‘entire, whole’

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 Other quantifying constructions use the quantifier -ez ‘each, all.’ The

adjective bubu can also appear as a complement of a preposition in an

adverbial construction as shown below.

(8 8 ) y=a ntek mo no bubu.

y=a nteg ma na bubu
NonRef-P2 annoy me with many
‘That bothered me a lot.’

4 .8 O t h e r n o u n s ( i n A s s o c ia t iv e P h r a s e s )

Associative phrases are constructions which associate, or link, a head

noun with a modifying noun. The associative marker, or connective, always

agrees with the first noun, the head noun, as shown in the example below.

(89) e-wala le-mijwan

5-hour 5Assoc-7-church
'church time'

In Kol, there are three kinds of associative phrases. In possessive

associative phrases, the first noun in the associative phrase refers to the

possessed item and the second to the possessor. The possessive associative

marker is ma.

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 (90) sisim ma-nciimbe
sisim H + mo-ncembe
3-spirit 3 + PossAssoc-God
'spirit of God, God's spirit'

The second kind of associative phrases is the qualificative, or

attributive, associative phrases, where the second noun expresses a quality of

the first. This may include location or origin. The qualificative associative

marker is a.

(91) jwanji a-kwar-e

Jwanj i H + a-kwad-e
3-young.man 3 + QuALAssoc-9-village-Foc
young man of/from the village

Finally, there is a 'basic' associative phrase, as shown below.

(92) ncug mo-dibS

ncug H + mo-dib5
7-elephant 7Assoc-6-water
'hippopotamus'

This has been given the name 'basic' because it has the least specialized

meaning, and the least specialized associative marker. For most singular

nouns, the 'basic' associative marker is either zero or a tonal marker. The

exception is the class 5 marker.

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 Below is a table giving the various forms of the markers used in these

three kinds of associative phrases.

Noun Class Basic Assoc Possessive Assoc Q ualificative Assoc

1 0 ma a

2 bo H + ma ba

3 H H + ma a

4 me H + ma mya (me + a)
5 le H + ma a

6 ma H + ma ma

7 H H + ma a

8 be H + ma bya (be + a)

9 0 ma a
A
10 0 ma a

Table 3.14 Associative Markers

Below are some examples of basic associative phrases followed by

some examples of possessive associative phrases.

(93) a. twamba mw-ara b. bw-an bo- bijump

1-elder 1-woman 2-child 2 Assoc- Bidjombo
‘old woman’ ‘Bidjombo children’

njab bw-ur me-njab me- bw-ur

3-house H+ 2-people 4-house 4Assoc 2-people
‘family’ ‘families’

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 e. esap le ncam f. mowum ma ton
5-illness 5Assoc 9-leprosy 5-ten 5Assoc five
‘leprosy’ ‘fifty’

g- ncug mo-diba be-kag be Jukul

7-elephant H+ 6-water 8-child 8Assoc 7-school
‘hippopotamus’ ‘school children’

i. ntu mo-ci
9-diarrhea 6-blood
‘dysentery’

(94) miyoq mo njum

1-brother lPoss 1-husband
‘my husband’s brother.’

b. sisim ma nciimbe
3-spirit 3POSS God
‘the spirit of God,’ ‘the Holy Spirit’

c. le-wala ma nciimbe
5-hour 5POSS God
‘God’s time’

In the neighboring language of Makaa, the forms of the possessive and

qualificative markers are formed by adding the basic associative marker to

the possessive and qualificative roots (ma and a with polar tone6). In Kol

’ Polar to the first tone of the second noun.

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 however, only the qualificative associative morpheme shows concord, while

for the possessive morpheme it is only the tone of the basic associative

marker which is added. Below are the Makaa forms (Heath 2003:341).

Noun Associative Associative Marker + Associative Marker +

Class Marker Possessive Marker Qualificative Marker

1 0 m'd a
/
2 O 0 w'a

3 H m'd a

4 mi mi my'a

5 l'u m'd l'u-'a

6 m'd m'd my'a

7 H m'd a

8 1 '1 y'a

9 0 m'd a

10 0 m'd a

Table 3.15 Associative Markers in Makaa

4 .8 .1.1 Ordinal N um bers

Ordinal numbers in Kol are formed via qualificative associative

phrases. (For more on associative phrases, see section 4.8.) The Kol ordinal

numbers for second through fifth are based on the numbers used for counting

in isolation. The expression 'first' is derived from the word meaning 'front.'

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 'First' and 'second' may describe plural head nouns, but the remaining

numbers in the series may only modify singular nouns.

N um ber counting o rdinal Examples:

1 fog msshwog mwdrd a mdshwog 'first woman'

2 be bee mwdrd a bee 'second woman'

3 lei lei mward a lei 'third woman'

4 na na mwdrd a na 'fourth woman'

5 ton ten mwdrd a ten 'fifth woman'

6 twob twobe mwdrd a twobe 'sixth woman'

Table 3.16 Ordinal Numbers

5 Derivational morphology

Kol has a number of derivational processes which either modify or create

nouns. Reduplication is used to create new noun stems from existing noun

stems. Additionally, nouns may be created from verbs through a number of

different processes.

5 .1 N o u n t o N o u n D e r i v a t io n

Nouns which are derived from other nouns are formed by means of

reduplication. Most of these new nouns are dimunitives, but there are

exceptions. One is given below.

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 (95) ncam 'leprosy' (9) ncmcam 'leper' (3)

5.1.1 D im in u t iv e

Nouns meaning 'small x' are formed by reduplicating the initial

consonant of the base noun on its left edge. The regular epenthetic schwa

rule will insert a schwa between the two consonants, as illustrated in the

examples below.

(96) kag 'child' (7/8) kakag 'small child'

fog 'wisdom' (9) fafog 'small wisdom'
mwan 'child, offspring' ( 1 ) mam wan 'small child'

5 .2 D e v e rb a l N ouns

Kol creates both agentive nouns and result nouns from verbs. Both can

be created by using a homorganic nasal prefix or by adding a final vowel or

both. However, they each have their own unique processes as well.

5 .2 .1 A g e n tiv e n o u n s

In Kol, there are a number of different processes which may be used to

create nouns out of verbs. For creating the agent of a particular action, these

include: adding a suffix vowel, adding the suffix -Id (or -Z), or adding a nasal

prefix.

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 For agentive nouns which are formed by adding a suffix vowel, the

most common vowel to add is -e. Below are some examples.

(97) kwig 'travel, walk' kwige 'traveler' (1)

jiwsl 'drink' jiwsle 'drinker' ( 1 )

mwel 'solicit sex' mwela 'boyfriend, girlfriend' ( 1 )

Other nouns can be formed by adding the suffix -I or -Id, as shown

below.

(98) jibs 'steal' jibsls 'thief (1)

yo 'give' yol 'giver' ( 1 )

Additionally, agentive nouns can be formed by adding a homorganic

nasal prefix. This is the most common way to form agentive nouns. The

agentive nasal prefix does not trigger devoicing on the following consonant.

This agentive nasal prefix is probably a reflex of the class 1 prefix *mo which

can still be seen prefixed to vowel-initial nouns. However, synchronically,

class 1 nouns which begin with a consonant are zero-marked.

(99) jw i 'rule over' njwi 'king, chief (1)

jigsle 'teach' njigsle 'teacher' ( 1 )

It is extremely common for more than one strategy to be used at a time,

as illustrated below, where in (76a), the noun is formed by both adding the

119

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 nasal prefix mentioned above and the suffix -I, while in ( 1 0 0 b), the nouns are

formed by adding the nasal prefix and the suffix vowel -e.

a. ju 'kill' njul 'butcher (n)' ( 1 )

di 'live, stay' ndil 'dweller' ( 1 )

ju 'cry' njiil 'crier' ( 1 )

b. bugs 'accuse' mbuge 'accuser' ( 1 )

dub ’paint' ndube 'painter' ( 1 )
dug 'row' nduge 'rower' ( 1 )

jig 'learn' njige 'learner, student' ( 1 )

juna ’fight’ njune 'fighter' ( 1 )

5 .2 .2 R e s u lt n o u n s

Deverbal nouns which refer to the result of the action may be formed

by changing the tonal contour, changing the final vowel of the root verb,

adding a suffix vowel, or adding a nasal prefix. Unlike the nasal prefix seen

with agentive nouns, the nasal prefix found on these nouns may devoice the

following consonant.

As mentioned above, some nouns can be formed by changing the tonal

contour of the root verb. Examples are given below.

(101) yala 'answer (v)' yala 'response' (7)

mbeg 'be open' mbeg 'separation' (3)

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 Other nouns are formed by changing the final vowel of the verb root.

This is the second vowel in disyllabic roots and the first vowel in

monosyllabic roots.

(102) jibs 'steal' jibo 'theft' (7)

lab 'speak' 15b 'language, word' (3)
15b 'problem' (3)
sab 'get sick' escb 'illness' (5)

Deverbal nouns may also be created by adding a vowel to the end of

the verb root.

(103) numb 'know' numba 'knowledge' (3)

numbe 'prophecy'
cig 'cut' ciga 'saw'

As was the case with agentive nouns, non-agentive deverbal nouns may

also be created by adding a nasal prefix. These nouns group into two classes.

Those which end up in class 9 have a nasal prefix followed by a voiceless

consonant, even if the initial consonant of the verb root was voiced. This is

similar to the process seen synchronically for class 10 nouns and is most

likely a reflex of the nasal prefix reconstructed for both class 9 and class 10

nouns. The nasal prefix for nouns which are assigned to other noun classes

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 does not trigger devoicing, as shown by the last two examples given in the list

below. These non-devoicing nasals may be reflexes of the Proto-Bantu class 3

prefix, reconstructed as "mo.

(104) keg 'promise (v)' qksg 'promise (n)'

bwag 'be big' mpwaag 'bigness, fatness' (9)
jam 'destroy' ncam 'leprosy (destroyer)' (9)

jagala 'pray' njagala 'prayer' (3)

byel 'be born' mbyel 'blood relative' (3)

As was the case for agentive nouns, more than one strategy may be used.

In example (105) below, the noun is formed by both adding a nasal prefix and

a suffix vowel.

(105) del 'bury' ndela 'burial'

jiiul ’be bitter' njuula 'bitter leaf vegetable' (3 )

The noun below is formed by both adding a nasal prefix and changing

the last vowel of the verb stem.

(106) bagala 'load (v)' mbagalo 'load' (3)

jam b 'cook (v)' njomb 'cook' ( 1 )
jaand 'walk' njond 'walking trip' (3 )

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 In (107), the noun is formed by adding a nasal prefix and changing the

tonal contour.

(107) bwama 'meet' mpwama 'meeting'

bwamba 'follow in time' mpwamba descendant (pi. same)

bwela 'take revenge' mpwela 'debt' (9/6)

Additionally, there are some non-agentive nouns who do not seem to

follow strictly any of the patterns given above. This may be because they are

derived from related verb stems existing in the language but not found in my

current corpus. For example, the word for 'sleeping mat' could be derived

from the simplex verb root bwag, though only the complex verb given below

has been elicited (which appears to include a derivational suffix).

(108) bwagabs 'lie down' mpwag 'sleeping mat'

bugs 'accuse' mpugaga 'accusation' ( 1 )
jii 'cry' njiila 'moan' (3)

Additionally, result nouns may be formed by zero-derivation or

conversion, as illustrated below.

(109) nji 'mark out’ nji 'border'

ntwoma 'be young' ntwoma 'boy' (1 )
jug 'suffer' jug 'poison'

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 6 Word order within the noun phrase

As was mentioned above, most modifiers follow the noun. The

exceptions are the indefinite determiner, the interrogative 'which,' adjectives,

and focused demonstratives or genitives.

6 .1 M u l t ip l e P o s t p o s e d M o d i f i e r s

A single noun may of course be modified by more than one element at

a time. Genitives consistently appear closest to the noun, while quantifier

and sis 'another' appear on the periphery of the noun phrase. This is shown

below.

(110) Head Noun Genitive Demonstrative Definite Determiner

Another
Quantifier

Examples are given below.

a. ntum w-aq w-55 qg 9

1-brother l-m y 1-Def

b. mw-an w-aq a Oga

1-child l-m y 1-this

c. rjkul ji-op ju-jt-ez

9-power 9-their 9-9-each

The demonstratives appear before the quantifier and sis 'another.'

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 (1 1 2 ) a. mpwo ne sis
9-accusation 9-that 9-another
'that other accusation' {Perils.82)

b. le ne j-ez
7-wood 7-this 7-all

6 .2 R e la tiv e C la u s e s

Relative clauses in Kol are formed by adding a H tone to the left edge

of the embedded clause. Many relative clauses also have an enclitic = e on

the right edge of the relative clause, as shown below. Unlike what is seen in

some other Bantu languages, including the closely related language Makaa,

there is no change in the tonal contour of a verbal sequence found inside of a

relative clause.

(113) bimp biz = e kwag = e

mbimbi biz = e kwag-e
amount RelCl-wc-Fut put.up-RELCL

'The amount we can put up with...'

The right edge enclitic is not obligatory, as shown by the relative

clause below which lacks it. That is to say, there is no enclitic found after

'eight,' which is the end of the embedded clause.

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 (114) m=a ba na mw-an a ba na bo-kwont mwom
m=a bo no mw-an H+ a bo no bo-gkuund mwom
I-P2 be with 1-child RelCl-P2 be with 2-month eight
'I had with me my child who was eight months old.'

Some of the head nouns of the relative clauses which lack a right

boundary enclitic are locative nouns which have special relative clause

markers in related languages (e.g. Makaa, see chapter 6 for more

information).

(115) fag biza ter ba le-dump

fag h + biza ter ba le-dump
where RELCL-we first be
'...where we first were at the party...' (Perils.34)

Kol permits relative clauses to be hosted by nouns with all kinds of

grammatical relations. In addition, all relative clauses in Kol are examples of

gapping. That is to say, the noun within the relative clause that would have

been co-referential with the head noun is deleted and not replaced with a

resumptive pronoun. Below is an example of a subject relative clause.

(116) jio ji m-ur nde le dubs ma-kwmde.

jio = ji m-ur h + nde le dub mi-kwmde
he/she be (att) 1-person RELCL-be (loc) Impf fish 4-hook-RELCL
'He is someone who fishes with hooks.'

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 Relative clauses can also be formed from either of the two objects

allowed in Kol clauses. One is prototypically the patient while the other is

prototypically the beneficiary. In example (117), the head noun of the

relative clause below is underlyingly the patient of the embedded clause.

Again, there is no resumptive pronoun present in the relative clause.

(117) biy-55qga m = a ter jiwaq-e

be-ooqga H+ m = a ter jiwar)-e
8-Def RelCl-I-P2 first take-RELCL
'...w hat I first took...." (Perils.34)

In the example below, the head noun is underlyingly the beneficiary in

the embedded clause.

(118) bw-an m=e jam b be-dob = e

bo-an H+ m = e jamb be-dob = e
2-child RelCl-I-P1 prepare 8-food-RELCL
'The children that I prepared food for...."

The head noun of the relative clause below is underlyingly a location

in the embedded clause below. This is a third semantic role possibility for

direct objects in Kol.

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 (119) bug m=a b = e.
bug h + ms = a bs = e
place RelCl-I-P2 be-RELCL
'...where I was.' (Perils.94)

Finally, Kol also allows adjunct relative clauses. In the example below,

the head noun is underlyingly an adjunct, an optional temporal noun phrase,

in the embedded clause.

(1 2 0 ) m = o numb twaqgala d-wop m = a jam b bwo be-dob = e.

1-Pres know think 5-day H + I-P2 prepare them 8-food-RELCL
'I remember the day that I prepared food for them.'

Nouns which are the heads of a relative clause can fulfill any

grammatical relation in the matrix clause. Below is an example where the

noun modified by the relative clause is the subject.

(1 2 1 ) bw-an m = e jam b be-dob = e ji bw-an

bo-an H+ m = e jamb be-dob = e ji bo-an
2-child RelCl-I-P1 prepare 8-food-RELCL be (att) 2-child
'The children that I prepared food for are the children...."

In the example below, the head noun is the object of the main verb.

(1 2 2 ) m=o numb twaqgala d-wop m = a jam b bwo be-dob = e.

I-Pres know think 5-day H + I-P2 prepare them 8-food-RELCL
'I remember the day that I prepared food for them.'

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 Relative clauses can also modify a noun marked with the locative

prefix le- as shown below.

(123) ma = jl jtwaq wo kan le-bi-sa bfza

ma = ji Jiwaij wo kan le-be-sa H + biza
I be (att) take you folk, tale Loc-8-thing RELCL-we

le dek wok na caa-qga na ba-mfyaq b-fze.

le dek w og no ca-qga no bo-miyoi] b -fz -e
Impf see here with now-here with 2-sibling 2-our-RELCL
'I will tell you a story about what we see today with our brothers.'
(Serpent. 01)

It is also very common to have adjunct clauses with relative clauses

modifying temporal or locative head nouns, as shown below.

(124) mya y o= ko nigo je wu = f

mya H + yo = ko nigo je wu = e
3-time RelCl + 7Sub go return arrive there-RELCL
'Arriving there, ...'

6 .2 .1 C le ftin g C o n s tr u c tio n

In addition to the prototypical relative clauses seen above, Kol speakers

also frequently use a construction which is a cross between a cleft

construction and a relative clause. It is not exactly like a relative clause

because, as can be seen in the example below, the head noun of the relative

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 clause, which is the object of the copula is co-referential with the subject and

is therefore deleted. So out of three co-referential noun phrases (the subject,

the object and the object of the embedded clause), only one is overtly

expressed, i.e. the subject of the matrix clause.

(125) e-kan bo ji = e deg = e.

e-kan ba H + ji = e deg = e.
5-antelope be he-Pl see-RELCL
'It's the antelope that he saw.'

The negated version of this cleft construction makes use of the negative

copula. However, in the negated version, the copula appears first, which

means that of the three co-referential nouns present underlyingly, the only

one which is overtly expressed is the direct object of the copula.

(126) tuga le-kan jia nde le deg = e.

tug le-kan jia nde le deg = e.
be (neg) 5-antelope he be (loc) Impf see-RELCL
'It's not the antelope that he saw.'

6 .2 .2 R e la tiv e C la u s e E n c litic

Since the relative clause enclitic occurs at the right boundary of a

clause, it may be hosted by a verb as shown in (127) or a noun, i.e. the direct

object of the clause, as shown in (128). This morpheme may be hosted by

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 members of two different parts of speech, which is morphosyntactic behavior

typical of a clitic and not a suffix.

(127) e-kan ba ji = e deg = e.

e-kan ba H + ji = e deg = e.
5-antelope be he-Pl see-RELCL
'It's the antelope that he saw.'

(128) m=o numb tw aggab d-wop m=a jam b bwo be-dob = e.

I-Pres know think 5-day H + I-P2 prepare them 8-food-RELCL
'I remember the day that I prepared food for them.'

While it is not obviously phonologically deficient, being a vowel and

therefore possibly something which could stand on its own, it does seem to

form a phonological word with its host. This may be seen in the way that the

enclitic = e is affected by the shape of its host, as shown below in example

(129) as well as the way that it impacts the shape of the host itself, as shown

in example (130).

•A
<o

mya ko nigo wu = i
>>

je
II

mya H + yo = ko nigo je wu = e
3-time RelCl + NonRef go return arrive there-RELCL
'Arriving there, ...'

Below, the presence of the enclitic causes the final vowel of the verb to
be deleted.

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 (130) /m w -ur ba h + ji = 6 = waza = e / * [m urba jiiwaze]
1-man be RelCl + he-Pl -forget-RELCL
'This is the man that he forgot.'

To summarize, the lack of strict co-occurrence restrictions suggests that

it is not a suffix, while the phonological processes seen suggest that the clitic

and its host form a single phonological word, and that the relative clause

boundary marker therefore is not an independent word. Since the evidence

shows that it is neither a suffix nor an independent word, then it must be a

clitic.

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 4 Elements of the Verb Phrase

This chapter will discuss the various elements found within the Kol

verb phrase, e.g. tense markers, auxiliaries, main verbs, etc. The following

chapter, chapter 5, will discuss the ways in which these elements may be

combined and examine the syntax of the verb phrase.

In Kol, the verb phrase is the heart of the language. Verb phrases may

be very complex, containing multiple auxiliaries, as well as tense, aspect and

modal markers. All preverbal elements in Kol are independent words or

clitics.

In the sections below, the Kol verb stem will be described, followed by

discussions of tense, aspect, and mode markers. Section 3 will discuss

auxiliaries, followed by a description of negation strategies in section 4.

Section 5 will address the question of adverbs. (1) below gives the relative

ordering of these preverbal elements, with the exception of adverbs which can

appear between any two words.

(1) Tense Copula Aux Aspect/Mode Auxiliary Verb

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 1 Verb Stem

Kol verbs may be CV, CVC or CVCV.7 The initial consonant may be

palatalized or labialized. Below are some examples of different verb root

shapes.

(2) CV roots
bi 'startle, surprise' kwe 'help'
sa 'act, do' bya 'beget'
tu 'dig'

CVC roots
lab 'speak' fyal 'test'

bir 'leave to one side' kwir 'save'

deg 'see' kwez 'cough'

CVCV roots
dumb 'fall' cela 'love'
bilb 'find after searching'
lima 'dream' bwamb 'meet'
kuqa 'defecate' Jweza 'be dry'

For many Bantu languages, it is descriptively useful to distinguish

between the verb root (or minimum radical) and the verb stem, which consists

7 There are 39 CV verb roots ( + 1 4 CGV roots), 135 CVC roots (+ 53 CGVC roots) and 81 CVCV roots
( + 1 4 CGVCV roots), making up almost 60% of the lexicon.

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 of the verb root, plus any valence-changing derivational suffixes (or

extensions), and an inflectional final vowel marking tense or mood.

However, in Kol there are only relics remaining of the proto-Bantu

extensions. There are a number of longer verbs (CVCVC etc) which appear to

contain frozen relics of an extension system, but these relics are not

productive. This will be discussed in section 1.1 below.

Neither does Kol have an inflectional final vowel which marks tense

and aspect as many Bantu languages do. Morphemes which fill those

functions are all found preverbally. Kol verbs may end in a num ber of

different vowels, but this vowel does not change in different tense, aspect or

mode constructions.

Verbs ending in different vowels are given below. The front vowel / e /

is relatively rare in this position. The high vowels / i / and / u / and the mid

front vowel / e / primarily occur in monosyllabic verbs. These have most

likely have ended up in final position due to erosion on the right edge.

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 (3) / i / /u /
bi 'startle, surprise' tu 'dig'
di 'stay, dwell' ju 'vomit'
• /

Ji 'ask' ku 'fail'
jw i 'rule over' lu ’sting'

/e / /o /
kwe 'help' do 'eat'

je 'arrive' nigo 'return'

Jwe 'bleed' jo 'climb'
fye 'suck' jwabo 'respect'

/£ / /D /
bs 'plant' badaba 'perch'
Jums 'build' mina 'swallow'
buba 'roast'
lwambala 'send on

/a / /a /
duma 'fall' sa 'act, do'
bila 'find after searching' bya 'beget'
bwama 'meet' cela 'love'
kura 'beat (heart)' lima 'dream'

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 The central vowels / a / and / a / and the back vowels / o / and / o / are all

common as the last segment in polysyllabic verbs. These vowels form a

natural class of the non-high, non-front vowels as can be seen below.

front central back

high i

mid e 9 o
low e ■ a D

Table 4.1 Final vowels in polysyllabic verbs.

The four vowels which are common as the last segment in

polysyllabic words are all possible reflexes of the proto-Bantu vowel *a (see

chapter 7, section 4.3 for more details). In Bantu languages with an

inflectional final vowel marking tense or mode, the final vowel - a is the most

common final vowel, generally used to mark the indicative. (Miti 2001,

Mohammed 2001)

As was noted above, the final vowel of Kol verbs does not change due

to inflectional processes. However, it may change when a deverbal noun is

derived, as was described in chapter 3, section 5.2.2.

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 In general, the final vowel may not be deleted either. The one

exception to this is found in the relative clause construction, where if a verb

hosts the relative clause right boundary enclitic = e and if the verb ends in

/ a / , the / a / is deleted. It is interesting that this only occurs with the vowel

/ a / , which as was alluded to above, is the most direct descendent of the most

common inflectional final vowel in the inherited proto-Bantu system. (See

chapter 3, section 6.2.1.)

1 .1 E x te n s io n s

Bantu languages are well known for their valence-changing suffixes,

known as extensions. In Kol, while there are a number of verbs which appear

to contain such suffixes, these are synchronically only frozen relics. Only the

passive extension may still be productive.

Proto-B antu Kol

JU• •
causative "1C-1 -3 Z 9 ,

a->e
V s
b en efac tiv e / *-id -ea
applicative
passive *ib-u -owa

Table 4.2 Extensions in Proto-Bantu and their relics in Kol

138

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 The passive suffix is more productive, though still relatively rare, than

the other extension candidates. However, it has a number of different forms.

One, -owa, is clearly related to the passive suffix found in other Bantu

languages, like -V w in Mokpe (Kagaya 1992:29), -w in Swahili (Mohammed

2001:205), and -iw in Cinsanga (Miti 2001:91). Example sentences are given

below.

tir se d-owa.
tfr se do-owa
meat Perf eat-PASS
'The meat is eaten.'

(5) bizo nca ko le-dump a s-owa-we

we come go to-dance (n) + h P2 do-PASS-RELCL
'We went to the party that had been organized.' (Perils. 11)

However, there are other passive constructions which suggest that the

underlying form of the passive may be underspecified as a glide plus the

vowel / a / . In the example below, the last word is a passive verb which has

the glide / y / instead of /w /.

(6 ) ji = i ba le nco... kabo bi-ya.

ji = e ba + H le + H nco + H kabo h -e bi-ya + h
he/she-Pl be Impf come but he/she-Pl seize-PASS
'He was com ing...but he got caught.'

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 Below is a complete list of passive verbs present in my corpus.

Sentences meant to elicit passive verbs mostly failed. As can be seen from the

three examples above, when a passive is possible, it is the object with the

semantic role of patient which becomes the new subject.

dowa 'be eaten' from do 'eat'

sowa 'be done' sa 'do'
sowawa 'be done' sa 'do'
biya 'be seized' bi 'seize'
numbawa 'be known' numb 'know'
kegawa 'be organized' keg 'organize'

There are no productive causative processes. There are two words

which may have reflexes of the proto-Bantu causative suffix *ic-i.

(8 ) sagozo 'shake' from sa 'do'

kwamaza 'prepare'

There are also a number of words which correlate to what has been

described as an ablaut causativization process in related languages. Below

are some examples. This is not currently productive in Kol either.

(9) wul 'take out' wol 'get up'

ber 'put, place' bar 'climb in'
bwed 'clothe' bwad 'wear clothes'

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 b-ur me wol le-mo-wala h + mo-lol
2-person be (chg) get.up Loc-6-hour 6-Poss-6-three(3)
'The people got up at 3 am ....' (Perils.6 6 )

*
( 1 1 ) mya m-ur a ba le ji wul ma kwint le-lu = we,
m ya H + m-ur a bo le ji wul mb kw ende le-lu = e
tim e RELCL-l-man P2 be IMPF w ant rem ove me hook Loc-head-RELCL

When the man wanted to take the hook out of my hair, [I told him, "While
you're taking that out, time is going by."]

There are also two possible relics left from the proto-applicative suffix

*id. A small set of verbs appear to have a frozen derivational morpheme -I.

However, these appear to have somewhat passive semantics.

(1 2 ) byel 'be bom' from bya 'give birth'

bwil 'be broken'

There is another relic where the *d has been lost, but the vowel of the

applicative and the inflectional final vowel has been retained (as is common

in other Bantu languages. An example is given below.

(13) ncw = e d-ea no bwa.

w e (dual)-F l eat-AppL w ith them

'They will take care of us.' (lit. We will eat from them.)

Finally, there is a possible frozen element which may be a reflex of a

reflexive extension, shown below, though it differs in shape quite a bit from

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 the reconstructed *-an reflexive extension, which is very common in other

Bantu languages.

(14) biz = a tuk le yig-ala na da.

we-P2 be (neg) Impf pretend-RECP with ancestor
'We shouldn't compare ourselves to the father.' (Ram.42)

This is not productive, and in general to express meanings like 'himself

or 'themselves,' Kol speakers will use the exclusive pronoun described in

chapter 3.

Another relic, possibly of the *-ud reversive extension, is illustrated by

the two examples below. The relationship between the two verbs seems to be

one of antonymy, or reversive.

(15) ji = i se dip le-be.

ji-e se + h dib + h le-be
he/she-Pl already open 5-door
'She opened the door.'

(16) ji = i se dibalo le-be.

jr-e se + h dibold + h le-be
he/she-Pl already close 5-door
'She closed the door.'

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 In other pairs, a similar frozen suffix (which differs in its final vowel)

seems to mark the relationship between related intransitive and transitive

verbs.

mpyo ye se banda dimba duk.

mpyo e se + H[ banda + h dimba duk
1-dog PI Perf really be.lost forest
'The dog is lost in the forest.'

se dimbala mpyo y-e duk.

II

ji-e se + H dimbala + h mpyo y-e dug

he/she-Pl Perf lose 1-dog 1-his forest
'He lost his dog in the forest.'

In Kol, there are three additional frozen suffixes which when affixed to

a verb root may alter the semantics of the verb in irregular ways. The

differing semantic relationships between root and derived stem are intriguing,

as is the number of times the semantics does not seem to change. A listing of

related words is given below.

(19) -ala
jabala 'call back' jab 'call (s.o.)'
jigala 'teach' jik 'learn'
fyazala 'examine' fyal 'test, examine'
bwegale 'bring up' bweg 'bring up'
ntegala 'annoy' ntsk 'annoy'

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 bambala 'shout at' bam roar

(20) -aba
jogaba 'hear' jwok 'hear, feel'
buguba 'prosper' bu 'be scarce'

(21) -ara
jwagara 'suspect' jwok 'hear, feel'

In summary, while synchronically Kol does not have any productive

valence-changing suffixes, there is evidence that it may have in the past.

These suffixes are now frozen, non-productive, and non-transparent in their

semantics.

2 Tense, Aspect, and Mode

Tense, aspect and mode may be marked in Kol by auxiliaries, clitics or

independent words, or by a combination of all three. Auxiliaries will be

discussed in section 3. In the sections below, tense markers will be discussed

first, followed by discussions of aspect and mode.

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 2 .1 T ense

Kol has five absolute tenses and one relative tense. In the affirmative,

there are two past tenses, a present tense, and two future tenses. The time

spans that the absolute tenses cover are given below.

P2 PI Pres FI F2

Ancestors' Era Last Year Yesterday Today Tomorrow Next Year

Kol marks tense through a combination of tense morphemes and

grammatical tones. Most tenses are marked by a single vowel, but two tenses,

the distant future and the relative immediate past tense, combine a tense

vowel with an additional tense morpheme. All of the tenses except the far

past share a similar tonal contour, in that a high tone is added after every

word in the verbal sequence. This will be discussed in more detail in section

2.1.7.

The tense morphemes are the first element in the verb and form a

phonological word with pronominal subjects. As is to be expected, the tense

vowels are all in complementary distribution with each other. In addition,

they are in complementary distribution with the proclitic portion of the

perfective negative marker, discussed in section 4.1.

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 The absolute tenses are marked by the following morphemes:

far past (P2) a

recent past (PI) e+H

present o +H

near future(FuT) e +H

distant future (F2) e + bwo + H

While the recent past and the future morphems have the same

underlying shape, they trigger different phonological processes as will be

discussed in section 2.1.2 and 2.1.3 below.

The relative immediate tense is marked by the morpheme IwanddbS

'just' which co-occurs with either the absolute present tense vowel o or the far

past tense vowel a.

Tense markers are not obligatory. Frequently, if the tense has been

already established, via context or previous utterances, tense will not be

overtly marked.

2 .1.1 T h e F a r P a s t

The far past is used to refer to events that occurred yesterday or more

distantly in the past. It is the only tense which does not exhibit tone concord.

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 (2 2 ) molu waza mpfze ji = a mur.
h + md-lu waza mpize ji = a m-ur
6-era forget back he/she-P2 1-man
'In times past, he forgot someone.'

(23) m=a bo mpand d-ulaga dwaba.

I = P2 be Mpand 5-certain 5-day
'I was at Mpand one day.'

2 .1 .2 T he R ecen t P ast

The recent past is used for events that occurred earlier that day or

yesterday. In the example below, the speaker is telling his wife about the

illness that hit him since he left the house that morning. The recent past, like

all other tenses in Kol, adds a grammatical high tone after every preverbal

element and the main verb, represented by h in the example below (and all

following examples).

(24) m=e se numa ko kuqa ncoo 161 tamo nci.

I-Pl Perf + h also + H go + H defecate+ h time 3 mid 3-path
'I had to stop three times along the way to go to the bathroom.' (Joy.12)

While the recent past and the immediate future both consist of the

front mid vowel /e /, the recent past marker undergoes raising after the

palatal nasal, as seen below and the future marker does not.

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 (25) no kugu ji = f nigo ko njap.
na kugu =e
ji nigo + H ko + h njab
with evening he/she-Pl return go house
'Yesterday, he returned home.'

Additionally, the recent past vowel will undergo the regular rounding

rule whereby / i / becomes [u] if it neighbors the labiovelar glide /w /, as

shown below.

no kugu J1 = U waza mur.

na kugu ji = e waza + h m-ur
with evening he/she-Pl forget 1-man
'Yesterday, he forgot someone.'

Finally, the recent past is the only tense wherby the normally optional

H tone merger rule is required. This means that if the recent past tense vowel

e is followed by a verb with an underlying H tone on its first syllable, the high

tone of the tense vowel will merge with the H tone of the verb, allowing the

underlying L tone of the subject clitic to surface. This results in an apparent

polar tone. Compare (26) above with example (27) below.

/i- H

no kugu bara mur.

II

na kugu ji = e bara + h m-ur

with evening he/she-Pl greet 1-man
'Yesterday, he greeted a man.'

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 2 .1 .3 T h e I m m e d ia t e P a s t

The immediate past is used for events that just happened. It adds the

additional tense morpheme Iwanddbd 'just' to either the present tense marker o

as shown in (28) or the far past tense marker a as shown in (29). Lwanddbd

does not occur as a main verb nor may it appear in other places in the verbal

sequence as do adverbs.

(28) ji = o lwandaba bwaga kwan.

ji = 6 lwandaba + h bwag + h kwan
he/she-PRES just harvest 9-honey
'He just harvested honey.'

(29) na tuga biz = a lwandaba ba le-ncaq na ncaa 9 go?

na tug biz = a lwandaba bo le-ncai] no nca qga
and be (neg) we-P2 just be Loc-dance with now this
'Weren't we just at the party now?' (Perils.77)

2 .1 .4 T h e P r e s e n t T e n s e

The present tense is used for events that are happening at the current

moment or in the immediate future. It is marked by the tense vowel o, as

shown below and the high tone tense concord.

(30) ji = o bwaga kwan.

he/she-PRES harvest + H 9-honey

'He harvests honey.'

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 The present tense marker is also used to express a habitual sense, when

it is combined with the perfect aspect marker se. This will be discussed in

section 2.2.5.

In a larger discourse context, once the time of the events under

discussion has been established, it is common to leave out overt tense

marking. However, in isolation, this is only allowed for the present tense. It

is very common for speakers to use an alternative present tense construction

with the auxiliary verb ji 'to be (attributive). Even though this construction

lacks the tense vowel, it still exhibits the tonal concord found with other

present tense constructions.

(31) muuz ji9 = ji bara mur.

H + muuz jia ji + h bara + h m-ur
today he/she be (att) greet 1-man
'Today, he greeted a man.'

2 .1 .5 T h e N e a r F u tu r e

The near future is used to refer to events which will occur later today,

tomorrow, or shortly thereafter. It is marked by the tense vowel e which

differs from the recent past marker in that it does not undergo raising to / i /

after a palatal nasal.

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 (32) emane ji = e bwogs kwan.
tomorrow he/she-FuT harvest + H 9-honey
'Tomorrow, he will harvest honey.'

2 .1 .6 T h e D is t a n t F u tu r e

The distant future is used for events that are further away in the future,

i.e. next month or next year. It is marked by the future tense vowel e and the

additional tense morpheme bwo.

(33) m = e bwo bu la.

I-Fl F2 break +H glass
'I will break the glass (in a month).'

The additional tense morpheme is not required if the idea of a more

distant future has been established by means of a temporal expression. In

that case, the future tense vowel will be used alone, as shown in the example

below.

(34) qgumba qkuund muuz, Ji = e waza m-ur.

ggumba qkuund H + muuz ji = e waza + H1-man
month follow today he/she-FuT forget 1-man
'Next month, he will forget someone.'

2 .1 .7 T e n s e t o n a l c o n c o r d

As was mentioned above, all of the tenses except the far past share a

similar tonal contour, in that in addition to the tense marker, a H tone suffix

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 is added. Compare an example of a sentence in the far past in (35) with

sentences marked for other tenses in (36>(39), namely the near past, the

present, the future, and the distant future.

(35) Ji = a bwDgo kwan.

ji = a bwog kwan.
he/she-P2 harvest (honey) 9-honey
'He was harvesting honey.'

(36) no ktigu, ji = i bwaga kwan.

no kugu, ji = e bwig + h kwan.
with evening he/she-Pl harvest (honey) 9-honey
'Yesterday, he harvested honey.'

(37) ji = o bwoga kwan.

ji = o bwog + h kwan.
he-PRES harvest (honey) 9-honey
'He harvests honey.'

(38) emane ji = e bwags kwan.

emane ji = e bwoga + H kwan.
tomorrow he/she-FuT harvest (honey) 9-honey
'Tomorrow, he will harvest honey.'

(39) ji = e bwo bwaga kwan.

ji = e bwo + h bwoga + h kwan.
he/she-FUT F2 harvest (honey) 9-honey
'He will harvest honey [in a month].'
Not only is this H tone added after the verb as shown above, but it is

also added after every preverbal element in the verbal sequence (and the

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 main verb itself). Again, compare (40) with (41) where a H tone is added

after both the imperfective marker and the verb stem in (41) but not in (40).

(40) ji = a le bw5gs kwan.

jr = a le bwDga kwan.
he/she-P2 Impf harvest (honey) 9-honey
'He was harvesting honey.'

(41) ji = o l!e bwoga kwan.

ji =o le + H bwDga + H kwan.
he-PRES Impf harvest (honey) 9-honey
'He harvests honey.'

This additional H tone triggers downstep in the imperfective marker

which is underlyingly low. Specifically, the floating H delinks the underlying

L of the imperfective marker. The underlying L cannot merge with the

preceding tone because the preceding syllable is already hosting a complex

contour tone. The underlying L must remain floating and thus triggers

downstep.

Similarly, compare (42) with (43) where a H tone is added after the

auxiliary verb and the main verb in (43) but not in (42). Since the auxiliary

has an underlying L tone in (42), it surfaces with a downstepped H tone in

(43).

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 (42) ji = a nca bwags kwan.
ji = a nca bwogo kwan.
he/she-P2 come harvest (honey) 9-honey
'II est venu cueillir du miel.'

(43) ji = i nc!a bwoga kwan.

ji = e nca + H bwoga + H kwan.
he/she-Pl come harvest (honey) 9-honey
'He came to harvest honey.'

The grammatical H tone may be absorbed into a following lexical H

tone. If there are no surrounding H tones, it delinks the tone to its left and

docks there, triggering downstep if there are no merger possibilities for a

floating L. Both strategies are shown below in (44). (45) is a parallel

sentence in the far past (P2) tense without the grammatical H tone.

Below in (44), the floating H after the auxiliary surfaces on the final

syllable of the first verb of the verbal sequence nigd. Its underlying L tone is

retracted to only appear on the first syllable. The floating H after the main

verb merges with the underlying H tone of the object.

\^ H

(44) no kugu nigo ko njap.

II

no kugu jt = e n ig o + h ko + H n ja b

w ith e v e n in g he-Pl r e tu r n go house

'Today he returned home.'

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 (45) ji = a nigo ko njap.
ji = a nigo ko njab
he/she-P2 return go house
'He went home.'

However, it is not possible to say that it is inserted after every element

in the verb phrase, since it is not added after the direct object. Rather, the

scope of this tonal concord is only the preverbal elements and the main verb,

not the verb phrase. This interesting fact will be taken up again in chapter 5,

section 3.1.

Since all of the tenses which trigger the tonal concord are marked by

morphemes with underlying H tones, i.e. e (PI), o (Pres), and e (Fut), it has

been suggested that maybe the tonal concord is not a suffixal H tone but

rather H tone spreading from the left. I have rejected this analysis because in

polysyllabic preverbal morphemes, such as the auxiliary verb nigo 'return'

below, we can see that the H tone does not spread across both syllables. The

underlying L tone of the verb is maintained on the first syllable.

(46) no kugu nigo ko njap.

II

no kugu ji = e nigo + h ko + H njab

with evening he-Pl return go house
'Today he returned home.'

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 Additional evidence for the tense concord not being a case of tone

spreading can be found in sentences which are interpreted as being in the

present tense, possibly because of the tense concord, but which lack overt

tense marking. In the example below, there is no present tense vowel to be a

source of the H tone of the tense concord, but the tense concord is still

present as can be seen by the surface high tones of the imperfective marker

and the verb ‘stay,’ both of which have underlyingly low tones.

(47) jts = ji nap nji le d!f duk.

ji = ji + h nag + h nji + h le + h di + h dug
he/she be (att) still only Impf stay 7-forest
'He still stays only in the forest.'

This is most common with the attributive copula ji shown above and

the negative copula tug shown below.

(48) toob tugs le di duk.

toob tug + H le + h di + H dug
sheep be (neg) Impf stay forest
'Sheep don't stay in the forest.'

2 .2 A spect

Kol has all six of the aspectual categories commonly seen across Bantu

languages (Nurse 2003). The perfective aspect is unmarked, while the

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 imperfective, perfect (anterior), progressive and persistive are marked with

the morphemes shown below.

Aspect

Perfective 0
Perfect se
Imperfective le
Progressive go
Persistive leg

T a b le 4 .3 A s p e c t in Kol

The sixth common aspect seen across Bantu languages is the habitual.

Kol marks the habitual by a combination of the present tense vowel o and the

perfect (anterior) marker se.

Unsurprisingly, aspect markers may not co-occur with each other.

They are also not required to co-occur with tense markers, though if they do

that may lead to specialized semantics, as in the case of the habitual

mentioned above.

2 .2 .1 P e r fe c t

The perfect, also known as the anterior, is relatively common in Kol

discourse. It is marked by the preverbal morpheme se. The perfect refers to a

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 past action with present consequences (Nurse 2003) and is frequently

translated as 'already.'

(49) ji = i jl nco kabo mijaq se yo­

ji = e ji + H nco + H kabo miprj se yo
he-Pl be (att) come but brother P erf die
'He was going to come, but his brother had already died.'

Another example is given below. This sentence is interpreted as being

in the past, without overt tense marking, due to the aspectual marking.

(50) la se bwil.
la se bw il
glass Perf be.broken

'The glass broke.'

2 .2 .2 I m p e r f e c t iv e

The imperfective is marked by the preverbal morphme le. The

imperfective marks verbs as being non-punctual; instead they are activities

that occur over an undefined period of time. Below is an example marked for

the far past tense. This tense inserts no additional tonal contour, allowing the

underlying tones of the morphemes to surface.

(51) Ji = a le bwaga kwan.

ji = a le bwog kwan
he/she-P2 Impf harvest 9-honey
'He was harvesting honey.'

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 Nurse (2003) notes that the imperfective may be used to contrast

background information with foregrounded information marked by the

perfective. In Kol, the perfective is unmarked, but the imperfective and the

perfect are occasionally used in the contrastive nature that Nurse describes.

Below is an example.

(52) ma = le kwiz, ma = le nump na m=a ba mpwoge

I Impf cough I Impf know that I-P2 be healthy

nde y= a ba na e-sap a se qkwa ter le-bi

while 7Sub-P2 be that 5-illness P2 Perf again start iNF-seize

ma hama.
me good
'I was coughing, all the while thinking that I was in good health,
though the illness had already taken hold.' (Illness.08)

2 .2 .3 P r o g r e s s iv e

Kol also has a progressive marker, go. The term 'progressive' is

generally used to refer to an action which is going on when a second action

begins.

(53) jia = jl sye bisiza ji = o go sijie fwan.

.P = ji + H sye + H be-siza ji = 6 gO + H sijie + h fwan
h e /sh e be(att) sing 8-song he/she-PRES Prog grind com

'She sings while grinding com.'

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 In Kol, multiple clauses may be marked with the progressive, showing

that they are ongoing with respect to each other, as illustrated by the example

below.

(54) y=o go ni mo-diba, biz = o go lwak.

y =o go + h m mo-dib5 bizo = 0 go lwag
7Sub-Pres Prog enter 6-water we-PRES Prog em pty

'As the water was coming in, we were bailing it out.'

The progressive only occurs with the present tense, as shown above,

which may explain way Kol speakers have developed other grammaticalized

structures, using the verb kd 'go' or the copula;! 'be (attributive),' with similar

semantics to fill in the gaps, ji is discussed below in section 3.1.2, while kd is

discussed in section 3.2.2.

While it may be tempting to suggest that go is a grammaticalization of

the verb kd 'go,' this will be rejected as a possibility for two reasons. First of

all, voicing is distinctive in Kol, unless the obstruent is in word-final position.

Speakers are unlikely to confuse / k / and / g / in initial position, nor is there

evidence for weakening in initial position. Secondly, and more convincingly,

the progressive markers in related languages are similar to go but also

maintain a separate verb 'go' which in all cases begins with a voiceless stop.

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 Makaa Kol Nzime

progressive Dga go Dga

'go' ka ko to

T a b le 4 .4 P r o g r e ssiv e in M a k a a , K ol a n d K o n z im e

Additionally, there are three examples of the marker gga in my corpus.

Since it is identical to the Makaa progressive marker, this may be another

reflex of the progressive marker, also appears in contexts where, if any

tense is present, it is the present tense.

(55) bwo qga jagalo, bwo pga jagals.

they Prog pray they Iter pray
'They were praying and praying.'

(56) bwo qga wiiqk mbap mbap nusisim.

bwo r)go wfigg mbap mbap me-sfsim
they Prog chase bad bad 4-bad.spirit
‘They chased [exorcised] a bad spirit.’

(57) y=o qga bulu ntek no kugu.

y=o qgo + H bulu + H ntck + H no kugu
7Sub-Pres Prog many annoy with evening
'Yesterday, it really bothered us.' (Funeral06)

2 .2 .4 P e r s is t iv e

Though 'persistive' is not an especially common aspect cross-

linguistically, it is found in a number of Bantu languages. It is commonly

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 translated as 'still' or 'to keep doing X.' Kol also has an adverb naij meaning

'still.' It is able to co-occur with another aspect marker, e.g. the imperfective

le, as well as negatives, unlike the the aspect marker currently under

discussion.

(58) ma-diba leg kwa ni.

6-w ater Pers again enter

'The water kept coming in.'

(59) ko ko ko, bwo leg ko kuro ntene

[sound made at door] they Pers go hit (with hand) like, that
'Ko ko ko, they kept on knocking.'

2 .2 .5 H a b itu a l

As was mentioned above, the habitual in Kol is marked by a

combination of the present tense vowel o and the perfect (or anterior) aspect

marker se. It is unusual to have an anterior marker combined with non-past

tenses, though the idea in this habitual construction is that it is a regular

event which has been completed multiple times in the past but which will be

undertaken again.

(60) ji = o se bwaga kwan.

ji = 6 se + H bw5g + H kwan
he/she-PRES P erf harvest 9-honey
'He harvests honey.' (habitually)

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 (61) ji = o se bii dwom to mombu meba nji ji = o
ji = o se + h bii + h me-mbu me-ba nji ji = o
he-PRES Perf receive care for 4-year 4-two only he-PRES

le jwog tye.
le + h jwog + h tye
Impf feel sick
'He had been getting medical care for two years, but he was still sick.'

(62) mya w=o se buls digsb = e, w=o ji sag

mya + H w=o se+ H bulu + H digab = e w=o ji + H sag
time-RELCL you-PRES P erf many sweat-RELCL you-PRES be search

sa ma = telale gkw6 omin.

sa + h ma = telale qkwomin
7-thing-RELCL I refresh throat
'When you sweat a lot, you look for something to refresh your throat.'

2 .3 M ode

The Kol language has four modal distinctions: indicative, subjunctive,

interrogative and conditional. Only two of these are marked by preverbal

elements, namely the subjunctive and the conditional. The indicative mode is

unmarked, which is common cross-linguistically. Interrogatives are marked

by the use of special question words.

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 2 . 3*1 S u b ju n c tiv e
The subjunctive in Kol includes hortative and imperative constructions.

It may be marked by an enclitic =g or a preverbal element ha.

2 .3 .1.1 The subjunctive enclitic

The subjunctive enclitic -g is used to mark both hortative and

imperative forms. It is always accompanied by a grammatical H tone. If the

subject is plural, the enclitic included an additional vowel, resulting in the

form -ga. An example of the singular imperative, marked with the

subjunctive enclitic is given below in (63) while an example of the plural

imperative is in (64).

(63) ji-k bws naa je"

jf-g + H bwa n§ je
ask-SuBJ them that what?

"Ask them w hat they want!"

(64) mya be be-kekak nde qga jwabo-ga

w hen you (pi) 8-sm all child be (loc) this respect-SuBJ (pl) + H

basarjga na bapaqga bin,....

2-father and 2-m other 2- your (pl)

’When you children here respect your fathers and your mothers,..'

The enclitic =g appears on the first element of the verbal sequence,

whatever that may be. It may appear on a main verb in (65), an auxiliary in

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 (66), and the word kwo in (67). (iCwo is a challenge when it comes to

assigning parts of speech. It will be discussed in more detail in section 5 in

this chapter and in chapter 5, section 1.4.)

(65) di = k no puu
di = g + h no puu
stay-lMP with calm (ideophone)
'Stay calm!'
'O

wo ke fenda no ma.
II

wo ba = g +h ke fenda no ma
you (SG) be-lMP (sg) Neg be.in.rivalry with me
'You must not put yourself in competition with me.'

(67) ma = tuga ji na m=o kwo = k bar e-byol.

m= tug ji na m=o kwo = g + H bar + H Ie-by51
I be (neg) want that I-Pres again-SUBj climb in-canoe
'I don't want to get in a canoe anymore!'

2.3.1.2 Fd

The morpheme fd (or ha for some speakers) is also used to mark

imperatives or hortatives. In all the examples I have, it occurs at the

beginning of the verbal sequence, before auxiliaries, and also before the

consecutive marker kd. It does not co-occur with the subjunctive enclitic

described above. It is generally be translated as 'should.' Below are two

examples, one of a full clause and one of an imperative.

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 (6 8 ) bw = 0 ha kwir ba-jioagga bop.
bwo-o fa + H kwir + H bo-jiooggo b-ob
they-PRES should help 2-mother their
'They should help their mothers.'

(69) "ha ka wu."

fa ka wu
should Cons exit
'Come out then." (Serpent.34)

2 .3 .2 C o n d itio n a l

Kol primarily marks conditional clauses via subordinate conjunctions.

It has two conditional complementizers, ljge for simple conditionals and twe

for concessive conditionals. In addition though, there is a counterfactual

conditional marker which may be used independently of the

complementizers, or with them, as illustrated in example (70) below. This

clarifies that the situation described in the clause marked by the

counterfactual morpheme did not actually take place.

(70) mya m=o twoggala na O ge m=a mba

mya + H m =o twoggalo + H no t)ge m=a mba
time-RELCL I-Pres think that if I-P2 COND

ko ya lemadib = e
ko yo le-mo-dfbo = e
go die in-6-water-RELCL
'When I think that I could have died in the w ater...'

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 In this case, the narrator did not actually die, as is evidenced by the fact

that she is telling the story now, in a time past the time of the near-death

experience.

2 .4 C o n s e c u tiv e

Kol also has a consecutive marker kd, which is common (both the form

and the function) in Bantu languages. In Kol, it may occur w ith a num ber of

different tenses and aspects. In discourse contexts, kd is generally found in

the first clause after an aside or digression. The example below is found

directly after an extended quotation.

(71) my a biza nde ka nig = e,

mya + H biza nde ka nigo = e
3-time-RELCL we be (loc) Cons retum-RELCL
'When we were returning, ’

Other clauses within that same sentence may also be marked with kd.

In the example below, the relative clause at the beginning is the first clause

after a digression. Both it and the main clause are marked with kd.

(72) mya m = a se ka nca ja

mya + H m=a se ka nca ja
3-time-RELCL I-P2 Perf Cons come sleep

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 esap a se ka nca lal numa.
e-sap a se ka nca lal numa.
5-illness P2 Perf Cons come be.strong also
'By the time I laid down, the illness had already hit me hard.'
(.Illness. 09)

Kd occupies an unusual place in the morphosyntax of the Kol verb.

The Kol verb is quite templatic, as will be described in chapter 5, section 1. It

allows one slot for a tense vowel, one slot for an additional tense marker (for

the immediate past or distant future), and one slot for aspectual markers. Kd

co-occurs with both kinds of tense markers and with aspect markers, so it may

not be classified with either of these sets of morphemes.

Additionally, kd resembles adverbs in having freer word order than the

rest of the preverbal morphemes. Its syntax will be discussed in more detail

in section 1.2.2. Part of this freer word order can be seen in the way that kd

plus the basic copula bd have been grammaticalized to form a conjunction

meaning 'but.' An example is given below.

(73) ka ba bw = a Juqa biza nob ba-b-sz.

but they-P2 discuss us other 2-2-each, all
'They saved both of us.' [lit. discussed with death] (Joy.37)

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 3 Auxiliaries

Kol has a large set of full verbs which may also be used as auxiliaries.

Some of these are more grammaticalized than others. These verbs have been

analyzed as auxiliaries and not serial verbs or light verbs because they do not

impact the argument structure of the predicate, they can be separated from

the main verb, and remain affirmative while the main verb is negated. This

will be discussed in more detail in chapter 5, section 1.5.

If a verb precedes a verb prefixed with the infinitive (or class 5)

marker, as shown in the two examples below, the initial verb is not

considered to be an auxiliary but rather the main verb of the clause.

(74) ji = a ter le-bwogo kwan.

ji = a ter le-bw5g kwan
he/she-P2 start iNF-harvest 9-honey
'He started to harvest honey.'

(75) m = a kwamaza le-ko wu.

m=a kwam aza le-ko wu
I-P2 prepare iNF-go there

'I got ready to go there.'

Occasionally, a verb, such as the verb ter 'to start' may occur as either

an auxiliary, as will be described below, or as a verb taking an infinitival

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 complement as shown above. The two constructions are distinct, both in

meaning, and in syntactic structure. Infinitival complements will be discussed

in chapter 5, section 2.1.2.

The verbs which may occur as auxiliaries are divided into three

sections. Copula verbs will be discussed first. The next section will discuss

the verbs which can occur as phased auxiliaries, contributing to the aspectual

reading of the clause. The verbs which add modal information will be

discussed last.

3 .1 C o p u la r V e rb s

Kol has at first glance an overabundance of copulas, with four

affirmative copulas and one negative copula. However, all four affirmative

copulas have different semantic functions: nde is the locative copula,

expressing 'to be at'; ji is the attributive and equative copula; me is used

whenever there is a change of state; and bd is the basic copula, with the

widest and most general meaning.

The affirmative copulas occur in independent clauses as the only verb

and also occur as auxiliaries. When they are functioning as auxiliaries, they

appear as the first verb in a multi-verb construction. That is to say, they are
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 marked for tense, while following verbs are marked for aspect and other

grammatical categories. This will be discussed in more detail in chapter 5,

section 1 .

3 .1 .1 L o c a tiv e C o p u la

The copula nde is used in independent affirmative clauses to express

location. It is restricted to clauses unmarked for tense or marked for present

tense. It does not co-occur with aspectual markers.

(76) ma = a bo le jwak cfe mo nde yaunt.

I-P2 be Impf feel illness I be (loc) Yaounde
'While I was in Yaounde, I got sick.' (Illness.02)

As an auxiliary, it expresses simultaneity. It frequently occurs in

subordinate clauses which refer to an event which happened at the same time

as the event in the main clause.

(77) ji = i nco two t)ka J13 nde le jwog tye.

ji = e nco + H two r)ka nde le jwog tye
he-Pl come even as he be (loc) Impf feel sick
'He came even though he felt sick.'

Kol also has a word nde which means 'while.' Given the similarity in

semantics between simultaneity and 'while,' it is likely that these two words

are related. At this point though, it is difficult to know in which way the

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 historical development went, i.e. whether nde began as a conjunction and has

been reinterpreted into a copula or vice versa. An example of the conjunction

nde is given below.

ma = le kwiz, ma = le nump na m = a& ba mpwoge

1 Impf cough 1 Impf know that I-P2 be healthy

nde y=a ba na e-sap a se qkwa ter le-bi

while 7SUB-P2 be that 5-illness P2 Perf again start iNF-seize

ma hama.
me good
'I was coughing, all the while thinking that I was in good health,
though the illness had already taken hold.' (Illness.08)

3 .1 .2 E q u a tiv e a n d A ttr ib u tiv e C o p u la

The copula j i is used in independent affirmative clauses to express

equation and attribution. It primarily occurs in unmarked clauses or with the

present tense, and as the main verb never co-occurs with aspectual markers.

Below is an example of an equative clause using ji, followed by an example of

an attributive clause.

(79) mwa laq-ga ji 15q kwar Bijump,

little discourse-this be discourse village Bidjombo
'This little story is the story of Bidjombo village.’ (Bidjombo.001)

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 (80) ntum w-aga ji bera
1-brother 1-my be (att) big
'My brother is big.'

This copula may also be used to express location, overlapping with the

semantic function of nde. Below are two comparable sentences, said by a

single speaker within one text. Both copulas are the only verb within their

clause, though;'! is found in a simple clause, while nde is in a subordinate

clause.

(81) mya njwuq nde te.

mya H+ njwui] nde te-e
time-RELCL 9-respect be (loc) Loc-RelCl
'[The family prospers] when respect is there.' (Family.09)

(82) nabs na njwug ji te.

naba na njwuq ji te
because that 9-respect be Loc
'Because there is respect.' (Family. 16)

This copula does not occur with the far past tense which may be due to

its historical development. In the neighboring language of Makaa, the copula

bd has a distinct form -sd in the present tense. This present tense form

obligatorily agrees with the subject noun. For class 7 (the default inanimate

noun class in Makaa, as in Kol), the form is ji-sd. Modern-day Makaa speakers

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 frequently drop the copula bound root in speech. If Kol has a similar history,

this could have led to the reanalysis of ji as a distinct copula in the present

tense, which could slowly be expanding morphosyntactically to occur with

multiple tenses, though not the far past (yet).

The copula ji is also commonly used with the preposition no 'with' to

express possession, i.e. 'to have.' (This is also the case for the basic copula ba

to be discussed below.)

(83) mo-waza ji no w-ul mbi kwoq

6-northemer be with 3-another 3-type sorcery
'Northerners have a different kind of sorcery.'

As an auxiliary, j i gives an imperfective aspectual reading. An example

is given below. Interestingly, such examples are negated using a specifically

imperfective strategy as seen in section 4.2.1.

(84) jio = ji banda jwog tye.

ji= ji banda jwog tye
he be (att) really feel sick
'He is really feeling sick.'

The copula ji can also be used to express a present tense reading in the

absence of the tense vowel o, as shown below.

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 (85) motag ji jap e-ce d-55ggs na "diarrhee rouge."
white be(att) call 5-illness 5-Def that red diarrhea (in French)
'White people call this illness 'red diarrhea.' (actually dysentery)

However ji may also appear with the nonverbal imperfective marker le

suggesting that ji may contribute some more specific information to the whole

clause than simply imperfective. This combination is frequently translated as

'be in the process of.'

(8 6 ) m s = ji le sil le-sye.
ma = ji le sil le-sye
I be (att) Impf finish lNF-7-work
'I am finishing working.'

3 .1 .3 C h an ge o f sta te

The copula me marks a change of state. Below are two examples which

contrast the use of me with that of the attributive copula j i As a main verb, it

only co-occurs with the present tense or is found in clauses unmarked for

tense.

(87) m = o ji ggwam.
I-Pres be (att) 4- h single
'I am single.' (never married)

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 (8 8 ) m = o me qgwam.
I-Pres be(chg)+H single

'I am single.' (widowed or divorced)

As an auxiliary verb, me also marks a new state. It is sometimes

translated as 'already.' Unlike the perfect marker, it does not refer to a

completed action in the past.

(89) ji = o me le sye.
ji =o me + h le + h sye
he/she-PRES be (chg) Impf work

'He is already working.'

New events, or changes of state, frequently correspond to pivotal

moments in a discourse. However, me is not the only way to highlight

information, so its frequency in texts varies from very low (nonexistent) to

very high. The following sentence is taken from a story where the narrator

chose to use this discourse marker as the primary way to mark storyline (or

eventline) information.

(90) mo me le ko kuqa na tititi, e-jiak maci.

I be (chg) Impf go defecate w ith regularity iNF-defecate 6-blood

'I was having bloody diarrhea, all the time.' (Joy.22)

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 3 . 1.4 B a s ic F o r m
The copula bd is by far the most common of the four affirmative

copulas. It occurs with all tenses, may be marked for aspect and may be

modified by auxiliary verbs. It may express equation as in (91), attribution as

in (92), or location as in (93).

(91) twe ji = a ba ncicam...

tw e ji-a bo n c ic a m

e v e n , if s h e -P 2 be le p e r

'Even though she was a leper,

(92) y=a ba njuk.

i= a bo n ju g

7 S u b -P 2 be d iffic u lt, h a rd

'It was very hard.'

me biz = a ba le-mo-diba.
me b iz a = a bo le -m o -d ib o

but w e -P 2 be in -6 -w a te r

'But we were in the water.'

The copula bd is frequently pronounced as [ba], Much of the time this

can be explained by the mid-vowel centralization process already described,

where [o] centralizes to [a] before nasals and the alveolar fricatives. This is

the case for (91) and (92) above. However, some speakers also use the form

[ba] when this environment is not present, as seen in (93). When the

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 subjunctive clitic is added though, speakers consistently use the [bo] form,

suggesting that if, for some speakers, the underlying form of this copula is

becoming [bo], the result may be a suppletive subjunctive form, as is already

the case for ncd ‘come’ (subjunctive form nca-).

If this copula is used with the preposition rid 'with', it may also express

possession.

(94) tern bo no fo ji-ooqgo.

even be with 9-machete 9-that
...even having that machete.

As an auxiliary, it adds a stative meaning to the verbal sequence.

(95) nobo mya w-ooggo m=a bo le sye njap

naba mya w-aagga m=a ba le sje njab
because 3-time 3-Def I-P2 be Impf work 3-house

mo kol.
ma kol
3POSS cord
'Because, at that time, I worked at the radio station.' (Perils.27)

Below is an example where three of the copulas occur, each used in a

typical way. The basic copula is used to express the beginning state, jl is used

imperfectively, and me marks the change of state at the end.

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 (96) ji = a ba le bulu jwog tye, ji = a ji jo,
ji = a ba le bulu jwog tje ji = a ji jo
he-P2 be Impf a.lot feel sick he-P2 be (att) die

na caga ji = 6 me mpwoge.
na caga ji = o me mpwoge
with now he-PRES be (chg) be.well
'He was very sick, he was dying, but now he's healthy.'

3 .1 .5 N e g a tiv e C o p u la

Kol also has a negative copula tug. It can appear on its own as shown

below or as an auxiliary. Negation strategies will be discussed in section 4.

The negative copula does not co-occur with tense markers.

(97) biyol ne tuk fama biyol.

canoe that (spec) be (neg) true, real, good canoe
'...that canoe wasn't a good canoe.'

3 .2 P h a s a l A u x ilia rie s

Kol has a number of non-copula auxiliaries. These pattern together

syntactically, in that they occur after the tense markers, copula auxiliaries,

and aspect markers. However, they differ in that some auxiliaries have more

of an aspectual meaning, i.e. describing the nature or internal structure of the

event, while others have more of a modal meaning, i.e. describing desires or

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 obligations. The phasal auxiliaries described in this section fufill the

aspectual functions. The modal auxiliaries will be described in section 3.3

below.

The auxiliaries described here are all undergoing grammaticalization.

In some sentences, they are translated as if they were serial verbs, while in

other sentences they are translated as if they were aspectual markers:

inceptive for the verb ncd 'come,' processual for the verb kd 'go,' repetitive for

the verb nigd 'return,' and initial for the verb ter 'start.' It is interesting that

while Kol speakers have multiple ways of describing the end of a process,

using the verbs sil 'finish' or dwag 'leave, finish,' neither of these verbs have

become grammaticalized in the same way as the four described in this

section. They must always occur as main verbs with infinitival complements,

comparable to ter 'start' in its main verb construction.

3 .2 .1 ’C o m e ' = I n c e p tiv e

The auxiliary verb ncd from the verb nco meaning 'to come' is used as

an auxiliary to mark the beginning point of a process. This is one of the most

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 common auxiliaries. Below is an example of ncd as a main verb, followed by

an example showing ncd as an auxiliary with inceptive semantics.

(98) ji = e nco no mo-mir.

ji = e nc5 na me-mir
he-FuT come with 4-medicine
'He will bring medicine.' (Joy. 18)

(99) mya biz = o nco bar ebiyole,

mya H + biza = o ncb + H bar + H le-by51-e
3-time RELCL-we-PRES come climb, ascend Loc-canoe-RELCL
'As soon as we got in the canoe, [water began to come in].'

It can also have a purpose reading, along the lines of 'came in order to.'

An example is given below.

(1 0 0 ) ji = a nco bara m-ud.

ji = a nco bara m-ud
he/she-P2 come greet 1-man
'He came to greet the man.'

3 .2 .2 'G o' = C o n tin u o u s

The verb ko means 'to go, leave' as a main verb but is also very

commonly used as an auxiliary to focus on the midpoint of a process. As a

main verb, Kol can be either intransitive as in example (101) or transitive as

in ( 1 0 2 ).

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 (1 0 1 ) kukuma se bwe ko.
kukuma se bw e ko
ch ief P erf long.tim e.ago go

'The chief already left a while ago.'

(1 0 2 ) ji = a nigo ko njap.
ji = a nigo ko njap
he/she-P2 return go house
'He went back home.'

As a transitive verb, kd can also be used metaphorically.

(103) mw-an se ko le-jwo.

mo-an se ko le-jwo
1-child Perf go 5-sleep
'The child fell asleep.' (lit. went into sleep.)

Below is an example of kd as an auxiliary. In this case, the auxiliary

adds the idea that the subject is in the middle of a process.

(104) ji = o ko bwogo kwan.

ji = o ko + h bw5g + h kwan
he/she-PRES go harvest 9-honey
'He is in the process of harvesting honey.'

In other cases, the auxiliary is less grammaticalized, maintaining its

motion verb semantics. This is parallel to w hat was seen with the verb nca

'come.'

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 (105) ji = 6 ko bara mur.
ji =o ko + h bara + h m-ur
he/she-PRES go greet 1-man
'He goes to greet the man.'

Kd differs from the progressive marker go in that it may occur with all

of the tenses while go is restricted to present tense constructions. They are

not completely in complementary distribution since kd may occur in the

present tense as well, as seen in (104) and (105) above.

(106) ji = a ko bwoga kwan.

ji = a ko bwog kwan
he/she-P2 go harvest 9-honey
'He was in the process of collecting honey.'

