Prominent features of Lobedu nouns and pronouns

Abstract

This article documents the most prominent morphological differences between the nouns and pronouns of standard Northern Sotho and one of its most distant dialects, Lobedu. The article features, amongst others, differences in the class prefixes of Northern Sotho and Lobedu, alternative forms of the absolute pronoun, three forms of the exclusive quantitative, a fourth demonstrative position, alternative forms of the demonstrative copulative which do not occur in Northern Sotho, differences between adjectives in classes 8/10 in Lobedu and Northern Sotho, the use of the possessive particle in nominal relatives in Lobedu, and the occurrence of only two radical roots which are used exclusively in radical pronouns in Lobedu as against the four of Northern Sotho.