Jita is a

Bantu language The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

, spoken on the southeastern shore of

Lake Victoria Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropics, tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface are ...

/Nyanza and on the island of Ukerewe. Jita New Testament title page

Classification

Guthrie (1967) classifies Jita in Bantu Zone E, Group 20 because, like other languages in this zone, it has double prefixes (preprefixes or augments) on nouns, an “unparalleled wealth” of

verb tenses In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns. The main tenses found in many languages include the past, present, an ...

and true negative tenses with a distinctive negative

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed. Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...

. More recent work (Bastin 2003, Maho 2009) classifies Jita as part of an Interlacustrine Bantu group (Zone J). More specifically, Jita is a member of the Suguti Bantu group, with the Guthrie code JE.25.

Kwaya The Kwaya are a Bantu ethnolinguistic group based in the Mara Region of northern Tanzania, on the southeastern shore of Lake Victoria Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is A ...

(KYA, JE.251); Kara (REG), Regi/Leki (both JE.252); and Ruri/Rori (JE.253) are closely related to Jita. While

Glottolog ''Glottolog'' is an open-access online bibliographic database of the world's languages. In addition to listing linguistic materials ( grammars, articles, dictionaries) describing individual languages, the database also contains the most up-to-d ...

considers Ruri a dialect of Kwaya, Massamba's (1977) comparative study of Jita, Ruri and Kwaya suggests that Ruri is quite similar to Jita, while both Jita and Ruri show a number of differences from Kwaya.

Phonology

Vowels and vowel processes

Jita has the five vowel system - plus length contrasts - illustrated in the table below. As in many Bantu languages, vowel height harmony (VHH) affects the quality of vowels in verbal suffixes, so that only the root-initial vowel of verbs contrasts for vowel quality. Vowel length is neutralized following consonant-glide sequences and preceding NC sequences, where only long vowels are found due to a process known in the Bantu literature as

compensatory lengthening Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda, or of a vowel in an adjacent syllable. Lengthening triggered ...

. (See Downing 1990, 1996 and the ''Jita Orthography Statement'' for illustrations of these processes from Jita; see

Hyman Hyman is the surname of: * Alan Hyman (1910–1999), author and screenwriter * Albert Hyman (1893–1972), co-inventor of the artificial pacemaker * Anthony Hyman (disambiguation), several people * Ben Zion Hyman (1891–1984), Canadian-Jewish ...

1999 and Odden 2015 for general discussions of these phonological processes.)

Consonants

Jita has the following

IPA IPA commonly refers to: * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation ** International Phonetic Association, the organization behind the alphabet * India pale ale, a style of beer * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA ...

consonant phonemes. The ''Jita Orthography Statement'' notes that and are mostly found in borrowed words. There seems to be considerable variation in the realization of the liquid phoneme. Downing (1990, 1996) says that the liquid is variably realized as or and chooses as the phoneme, since it seems to be the variant most consistently attested in root (morpheme) initial position. Van der Weken (2002) notes variation between and a retroflex lateral � rather than a trill The ''Jita Orthography Statement'' lists as the phoneme and doesn't mention variation in its realization.

Tone

Like most Bantu languages, Jita is tonal. A detailed analysis of the Jita tone system has been made by Downing (1990), (1996), and (2014), as well as Rolle (2018). Work like Downing (2011), Kisseberth & Odden (2003), Marlo (2013) and Philippson (1991) put Jita tonal processes in a wider Bantu perspective.

Nominal morphology

Nouns in Jita, which also include

infinitives Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all l ...

, have the following morphological structure: Preprefix (PP) - Class Agreement Prefix (CP) - Stem. Below is a chart of nominal agreement prefixes. Note that the IPA alphabet is used in all chart in this article; see the ''Jita Orthography Statement'' for Jita

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

equivalents. Note that N indicates a nasal that assimilates in place to a following consonant: In Class 5, the preprefix only occurs with some vowel-initial or monosyllabic roots. In all other classes, the preprefix occurs with all nouns. Nominal modifiers follow the noun. The preprefix and class agreement prefixes also occur on adjectives. Non-adjectival modifiers take a different set of agreement prefixes, which lack preprefixes:

Verbal morphology

The morphological structure for verbs is:

Subject Subject ( "lying beneath") may refer to: Philosophy *''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing **Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective consciousness, or ...

Prefix (SP) - (Negative Prefix-) Tense/ Aspect Marker (TAM) - (

Object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an a ...

Prefixes (OP)-) Root - (Derivational Suffixes-) (Tense Marker (TAM)-) Final Vowel. The Root plus following suffixes comprises the ''Stem''; this grouping plus object prefixes comprises the ''Macro-Stem''. Jita is one of the Bantu languages which allow two object prefixes to occur before the Stem.

