Simile Okoa M.A. Linguistics University of Dar es Salaam 1 Verbal inflection in Hehe Language by Simile Okoa Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics Abstract This paper deals with the basic inflectional properties of the verb in Hehe language. It is evidenced that Hehe has a complex agglutinative system composed of eleven slots occupied by different affixes both inflectional and derivational. The inflectional elements negation, subject markers, the object markers, tense, aspect, mood, and relative markers, reflexive are not all necessarily present in a given verb form but exist in a fixed order. Among other things the paper offers a detailed description of these inflectional affixes their function and behavior. Generally this paper provides a descriptive analysis of Hehe verb Inflection as a contribution in the field of Bantu linguistics. This is because a lot has been done in Bantu languages concerning verbal inflection but the way this phenomenon is manifested in individual languages is still not yet well known. The completion of this study is therefore, a contribution to this undertaking. 1. Introduction Hehe a Bantu is spoken in Iringa Region. Its speakers are scattered around Iringa town, Iringa rural, Kilolo and Mufindi districts in South-central Tanzania. Being a Bantu language with an augment (preprefix) in its nouns, the language is called ‘ikihehe’ (i= augment, ki-noun prefix and hehe- the root).The speakers are therefore called ‘avahehe’. For the sake of consistency, this study adopts the name Hehe as used in most existing literature about the language. Among speakers, there are phonetic, semantic and lexical differences; such differences are more noticeable in especially the dialect spoken by other people living around the Udzungwa Mountains: slight different in accent is also felt among speakers from Mufindi and Iringa town, Kalenga and some places of Iringa rural. Hehe language is classified in zone G60: Bena-Kinga group in which Hehe it is assigned as G62, other languages in this group include Bena (G63), Sangu (G61), Wanji (G66), Kinga (G65), and Kisi (G67) (Guthrie (1970). Hehe is close to Bena, and the two languages are sometimes treated as forming a dialect continuum (Priebusch, 1935). This study, although it deals with all varieties, considers dialect spoken in Rural Iringa district and some areas of the Lower lands of Kilolo district to be the central dialect because it is spoken around the historical homeland of Hehe chiefs.
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Simile Okoa M.A. Linguistics University of Dar es Salaam
1
Verbal inflection in Hehe Language by
Simile Okoa
Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics
Abstract
This paper deals with the basic inflectional properties of the verb in Hehe language. It is evidenced that Hehe has a complex
agglutinative system composed of eleven slots occupied by different affixes both inflectional and derivational. The inflectional
elements negation, subject markers, the object markers, tense, aspect, mood, and relative markers, reflexive are not all
necessarily present in a given verb form but exist in a fixed order. Among other things the paper offers a detailed description
of these inflectional affixes their function and behavior. Generally this paper provides a descriptive analysis of Hehe verb
Inflection as a contribution in the field of Bantu linguistics. This is because a lot has been done in Bantu languages concerning
verbal inflection but the way this phenomenon is manifested in individual languages is still not yet well known. The completion
of this study is therefore, a contribution to this undertaking.
1. Introduction
Hehe a Bantu is spoken in Iringa Region. Its speakers are scattered around Iringa town, Iringa rural, Kilolo
and Mufindi districts in South-central Tanzania. Being a Bantu language with an augment (preprefix) in its
nouns, the language is called ‘ikihehe’ (i= augment, ki-noun prefix and hehe- the root).The speakers are
therefore called ‘avahehe’. For the sake of consistency, this study adopts the name Hehe as used in most
existing literature about the language. Among speakers, there are phonetic, semantic and lexical
differences; such differences are more noticeable in especially the dialect spoken by other people living
around the Udzungwa Mountains: slight different in accent is also felt among speakers from Mufindi and
Iringa town, Kalenga and some places of Iringa rural.
Hehe language is classified in zone G60: Bena-Kinga group in which Hehe it is assigned as G62, other languages
in this group include Bena (G63), Sangu (G61), Wanji (G66), Kinga (G65), and Kisi (G67) (Guthrie (1970). Hehe
is close to Bena, and the two languages are sometimes treated as forming a dialect continuum (Priebusch, 1935).
This study, although it deals with all varieties, considers dialect spoken in Rural Iringa district and some
areas of the Lower lands of Kilolo district to be the central dialect because it is spoken around the
historical homeland of Hehe chiefs.
Simile Okoa M.A. Linguistics University of Dar es Salaam
2
Various scholars have written a lot on verbal morphology in Bantu languages. Nurse and Philippson
(2003), Mkanganwi (2002), Ngunga (2000), Dunham (2002). Many of these scholars made generalizations
on how verbal inflections operate particularly on G60: Bena-Kinga group where Hehe is classified as G62.
The amount of data examined in this group depends on the source, the author’s knowledge of how
language works, how much data is presented and the theoretical approach (Nurse 2003:90). So far, little
attention has been paid to in-depth investigation of individual languages in order to see how they behave.
Therefore, this study aims to provide a descriptive analysis of verbal inflection in Hehe, as an attempt to
contribute to the existing knowledge of Bantu inflectional morphology.
The study examines the ideal structure of the verb in Hehe, it also discusses the concept of inflection and
how it is encoded in Hehe. In order to achieve its objectives the researcher sets out to answer the following
question:
i. What are the inflectional properties of the verb in Hehe language?
