The possible development of the Nguni locative prefixes e-o- /ke-/ la(yi)- ‘at, on, to, etc.’ from a demonstrative base la- / na-

Abstract

In this paper, comparative data from a number of Nguni and other South Eastern Bantu languages are utilised to argue that the Nguni locative prefixes e-, o-, ke-, la- or layi-, expressing the general locative significance of ‘at. on, to, etc.’, probably originated from a demonstrative base that manifests as either la- or na-, depending on the language concerned. This paper shows how Wilkes' (1993) proposal that this prefix probably developed from a demonstrative base la-, could be amended to account for a wider range of data than he initially envisaged. The amended hypothesis as proposed in this paper, succeeds in accounting for the possible diachronic origin of the various manifestations of this prefix in all of the Nguni languages.