Kamba/Grammar

Speech Tags

• noun: <v>
  • example: tĩ<n><cl3><sg> ↔ mũtĩ
• verb: <v>
  • example: Nĩ<v><past><p1><sg> ↔ nĩĩ

Verb Forms

“The morphological structure of the Kikamba verb is similar to that of most Bantu languages. There is a verb root which carries the lexical meaning of the verb. To the verb root, derivational suffixes, inflectional suffixes, and a final vowel may be added to form the verb stem. To complete a verb, subject prefixes, tense/aspect prefixes, and object prefixes may be added.” - Roberts-Kohno and Ruth (2000)

Positive Immediate Past

The‘Immediate’ past in Kikamba refers to actions taking place earlier in the day of speaking.

“To pull” immediate past Nĩ+ verbal-prefix + Root + ie

• Nũkootie<v><past><p1><sg> ↔ Nĩngootie
• Nũkootie<v><past><p2><sg> ↔ Nũkootie
• Nũkootie<v><past><p3><sg> ↔ Nũkootie

“To Be” immediate past

• Nĩ<v><past><p1><sg> ↔ nĩĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p2><sg> ↔ wĩĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p3><sg> ↔ eĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p1><pl> ↔ twĩĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p2><pl> ↔ mwĩĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p3><pl> ↔ Meĩ

Positive Recent Past

‘Recent’ past refers to actions taking place earlier on the day prior to the day of speaking, or even to a week previously

“To pull” immediate past Nĩ+ verbal-prefix + Root + ie

• Nũkootie<v><past><p1><sg> ↔ Nĩnĩnakootie
• Nũkootie<v><past><p2><sg> ↔ Nũnakootie
• Nũkootie<v><past><p3><sg> ↔ Nũkootie

“To Be” immediate past

• Nĩ<v><past><p1><sg> ↔ Nĩnaĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p2><sg> ↔ Ũnaĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p3><sg> ↔ Anaĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p1><pl> ↔ Tũnaĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p2><pl> ↔ Mũnaĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p3><pl> ↔ Manaĩ

Negative Immediate Past

“To Be” negative immediate past

• Nĩ<v><past><p1><sg> ↔ Ndyĩĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p2><sg> ↔ Ndwĩĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p1><sg> ↔ Tũwiĩĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p2><pl> ↔ Mũiĩĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p3><pl> ↔ Maiĩĩ

Negative Recent Past

“To pull” negative recent past verbal-prefix + i + nee + Root + a

• Nũkootie<v><past><p1><sg> ↔ Ndineekoota
• Nũkootie<v><past><p2><sg> ↔ Ndũneekoota
• Nũkootie<v><past><p3><sg> ↔ Ndaneekooa
• Nũkootie<v><past><p1><pl> ↔ Tũineekoota
• Nũkootie<v><past><p2><pl> ↔ Mũineekooa
• Nũkootie<v><past><p3><pl> ↔ Maineekoota

“To Be” negative recent past

• Nĩ<v><past><p1><sg> ↔ Ndinaĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p2><sg> ↔ Ndunaĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p3><sg> ↔ Ndanaĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p1><pl> ↔ Tuinaĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p2><pl> ↔ Muinaĩ
• Nĩ<v><past><p3><pl> ↔ Manaĩ

Present Continuous

• ak<v><pres><p1><sg> ↔ nĩaka
• ak<v><pres><p1><sg> ↔ mwĩaka
• ak<v><pres><p1><sg> ↔ meaka
• ak<v><pres><p1><sg> ↔ eaka

Reflexive

• kosuùngà<v><ref> ↔ kosuunganà
• kosuùngà<v><ref> ↔ kotálanà
• kosuùngà<v><ref> ↔ koúanà
• kosuùngà<v><ref> ↔ kotilanà
• kosuùngà<v><ref> ↔ kokiitanà

Perfect/Immediate Perfect

• koot<v><prc_perf><p1><sg> ↔ nĩna:koota
• kẅ<v><prc_perf><p3><sg> ↔ nĩya:kẅa
• vandw<v><prc_perf><p3><pst> ↔ nĩya:vandwa

Nouns

Humans

Generally, there are pairs of classes that encode via prefixation the singular and plural of a noun. Some phonological stuff happens when the noun begins with a vowel. 1/2: for humans, mũ- for 1, a- for 2 (mw instead of mũ when lemma begins with a vowel)

• tumĩa<n><cl1><sg> ↔ mũtumĩa
• tumĩa<n><cl2><sg> ↔ atumĩa
• anake<v><cl1><sg> ↔ mwanake
• anake<v><cl2><pl> ↔ anake
• tabanya<v><cl1><sg> ↔ mũtabanya
• tabanya<v><cl2><pl> ↔ atabanya
• asũvya<n><cl1><sg> ↔ mwasũvya
• asũvya<n><cl2><pl> ↔ asũvya

Inanimate Objects

For inanimate objects (3/4, 5/6, and 7/8 are all for inanimate objects with some exceptions, and there’s no clear semantic division between them in the present, although there may have been historically.) mũ for 3(sg) and mĩ for 4(pl) (before vowels, mw instead of mũ and my instead of mĩ, but if the vowel is an ĩ, it remains mĩ but does do mw) (I haven't found a source that mentions this, but o also seems to be an exception as seen in the 5th and 6th examples).

• tĩ<n><cl3><sg> ↔ mũtĩ
• tĩ<n><cl4><pl> ↔ mĩtĩ
• aka<n><cl3><sg> ↔ mwaka
• aka<n><cl4><pl> ↔ myaka