Comorian is a Bantu language spoken on the Comoro Islands, a small archipelago between the East African coast and the northern tip of Madagascar. It is usually grouped within the Sabaki languages together with Swahili, Mwani, Elwana, Pokorno and Mijikenda (Nurse & Hinnebusch 1993: 4-19). Internally Comorian is divided into different dialects. In congruence with the four main islands, four dialects of Comorian are usually distinguished in the linguistic literature (Ahmed- Charnanga 1992:13; Nurse & Hinnebusch 1993: 18): Shingazija on the island of Ngazija (Grande Comore), Shimwali on Mwali (Moheli), Shinzwani on Nzwani (Anjouan) and Shimaore on Maore (Mayotte). These four dialects are arranged into two dialect groups (Shingazija/ Shimwali vs. Shinzwani/Shimaore) which are supposed to reflect peculiar linguistic similarities and differences. Although, in general, the greatest morphological differences between the Comorian dialects are within the TAM-markers, the past tense is morphologically quite homogeneous. Therefore dialectal differences do not play a dominant role for the subject of this paper. Two different past tense forms frequently used in everyday speech will be treated here: one morphological simple (one word) form and one compound (two word) form combining the auxiliary -ka (be) with the main verb. They will be discussed first from a formal point of view demonstrating the rules to create the morphosyntactical form. After this they are treated with regard to their semantic contents. The results presented here are based on a one year dialectological research on the Comoro Islands 1996-97. Interviews were made in 56 towns and villages on all four islands of the archipelago.

Comorian is a Bantu language spoken on the Comoro Islands, a small archipelago between the East African coast and the northern tip of Madagascar. It is usually grouped within the Sabaki languages together with Swahili, Mwani, Elwana, Pokorno and Mijikenda (Nurse & Hinnebusch 1993: 4-19). Internally Comorian is divided into different dialects. In congruence with the four main islands, four dialects of Comorian are usually distinguished in the linguistic literature (Ahmed- Charnanga 1992:13; Nurse & Hinnebusch 1993: 18): Shingazija on the island of Ngazija (Grande Comore), Shimwali on Mwali (Moheli), Shinzwani on Nzwani (Anjouan) and Shimaore on Maore (Mayotte). These four dialects are arranged into two dialect groups (Shingazija/ Shimwali vs. Shinzwani/Shimaore) which are supposed to reflect peculiar linguistic similarities and differences. Although, in general, the greatest morphological differences between the Comorian dialects are within the TAM-markers, the past tense is morphologically quite homogeneous. Therefore dialectal differences do not play a dominant role for the subject of this paper. Two different past tense forms frequently used in everyday speech will be treated here: one morphological simple (one word) form and one compound (two word) form combining the auxiliary -ka (be) with the main verb. They will be discussed first from a formal point of view demonstrating the rules to create the morphosyntactical form. After this they are treated with regard to their semantic contents. The results presented here are based on a one year dialectological research on the Comoro Islands 1996-97. Interviews were made in 56 towns and villages on all four islands of the archipelago.