Sunday, September 16, 2012

Verbal inflection in Hehe Language-Okoa Simile


Verbal inflection in Hehe Language
by
Simile Okoa
Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics
Abstract
This paper deals with the basic verbal inflectional properties in Hehe language. It is evidenced that Hehe has a complex agglutinative system composed of eleven slots occupied by different affixes both inflectional and derivational. The inflectional elements negation, subject markers, the object markers, tense, aspect, mood, and relative markers, reflexive are not all necessarily present in a given verb form but exist in a fixed order. Among other things the paper offers a detailed description of these inflectional affixes their function and behavior. Generally this paper provides a descriptive analysis of Hehe verb Inflection as a contribution in the field of Bantu linguistics. This is because a lot has been done in Bantu languages concerning verbal inflection but the way this phenomenon is manifested in individual languages is still not yet well known. The completion of this study is therefore, a contribution to this undertaking.
1.       Introduction
Hehe a Bantu is spoken in Iringa Region. Its speakers are scattered around Kilolo and Mufindi districts in South-central Tanzania. Being a Bantu language with an augment (preprefix) in its nouns, the language is called ‘ikihehe’ (i= augment, ki-noun prefix and hehe- the root).The speakers are therefore called ‘avahehe’. For the sake of consistency, this study adopts the name Hehe as used in most existing literature about the language. Among speakers, there are phonetic, semantic and lexical differences; such differences are more noticeable in especially the dialect spoken by other people living around the Udzungwa Mountains: slight different in accent is also felt among speakers from Mufindi and Iringa town, Kalenga and some places of Iringa rural.
Hehe language is classified in zone G60: Bena-Kinga group in which Hehe it is assigned as G62,  other languages in this group include Bena (G63), Sangu (G61), Wanji (G66), Kinga (G65), and Kisi (G67) (Guthrie (1970). Hehe is close to Bena, and the two languages are sometimes treated as forming a dialect continuum (Priebusch, 1935). This study, although it deals with all varieties, considers dialect spoken in Rural Iringa district and some areas of the Lower lands of Kilolo district to be the central dialect because it is spoken around the historical homeland of Hehe chiefs. 
Various scholars have written a lot about verbal morphology in Bantu languages. Nurse and Philippson (2003), Mkanganwi (2002), Ngunga (2000), Dunham (2002). Many of these scholars made generalizations on how verbal inflections operate particularly on G60: Bena-Kinga group where Hehe is classified as G62. The amount of data examined in this group depends on the source, the author’s knowledge of how language works, how much data is presented and the theoretical approach (Nurse 2003:90). So far, little attention has been paid to in-depth investigation of individual languages in order to see how they behave. Therefore, this study aims to provide a descriptive analysis of verbal inflection in Hehe, as an attempt to contribute to the existing knowledge of Bantu inflectional morphology.
The study examines the ideal structure of the verb in Hehe, it also discusses the concept of inflection and how it is encoded in Hehe. In order to achieve its objectives the researcher sets out to answer the following question:
i.                    What are the inflectional properties of the verb in Hehe language?
2.      Literature Review
2.1.  Inflection and Derivation (Bantu General)
The verbal inflectional morphology in Bantu languages has been the subject of many previous comparative and descriptive studies (Kiango 2000), Ngunga (2000), (Mchombo 2006), Nurse (2003). Inflectional morphology deals with syntactically determined affixation processes while derivational morphology is used to create new lexical items. However, in practice, there is always no unanimity in the classification of processes as inflection or derivation. Scholars working on the same language may not agree as to which processes are to be treated as inflectional and which ones are to be regarded as derivational. Across languages, there can be even greater confusion. A process classified as inflectional in one language may be analogous to the process regarded as derivation in another language (Katamba, 1993:205).

