Sotho nouns


Notes:
Sesotho nouns signify concrete or abstract concepts in the language, but are distinct from the Sesotho pronouns.
Bantu languages are often said to have sentences which are "centred around the noun" due to the striking nature of the noun concordance system. In Sesotho, pronouns, verbs, copulatives, adjectives, relatives, enumeratives, and possessives all need to agree with the noun associated with them.

Structure

Except for class 1a, nouns are composed of a [|noun prefix] and a stem. Each noun belongs to one of several noun classes and the knowledge of noun classes and their concords is pivotal to composing coherent sentences.
Usually, the noun's class can be discerned by simply looking for the prefix, but there are many instances where this can become very complicated:
There are further complications caused by stems that begin with vowels when the vowels interact causing the quality and tone of the prefix vowel to change ; in these cases it is often simply a matter of memorising the correct class and plural for each individual word.
Noun stems can range in length from monosyllabic as in motho, to very long stems formed either by duplication or derived from long and complex verbs, such as the seven-syllable phuparollelano, derived from a verb which is in turn idiomatically and recursively and comes through four distinct steps — derived from the verb fupara.

Noun prefix system

Sesotho, like all other Bantu languages, uses a set of "noun classes" and each noun belongs to one of the classes. The noun class that a noun belongs to is indicated by a prefix.
Nouns are divided somewhat arbitrarily between these classes, although a few of them contain nouns which mostly fall into clear categories. For example, all class 1 nouns are humans and verbal agents, most class 1a nouns are proper names and kinship terms, etc.
The noun classes and their respective prefixes are as follows:
Notes:
  1. means that nasalization will occur to the following consonant.
  2. Many class 5 words in Sesotho come from the original Proto-Bantu *du- class 11, whose plural is class 10 *dîN-, which is why some class 5 nouns may have two distinct plurals: one in class 6, and one in class 10. However, the di- plural does not apply to all class 5 words, and when it does the meaning might be changed slightly. For example, Setswana uses lorato for Sesotho lerato, as this class still exists in the language.
  3. Classes 16, 17, and 18 are the locative classes. They are no longer productive in Sesotho but they are productive in many other Bantu languages.
  4. Noun Classes 11 to 13, and 19 to 23 do not occur in Sesotho, but do occur in other Bantu languages.
Each basic noun in Sesotho has an inherent prefix. The speaker's mental lexicon includes the entire word, including the class prefix, which is usually enough to determine the class and therefore the concords as well.
Up until class 10, the plural class for class n is class n + 1. Most languages have these first ten classes, though there are many where some of the classes 1 to 10 are missing.
Though class membership is ultimately determined by morphology and not semantics, it is obvious from comparing the class contents of various languages that there are some tentative semantic trends. The strongest trend is that all class 1 nouns are human, and non-human nouns that begin with the mo- prefix are therefore in class 3. In many other languages, however, class 1 contains "animate" nouns, and may therefore also contain some non-human nouns.
Motswalle, in class 1, has an irregular plural in class 4 — metswalle. Also, morena, has a plural in class 6. Many class 1 words have a tendency of misbehaving, but we know that they belong to class 1 because of their concords. Quite a substantial number of class 1 words have their plurals in class 6.
All these irregularities with the plurals naturally lead to a system where each class is treated as a separate gender, instead of alternatives where the first twelve classes are grouped into six genders.
Often, when the prefix of a noun whose stem begins with a vowel is obscured by various phonological processes, prefix compounding may occur when forming plurals, or even in the singular itself. Some words may even end up in a different class
In idiomatic speech, the le- of class 5, the se- of class 7, and the di- of classes 8 and 10 are sometimes not rendered when the noun is followed by the appropriate concords. Some historical words, such as Letsie III of Lesotho, have completely lost their singular prefixes. Others, such as lelapa are often rendered without the prefix even when not followed by any prefixes. The class 5 noun isao has completely lost its prefix, and has plural maisao.