(107) Ji = e ko bwoga kwan.

ji = e ko + H bwog + H kwan
he/she-FUT go harvest 9-honey
'He will be in the middle of collecting honey.

3 .2 .3 ’R e tu r n ’ = R e p e titiv e

The auxiliary nigo has been grouped with the phasal auxiliaries because

it also describes part of a process. The non-auxiliary verb nigo means 'to go

back, to return.'

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 (108) m=a nump no me nigo no boju.
m=a numb na m=e nigo no bo-ju
I-P2 know that I-Fut return with 2-fish
'I thought that I would come back with fish.'

The auxiliary means 'to go back to the beginning, to repeat, to do

again.'

(109) tern bo ntaq biza nco nigo ko kwar.

tem ba ntar) biza-a nca nigo ka kwad
even be like that we-P2 come again go village
In spite of that, we started to go back home to the village.

(1 1 0 ) ji = e nigo bara mur.

ji = e nigo + h bara + h m-ur
he/she-FuT return greet 1-man
'He will regreet someone.'

It is very similar in meaning to the adverb kwo 'again,' described below

in section 5, but the adverb and the auxiliary may co-occur with each other,

giving in cases like example (111) below an iterative reading. The shades of

semantic difference remain a question for further research.

(111) ji = o nigo kwo bins jio.

jr = o nigo + h kwo + h ben + h jio
he/she-PRES return again raise him/her
'He keeps raising him.'

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 3 -2.4 D o f ir s t
The verb ter as a main verb means 'to start.' It requires an infinitival

complement.

(112) ji = a ter le-bw5ga kwan.

ji = a ter le-bwog kwan
he/she-P2 start iNF-harvest 9-honey
'He started to harvest honey.'

The auxiliary verb ter means 'to do first.'

(113) ba-sar bwo me nca ter fyal ma maci.

be-sar bwo me nco ter fyal 1119 m$-ci
2-sister (nun) they be (chg) come first test (v) me 4-blood
'The Sisters first tested my blood.' (Joy.24)

3 .3 M o d a l A u x ilia rie s

In addition to the phasal auxiliaries described above, Kol also has a

number of modal auxiliaries, which express desires, obligations and

potentialities. Unlike the copula and phasal auxiliaries described above, two

of these verbs only appear as auxiliaries.

3 .3 .1 O p ta tiv e m o d e ( n e e d , w a n t )

The optative auxiliary, used to express needs and desires, is j i meaning

'to want.' It is related to another non-auxiliary verb j i meaning 'to ask.' Below

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 is an example of j i 'want' used as a main verb followed by an example of it

used as an auxiliary.

(114) w=o ji mo-kuma qke be-kaba.

w-6 ji mo-kuma qke be-kaba
you (sg)-PRES want 6-manioc or 8-cocoyam
'You w ant manioc or yams.'

(115) mya m-ur a bo le ji wul mo kwint leluwe,

mya H + m-ur a ba le ji wul ms kwende le-lu-e
time RELCL-l-man P2 be Impf want remove me hook in-head-RELCL
When the man who was rowing wanted to take the hook out of my hair,
[I told him, "While you're taking that out, time is going by."]

3 .3 .2 D e o n t ic m o d e ( m u s t )

The auxiliary verb jalana. expresses obligation. It only occurs as an

auxiliary.

(116) e-ji jalana yo be fok.

iNF-ask must give you (pi) 9-wisdom
'Asking must give you wisdom.' (Advice. 17)

3 .3 .3 P o t e n t ia l m o d e ( c a n )

The potential auxiliary, translated as 'can, be able to,' is kwog. The

example below shows this modal auxiliary in the negative.

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 (117) m = a = kwog = e bar e-byol.
I = N eg = can = N e g climb in-canoe
'I couldn't climb in the canoe.'

3 .3 .4 R e a lly

There is only one example of banda as a main verb in my corpus. As a

main verb, it means 'to go well' while as an auxiliary it means 'really.'

(118) ntibati te numa ne ke banda nag.

Ntibati Loc too that N eg go.well still
'At Ntibati too, it didn't go well.'

It is quite common as an auxiliary verb and tends to co-occur with

other auxiliary verbs. As can be seen in the two examples below, there is non

fixed order among the non-copula auxiliary verbs.

(119) bwo me nca banda Juqa mi

bwo me + H nco + H banda+ h juqa + H mb
they be (chg) come really discuss me
'They saved me.' [lit. They really discussed me [impl. with death].]

(120) ma = ndak banda nco ba mpwoge.

m= ndag banda nco ba mpwoge
I there really come be healthy
'I refound my health.' (Illness.28)

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 4 Negation

Negation in Kol is sensitive to differences in scope, tense, and aspect.

Kol speakers may choose to a negation strategy which has scope over the

entire sentence, or they may choose to negate a smaller portion of the clause.

If the whole verbal sequence is to be negated, the negative element

must show up in the first position of the verbal sequence. If only part of the

verbal sequence is to be negated, then Kol speakers use the morpheme ke

which behaves like an adverb.

The example below is a command to not do something. Thus the

imperative (suffixed to the copula auxiliary bd which has a stative

interpretation) is affirmative, while the main verb is negated.

(1 2 1 ) w = o bo-k ke fenda no ms.

you (sg) be-lMP (sg) Neg be.in.rivalry with me

'You must not put yourself in competition with me.'

Below is another example where the copula auxiliary nde, which has a

'simultaneous' interpretation, is in the affirmative while the main verbs are

both negated.

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 (1 2 2 ) m = e nde ke dulo siga ke ba ne jiwel ma-jiok.
I -PI be + h Neg + h smoke cigarette Neg be with drink + h 6-wine
'I neither smoked nor drank.' (Illness. 15)

Negation in Kol is also sensitive to tense distinctions. Kol has more

tense distinctions in the past in negative clauses than it does in affirmative

clauses, but it has fewer distinctions in the non-past. A comparative chart is

given below.

Aff P2 PI Pres FI F2

Neg P3 P2 PI a. ...e F2
Ancestors' Era Last Year Yesterday Today Tomorrow Next Year

Additionally, negation is sensitive to aspect. Imperfective sentences

have fewer negation strategies available than do perfectives. Below is a chart

giving the negative TAM system. These forms are based on three basic

negation strategies: a circumclitic, a negative prefix and a negative copula.

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 Mode Aspect Tense

Indicative Perfective F2 abweye

'<D
+
P r e s/ F I

II

II
PI ance + H

P2 ance

P3 ancege

Imperfective P res tug

PI ance + H
P2 ance
P3 ancege
Subjunctive ke

T a b le 4 .5 K ol N e g a tio n

4 .1 P e r f e c tiv e C la u s e s

In the perfective, speakers may appeal to one of three negative

strategies. The most common negation strategy for perfective clauses is the

circumclitic a....e. The circumclitic is used when the scope of the negation is

the entire clause. The circumclitic is always hosted by the first element of the

verb. The distant future is formed by combining the negative circumclitic

with the distant future marker bwo. Three of the negative tenses are

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 historically derived from combining the auxiliary nca 'come' with the negative

circumclitic.

If a speaker does not w ant to negate the entire sentence, he will use the

negative prefix ke, as shown by example (123) below.

(123) m = e nde ke dulo siga ke bo ne jiwel ms-jiok.

I-Pl be + H Neg + h smoke cigarette Neg be with drink+ h 6-wine
'I neither smoked nor drank.' (Illness. 15)

4 .1 .1 N o n - P a s t P e r f e c t iv e N e g a t io n

Clauses in the perfective present and immediate future are negated via

the circumclitic a = ... =e on the first word of the verbal sequence. It is

interesting to note that using circumclitics to mark sentential negation is not

crosslinguistically unusual, being found in a number of different languages in

different language families, e.g. French, Breton and Old Icelandic.

This morpheme is being analyzed as a circumclitic because it has less

strict co-occurrence requirements than we might expect of an affix and

relatively strict positioning. The other logical option, that these are two

independent words which co-occur to mark negation, seems unlikely since

there is no evidence that these markers may occur independently on their

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 own. If a occurs alone, it is understood as being the far past tense marker a,

and if e occurs alone on a word, it will be understood as being the relative

clause boundary marker described above in chapter 3, section 6.1. While the

far past tense morpheme and the first element of the negation marker may

occur in the same position (immediately following the subject noun or

pronoun), the positioning of the second element of the negative marker and

the relative clause marker is very different.

As was mentioned above, the non-past perfective negative circumclitic

is hosted by the first word of the verbal sequence. This can be the main verb

as seen in (124) and (125). The proclitic vowel behaves like the tense vowels

in that it cliticizes to the subject pronoun, if it directly follows it, resulting in

the deletion of the vowel of the subject pronoun, as can be seen below.

(124) muuz, ji = a = deg = e le-kan.

ji-a-deg-e + h le-kan
today he/she-NEG-see-NEG + h 5-antelope
'Today, he didn't see an antelope.'

(125) emane ji = a = waza = ye mur.

emane ji-a-waza-e + h mw-ur
tomorrow he/she-NEG-forget-NEG 1-man
'Tomorrow, he will not forget anyone.'

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 If an auxiliary is the first element in the verbal sequence, then it hosts

the circumclitic as shown below in (126) for a copula auxiliary and in (127)

for a non-copular auxiliary.

(126) toob a=j = e di duk.

sheep NEG-be(att)-NEG + h stay + H Forest
'Sheep don't stay in the forest.'

(127) jl = a = nig = e waza m-ur.

he/she-NEG-retum-NEG + h forget + h 1 - man
'He doesn't forget anyone anymore.'

The negative circumclitic may also be hosted by a morpheme marking

tense. In affirmative clauses, the relative immediate past tense marker may

host the negative circumclitic, as seen below.

(128) ji = a = lwandab = e waza m-ur.

he/she-NEG-just-NEG + h forget + h 1 -man
'He didn't just forget someone.'

This circumclitic may also appear on its own with an epenthetic

consonant. Examples for this in my database are severely restricted to cases

with the morpheme kwo, the verb ter 'start,' and the verbs meaning 'finish' sfl.

and dwag.

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 (129) ji= a = h = e kwo bina JIO .

ji = a = e +H kwo + H bin + H ba

he-NEG again raise him

'He doesn't raise him anymore.'

4 .2 D is ta n t F u tu r e N e g a tio n

The distant future is negated by adding the negative circumclitic to the

distant future tense morpheme bwo. In the affirmative, bwo must co-occur

with the immediate future tense marker e. However, when the distant future

is negated, the proclitic element of the circumclitic appears in the place of the

tense vowel.

(130) ji = a = bwe = y!e waza m-ur.

ji-a-bwo-e + h waza + h mw-ur
he/she-NEG-F2-NEG forget 1-man
'He will not forget anyone.'

There is a lot of variation (even among the utterances of a single

speaker) with the distant future negation. This suggests that this is either a

newer part of the speech system, or at the other end of the spectrum, a dying

part of the speech system. Below are two other forms of the negative distant

future, both given by the same speaker as example (130) above.

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 (131) ji = a = bwe = n !e waza mur.
ji = a = bwo = e + H waza + h mw-ur
he/she-NEG-F2-NEG forget 1-man
'He will not forget anyone.'

(132) ji = a = bwe = !e waza.

ji = a = bwo = e + H waza + H
he/she-NEG-F2-NEG forget
'He will not forget.'

4 .3 P a s t N e g a tio n

Kol has more tense distinctions in the past for negative constructions

than for affirmative constructions. In the affirmative, there is a two way

distinction in the past (the recent past marker e and the far past marker a).

However, in the negative, there is a three way distinction between the recent

past, the far past, and the very far past. These will all be described below.

4 .3 .1 N e g a t io n in t h e R e c e n t P a s t

The negation marker for the recent past is ance. It always appears

directly after the subject and before any other grammatical markers or

auxiliaries. It appears to be derived from the present tense negated form of

the verb ncd which means 'to come' as a full verb though both syllables have

underlying H tones instead of the expected HL contour. This construction is

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 marked by the H tone tense concord, just as is the case for the affirmative

recent past tense.

no kugu, ji = ance waza m-ur.

no kugu j i = ance + h waza + h m-ur
with evening he/she-NEGPl forget 1-man
'Yesterday, he didn't forget anyone.'

Negated recent past clauses imply that the negative state is not

permanent. In stories, the negative situation may have appeared perm anent

at that point in the story, but the situation is reversed before the end.

4 .3 .2 N e g a t io n i n t h e F a r P a s t

The negative marker for the far past is also ance, but the far past

negative construction differs from the recent past negative in that it is not

marked with the H tone tense concord, as can be seen by the lack of a H on

the last syllable of the verb or the first syllable of the direct object. This is

similar to the affirmative far past tense.

mbwa larjge, ji = ance waza mur.

mbwa larjge ji = ance waza mw-ur
year past he/she-NEGP2 forget 1-man
'Last year, he didn't forget anyone.'

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 4 -3-3 N e g a t io n in t h e V e r y F a r P a s t

As has been mentioned above, there are more tense distinctions in the

negative than in the affirmative for the past tenses. The negation marker for

the very far past is ancege. Again, it appears directly after the subject and

before any other pre-stem material. It too is derived from the verb ncd 'to

come.' The [g] may be related to the subjunctive suffix (discussed in section

3.6.1).

(135) ji = ancege waza mur.

ji = ancege waza mw-ur
he/she-NEGP3 forget 1-man
'He didn't forget anyone.'

What is interesting from a tone rule perspective though is the variation

found in tonal behavior at the left boundary of the verb. Below are examples

using the very far past negative marker ancege. In example (14) below, there

is no subject pronoun, which allows the underlying H tone of the negative

marker to surface on all three vowels.

(136) a-mya, mya bompamp, rjkwiji ancege le di duk

a-mya mya h + bo- mpamp qkw fp ancege le di dug
?-time 3-time 3AM-2-ancestor leopard NegP3 Impf stay forest
'In the time of the ancestors, the panther didn't stay in the forest.'

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 In the following example, the H tone is only associated with the last

two vowels of the negative marker. The L tone of the subject pronoun

surfaces on the first vowel of the negative marker.

(137) ji = ancege di dik.

ji = ancege di dig
he/she-NEGP3 stay forest
'He didn't stay in the forest.'

Some speakers have an alternative form ancogo, as shown in the

example below.

(138) mya biyol me j-e, biyol ancogo bo faamo.

3-time canoe be (chg) arrive-RELCL canoe NegP3 be good
'When the canoe came, it wasn't in good condition.'

4 .4 IMPERFECIIVE CLAUSES

Imperfective clauses show fewer distinctions than do perfective clauses,

having only a distinction between the present (non-past) and past tenses.

4 .4 .1 P r e s e n t ( N o n - P a s t ) I m p e r f e c t iv e

Present sentences marked with the imperfective marker le may only be

negated using the negative copula tug, as shown below.

(139) jio tugo le waza m-ur.

he/she be (Neg) + h Impf + h forget+ h 1-man
'He wasn't forgetting anyone.'

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 It is interesting that clauses which are not overtly marked for the

imperfective may be interpreted as being imperfective as seen by the negation

strategies chosen. For example, it is extremely common for speakers to

choose to negate a construction of ji + main verb (without the imperfective

marker le) by means of the tug + le negation strategy. This is illustrated by

the affirmative/negative paradigm below.

(140) qkwfji ji di duk.

gkwyi ji + H di + H dug
leopard be (att) stay forest

'The leopard stays in the forest.'

toob tugs le di duk.

toob tUg + H le + h di + H dug
sheep be (neg) Impf stay forest
'Sheep don't stay in the forest.'

The use of the present imperfective negative strategy is in spite of the

fact that speakers could negate the copula using the negative circumclitic, as

shown below. This strategy though occurs relatively rarely in my corpus.

(142) toob a=j = e di duk.

toob a = ji = e di dug
sheep NEG-be (att)-NEG stay forest
'Sheep don't stay in the forest.'

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 4 -4-2 P a s t I m p e r fe c tiv e
Unlike the present imperfective described above, past imperfective

clauses in the past tense are negated in the same way as past perfective

clauses using ance for the recent past and far past, as illustrated by the

example below.

(143) ji = ance le bins JIO.

ji = ance le + H ben + H J™
he/she-NEGP2 Impf raise him/her
'He wasn't raising him.'

To negate imperfective clauses in the distant past, Kol speakers use

ancege, as shown below.

(144) amya, mya bampamp, gkwijl ancege le di duk.

a-mya mya h + bo-mpamb rjkwiji ancege le di dug
?-time 3-time 3Assoc-2-ancestor leopard NegP3 Impf stay forest
'In the ancestors' time, the leopard didn't stay in the forest. I

4 .5 P r o g r e s s iv e C la u s e s

Interestingly, the progressive aspect marker permits the negation

strategy described for perfective clauses, even though progressive is more

similar to the imperfective aspect than to the perfective aspect. Compare the

affirmative and negative sentences below.

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 ji = o go waza m-ur.
ji = o go waza m-ur
he-PRES Prog forget 1-man
'He continues to forget someone.

ji = a = g = e waza m-ur.
ji = a = g = e waza m-ur
he-NEG-PROG-NEG forget 1-man
'He doesn't continue to forget someone.'

4 .6 N e g a tiv e P r e f ix

The negative prefix is used, as mentioned in the introduction,

whenever the speaker does not wish the negation to have sentential scope but

intends to only negate part of the construction.

(147) wo bok ke fenda no m3 ,

you (sg) be-lMP (sg) Neg be in rivalry with me
'You must not put yourself in competition with me.'

This means that the negative commonly used in subjunctive clauses -

either hortative or imperative - since it is generally the case that the speaker

does not want to negate the part of the construction which adds the

subjunctive (e.g. imperative as in the example above) element but rather the

event in question.

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 Ke is also used to negate 'bare' clauses, which lack independent tense

or aspect markers. In a discourse context, once the subject and tense

information have been established, they do not need to be repeated until

either the subject or tense changes or there is a discourse boundary. Since

such clause chains are common in Kol, ke is the most common negation

strategy in texts.

(148) mo-lu mo-ba p=a ko di bertwa ko nigs,

mo-lu mo-ba H+ji = a ko di bertwa ke nigo-e
6-era 6-two go stay Bertoua Neg retum-RELCL
RELCL-he-P2
'During the two days that he stayed in Bertoua without returning
home,'

4 .7 N e g a tiv e A d v e rb

Kol has a negative adverb tutu meaning 'never.' It is not necessary for

this to co-occur with any other negative markers, unlike the adverb described

in the section below.

• A II
(149) mbampydr) no "tutu! mo = bo nde JW1."
mbampyoi] na tutu ma ba nde jwi
lion that never I be be (loc) chief, ruler
'The lion said, "Never! I am the chief h e re."'

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 4.8 N e g a tiv e + A d v e rb

One adverb, nay, which in isolation means 'still, yet', frequently occurs

with the negative markers. It may either co-occur with the negative copula as

illustrated in (150), or with the morpheme ke, as shown in (151). When

combined with these negative morphemes, the construction acquires the

meaning ’no longer,' translated in French as 'pas encore' or 'ne plus'.

(150) me-nja a le sa mg tu wo no myo tuk nag,

me-nja a le sa ma tu wo na mya tug nag
4-intestine P2 IMPF do me inside manner that 4Subj be (neg) still
'I was feeling like my intestines weren't there inside me anymore.'

(151) mg me tega kf nag no gkui.

ma me tega ke nag no gkitl
I be (chg) (be)tired neg still, and, with force, power
'I was tired, had no energy.' (Joy.21)

5 Adverbials

The label adverb in this study has been restricted to a set of words

which have traditional adverbial semantics (they add temporal, locative or

manner information) and which have relatively free word order and therefore

contrast with other lexical categories which appear within the verb phrase.

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 As was mentioned in chapter 3, Kol also has a class of locative and

temporal nouns. These may be translated as adverbs but in Kol they do not

belong to this lexical class, having a different syntactic distribution.

Additionally, Kol also has prepositional phrases which may be used to

express manner, temporal or locative information. These are adjuncts and will

be discussed in chapter 5.

Some Kol adverbs are particularly free. These adverbs may appear

outside of the verb phrase (on the left periphery of the sentence), outside of

the verbal sequence (after the main verb, between objects or on the right

periphery), and in multiple places within the verbal sequence.

In the examples below, the adverb nji occurs within the verbal

sequence in (152) and outside in (153).

(152) m=e numo nji le lela.

I-Pl also,too +H only + H Im p f + h shiver,tremble
'I kept trembling.'

(153) ma = sa kwan nji le-mbegala ma nciimbe,

m= sa kwan nji le-mbeg51a n+ m a nciimbe
I do 7-meeting only Loc-9-protection 3POSS God
'I participated in the meeting under the protection of God.' {Joy.07)

Other adverbs which have similar patterns are given below.

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 (154) ba 'a little' nag 'still, yet'

ndag 'where, still' niima 'also'

ntaq 'like that' nwa 'there'

Another class of words is very free within the verbal sequence but does

not appear to occur outside of the verbal sequence.

(155) bwe 'for a long time' bulu 'a lot, many'

kwo 'again' qkons 'little by little'

Jwal 'immediately, directly'

In the example below, bwe 'for a long time' occurs before the aspect

marker in (156) and after in (157). This is typical of the words given in

(155).

(156) mya bampamp a be, gkwiji a bwe

mya h + bd-mpamb H +a b5-e pkwfp a bwe
3-time 3Assoc-2-ancestor RelCl-P2 be-RELCL leopard P2 long-time

le di duk.
le di dug
Impf stay forest
In the ancestors' time, the leopard stayed in the forest.

(157) sa m=e tuk le bwe sa yo.

sa h + m-e tug + h le + h bwe + h sa + h yo
7-thing RelCl-I-P1 be Impf long-time do 7 obj
'..a thing that I didn't usually do.' (Perils.29)

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 It is possible that instead of adverbs, these are actually verbs.

However, I have decided to classify them as adverbs because they do not

pattern like other clear verbal classes. In (156) above, if bwe is a verb, it

occurs in what would normally be the copula verb slot (see the following

chapter for more on the fixed order of the Kol verb), but in (157) it appears in

the non-copula auxiliary slot. While it could be an auxiliary verb, it does not

clearly pattern with either of the auxiliary classes.

Similarly for kwd 'again', another word which patterns with bwe, kwd

can appear as the object of a preposition, which is not a syntactic slot

available to verbs. Admittedly, it is also odd for adverbs to appear as the

complement of a preposition. However, there are a number of prepositional

phrases with adverbial semantics in Kol, as discussed in section 2.2 of the

following chapter. Kwd itself will be discussed in more detail in chapter 5,

section 1.4.

(158) ter dwop daarjga, m = ance na kwo le ko nag 9 wu.

ter dw-op d-oorjga m = ance no kwd le ko nag wu
start 5-day 5-Def I-NegPI with again Impf go still there
'Starting that day, I didn't go there anymore.'

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 It is very common to have more than one adverb in a clause. It is also

possible to have adverb stacking. That is to say, it is not necessary to spread

adverbs out throughout the clause, but in general no more than two adverbs

appear next to each other. These adverbs do not appear in a fixed order.

Below are two examples where adverbs are stacked within the verbal

sequence.

(159) m = e numa nji le lela.

I-Pl also,too + h only + h Impf + h shiver, tremble
'I kept trembling.'

(160) me m=o ko numa Jwala lag na nca kwar."

m =o ko numb Jwal lag na nca kwad
but I-PRES go also directly happen that come 9-village
'...but I'm going to leave for the village.' (Ram.35)

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 5 Morphosyntax of the Verb Phrase

Having described the various elements which may occur within the

verb phrase in the last chapter, we now turn our attention to the way in

which the verb phrase can be organized.

Kol is similar to many central, eastern and southern Bantu languages in

that its verbal sequence is quite templatic. However it differs from these

same languages in that the morphemes which fill the different slots of the

template are independent words or clitics, and not affixes. Verbal clitics in

Kol have strict positioning requirements which can be explained by referring

to the crosslinguistic tendency for clitics to occur in second position.

This chapter will also discuss some exceptions to the templatic nature

of the Kol verb and offer additional evidence as to why non-main verbs in Kol

are analyzed as auxiliary verbs and not complex predicates (serial verbs,

compound verbs or light verbs).

Complementation and adjunct patterns will be explored in section 2

and section 3 will examine aspects of Kol verbal morphosyntax in light of

formal syntax. In particular, Role and Reference Grammar will offer insight

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 as to the scope of the tense tonal concord, though some complications will

arise when RRG predictions about operator scope are compared to the Kol

patterns seen.

1 Structure within the Verb Phrase

Bantu languages, of which Kol is one, are assumed to have the minimal

structure shown below (Brauner 1995, Meeuwis 1998, Miti 2001, Mohammed

2001 among others).

(1) Subject Marker - Tense - Verb Stem

This structure is illustrated by an example from Swahili, an eastern

Bantu language. In addition to the categories above, Swahili also allows a

preverbal object marker.

(2) ni- na- wa- heshimu

I Pres them respect
'I respect them.' (Mohammed 2001 :ii)

Many Bantu verbs are of course even more complex. (3) gives an

example from Cinsenga, a Bantu language spoken in Zambia and Malawi.

This language allows for an initial negative marker, followed by a subject

marker, tense morpheme, object marker, verb root, derivational suffix (known
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 as an extension in Bantu linguistics) and a final vowel. These slots are labeled

above the illustrative morphemes in the example below.

(3) Neg SM Tense OM Verb Stem

Root Ext Fv
si- ni- ka- mu- lil- il- a
Neg I Fut him/her cry Appl
'I will not cry for him /her.' (Miti 2001:79)

The Kol verb structure is also fairly templatic in that it has a relatively

fixed ordering of the elements in the verbal sequence. A table below gives the

typical ordering of verbal units, followed by an example. In natural

discourse, it is difficult to find all slots attested in a single utterance, though

when slots are filled, they occur in the relative order given below.

Tense Tense2 Cop Aux Asp/M ode Aux Verb

e FI bwo F2 ba 'be' le Impf ko 'go'

o Pres lwandaba 'just' nde 'be (loc)' se Perf nca 'come'

e PI ji 'be (att)' mba Cond nigo 'return'

a P2 me 'be (chg)'

T a b le 5 .1 O rd er in g o f V e r b a l C o n stitu e n ts.

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 Cop Asp Aux Verb
(4) m g= me le ko kuga na tititi, epak m ad.
I be (chg) Impf go defecate with regularity iNF-defecate 6-blood
'I was having bloody diarrhea, all the time.' {Joy.22)

Across Bantu languages, when there are construction which contain

multiple verbs, it is common for the tense to be encoded on the first verb

while aspect is encoded on the second verb (Nurse 2003). This is not the case

for Kol however, as can be seen by the example below. Here both tense and

aspect precede the auxiliary where we might expect that tense would precede

the auxiliary while the aspect marker preceded the main verb.

Tense Aspect Adv Aux Verb

(5) m = e se numa ko kurja ncoo 161 tamo nci.
I-Pl Perf + h also + H go + H defecate+ h time three middle 3-path
'I had to stop three times along the way to go to the bathroom.' (Joy. 12)

However, if the first verb is a copula auxiliary, then the expected

pattern holds. The tense marker precedes the copula, and the aspect marker

follows the copula, preceding any other verb.

(6) mya m-ur a ba le ji wul ma kwint

mya H + m-ur a bo le ji wul ma kwrnde
time RELCL-l-man P2 be Impf want remove me hook in-head-RELCL
When the man wanted to take the hook out of my hair, [I told him, "While
you're taking that out, time is going by."]

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 In parallel to the affirmative copulas, it is possible for the negative

copula to appear in a multi-verb construction where it is marked for tense and

the main verb is marked for aspect (and other grammatical categories).

(7) by = o tuga le njep.

be = o tug + H le + H njeb
8-Pres be (neg) Impf lack
'They are not lacking.'

While many of the preverbal elements do not allow multiple exponence

of the same slot, there are some exceptions. While the tense vowels and the

aspect markers always appear in complementary distribution (i.e. only one

may appear at a time, though it is always possible to have a clause unmarked

for tense or aspect or both), the auxiliary verb slots permit that more than one

occur at a time.

As was just described, it is quite common to have a clause containing

both a copula auxiliary and a phasal (or modal) auxiliary. However, it is also

possible to have multiple copula auxiliaries in the same sentence or multiple

phasal auxilaries. An example of multiple copula auxiliaries is given below.

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 (8) njwug bs nde sa ns mo-buguba nca = k.
njwui] bb nde sa nb mo-buguba ncd = g + H
9-respect be be (loc) do that 6-prosperity come-SuBj
'Respect works to bring prosperity.' {Family. 10)

It is also possible to have multiple non-copula auxiliaries, as illustrated

below.
<o

(9) mya ko nigo je wu = l

>>
II

mya H+ yo ko nigo je wu-e

time RelCl + 7Sub go return arrive there-RELCL
'Arriving there, ...'

(10) bsssr bwo me nca ter fyal ms msci.

be- soeur bwo me neb ter fyal mb ma-ci
2- sister (nun) they be (chg) come first test(v) me 4-blood
'The Sisters first tested my blood.' (Joy.24)

Adverbs and the consecutive marker kd are the exceptions to the fixed

word order since they may intrude at numerous places within the verbal

sequence as will be discussed in more detail in section 1.3. This fixed word

order is not necessarily arbitrary, as will be discussed in section 3.2.

1.1 WORD-HOOD IN THE VERB PHRASE

As was mentioned above, Kol differs from the well-known Bantu

languages of central, eastern, and southern Africa in that the morphemes

which fill its templatic slots are independent words and not prefixes. (The

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 morphemes in the initial tense slot may be clitics and not independent words.

These are discussed in section 1.2 below.)

Evidence for the word-hood of the preverbal morphemes can be found

in three different areas of the Kol grammar. These are: clitic placement, the

tense concord H tone found in many tenses, and the placement of adverbs.

The discussion in this section will primarily focus on the morphemes of the

Tense2 slot and on the aspect markers, since these are cross-linguistically

likely to be affixes, in contrast to the auxiliary verbs which are likely to be

independent words.

Non-past perfective negation in Kol, as was discussed in chapter 4,

section 4.1.1, is marked by the circumclitic a = ..= e. This circumclitic

appears on the first word of the verbal sequence, as shown below.

(11) toob a=j = e di duk.

toob a = ji = e + h di + H duk.
sheep NEG-be(att)-NEG stay forest

'Sheep don't stay in the forest.'

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 This circumclitic may also be hosted by morphemes from the Tense2

slot, as seen in (12) and (13), which is evidence that these morphemes have

the same word status as the copula auxiliary verb seen in (11).

(12) ji = a = lwandab = e waza m-ur.

ji = a = lwandaba = e + h waza + h m-ur.
he/she-NEG-just-NEG forget 1-man
'He didn't just forget someone.'

(13) ji = a = bwe = y!e waza m-ur.

ji = a = bwo = e + h waza + h m-ur
he/she-NEG-F2-NEG forget 1-man
'He will not forget anyone.'

The non-past perfective negative circumclitic may also be hosted by an

aspect marker.

(14) ji = a = g = e waza m-ur.

_p= a = g = e waza m-ur
he-NEG-PROG-NEG forget 1-man
'He doesn't continue to forget someone.'

This suggests that the progressive aspect marker go is also an

independent word. The subjunctive clitic behaves in the same way as the

negative circumclitic and so will not be discussed further here though the

morphosyntax of verbal clitics is discussed in section 1.2 below.

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 Another aspect of the morphosyntax of Kol which offers evidence that

preverbal morphemes are independent words is the suffixal H tone which

marks tense concord. This tonal tense concord was discussed in chapter 4,

section 2.1.7. To review, in Kol, all tenses but the far past (P2), share a tonal

contour in that every word in the verbal sequence is marked by a suffixal H

tone. This can be seen by comparing a sentence in the recent past (PI) with

its far past (P2) equivalent.

<73

no kugu nigo ko njap.

II

no kugu ji = e nigo + h ko +H njab

with evening he- PI return go 3-house
'Today he returned home.'

(16) ji = a nigo ko njap.

ji = a nigo ko njab
he/she-P2 return go 3-house
'He went home.'

Crucially, this high tone is also suffixed to aspect markers, as can be

seen by comparing (17) and (18) below. The suffixal high tone delinks the

underlying low tone of the imperfective marker, resulting in downstep.

(17) ji = o l!e bwoga kwan.

jr = o le + H bw5g + H kwan.
he-PRES Impf harvest (honey) 9-honey
'He harvests honey (habitually).'

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 (18) Ji = a le bwogs kwan.
ji = a le bw5g kwan
he/she-P2 Impf harvest (honey) 9-honey
'He was harvesting honey.'

Finally, adverbs (and the consecutive marker fed) can appear in

multiple places in the verbal sequence. (See section 1.3 for more

information.) One of the places where an adverb can occur is between the

aspect marker and the following verb as illustrated in (19) with the adverb

numd 'also.' This would not be possible if the aspect marker was an affix,

since affixes have strict selectional criteria.

(19) m = e se numa ko kuqa ncoo 161 tamo nci.

I-Pl Perf + h also + H go + H defecate+ h time three middle 3-path
'I also had to go to the bathroom three times along the way.' (Joy. 12)

To summarize, the positioning of clitics, the suffixal H tone marking

tense concord, and adverbs all give evidence that preverbal morphemes in

Kol, particularly aspect markers and the morphemes in the Tense2 slot, are

independent words and not affixes.

1 .2 C litic P o s itio n in g

As was noted in the discussion of the perfective negative circumclitic

and the subjunctive enclitic, clitics appear in very specific places in Kol. This

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 is a characteristic of all of the central A. 80 Bantu languages. Heath (2003)

has described the characteristic placement of the subjunctive marker (and the

nature of the tense concord) by making reference to the inflection and the

macrostem.

1.2.1 I n f le c t io n v s . t h e M a c r o s te m

The inflection consists of the subject marker and the tense vowel. The

macrostem consists of everything else. This distinction is shown for Kol by

the table below. This terminology is borrowed from Mutaka and Hyman

(1990) where the macrostem was used to refer to the stem plus object prefix,

which was the domain of reduplication.

Inflection M acrostem

Subject Tense Tense2 Cop Aux Asp/Mode Aux Verb

This division served two purposes. It explained where the subjunctive

enclitic could appear, i.e. on the first element of the macrostem, and it also

grouped all the elements which could be marked by the tense tonal contour

together. (This is why the grammatical H tone marking most tenses is

referred to by Heath and Heath as the Macrostem H tone.)

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 However, it also created a structure which is not universally common.

It would be more elegant if Kol could be described in terms of known

crosslinguistic tendencies. In the case of the clitic placement, a possible

option would be to refer to the tendency for clitics (like the enclitic portion of

the perfective negative and the subjunctive enclitic) to occur in second

position.

This however would not resolve the second advantage of the

Inflection/Macrostem distinction, namely that of offering a concise

description of the scope of the tense tonal concord. This issue will be brought

up again in section 3.

1 .2 .2 S e c o n d P o s it io n

Second position effects are not usually associated with Bantu

languages. However, they are attested in a num ber of different language

families around the world, and therefore, a second position analysis is worth

considering for Kol.

Second position is used by different researchers to refer to either the

position after the first phonological word or after the first syntactic daughter.

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 When enclitics are hosted by the main verb, the verb is either initial or

in second position, depending on whether the subject is a proclitic as shown

in (20) or a full noun as shown in (21). The clitics do not occur on the full

noun subject because nouns never host clitics.

(2 0 ) ji = a = waza = ye.
he/she-NEG-forget-NEG
'He doesn't forget.'

(2 1 ) toob a=j = e di duk.

sheep NEG-be-NEG + H stay + H forest
'Sheep don't stay in the forest.'

When an object or adjunct is topicalized, the verb is also in second

position, as in (2 2 ).

(2 2 ) muuz, ji = a = deg = e le-kan.

ji-a-deg-e + h le-kan
today he/she-NEG-see-NEG + h 5-antelope
'Today, he didn't see an antelope.'

All the examples above are of the negative circumclitic. However,

there is another candidate for a second position clitic, i.e. the subjunctive

enclitic. The subjunctive however may occur with a tense vowel.

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 (23) w=o bo = k ke fenda na ma,
w=o ba = g + H ke fenda no ma
you-PRES be-lMP ( sg ) N eg be.in.rivalry w ith me

'You must not put yourself in competition with me.'

This tense vowel appears to nullify the second position hypothesis

because in the example above, the subjunctive enclitic now appears to occur

in third position. However, it may be possible that the tense vowels are

themselves clitics. Though they are not phonologically deficient, they do

occur in complementary distribution with the proclitic half of the negative

circumclitc.

If the tense vowels are also clitics, this would result in clitics again

occurring after the first word, since both the subject marker and the tense

vowel would be clitics hosted by the first word and invisible to the syntax.

1 .3 E x c e p tio n s t o t h e T e m p la tic N a t u r e o f t h e K o l v e r b

In spite of the fact that the Kol verb is relatively templatic, there are

words which have freer word order. In some cases, this can be directly

related to the question of scope. For example, the negative marker ke differs

from other negation strategies in that it is not required to appear at the

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 beginning of the verbal sequence. Instead, it appears directly before the

element it is negating, as shown by the example below where the initial

copula is in the affirmative while the first main verb is negated, along with

the second clause.

(24) me nde ke dulo siga, ke bs ne jiwsl msjiok.

I -PI Simul + h N eg + h sm oke cigarette N eg be w ith drink + h 6-w ine

'I neither smoked nor drank.' (Illness. 15)

The words with the most options are the lexical class of adverbs and

the consecutive marker ka. The syntactic placement of adverbs will be

discussed first in section 1 .2 . 1 , followed by a discussion of the syntax of the

consecutive marker ka.

1.3.1 A d v e r b s

Adverbs differ from other verbal elements in having the most free word

order. They can appear in a number of different positions within the verbal

sequence and may also appear outside of the verbal sequence all together.

Below is an example where the adverb numa 'also, too' appears as the first

element in a phrase.

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 (25) numa bw = a ko Jwamb na m a= ji na ntu ma-ci.
also they-P2 go discover that I be(att) with 9-diarrhea 6-blood
'Then they discovered that I had dysentery.' (Joy.27)

Adverbs may also appear between object noun phrases, as illustrated

by the adverb nji 'only' below.

(26) y=a qkwo bi ma nji le-mpuqa.

7SUB-P2 again seize me only in-10-hair
‘It snagged me in the hair. ’

Adverbs differ from other preverbal elements with fixed templatic slots

because they may insert themselves between any two words in the verbal

sequence. Since there are four main possible elements, i.e. the copular

auxiliary, the aspect marker, the non-copular auxiliary and the main verb,

this results in three possible adverb slots. Examples will be given of each

possibility below. The first available position for adverbs is after a copular

auxiliary and before an aspect marker. This may be seen in (27) and (28).

Example (29) also illustrates an adverb appearing in this same position,

though this example lacks a copular auxiliary.

(27) ji 9 = ji naq l!e bwoga kwan

he be (att) + h still + h Im pf + h harvest (honey) + h 9-honey
'He still collects honey.'

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 (28) ji 3 = ji nji l!e bwoga kwan
he/she be (att) + h only + h Im pf + h harvest (honey) + h 9-honey
'He still collects honey.'

(29) m = e numa nji le lela.

I-Pl also,too + H only + H Im pf + h shiver,tremble
'I kept trembling.'

The second available position for adverbs is after the aspect marker and

before the non-copular auxiliary. The fact that adverbs can appear both

before and after the aspect marker offers evidence (in addition to tonal

behavior) that aspect markers too are independent words.

(30) m = e se numa ko kurja ncoo 161 ntam a nci.

I-Pl Perf + h also + H go + H defecate+ h time 3 middle fork
'I also had to go to the bathroom three times along the way.' (Joy. 12)

Finally, adverbs can occur between the non-copular auxiliaries and the

main verb.

(31) ji = a ko numa jwak cie.

he/she-P2 go also,too hear, feel sick
'She got sick too.' (Joy.36)

Adverbs may also appear after the verb, but in that position, they are

outside of the verbal sequence. This may be seen because there is no extra H

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 tone found in that position; the last two words both surface with their

underlying low tones.

(32) Ji = e kwo d !i nji duk.

he-FuT again + h stay + h only forest
'He will continue to stay only in the forest.'

In a number of other Bantu languages, e.g. Chichewa, adverbs may not

intrude between the verb and the direct object, unless a prononimal object

marker appears on the verb. This pronominal object marker fulfills the

valency requirement of the verb and permits freer word order in the verbal

dependents and even omission of the full NP object (Mchombo 2001).

However, as seen above in (32), Kol does allow an adverb to be inserted

between a verb and a following noun phrase. The verb 'stay' in Kol is one of a

class of intranstive verbs which has the option of being followed directly by a

locative noun. It may be that the locative noun dug is an adjunct and not a

complement of the verb di. However, if 'forest' was an adjunct, we might

expect that it would occur with the locative prefix. More research needs to be

done to determine the status of these locative nouns.

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 1 .3 .2 K a

The consecutive morpheme ka also has freer word order than most

preverbal elements. It may for example occur before the aspect marker as in

(33) or after it as in (34).

(33) mya biza ka le di le-Sl

mya biza ka le di e-si
3-time we Cons Impf stay Loc-world
'...while we are in the w o rld ,...' (Funeral. 21)

(34) mya m = a se ka nca ja n-e-njwor)-e

mya + H m=a se ka nca ja na-le- jwop-e
3-time-RELCL I-P2 Perf Cons come sleep with-Loc-bed-RELCL

>
esap a se ka nca lal numa.
e-sap a se ka nca lal numa.
5-illness P2 Perf Cons come be.strong also
'By the time I laid down, the illness had already hit me hard.'
(Illness. 09)

Additionally, ka may occur before the phasal auxiliary as above in (34)

or after as below in (35).

(35) be nigo kwo ka crnda ka.

be-e nigo + h kwo + h ka + h cend + h ko + h
you (pl)-FuT return again Cons other.side go
'You will return again to the other side.'

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 Ka may even occur after the main verb as illustrated by the example

below.

(36) be nigo ko ka bila njwik,

be nigo ko ka
you (pi) return go Cons
'You go in the Bile Njwik region...'

This range of syntactic possibilities makes ka similar to the lexical class

of adverbs even though the consecutive marker is generally considered to be

part of the tense-aspect-mode (TAM) system.

1 .4 E m bedded P re p o s itio n a l P h ra s e s

Kol prepositional phrases can express adverbial semantics, i.e.

information on time or manner. Most prepositional phrases occur after the

verb as shown in the example below.

(37) y = a ntek ms ns bubu.

y=a nteg mb no bubu
7SUB-P2 annoy me with many
'That really bothered me.'

However, there are some prepositional phrases which appear to be

embedded within the verbal sequence. The phrase no rjkiil 'with power'

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 occurs between the copula auxiliary and the main verb in the examples

below. It is frequently translated as 'can' as seen in (39).

•V
(38) "est- ce que ms J1 no rjkul ys wogs ?
mo ji no rjkiil yb wog
I be with 9-force die here
'Will I die here?' (Illness. 23)

(39) bws nde ns rjkul leq ns bs-Jwa,

bwo nde no rjkiil Icrj no bo-f^
they be (loc) with 9-force tell with 2-friend
'They could call [them] friends.' (Perils.03)

This phrase also occurs outside of the verbal sequence in the expected

postverbal position. However, there are actually more examples in the corpus

of the embedded construction than the postverbal construction.

(40) twe n-e-sap a se jak no qkul

twe no-e-sap a se jak no gkul
even.if that-5-illness P2 Perf (be) serious with 9-force
'..even if the illness had already hit hard...' (Rlness.25)

The morpheme kwd which was mentioned in the Adverbials section of

chapter 4 can also occur as the object of an apparently embedded

prepositional phrase as shown by the two examples below.

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 (41) ter dwop doogga, m = ance na kwo le ko nag a wu.
ter dw-op doarjga m = ance no kwo le ko nag wu
start 5-day 5-Def I-NegP1 with again Impf go still there
'Starting that day, I didn't go there anymore.'

(42) ma = no kwo nca ter le-jwak be-wal.

I w ith again com e start iNF-feel 8-fear

'I started to be afraid.'

Unlike no rjkiil 'with power,' there are no examples of this prepositional

phrase in a non-embedded position outside of the verb phrase. However, kwd

is extremely common as a word on its own (classified in chapter 4 as an

adverb) within the verbal sequence, and parallel to the behavior of the

prepositional version, also does not occur as an adverb outside the verbal

sequence though many adverbs can. Perhaps most interestingly, speakers

very as to whether this word is pronounced with a prenasalized stop or an

oral stop.

y=a gkwo bi ma nji le-mpuqa.

y=a kwo bi mu nji le-mpiup.
7Sub-P2 again seize me only Loc-10-hair
It snagged me in the hair.

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 (44) ji 3 — ji kwo bara.
ji = ji + h kwo + h bara
he be (att) again greet
'He greets again.'

I suggest that this construction began as a prepositional phrase with

adverbial semantics (there are many of these in Kol as will be discussed in the

section on Adjuncts below). Once it was allowed to become embedded in the

verbal sequence, the boundary between the preposition and its complement

began to erode. Some speakers, such as the one who gave example (43), have

collapsed the two into a single phonological word, while others have

completely lost any trace of the original preposition.

It remains to be seen whether a similar process will occur with no rjkul

'with force' or 'can,' though it is interesting that it is already much more

common in my corpus than the modal auxiliary kwog 'can.'

1 .5 T h e S t a t u s o f N o n - M a in V e r b s

Many Kol verbal sequences contain more than one verb. I have labeled

those verbs which are not the main verb (the last verb in the verbal sequence)

as auxiliary verbs but up to this point have given only cursory justification of

that classification. This section will provide more information as to why I

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 believe the non-main verbs in Kol are auxiliary verbs and not compound

verbs, serial verbs or light verbs.

Since definitions for these terms have varied over the years and from

scholar to scholar, I will be making explicit which definitions and criteria I

am using throughout the course of this discussion. Scholars with different

criteria could of course come to different conclusions.

Bowem (2006) includes both serial verbs and light verbs in her

classification of complex predicates. She does not particularly discuss

auxiliary verbs, with the implication being where they are mentioned, that

these do not fall within the scope of complex predicates. Bowem gives the

following criteria for identifying complex predicates (2006:30).

• ev en t stru c tu re - the predicate describes a single event and not

a sequence of events

• selection c riteria - complex predicate constructions contain

verbs from a restricted class, unlike coordinate constructions;

they exhibit non-compositional semantics

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 • word order - the verbs in a complex predicate cannot be

separated by intervening material

• nom inalization - the whole predicate may be nominalized

• interrogatives - the predicate functions as a single unit in

interrogatives (particularly with respect to interrogative

marking)

• negation and temporal adverbs - have scope over the whole

predicate not just particular verbs within the predicate

According to the above criteria, the Kol verbal sequence is not a

complex predicate. The two criteria which are problematic are word order

and negation. Kol auxiliary verbs may be separated from the main verb by

aspect markers, in the case of the copula auxiliaries, or by adverbs. (45)

below is an example of a copula auxiliary separated from the main verb by

both an adverb and an aspectual marker.

(45) ji 9 = ji nag l!e bwags kwan

he be (att) + h still + h Impf + h harvest (honey) + h 9-honey
'He still collects honey.'

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 Below is an example where a non-copula auxiliary is separated from

the main verb by an adverb.

(46) ji = a ko num s jwak cie.

he/she-P2 go also,too hear, feel sick
'She got sick too.' (Joy.36)

Additionally, it is also possible to negate only part of the predicate, as

shown below where the first copula auxiliary is outside the scope of the

negation.

(47) m = e nde ke dulo siga ke bo ne jiwel ma-jiok.

I -PI be + h N eg + h smoke cigarette N eg be with drink + h 6-wine
'I neither smoked nor drank.' {Ulness. 15)

If serial verbs and light verbs are subtypes of complex predicates, and

Kol verbal sequences do not fit the criteria for complex predicates, then that

suggests that the non-main verbs seen in Kol are in fact auxiliary verbs.

Auxiliary verbs do not assign theta roles and function as the heads of

inflectional projections, not as the heads of verbal projections.

This would work for Kol since the auxiliary verbs contribute

information to the predicate about the internal structure or mode of the event

as described in chapter 4. There are no non-main verbs which impact the

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 argument structure of the predicate. The argum ent structure is always

defined by the main verb. An intransitive verb remains intransitive even if it

is modified by an auxiliary verb as can be seen by the intransitive verb 'die' in

the example below.

ms mee le cwoqgala ns ms mee nca ya.

ma me le twaggala na ma me nca ya
I be (chg) Impf think that me b e (c h g ) com e die

'I thought that I would die.'

2 Valence and word order

Kol verbs may be intransitive, transitive or ditransitive. In addition,

they may contain additional optional clauses, or adjuncts. An example with

two intransitive verbs is given below.

(49) ji = i ji nco kabo mijoq se yo.

ji = e ji + H nco + H kabo m ipi] se yd
h e -P l be (att) com e but brother P erf die

'He was going to come, but his brother had already died.'

In the sections below, various complementation options will be

described in 2.1 followed by a discussion of adjunct possibilities in 2.2.

Some intransitive verbs with semantic patients (or undergoers) as their

syntactic subject may express the semantic agent by using a prepositional

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 phrase, as shown below. Note though that this verb ends in / l / which is one

of the reflexes of the frozen applicative extension. This may explain this

relatively odd syntactic patterning.

(50) la ne bwil na mw-an.

glass this be.broken by 1-child
'This glass was broken by the child.'

2 .1 C o m p le m e n ts

Kol transitive verbs can have nominal complements, infinitival

complements or sentential complements. Each type of complement will be

discussed in its own section below.

2 .1.1 N o m in a l C o m p le m e n ts

Unmarked nominal complements include prototypical patients as well

as locative objects.

2 .1.1.1 Direct Object

A large number of Kol verbs are transitive, requiring both a subject

noun phrase (or pronoun) and an object noun phrase. The object noun

phrases are prototypically fulfilling the semantic role of patient. An example

is given below.

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 (51) ji = a bwoga kwan.
he/she-P2 harvest (honey) 9-honey
'He was harvesting honey.'

2 .l.i.2 Locative object

Kol also has a few verbs which would in many languages be

intransitive, but in Kol always appear with a locative noun complement. The

verb ja 'sleep' is one of these verbs. An example is given below. Note that the

noun 'hospital' is not marked with the locative prefix le- or a preposition.

(52) m = a ja walofira.
I-P2 sleep hospital
'I slept at the hospital.' (Joy.31)

Many other Kol nouns which can occur without an object may also

occur with a locative object. Below are two examples.

(53) nobo m=a ji ya njwar) dwab d-5r).

naba m=a ji ya njwarj dwob d-oagga
because I-P2 be (att) die river 5-day 5-Def
'...because I was dying on the river that day.'

qkwfji jl di duk.
rjkwyi ji + H di + H dug
leopard be (att) stay forest
'The leopard stays in the forest.'

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 2.1.1.3 Two object constructions

When there are two arguments which follow the verb, the animate one

occurs immediately after the verb. Frequently, the animate argum ent is

expressed by a personal pronoun, as in (49). This leads to the hypothesis that

maybe the param eter to consider is pronoun vs. full noun phrase, but

sentences like (50) suggest that indeed the im portant param eter is animacy.

(55) sa jDDqga a le sa ma 15-qkwunt

sa j-DDqgs a le sa ma le- qkwunt
7-thing 7-Def P2 Impf do me 5-fear
'That situation scared me...'. {Illness.20)

(56) si byin na m=a nigo ya nciimbe akiba na bubu.

si bien na m=a nigo yd nciimbe ekiba no bulu
so that I-P2 return give God thanks with a.lot
So that I thanked God a lot. {Illness. 29)

Bearth (2003) states that: "For three argument verbs, most Bantu

languages preferentially place the goal or beneficiary immediately after the

verb with the patient following the goal." While this is true in Kol for

inherently ditranstive verbs like 'give,' it is possible to add a beneficiary using

the le-fu 'sake of construction. This argument always occurs second as shown

in the examples below.

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 (57) ji = e sa jwo le-Ju d-ag.
ji = e sa + H jwo le-Ju d-ag
he/she-FuT do 7 obj 5-sake 5-my
'He will do it for me.' (lit. 'for my sake')

(58) Ji = e ju miyog le-Ju mwane.

ji = e ju + H miyoi] le-Ju m w ane
he/she-FuT kill brother 5-sake money
'He will kill his brother for money.'

2 .1 .2 I n f in it iv a l C o m p le m e n t s

Infinitival complements may consist of only an infinitive verb or of an

infinitive along with its own complements. Kol allows infinitival

complements to occur in the subject or object position. Kol also allows

infinitival adjuncts, which will be discussed in 2.2.5.1.

2 .1 .2.1 Object infinitival complements

As was mentioned above, verbs may take an infinitive verb as a

complement. This infinitive may appear with its own complements as in (59)

and (60).

(59) m=a kwamaza le-ko wu.

m=a kwamaza le-ko wu
I-P2 prepare iNF-go there
'I got ready to go there.'

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 (60) ji = e ter le-waza m-ur.
ji =e ter + h le-waza m-ur
he/she-FuT start iNF-forget 1-man
'He will start to forget someone.'

2 .1 .2 .2 Subject infinitival complements

Infinitive verbs can also be used as subjects, as shown by the following

examples.

(61) e-ji jalana ya be fok.

le-ji jalana yd be fog
iNF-ask must give you (pi) 9-wisdom
'Asking must give you wisdom.'

(62) e-let) na jia ba nde mbint.

le-ler) na jia ba nde mbint
iNF-tell that he/she be be (loc) boss
'He says that he is the only boss.' (lit ‘Telling that he is the boss
[here].’

(63) e-fwala tuk."

le-fwala tug
iNF-waste.time be (neg)
'Don't waste time.' (lit. ‘Time wasting isn’t.’)

2 .1 .3 C o m p le m e n t c la u s e s

Kol also permits entire clauses to appear as the complement of the

verb.

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 (64) m=a nump na m=e nigo na boju.
m=a numb na m= e nigo na bo-Ju
I-P2 know that I-Fut return with 2-fish
'I thought that I would come back with fish.'

A
m = a = bugala = ye na mpu e nwi muuz.
m = a = bugala = e na mpu e nwi + h muuz
I-NEG-believe-NEG that rain FUT fall today
'I don't believe that it will rain today.'

2 .1 .3 . 1 R eported speech

Quotations form a subset of the complement clause genre in that the

matrix verb is frequently deleted. Below is an example with the matrix verb

included followed by an example where it is deleted.

✓ A
(66) m = 0 nca leg na m-ur a le duga na
m =o nco + H leg + h no m-ur a le duga na
I-Pres come say with 1-man P2 IMPF paddle that

jia = mage na biza e-dag

ji = mag no biza le-dag
he tum.off with us Loc-reeds
[When we got to the middle of the river,] I said to the man who was
rowing that he turn off with us into the reeds, [so that if the canoe
starts sinking, it won't sink too far.]

Below is an example of reported speech where the speech verb has

been omitted.

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 (67) ji9 = na "bug ji = o le lag be."
ji = na bug ji = o le + h lag + h be
he that place he-PRES Impf pass bathing.place
'He [the fox] said, "He normally passes by here.'"

The only difference between indirect and direct reported speech is the

pronouns. Compare the direct reported speech example below where the

quotation includes the pronoun ‘you’ with the indirect reported speech

example given in (66) where the quotation includes the pronoun ‘he.’

(68) m = a nca leg na jia na "mya w=o nde

m=a nco leg no jia na mya w=o nde + H
I-P2 come say with him that 3-time you-PRES be (loc)

1A /I V V V1 \ *A 1\
le wul ne e-wala ji lag.
le + H wul + H ne e-wala ji lag
Impf take, out that 5-hour be (att) pass
[When the man who rowed wanted to take the hook out of my hair,] I
told him that "While you're taking that out, time is passing."

2 .2 A d ju n c ts

In Kol, as in most languages, it is possible to add further information to

the clause by the use of adjuncts (optional elements). These adjuncts may

syntactically be nouns, adverbs, prepositional phrases, and clauses of various

kinds. They serve to add additional information about the time or location of

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 the event or the reason for the event. Additionally, they may serve discourse

functions.

Syntactically, adjuncts also vary as to whether they may be topicalized,

i.e. moved to the beginning of the sentence (its left periphery). For example,

prepositional phrases marking location or m anner are always found on the

right periphery. Some examples are given below.

(69) na bweya 'everywhere' no bubu 'a lot, many'

na pe 'totally' na tititi 'regularly'

na yiq 'too much'

However, prepositional phrases marking time may appear either at the

beginning or at the end of the sentence.

(70) no kugu 'yesterday, lit. with evening'

na ca 'now'

In the subsections below, adjuncts have been grouped by their function

(time, location, manner, purpose, or discourse).

2 .2 .1 T e m p o r a l A d ju n c ts

Some clauses have additional information included about the time of

the event. Kol speakers have a wide range of choices as to the kind of

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 element used to add this information. They can use temporal nouns,

prepositional phrases, relative clauses, or verb phrases, as discussed in the

various sections below.

2 .2 .1 .1 Tem poral nouns

Some time expressions in Kol are single words, specifically nouns.

(71) muuz ’today' fum 'night'

man 'morning' kugu 'evening'

Evidence for these being nouns may be found in the expression

'tomorrow' eman or emane, which is literally 'in the morning,' formed by

prefixing the locative morpheme to the noun 'morning.'

(72) e-man-e ji = e bwoga kwan.

Loc-moming he/she-Fl harvest (honey) + h 9-honey
'Tomorrow, he will harvest honey.'

Additionally, they may be modified by other nominal modifiers, as can

be seen in the expression 'now' which frequently occurs with the

demonstrative gga. Below is an example of ca 'now' without the

demonstrative and an example of ca with the demonstrative.

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 (73) ms = ji jiwag wo kan lebisa bfzs nde le
m= ji Jiwarj wo kan le-be-sa bizo nde le
I want take you story Loc-8-thing RELCL-we be Impf

dek wok ns caa-qga ns bsmfjoq b- tz-e.

deg wok no ca- ijga no bd-imjog b-fz-e.
see here with now-this with 2-brother 2-our-RELCL
'I will tell you a story on what we see today with our brothers.'
{Serpent. 01)

* •A

e-Ji ka ji news ns ns ca
le-jf ka ji ncwo no no ca
iNF-need Cons be (att) we (dual) that with now
'It's necessary that the two of us...' {Ram.20)

These temporal nouns may be fronted as shown by the example above

or may occur postverbally, as illustrated by the example below.

(75) mw-an a di dugs rjgumba fum.

mo-an a di dug ygumba fum
1-child P2 stay forest entire night
'The child stayed in the forest all night.'

2 .2 .1 . 2 Tem poral Prepositional Phrases

As was mentioned above, Kol has at least two temporal prepositional

phrases. These may appear both postverbally and at the beginning of the

sentence.

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 (76) no kugu 'yesterday, lit. with evening'
no ca 'now'

2 .2 .1.3 Temporal Relative Clauses

One of the most common strategies in Kol for providing temporal

information is to use a relative clause headed by the noun mya 'time,' as

illustrated below.

(77) mya biza nde ka nige,

mya + h biza nde ka Jiiga-e
3-time-RELCL we be (loc) Cons retum-RELCL
'When we were returning, '

2 .2 .1.4 Temporal verb phrases

Temporal information can also be given by means of a full clause, as

seen by the introductory clause below. Interestingly, this is not an infinitival

clause, but is more of a sentence fragment, lacking both a subject and the

infinitive prefix.

(78) ter dwop d55gga, m = ance na kwo le ko nag a WU.

ter dw-op d-oogga m = ance no kwo le ko nag wu
start 5-day 5-Def I-NegPI with again Impf go still there
'Starting that day, I didn't go there anymore.'

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 2 .2 .2 L o c a tiv e A d ju n c ts

As has been mentioned elsewhere, Kol has a large num ber of locative

nouns which function as complements of some verbs and which also function

as the heads of locative relative clauses.

However, Kol also has a locative adverb nwa and a locative

prepositional phrase na bweya 'everywhere.'

V
(79) ma = e sa ma be-dug nwa tu
m= e sa + H ma be- dug nwa tu
I PI do me 8-noises there inside
'It made sounds inside of me.' (Joy.03)

(80) e-je, mur bi-nam ma je kweb ma-ci na

le-je m-ur bi-nam me je kweb ma-ci no
iNF-arrive 1-man 8-nation be(chg) arrive find 6-blood with

bweya. bweya.
bweya bweya
everywhere everywhere
'When the man of the nations arrived, he found blood everywhere.' (In this
story, Fox, the narrator, is telling Lion about Man, who he calls the man o f
the nations.)

2.2.2.1 Locative R elative Clauses

The numerous locative nouns in Kol can be the heads of relative

clauses which add additional information to a sentence.

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 (81) bug biza a desi ne
bug h + biza a dez ne-e
place RELCL-we P2 drown that-RELCL

'the spot where we almost drowned'

2 .2 .3 M a n n e r A d ju n c ts

As was mentioned in the introduction to this section, m anner adjuncts

in the form of prepositional phrases always occur on the right edge of the

sentence.

(82) na yig 'too much' no bubu 'a lot, many’

na pe 'totally' natititi 'regularly'

(83) bwa: ll be-famp na pe.

bw o = a 11 be-famb no pe
they-P2 clear 8-fields w ith totally

'They totally cleared the fields.'

2 .2 .4 P u r p o s e A d ju n c ts

In order to express the purpose of an action, Kol speakers can either

use the auxiliary 'come,' as described in chapter 4, or they can use the noun

le-Ju 'sake.' This noun is also commonly used to express beneficiaries.

2 .2 .4 . 1 Purpose noun phrases

The noun le-Ju can appear as a postverbal adjunct. It can be modified

as in (84) or can appear with its own complement as in (85).

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 (84) Ji =e sa jwo le-Ju d-ap.
ji = e sa+ h jwo le-Ju d-ag
he/she-FuT do 7 obj 5-sake 5-my
'He will do it for me.' (lit. 'for my sake')

(85) ji = e ju miyap le-Ju mwane.

ji = e ju + H miyog le-Ju mwane
he/she-FuT kill brother 5-sake money
'He will kill his brother for money.'

2 .2 .4 . 2 Purpose clause
The noun le-Ju can also be used with the subordinate conjunction m to

form purpose clauses. This construction is generally translated as 'so that.'

An example is given below.

(8 6 ) jia = mage na biza e-dap e-Ju na r)ge byol

P= mage no bizo le-dag e-Ju no t)ge by51
he turn, off with us Loc-reeds 5-sake that if 7-canoe
<—i

e ko lemadiba y=e ko pgumba blip.

e ko le-mo-dfbo y=e ko Jug qgumba bug
FUT go Loc-6-water 7SUB-FUT go stop certain place
'He turned off with us into the reeds so that if the canoe sank, it would
stop at a certain point.'

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 2 . 2.5 D is c o u r s e A d ju n c t
In the course of telling a story or exhorting an audience, speakers can

also use adjunct words or clauses in order to highlight information or make

the story flow better.

2 .2 .5 . 1 Discourse linking

Infinitive clauses are also common at the beginning of sentences. In

this position, they are functioning as the 'head' of a tail-to-head linkage, a

common discourse strategy where the beginning of a sentence repeats the

information given at the end of the last sentence. For example, a speaker

could say something along the lines of "John went to the store. Having gone

to the store, he bought some bread."

In Kol, such tail-to-head linkage markers mark a boundary in the

discourse and begin a new paragraph. Sometimes they repeat exactly what

just occurred in the previous clause, as in (87), but much of the time they are

a paraphrase as in (88).

(87) e-je, mur binam ms je kweb ms-ci ns

le -je m -u r b i- n a m me je k w eb m a -ci na
iN F -a rr iv e 1 -m a n 8 -n a tio n b e (c h g ) a r r iv e f in d 6 -b lo o d w ith

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 bweya bweya.
bweya bweya
everywhere everywhere
'When he arrived, he found blood everywhere.'

(88) e-nca kel ns biy-ssqgs m=a ter jiwaq = e

le-nco kcl no beooijgo H+ m = a ter jiwar) = e
INF-come beside with 8-Def RelCl-I-P2 first take-RELCL
'Added to what I first took...." (Perils.34)

3 The Verb vs. the Verb Phrase

Crosslinguistically, the verb frequently forms a constituent with its

direct or primary object. Those languages which provide surface exceptions

are usually head-marking languages which perm it freer word order among the

head's complements or modifiers.

The tonal tense concord found in Kol is interesting because its scope is

only the verbal sequence and not the verb plus its direct object. This suggests

that maybe the verb phrase is not a constituent in Kol. Yet, the discourse-

linking adjuncts discussed above are examples of the verb forming a

consitutent with its complement in that an infinitive along with its

complements may appear in the head portion of tail-head linkage marking.

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 One solution to this problem is to posit two constituents, one which

would include the elements of the verbal sequence and another which would

include the elements of the verbal sequence and its arguments.

3 .1 T e n s e C o n c o rd R e v is ite d

As has been previously mentioned, in all the tenses but the far past, a

grammatical H tone is suffixed to every word within the verbal sequence.

However, this tone is not added after the direct object. This is illustrated by

the example below where there is no H gone seen after 'brother.'

(89) ji = e ju miyoq le-Ju mwane.

ji = e ju + H miyoi] le-Ju mwane
he/she-FuT kill brother 5-sake money
'He will kill hisbrother for money.'

Since the Kol verbal sequence is made up of independent words and

clitics, it would be reasonable to suggest that the scope of the tense tonal

concord could be the verb phrase (VP) or inflectional phrase (IP). However,

both of these syntactic constituents would not only include the preverbal

elements and the main verb, but they would also include the direct object. A

tree is given below of the following sentence. This sentence is in the far past

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 (P2) and does not therefore have tonal concord, but it demonstrates a possible

structure of the VP and TP in Kol, illustrating the problem.

* • /
(90) m-ur a bo le Jl wul mo kwint lelu
m -u r a bo le ji wul mo kw m de le -lu

1 -m a n P2 be Im p f w ant rem ove me hook in -h e a d

'The man wanted to take the hook out of my hair.'

TP

NP r

T AspP

[Spec] Asp'

Asp AspP

[Spec] Asp'

Asp AuxP

[Spec] Aux'

Aux

[Spec] V'

NP NP

m-ur a bo le jf wul mo kwint lelu

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 However, not all syntactic theories include a VP (or TP) constituent.

One in fact, argues explicitly against such a constituent. Instead, Role and

Reference Grammar (Van Valin and LaPolla 1997) offers a layered clause

structure, where a clause consists of three elements: the nucleus, the core and

the periphery. The nucleus includes only the predicating element, the core

includes the predicate and its arguments (subject, object, etc.), and adjuncts

are found in the periphery.

Clause

Core Periphery

Nucleus

Since the tense tonal concord has scope over only the verbal sequence

and not over any of a verb's arguments (subject or objects), then the tonal

concord may be characterized as a H tone which is suffixed to every element

of the nucleus as shown below.

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 Periphery

Core

Nucleus

(91) j i = e se + h dimbolo + h mpyo y-e duk.

(91) ji = i se dimbslo mpyo y-e duk.

ji = e se + H dimbab + h mpyo y-e dug
he/she-Pl Perf lose 1-dog 1-his forest
’He lost his dog in the forest.'

While positing a layered clause structure appears to solve the question

of what exactly the scope of the tense tonal concord is, it also raises some

other questions. The hypothesis above puts all verbal elements but the initial

tense vowel inside the nucleus. Van Valin and LaPolla suggest that certain

operators of a clause have scope over different elements of the layered clause

structure which may not be compatible with the amount put into the nucleus

above. This will be examined in the section below.

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 3 .2 O perators

Van Valin and LaPolla (1997:40ff) describe a class of morphemes

which they call operators which modify the clause. They state that a crucial

fact about operators, which include tense, aspect, mode, directional and

evidential markers among others, is that different operators modify different

parts of the layered clause structure (1997:45).

