A historical analysis of tense-aspect variations in Malawian CiTonga (N15)

Abstract

This article presents cases of tense-aspect variations in Malawian CiTonga and traces the historical processes of change that have led to the different realisations of tense-aspect grammatical units (grams). The author is a CiTonga native speaker and the primary source of the data. The majority of tense-aspect grams are based on motion verbs, including the present tense-aspect tú-/tí- which seems to originate from t-á ‘go- FV’, which is unlike Chichewa (N31) and CiTumbuka (N21) which use ku-, believed to be based on the Proto-Bantu li-ku- ‘be + INF’. The remote past kú- seems to have ku- ‘INF’ as its origin. The language leans towards CiTumbuka more than Chichewa as it shares many tense-aspect features with it. Crucially, while a majority of variants are conditioned by phonology, there is also an indication that some of them are morphologically conditioned. There is also an indication that several others are dialectal or occur in free variation.