The vowel alternations exemplified in (2) are reminiscent of the reconstructed Bantu pattern insofar as the last vowel of the verb changes depending on the tense and aspect of the verb. However, the overall Bijogo system differs from the reconstructed Bantu system in crucial ways. First, there is another suffix occupying the Final position, but which has a VC shape. Specifically, the Perfective can

5The term *extension* in a Niger-Congo context refers to a verbal suffix attaching to a verb root or stem which derives a new verb stem.

6 Segerer (2000: 226) categorises the suffixes in (2) using the labels *inaccompli* and *accompli* for (2a) and (2b) respectively. I have translated them as imperfective and perfective following Nurse et al. (2016: 81).

also be formed using an *-ak* suffix rather than *-ɛ*. Verbs can also lack suffixes entirely in the Perfective, Imperfective, and Infinitive forms. The variants that are found on a given verb appear to be lexically specified, rather than predictable based on other factors.7

Based on the summary of evidence for reconstructing a FV in NC provided in Nurse et al. (2016: 30–31), it appears that there is justification for reconstructing verb-final morphemes consisting of a single vowel that encoded aspect (and, perhaps, other categories) at some high level of NC. However, the reconstruction of a Bantu-like system where FVs form a small grammatical paradigm and are obligatory on all verb forms does not appear reasonable for NC as a whole.

A related concern from the perspective of NC is the shape of verb roots in Proto-NC (PNC). Given that most Bantu verb roots are reconstructed as ending in a consonant (Meeussen 1967: 86–92), FVs have a noteworthy prosodic function, alongside their morphological function. Specifically, they allow surfacing verbs to satisfy phonotactic constraints on syllable structure. PB syllable structure was quite restricted, and codas were not allowed (Hyman 2003a: 43). For roots with CVC shape, which Meeussen (1967: 86) labels the "normal type", the FV allows them to surface as CVCV, thereby satisfying syllable structure constraints.

There does not appear to be much work explicitly on the topic of PNC root structure that would help resolve which aspects of the Bantu situation are archaic and which are innovative, but see Pozdniakov (2016) for a relevant discussion. For instance, if we assume that PNC verb roots were predominantly CVC in shape, then we would model the development of the PB FVs as primarily involving processes through which vocalic morphemes already present in NC became obligatory. By contrast, if we assume PNC verb roots were primarily CVCV shape or could be either CVC or CVCV in shape, then we need to understand how lexical vowels at the ends of verb stems interacted with the development of the FVs.

In the context of the present survey, this is not a completely abstract concern given that some languages, for instance Eton A71 (see §4.8) and Gyeli A801 (see §4.9), show verb roots with CVCV shape where the last vowel is part of the lexical form of the verb root rather than representing a morphological FV. The historical source of these vowels is not obvious, and, if the PNC picture were clearer, this would likely be of value for understanding the origin of such patterns in northwestern Bantu languages.8 While further consideration of verb stem structure

7With respect to the survey of north-western Bantu languages presented below, the Bijogo system is most similar to that of Kako A93 (see §4.11), which has a system of verb-final morphology that is quite distinct from the standard reconstructions.

8 In Bantu branches from the north-western area such as West-Coastal Bantu, the last vowel of

#### Jeff Good

and verb-final morphology in NC is outside the scope of the present study, future work on PNC verbal form is clearly important for arriving at a complete understanding of the development of the Bantu FVs.

### **3 Variation in stem-final morphology**

#### **3.1 Overview of major points of variation**

In order to provide context for the survey presented in §4, a number of general observations about patterns found in the data are introduced in this section. In particular, significant points of variation that have been noted in this survey are: (i) the number of FVs described in a given language (§3.2); (ii) the nature of the morphosyntactic categories that are coded by the FVs (§3.3); (iii) the interaction of FVs with other kinds of verb suffixes, in particular extensions (i.e. verb-to-verb derivational suffixes) (§3.4); (iv) the presence of stems that are lexical exceptions to regular FV patterns (§3.5); and (v) the interaction between stem-final phonological processes and verb-final morphology, in particular stem-controlled vowel harmony and processes affecting environments where two consonants are underlyingly adjacent (§3.6).

The discussion in this section and in §4 looks at suffixes that play a role in encoding tense, aspect, mood, and polarity (TAMP), even in cases where the relevant morpheme is not vocalic, if relevant for understanding the development of FVs. It also looks at patterns in languages which may be indicative of earlier Final position verb morphology or of a proto-language stage before FVs had developed, even if there is no evidence for synchronically active FVs in a given language.

One point that will emerge from the discussion is that the nature of the FV systems found in the north-western Bantu languages suggests that the right edge of the Bantu verb may have been a more active area for the formation of new morphology than indicated in the literature, which has tended to focus on the creation of new morphology in the Post-Initial slot (Güldemann 2003: 185). The issue of whether this is due to processes that have specifically affected northwestern Bantu languages or somehow revealing of the situation in PB will be discussed in §5.

infinitive verb forms with a synchronic CVCV shape is often a relic of a former \*-VC verbal derivational suffix which underwent phonological erosion, metathesis, and/or was the target of phonological mergers (Guthrie 1967: 60; Rottland 1970; Bostoen & Mundeke 2011; Pacchiarotti & Bostoen 2021: 445). For example, BLR (= Bantu Lexical Reconstructions 3, Bastin et al. 2002) 662 \**cón+ɪk* 'draw a line, write + stative suffix' > Nzadi B865 *ò-sónkà* 'write' (Crane et al. 2011), and BLR 3354 \**jímad* 'stand, stop' > Ngwi B861 *yímá* 'be standing' (Sara Pacchiarotti, p.c.).

#### **3.2 Number of Final Vowels**

An important point of variation found in the surveyed languages is the number of FVs found within a given language. As will be seen in §4 and as discussed below in §3.6, it is not always straightforward to determine what morphemes should be classified as FVs in systems where the FV position is not as strongly grammaticalised as it is in languages adhering closely to canonical Bantu verb structure, as illustrated with Chewa in (1). However, even in languages where this problem does not arise, there is still significant variation from a comparative perspective. See also Nurse (2008: 47–50) for a relevant overview discussion.

In the present survey, the language with the largest fairly clear-cut system of FVs is Kpe A22 (see §4.3). It shows four segmental forms: *a*, *e*, *i*, and *ɛ*. The first three FVs appear on affirmative main clause verbs in different TAMP configurations, while the last is found only on Past Negative forms in relative clauses and content questions. The largest system of verb-final TAMP-encoding suffixes in the survey, including both vocalic suffixes and other suffixal shapes, is found in Kako A93 (see §4.11), which shows six such elements.

By contrast, there are also languages in the survey which show no evidence for FVs synchronically (even if verb stems may still end in a vowel), namely Yasa A33a (§4.4), Eton A71 (§4.8), Gyeli A801 (§4.9), and, possibly, Makaa A83 (§4.10). These languages are all found in a region encompassing the southern part of Cameroon and northern Equatorial Guinea, suggesting a possible areal pattern, though verifying this would require a more systematic survey of this specific region.9 Variation in the inventory of FVs raises important historical questions with respect to the PB situation and how it resulted in these diverging FV patterns. Perhaps the most interesting question is whether the current PB reconstructions, as presented in §1, represent a historical reduction of a more complex system in only one part of the family well after the initial Bantu divergence (see §5.2).

FVs can, of course, appear with different tones depending on the semantics of the verb forms in which they appear. Tone is not considered in any detail here, though it is clear that a full examination of the development of FVs will need to take tone into account. An important question regarding FVs and tone is whether

9Nurse (2008: 47) points out that some zone L languages also show FV loss. Pacchiarotti & Bostoen (2021) provide a detailed discussion of an areal pattern of vowel loss at the end of stems found in B80 languages and adjacent groups, while also referencing similar patterns of loss found in other north-western Bantu languages. While this kind of loss does not specifically target the inflectional FVs that are the focus of this chapter, it can obviously impact them due to their stem-final position.

#### Jeff Good

the appearance of different tones on FVs with the same segmental shape should be taken to suggest that there was a historical collapse of oppositions among formerly distinct morphemes.10 Of particular note from a historical perspective regarding tone and FVs is a general pattern seen across Bantu languages where the tone on non-initial syllables (or, in some cases, moras) in a verb stem is conditioned by the tone of the FV (cf. e.g. Meeussen 1961; Odden & Bickmore 2014: 4).

#### **3.3 Categories encoded by Final Vowels**

It can be difficult to assign a clear-cut meaning to specific FVs. However, it is easier to characterise the kinds of categories that they encode, most typically in combination with other verbal markers such as morphemes appearing in the Post-Initial position in Figure 1 (in addition to a tonal melody). Nurse (2008: 42– 46) provides an overview of common categories coded on verbs in Bantu languages in general, and specifically describes FVs as having an important role in coding aspect, mood, and tense. In languages where a FV is obligatory, it necessarily plays a role in encoding other kinds of verbal categories even if only appearing in a "default" form of some kind, most typically as *-a* (though see §3.6 for a discussion of harmonising FVs).

In addition, in some Bantu languages, including two of those discussed in §4 – namely, Nen and Kako – FVs have been described as having another, somewhat peculiar, function of encoding whether or not a stem is extended. That is, their form can be conditioned by whether or not a verb stem is longer than two syllables, most typically due to the fact that it appears with a verbal extension (i.e. a verb-to-verb derivational suffix; see Schadeberg & Bostoen 2019), in the Pre-Final position in Figure 1. The presence of these extensions is not necessarily always synchronically transparent, and monosyllabic stems with long vowels can also behave like two-syllable stems with respect to this pattern. Grégoire (1979: 142– 143) discusses this phenomenon and describes relevant patterns in a number of Bantu languages outside the north-western area. As the survey presented in this chapter makes clear, it is also found in north-western languages and, in at least one language, Kako, the specific pattern involves a complex interplay between length and the final consonant of a stem.11

10Also noteworthy in this context are observations by Grégoire (1979) of languages where the choice of FV can be partly conditioned by the tone of the root synchronically, as in Luba-Katanga L33 (Grégoire 1979: 143), or historically, as in Herero R30 (Grégoire 1979: 157–158).

11Another north-western Bantu language showing this kind of pattern that is not looked at in detail here is Tiene B81 (Ellington 1977), where the FV is partly phonologically conditioned, partly codes past tense, and partly codes that the stem is extended.

#### **3.4 The interaction between Final Vowels and other suffixal morphemes**

Another factor relevant to the realisation of FVs involves their potential interaction with other verbal suffixes. As discussed just above in §3.3, the form of the FV can be impacted by the presence of verbal extensions, and this represents one kind of interaction with suffixes. A different kind of interaction involves cases where the form of a suffix that would be expected to precede a FV affects the FV's realisation on the verb.

A pattern of this kind is found, for instance, in Punu B43 (see §4.15). This language makes extensive use of a default FV *-a*, but the *-a* fails to appear in forms ending in *u*, which include Passive verbs, as seen in a pair such as *lab-a* 'see' vs. *lab-u* 'be seen'. In Bantu languages where verbs adhere more closely to the form depicted in Figure 1, one might expect, instead, a form like *lab-w-a* for the Passive of such a verb, where the appearance of a FV results in the vowel of the preceding suffix becoming a glide.12

A difficulty in interpreting such patterns is determining whether these alternations in the realisation of FVs should be analysed as morphologically or phonologically conditioned, an issue that also arises with respect to patterns discussed in §3.3, when alternations are connected to stem length. In particular, are alternations like the one found in Punu morphologically conditioned by the presence of a specific suffix (e.g. a Passive), or should they be seen as a generalisation over stems ending in a specific sound which happens to be the same as the sound of a vocalic suffix (e.g. a *u*)? In Punu, synchronically, the phonological analysis captures the facts of language better, as will be described in §4.15. However, since stems ending in *u* which are not passives do not appear to be common, there is considerable overlap in the predictions of the morphological and phonological analyses, which is why the possibility of morphological conditioning is raised as an issue here. Moreover, given that studies such as Hyman (2003b) and Good (2007) have demonstrated that morphophonological analogy has impacted Bantu verbal morphology, one cannot rule out the possibility that a synchronic phonological pattern has its roots in a morphological generalisation.13

12van Eeden (1934: 372) argues that FV \*-*a* must be a relatively recent development due to the nature of its interaction with the vowels found at the end of roots with shape CV. While this is not a generally held view, it emphasises the potential interest of closely examining the interaction between FVs and other elements found towards the end of the verb stem.

13Grégoire (1979: 159) describes the case of Kwangali K33 where a class of CVC stems behaves as if they are longer with respect to their choice of FV (see §3.3 for the relevant discussion). These stems end in sounds such as *s* or *z*, which are historically linked to the presence of a Causative \*-*i* in the stem. This suggests how a generalisation initially tied to morphological structure could be reanalysed as being phonologically conditioned.

#### Jeff Good

In addition to Punu, other languages discussed in §4 where the realisation of FVs is crucially dependent on stem-final morphology are Makaa A83 (§4.10), Myene B11 (§4.12), and Himba B302 (§4.14).

#### **3.5 Lexical exceptions**

In some languages of the survey, certain verb roots are described as ending in an invariant vowel and constituting lexical exceptions to regular FV rules. Subminimal roots of shape CV seem especially likely to be exceptional in this way, and this is not limited to the north-western Bantu area. In her study of FV patterns, Grégoire (1979) notes:

*Dans le présent article, nous n'avons pas envisagé le cas des radicaux qui sont, en synchronie, de type -CV- ou de type -C- : leur comportement est toujours spécial et mériterait une étude distincte.* (Grégoire 1979: 146)

In the present article, we have not considered the case of radicals which are synchronically of type -CV- or of type -C-; their behaviour is always exceptional and merits a separate study. (my translation)

Here, where available, information on such roots will be presented in some cases, especially if they are described as presenting behaviour which is distinct from that of longer roots.

