Northern Sotho Research Articles

A diachronic approach to the explanation of problematic/unusual past tense forms in Lobedu and Northern Sotho

Lobedu is one of the dialects belonging to the North-eastern dialect cluster of Northern Sotho. It features numerous intriguing differences with Northern Sotho, ranging from phonological, morphological and syntactical to vocabulary. A prominent feature of past tense forms in Lobedu are forms either consisting of or ending on ḓê. Dental sounds in Lobedu are cognates of palatalised proto phonemes but seeing that the past tense suffix -il-ê does not contain a palatalised proto phoneme, the origin of the ḓê forms had to be established. The investigation rendered satisfactory answers, not only as regards the origin of ḓê forms, but also concerning other past tense allomorphs and features of such allomorphs in Northern Sotho with which scholars and authors of textbooks have wrestled over a long period of time. It has been established that the causative -y- plays a crucial role in the formation of certain past tense allomorphs. It has furthermore been found that the causative -y- and another y which is derived when the vowel i in the past tense suffix glides, can respectively be linked to the final vowels -ê or -e which occur in past tense allomorphs featuring tS in Northern Sotho.

On the generic nature of common Northern Sotho bird names: a probe into the cognitive systematization of indigenous knowledge

A major claim made here is that, in the categorization of plants and animals by peoples living in traditional societies, there exists a specifiable and partially predictable set of plant and animal taxa that represents the smallest fundamental biological discontinuities easily recognized in any particular habitat. This large but finite set of taxa is special in each system in that its members stand out as beacons on the landscape of biological reality, figuratively crying out to be named. These groupings are the generic taxa of all such systems of ethnobiological classification, and their names are precisely the names of common speech (Berlin, 1992:53). Two questions are addressed in this contribution, namely why Northern Sotho speakers tend to name birds at the generic level by grouping different species together under one and the same common name, whereas common names exist for each and every species in English and Afrikaans; and secondly, whether the Northern Sotho data support the thesis that the human mind is innately structured to organize knowledge about nature taxonomically. Regarding the first question, it is shown that there are very sound cognitive and psychological reasons why natural phenomena such as species are grouped together at the generic level under a single common name. As far as the second question is concerned, it is concluded that the Northern Sotho data do not support the widely held view that the human mind is innately endowed with the capacity to organize knowledge about nature in this way.

Significance of absence: The case of zero and empty morphs

The morpheme is generally understood as a unit which has form as well as content, i.e. a physical substance (phonological and phonetic) and a meaning or function within a grammatical system. With reference to examples from Northern Sotho and Zulu, this article demonstrates that zero morphs and empty morphs, as realizations of morphemes, fail to comply in one way or another with the above-mentioned characteristics posited for morphemes. Zero morphs lack a physical form, while empty morphs lack a meaning. These facts render the recognition of zero morphs and empty morphs somewhat controversial, but many linguists nevertheless find it convenient to identify such morphs in their analyses.

A Cross-Cultural Motif in San, Khoekhoe and Northern Sotho Rock Paintings of the Central Limpopo Basin, Southern Africa

A Cross-Cultural Motif in San, Khoekhoe and Northern Sotho Rock Paintings of the Central Limpopo Basin, Southern Africa

The Structure of Values among Northern Sotho Speaking People in South Africa

The aim of this study was to compile a culture specific taxonomy of human values in Northern Sotho. Two raters extracted a comprehensive list of value descriptive nouns from two Northern Sotho dictionaries. The list comprised a total of 210 terms. Four hundred individuals, 256 men and 144 women, from the Limpopo Province of the Republic of South Africa, participated. Their mean age was 24.6 years (SD = 7.9). The participants rated these concepts on an 11-point-scale with regard to their subjective importance as guiding motives in life. The principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation yielded five factors which explained 42.3% of total variance: (I) Religiosity and Support, (II) Solidarity (ukuzwdana, ubunye or ubudlelwane), (III) Conformity and Benevolence, (IV) Leadership and Achievement, and (V) Human Enhancement. With respect to cross-cultural comparisons the outcome of the study shows that in Northern Sotho, religious themes and social commitment play a more important role than in German, and that religious issues correlate with social concerns. The other dimensions share some aspects with the German factors but mainly reflect the religious and collective values of traditional African culture.

Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible (review)

Reviewed by: Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible Vincent L. Wimbush Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible, edited by Musa W. Dube. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature and Geneva: WCC Publications, 2001. 254 pp. $24.95. I take great delight in having the opportunity to review this collection of thirteen essays having to do with contemporary African women and their engagements of the Bible. Ably edited and introduced by Musa W. Dube, Senior Lecturer in the New Testament in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Botswana, the essays have been long awaited. They fill a tremendous need—among and beyond the women of Africa. They inform and challenge and inspire communities far beyond the circle of the discussants in the book. They make a dramatic statement about the powerful voices and sentiments and creative impulses of African women and their potential to enliven thinking about and approaches to the Bible in particular and the sacred in general. The volume is also a fine contribution to the growing phenomenon of the heightened consciousness and re-awakening among non-dominants throughout the world—different racial-ethnic minority groups, women, the poor—about the social power to be realized in the interpretation of texts and other objects and phenomena widely regarded as canonical. [End Page 167] As Dube’s introduction makes clear, the essays address a selection of themes and issues that have been part of the conversations among the women of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. The volume of thirteen essays is divided into six major sections—Storytelling Methods and Interpretations; Patriarchal and Colonizing Translations; Reading with and from Non-Academic Readers; Womanhood and Womanist Methods; The Divination Method of Interpretation; and In Response. In the first section Rose Teteki Abbey, Mmadipoane (Ngwana ‘Mphahlele) Masenya, and Dube critically reflect upon African storytelling practices as interpretation. And Masenya and Dube provide fascinating interpretations of biblical stories (Esther and Mark 5) in terms of storytelling. In the second section Dora R. Mbuwayesango and Gomang Seratwa Ntloedibe-Kuswani critically unmask some of the practices and shine light on some of the effects of patriarchal colonialism among the Shona peoples and among devotees of Modimo in Southern Africa. The third section is focused upon “non-academic readers.” This is a somewhat odd categorization because the essays by Musimbi R. A. Kanyoro and Gloria Kehilwe Plaatjie do not really seem to address or reflect upon a type of audience different from the other essays. The two essays included in this section do reflect a consistently heightened critical African feminist consciousness in their engagement of biblical texts. In the fourth section can be found two provocative essays demonstrating the power of womanhood/womanist interpretations. Masenya provides a “bosadi” (womanhood: from Northern Sotho word “mosadi,” meaning woman) reading of Proverbs 31:10–31. And Sarojini Nadar provides an Indian womanist reading of the character development of Ruth. The fifth section, on divination as method of interpretation, includes a single essay by Dube. The essay focuses upon Ruth in terms of social relations (“international relations”) and the needed “healing” offices of divination in such relations. The sixth and final section includes responses from a white North American feminist biblical scholar (Phyllis Bird), an East African theologian and churchwoman (Nyambura J. Njoroge), and a male South African theologian who defined himself as an “African Mordecai” (Tinyiko S. Maluleke). These responses provided rich questions and issues for ongoing work and conversations. The collection models a number of different methods and approaches of interpretation—storytelling; postcolonialist feminist; womanhood/bosadi/womanist; and the peoples’ readings. The collection does not advance a single position or stance, method or approach. It is more interesting and charged than that—its most important and powerful feature is its reflection of a coming into speech on the part of a significant group of African women who heretofore in scholarship have been silent and absent. With this book such women can for now make the claim that they speak for a significant number of (christianized) African women. As important and as persuasive as may be some arguments that are part of some essays, it is the collective...

The external arguments of weather verbs in Northern Sotho

This article investigates the nature and occurrence of external arguments of weather verbs in Northern Sotho, with specific reference to the unaccusative hypothesis. Weather verbs are unaccusative. Their surface structure subject originates as a direct object in the deep structure. Weather verbs tend to select weather nouns as external arguments. They also appear with the null subject meaningfully in a way that no other verb can. Often the external argument and the verb incorporate each other.