As an attempt to separate inflection from derivation, Anderson (1988:167) pointed out four kinds of morphological properties that characterize inflection. These are: configuration properties, agreement properties, inherent properties and phrasal properties. In configuration properties, the choice of a particular inflection is determined by the place occupied by a word in a syntactic configuration, agreement properties are determined by the characteristics of other words in the same construction, inherent properties such as, the gender of the noun are accessed by agreement rules and phrasal properties belonging to an entire syntactic phrase, but they are morphologically realized in one of the words of that phrase. Katamba (1993) went further; whether a particular process is viewed as derivational or inflectional, it must be determined by the purely syntactic processes”.

Haspelmath, and Sims (2010:81-83), differentiate the two morphological processes (derivational and inflection) by using the concept of inflection value and derivational meaning. Inflectional value often does not have a clear identifiable meaning, but a syntactic function while a derivational meaning has change of meaning and word category.

Booij (2005) views inflection as the morphological marking of properties on a lexeme resulting in a number of forms for that lexeme, as a set of grammatical words. Inflectional dimensions are referred to as morphosyntactic categories (e.g. nouns’ dimensions are numbered, gender and case) because they may play a role in both morphology and syntax. And for each dimension or category, there is more than one value. For example, number: singular and plural, gender: masculine, feminine and neuter, and so forth. These values are referred as morphosyntactic features.
Furthermore, Spencer (2003:193) maintained that the nature of inflectional morphology is one of the problematic areas of morphological theory and one on which there is perhaps more disagreement than any other aspects. He adds that inflection is traditionally regarded as a change in grammatical or morphosyntactic form of the word (or lexeme) as opposed to derivation which is the formation of new lexemes from other lexemes. Therefore derivation typically changes the syntactic class membership of the word, such as, adjective to noun, noun to verb, verb to adverb etc. while inflection does not change the word class here. This argument seems to fit in the description of Indo European language better but not really in Bantu languages (Hehe in particular). This is because in Bantu languages derivation may involve only the semantic change and not necessarily the change of word category.
Kiango, (2000:138) explains that that inflection does not induce the change in grammatical category but manifests different inflectional category, regular paradigms, semantic regularity and finally morphological irregularity. Hehe languages inflections exhibit similar behaviors by most of its verbal constructions in which what changes are inflectional categories, regular paradigms, especially intense and aspect system. In that case inflection should therefore be understood as a morphological process just like derivation. But, whereas derivation forms new words (lexemes) and/or new meaning, inflection does not; rather it encodes only grammatical functions.
2.2.                        Verbal inflection
Mkanganwi, (2002:175) in his explanation on verbal derivation in Shona argues that inflectional affixes are those that mark such things as number, gender/class, tense, aspect and mood. While that is true with Shona, Hehe language seem to have more element such as negation, subject makers, tense aspect and mood, object markers.

Booij, (2005) identifies verbal inflection dimensions as tense, aspect, mood, and voice. He stated that there are three important categories of inherent inflection of verb; tense, mood and aspect. Many languages have overt marking for these categories, and in language description one usually finds a description of the Tense-Mood-Aspect system (TAM). In addition there is the category voice (such as active versus passive forms) that is sometimes considered as part of verbal inflection.

Another discussion that has to be addressed is the number of affixes that a verb may accomodate. Languages differ significantly on the number of these affixes. Dunham (2002:2) for example identifies that Langi a Bantu language from Kondoa region has up to seven verbal elements each one occupying its own position in the slot system of the language.

Mkanganwi, (2002), also presents seven elements where he comments that suffixes are derivational, while all inflectional affixes in Shona are prefixal and vice versa. While that is true with Shona and Langi, Kuria has eighteen, (Cammenga 2004), Runyambo thirteen, (Rugemalira 2005), Rutara eight slots (Muzale 1998), and Kiswahili has ten slots (Lindfors 2003). Generally there is variation across languages on the number of elements in the slot system of the verbal elements; the same difference will be reflected in Hehe language.

