Kinande is a Bantu language spoken in eastern DRC. It
appears as D42 under Guthrie’s classification (or J42 in the updated version of
Bastin (1982) and is identified under NNB in Ethnologue (Grimes 2005). It is basically the same language as
Konjo (identified as KOO in Ethnologue)
spoken in
The sound system of Kinande consists of twenty-four
consonants (1) and nine oral vowels (2).
Vowel length is phonetically conditioned (penultimate vowels are
lengthened) and is thus not phonemic. The sounds [f] and [v] appear mostly in
loan words, [g] appears in the nasal complex [Ng].
|
|
Bilabial |
Labio-dental |
Alveolar |
Palato-alveolar |
Palatal |
Velar |
Labio-velar |
Glottal |
|
Stop |
p b |
|
t d th |
|
Ä |
k
g |
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|
Affricate |
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|
|
ʧ |
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|
|
|
Fricative |
|
f v |
s z |
ʃ |
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|
|
h |
|
Nasal |
m |
|
n |
|
ɲ |
ŋ |
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|
|
Approximant |
|
B |
|
|
j |
|
w |
|
|
Lateral |
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l  |
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|
|
|
(2) Vowels iõ uã
i u
e o
ɛ ɔ
a
Note also that, as mentioned in the
Kinande dictionary (Mutaka and Kavutirwaki (2006), one could also argue that
there acre actually 10 or 11 phonetic vowels
if one adds the vowels “a” in omuãàkaliõ that definitely has a [+ATR] feature as demonstrated in Gick et
al. (2006) and “ ç” in esyondç esiõ ‘ these pubic hairs’.
I indicate only the sounds that are
likely to create confusion.
|
Sound |
Grapheme |
|
B |
b |
|
b |
bh |
|
Ä |
g |
|
t (alveolar) |
t |
|
t (dental) |
th |
|
 |
lh when it appears before a, o, and
u. When l appears before front vowels, it is pronounced as  |
|
á |
e |
|
ó |
o |
|
é |
a (e.g. omuãàkaliõ |
|
ø |
ny |
|
|
|
Kinande has two basic tones: High [ˊ] and Low [ˋ] which are complemented by
a Falling tone [˄]. The rising tone [
â] is extremely
rare. It is found in the informational imperative as illustrated below. These
tones occur on vowels and are used to index lexical as well as grammatical
meaning. The convention followed in
marking tone for Kinande is to indicate High, Falling , and Rising tones on the
relevant vowels and to assume Low as the default tone (see also Mutaka 1994). Lexical functions of tone are shown in (4)
and grammatical uses are shown in (5).
(4) endaê ‘ stomach’
eàndaê ‘ bug’
(5) nagenda ‘I went’ (remote
past)
naàgeànda ‘I went, I left’ (very recent past)
nageànda ‘ I went, I left’ (recent past)
(6) tu-taà-hum-aâaè let us hit (informational
imperative)
tutaàhuma Kaàmbaleâeè
let us hit Kambale (informational imperative)
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). For more information on tone in Kinande, see
Mutaka (1994).
(7) eriheàka
‘ to carry’ tu-kaàndisyaya-hek-ereàr-a
‘ we will go and carry on purpose’
tu-aà
–heàk-a ‘ we carried’
tu-aà-heàk-erer-a
‘ we carried on purpose’
e-ri-hek-a Maguàlu ‘ to carry Magulu’
Kinande does not permit closed
syllables and the syllable structure of most words is predominantly CV. Syllables consisting of a single vowel occur
word-initially and word-medially in very rare cases as in (8)
(8) e-mbeàba ‘ a mouse’
o-muà-kaliõ
‘ a woman’
o-mu-saïõùbha ‘ a visitor’
The interested reader might also know
that, in Kinande reduplication which, in verbs, consists of the prefixation of a
two-syllable template to the stem, only CV and not V qualifies as a syllable.
Relevant examples are given below under Reduplication.
Consonant clusters, wherein a stop
(S) or fricative (F) occurs adjacent to another consonant, typically include either
a nasal (N) or a glide (G).
(9) e.rïù.fwa.tuà.ra ‘ to take a picture’ FG
eà.mbwaê ‘dog’ NSG
2.1.4.1 Height
harmony
The vowel –i- of the verbal
extensions (e.g. applicative –ir-, purposive –irir-, causative –is...iõ-) which are inserted between the stem and the final vowel
harmonizes with the last vowel of the root with respect to the height feature [high,
low]: the two mid vowels are [-high -low]. However, note that the –iõ- of the causative does not harmonize.