In a horizontal table below is given the crosslinguistic predictions

about operator scope (originally given as a vertical projection).

N ucleus Core Clause

O perators Aspect Directionals Status, negation

Negation Modality (root) Tense

Directionals Negation E vidential

Illocutionary
force

Table 5.2 Scope of Operators

Compare these predictions above with the verbal template given at the

beginning of this chapter below. Here a row has been added at the top which

shows which portions of the verbal sequence are predicted to be within the

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 nucleus according to the tense tonal concord pattemings described in the

section above.

Nucleus
Tense Tense2 Cop Aux Asp/M ode Aux Verb
e FI bwo F2 ba 'be' le Impf ko 'go'

o Pres lwandaba 'just' nde 'be (loc)' se Perf nca 'come'

e PI ji 'be (att)' mba Cond nigo 'return'

a P2 me 'be (chg)'

Table 5.4 Ordering of Kol Verbal Constituents

The aspect markers and the phasal auxiliaries offer no complications.

The phasal (non-copula) auxiliaries have for the most part a directional

component ('go, leave,' 'come' or 'go back'). Directionals and aspect markers

are predicted to have scope over the nucleus and indeed these appear closest

to the verb in the template above.

For the opposite reason, the initial tense slot also fits in with Van Valin

and LaPolla's predictions. It is predicted to be clausal, i.e. outside of the

nucleus, and that could work with w hat we know about the tense tonal

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 concord thus far. The tense vowels in the Tense 1 slot are not necessarily the

source of the tense tonal concord, and since they are all marked with an

underlying H tone anyway, they do not need to be within the nucleus to

explain variations in tonal behavior.

However, the morphemes found in the Tense2 slot, some modal

morphemes in Kol, and certain aspects of negation could be problematic.

These will each be discussed below, beginning with the Tense2 morphemes.

The morphemes bwo 'distant future (F2)' and Iwanddbd 'immediate

relative past, or just' are a challenge because Van Valin and LaPolla predict

that all tense morphemes function on the clausal level, but at least Iwandabd

needs to be within the scope of the tense tonal concord to explain its varying

tonal behavior in the far past and present tense constructions.

(92) ji = o lwandaba bwaga kwan.

jr =o lwandaba+ h bwag + H kwan
he/she-PRES just harvest 9-honey
'He just harvested honey.'

(9 3 ) na tu g a b iz = a lw a n d a b a ba le -n c a q na n caa

na tu g b iz = a lw a n d a b a ba le -n c a q na n ca
and b e (n e g ) w e -P 2 ju s t be L o c -d a n c e w ith now th is

'Weren't we just as the party now?' (Perils.77)

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 I do not have any solutions to offer to the above conundrum. This will

have to be a topic for further research. It is however im portant to note that

these tense morphemes are at the far edge of the verbal template and are

relatively new innovations, since they do not have direct correlates

(particularly Iwandabd) in the closely related neighboring languages. This

"edge" confusion may be a result of an incomplete grammaticalization.

Modal morphemes in Kol are all problematic for different issues. Mode

can be marked in Kol by auxiliaries, an enclitic or preverbal non-auxiliary

words. The modal auxiliaries occur in the non-copula auxiliary slot which

puts them firmly within the nucleus according to the tense concord

hypothesis above while Van Valin and LaPolla theorize that modality is a core

operator. One possible solution to this issue would be to suggest that the

modal plus main verb constructions are examples of serial verb constructions.

This has some complications of its own and will be discussed in section 3.3

below.

Mode can also be marked by the subjunctive clitic or by modal words

like fa 'subjunctive' and mba 'conditional.' The subjunctive clitic also appears

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 to occur within the nucleus but this may be an accident of its requirement to

be in second position as described above. The modal words fa and mba offer

a potentially more serious complication. In all of my examples of the modal

word ha, it occurs at the beginning of the verbal sequence. It is after any

tense vowel, which is theorized to be at the clausal level, so the subjunctive

morpheme could be at the clause level, with the nucleus starting with the

main verb in (94) and the consecutive marker in (95). This would however

require positing the underlying tone of the subjunctive morpheme as a rising

(LH) contour which is relatively rare in Kol as a lexical tone It would be more

common to have the combination of a L lexical tone and a H tense concord

tone as would be the case if the subjunctive marker had an underlying L tone

and was inside the nucleus and therefore marked with the H tone tense

concord, as could happen in (94). However, since this is a relatively minor

consideration, I will suggest that the subjunctive marker does have a LH tone

and can therefore be theorized to be a the clause level and not at the nucleus

level (within the scope of the tonal concord).

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 (94) bw = o ha kwir ba-ji55r]ga bop.
b w o -o fa k w ir + H b o -jio o g g a b -o b

they-PRES s h o u ld h e lp 2 -m o th e r th e ir

’They should help their mothers.' (Soeur.20)

(95) "ha ka wu."

fa ka wu

s h o u ld Co n s e x it

'Come out then." (Serpent.34)

This leaves mba, the conditional marker. This was originally placed

within the same position in the template as the aspect markers because it

never co-occurs with the aspect markers and it is always directly in front of

the phasal auxiliary verb. However, it is also true that it is never preceded by

anything but the tense vowels. Therefore, this is not actually a problem for

either of the hypotheses above. Since mba is underlyingly H, there is no

direct evidence that it falls within the scope of the tense tonal concord.

(96) mya m=o t wo i]gala na gge m=a mba

m ya +H m = o tw a q g a lo + H na tJge m = a m ba

time-RELCL I-P res th in k th a t if I-P 2 COND

ko ya lemadibs
ko ya le -m o -d fb a -e

go d ie in-6-water-RELCL

'When I think that I could have died in the w ater...'

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 (97) a mba ba no wunde m=a mba diip wunde fyal
a m ba ba no wunde m = a m ba d ib w unde fy a l

P2 C ond be w ith w in d o w I-P 2 C ond open w in d o w e x it

ton funds,
to n fu n d d .

o u ts id e fle e

'If there had been a window, I would have gone out it and fled.'

Finally, there is the question of negation. Negation can appear at any

level of the layered clause construction, according to Table 5.2 above,

depending on its scope. Of the differing negation strategies in Kol, the

negative morpheme ke is not problematic because it has limited scope and

will fit into the same layer as whatever follows it. However, the sentential

negation marked by the negative circumclitic could be an issue for this

particular theory. The negative circumclitic definitely has scope over the

whole clause and is therefore expected to function on the clause level.

However, it is a clitic which is hosted by elements which have been

hypothesized to fall within the nucleus.

The solution here may be to fall back on the nature of clitic positioning

which frequently has more to do with prosodic concerns than syntax. The

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 negative circumclitic occurs in second position and any tense concord which

appears on the enclitic portion could be theorized to be due to the nucleus

position of the host.

Below is a revised table based on the Kol data described above.

N ucleus Core Clause

O perators Aspect ha subjunctive a = ..= e negative

ke negative marker mba conditional Tense

Phasal auxiliaries =g subjunctive

T a b le 5 .5 S c o p e o f K ol O p era to rs

As was mentioned above, this leaves the question of the morphemes

found in the Teme2 slot as a subject for further research.

3 .3 S e r ia l V e rb s

Role and Reference grammar predicts that predicates can be

coordinate, subordinate or co-subordinate at any level of the layered

structure, i.e. the nucleus, core or clause. Serial verbs are co-subordinate

constructions, but they can presumably be co-subordinate at the nucleus or

core level.

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 If ke is a nuclear operator as hypothesized above, then the copula +

main verb construction cannot be an example of nuclear serialization since it

is possible to negate the main verb while leaving the copula in the affirmative

as shown below. If nde is an auxiliary providing aspect information, then all

three elements, nde, ke, and the main verb are all at the level of the nucleus

and offer no challenges to the theory.

(98) m = e nde ke dulo siga ke bs ne jiwel majiok.

I -P I be + h N eg + h sm o k e c ig a r e tte N eg be w it h d rin k + h 6 - w in e

'I neither smoked nor drank.' (Illness.15)

However, this same example, is an example of core serialization, since

in the example above, each main verb introduces its own complement while

also sharing an argument, i.e. the subject. Another example is given below.

Here the conditional, theorized to be operating at the core level in Kol, has

scope over all three predicates, 'open,' 'exit,' and 'flee.'

(99) a mba ba no wunde m=a mba diip wunde fyal

a m ba ba no wunde m = a m ba d ib wunde fy a l

P2 Co n d be w it h w in d o w I-P 2 Co n d open w in d o w e x it

ton funds,
to n fu n d o .

o u ts id e fle e

'If there had been a window, I would have gone out it and fled.'

263

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 This still leaves the question of modal + verb constructions. These

were an issue in the section above because mode is theoretically at least a

core level operator and yet the modals are within the scope of tense tonal

concord which is a reflex of the nucleus.

(100) biz = o jalano nump jigsla bw-an.

b iz = 0 ja la n a + H num b + H j ig a la + H b o -a n

we-PRES must know teach 2-child

'We must teach the children well.'

The modal + verb constructions do not pattern in the same way as the

core serialization examples in (98) and (99). The modal auxiliaries do not

occur with their own separate consitutents and indeed none of the examples

in my corpus show any word intruding between the modal verb and the main

verb. (This cannot be said for the phasal auxiliaries.) This is w hat we would

expect from nuclear serialization, which would fit in with the tense concord

facts, but leaves unexplained the prediction that modality is a core-level

operator. This too will have to be a question for further research.

264

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 6 Situating Kol within the A. 80 language family

The internal cohesion of Guthrie's (1953) A. 80 group and its

relationship to other Bantu Azone languages has been called into question

almost from the beginning. The Linguistic Survey o f the Northern Bantu

Borderland described this group as being 'a most loosely knit and unbalanced

conglomeration of languages.' (1956:33)

The Maka-Njem (A.80) language family is located at the intersection of

three countries. A.80 languages are found in southeastern Cameroon, in the

southwestern tip of the Central African Republic and in northern Congo.

Congs I Democratic Republic

✓ eftexy*

M ap 6 .1 A .8 0 la n g u a g e s

Sociolinguistic surveys seem to indicate that there are three language

clusters within A.80: the Coastal A.80 languages (Gyele, Kwasio, Ngumba -

265

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 A.801-A.81), the Makaa/Kol/Konzime chain (A.83-84), and the eastern A.80

languages (Mpongmpong, Mpyemo, Bekwel - A.85-A.86).

The Gyele-Ngumba-Kwasio cluster is near the southwestern coast of

Cameroon and is separated from the other A.80 languages by the A.70

language family. Byep, Makaa, Kol and the subvarieties of Konzime form a

second cluster. Finally, a third cluster can be found in eastern Cameroon,

north Congo, and southwestern CAR, made up of Mpyemo, Mpongmpong and

Bekwel.

1. B ekw el
2. B o m w a li
3. B yep
CmWL A « 2 . l C A N C
4. G y e le
5. K ol
6. K o n z im e,
B a d w e 'e
7. M ak aa
8. M p ie m o
9. M p o n g -m p o n g
10. N gum ba,
K w a sio
1 1 . So
1 2 . U k h w e jo

M a p 6 .2 M e m b e r s o f th e A .8 0 L a n g u a g e F a m ily

The authors of the Linguistic Atlas o f Cameroon (ALCAM - Dieu and

Renard 1983) suggested that this third cluster was actually one language,

which they called "mpo." They identified the following speech varieties as

266

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 being dialects of "mpo": Mpyemo, Mpompo, Medjime, Bangantou,

Konabembe, Boman and Bekwel. The Ethnologue (Gordon 2005) identifies

Medjime, Bangantou, Konabembe and Boman as all being dialects of

Mpongmpong.

It is not clear to which cluster the So, Bomwali and Ukhwejo languages

belong, though geographic proximity would suggest that So could be included

in the Byep-Makaa-Kol-Konzime cluster, while Ukhwejo and Bomwali could

be included with the Mpyemo-Bekwel-Mpongmpong cluster.

There are roughly 300,000 speakers of A.80 languages (Gordon 2005).

The languages of the central cluster (the focus of this chapter) have the most

speakers, with approximately 140,000 people speaking languages of the

Makaa/Kol/Konzime chain. The eastern cluster is the next largest (with

approximately 8 6 ,0 0 0 speakers), followed by the coastal cluster (with

approximately 2 1 ,0 0 0 speakers).

The people of the central cluster are primarily farmers. They live in a

region which is crisscrossed with rivers and streams, so waterways remain a

common form of transportation. They also fish and hunt.

267

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 This chapter will examine some of the similarities and differences

between several of the languages of the middle cluster: Makaa, Kol, and the

Konzime varieties (Nzime, Badwe'e and Njem). Makaa and the Konzime

varieties have been the subject of more research than any of the other A.80

languages thus far (by Dan and Teresa Heath for Makaa and by Keith and

Mary Beavon for the Konzime varieties). The data given for Kol is taken from

my own research.

1 Sociolinguistic Situation

The sociolinguistic situation of the A.80 languages is complicated by

the proliferation of dialects within languages. Just looking at the second

cluster, the focus of this paper, it is important to note that Kol, Makaa and

Konzime each have at least four dialects.

Language development projects for Kol and Makaa have each decided

to focus their efforts on one dialect. For Makaa, this dialect is Mbwaanz.

Mbwaanz was chosen because it is spoken by the largest number of Makaa

speakers (almost half the total population), it is understood by speakers of all

the other dialects, and it is geographically central (Heath and Heath 1982:1).

268

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 With respect to Kol, the dialect chosen for development is also the

central dialect, labeled with the number 3 on the map below. Kol informants

reported that speakers of the central dialect spoke "good" Kol that was easy to

understand and avoided mixing with Makaa or Badwe'e. For the Konzime

varieties, Nzime and Badwe'e have both been developed (that is to say they

each have an official alphabet, literacy classes, and literature - including New

Testaments), and plans are underway to develop Njyem.

M a p 6 .3 T h e c e n tr a l A .8 0 la n g u a g e s

269

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 A series of surveys in eastern Cameroon were undertaken in 1988 and

1989 by SIL. Surveyors collected Swadesh 100 word-lists and looked at the

percentage of similar lexical items between particular members of the A.80

language family. In the following table, the levels of lexical similarity

between certain languages are given. This table summarizes the results given

in several different survey reports. Surveyors compared the central cluster

languages Makaa, Kol and Byep with each other, while Mpyemo was

compared to the neighboring languages of Nzime and Mpongmpong (Johnson

1989, Etter 1988, Beavon and Johnson 1989).

M akaa Kol Nzime M pongm pong

Kol 86%

Byep 76% 73.5%

M pyemo 73.5% 77.5%

T a b le 6 .1 L e v e ls o f le x ic a l sim ila r ity

In addition, during the course of the sociolinguistic surveys, texts were

recorded and played for speakers of neighboring languages to try to

determine the levels of mutual intelligibility. (This is known as recorded text

testing, or RTT. Methodology for such testing is described in Casad 1974.)

270

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 The chart below summarizes the RTT results. The number in angled

brackets is the standard deviation. All of the standard deviation numbers

given are relatively high, suggesting that some subjects performed better on

the test due to exposure to the tested language.

Again, some cells in the table are blank because surveyors compared

the central cluster languages Makaa, Kol and Byep with each other, while

Mpyemo was compared to the neighboring languages of Nzime and

Mpongmpong (Johnson 1989, Etter 1988, Beavon and Johnson 1989).

M akaa Badwe'e Kol Nzime M pongm pong

Kol 87% 82%
< 15> <14>

Byep 51% 38.5%

M pyemo 2 2 .1 % 8 6 .8 % < 2 1 >
<25>

T a b le 6 .2 S u m m a r y o f RTT r e su lts

While the levels of lexical similarity seem to be relatively high for all

of the examined languages, the RTT results show a much broader variation in

comprehension levels. The most interesting numbers are those for Mpyemo.

While the levels of lexical similarity are only slightly higher between Mpyemo

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 and Mpongmpong than between Mpyemo and Nzime, the RTT results show

more variation. Speakers of Mpyemo understood much more of the

Mpongmpong story than they did of the Nzime story.

It is important to note though that lexicostatistics and recorded text

testing can only give indications as to w hat the levels of mutual intelligibility

and bilingualism might be. They are not a substitute for in-depth

comparative linguistic research.

Interviews with speakers of the central cluster languages suggest that

these languages, at least, could be considered to form a dialect chain. Kol

speakers report that their language is closest to Makaa (specifically the

Bsbend dialect which borders them to the north) and Badwe'e, one of the

Konzime/Njem subvarieties, which borders them to the south and east.

Makaa speakers agree that Kol is understood by Bsbend speakers and also

report that speakers of a northern Makaa dialect, Bessp, can understand Byep,

the language bordering them to the north (Heath 2003a:335).

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 2 Phonology

The languages of the Makaa/Kol/Konzime chain are very similar in

their syllable inventories but differ with respect to their phonemic inventories

(sections 2.2 and 2.3 below). With respect to tone, while these languages are

similar in their inventories, they differ with respect to the ways in which

tones interact. See section 2.4 for a comparison of the tone rules present in

these languages.

The data in this section is a summary of the information found in

Makaa (A.83) (Heath 2003a), A Phonology o f the Makaa Language (Heath and

Heath 1982), A Phonology o f Konzime (Beavon 1983a), and A Phonology of

Njyem (Beavon 2005). The latter also includes a fair amount of information

on Badwe'e. Further information on Badwe'e has been gleaned from Koozime

Verbal System (Beavon 1991). The information on Kol is taken from my own

fieldwork, as well as from the research of Fokou Tamafo (2004a).

2 .1 S y lla b le S hapes

The Makaa, Kol and Konzime languages have similar syllable

inventories. They all allow V, CV and CVC syllables (Heath 2003a, Beavon

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 1983a, Beavon 2005). In addition, these languages all have a high percentage

of monosyllabic words. This is primarily a result of two different phenomena.

On the one hand, preverbal elements are independent words or clitics and not

a series of prefixes. This will be described below in section 4.1.

Additionally, languages of this group have consistently lost the final

vowels of stems. For nouns, this final vowel was part of the root, while for

verbs, the final vowel was an inflectional morpheme indicating tense and

aspect information. The loss of this final vowel has resulted in many

monosyllablic reflexes of historically disyllabic stems. It has also m eant that

closed syllables are common, while for many Bantu languages they are rare.

In the chart below, the ProtoBantu verbal roots are generally considered to be

bound, appearing with a required final vowel. The A.80 words given do not

require any suffixes. For more information on diachronic changes in Kol, see

chapter 7.

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 Konzime

Gloss *PB M akaa Kol Nzime Badwe'e Njyem

'five' *taano toon ton ten tan ten
'chase' *beng wiing wiqg e-pim

'w innow ' *pepet fyaf fyab e-pyeb

T a b le 6 . 3 S o m e c o g n a te s in P r o to B a n tu , M a k a a , K ol a n d K o n z im e

2 .2 V o w e l In v e n to rie s

The languages of the Makaa/Kol/Konzime chain share the vowels

shown in the table below. Languages vary slightly in the phonemic status of

this subset (with respect to (a, o}), and none of the languages have only this

subset. Vowel length is phonemic for all of the languages in this cluster.

i u

e 9 o

e a D

T a b le 6 .4 C om m on V ow el P honem es

The Kol language has the smallest vowel inventory. It adds a high

central vowel [i] to its vowel inventory. It remains unclear though whether

[i] is only an allophone of [e] or whether it is a phoneme in its own right, [a]

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 is used as the epenthetic vowel wherever two consonants would meet across

morpheme boundaries.

i i u

e 9 o

e a 9

T a b le 6 .5 K ol V o w e l In v e n to r y

Makaa also adds a high central vowel to its phonemic inventory.

However, it is a rounded one, i.e. [«]. This is the epenthetic vowel in Makaa.

While Makaa has phonetically a difference between [o] and [d], these two

vowels are in free variation for at least the reference dialect. Makaa also has

a front high lax vowel [i], though it lacks a back lax vowel. Additionally,

Makaa is unique in that it has a phonemic contrast in the high-mid vowels

between nasal and oral vowels, that is between [e] and [e] and between [o]

and [o] (Heath 2005).

i u u

e e 9 o/ D o

e a

T a b le 6 .6 M a k a a V o w e l In v e n to r y

276

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 The Konzime/Njem subvarieties are unique in that they all have front

rounded vowels, but they vary as to which vowels they have. Nzime has the

most, with three front rounded vowels. Badwe'e has two, and Njyem has one.

The Nzime dialect has the most vowels of any of the languages of this

chain, with 12 vocalic phonemes. It has high lax vowels ([i] and [u]), as well

as the three rounded vowels mentioned above. The schwa is used as the

epenthetic vowel, but it is not considered to be a phoneme. However, unlike

Makaa and Kol, it does not have a high central vowel. Nor is nasalization

phonemic. Nzime requires that its stems be harmonic with respect to their

vowels. Stems may either have all [ + back] vowels or all [-back] vowels. The

low central vowel [a] is neutral and may occur with either [ + back] vowels or

[-back] vowels (Beavon 1983a).

i y u

i Y u

e 0 (a) o

£ a 3

T a b le 6 .7 N z im e V o w e l In v e n to r y

277

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 Badwe'e also has 12 vocalic phonemes. Its vocalic inventory is almost

identical to Nzime's, but its third front rounded vowel is a lower-mid rounded

vowel instead of a higher-mid rounded vowel.

i y u

1 Y u

e 0

e oe a 3

T a b le 6 .8 B a d w e 'e V o w e l In v e n to r y

In contrast, Njyem has high lax vowels but no high central vowel. It

only has one front rounded phoneme. There are other front rounded

allophones, but they can all be analyzed as the combination of the unrounded

front vocalic phoneme plus [w], while [0 ] contrasts with a sequence of [w]

plus [e]. (Beavon 2005:6)

i u

1 u

e 0 (a) 0

z a 3

T a b le 6 .9 N jy e m V o w e l I n v e n to r y

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 2 .3 C o n so n a n t In v e n to rie s

The languages of the Makaa/Kol/Konzime cluster also differ in the

consonantal inventory. They all share the consonants shown in the chart

below.

labial alveolar palatal velar labio-velar

stops t c k kp
b d j g
nasals m n J1
fricatives s
z

lateral 1

semi-vowels w y

T a b le 6 . 1 0 C o m m o n s e t o f C o n so n a n ts

Researchers working in this cluster continue to debate as to whether a

nasal followed by an oral consonant at the same point of articulation are one

unit or two. Heath and Heath (1982) have decided that Makaa has

prenasalized stops (nasal + consonant = one unit) while Beavon (1983a) has

decided that Konzime has homorganic nasal consonant clusters.

Additionally, researchers debate as to the status of glides (or semi­

vowels). Beavon (1983a) and Henson (chapter 2 this volume) have argued

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 that glides are underlyingly vowels, while Heath and Heath (1982) argue that

the glides are underlyingly consonants. The Heaths point out for Makaa that

the glides do not contribute any tonal information and that analyzing them as

vowels would result in an extra-long nucleus of 3 moras in some cases.

The languages of the central cluster also all share a weakening process.

In Makaa, Kol and Nzime, voiced consonants become voiceless at the end of a

word. It is also common for / d / to be weakened to [r] at the end of a word. In

Nzime, this weakening process for / d / may also occur intervocalically, and is

paralleled for / s / and A / , with / s / weakening to [h] and A / to [?]. (Beavon

1983a)

Below are a series of charts showing the phonetic inventories for

languages of this middle cluster. As was the case for vowels, the status of

particular consonants may differ from language to language. This will be

noted where pertinent.

In general, it is interesting to note that languages in this cluster vary

widely in their fricative subset. Makaa has the most with seven, followed by

Kol with six, and Badwe'e with three, possibly four.

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 Glottal consonants are also analyzed quite differently (on a

phonological level) from language to language. Almost all of the languages in

the central cluster (Konzime is the only exception) have a / h /, but in Makaa

and Kol, this sound has been listed in the velar column since there is no

separate velar fricative, nor are there other glottal consonants. Badwe'e is the

only language of the cluster to have the glottal stop as a separate phoneme,

though Njyem has the glottal stop as an allophone of /k /.

The first chart, given below, shows the consonant inventory of Makaa.

labial alveolar palatal velar labio-velar

stops t c k kp
b d j g
prenasalized mp nt nc nk
stops mb nd nj ng
nasals m n ny n

fricatives f s sh [f] h
V z zh [3 ]

lateral 1

semi-vowels w y

T a b le 6 .1 1 M a k a a C o n so n a n t In v e n to r y

281

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 The consonant inventory of Kol is given below. The consonants / p /

and / v / in Kol have a questionable phonemic status. As independent

consonants (i.e. not preceded by a nasal) they are only found in borrowings

and ideophones. This has been one of the pieces of evidence used to suggest

that /m p / is a single phonemic unit, since there is minimal evidence for / p /

as a phoneme on its own.

labial alveolar palatal velar labio-velar

stops CP) t c k kp
b d j g
prenasalized mp nt nc gk gkp
stops mb nd nj gg ggb
nasals m n P g
fricatives f s I
(v)

lateral 1

semi-vowels w r y

T a b le 6 .1 2 K ol C o n so n a n t In v e n to r y

Beavon (1991:67) notes that the epenthetic consonant in Badwe'e is

/w /. Additionally, / r / may be an allophone of / d / and not a separate

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 phoneme. As was noted for Kol, / v / appears to be of questionable phonemic

status in Badwe'e.

labial alveolar palatal velar labio-velar glottal

stops t c k kp t
P
b d j g gb
prenasal.

stops

nasals m n D rjm

fricatives f s h
(v) z

lateral 1

approx. r y w

T a b le 6 .1 3 B a d w e 'e C o n so n a n t In v e n to r y

In contrast to Badwe'e, Beavon (1991:67) notes that the epenthetic

consonant is / b / in Nzime. Also, he suggests that Qi] and [rj] may be

allophones of a single phoneme. As was noted for Badwe'e above, / r / may be

an allophone of / d / and not a separate phoneme.

283

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 labial alveolar palatal velar labio-velar

stops P t c k kp
b d j g gb
prenasalized
stops

nasals m n .P 0 rjm

fricatives s
z

lateral 1

approx r y w

T a b le 6 . 1 4 N z im e C o n so n a n t In v e n to r y

Below is the consonant inventory for Njyem. Beavon (2005:12-15)

notes that / d / becomes [r] at the end of a word, thus [r] is considered to be

allophonic and not a separate phoneme, / t s / and /d z / become palatalized

(becoming the alveo-palatal fricatives) before a high vowel or the palatal

glide, as does /s /. / k / becomes the glottal stop word-medially and word-

finally. / w / becomes [y] or [ y ] by fusing with [i] or [i]. If there is no fusion,

before front vowels, it becomes a labio-palatal glide.

284

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 labial alveolar palatal velar glottal labio-velar

stops t k kp

II
P

N
b d gb

I
g
prenasalized

stops

nasals m n Ji
fricatives f s h

lateral 1

approx w j

T a b le 6 .1 5 N jy e m C o n so n a n t In v e n to r y

2 .4 TONOLOGY

The languages of the Makaa/Kol/Konzime language chain all have

underlyingly two tone systems, with high (H) and low (L) tones. These

languages have both lexical and grammatical tones. These tones may be

underlyingly associated with a tone bearing unit, or alternatively, be left

unassociated, or floating.

Floating low tones are found in at least two different grammatical

contexts. They have most likely arisen due to the loss of vowels. Floating low

tones may mark noun class membership, as they do in Makaa. Noun class

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 prefixes for classes 3 and 7 in Makaa are both marked by a floating low tone,

where historically these are reconstructed as segmental prefixes, *mu- for

class 3 and *ki- for class 7. Beavon (1991) notes that for Badwe'e, the floating

L tones marking noun classes may remain unassociated. (See Table 6.18 in

section 3 below for examples of noun class prefixes.)

Finally, a floating L tone may mark tense, as it does in Makaa, Nzime

and Badwe'e where the recent past tense marker is a floating low tone (plus a

segmental marker in Makaa).

Floating H tones are also found in at least two additional grammatical

contexts. For certain noun classes, concord in an associative phrase is marked

by a floating H tone. For both Makaa and Kol, classes 3 and 7 mark their

concord with a floating H. This can be seen by the change in the tone of the

noun class prefix of the second member of the associative phrase. Below are

examples from Kol.

(1) (a) ncug modfba

ncug H -m o -d fb o
7 -e le p h a n t 7 A s s o c -6 - w a te r

'hippopotamus'

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 (b) mbi melop
m bi H -m e -ld b

3 -so r t, ty p e 3 A s s o c -4 - p r o b le m

'sort of problems'

Tenses may also be marked by a floating H tone. A floating H functions

as the present tense marker in Makaa, Nzime and Badwe'e. In addition to

post-subject tense markers, in Makaa and Kol all tenses but the distant past

are marked with a tonal contour. For both of these languages, this tonal

contour includes a floating H tone suffix after each word in the verbal

sequence.

Below is a chart illustrating which Makaa tenses have this H tone suffix

(named the Macrostem H, or MacH, in Heath and Heath 1995).

287

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 T en se A ffir m a tiv e N e g a tiv e

te n s e 8 c la u s e m k r M acH ? te n se c la u s e m k r M acH ?

P2 a + H no a+ H shige yes

PI aim yes shige yes

P res H yes a -L + H + - s yes

FI e+ H yes a-H+ +-£ yes

F2 ba yes abule yes

T a b le 6 . 1 6 M a k a a A b s o lu te T e n s e s in t h e I n d ic a tiv e M o o d

In Konzime, this H tone marking tense concord is different from the

other floating tones in that it is a replacive H. That is to say, it can replace a

preceding L tone, instead of creating a tonal contour.

Makaa and Kol have downstep (Heath & Heath 1995, chapter 2 this

volume) while Nzime does not have downstep or downdrift (Beavon 1982).

Njyem has surface mid tones which are formed by the interaction of high and

low tones (Beavon 2005:42,45). Nzime's lack of downstep or downdrift can

be explained in part by its Macrostem H tone being a replacive H. By having

this floating H replace a preceding L, the environment for downstep, or

midtones (as in Njyem) is bled.

8 The high tone occurring in the tense marker might look like a Macrostem High tone reanalyzed to occur before the
Macrostem as well as after each morpheme in the Macrostem.
But this tone is not realized in the same way as the Macrostem High, and it occurs in P2 whereas the Macrostem
does not.

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 When discussing the tonal system of these languages, it is worth

mentioning that Makaa, Badwe’e and Njyem all have a small set of toneless

verbs. There is currently no conclusive evidence as to whether the Kol

cognate verbs are toneless or have an underlying low tone. In the absence of

such evidence, they have been analyzed as low tone verbs.

M akaa Kol Badwe'e Njyem

(Heath 2003a) (Beavon 1991) (Beavon 2005)
bo 'be' be 'be at'

za 'come' nco 'come' ze 'come' nsye 'come'

ya 'die' yd 'die' jwe 'die' jwe 'die'

ya 'give' yd ’give' jwe 'give' je 'give'
da 'eat' do 'eat' de 'eat'

ewe 'stumble'

ka 'go' ko 'go'

T a b le 6 .1 7 T o n e le s s v e r b s

Beavon (1997:01) notes that: "By positing a toneless lexical form for

these verbs, one is able to account for why their surface forms are low in the

remote past tense but high in the recent past."

Finally, there is a common general oddity in both Makaa and Badwe'e,

which is the tonal stability of the morpheme meaning 'with' (e or le). It has a

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 lexical low tone which is never replaced by the replacive H tones of verbal

constructions (Beavon 1991:54).

3 Nominal morphosyntax

Central A. 80 languages resemble each other in their noun class,

pronominal systems, and relative clause constructions. Data referred to in

this section may be found in Makaa (A.83) (Heath 2003a,b), Anaphora,

Pronouns and Reference in Konzime (Beavon 1986), and The relative clause in

Konzime (Beavon nd). The Kol data comes from my own research, and

additional information may be found in chapter 3 of this study.

3 .1 N o u n C la s s e s

Central A.80 languages are typical Bantu languages in that they do

have noun classes. However, they are similar to each other (and contrast

with other Bantu languages of eastern and southern Africa) in that they have

relatively few noun classes (ten) and a number of these noun classes are zero-

marked or marked only by a floating tone. For example, Lingala has three

more noun classes (11, 14 and 15), Swahili has six more (11, 14-18), and

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 Cinsanga has seven more (12-18) (Meeuwis 1998, Mohammed 2001, Miti

2001 ).

Class PB Makaa Kol Nzime

1 *mo- mu-iid 'person' mw-ara 'woman' m-ur 'person'
n-foy 'stranger' m-iid 'man, person' n-jweela 'guard'
0 -kdm ‘monkey’ 0 -kol 'sister' 0 -ceme 'monkey'
a-bu’ 'pipe'
2 *ba- bu-M 'people' bw-ara 'women' b-ur 'people'
o-foy 'strangers' bw-ur 'men, people' o-jweela 'guards'
d-kam ‘monkeys’ bo-kol ’sisters’ o-ceme 'monkey's
w-acenceni 'stars' ba-abu' 'pipe'
3 *mo- L-lam 'heart' 0 -mbil ’hole’ 0 -ku 'hole'
4 *me- mi-ldm 'hearts' me-mbil ’holes’ mi-ku 'holes'
5 *i- 0 -luiin 'hole' e-bura 'sweet potato' e-bura 'sw.potato'
d-dnd 'home village' 0-kiL 'foot' 0
j-wow 'day' dw-ob 'day' duo 'day'
a.
6 ■ma- ma-Zuun 'holes' md-bura 'sweet potatos' me-bura 'sw.potato'
m-dnd 'home villages' md-kwad 'villages' me-kwdr 'villages'
m-wow 'days' m-ob 'days’ muo 'days'
7 *ke- L-ka ’leaf 0 -kag 'child' L-ka 'leaf
0 -bitm6 ’fruit’ bumo 'fruit'
8 *bi- i-ka ’leaves’ be-kag 'children' bi-ka 'leaves'
JL.
9 "n- 0 -fa. 'machete' 0 -kwad 'village' m-pumo 'fruits'
0 -kwar 'village'
10 *n- m-pum'd ‘seed’ m-piano 'fruits' o-luy 'ladder'

T a b le 6 . 1 8 N o u n c la s s e s in M a k a a , K ol a n d K o n z im e

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 Nzime may actually have one more noun class than Kol and Makaa.

The nouns which are found in its noun class 10 (according to Beavon and

Beavon 1995) are marked quite differently from class 10 nouns in Makaa and

Kol, where class 10 nouns are marked with a nasal prefix that triggers

devoicing. (Compare 'fruit' for Kol and 'seed' for Makaa in class 7 with the

plural in class 10.) The related word in Nzime is listed as a class 9 noun. In

Beavon (1986:169), he lists these same nouns as belonging to a class 11/14,

so named because its members come from proto-Bantu class 11 and proto-

Bantu class 14.

Additionally, Heath and Beavon have both noticed reflexes from the

Proto-Bantu locative classes in Makaa and Konzime, respectively. Heath

(p.c.) has noted that certain locative nouns have idiosyncratic relative clause

concord markers. Beavon (1983) noted that the Nzime dialect of Konzime

has a locative noun kwa which could include the locative class (class 17)

prefix ko-.

3 .2 P ro n o u n s

The central A.80 languages differ in whether or not their subject

markers are agreement markers or pronouns (as will be discussed in section

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 4.2), but they make similar distinctions between 1st person plural inclusive,

exclusive or dual. Additionally, the shapes of many of the subject markers are

similar. Kol subject pronouns are clitics, as was described in chapter 3.

Makaa subject markers form a prosodic unit with the following tense vowel,

suggesting that they too are clitics.

(2) /m a a k a/ [ma ka]

I P2 go
'I went.' (Heath 2003b:3)

Below is a chart showing subject markers in Makaa, Kol and Konzime.

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 M akaa Kol Nzime

Subj Sing PI Sing PI Sing PI

1 st p. excl. ma S3 ma bizo me bis

incl. she biza mina

d u al incl. shw a news mina ga

2 nd person wo bi wo be bin
go
3rd person n y s/ a 9 bw o bwo .po be
.P3
a

3 /4 i rm w- mys we mye
5 /6 1 f dwo mwa le me

7 /8 l l i-, jwo byo ye bye

9 /1 0
s
l f bwo
PO pe pe
1 1 /1 4 — —
— — we —

Table 6.19 Subject markers in Makaa, Kol and Konzime

Below is a table giving the object markers for Kol and Makaa. Kol does

not allow object agreement, so all of the morphemes below are independent

object pronouns which can only appear post-verbally. Makaa has limited

object agreement (see section 4.2.2).

9 "nya indicates a change in action or subject; a indicates continuing action and same subject as the
previous clause, nya is always used before vowels, and to introduce reported speech, nya becomes ma
when occurring in non-narrative affirmative sentences and before a morpheme beginning with a
consonant." (Heath 2003)

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 Kol M akaa Nzime

O bject Pron Pron Agr Pron

Sing PI Sing PI Sing Sing PI

1 st p. excl. ma bizo m-a s-a m-a me bis

incl. biza sh-e mina

dual incl. ncwa shw-a mina ga

2 nd person wo be wo bi wo go bin
V

3rd person P=> bwo ny-a bw-a 8 pe be

3 /4 w- mya W- 3 my-a we mye

5 /6 dwo mwa dw-a mw-a le me

7 /8 jwo byo gw-a by-a ye bye

9 /1 0 PO bwo nyw-a nyw-a pe pe

1 1/14 — — -- — we —

Table 6.20 Object markers in Makaa, Kol and Konzime

3 .3 R e la tiv e C la u s e s

Relative clauses in Kol, Makaa and Nzime resemble each other in that

they have a H tone boundary marker on the left and a segmental marker on

the right. However, the right boundary markers in Makaa and Nzime agree

with the head noun, while it is invariable in Kol. The Kol markers are

enclitics, as was discussed in chapter 3.

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 Class M akaa Nzime Kol

1 ye Jia =e

2 wa ba =e

3 yi Wi =e

4 mya mi =e
V

V
5 yi li =e

6 ma ma =e

7 yi yf =e
V
8 yi bi =e
s
9/10 yi =e

11/14 —
wi -

Table 6.21 Relative Clause Markers in Makaa, Kol and Nzime

(3) ma bul ceel b-'agg b-wo du bul sey wa

I lot H want 2-those 2-they H ab H lot H work R el M kr
Md bul u ceel bayg bw'o d'u bulu sey wa. ‘I admire those who work hard.’
/—\

•V
m-ur nde
O '

le dubo mo-kwmd = e.
w

Jl
jio = ji m-ur H+ nde le dub mi-kwend = e
he/she be (att) 1-person RELCL-be (loc) IMPF fish 4-hook-RELCL
’He is someone who fishes with hooks.'

(5) biyooqgo m=a ter jiwaq = e

be-DDrjga H+ m=a ter jiwar) = e
8-D ef RelCl-I-P2 first take-RELCL
'...w hat I first took...." {Perils.34)

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 Beavon (nd:27-28) notes that in Nzime it is also possible to find an

uninflected (invariable) relative marker at the right boundary of relative

clauses, i.e. t. It is also possible, and indeed more frequent, to find the

demonstrative m 'that.' Beavon also notes that in Badwe'e, it is very common

to have an invariable relative pronoun, which in this language is e. This is

extremely similar to the situation in Kol.

Additionally, in Makaa, the verbal contour also changes, in that an

additional H tone is added to the first verbal element within the relative

clause. This may be seen in (6 ) where the habitual marker hosts a H tone,

though it is underlyingly marked with a low tone.

(6 ) ma bul ceel b-agg b-wo du bul sey wa

I lot H want 2-those 2-they Hab H lot H work R el M kr
Ma bul u ceel barjg bwo du b'ulu sey wa. ‘I admire those who work hard.’

Makaa also has a special locative marker which is hosted (or affixed) to

the relative clause marker whenever the head noun of the relative clause is a

location. An example of this may be seen below.

(7) L-njaw mb ggb ji-sb yi -d

C3-house I PROG C3-STATIVE C3-REL MKR LOCATIVE SUFFIX
Njaw ma rjga f i yid... ‘The house where I sta y ...’

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 Kol does not have a similar suffix. Locative head nouns do not trigger

any special marking on the right edge of the relative clause.

(8) bug m=a b = e.

bug H+ ma = a ba = e
place RelCl-I-P2 be-RELCL
'...w here I was.' (Perils.94)

Nzime does not have such a suffix either. However, if a locative

becomes the head of a relative clause, a resumptive pronoun is required

within the relative clause (Beavon nd:28).

(9) dime nkwal a be tik li

5-raphia.tree snail P2 be in-it 5RelCl
'the raphia tree the snail was in'

4 Verbal morphosyntax

The languages of the central cluster, i.e. Makaa, Kol and the Konzime

varieties, have a number of morphosyntactic similarities and differences in

their verbal systems. They all have a loosely bound verbal sequence which

contrasts to that which is seen in central, eastern and southern Bantu

languages. These languages differ though in their subject and object

agreement systems, or lack of said. In addition, while they make similar

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 distinctions in their tense, aspect and mood (TAM) systems, the syntax of

particular constructions can be quite different. I will specifically discuss

imperfective, habitual and negative constructions. I will also point out some

differences in the number and function of copula verbs in the languages of

this central cluster. Finally, Makaa and Kol are similar in that they have a

reduced set of verbal derivational suffixes (or extensions) with, in the case of

Kol, very limited productivity.

The Makaa data is primarily taken from two articles, a grammar sketch

by Teresa Heath in The Bantu Languages (Nurse and Philippson 2003) and an

article on the Tense and Aspect system of Makaa by Daniel Heath in Tense and

aspect o f eight languages o f Cameroon (Anderson and Comrie 1990. The

Badwe'e data is taken from an article on the Koozime verbal system in the

same book by Keith H. Beavon. The Kol data is from my own field work. I

am unaware of any in-depth published work on the verbal system of Nzime,

though some information can be gleaned from an article published on the

discourse structure of Nzime (Beavon 1984).

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 4 .1 Loosely bo u n d verba l seq u en ce

The languages of the Makaa/Kol/Konzime cluster are similar in that

what would correspond to a single word in many Bantu languages (prefixes +

verbal root + suffixes) can be analyzed as a sequence of independent words.

Evidence for this in Kol was given in chapters 4 and 5.

However, they differ in the specific nature of the verbal sequence.

Makaa and Kol are very templatic in nature, with similar internal structures.

Konzime is also analytic but differs quite a bit from Makaa and Kol in the

ordering of its prevebal elements. These differences will be discussed in more

detail in sections 2.2.4-2.2.6 below, dealing with negative, imperfective and

habitual constructions, respectively.

Heath and Heath, in their work on Makaa, have found it helpful to

separate the verbal sequence into two parts: the Inflection and the

Macrostem. Below is a chart for Makaa (Heath 2003a:343) showing what

may occur in the Inflection vs. the Macrostem.

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 Inflection M acrostem
subject tense clause aspect adverb object STEM*
mkr mkr mkr* mkr* and/or mkr
auxiliary*
radical +
extension(s)
*An inflectional clitic may be added to whatever
morpheme occurs first in the Macrostem

Table 6.22 The Makaa verb

As can be seen above, the Inflection consists of the subject and the

tense markers. The Macrostem consists of the verb stem (root plus any

suffixes) and any other preverbal markers that may be present. These other

markers may be clause markers (a counter-assertive marker or distant future

marker), aspect markers, adverbs or auxiliaries.

As was noted in chapter 5, there are two primary forms of evidence

which have been used to justify this division. One is that a division into

Inflection and Macrostem helps to account for the positioning of certain

morphemes, namely the subjunctive marker10 and sentential negation clitic

which may be hosted by the first element of the Macrostem, whatever that

10 Beavon states that "no formally distinct subjunctive mood exists" for Badwe'e (Beavon 1990:91)
However, the imperative and hortative share the same marker -g, although they differ in their tonal
contours. It is this common morpheme which I am calling the subjunctive marker. The same is true for
Makaa.

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 may be, as shown by the chart above. The other piece of evidence is the

behavior (or positioning) of suffixal tones which mark certain tense contours.

I argue for Kol, however, in chapter 5 that it is not necessary to divide the

verbal sequence into these two elements but that the relevant data can be

accounted for by turning to the notion of second position and a tense tonal

concord whose scope is the nucleus of the clause.

Makaa resembles Kol in the behavior of its subjunctive marker, which

marks both hortative and imperative constructions. This subjunctive marker

may be hosted by the first element of the Macrostem. If the verb stem is the

only element in the Macrostem, the subjunctive suffix will be affixed to that.

However, if there is another element which precedes the main verb, it then

becomes the host, as illustrated by the distant future marker (in the "clause

marker" slot) in Makaa, as shown in the example below (Heath 2003b:22).

(9) ba -g -a cal ma-landu

H H H L H L -H H
F2 IMP PL M acH cut M acH C 6 -p a lm tree
Edga cal m'dTandu. ‘(You PL) will cut down the palm trees!’

In Badwe'e, the subjunctive suffix may appear on an auxiliary,

suggesting that the suffix also appears on the first word of the Macrostem,

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 whatever that may be (Beavon 1990:95-96). Both examples given, one in the

imperative and one in the hortative, show the same auxiliary verb di 'stay.'

Makaa and Kol also have very similar negative circumclitics, which

appear on the first element of the verbal sequence. They differ in this respect

though with Badwe'e. (These differences will be discussed in section 2.2.4

below.) Heath (2003a:345-6) reports that the negative circumclitic is hosted

by a fixed form in the past tenses, by the distant future clause marker in the

distant future, or by the first word in the Macrostem in the present and

future. This positioning is identical to what was seen in Kol. Below are

examples from Makaa.

(10) Ma a- cal -e ma-landu

L L LH H H L HH

I NEC cut + NEG NEG M acH C 6 -p a lm tree

Md 'acats m'dl'dndu ‘I do not cut down palm trees.’

(11) Ma abule cal ma-landu

L HL H L H L HH
I NEG (FUT) M acH cut M acH C 6 -p a lm tr e e
Md "ab'ute cal m'dl'dndu. ‘I will not cut down palm trees.’

This suggests that the notion of second position will work for Makaa,

but that it may not be necessary for the Konzime varieties.

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 The other form of evidence is tonal. Many tenses in languages of this

cluster have a tonal contour associated with them. A common tonal contour is

to have a floating H tone suffix which appears after every word in the

Macrostem. (The one tense consistently not marked with a floating H tone is

the far past.)

An example from Makaa illustrating this H tone (commonly called the

Macrostem H tone or MacH) is given below (Heath 2003a:344).

(12) Ma ama nyiqga gu gwoo.

I PI a g a in + M a cH p ic k + M a cH c 7 -m u s h r o o m

'I again picked a mushroom.'

An example from Kol illustrating the same phenomenon, but in a

different tense, is given below.

(13) ji = e nigo ko njap.

he = FuT again+ h go+ H home
'He will return home.'

In Badwe'e, some of the tonal contours involve floating L's instead of

H's. Beavon notes that up to four additional tones may be found in a single

clause, since the perfective marker, an adverbial, and a serial verb (to use his

terminology) may all appear before the main verb and each is marked with a

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 stem tone. His analysis contrasts with mine and that of the Heaths since he

suggests that the distant past is marked with floating low tones (versus our

analysis for Kol and Makaa where the far past is the only tense not marked

with floating high tones). Below is an example for Badwe'e (Beavon

1991:68).

(14) Be a si ka ze fumo mi-mber

H H 0 +L L+ L L+ L L+ L L LH
they P2 Pftv finally come build 4-house
'It was they who then finally built houses.'

For Kol, this tense tonal concord has been analyzed in terms of Role

and Reference Grammar (RRG) as a high tone which is suffixed to every word

in the nucleus. A sample clause is repeated below from the previous chapter.

Periphery

Core

Nucleus

(15) ji= e se + h dimbalo + H mpyo y-e duk.

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 (15) ji = i se dimbala mpyo y-e duk.
ji = e se + H dimbab + H mpyo y-e dug
he/she-Pl Perf lose 1-dog 1-his forest
'He lost his dog in the forest.'

While this works for Kol, there are some complications when it comes

to explaining the tense tonal concords in Makaa and Konzime. In Makaa, the

progressive marker blocks the tonal concord. If it were just the case that the

H tone suffix did not appear on the progressive marker, that could possibly be

explained as a co-occurrence restriction. However, as can be seen by the

example below, the H tone suffix also does not appear on any word within the

nucleus to the right of the progressive marker (e.g. the main verb below).

The example below also offers evidence that the tense tonal concord in Makaa

cannot be a case of H tone spreading since (as was the case in Kol), the first

syllable of ‘again’ remains low in spite of the suffixal H immediately to its

left.

(16) Ma ku nyiqga qga waambula i-famba

L H+ L H LL H L HHLL L LH
I NEG HORT MacH again MacH PROG clear C8-field
Md ku nyiygd rjgd waambuld 'ifambd. ‘I am not again clearing the fields.’

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 Badwe’e illustrates a separate complication. Beavon (1991:65-66)

describes a tonal system where there are three different kinds of tones

marking tense. One is found to the left of the verbal sequence in the location

of the Kol tense vowels. Some tenses are marked with morphemes with overt

segmental content while others are marked with morphemes consisting only

of a floating tone. The second kind of tones are the “stem tones.” These are

roughly equivalent to the tense tonal concord described for Kol. They are

floating tones suffixed to each word in the verbal sequence. However,

Badwe’e differs from Kol in that some tenses have one floating tone which is

suffixed to every word in the verbal sequence except the last word and a

different tone which is suffixed to the last word. This is the case in the recent

past (PI) sentence illustrated below where the non-final verbal sequence

words have a floating high tone (+ H) suffix and the main verb, the final

word in the verbal sequence, has a floating L tone suffix.

(17) Be si ka ze fumo mi-mber

H L 0 +H L+ H L+ H L+ L H+L LH
They PI PERF finally com e build 4-house
‘It was they who then finally built some houses (earlier today).’

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 This example also illustrates the third kind of tense tones described by

Beavon, namely the floating tone which marks the end of the verbal nucleus

(my terms, not his). This is the H tone floating before the direct object in

(17) above. This boundary tone, if present, is always a floating H tone,

whereas the stem tones may be L or H or a combination thereof, as in (17).

It is possible that postulating a distinction between nucleus and core

would still prove to be helpful in describing the Badwe’e system. In effect,

there are floating tones on the left edge (the tense marker tones) and on the

right edge. Within the nucleus there is a tonal melody which could be

considered to be anchored at either internal boundary of the nucleus, with the

tone on the left permitting reiteration (unlike the tone on the right). More

research will have to be done though to test this hypothesis for Badwe’e.

4 .2 A g re e m e n t
4 .2 .1 S u b je c t A g r e e m e n t

Subject agreement is one of the hallmarks of a canonical Bantu

language which is why the variations across the Makaa/Kol/Konzime cluster

is interesting. None of these languages have obligatory subject agreement.

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 In Makaa, subject agreement may occur with subjects belonging to

noun classes 3-10. However, subject agreement is not required all the time,

since it may be omitted in the middle of a discourse when the referent is

clear. Subjects belonging to classes 1 or 2 may be expressed by either a full

noun or a subject pronoun. The subject pronouns are analyzed as pronouns

(instead of subject agreement) since they usually replace the full noun and do

not co-occur with it, in contrast to what occurs with class 3-10 subjects.

(Heath 1995:27)

(18) a. muda ka guu bwa kuwo....

1-woman go kill them 1-chicken
'Woman goes and kills a chicken for them.' (Heath 2002)

b. mbwool w-oqgu I Megttlig.

trunk 3-this3SubjMkr must be kept
’This trunk must be kept.’ (Heath 2003b: 12)

The subject pronouns form a phonological word with the following

tense vowel, so they are probably clitics, as was the case in Kol.

The copula in Makaa agrees with its subject when it is in the present

tense. For more on this phenomenon, see section 2.1.6 below.

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 Konzime has a phenomenon which resembles subject agreement, but it

is dependent upon the tense of the verb and the tone of the prefix. Beavon

(1986:185) notes that a recapitualitive pronoun is required "if the tense of the

verb is past perfective and if the concording prefix of the pronoun includes a

high tone." If the prefix is a low tone prefix, then the recapitulative pronoun

may not appear.

(19) a. B-ud, be a si de.

2-people 3p:cl.2 P2 Pftv eat
'Some people ate.'

b. jiuu m-ud a si de
1-certain 1-person P2 Pftv eat
'A certain person ate.'

c. *puu m-ud, jie a si de

l-certain 1-person 3s:cl.l P2 Pftv eat

Kol shows no evidence of subject agreement. It has a full set of subject

pronouns, which appear in complementary distribution with full nouns. The

only exception to this tendency is when the subject is a complex noun phrase

(e.g. the head of an associative phrase), in which case there may be a subject

pronoun which is used recapitulatively, generally after a pause.

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 (2 0 ) a. mw-ara w-aga a ko
1-woman 1-my P2 go

'My wife went.'

b. mpu e banda nwi.

7-rain FI really fall (rain)

'It will certainly rain.'

c. mo-kwabala ma-ne mwo se ja jia fok.

6-obstacle 6-that(spec) 6SUBJ already give him 9-wisdom

'His problems gave him wisdom .1

4 .2 .2 O b je c t a g r e e m e n t

In Makaa, object markers may appear preverbally for certain dialects,

if the object is from noun class 1. Kol does not allow object markers to appear

preverbally. Objects are only expressed after the verb stem, either as

pronouns or as full verb phrases. Beavon does not mention object agreement

for either Nzime or Badwe'e. Below is an example sentence from Makaa

illustrating a preverbal object marker.

(2 1 ) wo ba ma lula mi-cwol. (or wo ba lula ma mi-cwol.)

you F2 me forge 4-arrows
'You will make me arrows.' (Heath 2003b: 15)

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 4 .3 T e n s e /A s p e c t/M o d e C o n s tr u c tio n s

The languages of the Makaa/Kol/Konzime cluster also have similar

Tense-Aspect-Mood (TAM) contrasts and morphemes. The tense and mood

markers resemble each other more than the aspect markers though in all three

systems, the languages have similar contrasts.

Makaa and Kol both have five distinct tense distinctions, while the

Konzime varieties (Nzime and Badwe'e) only have four. This is shown in the

chart below. In general, Makaa and Kol show more commonalities with each

other (as do Nzime and Badwe'e) than they do with the Konzime varieties.

The recent past tense shows the most variation, suggesting that this is a later

innovation.

M akaa Kol Nzime Badwe'e

rem ote p ast a + H11 a a a
V ^ V
recen t past ams e + polar tone L L
presen t H 0 H H
n e ar fu tu re e + H e o o
rem ote future ba e bwo

Table 6.23 Tense in Makaa, Kol and Konzime

11 The Makaa remote past and near future are analyzed as being toneless morphemes followed by a
floating H tone. (Heath 1995:34)

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 Languages of this cluster have almost the same number of aspect

contrasts, though they differ quite a bit in the way individual aspects are

marked. In Makaa and Kol, the perfective aspect is unmarked. It is interesting

that the perfective aspect markers in Badwe'e and Nzime resembles the

perfect marker in Kol. Below is an example from Badwe'e. Beavon notes that

this marker may only occur with past tenses (1991:61).

(22) Be si fumo mi-mbsr

H+ L H L+ L L LH

they-Pl P ftv build 4-house

'They built some houses.' (earlier today)

M akaa Kol Nzime Badwe'e

perfective 0 0 si si
progressive go Oga —

h ab itu al du o + se bibe 'be' (redup.) -

pres.
sisa 'do' (redup.) -past
di ' ? ' (aux) -fut
im perfective — le If12 If13
perfect ms + L se n chg in vowel height?

Table 6.24 Aspect in Makaa, Kol and Konzime

12The imperfective in Nzime requires an auxiliary verb in the past or future tenses. (Beavon 1991)
13 The imperfective in Badwe'e requires an auxiliary verb in the past or future tenses. This auxiliary must be followed
by the focus marker o, otherwise the sentences are ungrammatical. (Beavon 1991)

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 Makaa is the only language of the cluster without a generic

imperfective marker, though it does have two imperfective aspects, the

progressive and habitual, which can co-occur with each other as shown in

example (9) below (Heath 2003b:23). This contrasts with Kol where the

aspect markers are in complementary distribution. In Makaa, the habitual

marker may form a gerund, suggesting that it is in fact an auxiliary verb.

(23) Ma a du gga bwas 0-kwesh

L H L L L H
I P2 HAB PROG be sick C7-cough
M s a du rjgs bwas kw'esh. ‘I often was sick with a cough

(but not all the tim e).’

It is interesting that for Kol, Nzime and Badwe'e, the imperfective

marker is always homophonous (or maybe identical to) the locative marker.

The syntax of the imperfective constructions differs substantially though

between Kol and the Konzime varieties, as will be discussed in section 2.2.5

below.

The habitual constructions are also very different. Makaa uses an

auxiliary verb, while Badwe'e uses a reduplicated form of a verb, and Kol

combines the present tense vowel and the perfect marker. No information is

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 available as to whether Nzime has a habitual construction. More information

on these constructions will be given in section 2 .2 .6 .

The languages of this cluster are especially similar when it comes to

marking mood. They all differentiate between two moods: the indicative and

the subjunctive. The indicative is the default. The subjunctive is marked by a

clitic consisting of a velar stop, as shown below. The subjunctive may be

subdivided into two moods, the hortative and the imperative. These add

different tone melodies to the verbal sequence, in addition to the subjunctive

clitic which they have in common.

As was mentioned above, in Makaa and Kol, the subjunctive clitic is

hosted by the first word of the verbal sequence. In Badwe'e, the subjunctive

suffix may appear on an auxiliary, suggesting that the suffix also appears on

the first word of the verbal sequence, whatever that may be.

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 M akaa Kol Nzime Badwe'e

indicative 0 0 0 0

h o rtativ e -g + H (IstV ) 14 -g + H -k + H + L -k15 + H + L

im perative -g + H (finV) 16 -g + H -k + H -k + H

Table 6.25 Mode in Makaa, Kol and Konzime

Beavon (1991:68) notes that in Badwe'e, an independent sentence in

the past tense must have either an aspect marker, a focus marker or be

negated. This is not the case in Makaa or Kol.

4 .3 .1 I m p e r f e c t iv e

Kol and the Konzime varieties resemble each other at first glance in

that they both have an imperfective marker which resemble the locative

prefix, le in Kol and li in Badwe'e. However, syntactically, these two markers

behave very differently. Kol's imperfective marker behaves as do all the other

aspectual markers, occuring after in the template slot after the copula

auxiliary and before any other verbs, as shown below.

14This H tone appears on the first vowel of the first word in the Macro-stem.
15 Badwe'e has a number of subjunctive allomorphs, but /-k/ is the most frequent. Others include: /-ke/, /-ko/, copy root
vowel, /-a/, and/-r)/. (Beavon 1991:93)
16 This H tone appears on the final vowel of the first word in the Macro-stem.

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 (24) jia = ji le bwoga kwan.
jia = ji + h le + h bwog + h kwan
he/she be (att) Impf harvest 9-honey
'He harvests honey.'

In the Konzime varieties however, the imperfective marker has an

infinitival verb as its complement as shown in (23). In the past and future

tenses in Badwe'e, it is required to occur with a copula as in (24).

(25) Be li e-fumo mi-mber

H H L L+ L H + L LH
they Loc iN F -b u ild 4-house
'They are building houses.' (Beavon 1991:63)

Be a be 0 li e-fumo mi-mbcr
H H 0 +L H H L L+ L H+ L LH

they P2 be Foe LOC INF-build 4-house

'They were building houses.' (Beavon 1991:63)

4 .3 .2 H a b itu a l C o n s t r u c t io n s

While Makaa, Kol and Badwe'e all have a habitual construction, these

constructions are formed using very different syntactic strategies. Makaa and

Badwe'e both use auxiliary verbs, though Badwe'e uses different auxiliaries

for each tense and has a special reduplicated form in the past and present

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 tenses. In contrast, Kol uses an unusual tense/aspect combination (present

tense plus perfect aspect).

Makaa marks the habitual with the morpheme du which can appear as

a gerund d'uld which means ‘being in the habit of.’ This suggests that this

morpheme is an auxiliary verb.

(27) Ma ba du wngg o-mpya

L H L H H H L H L
I F2 HABIT MacH chase MacH C2-dog
Md ba du w'urjg ompyb. ‘I usually will chase the dogs.’(habitual)

Badwe'e also uses auxiliary verbs to form the habitual. However, it

differs from Makaa in that the past, the present and the future all use different

auxiliary verbs. The far past and the recent past both use the locative copula

be, while the present uses the verb sa 'make, do,' and the future uses the

auxiliary verb di 'remain, stay.' The locative copula be and the verb sa are

both reduplicated, while di is not (Beavon 1991:64-65).

(28) Be a bi-be 0 li e-fumo mi-mber

H H L H H L L+ L H+ L LH

they P2 RED-be FOC LOC INF-build 4-house

'They used to build houses.' (in the recent past)

Nye si-sa O fumo mi-mbsr

L+ H H+ H H L+ L H+ L LH

he-PRES RED-do FOC build 4-house

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 'He usually builds houses.'

(30) Nye o di li e-fumo mi-mber

L H L+ L H L L+ L H+ L LH

he Fut stay Loc INF-build 4-house

'He will habitually build houses.'

Kol, unlike the other two languages, uses the present tense marker with

the perfect aspect to form habitual constructions.

(31) ji = o = se bwDga kwan.

ji = 6 = se + H bw5g + H kwan
he/she-PRES Perf harvest 9-honey
'He harvests honey.' (habitually)

4 .3 .3 N e g a t io n

Makaa, Kol and Badwe'e resemble each other in that they all have w hat

appears to be a negative circumclitic for sentential negation. However, they

differ in the positioning of this circumclitic. For both Makaa and Kol, it

occurs in second position, but in Badwe'e it is hosted by the main verb.

Below is an example of a negated sentence in Badwe'e with an auxiliary,

followed by a negated sentence in Kol, also containing an auxiliary. These

are in different tenses, with the Badwe'e example in the recent past and the

Kol example in the present.

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 (32) Be be a fumo
H+ L H H+ L L+ L

they- be Neg build

PI
'They did not build anything.'

(33) toob a=j = e di duk.

sheep NEG-be(att)-NEG + h stay + H forest
'Sheep don't stay in the forest.'

Though Makaa and Kol both have a negative circumclitic for indicative

sentential negation, Kol requires that a different negation strategy be used for

the present imperfective tense, namely the negative copula tug plus the

imperfective marker le instead of the circumclitic. As was mentioned above,

Makaa does not have a specific imperfective tense marker.

(34) jio tugs le waza m-ur.

he/she be(NEG)+H Impf + h forget+ h 1-man
'He wasn't forgetting anyone.'

(35) ji = a = g = e waza m-ur.

ji = a = g = e waza m-ur
he-NEG-PROG-NEG forget 1-man
'He doesn't continue to forget someone.'

Additionally, the two languages have both created fixed past negative

forms by adding the circumclitic to a frozen host. In Kol, the past forms are

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 based off of the auxiliary verb ncd 'come,' while in Makaa the past forms are

built on the counter assertive morpheme sht Both Makaa and Kol insert an

extra [g] which may be related to the subjunctive morpheme. Makaa does so

in both past tense forms, while Kol only inserts a [g] in the far distant past

(P3).

TAM M akaa Kol Badwe'e

F2 abide abweye

FI a- H + + -e a = + = e + H a + qa+ l+ h

Pres a- L + H + -e a - + = e + H H+a+L+H

PI shige ance + h L+ H + a + HL+ H

P2 a shige ance a+H+a+L+H

P3 ancege

Impf Pres tu g+ H H+a+L+H

Subjunctive ku ke

Table 6.26 Negation in Makaa, Kol and Badwe'e

The Badwe'e forms are made up of the tense marker (which is the same

for affirmative and negative constructions), a grammatical tone, the negative

prefix, the tonal contour added after each preverbal element, and the

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 grammatical tone inserted after the main verb. Negative forms in the past

also require the presence of the copula auxiliary be. Below is an affirmative

sentence contrasted with a negative sentence in the same tense.

(36) Be a si fumo mi-mbcr

H H 0 +L L+ L L LH

they P2 Pftv build 4-house

'It was they who then finally built houses.'

(37) Be a be a fumo mi-mber

H H 0 +L H+ L L+ L+ H L LH

they P2 be Neg build 4-house

'It was they who then finally built houses.'

4 .4 C o p u la V e rb s

The languages of the Makaa/Kol/Konzime cluster also vary in the

number of copula verbs they have and in the semantics of these copulas. Kol

has the most, with five. In Kol, the copulas may co-occur with a variety of

tenses in simple sentences, and they may also appear as auxiliaries. In copular

auxiliary constructions, the auxiliary is marked for tense, while the main verb

is marked for aspect or information structure, as needed. (See chapter 4,

section 3.1 for more information.)

For Makaa, Heath (2003a:347) notes that:

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 "Non-verbal clauses include both those with the copula -sb and

those with the focus marker o. Clauses with the copula as the predicate

express attribution, equation, location, or possession. In the present

perfective indicative, the copula takes a concord prefix [see Table 6.9].

Often the -sb is deleted, leaving only the concord. In other TAM

constructions, the copula becomes bb without concord prefix, and takes

limited TAM inflections."

Badwe'e also has a suppletive present tense form of the basic locative

copula be (which is underlyingly toneless). Beavon describes the copulas

found in Nzime in more functional terms, reporting that mu only occurs in

main and relative clauses while di appears in subject focus constructions.

Below is a chart showing the copulas found in Makaa, Kol and Nzime, along

with their semantic or syntactic differences. For more information on Kol

copulas, see chapter 4.

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 M akaa Kol Nzime Badwe'e

ba 'to be' bo be be locative

ji-ss Pres-c1.7 ji equative,

attributive

nde locative di subj. focus

me change of state mu main, rebel. mu locative-PRES

tug negative tug negative

Table 6.27 Copula verbs in Makaa, Kol and Konzime

4 .5 E x te n s io n s

In this language cluster, while there are segments which may be

identified as the modern cognates of reconstructed Proto-Bantu valence-

changing suffixes, also known as extensions, most of these are no longer

productive. Kol, in particular, has a num ber of longer verbs with identifiable

frozen extensions, but only the passive extension is marginally productive

today. In the chart below are a few of the relics of reconstructed proto-Bantu

extensions.

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 Proto-B antu M akaa Kol

causative *ic-i -al, a->e -ozo, a->e

V V
b e n efactiv e/ *-id -ya -ea
applicative

passive *ib-u -ow -owa, -iya

Table 6.28 Related extensions in Proto-Bantu, Makaa and Kol

The sound correspondences seen in the chart above are not especially

surprising, with the exception of the ablaut causative seen in Makaa and Kol,

if that is indeed inherited and not an innovation. Many Bantu languages

illustrate the weakening process seen in the passive and the deletion of the

alveolar stop seen in the applicative. It is also common for the palatal stop of

the causative to surface as an alveolar fricative. What is more noteworthy is

the non-productivity of the extensions. As was mentioned for Kol in chapter

4, there are very few examples in modern Kol of related verb roots and

derived root plus extension stems.

In this respect, Makaa differs from Kol, being perchance more

conservative in this respect. Below is a chart showing the variety of valence-

changing processes which may be identified in Makaa (Heath 1995:59).

However, as in Kol, these are not fully productive; there are also verb roots

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 which may only appear with an extension; and the relationship between these

processes and Proto-Bantu is not always clear.