2.3.                        Review of Verbal Morphology in Hehe
Studies that have been conducted about Hehe language exist in scarce; such studies are like, Crema (1987), Syllable Structure in Kihehe (Odden1996), Mateene, et al (Eds.) (1979), Bena-Hehe-Grammatik. (Priebusch 1935), Tense and Aspect in Ikihehe (Mtavangu 2008) and Noun Classification in Kihehe, (Msigwa 2008). Of all these studies none has made an in-depth analysis of the verb structure.  Such gap of knowledge is a compelling force for this study.

3.      Methodology
In this the study primary data was collected from twelve Hehe native speakers’ aged 25 to 40 years. A list of Swahili sentences with various verbal constructions was presented to them to translate in Hehe. Also the researcher used introspection because of the knowledge he has on the language. Moreover, the researcher applied documentary review of the existing literatures about Hehe language. Data which were collected from all these sources were analyzed to see what is really contained in the verbal structure in terms of inflectional affixes, (their behavior and order) in the light of Bantu inflectional morphology.

3.1. Methods of Data analysis
Following the fact that this study will be analyzing a complex structure of the verbs which are agglutinative in nature, this requires fragmentation methods by using hyphens, coding system and tabulation. All these are used to simplify the interpretation of data and to avoid verbalism in data analysis.

4.      Data analysis, Findings and Discussion
4.1.     Verb Structure
From the data analyzed the verb form in Hehe seems to have a complex agglutinative system composed of eleven slots occupied by different affixes both inflectional and derivational. These elements are not all necessarily present in a given verb form, but always appear in a fixed order. Therefore the Hehe verbal structure can be presented as follows:







Table 1            Verbal slots matrix
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
REL
NEG
SM
NEG
TAM
OM/REF
ROOT
EXT
PEF
FV
CLITICS

si-
-tu-

-ku-
-mu-
iuk


a


NEG
SM

Prs
OM
remember


FV

‘we are not remembering him/her’
ve-
si-
va-

-ka-
-mu-
-tof-

-il-
-e

REL
NEG
SM

P2
SM
beat

PEF


‘the one who did not beat him/her’


-u-
-la-

-va-
-wop-
-el-

-a-
-ga


SM
NEG

OM
tie
APPL

FV
HAB
‘do not get used of tieying for them’
we-

-mw-

-a-
-kwi-
-mog-
-el-

-a

REL

SM

Prs
REF
shave
APPL

FV

‘which you usually shave with’


a-
-la-

-va-
-kin-
-is-

-a
-ga


SM
NEG

OM
-play-
CAUS

FV
HAB
‘he/she should not cause them to play’

si-
A


va-
-hek-

-it-
-e


NEG
SM


OM
laugh

PEF


‘he/she did not laugh at them’

The root constitutes the morphological and semantic core of the verb. It is the most basic form of the verb to which affixes may be added. The structure constitutes two groups of verbal elements, the pre-root elements and the post-root elements. In Hehe language both pre-root and post-root position may constitute derivational or inflectional affixes. This study confines itself to whatever is inflectional that is found in the morphology of the Hehe verb as per definition of inflection in the literature review. Basing on the verbal structure given in Table1 above, Hehe verbal stem can be inflected for negation, subject of the verb, the object of the verb, tense, aspect, mood, relative, reflexive all of which exists in a fixed order. These inflectional markers are described here below.








