Buch, Englisch, Band 50, 55 Seiten
Buch, Englisch, Band 50, 55 Seiten
Reihe: Languages of the World, Materials
ISBN: 978-3-89586-016-4
Verlag: LINCOM
Zulu is now recognized as one of the 11 official languages of the Republic of South Africa, with its major concentration of speakers found in KwaZulu/Natal province. It has traditionally been recognized as one of the languages of the so-called Nguni group, others being languages such as Xhosa, Swati and Ndebele. In the grammatical sketch on Zulu an overview is given of the following linguistic aspects:
The morphological structure of the Zulu language is provided with reference to the various word categories/parts of speech, e.g. attention is given to basic morphological characteristics such as noun class categorization and the ensuing system of concordial agreement, phenomena that permeate through all the languages of this family. Other important areas of linguistic research are also given attention, e.g. aspects relating to the phenomenom of grammaticalization, discourse pragmatics and typological issues. An outline of the sound system of the language is also provided with reference to the phonetic qualities of the different consonants and vowels. Specific attention is given to the production of "unusual" sounds such as clicks. Reference is also made to basic tonal issues in the language. In addition a phonemic inventory of the language is provided.