Passive -ow cil-d ‘to write’ + -ow -> cil-dw ‘to be w ritten’

Reciprocal -Id bt ‘to follow’ + -la -> bee-la ‘to resemble each other’

Benefactive -yd dug ‘to see’ + -yd -> dug-ya ‘to see each other’

Reflexive -Id cirjg ‘to be agitated’ + -la -> cirjg-y-la ‘to turn self

-yd cil-d ‘to write’ + -yd -> cil-ya ‘to register oneself

Causative -dl jig ‘to be burned’ + -dl -> jig-al ‘to burn (something)’

a->e bwaad 'to get dressed' -> bweed ‘to clothe someone else’

Resultative -yd + radical vowel change

jaamb ‘to cook’ + -yd -> jeemb-ya ‘to be cooked’

Transitive -d lul ‘to purify’ + -a-> luld ‘to forge’

augmentative: reduplication + -ug

a-ijgp-lds-lds-ug ‘he is only talking’ (he is not expected to

follow through on any action discussed)

verbs with two extensions

bwaad ‘to clothe oneself + causative + passive -> bweed-dw
caag ‘to sculpt’ + causative + benefactive -> ceeg-a ‘to have
something sculpted’
fand ‘to braid hair’ + causative + benefactive -> fend-ya ‘to

have someone else braid your hair’

Table 6.29 Extensions in Makaa

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 Additionally, Nzime has a productive "simultaneous" suffix (-go or -d)

which can appear on verbs (Beavon 1984:212). This suffix appears to

correspond to a remote past consecutive relative tense with third person

plural human subjects in Badwe'e (Beavon 1991:82).

5 Conclusion

This chapter has examined some of the similarities and differences

between the languages of the middle cluster of the A. 80 language family:

Makaa, Kol, Konzime, Badwe'e and Njem. These languages are primarily

monosyllabic and allow closed syllables. They differ in their phonemic

inventories, showing considerable variation in their vowel systems. They are

all tonal, with two phonemic tones H and L.

The languages of the central cluster have similar noun class marking

systems, though Nzime appears to have an additional noun class, class 11/14.

Their relative clause structures are all marked by a H tone at the left edge and

a morpheme on the right edge, though these differ in whether or not they

show concord with the head noun.

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 Extensions are rare and mostly unproductive. Their tense/aspect

systems, while not the same, demonstrate strong similarities. They differ as

to whether or not their verbs agree with their arguments, either subject or

object.

The following chapter will examine how Kol has changed over time.

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 7 Correspondences to Proto-Bantu

1 Introduction

This chapter will explore Kol's relationship to Proto-Bantu, both with

respect to sound correspondences and grammatical systems. Section 2 below

will review Kol's phonemic inventories and synchronic variation. Section 3

will then discuss consonant correspondences between Kol and Proto-Bantu,

while section 4 will discuss vowel correspondences. Section 5 will compare

some aspects of Kol morphosyntax with what is reconstructed for Proto-Bantu

by Meeussen in his 1967 Bantu Grammatical Reconstructions.

1 .1 S o u rc e s

This study is a comparison of current day forms of Kol with Proto-

Bantu. The Proto-Bantu forms are taken from Meeussen's Bantu Lexical

Reconstructions, as referenced in the 1980 reprint and on the BLR3 website.17

The Kol data is taken from a lexicon begun by Felix Fokou-Tamafo as part of

17 http://linguistics.africamuseum.be/BLR3.html

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 his work for NACALCO18 in Cameroon. This lexicon has been added to and

amended on the basis of my own fieldwork.

1 .2 M e th o d o lo g y

A careful comparison of Meeussen's reconstructions with the Kol

lexicon resulted in approximately 450 cognate pairs. Of these, around 130

were determined to be confident matches and around 320 were classified as

possible matches. Sound correspondences were determined based on these

cognate pairs. The vowels of the Proto-Bantu words have been transcribed as

{i, e, s, a, d, o, u}, instead of Meeussen's {j, i, e, a, o, u, p} system, in order to

facilitate comparison with the Kol lexicon.

2 Modem Kol

Today, as was described in chapter 2, Kol has 31 consonants and 8

vowels. It permits both open and closed syllables, with the following syllable

shapes being represented in the language: V, CV, CVC, CW C

18 NACALCO is an acronym for the National Association of Cameroonian Language Committees.

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 Below is a consonant chart for Kol. The sounds {p, v, g, kp, qkp, rjgb}

have a marginal status in Kol. Each only occurs initially in a few words, all of

which may be borrowed.

labial alveolar postalveolar velar labiovelar glottal

stop (P), b t, d c [ t j ] ,j [d3 ] k, g kp
prenasalized mp, nt, nd nc, nj r)k, r)g qkp, rjgb
stop mb
nasal m n P g

fricative f, (v) s, z J

approximant y> i w

Table 7.1: Kol consonants

Kol has a nearly symmetrical vowel system, with three front vowels,

two central vowels and three back (and round) vowels. An additional vowel,

the high central vowel, is an allophone of the vowel /e /. (For more

information see chapter 2.)

front cen tral back

high i (i) u

m id e 9 o
low s a 9

Table 7.2: Kol Vowels.

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 2 .i S y n c h r o n ic V a r ia t io n

Word-finally, voicing distinctions are neutralized for stops. Most C2

stops are underlyingly voiced, and they m ay appear on the surface as either

voiceless stops or as voiced continuants.

(1) /ti d / 'animal' -> [tit] or [tu]

/e-b u g / 'holiday' (5) -> [e-buk] or [ebuy]

Some dialects have / s / where other dialects have /J /. This is illustrated

by the variants below.

(2) fu 'fish' (7/8) varies with su

e-Jwi 'death' (5) e-swe

Additionally, the fricatives /£ / and / h / are in free variation for many

speakers.

(3) fama 'true, real' varies with hama

With respect to vowels, Kol mid vowels are optionally centralized

before nasals and the fricatives / s / and /J /. There is some morphological

conditioning since this process is very common for the noun class prefixes

marking classes 2 (bo-), 4 (me-), 6 (mo-) and 8 (be-) but very rare for the class

5 prefix le-. Examples are given below.

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 (4) a. [bi-mpanc] b. [be-kak]
/be-mpanj/ /be-kag/
8-side 8-child
'sides' 'children'

c. [bi-sa]
/be-sa/
8-thing
'things'

(5) a. [ba-ne] [bo-ba]

/bo-ne/ /bo-ba/
2-that 2-two
'those' 'two'

c. [ba-sis]
/bo-sis/
2-another
'another, different'

d. [ba-Jwa]
/bo-Jw5/
2-friend
'friends'

Additionally, the front mid vowel / e / may be raised (but not

centralized) to [i] before or after palatal consonants.

(6) a. [mi-Jumb] b. [me-lela]

/me-jumb/ /m e-lela/
4-brook, stream 4-shiver
'brooks' 'shivers'

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 c. [mi-nja]
/me-nja/
4-intestine
'intestines'

d. [bi-jwala] e. [be-kak]
/be-jwala/ /be-kag/
8-banana 8-child
'bananas' 'children'

f. M g. [m-e]
he/she-Pl I-Pl

In the sections below, the correspondences between the current-day

phonemes of Kol and the reconstructed phonemes of Proto-Bantu will be

explored.

3 Consonant correspondences

The discussion of consonant correspondences below have been

organized by places of articulation, beginning at the front of the m outh and

moving towards the back. Meeussen (1965:83) notes that the occurrence of

voiceless nasalized stops is very restricted. These will be discussed where

there are correspondences, but there are not correspondences at each place of

articulation.

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 3 .1 L a b ia l C o n s o n a n t s
3 . 1.1 *b
In modern-day Kol, the most common reflex of *b is a direct

correspondence, i.e. that *b stays / b /, in both Q and C2 positions.

(7) % > b
*ba 'dwell, be, become' > bo ’be'

*bad 'marry' > ba 'marry'

*banga 'jaw' (11) > borjgo jaw ' (7)

*biad 'give birth' > bya 'bear child'

*bn 'excreta' (13,6) > ma-bi 'excrement' (6)
*baka 'knife' (9) > e-baag 'knife' (5)
*b5ga 'hoe' > bDDg 'hoe1(5) (pi. mampoDg)

The plural of 'hoe' is worthy of note. This appears to be a class 10

plural which has been moved to class 6. Historically, class 9 nouns formed

their plurals in class 10, while synchronically in Kol they form their plurals in

class 6. This noun and other "double-marked" nouns are discussed in chapter

3, section 1.3.

(8) *b2 > b

*d5b 'fish with a line' > dub 'fish with a line'
*guba 'shield' (9) > ijkubo 'shield' (9)

*jfb 'steal' > jfbo 'steal'

*kuba 'chicken' (9/6) > kub5 'chicken' (1)

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 *bobe 'spider' (5,11) > biib 'spider' (5)
*tob 'pierce' > tuba 'pierce ears'

*tabe 'twig, branch'(5,9) > 15b 'branch' (3)

"tooba 'six' (3) > twob 'six'

If *b occurs at the beginning of a verb, it becomes /w /, as shown

below.

(9) *bed 'boil' > wul 'boil (food)'

*beng 'drive, chase' > wiqg 'drive away, chase'
"badek 'fear, flee' > wal 'fear of risk' (7)

There are a few verbs which have m aintained the *b, but they are all

very common verbs (be, marry, bear children). These are shown in (7) above.

Their lexical frequency may have maintained the proto-sound.

The *b has two prenasalized reflexes /m p / and /m b /. As has been

noted for other A-zone languages, this "double reflex" may be explained by

looking at the morphological environment (Janssens 1993). All of the words

which have /m p / or /m b / reflexes in their C2 slot are nouns. The nouns with

/m p / are all nouns which belong to proto classes 9 or 11. Class 9 is noted for

having a historic noun class prefix which was a non-syllabic homorganic

nasal. It is possible that class 11 nouns were absorbed into class 9, and then

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 underwent this sound change before moving again to other classes (mostly 1

and 7). The fact that both class 9 and class 11 nouns had their plural in class

10 may have made it relatively easy for these two noun classes to merge.

As was noted in chapter 3, most NC initial words in class 9 have a

voiceless consonant after the nasal. The class 10 nasal prefix still actively

devoices the following consonant. This synchronic evidence makes it less

surprising that *b corresponds to /m p /.

(10) *banje 'rib, side' (11) > mpanj 'side of body' (7)
*b5ma 'python' (9) > mpwam 'python' (1)
*buda 'rain' (9) > mpu 'rain' (1)
*bue 'gray hair' (9,11) > mpi 'white hair' (10)

Of the two nouns with a /m b / C1 reflex, one is historically class 3, and

thus would have had a *mo- noun prefix marker, while the other is

historically class 15. In many languages, the *mo- of class 3 (and the similar

prefix in class 1) lost its vowel and became a syllabic nassal prefix.

(11) *bok5 'arm' (15) > mbwo 'arm' (3) (pi. mobwo)
*b5mb5 'bundle' (3) > mbumb 'bundle' (3)

Finally, there is one noun which appears to have a /m p y / reflex. It is

not clear what is the source of the palatalization. It is a historic class 9 noun,

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 and we would expect a non-palatalized pre-nasalized stop as a reflex of the

*b.

(12) *boa 'dog' (9,12) > mpyo 'dog' (1)

In C2 position, / b / is the most common reflex of *b, as was mentioned

above. However, there is also a word with a / m / correspondence.

(13) *guba 'bellows' (3) > kwom 'bellows'

3 .l .i .i Sum m ary

To summarize, the primary correspondence of *b is / b / in both Ca and

C2 positions. At the beginning of a noun, *b would have corresponded to / p /

when following a nonsyllabic nasal prefix (class 9 or 10) and would have

remained / b / when following a syllabic nasal or CV- prefix. The syllabic

nasal then became assimilated into the nominal stem, resulting in the

difference between the /m b / and / b / correspondences. At the beginning of

verbs, *b became /w /, except for some common verbs where *b stayed /b /.

As *b2 *b remained /b /.

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 3.1 .2 *p

Synchronically, there are no native voiceless bilabial stops in Kol.

There are a few words which begin with / p /, but these can all be identified as

Ewondo borrowings (Begne 1989:32). In root-initial position, the historic *p

has either been weakened to the voiceless labiodental fricative / f /, has

become voiced as in / b /, has become part of a prenasalized stop as in /m p /

or /m b /, or has been weakened and voiced as in /w /. / b / may be found in

either the C/ or C2 position, but /{/, /w /, /m b / and /m p / only occur root-

initially.

3 .1 .2 . 1 *p in Ci position

In order to explain the numerous correspondences of *p in C/ position,

it is necessary to separate nominal roots from verbal roots. As the Cx in

verbal roots, *p has the following reflexes: {f, w}.

The primary reflex of *p at the beginning of verbal roots is /f /.

*pep 'winnow' > fyab 'winnow'

*pend 'braid' > fond 'braid'
*pooji 'admire' > faag 'admire'
JL. ^

"PiP 'suck' > fye 'suck'

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 The / w / reflex is the easiest to describe, since there are only two

examples. It appears that *p became / w / when it occurred at the beginning

of a verbal stem, followed by *a. This is very similar to the environment

suggested above for the *b > w correspondence, where *bx > w in verbal

stems. Since *p can become / b / between vowels, as it does when it is in C2

position as described below, I will suggest that this is an example of a sound

change chain, where *p > b > w.

(15) *pa 'give to, gratify' > wa 'give, put'

*paad 'quarrel (v)' > wo 'quarrel'

In nominal roots, *p has the following correspondences: {w, mp, b, mb,

f}. Since for *b, different reflexes occurred when following different kind of

nominal prefixes, it could be important to separate nouns according to their

historical class membership. The reflexes / f /, /w /, /m p / and / b / occur in

historic class 9 nouns, while the reflexes /m b / and / v / only occur in class 3

nouns.

Below are the class 9 cognate pairs which have been found for nouns

beginning with *p. It is interesting that all but four of these correspondences

are completely missing the nasal that was historically the noun class marker.

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 (The exceptions are in (20).) However, it is not that surprising, since for a

number of related languages (e.g. Ewondo), the nasal prefix was deleted

before voiceless stops (Janssens 1993:147). If this did occur in Kol, then that

suggests that the words showing the /m p / correspondence may be

borrowings.

(16) *pig5 'kidney' (9) > mbaq fig 'kidney'

*poko 'mouse, rat' (1,5,9) > fu 'mouse' (1)
*pota 'wound' (7,9) > for] 'wound'
*pcnju 'cockroach' (9) > finj 'cockroach' (1)
*puupa 'wind' (9) > fub5 'wind' (7)
*pomp6 'pigeon' (7, 9) > le-fab 'pigeon' (5)
*pempa ’night’ (9) > fiim 'night' (3)

(17) *pade 'polygamy' (9) > wal 'polygamy' (7)

*pako 'tree-hollow' (9) > e-wug 'hole' (5)
*pede 'puff-adder' (9) > wuro 'puff adder' (7)
*pudi 'foam' (9) > e-wulc 'foam' (5)

(18) *pada 'forehead' (9,11) > e-bada 'forehead' (5)

*paku 'honey' (9) > bwag 'harvest honey'

(19) *paka 'cat' (9) > mpa 'wild cat' (7)

*puka 'hair' (6) > mpuq5 'hair' (10)
*papa 'wing' (5,11) > mpyab ’wing’ (5)
*pongo 'bird, eagle' (9) > mpal 'eagle' (7)

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 In trying to establish conditioning for these different reflexes of *p, it is

hard to know whether to look at the historical environment or the synchronic

environment. It is interesting that synchronically, / w / appears mostly before

/u /, while / b / appears mostly before / a / . However, /£ / also appears before

both / u / and / a / . Synchronically, these nouns mostly belong to the same

classes, classes 5 and 7. They do not change their initial consonant when the

plural mo- or be- is added.

Looking at nouns that were historically in class 1 or 3 , 1 was only able to

find one clear cognate set for *p.

(20) *peni 'pestle' (3) > mbin 'pestle' (3)

There is also a *p > / v / correspondence, / v / is a marginal phoneme

in Kol, so this word is probably borrowed.

(21) *pengo 'ebony' (3) > e-vin 'ebony tree' (5)

3 .1 .2 . 2 *p in C2 position

In C2 position, *p consistently has a reflex of /b /.

(22) *dupek 'sharpen' > jab 'sharpen (knife)'

*kapi 'paddle, oar' (9) > r)k55b 'paddle' (9)
*kupa 'bone' (5) > fob 'fish bone' (9)

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 *papa 'wing' (5,11) > mpyab 'wing' (5)
*pep 'winnow' > fyab 'winnow'

3 .1 .2 . 3 Sum m ary

To summarize, *p always corresponds to the voiced bilabial stop A>/

in C2 position. As the initial consonant of verbs, *p corresponds to / w / before

/a / , and / { / everywhere else. As the initial consonant of nouns, *p

corresponds to /m b / after the nasal prefix of class 3, and as /{/, /w /, / b / or

/m p / after the nasal prefix (synchronically no longer present) of class 9.

3 .1 .3 *m

In Cj position, all examples of *m directly corresponds to /m /.

(23) *mea 'calm, quiet' (7) > myoq 'quiet'

*mid 'swallow, devour' > minb 'swallow'

In C2 position, this is also the case most of the time, as is shown below.

(24) *b5ma 'python' (9) > mpwam 'python' (1)

*dema 'bat' (3) > njem 'bat' (3)

*kem 'call, cry (v)' > kcm 'scream, cry out'
*kema 'monkey' > kam 'monkey' (1)
*komi 'ten' (5) > wum 'ten' (5)

However, there is one example where *m seems to correspond to

/m b /. It is interesting that this is a word which also begins with a

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 prenasalized stop. The opposite correspondence is much more common and

will be discussed below.

(25) *g5ma 'drum' (9) > qkumb 'medium drum' (9)

To summarize, *m directly corresponds to / m / in Q position and most

of the time directly corresponds to / m / in C2 position. However, there is one

example of a *m > mb correspondence, as demonstrated above.

3 .1 .4 *m b

No roots have been reconstructed with an initial *mb. However, in the

C2 position, sometimes *mb corresponds to /m b /, sometimes it corresponds to

/m /, and sometimes it corresponds to /b /. The latter two appear to be a case

of simplification.

(26) *b5mb5 'bundle' (3) > mbumb 'bundle' (3)

*damb 'cook' (v) > jam b 'prepare food, cook'
*dimb 'get lost' > dimb 'be lost'
*domb ‘ask for’ > jwamb ‘ask, request s.th.’
*jambe 'god' (9) > ncimbe ’god’ (1)
*gomba 'porcupine' (9) > qkwomb 'porcupine' (1)
*lombc 'bank, shore' > komb 'side'

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 (27) *jemba 'antbear' (9) > yimo 'antbear' (1)

*dombo 'sibling (opp.sex) > ntum 'her brother' (1)

*comb 'be on top' > jumalo 'upper (arm)' (9)

*dumb 'smell' > numSla 'smell'

(28) *camb 'leap over' > kab 'jump'

*tamb 'call' > jab 'call'
*k5mbe 'cup' > kw5b5 'cup' (1)

3 . 1.5 * m p
As was mentioned above, there are few reconstructed words containing

voiceless prenasalized stops. Below are two correspondences. The *mp here

shows the same reflexes as *mb described above. In Kol today, voiced and

voiceless stops are neutralized at the ends of words. It may be that *mp was

neutralized with *mb once the final vowel was lost.

(29) *pomp6 pigeon' (7, 9) > le-fab 'pigeon' (5)

*pempa 'night' (9) > fum 'night' (3)

3 .2 A l v e o l a r Co n s o n a n t s
3 .2 .1 *d

*d has a num ber of reflexes in current-day Kol. It may correspond to

{d, j, nj, 1, r, n, nd or y}. The C: reflexes will be examined first, followed by

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 those for the C2 position, / j / is the most common correspondence for both

nouns and verbs.

3 .2 .1 .1 *d in Ci position

Since morphological category may be important, below is a discussion

of the Cj correspondences in nouns, followed by a discussion of the C:

correspondences in verbs.

The clearest case will be dealt with first. *d corresponds to / n j / for

nouns in noun classes which have nasals in their reconstructed singular

prefixes.

*dema 'bat' (3) > njem 'bat' (3) (pi. mejem)

*d6ms 'husband, male' > njum 'husband, male' (1) (pi. bojum)
*d5nga 'river' (3) > njwaq 'river' (9)
*ded5 ‘boundary’ (3) > nji 'frontier' (9)
*da 'entrails' (11) > nja 'intestines' (3)

Below are also three examples where *d corresponds to / j / where there

used to be a nasal prefix. In general, historic class 11 nouns seem to have

been absorbed into class 9, maybe due to their common plural in class 10.

These nouns may have regularized their singular forms with their plural. As

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 can be seen for 'bat' and 'husband' above, some singulars which begin with a

nasal synchronically do not have a nasal in their plural form.

(31) *dude 'shadow' (3) > juksbo 'shadow'

*demi 'tongue' (11) > jom 'tongue' (7) (pi. bijom)

*dedu 'beard' (7,9,11) > jol 'b eard '(9) (no pi.)

Below are two examples which are both nominalizations of verbs and

therefore may have passed through a stage where they were in a class that

began with a nasal prefix. For example, in the the F and G zones, the

nominalized form of the verb 'to deceive' is a class 3 noun.

(32) *do 'sleep' (13) > jwo 'sleep' (5)

*dong ’suggest' > be-jaq 'lies' (8)

There is also one odd occurrence where *d corresponds to / t / after the

nasal prefix and one example where it corresponds to / s / in a similar

environment. The first example below is parallel to what was seen for *b,

which had a number of /m p / correspondences. However, this is the only

example of its kind (nor are there /n c / correspondences). The latter is likely

to be a borrowing through the church languages of Bulu or Ewondo.

(33) *ddmbd 'sibling (opp. sex) > ntum 'her brother' (1)
*dim6 'spirit' (3) > sisim 'spirit' (3)

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 The direct correspondence of *d to / d / is found where the proto

consonant would have been between two vowels. Perhaps more importantly

though, two of these are class 5 nouns, where it is hard to know whether the

synchronic / d / which remains is a reflex of the *dj of the root, or of the *d of

the class 5 prefix. Note that 'beak' and ‘chin, jaw ’ lose their / d / ’s in the

plural.

(34) *dongo 'beak' (3) > duug 'beak' (5) (pi. muug)
*dsdu 'chin'(7,9,11) > d5z 'chin, jaw' (5) (m3z)
*diba 'pool, depth' (5)> mo-diba 'water' (6)

The class 5 prefix is synchronically either e- or le-, making A / also a

correspondence of *d, because the proto-class 5 forms are *i- (nominal prefix)

and *di- (concord prefix). This reflex also shows up in a few nouns, most of

them class 5 nouns synchronically, as shown below. Here, if the initial / l / is

due to the class 5 prefix historically, it has been reinterpreted over the course

of time, since the plural also has /l/.

(35) *d5ng 'speak, talk' > 13q 'speech' (5) (pi. molop)
*dadok ‘be m ad’ > lad ‘crazy person’ (7)
*dada ‘palm tree’(3) > lad ‘palm tree’ (5) (molad)
*dako ‘horn’ > lag ‘horn’ (5) (pi. molag)

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 The correspondence of *d to / y / is very rare in nouns though there are

also a few examples of the same correspondence in verbs. When *d

corresponds to / y / it tends to be followed by a front vowel, though this is not

enough to completely distinguish this correspondence from those given

above.

(36) *dende 'open pit' (5) > yenj 'open place, clearing' (7)
*dama ‘young anim al’ > ysm ‘domesticated anim al’

Finally, there is one cognate pair where *d corresponds to / n /. This is

a common reflex across Bantu languages, particularly where the second C is

also a nasal.

(37) *d5m5 'entry, mouth' (3) > num 'mouth' (3)

This might have been an example of Meinhofs rule, where by complex

nasal units are simplified when they precede another nasal. A possible series

of changes is shown below.

(38) *NV-dDmo > ndomo > nnamo > nama > num

For verbs, *d commonly corresponds to / j / , as shown below. These

verbs tend to have non-high vowels in the reconstructed forms.

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 *damb 'cook (v)' > jam b 'prepare food, cook'
*ded 'weep, cry, wail' > jii 'cry, weep'
*dupek 'sharpen' > jab 'sharpen (knife)'
*daad 'sleep (v.)' > ja 'sleep (v.)'
*deet 'lick' > jal 'lick'
*damok 'early, wake up' > jom 'wake up'
*de 'be' > ji 'be (att.)'
*domb 'ask for' > jwamb 'ask, request s.th'
*dok 'vomit' > ju 'vomit (v)'

The direct correspondence also occurs fairly frequently. These verbs

tend to have high vowels in the reconstructed forms.

(40) *d5b 'fish with a line' > dub 'fish with line'
*dug 'paddle (v.)' > dug5 'paddle (v.)'
*dut 'pull, drag' > dula 'puli'
*de 'eat' > do 'eat'
*dib 'stop up' > dibole 'stop up'
*dimb 'get lost' > dimb 'be lost'

There are also a couple of examples where *d corresponds to / l/ ,

which is consistent with one of the nominal patterns and with the synchronic

class 5 marker.

(41) *dob ‘speak, talk’ > lab ‘speak, talk’

*dag ‘show’ > lagolo ‘show’

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 Additionally, *d corresponds to / y / and / n / in exactly the same places

in verbs as it did in nouns, / y / is a reflex of M when M precedes front

vowels, and / n / is a reflex of M when the second consonant in the word is

also a nasal. However, once again, this is not enough to account for why

there are not more pairs with / y / and / n / reflexes since more than the words

below would fulfill those conditions.

(42) Med ‘float, swing’ > yoloi] ‘swing’

Miong ‘wander’ > yanga ‘w ander’
Meng ‘measure’ > yiig ‘measure

(43) Mumb 'smell' > numalo 'smell'

Additionally, there is one other correspondence, / t / , with only one

cognate pair. There is not enough data to understand the conditioning, and it

probably a borrowing since it exists alongside a word with the expected

correspondence.

(44) Mo 'fight' > tuna 'fight with weapons'

juna ‘fight (v)’

3 .2 .1 . 2 *d in C2 position

The primary correspondence of *d in a C2 position is / l/ .

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 *bed 'boil' > wul 'boil (food)'

*kudu 'tortoise' (9) > kul 'tortoise' (7)

*tud 'forge (v)' > lulD 'hit with a hammer'

*ded 'float, swing' > yolon 'swing'

*bud 'become plentiful' > bulu 'a lot, many'

*dsdu 'beard' > jol 'beard' (9)

*badek 'fear, flee' > wal 'fear of risk' (7)

*cud 'fart' > Jiag Jul 'fart'

*pudi 'foam' (9) > e-wuls 'foam' (5)

*tad 'cut open' > cal 'cut down tree'

If *d is followed by a low vowel, then *d corresponds to / d / , which for

many speakers is weakened to [r].

(46) *jfd 'get dark' > e-yide 'darkness' (5)

*pede 'puff-adder' (9) > wudo 'puff adder' (7)
*godd ‘leg’ (15/6) > du ‘leg’ (pi. modu) (5)
*pada 'forehead' > e-bada 'forehead' (5)

*d can also correspond to /n d /. Words with this reflex all begin with a

palatal or velar nasal. However, there are also palatal and velar initial roots

which have / ! / correspondences.

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 (47) *jid 'become black' > yinde 'black'
*k5k5da 'elbow' > gkwende 'elbow' (1)

*ced 'slip' > jandala19 'slip'

If the first consonant in the word is a nasal, then it seems that *d can

correspond to / n /, as is illustrated below. Again, this is the only cognate pair

illustrating this pattern.

(48) *mid 'devour, swallow' > mino 'swallow'

Finally, there are some correspondences of *d to /z /. These are all

synchronically after back vowels, though it is not clear why they would be a

trigger for such a weakening process (which differs from the synchronic

weakening of / d / to [r]).

(49) *dedu 'chin' (7,9,11) > doz 'chin' (5)

*god 'buy, barter' > kuz5 'buy'
*mode ‘torch, bright’ > moz ‘torch, lam p’ (3)
*jadi 'lightning (9) > njoz 'lightning' (3)

3 .2 .1 . 3 Sum m ary

To summarize, *d: corresponds to / j / after a nasal prefix and to / d /

when it occurs after a CV- prefix. The environments which led to the / ! / and

’ Also sandala.

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 / y / reflexes are less clear. / I / corresponds to *d in the class 5 prefix, as well

as in a few nouns and verbs, / y / only occurs as a reflex of *d when *d was

followed by a front vowel (in both nouns and verbs), but this vowel cannot be

the only conditioning factor. It is possible that an alveolar C2 is the other

conditioning factor. Finally, there is one correspondence / n / in a

conditioning environment that would be consistent with Meinhof s law.

In C2 position, the most common reflex of *d is / l/ . If *d precedes a

low vowel, it corresponds to / d / which is weakened to [r] for many speakers.

Some words also show a *d to / z / reflex which could also be the result of

weakening. Some words also exhibit a / n d / reflex, but the conditioning

reflex is not clear. Finally, it may be the case that when the Cx is nasal, a

nasal harmony is triggered, resulting in a correspondence of /n /.

3 .2 .2 *t
3 .2 .2 . 1 *t in Ci position

There are three correspondences to *t at the beginning of a noun: / t / ,

/ d /, and / l/ . The / d / correspondence seems the easiest to explain. *t

corresponds to / d / after the nasal prefix of class 9. It is not surprising that

there is no trace of the nasal prefix in the reflexes of the class 9 words below,

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 since as has already been mentioned, the nasal was generally deleted before a

voiceless stop.

(50) "toiga 'giraffe' (9) > dwang 'giraffe' (1)

*tuut 'swell (v)' > dwal 'tumor'

It is interesting that / d / is also a reflex for a historical class 5 noun,

since the historical prefixes for class 5 were *i and *di-.

(51) *tanga 'cattle post' (5) > dag 'herd (cattle, sheep)'

Discovering a conditioning environment, either phonological or

morphological for / t / vs / l / is trickier. Both occur before the same vowels,

before the same tones, and in the same root shapes. There is also a mixing of

morphological categories, / t / occurs in w hat would have historically been an

intervocalic environment (after a CV- prefix, as for class 5 nouns and the

word 'five' which agrees with the head noun it modifies and thus would have

followed several CV- concord prefixes). However, it also occurs with class 3

nouns, which would have been marked by a syllabic nasal.

(52) *taan5 'five' > ton 'five'

*tooba 'six’ (3) > twob 'six'
*tmdf 'heel' (5) > tindigi 'heel'
*tito 'animal' (3) > tid 'animal'

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 / I / also occurs after what would have been a nasal prefix in a number

of the historic class 3 and 9 examples below. The historically class 9 noun

with an / ! / reflex is especialy surprising.

*taa 'bow' (14) > la 'bow' (7)

*toe 'head' (3) > lu 'head' (5) (pi. malu)

*tabe 'twig, branch' (5,9) > 15b 'branch' (3)
*te ‘tree’ (3) > le ‘tree’ (3)
*toma ‘heart’ (3) > lam ‘heart’ (7)
*tato ‘three’ > 161 ‘three’
a .. ^ v
"toe ‘ear’ (5) > lw5 ‘ear’ (5)

At the beginning of a verb, / l / is the most common correspondence for

*t. It is interesting however, that for the examples below, *t only once

precedes a front vowel.

*tung 'build, plait' > lurjo 'build by weaving'

*ted 'sew' > laad 'sew'
*tud 'forge (v)' > lulo 'hit with a hammer'
*tog 'bail water' > lw3g 'bail water'
*tom 'send' > lwom bsb 'send on an errand'
*tum ‘stab’ > lumo ‘stab’
*tamb 'set trap' > lamb 'set trap’
*ta 'bite' > lu 'sting, strike (snake)'

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 In fact, there are only five examples where *t precedes a front vowel,

the one given above (*ted), the three given in (55) and (56), and the first

example of (58). For two of these, *t corresponds to /s /.

(55) *teamod 'sneeze' > sambala 'sneeze'

*tek 'shake' > sagaza 'shake'

For another, *t corresponds to / c / , as shown below.

(56) *teet 'cut' > ce 'cut'

However, this is an interesting semantic field to look at. To begin

with, there is another proto-Bantu root, ceec, also meaning 'to cut.' It is not

clear which root the Kol word is related to. It may be a direct reflex *c > c,

or rather *t > c. The *c root is attested in Zone C, but not in A, while the *t

root is attested in Zones A, B and C. Since there are no other reflexes of *c >

c or of *t > c at the beginning of a word (other than what is shown below),

the origin of 'cut' remains a mystery. The / s / at the beginning of 'cut open' is

also odd in light of the rest of the semantic field.

(57) *bed 'cut' ba 'cut'

*teet 'cut' ce 'cut'
*tad 'cut open' saal 'cut open'
cal 'cut down tree'

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 Clg 'cut'

cigala 'cut into pieces'

*kek 'cut' keg 'cut hair'

For the fourth example of *t before a front vowel, given as the first

example below, *t corresponds to / t / . The next two examples are confusing,

since / t / corresponds to *t in the same phonological environments as was

shown for / l / above, namely before a back vowel.

(58) *tind 'push' > tindala 'push with pole (canoe)'

*tob 'pierce' > tuba 'pierce ears'

*tok 'abuse' > tug 'insult, tease'

In fact, there are an additional two correspondences for *t before a

back vowel, /J7 and /}/. There is only one example for /]"/, so it may be able

to be ignored, but there are three for /]/. Again, this is an area for further

research.

(59) "tang 'be first' > Jwog 'be in front'

(60) *tokot 'be hot, sweat' >> ju gs

jugs 'be hot (person)'
*tamb 'call' >> jab
jab 'call'
*tand 'spread' > jenj

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 3 .2 .2 . 2 *t in C2 position

In C2 position, *t corresponds to / l / when there is a final vowel and to

/ d / when it is root-final synchronically, as shown below.

(61) *dut 'pull, drag' > dula 'puli'

*jat-ab 'answer' > yala 'answer (v)'

(62) *tito 'animal' > tid 'animal' (7)

3 .2 .2 . 3 Sum m ary

For *t1? after the non-syllabic nasal prefix of class 9, *t corresponds to

/d /. There are also examples where it appears that the / d / correspondence

has been influenced by noun membership in class 5. *t also corresponds to

/ t / and / l / at the beginning of nouns.

At the beginning of verbs, / l / is the most common correspondence,

though it appears to only occur before back vowels. When preceding a front

vowel, *t corresponds to /s /, / t / and /c /. Before back vowels, there are also

a few correspondences of *t to / t / , / J / and /]/.

As was described above, in C2 position, *t corresponds to / l / when the

final vowel has been preserved and to / d / when it is root-final synchronically.

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 3 -2.3 n
In nouns, adjectives and function words, the proto-alveolar nasal

always corresponds to a synchronic alveolar nasal, in both Q and C2

positions.

*nx > n

*na 'and, with' > no 'and, with'

*nai 'four' > na 'four'
4,
*nens
/ V
'big' > none 'big, important'

*n2 > n
j,
*nene
/ \
'big' > none 'big, important'
4 -* /
"jana
V
'child' > -an 'child, offspring' (1)
*jina 'name' (5) > drno 'name' (5)
4,
*gano
V V
'tale' (9,11) > kaan 'tale' (3)
*taano 'five' > ton 'five'

In verbs, however, *n seems to correspond to / jl/, as shown by the

three examples below. (The only verb found with a direct correspondence is

the word for 'big' above, which may actually be a verb 'to be big.') In Kol,

infinitives are marked with the class 5 prefix, and Meeussen notes that it may

be possible to reconstruct that in proto-Bantu (1965:111). The historic class 5

prefix *i- may have conditioned palatalization of the alveolar nasal.

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 (65) *nmk 'give' > jiig 'give back'
*ne 'defecate' > jiag 'defecate'
*ndkod 'tear off, extract' > jia 'tear'

There is also one more verb beginning with *n which seems to have a

correlate in modern-day Kol. There are no other examples with a similar / t /

correspondence.

(66) *nun 'be old' > tul 'be old'

3 .2 .4 *nd

There are no clear examples of *nd in Cx position. However, in C2

position, *nd almost always corresponds to /n d /.

*gando 'crocodile' (9) > qkondo 'crocodile' (1)

*gonde 'moon' (9) > nkund 'moon' (9)
*kanda 'cloth' (3,5,9) > kand 'cloth' (7)
*k5nde 'banana' (5) > kwand 'plantain' (7)
*tind 'push' > tmdolo 'push with pole'
*gsnd5 'journey' (11) > qkond 'journey' (7)
*tindi 'heel' (5) > tindigi 'heel'

There are a few examples, where *nd may correspond to /n j/. This

may be palatalization since the *nd is otherwise surrounded by palatals or the

front vowels {i, e}. It cannot be just the vowel, since otherwise we would

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 expect the *nd in 'heel' to also become palatalized under the effect of the high

front vowel /i/.

(68) *dende 'open pit' (5) > yenj 'open place, clearing' (7)
*cende 'squirrel' > sinj 'squirrel' (7)
*tand 'spread' > jenj 'spread (disease, fire)'

Finally, there is one possible example of simplification of the final

consonant. This is most likely a correspondence of *nd > n j > j. It is

common for final prenasalized stops to be simplified to a single segment,

either oral or nasal, as seen for *mb and *mp above.

(69) *jond5 'hammer' (9) > ncuuj 'hammer' (9)

There is also one example where *nd may correspond to /d /. This

could be seen as an example of simplification.

(70) *kendo 'palm tree' (3) > le-kudo 'palm tree' (5)

3 .2 .5 *nt

As was mentioned above, voiceless prenasalized stops are very rare.

There are two possible examples, and in both cases *nt corresponds to /d /.

(71) ntu 'some' > m-ud 'person' (1)

kont 'knock, shake' > kudo 'hit with hand'

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 3-3 P a l a t a l C o n s o n a n ts
33.1 *j
There are no examples of *j in the C2 position, which is consistent with

the synchronic lack of palatal consonants in the coda position. However there

are a plethora of reflexes, many of them contradictory, for the Cx position.

These are discussed below.

3 .3 .1 .1 *j in Ci position

At the beginning of nouns, *j corresponds to / c / after the nasal prefix.

This is illustrated below. Since *j was voiced, the nasal prefix remains (it is

only deleted before voiceless consonants).

♦V V
pgu 'elephant' (9) > ncwog 'elephant' (1)
*jdnd5 'hammer' (9) > ncuuj 'hammer' (9)
*jada 'hunger' (9) > nca 'hunger' (9)
*jate 'buffalo' (9) > ncwom 'buffalo' (7)
*jango 'gall, salt' > icDp 'bile or gall'
*jango 'gall, salt' > ica 'bile or gall'

However, there are a few examples of a direct correspondence in w hat

appears to be the same morphological environment.

(73) *jeda 'path' (9) > njwoq 'path' (9)

*job5 'house' (9) > njab 'house' (3/4)
*j5ga 'fungus (edible)' > jwa 'mushroom' (7)

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 There is also one occurrence where the *j seems to have been deleted.

There is some question though, with many of the initial *j's whether they

were there at all. Janssens notes that: "The researcher has the impression

from time to time that those establishing the reconstructions posited the

existence of a voiced palatal sound in PB (*j in Meeussen, *y or *j in Guthrie)

more for reasons of economy than on the basis of definite indications"

(1993:331). The example below could just be the nasal prefix of the class 9

occurring before a vowel-initial root. It is interesting though that it is the

palatal nasal, which is the form we would expect before *j but not a expected

reflex of *n in a noun.

(74) *j5ka 'snake' (9) > jiwaq 'snake' (1)

There is also one example where *j corresponds to / d /. This is

interesting because synchronically, / d / alternates with / j / in some dialects for

at least this word. The Kol speakers who live along the Mbama-Messamena

road say [jino] while the Kol speakers who live further away from the road

say [dino].

(75) *jina 'name' (5) > dino 'name' (5) (pi. mino)

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 Finally, there are a num ber of minor correspondences which may all be

borrowed. The word for 'cooking pot' is quite unusual, since the expected

correspondence is /n c /.

(76) *jemba 'antbear' > yima 'antbear'

*jcnjc 'mane' (3) > saq 'mane' (3)

"jongo 'cooking pot' (9) > koq 'cooking pot' (9)

As the initial consonant in verbs, *j corresponds to /']/ or / y /. The

conditioning environment may be the following consonants. The / ) / reflexes

are followed (or were followed) by labial consonants, while the / y / reflexes

are followed by alveolar consonants. However, it remains unclear why a

labial consonant would m aintain the proto-sound while an alveolar would

condition weakening.

(77) *jib 'steal' > jfba 'steal'

*pd 'laugh (v)’ > jwo 'laugh (v)'
*jipod 'ask (questions)' > ji 'ask (for info)'

(78) *jat-ab 'answer' > yala 'answer'

*jid 'become black' > yinde 'black'

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 Finally, one verb in Proto-Bantu has two different correspondences in

modern-day Kol, neither one of which shows the / j / or / y / correspondences

illustrated above!

(79) *jikad 'dwell, sit, stay' > di 'stay, remain'

> ligo 'stay, leave'

3 .3 .1 . 2 Sum m ary

As was mentioned above, there are no examples of *j2. *jj in nouns

primarily corresponds to / c / or / j/ . All examples of / c / are preceded by the

class 9 nasal prefix. In verbs, *j\ corresponds to / j / or /y /, with the

difference possibly being triggered by the following consonant.

3 -3-2 *c
3 .3 .2 . 1 *c in Cl position

The primary reflexes of *c at the beginning of a noun are / s / and /J-/ .

As was noted in the section above on synchronic variation, some dialects of

Kol have / s / where other dialects have /J-/ . Not enough is known about this

synchronic variation to know how it might have interacted with the historical

evolution of *c. The /J-/ reflexes are always followed by a back vowel as seen

in (81), while the / s / reflexes are followed by both front and back vowels.

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 (80) *ce 'earth, ground' > si 'ground, earth' (7)

*cango 'father' (la ) > soqga 'father' (1)

j. * j *
"cada 'feather' (5, 7, 11) > sa 'feather' (9)

*cende 'squirrel' (7) > sinj 'squirrel' (7)

JL. V V
"ccnga 'sand' (3,5,9,11) > sijie 'sand' (9) (no pi.)

(81) *congo 'banana' (5) > Jurp 'regime of plantains' (3)

*cue 'fish' > fu ~ su 'fish' (1)
*comb 'be on top' > Jumlo 'upper (arm)' (9)
j. y v
*cDm 'shame' (9) > 'shame' (9) (no pi.)

Finally, there are four correspondences of which there is only one or

two examples each. One, ‘axe,’ appears to have an incorporated nasal prefix

which may be due to its shifting classes from class 5 to class 9 which is

historically (though not synchronically) marked by a nasal prefix. The next is

the voiced equivalent of *c, / j / , and this example historically belongs to class

14 which does not exist synchronically in Kol. The other three have A / and

/ t / correspondences. There is not enough information to know right now

what conditioned these different reflexes.

(82) *c5ka 'axe' (5) > ncuq 'axe' (9)

*congo 'poison' (14) > jwog 'poison (n.)' (9)
*cace 'spark' (5,9,11) > kska 'spark' (1)
*coga 'ladle' > tug 'spoon' (1)

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 -'coda ‘smell’ (9) > tud ‘bad smell’

There are four correspondences for *c at the beginning of a verb. The

most common reflex for *c at the beginning of a verb is / j/ .

(83) *cok 'wash' > juza 'wash'

*cong 'suffer' > jug 'suffer'

*ced 'slip' > jandala 'slip' (also sandala)

The most consistent environment is found for the change *c > s, as

shown below. All verbs which began with *c followed by *i synchronically

begin with /s /. However, as can be seen by the last verb below, *c also

changed to / s / before *a in ‘do.’

*cid 'finish' > sil 'finish'

*cic 'frighten' > syegale 'frighten'
*ca ‘do’ > sa ‘do’

This overlaps with the more common correspondence of *c to / j / as

well as two other correspondences which seem to occur in the same

environment. These are illustrated below. Each of these is in complementary

distribution with the / s / correspondence before *i, but it is not clear at all

what the conditioning environment is that determines whether *c corresponds

to /j/, A / or /J /.

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 (85) *cdobod 'skin' > kuur 'skin animal'

*camb 'leap over' > kab 'jump'

*cang 'meet' > kwenj 'assemble, meet'

*ceec run > kweg 'run'

As was the case for nouns, / J / only appears before back vowels.

However, / k / and / j / also appear before back vowels.

(86) *c5ng 'sharpen to a point' > Jwenj 'sharpen'

*cud 'fart' > jiag Jul 'fart'

3 .3 .2 .2 *c in C2 position
There are only three examples of *c2, as shown below. This is not

enough data to be able to draw any sort of conclusions about the

correspondences of *c2. However, it is interesting that one of these is / z /

which is the voiced correlate to one of the *c: correspondences, /s /.

(87) *kdco 'parrot' (9) > kuiiz 'parrot' (1)

*kac-u 'dry' > Jweza, Jwez 'be dry'

*kac 'coagulate' > kagara 'coagulate, clot'

3 -3 -2 .3 Sum m ary

In nouns, *ca primarily corresponds to / s / or /J /. / J / is only found

preceding back vowels, while / s / is found preceding both front and back

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 vowels. In addition, there is an / n c / correspondences which may have been

caused in part by interaction with the class 9 prefix.

In verbs, *c corresponds to / s / when it precedes *i, and to / j / , / s / , A / ,

or / J / elsewhere. The correspondences / j / , / s / , A / and / J / occur in the same

environments, but only / s / occurs before *i.

In C2 position, *c corresponds to / z / or A / , but there is not enough

data to know which of these is the primary correspondence and/or what the

conditioning environment is.

3 3 3 *ji

There are only three clear cognate sets with the palatal nasal. It

appears that the *ji directly corresponds to /ji/.

(88) *ji5 'drink (v)' > jiwel 'drink (v)'

*pam 'suck, suckle' > jiag 'nurse, suckle'
*jiaqgo 'your mother' (la ) > jiaqgo 'mother' (1)

3 .3 .4 *nj

In contrast to *j where there were no clear examples of it occurring in

C2 position, for *nj, there are no clear examples of it occurring in Q position.

The examples showing correspondences of *nj in C2 position are themselves

not numerous (two). As was mentioned above, palatal consonants are rare as

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 codas. The example below illustrates a direct correspondence between *nj

and /n j/, while the following example shows an erosion of *nj to /n /.

(89) *banje 'rib, side' > mpanj 'side of body' (7)

*banja 'family' > ben 'extended paternal family'

3 .4 V e la r C o n s o n a n ts

Meeussen does not reconstruct a velar nasal (1965:83). Below the

sound correspondences for *g, *k, *ng, and *nk will be discussed.

3 -4-1 *g
3 .4 .1 .1 *g in Ci position

In the C: position, *g has multiple reflexes, / g / does not occur

synchronically in Cx position. For nominal roots, the most common

correspondence is /k /. This is true for nouns in all of the nasal prefix classes

as well as those in other classes.

*gango 'grass' > ka 'grass, leaf (7)

*guba 'bellows' > kwom 'bellows'
*g5ng5 'back' > kWDl] 'back' (3)
*gongo 'caterpillar' (5) > kurj 'caterpillar' (3)
4. V V
*gano 'tale' (9,11) > kaan 'tale' (3)
*gando 'crocodile' > qkando 'crocodile' (1)
*ganga 'medicine man' > rjkai] 'medicine man' (1)
*guba 'shield' (9) > qkuba 'shield' (9)

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 *gemboa 'bat' > rjku 'fruit bat' (7)
*g5nde 'moon' (9) > qkund 'moon' (9)

*gsndo 'journey' (11) > qkond 'journey' (7)

There is a less common reflex, where *g corresponds to /c /. This

reflex only occurs before *i, but it occurs in all classes. This corresponds to

the synchronic gap of palatalization occurring with velar consonants.

(91) *gida ’blood’ (6) > ci 'blood' (6)

*gid5 'religious avoidance' > ci 'taboo' (7)

*gi 'fly' (9) > ncuq 'fly' (1)

There are also a few isolated examples of other reflexes.

(92) *geni 'stranger' (1) > njoq 'stranger' (1)

*gedi, geda 'stream' (3) > wo 'current' (3)

In verbs, there are two reflexes, A / and /c /. It appears that A / is the

reflex before back vowels and / c / is the reflex before front vowels, which

would parallel the noun correspondences. The one exception 'tell story' may

differ because it forms a paradigm with kaan 'tale.'

(93) *go 'fall (v)' > kur 'fall from high'

*gi 'go' > ks 'go'

*gdd 'buy, barter’ > kuz5 'buy'
*gan ’tell story' > kene 'tell story'

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 *ged 'try' > kag 'try'

(94) *gid 'abstain from' > ci 'abstain'

3 .4 .1 . 2 *g in C2 position

In C2 position, *g has only one reflex, a direct correspondence /g /.

This is true for both verbs and nouns, as shown below.

(95) *coga 'ladle' > tug ’spoon' (1)

J ,* V V
Pgu 'elephant' (9) > ncwog 'elephant' (1)
J . / V

*Plg3 'kidney' > mbar) fig 'kidney'

*tog 'bail water' > lwog 'bail water'

*dug 'stir, paddle' > duga 'paddle (v)'

*b5ga 'hoe' > b55g 'hoe' (9) (pi. mampoog)

3.4.1.3 Summary
In Cj position, the correspondences to *g seem to primarily reflect the

location of the following vowel. In nouns, *g corresponds to / c / before *i,

and to A / everywhere else. In verbs, though with only two examples, it is

impossible to tell for sure, it appears that *g corresponds to / c / before front

vowels and to A / before back vowels.

As was mentioned above, in C2 position, *g has only one reflex, a direct

correspondence /g /.

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 3 4 -2 *k
3 .4 .2 . 1 *k in Ci position

The primary correspondence for *k when it is the initial C of a noun is

A /.

A anda 'cloth' (3,5,9) > kand 'cloth' (7)

A uba 'chicken' > kubo 'chicken' (1)
Aombe 'bank, shore' > komb 'side'

A endo 'palm tree' > le-kudo 'palm tree' (5)

*kida 'tail' (3) > kuund 'tail' (3)
J .1
Aanga
/ V
'guinea fowl' (9) > kag 'guinea fowl' (3)
A em a 'monkey' > kam 'monkey' (1)

However, there are also three other minor correspondences, each with

one example. It is interesting that the / c / correspondence occurs before a

historic front vowel, but there are also front vowels represented in the

examples above.

(97) Aingo 'neck' (9) > cog 'neck' (9)

It is also interesting that the two labial correspondences, / w / and / f /,

occur before labial C2's and before back vowels, but again, this is not

sufficient to explain this correspondence, since that is also true for some of

the A / examples above.

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 (98) *komi 'ten' (5) > wum 'ten' (5)
*kupa 'bone' (5) > fob 'fish bone' (9)

The primary correspondences for *k at the beginning of a verb is / j

However, there are also two other correspondences, / s / and A / . It is

possible that the vowel following *k played a part in determining the

correspondences. All of the occurrences of *k corresponding to /J7 shown

below are when *k is followed by a back vowel.

(99) *kac-u 'dry' > Jweza, Jwez 'be dry'

*kad-o 'be drunk' > Jwega 'be drunk'

*kang 'threaten' > Jwaqgalo 'threaten'

Two out of the three examples showing the / s / and A /

correspondences are when *k preceded a front vowel, as shown below.

However, there is no apparent conditioning environment to determine which

of these two reflexes should emerge.

(100) *keng 'cheat, deceive' > sig 'deceive'

*ksm 'call, cry' > kern 'scream, cry out'

Finally, there is one example where *k corresponds to / s / before a

back vowel. As was noted in the section on synchronic variation, / s / and /j-/

are in dialectal variation. This may have played a role here.

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 ( 1 0 1 ) *kong 'look for, seek' > sag 'look for'

3 .4 .2 . 2 *k in C2 position

As a C2, *k has three reflexes: /g g /, / g / and /g /. It seems logical to

suggest that the original change was *k > gg, followed by a simplification of

/g g / to either / g / or /g /. In fact, this is w hat I will be proposing below for

*ng when it is in C2 position.

It is however not clear what would have triggered (or blocked?) a

simplification of the final consonant in some words, much less why certain

words have a / g / simplification while others have a /%/. It is interesting that

there is only one example of the non-simplified /g g /.

( 1 0 2 ) *taka 'earth, mud' (5) > ma-ndanga 'mud' ( 6 )

(103) *c5ka 'axe' > ncug 'axe' (9)

"tokot 'be hot' > juga 'be hot (person)'
*kck 'cut' > keg 'cut hair'
*j5ka 'snake' (9) > jiwag 'snake' ( 1 )

(104) *jikad 'dwell, sit, stay' > ligo 'stay, leave'

J t. V 1 V
"pako 'tree-hollow' (9) > wug 'hole' (5)
*baka 'knife' (5) > e-baag 'knife' (5)
*tok 'abuse' > nteg 'abuse'
*paku 'honey' (9) > bw5g 'harvest honey'

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 *tok 'abuse' > tug 'insult, tease'

*tek 'shake' > sagaza 'shake'

3 -4 .2 .3 Summary

The primary correspondence of *k as the initial consonant in a noun is

A / , and the primary correspondence for *k as the initial consonant in a verb

is /jy. However, for both nouns and verbs, there are numerous other minor

correspondences: / s / , /c /, / w / and / { / for nouns and / s / and A / for verbs.

As a C2, it is likely that *k changed to /p g / at one stage and is now

undergoing a simplification process with some words having only / q / and

some words having only /g /. This is similar to the changes that *ng has

undergone.

3 .4 .3 *ng

There is only one example of *ng in Ca position, and it demonstrates a

*ng > nk correspondene.

(105) *nga 'as, like' > gka 'as, like'

In C2 position, there are a few examples of a direct correspondence, as

shown below.

(106) *banga 'jaw' (11) > bag go 'jaw' (7)

*beng 'drive, chase' > wirjg 'drive away, chase'

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 *kang 'threaten' > Jwaggalo 'threaten'

However, most of the examples show a simplification of the *ng to

either / g / or /%/. The conditioning for the different reflexes remains unclear.

Both correspondences occur in nouns and verbs, and both are in the same

phonological environments.

(107) *tung 'build, plait' > lugo ’build by weaving’

*gongo 'back' > kwog 'back' (3)
*ganga 'medicine man' > gkag 'medicine man' ( 1 )

<—>
O'
*COngO 'banana' V 'hand of plantains' (3)
*donga 'river' (3) > njwar) 'river' (9)
*gbngo 'caterpillar' (5) > kuq 'caterpillar' (3)
"kingo 'neck' (9) > cor) 'neck' (9)
"kanga 'guinea fowl' (9) > kaq 'guinea fowl' (3)
*jango 'gall' (9) > icoq 'bile or gall'
JU, V /
"tanga 'cattle post' (5) > dag 'herd (cattle, sheep)'
*dong 'suggest' > bi-jag 'lies' (8 )

(108) *congo 'poison' (14) > jwog 'poison' (9)

Mongo 'beak' (3) > duug 'beak' (5) (pi. muug)
*keng 'cheat, deceive' > sig 'deceive'
*cong 'suffer' > jug 'suffer'
*tang 'be first' > jug, Jwog 'be in front'

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 3 -4 3 1 Summary
As a Cl3 the one example found shows a correspondence between *ng

and /n k /. In C2 position, there are a couple of direct correspondences, but the

most common reflex is a simplification of *ng to /q /. However, there are also

a couple of examples which suggest a simplification of *ng to /g /. The

environment which triggered a maintenance of the original sound vs. the

environments which triggered the two simplification processes remains

unclear.

3 .4 .4 *nk

As was mentioned above, voiceless prenasalized stops are rare. *nk

only has one correspondence.

(109) *nink 'give' > jiig 'give back'

3 .5 G e n e r a l O b s e r v a t io n s o n Co n s o n a n t Co r r e s p o n d e n c e s

In this section I will attem pt to make generalizations over the

consonant correspondences detailed above. In order to best complement the

discussion above, which was organized around places of articulation, this

section will be organized by m anner of articulation.

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 3 -5-1 N a s a ls
The nasals in Kol are all in direct correspondence with the proto­

nasals. The only slight modification is that *n appears to correspond with / j i /

when it is the initial consonant of a verbal root. This may be due to the

infinitival form, probably the class 5 marker *i- (which has been preserved in

modern Kol). The high vowel could have conditioned palatalization in the

following segment. Otherwise, *n corresponds to / n / whether it is in the Q

position or the C2 position. The same is true for *m, which always

corresponds to /m /. While there are not a lot of clear cognate sets for the

palatal nasal, for the two examples that exist, *ji directly corresponds to /ji/.

Meeussen does not posit a proto velar nasal.

3 .5 .2 V o ic e d N C

There is only one example found of a NC occurring in Cx position. In

this one case, *ng corresponds to /g k /.

However, in C2 position, there are a num ber of examples. Each NC

demonstrates a direct correspondence, while additionally each shows some

evidence of erosion at the right edge, with simplification of the NC to either N

or C. That is to say, *mb corresponds directly to /m b /, but there are also

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 examples where *mb corresponds to /m /. Likewise, *nd mostly directly

corresponds to /n d /, but there is also one example where it corresponds to

/d /. Additionally, there are some examples where *nd has been palatalized

to /n j/. Again, of the two examples found for an *nj correspondence, one is

/ n j / and the other is /n /. Finally, there are a number of *ng

correspondences. The most common is / q /, but there are also examples of

/ n g / and /%/.

For all of the NC's, it is not possible with the current data to determine

why erosion happened in certain cases and not others, and why in some cases

it was the C that was preserved instead of the N.

3 *5*3 V o ic e le s s N C
Meeussen notes that voiceless prenasalized stops are rare. Cognate

forms all show similar reflexes to the voiced NC's. *mp has a / b / reflex and a

/ m / reflex, as seen for *mb. *nt has a / d / reflex. *nk has a / g / reflex. There

were no examples of *nc correspondences.

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 3 -5-4 V o ic e d o r a l s t o p s
3 .5 .4 . 1 When in Ci position

The Cj position is the most diverse, probably because roots in Kol can

be preceded by so many different kinds of affixes. Direct correspondences

between the proto voiced stops and the current day stops are most common in

morphological environments which would have placed the stop in question

between vowels (that is to say, at the beginning of verbs or after a (C)V- noun

prefix).

It is interesting that the reflexes for *g can be completely explained by

the phonological environment, i.e. whether the following vowel is front or

back, while this most definitely cannot be the explanation for the various

correspondences of the other three voiced stops.

To review, in nouns, *g corresponds to / c / before *i, and to / k /

everywhere else. In verbs, it appears that *g corresponds to / c / before front

vowels and to / k / before back vowels. This additionally explains why velar

consonants do not occur synchronically with palatalization.

In contrast, the various reflexes for *b, d, j seem to be partially

explained by looking at the various possible morphological environments. It

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 seems to be important, for at least some correspondences, whether the Cl is

at the beginning of a noun or a verb. If it is at the beginning of a noun, then

for some voiced stops, it is important to consider the nature of the noun class

prefix. There were most likely three different types of noun class prefix. The

most widely spread would have been a (C)V- prefix (singular classes 5, 7 and

all the plural classes). These singular prefixes have all been lost in modern-

day Kol. The second type of noun class prefix would have been a non-syllabic

nasal marking classes 9 and 10 (and probably extended to class 11 due to it

having its plural in class 10). The third type of prefix would have been

originally a NV- prefix, but many Bantu languages show evidence of vowel

deletion in this prefix, resulting in a syllabic (possibly tone-bearing) nasal

prefix.

A chart is given below, showing the correspondences for *b, d, j in

these different kinds of morphological environments.

N- (cl. 9) NV- (cl. 1, 3) CV- (cl. 5, 7) verbs

*b mp mb b w
*d j j d, 1, y, n j, d, 1, y, n
*j c ,j -? j j. y

Table 7.3 Voiced consonant reflexes

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 *d has the highest number of correspondences. The correspondences

/ y / and / n / occur in both nouns and verbs, / y / only occurs as a reflex of *d

when *d is followed by a front vowel, while / n / only occurs when the other

C in the word is also a nasal. The conditioning environment for / l / remains

unclear, as does the reason for having both / j / and / d / as common reflexes in

verbs.

It is interesting that both *b and *j have a voiceless reflex in the

morphological environment of the noun class prefix for class 9. This is in

effect a voicing dissimilation.

This same process is synchronically present in Kol today .20 When a

class 7 noun is pluralized as a mass noun in class 10, this process is marked

by a nasal prefix. However, this nasal prefix also devoices the root-initial

consonant, as shown below.

(110) cl 7 /8 buund 'skin, shell' bibiiund (as in eggshells)

cl 1 0 mpund (as in peanut shells)

cl 7/10 bumo 'fruit' mpumo 'fruits' (all kinds)

20 And in Makaa.

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 It is odd that *d completely lacks this voicing dissimilation. It is also

interesting that *d and *j, in contrast to *b and *g, have completely lost the

nasal portion of the noun class markers.

Such a voicing dissimilation in this particular morphological

environment is common in other Bantu languages, including languages of the

A.zone (Bubi A.31 and Nen A.44 among others, see Janssens 1993).

3 .5 .4 .2 When in C2 position

Three of the four voiced oral stops, *b, *d and *g, have direct

correspondences when they occur as the second consonant in a root. *j has

no clear correspondences as a C2. Palatal consonants are very rare as coda

consonants in Kol today.

*b has a minor secondary correspondence of /m b /. While there is not

enough data to be sure of the conditioning environment, both of the

occurrences of /m b / occur when the initial consonant is labialized.

The situation with *d is much more complicated. In C2 position, the

most common reflex of *d is / l / . If *d precedes a low vowel, it corresponds

to / d / which is weakened to [r] for many speakers. Some words also exhibit

a /n d / reflex, but the conditioning reflex is not clear. Finally, it may be the

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 case that when the Cx is nasal, a nasal harmony is triggered, resulting in a

correspondence of /n /.

3 *5*5 V o ic e le s s o r a l s t o p s
3.5.51 When in Ci position
When looking at the voiceless stops in the Cx position, it is necessary to

keep a clear division between verb-initial voiceless stops and noun-initial

voiceless stops. There are quite different correspondences found on either side

of this morphological line. However, in contrast to the voiced stops, the

differing noun prefixes do not seem to correlate much with the differing

correspondences.

N- (cl. 9) NV- (cl. 1, 3) CV- (cl. 5, 7) verbs

*p f, w, b, mp mb -? w, f

*t d t,l d, t, 1 1, S, t, c, J, j
*c nc s j s j S, j, k ,J
*k k k k,s, c, w, f J, s, k

Table 7.4 Voiceless consonant reflexes

One major difference between the voiced and voiceless stops is the

impact of the vowel following the Cl. For voiced stops, the phonological

environment only seemed to be important for the velar stop. For voiceless

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 stops, the phonological environment appears to play a role for every voiceless

stop except the velar stop, especially in verbs.

As the initial consonant of verbs, *p corresponds to / w / before / a / ,

and /£ / everywhere else.

In this same environment, *d primarily corresponds to / l / , though it

appears to only occur before back vowels. When preceding a front vowel, *t

corresponds to /s /, / t / and /c /. Before back vowels, there are also a few

correspondences of *t to / t / , / ] / and / j/.

In verbs, *c corresponds to / s / when it precedes *i, and to / j / , A / , or

/ J / elsewhere. The correspondences / j / , A / and / J / occur in the same

environments, but each contrasts with the environment for /s /.

The phonological environment also seems to be important for *c when

it is the first consonant in a noun. This is not apparently the case for the

other three voiceless stops. Again, it is strange that A does not seem to have

any phonological conditioning when its voiced counterpart's correspondences

could be entirely explained by reference to the phonological environment.

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 In nouns, *q primarily corresponds to / s / or /J1/. / J / is only found

preceding back vowels, while / s / is found preceding both front and back

vowels. In addition, there are two / n c / correspondences which may have

been caused in part by interaction with the class 9 prefix.

3.5 5-2 When in C2 position

In general, the voiceless stops are voiced when they appear as the

second consonant in a word. The only exception is possibly for *c, which has

a A / correspondence as well as the voiced / z / correspondence.

With respect to their manner of articulation, the bilabial stop has

remained the most conservative, while the alveolar stop has undergone the

most weakening. The voiceless bilabial stop *p has remained a stop, just

undergoing voicing assimilation, to become the voiced bilabial stop A / in all

cognate pairs established.

The velar stop is also fairly conservative. *k has become the

prenasalized stop /n g / in the C2 position, which is then undergoing erosion

(or simplification) to the nasal / q / or the stop /g /.

The palatal stop *c has become the voiced fricative / z / in at least one

cognate set.

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 Finally, the least conservative alveolar stop *t corresponds to A / when

the final vowel has been preserved and to / r / when it is root-final

synchronically.

4 Vowel correspondences

In Kol, the Proto-Bantu high vowels *i and *u and the low vowel *a

have the most direct correspondences. The proto mid vowels (*e, *e, *o and

*d) show a lot more variation. This may be due to a period of time when

vowel harmony was present in the system among the mid vowels. This is

common in other Bantu languages, both within and outside of the A-zone.

There are no vowel harmony processes active today in any of the languages of

the Makaa-Kol-Konzime group.

4 .1 H ig h V o w e l s

As was mentioned above, the high vowel correspondences are fairly

direct.

.
4 1.1 *i
The high front vowel *i has direct correspondences both as a V1 and as

a V2, as illustrated below.

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 ( I l l ) *jid 'get dark (v)' > e-yide 'darkness' (5)
*bn 'dung, excrement' > bi 'excrement' (6)
*cid 'finish' > sil 'finish'
*mid 'devour, swallow' > mino 'swallow'

*tltO ‘anim al’ > tid ‘anim al’ (1)

"jib 'steal' > jibo 'steal'

(112) *tindi 'heel' (5) > tindigi 'heel'

*u
The most common correspondence for the back high vowel *u is a

one, as shown below.

(113) *buda 'rain' (9) > mpu 'rain' (1)

*bua 'nine' (5) > e-bu 'nine' (5)

a, / /
*cue 'fish' > Id 'fish' (1)
"bud 'become plentiful' > bulu 'a lot, many'
*dug 'stir, paddle' > dugD 'paddle (v)'
*diit 'pull, drag' > diila 'puli'

There is one example of *u corresponding to / o / after a labialized

consonant. Synchronically, it is quite common to have a u ~ wo variation

after palatal stops. Below are examples from the southern Kol dialect on the

left, and examples from the central dialect on the right.

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 (114) ncug ncwog 'elephant' (9)
ncuq ncoq 'axe' (9)

Jug Jwog 'front'

-jiug -jiwog 'wine' (6)
jug jwog 'poison' (9)

Thus, though the correspondence below is after a velar stop, this may

not actually be a separate correspondence.

(115) *guba 'bellows' (3) > kwom 'bellows'

However, there is also one example of *u corresponding to / a / . There

are no known examples of this sort of variation synchronically.

(116) *dupek 'sharpen' > jab 'sharpen (knife)'

There were no examples found demonstrating a cognate set for *u as a

V2. Synchronically, / u / is allowed as a V2 for nouns, though it is very rare for

verbs.

4 .2 M id V o w e l s

For each of the four mid vowels, there are no clear cognate pairs for

the V2 position. Thus, the sections below will only look at the

correspondences of the proto mid vowels in the Vj position. Also, each vowel

has several cognate pairs showing a direct correspondence between the proto-

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 vowel and the modern-day vowel. However, for each, this direct

correspondence is only one among many other correspondences.

4 .2 .1 *e

The direct correspondence *e > e is quite common, as shown by the

examples below.

*beda 'pit, grave' (9) > be 'thicket, pit' (9)

*ge 'egg' > e-ke 'egg' (5)

*te 'tree' (3) > le 'tree' (3)
*jambe 'god' (9) > ncimbe 'god' (1)
*beek 'put' > ber 'put, place, set'

It is, however, also common to find cognate pairs which illustrate a

vowel raising process, resulting in a correspondence of *e > i.

