ЛЕКСИКО-СЕМАНТИЧЕСКАЯ РАЗМЕТКА ИМЕННЫХ КЛАССОВ В МИНОРИТАРНОМ АФРИКАНСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ: ДАННЫЕ ЯЗЫКА НДОНДЕ

Introduction

This paper addresses some issues around the ambiguous genealogical status of Ndonde, a Bantu language spoken by approximately 2 500 people in Lindi and Mtwara Regions in southeastern Tanzania. It is argued that the unclear linguistic affinity of the Ndonde language is the result of the socio-historical background of its speakers, characterized by a substantial amount of contact and intermingling, as well as a relatively recent consolidation of an ethnic identity.

The main issues will be discussed: the problematic linguistic classification of Ndonde, the socio-historical background of the Ndonde speaking community and further insights with regard to the modern status of the Ndonde language, the question of the lexical-semantic tagging of the nominal classes in the Ndonde language.

The ambiguous linguistic affiliation

The classification of the Bantu languages by M. Guthrie [9] placed Ndonde as a member of the Southeastern Bantu under group 20 in zone R with number 24, along with the languages Yao, Mwera, Makonde, etc. In contrast to the languages of this group, quite thoroughly researched and described in the scientific literature, Ndonde was not systematically analyzed either in linguistic works or in studies on history and ethnography. Practically there are no works on the language of Ndonde [14, P. 203].

The ethnolinguistic map in the south of Tanzania is very complex. The boundaries between the neighboring languages are practically insignificant. The speakers of various languages, living side by side, are mostly polylingual speakers: in addition to the native language and official Swahili (and less often English), they also speak two or three other languages of neighboring Bantu ethnoses.

The small number of the Ndonde ethnos raises the question: is Ndonde a separate language (albeit closely related) or a dialect of some other language [2]. Such a problem is not new. As is well known, ‘often with quite obvious areal division into certain local language varieties it is rather difficult to qualify the degree of their autonomy with respect to each other and the surrounding languages. In many cases in practice of interpretation and classification of such units there is ambiguous solution of the question whether the language varieties of a particular area are:

а) separate closely related languages;

b) dialects of a single language;

c) dialects  forming a “transition zone” or “zone of vibration” between two (or more) related languages (in the latter case, additional difficulties are also connected with the geographical boundary, sometimes quite conditional, on both sides of which these local units should be located, related to various communities);

d) a number of closely related languages with dialects belonging to them, etc. [5, P. 127].

Only in one recently published work [13, P. 7] Ndonde is classified as one of the dialects of the Makonde language community along with such dialects as Matabwe, Nyima and Malaba.

However, in Atlas of Tanzanian languages it takes 140 place among 150 languages numerically speaking on it, i.e, is regarded as a separate language [6, P. iii]. According to the internal classification of the Tanzanian languages, the Ndonde language is placed in the group VII “Rufiji-Ruvuma”, the subgroup C “Ruvuma” together with languages such as Yao, Mwera, Makonde, Maraba, Lomwe, Matambwe and Makua [6, P. xi].

The ambiguous socio-historical background

At one time Ndonde was one of the largest ethnic groups in the south of Tanganyika (modern Tanzania). The time of the rise of the Ndonde ethnos is attributed by the Tanzanian historian J. Nyagali [16, P. 9] to the middle of the 19th century, around 1860, i.е. time of military expansion of the Nguni tribes from the southeastern regions of South Africa to the north. At the same time, he cites the name of the leader of the ethnic union of Mvera and Ndonde Mkulungwa Mkuchika, according to the historian, widely known in the 19th century. During the German rule in this region (Deutsch-Ostafrika) the leaders (in Swahili majumbe) were appointed to help the colonial authorities. J. Nyagali gives the names of twenty two leaders in southern Tanganyika, two of whom were leaders Ndonde [16, P. 10], i.e. at the beginning of the 20th century the Ndonde ethnos was still large enough to have its representation in the local authorities. Essentially, the study of the Tanzanian historian cited above is one of the attempts to understand the complex areal ethnic history of the Bantu peoples in the south of modern Tanzania. As J. Nyagali considers, at the end of the 19th century Ndonde occupied vast areas of the southern districts of Tanganyika, from Kilwa in the east to the west Livale [16, P. 12]. According to all probability, we can say that modern ethnic differentiation has developed, in general terms, in this region at the end of the 19th century, and at this time Ndonde ethnicity was quite numerous, and occupied a vast territory.

