Sesotho grammar
Encyclopedia
This article presents a brief overview of the grammar
of the Sesotho language
and provides links to more detailed articles.
are agglutinative — words are constructed by combining discrete formatives (a.k.a. "morpheme
s") according to specific rules, and sentences are constructed by stringing together words according to somewhat less strict rules. Formatives alone cannot constitute words; formatives are the component parts of words.
These formatives may be classed generally into roots, stems, prefixes, concords, suffixes, verbal auxiliaries, enclitics, and proclitics.
Certain observations about the Sesotho word (and those of many other Bantu languages in general) may be made:
Note that, unlike the Nguni languages, Sesotho does not have rules against juxtaposing strings of vowels:
Certain situations may make the word division complex. This can happen with contractions (especially with deficient verb
constructions), and in some complex verb conjugations. In all these situations, however, each proper word has exactly one main stressed syllable.
In form, some parts of speech (adjectives, enumeratives, some relatives, and all verbs
) are radical stems, which need affixes to form meaningful words; others (possessives and copulatives) are formed from full words by the employment of certain formatives; the rest (nouns
, pronouns, adverbs, ideophones, conjunctives, and interjectives) are complete words themselves, which may or may not be modified with affixes to form new words.
The difference between the four types of qualificatives is merely in the concords used to associate them with the noun or pronoun they qualify. Since the simplest copulatives do not use any verbs whatsoever (zero copula
), entire predicative sentences in Sesotho may be formed without the use of verbs.
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
of the Sesotho language
Sesotho language
The Sotho language, also known as Sesotho, Southern Sotho, or Southern Sesotho, is a Bantu language spoken primarily in South Africa, where it is one of the 11 official languages, and in Lesotho, where it is the national language...
and provides links to more detailed articles.
Typology
The Sesotho language may be described in several ways depending on the aspect being considered.- It is an agglutinative languageAgglutinative languageAn agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view...
. It constructs whole words by joining together discrete roots and morphemes with specific meanings, and may also modify words by similar processes. - Its basic word order is SVO. However, because the verb is marked with the subject and sometimes the object, this order may be changed to emphasise certain parts of the predicate.
- It is a tonal language; more specifically, a complex grammatical tone language. See Sesotho tonologySesotho tonologyLike almost all other Niger–Congo languages, Sesotho is a tonal language, spoken with two basic tones, high and low . The Sesotho grammatical tone system is rather complex and uses a large number of "sandhi" rules.However, the Sesotho system is by no means the most complicated, nor even one of...
. - It has no grammatical caseGrammatical caseIn grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
marking on the noun. Nominal roles are indicated by a combination of word order and agreement markers on the verb, with no change to the nouns themselves. - It has a complex grammatical genderGrammatical genderGrammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
system, but this does not include natural gender. See Sesotho nounsSesotho nounsSesotho nouns signify concrete or abstract concepts in the language, but are distinct from the Sesotho pronouns.Bantu languages are often said to have sentences which are "centred around the noun" due to the striking nature of the noun concordance system...
. - It has head-first order, though it may be changed for emphasis. If an inflected qualificative is placed before the head, then it is technically a qualificative pronoun.
- It is a pro-drop languagePro-drop languageA pro-drop language is a language in which certain classes of pronouns may be omitted when they are in some sense pragmatically inferable...
. Verbs may be used without explicitly specifying the subject or the object with substantives (nouns or pronouns).
Formatives
Bantu languagesBantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
are agglutinative — words are constructed by combining discrete formatives (a.k.a. "morpheme
Morpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
s") according to specific rules, and sentences are constructed by stringing together words according to somewhat less strict rules. Formatives alone cannot constitute words; formatives are the component parts of words.
These formatives may be classed generally into roots, stems, prefixes, concords, suffixes, verbal auxiliaries, enclitics, and proclitics.