(118) *beng 'drive, chase' > wiqg 'drive away, chase'

*ded 'shout, cry, weep' > jii 'cry, weep'
*ce 'ground, earth' > si 'ground, earth' (7)
*jeka 'only' > nji 'only'

Much more rare are correspondences between *e and a back vowel,

though there is one example for each of the vowel heights shown above. That

is to say, in the first example below, *e has maintained its level in the vowel

system but has been moved back to correspond to the back vowel /o /. In the

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 second example, *e has been raised one level (to the same level as / i / ) and

moved back to correspond to the back vowel /u /.

(119) *demi 'tongue' (11) > jom 'tongue' (7)

*bed 'boil' > wul 'boil (food)'

4 .2 .2 *0

The proto-vowel *0 also has some direct reflexes in Kol, as shown

below.

(120) *tooba 'six' (3) > twob 'six'

*congo 'bitterness,poison' > jwog 'poison' (9)
*mode 'torch, bright' > moz 'torch, lamp' (3)

However, much more common is the correspondence *0 > u, which is

an example of raising, parallel to the one seen for *e, where *e > i.

*jodo 'nose' (5) > du 'nose' (5)

*bobe 'spider' (5,11) > bub 'spider' (5)
*coga 'ladle' > tug 'spoon' (1)
*god6b& ’pig’ (9) > r)ku 'pig' (1)
*koco ’parrot' (9) > kuuz 'parrot' (1)
*komi 'ten' (5) > wum 'ten' (5)
Jl. V J V
"godo 'leg' (15) > du 'thigh' (5)
*poko 'mouse, rat' (9) > fu 'mouse' (1)

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 There is also one example of *o corresponding to / i / . This is the

inverse of one of the processes seen for *e, where *e was raised and then

moved back. In this case, *o is being raised (to the level of / u /) and then

moved front to correspond to /i/.

(122) *tokot 'sweat' > didik 'sweat, perspire'

Finally, there is one example, where *o seems to correspond to /e /.

This would involve lowering the vowel one level and then moving it to the

front of the vowel space. There was no parallel to this process for *e.

(123) *tok 'abuse' > nteg 'abuse'

4 .2 . 3 *e

The open-mid (or level 3) front vowel *e also has a direct

correspondence in modern-day Kol, as shown below.

(124) *dema 'bat' (3) > njem 'bat' (3)

*kem 'call, cry' > kem 'scream, cry out'

As was the case for *e above, there are also examples of *e being

moved to a back vowel. However, in this case, the vowel has also been

raised, since it corresponds to / o / and not to the back open-mid vowel / d/.

Since in three of the examples shown below, the second vowel in the word is

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 a back vowel, this may be a back (or rounding) assimilation in combination

with a raising process.

(125) *gendo 'journey' (11) > qkond 'journey' (7)

*bcsde 'breast, udder' (5) > bol 'udder, breast' (5)

*gsgo 'molar tooth' (5,7) > qkokok 'molar tooth' (5)

*dsdu 'beard' > jol 'beard' (9)

Synchronically, there is at least one example where a word varies

along this same pattern across dialects.

(126) Jwsnj 'young man' (3) varies with Jwanj

4 .2 .4 *3

Unlike the case for the other mid vowels, *3 only has one cognate pair

which illustrates a direct correspondence with /o /.

(127) *gongo 'back' (3) > kwag 'back' (3)

There are also a number of examples illustrating a raising process,

where the open-mid vowel *3 corresponds to the close-mid vowel /o /. This is

similar to what has been seen for *e and *0 .

(128) *b5k5 'arm' (15) > mbwo 'arm' (3)

*d5 'sleep' (13) > jwo 'sleep' (5)
*p5k5 'one' > fog 'one' (counting)
*kambc 'bank, shore' > komb 'side'
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 *t5n 'drip' > ntoba 'flow, drip'

Additionally, there are a num ber of examples which illustrate a more

drastic raising process, with *o corresponding to the high vowel /u /. This

process is not parallel to anything seen for the other mid vowels.

*b5mb5 'bundle' (3) > mbumb 'bundle' (3)

*c5ka 'axe' > ncuq 'axe' (9)

>
<—
*canga 'banana' > 'regime of plantains' (3)

<3
JL V J \
"gonde 'moon' (9) > qkund 'moon' (9)
*d5b 'fish with a line' > dub 'fish with line'
*t5b-od 'bore through' > tuba 'pierce (ears)'

There are examples of a fronting rule, as well. Below is one example

where *a has maintained its level in the vowel system, but has been moved to

the front of the vowel space, corresponding to /e /. Interestingly enough, the

modem reflex is also labialized. It is possible that the rounding has been

separated out into the /w /, leaving the unrounded version, i.e. the front

vowel, behind.

(130) *j id 'drink' > jiwcl 'drink'

There are also examples showing a combination of fronting and

raising, given below. Here *a has been raised one level (to the level of /o /)

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 and then shifted to the front of the vowel space, corresponding to / e / . Most

of these words also have an initial labialized consonant. These may be

similar examples to the reflex described above, where the rounding has been

separated out, with the added complication of a raising process. For 'elbow'

it is interesting that both synchronic vowels are / e / , which suggests that some

sort of assimilation process targeted both the *a and the *a .

(131) *k5kada 'elbow' (9) > pkwende 'elbow' (1)

*c5b 'lack' > njeb 'lack'
*c5ng 'carve, sharpen' > Jwenj 'carve, sharpen'

Additionally, as we saw for *c, there is a correspondence of *a to / a / .

Since both of these m odem words also have a labialized consonant, this could

again be an unrounding process.

(132) *bama 'python' (9) > mpwam 'python' (1)

*kande 'banana' (5) > kwand 'plantain' (7)

Finally, there is one example where *a corresponds to /a /. This is

again probably an unrounding process, but it may also be a raising process,

since in the synchronic Kol system, / a / is on the same level as / e / and /o /.

(133) *jaga 'fungus' (14) > jwa 'mushroom' (7)

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 4 .3 L o w V o w e ls

The low vowel *a most frequently corresponds to / a / , in both the V1

and V2 positions, as shown below.

(134) *banje 'rib, side' (11) > mpanj 'side of body' (7)
J. V V
"ganga 'medicine man' (1) > rjkaq 'medicine man' (1)
*gango 'grass' > ka 'grass, leaf (7)
*kanda 'cloth' (3,5,9) > kand 'cloth' (7)
*taa 'bow' (14) > la 'bow' (7)
*bad 'marry' > ba 'marry'
*damb 'cook' > jam b 'prepare food, cook'
*nga 'as, like' > qka 'as, like'

(135) *pada 'forehead' > e-bada 'forehead' (5)

*jat-ab 'answer' > yala 'answer (v)'

The next most common correspondence is when *a corresponds to /o /.

Interestingly, for two of the five cognate pairs shown below, the V2 is /o /.

This V2 has been lost for all five pairs, but before it was deleted, it may have

triggered vowel harmony on the *av Otherwise, this is a raising and

rounding process; one that has raised *a two levels.

(136) *taan5 'five' > ton 'five'

*tato 'three' > 161 'three'
a, v • ^
-caja 'cheek' > kog 'cheek' (5)

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 *jadi 'lightning (9) > njoz 'lightning' (3)

*damok 'early, wake up' > jdm 'wake up'

This raising process probably also have occurred for the following two

example words. The vowel found in the word 'be' varies between / o / and

/a /. The second vowel in 'jaw' is / o / while the first vowel is /a /. However,

the first vowel is before a nasal, which is a common position for / o / and / e /

to be centralized.

(137) *ba 'dwell, be, become' > ba 'be'

*banga 'jaw' (11) > bag go 'jaw' (7)

A similar process may have occurred for the following cognate pairs,

where *a corresponds to /a /, / o / and / a / are in free variation in Makaa, and

could conceivably have been in free variation in Kol at one point. This seems

fairly plausible for the first example, but a big stretch for the second.

(138) *gando 'crocodile' (9) > gkanda 'crocodile' (1)

*kapf 'paddle, oar' (9) > gkaab 'paddle' (9)

There is one example where *a appears to be both fronted and raised

to correspond with / e / . This cannot be a case of vowel harmony since the

second vowel in the word is already identical to the first. However, it may be

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 a case of the following nasal raising the first vowel. Synchronically in Kol,

the vowel / e / is raised to / i / when it precedes a vowel, as was discussed in

the section on synchronic variation above.

(139) *banja 'family' > ben 'extended paternal family'

Finally, there is one example where *a corresponds to / d/ when it is in

the V2position. Since it is the V2, vowel harmony cannot be triggered by a

following vowel, though since the first vowel is high and rounded, this might

be a progressive vowel harmony, similar in everything but direction to the

regressive vowel harmony discussed above.

(140) *kuba 'chicken' > kubo 'chicken' (1)

4 .4 G e n e r a l O b s e rv a tio n s o n V o w e l C o rre s p o n d e n c e s

Looking at the vowel system as a whole, it may be noted that while the

high vowels *i and *u have remained remarkably stable, the rest of the vowel

system has undergone some major shifts.

*i and *u both have as their primary reflex the direct correspondences

/ i / and /u /. *i has no other corresondences, and *u has two minor ones

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 which can probably be ignored. *a has also remained fairly stable, with most

occurrences of *a corresponding to / a / today.

The most common process to have occurred among all the vowels

(except for *i and *u) is a raising process. For the close-mid vowels, *e and

*o, their major correspondence (other than the direct one, which is fairly

numerous for *e but less so for *o) is one where they have been raised one

level, i.e. where *e > i and *o > u. There appears to be a similar process

occurring with *d. One of its primary correspondences is one where *a > o.

However, if / o / and / o / are in free variation, then this process becomes moot.

*a also has two examples where *a > 9 which would be a parallel pattern.

The most numerous correspondence for *d though is one where *d has

been raised two levels to correspond to / u /. This process could have also

occurred for *a and *e, though for both of these latter proto-vowels, an

additional process co-occurs with the raising one.

The open-mid vowel *£ does not really have enough cognate pairs to

be able to determine which correspondence is really the primary one.

However, the one with the most examples at the moment is one where *e >

401

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 o. Of the four examples, three have a back (and round) vowel as the V2,

which might explain how *c was shifted to the back. The height shift (one

level) could be part of an overall shift in the system where vowels were raised

one height (as might have occurred for *e, *o, and *d).

For the low vowel *a, the second-most common reflex is where *a

corresponds to /o /. Again, for three of the five cognate pairs shown, the

second vowel is a round vowel, either / o / or / o / which means that the raising

process could have been combined with a rounding assimilation. (Otherwise,

a global raising process could have resulted in a mid or high central vowel,

both of which do currently exist in the Kol vowel inventory.)

Finally, there is one more significant correspondence which must be

mentioned. *o can also correspond to / e / , / e / and / a / , which is appears to be

an unrounding process since these unrounded variants primarily occur with a

labialized consonant.

5 Grammatical Correspondences

In the sections below, some aspects of Meeussen's grammatical

reconstructions (1967) will be compared with modern day Kol grammatical

402

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 stuctures. Nominal morphosyntax will be discussed first followed by verbal

morphosyntax.

5 .1 N ouns
5.1.1 N o u n C la s s e s a n d A g r e e m e n t

Synchronically, Kol has a reduced noun class set, only having classes 1-

10 from Proto-Bantu. However, within the A. 80 central cluster, Heath and

Beavon have both noticed reflexes from the Proto-Bantu locative classes in

Makaa and Konzime, respectively. Heath (p.c.) has noted that certain locative

nouns have idiosyncratic relative clause concord markers. Beavon (1983)

noted that the Nzime dialect of Konzime has a locative noun kwa which could

include the locative class (class 17) prefix ko-.

1 *mo- mo- mwara woman

m- mur man, person
0 kol sister (to a man)
2 *ba- bo- bw-ara women
bw-ur men, people
bo-kol sisters
3 *mo- 0 mbil hole
4 *me- me- me-mbil holes
5 *i- e-, le- ebura sweet potato
0 ku foot
d- dwob day

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 6 *ma- mo- mo-bura sweet potatoes
mo-ku feet
m- m-ob days
7 *ke- 0 kag child
bumo fruit
8 *bi- be- be-kag children
9 *n- 0 kwad village
10 *n- m-21 m-pumo fruits

T a b le 7 .5 C o r r e sp o n d e n c e s b e t w e e n P r o to -B a n tu a n d K ol n o u n c la s s e s .

With respect to the noun class pairings, the proto-Bantu pairing of

classes 9 and 10 does not occur in Kol. Rather, class 9 nouns take their

plurals in class 6. Class 10 functions as a mass plural for class 7 nouns.

One of the striking aspects of Bantu morphology is the concord system.

Below is a chart comparing the Proto-Bantu subject pronoun and subject

agreement system with the subject pronouns of Kol and Makaa. The Proto-

Bantu data is taken from Meeussen 1965 (agreement system found on p. 97,

pronominal system on p.98).

21 Plus devoicing of the root-initial consonant.

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 Proto-Bantu Kol

Subject Agr Pron Pron

Sing PI Sg Pi Sing PI
1st p. excl. n to i-n-s f-co-c ma bizo
incl. biza
dual incl. news
2nd person o mo o-e l'-jio-e wo be
3rd person o, a ba O-E ba-o, gu-a J« bwo
3 /4 mo me w- mya

5 /6 i ma dwo mwa

7 /8 ke bi i-, jwo byo

9 /1 0 n n Jio bwo

T a b le 7 .6 S u b je c t A g r e e m e n t/P r o n o u n s in PB a n d K ol.

Kol does not require that verbs agree with their subject (as will be in

the following section on verbs).

The central A. 80 languages, including Kol, have innovated three

distinctions in the first person plural: inclusive, exclusive and dual. It

appears that Kol has added a plural marker to the front of the inherited Proto-

Bantu pronoun form. However, this has only occurred in the first person

inclusive and exclusive forms, since the dual form lacks the initial b- and has

405

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 a closer resemblance to the Proto-Bantu form than do the other two forms of

the first person plural.

5 .1 .2 N o u n d e r iv a t io n

In Kol, there are a number of different processes which may be used to

create nouns out of verbs. Some of these seem to correspond to processes

described by Meeussen for Proto-Bantu. For more information on deverbal

nouns, see chapter 3.

In Proto-Bantu, Meeussen theorized that a final -a indicates an action.

In Kol, some nouns are created by adding a vowel, including an -a, to the

verbal stem, as shown below.

(141) numb 'know' numba 'knowledge' (3)

mwsl 'solicit sex' mwela 'boyfriend, girlfriend' (1)
cig ’cut' ciga 'saw' (1)

Other deverbal nouns are formed by adding a final - a and a nasal

prefix.

(142) del 'bury' ndela ’burial' (9)

juul 'be bitter' njuula 'bitter leaf vegetable' (3)

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 Meeussen also reconstructed an agent-creating process formed by

adding an - i to the root. In Kol one reflex of *i is /e /, and some agentive

nouns are formed by adding a -e suffix.

(143) kwig 'travel, walk' kwige 'traveler' (1)

jiwel 'drink' jiwele 'drinker' (1)

Other agentive nouns can be formed by adding the suffix -I or - h , as

shown below. This may be a reflex of the reconstructed *-ede. If this is the

case, some vowels have been lost and *d has become / l / , which is a common

sound correspondence in Kol. A bigger issue is that this suffix is

reconstructed as creating 'a way of doing,' while in Kol it creates an agent.

(144) jiba 'steal' jfbala 'thief (1)

yo 'give' yol 'giver' (1)

It is extremely common for more than one strategy to be used at a time,

as illustrated below, where in (76a), the noun is formed by both adding the

nasal prefix mentioned above and the suffix -I, while in (76b), the nouns are

formed by adding the nasal prefix and the suffix vowel -e.

(145) a. ju 'kill' njul 'butcher (n)' (1)

di 'live, stay' ndil 'dweller' (1)
jii 'cry' njiil 'crier' (1)

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 b. buga 'accuse' mbuge 'accuser' (1)
dub 'paint' ndube 'painter' (1)
dug 'row' nduge 'rower' (1)

jig 'learn' njige 'learner, student' (1)

juna ’fight’ njune 'fighter' (1)

Meeussen also theorized that a final -o to a verbal root indicates an

action, an instrument, or a place. In Kol, some nouns appear to correspond to

this pattern, as demonstrated below.

(146) jiba 'steal' jibo 'theft' (9)

bagala 'load (v)' mbagala 'load' (3)

5 .1 .3 W o rd O rder

Meeussen (1967:117) reconstructs that proto-Bantu noun phrases had

the following phrase structure: Noun (Connective) (Adjective) (Numeral).

Kol agrees with this for the most part, though in Kol, adjectives may precede

the noun as shown by each of the examples below.

(147) beda kwad 'big village'

bwagbwag mo-kwad 'big villages'
ntula be-sa 'a lot of things'
bubu me-njab 'a lot of houses'

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 Indefinite determiners may also precede the noun, but determiners are

not mentioned by Meeussen. Below is the post-nominal word order found in

the Kol noun phrase. (See chapter 4 for more information.)

(148) Noun Genitive Demonstrative Definite Determiner

Another
Quantifier

Meeussen suggests that demonstratives might have differed from the

otherwise regular head-initial structure, with demonstratives preceding as

well as following the noun. This is somewhat true in m odem day Kol since

demonstratives are one of the word classes which can be fronted for focus

(along with possessives). Example (149) shows the default word order with

the demonstratives following the nouns, while (150) shows a focus

construction where the demonstrative (in bold) precedes the noun.

(149) a. daqga 'this fa th e r'(1)

be-kekena be-qga 'these parables' (8)

b. b-ur ba-ne 'those people' (2)

dw-ab e-ne 'that day' (5)

(150) mya bwo nca bwaant maba, ne

ne njum ...
w h en th e y In c p c r e a te 6 - s e x u a l .r e la t i o n s t h a t (S p e c ) h u sb a n d

'When they began an affair, th a t husband...'

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 5 .2 V erbs
5 .2 .1 A greem ent

One of the striking differences between Kol and the Proto-Bantu system

is the lack of subject and object agreement in Kol. The subject pronouns in

Kol are completely in complementary distribution with full nouns. If a full

noun is the subject of a sentence, the verbal sequence starts with a tense

marker; the subject pronoun is not allowed, much less required as it would be

if it were actually a subject agreement marker. In the example shown below,

the subject is a class 5 noun, which is one of the few remaining classes

consistently marked by both a segmental agreem ent marker and concord

markers on all modifiers. We would therefore expect that if Kol required a

subject agreement marker on the verb that it would be noticeable in the

sentence below. (The subject pronoun for class 5 nouns is dwo.)

(151) le-wug a ba le-byol.

5 - h o le P2 be in - 7 -c a n o e

There was a hole in the canoe.

However, having said that, there may be vestiges of subject agreement.

There are two forms for a class 7 subject. One, jwd, is a pronoun which may

appear separate from the tense morpheme. The other, y-, only appears bound

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 with tense morphemes and is generally used as the dummy subject, as shown

below. Class 7 is the generic class for inanimate objects, and it is the only

class that shows these two forms.

'CG

bo na esap
II

y=a ba na e-sap
7SUB-P2 be that 5- illness, disease
'It was an illness th at.....' (7ZZness.08)

m =o bul cel kene kekena ga naba

m =o bulu cel kene kekena qga naba
I-Pres many love tell 7-story this because

jw = o ji kekena nde le ya bur fog = e.

jw = o ji kekena H + nde le ya b-ur fog = e
7SUB-PRES be story RELCL-be Impf give 2-person 9-wisdom-RELCL
'I really want to tell this story because it is a story which gives
people wisdom.’

Objects only appear after a verb, either as a full noun or as a pronoun.

Object markers cannot be prefixed before the verb.

(154) ji = e sa jwo le-ju d-aq.

he-FuT do 7 obj 5-sake 5-my
'He will do it for me.'

5 .2 .2 N e g a t io n

For both Kol and Proto-Bantu, the negative marker is the first element

in the verbal sequence. However, in Proto-Bantu, this means that the

411

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 negative marker precedes the subject agreement. Since Kol does not have

subject agreement, the negative marker comes after the subject pronoun or

full noun.

(155) m = a = deg = e m-ur.

I-neg- see-NEG 1-person
'I didn't see anyone.'

5 .2 .3 T en se

Meeussen (1967:113) gives a list of tense markers for Proto-Bantu as

"illustrative tries" rather than reconstructions.

Tense prefixes Proto-B antu Kol

A
far past a a
✓
recent past a e
y
present da, 0 O
*
future ka e
distant future — e + bwo
conditional nga mba

T a b le 7 .7 T e n se m a r k er s in P r o to -B a n tu a n d K ol

Only one of the Kol tense markers, the far past marker, seems to

correspond to the proto-Bantu marker. However, Kol has a conditional

conjunction, ljge 'if, which may be a reflex of the proto-Bantu preverbal

conditional marker.

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 5 .2 .4 E x t e n s io n s

As was previously mentioned in chapter 4, only relics of the Proto-

Bantu extensions remain in a few Kol verbs. The table below compares

reconstructed extensions with the frozen Kol relics (Meussen 1967:92).

Proto-B antu Kol

Passive -o -owa

Reciprocal -an -51a

Benefactive/Applicative -ed -ea

Causative -i, -ic -5z5

Reversive -od, -ok -ba
?? -ad

T a b le 7 .8 E x te n sio n s in P r o to -B a n tu a n d K ol

(156) Passive

sowa 'do + passive' sa 'do'

kegawa 'plan + passive' keg 'plan'

Reciprocal/Reflexive
yigala 'compare self yig 'compare, claim'

Applicative
dea 'eat from' d5 'eat'

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 Causative

sagazg 'shake' sa or sag9 'do'

wul 'take out' wdl 'get up'

ber 'put, place' bar 'climb in'

Transitive

beebale 'wound (tr.)' bsb 'wound (intr.)'

Reversive
buguba 'prosper' bu 'be scarce’

6 Summary

This study has been an initial attem pt to explore some of the ways that

Kol, a Bantu language from the A. zone in the northwestern com er of the

Bantu language area has changed over time from the Proto-Bantu system it

inherited.

While the Kol system is reduced in many ways from the classical Bantu

systems seen in eastern Africa, it is still clearly a Bantu language, complete

with noun classes and complex preverbal inflectional systems.

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 References

Bastin, Yvonne, Andre Coupez, Evariste Mumba and Thilo Schadeberg. 2003.

Bantu Lexical Reconstructions 3. Tervuren and Leiden.

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Beavon, Keith and Ann Elizabeth Johnson. 1989. Sociolinguistic Survey among

the Mpyemo. SIL Cameroon, unpublished ms.

Beavon, Keith and Mary Beavon. nd. Badwe'e Lexicon. Shoebox database.

---------- - 1995. Lexique koonzime-franqais. Yaounde: SIL.

Beavon, Keith H. nd. The relative clause in Konzime. ms.

Beavon, Keith H. 1983a. A Phonology of Konzime. in Africana Linguistica IX.

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---------- - 1983b. Expressions o f location in Koozime. SIL: Yaounde, Cameroon.

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non-lndoeuropean Languages. Papers in Textlinguistics, 43: 211-255.

Helmut Buske Verlag: Hamburg, Germany

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 1985. Two Relativization Strategies in Kaazime Discourse, in Journal

o f West African Languages. 15: 1. pp.31-56.

—. 1986. Anaphora, Pronouns and Reference in Konzime. in

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---------- - 1991. Kaazime Verbal System. In Anderson, S.C. and B. Comrie

(eds). Tense and aspect in eight languages o f Cameroon Dallas and

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---------- 2005. A Phonology o f Njyem. unpublished ms.

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Dixon, R. M. W. and Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald. Adjective Classes.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-49.

416

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 Etter, Marlene. 1988. Language Assessment Survey among the Byep (Northern

Mekaa). SIL Cameroon, unpublished ms.

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Cameroon.

-......-—. 2005. Rapport d'enquete. ANACLAC: Yaounde, Cameroon.

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Geschiere, Peter. 1982. Village communities and the state: changing relations

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 Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) 2005. Ethnologue: Languages o f the World,

Fifteenth edition. Dallas, TX: SIL International. Online

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Comrie (eds). Tense and aspect in eight languages o f Cameroon. Dallas

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........ . 2003b. Makaa. unpublished ms.

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 International African Institute. 1956. Linguistic Survey o f the Northern Bantu

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................. 1980. Bantu Lexical Reconstructions. (Reprint) Tervuren: Musee

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 Miti, Lazarus. 2001. A Linguistic Analysis o f Cinsengcu A Bantu language

spoken in Zambia and Malawi CASAS Book Series No. 16. Cape Town:

The Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society.

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 Appendices

Texts

1 A Deadly Sickness

told by Pierre Bengomo Mossi (of Bidjombo), transcription help and translation (into

French) by Benoit Meboma Moankoen (ofLeh)

a

(1) mo = 0 nco leg mwaa lar) gga e-SU e-sap

ma = 0 nca + h leg 4-H mwa la i) D ga e-Ju h 4- e-sab
I P res come tell small happening this 5-sake 5-illness

me me me a bo no te.
me me me a bo no te
me me self P2 be with Loc
'I will tell this little story about an illness I had.

VV
m = aa bo le jwak cie mo = nde yaunt.
m=a ba le jw3g tye ma = nde
I-P2 be IMPF feel illness I be (loc) Yaounde
When I was in Yaounde, I got sick.

(3) e-sap d-oogga a ter mo nta le-yog.

e-sab d-aagga a ter ma nta le-yog
5-illness 5-Def P2 start me since 5-cold, weather
This illness started with the cold.

(4) mo le lyes.
ma le fyez
I IMPF neglect
I ignored it.

421

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 (5) e-yar) le qkwo ko.
e-yog le kwo ko
5-cold.weather IMPF again go
It stayed cold.

(6) mwa kwis ma nca nigo bwamba.

mwa kwez me nca ]
nigo bwamba
1-small 7-cough be (chg) come return follow
I got a little cough.

(7) mwa kwis j-aaggs a le ba mwa kwis j-33f)ga

mwa kwez j-aagga a le bo mwa kwez j-ooggo
1-small 7-cough 7-DEF P2 IMPF be 1-small 7-cough 7-Def

kwis Jwiza.
kwez jweza
7-cough (be) dry
It was a little dry cough.

( 8) ma = le kwiz ma = le nump na m = aa ba mpwoge

ma = le kwez ma = le numb na m=a ba mpwoge
I IMPF cough me Im p f know that I-P2 be 1-health

nde y= a ba na e-sap a se rjkwa ter

nde y=a ba na e-sab a se kwo ter
while NonRef-P2 be that 5-illness P2 Perf again start

le-bi mo hama.
le-bi mo fama
iNF-seize me good
I was coughing, thinking that I was healthy, while the illness really took hold.

(9) mya m=a se ka nca nja n-e-njwor) e-sap a

mya H+ m = a se ka nca ja na = le- jwog e-sab a
3-time RelCl-I-P2 Perf Cons come lie. down with-Loc-bed 5-illness P2

422

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 se ka nca lale
se ka nca lal
Perf Cons come (be) strong
When I was lying down in bed, the illness really struck hard.

(10) numa bw = a nco ko na mo cila cila walafira.

numa bwo = a nco ko na mo cila cila walafira
also they-P2 come go with me quickly quickly hospital
Immediately, they took me to the hospital.

(11) bwo ka ka na mo walafira.

bwo ka ko na mo walafira
they Cons go with me hospital
They took me to the hospital.

(12) bwo ko sa bd-zsksamez.

bwo ko sa
they go do 2-test (examens -French)
They did tests.

(13) bwo ko fyala ma-ci na dega ma-bi.

bwo ko fyal mo-ci no deg ma-bi
they go test 6-blood with see 6-feces
They did blood tests and looked at my stool samples.

/\
(14) bwo dega na nde bi-mpanc by-ar) a se ter
bwo deg na nde be-mpanc be-aq a se ter
they see that while 8-side 8-my P2 Perf start

e-jwok cie
le-jwag tye
iNF-feel illness
They noticed that my sides (lungs) were already sick.

423

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 (15) m=e nde ke dulo siga ka ba
m=e nde + H ke + H dulo + H siga ke ba
I-Pl be (loc) Neg smoke cigarette Neg be

ne jiwel ma-jidk.
no jiw e I mo-jiwog
with drink 6-wine
I didn't smoke cigarettes; I didn't drink.

/ • /
docteur m-ur a ka sa ma bo-zeksamez a Ji ma
m-ur a ko sa ma a ji ma
doctor (Fr) 1-person P2 go do me 2-test (French) P2 ask me

•A
na ma = JI jtwel na ma = ji duld tak.
na ma = ji jiwel na ma = ji dulo tag
that I be (att) drink that I be (att) smoke tobacco
The doctor who did the tests asked me if I drank or if I smoked.

ma na "a a".
ma na a a
I that no
I said, "No."

/ •A 1 A
ji =a na a ji nde ntar] si bien na
ji = a na a ji nde ntag na
he-P2 that Ques ask be (loc) like, that like, that (Fr) that

fwara Dga (klije) bw = a wul walafira

fwara r)ga klife bwo = a wul walafira
photo this x-ray they-P2 take hospital

a deg na bi-mpaanc by-arj, by = a se ba ntam a ?

a deg na be-mpanc be-ap be = a se ba ntama
P2 see that 8-side 8-my 8-P2 Perf little rot
He asked why then the x-ray that they took at the hospital showed
that my lungs were already a bit damaged.

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 (19) num s bw = a ncs ko dil ms centre 3 amo komb
numa bwo = a nca ko dil ma komb
also they-P2 come go dwell me center Jamot side

m=a ko le s-owa me-mir = e.

H+ m=a ko le sa-owa me-mid - e
RelCl-I-P2 go Im p f do-PASS 4-medicine-RELCL
They took me to the Jam ot Center to get treated.

(20) sa j-OSl]g9 a le sa ms ls-qkwunt mya ms ms

sa j-ooqgo a le sa ma le- qkwunt mya h + ma ma
7-thing 7-Def P2 Impf do me 5-fear 3-time RELCL-me

me m = a le bo ms mbuk n-e-njwoq walafirs ns mu

me m= a le bo ma mbug no-le-njwoq walafira na mu
self I-P2 Impf be I lie with Loc-bed hospital with reason

ns wu a bo m-ur ke ko cik
na wu a bo m-ur ke ko cig
that there P2 be 1-person Neg go cross

m-ur ke ko dek wo.

m-ur ke ko deg wo
1-person Neg go see you
This situation scared me because while I was lying there in the hospital,
no one could come visit me.

(21) wo le ja nji wo wo me nji be na bs-dwabsra.

wo le ja nji wo wo me nji be no bo-dwabara
you Im p f sleep only you you self only you with 2-nurse
You sleep all alone, with only the nurses.

(22) si bien m=a bs funds ba mM ms-mya.

m=a ba funda ba mi-ulaga me-mya
I-P2 be flee little 4-another 4-time
I was quite afraid.

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 / V Atl
(23) "est- ce que ma ji no rjkul yo woga ?
ma ji no gkul yo wog
I be with force die here
Will I die here?

(24) bwur ba njap bwo nde ke nump.

bo-ur bo njab bwo nde ke numb
2-man 2-Assoc 3-house they be (loc) Neg know
My family won't know.

(25) m=a nji nta m=a bo no bugo na twe

m =a nji nta m=a bo no bugo na twe
I-P2 only since I-P2 be with faith that even, if

A • A1
n-e-sap a se jak no rjkul nciimba
ns-e-sap a se jag no rjkul nciimbe
that-5-illness P2 Perf (be) serious with force God

J13 J19 me e nigo sa ma mpwoga.

J13 J13 me e nigo + h sa + H ma mpwoga.
him him self Fut return do me (be) healthy
I had faith that even if the illness had already gotten bad, God himself
will heal me.

(26) jwa bo m=a banda bo jfzaba me-mir = e.

jW 3 bo m = a banda bo jiz a b a me-mid = e
7Sub be I-P 2 really be endure 4-medicine-RELCL
That's why I put up with the treatment.

(27) bw = a le sa ma.
bwo —a le sa ma
they-P2 IMPF do me
They treated me.

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 (28) ms ndak banda nco ba mpwoge.
ms ndag banda nco ba mpwoge.
I ? really come be (be) healthy
I regained my health.

(29) si bien na m=a nigo P nciimbe akfba na bubu.

na m = a n ig o jo n c im b e a k fb a na bubu
th a t I-P2 a g a in g iv e G od th a n k w it h m any

So I really give thanks to God.

na mu na contre-examens bw = a ks ss na
no mu na bw o = a ko sa na
w ith r e a so n th a t r e -te sts th e y -P 2 go do w ith

ma-q gwagala m=a le sa, bw = a ka dek na

m e -p g w a g a la m = a le sa bw o = a ko deg na
4 -p r a y e r s I-P2 IMPF do th e y -P 2 go see th a t

bi-mpaanc by-aqa se no kwo bo fuban na jtwaq

b e -m p a n c b e -a g se kw o bo fu b a n na jiw a p
8 -s id e 8 -m y Perf a g a in be c le a n and good

After they retested me, and all my prayers, they found that my
lungs were healthy and clean.

(31) e-kal e-sap ke na kwa nigo Ilk.

e -k a l H+ e -s a p ke no kw o n ig o lig o
5 -s p o t 5 - illn e s s Neg w ith a g a in a g a in s ta y

No trace of the illness remained.

(32) done bizo ka bul le funda le-Jwi

b iz o ke b u lu le fu n d a e-J w i
th u s we Neg m any IMPF fe a r 5 -d e a th

mya w=o nde n-e-jwdq le-sap = e.

mya h+ w= o nde + H nd-le-jwoi] H+ le-sap = e
3-time RELCL-you-PRES be (loc) with-Loc-bed 5-illness-RELCL
Thus we shouldn't have so much fear of death when we're lying on a
sickbed.'
427

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 2 A Funeral at Bidjombo

told by Pierre Bengomo Mossi (of Bidjombo), transcription help and translation (into

French) by Benoit Meboma Moankoen (ofLeh)

(1 ) no kugu bizo bo m paant ne, e-Jwi mo J io g

no k iig u b iz a bo ne e-Jw i ma jia g g a
w it h 3 - e v e n in g we be M pand th a t 5 -d e a th P oss 1 -m o th e r

mo bokwaala.
ma b o k w a a la
P oss B o k w a a la

‘Yesterday, we were at the funeral for Bokwaala’s mother at Mpand.

(2 ) e-Jwi d-55qgo ji no y=a bo no bwo sa

e -J w i d -a a g g a ji na y= a bo na bw o sa
5 -d e a th 5 -D ef b e (a tt) th a t NonRef-P2 be th a t th e y do

ndela nta ji =a yo kugu a be.

n d e la n ta ji = a yo kugu a be
9 -b u r ia l s in c e s h e -P 2 d ie 3 - e v e n in g Qual secon d

They needed to bury her because she died the day before yesterday.

(3) sa bo mpwoge no mu no mug ance ntamo.

sa bo mpwoge no mu na muqa ance ntama
7-thing be 1-health with reason that 3-corpse NegP2 rot
It was a good thing because the body was not decomposed (yet).

(4) bizo ka numo sa mijwan mpwoge.

biza ka numa sa mijwan mpwoge
we Cons also do 7-church 1-health
We also had a good service.

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 njii sa bul ka nco wa biza mo-kwabala bo
nji sa bulu ka nco wa biza mo-kwabala bo
only 7-thing many C ons come give us 6-difficulty be

loba kambaga na mu bw-ara bwo na ca rjga

lob kambaga no mu bo-ara bwo no ca rjga
3-problem fun’l.dance with reason 2-woman they with with this

bwo tuga bwo mya mijwan nde sye bwo

bwo tug bwo mya + h mijwan nde sye bwo
they be(neg) they 3-time RELCL-7-church be (loc) 7-work they

ha ba bir na m ijwan sye —g bwo luga la-wala

fa ba bir na mijwan sye - g bwo luga e-wala
HORT little leave that 7-church work-SUBJ they respect 5-hour

ma nciimbe.
ma nciimbe
5Poss God
The only thing that caused problems was the kambaga [traditional funeral
dance],, because the women were doing it during the service and not
setting it aside to respect God’s time.

(6) njii kambaga nji ko na njcc sa j=o rjgs

nji kambaga nji ko no njcc sa j=o go
only fun’l.dance only go with 9-arrival 7-thing 7Sub-Pres Prog

bulu ntega no kugu.

bulu ntcg no kugu
many annoy with 3-evening
The kambaga kept going on and really annoyed us.

(7) biza se ka numa lap no bwo ne bwo ha

biza se ka numa lab no bwa ne bwo ha
we P er f Co n s also speak with them that they H ort

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 nabo mya y-es mijwan nde sye le-Jw! bwo ha
nabs mya y-ez mijwan nde sye e-Jwi bwo ha
because 3-time 3-each 7-church be(loc) work 5-death they H o rt

bir loJJa kambaga mya mijwan ma si

bir lob kambaga mya h + mijwan me se
leave 3-problem fun’l.dance 3-time RELCL-7-church be(chg) Perf

sye na mu na nciimba jia jia ma bo nde...

sye no mu na nciimbe jia jia me bo nde
work with reason that God him him self be be (loc)

le g na m-ur yo = k gge ndaga na m-ur cige.

leg na m-ud yo = g + H gge ndag na m-ud ciga
say that 1-person die-SUBj if ? that 1-person live
We told them that from now on, during the funeral service, they have
to stop the kambaga, because it is God himself who says when man
lives or dies.

*
done e-wala le mijwan e mo-Jwi biza jl
done e -w a la le m ijw a n m o -J w i biza ji
th u s 5 -h o u r 5ASSOC 7 -c h u r c h a n d (F r) 6 -d e a th we w ant

jalana bulu ne kandaba dw-ob

jalana bulu ne kandaba dw-ob
must many that respect 5-day
We should really respect the church time.

ka ko je numa na e-Jwi la twamba mw-ara

ka ko je num a na e-J w i le tw a m b a m w -a r a
Co ns go a r r iv e a ls o th a t 5 -d e a th 5 Assoc 1-e ld e r 1-w o m a n

tuga nag ka bulu ba na ma-ce le-lama

tu g + H nag +H ka +H b u lu + H bo +H no m a -ty e le -la m
b e (n e g ) s till Co n s m any be w ith 6 -p a in 5 -h e a r t

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 na mu na ji = a se sa sye.
no mu no Ji = a se sa sye
with reason that she-P2 Perf do 7-work
Arriving at the death of an old mother doesn’t give much heart pain
because she had done the work that she should do.

(10) a bo na jia = sa = ga ji = a se bya bw-an.

a bo na jia = sa = g + h ji = a se bya bo-an
P2 be that she do-SUBj she-P2 Perf bear (child) 2-child
She had already had children.

(11) bw-an me numa na b-ob bw-an.

bo-an me numa no b-ob bo-an
2-child be (chg) also with 2-their 2-child
Her children had also had their children.

(12) ji = a ligo ba-nta e-wum.

ji = a ligo be-nta e-wum
she-P2 stay, leave 8-grandchild 5-ten
She left ten grandchildren.

(13) te y= a se bo bera sa.

te y=a se bo beda sa
Loc NonRef-P2 Perf be big 7-thing
That was a big thing.

(14) e-Jwi d-aaqga ya numa biza foga ne.

e-Jwi d-5ar)ga yo numa biza fog ne
5-death 5-Def give also us 9-wisdom that
This death also gives us wisdom.

(15) mya biz = 6 nde di, biza nde = gee simaza na

mya H+ biz = o nde + H di + H biza nde = g + H simaza na
3-time RELCL-We-PRES be (loc) stay we be (Ioc)-Subj think that

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 biza nde = ge sa la-jiwap.
biza nde = g + H sa le-jiwag
we be (Ioc)-Subj do 5-good
While we’re living, we should think about doing good.

na mu na mw-ara ya no kuge, mya

no mu na mo-ara yo no kugu mya+H
with reason that 1-woman die with 3-evening 3-time-RELCL

e-saj3a ji = a ba na te e-sap la ncam tuga

e-sab ji = a ba no te e-sab le ncam tug
5-illness she-P2 be with LOC 5-illness 5Assoc 9-leprosy be(neg)

ham e-sap.
fam e-sab
real, good 5-illness

Because the woman who died yesterday, she had leprosy which is not
a good disease.

la ba akika bw == a le wul bw-ur

>»
II

y=a le bo akfka bwo = a le wul bo-ud

NonRef-P2 Impf be colonial, times they-P2 Impf take, out 2-person

e bw-ur ko nigo dila bwa j-dba bur) boq a

bo-ud ko nigo dil bwo j-ob bug bog a
and(Fr) 2-person go return dwell them 7-their 7-place there P2

ko mopgoma komb m-il me-ncicam a bee

ko komb me-ulaga me-ncicam a
go Mongoma s id e 4-Indef 4-leper P2

In colonial times, they took them away and isolated them in a

leprosarium [at Mongoma] where there were other lepers.

(18) me ji = a bo ncicam ji = a se sa na njap bw-ur

ji = a bo ncicam ji = a se sa na njab h + b o -u d

but(Fr) she-P2 be 3-leper she-P2 P erf do that 3-house 2 -p e r so n

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 y-e to fuk na bubu na mu na ji = a ko
y-e W9 fug no bubu no mu no ji = a ko
3-her 3Sub be.numerous with many with reason that she-P2 go

sag miyog ma njum mw-ara tie lomie.

sag rm'yDi] ma njum mw-ara tie lomie
look.for 1-sibling lPoss 1-husband 1-woman 7-position Lomie
Even though she was a leper, she worked so that her family would be
numerous because she looked for a wife from Lomie for her husband’s
brother.

(19) e mw-ara w-aagga

w-55gga ji = a se nca bya numa bubu
mw-ara woorjga ji = a se nca bya numa bubu
1-woman 1-Def she-P2 Perf come bear also many

njap bw-ur.
njab H+ bo-ud
3-house 2-person
That woman came and she also had a big family.

(20) njap bw-ur w-aagga jl = a se sa bera sye.

njab H +bo-ud w-55i]ga ji = a se sa beda sye
3-house 2-person 1-Def she-P2 Perf do big 7-work
For this family, she did a big work.

nta w-aaqga nde jalan = e mya biza ka le

nta w-aoqga H+ nde jalana = e mya H+ biza ka le
since 1-Def RELCL-be(loc) must- RelCl 3-time RELCL-we Cons Impf

di le-si bizo ka dek na two na biza nji jwok

di le-si biza ko deg na two na biza nji jwog
stay iNF-finish we go see that even that we only feel

ce two na biza ji mpwoge bizo ka' sa njap

ce two na biza ji mpwoge biza ke sa njab
illness even that we be 1-health we N eg do 3-house

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 bw-ur le-mbap.
h + bo-ud le-mbap
2-person 5-bad.thing
Like that, while we are here finishing [life], we see that even if w e’re
sick, even if we’re healthy, we shouldn’t do bad things to the family.

(22) na mu na le-jiwaq wo nde sa njap

no mu na le-jiwap H+ wo nde sa njab
with reason that 5-good, thing RELCL-you (be) loc do 3-house

bw-ur = e nciimbe yo waa myana, e-su

H+ bo-ud = e nciimbe yo wo myana e-Ju
2-person-RELCL God give you (sg) compensation 5-sake

le-jiwaq wo nde sa njap bw-ur.

le-jiwaij wo nde sa njab H +bo-ud

5-good.thing you (sg) be (loc) do 3-house 2-person

Because God will reward you for the good that you do to your
family.

(23) e-Jwi d-DDi)ga bul sa biza hama be-twoqgala no

e-jwi d-aoijga bulu sa biza fam be-twoqgala no kugu
5-death 5-DEF many do we good 8-thought with 3-evening

mbii m-ur nde jalana ciga e-njap bw-ur.

mbi H+ m-ud nde jalana ciga le-njab h + bo-ud
3-sort RelCl-1-person be (loc) must live Loc-3-house 2-person
This death has given us good thoughts on how people ought to live
in families.

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 3 Bidjombo

told by Pierre Bengomo Mossi (of Bidjombo), transcription help and translation (into

French) by Benoit Meboma Moankoen (ofLeh)

(1) mwa 15r)-ga ji 15q kwar bijump,

mwa loq-qga ji 15i] kwad
1-small 5-speech-here be (att) 5-speech 9-village Bidjombo
This little story is the story of Bidjombo village.

(2) kwar bijump a ba bera kwar bwur a ba

kwad a bo beda kwad H+ bo-ud a bo
9-village Bidjombo P2 be big 9-village RELCL-2-person P2 be

e cel no bubu.
cela no bubu
and (Fr) love with many
Bidjombo village was a big village that people loved a lot.

(3) y=a ba numa kwar bw-ur a bulu bu no

y=a bo numa kwad H+ bo-ud a bulu bu no
NonRef-P2 be also 9-village RELCL-2-person P2 many many with

*
mu me-njap me bw-ur me kwar ga cela a
mu me-njab me bo-ud me kwad t)ga cela a
reason 4-house 4Assoc 2-person 4Assoc 9-village this love P2

bula bo fagala bwo bwo me.

bulu bo fagala bwo bwo me
many be between they they self
It was also a village with a lot of people because the families of the
village loved each other a lot.

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 (4) mya bijump bizo a le ba be-kakag = e
mya h +bijumb bizo a le bo be-kakag = e
3-time RELCL-Bidjombo we (excl) P2 Impf be 8-small.child-RELCL

biz = a le dek woga md-ntwama na ma-ses a le

biza = a le deg wog mo-ntwama no me-ses a le
we-P2 Impf see here 6-boy with 4-girl P2 Impf

WU be-bog be-sis na bwo nca le di woga

wu be-bog be-sis na bwo nco le di wog
leave 8-place 8-another that they come Impf stay here

na mu na cela bi-sa a ba ne jiwaqa

no mu na cela be-sa a bo ne Jiwag
with reason that love 7-thing P2 be that 5-good, thing

by = a le sye bijump.
by = a le sye bijumb
8-P2 IMPF work Bidjombo
When we of Bidjombo were children, we saw boys and girls leaving other
places and coming here because love and other good things were at
Bidjombo.

doqk bijumba w-aaqga ji = e si ba bizo kwar

bijumb w-aagga p=e Sl + H bo + H bizo kwad
thus (Fr) Bidjombo 1-Def lSUB-Pl finish be us 9-village

nde nciimb a yo be-bwara ne na

nde nciimbe a yo be-bwara ne na
be (loc) God P2 give 8-blessing that that

jia ko Jwuga.
jio ko Jwog
IS ub go front
Thus, Bidjombo became a village that God blessed and that prospered.

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 (6) dorjk bw-an bo bijump ji bera bw-ur na ca
bo-an bo ji beda bo-iid no ca
thus 2-child 2ASSOC Bidjombo be(att) big 2-person with now

qga n-e-ma-ynga.
gga ne-le-me-yiiga
this with-Loc-4-govemment
Thus the children of Bidjombo are now im portant people in the
government.

(7) doqk bizo bw-ur ma ka lig = e bizo ji

bizo bo-ud h + me ka ligo = e bizo ji
thus we (excl) 2-person RELCL-be (chg) CONS stay-RELCL we (excl) be (att)

jalana bela numa bi-sa le sye le-ma-lu mpiz = e.

jalana bela numa be-sa H+ le sye le-mo-lu mpizo = e
must imitate also 8-thing RelCl-Impf work Loc-6-era back-RELCL
Therefore, those of us who remain, we must imitate what happened
in older times.

(8) na biza bagala kwar ji-iz ne

na biza bagala kwad ji-iz ne
that we keep 9-village 9-our that
So that we can keep our village.

(9) na kwar ji-ize dege ko sa bo ji ndi

na kwad ji-iz deg ko sa bo ji nde
that 9-village 9-our see go 7-thing be be (att) be (loc)

fugana jugu.
jwogana Jwog
go. forward front
So that our village keeps heading forward.

(10) bizo ke nigo nca jiwar) tie a ma mpiza.

biza ke nigo nco jiwai] tie a me mpizo
we N eg return come take 7 -position P2 be (chg) back
We should not take last place.
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 4 How Families Used to Be

told by Mathieu Zoula (of Bidjombo), transcription help and translation (into French)

by Benoit Meboma Moankoen (of Leh)

(1) e akoka njap bw-ut w=a lo bo kwombela

e aktka njab + H bo-ud w=a le bo kwombela
and (Fr) colonial 3-house 2-person 3Sub-P2 Impf be organize

mb-mbi mi-r)ga no bwo no bbtwamba WO bw-ur

me-mbi me-qga no bwo no bo-twamba bo bo-ud
4-sort 4-this that they with 2-elder 2Assoc 2-person

me-cigo me-cigo.
me-cigo me-cigo
4-division 4-division
In the time of the ancestors, the family was organized like that, in that
there were the elders and people in divisions.

(2) no
no w-55q
w-55q m-ur
m-ur nde
nde e-lap me-loj3-e.
no woogga m-ud nde le-lab me-lob
with 1-Def 1-person be (loc) iNF-speak 4-problem
And someone dealt with problems.

(3) no w-ooq m-ur nde e-k*e e-me-lombole.

no woDqgo m-ud nde le-ko le-me-lombale
with 1-Def 1-person be (loc) iNF-gO Loc-4-errand
And someone ran errands.

(4) no w-55rj m-ur nde e-bagolo e-kunji.

no w-55r)ga m-ud nde le-bagala le-kwonji
with 1-Def 1-person be (loc) iNF-keep, watch Loc-cashbox
And someone was treasurer.

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 (5) na m-ur y-es ji dena J-e tie
no m-ud y-ez ji dena j-e tie
with 1-person 1-each
± -e a c u be
u>c (att) like 7-his 7-position
Each person had their job.

(6) jia = nde sye e-njap bw-ur, ba-kakak no

jia= nde sye le-njab H +bo-ud be-kakak no
he be (loc) work Loc-3-house 2-person 8-small.child with

j-oba tie
j-ob tie
7-their 7-position
He works in the family, the children with their jobs [too].

(7) e m-ur y-es bagalo rjkwor) ji-e.

m-ud y-ez bagala rjkwoj) ji-e
and (Fr) 1-person 1-each keep, watch 9-responsibility 9-his
The small children had theirs, and each person looked after their own
responsibility.
'O

(8) m-ur y-es njwur) e-njaba bw-ut.

II

m-ud y-ez njwug bo = g + H le-njab h + bo-ud

1-person 1-each respect be-SuBj Loc-3-house 2-person
Each person has [should have] respect for the family.

(9) njap bw-ur w=o JI buguba bo mya

njab H+ bo-udI w=o ji buguba bo mya
3-house 2-person 3Sub-Pres be (att) prosper be 3-time

njwur) nde te.

njwui] nde te
respect be (loc) LOC

The family prospers when there is respect.

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 (10) njwur) ba nde sa na mo-buguba nca = k.
njwui) bo nde sa na mo-buguba nca = g
respect be be (loc) do that 6-prosperity come-SuBj
Respect does in such a way that prosperity comes.

(11) njwug ba nde ccl = e.

ndjwug H + bo nde cel = e
respect RELCL-be be (loc) love-RELCL
Respect is love.

(12) cel ji e-Juk e ma-buguba.

cel ji e-jug e mo-buguba
love be (att) 5-stalk 5ASSOC 6-prosperity
Love is the root [stalk] of prosperity.

(13) biza nji nump na mya ciimb a kwambalo

biza nji numb na mya + h nciimbe a kwambala
we (incl) only know that 3-time-RELCL God P2 create

njap bw-ur, y=a ko numa w=o ccla-la = k.

njab h + bo-ud y=a ko numa w=o cela-la = g
3-house 2-person NonRef-P2 go also 3Sub-Pres love-REFL?-SUBJ
We know that when God created the family, it was for them to love.

(14) me-njap ma bw-ur a ba le akaka

me-njab me bo-ud a bo le akfka
4-house POSS 2-person P2 be Impf colonial.times

na luga luga luga.

na luga luga luga
that prosper prosper prosper
The families during the time of the ancestors prospered.

(15) naba je?

naba je
because what
Why?

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 (16) naba na njwug ji te.
naba na njwui] ji te
because that respect be (att) Loc
Because there is respect.

(17) mya be be-kekak nde gga jwabo = ga

mya h+ be be-kakag nde rjga jwaba = ga
3-time RELCL-you (pi) 8-small.child be (loc) this respect-SuBj(pl)

ba-saqga na ba-jiaqga, jwabo = ga ba-twamba b-m,

bo-sarjgo no bo-jiogga jwabo = ga bd-twamba b-en
2-father with 2-mother respect-SuBj(pl) 2-elder 2-your (pi)

jwabo = ga bomiyaq b-in, miya w-55r)ga

jwab5 = ga bo-miy5r) b-en mya w-aarjga
respect-SuBJ(pl) 2-sibling 2-your (pi) 3-time 3-Def

o njap bw-ur nde kwege mpwoge.

o njab h +bo-ud nde kweg mpwoge.
Pres 3-house 2-person be (loc) work 1-health
When you the children who are there respect your fathers and your
mothers, respect your elders, respect your brothers, it is in that time
that the family works well.

(18) me-njap ma bw-ur a bo mya be o byel qga,

me-njab me bo-ud a bo mya be o byel qga
4-house Poss 2-person P2 be 3-time you (pi) Pres be.bom this

sa a ba na pwar) pwar), e biza me

sa a bo no jiwag jiwarj e biza me
7-thing P2 be with 9-good.thing 9-good.thing and(Fr) we be(chg)

nde nca ntam a me-njap ma bw-ur na ca no

nde nco ntama me-njab me bo-ud no ca no
be (loc) come rot 4-house Poss 2-person with now with

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 naba njwug ki nag bo.
naba njwug ke nag bo
because respect Neg still be
The families, when you were bom , w hat was already good will ruin the
families because there is no respect.

(19) biza ji jalana wa njwug e-me-njap ma bw-ur ki

b iz a ji j a la n a wa n jw u g le -m e -n ja b me b o -u d ke

w e (in c l) b e (a tt) m u st g iv e resp ect L o c -4 -h o u s e P oss 2 -p e r s o n Neg

bo gka be nde nji ncom ncom ncom.

bo gka be nde nji ncom ncom ncom
be like you (pi) be (loc) only disorder disorder disorder
We must put respect in the family, not like you are always in disorder.

(20) e-jwoga = ga edia mwa ntomba numa me twoggalo.

e-jwog = ga + H le-diya mwa ntomb numa me twoggala
iNF-hear-SuBj(pl) Loc-place 1-small younger also be(chg) thought
Listen also to the younger ones when they have thoughts.

(21) m=o bwuna gka njap bw-ur a le bo te.

m= o bwuna gka njab H + bo-ud a le bo te
I-Pres believe like 3-house 2-person P2 Impf be Loc
I believe that it was like that that the family was organized.

(21) njap bw-ur ji be-tie be-tie.

njab H+bo-ud ji be-tie be-tie
3-house 2-person be (att) 8-position 8-position
The family has its positions.

(22) m-ur y-CS na J>e gkwag ki ka luga

m-ud y-ez no P-e qkwog ke ko luqa
1-person 1-each with 9-his 9-responsibility Neg go discuss

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 gkwDg ma ji-ulaga m-ut.
gkwog ma ji-ulaga m-ud
9-responsibility Poss 1-person 1-person
Each person has his responsibility, and he shouldn’t discuss the
responsibility of someone else.

(23) b = a = jwag = e?
be = a=jw ag = e
you (pl)-NEG-hear-NEG
Do you understand?

(24) m=e tie ne je?

m=e tie no je
I-Pl 7-position? with what
What did I say?

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 5 A History of Bidjombo

told by Mathieu Zoula (of Bidjombo), transcription help and translation (into French)

by Benoit Meboma Moankoen (ofLeh)

bijump be yo dek r)ga, bijump a bo

bijumb be o deg Dga bijumb a bo
Bidjombo you (pi) Pres see this Bidjombo P2 be

beda kwat ter mya mo nam mbu.

beda kwad ter mya mo mbu
big 9-village start 3-time 3ASSOC 7-nation 3-season
The Bidjombo that you see here was a big [and important] village since
the time of Nam Mbu.

(2) namb = a ter bo kukuma nco je mya mo

nam m bu = a ter bo kukum a nca je m ya mo
N a m M b u -P 2 first be 3 - c h ie f com e a rr iv e 3 -t im e 3A sso c

bokwaant.

B okw aand

Nam was the first chief until the time of Bokwaand.

(3) b-ud be nde dek mpanda ne m-ur

b-ud h+ be nde deg ne m-ud
1-person RELCi-you(pl) be (loc) see Mpand that 1-person

y-ss a di woga bijump,

y -e z a di w ok b iju m p
1 -e a c h P2 sta y h ere B id jo m b o

The people that you see at Mpand used to live here at Bidjombo.

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 (4) kukuma a ma Jwok a ba nam mbu.
kukuma a bo nam mbu
3-chief first P2 be 7-nation 3-season
The first chief was Nam Mbu.

(5) mpiza ma nam mbu bokwaant elias.

mpizo ma nam mbu
back POSS 7-nation 3-season
After Nam Mbu was Bokwaand Elias.

(6 ) bejumbo e ter kwola nget, ko je njwende,

ter ko je
Bidjombo PI start go arrive

kwar na na byot.
kwar na no byod
9-village by with fullness
Bidjombo started at Kola Nget (the hill of naughtiness) and went to
Njwende (the swamp), and throughout the village was packed [with
people].

(7) w=o degee na tit sa na jee!

w=o deg + H na tid sa no jee
you (sg)-PRES see that 1-animal do with 9-arrival
You saw lots of animals!

(8) ji-ulaga tit a bo wok be tug le

ji-ulaga tid a bo wog be tug le
1-lNDEF 1-animal P2 be here you (pi) be(neg) Impf

V
numb Jie ndwapk, e kwiga wok
ntimb Jie ndwapg e kwig wog
know him(emph) giraffe PI walk here

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 ton no ton gka be-toob.
ton no ton nka be-toob
outside with outside as 8-goat, sheep
An animal was here that you don’t know, the giraffe who walked
around outside like goats and sheep do today.

(9) ma-lii mpizo be-toob ance le di gka

mo-lu mpizo be-toob ance le di gka
6-era back 8-goat, sheep NegP2 Im p f stay as

by = 6 nde kwek by ig gale me

be = 6 nde kweg bytggole me
8Sub-Pres be (loc) walk all.over that
In the old days, the sheep didn’t do as they do now, walking all over
the place.

(1 0 ) by = a le di nji le-mo-kok, e-fundo {36-gkwip.

be = a le di nji le-mo-kog e-fundo bo-gkwep
8Sub-P2 Im p f stay only Loc-6-pen iNF-flee 2-leopard
They only stayed in the pens, out of fear of leopards.

(1 1 ) be-bog be kekak na ca nc = e
be-bog H+ be no ca nco = e
8-place RELCL-you (pi) 7-small.child with now come-RELCL

be tuga... numba sa j-aogga.

be tug numb sa j-55gg5
you (pi) be (neg) know 7-thing 7-Def
You the children of today, you don’t know about that.

(1 2 ) sa ba e-si gga gkwijt.

sa bo le-si gga gkweji
7-thing be Loc-earth this 1-leopard
That was something, the leopard!

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 (13) gka be tuge sa vuk be nde sa me.
nka be tug sa vug be nde sa me
as you (pi) be (neg) do jokes you (pi) be (loc) do this
You didn’t mess around the way you do now.

(14) bejumba ji kware nde no jiwag d-ino.

ji kware nde no jiwag d-ino
Bidjombo be (att) 9-village be (loc) with good 5-name
Bidjombo is a village with a good name.

0*
cr
bw-ur ba mpand nca bo boagga ko di

II
S
bo-ud bo bwo = a nco bo boagga ko di
2-person be Mpand they-P2 come be 2-Def go stay

mpand naba na mpand ba moggwaal ma neat

naba na bo ma
Mpand because that Mpand be Mongwaal Poss Ncet

/ ./
a ter di.
a ter di
P2 start stay
The people of Mpand are separated because it was at Mpand that
Mongwaal, son of Ncet, first lived.

(16) nju b-ud a juga, a wul bakol le-ma-lwa

n jw i+ H b-ud a Juga a wul bo-kol le-mo-lwa
3-chief 2-person P2 discuss P2 take.out 2-Kol Loc-6-slavery

make, jia ba bo moggwaal ma nest,

make jia bo moggwaal mo
Makaa he/she ? be Poss
The chief who discussed [fought] and liberated the Kol from the slavery
of the Makaa was Mongwaal, son of Ncet.

(18) mya moggwaal ma nca y = e, mya w-55ggo ba

mya H+ moggwaal me nco yo = e mya w-aagga bo
3-time RELCL-Mongwaal be(chg) come die-RELCL 3-time 3-Def be

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 mw-an y-e laqga jio nco jiwag diya.
mw-an y-e jio nco jiwag dia
1-child 1-his Langa he come take seat
When Mongwaal died, at that time, his son Langa took the position.

(19) e lagga ji = a di le-diya nji rjgumba mbu.

ji =a di le-dia nji qgumba mbit
and (Fr) Langa he-P2 stay Loc-seat only entire year
Langa was only chief for a year.

(2 0 ) ba ljgwomana nco ba na me-lo^a na ji = a yo

ba pgwomana nco bo no me-lob na Ji = a yo
with governor come be with 4-problem that he-P2 give

ljgwomana mw-ara nde na le-sap, nca kinda

ggwomana mw-ara nde no le-sab nco kend
1-governor 1-woman be (loc) with 5-illness come send

jio le-md-mbuk lumo.

jia le-mo-mbug
him Loc-6-prison Lomie
He had problems with the colonial administrator because he gave the
administrator a woman who had an illness, so the administrator
threw him in to prison at Lomie.

(2 1 ) wu lumo bo Jio ko y = e.
WU H+ bo ko yo = e
there RELCL-Lomie be he go die-RELCL
It was there at Lomie that he died.

(2 2 ) mya ne bo bwo nco Jiwai] mpwam ma kak

mya ne bo + H bwo nco jiwar) ma
3-time- this be-RELCL they come take Poss

nju b-ud.
n jw i + H bo-ud
1-chief 2-person
In that time, they took Mpwam, son of Kak, to be chief.
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 (23) nju b-ud a ba-kolo e wu ye?
n jw i + H b o -u d a bo-kol e wu + h ye
1 -c h ie f 2 -p e r so n P2 2-Kol PI c o m e .f r o m w h ere

Where did the Kol chief come from?

(24) e WU wok bejump.

e wu wog
PI come.from h ere Bidjombo
Here from Bidjombo.

(25) doqk bejumba ji biza bwubwag ligo biza

ji biza bwag ligo H+ biza
thus (Fr) Bidjombo be(att) us(incl) big inheritance RELCL-we(incl)

nde jalana kandaba na biza bagal = e.

nde jalana kandaba no biza bagala = e
be (loc) must respect with w e (incl) keep-RELCL
Thus, Bidjombo is an im portant heritage for us that we should
respect and take care of.

naba je?
naba je
because arrive
Why?

(27) bejumba ba nde le-juga na kol.

bo nde le-jug no kol
Bidjombo be be (loc) 5-stalk with Kol
Bidjombo is the root of the Kol language.

(28) e biza b-iir ba bejumba nde jalana lab kol.

biza bo-ud bo nde jalana lab kol
and we (incl) 2-person be Bidjombo be (loc) must speak Kol
And we the people of Bidjombo, we should speak Kol.

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 (29) hama kol a kolo.
fam kol a kol
true, good Kol Qual Kol
The real Kol of the Kol.

(30) be ba jwoge?
be bo jwog
you (pi) be hear
Do you understand?

(31) wok bejump ba ne.

wog bo ne
here Bidjombo be this
It’s here at Bidjombo.

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 6 An Invitation

told, by Pierre Bengomo Mossi (of Bidjombo), transcription help and translation (into

French) by Benoit Meboma Moankoen (ofLeh)

(1) bo-ntw5ma bo bejump bwa ji no ca qga ne

bo-ntwoma bo bwo ji no ca qga na
2-young be Bidjombo they be (att) with now this that

bw = e nco sa bera e-mo-wara mo-qga.

bwo = e nco + H sa + H beda le-mo-wada mo-qga
they-FuT come do big Loc-6-vacation 6-this
The young people of Bidjombo here now, they will do a big thing
during this vacation.

(2 ) bw = e nco sa bera jam pionan e-su e Po-bumo.

bwo = e nco + H sa + H beda champiormat le-ju le bo-bumo
they-FuT come do big championship 5-sake 5Assoc 2-ball
They will have a sports championship.

(3) biz = o ji no ’3ik' W-UZ9.

biza = o ji + H no gic w-ez
we-PRES be (att) with GIC 1-our
We have our GIC [Groupement d'Intervention Communautaire or
Community Intervention Organization].

(4) ma = ba nde visdelege ma mw-as ma bakwan.

ma = bo nde vicedelegue ma mo-az ma
I be be (loc) vice-delegate Poss 1-twin? Poss Bekwan
I am the vice-delegate, me the twin of Bekwan.

(5 ) ma = ba nde visdelege a ‘31k’ gap pam ne

ma = bo nde vicedelegue a ne
I be be (loc) vice-delegate (Fr) Qual GIC GAP PAM that

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 e-dege mesamena y-ez = e.
e-deg y-ez-e
iNF-see Messamena 1-all-RELCL
I am the vice-delegate of GIC-GAP PAM which is seen throughout the
Messamena area.

(6) dogk biz = o me-tag nde wu flas = i bw = a

biza = o me-taq h+ nde wu flas = e bwo = a
thus (Fr) we-PRES 4-white RELCL-be(loc) come.from France-RELCL they-P2

ka lwandsbs til ms ne ms nca = k

ka lwandaba til ma na ma nca = g + H
Cons just write me that I come-SUBj

organize kup.
organiser coupe
organize (Fr) cup (Fr)
Thus, we and the whites who come from France who just wrote me that
I should organize a Cup [like World Cup for soccer].

(7) ks bo kup, turnwa e-Ju bo-ntwama ne bws

ke bo coupe toumois le-ju bo-ntwama na bwo
Neg be cup (Fr) tournament 5-sake 2-young that they

sa ns bwo niggs ne gaf pam.

sa na bwo nigg ne gap
do that they join that GAP
Not really a cup, but a tournam ent so that young people will join
GAP PAM.

(8) dog m=a se nco no bo-bumo.

m=a se nco no bo-bumo
thus (Fr) I-P2 Perf come with 2-ball
Thus, I’ve come with balls.

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 (9) m=o se kap m=a bo no bo-bumo tabel.
m=o se kab ma = a bo no bo-bumo tabel
I-Pres Perf share I-P2 be with 2-ball seven
I already shared; I had seven balls.

(10) m = o se kaj)e mo-kwar bug bo-susgrup bo

ma = o se kab md-kwad bug H+ bo-sousgroupe bo
I-Pres Perf share 6-village 7-place RELCL-2-subgroup(Fr) 2ASSOC

gaf pam nde.

nde
GAP PAM be (loc)
I already gave some to villages where there are GAP PAM subgroups
[teams?].

(11) dog wok bejombo m o= jl nag no

wog mo - ji nag no
here Bidjombo I be (att) still with

bo-bumo bo-ba.
bo-bumo bo-ba
2-ball 2-two
So here at Bidjombo, I still have two balls.

(12) md = ji cel ne e-mya bw = a bo-ntomp bo-b-ez

mo = ji cela no le-mya H+ bwo = a bd-ntomb bo-b-cz
I be (att) love that LOC-3-time RELCL-they-P2 2-younger 2-2-all

mi-jwaanc my-es e je woga bo-jwor = e m=e

me-jwenj me-cz e je wog bb-joueurs = e ma = e
4-young.man 4-all Fut arrive here 2-players (Fr)-RELCL I-Fut

sa kwan = e.
sa kwan = e
do 7-meeting-RELCL
I would like that when all the young people, all the young men arrive,
the players, that I will hold a meeting.

