The complexities of noun class system in the acquisition and learning of Swahili language
The complexities of noun class system in the acquisition and learning of Swahili language

Author(s): Leonard Muaka
Subject(s): Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: noun class; L2 speakers; foreign-language learners; Swahili morphosyntax; grammatical agreement; semantics; morphophonology
Summary/Abstract: The hallmark of Bantu languages is their robust noun class system. At the same time, the major challenge that foreign-language learners and second-language (L2) speakers of these languages face is mastering and using the noun class system consistently and appropriately in their language production. This paper demonstrates how L2 speakers and learners of Swahili as a foreign language assign and reassign nouns to different noun classes and identifies the noun classes that cause them the most problems. The author argues that by adopting a culturally informed morphosyntactic, phonological and semantic approach, L2 speakers and learners of Swahili as a foreign language can easily resolve problems with noun class agreement in Swahili.

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