This section illustrates Bemba language processes of sentence formation and the signaling of verb tense, aspect, and mood. The linguistic analysis and material featured here was developed by Debra Spitulnik Vidali, in consultation with Maidstone Mulenga. A set of sentences about a person opening a door go through a series of morphological changes to illustrate Bemba’s many “verb tenses.” Look for the blue italics for audio links! More background on iciBemba can be found on this website and in this article. How to cite this page.
How many verb tenses does Bemba have? A good answer might be 6, 7, or 9. But linguistic technicalities require a more refined breakdown of the facts. In many languages of the world, verb tense (time) is marked along with other semantic values such as aspect (e.g. completeness or duration of action) and mood (e.g. certainty or likelihood of action).
In total, Bemba has: 1 present tense; 3 basic past tenses (past today, past recent, and past remote); 2 past perfect tenses (today and remote); 3 future tenses (inceptive, today future, and later future); 2 progressive aspect markers; 1 habitual aspect marker; and 5 other mood markers for imperatives, hypotheticals, and conditionals.
Examples below are presented in a standard linguistic presentation. The first line indicates the correct spelling in Zambia’s standard orthography for Bemba. The second line indicates the individual Bemba morphemes involved and the third line has the linguistic labels and English translations for the morphemes. Key features of “verb tense” are in bold. (Final vowel –a [indicative] is not marked, however.) The morpheme for third persons singular (‘he’ or ‘she’) is marked as 3sg.
1 Mulenga aaisula icibi Mulenga opens the door.
1 Mulenga a aa isula icibi Present
1 3sg Pres open door
2 Mulenga aleeisula icibi Mulenga is opening the door.
2 Mulenga a lee isula icibi Present Progressive
2 3sg Prog open door
3a Mulenga aacisula icibi Mulenga opened the door.
3a Mulenga a aaci isula icibi Past Today
3a 3sg TPast open door
3b Mulenga aaliisula icibi Mulenga opened the door.
3b Mulenga a alii isula icibi Past Recent (not today)
3b 3sg RPast open door
3c Mulenga aaliswile icibi Mulenga opened the door.
3c Mulenga a aali isul- –ile icibi Past Remote
3c 3sg RmPast open RmPast door
3d Mulenga aaliisula icibi Mulenga opened the door.
3d Mulenga a aali isula icibi Past Perfect, Remote Resultat.
3d 3sg RmPastP open door long ago, w/permanent effect
4a Mulenga alaaisula icibi Mulenga will open the door.
4a Mulenga a alaa isula icibi Future Today
4a 3sg Inc open door Inceptive (is about to open)
4b Mulenga akeesula icibi Mulenga will open the door.
4b Mulenga a ka isula icibi Future, Not Today
4b 3sg Fut open door
5a Mulenga taacisula icibi Mulenga didn’t open the door.
5a Mulenga ta a aaci isula icibi Negative, Today Past
5a Neg 3sg TPast open door
5b Mulenga taiswile icibi Mulenga didn’t open the door.
5b Mulenga ta a aa isul- –ile icibi Negative, Recent Past
5b Neg 3sg RPast open RPast door
6a Mulenga taisule icibi Mulenga will not open the door.
6a Mulenga ta a aa isul- –e icibi Negative, Future Today
Neg 3sg TFut open TFut door
6b Mulenga takeesule icibi Mulenga will not open the door.
6b Mulenga ta a aaka isul- –e icibi Neg, Future Tomorrow or Later
Neg 3sg Fut open Fut door
7 Mulenga esule icibi Mulenga should open the door.
7 Mulenga a isul- –e icibi Subjunctive
7 3sg open Subj door
8a Isula icibi! Open the door!
8a Ø– isula icibi Imperative (to one person/child)
8a IMP-2sg open door
8b Isuleeni icibi! Open the door!
8b isul –eeni icibi Imperative (to a group)
8b open IMP-2pl door
9 Bushe Mulenga aacisula icibi? Did Mulenga open the door?
9 Bushe Mulenga a aaci isula icibi Question, Today Past
9 Q 3sg TPast open door
10 Mulenga alaisula icibi Mulenga always opens the door.
10 Mulenga a la isula icibi Habitual
10 3sg Hab open door
11 Mulenga alaisulesula icibi Mulenga opened the door over
11 Mulenga a la isula isula icibi and over again.
11 3sg Hab open open door Repetitive
For more on Bemba grammar, click here.
How to cite this page:
Vidali, Debra Spitulnik and Maidstone Mulenga (2014). “Bemba Verbs.” Bemba Online Project. Published November 29, 2014: https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/bemba/?p=89.
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