Class contents

What follows is a brief outline of the contents and functionings of the various classes.
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Class 1 contains most human nouns and is the default class for verbal agents, which end in the vowel.
The class prefix is mo- and comes from original Proto-Bantu *mu-. In standard Sesotho, the prefix appears as mm- before stems beginning with b.
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Class 1a has exactly the same concords as class 1, but differs from it in the lack of prefix. It contains proper names of people, kinship terms, as well as the names of some animals and plants.
The proper names and kinship terms generally have miscellaneous forms, but the names of animals, plants, and some humans in this class begin with a mma- or ma- prefix.
Names of mothers, fathers, married women and men, and initiated boys and girls may be formed from other nouns and proper names with the prefixes mma- and ra- meaning "mother of" and "father of" respectively.
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Class 2 is the plural class for class 1. There are, however, many class 1 nouns which have their plural in class 6 instead.
The class prefix is ba- and comes from original Proto-Bantu *ba-.
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Class 2a is the plural class for class 1a. When used with human nouns it sometimes has the meaning of "X and them" or "the people/followers/kin of X." It uses exactly the same concords as class 2.
The class prefix is a high tone bo- and comes from original Proto-Bantu *bo-.
In informal speech, the "X and them" meaning is often extended, with the prefix being compounded upon nouns in other classes to create words meaning "X and such."
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Class 3 has miscellaneous content. Some nouns in this class also come from verbs, but are non-personal and usually end in the vowel.
The class prefix is exactly the same as that of class 1, but the two classes use different concords. Like class 1 the prefix appears as mm- before stems beginning with in standard Sesotho.
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Class 4 contains the plurals of class 3 nouns.
The class prefix is me- and comes from original Proto-Bantu *mi-.
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Class 5 is very homogeneous in content. It has many terms of body parts which appear in pairs, natural phenomena, and certain special classes of people.
The class prefix is le- and comes from original Proto-Bantu *di- as well as Proto-Bantu *du-.
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Class 6 contains the plurals of class 5 nouns as well as the plurals of many class 1 nouns, class 9 nouns, and all class 14 nouns which may assume plurals. It also contains the names of some liquids which only appear in the plural.
The class prefix is ma- and comes from original Proto-Bantu *ma-.
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Class 7 is fairly homogeneous in content and also contains the names of the languages or cultures of various societies. This class also contains many abstract nouns derived from nouns in other classes.
The class prefix is se- and comes from original Proto-Bantu *ki-.
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Class 8 contains the plurals of class 7 nouns. Note that language and culture names, as well as abstract nouns, do not have plurals.
The class prefix is di- and comes from original Proto-Bantu *bî-.
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Class 9 is rather miscellaneous in content. Most foreign acquisitions end up here.
The class prefix is - and comes from either original Proto-Bantu *N- or *ni-. Note that for almost all nouns with stems of two or more syllables the syllabic nasal does not appear but the stem is still nasalized.
This class also contains a curious set of nouns formed by the action of a class 1, 3, or 18 prefix losing its vowel and thus becoming a syllabic nasal. However, since this process often happens when constructing first names of people, the resulting noun then appears in class 1a.
When deriving non-personal nouns from monosyllabic verb stems, two strategies may be used. The first form creates objects, and simply nasalizes the verb stem, replaces the final vowel with, and affixes the syllabic nasal. The second strategy is much less common and creates nouns indicating actions by first replacing the final vowel with -eo before applying the nasalization.
For non-monosyllabic stems the meaning obtained by replacing the final vowel with and applying nasalization is generally only that of the action.
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Class 10 contains the plurals of class 9 nouns as well as the plurals of some class 5 nouns.
The prefix is formed by adding di- to the full class 9 noun or adding di- to the class 5 noun stem. Since the noun is formed by modifying the already modified class 9 stem this class is sometimes called 9a instead.
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Class 14 is the default class for abstract nouns, but it also contains some non-abstract nouns. Abstract nouns may be regularly formed from other nouns and from certain qualificatives. This class also contains many nouns which may be used as relatives.
The class prefix is bo- and comes from original Proto-Bantu *bu-.
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Class 15 exclusively contains verb infinitives and gerunds. These may be used syntactically as normal nouns with abstract meanings. Like English gerunds and infinitives, they may take direct objects and be inflected as other verbs, but they cannot be predicates.
The class prefix is ho- and comes from original Proto-Bantu *ku-. This is prefixed to the verbal complex without the subjectival concord or certain verbal auxiliary infixes. Infinitives denoting a negative meaning are formed by inserting an infix -se- after the prefix and changing the final vowel to.
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Class 16 in Sesotho is a locative class containing only one member — fatshe — used almost exclusively as an adverb. In many other Bantu languages, including Setswana, this class is productive, but this is no longer the case in Sesotho.
The class prefix is fa- and comes from original Proto-Bantu *pa-. It uses exactly the same concords as those of class 15.
Note that the class 5 noun lefatshe is formed from this noun through prefix compounding.
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Class 17 is a locative class containing few actual nouns. In many other Bantu languages, including Setswana, this class is productive, but this is no longer the case in Sesotho.
The class prefix is ho- and comes from original Proto-Bantu *ku-. It uses exactly the same concords as those of class 15.
The class 5 noun lehodimo is formed from one of the nouns in this class through prefix compounding.
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Class 18 is a locative class containing a limited number of nouns. In many other Bantu languages, including Setswana, this class is productive, but this is no longer the case in Sesotho.
The class prefix is mo- and comes from Proto-Bantu *mu-. It is distinguished from other mo- classes by its concords.
The Sesotho locative adverbs of place are the demonstrative pronouns of this class. Note that in this case the pronouns correspond to a mo- class prefix, instead of the class 15 concords which this class usually uses.

