Inflection of Adjectives — Pronominal Prefixes

§45–54. INFLECTION OF ADJECTIVES §45–46. PRONOMINAL PREFIXES Adjectives in Umbundu do NOT inflect independently. They agree with the noun they modify by taking the PRONOMINAL PREFIX corresponding to the noun's class. This is called ATTRIBUTIVE AGREEMENT or CONCORDANCE. The pronominal prefixes used with adjectives are the same as those in the noun table (§39). The adjective always FOLLOWS the noun. §47. ATTRIBUTIVE INFLECTION DEFINED An adjective is said to be "inflected" when it bears a pronominal prefix matching the class of the governing noun. There is no separate adjectival paradigm. §48. HOW PRONOMINAL PREFIXES ARE FOUND Take the noun's class preformative, reduce it to its pronominal form, and prefix it to the adjectival stem. §49. LIST OF PREFORMATIVES WITH CORRESPONDING PRONOMINAL PREFIXES: (same as §39 table above — chi- for ochi-, vi- for ovi-, lu- for olu-, etc.) §50–51. EXPLANATION OF FORMS AND RELATION TO ANCIENT FORMS The concordance system reflects the ancient Bantu agreement system. All attributes of a noun — adjectives, numerals, demonstratives, relative verbs — must carry the same pronominal prefix as the noun. §52. TABLE OF NOUNS AND ATTRIBUTES: EXAMPLES OF ADJECTIVE AGREEMENT: Class 1: u-lume u-ua = good man a-lume va-ua = good men Class 2: u-ti u-sovi = tall tree ovi-ti vi-sovi = tall trees Class 3: e-kapa li-titu = small potato a-kapa va-titu = small potatoes i-su li-nene = large eye ova-su va-nene = large eyes Class 4: ochi-pa chi-ua = good skin ovi-pa vi-ua = good skins Class 5: o-ngombe i-nene = large ox olo-ngombe vi-nene = large oxen Class 6: olu-si lu-titu = small fish olo-si vi-titu = small fish (pl.) Class 7: oka-ndimba ka-titu = small little-hare otu-ndimba tu-titu = small little-hares Class 8: ou-ato u-nene = large canoe au-ato va-nene = large canoes Class 9: oku-tui ku-titu = small ear ova-tui va-titu = small ears §53–54. GENERAL REMARKS ON ATTRIBUTES The commonest pure adjectives in Umbundu: -ua = good, beautiful -vi = bad, ugly -nene = large, tall -titu = small, short -sovi = long -pia = new, young -ale = old, ancient Most quality attributes are expressed by verbs (qualitative verbs) in the past tense, or by nouns in the genitive: u-lume u-alunguka = a prudent man (verb oku-lunguka = to be wise) u-lume u-akolile = a strong man (verb oku-kola = to be strong) u-lume u-akavile = a tired man (verb oku-kava = to be tired)