The modern status of the Ndonde language

On the map of present-day Tanzania, in all the southern and southeastern regions of the Lindi district from Kilwa to Livale and beyond, one can find individual members of this ethnic group, but their most compact residence is observed in the Nachingwea region, where, according to Atlas languages of Tanzania, live 2229 people [6]. The Nonde language is on the verge of extinction: if in 1987 the number of speakers on it was about 33,000 [14], then in 2007-2008, it decreased to 2 458 people [6], and according to our observations during the field research in southern Tanzania in 2014 the native speakers of Ndonde continues to decline. Thus, at present the ethno-linguistic and geographical area of Ndonde decreased significantly and became dispersed.

Such situation, known as “language’death”, has a simple explanation: the systematic expansion of the Swahili language, the growth of large cities with the outflow of rural youth, the increase in the number of inter-ethnic marriages and etc. At this point it is important to mention the impact of Swahili on Ndonde as a reflection of the general sociolinguistic pattern in Tanzania. The rapid growth of Swahili constitutes a major threat to the ethnic languages like Ndonde. For instance, Swahili is used both as a medium of instruction and a subject for primary education. Moreover, Swahili functions as a means of mass communication.

 The actual sociolinguistic profile of Ndonde indicates that the language and the culture of this ethnos are kept only by the people of the older generation.  The only domains in which Ndonde is used have been confined to the home and within the small Ndonde community. In fact, the Ndonde language serves traditional situations.

Method 

Our main goal was to describe the nominal class system and mark out the nominal classes in Ndonde, the significant feature of the grammar. Ndonde native speakers were presented with questionnaires compiled on the basis of the two-hundred-thousand list of Swadesh (The Swadesh wordlist) with the addition of African realities. We managed to interview six informants from different rural areas of southern Tanzania, mainly from Mtwara region [3, P. 13]. Comparison and analysis of their answers allows us to give a preliminary description of the nominal class system of the Nonde language.

Therefore, our research began precisely with the identification of features of the nominal system of Ndonde. In this article, only two criteria will be taken into account: morphological and semantic. The description of the entire agreement system of Ndonde requires further study.

Discussion

In the Bantu languages there are up to 27 nominal class oppositions. There are fewer classes in the Nonde language. The morphological criterion, namely the form of the prefix of the noun, allows us to tag 18 classes. In fact, Ndonde nouns may be divided into classes distinguishable by the pairs of prefixes which indicate the singular and plural numbers. Each noun class receives a numerical designation in accordance with the general Bantu classification, proposed by Bleek [7], Meinhof [15] and Guthrie [9].

Lexical-semantic tagging

Ndonde is a Bantu language spread in Tanzania. Bantu languages are a large group of languages, part of the Niger-Congo macrofamily. These languages are spoken in almost all sub-Saharan Africa. The nominal system in the Bantu languages ​​is an important lexico-grammatical category that defines all levels of the language [8]. Often it is called the dominant of the grammatical system, and the Bantu languages are simply languages with nominal classes that tie together different parts of the language structure and turn it into a coherent organism. Exploring the semantics of nominal classes, some of the outstanding scientists came to the conclusion that the nominal classification reflects the real relations existing between the phenomena of objective reality and their evaluation by a person. In nominal classifications he singled out several different principles reflecting the subject division, the ratio of objects in space, their comparison in size and quality, the emotional evaluation by those realities that the speakers call these classes [4, P. 110-111].

