The ku-marker in Swahili

Description

Uppsala Universitet. Institutionen för lingvistik. 2003.This paper attempts to investigate the ku-marker in Swahili, a Bantu language, and its possible diachronic development. This ku-marker occurs in many contexts with different functions in Swahili as well as in its related languages. The aim of this paper is to investigate if the various functions of ku-have a common origin. To myknowledge, there are no previous diachronic studies on this issue in any Bantu language. This present study was thus undertaken to trace, if possible, the origin of the various functions of the ku-marker. A purely synchronic analysis cannot account for irregularities and inconsistencies within a language. A diachronic approach, however, can sometimes provide possible explanations to seeming inconsistencies. The study consists of two parts of which the first aimsto give a synchronic mapping of the occurrences of the ku-markerinSwahili. The second part is a discussion on the possible diachronic developments of this marker. In the following section, a background to the Bantu languages and especially Swahili is provided. This section also contains a briefliterature overview.