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Article published In: Diachrony of Tone
Edited by Sandra Auderset, Rikker Dockum and Ryan Gehrmann
[Diachronica 42:3/4] 2025
► pp. 324–356

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Towards reconstructing grammatical tone in the northwestern Bantu verb phrase

ORCiD logo with link | University of Rochester
Published online: 5 August 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.24020.gri
Abstract
In this paper, I provide a first systematic analysis of grammatical tone (GT) in the verb phrase of northwestern (NW) Bantu languages. Based on a sample of twelve languages, I show that GT on preverbal subject agreement, tense, aspect, mood, and polarity markers, on the verb stem, and tonal phrase-medial/phrase-final verb distinctions are inherited features. In contrast, GT on elements immediately following the verb is an innovation in some genealogical subgroups of NW Bantu. In Proto-NW-Bantu, GT generally co-occurred with segmental morphemes. This “co-exponence” type is retained in the Proto-B clade of NW Bantu, while languages of Proto-A innovated more exponence types, namely tone-only and segment-only exponents, synchronically exhibiting all three exponence types in individual languages.
Résumé
Dans cet article, je propose une premiére analyse systématique du ton grammatical dans le syntagme verbal des langues bantoues du Nord-Ouest (NO). À partir d’un échantillon de douze langues, je montre que le ton grammatical est un trait herite dans trois contextes: (i) sur les marqueurs préverbaux d’accord sujet et de temps-aspect-mode-polarité (tamp); (ii) sur le radical verbal; et (iii) dans les marques tonales distinguant les verbes en positions médiane et finale de syntagme. En revanche, le ton grammatical sur les elements suivant immédiatement le verbe constitue une innovation dans certains sous-groupes du bantou NO. Enfin, les morphémes tamp du proto-NO sont généralement constitués d’un composant segmental et d’un ton grammatical. Ce type de « co-exponence » est conservé dans le clade Proto-B du bantou NO, tandis que les langues Proto-A ont innové deux types morphologiques additionnels : les morphèmes uniquement tonals, et les morphèmes uniquement segmentaux. En synchronie, les langues du bantou A possèdent les trois types de morphèmes.
Zusammenfassung
In diesem Artikel stelle ich eine erste systematische Analyse von grammatischem Ton (GT) in der Verbalphrase nordwestlicher (NW) Bantusprachen vor. Anhand von Daten in zwölf Sprachen zeige ich, dass GT ein diachron vererbtes Merkmal in verschiedenen Positionen der Verbalphrase ist, und zwar an präverbalen Subjektkongruenz-Morphemen sowie Tempus-, Aspekt-, Modus- und Polaritätsmarkern (tamp). Diese tamp-Morpheme sind auch am Verbstamm zu finden, wo sie zusätzlich eine tonale Unterscheidung zwischen phrasenmedialen und phrasenfinalen Verben markieren. Im Gegensatz dazu ist GT an Elementen, die unmittelbar auf das Verb folgen, eine Innovation in einigen genealogischen Untergruppen des NW-Bantu. Im Proto-NW-Bantu trat GT zusammen mit segmentalen Morphemen auf. Dieser „Ko-Exponenz“-Typ bleibt in der Proto-B-Klade des NW-Bantu erhalten, während Sprachen des Proto-A weitere Exponenztypen hervorbrachten, nämlich reine Ton- und reine Segment-Exponenten. Synchron weisen Bantu A Sprachen alle drei Exponenztypen auf.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Tone and the inflected verb in Proto-Bantu
  • 3.A synchronic overview of tone in the northwestern Bantu verb phrase
    • 3.1Current challenges with assembling cognates
    • 3.2Locations of grammatical tone in the verb phrase
    • 3.3The distribution of segmental and tonal exponents in tamp encoding
  • 4.Diachronic implications: Towards reconstructing grammatical tone in NW Bantu
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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