The tagging of nominal classes in Ndonde is as follows: class 1 (mu-, mw-, m- / muunu ‘man’, mwaana ‘child’, mmada ‘slave’); class 1A (Ø, a- / mama ‘mother’, amavi ‘sister’); class 2 (wa- / waanu ‘men’, waana ‘children’, wamada ‘slaves’); class 3 (mu-, m- / mutwe ‘head’, mmele ‘body’); class 4 (mi- / mitwe ‘heads’); class 5 (li- / litanda ‘lake’); class 6 (ma-, m- / matanda ‘lakes’, meho ‘eyes’); class 7 (chi-, ch- / chileu ‘chin’, chaka ‘year’); class 8 (vi-, vy- / vileu ‘chins’, vyaka ‘years’); class 9 (in-, ny-, im- m-, Ø / inyama ‘meat’, nyumba ‘house’, imamba ‘crocodile’, mbwa ‘dog’, kiu ‘thirst’); class 10 (di- / dinyama ‘meats’, dimbula ‘rains’); class 11 (lu- / luhunde ‘river’); class 12 (ka- / kayanga ‘small stone’); class 14 (u- / utumbo ‘stomach’); class 15 (ku- / kukumbukila ‘thinking’, ‘to think’); class 16 (pa- / pandu ‘near the place’); class 17 (ku- / kundu ‘to the place’); class 18 (mu- / munyumba ‘in the house’).

Semantic features of nominal classes in the Nonde language

Semantics of the 1st class (mu-, mw):

Usually, when describing the semantics of a class, two aspects are taken into account: grammatical and lexical semantics. As for grammatical semantics, the names of the first class are peculiar only to the singulare number, as well as a sign of personality (according to the classification of Meinhof [15, P. 28], this is the ‘class of people’). On this basis, the 1st class differs from most other classes (except for 1A and 2nd).

In this class, the names of different persons are found on the basis of age, social, professional characteristics, related relations, ethnic and religious affiliation, etc., for example: muundu ‘man, mwana ‘child’, mpakani ‘neighbor’, mkongwe ‘wife’, etc.

Semantics of the 1st A class (subclass) (Ø, a-)

As well as the 1st class, the subclass of the 1st A is characterized by signs of singular and personality / animality.

The lexical semantics of this class coincides with that of the 1st class, i.e. this class includes different names of people, especially many kinship terms, for example: lusla ‘kid’, gido ‘woman’, mama ‘mother’, mati ‘aunt’, waki ‘grandfather’, wavi ‘grandmother’. At the same time, many Swahili borrowings are prefixed by a-: akaka ‘brother’, ajomba ‘uncle’ by analogy with the original terms of kinship: atata ‘father’, amavi ‘sister’.

However, in the 1st class, besides the names of people, there are also names of animals, possibly totemic, for example: nyehe ‘bird’, hawanga ‘dog’, hyomba ‘fish’, etc.

Semantics of the 2d class (wa-)

The grammatical semantics of the 2nd class consists in the formation of the plural for the 1st and 1st A classes: wakongwe ‘wives’, waluswa ‘kids’, wahawanga ‘dogs’.

The lexical semantics also coincide with the 1st and 1st A classes.

Semantics of the 3rd class (mu-, m-)

For the grammatical semantics of this class, the sign of singularity is characteristic.

The peculiarity of the lexico-semantic structure of the third class is the absence of the sign ‘personality / animation’. According to the semantic classification of Meinhof [15], this class is conditionally called the ‘class of trees’, but the set of lexical meanings of the nouns included in it is much wider: in addition to the names of different plants and trees, there are also names of various natural phenomena, parts of the human body and animal, seasons of the year, etc., for example: mlandi ‘tree’, mkongo ‘tree species’, mhitu ‘forest’, mwedi ‘moon’, mwanga ‘sky’, mwenge ‘fire’, mmele ‘body’, mutwe ‘head’, muhu ‘day (daylight hours)’ and many others.

Semantics of the 4th class (mi-)

By the numerical sign, the nouns of the fourth class are the plural correlates of the third class. Meanwhile the 4th class contains a number of nouns that do not have a correlate of the singular number of the 3rd class, i.e. meaning pluralia tantum: miayi ‘blood’. Correlates of the singular can belong to other classes, for example: mikege ‘women’ < mkege (1st class), miyongo ‘snakes’ < nyongo (1st A class), michila ‘tails’ < uchila (11th class). The correlation between the 4th class and other noun classes in number is as follows: 1–> 4, 1A–>4, 3–>4, 11–>4. 

The lexical semantics is correlated with the one-root name of the noun of the 3rd class or the corresponding nouns of other classes, i.e. 1st, 1st A and 11th classes.

