Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for Master of Arts in the Department of African Languages at the University of Zululand, 1996. / In this work an attempt is made to discuss a noun prefix in general. Particular attention is given to moving away from the thought that the noun prefix is only the part of the noun that is agreement giving. It also incorporates elements that are non agreement giving. The simple noun prefix is differentiated from the composite noun prefix. Criteria of discerning the simple noun prefix are given, viz. phonological, syntactic, morphological and intergrated criteria. Once identification of the simple noun prefix is properly handled, it is only then that one is able to identify the composite noun prefix. The composite noun prefix has more than one morphological entry. Compound noun prefixes have series of simple prefixes while complex noun prefixes have an additional element bearing some semantic content. The noun ubuntombi and isangoma have composite noun prefixes. The noun ubuntombi has a series of simple prefixes therefore compound, in ubu- (cl. 14) followed by -in-(cl.9) forming a compound ubu-fOn. On the other hand the noun isangoma. over and above the series of simple prefixes isi; (cl.7) and -in- (cl.9), has an additional element ^a-, hence the complex prefix isi-a-in- . The identification of composite noun prefix contributes to a proper identification of the noun stem. From nouns ubuntombi and isangoma the noun stems are -thomb(a)-i (become of age) and -goma (heal), rather than *-ntombi and *-angoma respectively. The identification of composite prefixes is lexicographically friendly, wherein a dictionary the entry would be -goma (heal) rather than -angoma fNkabinde. A.C. (1982:1) Doke CM., Malcolm D.M. & Sikakana. J.M. (1958:4) and Doke, CM. & Vilakazi, B.W. (1990:11)). Of interest, to confirm the importance of composite prefix identification, is a related word to isangoma. viz. ubungoma. At present the entry for ubungoma is -ngoma (Doke,C.M. Vilakazi B.W. (1990:557)) whereas that of -isangoma is -angoma. Infact both nouns ubungoma and isangoma must have the same entry as -soma. The noun ubungoma has a compound prefix ubu- (el. 14) and in^ (cL9), as ubu-in-; whereas isangoma has a complex noun prefix isi-a-in. The dynamics of the (simple) noun prefix is vested on what is termed evolution of the noun prefix in this work. The noun prefix undergoees changes. The changes within the noun prefix is at present literature mixed with morphological constraints brought about by the phonological shape of the noun stem. The noun prefix with [+High] vowels is susceptible to change. The noun umufana has the noun prefix umu- but it changes to urn- as in umfana without being constrained by a vowel initiated stem. This is evolution experienced by a noun prefix. Some changes become permanent and others remain temporary. Permanent changes necessitate sub-classes. The noun ugogo has the noun prefix that evolved from umu- The fact that the changes from umu- to um- to t£ have ultimately caued u- to be a permanent evolutionary form then it sub-classes to umu- Scholars in Zulu have noted the sub-classes but without showing how they came into being. The noun prefix is generally known to play arole of giving agreerfient to other word forms with which it co-occurs. The role of the noun prefix goes beyond agreement giving. This work reveals other roles significant to the noun prefix, viz. deictic, emotive and meaning-structure significances. A fully fledged simple noun prefix signals to a 3rd person, pointing to non-proximate object. Spatially, it points yonder. If a speaker does use a fully fledged noun prefix he (generally) has a reference to the hearer (nearer to him), or even himself. The following utterances will indicate the positions: Umuntu uhambile. (A person has gone.) The reference 'umuntu' is not somewhere near the speaker, because of umu- fully fledged noun prefix. But, if the noun prefix is used without the initial prefix, we have: Sukuma mfana (Stand up boy!) Sengjshiio mina mthakathi wezindaba. (I have said it I of the daring one.) The reference is near the speaker. The reason being that the noun prefix has not been used in its rully fledged form. Non-emotive nouns become emotive if the noun prefix is used without the initial vowel in nouns that pertain to body and belongings. Hamba lapha sidwaba senja. (Away from here you the skirt made of dog's skin.) Woza lapha mhlathi wakho. (Come here you jaws of yours!) The nouns sidwaba and mhlathi are now emotive as against normal nouns isidwaba and umhlathi. The meaning contained within the noun prefixes makes the noun stem to be selective as to which noun prefix to append/affix to give to a particular meaning to the noun. The range of meaning within nouns is falling within the broad spectum of [+ Human] to [-Concrete] vested on the noun prefix. Hendrikse, A.P. and Paulos, G. (1992:195-209) refer to this spectrum as a continuum interpretation of the Bantu noun class system. They visualise the continuum