Examples of languages in this survey showing lexical exceptionality in FV patterns are Kpe, Kako, Myene, and Punu. Patterns of lexical exceptionality can overlap with cases of interaction between FVs and other suffixes, as discussed in §3.4, when the exceptionality is connected to specific root-final vowels which have the same form as a verbal suffix, such as *u* in the Punu case.

#### **3.6 Phonological patterns that impact Final Vowels**

A final issue that arises with respect to FVs in the surveyed languages is the role of phonological factors impacting the realisation of stem-final morphology, including FVs. Of particular importance are patterns of reduction that result in surface realisations of stem-final morphology where more complex underlying patterns are neutralised. These are sometimes suggestive of possible diachronic sources for FVs from more heterogeneous sets of morphemes.

For instance, as will be discussed in §4.11, in Kako verbs can appear with a past tense suffix *-má*. This suffix appears at the end of the verb where a FV might be expected. This is seen, for instance, in the verb form *ɓɛŋ-má* 'see-pst'. However, in

verbs ending with certain consonants sequences, including *ɗy*, the *m* is dropped, producing a surface form like *kwaɗy-á* 'love-pst'. The form *á* is otherwise associated with a suffix marking Imperative verbs. This suggests a possible pathway for the development of the unusual "default" distribution of the FV \*-*a*. Two etymologically distinct suffixes may merge in specific phonological contexts, and this merged morphological form could, at a later stage, be generalised across all verbs. This will be discussed further in §5.2.

A more widespread phonological pattern is the presence of vowel harmony affecting FVs. Outside of the north-western area, this is a significant topic in the discussion of Grégoire (1979). It is also relevant in the north-western area as evidenced, for instance, by the FV patterns found in Gunu A622 (§4.7), a language which shows evidence for only a single FV whose form is predictable by vowel harmony rules. This is likely to represent a case where patterns of sound change resulted in the merger of distinctions between FVs which were historically morphologically separate.

In addition to Kako and Gunu, other languages of the survey where phonological patterns are relevant for understanding their FV systems are Akoose A15C (§4.2), Nen A44 (§4.5), Kpa A53 (§4.6), Eton A71 (§4.8), Gyeli A801 (§4.9) and Kota B25 (§4.13).

### **4 Survey of Final Vowel patterns in north-western Bantu languages**

#### **4.1 Introduction to the survey**

As a step towards the reconstruction of the development of the Bantu FVs, this section reports on a survey of verb-final morphological patterns, with an emphasis on verb-final morphology that could be classified as a FV or serve as a possible historical source for a FV. A sample of languages across two of the Guthrie zones standardly associated with north-western Bantu (i.e. zones A and B) was examined. Nurse (2008) was used as an initial guide in the selection of these languages, and other sources were located as needed with the goal of having one language for each of the nine high-level subdivisions of zone A and the lower-numbered subdivisions of zone B. Two languages are discussed below from group A80. While the availability of a detailed description for one A80 language, i.e. Gyeli (see §4.9), made it ideal from the perspective of a survey like the one presented here, another language, Makaa (see §4.10), was found to show an interesting pattern involving the realisation of an apparent reflex of a FV under particular tonal and syntactic conditions which seemed important to include in the discussion.

#### Jeff Good

In some cases, the choice of a language within one of these subdivisions was relatively opportunistic by virtue of being based on a source that was readily available. In other cases, the choice was more or less dictated by the lack of any other appropriate and available source for the languages of that subdivision. While it seems likely that the FV patterns found in the survey provide a reasonable sense of the overall north-western Bantu picture, it is almost certainly also the case that important comparative evidence could be uncovered by examining languages not considered here (see also §5.2). Moreover, as indicated in §2, the languages that were surveyed were chosen by reference to Guthrie's referential classificatory system rather than any particular genealogical proposal for the internal structure of the Bantu family, such as the one derived from phylogenetic analyses found in Grollemund et al. (2015). Future work in this area would likely benefit from the development of an expanded sample that takes such proposals into account, for instance, by the inclusion of Jarawan Bantu languages or by targeted sampling across groups which are not believed to form low-level genealogical units.

At the same time, it should be noted that this approach resulted in a sample that is relatively genealogically diverse in the context of north-western Bantu. Akoose A15C, Kpe A22, Yasa A33a and Eton A71, on the one hand, and Nen A44, Kpa A53 and Gunu A622, on the other, are part of two distinct groupings, under Grollemund et al.'s (2015) node 1. Makaa A83 and Kako A93 are part of another grouping placed under their node 2.14 Kota B25 is part of a grouping under node 3, while Myene B11 and Himba B302 are placed in a low-level group under node 4. Finally, Punu B43 and Nzebi B52 are both placed under Grollemund et al.'s (2015) node 6, a group also known as West-Coastal Bantu (see Vansina 1995; de Schryver et al. 2015; Pacchiarotti et al. 2019).

In the rest of this section, the basic descriptive facts of the FV patterns across the fifteen surveyed languages from zones A and B will be presented, going from lower Guthrie numbers to higher numbers within each of the two zones. In §4.17, the overall results of the survey are summarised.

#### **4.2 Akoose A15C**

In Table 1, the basic TAMP forms of verbs in Akoose A15C are presented in schematic form, with "…" representing where the verb stem appears. The asso-

14One of the surveyed languages, Gyeli A801, is not included Grollemund et al.'s (2015) study. However, two languages that are reported to be closely related to Gyeli by Grimm (2015: 108), Shiwa A803 and Kwasio A81, are part of that study. Both are placed within the same group as Makaa A83 and Kako A93 in Grollemund et al. (2015).

ciated surfacing forms of the verb for 'wash', coded with a third singular (class 1) subject marker appearing before the TAMP markers, are presented in Table 2 (Hedinger 2008: 100–101).15

The Akoose system can be described with reference to two verbal aspects, Perfective and Imperfective, coded via suffixes, and two tenses, Past and Future, coded via prefixes. Both Affirmative and Negative verb forms are included. Verb forms not appearing with prefixes in the Affirmative forms or only a single *e*prefix in Negative forms can have a Perfect or Present Imperfective interpretation, to which I have applied the label *Factative* here, adapting the term as used by Welmers (1973: 346–347).16

Table 1: Schematic representation of verbal forms in Akoose

Table 2: Third singular subject forms of verb 'wash' in Akoose

15The schematic representation of the Future Imperfective in Hedinger (2008: 100) represents the prefix as *dâ-*. The *d* appears to be a typographic error and, therefore, is not included here (see Hedinger 1985: 33). In the Negative forms, the appearance of the *e-* prefix overrides the appearance of the third person subject prefix *à* due to a vowel deletion rule (Hedinger 1985: 20). The presentation in Table 1 follows the source where an apostrophe is used to represent a glottal stop. The relationship between the proposed underlying forms for Akoose inflected verbs in Table 1 and surface forms is not always straightforward, and the reader is referred to Hedinger (2008) for a full treatment.

16Welmers (1973) uses this label to refer to verbal constructions associated with past tense semantics when applied to verbs expressing events, and present tense semantics when applied to verbs expressing states. The use of that label here extends the term to apply to constructions where the same verb root is used but its temporal reference is connected to its aspectual encoding.

Various features of the Akoose FV system stand out from the forms presented in Table 1 and Table 2. For instance, the Past and Future Perfective forms lack a FV entirely. Second, phonological simplification at the right edge of the verb results in complex underlying patterns surfacing in ways that adhere more closely to the canonical Bantu verb form than might be expected from their morphological composition.17 This is seen most directly in the Past Imperfective form which appears with a final sequence of *-áá* and where the Imperfective *ɛ́'* does not surface at all.18 To a lesser degree, it can also be seen in the simplification of the *-e-'ɛ́* and *-ɛ́'-'ɛ́* sequences to *ɛɛ́* and *ɛ́ɛ́*, respectively, in the Factative Perfective Negative, Factative Imperfective Negative, and Future Imperfective Negative forms.

While the forms in Table 2 do not make clear what the source is for the abstract analyses presented in Table 1, evidence for them can be found in dialectal variants as well as in verb forms whose stems do not have canonical CVC shape (Hedinger 2008: 101, fn. 9). For instance, in the Past Imperfective forms of CVV stems, the glottal stop of the Imperfective suffix is found, as seen in a form like *abóó'áá* 'it was breaking', based on the root *bóó* (Hedinger 2008: 123). Moreover, the analysis in Table 1 abstracts away from at least one complication of clear comparative interest, namely the fact that the Imperfective suffix in stems with CV shape has the form *-ag*, as seen in a verb such as *a-dy-ág-áá* 'he was eating' based on a root *dyɛ́* 'eat' (Hedinger 2008: 123). This form is readily identifiable with a reconstructed form \*-*ag* generally associated with imperfective semantics (Sebasoni 1967; Nurse 2008: 262–264) and suggests that Akoose verbs have been affected by processes of phonological reduction in the portion of the verb stem between the initial CVC sequence and the FV. This portion of the verb stem is identified as the prosodic trough in Hyman (1998), i.e. a domain characterised by reduced possibilities of phonological contrast in comparison to other parts of the verb stem. In this case, such processes appear to have resulted in \*-*ag* developing into *-'ɛ́*, though the details of such a process remain to be worked out. In CV stems, the suffix would have been protected from such effects due to the fact that their short lexical forms would allow \*-*ag* to appear before the trough position. From a general diachronic perspective, these Akoose patterns suggest that new FV patterns can arise due to phonological reduction affecting the end of the stem (see §3.6).

17In the Perfective Negative form *enkênwɔ́gkɛ́*in Table 2 a *k* appears before the last vowel due to a process where a glottal stop appearing immediately after a consonant is partly assimilated to the preceding consonant.

18Hedinger (2008: 6) states that glottal stops are frequently dropped between vowels, connecting that aspect of this reduction to more general processes in Akoose.

Another aspect of the Akoose FV system of interest here is the specific surface segments seen at the end of verbs, namely Ø, *e*, *aa*, *ɛ*, and *ɛ'* (see Table 1). The fact that they appear with different lengths and tone patterns and that one of these ends in a glottal stop means that they should not be directly equated with the reconstructed FVs of Meeussen (1967: 110). They do, however, potentially point to the kinds of historical processes of reduction and fusion at the end of the verb stem that could have resulted in the canonical pattern. If we assume that the verbal template in Figure 1 represents an earlier stage of Akoose, then present-day Akoose would appear to be a language where a new FV system is emerging as the earlier one is breaking down. Alternatively, we could treat Akoose as representing a branch of Bantu where the template in Figure 1 never developed in the first place (see also Güldemann (2022 [this volume])). The results of this survey do not clearly indicate which analysis is to be preferred, but this is clearly an important issue for PB reconstruction (see §5.2).

#### **4.3 Kpe A22**

In Table 3, the major verbal patterns of Kpe A22, also known as Bakweri or Mokpwe, are presented following the description of Marlo & Odden (2007: 20).19 Three segmental forms of the FV are found in Table 3: *a*, *e*, and *i*. The overall verb structure largely follows a canonical pattern, and the forms of these vowels are in line with the reconstructions proposed by Nurse (2008: 268) (see §1). The different FVs are not associated with straightforward semantics, but the *-a* FV appears to fulfil the expected default function. The column spt in Table 3 indicates if a high tone appears on the subject prefix of the verb (in these examples having segmental shape *na*). The *ꜝ* is used to represent downstep.

Marlo & Odden (2007: 21) describe two deviations from the system exemplified in Table 3. First, monosyllabic stems and stems longer than CVC often have final vowels that do not vary. Relevant examples are provided in Table 4, which compares the monosyllabic root *và* 'divide' and the trisyllabic root *lakízέ* 'forgive', with the CVC root *zoz* 'wash'.20 These patterns are placed here under the

19Marlo & Odden (2007: 20) discuss two Perfective forms in Kpe, simply labelling them Perfective1 and Perfective2, and they do not appear to discuss how they are semantically or functionally distinct.

20Marlo & Odden (2007: 21) do not indicate the source of the long vowel in the verb 'divide' in Table 4, which differs from the short vowel they present in the citation form. It could presumably be due to the morphological presence of a FV that has assimilated to the vowel of the root or due to a lengthening effect connected to a minimality constraint of some kind (cf. e.g. Downing 2006: 54–55 and Hyman 2008 for discussions of minimality constraints in Bantu).

Table 3: Forms of verb 'wash' in Kpe

heading of lexical exceptions discussed in §3.5. It is not obvious how to interpret such stems in historical terms. Could the lack of distinct segmental FVs in forms based on roots like *và* and *lakízέ* be conservative and representative of a historical stage where FVs were not obligatory? Or, could they be innovative and have resulted from FVs having been lost in some contexts that are yet to be determined? These questions will be considered again in §5.2.21

Table 4: FV variation by stem type in Kpe

A final important aspect of the Kpe system is that the verbal encoding of relative clauses and content questions involving Past Negative forms makes use of a fourth final vowel with the segmental shape -*ɛ*. Examples are provided in (3).22 This pattern raises two questions. First, what is the historical source of this vowel? Given the fact that it appears with a complex (rising) tone, the most likely

21The *izε* ending of *lakízέ* 'forgive' in Table 4 is formally identical to the Causative suffix in the language, as described by Atindogbé (2013: 100), who transcribes it as *-izre*. This suggests that the presence of an invariant FV in this stem may be comparable to cases found in other surveyed languages involving the interaction between verb-final morphology and FVs, as discussed in §3.4, at least in historical terms.

