This thesis is a comparative study of Pai and Swati. The Pai language is spoken
in the easten1 parts of the Mpumalanga Province of the Republic of South
Africa. The study concentrates on the correspondences and differences of the
speech sounds of these two languages and reference is also made to the
morphology.
The previous comprehensive work on Pai was by Ziervogel (1956) where he
classified the Pai language as one of the three dialects of Eastern Sotho. He also
considered the Swati elements present in Pai to be merely borrowings. The
present investigation into the history of the Pai people indicates that Pai may
have had links with languages other than those belonging to the Sotho group
and, from the evidence, an Nguni connection has become a distinct possibility.
The speech sounds of Pai are described in detail in chapter two and
corresponding speech sounds in Swati are included. The vowels of both
languages receive special attention because Pai apparently has a seven-vowel
system and Swati a five-vowel system. The corresponding consonants in these
two languages soon points towards a relationship that is based on more than just
borrowed items. In chapter three the Ur-Bantu sounds of Meinhof and their
reflexes in Swati and Pai are described and compared. The wide variety of
attestations in Pai and the instability of some phonemes are indicative of a
language that has been subjected to many outside influences and that is at the
moment in a state of flux.
In chapter four some aspects of the morphology are described in order to highlight
the peculiar characteristics of Pai as an individual language. The
relationship with Swati is again emphasized by the findings in this chapter. A
statistical analysis of the speech sounds of Pai and Swati in chapter five
indicates that an Nguni core of sounds exists that is shared by both these
languages. A re-classification of Pai within the language context of that area
may therefore be necessary. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/16169 |
| Date | 01 1900 |
| Creators | Taljaard, Petrus Cornelius |
| Contributors | Finlayson, Rosalie, 1943- |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Comparative -- Sotho-Tswana languages.";"Sotho-Tswana languages -- Grammar |
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