interpretation as ranging from [+ Concrete] to [- Concrete] (abstract). In this work [+ Human] feature is cosidered to be the one that plays an important role as this feature may be found from class I umu- as in umukhwe (father-in-law) to class 11 as in u(lu)hlanva (madman). In Hendrikse and Paulos (1992:203) class II is interpreted as attributive class. In this work [+Human] feature has been used as a diagnostic measure, hence [+Human] and [-Concrete] dichotomy. Also of importance in meaning-structure significance is the interaction of meaning within the composite prefix. This work looks closely how 'noun prefix' within the composite prefix inteact in terms of meaning to effect their composite structure. In the nooun ubunja (dog-like behaviour), we have composite noun prefix ubu-in-. The noun ubunja is derived from the noun inja with only simple prefix JHK The in^ prefix is [-Human, + Concrete], and the ubu- prefix is [-Human,-Concrete]. After preposing ubu- to inja deriving ubunja. the composite nun prefix ubu - in' becomes [-Human - Concrete]. The interaction is that the ubu- features dominates over the in- features. The aspect of'dominance' goes hand in hand with percolation' of Leber (1981), Selkirk (1982), Mbadi (1988). They advocate that the derived word adopts all the feature values of its outermost morpheme.' (Mbadi, L.M. (1988:124) in Nkabinde, A.C. {1988)). The outermost morpheme, inhis case, the pre-posed noun prefix interact with the rest of the noun prefixes' by dominating over them. This work maintains that the last morpheme to be introduced, whether preposed, (post-posed) or imposed dominated over the others. The word abelungu (whites) we have the outermost noun prefix aba- which is [-(-Human]. We have *aba-lungu. as in aba-ntu etc. After the imposing of additional morpheme -e- with its semantic content [+Race] we have now the composite noun prefix ' ab(a)-e- which is {+Human, + Race) as in: which is {+Human, + Race} as in : ab(a) - e - Suthu (Sotho people) ab(a) - e - Nguni (Nguni people) etc.

Cette thèse consiste en une description du Fang-Nzaman, langue bantoue parlée au Gabon en Afrique Centrale. Le travail présente la phonologie en commençant par l'identification des phonèmes, avec la mise en relief des paires minimales qui permettent d'opposer les phonèmes : /mb/ vs /b/ et de les classer comme unités distinctives. Le choix des oppositions qui sont présentées a été fait en fonction des éléments nécessaires à l'identification dans certaines positions. Pour les phonèmes, le lexème permet les oppositions dans les structures les plus usitées. Les phonèmes sont ainsi définis dans leur fonctionnement et dans leur classement.Les unités discrètes sont indispensables au fonctionnement de langues, mais les éléments majeurs suprasegmentaux de la prosodie que sont les tons dans le fang-nzaman le sont aussi. Ils sont répertoriés en tons ponctuels et tons modulés.L'organisation de ces unités a permis l'identification de différentes positions occupées par les catégories grammaticales ou lexicales dans le syntagme ; après la définition des éléments du système dans le cadre syntaxique, on a procédé à l'analyse des classes nominales. L'étude des catégories grammaticales permet également d'envisager la morphologie dans le cadre d'un paradigme nominal et dans un aperçu du paradigme verbal. Le paradigme nominal inventorie les indices de classe, les détermine à partir de trois critères, la forme du préfixe nominal, l'appariement des classes et les accords de classe. La langue permet aussi d'étudier le fonctionnement des indices de classe avec les pronoms dans les énoncés. / This thesis is a description of Fang-Nzaman, a Bantu language spoken in Gabon, in Central Africa. This work identifies the phonemes of Fang-Nzaman, highlighting the existence of minimal pairs opposing the phonemes /mb/ and /b/, which shows that they are distinctive units.The oppositions presented were chosen according to the representativeness of the elements necessary to identification in certain positions. For phonemes, the lexeme allows for oppositions in the most commonly used structures. Phonemes are thus defined in terms of their behaviour and their classification.Discrete units are key to the understanding of languages, but major suprasegmental elements of prosody, such as the tones of Fang-Nzaman, are also crucial. They are classified into punctual tones and contour tones.The organization of those units has made it possible to identify the various positions occupied by the grammatical or lexical categories in the syntactic unit and to define the elements of the system within a syntactic framework, prior to the analysis of noun classes.Thus, the study of grammatical categories makes it possible to analyze morphology in terms of a noun paradigm and, briefly, a verb paradigm. The noun paradigm lists the class affixes, identifying them on the basis of three criteria: form of the noun prefix, pairing and class inflection. The language also makes it possible to show how class affixes are used with pronouns in speech.