22The glossing in the examples in (3) is my own on the basis of information in Hawkinson (1986: 243), Marlo & Odden (2007), and Atindogbé (2013), as well as Michael R. Marlo (p.c.).

possibility would seem to be that it represents a fusion of two formerly morphologically distinct vowels, in a manner comparable to the morphological fusions seen in Akoose forms like the Factative Perfective Negative, as exemplified in Table 2 in §4.2. If that was the case, then this suggests that the Final position of the verb has been an active site of morphological formation in Kpe. Second, the presence of this fourth vowel opens up the question of just how large the FV inventory can be in Bantu languages. I am not aware of any work systematically exploring this topic, though Kpe represents the upper limit of verb-final TAMP-encoding morphemes with a V shape in this survey.

	- a. *emó* 1.pro *a-zí-mo-zoz-ɛ̌* sp1 -pst.neg-op1 -wash-fv 'the one who didn't wash him'
	- b. *njé* who *ꜝ a-zí-zoz-ɛ̌* sp1 -pst.neg-wash-fv 'Who didn't he wash?'

On the whole, the Kpe FV system largely follows the canonical pattern in that most verbs appears with one of three FVs with similar forms to the FVs presented in Meeussen (1967: 110), though the ways that it deviates from that pattern suggests interesting historical possibilities regarding when FVs became obligatory and how new FVs may have developed. From an areal perspective, Kpe is somewhat unusual in this survey. In terms of its FV patterns, Kpe behaves more like languages of zone B, to be discussed below, than the other languages of zone A surveyed here, none of which show such canonical behaviour (see also §5.1). This is despite the fact that Kpe is associated with the south-west region of Cameroon and is geographically separated from zone B languages by other zone A languages surveyed here.

#### **4.4 Yasa A33a**

The Yasa A33a verbal system presents an example of a language where all verbs end in vowels, but where there is no evidence that they are morphologically independent. Instead, they appear to be part of the verb stem. Examples of verb stems, drawn from Bôt (2011: 90), are provided in Table 5. The vowels appearing at the end of a stem are restricted to *ɛ*, *ɔ*, or *a* in a seven-vowel system.

In Table 6, a number of Causative verb forms in Yasa are presented (Bôt 2011: 92), in Table 7, a number of Passive forms (Bôt 2011: 95), and, in Table 8, a number

Table 5: Yasa verb stems

of Reciprocal forms (Bôt 2011: 97).23 What is important in this context is that these forms provide no evidence for the presence of a distinct FV morpheme.

Table 6: Yasa Causative stems

The Causative suffix is analysed as having a VCV shape where it invariably ends in *ɛ*, the initial V harmonises as *i* or *u* depending on whether the vowel preceding it is rounded, and the intervening C appears as *j* after *i* and as *w* after *u*. The presence of this suffix is associated with the loss of the last vowel of the stem. This can be accounted for via a general elision rule where the first vowel in a VV sequence arising as the result of morphological concatenation is deleted (Bôt 2011: 93). Due to the fact that Causative forms end in an invariant vowel, they provide no evidence for the presence of morphologically active final vowels in Yasa.

23Based on the translations provided for the Passive forms in Yasa by Bôt (2011), the Yasa Passive appears to be used as a marker of both passive and middle verbs. Its form suggests it can be associated with the PB positional \*-*am* (see Dom et al. 2016: 135–137 for a relevant comparative discussion).

Table 7: Yasa Passive stems

Table 8: Yasa Reciprocal stems

The Passive and Reciprocal are both formed with the addition of CV syllables at the right edge of the verb, where the vowel fully harmonises with the preceding vowel. This pattern, too, does not provide any evidence for a morphologically active final vowel. It would be logically possible to analyse these stems as having a CVC-VC-V morphological structure, following what is reconstructed for PB extensions (see §1), with a vowel harmony rule affecting the non-initial vowels. However, there is no synchronic evidence for this in Yasa, making an analysis involving a suffix with CV shape the most straightforward one for this language. What is crucially lacking in Yasa, as compared to languages showing a more canonical pattern such as Kpe, just discussed in §4.3, are FV alternations that justify treating the last vowel of a verb stem as a distinct morpheme.

Tense forms for *nʤánʤà* 'work' and *tìlà* 'write' are presented in Table 9 (Bôt 1998).24 The tense labels presented in Table 9 are not specifically found in Bôt

24The f2 form presented in Bôt (1998: 55) for 'work' appears to be an error, where the p3 from was inadvertently repeated. This is why 'work' is replaced with 'write' for the f2 tense in Table 9.

#### Jeff Good

(1998) but are used to reflect the fact that the different past and future tenses are characterised as encoding remoteness distinctions.

Table 9: Yasa tense forms for *nʤánʤà* 'work' and *tìlà* 'write'

As is the case for data involving verb extensions, the tense forms of Yasa also do not provide evidence for a morphologically active FV. Instead, they can be analysed as simply taking TAMP suffixes appearing after a vowel-final verb stem. The only form which, superficially, appears to provide evidence for a FV is the p3 form, where the last vowel of the verb changes to *ɛ*. However, Bôt (1998: 51–52) analyses this as involving a process of VV reduction comparable to what was analysed for Causative forms in Table 6 above. Specifically, the p3 form, consisting solely of a vowel, unlike the other tense suffixes, triggers deletion of the preceding vowel. Moreover, in stems ending in *ɔ*, a glide epenthesis process is found where the p3 suffix is preceded by a *j* and the last vowel of the root is not deleted, as seen in a form such as *tɔ̀kɔ̀jɛ́*, based on the root *tɔ̀kɔ̀* 'boil'. This further suggests that p3 *-ɛ́* is a suffix appearing at the end of a vowel-final verb stem rather than a FV that morphologically alternates with other FVs. Therefore, while it would clearly be possible to see these patterns as historically connected to the reconstructed FVs, there is no good reason to analyse them as FVs from a synchronic perspective.

A natural interpretation of the Yasa patterns is that former FV morphology became lexically incorporated into verb roots. A complication for such an analysis is determining the source of the specific vowels found at the end of verb forms such as those given in Table 5 above since they are not fully predictable. This issue will be discussed further in §5.2.

#### **4.5 Nen A44**

Following the description of Dugast (1971), Nen A44 is a language lacking a system of obligatory FVs (see also Mous 2003: 288). Dugast (1967) includes verbs which appear to lexically end in a vowel (e.g. *hɛ́kɛ̀* 'remove'), though a casual inspection of this dictionary suggests that such monomorphemic verbs are not especially common. At least three extensions end in a vowel, a Direct Causative *-ì*, an Indirect Causative with allomorphs *-əsi* and *-osi*, and a Neuter with allomorphs *-ɛ*, *-i*, *-o*, and *-u*. The use of these suffixes results in the appearance of numerous other vowel-final verbs (Dugast 1971: 167–168). These verb-final vowels cannot be readily associated with the reconstructed FVs. However, there is a class of verbs which appears with a partly harmonising vowel suffix after the root in a set of environments that Dugast (1971: 166) characterises as involving the encoding of the past tense or the imperative mood. Examples of verbs appearing with this suffix are provided in Table 10, in some cases alongside formally similar verbs that do not appear with this suffix in the relevant contexts and which are included for purposes of comparison (Dugast 1971: 230–231).25

What conditions whether or not a verb appears with this vowel in the relevant semantic environments is not clear (Dugast 1971: 229). It seems likely that there is

25Dugast (1967) does not appear to give specific information about which verbs appear with this suffix, and Dugast (1971: 229–232) does not systematically present verbs which do not appear with it but provides examples of a number of stative verbs of this kind, since many of the verbs which do take the suffix are stative (though there are also non-stative verbs which appear with the suffix as made clear by the data in Table 10). Because of this, all of the comparison verbs are stative, even though the description makes clear that there are non-stative verbs which do not take the suffix. In Table 10, the suffixed form of the verbs is characterised as being associated with past tense contexts, following Dugast (1971: 230), though, as mentioned above, they appear to also be used in at least some imperative contexts.

at least some degree of lexical conditioning even if further analysis could partly account for which verbs appear with this vowel. Based on the examples provided in Dugast (1971), it seems that this vowel is only found on low-tone monosyllabic roots ending in a consonant, providing a possible parallel to developments in central Bantu languages noted by Grégoire (1979: 167). Mous (2003: 291–292) offers an additional discussion of these vowels including a historical analysis of them as reflexes of FVs which did not undergo processes of reduction affecting other FVs.26

The unusual distribution of this harmonising vocalic suffix suggests that it is a relic of what was a once more productive FV system, since it is otherwise hard to envision a pathway through which such a system of marking would develop only on some verbs. A good candidate for the source of this vowel may be \*-*a*, given that one of the surfacing shapes of this suffix is *a* and the unusual semantic distribution of the suffix in past and imperative contexts, which fits the reconstruction of \*-*a* as a default FV. If some reflex of \*-*a* alternated with a FV like \*-*ɪ* in certain TAMP contexts, with \*-*a* retaining reflexes in Nen while \*-*ɪ* was lost entirely, this could have produced the two classes of verbs found today, i.e. one class appearing with the vocalic suffix and another class not appearing with it. These two reconstructed FVs are associated with past meaning, and there is also evidence that their appearance may have been conditioned by the properties of the stem that they attached to, for instance, whether or not it was extended (see Nurse 2008: 271–276, and §3.3). If this interpretation is correct, then Nen represents a case where phonological changes at the end of the verb are relevant for understanding the development of the FVs. Nen is also a case where the historical situation may have involved the use of FVs to encode unusual categories, such as a combination of tense and prosodic features of the stem like specific tone patterns and the presence of a verbal derivational suffix (see §3.3 and §3.6), assuming that factors such as these might have conditioned the source patterns for the split in Nen verbs seen today, where some appear with this vocalic suffix and others do not.

#### **4.6 Kpa A53**

The system of verb prefixes and suffixes found in Kpa A53, also known as Bafia, for encoding various TAMP functions in the affirmative is presented in Table 11 (based on Guarisma 2003: 320), where a plus sign indicates that a combination

26Mous (2003: 292) also discusses vowels appearing at the end of verbs which are not sentence final in Nen. He treats these as being epenthetic due to the fact that their quality, tone, and appearance is predictable, unlike the other verb-final vowels discussed here.

is possible and a minus sign that it is impossible. As indicated in Table 11, Kpa has a relatively developed system of verb prefixes, but only two segmental final suffixes. One of these, coding perfective semantics, is vocalic, and the other, labelled retrospective, codes something along the lines of anterior semantics and has a CV shape. The third 'suffix' is tonal in nature, classified as an instance of metatony by Guarisma (2003: 319).27 It involves a high tone appearing after the root when the verb is not phrase final. As can be seen in Table 11, there are also verb forms lacking any suffix. Guarisma (2003: 319) places the prefixes into two sets on the basis of the divergence found in the prefixes that they can combine with.

Table 11: Kpa TAMP encoding

Examples of the use of the two segmental suffixes are provided in (4) for the Perfective suffix and (5) for the Retrospective suffix. Where the relationship between the surfacing verb form and the underlying morphological pattern is obscured by phonological processes, an underlying representation of the verb is provided. Of note here are phonological processes affecting verbs which produce surface patterns that are fairly distinct from the underlying patterns. In (4b), a deletion process results in the surfacing form *ɣɛ́ɛ́*, where a long vowel, in effect,

27Metatony is a term used to describe phenomena in specific Bantu languages where, in certain TAMP configurations, verbs appear with high tones in syllables following the root if they are not phrase final. See Guarisma (2003: 320) for her specific use of this term as it applies to Kpa, and Hyman (2017: 108–112) for a more general discussion of metatony in Bantu.

#### Jeff Good

marks the Perfective. In (5b), a process of coalescence results in a single consonant appearing when a consonant-final root is followed by a consonant-initial suffix. Notably, the resulting form *tékà* has a shape that formally matches the canonical CVCV form of a CVC root followed by a FV.

	- a. *à-kɔ́s-ɨ́* sp1 -gather-pfv *ɓɨ̀-ɗùn* 8-fruit 'He gathered the fruits.'
	- b. *ɓʌ̀-ɣɛ́ɛ́* sp2 -see.pfv *zòʔ* 9.elephant /*-ɣɛ́n-ɨ́*/ 'They saw an elephant.'
	- a. *à-tékà* sp1 -take.ret *mɔ̀nɨ́* 6.money */à-téʔ-ɣà/* 'He had taken the money.'
	- b. *bɛ̀l* 9.ancestor *ì-ɓá-ɣà* sp9 -be-ret *rɨ̀* with *ɓɔ́n* 2.child *ɓíí* 2.3sg.poss *ɓʌ́'ráá* 2.three 'God had three children …'

While it would be premature to come to strong generalisations based on only a few forms, Kpa is a language where phonological processes appearing at the right edge of the verb stem create surface patterns which are suggestive of possible processes for the development of the Bantu FVs from a system involving suffixing morphemes with more diverse shapes, as most clearly illustrated by the verb form in (5b) (see §3.6). The *ɣɛ́ɛ́* verb form in (4b) is also indicative of how assimilatory processes can reduce vowel distinctions in ways which could result, under the right conditions, in a collapse of morphological distinctions.