Subject and object prefixes

Subject and object prefixes for verbs are identical to the CP2 prefixes listed above, except for Class 1. The first, second and third (Classes 1 and 2) person singular and plural subject and object agreement prefixes for verbs are as follows:

Derivation Derivation may refer to: Language * Morphological derivation, a word-formation process * Parse tree or concrete syntax tree, representing a string's syntax in formal grammars Law * Derivative work, in copyright law * Derivation proceeding, a ...
al suffixes (extensions)

Derivational suffixes in Jita, as in other Bantu languages, change the argument structure of the verb to express grammatical notions such as

causative In linguistics, a causative (abbreviated ) is a valency-increasing operationPayne, Thomas E. (1997). Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 173–186. that indicates that a subject either ...

benefactive The benefactive case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used where English would use "for", "for the benefit of", or "intended for", e.g. "She opened the door ''for Tom''" or "This book is ''for Bob' ...

locative In grammar, the locative case ( ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. In languages using it, the locative case may perform a function which in English would be expressed with such prepositions as "in", "on", "at", and " ...

reciprocal Reciprocal may refer to: In mathematics * Multiplicative inverse, in mathematics, the number 1/''x'', which multiplied by ''x'' gives the product 1, also known as a ''reciprocal'' * Reciprocal polynomial, a polynomial obtained from another pol ...

, reversive and

passive Passive may refer to: * Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive * Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works * Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of ...

. Below are listed some common derivational verbal suffixes (extensions) in Jita. Note that some extensions have two contextually determined forms due to vowel height harmony, mentioned above. The extended form of some Jita Infinitives is found in the table below (''oku-'' is the infinitive prefix; an acute accent on a vowel indicates High tone):

TAMs

As noted by Guthrie (1967), Jita has a "wealth" of verb tense/aspect/mood (TAM)

paradigms In science and philosophy, a paradigm ( ) is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. The word ''paradigm'' is Greek ...

. Downing (1990, 1996, 2014) and Odom & Robinson (2016) provide comprehensive lists of the paradigms. Note, however, that Odom & Robinson (2016) do not mark tone, even though the melodic tone patterns assigned to each pattern are a crucial part of the expression of TAM. (See Odden & Bickmore 2014 for an overview of the properties of Bantu melodic tone.) Below is the Appendix from Downing (2014), providing an overview of the melodic tone patterns assigned to frequently used TAMs in Jita. Note that not only the TAM but also the negative prefix, as well as

relative Relative may refer to: General use *Kinship and family, the principle binding the most basic social units of society. If two people are connected by circumstances of birth, they are said to be ''relatives''. Philosophy *Relativism, the concept t ...

verb forms, can determine the melodic tone pattern: When no consistent melodic tone pattern could be determined for a paradigm, Downing labeled the pattern "chaotic." Rolle (2018) develops an analysis of Jita melodic tone which finds a pattern even in the "chaotic" paradigms

References

Bibliography

Works on Jita/Sources of information for this article

*Bastin, Yvonne. 2003. The Interlacustrine zone (Zone J). In D. Nurse & G. Philippson (eds.), ''The Bantu Languages'', 501-528. London: Routledge. *Downing, Laura J. (1990
''Problems in Jita Tonology''
University of Illinois PhD thesis. *Downing, Laura J. (1996
''The Tonal Phonology of Jita''
Lincom Europa. *Downing, Laura J. (2014
"Melodic verb tone patterns in Jita"
In ''Africana Linguistica'' 20:101-119, January 2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/aflin.2014.1026 *''Jita Orthography Statement: Approved orthography edition''. 2016. SIL International. *Kagaya, Ryohei. 2005. ''A Jita vocabulary''. (Asian and African Lexicon, 47.) Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. xxi+482pp. *Massamba, David Phineas Bhukanda. 1977. ''A comparative study of the ruri, jita and kwaya "languages" of the eastern shores of Lake Nyanza (Victoria)''. MA thesis, University of Dar es Salaam; iii+138pp. *Odom, Shannon Ronit and Robinson, Holly. 2016. ''The Grammar Basics of Jita''. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. 24p

*Philippson, Gérard. 1991. ''Tons et Accent dans les Langues Bantu d'Afrique Orientale: Étude Comparative Typologique et Diachronique''. Doctoral dissertation, Université de Paris V - René Descartes. *van der Veken, A. 2002. ''Aspects of the Linguistic Study of Jita''. Licentiaat thesis, University of Ghent.

Other works cited

* Downing, L. J. 2011. Bantu Tone. In van Oostendorp, M., C. J. Ewen, E. Hume & K. Rice (eds.), ''The Blackwell Companion to Phonology'', Chapter 14. Cambridge; Oxford: Blackwell. * Guthrie, Malcolm. 1967. ''The classification of the Bantu languages''. London: Dawsons of Pall Mall for the International African Institute. * Hyman, Larry M. 1999. The historical interpretation of vowel harmony in Bantu. In Jean-Marie Hombert & Larry M. Hyman (eds.), ''Bantu Historical Linguistics: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives''. Stanford, CA: CSLI, 235-295. * Kisseberth, C. W. & D. Odden. 2003. Tone. In D. Nurse & G. Philippson (eds.), ''The Bantu Languages'', 59-70. London: Routledge. * Marlo Michael R. 2013. Verb tone in Bantu languages: micro‑typological patterns and research methods. ''Africana Linguistica'' 19, 137-234. DOI : https://doi.org/10.3406/aflin.2013.1020 * Odden, David. 2015. Bantu Phonology. Oxford Handbooks online. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935345.013.59 * Odden, David & Lee Bickmore. 2014. Melodic tone in Bantu: overview. ''Africana Linguistica'' 20, 3-13. DOI : https://doi.org/10.3406/aflin.2014.1021 {{Authority control Languages of Tanzania Great Lakes Bantu languages