4.2.                         Inflectional Morphology
4.2.1.       Relative Inflection
In Hehe language there is no distinction in relative marking depending on whether or not the object or subject is relativized. The relative marker is the vowel {–e} in the pre-initial position of the verbal matrix which is prefixed by the class prefix of a noun subjected to relativization. Consider the following examples:
i.                    u-munu        ye-a-ly-e                        ‘the person who has eaten’
Ppx-person REL-SM-eat-FV
ii.                 umunu yet-u-ku-m-keme-la                ‘the person who we are calling’
Ppx-person REL-SM-PROG-OM-call-FV

4.2.2.      Negation inflection
The data analyzed shows that Hehe language has got a complex system of negation. There is a morphological negation and lexical negation. Morphological negation is marked by using a prefix {si-} which occupy slot 2 in the verbal template and {–la-} which is attached to the position immediately after the subject marker in slot 4. Consider the following examples.
iii.                Umwana     si-i-ly-a ichakulya           ‘the child is not eating food’
Child          NEG-SM-eat-FV         food
iv.                 Avana ve-si-vi-bit-a kusule si-va-faul-a-nda ‘children who don’t go to school won’t
Children REL-NEG-SM-go-FV school NEG-SM-pass-FV.
v.                   Si-ndi-bit-a kunega ululenga nda!        ‘I don’t go to fetch water’
NEG-SM-go-FV to fetch water
vi.                 Yuvetu Telesa                si-a-ká-fw-i idaha ndaa.
Our mother Theresia NEG-SM-P2-die-FV long time
vii.               Milau si-wi-bit-a                                          ‘tomorrow you are not going’
Tomorrow-NEG-SM-go-FV
viii.             Avana wa-la-bit-a kumakabuli                      ‘children should not go to the cemetery’
Children SM-NEG-go-FV to the cemetery
ix.                Ndi-la-nyw-a ululenga?                     ‘Should I not drink?’
SM-NEG-drink-FV water
The distribution of negative markers {si-} and {–la-} is morphologically determined. The verb takes a negative marker {si-} after relative marker (iv) and before the SM in the indicative mood, interrogative mood and command to show prohibition. On the other hand the verb takes {–la-} in the position immediately after the SM interrogatives as in (viii), and imperative, or order. The REL and NEG occupying initial slots may co-occur. The negative marker {si-} and {-la-} are multually exclusive, meaning that when one of the marker occur the other one does not occur.
Lexical negation in Hehe is expressed by a lexical verb lem-a-‘shindwa’ which express the idea of inability to, not being able to, or, should not do. This verb is always formed by a SM, a verb stem and followed by a formative {–ag-} and a vowel {–e} or {–a} which alternate depending on the mood. Consider the following examples:
i.                    Umwana a-lemw-ag-e ukubita kunega ululenga ‘a child should not go to fetch water’
Child      SM-NEG- Clitic-FV    to go     to fetch water
ii.                  Ndi-lemw-ag-e ukunywa nda? ‘Should I not drink?
SM-NEG-Clitic-FV
Both morphological and lexical negation can be optionally accompanied by the word –nda! as a marker for insisting the sense of negativity as it is the case for Kiswahili katu. (See examples above). While the morphological markers of negation {si-} and {-la-} are mutually exclusive, the negative marker {la-} and the lexeme {lem-a} are in complementally distribution.
4.2.3.      Subject and Object Inflection
The subject and object inflectional markers encode person, number or class on the verb. The SM occupies stot 3 while the OM occupies slot 6 (cf Table 1). In the indicative the subject is obligatory for all finite verb forms. Subject and Object markers are identical with the Agreement Class Prefix (ACP) of the noun in all class.
For example:
x.                  Avahinza    va-kin-it-e  imangala ‘girls has danced mangala’
Girls          SM-dance-PF-FV mangala
xi.                Umwana a-ndi-tof-il-e                                   ‘the child has beat me’
Child      SM-OM-beat-PF-FV
xii.              Umukwamisi           a-ndi-s-il-e                    ‘the boy has insulted me’
Boy                        SM-OM-insult-PF-FV
xiii.            Nene           ndi-bit-a kuchanya                      ‘I am going to heaven’
I                 SM-go-FV to heaven
xiv.             Veve           u-ly-a pambele                ‘you will eat later’
You           SM-eat-FV later