#### **4.7 Gunu A622**

The Gunu A622 FV system, as described in Orwig (1989), is in some ways reminiscent of what is seen in Yasa (§4.4) insofar as a vowel at the end of a verb has no clear semantic function. Unlike Yasa, however, there is evidence that it is morphologically active. To the extent that this vowel is coding anything, this would simply be that the word in which it is found is a verb. The form of this FV is largely predictable via rules of vowel harmony provided by Orwig (1989:

288–293) that assume an underlying form of the FV as *-a*. Examples of Gunu verbs with the FV are provided in Table 12 (Orwig 1989: 288–289). The divisions in Table 12 represent the different forms of the FV as conditioned by the root vowel. The last form in the table, *dɔmb-a*, is specifically treated as exceptional with respect to vowel harmony.

Table 12: Examples of Gunu verbs illustrating FV patterns

In Table 13, examples of verbs appearing with various extensions are presented (Orwig 1989: 290–293). Forms carrying a Causative suffix are separated from the others due to the fact that this suffix triggers vowel harmony patterns affecting both the root and the FV. While FVs are not used to code morphological distinctions in Gunu, the fact that they are separated from the root in the presence of extensions indicates that they are still analysed as morphologically distinct from the root.

The Gunu system is an instance where phonological processes affecting vowels at the end of verb stems are relevant for understanding its FV system (see §3.6). In this case, it appears that patterns of vowel harmony, as well as other potential changes that are harder to recover historically, have completely neutralised any morphosyntactic distinctions that may have been encoded by the

#### Table 13: Gunu verbs with various extensions

FVs. At the same time, the synchronic patterns provide good evidence that Gunu once made use of a more canonical FV system since it would otherwise be difficult to understand how a morphologically independent FV could develop on its own without any semantic function.28

#### **4.8 Eton A71**

Van de Velde (2008: 114) describes Eton A71 as lacking FVs. Verbs can end in a vowel, but these are not identified as associated with the reconstructed FVs. Common shapes for underived verb stems are CV, CVC, and CVCV, with CVC forms comprising around sixty percent of the collected verbs, CVCV forms around twenty-five percent, and CV forms around fifteen percent (Van de Velde 2008: 115). Longer stems are found either because they are derived from shorter stems

28For a language with a minimal FV system like Gunu, it might also be reasonable to analyse extensions as infixes appearing before the last vowel of a CVCV verb root. However, since the last vowel of the verb is largely predictable, a FV analysis is also possible, despite its minimal semantic function. Which synchronic analysis might be adopted has relatively little bearing on the historical concerns of this chapter given that the last vowel of Gunu verbs is transparently a reflex of at least one of the reconstructed FVs (and possibly more than one depending on the precise historical details). The language Cicipu of the Kainji subgroup of Benue-Congo offers an interesting contrast to Gunu since its verbs show a largely similar pattern except for the fact that the second vowel of verbs with CV1CV2 structure is unpredictable. Extensions still appear before the last vowel producing a CV1C-VC-V2 pattern. In the Cicipu case, an infixation analysis can more straightforwardly account for the unpredictability of the last vowel of a derived verb (McGill 2009: 209–210).

via verbal extensions or appear with a limited set of expansions, some of which are identical to extensions (Van de Velde 2008: 116–118).29 The second vowel of roots with the shape CVCV is restricted to underlying *i* and *a*, the latter of which is subject to vowel harmony, and the same restriction holds for the vowels found in verbal extensions and expansions. The harmony affecting *a* is triggered by preceding mid vowels (Van de Velde 2008: 31). Examples of underived verb roots are provided in Table 14 (Van de Velde 2008: 115).

Table 14: Examples of monomorphemic Eton verb stems

The fact that the last vowel in CVCV forms is restricted to two underlying vowels with forms that are similar to those of the reconstructed FVs, namely \*-*a* for *a* and potentially either \*-*é* or \*-*ɪ* for *i*, might suggest that they should be treated as FVs. Moreover, there are morphological constructions where the vowel disappears in the presence of other suffixes in a way that is reminiscent of what is seen for FVs in languages whose verbs adhere more closely to canonical Bantu verb structure. Specifically, the vowel is lost when the verb appears with the causativising suffix *-là*, as seen in the verb pair *yégî* 'learn' vs. *yéglê* 'teach' (Van de Velde 2008: 121).30 However, Van de Velde (2008: 115) makes clear that the properties of these vowels can be predicted based on general prosodic patterns in Eton (Van de Velde 2008: 19), and there is no evidence for analysing them as

29Expansions are similar to extensions in that they are suffixal and have comparable phonological behaviour to extensions. However, they cannot be associated with any specific meaning, and they appear after roots which are not found without an expansion. See Schadeberg & Bostoen (2019: 172–173) for further discussion.

30See also Van de Velde (2008: 123, 129) for other morphological constructions showing similar patterns. The realisation of the *-là* suffix with a front mid vowel in the word 'teach' appears to be due to a process of harmony affecting stem-final open syllables (see Van de Velde 2008: 38–39).

separate morphemes. Even if they were analysable as such, there would still be the problem of explaining why they only appear on some verbs.

The patterns found in Eton raise a number of historical questions. On the one hand, the lack of FVs can, in principle, be viewed as resulting from an innovation where historical FVs were lost as morphologically active elements. Under this scenario, some roots would have lost any trace of the FV, while in other roots a former FV would have become part of their lexical form. If this was the case, what processes would have governed which stems would have developed CVC shapes and which would have developed CVCV shapes? On the other hand, if Eton is somehow seen as representing a state of Bantu before the FV system had morphologised, there is still the same problem of understanding why some verbs have 'final' vowels and others do not. In principle, one could simply say that this was due to variation in the lexical forms of different verbs, though that would raise important issues for the reconstruction of PB verb roots, suggesting that their possible shapes may have been more heterogeneous than generally assumed (cf. e.g. Meeussen 1967: 89). This issue will be discussed further in §5.2.

More generally in the present context, Eton is another language where phonological restrictions affecting the right edge of the verb are relevant for understanding the realisation of vowels at the end of the stem (see §3.6). In particular, the presence of prosodic constraints limiting possible vowel oppositions in the second syllable of stems and also limiting stem size suggest a route through which a more heterogeneous system of verbal suffixes could, in effect, be reduced to result in something like the Bantu FV pattern. If these restrictions were subsequently "relaxed" at some stage of Bantu, verbal suffixal morphology could then allow stems to be expanded beyond two syllables. However, at that stage, the reduced FV pattern would have already morphologised and, in some sense, still attest to the presence of earlier prosodic restrictions.31

#### **4.9 Gyeli A801**

Grimm (2015: 215–216) discusses vowel patterns found at the end of Gyeli A801 verbs. She provides arguments as to why, even though all Gyeli verbs end in a vowel, these should not be considered FVs, but are rather present due to syllable structure constraints. While there are restrictions on which vowels can appear

31I leave open here the question of the timing of this proposed set of changes on the assumption that this would need to be considered in light of a more careful examination of NC verb structure (see §2). An additional complication is the possibility of cyclical change in NC and Bantu verb structures where periods of morphological and phonological reduction may have alternated with periods of morphological and phonological expansion (see Hyman 2011).

in non-initial syllables, there is no evidence that these restrictions are tied to a limited number of morphological FVs and, instead, these seem to be prosodic in nature. Furthermore, extensions do not have the canonical -VC shape, where they appear between a stem and a FV. Rather, they have the shape -V or -VCV (Grimm 2015: 219), and they override the last vowel which would otherwise be found on the verb. Finally, the quality of the last vowel of a verb is not predictable and is, therefore, best analysed as part of the lexical specification of the verb, unlike canonical FVs.

In Table 15, examples of Gyeli verbs are provided. These are mostly drawn from Grimm (2015: 223), with forms also taken from Grimm (2015: 217, 218, 224). Gyeli verb extensions are illustrated in Table 16, with forms based on the disyllabic roots *lúndɔ* 'fill oneself', *vìdɛ* 'turn something', and *kɛ̀lɛ* 'hang something'. While the presence of extensions is associated with the loss of the root-final vowel in disyllabic stems, this can be accounted for straightforwardly in phonological terms as the result of a deletion connected to hiatus resolution given the invariant vowels found in the extensions (Grimm 2015: 216–217).

Table 15: Examples of monomorphemic Gyeli verb stems

Monosyllabic verbs have a different behaviour when appearing with extensions. They generally show an epenthetic consonant whose form is not synchronically predictable and which appears between their single vowel and the vowel

Table 16: Verbal extensions on disyllabic verb roots in Gyeli

of the extension. This means that they do not lose their lexical final vowel. For the few verbs that do not appear with these epenthetic consonants, their vowels still do not drop, creating exceptional hiatus environments between the root and the extension. Relevant examples are provided in Table 17 (Grimm 2015: 217–218). Forms in the first half of the table appear with epenthetic consonants (which are bolded), and forms in the second half take the extensions without the addition of an epenthetic consonant.

Table 17: Verbal extensions on monosyllabic verb roots in Gyeli

As suggested by Grimm (2015: 218), the appearance of the epenthetic consonants could be historically explained via loss of consonants in roots when they appeared in word-final position, while the consonants were protected from such

a process in the presence of an extension. Even if that is the ultimate historical source of the pattern, some degree of synchronic restructuring must have taken place given that the form *dè* 'eat' has an apparently straightforward PB etymology which has been reconstructed as a CV root, namely \**dɩ́*(BLR 944) and, therefore, had no historical consonant which could have been lost.32 Regardless as to the precise historical analysis, Gyeli appears to provide another example, alongside Eton, just discussed in §4.8, of the importance of prosodic size constraints for understanding Bantu morphological patterns given the differing behaviour of monosyllabic and disyllabic stems (see also §3.6).

Since Gyeli lacks a class of CVC verb roots, which is the canonical shape of monomorphemic verb roots in Bantu, in a pattern similar to what was seen for Yasa in §4.4, this again raises the questions of how stems in languages of this kind developed the particular lexical final vowel that they are found with.

#### **4.10 Makaa A83**

Makaa A83 is a language that appears to largely lack FVs. However, it does employ a verb-final high tone that is associated with the appearance of a vowel in the expected FV position under specific circumstances. This high tone generally appears in non-progressive constructions except when coding the Distant Past, in which case it only occurs in non-progressive constructions coded for polar focus (Heath 1991: 6). This high tone does not appear on the verb but can appear on the following word, where it replaces the tone found in the word's first vowel, or it can be realised on an epenthetic vowel. The epenthetic vowel is found when this high tone would otherwise be placed before "a pronoun, a preposition, another verb, or an object without a prefix with a [low-toned] root" (Heath 1991: 6).33 Relevant examples are provided in (6).

32As was also seen in footnote 8, the reconstructed roots referred to here are drawn from Bastin et al. (2002) and an identifier is provided for their specific reconstruction in the online version of the Bantu Lexical Reconstructions 3 (BLR) database.

33Heath (1991) does not appear to explicitly indicate how this high tone is realised in clauses where the verb is final. However, two contrasting examples that are provided by Heath (1991: 12–14), one with a transitive verb and one with an intransitive in a present perfect construction, suggest that the high tone does not appear when the verb is in final position.

	- a. *Mə́ámə̀ wííŋg ó-mpyə̂. Mə̀* 1sg  *́* h1  *̀* p1 *ámə̀ wííŋg* chase\_away  *́* h2 *ò-mpyə̂* 2-dog 'I chased away the dogs.'
	- b. *Mə́ámə̀ wííŋg ʉ́ncwòmbɛ̀. Mə̀* 1sg  *́* h1  *̀* p1 *ámə̀ wííŋg* chase\_away  *́* h2 *Ø-ncwòmbɛ̀* 7-sheep 'I chased away the sheep.'34
	- c. *Mə̀ á gù ú gwòó. Mə̀* 1sg *a* p2  *́* h1 *gù* pick  *́* h2 *Ø-gwòó* 7-mushroom 'I picked the mushroom.'

All of the examples in (6) appear with two floating high tones, one at the left edge of the verb (glossed h1) and one at the right edge of the verb (glossed h2). The high tone of interest here is the one at the right edge. In (6a), the verb appearing with this high tone is followed by the noun *òmpyə̂* 'dog' which begins with a low-tone noun class prefix. This prefix can serve as a host for the high tone, and the noun surfaces with an initial high tone, as indicated in the example. In the other two sentences, there is no postverbal host for the high tone, and, instead, an epenthetic vowel appears. This vowel is analysed as having the basic segmental form *ʉ*, which is the form that is found when it appears between two consonants, as in (6b). If it follows a verb ending in a vowel, it assimilates to that vowel, as in (6c), where its segmental form is *u* rather than *ʉ* due the fact that it follows the root *gù*.

One possible historical explanation for the appearance of these epenthetic vowels is that they represent traces of FVs that were lost in most phrasal contexts. If this is the case, it raises the question of the extent to which specific phrasal environments need to be considered in historical accounts of the development of the FVs and related patterns. The restricted distribution and quite specific conditioning of these vowels in Makaa would seem to make their analysis as relic forms more likely than their being innovations specifically to host a floating tone.

The Makaa case is not like any other language surveyed here, though the overall pattern fits into the general set of questions connected to the relationship between FVs and other suffixes, in this case a tonal suffix (see §3.4). While serious

34The translation in (6b) has been adjusted from what was provided in Heath (1991: 6) to match the gloss, since the original translation had a pronominal object rather than a nominal one.

consideration is not given to the role of tone in FV formation in this survey, the Makaa epenthetic vowel makes clear that a full account of their development will need to take tonal patterns closely into account.

