Beyond Time - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

Appendix D
Agreement forms
Bantu languages are known for their noun-class systems and alliterative agreement. This
appendix gives basic information about person and noun class agreement in Totela. Note
that the third-person singular and plural forms are identical to the class 1(a) and 2(a) forms,
respectively.
In this appendix, unlike in the rest of the study, noun class prefixes are separated from
the noun stem by a hyphen to make the prefixes more immediately apparent.
The table in (539) lists the noun classes found in Totela, giving examples from and
comments on each.
(539) Noun classes in Totela
Class Prefix Examples Comments
1 (o)mu- òmùntù ‘person’ people and dogs (sg.)
òmú ! kwáámè ‘man’
òmùlìmì ‘farmer’
òmúbwà ‘dog’
1a — Kelvin proper names (sg.);
Sishau many animals (originally
nàlùntàmbwè ‘chameleon’ from personification)
2 (a)ba- àbàntù ‘people’ people (pl. of class 1)
àbá ! kwáámè ‘men’
àbàlìmì ‘farmers’
àbábwà ‘dogs’
2a ba- baKelvin ‘Mr. Kelvin; pl. and respect form
Kelvin’s family’ of class 1a
banàlùntàmbwè ‘chameleons’
3 (o)mu- òmùbùyù ‘baobab’ many kinds of trees
òmúsèkè ‘hot ashes’ and plants; long things (?)
òmúmbà ‘fishing spear’ nat. phenomena(?)
òmùlóngà ‘river’ (sg. and mass nouns)
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