2. Literature Review
2.1. Inflection and Derivation (Bantu General)
The verbal inflectional morphology in Bantu languages has been the subject of many previous
Expresses statements and questions, they constitute the most common clause type in the language.
i. Umwana ahele kusule ‘the child has gone to school’ ii. Avana vabita kukaye milau ‘children will go home tomorrow’ iii. Nzusa lusiku ‘I will come one day’
4.2.7.3. The Imperative mood
Expresses order or command in both affirmative and negative sentences. The verbal form can allow the indication of number, person and the object. In Hehe language the final vowel for imperative mood is morphologically shown by {–e} for affirmative and {-a} for negative. Moreover the imperative consist of verbal stem with a vowel ---e in present tense and ---a in future tense. Consider the examples below:
lxix. Telek-e ‘cook’ lxx. m-tegul-e ‘you(pl.) take lxxi. Bit-e ‘go’ lxxii. u-ka-va- pel-e ‘go and give them’ lxxiii. Avana wa-la-bit-a kumakabuli ‘children should not go to the cemetery’ lxxiv. Lim-e! ‘cultivate’ lxxv. Bite ukavategul-e! ‘go and pick them’ lxxvi. U-ly-a! ‘you will
4.2.7.4. Subjunctive Mood
It is formed with SM or OM, the verb root and final vowel –a in future tense and –e in present For example
lxxvii. Lasima ndi-ly-a ‘I must eat (future)’ lxxviii. Lasima ndi-ly-e ‘I must eat (Present)’
Concluding remarks
This article has addressed different issues concerning the basics of verbal inflection in Hehe. The findings
indicate that the order of verbal inflectional affixes in the verb template is fixed. However this study has
confined itself to what is so basic about verbal inflection; further studies should be done on the in-depth
behavior of the described aspects of inflections in the languages. For example this study has revealed that
Simile Okoa M.A. Linguistics University of Dar es Salaam
17
tone plays a big role in marking tense (future tense) there for the tonal aspect here calls for further
research.
Moreover this study has analyzed one of the aspects of verbal morphology (inflection). Further studies
should be done on derivation in Hehe language that will help to see how the two morphological processes
operate.
References
Anderson, S. R (1988) Morphological theory, in New Meyer (1988)
Booij, G. (2005). Derivation and Inflection. Amsterdam: Elsevier Ltd
Dunham, M. (2002). On The Verbal System In Langi A Bantu Language Of Tanzania (F.33)∗
Université de Paris 3, LACITO-CNRS
Guthrie, M. (1970). Comparative Bantu: An introduction to the comparative linguistics and prehistory of the Bantu
languages, Vol 4: a catalogue of Common Bantu with Commentary. London: Gregg International Publishers
Ltd.
Haspelmath, M & Sims, A. 2010. Understanding Morphology. Hodder Education, an
Hachette UK Company, London
Katamba, F. (1993). Morphology. London: Macmillan Press LTD.
Kiango, J.G. (2000). Bantu Lexicography: A Critical Survey of the Principles and Process of Constructing Dictionary
Entries. Tokyo: ILCAA
Lindfors, A. L. (2003). Tense and Aspect in Swahili. UPPSALA Universitet D-uppsats Institutionen för
Combining the African languages Review of Fourah Bay College (University of Sierra Leone) and the Journal of
African Languages of Michigan State University. Vol.5 (1979)1. London: International African Institute.
Mchombo, S. (2001). Chichewa (Bantu). In Spencer, A and Zwicky, A. M. (eds). The Handbook of Morphology
(pp 501-520). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Mkanganwi, K. G. (2002). Shona (derivational) Morphology: An Observation in Search of a Theory’ Department of
Linguistics, University of Zimbabwe. Zambezia (2002), XXIX (ii)
Msigwa. L.W.(2008). Kihehe Noun Classification. Unpublished MA Dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam.
Mtavangu, N.B. (2008). Tense and Aspect in Ikihehe, in Occasional Papers in Linguistics (2008); Series No 3.
LOT Publication. UDSM
Ngunga, A. (2000). Phonology and Morphology of the Ciyao Verbs, Stanford: CSLI Publication.
Nurse, D. (2003). Aspect and Tense in Bantu languages. In The Bantu languages, edited by Nurse, D. and
G. Phillipson. London &NewYork: Routledge.
Priebusch, M. (1935). Bena-Hehe-Grammatik. Berlin: Kommissionsverlag der Buchhandlung der Berliner
Missionsgesellschaft in Berlin.
Rugemalira, J. M. (2005). A Grammar of Runyambo: Languages of Tanzania project.
University of Dar es Salaam: LOT
Spencer, A. (2003). Morphological Aspects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Spencer, A and Zwicky, A.M. (eds.) (2000). The Handbook of Morphology. Hoboken, New Jersey:
John Wiley & Sons.
Walsh, M.T (2004). Variability and Compounding of Affixes in Hehe Animal Names (Tanzania): a paper
presented to the 34th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics (CALL34), Leiden University,
23-25 August 2004
Simile Okoa M.A. Linguistics University of Dar es Salaam
19
This paper was presented at the Students-Staff Seminars of the Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, University of Dar es Salaam on the 18th May 2012. I am grateful to participants for comments; specifically I would mention Prof. Rugemalira, Prof. Swilla, Prof. Saida Othman, Dr. Muzale and Dr. Upor. Meanwhile many thanks to Mr. Kanijo Ponsiano, John Philipo and Mpobela Lea whose comments contributed a lot in improving this article.