#### **4.11 Kako A93**

Kako A93, described by Ernst (1991; 1995) and Yukawa (1992), makes use of a system of verb-final suffixes that follows a pattern comparable to that associated with canonical FVs, but with a number of complications. Example data involving forms of the verb *ɓɛ̀ŋ* 'see' is provided in Table 18 (Ernst 1995: 11, 13). As can be seen, for this verb, one verbal category, the Subjunctive, is coded by the lack of a suffix and another category, the Past, is coded by a CV suffix. With five segmentally different Finals (including the Ø final for the Subjunctive), Kako has the largest system of Finals for any language in this survey, though the realisation of these Finals can include consonants, as seen for the Past form in Table 18, which means that these cannot all be considered FVs.

Table 18: Verbal suffixes in Kako

As discussed below, there are a series of complicated positional restrictions on non-initial vowels in Kako which limit the range of contrasts at the end of the verb. While it is not explicitly described as such, the FV appearing on infinitives seems to be lexically specified, though, as can be seen, it still appears to be morphologically active insofar as it can be replaced by other suffixes and its absence can be used to encode a verbal category. Ernst (1995: 15) presents at least one near-minimal pair of verb roots which seems to illustrate the lexical nature of FVs in infinitives: *kít-ɛ̀* 'to advise' and *kìt-ɔ̀* 'to style (hair)'. Comparable to what is found in some of the other surveyed languages (see §3.5), CV roots lack a FV in infinitive forms (Ernst 1995: 3). (This pattern will be discussed in more detail in §4.15.)

#### Jeff Good

There are a number of morphophonological complexities involved in the realisation of the Kako verb-final suffixes. This can be exemplified by considering the Past forms, as illustrated in Table 19 (Ernst 1995: 18–22).35 The basic form of this suffix appears to be *-má*, but its form varies depending on the verb's last consonant.36 The *-má* variant is found after CV roots and roots whose Infinitive ends in *e*, *ɛ*, and *o* and whose last consonant is a sonorant, as seen in, for example, forms like *womá* 'kill.pst' and *kelmá* 'do.pst' in Table 19. Stems ending with these vowels in the Infinitive and whose last consonant is a stop that is not palatalised, labialised, or *r* appear with a high vowel before *-má* that appears to represent a raised variant of the FV found in the Infinitive. This is seen in the forms *kitimá* 'advise.pst' and *wokumá* 'hear.pst' in Table 19. Stems whose FV in the Infinitive is *a* retain the vowel when *-má* is added, as seen in a form like *sanamá* 'work.pst'. Stems ending in palatalised or labialised consonants or extended stems whose Infinitives have FVs *e* or *ɛ* take *-á* in the Past, as in forms like *kwaɗyá* 'love.pst' and *njesá* 'send.pst'. Ernst (1995: 21) only provides an example of an extended verb that independently ends in a palatalised consonant, which is why this is the only extended form included in the fifth set of forms provided in Table 19. Finally, there are a number of CV stems which are irregular, forming the past by replacing their last vowel with *á*, as seen, for example, in the opposition between the Infinitive and Past forms of 'hear' where *gwé* alternates with *gwá*.

Other verbal forms show similar complications in their phonological realisation. For instance, the Atemporal, which takes the suffix *-a* in Table 18, has allomorphs with a CV shape where the initial consonant is a velar followed by a harmonising vowel, resulting in forms such as *wo-ku*, based on *wó* 'kill'. There are also forms where the Atemporal is coded by the lack of a suffix, as in *kel*, based in *kèlɔ̀* 'do', among various other realisations (Ernst 1995: 24–28). The Imperative also shows fairly complex patterns of allomorphy as well as segmental overlap with the Atemporal in a number of cases (Ernst 1995: 37). The Subordinate form has a simpler segmental realisation, which is often the same as the Infinitive, except for verbs whose Infinitive ends in an *-ɔ*, in which case it changes to *-ɛ* (Ernst 1995: 38). The Subjunctive also often takes on the same form as the Infinitive, except for verbs whose FV is *-ɛ* or *-ɔ*. These become *-i* and a harmonising high vowel respectively after non-palatalised and non-labialised stops and delete after nasals (Ernst 1995: 41). This last variant is the one seen in Table 18.

35The transcription of the Infinitive verb of 'arrive' in Table 19 has been adapted to represent nasalisation with a tilde rather than the original diacritic found in the source.

36A potential etymology for this suffix is that it represents a morphologisation of the reconstructed verb \**màd* 'finish'. See Nurse (2008: 252–253) for discussion of verbal prefixes with shape *ma-* found in some Bantu languages which can be traced to the same reconstructed verb.

Table 19: Variation in past tense formation in Kako

Taken together, the pattern that emerges is one where there is evidence for six distinct verbal patterns of suffixation associated with the expression of TAMP categories, as exemplified in Table 18, though these distinctions can be neutralised in specific verb forms and their realisation can be controlled by a number of complicated factors sensitive to root-final phonology (see also §3.6).

An added layer of complication to the Kako system are restrictions on the allowable vowel qualities in final syllables of the Infinitive forms of verbs. These are summarised in Table 20 (Ernst 1995: 8, see also Ernst 1991). The table provides information on what vowels are allowed, separated by the final consonant of the root and whether the stem, including the FV, is two or three syllables (in the column labelled *σ*). This means that, in effect, FVs can simultaneously encode a morphological category (e.g. that a verb is in the Infinitive form) while also partly encoding aspects of the prosodic properties of the verb that they appear with (e.g. whether it is two or three syllables in length), though these categories are not necessarily uniquely encoded by a given vowel (see also §3.3). The FV *-ɔ*, for instance, is only associated with a subset of verbs that have two syllables

including the FV, while the FV *-e* is mostly restricted to three-syllable verbs, excluding those whose final consonant is a palatal. A vowel like *-a*, by contrast, is less prosodically restricted and cannot be seen as encoding any information about the phonological properties of the verb other than the fact that it does not end in a labial-velar.

Table 20: Prosodic restrictions on final vowels in Kako Infinitives

The Kako patterns are perhaps the most interesting among the surveyed languages in the present context since they suggest a historical model for the development of the Bantu FVs involving an interplay between stem-final processes resulting in suffixal consonant loss (e.g. the *m* of the Past suffix as exemplified in Table 19) alongside prosodic processes affecting vowels, including not only vowel harmony patterns but also positional restrictions of the sort seen in Table 20. Taken together, these processes could result in phonological reductions that would cause formerly distinct morphemes to become segmentally homophonous. While these patterns of homophony are limited to specific phonological contexts in Kako, if they were to become extended to a wider range of contexts, it is possible to imagine the resulting system being limited to a small set of vowels, along the lines of what we see in Bantu languages showing the canonical Bantu FV pattern. Of course, this is speculative, and many details would need to be filled in to map out how a Kako-like system could develop into a canonical Bantu one. However, given that the ultimate source of the Bantu FVs is otherwise unclear, the phonological alternations associated with TAMP suffixes in Kako can potentially be seen as a model for the initial steps of a pathway for their development.

#### **4.12 Myene B11**

The Myene B11 FV system is closer to the canonical Bantu system than the languages considered to this point except for Kpe (§4.3), and, in general, the surveyed languages of zone B show more canonical FV patterns than the surveyed languages of zone A. In Myene, most verb stems end in a FV *-a* which can change in different TAMP configurations, as would be expected. There is, however, a class of verbs ending in *o* and *e* which have an invariant last vowel, meaning that they constitute lexical exceptions to the usual patterns (see §3.5). Verbs ending in *o* also include those which have been passivised via the replacement of FV *-a* with Passive marker *-o* (Gautier 1912: 82). The historical significance of this pattern will be discussed in more detail in §4.15. Examples of verbs showing FV *-a* in their Infinitive forms and *o* or *e* as their last vowel in their Infinitive forms are provided in Table 21 (Gautier 1912: 82).37 The form *ke* 'go' in Table 21 is synchronically treated as a short form of the regular verb *kẽnda*, though these forms go back to two distinct PB forms, namely \**gɪ̀* (BLR 1371) and \**gènd* (BLR 1363).

Table 21: Myene Infinitive forms

37The transcription of the data in Table 21 has been adjusted to replace an original use of *è* and *ò* with *ɛ* and *ɔ* respectively, following my interpretation of Gautier (1912: 3). The verb *dyɔgo* 'hear' in Table 21 is presumably a reflex of the reconstructed root \**jígu* (BLR 3423), whose CVCV structure would already have been irregular in PB.

#### Jeff Good

Myene otherwise appears to make use of two FVs, *-i* and *-e*, in addition to *-a* in the canonical way. Gautier (1912) does not appear to make an explicit statement regarding the existence or specific semantics of these two vowels, but they can be found in the verb conjugations provided, and the *-i* is associated with the past and the *-e* with subjunctive and subordinate contexts. Representative forms are provided in Table 22, based on the verb root *dyen* 'see' (Gautier 1912: 84– 85).38 Morphological segmentation in Table 22 is my own. Some forms are coded with an Imperfect suffix *-ag* appearing between the stem and the FV. Except for the Imperative, the forms are provided with a first person singular subject pronoun, as given in the source. Spaces in the forms are also those provided in the source. Verbs whose stems end in *o* and *e* do not participate in these suffixal alternations, and verbs ending in *e* are additionally characterised as defective, i.e. lacking certain expected inflectional forms (Gautier 1912: 82).

Table 22: Verb forms in Myene

While the presence of lexical exceptions in Myene raises historical questions regarding the path through which the FV system developed, its FV system is otherwise quite recognisable as a canonical Bantu system.

#### **4.13 Kota B25**

The Kota B25 FV system appears to be largely canonical in form. Piron (1990: 129) describes three different segmental final suffixes, with forms *a*, *e*, and *ɛtɛ*.

38Although not of direct relevance to the current study, Myene verbs can also show an interesting pattern of initial consonant mutations, resulting in two stem forms, one with a "weak" consonant and one with a "strong" consonant, as seen, for instance, in the Infinitive/Imperative pair *pona* 'to watch' vs. *wona* 'watch!' (Gautier 1912: 81–82). This is seen in Table 22 where the initial consonant of the root alternates between *dy* and *y*.

The *-a* can appear with a high tone or a low tone, while the *-e* and *-ɛtɛ* are both described as only appearing with a high tone. The FV *-a* is used with a wide range of verb forms in affirmative and negative contexts, as well as past, present, and future contexts, and clearly is best understood as the default FV. The *-e* is described as appearing only with the Negative Present and the *-ɛtɛ* only in a Present Affirmative form associated with semantics involving an action that is being done for the first time, and it can presumably be historically associated with the Perfective \*-*ile* (see §1).39 Examples of Kota verbs with these suffixes are given in Table 23 (Piron 1990: 131–139).

Piron (1990) does not appear to contain an explicit statement regarding how roots which end in a vowel, such as verb roots with form CV, behave with respect to the presence of FVs and whether there may be lexical exceptions to the normal patterns. However, a partial paradigm of forms is provided for the CV verb root *dì* 'be', and it does appear to take FVs.40 For instance, there is a Present form *àdjɛ̋*(with a class 1 subject prefix), analysable as *à-dì-ɛ́*, which irregularly takes a FV with form *ɛ*, rather than the expected *-a*. This is unlike Myene (§4.12) where

39Piron (1990: 129) labels this suffix as coding a present tense, but Piron (1990: 133) implies it codes a past tense. The translations suggest it codes a present tense form, which is why I am using that label here.

40Piron (1990: 62) contains an abstract analysis of the conjugation of a CV verb *sɔ̀* 'say' that includes a FV at an underlying level of representation, though it is difficult to assess the extent of the evidence for this analysis. Piron (1990: 68) also gives derivations for CV and CVCV roots where they take the usual FV verb morphology. However, an intervening Imperfective suffix in these examples makes them not ideal for establishing their overall morphological behaviour with respect to FVs.

comparable exceptional verbs do not take a FV of any kind and end in invariant vowels regardless of the TAMP configuration in which they appear. Similarly, there is a past form with a class 1 subject prefix *àdjàsá*, analysable as *à-dì-à-sá* (with a Post-final suffix *-sá*), which takes a FV *-a* in the canonical way (Piron 1990: 142–143).

Piron (1990: 62) describes a vowel harmony rule that can affect FV *-a* causing it to surface as *ɔ* after *ɔ* and *ɛ* after *ɛ* (see also §3.6). The latter change is of interest here due to the fact that this could result in a partial formal segmental overlap between FV *-a* and the Final suffix -*ɛtɛ* in certain phonological contexts. This could lead to partial formal conflation, for instance with the second vowel of *-ɛtɛ* being reanalysed as a surfacing form *-a*. Nevertheless, overall, the Kota system is in line with the canonical Bantu system.

#### **4.14 Himba B302**

Himba B302 has four segmental FVs, an *-i* and *-e*, both appearing with low tones, an *-a* appearing with high and low tones, and an *-o*, appearing with a high tone (Rekanga 2000: 468). This makes it, along with Kpe, one of the languages with the highest number of FVs encountered in the survey. The first three FVs follow typical patterns. The *-i* and *-e* are relatively restricted in the contexts in which they occur, with *-i* found in recent past contexts and *-e* found in some present and future contexts. The FV *-a* appears in a wide range of other contexts, following its general pattern as a default FV. The FV *-o* is restricted to a specific infinitive construction that is also coded with a prefix. Relevant examples are provided in Table 24 (Rekanga 2000: 468–472).41

The FV *-o* only appears in infinitive forms with a specific prefix and also, apparently, requires the presence of an additional *-aɣ* suffix, which is found in the two examples provided in Rekanga (2000: 472). The restricted distribution of FV *-o* is an indication that it is a recent innovation. This is also suggested, of course, by the comparative picture. The source of this *-o* is not clear, but it does at least point to the potential for the development of new FVs in languages that otherwise appear to have a relatively stable canonical FV system.

