Enumeratives
In the Bantu languages, enumeratives are a category of qualificatives generally having some significance of enumeration. They are distinguished from other qualificatives by the fact that they use the enumerative concord.
In many Bantu languages the first five numerals belong to this category, but in Sesotho only the numeral 1 is an enumerative (the second to fifth are adjectives).
Sesotho has three basic enumeratives, divided into two types ("weak" or "strong"):
| No. | Stem | Type | English meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | -ng | strong | one, alone |
| -ng | what kind? | ||
| 2. | -fe? | weak | which? |
| -feng? | |||
| 3. | -sele | weak | other |
The strong enumerative stems use the strong form of the enumerative concord, and the weak stems use the weak form.
The numeral -ng has a special form with class 9 nouns where it appears as -nngwe (thus the numeral). It is always preceded by one of two constructions:
- The participial copulative
- Mooki a le mong One nurse
- Baoki ba le bang The nurses only
- The relative
- Mooki ya mong One nurse
This stem should not be confused with the adjective -ng (some) which has a high tone and is used as a normal adjective:
- mooki e mong some nurse
The other enumeratives are used regularly using the enumerative concord:
- Ke moreana mong? What type of medicine is this?
- Ke moreana ofe? Which medicine is this?
- Ke moreana osele! It's the wrong medicine!
-fe may also be used in a particular construction (repeated and with the conjunctive enclitic le-) to mean "any":
- selemo sefe le sefe any year
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Read more about this topic: Sotho Parts Of Speech