- RootRoot (linguistics)The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family , which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
s are the most basic irreducible elements of words and are immutable (except under purely phonetic changes). Entire words are built from roots by affixing other formatives around the root as appendages; every word (except contractions and compounds) contains exactly one root, from which it derives its most basic meaning (though, technically speaking, roots themselves do not really have any meaning). Roots are the basis of the Sesotho parts of speechSesotho parts of speechThe Sesotho parts of speech convey the most basic meanings and functions of the words in the language, which may be modified in largely predictable ways by affixes and other regular morphological devices. Each complete word in the Sesotho language must comprise some "part of speech."There are...
.
The following words:- to teach
- they taught you (plural)
- we teach one another
- they do not teach you (plural) properly/intensely
- an academic
- education
- learner (lit. "one who teaches herself")
are all formed from the root .
Although in some cases various phonetic processes may ultimately change the root's form in predictable ways (such as the nasalization in the last two examples above) the root itself is considered to be unchanged.
There can be no doubt that words never emerged simply as roots. The root is a dead thing — the study of roots is primarily to aid the compilation of dictionaries, to further the study of comparative Bantu linguistics, and to help trace the evolution and connections of different languages. Many roots are shared by a wide range of Bantu languages.
Some further examples of roots: (Proto-Bantu *-jîntu) ⇒ person (especially a member of a Bantu language speaking culture), UbuntuUbuntu (ideology)Ubuntu or "uMunthu" is an African ethic or humanist philosophy focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. Some believe that ubuntu is a classical African philosophy or worldview whereas others point out that the idea that ubuntu is a philosophy or worldview has developed in...
(Proto-Bantu *-jîgî) ⇒ water (note the vowel coalescence: class 6 + ⇒ ) (Proto-Bantu *-tua) ⇒ a KhoisanKhoisanKhoisan is a unifying name for two ethnic groups of Southern Africa, who share physical and putative linguistic characteristics distinct from the Bantu majority of the region. Culturally, the Khoisan are divided into the foraging San and the pastoral Khoi...
person, South (Proto-Bantu *-di-) ⇒ to eat, food, a magical poison (Proto-Bantu *-kudu) ⇒ large, size, one hundred, an older person, elder brother ⇒ shade/shadow, shadow of a human being (also their spirit, which becomes one of the ancestors when they die, or dignity/reputation; this is a very important concept in African Traditional ReligionAfrican Traditional ReligionThe traditional religions indigenous to Africa have, for most of their existence, been orally rather than scripturally transmitted. They are generally associated with animism. Most have ethno-based creations stories...
) (Proto-Bantu *-ti) ⇒ to say (Proto-Bantu *-dîmu) ⇒ GodGodGod is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
(traditionally never used in the plural), Ancestors (does not exist in the singular), African Traditional Religion, cannibal/ogre, the name of an ogre character found in many tales (Proto-Bantu *-jedî) ⇒ moonlight, moon/month (Proto-Bantu *-bua) ⇒ dog (Proto-Bantu *-caanu) ⇒ five
Note that although it is often true that the common root of a number of words may be defined as having some inherent meaning, very often the connection between words sharing common roots is tentative, and this is further evidence that prefix-less noun roots and stems are ultimately meaningless. Roots from a common source help to connect nouns with certain meanings, and often the class prefixes are merely incidental. night, and 24-hour day family/lineage/clan, and generation day, season, (with an irregular nasalization) date sleep, and secretion of the eyes (esp. when one wakes up) brain matter, and bone marrow
- StemWord stemIn linguistics, a stem is a part of a word. The term is used with slightly different meanings.In one usage, a stem is a form to which affixes can be attached. Thus, in this usage, the English word friendships contains the stem friend, to which the derivational suffix -ship is attached to form a new...
s are not much different from roots, and the difference between them is fairly arbitrary. Though all roots are also stems, stems often include derivational suffixes, which roots never include. Additionally, the ending is included in the verb stem but not in the root (if it was truly part of the core root then it wouldn't be replaced in verb derivations and conjugations).
