Ihanzu Demonstrative Pronouns: Morphology and Semantics

The aim of the study is to analyse morphology and semantics of Ihanzu demonstrative pronouns.
Ihanzu is a Bantu language spoken in North-Central Tanzania (Singida and Manyara regions) by
26 000 speakers. The data for this study comes from 10 fairy tales collected in Haydom town
(Manyara region). The analysis involved transcription and annotation of narratives as well as
interviews and elicitation sessions with Ihanzu native speakers. Ihanzu possesses four types of
demonstrative pronouns: proximal, medial, distal 1, and distal 2. They all are used as dependent
components of a noun phrase. Proximal demonstrative pronouns are used to refer to something
that is close to both speaker and hearer. They are formed by noun class prefix reduplication
(ɨmaje yaya ‘these eggs’). Medial demonstrative pronouns are used to refer to something that is
not far away from both speaker and hearer. They are formed by noun class prefix reduplication
attached to the root o (ɨmaje ayo ‘these eggs’). Distal demonstrative pronouns of subtype 1 are
used to refer to something that is far away from both speaker and hearer. They are formed in the
same way as medial but are pronounced with the hight tone on the root o (ɨmaje ayóó ‘those
eggs’). Distal demonstrative pronouns of subtype 2 are used to refer to something that is not
visible to both speaker and hearer. They are formed by the root ng’wanso and noun class prefix
attached to it (mʉng’wanso mʉgunda ‘on that field’). Besides these special functions medial and
distal demonstrative pronouns play metarepresentational and anaphoric functions (to refer to
something that was previously said or to introduce something that is about to be mentioned and
is supposed to be familiar to the hearer). Moreover, demonstrative pronouns exhibit
morphological reduction: omission of the first consonant or glide in the first prefix (ɨmaje aya
‘these eggs’). This reduction is pragmatically conditioned.