Sandhi under the spotlight

The term sandhi is not frequently encountered in discussions of morphophonemic modifications in the traditional grammars of the Bantu languages. It is a term which, even in linguistic research outside of the Bantu language family, has carefully been avoided in some cases and in others found to have varied applications. This article attempts to gain some clarity on the meaning and origin of the term sandhi, to determine general principles which underlie sandhi modifications and to consider issues which cannot be ignored when it comes to the application of the term to the Bantu languages. The discussion is mainly based on examples from Northern Sotho.

On the modal status of Northern Sotho conditionals

This article opposes the view that the conditional verb form of Northern Sotho should be regarded as an autonomous mood, and shows that the notion of condition is nothing but one of several modalities which can be expressed by indicative verbs. It is argued that although both situative and conditional verb forms can be used in conditional clauses, they differ in respect of the factuality versus non-factuality of the conditions they express. Despite this difference, it is nonetheless suggested that both situative and conditional verbs are subsumed under the broader category ‘indicative mood’, since strong evidence exists in languages across the world of a direct discourse-pragmatic link between the modality of condition and declaratives. Proposals put forth in this contribution effectively reduce the number of moods in Northern Sotho to three, namely the indicative, subjunctive and imperative.

'To be (with)' or 'to have'? A case for grammaticalization in Northern Sotho

The associative copulative in Northern Sotho distinguishes itself from other copulatives in that it is realised in a variety of morphological structures. In this article the relationship, whether synchronic or diachronic, between these different manifestations is investigated and it is argued that these different forms actually represent different stages in a process of grammaticalization. Possible links with other homophonous forms are also focussed upon. Central to the issue at hand is the semantic relationship between subject and complement in associative copulatives. It is argued that the primary relationship expressed by these copulatives is one of association, with the notion of possession being a secondary relationship. Die assosiërende kopulatief van Noord-Sotho verskil van ander kopulatiewe in dié taal deurdat dit morfologies verskillend manifesteer. In hierdie artikel word die verhouding, hetsy sinchronies of diachronies, tussen hierdie verskillende manifestasies ondersoek, en word daar geargumenteer dat die verskillende vorme in werklikheid verskillende stadiums in 'n grammatikaliseringsproses verteenwoordig. Moontlike verbintenisse met ander homofone vorme word ook ondersoek. Sentraal binne hierdie ondersoek staan die semantiese relasie tussen subjek en komplement in assosiërende kopulatiewe. Daar word geargumenteer dat die primêre verhouding wat deur hierdie kopulatief uitgedruk word, een van assosiasie is, met die gedagte van besitting as 'n sekondêre verhouding.

The verse-form of Northern Sotho oral poetry

Although examples of certain Northern Sotho traditional oral genres have been collected over years, a study of verse-form in traditional initiation poetry has not yet been undertaken. This article will consider the way in which Northern Sotho traditional initiation poems are structured or arranged in verse-form. It will be attempted to indicate that traditional oral initiation poetry in Northern Sotho is not metrically defined (as in Western poetry) but that Northern Sotho oral poetry is also structured by its performance and by symmetrical boundaries and other techniques. The structure of the oral praise poem in verse-form as discussed in this article will show the way in which poetry material is organised according to Northern Sotho metrical (verse-form) principles.

THE WHITE CAMEL OF THE MAKGABENG

Research in the Northern Province of South Africa has revealed a most surprising new rock art find: a painting of a camel. This paper investigates how and why a camel came to be painted in the remote rock art of the Makgabeng hills. Analysis of archival material allows one to attribute the painting to a Northern Sotho artist who was active in the first decade of the twentieth century. The purpose of the painting is revealed in its context; it forms part of a collection of paintings which ridicule elements of ineptness in the ways of the new white intruders. We argue that this pointed humour helped the Makgabeng community to overcome some of the trauma of the displacement and violence which characterized the era of the first white settlement in northern South Africa.

