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Description:
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A Grammar of Makwe presents a detailed description of a hitherto largely
undocumented Bantu language spoken in the North of Mozambique. Historically
speaking, Makwe is the outcome of a long-standing contact between Makonde
as spoken in the interior of Tanzania and Mozambique and Swahili as spoken
along the East African coast. This grammar treats Makwe phonology, the
morphology of nouns, verbs and minor word categories, the semantics of
verbal conjugations, and different syntactic topics. A rich collection of
texts is offered at the end. Throughout the work, the linguistic analyses
are abundantly illustrated with natural speech examples. Of special
interest are the so-called conjoint and disjoint verb forms and modifiers
which present a striking example of an interface between phonology,
morphology, syntax and pragmatics.
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