Orthographic considerations regarding the Class 4 noun prefix and some verb stems in Xitsonga

Abstract

This article examines orthographic discrepancies which speakers and users of the standard Xitsonga language find confusing. It places particular emphasis on the formation of Class 4 nouns. The analysis is based on the data collected from the work of prominent Xitsonga scholars, such as Junod and Jaques (1957), Baumbach (1987) and Marivate et al. (1994). It is also based on the theories advanced by some of those scholars (e.g. Marivate et al., 1994). The article concludes by providing solutions to the orthographical ‘problems’ observed in the formation of Class 4 nouns and verb stems starting with a velar consonant. The solutions are presented in the form of rules, namely a morphophonemic and a verb rule.