40 morphology are important in the discussion of vowel harmony, since verbal prefixes and
suffixes are all affected by harmony processes.
2.2.1 Infinitive verbs
Ikoma uses the class 15 prefix ko- for infinitive verbs, and this prefix attaches to the verb stem. It is identical to the prefix used for class 15 nominals e.g. oku-
k ‘arm’, o o- o o ‘leg’, but the verbal forms lack the augment vowel. As with the nominal
prefixes discussed in §2.1, the surface realizations of verbal prefixes are affected by vowel harmony, Dahl’s Law where applicable and glide formation. This is the case for
ko- as well, resulting in the allomorphs [ko-, ku-, o-, u-] as well as [kw-, w-] before vowel-initial roots. See examples of each of these prefix alternations in 17 below.
17 Infinitive prefix alternations
8888 8
- 9 8
2 8888
8 .8
8 1 . 2
9 8 8 F
8 89
89 89
89 89
8 -
89 9
9 9
9 9
9 8
9 8 In each of these examples, the prefix attaches to the verb stem. The stem itself is
composed of the verb root most typically CVC followed by the final vowel FV which is most commonly [-a]. The examples above include other common forms as well,
showing roots with long vowels CVVC and vowel-initial roots VC and VCVC. The examples kw-e i and w-eki are also interesting since they do not have the typical FV [-
a]. Instead, the causative extension [-i] has likely been lexicalized on these verb forms.
41
2.2.2 Inflected verbs
Though most verbal forms in this thesis are infinitives, inflected verbs also appear on occasion. The basic template for inflection is given in 18 below.
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18 Verb inflection template
FM – Subject – Neg – TA – Object – Root – Extensions – Final – Locative stem
The focus marker FM, which is the nasal n-, is required for some TA forms but is optional or ungrammatical with others. When it occurs it is always in initial position. The
subject prefix is required for all verbs except for imperatives and subjunctives, the latter of which sometimes mark the object but not the subject. The negative prefix [ta-] follows
the subject marker. Tense and aspect TA prefixes are next in the template. Most TA markers are prefixes, but some forms, such as the perfective aspect and subjunctive
mood, are marked only with a suffix in the Final position. If an object is marked, it always directly precedes the stem. The stem is minimally composed of the verb root and
final vowel, but multiple derivational extensions may also be added. The final vowel [-a] follows most verb roots, though it is deleted following the passive and causative
extensions. The FV [-a] can also be replaced by the suffixes [-i i] and [-e], depending on the tense and aspect. Finally, two different locative suffixes [-ho] and [-mu] fill the
optional last slot in the verb template. Investigation into the TAM system is still underway, but the table in 19 shows
many of the forms which have been observed so far. This list is likely not exhaustive, and the labels are only tentative. These forms are all given with the 3P subject prefix [ a-].
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This template is intended only as a means of describing basic verbal inflection, for the purpose of understanding the data in this thesis. It is not intended as a theoretical proposal on the morphsyntax of
Ikoma.
42 Two different verbs are used to exemplify these forms; tuka represents consonant-initial
stems, and a ka represents vowel-initial stems. In the “Template” column, n- is the optional focus marker, SBJ represents the subject agreement marker and V represents the
verb root. The affixes associated with each TA form are in bold. 19
Tenseaspectmood system GHI
GHI GHI
GHI G
2 G
2 G
2 G
2 8
8 8
8 8 -
8 - 8 -
8 - 2
JI K
8 8
-; . CLK
CL K 8
8 2
H G CL
K -
,8 -
=8 2
. MK
CL K - 8
- 8
2 . JI M
CL 8888 K -
8 -
89 8
. 2 JA
CL 8888 K 8
8 8
AHN CL 8888 K
8 8
8 -
OHC CL
K -
8 -
8 .
AG CL
K 8
8 .
AP CL
K 8
8 Tone is marked on some of the forms above, but not on others. As I discuss in
§2.4.2 below, there is no lexical tone on Ikoma verbs, but there are tonal melodies associated with different TAM forms. Only minimal work has been undertaken to figure
out the full grammatical tone system, so verbal tone is not fully marked. There are, however, some forms which are tonally contrastive, and those are marked throughout this
thesis. The narrative and incipient forms differ only tonally. The narrative form is toneless, whereas the incipient always has a H on the [aká-] prefix. This H is always
marked on the prefix in incipient forms. Another nearly contrastive pair is the past and perfective forms. The perfective is
formed with the suffix [-i i], and the entire verbal melody is toneless. The past uses the
43 same [-i i] suffix in combination with the prefix [a-]. Therefore, the past and perfective
are segmentally distinct in cases of consonant-initial stems, but they are identical in cases of vowel-initial stems, since the [a-] prefix is deleted in the past tense when adjacent to a
vowel-initial stem. In these cases, tone alone distinguishes these forms. See the examples in 20 below, repeated from 19 above.
20 Past and perfective verb forms
. .
. .
7 8
- 8 - ,8
D - 8
D D
- 8
D -7
8 -
8 -
=8 -
D -
8 D
D -
8 D
As seen above, the forms in b differ only by tone, since the vowel length contrast is neutralized because of the vowel-initial stem. The location of the H in the past tense
depends on a number of factors. It is most typically on the first syllable of the macrostem i.e. the stem plus object prefix when present; see Kisseberth and Odden 2003, but it
shifts to the second syllable on vowel-initial stems Lotta Aunio, personal communication. The H also usually spreads at least one syllable to the right. Here I mark
the occurrence of the first H tone, but not the spreading, since it is varied on the surface. Finally, note that some prefixes from 19, such as IMPF ako-, NAR aka- and
INCP aká-, could perhaps be broken down into two morphemes, at least historically. This is plausible since Bantu TA forms usually have either a V or CV shape, and a- is a
common Bantu TA prefix Nurse 2008. These issues are in need of further research, but since they are orthogonal to the topic of this thesis, I simply consider these three forms to
be single morphemes. Also, note that the initial a vowel in these three prefixes has
44 unusual behavior in situations of vowel hiatus. A subject agreement prefix always
precedes these TA prefixes, but the initial a of the TA prefixes never causes glide formation of the preceding subject prefix. If the initial vowel of the TA prefix was really
a, we would expect glide formation of preceding non-low vowels, since this process occurs when these same vowels meet at other morpheme boundaries.
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Instead, the vowel of the subject prefix is always lengthened, so it appears that the initial vowel of the TA
prefix always conforms to the preceding vowel. This suggests that the initial vowel of the IMPF, NAR and INCP prefixes is likely unspecified, or an “empty mora” see Nurse and
Muzale 1999, quoting Hyman and Katamba 1999. Nonetheless, for simplicity I will use a to represent the initial vowel.
2.2.3 Verbal extensions
