Mbalanhu
David J. Fourie
Mbalanhu is a Wambo dialect, assigned to Guthrie's R.20, and spoken by approximately 50320 people in Central Northern Namibia. Apart from a limited number of articles by the same author, no linguistic data on the structure of Mbalanhu is available.
The sketch commences with a section on phonology. This is followed by a description of noun classes and nominal suffixes in the next section which also contains a treatise of the derivation and structure of several concords (e.g subject, object, possessive), and nominal qualifiers. The third section focuses on verbal conjugation in the dialect, while the final section deals with syntax. The formal grammatical description is a Mbalanhu narrative text accompanied by an interlinear transcription and English translation. This compact sketch incorporates several tables with data, and an abundance of examples. It should form a welcome addition to linguistic material on the R.20 languages/dialects, which, due to a situation of prolonged military conflict in Southern Angola and Northern Namibia, have been inadequately studied to date.
ISBN 9783929075069. Languages of the World/Materials 03. 46 pp. 1993.
