here - 5th International Conference on Bantu Languages

Remarks on the nasal classes in Mungbam and Naki
Mungbam and Naki are two non-Grassfields Bantoid languages spoken along the northwest
frontier of the Grassfields area to the north of the Ring languages. Until recently, they were
poorly described, but new data reveals them to show significant nasal noun class patterns,
some of which do not appear to have been previously noted for Bantoid. The key patterns are:
1. Like many other languages of their region (see Good et al. 2011), they make productive
use of a mysterious diminutive plural prefix with a form like mu-, with associated
concords in m, <strong>here</strong> referred to as Class 18a (see Hyman 1980:187).
2. The five dialects of Mungbam show a level of variation in their nasal classes that one
might normally expect of distinct languages.
a. Two dialects show no evidence for nasals in Class 6. Two other dialects, Munken and
Ngun, show a Class 6 prefix on nouns of form a- but nasal concords. In Munken Class
6, this nasal is n, clearly distinct from an m associated with 6a; in Ngun, both 6 and 6a
are associated with m concords. The Abar dialect shows a different pattern, with Class
6 nasal concords in m and nasal prefixes on some Class 6 nouns.
b. The Abar, Biya, and Ngun dialects show a Class 18a prefix with form mN-, rather than
the more regionally common mu-. This reduction is presumably connected to
perseveratory nasalization attested throughout the languages of the region with a
diachronic pathway along the lines of mu- > mũ- > mN- perhaps providing a partial
example for the development of Bantu Class 9/10.
3. Naki shows nasals in Classes 6a, 18a, and an apparent Class 6, which has plural semantics
and pairs with plurals of words that can be associated with Classes 3 and 5. Class 6 is
formally coded by either no nominal class marker or an -ŋ suffix (not obviously archaic or
innovative) on stems ending in a vowel and has concord forms in n, while Classes 6a and
18a show m. The nasal classes are all unified, however, in showing back vowels in
concord forms rather than front vowels, e.g., pronominals nú (Class 6) and mú (Class 18a)
against wí (Class 3) and fí (Class 19).
Taken together, these facts, if anything, make coming to a historical understanding of the
nasal classes in Bantoid even more difficult than previously thought (Hyman 1980). For
instance, the fact that some Mungbam dialects show nasal concords, but non-nasal noun
prefixes, runs counter to a more general pattern w<strong>here</strong> mismatches involve non-nasal noun
concords associated with nasal prefixes (Hyman 1980:193). Perhaps more striking is the
presence of nasal Class 6 in Munken and Naki associated with n concords that are distinct
from Class 6a concords in m, suggesting that the development of nasal Class 6 need not
always be directly connected to a merger with Class 6a.
More generally, the data from Mungbam suggests that the Greenberg-Crabb criterion may
have been based on a false historical assumption that the development of nasal classes should
somehow be construed as a rare historical event. The Mungbam dialects are probably not
more than two hundred years old, but, nevertheless show striking differences in the presence
of nasal classes, with recent language contact being the most plausible route through which
this differentiation developed (Di Carlo 2011). If contact could cause such differentiation in
Mungbam dialects, t<strong>here</strong> would seem to be little reason to believe it could not have resulted in
similar effects numerous times in different languages as well.
References
Good, J., Lovegren, J., Mve, J. P., Tchiemouo, N. C., Voll, R., and Di Carlo, P. (2011). The languages of the
Lower Fungom region of Cameroon: Grammatical overview. Africana Linguistica 17:101–164.
Di Carlo, P. (2011). Lower Fungom linguistic diversity and its historical development: Proposals from a
multidisciplinary perspective. Africana Linguistica 17:53–100.
Hyman, L. M. (1980). Reflections on the nasal classes in Bantu. In Hyman, L. M (ed.), Noun classes in the
Grassfields Bantu borderland, 179–210. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
WS1