4.2.4.      Multiple Objects
Hehe is an OM1 language similar to Kiswahili, Xhosa and Chewa, (Nurse and Philippson 2003:124) and Kagulu (Verlag 2000). Even if there will be more than one objects in the clause it allow maximally one object marker inside the verb. Unlike Chaga, Haya, Rwanda, and Tswana which multiple objects may be expressed by object markers (Nurse and Philippson 2003:124). It is always the case that the kind of object which is marked in the verb is the indirect object. The animate object is what is coded on the verb if several objects appear in the phrase.
4.2.5.      kwi-/ki- reflexive and reciprocal
In the OM slot, the reflexive and reciprocal may occur.
For example:
xv.               U-mu-hinza a-kwi-bak-a mafuta “the girl is smearing herself with oil’
Ppx-1-girl        SM1-REFL-smear-FV        oil
xvi.             A-va-hinza va-ki-bak-ite mafuta        ‘girls smeared themselves with oil’
Ppx-2-girl   SM-REFL-smear-PF oil
xvii.           Avana va-kwi-tov-a                          ‘children are beating each other’
Children SM-REC-beat-FV
xviii.         Avanafunzi va-kwi-nonel-a                ‘students are kissing each other’
Students     SM-REC-kiss-FV
The OM and REFL/REC are mutually exclusive.

4.2.3.      Tense, Mood and Aspect (TAM) inflection
The other element in the slot system of the verb is the Tense, Mood and Aspect (TAM). Hehe possess a rich TAM system that exhibits a great diversity of forms. Tense is the representation of the time that contains an event. Aspect refers to how an event or action is to be viewed with respect to time, rather than to its actual location in time. Tense and aspect encoding involves the combination of three main components: inflection of verbs and tone. These may optionally be supported by the use of temporal adverbials and periphrastic expressions with respect to discourse of conversation.
  Tense
The findings show that Hehe language marks tense in verbs. Basically there are three tenses; present tense, past tense and future tense which are further divided into subcategories. Thus in past tense there is far past, middle past and recent past where as in future tense there is near future and far future respectively. These are discussed here bellow as follows.
4.2.3.1.   Far Past 
Far past tense expresses the events that took place or occurred many years ago. This is marked by a morpheme {a:} or {i} which is accompanied by the perfective morphemes {Ă©-Ă­lè–Ă­tè/-,- ike-‘ise}. Together with those morphological markers far past is usually associated with adverbs which express the notion of far past and high tone in the perfective vowel. Consider the following examples
xix.            Umamangu a:-lw-Ă­k-e pa filo fya nzala
My brother             P1-born-PF-FV during famine season
xx.              Imyaka jila              tw-a:-pat-Ă­t-e fyakulya fyolofu
Those years                       SM-P1-get-PF-FV food plenty
xxi.            Pamtalo                  tw-a:-gus-Ă­s-e hilo masebele
Long ago                SM-P1-sell-PF-FV very much maize
xxii.          Pa wana                  tw-i-tof-Ă­l-e hilo
During child hood SM-P1-beat-PF-FV very much
xxiii.        Mkwava                  a:-tem-Ă­l-e iyinyi wunofu
Mkwawa                P1-rule-PF-FV kingdom nicely


4.2.3.2.                          Middle Past
The Middle past is the category in the past tense that describes that the event or action took place or happened yesterday or a few days ago, away from the time of the speech. It is marked by a morpheme {ka:} or {–ki-} and sometimes by a high tone in the final vowel without an overt marking then  accompanied with the perfective maker as in the far past (optionally with an adverb). Consider the following examples:
xxiv.         Isusi                                    nda-ká-chel-iw-e  kubita kusule
The day before yesterdays-P2-late-PF-FV to go to school
xxv.           A-ká-kam-it-e lisiva igloo pamihye
SM-P2-milk-PF-FV milk yesterday evening
xxvi.         Va-kĂ­-tof-il-e peviwene
SM-P2-beat-PF-F V when they met
xxvii.       Tu-ká-tem-it-e uwulaasi
SM-P2-tape-PF-FV bamboo juice
xxviii.     Yuvet Telesa                 si-a-ká-fw-i idaha ndaa.
Our mother Theresia NEG-SM-P2-die-FV long time
xxix.        Avagenzi va-hel-Ă©
Guests       SM-left-FV

