Inflection of Nouns — General Remarks and Preformatives

§29–30. GENERAL REMARKS ON NOUNS Every Umbundu noun consists of two parts: 1. PREFORMATIVE (prefix) — indicates class, number, and syntactic function 2. STEM (radical) — carries the lexical meaning The preformative is the key to the entire grammatical system. It determines: — which class the noun belongs to — whether it is singular or plural — how all agreeing words (adjectives, verbs, pronouns) must be inflected Example: o-mbua (the dog) — preformative o-, stem mbua olo-mbua (the dogs) — preformative olo-, same stem u-lume (the man) — preformative u-, stem lume a-lume (the men) — preformative a-, same stem §31. SUBSTANTIVE PREFORMATIVES (Noun Class Prefixes) The preformatives group nouns into classes. Each class has a singular and plural preformative. The following are the main classes in Umbundu: CLASS 1 (persons, animated beings): Singular: u- or omu- Plural: a- or oma- u-lume (man) a-lume (men) omu-nu (person) oma-nu (persons) CLASS 2 (inanimates, plants): Singular: u- or omu- Plural: ovi- or omi- u-ti (tree) ovi-ti (trees) omu-kanda (letter) omi-kanda (letters) CLASS 3 (large objects, body parts, abstracts): Singular: e- or i- Plural: a- or ova- e-kapa (potato) a-kapa (potatoes) i-su (eye) ova-su (eyes) CLASS 4 (instruments, tools, augmentatives): Singular: ochi- Plural: ovi- ochi-pa (skin) ovi-pa (skins) ochi-ndele (white man) ovi-ndele (white men) CLASS 5 (animals, loanwords — no true prefix, article o- functions as prefix): Singular: o- Plural: olo- o-ngombe (ox) olo-ngombe (oxen) o-njila (bird) olo-njila (birds) CLASS 6 (extension, length): Singular: olu- Plural: olo- olu-si (fish) olo-si (fish [pl.]) olu-kata (anvil) olo-kata (anvils) CLASS 7 (diminutives, small things): Singular: oka- Plural: otu- oka-ndimba (little hare) otu-ndimba (little hares) CLASS 8 (abstract nouns, mostly without plural): Singular: ou- Plural: au- (rare) ou-esi (laziness) [no plural] ou-ato (canoe) au-ato (canoes) CLASS 9 (body parts, verbal nouns — prefix oku-): Singular: oku- Plural: ova- oku-tui (ear) ova-tui (ears) oku-lu (leg) ova-lu (legs) LOCATIVE preformatives (not a noun class but grammatical function): mu- = in, here, inside pa- = at, near, there ku- = at, yonder, toward