Prof. Jeff Good (University of Buffalo)

Modelling the development of the morphologically hybrid nature of the Bantu Final Vowels

Verbs in most Bantu languages are associated with stem-final inflectional morphemes typically referred to as Final Vowels. Two Final Vowel forms are known to be especially common in the family, with shapes -a and -é. These vowels participate in the tense, aspect, mood, and polarity (TAMP) marking system, though they are not generally analyzed as primary exponents of any specific morphosyntactic category. The -a suffix is often analyzed as a “default” vowel, reflecting the fact that it has no clear function other than appearing on the end of a verb when a more functionally restricted Final Vowel is not present. Notably, Final Vowels also play an important phonological role: They allow -CVC- verb roots to surface with a prosodically canonical -CVCV shape.

While the Final Vowel category is well-known within Bantu linguistics, its unusual morphological status does not appear to have been noted in the broader morphological literature. This talk will present an analysis of the development of the Final Vowel category in Bantu, with an emphasis on the evolution of its hybrid semantic and phonological functions. The primary data is derived from a survey of Final Vowel patterns in a representative sample of Northwest Bantu languages. These languages have long been known to be morphologically divergent from other Bantu languages, but they have played a relatively limited role in Bantu morphological reconstruction. The talk will also consider the relationship between the development of the Final Vowels and the morphemes that they combine with as part of the encoding of TAMP categories.