For example, from the verb root one may derive several words, including the following (stems in bold):– to entangle, entwine
- (nom. 3) – (a bunch of) grapes; the grape plant; any vine or climbing plant
- (nom. 5) – a single grape; a berry
- – to solve
- (ass. vb.) – to be entangled together
- (app. ass. vb.) – to spiral (intransitive)
- (recip. vb.) – to entangle each other
- (nom. rel.) – entangled, complex, intricate
- (app. vb.) – to twist, wind; (idiomatic) to wander in speech
- (rev. vb.) – to untangle; to solve
- (nom. 9; pl. 10 ) – solution
and these may all be listed under the same headwordHeadwordA headword, head word, lemma, or sometimes catchword is the word under which a set of related dictionary or encyclopaedia entries appear. The headword is used to locate the entry, and dictates its alphabetical position...
in a dictionary.
Note how, in the above example, not only do many of the words have slightly unexpected/expanded meanings, but the form uses an irregular derivation pattern.
- Prefixes are affixAffixAn affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...
es attached to the fronts of words. These are distinct from concords, since changing the prefix of a word may radically alter its meaning, while changing the concord attached to a stem does not change that stem's meaning. Noun class prefixes are called such by convention, since bare roots are obviously not independent words.
- It is a programme
- ConcordsAgreement (linguistics)In languages, agreement or concord is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. Agreement happens when a word changes form depending on the other words to which it relates....
are similar to prefixes in that they appear before the word stem. Verbs and qualificatives used to describe a noun are brought into agreement with that noun by using the appropriate concords.
There are seven basic types of concords in SesothoSesotho concordsJust as the Sesotho sentence centres around the Sesotho noun, the noun is made to "concòrd" with the verbs, pronouns, and qualificatives describing it by a set of Sesotho noun concords....
. In addition, there are two immutable prefixes used with verbs that function similarly to concords.
- They shall design it
- SuffixSuffixIn linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
es appear at the ends of words. There are numerous suffixes in Sesotho serving varied functions. For example, verbs may be derived from other verbs through the employment of several verbal suffixes. Diminutives, augmentatives, and locatives may all be derived from nouns through the use of several suffixes. Most suffixes, except the noun locative suffix and verb inflexional suffixes, are derivational and create new stems.
Strictly speaking the final vowel in verb stems is a suffix, as it is often regularly replaced by other vowels in the derivation and inflexion of verbs and nouns.
- She did not speak at the court trial
- Verbal auxiliaries are not to be confused with auxiliary verbs or deficient verbsSesotho deficient verbsIn the Sesotho language, the deficient verbs are a special subset of Sesotho verbs that require a subordinate or complementary verb to complete their action, and which are used to form many tenses and to impart certain shades of meaning to the predicate...
. They may appear as prefixes or as infixes. Basically, all formatives that may be affixed to the verb root, excluding suffixes and the objectival and subjectival concords, are verbal auxiliaries.
These include prefixes such as used to negate verbs, and infixes such as used to form potential tenses.
The infix used to form the past subjunctive (not to be confused with the infix used to form the present indicative positive and the perfect indicative negative; and also used as a "focus marker") merges with the subjectival concord resulting in what is often termed the "auxiliary concord."
- I am coming
- I shall not come
Infix verbal auxiliaries may be further divided into simple infixes and verbal infixes. The main difference lies in the fact that, when forming the relative construction (participial sub-mood) of a verbal complex employing the infix, the verbal infixes may be detached from the main verb and carry the suffix with the main verb converted to an infinitive object, while a verb using a simple infix has to carry the suffix itself.
- They might see (simple infix used) ⇒ Those who might see
- They shall see (verbal infix used) ⇒ Those who shall see
- Enclitics (leaning-on words) are usually suffixed to verbs and convey a definite meaning. They were probably once separate words.
They may be divided into two categories: those that draw forward the stress (as normal suffixes), and those that don't alter the word's stress. The second type may result in words that don't have the stress on the penult (as is usual with Sesotho words).
- He is no longer there (stress on the penult)
- Please keep quiet! (stress on the antepenultimate syllable)
- Proclitics are clitics that appear at the fronts of words. There is only one regular proclitic in Sesotho — — which is normally prefixed to nouns, pronouns, qualificatives, and adverbs as a conjunction, to convey the same meaning as English "and" when used between substantives. Many Indo-European languagesIndo-European languagesThe Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
have a post-clitic with a similar meaning (for example LatinLatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
-que and SanskritSanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
च -ca).
