CiNsenga: A Grammar Sketch (Version 1.0)

by Silvester Ron Simango

1 General Information

CiNsenga is a Bantu language which appears in zone N.41 under Guthrie’s classification. The ciNsenga variety under description here is spoken by the Ngoni people who, under Chief Mpzeni, occupy territory that straddles the Zambia-Malawi(1967) border around Chipata (Zambia) and Mchinji (Malawi). This variety of ciNsenga is also

referred to as ciNgoni.[1]

2 Grammar

2.1 Phonology

2.1.1 CiNsenga Sound System

The sound system of ciNsenga comprises of twenty eight consonants (1) and five oral vowels (2). Aspiration is contrastive in this language: it distinguishes aspirated voiceless stops and affricates from their unaspirated counterparts. Vowel length is phonetically conditioned (penultimate vowels are lengthened) and is thus not phonemic.

(1) Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio-velar	Glottal
Stop	p b p^h		t d t^h			k g k^h
Affricate				ʧ ʤ ʧ^h
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ ʒ				h
Nasal	m		n	ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
Approximant		ʋ			j		w
Lateral			l

(2) Vowels

i u

ɛ ɔ

a

(3) Orthographic conventions

sound	grapheme	sound	grapheme	sound	grapheme
p	p	ʤ	j	ɲ	ny
p^h	ph	f	f	Ŋ	ng’
b	b	v	v	ʋ	ŵ
t	t	s	s	j	y
t^h	th	z	z	w	w
d	d	ʃ	sh	l	l
k	k	ʒ	zh	i	i
k^h	kh	h	h	u	u
g	g	m	m	ɛ	e
ʧ	c	n	n	ɔ	o
ʧ^h	ch	ɳ	n’y	a	a

2.1.2 Tone

CiNsenga has two basic tones: High [ ˊ ] and Low [ ˋ ] which are complemented by a Falling tone [ ˄ ]. These tones occur on vowels and are used to index lexical as well as grammatical meaning. The convention followed in marking tone for ciNsenga is to indicate High and Falling tone on the relevant vowels and to assume Low as the default tone (see also Miti 2001, 2002). Lexical functions of tone are shown in (4) and grammatical uses are shown in (5).

(4) lîni ‘not’

lini ‘when’

mtánda ‘cross’

mtanda ‘lump of thick porridge’

cénze ‘cicada’

cenze ‘it was’

(5) níkâlye ‘I will eat’ (indicative)

nikâlye ‘I should go and eat’ (subjunctive)

tikûlya ‘we are eating / we eat’

ti ́kulya ‘whilst we are/were eating’

olîla ‘those who are crying’

ólila ‘they are crying’

The distribution of tone in verbs and nouns is influenced by morphological (e.g. affixation of verbal extensions) as well as syntactic factors (e.g. phrasal formation and negation).

(6) neútûka ‘I ran’ cf. neútúkîsha ‘I chased’

mwâna ‘child’ cf. mwáná wángu ‘my child’

níkafótókôze ‘I will explain’ cf. sinikafotokóza ‘I will not explain’

2.1.3 Syllable Structure

CiNsenga does not permit closed syllables and the syllable structure of most words is predominantly CV. Syllables consisting of a single vowel or a single nasal consonant occur word-initially and word-medially as in (7)

(7) a-tâ-ta ‘my father’

o-nî-pa ‘He is giving me’

na-î-ka ‘I have put’

ve-ô-la ‘They rotted’

m-pú-nga ‘rice’

m-soti ‘young hen’

Consonant clusters, wherein a stop (S) or fricative (F) occurs adjacent to another consonant, typically include either a nasal (N) or a glide (G) or both.

(8) î-mfwa ‘death’ NFG

î-mbwa ‘dog’ NSG

nkhwa-sha ‘monitor lizard’ NSG

mpha-sha ‘clothes’ NS

mphwa-yi ‘despondency’ NSG

thyo-la ‘break’ SG

gwá-za ‘stab’ SG

pyo-la ‘exceed’ SG

fwa-ka ‘tobacco’ FG

2.1.3 Vowel Harmony

Verbal extensions, which are inserted between the stem and the final vowel (see section 2.4.3.1 below) consist of a VC sequence and the vowel in the extension harmonizes with the last vowel of the root with respect to the feature [+ tense]: the two mid vowels are [-tense] whereas the rest are [+tense].[2] When last vowel in the root is a lax vowel the passive and applicative extensions are respectively realized as /-ew-/ and /-el-/. If the last vowel in the stem is a tense vowel these extensions surface as /-iw-/ and /-il-/. Verbs lacking a root vowel take a suffix with the vowel /i/.

(9) Base Passive Applicaive

konsh-a ‘ask’ konshew-a ‘be asked’ konshel-a ‘ask for’

lemb-a ‘write’ lembew-a ‘be written’ lembel-a ‘write for’

timb-a ‘beat’ timbiw-a ‘be beaten’ timbil-a ‘beat for’

lum-a ‘bite’ lumiw-a ‘be bitten’ lumil-a ‘bite for’

pal-a ‘scrape’ paliw-a be scraped palil-a ‘scrape for’

p-a ‘give’ piw-a ‘be given pil-a ‘give for’

fw-a ‘die’ --- fwil-a ‘die for’

In addition to the passive and applicative, vowel harmony also applies to the causative and stative suffixes in the same manner. The vowel of the reciprocal suffix, however, remains invariant.

2.2 Morphology

2.2.1 Affixation

CiNsenga, like other Bantu languages, is agglutinating in its morphological characteristics. The major lexical classes – viz nouns, verbs, and adjectives – consist of bound morphemes, and thus the language makes extensive use of affixation in forming words. A noun typically consists of a root and a prefix – a nominal prefix indexes number and noun class (see section 2.4.1 below for further examples).