Some considerations when teaching the tense of Northern Sotho

A shortcoming in standard grammars and other discussions of tense in Northern Sotho (and the other Bantu languages) is that very little or no attention is given to the role that temporal adverbials play in the interpretation of time reference. No discussion on tense in Northern Sotho is complete without a proper account of the role that temporal adverbials play in the interpretation of time and tense yet a systematic account of this influence of temporal adverbials is absent in all treatment of tense in Northern Sotho. The aim of this article is to disclose the importance of temporal adverbials in the interpretation of time reference in Northern Sotho. Every scholar of Northern Sotho (or any other Bantu language) should take proper cognisance of the prominent role that temporal adverbials play in establishing time reference. A clear distinction is drawn between tense and time. While tense is defined as the verb form that marks the relation between event time and speech/coding time, time is defined as an expression of the relation between event time and coding time which is superimposed on tense. The factors that have an influence on time interpretation are temporal adverbials, the semantic verb phrase categorization, tense, aspect and the text and/or context. The major time-establishing device is the interrelation between tense forms and time adverbials. (Journal for Language Teaching: 2002 36(3-4): 365-376)

Die interpretasie en onderrig van hulpwerk-woorde in Noord-Sotho: klassifisering en basiese grammatiese kenmerke

In this article the grammatical classification of auxiliary verbs as a subcategory of the word class verb in Northern Sotho is discussed. The grammatical features that distinguish the various groups from each other are highlighted. Although some suggestions for the classification of auxiliary verbs in Northern Sotho have been made by previous researchers, the mere features that serve to distinguish between the groups on grammatical grounds have not been satisfactorily investigated. This article is an attempt to fill that gap to a certain extent. This situation has a negative effect on the teaching of this word class at primary, secondary as well as tertiary level. Popular grammars used as teaching aids by schools and universities contain insufficient or even faulty information concerning auxiliary verbs as a sub-category of the word class verb. Hopefully the content of this article will contribute to facili­tate the task of language tutors at school or university level to deal meaningfully with this sub-cate­gory of verbs. (Journal for Language Teaching: 2002 36(3-4): 330-346)

A phytochemical investigation of Craterocapsa tarsodes, a plant used for the treatment of epilepsy by the Northern Sotho people of South Africa

Craterocapsa tarsodes (Campanulaceae) is one of the plants used by the Northern Sotho people in an herbal remedy to treat epilepsy. A phytochemical investigation of this plant resulted in the isolation of three major secondary metabolites. By using NMR spectroscopy and MS spectrometry these three compounds were identified as the known acteoside (verbascoside), pinocembrin 7-β-neohesperidoside and shanzhiside methyl ester. A literature search revealed that neurosedative properties are associated with acteoside and that flavonoids related to pinocembrin interact with benzodiazepine receptors. Therefore, the presence of acteoside and pinocembrin neohesperidoside in C. tarsodes may account for the use of this plant against epilepsy.

A phytochemical investigation of Craterocapsa tarsodes, a plant used for the treatment of epilepsy by the Northern Sotho people of South Africa

A phytochemical investigation of Craterocapsa tarsodes, a plant used for the treatment of epilepsy by the Northern Sotho people of South Africa

The category DP in Xhosa and Northern Sotho

This article investigates the morphosyntactic realisation of definiteness in Xhosa and Northern Sotho, representative of African languages, characterised respectively by the presence and absence of a noun class preprefix (i.e. initial vowel). The Minimalist theory (Chomsky, 1995) is employed as theoretical framework for the study. It is argued that definiteness in these African languages is realised morphosyntactically by the definite morpheme (l)a- which typically occurs as stem of the demonstrative, and which also appears in the inflectional morphology of nominal modifiers such as the adjective, nominal relative and verbal (clausal) relative. It is proposed that the definite morpheme -a- is a functional category Det(erminer) that heads argument Determiner phrases (DPs) dominating an NP. Evidence for this view is invoked from a range of definiteness phenomena in Xhosa, where the absence of the noun preprefix correlates with the non-occurrence of the definite morpheme -a- in the inflectional morphology of nominal modifiers, and from phenomena relating to the omissibility of the complementiser in relative clause constructions in Northern Sotho.

