Towards writing a comprehensive grammar of the Mambwe language

Mambwe language is spoken in Mbala and Senga districts of Northern Province in Zambia. The
language has approximately 500,000 native speakers (CSO, 2010). Therefore, the study was
conducted to identify, describe, analyse and write a comprehensive grammar of Mambwe
language which is less documented in terms of linguistic literature.
Being a descriptive study, the data were collected using four (4) informants who were the native
speakers of Mambwe language and these were distributed as follows: two (02) were the primary
source of data and the other two (02) informants verified the data which were provided by the
primary source. Each of the informants was given a list of words, phrases and sentences written
in English and asked to provide the equivalents in Mambwe. Further, in order to ensure that the
data were valid, verification was done by the other two informants. After verification process,
data were further checked and mistakes were corrected.
The study was informed by a descriptive research design. The qualitative approach backed the
descriptive research design to collect and analyse substantial data. Elicitation, document analysis
and direct observation techniques were equally used to collect data. The researcher being a
speaker of the language, introspection was equally applied in the process of data collection and
analysis. The collected data were later subjected to analysis in line with the objectives of the
study, which were: to describe the sound system of Mambwe language; to analyse the nominal
and verbal morphology of Mambwe language; and to establish the word order of Mambwe
language.
The study established that Mambwe language has twenty-five phonemes which include; eighteen
permissible consonants, five vowels and two semi-vowels. The language undergoes phonological
processes and has a common CV syllable structure. The study also found that the language has
established nominal and verbal structures which are associated with other Bantu languages.
Additionally, the language has eighteen noun classes, compound nouns and noun structures. It
also has a verbal structure which expresses tense, aspect and mood, verb extensions and verbal
complexes. The study further established the word order in basic sentences which include:
imperative, interrogative, declarative and exclamatory sentences as; SVO, VSO, SV and OVS for
sentences in the passive form. The study also established the word order in the noun phrase as;
N, N+D, N+M, N+Adj, N+Demo, N+Demo+Adj, N+Adj+Adj and N+D+M. Finally, the study
established the order in the verb phase as; V, Fin.VV, AuxMV and VV.
Key Words: Towards, Writing, Comprehensive, Grammar, Language, and Mambwe.