4.2.4.      Present tense
There is no any distinctive morphological element which is used to mark present tense, instead, speakers tend to use aspectual markers such as progressive {-kιι-}/{-i-} to refer to actions or events which occur at present. This means that, present tense exists only by virtue of association with some aspects such as progressive and retrospective forms. See examples below.
xxx.          Tw-Ă­-tov-a avayetu                ‘we are hitting our friends’
SM-PROG-hit-FV our friends
xxxi.        Tu-ku-mw-iwuk-a uyuvetu Telesa  ‘we are remembering our Mother Theresa’
SM-PROG-OM-remember-FV our mother Theresa
xxxii.      Tu-ku-ibat-a avana             ‘we are catching children’
SM-Prs-catch-FV
4.2.5.      Future Tense
Hehe language divides future tense into the near future and far future.
4.2.5.1.   Near future
Near future has no overt morphological marker. It is marked by a rising tone in the final vowel for short verbs and rising tone of the root vowel in the multisyllabic verbs. In non-deictic expressions it is accompanied by an adverbial. Consider the following examples.
xxxiii.    TubĂ­ta       milawu
We will go tomorrow
xxxiv.     Ndilyá       pambele
I will eat    later
xxxv.       Ng’imbĂ­la  pendimuwene
I will run    when I see him
xxxvi.     Avagenzi volofu    vása pambele
Many guests           will come later

4.2.5.2.                          Far Future
The data examined so far indicates that there is slight different between far future and near future. One of the main differences is the contextual use of statements expressing far future time and that expressing near future. Far future will be in most cases marked by using the rising tone of the root vowel as in the near future and adverbials of time that shows that the event will take place in the very remote future. i.e kumwaka ‘next year’,  Consider the following examples.
xxxvii.   Ndi-mu-sindĂ­k-a kusule kumwaka     ‘ I will send him/her to school next year’
SM- OM- send-FV            to school next year
xxxviii. Inguluvi peyiwendite tĂşsa kumwaka    ‘God    if wish we will come next year’
Both far future and near future may be expressed optionally by a pre-clitic {saa-}which does not fit in the pre-initial position of the verbal matrix.
xliv.           Saa-ndi-mu-sindĂ­k-a kusule  ‘ I will send him/her to school year’
           Clitic-SM- OM- send-FV    to school next year
xlv.             Inguluvi peyiwendite saa-tĂş-s-a           ‘God     if wish we will come next year’
God     if wish          CLITIC-SM-come-FV
In Hehe language, tone plays a very great role as a grammatical aspect as it marks the contrast in various tenses. Moreover temporal adverbial plays a very important role in expressing events in the future times.
4.2.6.      Aspect inflection
As already defined above, aspects are different representations of the time within the event. Nurse and Philippson (2003) assert that aspects appear to be more basic than tense across Bantu. That is, the same few aspect- categories occur constantly, with relatively little variation, while the tenses vary more. Even when their morphological exponent is destroyed or recycled, aspects are often maintained in a new guise. The data analyzed show that Hehe has five aspects: Progressive, Habitual, Perfective, Anterior, and Persisitive
4.2.6.1.   Progressive:
In Hehe the progressive indicates a process which is ongoing at the time of the speech. It is often used to signify that one is in the middle of doing something and therefore unable to respond to a demand. It is found in all tenses with some changes in tone. Also the progressive aspect can be morphologically marked by the morpheme {ku-}. Consider the following examples:
xlvi.           Tu-ku-mw-iuk-a Teresa     “we are remembering Teresa”
SM-Prog-OM-remember-FV Teresa

