Nominal marking in Northern Tshwa (Kalahari Khoe)

Abstract

Languages of the Khoe family have a complex pronominal system that distinguishes three categories each for person, gender, and number. However, while languages of the Khoekhoe branch and the western subgroup of Kalahari Khoe obligatorily or optionally mark nouns and nominal classifiers for gender and number, the nominal marking system in eastern Kalahari Khoe appears to be undergoing serious reduction. This article discusses data on personal pronouns and nominal gender-number marking in four little-known Northern Tshwa varieties, including data from Tjwao, a severely endangered language spoken by fewer than ten individuals in western Zimbabwe. We analyse personal pronoun use, case distinctions and nominal marking, focussing on characterising features and commonalities shared across the cluster. Our findings show a high degree of uniformity within Northern Tshwa, and at the same time suggest a more complex nominal marking system than was previously assumed for varieties of the Eastern Kalahari Khoe subgroup.

Language contact and change in eastern Botswana: New insights from the pronominal system of an undocumented Kalahari Khoe language

“…None of these studies included a variety that exhibited the kind of divergence found in Tchoe. Fehn & Phiri (2017) posit a Southern and Northern Tshwa dialect cluster and although Tchoe shares features with both, it diverges signifi cantly due both to contact and language internal develop-ments. It is perhaps no coincidence that, geographically, the Thabala community lies somewhat in the middle of the two micro-areas.…”

“…Recent studies on the diversity of the Kalahari Khoe languages in eastern Botswana have used descriptions of the pronominal systems to formulate hypotheses about about Tshwa-internal clas sifi cation (e.g. Chebanne 2014;Chebanne & Collins 2017;Fehn & Phiri 2017). None of these studies included a variety that exhibited the kind of divergence found in Tchoe.…”

“…In Tshwa varieties, nominal marking by PGNs is largely absent (Vossen 1997;2013;Chebanne 2014;Fehn & Phiri 2017). Thus, the most robust evidence of the PGN inventory comes from the pronominal system.…”

“…This section details three features of the Tchoe pronominal system that distinguish the lect from all other Tshwa varieties (for data on Khoe pronominal systems see Vossen 1997;2013; for Tshwa specifi cally see Chebanne 2014;Fehn & Phiri 2017). These include the referential honorifi c function of the plural pronoun for 3 rd person common gender ( §3.1), focus-sensitive forms of the 1 st person singular pronoun ( §3.2), and the innovation of morphologically complex pronominal forms for the 3 rd person common gender plural ( §3.3).…”

The Hĩ and Ha Grams in Tjwao (Khoe) –The Model of Situated Maps

“…A noticeable exception is a detailed analysis of the Tjwao nominal system developed by Fehn and Phiri (2017).…”