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 (13) m o= leg bwo sa biza nde jalana sa mo-wara
ma = leg bwo sa H+ biza nde jalana sa mo-wada
I tell they do RELCL-we be (loc) must do 6-vacation

mo-qg = e nde mbmt mya gkwoonda go nc = e

mo-gga = e nde mbend mya + H gkwoond go nco = e
6-this-RELCL be (loc) rule 3-time-RELCL 9-month Prog come-RELCL

me-tag bfzo bd-nop nde sye e je bwo bwana

me-tag biza bo-nob nde sye e je bwo
4-white we 2-other be (loc) work Fut arrive they ?

nco kwib ne turnwa w-55gga ma se ter.

nco kwib na tovmois w-aagga me se ter
come find that tournament 3-Def be (chg) Perf start
I will tell them that we must work during the vacations so that next
m onth when the whites we work with arrive, they will find that the
tournam ent has already started.

•V
y=e Jl sa e bulu void bo-ntwama no
y=e ji sa e bulu vol bo-ntwama no
N o n R e f -F u t be (att) do and many help 2-young with

bubu ter na mo-wara ko je no mya bi-Jukul

bubu ter no mo-wada ko je no mya + H be-jukul
a.lot start with 6-vacation go arrive with 3-time-RELCL 8-school

/ . / V
e ter - e.
e ter = e
Fu t start-RELCL

This will help the young people a lot from the beginning of the vacatio
to the time when the schools re-start.

bwo nde sa be-jug me-mbi ma-my-ez.

bwo nde sa be-jug me-mbi me-me-ez
they be (loc) do 8-game 4-type 4-4-each, all
They will play all kinds of games.

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 (16) mo-sas no ma-jwanji bwo ji jalana nco e tilaba
mo-scs no me-Jwanj bwo jf jalana nco et tflaba
6-girl with 5-young.man they want must come and sign.up

/v / r /
ne e-Ju spor w-aaqga na mu na be jl
na le-ju sport w-aaqga no mu na be ji
that 5-sake sport (Fr) 1-Def with reason that you (pi) be (att)

numba na bumo spor an 3 enerale bo nde

numb na bumo sport en general jia = bo nde
know that 7-ball sport (Fr) in general(Fr) she/he be be (loc)

bulu lar b-ur.

bulu laad bo-ud
a.lot sew 2-person
The young woman and young men, they should come sign up for
the sport because you know that sports brings people together.
'O

nde sa numa na bo-ntwama na ma-sas

II

jia= bo nde sa numa na bo-ntwama no mo-scs

he/she be be (loc) do also that 2-boy with 6-girl

bo kok na bo na ma-Jwo no b-aaqga b-ur

bo kog na bo no mo-Jwo no b-aagga bo-ud
be here that be with 6-friend with 2-Def 2-person

nde no bo-miyar) b-aqg nde ne

nde no bo-miyai] b-aaqga h + nde ne
be (loc) with 2-sibling 2-Def RELCL-be (loc) that

mo-kwar mo-sisi.
mo-kwad mo-sis
6-village 6-different
It works so that the young women and young men have friendships
with other people and with their brothers from other villages.

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 (18) dog e-mo-wara mo-gga e-j-wanda ggo nc = e
le-md-wada mo-gga Ie-Jw5nda go nco = e
thus (Fr) Loc-6-hour 6-this Loc-1-week Prog come-RELCL

bo m=e sa kwan j-bbr)g3 e-leg bw-an bo bijumbo

bo m=e sa kwan jobgga e-leg bo-an bo
be I-Fut do 7-meeting 7-Def iNF-tell 2-child be Bidjombo

/ x A
sa bizo bo-nop b-ez e sa ne ne mo-wara
sa bizo bo-nob b-ez e sa mo-wada
do us 2-other 2-all Fut do 6-hour

mo-gga e-su ne ambians no animajon bo = ga

mo-gga le-ju ambience no animation bo = g
6-this 5-sake ambience with animation be-SuBJ

no mo-wala mo-gga.
no mo-wala mo-gga
with 6-hour 6-this
Thus during the vacation, next week, I will hold this meeting to say to
the sons of Bidjombo what we will do together so that this vacation
will be filled with good times.

(19) m=e yo bwo bo-bumo.

ma = e yo bwo bo-bumo
I-Fut give them 2-ball
I will give them balls.

(20) bw = e ne le bo-bumo biyoggo ke ba na bw = e

bwo = e ne le bo-bumo beoggo ke bo no bwo = e
they-FuT ? Impf 2-ball 2-Def Neg be with they-FuT

le jana byo.
le jana byo
Impf pay 80bj
They will play with the balls for free [without paying].

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 (21) m = e daz bwo byo
m=e daz bwo byo
I-Fut give.as.present them 8 obj

e-tum wa bizo ba-nop e s = e.

le-toumois +H bizl bo-nob e sa = e
Loc-toumament(Fr)- RelCl we 2-other Fut do-RELCL
I will give them the balls as a present during the
tournam ent that we’re doing.

(23) dog ma = ji ji ne mo-sas na ma-Jwsnc

ml = ji ji ne mo-ses no me-Jwcnj
thus (Fr) I want be (att) 6-girl with 4-young.man

ma bijiimp my-es e bwo mo ba na nco no bubu

ma bijumb me-ez e bwo bo no nco no bubu
6Q ual Bidjombo 4-all Fut F2 be with come with a.lot

e-ju kwan m=e s = e.

le-ju kwan H+ m = e sa = e
5-sake 7-meeting RelCl-I-Fut do-RELCL
Thus I want that all the young woman and the young men of
Bidjombo come to the meeting that I will have.

bizo ba-nop ka nco kwamaza mbi biz = e nee

bizl bo-nob ka nco kwamlza mbi biz = e nco
we 2-other Cons come prepare 3-type we- Fut come

sa tum w a e-ju na le no
sa toumois le-Ju no no
do tournament (Fr) 5-sake with with

bela bo sugriip.
bo sousgroupe
be subgroup
We need to organize how we will do the tournam ent so that we can
play with other subgroups.

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 >
m=e cel na sugrup a bijumbo jio = bo = go
m=e cela n§ sousgroupe a bijumb jia = bo = g
I-Fut love* that subgroup Qual Bidjombo IS ub be-SUBj

sugrupo a ma Jwok '3*' gaf pam ma =

sousgroupe ma =
subgroup first GIC GAP PA M I

nde visdelege.
nde vice-delegue
be (loc) delegate

I want the Bidjombo subgroup to be the first [best] subgroup in GAP

PAM which I am a delegate of.

akiba no bubu.
akiba no bubu
thanks with a.lot
Thanks a lot.

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 7 Joy After Uncertainty

told by Benoit Mbague (ofLeh), transcription help and translation (into French) by

Benoit Meboma Moankoen (ofLeh)

(1) w-uloga mya m=a nco te no mo = o ko

w-ulaga mya m=a nca te no m= o ko + H
3-Indef 3-time I-P2 come Loc with I-Pres go

le-kwan, mijwan kwan, kwar a kwan,

le-kwan mfjwan kwan kwad a kwan
Loc-7-meeting 7-church 7-meeting 9-village Qual meeting

communaute bwo nde jap no sacre coeur,

bwo nde jab na
community(Fr) they be (loc) call that

jiwag jiwaq lam.

jiwag jiwaq lam
good good 7-heart
One day I left to go to a church meeting in the Kwan village, for the
community that they call "Sacre Cceur."

(2) mya m=o ko je w-ul tamo net = i , mo = nag

mya H + m = o ko + H je + H w-ulaga tarn nci = e ma = nar)
3-time RelCl-I go arrive 3-Indef middle 3-road-RELCL I still

le k-e, mo = me ter le-jwogo mwo le gkono

le ko ma = me ter le-jwog mwo le qkona
Impf go-? I be (chg) start iNF-feel 3-stomach Impf Incr

kuggola mo.
kuqgala ma
hurt me
When I had arrived, during the trip, before I left again, I started to feel
stomach pains.

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 (3) ma = e sa ma be-dug nwa tu kr, kr, kr.
ma = e sa + H ma be-dug nwa tu
I PI do me 8-noise there inside
My stomach made noises inside me. [sounds].

(4) m a= na "e ke !
ma = na
I that
I said, "Uh oh!

(5) ji jog nag me?"

je jog nag me
what thing still that
What is that?"

(6) mya mo ko je kwan = e ma = jojie a sa

mya H + ma ko je kwan = e m a= jojic a sa
3-time RelCl-I go arrive meeting-RELCL I in spite of P2 do

mijwan mpwoge.
mijwan mpwoge
7-church 1-health
When I arrived in Kwan, I still managed to lead the meeting well.

(7) ma = sa kwan n ji le-mbegala ma nciimbe, ma =

ma = sa kwan nji le-mbegala H + ma nciimbe ma =
I do 7-meeting only Loc-9-protection Poss God I

le jwok nji gka mwa nde sa m = e.

le jwog nji gka + H mwa nde sa m=e
Im p f feel only like-RELCL 3-stomach be (loc) do me-RELCL
I led the meeting under God's protection, since my stomach kept hurting.

(8) tem
tem ba
ba be-dop
be-dop bwa
bw a =
= aa sa wu
sa WU =
= \1 m
m == ance
ance yim
yim na
tcm bo be-dob h + bwo = a sa wu = e m = ance yim no
even be 8-food RELCL-they-P2 do there-RELCL I-NEGP2 can with

460

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 da byo.
do byo.
eat 8 obj
Even the food that they cooked there, I couldn't eat it.

(9) ma = me nigo nco, nca je kwar.

ma = me nigo nco, nco je kwad
I be (chg) return come come arrive 9-village
I returned, arrived back home.

(10) ma = me ni njap ma = jap mw-ara w-aija.

ma = me ni njab ma = jab mw-ara w-ag
I be (chg) arrive 3-house I call 1-woman 1-my
I came back home, called my wife.

(11) ma = na jia na "tie ma ko kwan muuz-e,

ma= no jia na tie H+ ma ko kwan muuz-e
I with her that position RelCl-I go 7-meeting today-RELCL

nci na nci mya ma = ba le k = e,

nci na nci mya H + ma = ba le ko = e
3-path with 3-path 3-time RelCl-I little Impf gO-RELCL

m=e le jwok i)ka mwa ko na ntegale me.

m=e le + H jW0g + H gka mwa ko no nteg me
I-Pl Impf feel like 3-stomach go with annoy me(<
I told her, "Since I left for Kwan today, along the way, my stomach
has been bothering me.

(12) m= e se numa ko kuqa ncoo 161

m=e se + H num a + h ko + H kuga + h ncoo 161
I-Pl Perf also go poop time three

ntama nci.
tarn nci
middle 3-path
I also had to go to the bathroom three times along the way.

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 (13) mwa w-aagga o nde ntegale me.
mwa w-aagga o nde nteg me
3-stomach 3-Def Pres be (loc) annoy me (emph)
It's my stomach that's bothering me."

(14) mw-ara w-arja a ko, jia = me ko jap dwabara.

mw-ara w-ag a ko Jib = me ko jab dwabara.
1-woman 1-my P2 go she be (chg) go call 1-nurse
My wife went to call the nurse.

(15) dwabara me nca, ji sa ma-mit.

dwabora. me nca ji sa me-mid
1-nurse be (chg) come be do 4-medicine
The nurse came to try some medicine.

(16) me fama ma-mir ka bo.

fama me-mid ke bo
but (Fr) good 4-medicine N eg be
They didn't work.

(17) dwabara na ji = o nigo ko bertwa.

dwabara na ji = 6 nigo + h ko + H
1-nurse that he-PR ES return go Bertoua
The nurse said that he was going to Bertoua.

(18) jie nca na ma-mir.

jie nco no me-mid
he (emph) come with 4-medicine
He will bring back some medicine.

(19) ma-lu ma-ba ji = a ko di bertwa ka mg = e,

mo-lu mo-ba H + j) =a ko di ke nigo = e
6-era 6-two RELCL-he-P2 go stay Bertoua N eg retum-RELCL

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 e-ce me nigo bulu nca yak.
e-tye me nigo bulu nco yag
5-illness be (chg) return many come be.strong
The two days that he stayed in Bertoua before returning, the illness
got worse.

(20) e-ce me le lal fjkul.

e-tye me le lal gkul
5-illness be (chg) Impf be.strong 9-power
It became stronger.

(21) ma = me tega ki nag no gkul.

ma = me tega ke nag no qkul
I be (chg) be.tired Neg still with 9-power
I was tired, with no energy.

(22) ma = me le ko kuga na tititi, e-jiaga ma-ci.

ma = me le ko kuga no tititi e-jiag mo-ci
I be (chg) Impf go poop with regularity iNF-poop 6-blood
I went to the bathroom all the time; I was having bloody stools.

(23) numa bw = a nca rjkegg ko na ma mijwan

numa bwo = a nca gkegg ko na ma mijwan
also they-P2 come carry go with me 7-church

messamena walafira bascer.

walafira bo-scer
Messamena hospital 2-nun (Fr)
Then, they came to take me to the nuns' hospital at the Messamena
church.

(24) ba-scer bwo me nca ter fyal ma ma-ci.

bo-scer bwo me nca ter fyal ma mo-ci
2-nun (Fr) they be(chg) come start test me 6-blood
The nuns tested my blood.

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 (25) bwo fyal ma ma-bi.
bwo fyal ma mo-bf
they test me 6-poop
They took stool samples.

(26) fyal a ma-ncela na bwo dega sa ju jwo

fyal a mo-ncela no bwo deg sa H +jw o jwo
test Qual 6-urine with they see 7-thing RelCl-7 0 bj 7 0 bj

me nde le nteg = e.
me nde le nteg = e
self be (loc) Impf annoy-RELCL
They tested my urine to see w hat it is that was bothering me.

(27) numa bw = a ko Jwamb no ma = ji na ntu ma-ci.

numa bwo = a ko Jwamb na ma ji na ntu mo-ci
;i Iso they-P2 go search that I be with diarrhea 6-blood
Then they found that I had dysentery.

(28) ma-taq ji jaba e-ce d-aarjga "diarrhee rouge.'

me-taq ji jab e-tye d-aaqga
4-white be call 5-illness 5-Def diarrhea (Fr) red (Fr)
The whites call this illness "red diarrhea."

(29) e-bo-kol bizo Jl jaba dwo na ntu ma-ci.

le-bo-kol bizo ji jab dwo no ntu mo-ci
Loc-2-Kol we be call 5 0 bj that diarrhea 6-blood
In Kol, we call it bloody diarrhea.

(30) w=6 le jiak ma-ci.

w=o le + H jiag + H mo-ci.
you-PRES Impf poop 6-blood
You have bloody stools.

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 (31) m=a ja walafira ka bin mbwo, ka bin ku.
m=a ja walafira ke ben mbwo ke ben ku
I-P2 sleep hospital Neg lift 9-hand Neg lift 9-foot
I slept at the hospital without lifting a hand or a foot.

(32) ma = nde nji tega jiun ke no qkul.

ma = nde nji tega jiun ke no qkul.
I be only be.tired 9-body Neg with 9-force
I was tired, no more energy.

myer kog w oagga bo-dwabara bw = a nca wa

mycd kog w-aaqga bo-dwabara bwo = a nca wa
3-Def 2-nurse they-P2 come take

qkul ji-op ni-ji-sz, lagala numba w-op, mbimba

rjkul Ji-bb ni-ji-ez, lagala numba w-ob mbimbi
9-force 9-their 9-9-all show 3-knowledge 3-their 7-amount

bog a jig = e.
H + boi] a jig = e
RELCL-they (emph)? P2 leam-RELCL
After that, the nurses took all their force, showed their knowledge, all
that they have learned.

(34) bwo me nca banda jug a ma.

bwo me nca banda jinja ma
they be (chg) come really discuss me
They succeeded in saving me. [lit. They really discussed me.
[implied with death].]

(35) ma = me nca sa mpwoge.

ma = me nca sa mpwoge
I be (chg) come do 1-health
I regained my health.

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 (36) mw-ara w-aga J» = ma m-ur a le yila
mo-ara w-ag J^ = me m-ud H +a le y ila

1-woman woman she be (chg) 1-person RelCl-P2 Im p f lo o k , a fte r

m = e, ko numa jwok e-ce.

II
ma = e ji = a ko numa jwog e-tye
me-RELCL she-P2 go also feel 5-illness
My wife who was looking after me, she fell ill too.

(37) ka ba bw = a Juqa biza nop ba-b-ez.

ka ba bwo = a Jurja biza nop ba-b-cz.
Cons be they-P2 discuss us other 2-2-all
They saved us, both of us.

(38) dw-op biz = a a nigo nca kwar = e na bw-an

dw-ob H + biz = a a nigo nca kwad = e no bo-an
5-day RELCL-we P2 return come 9-village-RELCL with 2-child

*
b-arj na njap b-ur w-aq., m-ur y-ez a ba na
b-aq no njab h + b-ud w-aq m-ur y-cz a bo no
2-my and 3-house 2-person 3-my 1-person 1-all P2 be with

ma-Jwodzogd.
m o -jw o o z o g o .

6 -jo y

The day that we returned to the village and my children and my

family, everyone was happy.

(39) m-ur y-ez me nca jwimba.

m -u r y -e z me nco jw im b a

1 -p e r so n 1 -e a ch b e (c h g ) com e r e jo ic e

Everyone rejoiced.

(40) biz = o me nca banda jwaaz.

b iz a = o me nca banda jw a a z
w e-PR E S b e (c h g ) com e r e a lly b e .h a p p y

We were really happy.

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 (41) "e papa ms je !
me je
papa be (chg) arrive
"Oh! Papa is here!"

(42) papa ma sa mpwoge !"

me sa mpwoge
papa be(chg) do 1-health
Papa is in good health!"

(43) mpwoge w-55i)g3 jia = ba ms = nde ns te

mpwoge woopga jia= bo H+ ma = nde no te
1-health 1-Def IS ub be RelCl-I be (loc) with Loc

kuma na ns caa-g = e.
kuma no no ca-gga = e
until with with now-this-RELCL
It's this good health that I still have.'

467

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
 8 The Panther and the Ram

told by Barthelemy Lefoumbou (ofLeh), transcription help and translation (into

French) by Benoit Meboma Moankoen (ofLeh)

(1) kekena a ba fagara qkwin ba ntwimbe.

kekena a ba fagara qkweji ba ntwembe
7-stoiy P2 be between 1-leopard and 7-sheep
‘This story is about the panther and the ram.

(2) ntwimbe ji top nde woga tarn dinde.

ntwembe ji toob nde wog tarn dtnde
7-sheep be (att) goat be (loc) here (spec) middle courtyard
The sheep is in the courtyard.

(3) rjkwin ji di dik.

qkweji ji di dig
1-leopard be (att) stay 7-forest
The panther stays in the forest.

(4) mya ba nop mo ko bwama bw = a ko bwama

mya + H ba nob me ko bwama bwo = a ko bwama
3-time-RELCL and other be? go meet they-P2 go meet

dik.
dig
7-forest
When they met each other, they met each other in the forest.

(5) mya bwo kAo bwama dig = e bwo k^o

mya + H bwo ko + H bwama + H dig = e bwo ko + H
3-time-RELCL they-PRES go meet forest-RELCL they go

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 bagara sa wuruk na bwo sa le-jwo.
bagara + h sa wurug na bwo sa e-Jwo
join 7-thing one that they do 5-friend
When they met each other in the forest, they decided to join forces
and became friends.

(6) e-Jwo d-oba, mya bwo k4o k4o d4i, bwo

e-Jwo d-ob mya H+ bwo ko + H ko + H di + H bwo
5-friend 5-their 3-time RELCL-they-PRES go go stay they-PRES

k4o juma sa ba-kol nde jap na e-banda.

ko + H jumc sa H+ bo-kol nde jab no e-banda
go build 7-thing RelCl-2-Ko1 be (loc) call that 5-hut
Because of their friendship, when they stayed somewhere, they
build w hat the Kol people call a shelter.

(7) bwo k4o di bug wuruk.

bwo ko + H di + H bug wurug
they-PRES go stay 7-place one
They stayed in the same spot.

bw o ji ka ba na fufw ok na bwo
bwo ji + H ka + H bo + H na jufwog na bwo
they-PRES be Cons be that in.front.of that they

ja = g = e, e-ji na bw o saq = ga le bw o
ja = g = e le-ji na bwo sar) = ga le bwo
sleep-SuBJ-RELCl iNF-be that they look.for-SUBj(pl) 5-wood they

tirag kwara.
tirag kwara
light 9-fire
But before they slept, they needed to look for wood for their
fire.

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 (9) nci a ba na jt ==6 ka sag le?
nee a bo no ji = o ka + H sag + H le
who Ques be that he-PRES Cons look.for 5-wood
Who will go look for wood?

(10) ntwimbe a leg no gkwin na "bira, le tuk

ntwembe a leg no gkweji na bir le tug
7-sheep P2 say with 1-leopard that leave 5-wood be (neg)

na sa.
na sa
with 7-thing
The sheep said to the panther, “Let it be, the wood is no big deal.

(11) m = ee ko, m = ee ko sag ncwo le."

m= e ko + H m = e ko + H sag + H ncwo le
I-Fut go I-Fut go 10ok.for us (dual) 5-wood
I will go and look for wood for both of us."

(12) gkwin na "egkugu ncw = o ko sag le."

gkwep no egkugu ncw = o ko + H sag + H le
1-leopard that together we (dual)-PRES go look.for 5-wood
The panther said, “Let’s go! We’ll both go look for wood.”

(13) mya ntwimbe a je le-fumba le,

mya + H ntwembe a je le-fumba le
3-time-RELCL 7-sheep P2 arrive Loc-dead 3-tree

ntwimbe a nigo ampfzampiz.

ntwombe a nigo ampizampiz
7-sheep P2 return backwards
When the sheep came across a dead tree, he moved backwards.

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 (14) mya ji = a k = e, ji = a wa alu na lu y-e
mya H+jt = a ko = e ji = a wa alu no lu
3-time RELCL-he-P2 go-RELCL he-P2 put 1-hit with 5-head l-his

ntag no ku la-fumba pr: diima Ji.

ntag no ku le-fumba duma si
like.that with hit Loc-dead fall 1-ground
Running towards the tree, he hit it with his head, and it fell
down.

(15) mya gkwin ma deg = e, gkwin na

mya h + gkwep me deg = e gkwep no
3-time RelCl-1-leopard be (chg) see- RelCl 1-leopard that

1|V
3 jl ==a ter e-wa alu ntag a la-fumba,
3 ji ==a ter le-wa alu ntag le-fumba
he-P2 start INF-put hit like.that Loc-dead

fumba jugala.
fumba Jugala
dead fall.in.pieces
When the panther saw that, he said, “Well, he hit the tree like that
and it fell down in pieces.

(16) gka mya fumba ma Jugala me.

gka mya + H fumba me Jugala me
as 3-time-RELCL dead be (chg) fall.in.pieces this
Now the tree is in pieces.
n»^

(17) a mya ka wa m = e, m=e k^a

II
*3

a mya + H ji =e ka + H wa + h m=e m=e ka + H

Ques 3-time-RELCL he-FuT Cons put me- RelCl I- Fut Cons

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 bo w-ob mbi?"
bo + h w-oob mbi
be 3-which 3-manner
If he did that to me, how would I be?”

(18) numa bwo nca gks le, nca je na te

numa bwo nca gkegg le nca je no te
also they come carry 5-wood come arrive with Loc

le-banda.
le-banda
5-hut
Then they carried the wood back to their shelter.

(19) numa gkwin ma nca leg na "aa ncwo

numa gkwep me nca leg na a ncwo
also 1-leopard be(chg) come say that we (dual)

se ba na le.
se bo no le
Perf be with 5-wood
Then, the panther said, Well, we already wood already.

/ • / •V
(20) e-Ji ka JI ncwo na na ca na
le-jf ka + H ji + H ncwo na no ca na
iNF-want Cons be (att) we (dual) that with now that

ncwo k;a ba no ba-dop."

ncwo ka + H bo + h no be-dob
we (dual) Cons be with 8-food
Now we need food."

A
=6

><D

(2 1 ) numa ntwimbe a leg na se sag le,

II

numa 7-ntwembe a leg na m=e se + H sag + H le

also sheep P2 say that I-Fut Perf look.for 5-wood

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 ka sag ba-dop."
ka sag be-dob
Cons look.for 8-food
Then the sheep replied, "I already went and looked for wood, go look
for food."

(22) mya gkwin ma nca ko ji = o ko dega

mya + H gkwep me nca ko ji = o ko + H deg + H
3-time-RELCL 1-leopard be (chg) come go he-PRES go see

le-kan.
le-kan
5-antelope
When the panther left, he saw an antelope.

(23) e-bi ji = a ko bi e-kan-e jia le-kan.

le-bi ji = a ko bi le-kan jia le-kan
iNF-seize he-P2 go seize 5-antelope tear 5-antelope
He seized it and tore it up.

(24) ntwimbe dek.

ntwembe deg
7-sheep see
The sheep saw it all.

(25) numa ntwimbe a nca leg na "a: ?

numa ntwembe a nca leg na
also 7-sheep P2 come say that say
Then the sheep said, "Eh?

(26) jia = ter Jia le-kan ntag a.

jia = ter Jia e-kan ntag
he first tear 5-antelope like.that
First he tore the antelope up like that.

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 (27) a gkama na ma ji = e sa me na?"
a gkama no ma p = e sa + H ma
Ques how.many with me he-FuT do me
How much more could he do to me?

/S. It V
numa gkwin a nca leg na jia ter wa alu
numa gkweji a nca leg na jia ter wa alu
also 1-leopard P2 come say that he first put hit

✓
la-fumba, ntwimba w=e a gkama na me?"
le-fumba ntwombe w=e a gkama no me
Loc-dead 7-sheep you-FuT Ques how.many with me(emph)
Then the panther said, "First he hit the dead tree with his head,
how much more could the sheep do to me?"

(29) mya yo ka je na bwo ji nde

mya H+ yo ka je na bwo ji nde
3-time RelCl-7sub Cons arrive that they be (att) be (loc)

le-banda la wuruga.
le-banda le wurug
5-hut 5 Assoc one
Having arrived back home, they stayed in the same shelter.

/V tf N A
(30) numa gkwin a nca te na aa fa bwaant
numa gkwep a nca te Jia na fa bwende
also 1-leopard P2 come LOC he that Hort wait

ma.
ma
me
Then the panther got up and he said, "Well, wait for me.

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 (31) m=o go nc9-n."
m=o go ncb-ne
I-Pres P rog com e-that

I’m coming back."

a
(32) e-ko pkwin a ke jwalo ko.
le-ko gkweji a ko Jwal ko
iNF-gO 1-leopard P2 go directly go
But in going, he then left for good.

(33) mya ntwimbe ma nca dek ncine, ntwimbe

mya + H ntwembe me neb deg ntene ntwembe
3-time 7-sheep be (chg) come see like, that 7-sheep

no "jam j-ooqga bo-n

no njam j- ooggb bb-ne
that 7-moment (good) 7-Def be-that
When the sheep saw that, he said, "It’s the perfect moment!

(34) mb ka ko kwar nsbo mya ji = o bi

mo ka ko kwad nbbb mya H + jt =o bi + H
I Cons go 9-village because 3-time RELCL-he-PRES seize

tir ntarp ji5.

tid ntaq jia
7-animal like, that tear
I will go to the village because he seizes animals like that and tears
them.
>0)

mys ji = e bi numb mb numb mb.

II

mya H + ji =e bi + H numb mb jr =e jia + H numb mb

3-time RELCL-he-FuT seize also me he-FuT tear also me

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 me m = o ko numa Jwal lag no nco kwar."
m=o ko + H numa + H jwal + H lag + H na nco kwad
but(Fr) I-Pres go also directly happen that come 9-village
Since he could do the same thing to me, I'm going to leave for the
village."

(36) jw = o bo ntwimbe nde kwar = e.

jw = o bo ntwembe nde kwad = e
7SUB-PRES be 7-sheep be (loc) 9-village-RELCL
That’s why sheep are in the village.

(37) jw = o bo gkwin nde dig = e.

jw = o bo gkwep nde dig = e
7Sub-Pres be leopard be (loc) 7-forest-RELCL
That’s why the panther is in the forest.

nta ji leg no mya biz = a nde biz = a

nta ji leg nS mya h+ biz = a nde H+ biz = a
since want say that 3-time RELCL-we-P2 be (loc) RELCL-we-P2

nde wok me, biz = a ji = ga nump no

nde wog me biz = a jf = g numb na
be (loc) here that we-P2 need-SuBj know that

sa nde da.
sa nde da
7-thing be (loc) 1-father
This means that since we are here now, we need to know who is the
father (ancestor).

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 (39) da ji nciimbe.
da ji nciimbe
1-father be (att) God
The father is God.

(40) e-ji m-ur nde na biz = a tuk no Okul

le-ji m-ud nde na biz = a tug no qkul
iNF-be 1-person be (loc) that we-P2 be (neg) with 9-force

bwa yigala no jia.

bwo yigala no jia
they compare with him
That’s someone that we shouldn’t compare ourselves to.

(41) tern mwaz, tern fum, ka na dw-op la-wuruk,

tcm mwaz tcm fum ke no dw-ob le-wuruk
even 3-daytime even 3-night Neg with 5-day 5Assoc-one

1 / / V VI S V 1A
biz = e yig-ala na de.
biz = e yig-ala no da
we-FuT pretend-REFL with father
Even during the day, even during the night, not on one single day
should we compare ourselves to the father.

(42) biz = a tuk le yigala na da.

biz = a tug le yig-ala no da
we-P2 be (neg) Impf pretend-REFL with father
We do not compare ourselves with the father.

(43) biza di kok basi, jie di jwap.

biza di kog b-si ji = e di jwap.
we (incl) stay here 2-ground he (emph) stay sky
We stay here on earth, he stays in the heavens.

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 (44) jia ji dek ma-bap m-ez nde kok basi,
ji5 ji deg md-bab m-cz nde kog bo-sf
he be (att) see 6-bad 6-all be (loc) here 2-ground

ma-jiwaq msz nde kok basi.

mo-jiwag m-cz nde kog bo-si
6-good 6-all be (loc) here 2-ground
He sees all the bad things here on earth and all the good things
here on earth.

(45) ka ba ji = e ji bwaant nji dwap la-wuruk

ka ba ji = e ji bwende nji dwop le-wuruk
only he-Pl be (att) wait only 5-day 5Assoc-one

dwap ji = e bwa cigo kor w-aaijga.

dwop H+ji = e bwo cfgo kod w-oopga
5-day RELCL-he-FuT F2 judge decision 3-Def
He is waiting for a single day, the day that he will come and judge all that.

479

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 9 The Perils of Drunkenness

told by Jean SedarAtangana, transcription help and translation (into French) by

Benoit Meboma Moankoen (ofLeh)

•/ «v
(1 ) ma = JI JI leg mwa laga ma ma m = a
ma = ji ji ler) mwa lag H+ rna ma me = a
I be (att) want tell little speech RelCl-I I self-P2

numb na cige = e.
numb no ciga = e
know and live-RELCL
‘I want to tell something that I myself have seen and lived.

m=a bo ma = nde jwop na jwoba le gkona

m=a bo ma = nde jwob no jwob le rjkona
I-P2 be I be (loc) sky with sky Impf Incr

mwa gkwo le e gkwo = ga ko le jtag.

mwa kwo le le kwo = g ko le
little again Impf Loc again-SuBj go Impf suck
I was in the air looking for life.

(3) ma = nde na b-ur ba cel ma, bwa

ma = nde no b-ur H+ ba ccla ma bwo
I be (loc) with 2-person RELCL-be love me they

na gkul leg na ba-Jwo.

no qkul leg no bo-jwo
with 9-force tell with 2-friend
I had those who love me, those one could call friends.

(4) biza ba-n6j3 = a kwikweg, m-ur na my-e ma-mbi.

biza bd-nob = a kwig m-ur no me-c me-mbi
we 2-other-P2 walk 1-person with 4-his 4-sort
Them and me, we walked together, each with his own habits.

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 (5) ka bo dena bwo nde le leg bokol na wo = kwig
ka bo dena bwo nde le leg bokol na wo = kwig
only like they be (loc) Impf tell Kol that you walk

na ba-mpyo, wa = jiwaq ba-jia.

no bo-mpyo wo = jiwag bo-jia
with 2-dog you take 2-flea
Only as one says in Kol: you walk with dogs, you will have fleas.

(6) w a = deg = e?
w : i = deg = e
you-NEG-see-NEG
Don’t you see?

(7) mo = kwig na ba-jiwel-e ba-ma-jiok, m= o ko numa

mo = kwig no bo-jiwel-e bo-mo-jiwog m=o ko + H numa + H
I walk with 2-drink-NOM 2Assoc-6-wine I-Pres go also

duma le-ggwagga e-bin bi-gkwinde.

duma + h le-ggwag e-ben be-gkwende
fall (intr) Loc-together 5-lift 8-elbow
You walk with wine-drinkers, you will also end up with elbow-benders
[alcoholics].

(8) w = a = deg = e?
w = a = deg = e
you-NEG-see-NEG
Don’t you see?

(9) d-ul dw-ap na le-yige, mw-ara ma twamba w-aga no

d-ulaga dw-ob no le-yige mw-ara ma twamba w-ag no
5-Indef 5-day that 5-sign 1-woman Poss 1-elder 1-my with

m-ur a le bagala ma ggwala yaunde a bwar

m-ud a le bagala ma ggwala a bwad
1-person P2 Impf keep me city Yaounde she-P2 wear

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 bo-kwondo e-fyal le-jukul b-acfgokuk.
bo-kwondo le-fyal le-Jukul bb-a-cigokug
2-stripes iNF-exit 5Assoc-7-school 2?-police
One day, with a sign, the wife of my elder who looked after me in
Yaounde got her stripes and graduated from the police academy.

(10) bizo nco ko le-dump a s-owawa no bok a

bizo neb ko le-dumb a sa-owa no bog a
we come go Loc-party P2 act-PASS and reception P2

kegawa.
keg-owa
plan-PASS
We went to the party which was planned and the reception that was
organized.

(11) bizo ko sa ma-jwoozogo s-owa le-waagga dana

bizo ko sa me-Jwobzbgb sa-owa le-waapg dena
we go do 4-joy do-PASS 5-song like

✓
ba-da bog a le se no kul no
H + bo-da bog a le sa = e no kul no
RELCL-2-father they(emph)? P2 Impf do-RELCL with 3-tam-tam and

qkoom.
ljkdomb
9-medium, drum
We rejoiced, singing like the ancestors did, with the tam-tams and
drums.

(12) bizo ko jiwaq bo-fono na bamil.

bizo ko jiwap
we go take musical instruments
We took musical instruments.

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 (13) myer kwo te be-bf-ma ma nump na mya wo
kwo te be-be-me me numb no mya h + wo
again Loc you-you-self be (chg) know that 3-time RELCL-you

• /
se bula digab — e WO Jl sag sa ma
se + H bulu + H digaba = e wo ji sap sa me
P er f many sweat-RELCL you want look.for 7-thing be (chg)

tclale qkwoomin.
tclale pkwornm
refresh throat
After that, you yourself know that when you have really sweated, you
look for something to refresh yourself with.

(14) m= ko jiwaqa sa ma tslele mo fjkwoomin.

0
m=o ko jiwaq sa H + me tslale ma pkwamin
I-Pres go take 7-thing RELCL-be(chg) refresh me throat
1 took something to refresh my throat.

(15) kugu qga bo by-ooggo nde le ncaabara

kugu pga bo be-aapga H + nde le ncaabara
3-evening this be 8-D ef RELCL-be (loc) Impf turn, upside, down

m-ur lu, ma nde jaba na ma-jiwog = e.

m-ud lu ma nde jab no m o-jiw og = e
1-person 5-head I be (loc) call with 6-wine-RELCL
That evening, that something was head-spinning, that which I call wine.

(16) w = a = deg = e ?
w o = a = deg = e
you-NEG-see-NEG
Don’t you see?

(17) dina mwa m-ur nde mya jia = nde le kwfga

dena mwa m-ur nde mya J>3 = nde le kwig
like 1-small 1-person be(loc) 3-time he be (loc) Impf walk

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 •/
le-wagge J19 = Ji cel numa sa dina bw-ur ba
le-wagge J13 = ji ccla numa sa dena bo-ur bo
Loc-gathering he want love also do like 2-person 2Assoc

ccla ma
ccla ma
love me
When a small [unimportant] man is in a group, he wants to do like his
friends.

(18) ba-jwo b-e ba ba-nop nde le kwig nde le see.

bo-Jwo b-e ba bo-nob nde le kwig nde le sa
2-friend 2-his and 2-other be (loc) Impf walk be (loc) Impf do
His friends and others walk the same way.

(19) m=o banda ko jiwag sa mo-bwes ma cog.

ma = o banda + h ko + H Jiwai] sa md-bwez mo cor)
I-Pres really go take 7-thing 6-wet 6Assoc 9-neck

be-sa ma ntam a lu = wi, ma-jiok.

be-sa H + me ntama lu = e mo-jiwog
8-thing RELCL-be (chg) rot 5-head-RELCL 6-wine
I took something to wet my throat, something that rots the head, wine.

(20) bizo ba-nop ma se jiwel ma-jiok ntine,

bizo bo-nob me se jiwel mo-jiwog ntine
we 2-other be (chg) P erf drink 6-wine like.that
Me and them, we drank wine like that.

(2 1 ) bizo nco cinde bug a dump a bee

biza nco cint bur) dumb a bee
we come change 7-place dance Qual second
We went to a second party location.

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 (22) biz = o nigo ko fag sis.
biza = o nigo + h ko + h fag sis
we-PRES return go place another
We went to a different place.

• / 1 A • A V
(23) mya biz = o nigo ko je lejma bur) a,
mya + H biza = o nigo + h ko + H je + H bur)
3-time-RELCL we-PRES return go arrive ?another 6-place

A II / V
bwo ko numa yag ma wu na aa kwo
bwo ko numa yag ma wu na kwo
they go also recognize me there that again

fiyo jant na be-bila. w-aaqga bo me."

jand no be-bila w-aagga bo me
? step with 8-sad.news 1-Def be that (pointing)
When we got to the other spot, someone recognized me saying “The
guy who gives the obituaries, th at’s him there.

(24) naba mya w-5ar)ga m=a ba le sye e-njap ma

naba mya w-55i)ga m=a bo le sye le-njab ma
because 3-time 3-Def I-P2 be Impf work Loc-3-house Poss

kolo.
kol
cord
Because, at that point in time, I worked at the radio station.

m=o go kala bw-ur mo-fok na mo-koi) m-a

ma = o go kala bo-ud mo-fog no mo-koi] m-a
I-Pres Prog send? 2-person 6-wisdom with 6-intelligence 6-Qual

biza ba si ba-kolo le-njab a mil.

biza ba si bo-kol le-njab a
we be 1-ground 2-Kol Loc-3-house Qual
I transmitted the intelligence and wisdom of the Bikele to people.

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 (26) bwo ko yag ms, ncs nigo kwo kesla ms
bwo ko yag mo nca + H n ig o + h kwo + H k c c la + h ma

th e y go r e c o g n iz e me com e re tu rn a g a in add me

ms-m-il ma-jiok jwap.

mo-mo-ulaga mo-jiwog jwab
6 -6 -Indef 6 -w in e sk y

They recognized me and gave me more wine [on top].

(27) sa m=e tuks le bwe sa yo.

sa h +m = e tug le bwe sa yo
7-thing RelCl-I-P1 be (neg) Impf long-time do 7 obj
It was something that I was not in the habit of drinking.

♦V
(28) y=6 me ko bo nwa nsbs lob w-ar) Ji
y=o me ko bo nwa naba lob w-ag ji
7SUB-PRES be (chg) go be there because 3-word 3-my be (att)

ko ko nji ns be-kekena "a-mpela-mpela ks bwe na

ko ko nji no be-kekena a-mpela-mpela ko bwe
go go only with 8-story ?-imitation go long-time

buga ncwogs le-bwoq."

bug ncwog le-bwor)
break 1-elephant 5-knee
But now, since my words always come with proverbs: "Imitation will lead to the
elephant breaking his knees."

o a-mpela-mpela me ncs sa numa ncwook w-aqs

0 a-mpela-mpela me nca sa numa ncwog w-ar)
Voc ?-imitation be (chg) come do that 1-elephant 1-my

buga le-bwoij.
bug le-bwoq
break 5-knee
Imitation will lead to my elephant breaking his knee.

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 (30) m=o kwo kele ma-jiok m=a ni jiane.
m = o kw o + H k cl + H m o - jiw o g m o -a m
I-P res a g a in add 6 - w in e 6 -P 2 e n te r

I kept adding strong wine.

(31) tie na tie lu ma jiraba ma njwap.

tie no tie lu me jid b b a mb jw a b
7 -p o s itio n w ith 7 -p o s itio n 5 -h e a d be s p in me sk y

At that moment, my head was spinning.

(32) e-nca kel na biy-aaqga m=a tera jiwaij = e

le-ncb kel no be-bbqgb H+ m = a ter jiwaq = e
INF-come add with 8-Def RelCl-I-P2 first take-RELCL

fag biz = a ter bo le-dump fag a njwaijmalmt.

fag h + biza = a ter bo le-dumb fag a
place RELCL-we-P2 first be Loc-dance where Qual Ndjong-Melen
I was adding to w hat I had originally drunk back when we were at the
first party along the edge of Ndjong-Melen [neighborhood of Yaounde].

(33) ma = me na te te te te te.
mb = me no
I be (chg) with
I couldn’t control myself anymore, had no more strength.

(34) ki na gkul m a= bi foga na a a ma =

ke no qkul mb = bii fog nb mb =
Neg with 9-force I seize 9-wisdom that I

ji = k bur) ma ko ko e-ja si.

ji = g + H bui] H + mb ko ko e-ja si
ask-SUBj 7-place RelCl-I go go 5-sleep 1-ground
I didn’t still have enough intelligence to ask where I could go lie
down.

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 (35) ma = me no m=o nigo nigo no mpizo
ma = me na m = o n ig o + h n ig o + H no m p iz o

I b e (c h g ) th a t I-P r e s r e tu r n r e tu r n w ith back

ko njwagmolint.
ko njwaijmalmt
go Ndjong-Melen
I wanted to retrace my steps, go back to Ndjong-Melen.

(36) bo-Jwo b-aq bit mo no jii mo = ke bo no

bo-jwo b-ar) bii ma na jee ma = ke ba no
2-friend 2-my seize me that 9-arrival I N eg be with

mbi mo = me jwaga no bwo.

mbi h + ma = me jwag no bwa
3-sort R e l C l -I be(chg) listen with them
My friends stopped me just before the point where I wouldn’t have been able to
hear [heed?] them anymore.

(37) ma==
mo nco
nco numa
numa fyal
fyal le-fumo ma mo-wala ma 161
ma = nco num a fy a l le-fum mo mo-wala ma 161
I com e a ls o e x it Loc-3-evening 3Assoc 6-hour Poss three

m-a mane.
m-a man
6-Qual morning
I headed out into the night, at 3 o’ clock in the morning.

(38) y= o se ntaq tamo fum.

y=o se ntap tarn fum
7 sub-Pres Perf cross middle 3-night
It was already past midnight.

(39) mo = jwabora nci.

ma = jwabara nci
I tangle 3-path
I got muddled and lost my way.

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 (40) m = a = numb = e nags nci ma ko njwogmalind = e.
m = a = numb = e nag ncf + H ma ko
I-NEG-know-NEG still 3-path-RELCL 3Assoc go Ndjong-Melen-RELCL
I didn’t know anymore which road went to Ndong-Melen.

(41) m a= me nigo twagaba fag a biyima si.

ma = me nigo twagaba fag + H a
I be (chg) return ? where-RELCL Qual Biyima Si

I ended up going toward Biyima Si.

e-ko, m=o go ko r)ga, mwa fa-fok ma

le-ko m=o gO +H ko + H gga mwa fa-fog H + ma

iNF-gO I-Pres Prog go this 1-small DlM-9-wisdom RelCl-I

•V
nigo JI je m-e-lu.
nigo ji je ma-le-lu
return be (att) arrive me- Loc-head
As I was going, a rem nant of wisdom came to me.

(43) m o= yaga na "a kye !

ma = yag na
I recognize that Excl
I realized "Uh oh!

(44) yi m= o go ko nag me ?"

yi m=o gd + H ko + H nap me
where I-Pres Prog go still that
Where am I going?"

(45) m a= fa nigo na mpizo.

ma = fa nigo no mpizo
I Hort return with back
I need to retrace my steps (go back the way I came).

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 (46) ka ji nigo na mpizo, m=o nca nigo jwabara.
ka ji nigo no mpizo m= o nca + h nigo + h jwabara
Cons be (att) return with back I-Pres come retrun tangle
Trying to return, I got muddled again.

(47) enci le ji = o ko je e-njap ba-juq fag

le-ncf le ji = o ko je le-njab bo-juq fag
Loc-3-path Im p f 9Sub-Pres go arrive Loc-3-house 2-party where

biz = a nigo ko obili.

biza = a nigo ko obili
we-P2 return go Obili
I arrived on the path that led to where we were at the party in Obili
[the second party].

(48) e-jwabara, ma jwabara O ga, mo bo me no mpwo bog

le - j w a b a r a ma = a jw a b a r a D ga ma ba me no bor)
iN F -ta n g le I-P r e s ta n g le t h is I be be w ith there

le-nca e-dind ma kan.

le-nco le-dmde
INF-come Loc-courtyard
Since I was all muddled, I stumbled into somebody’s compound.

(49) mpyo m§ bumbela be le-mo-wala ma 161

mpyo me bumbala le -m d -w a la ma 161

1-dog be (chg) get. up ? L o c -6 -h o u r P oss th r e e

m-a mane.
m-a man
6 -Q ual morning
The dog suddenly woke up, just like that, at three o’clock in the
morning.

(50) mpyo go bwambala.

mpyo go bwambala
1-dog Prog bark
He barked and barked.
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 (51) b-aagga b-ur nde le bagala bafila jale.
b-aagga b-ud nde le bagala
2-Def 2-person be (loc) Impf keep
The people were those who watch over government officials,

(52) bw-ur ba mo-wuza nde ba na mo-kwag no kube

bo-ud bo mo-waza nde bo no mo-kwag no kube
2-person be 6-northemer be (loc) be with 6-lance with bow

mo bumbala numa te le-bage.

mo bumbala numa te le-baag
6Sub get. up also Loc 5-side
The men from the North with their spears and their bows, they also
quickly got up in their turn.

(53) mya bw = a jwok ba-mpyo le bwambal = e, bwo ter

mya h + bwo = a jwag bo-mpyo le bwambala = e bwo ter
3-time RELCL-they-P2 hear 2-dog Im p f bark-RELCL they first

leg na "jibale! jibale ! jibale !”

leg na jibala jibala jibala
say that thief thief thief
When they heard the dogs barking, to started to say "Thief! Thief!
Thief!”

(54) e-konoko, be nump ggwala yaunt.

e -k o n o k o be num b g g w a la yaund

L o c -tr u th you (pi) know 9 -c ity Y aounde

Truly, you know the city of Yaounde.

y
(55) le-mo-wala m-aagga a bo tc be jwok a fus si lal
le - m o -w a la m -a a g g a a bo te
L o c -6 -h o u r 6 - D ef P2 be L oc

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 camorun wus.
w-ez
Cameroon 3-our
At that time,the governor of the central province had
established strong laws.

(56) fus si a centre a momant mo lal.

(57) e-fu no mo = numba bwagola le-bokol.

e-ju na ms = numb bwagala le-bokol
5-sake that I know explain Loc-Kol
(I w ant to explain in Kol.)

(58) lu a te a let] no bwo bi jibolo, bwo

lu a te a leg na bwo bi + H jibala bwo
5-head P2 Loc P2 say that they-PRES seize thief they

ju = go.
ju = ga
k ill-S u B jP L

The head [governor] said that if they catch a thief, they should kill
him.

(59) mo bo me le nco jabo no jibolo ms.

ma bo me le nco ja b na j ib a la me
I be b e (c h g ) Im p f com e c a ll th a t th ie f th a t

I am the one being called ‘thief.’

(60) hssh jibole !

heeh j ib a la
th ie f

"Thief!"

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 (61) heeh jibale !
heeh jibala
thief
"Thief!"

(62) b-ur ma wol le-mo-wala ma 161 mane

b-ud me wol le-mo-wala ma 161 mane
2-person be(chg) get. out Loc-6-hour Poss three 3-moming

e-nco wa na be-bila na ma-fa na ma-baak.

e-nco wa no be-bila no mo-fa no mo-baag
IN F -c o m e put w ith 8 - c lu b w ith 6 -m a ch ete w ith 6 - k n if e

The people got up at 3 o’clock, bringing with them their clubs,

machetes, and knives.

(63) ma-jiok mo mw = a ba ma le-lu = we, ki m w=a

mo-jiwog mo mo = a bo ma le-lu = e ke mo = a
6-wine 6 Assoc 6 sub-P2 be me Loc-5-head-RELCL N eg 6 sub-P2

ba le wu ki mw = a ba no ma tuga nag le
bo le wu ke mo = a bo no ma tug nag le
be Impf leave Neg 6 sub-P2 be with I be (neg) still Impf

nump naba m a= me fagara ma-fa no mo-kwag.

numb naba ma = me fagara mo-fa no mo-kwar)
know because I be (chg) between 6-machete with 6-lance
The wine which was in my head, where it went, I don’t know, or how,
but I was already between machetes and spears.

(64) bw-ara go leg na "a !

b o -a r a go le g na
2 -w o m a n Prog sa y th a t E x cl

The women said, "Ah ha!

(65) bo-kuba b-ize ma le dimp woga, muunti nga

b o -k u b a b - iz me le d im b w og m u u n ti nga

2 -c h ic k e n 2 -o u r b e (c h g ) Im p f lo s e here m iste r t h is

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 da gga bo le ji-55ijga bo nca jibs biza bo-kuba."
da qga ba le ji-aaqga bo nco jfb5 biza bo-kuba
1-father this be Impf 1-Def be come steal us 2-chicken
Our chickens keep going missing, he is the one who has come to steal
them."

(66) m a= tuga nump qke m a= ji tel si

ma = tug numb qke ma = ji tel si
I be (neg) know or I be (att) organize 1-ground

qke ma = ji tul jwop.

ljke ma = ji tul jwob
or I be (att) 7: s^y
sky
I didn’t know anymore where I was, below or above.

(67) fok ma se dimba ma.

fog me se dimb ma
9-wisdom be (chg) Perf lose me
Wisdom had left me.

(68) lu ma se Jwal jwabara ma jwap na ma-jiok

lu me se Jwal jwabara ma jwob no mo-jiwog
5-head be (chg) P erf directly tangle me sky with 6-wine

na by-ar) by-es.
no be-ar) be-ez
with 8-fear 8-all
My head was all muddled with wine and fear.

(69) ko je e te, qka nciimbe tuga le waza mwa

ka je e te ijka nciimbe tug le waza mwa
go arrive Fut Loc then God be (neg) Impf forget 1-small

w-DDIJga m-ur nde le jaant le-ba-tetele b = e,

w-aaijga mo-ud H+ nde le jaand le-bo-tetele b-e = e
1-Def 1-person RELCL-be (loc) Impf walk Loc-2-honest 2-his-RELCL

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 *
twamba w-aga a ba le di fag si w-aagga obili
twamba w-ar) a ba le di fag sf w-55i)ga
1-elder 1-my P2 be Impf stay where 1-ground 3-Def Obili

ma nca lag te.

me nca lag te
be (chg) come happen Loc
Arriving on the scene, since God does not forget those who walk
in his righteous ways, was my elder who lived on the edge of
Obili, just passing by.

(70) ji = o ka dek nji b-ur a ntuntuma.

ji = o ka + H deg + H nji b-ud a ntutuma
he-PRES Cons see only 2-person Qual crowd
He saw a crowd.

(71) Jio ka dek ma tama mo-kwag a na ma-fa.

ka deg ma tarn mo-kwai) no mo-fa
he Cons see me middle 6-lance with 6-machete
He saw me in the middle of spears and machetes.

(72) Jio = = nca bu komp ft ^

awa * f
(d-inaJ * *
bw = u bo njaba
nca bu d-ina H + bwo = e bo njab
he come many 5-name RELCL-they-Pl be 3-house

ma nde bo samadi) sa m ad i!
ma nde bo
me be (loc) be Saturday Saturday
He cried out, "Oh no, (they called me Samedi [Saturday])
Samedi!"

(73) tuga biz = a lwandaba ba le-ncag na ncaa

tug biz = a lwandaba bo le-ncai) no nca Oga
be (neg) we-P2 just be Loc-9-dance with now this
Weren't we just at the party now?

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 (74) wo ka ko byek mw-ara ms nee ?"
wo ka ko byeg mo-ara ma nee
you Cons go provoke 1-woman lPoss who
Did you go and bother someone’s wife?"

(75) ms = ns "tugs lobs mw-ara me.

ma = na tug lob + h mw-ara me
I that be (neg) 3-problem 1-woman that
I said that, "It’s not women problems.

(76) a mw-ara a=j = e bs ns mo-kwaqs ns ms-fs.

a mo-ara a = ji = e + H bo no mo-kwarj no mo-fa
Ques 1-woman NEG-be (att)-NEG be with 6-lance with 6-machete
Women don’t have spears and machetes.

(77) w=o dek ntaqgs ?

wo = o deg ntar)
you (Sg)-PRES see like.that
You see?

(78) bw = o se nigo ncs nigo ms sa

bwo = o se + H nigo + h nca + h nigo + h ma sa
they-PRES Perf return come return me 7-thing

sis bo me mpwo ne sis bs ms me

sis bo me mpwo ne sis ba ma me
7-different be that 9-accusation 9-that 9-another be I be (chg)

•N
ns ms = JI jibsls."
na ma = ji jibala
that I be (att) thief

They’re accusing me of something else, of being a thief."

(79) "s !"

"Oh !"

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 <o
jiwaq numa cila le-mo-ku naba ne ancogo ba

e,
jiwag numa cila le-mo-ku naba ne ancogo bo
he take also quickly Loc-6-foot because this NegP3 be

jaba no bur) mo ko jwabara nci me.

jaba no bur) H+ ma ko jwabara nci me
far with 7-place RelCl-I go tangle 3-path that
He took off running because the second house where we were wasn’t far
from the point where I lost my way.

✓
ji = o ko jap mw-ara a bwar bo-kwondo WU
**

wu
O'

O'

jab mw-ara H+a

<3

bwad
II

bo-kwondo
he-PRES go call 1-woman RelCl-P2 wear 2-stripes there

na "ncaa ko cflo, ncaa ko dek!

na nco ko cilo nco ko deg
that come (Imp) go quickly come (Imp) go see
He went to call the woman who wore stripes there, saying "Come quick!

(82) samadi ba nde koga tarn mo-kwaq na ma-fa.

bo nde kog tarn mo-kwai] no mo-fa
Saturday be be (loc) here middle 6-lance with 6-machete
Come see Samedi in the middle of spears and machetes.

(83) ji = o se jak nci naba ma-jiwok ji = i

ji = o se jag nci naba mo-jiwog H+ji = e
he-PRES Perf (be) unaware 3-path because 6-wine RELCL-he-Pl

jiwel wog = e."

jiwel wog = e
drink here-RELCL
He went the wrong way because of the wine that he drank here."

(84) mw-ara ne numa ma nca cila.

mw-ara ne numa me nco cflo
1-woman this also be (chg) come quickly
That woman also came running.

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 (85) qka ji = a ba acfgokuk nane njum acfgokuk nane.
rjka Ji = a bo acigokug nane njum acfgokug nane
as he-P2 be police big 1-husband police big
Since she was a member of the police [or military] as was her husband.

( 86 ) bwo nca let] na b-ur ba-ne na "mwa b = iyo dek

bwo nco lcr) no b-ud bo-ne na mwa be = o deg
they come say with 2-person 2-this that 1-small you-PRES see

gga, bizo bop ji numba J13, tigaleti numba jia

t)ga bizo bor) ji numb tigaleti numb jia
this we (excl) place? be (att) know him specifically know him

two le-Juga d-c.

two e-jug d-e
even 5-stalk 5-his
They came and told the people that "The child that you see here, we
know him personally, as well as his origins.

(87) bizo bop a = h = e jwagara jia le-mbi a ne jfbd.

bizo bor) a=e jwagara+ H jia le-mbi a ne jibo
we (excl) there Neg suspect him Loc-3-sort Qual that theft
We have never suspected him of stealing.

(88) le-konoko, ji = o se jw abara nci rjka ni jiwel

le-konoko Jt = o se + H jwabara+ h nci rjka ni jiwel
Loc-truth he-PRES Perf tangle 3-path as enter drink

ma-jiok.
m o -jiw o g
6-wine
Truly, he got muddled because he got drunk.

(89) bizo numa be ya jia ma-jiok."

bizo numa bo yo jia ma-jiwog
we (excl) also be give him 6-wine
We’re the ones who gave him the wine.

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 (90) na mya bwo nca bir m = c, ma = ji ki
no mya + H bwo nca bid ma = e ma = ji ke
with 3-time- RelCl they come leave me-RELCL I be (att) Neg

nag numba bog m=a ]3 = e.

nag numb bog H+ m = a bo = e
still know place RelCl-I-P2 be-RELCL
When they let me go, I didn’t know anymore where I was.

(91) bw = a ko numa bwik ma si.

bwo = a ko numa bwig ma si
they-P2 go also keep me ground
They made me lie down.

(92) le-man a te, m=a wol.

le-man a te m=a wol
LOC-3-moming P2 Loc I-P2 get.up
The next morning, I got up.

(93) ma = na "ki nag na two d-ul dw-ap le-sis, biza

ma = na ke nag no two d-ulaga dw-ob le-sis H+ biza
I that Neg still with even 5-Indef 5-day 5-another RELCL-we

na ma-jTwok e kwo bwam = e."

no mo-jiwog e kwo bwama = e
with 6-wine Fut again meet-RELCL
I said, "Never again will wine and I meet."
h—‘
o>

A
CD

(94) te ba a nca SI.

te bo lag a nco si
LOC be 5-speech P2 come finish
Here is the end to my story.

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 10 The Serpent and the Antelope

told by Barthelemy Bangbot (of Ngulmakong), transcription help and translation (into

French) by Benoit Meboma Moankoen (ofLeh)

ma = ji jiwarj WO kan le-bi-sa biza nde

ma = jf jiwai) wo kan le-be-sa H+ biza nde
I want take you 3-folk, tale Loc-8-thing RELCL-we be (loc)

le dek wok na caa-qga na ba-miyar) b-iz = e.

le deg wog no ca-qga no bo-miyoq b-fz = e
Im p f see here with now-here with 2-sibling 2-our-RELCL
‘I will tell you a story about w hat we see today with our brothers.

(2) kan w-aagga a ba na mpwam, mpu nca

kan w-55i]g3 a bo na mpwam mpu nca
3-folk, tale 3-Def P2 be that 1-python rain come

nwi, mpwam a jiwaqa mpu le nca nwi,

nwi mpwam a jiwar) mpu le nca nwi
fall (rain) 1-python P2 take rain Impf come fall (rain)

te ji = a ba le sag mpwo = o:.

te H+ji = a bo le sag mpu = e
Loc RELCL-he-P2 be Impf look.for rain-RELCL
This folk tale is about a serpent who was looking for rain before the
rain came.

V
(3) te ji = a bo le sar) jo = o:.
te H + jr = a bo le sar) jwo = e
LOC RELCL-he-P2 be Im p f look.for 7 obj-RelCl
He was looking for something.

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 (4) te ji = a ba le ko m le-mbil = e.
te H+ji = a bo le ko nfigk le-mbil = e
Loc RELCL-he-P2 be Impf go enter Loc-hole-RELCL
He went into a hole.

(5) J1 = 0 ko sag ntag a ba te, yo

ji = o ko + H sag +H ntag H+ a bo te yo + H
he-PRES go look.for 1-rat RelCl-P2 be Loc 7 0 bj-RelCl

m = a = numb = e.
m = a = numb = e
I-NEG-know-NEG
If he was looking for a rat, that I don’t know.

(6) mya ji = 6 ka ni mo ko faraba.

mya h + jt = o ka ni me ko faraba
3-time RELCL-he-PRES Cons enter be ? go stuck, wedged
After he went in, he got stuck.
<o

(7) ka dek ba dega cijia.

II

jr = o ka + H deg + H bo + H deg + H cipa

he-PRES Cons see be see hare
He saw a hare.
<o

(8) se ja jiwa bo-Jwanda bo-ba, nwa le-mbil

II

ji = 6 se ja jiwa bo-fwanda bo-ba nwa le-mbil

he-PRES Perf sleep there 2-week 2-two there Loc-3-hole

y-e-n
y-e-ne
3-his-that
He had to sleep in that hole for two weeks.

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 (9) ji = o dek le-kan ms je .
ji = 6 deg + H e-kan me je
he-PRES see 5-antelope be (chg) arrive
He saw an antelope coming towards him.

(10) jis = ns ls-kan ns "ls-kan miysq w-aqs,

jia = no e-kan na e-kan miyai] w-ap
he with 5-antelope that 5-antelope 1-brother 1-my

o ms = yum wok le-mbile.

o ma = yum w og le-mbil
I (be) stuck here Loc-3-hole
He said to the antelope, "Antelope my brother, here I am stuck in
this hole.

(11) nca wuls ms!"

nca wul ma
come (Imp) take.out me
Come get me out!"

(12) e-kan ms nco, ncs sa ns qgwan y-e

e-kan me nco, nco sa no qgwan y-e
5-antelope be(chg) come come do with 3-paw 3-his

ns ss SS SS SS SS.
no sa sa sa sa sa
with do do do do do
The antelope came and began to dig with his paw. Dig, dig, dig,
dig.....

(13) mpwam wuls jiun.

mpwam wul jiun
1-python take, out 9-body
The serpent got his body out.

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 (14) df df df df di, mpwama no le-kan ni "qka
mpwam no le-kan na gka
1-python with 5-antelope that as

w=6 nde nwa ne, me ji jak jwok nca,

w=o nde + H nwa ne me ji jag jw og nca
you-PRES be (loc) there that I (em ph) be (att) hear 9-hunger

m=o do wo."
m =o do + H wo
I-PRES eat you (sg)

After a time, the serpent said to the antelope, "Since you’re here,
and I’m so hungry, I’m going to eat you."

(15) e-kan no mpwama "a ke !

e-kan no mpwam
5-antelope with 1-python
The antelope said, "What!

(16) mfyaq w-aq, m=e wula wo le-be.

nuyag w-ap m=e WUl + H wo le-be
1-brother 1-my I-Pl take, out you (sg) Loc-9-pit
My brother, I just got you out of the hole.

(17) w=o ka nigo leg na w=o do ma

w=o ka + H nigo + h leg na w=o do + H ma
you-PRES Cons return tell that you-PRES eat me

naba na je?"
naba no je
because with what
Why do you say that you’re going to eat me?"

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 (18) ji9 = ns "m = e ji ns m = o do wo."
jia = na m=e ji na m = o do + H wo
he that I-Pl want that I-Pres eat you (sg)
He said, "I w ant to eat you."

(19) kul ms ka ncs je, wugsrs mpo,

kul me ka nca je
1-tortoise be (chg) Cons come arrive

wugsrs mpo.

The tortoise came, in his way as tortoises do (ideophone).

(20) "ji nde lags ?"

je nde lag
what be (loc) happen
"What’s going on?"

(21) J13 = ns H
m = o' go wul mpwam wok lebe Oga.
JW= na m=o go wul mpwam wog le-be qga
he that I-Pres Prog take, out 1-python here Loc-9-pit here
He answered [the antelope], "I was getting the serpent out of this
hole."

(22) "mpwam bo wogs ?"

mpwam bo wok
python be here
"The serpent was here?"

(23) "ss."
"Yes."

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 (24) "a ji nde ka laga?"
a je nde ka lag
Ques what be (loc) Cons happen
"What happened then?"

(25) "mpwam na ji = o do ma."

mpwam na ji = o do + H ma
1-python that he-PRES eat me
"The serpent said that he is going to eat me."

(26) "mpwam ba wok le-mbil ga?"

mpwam bo wog le-mbil gga
1-python be here Loc-3-hole this
"The serpent was here in this hole?"

(27) "aa."
"Yes."

(28) "mpwam w=u ba woga?"

mpwam w=e bo wog
1-python you-Pl be here
"Serpent, you were here?"

(29) "aa."
"Yes."

(30) "ha
"ha kwa
kwa nigo ni,
ni, ma dega
ma dega pka
rjka w
W== uU b = e."
fa kwo nigo ni ma deg qka H+ w = e bo = e
Hort again return enter I see as RELCL-you-Pl
"Go back in so that I can see how you were."

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 (31) mpwam bigala jiun, bigala bigala bigala bfgalo.
mpwam bigala jiun bigala bigala bigala bigala
1-python enter body enter enter enter enter
The serpent got his body back in, little by little.

(32) nwa bo W= U b = e?"

nwa bo H+ w = e bo = e
there be RELCL-you-Pl be-RELCL
"You were like that?"

(33) "aa."
"Yes."

(34) "ha ka wu."

fa ka wu
Hort Cons come, out
"Ok, come out."

(35) mpwam ma ka ji wu, m6aj!

mpwam ma ka ji wu
1-python Cons be come
The serpent wanted to come out, but wham! he got stuck again.

(36) kul na le-kan na "njam joaijga ba ne."

kul no e-kan na njam j-oapga ne
tortoise with 5-antelope that 7-good.moment 7-Def be that
The tortoise said to the antelope, "It’s a good time to leave."

(37) ntaija ma ji dek jwa na ba-rmy5ij b-aq

ntag ma ji deg jwo no bo-rmyaij b-ar)
like, that I be (att) see 7 0 bj with 2-brother 2-my

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 na caa gga.
no ca gga
with now this
I see the same thing with our brothers now.

(38) le-bu ji ma fera le-ma-mbuk.

e-bu ji me fer le-me-mbug
5-many be (att) be ? close Loc-4-prison
Many are shut up in prisons.

na miydq w-ag, cik be-ntwomp tuk le jtwap,

na miyai) w-ag cig H + be-ntwomp tug le jiwar)
that 1-brother 1-my 7-life 7Assoc-8-fight be (neg) Impf (be) good

cik be-ntwomp tuk le Jiwaq.

cig H + be-ntwomp tug le jiwar)
7-life 7Assoc-8-fight be(neg) Impf (be) good
To my brother [I say] a life of fighting isn’t good.

(40) m-ur ka jwok.

m-ud ke jwog
1-person Neg hear
He doesn’t hear.

(41) jia = sa r)ka sa ma jwok biza nde

sa t)ka H + sa me jwog biza H + nde
he do as RELCL-7-thing be (chg) hear us RELCL-be (loc)

ko kok le-ba-mijwan = e, sa g ka sa ma
ko kog le-be-mijwan = e sa t)ka H + sa me
go here Loc-8-church-RELCL do as RELCL-7-thing be (chg)

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 jwog = £.
jw o g = e
hear-RELCL

He acts as if he hears us at church, acting as if it is heard.

ko bwe no ji = o nigo kwo ko sa bizo

ke bwe na ji = o nigo + H kwo + H ko + H sa biza
Neg long-time that he-PRES return again go do us

y=e ka le bir no bwo ka ko no

y=e ka + H le + H bir + H na bwo ka ko na
NonRef-P2 Cons Impf leave that they Cons go that

e-ko lo-mo-mbuk qka bwo nde ko-n

e-ko le-me-mbug qka bwo nde ko-ne
INF- Loc-4-prison as they be (loc) go-that
go
Not long after, he returns again, leaving us and going back to prison.

