Zulu grammar is the way in which meanings are encoded into wordings in the Zulu language. Zulu grammar is typical for Bantu languages, bearing all the hallmarks of this language family. These include agglutinativity, a rich array of noun classes, extensive inflection for person (both subject and object), tense and aspect, and a subject–verb–object word order.
Notation used in this article
Zulu orthography does not indicate vowel length or tone, but it can be important to note this in a description of grammar. The following diacritical marks are used throughout this article to indicate aspects that the standard orthography fails to:
A macron (ā ē ī ō ū) indicates a long vowel, An acute accent (á é í ó ú ḿ ń) indicates a high tone, A circumflex accent (â ê î ô û) indicates a long vowel with falling tone, No accent indicates a short vowel with no (low) tone, or is written where tone is not relevant, A diaeresis below (m̤ n̤ w̤ y̤) indicates that they are of the depressor variety.
Noun classes The Zulu noun consists of two essential parts: the prefix and the stem. Nouns are grouped into noun classes based on the prefix they have, with each class having a number. For example, the nouns , 'boys' and , 'friends' belong to class 2, characterised by the prefix aba-, whereas , 'surname' and , 'tree' belong to class 7, characterised by the prefix isi-. The numbers are based on the classes reconstructed for Proto-Bantu, and have corresponding classes in the other Bantu languages. Therefore, classes that are missing in Zulu create a gap in the numbering, as is the case with the missing classes 12, 13 and 16, as well as those above 17.
The prefix occurs in two forms: the full form and the simple or short form. The full form includes an initial vowel, called the augment, while this vowel is dropped in the simple form. The two forms have different grammatical functions, as detailed below.
+ Zulu noun classes Class Full prefix Simple prefix Common semantic content Example 1 um(u)- m(u)- Human beings , 'person' 2 aba-, abe- ba-, be- Regular plural of class 1 , 'people' 1a u- – Proper names, kinship terms, personifications , '(my) father' 2a ō- bō- Regular plural of class 1a , '(my) fathers' 3 um(u)- m(u)- plant, body part, river , 'leg' 4 imi- mi- Regular plural of class 3 , 'legs' 5 ī-, ili- li- Fruit, body part, ethnicity/race (member), loanwords , 'egg' 6 ama- ma- Regular plural of class 5. , 'eggs' 7 isi- si- Object, body part, kind of person, custom/culture/language , 'rich person' 8 izi- zi- Regular plural of class 7 , 'rich people' 9 in- n- Animal , 'dog' 10 izin- zin- Regular plural of class 9 and 11 , 'dogs', , 'feathers' 11 ū-, ulu- lu- Long/thin object , 'feather' 14 ubu- bu- Abstract concept , 'bead(s)' 15 uku- ku- Infinitive , 'light' 17 uku- ku- Relics, locatives, unspecified class , 'food / right hand side'
Every class is inherently singular or plural. Odd-numbered classes are singular, even-numbered classes are plural, with the exception of class 14 which is also singular in meaning. The plural of a noun is normally formed by switching it to the next higher class. Thus, the plural of class 1 , 'person' is class 2 , 'people'. For class 11 nouns, the plural is class 10. Classes 14, 15 and 17 usually have no plural at all, but in rare instances class 6 is used to form a plural for these nouns.
The class of the noun determines the forms of other parts of speech such as verbs and adjectives. These other parts of speech receive their own prefix, matching in class with the noun, though the prefixes themselves are not quite the same: , 'big boy' , 'large tree'
In terms of meaning, groups of similar nouns tend to belong to similar noun classes. For example, names and surnames are only found in class 1a. Nouns for people, including agent nouns, are commonly in class 1, while animals are often in class 9. Abstract nouns are often in class 14, loanwords in classes 9 and 5, and infinitives of verbs and nouns derived from them in class 15. These are only guidelines and there are exceptions in every single class.
Tone of nouns Every noun stem (without the prefix) has an inherent tone pattern, where each syllable is inherently high (H) or low (L). For example, the stem of the noun has the pattern L (a single low-toned syllable) while the stem of the noun has an underlying HH pattern (two high-toned syllables). There are several rules which act to modify the underlying tones to produce the final tone pattern that is actually used in speech. Thus, the spoken tones may differ quite strikingly from the underlying tones. This is already evident in the example of , where an underlying HH pattern is actually pronounced as FL (falling-low).
The prefixes of nouns also have an inherent tone pattern, but this is the same for all nouns and noun classes. The simple prefix has a single L tone, except for class 9 where the simple prefix does not consist of any syllables. The full prefix has an underlying HL pattern (the simple prefix has L, the augment has H), but the single-syllable prefixes of class 5, 9 and 11 have only H. Again, the underlying pattern may be modified by one or more tone rules, as seen in , where the underlying prefix is but surfaces as .
The following tone rules apply to nouns: Prefix spread: If the penultimate (2nd last) syllable of the prefix is high-toned while the first syllable of the noun stem is low-toned, the high tone spreads rightward to the end of the prefix. H-spread: The last high tone in a word, if it occurs before the antepenultimate (3rd last) syllable, will spread rightward to the antepenultimate syllable. If the stem contains no high tones, this rule may apply to a high tone in the prefix as well, causing it to spread onto the stem. Phrase-final HH: Where the penultimate (2nd last) syllable is lengthened phrase-finally, if the last two syllables of a word are HH, then if... both syllables belong to the stem, they become FL (falling-low). the former belongs to a one-syllable prefix while the latter belongs to the stem, they become FH (falling-high). Left deletion: In a sequence of high tones that resulted from the spreading rules, all but the last high tone are deleted and replaced by low tones. Any high tones in the stem immediately preceding the last high or falling tone are also deleted, even if they are inherent rather than the result of spreading. Tone displacement: As described under Zulu phonology. Tone dissimilation: Any remaining word-final HH pattern becomes HL.