4.2.6.2.                          Habitual
Habitual is an aspect which expresses actions that take place habitually or repeatedly. It does not refer to any particular event, and is therefore not about any particular event-time. Consequently, it lacks one of the crucial features of tense and gets its treatment as an imperfective aspect (GivĂłn 2001:286). Habitual in Hehe is marked by the morpheme {-aĂ­-} for present and {-ag-} with its variant {-ig-} which change with respect to past tense.
xlvii.         Vana     v-ai-tov-w-a kukaye            
Children SM-HAB-beat -PASS- FVat home               
‘children get beaten often at home’
xlviii.       ingoma s -ai- kuv-w-a kusule                         
Drums SM-HAB-beat-PASS-FV                    
‘drums get beaten to school’
xlix.          vana v-ai-tov-an-a-ga
Children SM-HAB-tov-RECPL-FV-HAB                                          
‘children do beat each other’
l.                    v-ai- hig-an-a-ga kwa balosi
SM-HAB-judge-REC-FV-HAB to the ten-cell leader            
‘they do judge each other to the ten- cell leader’
4.2.6.3.                         The Perfective
Hehe marks perfective by the perfective morphemes such as {–ile/-ite/-e/-ise}. These forms are realized differently depending on the type of verb. It is in this aspect where imbrications process finds its highest expression. However this process will not be dealt with in this paper hence its discussion will require a complete separate study. Consider the following examples:
li.                  umwana i-im-Ă­te pamulyango The child stood at the door
child          SM-stand-PF at the door
lii.                A-hudik-e inzagala  he/she has tightened fire woods
SM-tighten-PF firewood
liii.              A-gus-ise    amasebele he/she has old maize
SM-sell-PF maize
liv.              A-fw-e-ete ikilatu               ‘he/she has worn shoes
SM-wear-PF shoes
lv.                 A-s-Ă­le igolo ‘He/she came yesterday’
SM-come-PF yesterday

4.2.6.4.                         Persisitive
In Hehe persistive is expressed by an auxiliary {‘pe:-}. Consider the examples:
lvi.              pe: va-nywa  ‘they are still drinking’
lvii.             pe: a-vasa      ‘s/he is still sleeping’

Table 4: the summary of Tense and Aspect Formatives in Hehe
Pre-Initial

In
Pre-Root Formatives
Verbal Base
Final
Final
Temporal Adverbial
PreIn
T/A
SM
T/A 4
VB
PF
HAB
FV
(-a/-É›)
ADV