(43) te bo kan w-ar) nde fi-

te bo kan w-ar) nde si
Loc be 3-folk, tale 3-my be (loc) finish
Here is the end of my folk tale.

(44) bwo bo bo-mpwam.

bwo bo bo-mpwam
they be 2-python
They are serpents.’

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 Kol-English Lexicon

A - a

a mkr. Qualificative Associative Marker trunk’.

(Q ual). adiirjgu P l badupgu. n. toad,

a interr. Interrogative (Ques). adwam PI badw am . n. frog,

a= TAM. Distant past (P2). afifi n. deaf mute,

a - =e TAM. Perfective negative (N eg). afiyd P l b a ffy o . n. lemon,

aba n. vulture. akaka A lt [kfka]. n. colonial times,

abul fuz v. be impotent. aja cfnd Pl b a ja cfn d . n. waterhole.

abw5mb ndale P tb a b w o m b n d a le . n. alkol n. alcohol (general).

mud wasp, M u. n. hit.

abyolo PI b a b y o lo . n. 2/2. traitor.

ampfga P l bam pxga. n. dragonfly.

ace laabe n. tarantula,

ampfzampfz adv. backwards. Etym:

acicene Ph b a c fc e n e . n. star, from mpizo 'back (of something)'.

acigokug n. police/military. Lit: 'cutters- -an Sg: m w a n . P l bw an. n. 1/2. child,

509

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 anara ayo mpam

son. Etynv *jana (1). arjkorjgo n. free-for-all fight. [Note:

anara PL b a n a r a . n. bedbug. everyone gets involved; could become

ance TAM. Perfective past negative a feud on the village or tribal levelj

(NegPI or NegP2). -ara Sg: m w a r a . PL b w a r a . n. 1/2.

ancogo TAM. Perfective far past negative woman, wife, m w ara m a Jw og PL

b w a ra b a m a jw o g . n. principal wife,
(NegP3).

first wife, m w ara m w an PL b w a r a

andaga PL b a n d a g a . n. okra.
bo bw an. n. daughter-in-law. Lit:
antakntak PL b a n t a k n t a k . n. beggar,
'woman child'.

-ajia PL b a jia . n. bee.

-asisim PL b a s f s im . n. demon, evil spirit.
-ajia kwan PL b a j ia kw an. n. swarm.
[Note: no singular?J

Lit. bee honey [Note: no singularj

atimtim v. (be) myopic, (be) shortsighted.
a jlD Z PL b a jiD z . n. onion, garlic.
awubo PL b a w u b a . n. dove.
-ar) gen. my.
ayino gkwenjl PL b a y in a m a q k w e n ji.

-arj PL b y a q . n. 8. fear,
n. ring (finger),

a r jk a j i j a PL b a q k o j ij o . n. army ant,
ayo mpam n. grandmother.

soldier ant.

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 ba bambala

B - b

ba adv. a little . bab v. (b e ) b a d .

ba v. c u t. Etynv *bed ‘c u t, b r e a k .’ badaba v. p erch ,

ba num. tw o ( 2 ). bagabo n. liv e r ,

ba conj. and. [Note: u s e d w it h h u m a n bagala v. k e e p , sto r e , w a tc h .

n o u n p h r a se s j Nominalization: m b e g a l a (9 )

ba v. m a rry . Etynv * b a d . ‘p r o te c t io n .’

bagara v. jo in , p u t to g e th e r .
ba Sg: e b a . Pl m oba. n. 5/6. m a r r ia g e

(n o t c e r e m o n y ) , s e x u a l r e la tio n s, bal Pl m o m p a l [ m a m p a l]. n. 9 / 6 . b o w l.

-baag Sg: e b a a g . Pl m obaag. n. 5/6. bala v. fin d a g a in .

shoulder. [Note: also used as 'beside'7 bam n. scar.

-baag Sg: e b a a g . Pl m obaag. n. 5/6. bam v. roar.

k n ife . Etynv * b a k a (5 ) .
bamba Pl m abam ba n. g r a ssh o p p e r ,

bab n. h a llw a y , s m a ll c o u r ty a r d . [Note:

bambala v. s h o u t a t. Etynv fr o m bam

A ls o u s e d fo r a h o u s e b u ilt o n th e
'to r o a r? ’

o u ts k ir ts o f a b ig v illa g e J

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 ban ber

ban PL m o m p a n [m a m p a n ]. t l 9/6. is o la tio n ),

b u tto c k ,
be n. p o tter's k iln .

ban PL m o b a n . n. d iffic u lty . be PL m o m p e [m a m p e ]. n. 9/6. 1 . p it.

band PL m a b a n d . t l g iz z a r d . 2 . la tr in e , t o ile t, b a th in g p la c e .

3 . th ic k e t,
-banda Sg: e b a n d a . PL m o b a n d a . n.

be pro. y o u (p l).
5 / 6 . h u t, c a m p ,

beb v. b e lc h .
banda v. g o w e ll.

bed PL m o m p e d . n. 9/6. c h e st,

banda aux. r e a lly .

bed n. la d d er .
bandald v. in v ite , a s s e m b le (p e o p le ).

beda [b e ra ] adj. b ig , im p o r ta n t,
bar) t l b e a m , rafter.

ben n. e x te n d e d p a te r n a l fa m ily . Etynv

bar v. c lim b , a s c e n d . [Note: a s in a h illj

* b a n ja ‘f a m ily .’
bara v. g r e et.

ben [b in ] v. lift.
-bada ne mpumb [b a ra ] Sg: e b a d a

bencimbe n. a rm y .
ne m pum b. PL m o b a d a m a m pum b.

tl 5/6. fo r e h e a d . Etynv p a d a ( 9 ,1 1 ) . benje v. a n sw e r , re p ly .

b e = pro. 8 su b je c t beg mbaal v. tra ck . Lit. f o l lo w tr a c e s .

be num. tw o ( w h e n c o u n tin g in ber v. p u t, p la c e , se t. Etyrrv c a u s o f bar?

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 bez biil

* b e e k ‘p u t.’ beg v. fo llo w .

bez v. s la u g h te r , k ill (a n im a l fo r
bajum PL majum. n. g a ll b la d d e r ,

b u tc h e r in g ),
bale n. b rea d ,

biza pro. u s.
bamb lwal n. sc o r p io n ,

biza pro. w e.
ban v. r e fu se .

biza pro. w e (in c lu s iv e ).

bar)go PL babarjgo. n. 7/8. j a w . Etynv
biza pro. u s (in c lu s iv e ).
*banga.

bizo pro. w e (e x c lu s iv e ) .
bagkol ba miz TV e y e b r o w ,

be v. c u lt iv a te , s o w , p la n t.
bataba v. la n d , a lig h t,

be adj. w rong.
bi v. sta r tle , su r p r ise .

be PL mobe. n. 9/6. d oor.

-bi PL mobi. n. e x c r e m e n t. [Note: n o

beb n. sc a ffo ld in g . sin g u la r j Etynv * b n .

beb v. w o u n d (a n im a l). bi v. k n e a d .

bee num. s e c o n d (o r d in a l n u m b e r ). bi ma mpanj v. c la p (h a n d s ),

bela v. im ita te , r e s e m b le . Nominalizatiorv bigala v. e n ter,

mpela (9 ) ‘im it a t io n .’ bii v. r e c e iv e .

bemb v. w o r ry .
bill v. l . s e iz e . 2 . tra p (a n im a l o r fish ).

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 biila ebu

biila v. c a tc h in th e a ct. u d der. Etynv * b c c d e ( 5 ) ‘te a t, b r e a st,

u d d e r .’
bila n. s a d n ew s.

bol PL mabol. n. c o la n u t.
bfla n. c lu b , c u d g e l.

bog n. 7/8. th e r e , p la c e .
bind Sg: ebind. PL mobind. n. 5/6.
bog majug PL bebot) majug. n. 7/8.
te s tic le ,

c e m e te r y . Lit. p la c e g r a v e ,
bir v. le a v e to o n e sid e ,

bag PL bebag. n. 7/8. lip .

bisin PL bobfsin. n. 1/2. p o t (fo r w a te r ),

b51 n. b a ld .
biya n. b e e r .

-bam Sg7 ebam. PL mobam. n. 5/6. p la n k .

biya v. (b e ) d e fe a t e d , (b e ) s e iz e d . Passive
(B e g n e h a s lo n g v o w e l.)
o / b i i l 'se iz e , trap'

baag PL mompaag [m a m p a a g ]. rt 9 /6 .
biyez n. d is r e sp e c t.

h oe. Etynv * b a g a .
biyag pro. y o u (p l) e m p h a tic ,

bag PL bobag. n. 1/2. a g a m a liz a r d (r e d ­

bfzaba v. (b e ) p a tie n t,
h e a d e d ).

bo v. b e . Alt ba. Etynv *b a.

brfk n. m u d b lo c k . Etynv b o r r o w in g fr o m

bog n. r e c e p tio n .
E n g lish ,

boga v. se p a r a te (in tr ), b e c o m e se p a r a te d ,
bu v. (b e ) a b u n d a n t, m a n y .

-bol Sg: lebol. PL mobol. n. 5/6. b r e a st,

-bu Sg: ebu n. 5. ro o f, th a tc h , (n o p lu r a l)

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 -bub -bura

-bub Sg: le b u b . Pl: m a b iib . n. 5/6. sp id e r . bugo n. fa ith , h o p e ,

Etynv * b o b e (5 ) . buguba v. p ro sp e r . [Note: N u m e r o u s

bubo v. ro a st. d escen d a n ts)

bu bu t l m any. [Note: o n ly p o s tv e r b a l a s b u g u b a Pl m o b u g u b a . n. 9 / 6 . h o n o r .

th e o b je c t o f a p r e p o s itio n j b u l Pl b a b u l, n. r o tte n th in g .

b u b u l n. c r o w n ( o f h e a d ).
b u l5 v. m u m b le .

bug PL m a b u g . t l p ip e -s te m .
b u lu adv. m a n y , a lo t. Etynv *bud

bu g v. b r e a k (tr ). Nominalizadon: m puga ‘b e c o m e p le n t ifu l o r n u m e r o u s .’

(9 ) ‘fr a c tu r e .’ bum o Pl bobum o. n. 1/2. b a ll, sp o r ts.

bug bw az n. c lo d . Lit. b r e a k d irt.

bum o Pl m p u m o . n. 7/10. fru it,

-bug Sg: e b u g . Pl m obug. n. 5/6. w a is t,

b u m o fw en Pl m p u m o fw e n . n. 7/10.

h ip .
k e r n e l ( o f c o m , m a iz e ) Lit. f m it c o m .

bugs v. a c c u s e . [Note: im p lie d th a t th e

bum s Pl m abum a. n. 9/6. k n o t.

o n e a c c u s e d is i n n o c e n t j
b u m b sla v. g e t u p .

NominalizatioTU m b u g e (1 ) ‘a c c u s e r ,’
bu g n. 7/8. p la c e (s p e c ific ),

m p u g a g a ( 1 ) a c c u s a tio n ,

bur v. b u b b le u p , b o il (w a te r ).
b u g sla v. b e lie v e , h o p e .

-bura Sg: e b u r a . Pl m obura. n. 5/6.

b u g sla n. p r a ise .

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 bura bwama

s w e e t p o ta to , ebwa na ku. s o le o f fo o t

bura v. m ix . bwaand V. c r e a te , fo tm d .

butabd v. in c u b a te , s e t o n e g g s . bwaand V. wait. Nominalization: mpwand

-buug Sg: lebuug. PL mobuug. n. 5/6. (9 ) ‘d e la y ,’ mpwand ‘p a t ie n c e ’

(B e g n e ).
m e lo n .

bwad [b w a r] v. w e a r c lo t h e s . Causative
buumb PL mpuumb. n. 7/10. branch,

bw ed ‘to c lo t h e ’ (B e g n e )
fro n d .

bwag v. b e b ig . Nominalization: mpwaag

buund PL mpuund. n. 7/10. sk in ( o f

( 9 ) ‘fa tn e s s ’ (B e g n e ).
fr u it), s h e ll,

bwagbwag adj. b ig . Etynv r e d u p lic a te d

buund eke Ptbibuund moke. n. 7/8.

fo r m o f th e v e r b ’to b e big',
e g g s h e ll.

bwagaba V. lie dow n. [Note: r e la te d to

buund ewund PL mpuund ewund. n.

m pwag ( 9 ) ‘b e d , c o u c h e t t e ? ’J
7/10. s h e ll ( o f g r o u n d n u t). Lit: 'sh ell

p e a n u t.’ bwagala v. e x p la in .

buund kul PL bebuund bokul. n. 7/8. bwal v. d a n c e . Nominalization: mbwol

s h e ll ( o f tu r tle ). Lit: ’s h e ll tu r tle .’ ( 1 ) ‘d a n c e r .’

buzala v. c o v e r . bwam v. h o e .

-bwa Sg: ebwa. PL mobwa. n. 5/6. s o le . bwama v. m e e t. Nominalization:

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 bwamb bwog

mpwama (9 ) ‘m e e t in g .’ mpwela (9 ) ‘d e b t’ (B e g n e )?

bwamb n. s e n ile p e r so n , bweya adv. everyw here.

bwamb Pl bobwamb. n. 1/2. a d u lt, bwa pro. th e m .

bwamba v. f o llo w (in tim e ). bwig v. k e e p for.

Nominalization: mpwamba (9) bwig n. d itc h .

‘d e s c e n d a n t .’
bw o Pl m obwo. n. 5/6. fo o tp r in t

bwand v. p e e l.
(h u m a n ),

bwaij Pl mebwag. n. 3/4. k n u c k le ,

bwo pro. lO S u b je c t

jo in t. [Note: s a m e w o r d u s e d fo r
bwo pro. th e y .

’w r is t .’]
bwo TAM. D ista n t fu tu r e (F 2 ).

bwarj leku n. a n k le . Lit: 'jo in t o f foot'.

bwog n. 5. knee.

bwara Pl bebwara. n. 7/8. b le s s in g .

bw5 n. b ra in .
bwaz Pl bebwaz. n. 7/8. d irt, s o il.

-bw5m Sg: ebwom n. 5 / 6 . lo g . (Alt. fo r m

bwaz v. b e w e t.
of ebom ‘p la n k ’?)

bwe adv. fo r a lo n g tim e .

bwSbalo v. fe e l (a c t iv e ),

bweg v. b r in g u p (a c h ild ).
bwog Pl mompwdg [m a m p w o g ]. n. 9/6.

bwela v. ta k e r e v e n g e . Nominalization:
m o rta r.

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 bwDg caag

bwog v. h a r v e st, c o lle c t (h o n e y fr o m bya v. b e a r (c h ild ), fa th e r (c h ild ). Etynv

h iv e ) . Etynv * p a k u ( 9 ) ‘h o n e y .’ * b ia d .

bw5g Pl m a b w a g . n. h e a p . bye pro. 8 e m p h a tic .

bwog ebya n. w o m b . byeg v. in ju re, in c ite .

bwom v. rin g (b e ll). byel v. (b e ) b o m .

bwamb v. b e a t (d r u m ). byez v. d e sp ise .

bwamb basag Pl m a b w o m b b a sa g . n. byend Pl m abyend. tv haw k.

te r m ite h ill, bya pro. 8 o b je c t

bwambalo v. b a rk (a s d o g ).
byaq n. b o n e m arrow .

Nominalization: r e la te d to m p w a m i la
byfrjgale adv. a ll o v e r .

( 9 ) 'bark o f d o g .'
byod n. fu lln e s s , p a c k e d (p o p u lo u s )

bwuna v. b e lie v e . Etynv b o r r o w e d fro m

byol Pl m o l. n. canoe.

B u lu .

c - C

ca adv. now . m e a n 'm a k e (s o m e th in g )', 'c o m p o se

(s o n g ),' 'lig h t (fla m e , fir e ),' 'start

caag v. s h a p e , c a r v e . [Note: A ls o u s e d to

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 cal cig

(car). 7 cel n. lo v e . Etynv n o m in a liz a tio n of cela

cal v. fe ll, c u t d o w n (tr e e ). Etynv * ta d ‘l o v e .’

‘c u t o p e n .’ cel mpoi] v. m a k e (fa c ia l) in c is io n s ,

caz ndl v. w in k ( e y e ) . ta tto o .

ce v. c u t. Etynv * te e t ‘c u t .’ cela v. lo v e . Nominalization; cel ( 7 ) ‘l o v e .’

ce jug v. 1 . b e u n c o n s c io u s . 2 . fa in t. Cl v. a b sta in . Etynv * g id ‘a b s ta in fr o m .’

-ce Sg: ece. n. 5. 1. illn e s s , d is e a s e . 2 . Cl PL boci [b a d ], n. 7 / 8 . t a b o o th in g .

p a in . Alt C la ss 7 fo r s o m e sp e a k e r s, Etynv *gido ‘r e lig io u s a v o id a n c e .’

tye, cie. -Cl PL m od [m a d ]. n. 6. b lo o d . Etynv

ce elw5 n. e a r a c h e . * g id a ‘b lo o d .’

ce lejo tl to o th a c h e . Cl PL boci [b a d ], n. 1/2. in -la w . [Note:

ce lu n. headache. u s e d fo r fa th e r -in -la w , m o th e r -in -la w ,

s is te r -in -la w a n d b r o th e r -in -la w j

ce mWD n. s t o m a c h a c h e , u p s e t sto m a c h .

ClCl adj. (b e ) s ile n t.

ce v. g iv e p a in , h u rt.

C ie n. fe e lin g s .
cend Alt [c in d ] v. 1 . e x c h a n g e ( o f g o o d s ).

c ig n. 7. life .
2 . a lte r , c h a n g e . 3 . r e p la c e . [Note:

b o r r o w e d fr o m E n g lish J cig v. c u t. [Note: c o u ld b e u s e d in th e

cend [c in d ] n. o th e r .s id e .o f.r iv e r . s e n s e o f 'cu t a c r o ss , ta k e a sh o rtcu t'J

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 ciga CVLQ

C lg a tl sa w . Etynv N o m in a liz a tio n o f c i g Clio adv. q u ic k ly .

‘c u t .’ Cfla v. b e fa st,

C lg a tl 7. q u e s t io n . Etynv N o m in a liz a tio n cfnda t l h ig h ,

o f c f g o ‘d e c id e , j u d g e .’
c y ia n. h a re,

ciga v. liv e , (b e ) a liv e .

cirjgala v. g o r o u n d .

cigala v. c u t (tr ), s lic e . Etynv D e r iv e d fr o m

C O gazo Ph m a c o g a z o . n. s m e ll o f u r in e ,

c i g ‘c u t, c u t a c r o s s .’
corj n. u n w a n te d , u n e x p e c te d th in g ,

C lg O Ph m e c x g o . n. 3/4. d iv is io n .

corj Ph m d c o r j [m a c o q ]. n. 9 / 6 . n e c k .

C lg O v. d e c id e , ju d g e . Etynv D e r iv e d fr o m
Etynv * k m g a ( 9 ) ‘n e c k .’

c i g ‘c u t, c u t a c r o s s ? ’
-C D n j Sg: e c a n j . Ph m o c a n j [m a c o n j]. t l

C ll e k e v. la y (e g g s ).
5/6. broom ,

cil Ph m a c i l. tl p ie c e ,
car) v. a g r e e .

cila JuJul n. c ir c u m c is io n (m a le ),
car) Ph m a c a q . n. com m and.

cilaba v. ru n . Etynv D e r iv e d fr o m c fla ‘b e

caal Ph b o c a a l [b a c a a l]. n. 1/2. p a r tr id g e.

fa s t.’
curj Ph m o c u q [m a c u q ], tl 9/6. v o ic e .

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 da di

D - d

da v. d r a w w a te r . dag n. r e e d s. [Note: in c lu d e s a ll p la n ts

da PL boda. n. 1/2. fa th e r , a n c e sto r . th a t g r o w in o r u n d e r w a te r (a s lo n g

a s th e y a re r o o te d u n d e r th e w a te r ).
[Note: g r e a t-g r a n d p a r e n ts a n d fu r th e r

C o n tra sts w it h flo a tin g w a te r p la n ts

b a c k a re d a , b u t th is m a y a ls o b e u s e d

a s a n h o n o r ific fo r g r a n d fa th e r o r
efurjJ

o th e r j daz n. g ift. Etynv b o r r o w e d fr o m E w o n d o .

da mpam Pl boda bom pam . n. 1/2. deg v. s e e .

g r a n d fa th e r , del v. b u r y . Nominalization: n d e l a (9 )

da le kwara n. em b ers. Lit: 'fa th er in 'burial.'

fla m e? '. dena conj. lik e , a s.

daag Pl m a a g . n. 5 / 6 . crab ,
dende [d in d e ] n. c o u r ty a r d ,

d al v. h u rt. Nominalization: n d o l 'p a in 1,

dez Alt [d iz ] v. 1 . c a p s iz e . 2 . d r o w n o r

darj n. h e rd , darj b e t o o b h e r d o f g o a ts , a lm o s t d r o w n ,

h e r d o f g o a ts . Etynv * ta n g a ‘c a ttle dejia Pl b a d e jia . n. b u c k e t, p a il.

p e n , c a ttle p o s t ’ (5 ) .
di v. r e m a in , s ta y . Etynv * jik a d ‘d w e ll,

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 di mpuda du

sit, s t a y .’ dina V. sta m p (w it h fe e t ).

dl mpuda v. c o h a b it (u n m a r r ie d m a n
drno Ph tm 'n o . Alt [j in o ]. n. 5/6. nam e.

a n d w o m a n ). Lit. s t a y to g e t h e r
Etynv * jm a (5 ).

di SI v. sit. Lit s ta y g r o u n d
d ia AlL [d iy a , d y a ]. n. 7/8. s e a t, c h a ir ,

dib v. o p e n (d o o r ). p la c e , s t o o l. Etynv n o m in a liz a tio n o f

dibale v. s to p u p . Etynv * d ib ‘s to p u p .’ d i ‘s t a y .’

d lZ Ph m iz . n. 5/6. eye.
-dlba Ph modfba. n. 6 . w a te r . Etynv

* d ib a (5 ). do v. e a t. Etynv * d e ‘e a t .’

dig tl 7/8. b u s h c o u n tr y , ru ra l a rea . dob Ph b e d o b . n. 7/8. fo o d .

digabe v. p e r sp ir e , sw e a t. -da Ph m o d a . n. 6. b a it. Etynv fr o m do

dil v. d w e ll, in h a b it, m a k e sta y . Causative ‘e a t .’

o f d i ‘s t a y .’ Nominalization: n d i l (1 ) dag Ph m a g . n. 5/6. n e st,

‘d w e lle r .’ dagbo Ph m a g b o . n.5/6. headpad.

dila n. fu lln e s s . damb Pl: m a m b . n. 5/6. w a r.

dim v. d isa p p e a r .
daz Ph m a z . n. 5/6. c h in , j a w . Etynv

dimb v. b e lo s t. Etynv * d im b . * d e d u ( 7 ,9 ,1 1 ) .

dfmbala v. lo s e (tr). du Ph m o d u . n. 5/6. le g , th ig h . Etynv

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 du dwal

* g o d o ‘l e g ’ ( 1 5 / 6 ) . dumb n. d a n c e . [Note: d a n c e in v o lv in g

du Ph m u . tv 5 /6 . n ose. Etynv * jo d o (5 ) s in g in g a n d lo u d c r ie s o f j o y j

‘n o s e .’ duma v. 1 . p o u n d . 2 . th r e s h , b e a t

du kwara Ph m u m o k w a r a . n. 5 / 6 . (g r a in ).

fir e p la c e . Lit. n o s e fla m e , -duma Sg: e d u m o . Ph b e d u m d . n. 7/8. tip

dub v. fis h w it h h o o k a n d lin e . Etynv ( o f s o m e th in g ) , e d g e ,

*ddb. duma Ph m u m d . n. 5/6. s ilk -c o t to n

dub v. p a in t. tr e e , k a p o k tr e e ,

dug Ph m u g . n. 5/6. h o m b ill. diinj Ph m u n j . tv 5/6. fist. [Note: m a y

dug tv 7/8. fo r e st. a ls o r e fer to a m in o r ity , o r a h a n d f u l/

dug Ph b e d u g . n. 7/8. n o is e , so u n d .
duga v. p a d d le . Etynv *dug.

dug 5 Ph m u i p . n. 5/6. p e lic a n ,

dula v. p u ll. Etynv * d u t ‘p u ll, d r a g .’

duug Ph m u u g . tv 5/6. b e a k , b ill. Etynv

dulo v. s m o k e (t o b a c c o ).

* d o n g o (3 ).
dul5 v. h o llo w o u t (lo g ).

duula v. m a k e trip s b a c k a n d fo rth ,

duma v. fa ll fo r w a r d (in tr ). [Note: m u s t

dwabara Ph b o d w a b a r a . rv 1/2. n u r se ,
b e t o u c h in g g r o u n d in itia lly a n d th e n

fa ll d o w n /f a l l fo r w a r d j dwag v. le a v e , sto p .

duma CDIJ v. p e r su a d e . dwal Ph m w a l . n.5/6. tu m o r , a b s c e s s ,

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 dwal etug cfnd

b o il. Etynv * tu u t ‘s w e ll ( v ) .’ dwab n. su n .

dwal tl n a p e o f neck,
dwo pro. 5 e m p h a tic .

dwarjg PL b a d w a p g . n. 1/2. g ira ffe.

dwob PL m o b . n. 5/6. day. d w o b d e z

Etym: * td ig a ‘g ir a ffe ’ (9 ) .
‘a lw a y s .’ Lit: 'd a y e a c h /a ll'

dwe pro. 5 e m p h a tic .

E e

-e gen. h is /h e r . emmjfla n. b la d d e r .

e= TAM. R ecen t p a st (P l). -en [in ] gen. y o u r (p l).

e= TAM. F u tu r e ( f u t ) . erjkugu adv. to g e th e r ,

= e mkr. R e la tiv e c la u s e (R e lC l) . etug crnd n. la k e .

ebu num. n in e (9 ) . Etynv * b u a ‘n in e .’ -ez Alt [iz ] gen. ‘o u r ’ (e x c lu s iv e )

ekal5 kw5g n. s p in a l c o lu m n , -eza Alt [fza ] gen. ‘o u r ’ (in c lu s iv e )

eklba th a n k y o u . Alt a k ib a .

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 fagara

-e m i J iu l Pl mye me jiul [m y e m i j i u l ] . s in g u la r j

n. 4. h a ir ( o f b o d y ). [Note: n o ^ m w ®n - n- b r o th e r . [Note.

s in g u la r j v o c a t iv e form ?J

-e mstfd Pl mye me tfd [m y e m a t i d ] . n. -£Z quant e a c h , a ll.

4. fur. Lit. h a ir o f a n im a l. [Note: n o

3 3 y es.

F - f

fa Pl bafa. tl m a c h e t e , c u t la s s , -fab Sg: lefab. Pl mofab. n. 5/6. p ig e o n .

fa mkr. H o r t a t iv e ( H o r t ) , s h o u l d , Etynv * p o m p o ( 7 ,9 ) .

fa balul Pl bofa balul. n. 1/2. lo u s e ,

fabdlo v. g r e e t (w it h th e h a n d ).

faag v. a d m ir e .
fag n. 9. sid e . Etynv r e la te d to fagara

525

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 fag fima

b e tw e e n , feg n. 9. p o c k e t,

fag v. b e in lo v e .
fenda v. b e , p u t in r iv a lr y w ith ,

fagara PL mpagara . conj. b e tw e e n .

fenda n. 3. riv a lr y ,

[Note: s o m e d ia le c ts u s e o n ly th e o ld
fer v. fe r m e n t (a lc o h o l),

s in g u la r w h ile o th e r d ia le c ts u s e o n ly
fer v. c lo s e , sh u t,
th e o ld p lu r a l - n o lo n g e r str o n g

fem n. 9. lim e , w h ite w a s h , p a in t,

d is tin c t io n b e t w e e n 'b e tw e e n 2

p e o p le ' a n d 'b e tw e e n m a n y p e o p le . 7 fende PL bofende. n. 1/2. b r a id e r . Etyrrv

Etynu d e r iv e d fr o m fag ‘s i d e .’ n o m in a liz a tio n o f fand ‘b r a id .’

fama adj. tru e, r e a l, g o o d . fenda v. p a in t.

famb PL befamb. n. 7/8. fa rm , fie ld s. fez v. p ic k (tr), c h o o s e (tr).

fand n. m o o n lig h t. fafa PL bafafa. n. fish -s c a le .

faraba V. (b e ) c lo s e d in . [Note: P o s s ib le to fafem PL bafafem. n. w a ll.

b e u n d o n e - s e t fr e e , u n lo c k e d , fand v. p la it, b r a id (h a ir ). Nominalizatioiv

open ed, etc]

fende (1 ) ‘b r a id e r ,’ fond ( 9 ) ‘b r a id .’

faz v. r e v iv e . Etynu * p en d .

faz v. g e r m in a te , sp r o u t. -ft PL befi. n. 8. a sh e s .

fe n. m u s c le . finiD PL bafima. n. a b sc e s s.

526

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 fma fumbi

fina v. h iss. ( 1 ,5 ,9 ) .

fuban adj. (b e ) c le a n .
finj PL b o f in j . n. 1/2. cockroach. Etynu

* p cn jii (9 ).
fubo n. 7.1. w in d . 2 . a ir (b r e a th e d ).

fiyo n. 1. a v o c a d o . Etynv * p u u p a (9 ) .

fubalo v. b lo w .
fog PL m o f o g . n. 9/6. w is d o m ,

fubala kwom v. w o r k th e b e llo w s .

fog num. o n e ( w h e n c o u n tin g in

is o la tio n ).
fug v. b e n u m e r o u s .

fond PL m o f o n d . n. 9/6. b ra id . Etynu fugala v. r u m in a te , c h e w c u d .

n o m in a liz a tio n o f f a n d 'braid', fulasf n. F ren ch .

foz n. c lito r is.

ful5 v. k n e a d .

fob PL m a f a b . n. fish b one. Etynu *kupa

fulu n. 9. h a b its.

(5 )? .
fum n. 3. n ig h t. Etynu *p em p a.

fobalo v. c a r e ss.
fum n. c a lf o f le g .

f5rj n. w o u n d , sore. Etynu * p o ta ( 7 ,9 ) .

fumb v. u n r o o t.

fbDg PL m o f a o g . n. 9 / 6 . tra c k (a n im a l),

fumb v. h a r v e st, d ig u p (y a m s ).

forago PL m a f a r a g o . n. h o o f,
fumba n. d e a d tr e e .

fu PL b o f u . n. 1/2. m ou se. Etynv *poko

fumbl PL b e f u m b f . n. 7/8. orange.

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 fumbf kabala fycz

fumbl kabala n. g r a p e fr u it. Lit. o r a n g e fyab v. w in n o w . Etynv *pep.

h o r se . fyab PL befyab. n. 7/8. s h o u ld e r b la d e .

fund PL bafund. n. 7/8. c a la b a s h , [Note: w o r d o r ig in a lly c o lle c t e d w a s

fund dlbo PL- befund modfbo. n. 7/8. th e n s a id (b y d if f LC) to b e 'c h ic k e n

w in g'J
r iv e r b a n k .

fyabala PL befyabala. n. 7/8. fa n .

fundd v. ru n a w a y , fle e . [Note: in c o n te x t

m a y m e a n 'fear,' s in c e fe a r is u s u a lly fyal n. te s t, e x a m ,

im p lic it in s itu a tio n s th a t c a u s e o n e to fyal v. te s t, e x a m in e ,

fle e j
fyal v. b le e d .

fuda [fu ra ] v. d ie .
fyala v. c o m e (o r g o ) o u t, e x it,

fuwulu Pt mafuwiilu. n. h a t.
fy a r j PL befyarj. n. s o u p , b r o th . ( 9 / 6 in

fwala v. w a s te tim e .
B e g n e ).

fwara n. p h o to .
fye v. su c k . Etynv * p ip .

fweg v. m o v e (in tr ).
fyez v. m istr u s t, n e g le c t .

fwen PL- befwcn. n. 7/8. m a iz e , c o m .

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 =g jaand

g - g

=g mkr. S u b y u n c tiv e (S u b j). golod n. g o ld .

= ga mkr. S u b y u n c tiv e (p i). gyando PI bagy5nd5. n. c a tfish .

go TAM. PRO G .

•
I - 1

ica n. s a lt. [Note: o n ly pi?J Etynv * ja n g o ic5g Pi ic5q. n. b ile , g a ll. [Note: o n ly p l? j

‘b ile , s a lt .’ Etynv * ja n g o ‘b ile , s a lt .’

J - j

j= pro. 7 S u b je c t. ja SI v. lie d o w n .

ja v. (b e ) lo n g , fa r ja kam n. p a la te .

ja adv. far jaand v. to d d le , to tte r . [Note: w a lk in g as

ja v. s le e p . Etynv * d a a d . d o n e b y to d d le r s a n d th e

c o n v a le s c e n t j

529

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 jaanje je

jaanje n. th irst. jalana v. m u s t. Etynu d e r iv e d fr o m jala

jab v. sh a r p e n . Etynv *d upek. jab ‘b e fit, s u it’?

ebaag. sh a r p e n (k n ife ), jab ekwarj. -jam Sg: ejam. PU mojam. n. 5/6.

sh a r p e n , b r in g to p o in t (a rro w 's w itc h c r a ft,

h e a d ). jamb v. p re p a r e (f o o d to c o o k ). Etynv

jab v. c a ll (s o m e o n e ). Etym: * ta m b *dam b.

‘c a ll .’ jambala v. c o n c e iv e .

jag v. (b e ) u n a w a r e o f.
jana v. p a y (fo r g o o d s , s e r v ic e s , e tc .) .

jag v. c a str a te ,
jand v. s te p o n .

jagaba v. le a n a g a in s t (in tr ).
jando v. h e llo , w e lc o m e ,

jagala v. p ra y , a sk .
jandala n. flo o r .

jagala v. r e c e iv e .
jandala v. slip . Alt. sa n d a la . Etynv * ccd

jakaz PL- bejakaz. n. 7/8. d o n k e y , m u le . ‘s l ip .’

Etym. b o r r o w e d fr o m E n g lish , -jar) PL bejai) [b ija r)]. n. 7/8. lie

jakala PL mojakalo. n. 9/6. th o r n . ( 5 / 6 (f a ls e h o o d ) . Etynv "dong ‘s u g g e s t .’

in B e g n e ) jar) v. fry.

jal v. lic k . Etym: * d e e t.

je pro. w h a t?

jala v. b e fit, su it.

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 je jm a

je n. p la c e , ste a d , jfbo ‘s t e a l.’

jfb o Alt [jib a ]. v. s te a l. Nominalization:

je v. a rriv e .

jfbo ( 9 ) ‘t h e f t ,’ jfbale ( 1 ) ‘t h ie f .’
je lanun PL maje manun. n. flo c k (o f

Etynv *jib.
b ir d s).

j lb a l e PL bojfbale n. 1/2. th ie f. Etynv

jenj v. s p ill ( m o v in g to a n d fr o m ),

n o m in a liz a tio n o f jfba ‘s t e a l.’

jenj v. sp r e a d (d is e a s e , fir e ). Etyrru
j ig v. le a rn .
* ta n d ‘s p r e a d .’

-jlg e Sg: lejige. PL mojfge. n. 5/6. le s s o n ,

jemb n. tim e .
le a r n in g .
jena v. (b e ) g e n e r o u s,

j f g a le v. te a c h . Etynv D e r iv e d fr o m jig
jend v. s lith e r (s n a k e ),
‘le a r n .’

ja je prep, u p to . Etynv r e d u p . fo r m o f j e
j lg a la m b w 3 V. w a v e (h a n d a s a

'arrive'.
g r e e tin g ),

jl v. b e (a tt). Etym: * d e ‘b e .’
jii v. cry , w e e p , w a il. Etym: * d e d .

jl v. a sk (fo r in fo r m a tio n ). Etynv * jip o d

j lj a g PL bejijag (b ijija k ]. n. 7/8. gecko.

‘a sk q u e s t io n s .’
j ll v. fly .

jl v. n e e d , w a n t.

j l l ClgD PL bojil cfga [b a jil c ig a ] . n. o w l.

jfbo n. 9. th e ft. Etynv n o m in a liz a tio n of

jm a v. h e s ita te .

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 -jina -jum

-jina Sff e j i n a . Pl m o j in a . n. 5/6. p u s. P PI m a j o . n. fa n g ( o f sn a k e ). Etym

(B e g n e h a s alt. eyi'na) fr o m j o ‘t e e t h ’ o r m is -s p e lle d ? .

jitfl ku n. c r ip p le . jombalD lambwo V. (b e ) p r e g n a n t. Lit:

jiz a b a v. p u t u p w ith , s h a p e d in b o w s tr in g

P rjkul v. a llo w , p e r m it,

jo v. c lim b . [Note: a s in a la d d e r , a tr e e ,

g r ip p in g w it h h a n d s j ju n. n a u s e a ,

jo PI m o j o . n. 9 / 6 . to o th . ju v. v o m it. Etym *dok.

job Pl m o jo b . n. 9 / 6 . sh e a -b u tte r tree, ju v. k ill, m u rd er,

-job Pl m o j o b . n. 6. s h e a -n u ts, ju laba v. d iv o r c e . Lit: 'kill m a rria g e',

jog n. p la n . jug v. su ffe r . Etym: * c o n g ‘su ffe r .’

jo l n. 9 . b eard . Etym * d cd u ( 7 ,9 ,1 1 ) . jukaba n. sh ad ow . Etym * d u d e (3 ) .

jom v. w a k e u p (in tr ). Etym *dam ok. jfil Pl m u l. n. 5/6. b a b y slin g ,

jom PI b e j o m [ b ijo m ]. n. 7/8. to n g u e . jula v. b a k e (in a s h e s ),

Etym *d em i (1 1 ). jula v. w e e d .

jope adv. in s p ite of.

jula Pl m iilo . n. 5/6. d e n , la ir.

jo r ) n. th in g . [Note: le s s c o m m o n ly u s e d
-jum Pl m o j u m [m a ju m ]. n. 6. se m e n .

th a n sa .J
[Note: n o sin g u la r^

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 jumbulu jw5

jumblilu Pl mejumbulu [m iju m b u h i]. jwabara v. ta n g le ,

n. 3/4. r e q u e st, jwabo v. r e sp e c t, fea r . [Note: s tr o n g e r

juna v. fig h t. th a n kandabaj

juna Pl bejuna. n. 7/8. fig h t. jw ag v. p o is o n (a p e r so n ).

jundD n. fo g . jwagalo v. p o lish .

ju g Pl bejug. n. 7/8. p a rty , jw ala Pl bejwala [ b ij w a la ] . n. banana,

ju g v. h o n o r . jwam v. b e g (fo r m o n e y ) ,

jug gkul Pl bojug gkul [b aju q q k u l] . n. jwam a n. q u a rrel.

1/2. c h a m e le o n , jwamb n. fistfig h t. [Note: o n ly in v o lv e s 2

juga adj. (b e ) h o t ( o f p e r s o n ). Etynv p e o p le , c h e s t -to -c h e s tj

* to k o t ‘b e h o t, s w e a t .’ jwamb v. a sk , r e q u e st s o m e th in g

juza v. l . w a s h . 2 . b a th e . Etynv *cok

jw em v. b e c o m e o ld (a g e ).

‘w a s h .’
jwe pro. 7 e m p h a tic .

juza bejuwa v. w a s h d is h e s,
jwa Pl bejwa [b a jw a ]. n. 7/8.

juza mekand v. w a s h c lo th e s ,
m u sh room . Etynv *j5ga ( 1 4 ) ‘fu n g u s

juzc man adv. d a y a fte r to m o r r o w , ( e d ib le ) .’

jwab Pl bojwab [b a jw a b ]. n. c iv e t ca t. jw 3 pro. 7 o b je c t

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 jwi jwor)

jw i v. rule over, dom inate. no singular) Etynv nom inalizatino o f

j w f m b a ‘be happy, joyfu l.’

NominalizatioTV j w i (7) ‘boss,

em ployer,’ n j w i (3) ‘chief, ruler.’ jwd v. laugh. Etym: *jod ‘laugh.’

jw i n. 7 /8 . boss. Etym: nom inalization o f jw o n. sleep. Etynv *do.

j w i ‘rule over.’ jw o Ph b e j w o [bijw o]. n. 7/8. shoot,

jwflg n. reputable person. [Note: som eone

jw ob tl l.sk y . 2. heavens. 3. above,

w h o is w ell-know n for doing

jw og n. 9. poison. Etynv *congo (14)
g o o d /b ein g good, w ell-know n good
‘poison.’
reputation/
jw og v. hear, feel, listen, understand. Alt
jwifla v. kill.
jw a g .

jw il v. be in charge,
jwogaba v. apply (ointm ent), besm ear,

jwim ba v. have fun.

jwogara v. feel (passive o f ‘hear’),

jwfmba v. (be) happy, joyful.

jwor) Ph m o j w o q . n. 9/6. bed. Alt.
NominalizatioTV m e j w f m b a (4) ‘jo y .’
n jw o r j.

-jwimba Ph m e j w f m b a . n. 4. joy. [Note:

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 ka kag

K - k

ka TAM. C o n s e c u tiv e (C o n s). kaba v. m o u n t (h o r s e , c a m e l),

ka ba conj. P er h a p s, m a y b e . Lit kabala Pl bekabala. n. 7/8. h o r se .

c o n s e c t iv e b e . mwa kabala Pl bwa kabala. n. 1/2.

ka Pl beka. n. 7/8. 1 . g ra ss, le a f. 2 . c o lt. Lit: 'sm a ll h o r s e ’. myol kabala.

Pl mamyol makabala. n. 3/4. m are

v e g e ta b le . Etym: * g a n g o ‘g r a ss .’

(h o r s e ). Lit ’fe m a le h o rse', njum

ka fwen Pl baka fwcn. n. c o m h u sk . Lit
kabala Pl menjum makabala. n.
'le a f c o m ',

3/4. s t a llio n . Lit 'm a le h o rse',

ka n. p la c e (n o n s p e c ific ).

kabala V. sh a r e . Etynv D e r iv e d fr o m kab

-ka Pl beka. n. 8. m b b is h , g a r b a g e ,
‘s h a r e .’

kaan Pl mekaan. n. 3/4. s to r y (ta le ).

kabara v. str a d d le .

Etym: * g a n o ( 9 ,1 1 )
kag n. n a s t y ta s te in y o u r m o u t h w h e n

kab v. s u c c e e d .
y o u w a k e u p in th e m o r n in g ,

kab v. sh a r e.
kag Pl bekag. n. 7/8. c h ild .

kab adj. (b e ) in n o c e n t.
kag v. fa s te n , b in d (lo a d ), p a ck .

kab v. ju m p . Etynv * c a m b ‘le a p o v e r .’

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 kagala kag

kagala v. ta s te , kam PL bokam. n. 1/2. m onk ey. Etynv

kagala v. jo k e , *kem a.

kam v. p r a is e (s o m e o n e ),
kagala v. e m b r a c e , h u g .

kambaga n. tr a d itio n a l fu n e r a l d a n c e ,
kagara v. c o a g u la t e , c lo t. Etym: *kac

‘c o a g u la t e .’
kambala v. fo r b id , p r e v e n t, p r o te c t.

kal PL bokolo. n. 1/2. lo a d e r . Etynv -kan Sg: lekan. PL mokan. n. 5/6.

n o m in a liz a tio n o f kalo ‘lo a d .’ a n te lo p e .

-kal Sg: ekal. PL mokal. n. 5/6. sp o t, kand PL bekand. n. 7/8. c lo th . Etynv

sp e c k le , * k a n d a (7 ) ‘c lo t h .’

kal v. h a tc h . kand PL mekand. n. 3/4. c lo t h e s .

kala PL bekala. n. 7/8. m a t. kandaba v. r e sp e c t, fea r,

kala PL bekala n. 7/8. g o a t, kandaba v. a v o id ,

kalar PL bekalar. n. 7/8. book, kande n. strap .

kalo v. lo a d . Nominalizadons: kal (1 ) karj v. fig h t e n m a s se . Nominalization:

‘lo a d e r ,’ bokolo (2 ) ‘lo a d e r s .’ keije (1 ) ‘fig h te r .’

kala PL mekala. n. 3/4. r o o t. kag PL mekag. n. 3/4. g u in e a fo w l.

kala du n. b r id g e (o f n o se). kag v. g r o w ( o f p la n ts ).

536

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 kar kaka

kar Ph b a k a r . n. b a sk e t, s t o r y .’

kend V. a s s ig n , se n d .
kar v. s e r v e (fo o d ),

kerj Ph b e k e r ) [b a k e q ]. n. 7/8. baby,

kayag Pl: k a y a g . n. p in e a p p le ,

keg mpugo v. c u t (h a ir ), s h a v e . Etynv

kaz v. (b e ) s h r iv e lle d , (b e ) w r in k le d , g e t

*k ek ‘c u t.’
th in .

keela v. a d d . Etym: r e la te d to th e
ke mkr. Negative (Neg).

c o n ju n c tio n k e l 'plus.'
-ke Sg: e k e . Ph m o k e . n. egg. Etym: *ge

keg v. p r o m ise .
‘egg-’

-ke maju. PL. m a k e m a ju . n. 6. p im p le .

kel conj. p lu s.

[Note: n o s in g u la r /
kem v. sc r e a m , cr y o u t. Etynv *kem .

keg v. o r g a n iz e , p la n . kemb v. d e fe n d .

kekena Ph b e k e k e n a . n. 7/8. sto r y , kege Ph b o k e g e . n. 1/2. fig h te r s. [Note:

p r o v e rb . m o s t o fte n u s e d in th e p lu r a l/ Etynv

ken [k in ] v. g o in a s p e c ific d ir e c tio n . n o m in a liz a tio n o f k a g ‘fig h t e n

m a s s e .’
[Note: im p lie s s o m e d u r a tio n to th e

'going'J
kag v. try , ta ste . Etynv * g e d ‘tr y .’

kene v. te ll sto r y . Etym: r e la te d to kaka Ph b o k a k a . n. 1/2. sp a rk . Etynv

k e k e n a 'story, p r o v e r b .’ * g a n ‘te ll * c a c e ‘sp a r k .’

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 kakag -k3g

kakag rv 7/8. s m a ll c h ild . Lit: 'red u p . o p p o s ite s e x o f e g o (s is te r o f a

b r o th er)J
ch ild ',

kol a twamba TV e ld e r siste r .

kamb v. sq u e a k .

kol a ntomb n. y o u n g e r siste r .

kfsin n. 1/2. k itc h e n .

kol tv c o rd .
kilkamba tv b ig b a m b o o b ed .

komb n. sid e , p la c e . Etynv * k o m b e.

klife rv x -ra y .

-konoko Sgr e k o n o k o . Pl bekonoko. rv

ko v. g o . Etynv * g i ‘g o .’

5/8. tru th ,
kd 118 v. b r in g , ca rry . Etynv g o w ith .

kog Pl b e k o g . n. 7/8. ra zo r.
-kog Sg: e k o g . Pl m okog. n. cheek.

kog Pl m okog. n. 9/6. c o o k in g p o t

Etynv * c a ja ‘c h e e k .’

(e a r th e n w a r e ). Etynv * jo n g o (9 )
-kog Sg: l e k o g . PL- m o k o g . n. 5/6.
‘c o o k in g p o t .’
m o u n ta in ,

kor n. 3. d e c is io n . Etynv fr o m 'court' (a s in

kog n. h e r e (g e n e r ic .).

j u d ic ia l) b o r r o w e d fr o m E n g lish .
kol n. B ik e le la n g u a g e ,

k5g Pl m akog. n. baboon.

kol v. h a n g u p .

-k5g Sg: e k 5 g . Pl m okog. n. 5/6. c a ttle

kol n. 5. v o ic e .
p en. Etynv fr o m k a g m e a n in g 'to

kol Pl b o k o l. n. 1/2. siste r . [Note:

fa sten '.

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 kagala kwat) kukuba

kagala kwor) n. s p in e , backbone, hen. Lit: 'fe m a le c h ic k e n ', njum kubo

Ph monjum makubo. n. 3/4. r o o s te r

kol Ph bakol. n. w in n o w .
(c o c k ). Lit: 'm a le c h ic k e n ',
-k51 Ph mokol. n. 6 . n e w s , a n n o u n c e m e n t,

kud R13 bwDI) V. k n e e l.

kamb etar) Ph mokomb. n. guava,

kuda n. 7/8. fist.

kar) it 3. w is d o m , in t e llig e n c e ,

-kudo Sg: lekudo. Ph mokudo. n. 5/6.

ku Ph moku. n. 9 / 6 . fo o t,
p a lm tree. Etynv * k e n d o ( 3 ) ‘p a lm

ku v. l . fa il. 2 . b e g u ilty ,
t r e e .’

ku n. h it. kudo n. d r iz z le .

kub v. m o v e (s o m e th in g ),
kug Ph mokug. n. 9/6. g r in d in g s to n e .

kube n. 7/8. bow . ( 5 / 6 in B e g n e )

kubala V. m o v e . Etynv b o r r o w e d fr o m kuge n. 3/4. b a s e o f tr e e tru n k .

B a d w e 'e. kugaba v. 1. b e n d d o w n , s to o p . 2 . b o w

kubo v. m o v e (in tr ). (a s in g r e e tin g ),

kubo Ph bokubo. n. 1/2. c h ic k e n . Etynv kugu n. 3.1. e v e n in g . 2 . y e s te r d a y .

*kuba. mwa kubo Ph bwa kubo. n. kugu abe n. d a y b e fo r e y e s te r d a y ,

c h ic k . Etynv s m a ll c h ic k e n , myol
kugu SI n. s u n s e t. Lit. e v e n in g g r o u n d

kubo Ph memyol me kubo. n. 3/4.

kukuba v. stu tte r .

539

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 kukum kunda

kukum Ph mekukum. n. 3/4. ric h m a n . hunchback,

kula n. g e n e r a tio n .
kukuma Ph mekukuma. n. 3/4. c h ie f,

headm an, kule Ph mekulc. n. 3/4. str in g ,

kukuru n. p a p , m u s h y fo o d . kula v. p r o v o k e ,

kukwa lu n. sk u ll. kulaba V. lim p , c r a w l,

kul Sg: lokul. Ph bakul. n. 5 / 8 or 7/8. kum Ph bekum. n. 7/8. m o s q u ito ,

le fto v e r s . [Note: s in g c a n ju s t b e r o o t] kum Ph bekum. n. 7/8. stu m p ,

kul Ph makul. n. 3/4. 1 . sto r m . 2.

kuma Ph mokuma. n 9/6. c a ss a v a ,

h a r m a tta n .
m a n io c . ( 5 / 6 in B e g n e )

kul bltDDb Ph mokul bxtoob. n. flo c k ( o f

kuma v. 1 . r e a c h , a r r iv e . 2 . u n til.

s h e e p , g o a ts ),
kuma n. p e a n u ts . [Note: wund ( 7 ) is

kul la bfnte Ph makul ma bfnte. n. h e r d

m o r e c o m m o n ly u sed .J

( o f c a tt le ),
-kun Sg; ekun. Ph mokun. n. 5/6.

kul n. 7. o u ts id e m y a rea .
garbage dum p,

kul tl 3/4. ta m -ta m .

kuno adv. n ea r.

kul Ph bokul. n. 1/2. to r to is e , tu rtle.

kunda Ph bekunda. n. 7/8. c u lt iv a te d

Etynv * k u d u (9 ).
ground.

-kul Sg: ekul. Ph mokul. n. 5/6.

540

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 kunda kwabala

kunda v. g e t b a c k a t. [Note: e y e fo r a n e y e kuug Ph b o k u u g . n. 1/2. u n c le .

v e n g e a n c e ; r e tu r n in g e v il in th e s a m e -kuug Sg: e k u u g . Ph m o k u u g . n. 5/6.

m anner/
a n v il.

-kunj Sg: e k u n j . Ph m o k u n j . n. 5 / 6 . p a lm
kuul Ph m e k u u l . n. 3/4. r o p e,

( o f h a n d ).
kuund Ph m e k u u n d . n. 3/4. b a rr e n

kill) Ph m e k u r ). n. 3/4. c a te r p illa r . Etynv

w om an.

* g o n g o ‘c a te r p illa r .’
kuund Ph m e k u u n d . n. 3/4. ta il. Etynv

kurja v. g o to th e b a th r o o m . [Note: p o lite

* k fd a (3 ) ‘t a i l.’

e u p h e m is tic w a y to s a y 'd efecate'7

kuur Ph b e k u u r . n. 7/8. 1 . sk in ( o f m a n ).

kuqgala v. h u r t (s to m a c h ).
2 . h id e ( o f a n im a l). Etym: *coobod

kur v. fa ll fr o m h ig h . Etynv *go ‘to f a ll.’ ‘s k in .’

kura v. 1 . b e a t 2 . p a lp ita te ( o f h e a r t). 3 . kuuz Ph b o k u u z . n. 1/2. p a rro t. Etynv

p la y in s tr u m e n t, * k o c o ( 9 ) ‘p a r r o t.’

kura Ph m o k u r a . n. 9/6. b a sk e t. ( 5 / 6 in kuza v. s e ll.

B egne) kuzo v. b u y . Etynv * g o d ‘b u y .’

kurago v. sla n d e r .
kuz5 Ph m e k u z o . n. 3/4. w id o w ,

kuro v. h it, strik e (w it h h a n d ), w id o w e r ,

kuuba n. m o v e m e n t. kwabala Ph m o k w a b a la . n. 9/6.

541

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 kwad kwend

o b s ta c le , d istr e ss, Etynv *k on d e ‘b a n a n a ’ (5 ).

kwad [k w a r, k w a t] Ph mokwad. n. 9/6. -kwar) Sg: lekwarj. Ph mokwaq. n. 5/6.

v illa g e , 1 . la n c e (s p e a r ). 2 . h e a d o r s h a ft o f

kwag v. g rin d . a rro w ,

kwar n. 5 . b e ll.
kwag n. p la ste r,

kwag v. c r o w (a s a r o o ste r ),
kwara Ph mdkwara. n. 9/6. 1 . fire,

fla m e . 2 . b u m (n ). ( 7 / 8 in B e g n e )
kwala Ph bekwala. n. 7/8. n am esak e,

kwazabo v. (b e ) fa st.
kwala be Ph bakwala mabe. n.

kweb v. fin d .
doorw ay,

kwala v. sn o r e .
kweg v. w o r k , ru n . Etynv *ceec ‘r u n .’

kwel v. b o r r o w , le n d . NominalizatioTV
kwamaza V. prepare.

kwela ( 7 ) ‘d e b t .’
-kwamb Sg: lekwam b Ph mokwmb. n.

kwela Ph bekwela. n. 7/8. d e b t. Etynv

5/6. v ir g in fo r e st,

n o m in a liz a tio n o f kwel 'b o rro w , le n d .'

kwambala v. c r e a te .

kwem n. 7/8. m a n io c le a v e s ,
kwan n. 9 . h o n e y .

kwend [k w rn d ] Ph mekwend. n. 3/4.

kwan n. 7. m e e t in g .
hook.
kwand Ph bekwand. n. 7/8. p la n ta in .

kwend v. m a k e o ffe r in g s to th e d e a d .

542

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 kwenj kwobo

kwenj v. a s s e m b le , m e e t . Etynv * c a n g -kwob Sg: ekwob. PL mokwob. n. 5 / 6 .

‘a s s e m b le , m e e t .’ fle a . [Note: th e fle a s fo u n d o n d o g s

kwer) PL makweq. n. fish h o o k . a n d c o w s , b ig g e r th a n th e o th e r k in d

o f fle a s j
kwez [k w fz ] n. 7. cough,

kwog v. (b e ) a b le .
kwez v. c o u g h .

kwogblb v. p ra y .
kwig v. w a lk , tr a v e l. NominalizatioTV

kwom n. b e llo w s . Etynv * g u b a (3 ) .

kw ige (1) ‘tr a v e le r .’

kwom bela v. a rra n g e .

kwig dub5 v. sta g g e r .

kwombalo v. m e n d , rep a ir.

kwig ebog v. trip , stu m b le ,

Nominalizations: qkwombalo (9)

kwige PL bokwfge. n. 1/2. tr a v e le r .

‘r e p a ir ,’ qkwembale (1) ‘r e p a ir e r .’
Etynv n o m in a liz a tio n of kwig

kwonjl n. c a s h b o x .
‘w a lk , tr a v e l.’

kwdndo PL bokwondo. n. 1/2. s tr ip e .

kwnnd v. h e lp e m o t io n a lly .

kwor) n. so r c e r y .
kwir v. 1 . h e lp p h y s ic a lly , a ss ist. 2 . s a v e

in r e lig io u s c o n te x ts kw5 v. p ic k , p lu c k (fr u it).

kwiza v. p r ep a r e . kw5b PL bakwob. n. m ista k e .

kwo adv. a g a in . kw5bo PL bokwabo. n. 1/2. cup. Etynv

543

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 kwofi lag

*kamb£. kwambala law5 V. settle dispute,

kwafi n. coffee. Etym: borrowing,

-kwanda Ph m o k w a n d a . n. 6. sap. [Note:

kwogala v. bite. no singularj

kw5gal5 v. strike (snake), kw oq Ph m e k w a r ). n. 3/4. back. Etynv

kwom Ph m a k w a m . tv prisoner, slave. *ganga ‘back.’

kP

kpakpa Ph b e k p a k p a . rv 7/8. toothbrush.

L - 1

la v. surround. talk.’

la Ph b e l a . n. 7/8. bow (hunting). Etynv

labajop jop v. shout,

*taa ‘bow’ (14). lad n. 7. stupidity, crazy person. Etynv

laad v. sew, patch. Etynv *ted. *dadok ‘be mad.’

laag Ph m a l a a g . n. antenna, lag Ph m o l a g . n. 5/6. horn. Etynv *daka.

lab v. speak, talk. Etynv *dob ‘speak, lag v. accuse. [Note: implied that the one

544

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 lagala le lejw abab

accused is innocentj 'happen with force1,

lagala v. show, demonstrate. Etym: *dag lag n. happening. Etynv nominalization of

‘show.’ lag 'happen.'

lal Pl melal. n. 3/4. country, ethnic area, lagg v. pass (tr). [Note: implies quickness,

lal v. 1. (be) strong, hard. 2. (be) barren brevity)

(of land), lagga v. haggle, negotiate a price.

laid kuz adj. (be) expensive. lagge n. print (non-human).

lam Pl belam. n. 7/8. heart. Etym: *toma lara Pl molara. n. 5/6. difficulty.

(3). le Pl mele. n. 3/4. tree. Etym: *te (3).

lamb v. set (trap). Etym: *tamb ‘set trap.’

le n. 7. wood.

Nominalizatiom elamb (5) ‘trap.’

le TAM. Imperfective (Impf)

-lamb Sg: elamb. Pl molamb. n. 5/6.

leg TAM. Persistive (Pers).
trap. Etynu nominalization of lamb
le- - loc. in, at, on.
‘set trap.’

le kag Pl m ele makag. n. 3/4. mahogany

lambala v. position oneself.

tree.
lag v. crawl (lizard).
le lejw abab Pl m ele lejwabalo. n.
lag v. happen, occur.
firewood.
l a g n a g k u l v. conquer, defeat. Lit:

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 le mojwag loor)

le m ojw ag PL m e l e m o j w a g . n. 3/4. lam PL m e l a m . n. 3/4. m id r ib o f p a lm -

th o m -tr e e . fro n d .

le g v. p la y . ll v. c le a r (la n d fo r p la n tin g ),

le i num. th r e e ( w h e n c o u n tin g in lig n. b e e s w a x , b e e -b r e a d .

is o la tio n ), llg PL b e lf g . tv 7/8. in h e r ita n c e ,

le la v. sh iv e r , tr e m b le .
lig a la v. to u c h ,

le la PL m e l e l a . n. 3/4. sh iv e r s,
ligala v. a c c o m p a n y ,

leb v. a d v is e . [Note: b o r r o w e d fr o m
llg o v. sta y , le a v e . Etynv * jik a d ‘d w e ll,

E w ondoJ Etynv * d e b ‘a d v is e .’
sit, s t a y .’

le g v. sa y , te ll, c h a t.
lim a v. d r e a m .

leg bejarj v. lie ( t e ll lie s ),

lim a v. h o llo w o u t (lo g ).

legga m ya v. s p e n d tim e ,
lo b PL m e l o b . tv 3/4. a ffa ir, p r o b le m .

lab u u l n. r in g w o r m .
161 num. th r e e (3 ). Etynv * ta to .

-lad Sg: e la d . PL m o l a d . tl 5/6. p a lm tree.

lo m b a le PL m e l o m b a l e . tv 3/4.

[Note: a ls o u s e d fo r o il p a lm j E tym :
e rra n d .

M a d a (3 ) .
loor) PL m o lo o t ) . n. 5/6. n ew s, n ew

la g v. g e t, o b ta in .
th in g .

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 -15b lui)5

-15b Sg: el5b. Ph molob. rt 5/6. b la d e ( o f b la c k s m ith .

g r a ss). Iul5 v. h it w it h a h a m m e r . Etynv * tu d

15b Ph melob. n. 3/4. la n g u a g e , w o r d . ‘fo r g e ( v ) .’

lulwur) Ph balulwup. n. flu te .

15b Ph melob. n. 3/4. b r a n c h ( o f tr e e ).

Etym: * ta b e . luma v. th r o w o u t.

lag Ph molog. n. 5/6. s p e e c h , d is c o u r se . Ium5 v. sta b . Etynv * tu m ‘s t a b .’

Etym: * d o n g ‘s p e a k , ta lk .’ luma Ph belumo. n. 7/8. m a g g o t (in

lii Ph molu. n. 5/6. tim e , era. r o tte n m e a t),

m Ph molu. tl 5/6. head. Etynv * to e lumba v. d iv e .

(3 ) . -lund Sg: elund. n. 5. p a lm n u t p a lm tre e.

lu v. 1 . s tin g . 2 . str ik e (s n a k e ). Etynv [Note: m a y a ls o b e u s e d to r e fe r to th e

* to ‘b it e .’ r e g im e o f p a lm n u ts th e p a lm tr e e is

lud Ph molud. n. 5/6. w r in k le (o n sk in ), p r o d u c in g )

luga v. p r o sp e r . [Note: m a te r ia l p r o sp e r ity

lurj v. w e a v e . Etym: * tu n g ‘b u ild , p la it .’

(lo ts o f p o s s e s s io n s , g o o d h a r v e s t )) lu g e Ph bolugc. n. 1/2. b u ild e r (b y

luga v. r e sp e c t, h o n o r . w e a v in g ). Etynu n o m in a liz a tio n o f

lugo ‘b u ild b y w e a v in g .’
lul n. sm ith in g .

luga v. fe n c e in .
lul malul Ph bolul malul. n. 1/2.
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 lurp Iw5m mur

luga n. w ic k e r w o r k , lwala Ph bolwalo. n. 1/2. duck.

lu ip la n. fe n c e . -lwi Sg: lelwf. Pl molwf. n. 5/6. in s u lt.

lug o v. b u ild b y w e a v in g . Etynu * tu n g Etynu n o m in a liz a tio n o f lw i ‘in s u lt .’

‘b u ild , p la it .’ Nominalizations: luge lw i v. in s u lt. Nominalizations: lelw f (5)

(1) ‘b u ild e r b y w e a v in g ,’ lelugo ‘in s u lt ,’ lwfye (1) ‘in s u lte r .’

‘c o n s tr u c tio n b y w e a v in g .’ lwfye Ph bolwfye. n. 1/2. in s u lte r . Etynu

-lurjo Sg: lelugo. Ph molurjo. n. n o m in a liz a tio n o f lw i ‘in s u lt .’

c o n s tr u c tio n (b y w e a v in g ). lw o v. s h o w .

-luug Ph moluiig. tu 6. d e w . [Note: n o

lwa v. le a d , g u id e .

sin g u la r j
Iw5 Pl molwa. n. 5 / 6 . e a r. Etynu * to e

-lwa Ph molwa. n. 6. sla v e r y .

(5 ) .

lwal v. s h e ll (g r o u n d n u ts),
lwag v. s h o w .

lwandaba TAM. I m m e d ia te p a st, ju s t,

Iw5g v. e m p ty , b a il. [Note: T h is verb m ay

lwarj v. w h is t le , b lo w (h o r n ), b lo w ( o f b e u s e d fo r a s t y le o f fis h in g p r im a r ily

w in d ). d o n e b y w o m e n , b u ild in g a s m a ll d a m

lwag Ph belwarj. n. 7/8. green m am ba, a n d th e n c a tc h in g th e fis h o n p la t e s J

Etynu * to g ‘b a il w a t e r .’
lwendala adj. (b e ) fu ll,

Iw5m mur n. g ia n t.
lwerem n. d a n g e r .
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 lwDmalo

lwDm alo Ph m e l w a m a l o . n. 3/4. ‘s e n d .’

m essen g er,
lw ond alo v. fill.

lw om b v. o rd e r (s o m e o n e to d o lworjg Ph b a lw o g g . tl c r e st, c o m b

s o m e th in g ) . (r o o s te r ).

lwDmbalo v. se n d (s o m e th in g to lw u q Ph m o l w u q . n. 5/6. b e e h iv e ,

s o m e o n e o r s o m e o n e to d o lw u q Ph m e l w u g . n. 3/4. v in e .

s o m e th in g ) . Etyrru D e r iv e d fr o m * to m

M m

m = pro. I. m an Ph m a m a n . n. c r o ss r o a d s,

m aan Ph b e m a a n . n. 7/8. c r o tc h ( o f tr e e ). in te r s e c tio n ,

m an n. 3. m o r n in g , to m o r r o w .
m ajig n. m a g ic .

m an rjkunda n. 3. su n r ise ,
m ag v. tu rn o ff.

m an a n. cop p er.
m agala v. a c c e p t, r e c e iv e .

marj tl 9. o c e a n , se a . [Note: n o p lu ra lJ

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 me = mfy5r) ntomb

m e= pro. 4 su b je c t mamuma ma qkund n. fu ll m oon,

me dem. th is (p o in tin g ). mancanc ma t)kund n. n e w m oon,

me pro. se lf. manjfl SI v. (b e ) s e a te d ,

me v. b e (c h a n g e o f s ta te ). matana mwa n. h a il,

me dem. th a t (p o in tin g ) . maturjga n. e le p h a n tia s is ,

m etaip n. a d m in istr a tio n . m i n. ja c k a l.

me pro. m e (e m p h a tic ) mid Pl m e m id . n. 3/4. m e d ic in e ,

mem v. a d m it (to a w r o n g ). mina V. s w a llo w . Etym: * m id .

mer) mampe Pl bom eq b am am pe. n. minja v. u r in a te ,

1/2. p o tte r , mijiimbala v. w h isp e r ,

ma mkr. P o s s e s s iv e A s s o c ia tiv e M arker.

mira v. sm ile .