Semantics of the 5th class (li-)

The grammatical semantics of the 5th class is characterized by the presence of the singular sign, and for a number of nouns – a sign of singularia tantum (for example: lihuhunga ‘dust’). In the Bantu languages, augmentatives usually belong to this class as well as all nouns that convey some idea of greatness, of hugeness, of heaviness or nobility. In the Nonde language, this feature is not realized.

The lexical semantics is diverse. In this class fall the names of round objects, fruits and parts of plants, parts of human and animals bodies, a number of physical phenomena, etc., for example: liyai ‘egg’, lilombe ‘corn’, liyamba ‘leaf’, likongwa ‘bark’, litumbo ‘stomach, belly’, liduwa ‘lake’, liwingu ‘cloud’, etc.

Semantics of the 6th class (ma-, m-)

The 6th class, in contrast to the 2nd and 4th plural classes, has more complex grammatical semantics. In addition to the expression of the plurality of the corresponding correlates of the singular (litumbo ‘belly’ > matumbo ‘bellies’) the prefix of this class ma- marks the nouns pluralia tantum. Usually these are the names of liquids, for example: maasi / machi ‘water’, mahuta ‘fat, vegetable oil’, medi ‘snow / ice’, etc. At the same time, the nouns of the 6th class are not only the plural correlates of the 5th class, but also of other classes, for example: makoti ‘neck’ < ukoti ‘neck’ (14th class), madodo ‘feet’ < ludodo ‘foot’ (11th class), madila ‘roads’ < indila ‘road’ (9th class), mawiko ‘fruits’ < mwiko ‘fruit’ (3rd class). Thus, the correlation by the number of the 6th class is represented as follows: 3–>6, 5–>6, 9–>6, 11–>6, 14–>6.

A similar picture can be observed in other Bantu languages, for example in Swahili, where, according to Gromova [1], the prefix ma- neutralizes the category of the class in the plural.

The lexical semantics is in accordance with the meaning of the noun of the 5th class. Also, the lexical semantics expands its boundaries due to the semantics of the corresponding nouns of other classes of the singular.

Semantics of the 7th class (chi-, ch-)

In terms of content, the grammatical semantics of this class is characterized by a sign of singularity.

The lexico-semantic structure of the 7th class, which is called the ‘class of things’, includes the names of various subjects, for example: chipula ‘knife’, chilongo ‘potty’. This class includes also a list of the nouns that denote body parts (chihua ‘chest’, chala ‘hand’), some physical phenomena (chilo ‘night’), name of animals (chiboko ‘behemoth’), etc.

Semantics of the 8th class (vi-, vy-)

For the grammatical semantics, the sign of plurality is characteristic. The lexical semantics corresponds to those nouns of the 7th class: vipula ‘knives’, vihua ‘chests’, viala ‘hands’, vinanda ‘beds’.

Semantics of the 9th class (in-, ny-, im-, m-, Ø)

The general grammatical attribute of the 9th class the singular category, which does not have regular matching in the plural. A number of nouns of this class can be defined as singularia tantum, for example: mariri ‘cold’, kiu ‘thirst’.

The lexical semantics is not homogeneous and can not be reduced to separate minimal semantic ranks/groups. According to the general semantic classification of Meinhof [15], this class is defined as the ‘animal class’, but in addition to the names of domestic and wild animals and other fauna, this class contains the names of household items, certain diseases, names of plants, for example: ing’ombe ‘cow’, nyongo ‘snake’, ihinga ‘calebas’, imbwe ‘cataract’, nyumba ‘house’, imbalu ‘bamboo’, etc.

Semantics of the 10th class (di-)

The grammatical semantics of the 10th class – the plural for those groups of nouns that are not marked by singularia tantum. Nouns of the 10th class correlate in number with correlated single-root nouns of the 9th class, as well as with certain groups of nouns of the 6th grade: dimbula ‘rains’ < mbula ‘rain’ (9th class), indila ‘road’ > madila ‘roads’ (6th class), i.e.

The lexical semantics of the nouns of this class correlates with the correlated single-root nouns of the 9th class.

