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Associative a and ka in Niger-Congo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

William E. Welmers
William E. Welmers*
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
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Extract

A grammar of almost any Bantu language will attest a morpheme α in a variety of constructions involving association, usually of a preceding noun with a following noun or pronoun. In many Bantu languages a second morpheme, with the shape ka or something similar, is used in some similar constructions. These morphemes have frequently been labelled ‘possessive’, with reference to one of their more obvious uses, or genitive, with the implication that more than literal possession may be involved; the variety of constructions in which they are found makes the more neutral term ‘associative’ preferable.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 39 , Issue 3-Part1: July-September , September 1963, pp. 432 - 447
Copyright
Copyright © 1963 by Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 The LoNkundo evidence is taken from G. Hulstaert, Praktische Grammatica van het Lonkundo (Lomongo) (Antwerp, 1938). For the summary of other occurrences of ka in Bantu languages, I am indebted to Desmond T. Cole, in personal conversation and correspondence. Apart from the West Atlantic material in §4 below, all the other evidence in this article is from my own notes.

2 W. A. A. Wilson, ‘Temne, Landuma, and the Baga languages’, Sierra Leone language review, Vol. 1 (1962).