(10) Infinitive Applicative Causative Gloss
eri-hïõùk-a eriõ-hiõk-ïõùr-a eriõ-hiõk-iõs-iõ-a to arrive
erïõù-huãàk-a erïõù-huãk-ïõùr-a eriõ-huãk-iõs-iõ-a to cook
eri-heàk-a eri-hek-eàr-a eriõ-hek-es-iõ-a to carry
eri-loàg-a eri-log-eàr-a eriõ-log-es-iõ-a to bewitch
erïù-haàk-a erïù-hak-ïùr-a erïõù-hak-iõs-iõ-a to smear
Note that the causative –iõ- surfaces
as a glide. The surface form has thus a falling tone on the final vowel as the
phrasal H that surfaces on the penultimate vowel (as seen in the infinitive and
applicative columns) docks on it because
the glide is not a tone bearing unit (e.g. eriõhekesyaê ‘ to carry’ ).
To
show the effects of ATR harmony, I use the vowels á and ó as [–ATR] as opposed
to [e] and [o] as [+ATR] vowels just in
this section. Elsewhere, I represent á as e and ó as o. Suffice it to know that
the reader can predict that [+ATR] e and o are used in forms where the [+ATR]
high vowels iõ and uã appear. The [+ATR] vowel set consists of: [iõ, e, o, uã,]
and the [-ATR] vowel set consists of: [i, á, ó, a]
(11) Infinitive Applicative Causative Agentive Gloss
á-ri-háàk-a árihák-áàr-a eri-hek-es-iõ-a o-muã-heàk-iõ carry
á-ri-lóàg-a árilóg-áàr-a eriõ-log-es-iõ-a o-muã-loày-iõ bewitch
á-rïù-haàk-a árïùhak-ïùr-a erïõù-hak-iõs-iõ-a o-muãà-haàk-iõ smear
e-riõ-hïõùmb-a eriõhiõmb-ïõùr-a eriõ-hiõmb-iõs-ïõù-a o-muã-hïõùmb-iõ build
e-rïõù-huãàm-a erïõùhuãm-ïõùr-a erïõù-huãm-iõs-ïõù-a o-muãà-huãàm-iõ move
The
causative –iõ- or the agentive –iõ- is [+ATR]. As is illustrated in these
words, the vowels that precede this [+ATR] vowel also surface with the [+ATR]
feature; i.e. á surfaces as e, i as iõ, u as uã, ó as o in the forms in the
agentive and causative paradigms.
(12) Infinitive Reversive intransitive Gloss
eri-saànz-a eri-sanz-uàl-a eri-sanz-ukaàl-a to spread out
erïõù-huãàk-a erïõù-huãk-uãàl-a to
cook
erïùsïùùg-a erïù-sig-uàl-a to
sow
eri-kïùng-a eri-king-uàl-a eri-king-ukaàl-a to close
eri-seàng-a eri-seng-uàl-a eri-seng-ukaàl-a to pack
erïù-hoàm-a erïù-hom-oàl-a erïù-hom-okaàl-a to paint
eri-bhoàth-a eri-bhoth-oàl-a eri-bhoth-okaàl-a to damage
The
Gloss in these forms concerns only the infinitive. The term ‘ reversive’ is
used for an action that is the reverse of the action indicated by a verb; e.g.
to un-open (i.e. to close) is the meaning of eri-king-uàl-a. But this
explanation does not hold for eri-sanz-uàl-a which also means ‘ to open’ when speaking of a book. Eri-saànz-a means to
spread out in order to dry something. What is relevant for round harmony here
is that only the vowel “ o” in the root provokes this harmony where the “ u” of
–ul- and –ukal- changes into “ o” .
Kinande, like other Bantu
languages, is an agglutinative language.
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 an initial vowel (also called augment), a prefix, and a root. A nominal
prefix indexes number and noun class as will be shown in examples in 2.4.1
below.
(13) o-muãà-kaliõ
a woman a-baà-kaliõ ‘ women’
Aug-C1-woman Aug-C2-woman
Verbal morphology is quite complex.