It may also be used to express the idea of "together with" and "even."
- My father and mother
- I met with her
- Even they do not believe
There are also a number of curious utterances where the proclitic is used to express emphatic negatives.
- Never (lit. "And a long time")
- Nothing (lit. "And something")
- Never (lit. "And to be able")
The Sesotho word
The Sesotho language is spoken conjunctively yet written disjunctively (that is, the spoken phonological words are not the same as the written orthographical words). In the following discussion, the natural conjunctive word division will be indicated by joining the disjunctive elements with the symbol • in the Sesotho and the English translation.- People of•family of•his they•judge•him (His family members judge him)
Certain observations about the Sesotho word (and those of many other Bantu languages in general) may be made:
- Each word has one part of speech, which can usually be determined from the root. Since Sesotho is predominately prefixing, the root is usually the last morpheme of the word, unless enclitics follow.
Not counting compounds and contractions, the word begins with zero or more proclitics, infixes, and prefixes, followed by a stem, followed by zero or more suffixes (which extend the stem) and enclitics.
For example, in the word (I•greet•y'all) the stem is the verb stem (agree) surrounded by the subjectival concord (first person singular), the present definite positive indicative infix marker , the objectival concord (third person plural), and the verb extension (causative, but in this case it gives the idiomatic meaning of "greet").
The phonological interactions can be quite complex:- (He•shows•me) subject concord + present indicative positive marker + objectival concord -N- + verb stem (see) + causative extension
Here the formatives are distorted by two instances of nasalization.
- Each word has one main stressed syllable.
No matter how many prefixes, suffixes, enclitics, and proclitics are appended to the word stem the complete word only has one main stressed syllable. This stress is most prominent on the final word in the sentence or "prosodic phrase."
- ‡ (We•failed to•advise•him because he•PAST he•COPULATIVE stubborn "he was stubborn")
- ‡ (We•shall•go if you•say.so)
Note the monosyllabic conjunctive .
Note that, unlike the Nguni languages, Sesotho does not have rules against juxtaposing strings of vowels:
- ‡ (He•is•not•dressed) although the sequence (class 1 negative subjectival concord followed by present definite positive indicative marker) is usually pronounced as a long with a high falling tone, or simply as a short high tone .
Certain situations may make the word division complex. This can happen with contractions (especially with deficient verb
Sesotho deficient verbs
In the Sesotho language, the deficient verbs are a special subset of Sesotho verbs that require a subordinate or complementary verb to complete their action, and which are used to form many tenses and to impart certain shades of meaning to the predicate...
constructions), and in some complex verb conjugations. In all these situations, however, each proper word has exactly one main stressed syllable.
Parts of speech
Each complete Sesotho word belongs to some part of speech.In form, some parts of speech (adjectives, enumeratives, some relatives, and all verbs
Sesotho verbs
Sesotho verbs are words in the language which signify the action or state of a substantive, and are brought into agreement with it using the subjectival concord...
) are radical stems, which need affixes to form meaningful words; others (possessives and copulatives) are formed from full words by the employment of certain formatives; the rest (nouns
Sesotho nouns
Sesotho nouns signify concrete or abstract concepts in the language, but are distinct from the Sesotho pronouns.Bantu languages are often said to have sentences which are "centred around the noun" due to the striking nature of the noun concordance system...
, pronouns, adverbs, ideophones, conjunctives, and interjectives) are complete words themselves, which may or may not be modified with affixes to form new words.
The difference between the four types of qualificatives is merely in the concords used to associate them with the noun or pronoun they qualify. Since the simplest copulatives do not use any verbs whatsoever (zero copula
Zero copula
Zero copula is a linguistic phenomenon whereby the subject is joined to the predicate without overt marking of this relationship...
), entire predicative sentences in Sesotho may be formed without the use of verbs.