Reexamining the prefix of class 5 in Ronga language
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14393/DL50-v16n2a2022-17Keywords:
Ronga language, Noun class, Noun prefix, Class 5, Agreement markerAbstract
This paper emerges amid divergences among linguists regarding the morphological format of the class 5 noun prefix in Ronga, a Bantu language belonging to the group Tswa-Ronga (S50) and spoken in the South region of Mozambique. In this paper we intend to further the discussion on the morphological format of class 5 noun prefix, based on empirical evidence. Different from Quintão (1917), Nogueira (1960), Bachetti (2006), Sitoe, Mahumane & Langa (2008) and Ngunga (2014) who propose that the class 5 noun prefix in Ronga is dji- or dri-, data obtained through a structured questionnaire applied to 20 native speakers of different varieties of Ronga show that the prefix of this noun class 5 is li-. The occurrence of class 5 nouns that exhibit this prefix in Ronga forms part of the main evidence that we use to legitimate this thesis. In addition to that, the data analysed also show that the morpheme dri- or dri- is just a class 5 agreement marker, used when class 5 nouns co-occur with their syntactic dependants, such as determiners, quantifiers, qualifiers and verbs.
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