The following examples illustrate the structure of a verbal form:
(14)a. si
– tu- endisya-ku-huãk-ir-a (sïõùtwendiõsyaàkuãàhuãkïõùra)
Neg-SM-TM-
Neg-we-FUT-you-cook-Appl-Fv
we will not cook
for you
b. moà-tw-anaà-huãàm-iõr-e (cf. eri-huàm-a ‘ to hit’ )
TM-SM-TM-hit-TM-FV
(Recent past)
we hit
c. moà-tw-anaà-huãàm-iõr-eà-koê (cf. eri-huàm-a ‘ to hit’ )
TM-SM-TM-hit-TM-FV-it
(Recent past)
we hit it
d. moà-tw-ana-kaà-huãàm-iõr-e (cf. eri-huàm-a ‘ to hit’ )
TM-SM-TM-OM-hit-TM-FV
(Recent past)
we hit it
As shown in the last example, the “ e”
which is the Final Vowel is part of the –ïõùre morpheme which is a Tense
marker.
Kinande makes use of reduplication in nouns and verbs. The
interested reader should refer to Mutaka and Hyman (1990) for more information.
I will just give illustrative examples below
(15) o-muà-luàme
‘ man’ o-muà-lumeà.luàme ‘ a real man’
o-muãà-kaliõ
‘ a woman’ o-muãà-kaliõ.kaliõ ‘a real woman’
o-muà-ndu ‘ a person’ o-mundu.muàndu ‘a real person’
(16) eri-seànga
‘ to pack’ eri-senga.seànga
‘ to pack hurriedly’
eri-seng-eàr-a to
pack for’ eri-senga-seng-eàr-a to pack
hurriedly for’
erïõù-twaê ‘ to
cut’ erïõù-twa.twa.twaê
‘ to cut hurriedly’
ery-oêw-aê to hear ery-oàwowowaê ‘to hear hurriedly’
ery-oêw-ïùr-a ‘ to
hear for’ ery-oàwiõra.wïõùr-a to hear
hurriedly for’
Notice that reduplication in verbs
involves only the stem whereas the one in nouns involves the whole noun. This
explains why the prefix in the noun (e.g. –mu- in o-muà-ndu) appears in the reduplicant whereas
the one in the verb (cf. –ry- in ery-oêw-aê) does not.
The basic word order in Kinande is
SVO.
(17) Kaàmbale a – ká – ly –a o-mu-tseàreê
Kambale SM-TM-eat-Fv Aug-C3-rice
‘Kambale eats
rice’
Kinande is presumably a pro-drop
language, which means it allows for the subject position to remain unfilled.
(18) a – ká – ly –a o-mu-tseàreê
SM-TM-eat-Fv
Aug-C3- rice
‘(someone) eats
rice’
The subject marker (i.e. subject agreement
prefix) is obligatory on all tensed verbs.
(19) *Kaàmbale ká – ly –a o-mu-tseàreê
TM-eat-Fv Aug-c3-rice
‘Kambale
eats rice’
(20) *ká – ly –a o-mu-tseàreê
TM-eat-Fv Aug-c3-rice
‘(someone) eats
rice’
Within phrases Kinande follows a
head first pattern with heads preceding their modifiers.
(21) oà-mw-ana
wage nïù muãà-kalïõù muãà-kuãhiõ-kuãhiõ
Aug-c1-child my is c1-woman
c1-short-short
‘My child
is very short’
The lexicon of Kinande consists
predominantly of Nouns and Verbs. Other
lexical categories such as Adjectives, Adverbs, Pronouns Prepositions, and
Demonstratives are more restricted.
Kinande 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,
numerals, 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.
(22) Class
1 Class
2
o-muà-ndu ‘person’ a-baà-ndu ‘people’
oà-mw-aàna ‘child’ aà-b-aàna ‘children’
o-muãà-kaliõ ‘woman’ a-baà-kaliõ ‘women’
omundu
oyuã ‘this person’ abandu aba ‘these people’
oàmwana
oyuã ‘this child’ aàbana aba ‘these
children’
omuãàkaliõ
oyuã ‘this woman’ abaàkaliõ aba ‘these
women’
(23) Class
3 Class
4
o-muã-geàriõ ‘rivulet’ e-mi-geàriõ
‘rivulets’
o-muà-tweê ‘head’ e-mïù-tweê ‘heads’
o-muã-yïõî ‘village