P3
tu
-ø-
- lim-
-it-
-e
pamilau


SM
P3
Cultivate
PF
FV
morning

P2
tu-
-ká-
- lim-
-it
-e
igloo


SM
P2
Cultivate
PF
FV
yesterday

P1
tu-
-a-
-lim-
-it
-e
idaha


SM
P1
Cultivate
PF
FV
long ago

Prs
tu-
-Ă­-/-kĂş-
-lim-


-a



SM
Prs
Cultivate


FV


F1
tu
-ø-
-lĂ­m-


-a
milao


SM
F1
Cultivate


FV
tomorrow

F2
tu
-ø-
-lĂ­m-


-a
kumwaka


SM
F1
Cultivate


FV
next year

Prog
tu-
-kĂş-, -i-
-lim-
-a


SM
Prog
Cultivate
FV

Pf
tu-
-ø-
-lim-
-Ă­te
-e
-


SM
Cultivate
PF
FV

HAB
tu-
-ai-
-lim-

-ag
-a
kila siku


SM
HAB
Cultivate


FV
daily
Pe
Persis
tu
-ø-
-lim-
-a
-
Persis

SM
Cultivate
FV

The sentences in table 4 above are listed below.
lviii.          1. tu-lĂ­m-ite  ‘we have cultivated in the morning’ (Immediate past)
lix.               2. tu-ká-lim-ite igloo ‘we cultivated yesterday (Middle past)
lx.                 3. tu-a-lim-ite idaha (tw-aa-lim-ite) ‘we had cultivated long time ago’ (far past)
lxi.               4. tu-ø-lĂ­m-a milao ‘we shall cultivate tomorrow’ (Future tense)
lxii.             5. tu-i-lim-a inodee ‘we are cultivating now’ (progressive aspect)
lxiii.           6. tu-ø-lim-Ă­te ‘we have cultivated’ (perfective aspect)
lxiv.           7. tu-a-i-lim-ag-a kila siku ‘we frequently cultivate’ (habitual aspect)
lxv.             8. pe-tu-lim-a ‘we are still cultivating’ (persisitive aspect)

4.2.7.      Mood inflection
Hehe language as many other Bantu languages may also inflect for mood that encodes the different senses of the verb that reflect the attitude of the speaker. The following moods are admissible in  Hehe language:  infinitive mood, the indicative mood, the imperative mood and the subjunctive mood
4.2.7.1.                         The infinitive mood
Mood expresses the action of the verb in an unlimited way and does not make a distinction of tense, subject, number and person Kiango (2000:173). Hehe infinitive mood is inflected by the infinitive marker {ku-}. Consider infinitive verbs like:
lxvi.           ku-kina ‘to play’
lxvii.         ku-gima   ‘to dig’
lxviii.       ku-fyula       ‘to sharpen’

4.2.7.2.                         The Indicative mood
Expresses statements and questions, they constitute the most common clause type in the language.
i.                    Umwana ahele kusule           ‘the child has gone to school’
ii.                  Avana vabita kukaye milau ‘children will go home tomorrow’
iii.                Nzusa lusiku                                   ‘I will come one day’

4.2.7.3.                         The Imperative mood
Expresses order or command in both affirmative and negative sentences. The verbal form can allow the indication of number, person and the object. In Hehe language the final vowel for imperative mood is morphologically shown by {–e} for affirmative and {-a} for negative.  Moreover the imperative consist of verbal stem with a vowel ---e in present tense and ---a in future tense. Consider the examples below:
lxix.           Telek-e                   cook’
lxx.             m-tegul-e                 ‘you(pl.) take
lxxi.           Bit-e                       ‘go’
lxxii.         u-ka-va- pel-e          ‘go and give them’
lxxiii.       Avana wa-la-bit-a kumakabuli          ‘children should not go to the cemetery’
lxxiv.       Lim-e! ‘cultivate’
lxxv.         Bite ukavategul-e! ‘go and pick them’
lxxvi.      U-ly-a!        ‘you will


4.2.7.4.                        Subjunctive Mood
It is formed with SM or OM, the verb root and final vowel –a in future tense and –e in present
For example
lxxvii.     Lasima ndi-ly-a ‘I must eat (future)’
lxxviii.   Lasima ndi-ly-e ‘I must eat (Present)’

Concluding remarks
This article has addressed different issues concerning the basics of verbal inflection in Hehe. The findings indicate that the order of verbal inflectional affixes in the verb template is fixed. However this study has confined itself to what is so basic about verbal inflection; further studies should be done on the in-depth behavior of the described aspects of inflections in the languages. For example this study has revealed that tone plays a big role in marking tense (future tense) there for the tonal aspect here calls for further research.
Moreover this study has analyzed one of the aspects of verbal morphology (inflection). Further studies should be done on derivation in Hehe language that will help to see how the two morphological processes operate.







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This paper was presented at the Students-Staff Seminars of the Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, University of Dar es Salaam on the 18th May 2012. I am grateful to participants for comments; specifically I would mention Prof. Rugemalira, Prof. Swilla, Prof. Saida Othman, Dr. Muzale and Dr. Upor. Meanwhile many thanks to Mr. Kanijo Ponsiano, John Philipo and Mpobela Lea whose comments contributed a lot in improving this article.