Introduction to the Special Issue

Nordic journal of African studies

Abstract

Bantu languages are notoriously “verby” (Nurse 2008, 21), referring to the highly agglutinative nature of the inflected verb, whose complexities have sparked extensive research. Now that Bantu verbal morphology is much better understood, the time has come to widen the scope of research beyond the limits of the inflected, lexical verb to auxiliary verbs, which play an important role in Bantu verbal constructions but have enjoyed relatively little dedicated attention. This special issue is the outcome of an open call for papers issued by editors of the Nordic Journal of African Studies, inviting contributions on auxiliary verb constructions in Bantu languages. The call was designed to capture the breadth and diversity of current research on Bantu auxiliaries, encouraging submissions that address their categorical status, functional range, diachronic development, contact-induced change, and interaction with broader grammatical systems.

Authors 5

1. Ponsiano Sawaka Kanijo
   Affiliation as printed

   Mkwawa University College of Education

   ORCiD

2. Rasmus Bernander

   University of Gothenburg

   Affiliation as printed

   ORCiD

   University of Gothenburg

3. Eva-Marie Bloom Ström

   University of Gothenburg

   Affiliation as printed

   ORCiD

   University of Gothenburg

4. Thera Marie Crane

   University of Helsinki · University of Pretoria

   Affiliation as printed

   ORCiD

   University of Helsinki & University of Pretoria

5. Hilde Gunnink Aachen

   Leiden University · Ghent University

   Affiliation as printed

   Ghent University & Leiden University

   ORCiD