These rules are ordered, so that for example the prefix-spread rule applies before the left deletion rule: even if the left deletion rule deletes a high tone from the first syllable of the stem, the prefix spread rule will still operate as though it were still present. Thus, the application of the prefix spread rule can reveal the underlying tone of the first stem syllable. Moreover, the final two syllables are generally not modified by any of the rules, so that the underlying tones are usually readily apparent there. An exception applies for HH in the last two syllables: either the phrase-final HH rule will convert them to FL, the left deletion rule will delete the first H, giving LH, or the tone dissimilation rule will convert it into HL.
Note that the combination of the spreading rules and the left deletion rule gives the impression of high tone "shifting" rightwards. However, chronologically, these are two separate processes, and some other Nguni languages (e.g. certain Xhosa dialects) have the spreading rules but not the deletion rule.
The following table shows examples of underlying tone patterns, and the surface patterns that result after application of the rules. The hyphen indicates the boundary between the prefix and the noun stem; the tones of the prefix are shown before the hyphen, those of the noun stem itself after it.
Tonepattern Underlyingform Prefix spread H-spread Phrase-finalHH Leftdeletion Tonedisplacement Tonedissimilation One syllable L úmu-ntu úmú-ntu umú-ntu ín-dlu H úmu-thí ín-já în-jáín-já în-jáín-ja Two syllables LL ísi-hlahla ísí-hlahla isí-hlahla ín-doda ízin-yoni ízín-yoni izín-yoni izin-yôniizin-yóni ízin-doda ízín-doda izín-doda HL ísi-báya ín-sízwa LH ísi-kathí ísí-kathí isí-kathí ízi-kathí ízí-kathí izí-kathí izi-kâthíizi-káthí izi-kâthíizi-káthi ín-komó HH úm-fází úm-fâziúm-fází úm-fâziúm-fazí ín-kósí ín-kôsiín-kósí ín-kôsiín-kosí Three syllables LLL ín-dodana ín-dódana in-dódana ízin-dodana ízín-dodana ízín-dódana izin-dódana HLL ín-yákatho LHL ísi-kashána ísí-kashána isí-kashána ízi-kashána ízí-kashána izí-kashána izi-káshána HHL ísi-fázáne ísi-fazáne LLH HLH LHH HHH úm-sébénzí úm-sébênziúm-sébénzí úm-sebênziúm-sebenzí Four syllables LLLL ú-dokotela ú-dókótela u-dokótela HLLL LHLL HLHH ín-góqokází ín-góqokâziín-góqokází ín-góqokâziín-góqokazí ín-goqókâziín-goqókazí HHLL úm-fázázana úm-fazázana LHHH ín-tombázáné ín-tombázâneín-tombázáné ín-tombazâneín-tombazané ama-ntombázáné ama-ntombázáné ama-ntombázâneama-ntombázáné ama-ntombazâneama-ntombazané ama-ntómbazâneama-ntómbazané
These rules combined can often lead to ambiguity as to the underlying tones, especially with longer stems and with class 9 prefixes. For example, the surface-form ínhlamvukâzi could reflect HHLL or LHLL, where the falling tone would be the result of tone displacement, and the first high tone lost due to left deletion. But HHHH, LHHH or LLHH are also possible, with a falling-low final pattern due to phrase-final HH rather than tone displacement. Even HLLL would be possible, with H-spread followed by left deletion and tone displacement creating the falling tone. In this particular case, the noun is known to derive from ínhlâmvu, with a HH pattern, but that still leaves both HHLL and HHHH as possibilities.
Use of the full and simple forms
The full form, including the initial augment, is the default form of the noun. It is used in most circumstances, such as in the role of the subject or object of a verb. The simple form has more specific uses. These include:The Internal Structure of the Zulu DP, Merijn de Dreu As a vocative, directly addressing someone or something. , 'Father, help me!' When the noun is preceded by a demonstrative. , 'this person' When the noun is followed by the interrogative adjectives -phí "which?" or -ní "what kind of?". , 'which person?' , 'what kind of person?' With the particle sa- "like". After a negative verb, when the meaning is indefinite, i.e. translatable with a word such as "any". , 'I don't see any people', contrasting with , 'I don't see the people'. When the negative of the so-called "associative copulative" is formed. , 'I don't have any dog', contrasting with , 'I have a dog', in which the e reflects the combination of the final a of the copulative and the noun's augment i. In a negative sentence, with an indefinite possessive modifying the object. In a relative clause, when the relative concord is prefixed to a possessive form, i.e. with "whose" as a relative. In a phrase which acts as a synonym of a preceding pronoun. , 'We, the people,...'
Locative
The locative is a noun form that indicates a location associated with the noun. It can translate to a variety of English prepositions, such as "in", "at", "on", "to" or "from", and is thus quite general in meaning. The locative is formed in two different ways, depending on the class of the noun.
For nouns in class 1(a) or 2(a), which include all proper names of people, the locative is formed by prefixing kú- to the noun, dropping the augment. The prefix has a high tone like the augment, so the tone pattern of the word does not change. For example: , 'person' → , 'at/on/to/from etc. the person' , 'people' → , 'at/on/to/from etc. the people' , 'father' → , 'at/on/to/from etc. father' , 'fathers' → , 'at/on/to/from etc. fathers' (u + o gives o) , 'October' → , 'in October'