While the behaviour of verbs that might present potential lexical exceptions to FV patterns does not appear to be discussed in a general way, Rekanga (2000:

41Rekanga (2000: 469) appears to label the form *òndéhù:mè* in Table 24 as a Recent Past but provides a Present translation, which is the category in which the verb is placed here. The identification of the *-aɣ* suffix as an Imperfective is my own, on the assumption that it is a reflex of \*-*ag*. The identification of the *mo-* prefix in the last form of the table with class 18 is also my own.

Table 24: Verb forms in Himba

471) does provide the example *òhánàdʸà*, presented in Table 24 and based on a verb root analysed as underlyingly having the form *dyè* 'come'. This suggests that there are no lexically-conditioned exceptions to the FV patterns, given that this inflected form of the verb ends in *a* rather than *e*. It does appear, however, that the presence of the Passive suffix overrides the presence of a FV, as evidenced by forms like *nómàítsú* 'it (cl. 11) was given', based on the verb root *its* 'give', and *àndéhɛ̀βɔ́nɔ́* 'he was chosen', based on the verb stem *hɛvɔ́n* 'choose' (Rekanga 2000: 321) (see §3.4). In both cases, the last vowel of the verb can be associated with a Passive suffix analysed as being underlyingly *o* that is affected by vowel harmony.42 A full range of passivised verbs, in particular across the different possible FVs, is not presented in Rekanga (2000). So, there may be complications in the realisation of the Passive that were not reported.

Overall, the Himba FV system is largely in line with the canonical Bantu system with the major points of difference being the development of the FV *-o* in one of the language's infinitive constructions and the fact that the Passive suffix apparently overrides the appearance of FVs that would otherwise be expected.

#### **4.15 Punu B43**

Punu B43, following the descriptions of Bonneau (1956: 44–45) and Fontaney (1980: 75), makes use of FVs that are in line with the canonical Bantu pattern,

42For this study, I had access only to the second volume of a multivolume work, which focuses on the morphology of Himba. Because of this, I was not able to examine the part of the work discussing processes of vowel harmony.

though with some noteworthy differences. Most inflectional verb forms end in a FV *-a* which has a default status. There is also a final *-i* that appears in a small set of inflected forms, namely the Affirmative and Negative Present, Imperative verbs which are also marked for an object prefix, and the Affirmative Subjunctive. The latter two domains are associated with FV suffixes whose segmental form is reconstructed as \**e* by Meeussen (1967: 112), and the Punu *-i* in these contexts is presumably connected to the same pattern that prompted this reconstruction. The use of *-i* in negative verbs can also be connected to a form (tentatively) reconstructed by Meeussen (1967: 110) as \*-*ɪ*. The use of an *-i* in the present affirmative would appear to represent some kind of innovation. Example verb forms, based on the stem *dibíg* 'close', which appears with an Impositive extension *-ig* [*iɣ*] (Fontaney 1980: 59), are presented in Table 25.43 Those verbs with subject marking appear with the 1pl marker *tu-*. The forms and category labels are drawn from Fontaney (1980: 78–80).

There are two general classes of exceptions to the patterns exemplified in Table 25. Verbs which end in vowels other than *-a* in their citation form have invariant vowels when conjugated. Some of these have the form CV, but Bonneau (1956: 44) also indicates that there are underived longer verbs, such as *ulu* 'hear' and *gufi* 'be small'. Example forms from two CV verbs of this class, *ji* 'eat'

43See Schadeberg & Bostoen (2019: 178–179) for a discussion of the Impositive in a comparative Bantu context.

and *nu* 'drink' are presented in Table 26 (Fontaney 1980: 95–96). Regular FV patterns can re-emerge in these stems in the presence of extensions. For instance, a causativised form of 'drink' has the form *nu-ís-a*, which then follows the pattern seen in Table 25.

Table 26: Invariant final vowel forms in Punu

The other class of exceptions to the patterns exemplified in Table 25 are passivised verbs, which appear with a final *-u*. The Passive *-u* overrides any other expected FV (Fontaney 1980: 75). For instance, a verb like *lab-a* 'see' would have the form *lab-u* when passivised and behave like the verb *nu* 'drink', seen in Table 26 (Bonneau 1956: 45).

The Punu patterns are interesting due to the presence of lexical and morphological exceptions to canonical FV patterns (see §3.5). The primary question that this raises from a comparative perspective is how such a pattern could have developed. While the available sources do not provide comprehensive lists of exceptional verb roots such as those seen in Table 26, three that are presented have apparent PB etymologies. For the verbs in Table 26, it is presumably the case that *ji* 'eat' is a reflex of PB \**dɩ́*(BLR 944) and *nu* 'drink' a reflex of \**nyó* (BLR 7047), while a third verb *fu* 'die' Fontaney (1980: 96) is a reflex of \**kú* (BLR 2089). See also Nsuka-Nkutsi (1980). The exceptionality of these forms cannot be seen, therefore, as attributable to their being borrowed or connected to some other irregularity due to contact. The same holds for the Passive suffix.

If we assume that the canonical Bantu FV pattern can be associated with PB, we would need to propose a process whereby FVs were lost in these forms in Punu, perhaps accompanied by a vocalisation process if their vowels had surfaced as glides when followed by a FV. The conditions that would allow such a change to take place are not obvious. However, in the Punu case, the fact that the vowel *a* would typically have appeared as [ə] in final position (Kwenzi-Mikala 1980: 10) may have made it more likely to be lost in that context when preceded by another vowel. Alternatively, if we assumed that the exceptional verb forms

in Punu represent an archaism before the canonical FV system had completely developed, then that raises questions about the timing of the emergence of FVs in Bantu and specifically suggests that they may not yet have been fully morphologised in PB.

#### **4.16 Nzebi B52**

Nzebi B52 is described as making use of two FVs, *-a*, in most forms – i.e. serving as a default – and *-i* in forms encoding the Perfect (Marchal-Nasse 1989: 119). The *-a* FV can be affected by a rule of vowel harmony causing it to assimilate to a preceding *ɛ*, *ɔ*, or *u*. It can also appear as *ə* in some cases (Marchal-Nasse 1989: 113). The FV *-i* can trigger patterns of regressive harmony raising preceding vowels (cf. e.g. Marchal-Nasse 1989: 121–123, 130–131).44 None of these processes appears to create any ambiguity with respect to which FV is appearing on a verb. Example verbs are provided in Table 27 (Marchal-Nasse 1989: 461–489).45

Verb roots with shape CV appear with an expansion *-ad*, which is then followed by the regular FV. So, while these have exceptional behaviour, they fol-

44This pattern is also discussed in Guthrie (1968: 102–103).

45The identification of the *-Vg* [*Vx*] suffix with an imperfective is my own, on the assumption that it is a reflex of \*-*ag*.

low the regular FV patterns. The verb *kú* 'die', for example, has the infinitive *u-kw-á:d-a* (Marchal-Nasse 1989: 439–440).

While not specific to FVs, vowels found at the end of words longer than one syllable, which includes FVs, are subject to various reduction processes, which present possible historical models for the loss of FVs in other languages (Marchal-Nasse 1989: 42–43, see also Guthrie 1968: 119).

Overall, from a formal perspective, Nzebi's FV system more or less follows the canonical pattern. The system is the smallest logically possible size of just two vowels, and it has a limited functional load, since the *-i* vowel appears in a fairly narrow set of forms. It shows some phonological complications, though not any that appear to shed particular light on the development of FVs generally.

#### **4.17 Overview of survey results**

Table 28 places the languages covered in this survey into five broad categories based on the nature of their FV systems. This categorisation is intended to complement the information provided in §3, which focused on grammatical phenomena relevant to understanding FV patterns rather than the languages themselves. The five categories are as follows:

5. Languages whose FV systems follow the canonical pattern, which are classified as having *canonical Final Verb morphology*.

The results of the survey are further discussed in §5.

Table 28: Overview of the results of the survey

#### 4 Reconstructing the development of the Bantu final vowels

#### **5 Conclusion**

#### **5.1 When did the Final Vowels develop?**

Given the variability found with respect to verb-final morphology in this survey, an important concern that arises in the PB context is determining the stage of PB at which the reconstructed system developed. In order to consider this more closely, the map provided in Figure 2 provides the location of each of the surveyed languages while also indicating how they were categorised with respect to the five broad classes introduced in §4.17 and summarised in Table 28.46

In this map, a clear pattern emerges, where the languages in the southern part of the survey area in Gabon all have FV systems that are in line with the standard reconstructions, though some of these have lexically exceptional verb stems. In the northern area, with the exception of Kpe, the languages deviate from the reconstructed patterns in various ways, and they do not provide clear evidence for the reconstructed system.

46This map was created using tools developed by Moroz et al. (2022). The background map was produced by Thunderforest (see http://www.thunderforest.com) using data from Open-StreetMap (see https://www.openstreetmap.org/).

#### Jeff Good

Figure 2: Locations of languages and overview of FV patterns found in this survey

The languages whose FV systems are in line with the reconstructed PB system, with the exception of Kpe, would appear to correspond most closely to those belonging to node 2 of the phylogenetic tree in Grollemund et al. (2015). This node includes most of the languages in zone B and higher, as well as some languages from the A80 and A90 groups. This could suggest that the canonical FV system was a relatively late development. Alternatively, a contact explanation could be given wherein FV patterns in line with the reconstructions were earlier present in the languages in the northern part of the north-western area. These might have become reduced due to areal processes of morphological reduction by virtue of

the fact that the languages in zone A are in the "buffer" region between isolating Kwa-type languages to their north and west and more canonically agglutinating languages to their south – cf. e.g. Hyman (2004), Good (2012; 2017: 476–484) for relevant discussions, and Stilo (2005) for a discussion of the concept of a buffer zone. Under this interpretation, Kpe could be viewed as a relatively conservative language within the region.

At this stage, I believe it would be premature to argue that either of these scenarios is more likely than the other, or that they should be seen as mutually exclusive since the full historical picture almost certainly involved an interplay between genealogical and areal factors. The most important point to emerge from this study is that the north-western Bantu data does not obviously point to the reconstructed FV system having been fully in place before the diversification of the Bantu languages, at least given the conventional understanding of which languages comprise the family.

#### **5.2 How did the Final Vowels develop?**

The survey presented in §4 does not point to any clear answers with respect to the development of the FVs in Bantu. However, it does reveal patterns of complexity suggesting that FV systems in the north-western Bantu area cannot simply be understood as a straightforward reduction of the canonical Bantu pattern that has served as the basis for the existing reconstructions of FVs, as presented in §1. The most noteworthy questions raised by this survey in my view are those listed in (7).

	- a. Should languages like Akoose (§4.2) and Kako (§4.11), which make use of non-vocalic verb morphology in the Final position, be seen as having innovated non-vocalic Final morphology after losing FVs or as representing precursor systems to those languages showing canonical FV patterns?
	- b. In languages which show no synchronic evidence for FVs, such as Yasa (§4.4) and Gyeli (§4.9) where all verb roots end in vowels, or Eton (§4.8), where many do, what is the source of the last vowel in those roots?
	- c. In languages with canonical FV patterns on most verbs, but with a class of verbs exceptionally not taking FV morphology, such as Kpe (§4.3), Kako (§4.11), Myene (§4.12), and Punu (§4.15), does the lack of FVs on these roots represent an archaism or an innovation?

#### Jeff Good

At this stage, I believe that all of the questions in (7) must be considered open and without obvious answers. However, the languages of the survey do, at least, point to a historical path for the development of the canonical Bantu FV system along the following lines, though its time depth is not clear. These steps could be viewed roughly as follows, with languages from the survey that can be seen as models for each of the steps indicated:

Even if the historical sketch just presented is a reasonable representation of the development of the canonical Bantu FV system, this does not mean that all of

47Although not part of the formal survey found in this chapter, the comparative description of Duma B51, Mbede B61 and Ndumu B63, provided in Adam (1954: 72), shows languages apparently representing the transition between stages 4 and 5, with Mbede showing CV roots without FVs, Ndumu showing these roots appearing with a FV, and Duma showing them appearing with an expansion suffix that hosts a FV.

the languages referenced above represent direct reflexes of this development. It could also very well be the case that some of the languages once had the canonical pattern and lost it due to phonological change connected to the prosodification of the verb, with a language like Gunu (§4.7) having a morphologically active FV, but without any morphological oppositions in the FV system, possibly representing a near-final stage of this process. Another significant concern is what the source would be of the postverbal elements which would have morphologised into FVs, but proposals for this would require a separate study.48

Of the open questions listed in (7), the one where I think the historical situation is most easily reconstructed is the third one. The presence of lexical exceptions to Final patterns, in particular on CV stems, some of which are clearly quite old, as well as forms marked with the Passive, as discussed in §4.15, is most likely an archaism in my view. A historical scenario where FVs developed in longer verb systems, in part due to the fact that suffixes in these stems would have been subjected to more restrictive prosodic constraints, and were then extended to CV verbs, as well as verbs marked with the Passive, seems relatively historically plausible. By contrast, a scenario where CV verbs selectively lost FVs and then vocalised the glides that were part of the stem that would have appeared before a FV seems much less likely. If this is the right interpretation, it would mean that, even if the canonical Bantu FV system was largely in place for roots with CVC shape in PB, it had yet to fully extend to all verbs, suggesting a possibly interesting isogloss to look for carefully somewhere in the border between zone A and zone B languages.