(POSS)
mijwan P t b e m f j w a n [b a m ijw a n ]. n.

majamb n. e v e n in g m e a l.
7/8. c h u r ch ,

maka n. M ak aa.
mfyar) Pl b o m fy o q . n. s ib lin g , c o u s in .

mama Pl b em am a. n. 7/8. in s e c t. [Note: s a m e s e x to e g o j

mama v. y a w n . mfyaq ntomb n. y o u n g e r s ib lin g . [Note:

m a m fr a n. jo y . s a m e s e x to e g o j

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 miy5g twamba mwom

mfyog twamba n. e ld e r s ib lin g . [Note: mwa Jiul Pb bwa ba jiul. n. o rp h a n ,

s a m e s e x to e g o j mwagalo v. h a r v e st, h u sk ( c o m ) ,

mo Alt mb. pro. m e . mwam malwombalo Pb bwam

moz n. 3. la m p , to r c h . Etym: *m ode mblwomblo. n. s e r v a n t,

‘to r c h , b r ig h t.’ mwaz Pb memwaz [m im w a z ] . n. 3/4.

m5m PI bomom. n. 1/2. a u n t. sh r im p ,

mu n. r e a so n . mwaz n. 3. d a y tim e .

mulo v. g r u n t (fr o m e ffo r t), g r o w l, mwaz Pb momwaz [m a m w a z ] . n. 9/6.

mug PI memurj [m im u i]]. n. 3/4. e e l. tw in .

m wela Pb bom wela [ b a m w e la ]. n.

mug 3 Pb memurp [m a m u q a ]. n. 3/4.

1/2. b o y fr ie n d , g ir lfr ie n d . Etym:

c o r p se ,

n o m in a liz a tio n o f mwel 'issu e s e x u a l

mug 5 v. h u m .

in v ita tio n ',

muuntl n. m iste r ,
mwe pro. 6 e m p h a tic .

muuz n. to d a y ,

mwel v. c o u r t, is s u e a s e x u a l in v ita tio n .

mw = pro. 6 su b je c t.
Nommalizatioru m wela ( 1 ) ‘b o y fr ie n d ,

mwa Pb bwa. n. 1/2. little , s m a ll. Etym:

g ir lfr ie n d .’

from mwan 'child'.

mwom num. e ig h t (8 ) .

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 mw5 mbanj

mwo Pl memwo. n. 3/4. sto m a ch myana n. 9. p a y m e n t,

(in te r n a l), myanj Pl memyanj [m a m y a n j]. n. 3/4.

my = pro. 4 su b je c t. bag.

mya PI memya [m im y a ] n. 3/4. tim e , myaz v. a b a n d o n ,

era. mye pro. 4 e m p h a tic .

mimya mi m yez adv. o fte n . Lit every

myeg Pl mamycg. n. fis h d a m .

day.
my51 Pl memydl [m a m y o l]. n. 3/4.

-myab Sg: emyab. n. 5. c h ic k e n w in g ,

fe m a le .

myagala v. p ra y ,
myog q u ie t. Etym: * m e a (7 ) .

myan n. m a d n e s s , fo lly .

Mb - mb

mba TAM. C o n d itio n a l (C o n d ). mbal n. 3. tra ce,

mbag PI mambag. n. sh r e w . mbampyog Pl membampyog

mbagala PI membagalo [m a m b a g a lo ]. [m a m b a m p y o q ]. n. 3/4. lio n ,

tl 3/4. lo a d , b u r d e n ,
mbanj Pl membanj [m a m b a n j]. n. 3/4.

mbakala n. h e r d (c a t tle , s h e e p ). m o n e y , s ilv e r .

552

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 mbar) mbil

mbar) PL m e m b a g [ m im b a g ] . n. 3/4. s o m e o n e w h o is in fa m o u s , w e ll-

k n o w n fo r c a u s in g tr o u b le j
1. s t o n e , p it. 2 . s w e llin g .

mbeya mwara PL m e m b e y a bw ara.

-mbar) majob PL m e m b a g m a jo b . n. 4.

n. 3/4. groom . [Note: s p o u s e of

s h e a -n u ts,

w om an/
mbar) jl PL m b a g ji. n. 3. p a lm n u t.

mbeya murum PL m e m b e y a burum .

mbar) ebind PL m e m b a g m a b in d . n. 3.
n. 3/4. b rid e . [Note: s p o u s e of m anj
te s tic le .

mbeeg v. (b e ) d iffe r e n t.
mbar) fig n. k id n e y . Etym: * p ig a (9 ) .

m beg n. 3. se p a r a tio n ,
mbar) m i qken n. b lig h t, rust.

mbez adv. n o th in g , in v a in ,
m 6ar)ga v. sh iv e r . Etym: b o r r o w e d fr o m

m bam bag PL m e m b a m b o q
So.

[m a m b a m b a g ]. n. 3/4. h ill.
mbar)ga PL m e m b a g g a [m im b a q g a ]. n.

-mbarjge Sg: e m b a g g e . PL m o m b a g g e .
3/4. c o c o n u t p a lm ,

n. 5/6. b e ll,
mbeb n. p a ss in g -th r o u g h .

mbl PL m e m b i [m a m b i]. n. 3/4. so rt,

mbeg v. (b e ) o p e n ,

ty p e .
mbegala n. 9. p r o te c tio n . Etym:
mbl mpamb n. g r a n d p a r e n t,
b a g a l a ‘k e e p , sto r e , w a t c h .’

mbll PL m o m b i l [m a m b il]. n. 9/6. tu ft,

mbend n. d is r e p u ta b le p e r so n . [Note:
553

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 mbil mbur)

lo c k ( o f h a ir ), h u n g er'.

mbil Pl: m e m b il. n. 3/4. h o le in ea r th . mbug Pl m o m b u g [ m a m b u g ]. n. 9/6.

mbil besa v. (b e ) r ic h (in th in g s ), p r iso n ,

mbug v. lie d o w n .
mbimbi n. 7. a m o u n t,

mbuge Pl b o b u g e . n. 1/2. a c c u se r .
mbin Pl m a m b in . n. 3/4. p e s tle . Etym:

Etym: n o m in a liz a tio n o f b u g a

* p e n i (3 ) .

‘a c c u s e .’
mbol marnpDg Pl b o b o l m am pag. n.

rnbul ncug Pl m em bul m e ncug

1/2. fa rm er. Lit: 'so w e r o f seed

[m im b iil m in c u g ] . n. 3/4. e le p h a n t's

(s e m e u r d e s se m e n c e s )'.

tru n k .
Riband Pl m am band. n. c r e v ic e .

mbulo Pl m a m b u la . tl in -la w .
mb5g ncug Pl m em bag m e n cu g

mbumb Pl m e m b u m b [m im b u m b ]. n.
[m im b a g m in c u g ] . tl. 3/4. e le p h a n t's

3/4. b u n d le . Etym: *b a m b a .
tu sk .

mbumba biyez n. s k e le to n . Lit: 'b u n d le

mbu Alt. m bw a. Pl m e m b u [m im b u ]

b o n es'.
n. 3/4. year, sea so n ,

mbumbwa Pl m em bum bw a
mbu bampu n. r a in y s e a s o n . Lit:

[m im b u m b w a ]. n. 3/4. p oor m an.

'se a so n o f rains',

m bug v. k ick .
mbu nca n. d r o u g h t, fa m in e . Lit: 'se a so n

554

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 mbweza mpanjcl

mbweza tl w e t th in g . Etym: rnbwD tl b o w str in g ,

n o m in a liz a tio n o f b w a z ‘b e w e t .’ mbwdb tl 3/4. w ir e , th r e a d ,

mbwand mwan Pl m ebw and m ebw an

mbwal Pl b o b w a l. n. 1/2. dancer. Etym:

[m a b w a n d m a b w a n ] . n. 3/4. fe tu s,
n o m in a liz a tio n o f b w a l 'to d a n c e .'

mbwo Pl m obw o. tl 9/6. a rm , h a n d .

mbyel Tl. 3/4. r e la tiv e .

Etym: *bbka (1 5 ) .

Mp mp

mpa Pl bam pa. tl 1/2. w ild c a t. mpanj Pl b em p a n j [b im p a n j]. n. 7/8.

mpal Pl b o m p a l [b a m p a l]. tl 1/2. e a g le . s id e ( o f b o d y ), b r e a s tb o n e , rib . Etym:

* b a n je (1 1 ) .
Etym: * p o n g o (9 ) .

mpanj Tl. 10. bam boo.

mpam Pl b o m p a m [b a m p a m ]. tl 1/2.

a n c e sto r . mpanj n. sh e lte r .

mpamb Pl bam pam b. n. s p ittin g co b r a . mpanj malul n. fo r g e . [Note: s h e lte r of

-mpana Sg: e m p a n a . Pl: b a m p a n a . rt. b la c k s m ith j

5 / 8 . s m a ll o f b a c k , mpanjel Pl b o m p a n j e l [b a m p a n jc l]. n.

mpanda n. w a y . 1/2. c a ttle e g r e t.

555

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 mpe mpurum

mpe Pb mampe. tl 9/6. c o o k in g p o t mpog TL fo x .

(m a r m ite ). mpog Pb mampog. n. se e d .

mpe tag Pb mampe matag. tl 9/6. mpu Pb bdmpu [b a m p u ]. n. 1/2. r a in .

to b a c c o p ip e . Lit: 'p ot to b a c c o
Etym: * b u d a (9 ) .

(m a r m ite ta b a c)'.
mpuda adv. (b e ) to g e th e r .

mped Pb bemped [ b im p e d ]. n. 7/8.

mpuga n. 9/6. fr a c tu r e . Etym:

h a rp .
n o m in a liz a tio n o f bug ‘b r e a k .’

mpel Pb bampel. n. b u tte r fly ,

mpugaga Pb bdpugaga. n. 1/2.

mpela tl 9. im ita tio n . Etym:

a c c u s a tio n . Etym: n o m in a liz a tio n o f

n o m in a liz a tio n o f bela ‘im ita t e .’

buga ‘a c c u s e .’

mpende Pb mompende [m a m p e n d e ].
mpul n. g a z e lle .

n. 9 / 6 . la w , ru le ,
mpuma sal n. s t o n e , g r a v e l.

rnpi n. 10. w h it e h a ir . Etym: * b u e ( 9 ,1 1 ) .

mpuq n. 9. flo o d .

mpi tl 1 0 . p a lm n u ts.
m pu^a Pb mpuga. n. 10. h a ir ( o f h e a d ).

mpfl Pb mampfl. n. c h a r c o a l.
[Note: n o s in g u la r /

mpimba n. 9. anger.
mpurjga Pb mpugga. n. 10. e a r r in g .

mpimpyar) n. 1. r e d p ep p er, h o t pepper.

mpurum adv. (b e ) sa m e .

mpiZO n. b a c k ( o f s o m e th in g ).

556

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 mpuug mpyem

mpuug Pl b o m p u u g [b a m p u u g ]. n. 1/2. Etym: n o m in a liz a tio n o f b w e l a ‘ta k e

r e v e n g e .’
sq u irr e l. [Note: liv e s in h o le s in trees;

e a ts sn a k e s; tu fte d ta il; lo u d cry;

m pw and n. 9. d e la y . Etynv

b ig g e r th a n sfnj7 n o m in a liz a tio n o f b w a a n d ‘w a it .’

mpwaag n. 9. fa tn e s s . Etym: m pw and Tl. 9. p a tie n c e . Etym:

n o m in a liz a tio n o f b w a g ‘b e b ig .’ n o m in a liz a tio n o f b w a a n d ‘w a it .’

mpwag ti. 9. fa m ily lin e . m p w iq g n. 10. p r o b le m s, a n n o y a n c e s .

mpwag n. 9. b e d , c o u c h e tt e . Etyrru m pw o n. 9. a c c u s a tio n ,

n o m in a liz a tio n o f b w a g a b a ‘lie m pw oge n. 1. h e a lth ,

d o w n .’
m pw om b Pl m om pw om b

mpwam Pl b o m p w a m [b a m p w a m ]. n.
[m a m p w o m b ]. n. 9/6. fa c e ,

1/2. p y th o n . Etym: * b b m a (9 ).
m pya Pl m am pya. n. c o w r ie s h e ll.

mpwama n. 9. m e e t in g . Etym:
-m p y a b Sg: le m p y a b . Pl m om pyab

n o m in a liz a tio n o f b w a m a ‘m e e t .’
[m a m p y a b ]. n. 5 / 6 . w in g . Etym:
mpwamba Pl m pw am ba. n. 10.
* p a p a ( 5 ,1 1 ) .

d e s c e n d a n ts . Etym: n o m in a liz a tio n o f

m pyanj v. g ro w ,

b w a m b a ‘f o l lo w .’
m pyel Pl m p y e l. n. 10. tr o u se r s,

m pwela Pl m o m p w e l a . n. 9/6. d e b t.

m pyem Pl m am pyem . n. yam .

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 mpyo no mididi

mpyo Pb b o m p y o . n. 1/2. dog. Etym: bam pyo. n. p u p . Lit: 'sm a ll d o g ',

* b o a ( 9 ,1 2 ) . m w a m p y o Pb b w a mpyoq n. d is r e sp e c t.

N - n

na num. fo u r (4 ) . Etym: * n a i ‘fo u r .’ su m m it, h ig h e s t p o in t,

na conj. th a t.
nadaba v. try.

naba conj. b e c a u s e ,
nam Pb b e n a m [b in a m ]. n. 7/8. n a tio n ,

nane adj. b ig , im p o r ta n t. Etym: *ncne

namba v. fe e l (a c t iv e ),

‘b ig .’
nandala v. tig h te n ,

ni v. e n te r , g o in .
narj adv. s till, y e t.

niba mampyab v. fla p th e w in g s ,

ne dem. th a t,

nigo v. g o b a c k , retu rn ,
neg v. s c a p e g o a t,

nnrjg v. e n te r , jo in .
neya n. p o is o n (o n a r r o w ),

-niye interr. h o w m any?

neg adv. now . Etym: b o r r o w e d fr o m

no Alt [n a ]. conj. a n d , w ith . Etym: *na

M akaa.

‘a n d , w it h .’
-neg Sg: e n e g . Pb m a n e g . n. 5/6.

no mididi adj. (b e ) sh y .

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 no yfg ncam

no yirj adv. to o m u c h , numba Ph m a n u m b a . n. a c q u a in ta n c e .

nob Ph b o n o b . n. 1/2. o th e r , numbe Tl. p r o p h e c y .

nog Ph m e n o g . n. 3/4. k ilo m e te r , nun Ph b e n u n . tl 7/8. b ird , b e n u n b e

nog tl v a g in a . kw ar. tl fo w l. Lit: 'b ird s o f th e

v illa g e '.
num Ph m e n u m . tl 3/4. m o u th . Etym:

-nu ip la dlba Sg: e n u g a la d fb a . Ph

* d am a (3 ).

m o n u g a m a d f b a [m a n u g a m a d fb a ].
numa adv. a ls o , to o .

n. 5/6. sp r in g ,
numala v. s m e ll. Etym: *dum b.

nwa adv. th e r e.

numb v. 1 . k n o w (s o m e th in g o r s o m e o n e ).

nwag Ph m o n w a g [m a n w a g ]. n. 9/6.
2. d iv in e , p r o p h e sy ,

m a n g o tree,
numb sa v. k n o w h o w to .

nw i v. fa ll (r a in ).

numba TL 3. k n o w le d g e .

Nc - nc

nca n. 9. hunger. Etym: * ja d a (9 ) ncaabara v. turn upside down,

‘h u n g e r .’ ncam 71. leprosy. Lit destroyer.

559

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 ncam a kag neon

ncam a kag n. b r e a k fa st. Lit: 'd e str o y e r f e t is h (s p ir it). Lit: 'little go d ',

o f m o u t h n a stin e ss',
ncimbe Pl b e n c i m b e . Tl. 7/8. s o ld ie r .

ncamb Pl bencam b. tl 7/8. m a r sh . ncmcoij Pl m o n c i n c o g [m a n c in c o g ]. n.

-ncaq Sg: l e n c a g . Pl m ancag. tl 5/6. 9/6. enem y,

b a la fo n .
ncinda Pl b a n c in d o . n. is la n d .

-nee interr. w h o . ncigga Pl b e n e f g g a . n. 7/8. c a t. m w a

-ncela Pl m o n c e l a [ m o n c e la ]. tl 6. n c fg g a Pl b w a b a n e fg g a . n. k itte n .

Lit: 'ch ild cat',

u r in e .

nco v. c o m e .
ncel tl 9 / 6 . b r id e p r ic e (fo r b rid e's fa m ily )

( 5 / 6 in B e g n e ).
nco lcrj [n ca le g ] v. a n n o u n c e . Lit:

-ncele Pl m o n c e l e [m a n c e le ]. tl 6. tea rs. 'c o m e say'.

[Note: n o sin g u la r j
-ncog Sg: e n c o g . n. 5. cr y , s o u n d .

ncal fwen TL silk , h a ir ( o f m a iz e ). ncom v. (b e ) in d iso r d e r ,

nci Pl m e n c i [m a n c i]. n. 3/4. 1 . p a th . 2 . ncoi) adj. (b e ) je a lo u s ,

fo rk (in p a th ), ncoo n. 10. tim e (c o u n ta b le ).

n c ic a m Pl m e n c x c a m . n. 3/4. le p e r .
nc5mb Pl m ancam b. n. flo w e r ,

nciimbe TL G o d (s u p r e m e b e in g ) . Etym neon Pl m ancan. n. m u s ic .

* ja m b e (9 ) . m w a n c i i m b e n. god,

560

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 nCDT) ncwam

ncog Ph m a n c a g . n. 9/6. 1 . d a n c e , fe a s t. ncwag n. m o ld (p o tte r y ).

3. fu n e r a l (a t o c c a s io n o f d e a th ). ncwa pro. u s (d u a l).

nc5r) n. d a n c e r . Etym: r e la te d to n o u n
ncwo pro. w e (d u a l).

n c a g ( 9 ) 'dance'.
ncwog Ph b o n c w o g . n. 1/2. e le p h a n t.

ncoM Ph b a n c a a l. tl p a n g o lin , s c a ly
Etym: *jogu

a n te a te r .
ncwog madlbo Ph b o n c w o g m a d fb a .

-ncule Ph m o n c u l e [m a n c u le ]. tl 6.
n. 1/2. h ip p o p o ta m u s . l i t : 'e le p h a n t

earw ax. [Note: n o s in g u la r !

w a ter'.

ncuma tl p eg .
ncw5 njl njl adj. b o r d e r on.

ncur) Ph b o n c u g [b a n c u g ] . n. 1/2. fly .

ncwom Ph b e n c w a m . tl 7/8. b u ffa lo .

Etym: * g i ( 9 ) ‘f ly .’
Etym: * ja te ( 9 ) ‘b u ff a lo .’

ncug n. 9. axe. Etym: *cok a ( 5 ) ‘a x e .’

ncuuj n. 9. ham m er. Etym: * jo n d 5 (9 )

‘h a m m e r .’

ncwambalo Tl. p a d d le , p o le . [Note:

lo n g , u s e d to p r o p e l c a n o e s j

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 Nd - nd nja

Nd - nd

ndag adv. r e a lly ? 1/2. b u s h d w e lle r . Lit: 'd w e lle r fo rest'.

Etym: n o m in a liz a tio n o f d i l ‘d w e ll.’

ndamba n. 9. ru b b er.

ndol n. p a in . Etym: n o m in a liz a tio n of dal

-ndaqga Pb m o n d a q g a [m a n d a q g a ].

'hurt'.
n. 6. m ud. [Note: n o s in g u la r ] Etym:
ndu Pb m a n d u . n. v ir g in .
* ta k a ( 5 ) ‘e a r th , m u d , m a r s h .’

ndube n. p a in te r . Etym: n o m in a liz a tio n

nde v. b e (lo c ).

o f d u b ‘p a in t .’
ndela n. 9. b u r ia l. Etym:

nduge n. r o w e r . Etym: n o m in a liz a tio n o f

n o m in a liz a tio n o f d e l ‘b u r y .’

d u g d ‘p a d d le , r o w .’
ndfl v. sit.

ndundu n. 3. n e e d le .
ndll dig Pl b d d i l b o d i g [b a d il b a d ig ] . n.

ndwagg n. v a lle y .

Nj - nj

nja Pb m e n j a [m in ja ]. n. 3/4. in t e s tin e s . Etym: * d a (1 1 ) .

562

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 njab njombalo

njab Pb m e n j a b [m in ja b ]. n. 3/4. h o u se. n ji v. m a r k o u t, p e g o u t (g r o u n d ),

Etym: * jo b a ( 9 ) ‘h o u s e .’ nji Pb m o n j i [m a n ji]. n. 9/6. fr o n tie r ( o f

njap bur Pb m e n j a p bur. n. 3/4. fa m ily . e th n ic a r e a ). Etynv * d ed o (3 ) .

Lit. h o u s e p e o p le , njl fam Pb m o n j i m o f a m [m a n ji

njagala Ph m e n j a g a la . n. 3/4. p r a y er s. m a fa m ]. n. 9/6. b o u n d a r y ( o f fie ld ),

njam tl 7. m o m e n t (g o o d ) , nji adv. o n ly . Etynv * jek a ‘o n ly .’

njai) tl b ir d lim e ( a d h e s iv e to c a tc h b ir d s), njige Pb b o j f g e . tl 1/2. s tu d e n t. Etynv

njeb v. la c k . Etynv * ca b ‘la c k .’ n o m in a liz a tio n o f j i g ‘le a r n .’

njlgale Pb b o j f g a le . n. 1/2. te a c h e r . Etynv

njekala Pb m e n j e k a la . n. 3/4.

n o m in a liz a tio n o f j f g a l e ‘t e a c h .’
in itia tio n (m a le ),

njiil Pb b o j i il . n. 1/2. crie r. Etynv

njekala mwara Pb m e n j e k a la bw ara.

n o m in a liz a tio n o f j i i ‘cry , w e e p .’

tl 3/4. in itia tio n (f e m a le ) . Lit:

'in itia tio n w o m a n ',

njfnde n. m a c h e t e h a n d le .

n je e TL 9.1. a r r iv a l. 2 . u n til Etym: njijie Pb m e n j ij i e [m in jijie ]. tl bam boo,

n o m in a liz a tio n o f j e ‘a r r iv e .’ njomb n. c o o k . Etym: n o m in a liz a tio n of

n je le n. 3/4. fla m e . j a m b 'to p r e p a r e fo o d ',

njem Pb m e j e m . n. 3/4. b a t. Etym: njombalo Pb m o j o m b a l o [m a jo m b a lo ].

* d cm a (3 ) . tl 9/6. so r c e r e r (m a le ).

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 njombald mwara njwuq

njombalo mwara Ph mojombald njum Ph menjum. n. 3/4. m a le

bwara [m a jd m b a lo ]. n. 9/6. w itc h (a n im a l).

(f e m a le ) . Lit: 'so rcero r w o m a n ', njum silo Ph bajum ba masila. n. 1/2.

njond Ph menjand [m in ja n d ]. n. 3/4. s o n -in -la w . Lit. h u sb a n d

trip . Etynv fr o m jand 'step on'? y o u n g .w o m a n

njog Ph bdjog. n. 1/2. g u e s t, v is ito r , njune Ph bojune. n. 1/2. fig h te r . Etynv

str a n g e r . Etynv * g c n i ( 1 ) ‘str a n g e r .’ n o m in a liz a tio n o f juna ‘f ig h t .’

njoz Ph m enjoz [m in jo z ] . n. 3/4. njwarj n. 9. riv er . Etym: * d 5 n g a (3 ) .

lig h tn in g . Etynv * ja d i (9 ). njwi Alt [n ju ] n. 3/4. h e a d , k in g , c h ie f.

nju n. c h is e l. Etym. N o m in a liz a tio n o f jw i 'rule

njug adj. d iffic u lt, h a rd , o v e r , d o m in a te '

njw5mb5 PL m6njw5mb5 [m s n jw o m b a ].
njul Ph bojiil. n. 1/2. k ille r . [Note: a d d

n. 9/6. b o ttle .
'p eo p le' to c la r ify i f 'm urderer'./

njul betid Ph bdjul betid, tl b u tc h e r .

njw5rj Ph menjwag [m a n jw a p ]. n. 3/4.

p a th , r o a d . Etynv * je d a ( 9 ) ‘p a th ? ’
njum Ph bojum [b o ju m ]. n. 1/2. m a le

njwuq n. r e sp e c t.
(s e x ), h u sb a n d . Etynv *dom c.

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 Nt - nt nteg

Nt - nt

nta conj. sin c e .

Ph b w a m e m y o l b e n te . n. h e ife r . Lie

'sm a ll fe m a le c o w ', m w a n j u m n t e
nta Ph b o n t a [b a n t a ]. n. 1/2. g r a n d c h ild ,

Ph b w a m en ju m b e n te . n. c a lf. Lit:
-ntag Ph m e n t a g n. 4. j o y , h a p p in e s s .
'sm a ll m a le c o w ', n j u m n t e Ph
Etym: b o r r o w e d fr o m E w o n d o .
m in ju m n te . n. 3/4. b u ll. Lit 'm a le

ntama V. ro t, d e c o m p o s e .
c o w ',

ntanda n. b e a n . nteg v. p u n ish .

ntarj Ph b o n t a ij [b a n t a g ] . n. 1/2. rat.

ntegale n. a c c e n t,

ntarj v. c r o ss.
ntegale V. a n n o y , d istu r b ,

ntarj dibo v. c r o ss riv e r . Lit: 'cross ntele Ph b a n t e l e . n. p e n a lty ,

w a ter',
p u n is h m e n t,

ntarj adv. lik e th a t.

ntene adv. lik e th a t. Etym: n ta + -n e.

ntarj no adv. th e n .
nted tl h u n d red (1 0 0 ).

nte Ph b e n t e [b in t e ] . n. 7/8. ox, cow .

nteg v. a b u se . Etynv * to k ‘a b u s e .’

m yol n te Ph m e m y a l b e n t e . n. 3/4.
nteg v. a n n o y .

cow . Lit: 'fe m a le c o w ', m w a m y o l n t e

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 ntembala -ntug5

ntembbla v. (b e ) s lo w . o r o n e th a t d o e sn 't s t o p j

ntliba Ph m d n t u b a [m a n tu b a ]. n. 9/6.
-ntend Ph b e n t e n d [b in te n d ]. n. 8.

sw o r d .
sp id er's w e b . [Note: n o sin g u la r j

ntud Ph m a n t u d . n. tu sk ( o f w a r th o g ).
ntl n. siste r .

ntug Ph b a n t u g . n. sto p p e r , p lu g ,
ntlg v. g iv e , s e n d in r e s p o n s e to a r e q u e st,

ntugaju Ph b a n t u g a j u . n. b u d .
ntinta n. g r e a t g r a n d c h ild . Etym: r e d u p

fo rm o f n ta 'g ra n d ch ild ',

ntula adj. m a n y , a lo t (" u n cou n tab le)

ntoba v. flo w , d rip . [Note: r e la te d to ntum tl b r o th e r . [Note: o p p o s ite sex o f eg o

w o r d fo r 'd y sen tery 'J Etym: * tan (b r o th e r o f a siste r )J Etynv *ddm bo

‘d r ip .’ ( 1 ,5 ) .

ntomb n. 7/8 or 1/2. younger. [Note: ntumo Ph m o n t u m a [m a n tu m o ]. n. 9/6.

V a r ia tio n b e t w e e n s p e a k e r s in c la s s b ig d ru m , ta lk in g d ru m ,

m e m b e r s h ip j ntuna Ph b e t u n a . n. 7/8. fig h t w it h

ntomb v. sta g g e r . w eap on s. Etynv N o m in a liz a tio n o f

-ntD Sg: e n t a . Ph m a n t a k . n. 5/6. crop (o f t u n a ‘to f ig h t .’

b ird ).
ntune Ph b o t u n e . tl 1/2. fig h te r . Etynv

ntu n. d y s e n te r y . [Note: e x tr e m e N o m in a liz a tio n o f t u n a ‘to f ig h t .’

d ia r r h e a - e it h e r th e k in d w it h b lo o d
-ntUl]5 Sg: e n t u q a . Ph m a n t u g a . n. 5/6.

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 ntutsgu

bum p. n. 7/8. sh eep . Alt [n t w o m b e ] . m w a

n tu ta g u Ph m o n t u t a g u [m a n tu ta g u ]. n. n tw o m b e Ph b w a b m tw o m b e. n.

la m b . Lit: 'little sh e e p ', n j u m

9/6. h u m p ( o f c o w ),

n tw o m b e Ph m i n j u m m in tw o m b e .
n tu tu m a Ph b a n t u t u m a . n. c r o w d .

n. 3/4. ram . Lit 'm a le sh e e p ',

n tw ar V. (b e ) a lo n e ,

n tw o q n. 3/4. sca rf.

ntw era adj. su r p r ised ,

n tw a m a Ph b o n t w a m a [b a n t w a m a ]. n.
n tw i Ph b o n t w i [b a n t w i]. n. 1/2. 1 . la z y
1/2. boy.

p e r so n . 2 . lo o s e , sla c k th in g s,
ntWDma adj. (b e ) y o u n g .

n tw o m b Ph b e n t w o m b . n. 7/8. fig h t.

n tw e m b e Ph b e n t w e m b e [ b in t w im b e ] .

J1

J l= pro. 9 su b je c t. fin g e r n a il, c la w .

Jia Ph b o j ia . [b a jia ] n. 1/2. fle a . [Note:

jl = pro. h e /s h e .

th e k in d fo u n d o n p o u ltr y a n d
Jia te a r (tr ). Etym: * n o k o d ‘te a r o ff,

m a n io c , v e r y s m a ll a n d fa s tj
e x tr a c t .’

J»ag v. d e fe c a te . Etynv * n e ‘d e f e c a t e .’
jia Ph b e j ia . [b a jia , b ijia ] n. 7/8.

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 jiag Jul jiwele

Jiag Jul v. break wind, fart. Etym: *ciid jiaarjgo Ph boji55qg6. n. 1/2. mother.

‘fart.’ Etynv *paqgo (la) ‘mother.’

jiam v. milk (cows, goats). J ia r j g o n. channel.

Jiai) na bol v. nurse, suckle (baby) (tr). jiulam adj. (be) kind.

Etynv *jiam ‘suck, suckle.’ J ilin Ph mopun [majiun]. n. 9/6. body,

-jiar) PL mojiar) [mapar)]. n. 6. milk. jiwadaba v. squat.

[Note: no singular] Etynv

Jiwag v. please, satisfy,

nominalization of jiarj ‘suckle’?

jiwarj v. take.
jiaz v. move, convulse.
Jiwar) n. 5 /6 . good things.
J ieg v. bare, show (teeth).
Jiwar) Ph bojiwarj [bojiwaq]. n. 1/2.
J ie m e v. (be) alone.
snake. Etynv *pka (9) ‘snake.’

J ia pro. him/her.
jiwarjjiwaq adj. good.

jilba na ban v. spank (child).

J1WC pro. 9emphatic, lOemphatic.

Jllg v. return (give back) (tr).

J iw e l v. drink. Nominalvzations: jiw ele (1)

Jlimaza v. stir.
‘drinker,’jiwelaga ( 7 ) ‘drink.’ Etynv

JlDmbala Ph mojiSmbalo [majrSmbala]. *jid ‘drink.’

n. 9/6. armpit. Jiwele Ph bajiwcle. n. 1/2. drinker.

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 jiwslgga rjguoga

Etym; nominalization of j i w e l ‘drink.’ -jiwog Ph m o j i w o g [majiwog]. n. 6.

J lW E la g a Ph b e p w e l a g a . n. 7/8. drink. wine. [Note: no singular] m o j iw o g

Etynv nominalization of j i w e l ‘drink.’ m o la n d n. 6. palm wine. Lit: 'wine of

J1W3 pro. 9subject. palm'.

J lW O g a z a v. tickle.

r jg a dem. this. qgwando n. 3. manioc, cassava,

ggar Pl m aggar. n. market. ggw ag adv. together. [Note: old. ]

r)ge conj. if. rjgwomana n. sous-prefet.

ggwagala n. 9/6. prayers. Etynv ggwag lw5 Ph m a g g w a m a lw a . n. deaf

borrowed from Ewondo. person.

rjgwala Ph m o g g w a l a [maggwala]. n. qgWDT) n. climbing rope.

9/6. town, qgulD TL dust.

rjgwam Ph m e g g w a m [maggwam]. t l rjgumba adj. entire, whole.

3/4. bachelor, spinster,

r jg u r jg a Ph m a g g u g g a . n. box.

rjgwan tl 3. paw.

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 Qgb qkeg

r)gbag Ph barjgbarj. n. crow.

qk

qka conj. then, as. Etym: *nga ‘as, like.’ g k e g g v. carry.

gkab n. goiter. gkegg mwan ne kwag v. carry (child)

gkag Pl berjkag [baqkag], n. 7/8. eyelid, on back. Lit: 'carry child with back',

rjkerjg na lu v. carry on head. Lit: 'carry

gkam adj. right, (be) correct,

with head',
qkama interr. how many?

gkegg na mabwa v. carry in arms. Lit:

rjkanja Ph maqkanja. n. fin.
'carry with hands',
I)kag Ph bogkag [bag kag]. n. 1/2.
gk ejiu l v. boast, brag.
medicine man, trad healer, diviner.
gke jiun V. (be) eager, (be) zealous. Lit
Etym; *ganga ‘medicine man.’

boast body,
gkaza Ph barjkaza. n. weaver-bird.
rjkeg Ph mdrjkeg [magkeg]. n. 9/6.
gke conj. or.
promise. [Note: Nominalization of keg

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 gkcl qku lyenda

'prom ise'J r)k51 jw op tl th u n d e r . Lit: 'g u n sky',

rjkel tl sh in ,
rjkondo Ph bogkando [b a g k a n d o ]. tl

rjkerj tl w is e o n e . 1/2. c r o c o d ile . Etynv * g a n d o (9 ).

gkob tl s a m e sid e . r jk o r ) v. (b e ) b r a v e , c o u r a g e o u s ,

gkokog Ph m ogkokog [m a g k o k o g ]. tl
p o w e r fu l.

9/6. m o la r to o th . Etynv * g e g a ( 5 ,7 )
I)k55b Ph mogkaab [m a g k a a b ]. n. 9/6.

‘m o la r t o o t h .’ p a d d le . [Note: sh o r t a n d f la t j Etynv

Ijkol Ph bagkol. tl e y e la s h . * k a p i (9 ).

r)ku Ph begku [b a g k u ]. n. 7/8. fr u it b a t.

rjkolo Ph mokolo. tl 9/6. lo a d ,

Etynv " g cm b o a ‘b a t .’
rjkona adv. lit t le b y little .

rjku Ph bogku [b a g k u ]. n. 1/2. p ig . mwa

Ijkond Ph begkond [ b a g k o n d ]. n. 7/8.
gku Ph bwa bogku. tl p ig le t. Lit:
jo u rn ey . Etym: * g en d a ( 1 1 ) ‘jo u r n e y .’

'sm a ll p ig', myal gku Pl memyal

gkoq n. 7. courage.
megku. tl 3/4. sow . Lit: 'fe m a le pig'.

Ijkddmb Ph magkoomb. Alt [g k u m b ]. n.

Etyrrv * g o d o b e ( 9 ) ‘p ig .’

9/6. m e d iu m d ru m . Etym: * g a m a (9 ) .
r)ku dlgl Ph bogku digi. n. 1/2.
mwa gkumb Ph bwa gkumb. tl

w a r th o g , b o a r. Lit: 'p ig fo rest',

s m a ll d ru m . Lit: 'sm a ll drum ',

rjkii lyenda tl r a in b o w .

g k b l Ph bogkal [b a g k a l]. n. 1/2. gun.

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 gkub5 gkwembale

r jk u b o Pl: bagkuba. tl sh ie ld . Etynv 3/4. c lo u d ,

*guba.
r jk u u b Pb moqkuub [m a q k u u b ]. tl 9/6.

r )k u g Pb maqkug. n. u p p e r g r in d in g q u iv e r .

s to n e .
gkuund Pb meqkuund [m iq k u u n d ]. Alt

gkul Pb mukul. n. 9/6. fo r c e , p o w e r , [q k w o o n d ] n. 3/4. m o n th ,

gkuur Pb beqkuur [b iq k u u r ]. n. 7/8.

rjk u l Pb moqkul [m a q k u l]. tl 9/6. cane

b a r k ( o f tr e e ),
ra t, c u tt in g g r a ss, g r a ss c u tte r,

gkw al Pb boqkwal [b a q k w a l] . tl 1/2.

gkum b Pb begkumb [b a g k u m b ]. n. 1/2.

s n a il.
m o n ito r liz a r d ,

gkw ag Pb magkwag. n. ca r tr id g e ,
g k u m b b lb tl d ia r r h e a .

gk w agg Pb beqkwaqg. tl 7/8. fis h trap,

gkund n. 9. m oon. Etym: * g o n d c (9 ).

qkw ende Pb boqkwende [b a q k w e n d e ].

gkund tl sc a ffo ld in g ,

n. 1/2. e lb o w . Etynv *k ak 5d a (9 ) .
r jk u n d a tl g ra n a ry ,

g k w e j l [q k w ip ] Pb boqkweji [b a q k w iji].
gkug Pb mekurj [m a k u g ]. n. 3/4. a rro w ,

tl 1 / 2 . le o p a r d .
gkugkub Pb baqkuqkub. n. u m b ilic a l

g k w e jlE Pb baqkwejie. n. c e n tip e d e ,

co rd .

m illip e d e .
gkud [q k u r] Pb merjkud [maqkur] . n.
g k w e m b a le Pb bokwcmbale. tl 1/2.

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 gkwenj qkpaga

rep a ir e r. Etym: n o m in a liz a tio n o f [Note: U se d fo r p o t h a n d le s , th e s id e s

kwombala ‘m e n d , r e p a ir .’ o f p la te s , e t c j

rjkwenj tl 7. m e ta l. [Note: a ls o u s e d fo r ijkwog Ph mogkwag [m a g k w a g ] . n. 9/6.

ir o n j su g a r c a n e .

-gkwob Sg: legkwob. Ph magkwob. tl qkwamb Ph bogkwamb [b a g k w a m b ]. n.

5/6. sh o e . 1/2. p o r c u p in e . Etym: * g o m b a (9 ) .

gkwom balo Ph mokwombalo. n. 9/6. gkwombala v. p la n .

r ep a ir. Etym: n o m in a liz a tio n o f qkw5min tl v o ic e b o x , la r y n x , A d a m 's

kwombala ‘m e n d , r e p a ir .’
a p p le , th ro a t.

rjkwog Ph m egkw og. tl 3/4. rjkwDi) n. p ity .

r e s p o n s a b ility , s o c ia l sta tu s.
rjkwund Tl terro r. [Note: e x tr e m e fe a r j

gkw5 Ph magkwD. n. h a n d le (r o u n d ).

Ogb

rjkpaga Ph m ogkpaga [m a g k p a g a ]. n. 9 / 6 . fis h in g lin e .

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 pysb

O - o

O= TAM. Present (Pres). -ob gen. their,

-O gen. your (sg). -oob interr. which?

-55qga det Definite (Def). Aforementioned.

p - p

paar n. threshing-floor. pupW D n. 7. pawpaw, papaya,

paga n. cane. ptltl n. calm.

pe adv. totally. pyeb v. winnow, throw in air (grain).

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 sa sandala

s S

sa PL mosa [masa]. tl 9/6. feather. saal v. l . cut open. 2. chop into pieces.

Etynv *cada (5,7,11) ‘feather.’ Etym: *tad ‘cut open.’

sa v. act, do. sab v. get sick.

sa bejug v. 1. play games. 2 . entertain, -sab Sg: esab. n. 5/6. illness, disease.

amuse. Etym: borrowed from Baywe'e?

sa kwar v. plunder (a town). Lit: 'do sade n. Saturday,

village’. sagba v. (be) restless, (be) unsettled,

sa mamwala V. be engaged, be
sagaza V. shake. Etynv *tek ‘shake.’

betrothed. Lit. do fiances,

Synchronically linked to sa ‘do.’

sa mpwoge v. get well, heal. Lit: 'do

sal v. peel.

health'.
samb PL besamb [bisamb]. n. 7/8. rape,

sa PL besa [bisa]. n. 7/8. 1. thing. 2.

samba n. row.

belongings (in plural),

sambala V. sneeze. Etynv *teamod
sa na bab bab n. evil, badness. Lit:
‘sneeze.’
'thing with bad'.
sandala v. slip.

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 sanja sin

sanja Ph m esa n ja . n. 3/4. th u m b p ia n o , g r o u n d , la n d . 2 . u n d e r n e a th , b e lo w ,

dow n. Etym: * c e ( 9 ) ‘g r o u n d , e a r th .’
sag v. lo o k fo r. Etytru * k a n g ‘lo o k fo r,

si beb v. h u r t o n e s e lf.
s e e k , h u n t .’

SI y o v. (b e ) d e a d . Lit: 'fin ish d ie'.

sag PI m e s a g [m a s a g ] . n. 3/4. m ane.

Etym: *jen je ( 3 ) ‘m a n e .’
Slg v. d e c e iv e . Etym: * k c n g ‘c h e a t,

sa g g a PI m a sa g g a . n. n e c k la c e . d e c e iv e .’

Slga n. c ig a r e tte .
se TAM. Perfect (P erf).

siga v. s a w ( w o o d ).
sel v. b a il o u t (c a n o e , b o a t).

s il v. fin ish . Etym:* c id ‘f in is h .’

sen tl 1/ 2 . n a il.

Sllaba Ph b asflab a. n. m e t a l p o t.
seg g e PI m e se g g e . n. 3/4. g ift.

Silo Ph m e silo . n. 3/4. 1. g irl. 2 .

SCS Sg: lescs. Ph m ases. n. 5/6. g irl,

daughter.
you n g w om an. [Note: Im m a tu re ,

w it h o u t c h ild r e n . F o r s o m e sp e a k e r s
Sll5 v. approach.

in c la s s 3 /4 .J sim a la V. groan (with pain).

S G Z a lo v. e v a d e .
sim aza V. th in k , r e m e m b e r . Etym:

-sag PU b e sa g [b a s a g ]. n. 8. te r m ite . [Note: b o r r o w e d fr o m M a k a a .

n o sin g u la r j Sin Ph m o sin [m a s in ] . n.9/6. p o in t.

SI Pi: b e st [b a s l]. n. 7/8. 1 . w o r ld ,

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 sma syegale

Sina n. end. S1ZD PL m e s iz o [m is iz a ]. n. 3/4.

S in j PL b e s f n j [b is m j ]. n. 7/8. sq u ir r e l. te n d o n , v e in .

[Note: m a k e s a n e st; liv e s in trees;

SI TAM. C o n tr a e x p e c ta tio n . Etym:

sm a lle r th a n m p u u g ) Etynv *cende B o r r o w e d fr o m M a k a a ?

(7 ) ‘s q u ir r e l.’ SOg ti. lu n g .

sijie n. 9. sa n d . Etym: * c e n g a ‘s a n d .’
sol manom PL b o s o l b o m a n o m [b a s o l

SIS adj. a n o th e r . b a m a n a m ]. n. 1/2. p r o s titu te ,

SlSim PL m e s f s i m [m a s fs im ]. n. 3/4. so u l, -sombalo PL m o s o m b a l o [ m a s o m b a lo ].

sp ir it ( o f liv in g p e r so n ), n. 6 . cu r se . [Note: n o s in g u la r )

sfsim mur) PL m e s f s i m m e m u q [m a sis im SDTJga PL b o s a q g a . n. 1/2. fa th e r . Etym:

m e m u q ]. n. 3/4. s p ir it ( o f d e a d * c a n g o ( l a ) ‘fa th e r .’

p e r s o n ) (in v is ib le ) . sye v. sp it.

S IS D g PL m o s f s S g [m a sfsS g ]. n. 9/6. sye v. sin g ,

h ic c u p . ( 7 / 8 in B e g n e )
sye v. w o rk ,

S iy e n. en d . Etym: fr o m si 'finish'.
sye n. 7/8. w ork,

siyerjg v. g e t to g e th e r ,
syegale v. fr ig h te n . Etym: * c ic

siyerj g v. h e a p u p .
‘fr ig h te n .’

S iz a PL b e s i z a [ b a s iz a ] . n. 7/8. so n g .

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 J

Jeze v. r e y o ic e . s te m , sta lk ( o f c o m , m ille t , e tc .).

-Jug le Sg: e j u g le . Ph m o j u g l e [m a ju g
Jilo n. 3/4. young w om an. [Note: M a tu re,

le ] . n. 5 / 6 . tr u n k ( o f tr e e ).
g r o u n d e d , w it h c h ild r e n j

Jug v. c e a s e , sto p .
Jit v. p o u r.

Jug Ph b o J u g [b a j u g ]. n. 1/2. a n t. [Note:

-Jit Sg: e j u . n. 5. sa k e .

in c lu d e s fly in g a n ts j
Ju tl 9. s h a m e . Etym: *c5 n i ( 9 ) ‘s h a m e .’

Jugala v. fa ll in p ie c e s .
Ju v. e m p ty . [Note: O n ly u s e d fo r n o n ­

Jugaza v. str a in .
liq u id s , a s in e m p t y in g th e tra sh . F or

liq u id s s e e 'e m p ty , b a il.1]

Jukala nca adv. a fter.

Ju PL b o j u . n. 1/2. fish . Alt su . Etym: Jukul Ph b e f u k u l [b a ju k u l, b ij u k u l]. n.

* c u e ( 9 ) ‘f is h .’ 7/8. s c h o o l.

Juba PI m o j u b a [m a ju b a ]. n. 9 / 6 . jig g e r . Jill v. u n lo a d .

( 5 / 6 in B e g n e , w it h a n / s / ) Jul jiwarj n. v e n o m ( o f sn a k e ).

Jud n. 7/8. c o tto n .

Jula v. m b .

-Jug Sg: e j u g . Ph m o j u g [m a ju g ]. n. 5/6. JiilD v. d e s c e n d , g o d o w n .

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 JuZSgD

-Jum Sg: e j u m . Pl m o J u m [m a ju m ], n. [m iju m b e b w a z ] , n. 3/4. e a r th w o r m .

Lit: 'w o rm L o c -e a r th '.

5/6. b r a c e le t, a n k le r in g , b a n g le .

Jun Pl m e j u n [m ij u n ] , n. 3/4. fle s h .

Jiune PI boJ u m e . n. 1/2. b u ild e r . Etym:

fr o m J u m e ‘b u ild .’
Jurj Pl m o j u g [m a jiu ]]. n. 9/6. grave.

Jume v. b u ild . NominalizatioTU J u m e (1 ) Alt. Jw oq.

‘b u ild e r ,’ J u m o ( 1 ) ‘c o n s t r u c tio n .’
-Jug Sg: e ju r j. Pl m o j u g [m a ju g ], n. 5/6.

Jumalo mbw5 PI m a j u m l o m am bw a. flo a tin g w a te r p la n ts.

tl a rm (u s e d fo r b o th u p p e r a rm a n d
Jug Pl m a ju r ) n. b u lb , tu b er.

fo r e a r m ). Etym: * c o m b ‘b e o n t o p .’ Juga v. d is c u ss.

Jumo Pl b o Jum o. n. 1/2. c o n s tr u c tio n .

Jugo kwand Pl m e j u g a k w a n d [m a ju g a

Etym: fr o m J u m e ‘b u ild .’
k w a n d ], n. 3/4. r e g im e ( o f p la n ta in s ).

Jumo Pl m e j u m a [m iju m a ], n. 3/4. cane,

JuJwaz adj. (b e ) n a k e d .

w a lk in g stic k .
JuJwog n. in fr o n t o f, b e fo r e . Etym:

Jumb Pl m e j u m b [m iju m b ].n . 3/4.

R e d u p lic a te d fo r m o f th e n o u n J w o g

b r o o k , str ea m .
'fron t o f so m e th in g '.

-Jumb Pl m o J u m b [m a ju m b ]. n. 6. Juug Pl m a ju u g . n. w a te r fa ll.

in t e s tin a l w o r m . [Note: n o sin g u la r j

Juwa Pl b e ju w a . n. 7/8. p la te .

Jumb ebwaz Pl m eju m b e b w a z

Juzago v. c o n g r a tu la te .

579

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 jwa Jwiye

Jwa n. a x e h a n d le . Jwenj v. c a r v e , sh a r p e n . Etym *c5ng

Jwa Pl b o j w a [b a j w a ]. n. 1/2. ‘s h a r p e n to a p o in t .’

w in n o w .
Jwez v. s m o k e , d ry . Etym * k a c -u ‘d r y .’

Jwaag v. b e (c r a z y ). Jweza v. (b e ) d ry . Alt J w fz a . Etym

Jwaaz v. (b e ) h a p p y . * k a c -u ‘d r y .’

Jwel Pl b e j w e l [ b i j w s l] . n. 7/8. liz a rd .

Jwab v. h id e .

Jwem n. 9 . n a s a l m u c u s , sn o t.
Jwal adv. d ir e c tly , ju s t.

Jwem v. d e n y .
Jwamb v. u n c o v e r , d is c o v e r .

Jwenj Pl m e j'w e n j [m b jw c n j], n. 3/4.

Jwana v. lo a d (r ifle ).

you n g m an. Ah. jw a a n j.

Jwarjgala v. th r e a te n . Etym *kang

Jwanda Pl b o j w a n d a . n. 1/2. w eek.

‘th r e a t e n .’

Jwi v. w ith e r (p la n t).

Jwe v. b le e d .

-Jwi Sg: e j w i . m o jw i. n. 5/6. d e a th .

Jwe Pl m o j w e [m b jw e ], n. 9 / 6 .

m o u r n in g .
-Jwi nja Sg: e j w f n ja . Pl m o j w f n ja

Jwega v. b e d ru n k . Etym * k 5 d -o ‘b e [m a jw i n j a ] . n. 5 / 6 . le e c h .

in t o x ic a te d .’
Jwiye Pl b o f w i y e [b b j w iy e ]. n. 1/2.

580

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 Jwo tagakuz

h u n te r . Etym n o m in a liz a tio n o f Jw o Jwog Jwog adj. v e r y far.

‘h u n t.’
Jwamana v. g r u m b le , c o m p la in .

Jwo v. h u n t. Nominalizations: J w iy e (1 )
Jwamana Pl: b o j w o m a n a tl 1/2.
‘h u n te r ,’ J w o m b ‘h u n t.’
c o m p la in t.

Jwo n. 1. fr ie n d .
Jwomb n. h u n t. [Note: in c lu d e s h u n tin g

Jwo diz n. 1. p u p il ( o f e y e ) , lit fr ie n d e y e

a n d f is h in g ] Etym n o m in a liz a tio n of

-Jwo Sg: l e j w o . n. 5. fr ie n d sh ip . J w o ‘h u n t.’

Jwo v. u n d r e ss. Jwoozogo Pl m o j w o o z o g o

Jwog n. fr o n t ( o f s o m e th in g ) . Etym: [ m a jw d o z o g o ] . n. 9/6. j o y . Etym

n o m in a liz a tio n o f J w a a z 'be h a p p y '.

* ta n g ‘b e fir st.’

Jwuumb n. 3. creek .
Jwogana v. g o fo r w a r d .

T - t

ta Pl m eta . n. 3/4. n e p h e w , n ie c e , tad n. sm . b a m b o o b e d .

tab si v. r ise u p (in tr ). tag Pl b o t a g . n. 1/2. to b a c c o ,

tab tatale v. sta n d , tag n. fe r tile s o il,

tabel nunt s e v e n (7 ) . tagakuz adj. (b e ) in e x p e n s iv e .

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 tala tie

ta la v. a p p e a s e , p a c ify . fe a th e r s,

te g a v. (b e ) tire d .
tam ba Ju n. 7/8. p o o l.

ter v. sta r t, b e g in .
tam m adiba n. 7/8. w e ll.

ter aux. first.

tam n. m id d le . [Note: u s e d fo r m id n ig h t

w h e n c o m b in e d w it h n ig h t a n d n o o n
ter sa adv. b e fo r e .

w h e n c o m b in e d w it h d a y lig h tj te te le n. h o n e s t w a y s , r ig h te o u s n e s s .

tam a m w a z n. n o o n . Lit: 'm id d le tel v. s e t u p , o r g a n iz e .

d a y lig h t',
-tele Pl: motele. n. 6. sa liv a .

ta g Pl metag. tl 3/4. w h it e m a n .
tela le v. refresh .

-taggana Sg: etaggsno. Pl motaggono .

tem adv. even.

n. 5/6. b r id g e , fo rd ,
tlba v. tr a m p le .

tad a [ta ra ] v. itc h .

tld Pl botfd. n. 1/2. 1 . a n im a l. 2 . m e a t.

te pro. L o c a tiv e (L o c ).
3 . stu p id p e r s o n (b y a n a lo g y w ith

te r ip e n , b e c o m e r ip e .
F rench bete ‘a n im a l’ a ls o u s e d fo r

te v. to p u ll. s tu p id p e o p le ) . Etym: * tfto (3 ) .

te ku v. to ste p . Lit. p u ll f o o t /le g . tie n. lo w .

te m asa v. p lu c k (c h ic k e n ) Lit. p u ll tie Pl betfe. n. 7. p o s itio n , h e ig h t.

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 tigoletf tud

tig a le tl adv. s p e c ific a lly , [Note: g e n e r ic te r m fo r b o t h s h e e p

and goats] mwa toob a kaka Pb

tiilo v. te th e r (s h e e p , g o a ts ).

bwa betoob ba kaka. n. k id . Lit

-til Sg: etfl. Pb motfl. n. 5/6. p e n is ,
'ch ild g o a t /s h e e p , myal toob a kaka

til v. w r ite .
Pb memyal betoob ba kaka. n. 3/4.

tfld b s v. s ig n u p . Etym d e r iv e d fr o m tfl s h e -g o a t, n a n n y g o a t. Lit 'fe m a le

‘w r it e .’ g o a t/s h e e p ', m wa njum toob Pb

tllD v. tie (k n o t). bwa menjum betoob. n. la m b , k id

(m a le ). Lit 'ch ild m a le g o a t /s h e e p ',

tm d lg i n. h e e l. Etym * tin d i (5 ).

toob akaka Pb betoob bakaka. n.

tin d a la v. w ip e o f f (e x c r e ta ),
7/8. h e -g o a t , b illy g o a t,

tfndalo v. p u s h w it h p o le (c a n o e , b o a t).
toyirj n. th o u s a n d (1 0 0 0 ).

Etym * tin d ‘p u s h .’
tor) Pb m o to r ), tl 9/6. p r ic e .
tirag v. lig h t (fir e ).

-til Sg: etu. Pb motu. n. c o c o y a m , ta ro .

tltim Pb metitim. n. 3/4. b lin d p e r so n ,

tu v. d ig .

tltlti t l r e g u la r ity ,

tu n. in s id e .

to n num. fiv e (5 ) . Etym * ta a n o .

t u b a la lw D v. p ie r c e (e a r s ). Etym *tob.

ton t l o u ts id e .

tu d [tu r] t l 9/6. b a d o d o r , s m e ll. Etym:

toob Pb betoob. n. 7/8. s h e e p , g o a t.

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 -tud twal ncanj

* c o d 5 ( 9 ) ‘s m e ll.’ B o r r o w e d fr o m E n g lish ,

-tud Sg: etud. Ph motud. tl 5/6. ra ffia tu n n. 7/8. room .

p a lm sta lk , tu n v. b le s s ,

tu g v. b e (n e g ).
tu n a v. fig h t. Etym *d o.

-tug Sg: letug. Ph motug. n. 5/6. in s u lt,

tu n c e z tl sa c r ific e . (A ls o u s e d fo r ‘th a n k

te a s in g .
y o u .’)

tu g Ph botug. tl 1/2. s p o o n , la d le . Etym: tu n d a v. a tta c k .

* c o g a ‘la d le .’
turj Ph motug. n. 9/6. su ffe r in g .

tu g v. in s u lt, te a s e . [Note: a s b e tw e e n
-tu q 5 Sg: etugS. Ph motugo. n. 5/6. hum p

m a te r n a l u n c le s a n d th e ir n e p h e w s j
( o f h u n c h b a c k ),

Etym: * to k ‘a b u s e .’
tura n d l v. w in k ( e y e ) .

tu g le ce l v. h a te . Lit: 'be (n e g ) lo v e'.

tu tu adv. never.

tu ga Ph betuga. n. 7/8. c lo t h w o r n b y

tu tu l Ph matutul. n. o ld m a n .

w om an,

tu z e l v. b lin k .
tu l v. s e t o n e s e lf.

tw a d v. m o v e a w a y , m ig r a te .
t u l/ tu tu l v. (b e ) o ld (n o t y o u n g ). Etym:

tw a g v. le a v e fo r g o o d .
* n u n ‘b e o l d .’

tw a l ncanj n. k in g fish e r .
tu m atu Ph batumatu. tl to m a to . Etym.

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 twamba tya

tw a m b a PL botwamba. n. 1. e ld e r . 2 . ( 6 ) ‘a d v ic e .’

firstb o rn .
-twfjia PL m otwyia. n. 6. a d v ic e . Etym:

tw am b a m w ara PL- botwamba bo n o m in a liz a tio n o f twiji ‘a d v is e .’

bwara. n. 1/2. o ld w o m a n ,
twob num. six (6 ) . Etym: to o b a .

tw am b alo v. p e c k (tr). tw ol PL motwol. n. 9 / 6 . n a v e l. ( 5 / 6 in

tw an a jwar) n. h e r o n , B egne)

tw orjgala PL m etwoggala. n. 3/4.

tw arala V. c a c k le (lik e a c h ic k e n ),

th o u g h t Etym: n o m in a liz a tio n o f

tw e conj. e v e n if.

tworjgalo ‘th in k .’
tw e g v. c o o k .

-tw ok aba PL m etw o k o b a m a fu m . n. 4.

tw era PL metwera. n. 3/4. sh iv e r s. Eytrrv
g h o s t ( v is ib le a p p a r itio n ). [Note: n o
n o m in a liz a tio n o f twera ‘b e s t a r tle d .’
sin g u la r j

tw era v. (b e ) sta r tle d , (b e ) sh o c k e d .

tw aqgalb v. 1 . th in k , r e fle c t. 2 .

Nominalization: twera (3) ‘s h iv e r .’

rem em b er,

tw ig v. p ic k u p , c o lle c t.
ty a n. 1. tax.

t w ijl v. a d v is e . Nominalization: motwfpa

585

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 -ulaga vola

U - u

-u laga det I n d e fin ite (I n d e f ). A c e r ta in , -ud sa Sg: mud sa. Ph bud bo besa. n.

a n o th e r . 1/2. ow ner.

-ud Sg: mud. Ph bwud. tl 1/2. p e r so n . -urum Sg: murum. Ph burum. n. m an

-ud k w a d Sg: mud kwad. Ph bud kwad. (m a le ).

n. 1/2. in h a b ita n t, r e sid e n t. Lit: -urum a j i y m d e Sg: murum a ji

'p erso n v illa g e '. yfnde. Ph burum ba ji ym de. tl 1/2.

-ud n d e na Jiam Sg: mud nde na ji5m. b la c k m a n . Etym: * jid ‘g e t b la c k ,

b e c o m e b la c k .’
Ph bud nde na jiom. tl 1/2.

im p o r ta n t p e r so n .
Utai] rt. str e n g th .

V - v

vakala v. d r a w (p ic tu r e ). v o la v. h e lp . Etym: b o r r o w e d fr o m C en ter

-vill Sg: evin. Ph movin. n. e b o n y tre e . p r o v in c e la n g u a g e s (E w o n d o ?

B u lu ? ).
[Note: ra re a s sin g u la r7

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 volan waqge

volan t l h e lp , vunda n. w in d o w .

vug n. jo k e s .

W - w

W = pro. 3 su b j. * b a d ek .

wal Pb bowal. n. 1/2. c o o k ie , b is c u it,

wa n. h u n t,

wal Ph bowal. n. 1/2. 1 . fe llo w - w if e . 2 .

wa v. g iv e , p u t.

p o ly g a m y . Etym: * p a d e (9 ) .
-waaqg Sg: lewaagg. tl 5. so n g . [Note:

-wala Sg: ewala. Ph mowala. n. 5/6.

s o n g s s u n g in a g r o u p , w it h a lo t o f

h o u r.
n o is e , h a n d -c la p p in g , e tc . U su a lly

occu r at a dumb ‘d a n c e .’j

walafira n. 1/2. h o s p ita l,

wada [w a r a ] v. rest, wamb Ph bawamb. n. h a r v e s t ir o n ,

wada [w a r a ] Pb mowada. n. 9 / 6 . rest, wamb v. sta lk , c h a s e ,

v a c a tio n , wambala v. s w e e p .

wagala v. (b e ) stu p id .
-waq Ph mowag. tl 6 . fa t.

wal Ph bewal. n. 7/8. fe a r o f risk. Etym: w agge n. g a th e r in g .

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 waza -w5

*beng.
waza v. fo r g e t.

W im b v. w a n t, d e sir e .
waza Pl mowaza. n. 9/6. n o r th e r n e r ,

WO pro. y o u (s g o b j).
we v. g r o w up.

WO = pro. y o u (s g s u b ).
web v. c o m b .

WO n. m a n n e r .
-web Sg: eweb. Pl moweb. n. 5/6.

WO interr. w h ic h ?
com b.

wenje Sg: ewenje. Pl mowenje. n. WO Pl mewo. n. 3/4. c u r r e n t (r iv e r ,

5/6. cocoon, str e a m ). Etynv * g c d i, g ed a (3 )

‘s tr e a m .’
w eya v. a r g u e .

WO mbl interr. h o w ? Lit w h ic h ty p e

we pro. y o u (s in g u la r ) (e m p h a tic )

WO mya interr. w hen? Lit. w h ic h tim e

we pro. 3 e m p h a tic .

W Og n. h e r e (s p e c ific ),
-wenj Sg: ewenj. Pl mowenj. n. 5/6.

sto r k (m a r a b o u ),
w ol v. g e t o u t, g e t u p .

w al v. w r a p u p . wom an Pl mawoman. n. 1. rob e

(m a n ’s g o w n ). 2 . sh irt.
W 3Z v. h e a p u p .

-w5 Sg: lewo. Pl mowa. n. 5/6.

W lin j v. u n tie , lo o s e n .

a r g u m e n t, q u a r r el
wiirjg v. c h a s e , d r iv e a w a y . Etym:

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 w5z wuza

tim e s . L it '3 -In d e f 3 -tim e '.

w5z v. e s c a p e .

-wum Sg: e w u m . Pl m ow um . n. 5/6.

WU n. th e r e .

te n ( 1 0 ) . Etym: * k o m i (5 ).
WU v. le a v e (p la c e ). Etym: r e la te d to

wum5 Pl m ew um o. n. 3/4. r e p u ta tio n .

w u l? ta k e o u t?

wum5 v. b e a r fru it,

-wud Sg: e w u d . Pl m o w u d . n. 5 / 6 .

h u n tin g n e t, fis h in g n e t.
wund Pl b e w u n d . n. 7/8. g r o u n d n u t,

-W U g Sg: l e w i i g . n. 5. h o le . Etym: p e a n u t.

* p a k o (9 ) .
wur5 k5g Pl b o w u r o k 5 g . n. 1/2. p u ff

W U g a lu adj. (b e ) e m p ty .
a d d er . Etym: * p e d e (9 ) .

-wuro ma land Pl m o w u r o m a la n d .
wul v. b o il o v e r , b o il (fo o d ). Etym:

n. 6 . c u r d le d m ilk , c o tt a g e c h e e s e .
* b ed .

[Note: n o sin g u la r j
wul v. ta k e o u t (fr o m c o n ta in e r ).

wurug num . o n e (1 ) . Ah. ij g u r u g

-wule Sg: e w u le . n. 5. fo a m . Etym:

WUZ Pl bew uz. n. 7/8. abdom en

* p u d i (9 ).

(e x te r n a l).
wulaga mya adv. s o m e tim e s , o ld e n

W U Z a v. th r o w a w a y

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 ye num

Y - y

y= - pro. N o n -r e fe r e n tia l su b je c t. Etym: yala Pl b e y a l a [b iy a la ]. n. 7/8.

D e r iv e d fr o m c la s s 7 su b je c t resp o n se. Eytm: N o m in a liz a tio n o f

a g r e e m e n t, y a l a ‘a n sw e r , r e p ly .’

yabara Pl b e y a b a r a . n. 7/8. yag Pl m e y a r j. n. 3/4. p a in t.

a tte m p t, yarjg Pl b e y a g g . n. 7/8. r a ttle (m u s ic a l

yag v. r e c o g n iz e . in s tr u m e n t),

yag n. p o tte r 's c la y , yarjga v. w a n d e r . Etym: d io n g

yag lo o k o u t. ‘w a n d e r .’

ye interr. w here? Alt yf

yag v. (b e ) s e r io u s , d iffic u lt,

yenj Pl beyenj. t l 7/8. o p e n p la c e ,

yagaba v. k e e p w a tc h . Etym: d e r iv e d

c le a r in g . Etym: * d e n d e (5 ) .
fr o m y a ‘lo o k o u t .’

yenyen n. lig h t.
yagalo n. p o tte r . Etym: fr o m yag

'p otter's clay',

yez n. d ry s e a s o n . [Note: a ls o m e a n s 'h ot

yala v. a n sw e r , r e p ly . Etym: * ja t-a b w e a th e r ', 'd a y lig h t', 'su n sh in e', 'sun'J

‘a n s w e r .’
ye num v. k iss.

590

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 ysm yo

yem t l d o m e s tic a t e d a n im a l. Etym: yile n. 7/8. sm ok e,

*dam a. yila v. in c u b a te , s e t o n e g g s ,

yepada v. b r e a th e . yilo v. 1 . w a tc h . 2 . lo o k a fte r , c a r e fo r

yepada n. b r e a th . ( s o m e o n e ),

yesaba v. (b e ) c o u r a g e o u s , (b e ) b r a v e , yim v. (b e ) a b le .

(b e ) v a lia n t, yim.5 t l a a rd v a rk , a n tb e a r .

yez Pl b e y c z [b iy e s ]. n. 7/8. bone.

yina n. 7. fin g e r ,

yag tl 7/8. c la y , yina ku n. 7 . to e . Lit: 'fin g er foo t',

yakala v. d r a w (p ic tu r e ),
yina saqga n. 7. th u m b . Lit 'fin g er

yam v. b lo w n o s e , fath er',

yi v. b o r r o w , h ir e . ymja v. b e c o m e .

-yide Sg: e y id e . t l 5. d a r k n e ss. Etym: yitaba v. tu rn r o u n d (in tr ).

* jid ‘g e t d a rk ( v ) .’ yiz v. d ry u p , e v a p o r a te ,

yig v. c la im . yo pro. 7 o b je c t.

yigale Pl b o y i g l e . TL 1/2. m a ste r,

yo n. w h e ts to n e .

yilg v. m e a s u r e . Etym: * d e n g ‘m e a s u r e .’
-yo Sg: l e y o . Pl m oyo. n. 5/6. tea rs,

-yilga Pl m e y x ig a . n. 4. g o v e r n m e n t.
yo v. d ie . Alt ya.

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 yo v. g iv e . Alt. ya. -yog Sg: e y o g . n. c o ld w e a th e r .

yo d5b v. fe e d (a n im a ls ). Lit g iv e fo o d -y5 Pb m o y 5 . n. 6. w a ilin g , u lu la tio n (a t

yo m bez/ yo ntar) v. g iv e a s p r e se n t. fu n e r a l) (n ). [Note: n o sin g u la r^

Lit. g iv e fo r n o th in g (in v a in ) / g iv e
yog v. (b e ) fie r c e .

lik e th a t. yog v. se r v e .

yol Pb b o y o l . n. 1/2. g iv e r . Etym: yum v. (b e ) stu c k . [Note: N o t p o s s ib le to

n o m in a liz a tio n o f y o ‘g iv e .’
g e t u n d o n e (w it h o u t e x tr e m e

yoldn v. s w in g . Etym: * d ed ‘flo a t, a c tio n ): b lo c k e d , c o n d e m n e d /

s w in g .’ yw ag v. s w im .

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-zug- gen. ‘o u r ’ (d u a l)

592

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