THE DEMONSTRATIVE COPULATIVE IN NDEBELE

  • Progress Dube Lupane state University
  • Sithokozile Sibanda Mandwandwe High school
Keywords: demonstrative copulative, copula, phonological processes, subject marking, grammaticalisation, morphophonology

Abstract

This paper discusses the morphophonology of demonstrative copulatives in Ndebele. The focus of the study is on the internal structure of demonstrative copulatives and the phonological processes that are involved in the formation of demonstrative copulatives. There are no studies known to present researchers that examine the internal structure of demonstrative copulatives and the phonological processes that are involved in the process. The bulk of the data used in this study was collected from grammar textbooks and a few examples are generated by the authors. In this paper, we contend that Ndebele demonstrative copulatives consist of four morphemes: the demonstrative copulative base na-, the copula –n(i)-, the subject marker and the positional morpheme. We examine the phonological processes that involve the copula and the subject marker. We maintain that the complex sounds /ᵑ, ᵑk’, mp’, nt’, ns, nz/ are a result of several phonological processes that apply simultaneously in the formation of these complex sounds. These processes include labialisation, velarization, nasalisation, plosivisation, fricativisation, devoicing, ejectivisation, and alveolarisation.

Published
2021-11-30