Preverbal particles in Ihanzu

The Tanzanian Rift Valley Area, as conceived by Kießling, Mous, and Nurse (2008), is unique on the continent in that it is the only place in which all four of the major African language phyla (Afro-asiatic, Khoisan, Niger-Congo, and Nilo-Saharan) have been in contact for a long time. In this same work, the authors identify 19 features (phonological, morphosyntactic, and pragmatic) which cut across individual languages and language phyla, and are therefore candidates for examples of areal convergence. Of these features, one of the most salient (and most extensively discussed) is that of the preverbal clitic complex: a series of functional particles which occur before the verb, and which carry out functions commonly conceived as verbal in nature.
This talk examines the functional particles which occur before the verb in Ihanzu. Based on newly-conducted fieldwork, this talk seeks to add to our empirical knowledge of Ihanzu - an underdocumented language existing on the margins of the Tanzanian Rift Valley Area - as well as revisit the story of contact as told through these preverbal particles.