Exploring the ‘conditional mood’ in Northern Sotho

This article describes and analyses the conditional mood as one distinguishable mood in Northern Sotho. This sub-category of the verb has not yet been thoroughly investigated by grammarians of this language, although there are some who regard it as one of the moods in Northern Sotho. In this presentation some of the salient features of this mood will be discussed, by comparing it to two other moods, i.e. the consecutive and the situative.

Bodies, Heat, and Taboos: Conceptualizing Modern Personhood in the South African Lowveld

The meta-narrative of modernity often posits an inevitable shift from to modalities of personhood. This presumes that with growing commodificatiion, persons are no longer enmeshed in networks of reciprocal exchange, but acquire a sense of individual autonomy, and perceive the body as bounded from external influences. The villagers in the Bushbuckridge area of Africa, however, continue to perceive the body as permeable and partible. They believe that bodies transmit substances to and incorporate substances from other bodies, and that the conjunction of breath, aura, blood, and flesh gives rise to a dangerous condition of heat. By practicing various taboos associated with sex, pregnancy, and death, villagers aim to avoid contamination. This system of taboos is not a relic of the past, but is integral to contemporary situations of life. (Taboos, bodies, personhood, modernity, Africa) ********** A few years ago, when I worked at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, I received a telephone call from the head of security. In a desperate voice he explained that he had issued each member of the security staff two brand-new uniforms and politely asked them to return their old ones. We want to create a good impression, he said. We don't want our people to go around wearing old shoes, trousers, and shirts. But many workers refused, saying that it was taboo to hand in their old clothing. Our security manager had heard that my area of interest was South African cultures and wanted to know whether the workers were fooling him. Are there really such beliefs? he asked. My conviction that the university's security staff did not hastily invent culture was based on my fieldwork among Northern Sotho and Shangaan residents of Bushbuckridge, a region of the African lowveld. (2) This research revealed that in local knowledge one's body was not totally bounded, and that one's aura (seriti) and sweat contaminated one's clothes. This belief was pervasive and serious. Sometimes clothes could be used as a substitute for the owner. I once observed a housewife performing the first-fruit (go loma) ritual at the beginning of the harvest season. Her four children were obliged to bite the fruits from her garden in order of their seniority. But the third daughter was studying in Johannesburg and could not partake. Unperturbed, she still performed the ritual by simply applying a mixture of the fruits on her third daughter's clothes. Throughout my fieldwork people were greatly concerned that items of their clothing might fall into the wrong hands and that witches (baloi) might bewitch them through their clothes. For this reason, men allowed only their mothers and their wives to wash their underwear, sheets, and bedding. Like the security manager, anthropologists frequently have to contend with the anomalous persistence of seemingly traditional beliefs in contemporary settings, such as university campuses. Such beliefs unsettle meta-narratives of modernity, particularly the assumptions they make about bodies and persons. In recent years, several anthropologists have questioned the cross-cultural validity of the individual. In societies where gift logic prevails, they argue, personhood is more appropriately understood in terms of the (see Dumont 1965; Marriott 1976; Wagner 1986; Strathern 1988; Taylor 1992; LiPuma 1998; and Piot 1999). Of India, Marriott (1976:11) writes: To exist, dividual persons absorb heterogeneous material influences. They must also give out particles of their own coded substances--essences, residues, or other active material influences--that they may then reproduce in others something of the nature of the persons in whom they have originated. The dividual, or fractual, person cannot be expressed in a whole number. He or she is perennially incomplete and forever involved in the process of being added to and built upon by the gifts of others. …

Reversing an African-language lexicon: the Northern Sotho Terminology and Orthography No. 4 as a case in point

The aim of this aiticle is to give a perspective on the required strategies and the potential difficulties involved in reversing a unidirectional bilingual dictionary with an African language as the target language. This will be done by means of a full-scale case study of the (hypothetical) reversal of the Northern Sotho Terminology and Orthography No. 4. It will be pointed out that the African languages do indeed pose unique problems—difficulties that emanate directly from the structure of those languages. It will also be shown that the use of the forward slash causes particular additional complications. The discussion is preceded by an overview of the main issues involved in the compilation of (bidirectional) bilingual dictionaries with the focus on the different types of equivalence relations on the one hand and the reversibility principle on the other.