Zulu Newspaper Reader - Dunwoody Press

2.1.1. Cl. 3a: uØ-
P-M recognize a “variant form u- which is very rare in the grammar”
and give the examples unyaka ‘year’ and unyezi ‘moonlight.’
Historically these derive from palatalization of mw in the original
*umwaka and *umwezi. In addition, our readings provide ugwayi
‘tobacco.’ There are also a number of adoptive nouns that also lack
the -m(u)- element of the noun prefix, e.g.:
sg pl
ufulawa flour ofulawa (rare)
umese knife imimese/omese
ugesi electricity ---
Since the singular forms take Cl. 3 concords in the speech of most
people, it seems preferable to consider them as a sub-class of Cl. 3,
i.e. Cl. 3a, just as Cl. 1a is a sub-class of Cl. 1a, with the noun prefix
being uØ-. If a person were to use Cl. 1 concords referring to these
nouns, then obviously, they should be labeled as Cl. 1a, even if the
plurals are in Cl. 4. Thus:
the color of the tobacco: umbala wogwayi = Cl. 3a
umbala kagwayi = Cl. 1a
the tobacco is not nice: ugwayi awumnandi = Cl. 3a
ugwayi akamnandi = Cl. 1a
if the knife is not blunt: uma umese ungebuthuntu = Cl. 3a
uma umese engebuthuntu = Cl. 1a
2.1.2. Cls. 9a & 10a: iØ- and iziØ-
The argument for the adoption of these sub-classes is set out by P-M
on pp.61-62 of their grammar, though they do not mention two
additional instances of Cl. 10a: nouns beginning with l, h and hh, at
least in the speech of most speakers, e.g.:
sg pl
ulwandle sea izilwandle
uhabhu harp izihabhu
uhhide convoy izihhide
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