(10) lî-go ‘hornet’ má-go ‘hornets’

lî-tepo ‘leaf má-tepo ‘leaves’

Verbal morphology is quite complex: there are five different prefixes and five different suffixes which appear on the verb complex (see section 2.4.3 below). However due to co-occurrence restrictions not all affixes can simultaneously appear on the verb.

(11) u – sa – ka – ti – pik – ish – il – e ( usakatipikishîle )

‘Don’t make someone cook for us’

ti – ka – ku – pik – ish – il – e – ni ( tíkakúpíkishiléni )

‘We’ll make someone cook for you’

si – u – ka – pik – ish – il – iw – a ( sukapikishilíwa )

‘You will not have someone get (something) cooked for you’

2.2.2 Reduplication

CiNsenga derives a number of adverbial forms by reduplication of either a whole word (12) or just the stem (13).

(12) páfúpi-páfupi ‘spaced near each other’

pátóntho-pátontho ‘slowly’

(13) páfúpi-fúpi ‘almost’

pátóntho-tóntho ‘nearly’

Reduplication is also used to derive verbs that denote repeated actions.

2.3 Basic Word Order

The basic word order in ciNsenga is SVO, but VOS word order is also permissible.

(14) Shuko á – ká – ly –é mpúnga

agr-fut-eat-fv rice

‘Shuko will eat rice’

á – ká – ly –é mpúnga Shuko

agr-fut-eat-fv rice

‘Shuko will eat rice’

CiNsenga is a pro-drop language, which means it allows for the subject position to remain unfilled.

(15) á – ká – ly –é mpúnga

agr-fut-eat-fv rice

‘(someone) will eat rice’

The subject agreement prefix is obligatory on all tensed verbs.

(16) *Shuko ká – ly –é mpúnga

fut-eat-fv rice

‘Shuko will eat rice’

(17) *ká – ly –é mpúnga

fut-eat-fv rice

‘(someone) will eat rice’

Within phrases ciNsenga follows a head first pattern with heads preceding their modifiers.

(18) Mwáná wángu ni m-fúpí ngâko

child my is agr-short very

‘My child is very short’

2.4 Parts of Speech

The lexicon of ciNsenga consists predominantly of Nouns and Verbs. Other lexical categories such as Adjectives, Adverbs, Pronouns Prepositions, and Demonstratives are more restricted.

2.4.1 CiNsenga Nouns

CiNsenga nouns belong to different classes based in part on their nominal prefixes but, more importantly, on the agreement markers which the nouns trigger on verbs, demonstratives, adjectives, and possessives. Due to shortage of space here, we will merely show the prototypical affixes associated with each noun class, plus the agreement or concord that each noun class triggers on demonstratives.

(19) Class 1 Class 2

munthu ‘person’ ŵanthu ‘people’

mwâna ‘child’ ŵâna ‘children’

cimbwi ‘hyena’ acimbwi ‘hyenas’

kolwe ‘baboon’ akolwe ‘baboons’

munthu uyu ‘this person’ ŵánthú aŵa ‘these people’

mŵáná uyu ‘this child’ ŵáná aŵa ‘these children’

cimbwi uyu ‘this hyena’ acimbwi aŵa ‘these hyenas’

kolwe uyu ‘this baboon’ akolwe aŵa ‘these baboons’

(20) Class 3 Class 4

mfúlêni ‘river’ mifúlêni ‘rivers’

mkóndo ‘spear’ mikóndo ‘spears’

munzi ‘village’ minzi ‘villages’

mtenje ‘roof’ mitenje ‘roofs’

mfúleni uwu ‘this river’ mifúleni iyi ‘these rivers’

mkóndo uwu ‘this spear’ mikóndo iyi ‘these spears’

munzi uwu ‘this village’ minzi iyi ‘these villages’

mtenje uwu ‘this roof’ mitenje iyi ‘these roofs’

(21) Class 5 Class 6

lídolo ‘knee’ mádolo ‘knees’

lindanda ‘egg’ mandanda ‘eggs’

líswazi ‘whip’ máswazi ‘whips’

líwu ‘word’ máwu ‘words’

lídólo ili ‘this knee’ mádólo aŵa ‘these knees’

lindanda ili ‘this egg’ mandanda aŵa ‘these eggs’

líswázi ili ‘this whip’ máswázi aŵa ‘these whips’

líwú ili ‘this word’ máwú aŵa ‘these words’

(22) Class 7 Class 8

cipúla ‘knife’ vipúla ‘knives’

cikówo ‘grasshopper’ vikówo ‘grasshoppers’

cíkumo ‘finger’ víkumo ‘fingers’

cívalo ‘door’ vívalo ‘fingers’

cipúlá ici ‘this knife’ vipúlá ivi ‘these knives’

cikówó ici ‘this grasshopper’ vikówó ivi ‘these grasshoppers’

cíkúmo ici ‘this finger’ víkúmo ivi ‘these fingers’

cíválo ici ‘this door’ víválo ivi ‘these fingers’

(23) Class 9 Class 10

njôka ‘snake’ njôka ‘snakes’

nyûla ‘cloth’ nyûla ‘cloths’

nkhûku ‘chicken’ nkhûku ‘chickens’

inzi ‘fly inzi ‘flies’

njóká iyi ‘this snake’ njóká izi ‘these snakes’

nyúlá iyi ‘this cloth’ nyúlá izi ‘these cloths’

nkhúkú iyi ‘this chicken’ nkhúkú izi ‘these chickens’

inzî iyi ‘this fly’ inzî izi ‘these flies’

(24) Class 12 Class 13

kambwili ‘hoe’ tumbwili