Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Summary All the combinations of nasals which appear within syllable in specific Bantu language, are regarded as groups of phonemes. Especially defective distribution and commutation served as criteria, although contributory phonetic considerations were also taken into account. Combinations with /w/ and with /j/ were also considered as groups of phonemes on the grounds of certain distributional phenomena as regards the combinations /Cw/ and /Cj/ and the vowels following on these. Secondary use was made of phonetic considerations. Affricates, aspirated and lateral consonants within the /NC/ or /NCw/ or /Cw/ combinations of phonemes were assumed to be single phonemes where they distributed as single phonemes. The same conclusion resulted with the aid of morphophonemic correlations. This conclusion is supported by phonetic information.