Of the other questions listed in (7), the one that strikes me as most difficult to resolve is the second. In the languages which show CVCV roots where the last vowel is lexically specified (at least partially), where did the last vowel come from? There are various imaginable sources. They could be former FVs, with different FVs lexicalising across different verbs, perhaps due to varying frequency patterns for the use of each verb in different TAMP configurations. They could represent vowels derived from other sources, such as elements associated with the Pre-Final slot in Figure 1. They could also have arisen from postverbal elements beginning with a vowel, where the following vowel was reanalysed as belonging to the verb due to a reparsing, though developing this analysis would require determining what those elements might have been. In principle, they could also represent archaic elements which were lost in languages which developed

48In this regard, Akoose (§4.2) suggests an interesting possibility that the source of FVs could be non-Final verbal suffixes such as \*-*ag*, which took on reduced forms in longer verbs and then were reanalysed as morphologically distinct from their longer forms.

a canonical FV system due to elision effects, or some other phonological process along those lines. This last scenario strikes me as unlikely, given the comparative Bantu context, since it would require a major alteration in the reconstruction of PB verb roots, and I simply point it out here as a logical possibility.

Overall, I think the most significant result of this survey is that it points to the need for a more thorough consideration of the development of the canonical FV system in Bantu, since it is not obvious how such a system could have developed and, as the survey makes clear, patterns in north-western Bantu suggest that it may not have even fully developed within PB, i.e. ancestral node 1 in Grollemund et al. (2015), even if the seeds of the system must have already been in place. I should also stress that this is a domain where expanded data collection is likely to reveal interesting new facts, especially in zone A. The historical picture outlined above, for instance, is strongly influenced by the description of Finals in Kako, and to a lesser extent Kpa and Akoose, and it would be especially worthwhile to have a better sense of how many other languages in the north-west show systems like those described for these languages, which are, in my view, promising models for either an early stage of PB or some pre-PB variety from which the Bantu languages emerged. More broadly, this study underscores the need for revisions to PB reconstructions which might be biased towards central and eastern Bantu patterns (cf. e.g. Schadeberg 2003: 156). This appears to have been the case for Meeussen's (1967) reconstruction of the FV system as well.

This conclusion should also be considered in the context of the ongoing debate about the historical time depth of many of the features of the Bantu verbal system presented in Figure 1, in particular the verbal prefix system – see Güldemann (2011: 123–129) and Hyman (2011: 29–40) for relevant discussions, as well as Güldemann (2022 [this volume]) and Nurse & Watters (2022 [this volume]). The key question is whether the verbal prefixes, in particular those associated with slots -3 to 0 in Figure 1, should be treated as having already fully morphologised in PB or whether they were still expressed by morphosyntactically independent elements such as pronouns and auxiliary verbs, which would later develop into agreement markers and TAMP markers, respectively. If the FV system was not fully developed in PB, this would seem to be more in line with the position of Güldemann (2011) that the prefixes also represent a post-PB innovation insofar as both reconstructions point to a verbal system that was less morphologically elaborated and involved greater use of elements with some degree of syntactic independence than implied by Meeussen's (1967) reconstruction. If that is the case, however, it leaves open the important historical question of what might have triggered the processes of morphologisation that resulted in the development of

what has long been viewed as the canonical structure of the Bantu verb in such a large part of the Bantu-speaking area.

### **Acknowledgements**

I would like to thank participants at the *International Conference on Reconstructing Proto-Bantu Grammar*, organised by the Ghent University Centre for Bantu Studies and the Service of Culture & Society of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, as well as attendees of a meeting of the Philological Society on May 1, 2020, for their feedback on the work discussed in this chapter in addition to two anonymous reviewers, Koen Bostoen, Rozenn Guérois, Larry M. Hyman, Dmitry Idiatov and Sara Pacchiarotti for more detailed comments.

### **Abbreviations**

Jeff Good

#### **References**

## **Chapter 5**

## **The relevance of Bantoid for the reconstruction of Proto-Bantu verbal extensions**

#### Roger M. Blench

Kay Williamson Educational Foundation

In this chapter the relevance of Bantoid for the reconstruction of verbal extensions in Proto-Bantu (PB) is assessed. The Bantoid or Wide Bantu languages are a body of some 150–200 languages positioned geographically between Nigeria and Cameroon. They do not form a genetic subgroup, but all are in some way related to Narrow Bantu, i.e. Bantu as referentially classified by Guthrie (1948; 1967–71), more closely than other branches within Benue-Congo. The most well-known subgroups are Dakoid, Mambiloid, Tivoid, Beboid, Grassfields, and Mbe-Ekoid. The chapter discusses the characteristics of verbal extensions in Bantoid and their possible relation to extensions attested in Narrow Bantu on the one hand, and in other branches of Benue-Congo on the other hand. Based on a review of the literature on verbal extensions in the various branches of Bantoid and on case studies of individual languages, the chapter concludes that a rich system similar to Narrow Bantu can be reconstructed for Proto-Grassfields, while in other Bantoid subgroups, it is now lost or much reduced. Only the causative -*si* is attested in a substantial number of subgroups. Some Bantoid extensions show significant segmental similarities to certain extensions in Narrow Bantu zone A languages, which have never been reconstructed for PB. It is argued that these extensions shared between the highest branches of the Bantu family tree warrant a revision of PB verb derivation suffixes.

### **1 Introduction**

The Bantoid languages are a body of some 150–200 languages positioned geographically between Nigeria and Cameroon. There is no evidence they form a

Roger M. Blench. 2022. The relevance of Bantoid for the reconstruction of Proto-Bantu verbal extensions. In Koen Bostoen, Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, Rozenn Guérois & Sara Pacchiarotti (eds.), *On reconstructing Proto-Bantu grammar*, 235–280. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI: 10 . 5281 / zenodo . 7575823

genetic subgroup, although they are all in some way related to Narrow Bantu more closely than to the rest of Benue-Congo. The most well-known Bantoid subgroups are Dakoid, Mambiloid, Tivoid, Beboid, Grassfields and Ekoid. Bendi, formerly classified as Cross River, may also be Bantoid. Jarawan is sometimes claimed to be Narrow Bantu instead of Bantoid (or Wide Bantu). The division between (Narrow) Bantu and Bantoid used in this chapter considers that (Narrow) Bantu consists of the subgroups as defined in the referential classification of Guthrie (1967–71).

Both (Narrow) Bantu and Bantoid are characterised by systems of nominal affixes and alliterative concord, although these are highly eroded in some languages. However, Bantoid noun morphology is not that of classic Bantu, despite its prefixes being often ascribed the same class numbers in a somewhat misleading way. Bantoid does not represent a genetic group, although the languages are related. It is simply a cover term for those subgroups which split away from Benue-Congo before the genesis of Narrow Bantu (Blench 2015). Even the division between Bantu and Bantoid is now often questioned, as some authors have observed that much of Bantu A, with its highly reduced noun classes, would perhaps be better treated as Bantoid.

Apart from noun classes, one of the characteristic features ascribed to Proto-Bantu (PB) is its system of verbal extensions (Schadeberg 2003). These are (V)(C)V elements which are (usually) suffixed to the verb stem, and in some languages can be stacked in complex strings. They can transform the semantics and syntax of the verb, marking number, directionality, or reflexivity and bring about other changes, as well as denote some types of aspectual marking. Verbal extension morphology can almost certainly be traced back considerably further in Niger-Congo (e.g. Voeltz 1977; Trithart 1983; Hyman 2007; 2014). Such suffixes are present in some form in many Niger-Congo branches, though not in Mande, some branches of Kordofanian, Dogon and Ịjọ. Ịjọ, intriguingly, does have a small repertoire of verbal extensions synchronically, but these show no segmental cognacy with other branches of Niger-Congo (Kay Williamson, p.c.). Whether these should be reconstructed to Proto-Niger-Congo depends on what internal structure is claimed for the phylum. Similarly, the state of scholarship is not such that we can easily assert that particular segmental features can be reconstructed. Hyman (2014) discusses the uneven distribution of verbal extensions in the different branches of Niger-Congo and the extent to which they reflect those found in Bantu.

In any event, it is reasonable to assume that several of the extensions reconstructed for PB go back to Proto-Benue-Congo. Benue-Congo is of considerable importance, because some languages exhibit features which resurface in Bantu, but which are only attested in fragmentary form or not at all in Bantoid. In most branches of Benue-Congo these have become unproductive, becoming incorporated in roots. Nowhere in Bantoid are these systems wholly functional, but their former presence can be detected from the presence of "frozen" morphemes. Hyman (2017a) addresses this issue in what he terms *from syntheticity to analyticity* and discusses the way in "which [Bantoid] languages compensate for the loss of valence-adding extensions, e.g. the applicative, which has multiple functions in Common Bantu". He identifies periphrasis, unmarked double objects, adpositions and nominal constructions as strategies for dealing with the loss of verbal extensions. Table 1, adapted from Hyman (2017a: Table 3), summarises the sort of contrasts which can be expected.

Table 1: Canonical Bantu compared with Bantoid (Hyman 2017a: Table 3)

The concern of this chapter is primarily with identifying the trail of evidence that links segmental evidence for existing or former extensions in Bantoid with those in Bantu. Although a standard list of proposed reconstructed verbal extensions exists for PB, comparative data from Guthrie's zone A and closely related Bantoid languages provide only limited support for the proposed forms.

The definition of extensions varies from author to author, and in the maximal interpretation it is any suffix on a verb, including tense/aspect markers. In

the Bantoid region, many languages have verbs with unproductive suffixes that have no assignable meaning. The hypothesis is that these are the traces of now fossilised extensions, although this claim would need to be supported by the semantics of synchronic verb forms. Note that in some languages, changes in meaning similar to those brought about by extensions occur through tonal change. It seems reasonable to include these in a list of extensions (Hyman 2017b). In certain languages, such as Vute, innovative extension-like suffixes originate in Serial Verb Constructions. Over time, these forms may be lexicalised to merge with the set of authentic extensions. Productive extensions are those for which there is evidence that they have an assignable semantics and can be suffixed to roots as part of the derivational process in speech.

The verbal extensions of PB have generated a considerable literature. The first discussions of these go back to Meinhof (1899; 1910) and the *Bantu Grammatical Reconstructions* of Meeussen (1967). The literature on this is summarised in Schadeberg (2003: 72) whose list of proposed reconstructions, reproduced in Table 2, is still the most widely cited (see also Schadeberg & Bostoen 2019: 173).

Table 2: Proto-Bantu verbal extensions

This system is relatively rich and has the potential for stacking. In certain Bantu languages, up to four extensions can be added to the stem to generate very specific subsets of meaning. The analytic question is the extent to which these can be linked to extensions attested for Bantoid, or further back, for Benue-Congo. Since Bantoid is a key element in understanding the genesis of Bantu verbal extensions, this chapter summarises the presence or absence, morphology and semantics of extensions in the Bantoid languages. Hyman (2018) has

reviewed verb extensions in some Bantoid branches with a view to reconstruction, although the coverage is far from comprehensive. Hyman (2018: 176) divides these into three classes: (1) productive extensions; (2) unproductive extensions often restricted to post-radical position or specific combinations; and (3) frozen, mostly unidentifiable -VC- expansions. He also suggests lists of allomorphs of the forms cited in Table 2.

Since extensions preserved in some branches strongly resemble Bantu, this chapter also considers briefly the relationship of Bantoid to Benue-Congo (§2). Overall, Bantoid languages are poorly documented, so in §2.3 time is given to discussing the question of internal classification and data sources. The ancestry of the characteristic extensions in Bantoid can be traced in Benue-Congo languages as discussed in §3.1. Existing information about the presence or absence of extensions in the established branches of Bantoid is summarised in §3.2. Case studies of synchronic extensions are presented in §3.3 which includes a section on Bantu zone A languages. The conclusion summarises the evidence presented and considers this evidence for the historical origin of attested Bantu extensions.

#### **2 Classification of Bantoid**

#### **2.1 Bantoid (Wide Bantu) vs. (Narrow) Bantu opposition**

Sigismund Koelle (1854) and Wilhelm Bleek (1862–69) noted that many languages of West Africa also showed noun classes marked by prefixes, and Bleek went so far as to include a "West-African" division in the family he named Bantu. According to Jungraithmayr & Möhlig (1983), the term "Bantoid" was introduced by Krause (1895), but it seems to have been subsequently forgotten. It re-appears in Guthrie (1948; 1967–71) to describe what he called "transitional" languages, replacing the vague term "Semi-Bantu", which goes back to Johnston (1919–22). The modern sense of the term Bantoid to refer to Bantu-like languages of the Nigerian-Cameroon borderland may have first appeared in Jacquot & Richardson (1956). This includes summary sketches of Nyang, Ekoid, Tikar and Grassfields languages, although the volume as a whole also incorporates material on Narrow Bantu and a variety of Adamawa and Ubangian languages so it is rather unspecific.

