Table of Contents - Editorial & Abstracts - Announcement/Download (PDF 24 kb)

Editorial

This Volume marks the maiden edition of this journal that emerged from the stable of the Linguistics Association for Southern African Development Communities (SADC) Universities, [LASU]. The journal has long been conceived as an on-line journal to be assessed in LASU website. Unfortunately, owing to technical problems, the on-line journal has not materialised.

At the 6th triennial conference of LASU held at the University of Botswana, Gaborone in August 2001, the association agreed to launch the 'hard copy' edition so as to share research activities of members and other interested linguists in both the SADC region and the world at large, and to cross fertilize ideas with researchers, academics and educationists. This is in fulfillment of the primary objectives of the association.

This maiden issue contains a selection of some of the papers, (two articles by Moloi and Mwansoko), presented at the LASU conference in Gaborone, Botswana. The papers have been thoroughly reviewed by scholars in the field and contributors have revised them according to the comments and suggestions made by the participants at the conference and by our reviewers.

The LASU editorial board wishes to register its deepest appreciation to all the contributors and reviewers for their quick response to its requests.

It is our hope that this edition will stimulate your linguistic appetite and further challenge your research enquiries.

Editor-in-Chief
December 2002

Conditions on rules in the Malawian Ciyao

Studies on phonological variation have clearly indicated that dialect differences arise from the following factors, among others (cf. Hyman & Mtenje 1994, McCarthy & Prince 1993a, b, Kenstowicz & Kisseberth 1977, 1979, Katamba 1989, Hyman 1975, Durand 1990 for instance):

• differences in the ordering of phonological rules
• variation in conditions on rules
• influence from other speech varieties (eg. rule addition, rule loss, acquisition of new morpho-phonological features etc)
• differences in the ranking of constraints on outputs as proposed in Optimality Theory (OT)

Lexical borrowing in Ciyao

This paper aims at analyzing one aspect of exerternally motivated language change that results from the contact of language, loanwords. We intend to see on the other hand the extent to which the borrowings affect the culture of the people who speak the language where the new words are integrated. On the other hand, we want to find out to what extent the loanwords reflect the kind of relationships (friendliness, animosity, admiration), among the speakers of the languages in contact. For both purposes we draw data from Ciyao (page 21 in Guthrie's 1967-71 classification), a Bantu language spoken by about two million people scattered in five countries of Southern Africa, namely: Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The lexical borrowings in Ciyao come from many languages but in this study we only consider those arising from Arabic, English and Portuguese.

Glides in Setswana

The phonological segments that are labeled glides or semi-vowels, [y] and [w], as they occur in Setswana, are conditioned by very specific vocalic environments which the orthography seems to have overlooked.

The glides [y] and [w] occur as a result of a phonological process of coalescence (assimilation): [w] arises from [u] + [i, e, a], and [y] arises from [i] + [e, a, o] whereby [w] and [y] function as syllabic onsets. In strict theoretical considerations of the phonological aptitude that segments have in becoming onsets, there is however, a slight problem which can be accounted for by positing that at the level of purely phonetic characterization, there is, in glides, the same phonetic feature, which is a slight constriction at the point of the air stream flow.

There is a justification for the representation of two symbols [y] and [w], since what is realized out of this phonetic process is very much dependent on the vowel in the position of the nucleus. This paper demonstrates, using morpho-phonological considerations, the process that accounts for the realizations of [y] and [w] in the phonology of the language.

Reduplicatives and their tonology in Ikalanga

This paper examines the morphological process of reduplication in Ikalanga. The paper addresses three questions namely: what types of reduplication do this language have? For what semantic purposes the language uses reduplication? How do these reduplicatives interact with the tonal system of this language?

Just as in many of the world's languages, Ikalanga is shown to have this process of reduplication, which it uses for different purposes such as intensity, frequency and diminution. Of particular interest in this language is that reduplication involves the copying or repetition of the segmental material, leaving out tones. Furthermore, the paper shows that while reduplication may trigger the application of some tone spreading rule, the tones never spread onto the copied segmental material.

Recent past tense in Amakhuwa

Tense in Amakhuwa following Guthrie's classification is a grammatical category that consists of bound morphemes attached to the verb radical. As in many Bantu languages (Bastin 1980, Hyman 1995, Ngunga 1997, 2000, among others), the affixation of tense morphemes in Amakhuwa triggers some phonological processes among the neighbouring sounds.

In this language recent past morphemes can be a prefix or a suffix, depending on the phonetic shape and the nature of phonological processes they undergo when attached. There are three allomorphs (-ho-, -h-, -o-) for the prefix marker and three allomorphs (-ale, -iye, -ane) for the suffix. Of the three suffixes, two (-ale, -iye) occur in the extreme end of the verb form, and the third (-ane) occurs within the verb root by the morphological process known as imbrication (Bastin 1980, Hyman 1995, Ngunga 1998, 2000).

In this paper we examine the morphological conditions that govern the occurrence of six allomorphs of the two tense morphemes and argue that syntax also plays a role in the choice of tense allomorphs the speakers make in their use of the past tense. In other words, while morphological characteristics of verbal root are responsible for allomorph variation, certain sysntactic parameters may block prefixation in favour of suffixation.

Semantic categorization of Yeyi personal names

Personal names are not just labels that are used to identify people. The present paper sees them as more than mere labels. Though it is true that all meaningful personal names do not necessarily characterize those who bear them, the present attempt to classify semantically Yeyi personal names reveals, not only what they mean, but also that they are indices of Wayeyi people's lifestyle and culture. They are indeed records of the cultural experience of the Yeyi society.

In this paper, classifications of Yeyi names are based on the semantic categorization. The categories identified include

• notable events
• natural calamities
• other people or ethnic groups
• family condition, family constitution, family size or one's order in it
• the fauna and flora
• peoples' lifestyles
• physical appearances
• states of mind
• cultural objects and symbols.

The style of Swahili academic writing

Swahili, an important indigenous language of wider communication in Eastern and Central African countries, has been and continues to be used effectively in specialist communication for almost three decades now. It is widely used in the education domain particularly in Tanzania and Kenya. In Tanzania, the language is the sole medium of instruction in public primary schools and teachers' colleges training primary school teachers. It is also taught at high school and university levels. In Kenya, Swahili is a compulsory subject in primary and secondary schools and it is also offered in all public universities.

The extensive use of the language in academia has led to the evolution of a special style of Swahili academic writing. The present paper is an attempt to bring to light the evolved linguistic features of the Swahili academic style. The paper looks at the orthographic, lexical, morphological and syntactic features of Swahili academic writing.

The role of the linguistic environment in L2 acquisition

This paper presents the findings of an empirical research. It shows the order of accuracy for selected English noun and verb morphemes in the speech of child L2 learners in relation to the use of those morphemes in the linguistic environment around them. While the study does not propose a causal relation between input and acquisition of morphemes, it strongly shows some relation between the two.