Languages included in this study

1 1 Introduction This paper compares narrative texts in a selection of Bantu languages from Mozambique, Tanzania, south-east Kenya, and the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The eastern Bantu languages 1 are very similar as far as general typological parameters are concerned, but differ in a number of details, or ‘micro-parameters’ see Marten, Kula and Thwala 2007; Van der Wal and Biberauer 2014. As Paoli notes below, there are advantages to comparing a small number of closely related languages: Investigating linguistic systems that share the majority of their characteristics and minimally differ from one another in a limited and identifiable number of properties in a similar fashion to two organisms that share most of their DNA and are differentiated by a few genes, offers the opportunity to zoom in on one variable, and observe, without the interference of ‘background noise’, all its possible realisations, and, crucially, only those ones which are admitted by general principles of the faculty of language. Paoli 2014:146 The researchers mentioned above are primarily concerned with morphosyntactic micro- parameters of variation, but their approach can be extended, I believe, to discourse-level phenomena. This paper investigates a number of discourse features of narrative texts, and is arranged as follows: After an overview of the languages studied and the classification of narrative texts in the present section, section 2 describes the characteristics of different episodes and the ways in which ‘paragraph’ boundaries are marked, including a discussion of different functions of tail-head linkage and the various expressions which function as thematic development markers in different languages. Section 3 describes clause linkage and connectives with discourse-level functions. Characters or ‘participants’ are an important element of narratives, and in section 4 I describe the different ways in which participants are introduced and referred to subsequently. The eastern Bantu languages exhibit a number of general similarities, such as the widespread use of demonstratives and much rarer and specialized uses of independent pronouns, but underlying these superficially similar systems of participant reference are some striking differences, particularly in the discourse-level functions of demonstratives. Section 5, written jointly with Helen Eaton, describes the use of verbal categories to distinguish the event-line from ‘background’ information, to indicate that events occur sequentially or simultaneously, and to highlight particular events. In section 6 I investigate a number of constraints on the order of constituents in sentences that only come to light when information structure topic and focus is studied in the context of whole texts. Section 7 describes the discourse-level functions of adverbial and relative clauses. In section 8 I show how reported speech is used in eastern Bantu narratives, and evidence is presented for a linguistic cycle affecting quotative markers. Lastly, the main findings are summarized in section 9.

1.1 Languages included in this study

Between 2011 and 2014 I worked with a number of colleagues to produce analyses of narrative texts in eight Bantu languages spoken in East Africa: five from Tanzania and one each from Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique. The methodology was inductive, meaning that whole texts were analyzed to determine how particular discourse features were realized in each language. The individual analyses were also intended to be comparable. Descriptions of Bena and Malila by Helen Eaton and of Digo by me were produced first, and served as models for the other analyses, although authors were given licence to diverge from these models if they wished. The resulting papers were published as part of the SIL Language and Culture Documentation and Description series. 1 ‘Eastern’ here indicates the geographical distribution of these Bantu languages in Africa rather than a specific genetic affiliation. In addition to the eight languages described in the SIL Language and Culture Documentation and Description series, data from an additional four languages have been included in this study. Table 1 lists these twelve eastern Bantu languages. Unless otherwise stated, all examples in this study are taken from texts that were either published in the sources listed in Table 1 or used in their preparation. Where additional unpublished texts have been made available to me by the author, this is indicated by and in the case of Digo, I referred to an additional five unpublished texts. Table 1. Languages included in this study Language Classification a Location Data Source Fuliiru [flr] DJ63 South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo 153 texts were studied; data were drawn from 11 folk tales, plus one first person and one third person narrative 1,000 clauses approximately Van Otterloo 2011; 2015 Digo [dig] E73 Kwale District, Kenya 5 lightly edited oral texts and 2 written texts: 6 fictional third person narratives and 1 written factual first person narrative 864 clauses Nicolle 2015 Jita [jit] EJ25 Mara Rural District, Tanzania 10 lightly edited oral texts: 7 fictional, 3 personal 1,096 clauses Pyle and Robinson 2015 Kwaya [kya] EJ251 Mara Rural District, Tanzania 10 lightly edited oral texts: 7 fictional, 3 personal; 8 climactic, 2 episodic 1,015 clauses Odom 2015 Suba-Simbiti [ssc] EJ403 Mara Rural District, Tanzania 8 lightly edited oral texts: 4 fictional, 2 personal, 2 origin myths 513 clauses Masatu 2015 Kabwa [cwa] EJ405 Mara Rural District, Tanzania 9 lightly edited oral texts and 2 written texts; 8 fictional and 3 factual 530 clauses Walker 2011 Rangi Langi [lag] F33 Kondoa District, Tanzania 66 texts: 32 legendsanecdotes, 14 trickster tales, 11 magic tales, 7 animal tales, and 2 personal 3,200 clauses Stegen 2011 Mwani [wmw] G403 Cabo Delgado Province and Quirimba archipelago, Mozambique 7 narrative texts Floor 1998; 2005a; 2005b Bena [bez] G63 Wanging’ombe District and Njombe District, Tanzania 6 texts: 3 written and 3 lightly edited oral texts; 4 fictional and 2 factual 674 clauses Broomhall 2011 Eaton 2015a Malila [mgq] M24 Mbeya Rural District, Tanzania 10 lightly edited oral texts and 4 written texts: 10 fictional, 4 personal 755 clauses Eaton 2015b Makonde [kde] P23 Makonde Plateau northern Mozambique 8 lightly edited oral texts: 5 folk tales, 3 personal 585 clauses Leach 2015 Ekoti [eko] P30 Angoche, Nampula Province, Mozambique 1 narrative text see Appendix 1 Lyndon and Lyndon 2004 a Languages are classified using the ISO 639-3 language code as cited in Ethnologue Lewis, Simons and Fennig 2013 and Maho’s 2003 updated version of Guthrie’s classification of the Bantu languages. Examples in this paper are numbered consecutively, and so example numbers do not correspond to those used in the published sources. All examples are given in the orthographies used in the published sources. 2

1.2 Types of narrative texts