Despite the discussion in Johnston (1919–22) and Guthrie (1967–71) of the place of Bantoid languages with apparent correspondences to Bantu, it was Greenberg (1963, 1974) who first emphasised the issue of genetic classification as opposed to typology. He treated Bantu as one branch of Benue-Congo, i.e. the adjacent languages of southern and eastern Nigeria and Cameroon. He says: "the Bantu languages are simply a subgroup of an already established genetic subfamily of Western Sudanic [i.e. Niger-Congo, broadly speaking]" (Greenberg 1963: 32). Figure 1 shows Greenberg's classification.

Greenberg (1963: 35) also clearly stated that "supposedly transitional languages are really Bantu". In other words, many languages lacking some features typical of Bantu are nonetheless related to it. This approach to Bantu was refreshing and made historical sense in a way that Guthrie's views never had. But since the 1960s, data has gradually accumulated on the vast and complex array of languages in the "Bantu borderland", i.e. the region between southern Cameroon (where Guthrie's Bantu begins) and eastern Nigeria. The next step in the evolution of our understanding of Bantoid was the formation of the Grassfields Working Group in the early 1970s. Many of these findings were summarised in overview articles from this period, including Hedinger (1989) and Watters & Leroy (1989a,b).

Bantoid and Bantu represent nested subsets of Benue-Congo, a large and complex group of languages, whose exact membership remains disputed. Originating with Westermann's (1927) *Benue-Cross-Fluss*, it took shape in Greenberg (1963), Williamson (1971) and de Wolf (1971). The name "Benue-Congo" was introduced by Greenberg (1963) who proposed a division into four branches: Plateau, Jukunoid, Cross River, and Bantoid. For a period in the 1980s and 1990s, it was considered that all the languages in the former "Eastern Kwa", i.e. Yoruboid, Igboid, Nupoid etc. were part of Benue-Congo, i.e. Western Benue-Congo. However, the evidence for this was never published and, in my view, it seems easier to revert to Benue-Congo as in Greenberg's original, with the potential addition of Ukaan, a small cluster of languages spoken south-west of the Niger-Benue confluence. Ukaan has alternating prefixes (i.e. those which change on a predictable basis), marking number and concord, as well as some segmental cognates, hence its likely affiliation with Benue-Congo, but its exact position remains to be determined. With this in mind, Figure 2 provides a schematic representation of my current understanding of the sub-classification of Benue-Congo languages as the result of numerous years of research on many of those languages.

Figure 2: Revised sub-classification of Benue-Congo languages

It is emphasised strongly that no claim is made for Bantoid as a genetic group; it is rather a referential term covering all languages with a discernible relationship to Narrow Bantu. Bendi, previously considered part of Cross River, has been shifted to Bantoid, a change of affiliation proposed by Blench (2001).

#### **2.2 Membership of Bantoid**

Although (Narrow) Bantu has been treated as a genetic unity since the middle of the nineteenth century, it is unlikely there is any distinctive boundary between Bantu and the languages related to it. As Bostoen & Van de Velde (2019) note, no lexical or morphological isoglosses have been identified that clearly demarcate Bantu from its closest relatives. Figure 2 shows the subgroups that "stand between" Bantoid-Cross and Narrow Bantu. The languages represented are very numerous (150 ~ 200) and also highly diverse morphologically. New languages are likely to be discovered and more work in historical reconstruction will improve our understanding of how these languages relate to one another. This section lists the major Bantoid subgroups as presently understood. Most of these groups are uncontroversial, although the genealogical validity of poorly documented isolate branches, such as Buru, which may either be Tivoid or an independent branch, need more study. A more complete list of the languages which Bantoid includes is given in the Ethnologue (Eberhard et al. 2022) and Glottolog (Hammarström et al. 2021). In the absence of more in-depth historical-linguistic

research, I assume that individual groups split away from a common stem, and developed their own characteristics. The order in which this took place remains controversial, and will take considerable further work to resolve in a satisfying manner.

One particular aspect of Figure 2 requires further consideration, namely the division of Bantoid into North and South. Dakoid, Mambiloid and Tikar represent language groups with either no noun classes, or relics of a divergent system, as in Tikar. I believe that these three should be classified together as "North Bantoid". However, the lack of data for some languages and convincing reconstructions of their historical morphology makes this at best a speculative hypothesis. The other side is "South Bantoid", which is not a discrete branch in itself, but just a convenient cover term for Narrow Bantu and its closest relatives that do not belong to Dakoid, Mambiloid and Tikar. A proposal for the stepwise branching of different "Southern Bantoid" subgroups is presented in Figure 3. Narrow Bantu is depicted here conventionally as a separate subgroup, although several lexicon-based classifications, such as Piron (1997; 1998), Grollemund et al. (2015) and Grollemund et al. (2018), point out that it is genealogically not discrete from Grassfields and Jarawan Bantu.

Table 3 lists the major subgroups of Bantoid following the order in which I believe them to have diverged from Benue-Congo.

It is important to flag some caveats. Not all authors agree that Dakoid is Bantoid (e.g. Boyd 1994; 1997) and the placing of Ndoro in Mambiloid remains doubtful. Bendi has long been treated as Cross River following Greenberg (1963) and Williamson (1989), but without good evidence. The data on Furu is too uncertain to be sure whether it has been correctly classified; a Jukunoid affiliation is possible. Jeff Good and his colleagues have argued convincingly that Beboid is not a unity, and even that the languages within Yemne-Kimbi (= formerly West Beboid) may not constitute a genetic group (Good et al. 2011). Ambele and Menchum are treated as co-ordinate with Grassfields, but the evidence remains sketchy. Momo has been split up into Momo proper and South-West Grassfields. The evidence for the placing of Jarawan, treated in previous texts as Bantoid, remains controversial. Lexically, it is more closely related to Narrow Bantu languages, perhaps Guthrie's A60 group (cf. Piron 1997; Grollemund et al. 2015), but the loss of both verbal and nominal morphology makes its integration into Narrow Bantu uncertain.1 An alternative interpretation could be that this loss is a later areal feature.

1A striking disagreement over the classification of Jarawan Bantu was aired at the First Bantoid Conference held in Hamburg in March 2022. Contrary to the present author's claim of an A60 affiliation, Van de Velde & Idiatov (2022) argued for A80-A90, while Jeffrey Wills and Rebecca Grollemund (p.c.) assign Jarawan to Bantoid. Clearly this argument has some way to go.

Table 3: Major subgroups of Bantoid

*a*This language name is spelt in various ways (Noni, Nooni) in bibliographic references and even within the Noone community.

Figure 3: Proposal for the stepwise divergence of Bantoid languages

Common to this body of work is that the classifications were presented with limited justification. This is perhaps unsurprising as the number of languages is very large and many were poorly known, then and still today. Piron (1997) and Bastin & Piron (1999) represent classifications of Bantoid using lexicostatistics. The PhD thesis of Grollemund (2012) applies more recent statistical techniques to basic vocabulary for the classification of Bantu and Bantoid, but its focus is on Narrow Bantu with a random sample of South Bantoid languages. Blench (2015) is the only overview of all families which, in my view, can be assigned to Bantoid.2

2Overviews of the major Bantoid branches, together with wordlists of isolates such as Buru, and arguments for their coherence, can be found on the relevant page of my website: http: //www.rogerblench.info/Language/Niger-Congo/Bantoid/BantdOP.htm.

#### 5 Reconstruction of Proto-Bantu verbal extensions with Bantoid

Maps of the main Bantoid groups are provided in the relevant sections below. These are in the main based on those available on the relevant Wikipedia pages which are in turn redrawn from the Ethnologue. However, where errors were spotted, for example in the Beboid and Dakoid maps, these have been redrawn to reflect current understanding. Tivoid is shown in Figure 4, together with the unclassified Esimbi and Buru.

Figure 4: Map of the Tivoid languages, together with Esimbi and Buru

A feature of the Bantoid area is intensive borrowing, both between closely related languages and between different branches of Bantoid. Bantoid languages are largely found in an area of high density settlement, linked by complex trade networks and long noted for extensive multilingualism. Warnier (1979) analysed this in respect of another grammatical feature, viz. noun classes, noting their extensive borrowing and consequent morphological re-analysis. More recently, Di Carlo et al. (2018), Di Carlo et al. (2019) and Di Carlo et al. (2020) have reviewed multilingualism in Africa in general, but also focused on the Lower Fungom area of the Grassfields, where the details of language interaction can be analysed at the micro-level. This type of multilingualism, which involves borrowing grammatical features as well as vocabulary, goes a long way to explaining why verbal extensions in Bantoid do not form tidy patterns.

#### **2.3 Overview of the data sources**

The descriptive data required to characterise Bantoid languages in ways which would satisfy historical linguists and typologists is not available for many branches. The literature on many subgroups is sparse, to say the least, and many important sources are unpublished. Because so much of the material has focused on an ultimate goal of orthography and literacy, phonology and noun classes remain much better understood than, for example, verbal extensions.

There are two key caches of unpublished and mainly electronic data, the files of SIL International – which incorporates much of the data collected for ALCAM, the *Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon* (Dieu & Renaud 1983) – and the student dissertations supervised at the University of Yaoundé I. Part of the legacy material is available on the SIL Cameroon website (https://www.silcam.org/) although much material, especially fieldwork lexicons, remain in the hands of its members.3 Wycliffe Nigeria has recently undertaken surveys of the Bantoid languages on the Nigerian side of the border, resolving numerous queries about the extent and classification of particular branches.4 Jeff Good has facilitated the scanning of University of Yaoundé I theses in linguistics up to 2006, and these are now available electronically.

3Thanks to Robert Hedinger for making this material available.

4Materials from Nigeria created by SIL survey staff are available on personal application.

### **3 Bantoid verbal extensions**

#### **3.1 Verbal extensions in Benue-Congo**

To assess the time depth of possible verb extensions in Bantoid, their historical origin can be explored within Benue-Congo. However, much of Benue-Congo, including Plateau, Jukunoid and Cross River, retains only traces of a verbal-extension system. Only the Kainji languages in north-west Nigeria have elaborate Bantulike systems, analysed in McGill (2009) for the Cicipu language, part of the Kambari cluster, and in Mort (2012) for tiCind, a Kamuku language. Cicipu (McGill 2009: 227ff.) has the extensions listed in Table 4; the labels are copied from the author.

We cannot reconstruct forms for extensions in Proto-Kainji, due to the limited number of grammatical descriptions (though see Paterson 2019), and it is therefore not possible to discriminate between older segmental patterns and those which may be innovative.

Extensions have either disappeared or been reduced to unproductive segments in most branches of Kainji, Plateau, Jukunoid and Cross River. However, it is possible to infer likely extensions from synchronic verb forms. Table 5 lists three recurrent suffixes identified in the lexicon of Tarok (Plateau).

However, these are unproductive today and do not clearly resemble any of those reconstructed for Bantu. Nonetheless, their fragmentary survival leads to the conclusion that a system of verbal extensions has to be reconstructed back to the level of Proto-Benue-Congo, and must therefore have been present in early Bantoid. However, their segmental forms can no longer be identified.

Table 4: Verbal extensions in Cicipu (McGill 2009)

*a*Although suffixed after the root, it can be followed by tense/aspect markers and then another extension.

Table 5: Fossilised verbal extensions in Tarok

#### **3.2 Synchronic distribution of verbal extensions in Bantoid**

A primary question in analysing Bantoid verbal extensions is accounting for their absence in some branches, especially in those more remote from Narrow Bantu, where they have disappeared without leaving obvious segmental traces. Table 6 summarises the situation for the different Bantoid subgroups identified in the literature. It should be emphasised that there are no specific publications on extensions in many of them. Those marked functional have been identified in the literature as in active use, whereas inferred suffixes are those which I have extracted from lexical data. The claim for their presence or absence has to be based on inferences from the lexicon or incidental data. Some of the more diverse subgroups, such as Mambiloid, may include languages with no remaining extensions and those where they are evidently present. Key references are given for individual languages.

Hyman (2018) is a survey of Bantoid verb extensions which includes Grassfields, Mbe (Ekoid), Tikar, Noone, Kemezung (Beboid) and Vute (Mambiloid) in his comparative tables. To throw light on the ancestry of Bantu verbal extensions we must create a basic tabulation of the presence of extensions in individual Bantoid branches, although some may eventually be discarded as not relevant to Bantu.

#### **3.3 Case studies**

#### **3.3.1 Dakoid: Sama Mum**

The Dakoid languages represent one of the least-described subgroups of Bantoid and were previously classified as Adamawa by Greenberg, presumably because of their cultural relationship with the Samba Leko. They are spoken in eastern Nigeria around the Shebshi mountains, see Figure 5.

There are no specific publications on extensions, so these must be inferred from lexical data. The main resource is a dictionary of Sama Mum or Samba Daka,

Table 6: Identifying verbal extensions in major subgroups of Bantoid

*a*However, the verbal extensions for Mungong consist only of a multiple action extension and an extremely rare causative in *-si*.

*d* See Table 14 in §3.3.6.

*b*Although Ngoran (1999: 73) states that "[i]n this language, we have been unable to uncover any vestiges of suffixal extensions", they are identified in Ndedje (2013).

*c* See Table 15 in §3.3.7.

Roger M. Blench

Figure 5: Map of the Dakoid languages

#### 5 Reconstruction of Proto-Bantu verbal extensions with Bantoid

which has a list of the semantic categories of verbal derivations in the introduction, but without any information on their segmental form (Boyd & Sa'ad 2010). I therefore had to infer the extensions and their semantics from the dictionary entries. I have given an example of each verb with these extensions, but for two categories listed in the text, no examples are apparent. The proposed extensions are shown in Table 7.