Concords

Every part of speech in Sesotho which is somehow connected with a noun needs to be brought into agreement with the noun. This is done by a set of concords whose forms loosely resemble the noun prefixes. The concords are attached to the front of the parts of speech and result in utterances which sound mildly alliterative.

Tones

Except for class 2a, the prefixes of the non-locative classes are null toned, while the set of possible tone patterns for the stem is large and obviously dependent on its length.
When certain high toned formatives are prefixed to a noun with tonal pattern ' for the first two syllables including the noun prefix, the noun prefix's tone becomes high giving pattern '. This does not happen if the second syllable of the noun is high. With monosyllabic stems the tone of the stem is raised as well.

Derivation

In the Bantu languages, nouns form an open class with new nouns regularly and actively being created from nouns and other parts of speech through predictable methods.

From nouns

Many nouns can be derived from other nouns, usually through the use of suffixes.
Qualificatives can be used to derive abstract nouns in class 14 by prefixing bo-.

From ideophones

Some nouns are irregularly derived from ideophones by reduplication:

From verbs

Nouns of most classes are very actively and regularly derived from verbs. What follows is only a brief and incomplete overview.
-rata →
Note that:
Generally, agents are formed in classes 1 and 7 by adding the prefix and changing the final vowel to i, while impersonal nouns are formed in several classes by adding the prefix and changing the final vowel to o:
There are, however, some impersonal nouns which end with i. Even if they begin with the ambiguous class prefix mo-, nouns denoting non-human entities cannot be in class 1.
Agents derived from passive verbs often use the full passive suffix -uwa, and never change the final vowel:

Compound nouns

A rich source of nouns are nominal compounds formed from other parts of speech and even complete sentences. Note that the use of dashes to separate their parts is also irregular and usually based on the popularity and utility of the noun, and the Lesotho and South African orthographies tend to differ.
As in many other languages, compounds indicating possession may be formed by following the possessee with the possessor. This may also be done with the descriptive possessive.

Foreign (non-Bantu nor Khoisan) acquisitions

Many Sesotho nouns stem from contact with speakers of Indo-European languages, primarily French missionaries, Orange Free State Afrikaners, and, in modern times, English people. The very alien phonetics and phonologies of these languages mean that words are to be imported rather irregularly with varying phonetic transformations.