Semantics of the 11th class (lu-)

In terms of content the nouns of the 11th class are characterized by the presence of a singularity criterion, according to which this class correlates with the 10th class: luhombe ‘nail’ > dihombe ‘nails’.

The lexical semantics of the nouns of this class is not homogeneous. The basic vocabulary contains the names of objects of thin or elongated shape, for example: lupembe ‘horn’, luchiya ‘root’, lupaara ‘wing’.

Semantics of the 12th class (ka-)

The plan of content of this class is characterized by the presence of a sign of singularity. According to the common Bantu classification, the plural form of the 12th class is transmitted by the 13th class with the prefix tu-. However, the 13th class in Ndonde is absent, and the plurality is expressed in accordance with the norms of the original word.

The general semantic characteristic of the 12th class is diminutiveness, i.e. partial or complete minimization of the original noun, for example: kayanga ‘small stone’ < liyanga ‘stone’, kabijango ‘clan’ < ibijango ‘tribe’.

Semantics of the 14th class (u-)

For the grammatical semantics of this class the sign of singularity is characteristic. The 14th class does not have the own class of plural correlate. Thus, the nouns belonging to this class receive the prefixes of other classes to form the plural number, for example: ukoti ‘neck’ > dikoti ‘neck’ (10th class), uwimbo ‘hair’ > mawimbo ‘hair’ (6th class), i.e.

The lexical semantics of this class are not homogeneous. Along with the specific nouns in the 14th class, abstract nouns are represented: uyukuta ‘satiation’, ugoni ‘adultery’, etc.

Semantics of the 15th class (ku-)

This is a class of so-called infinitives that function as verbs and verbal nouns. They do not have a plural number, and their lexical semantics is a designation of action, process, condition, for example: kulongela ‘speak’, kuliima ‘plow’. Any verb, issued with a class marker – the prefix ku-, can, like the noun, perform nominal functions: be subject, object, the nominal part of the predicate, determine agreement with the members of the syntagma.

Semantics of the 16th (pa-), 17th (ku-) and 18th (mu-) classes

All three classes are so-called Locative classes. In this case, only the 16th class has a unique locative noun – pahaali ‘place, location’. The semantics of the Locative classes, as in other Bantu languages, is defined as follows: the prefix marker of the 16th class pa- denotes the close location, the prefix of the 17th class ku- ‒ the distant or uncertain location, the prefix of the 18th class mu- ‒ being inside or on the surface, for example: papii ‘here, close’, kulipa ‘there, far away’, kulehu ‘somewhere there’, muyo ‘straight’.

Results

Thus, the Ndonde language shows the typological universals of Bantu languages ​​at the level of grammar with the inevitable features of a lexical-semantic character. The nominal classes in Ndonde are tagged by a definite set of lexico-grammatical features. Thus, the lexical semantics of each class has been described through a certain set of characteristics. A smaller set of characteristics indicates greater homogeneity of the class (for example, in the case of classes 1, 2, 1A, 16, 17, 18), and a larger set of characteristics means a higher degree of heterogeneity (in the case of other classes, for example, classes 7, 8).

In Ndonde there are additional classes, unlike Swahili, for example, class 1A (Ndonde: atati ‘my father’), and unlike the languages of the P20 group, for example, the Mwera language (P22), there are no classes 2A (Mwera: acatati ‘our fathers’) and 13 (Mwera: tukono ‘small hands’) in Ndonde.

Conclusion

This paper has raised some issues regarding the complex of linguistic classification of the Ndonde language, socio-history of the Ndonde language community reflected in the modern status of Ndonde, the question of the death of Ndonde. It is extremely important to fix the uniqueness of its lexical and semantic structure and thereby contribute to the preservation of its general linguistic significance. The description of the grammatical semantics of the nominal classes in Ndonde was carried out from the point of view of contrasting each of them to other classes only on a numerical basis. Such aspects of grammatical semantics as personality, animality, augmentativity, diminutivity, laudativity, pejorativity, etc. are to be studied with further research of the Ndonde language.

Obtained the Ndonde language data can be used to refine the classification of the Bantu languages and writing comparative work on Bantu languages and the preparation of practical grammar of the Bantu languages, thus contributing to African and general linguistics.