The article provides an overview of the formal aspects of the verbal paradigms of Nyokon, a Cameroonian Bantu language (A45). The language has a rich system of 22 non-negative verbal paradigms... Show moreThe article provides an overview of the formal aspects of the verbal paradigms of Nyokon, a Cameroonian Bantu language (A45). The language has a rich system of 22 non-negative verbal paradigms expressing tense, aspect and mood, and additional negative constructions. The paradigms are built on a TAM word with segmental and tonal properties in association with the choice of which set of subject pronouns to use and which shape of the verb stem to use. Verbs appear in two possible shapes; one of which contains a petrified suffix which is etymologically related to the Bantu *-a(n)g imperfective or pluractional suffix. A crucial property of each verbal paradigm is the position of the full object: for certain paradigms, this position is before the verb contrary to the general pattern in Bantu which tends to be strictly VO for full objects; in other paradigms, the object must occur after the verb; a third group allows both orders. Negative constructions have a clause final clitic. Nyokon is a tonal language and the article discusses the basic tonal rules that are needed for an analysis of the verbal paradigms. The analysis of any sentence in Nyokon requires an understanding of the verbal paradigm and to which verbal paradigm it belongs. Therefore, this article aims at providing the groundwork for further analyses of Nyokon. The emphasis is on the formal characteristics of the verbal paradigms while a substantial analysis of the semantics and functional distinctions of these paradigms awaits the next study, for which the labels used for the various paradigms here only function as first approximations Show less
This thesis presents a detailed description of the phonology, the tone system and the grammar of Liko, a Bantu language spoken by about 70,000 people in the northeastern part of the Democratic... Show moreThis thesis presents a detailed description of the phonology, the tone system and the grammar of Liko, a Bantu language spoken by about 70,000 people in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It provides numerous examples. Liko has a nine-vowel system with ATR contrast in the mid and high vowels. Its pervasive vowel-harmony system is [+ATR] dominant, but there are dominant verbal and nominal [−ATR] enclitics which influence preceding [+ATR] non-high vowels. Liko is a tone language with both lexical and grammatical tone contrasts, depressor consonants and automatic as well as non-automatic downstep. Liko is one of the "Northern Bantu Borderland" languages. The Bantu noun-class and agreement system is present to a large extent. Nevertheless, subject agreement is limited in verbal morphology, and object agreement is obligatory for first and second persons and class 1 and 2 objects only. The Liko verbal system is complex. To encode Tense/Aspect/Mood, the language uses segmental morphemes, tone melodies as well as time adverbials. Tone and vowel-harmony rules determine the surface realization of the verb form. Topics in syntax include: verb valency and object agreement, word order, relative clauses, complex sentences and information structure, including an analysis of focus marking. Liko is a language with strict SVO word order. Relativization and left-dislocation reveal a syntactic means to differentiate between objects and adjuncts in this language. The two appendices contain ten texts as well as verb paradigms. Show less
