SOME ASPECTS OF NOUN CLASS 9/10 PREFIX NASALISATION IN SHONA AND BARWE

Abstract

Generally, most Bantu Languages have nouns that are constructed by way of a combination of a noun prefix and a noun stem.  Taking a Shona example of the noun class 1 noun “mukomana” (boy) it is composed of a noun prefix mu- plus the noun stem –komana. Equally, the plural class 2 noun for the same noun is “vakomana” (boys) is constructed by way of noun prefix va- that is added to the noun stem –komana. In the same manner we can also have a Barwe classs 1 noun “muthu” (person) as being composed of the noun prefix mu- plus a noun stem -thu. The plural for the same noun falling into noun class 2 is wanhu (people) also composed of noun prefix wa- plus a noun stem –nhu. However, a different phenomenon occurs with some class 9 and 10 Shona and Barwe nouns where in place of a stand- alone prefix there is some phonemic process that occurs at the noun initial consonant onsets. This is different from other noun classes where a noun prefix is placed before a noun stem.  In the present paper it is observed that there are instances where some class 9 and 10 nouns go through the phonological processes that play substitute to the noun prefix. In the class 9 and 10 nouns the process targets the word initial consonants where some morphophonological processes take place in the Shona and Barwe languages. The research is corpus based as the researcher used Shona and Barwe corpora to retrieve the class 9/10 nouns. The analysis is based on “Lexical Phonology Theory”