Inflection of Adjectives — Pronominal Prefixes — Etymology

§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)