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Article published In:
Development of tense and aspect systems
Edited by Jadranka Gvozdanović
[Journal of Historical Linguistics 10:2] 2020
► pp. 251–288

Kisikongo (Bantu, H16a) present-future isomorphism

A diachronic conspiracy between semantics and phonology

| University of Gothenburg
| Ghent University | University of Pretoria
| Ghent University

The North-Angolan Bantu language Kisikongo has a present tense (Ø-R-ang-a; R = root) that is morphologically more marked than the future tense (Ø-R-a). We reconstruct how this typologically uncommon tense-marking feature came about by drawing on both historical and comparative evidence. Our diachronic corpus covers four centuries that can be subdivided in three periods, viz. (1) mid-17th, (2) late-19th/early-20th, and (3) late-20th/​early-21st centuries. The comparative data stem from several present-day languages of the “Kikongo Language Cluster.” We show that mid-17th century Kisikongo had three distinct constructions: Ø-R-a (with present progressive, habitual and generic meaning), Ø-R-ang-a (with present habitual meaning), and ku-R-a (with future meaning). By the end of the 19th century the last construction is no longer attested, and both present and future time reference are expressed by a segmentally identical construction, namely Ø-R-a. We argue that two seemingly independent but possibly interacting diachronic evolutions conspired towards such present-future isomorphism: (1) the semantic extension of an original present-tense construction from present to future leading to polysemy, and (2) the loss of the future prefix ku-, as part of a broader phenomenon of prefix reduction, inducing homonymy. To resolve the ambiguity, the Ø-R-ang-a construction evolved into the main present-tense construction.

Keywords: Bantu, Kikongo Language Cluster, Kisikongo, historical corpus linguistics, tense-aspect, present-future isomorphism
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Definitions and methodology
    • 2.1Concepts and definitions
    • 2.2Methodology
      • 2.2.1Data sources
      • 2.2.2Corpus queries
  • 3.Grammars vs. corpus data: A diachronic assessment of the Kisikongo Present and Future constructions
    • 3.1Mid-17th-century Kisikongo
      • Simple present Ø-R-a
      • Present imperfective Ø-R-ang-a
      • Future ku-R-a
      • Summary
    • 3.2Late-19th- and early-20th-century Kisikongo
      • Simple present Ø-R-a
      • Present imperfective Ø-R-ang-a
      • Future Ø-R-a
      • Summary
    • 3.3Late-20th- and early-21st-century Kisikongo
      • Simple present Ø-R-a
      • Present imperfective Ø-R-ang-a
      • Future Ø-R-a
      • Summary
    • 3.4Overview and discussion
  • 4.Reconstructing paradigmatic change
    • 4.1The polysemy hypothesis
    • 4.2The homonymy hypothesis
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 21 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.18030.dom
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