Sotho Nouns - Structure

Structure

Except for class 1a (which has a "null prefix"), nouns are composed of a noun prefix and a stem (which may in turn be derived from other parts of speech; see below under Derivation). Each noun belongs to one of several noun classes and the knowledge of noun classes and their concords is pivotal to composing coherent sentences.

Usually, the noun's class can be discerned by simply looking for the prefix, but there are many instances where this can become very complicated:

  • The syllabic nasal prefix of class 9 is more often than not invisible

  • Classes 1, 3, and 18 have similar prefixes but differing concords

  • Classes 2a and 14 have similar looking prefixes, differing in the vowel's quality and tone

  • Classes 15 and 17 have similar looking prefixes, differing only in tone

  • Many class 1 and 3 nouns have stems beginning with vowels, often causing the m to velarize to ng

    mo + -ana ⇒ ngwana child, cf Swahili mwana (Proto-Bantu *-jana)

  • Similarly, many class 14 nouns with stems beginning with vowels cause the prefix to palatalize to j

    bo + -ang ⇒ jwang grass (Proto-Bantu *-janî)

  • Often if the stem of a class 1 or 3 noun is derived from a verb beginning with b the b is absorbed by the m (the vowel is elided) to become mm

    -busa govern ⇒ mmuso government

There are further complications caused by stems that begin with vowels when the vowels interact causing the quality and tone of the prefix vowel to change (this never happens if the stem comes from a vowel verb); in these cases it is often simply a matter of memorising the correct class and plural for each individual word.

Noun stems can range in length from monosyllabic as in motho (person), to very long stems formed either by duplication (e.g. kgodumodumo great and fearsome thing, the swallowing monster) or derived from long and complex verbs (e.g. the 7 syllable phuparollelano the act of mutual giving and receiving, derived from a verb which is in turn idiomatically and recursively — through 4 distinct steps — derived from the verb fupara to close ones hand suddenly).

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