(32) Baye (2008: 227, translation RM)

a. ካሳ ወረቀቱን ቅድድ አደረገው።

kasa wäräk’ät-u-n k’iddidd adärräg-ä-w.

Kasa.M paper-DEF.M-ACC IDPH.tear do\PFV-SBJ.3SM-OBJ.3SM
‘Kasa tore the paper completely.’

b. ካሳ ወረቀቱን ቅድድድ

kasa wäräk’ät-u-n k’id~id~id~idd

Kasa.M paper-DEF.M-ACC IDPH.tear~PLR~PLR~PLR

አደረገው።

adärräg-ä-w.

do\PFV-SBJ.3SM-OBJ.3SM

‘Kasa tore up the (sheet of) paper very quickly and completely.’

According to Baye (2008: 226–227), the number of recurrent partial reduplications of a syllable is not limited, and it can occur many times depending on the discourse context (see also Teferi & Baye 2022a: 115).

A special type of ideophones related to full reduplication are so-called “echo-words”, i.e. the combination of two juxtaposed ideophones that either denote a semantic contrast (33) or two different aspects of the same general meaning, as in *bitt’iss k’int’iss alä* ‘break abruptly and completely; die prematurely’, where *bitt’iss* is related to *bätt’äsä* ‘detach, snap’ and *k’int’iss* to *k’änätt’äsä* ‘snap off with the fingers’.

(33) Baye (2008: 229, translation RM)

ካሳ ሊራተባ እያለ

kasa fära_täba ijjal-ä

Kasa.M IDPH.hesitant [< fear_be.courageous ] PROG.say\PFV-3SM

ወደ ቢት ገባ።

wädä bet gäbba.

towards house enter\PFV-3SM

‘Kasa entered hesitantly into the house.’

An exhaustive list of echo-words in Amharic, as well as in Tigre and Tigrinya, is found
in Leslau (1961). Amharic echo-words are also described in some detail in Teferi &
Baye (2022a: 106–108), Baye (2008: 228–229) and Leslau (1995: 594–596). Some of
them are shown in (34).
(34) Leslau (1995: 594–596)

a. k'utʃ' biddigg alä 'be restless'
(lit. sit_down + stand_up)

b. wät'a gäba alä 'move to and fro'
(lit. go_out + go_in)

c. käff zigg alä 'heave'
(lit. rise + be_lowered)

d. likk'imm t'irk'imm adärrägä 'clean up everything'
(lit. gather + hold_tight)

e. iffin tf'iffinn adärrägä 'cover up completely to choke someone'
(lit. suffocate + cover_up)

f. tfikk mintfikk alä 'be very stubborn'
(lit. be_stubborn + ?)

g. kimbiss mimbiss alä 'speak incoherently, nonsense'

While the origin of many of the echo-words can still be related to simple ideophones or verb roots, some of them, e.g. (34f, g), do not have an obvious relation to any other lexeme. As the echo-words occur with the verbs *alä* ‘say’ and *adärrägä* ‘do’ as light verbs, they are considered ideophones. Teferi & Baye (2022a: 106–108) call these constructions “compound ideophonic verbs”.

However, Amharic also has a number of echo-words that are used like nominals and that never occur as coverbs, such as *arti murti* ‘nonsense speech’ and *tirki mirki* ‘rubbish, empty chatter’ (see Bezza 2013: 58–60; Teferi & Baye 2022a: 107). Thus, as is the case of onomatopoeia, not all echo-words are ideophones, even if the majority of them belong to this group.

## 6. Derived ideophones

In addition to the lexical word class of ideophones, Amharic also productively derives ideophones by interdigitating a lexical root with one of the two templates for triliteral roots: $C_1CC_2CC_3$ for an intensive reading and $C_1äC_2äC_3$ for an attenuated reading, compared to the event expressed by a regularly inflected verb from the same root. This derivation is shown in (35) with the triliteral root $\sqrt{s_1-b_2-r_3}$ ‘break’ (for other verb types and bi- and quadriliteral roots, see Leslau 1995: 586–593).
(34) Leslau (1995: 594–596)

a. k'utʃ' biddigg alä 'be restless'
(lit. sit_down + stand_up)

b. wät'a gäba alä 'move to and fro'
(lit. go_out + go_in)

c. käff zigg alä 'heave'
(lit. rise + be_lowered)

d. likk'imm t'irk'imm adärrägä 'clean up everything'
(lit. gather + hold_tight)

e. ɪffɪn tʃ'ɪffɪnn adärrägä 'cover up completely to choke someone'
(lit. suffocate + cover_up)

f. tʃɪkk mintʃikk alä 'be very stubborn'
(lit. be_stubborn + ?)

g. kɪmbɪss mɪmbɪss alä 'speak incoherently, nonsense'

While the origin of many of the echo-words can still be related to simple ideophones or verb roots, some of them, e.g. (34f, g), do not have an obvious relation to any other lexeme. As the echo-words occur with the verbs *alä* ‘say’ and *adärrägä* ‘do’ as light verbs, they are considered ideophones. Teferi & Baye (2022a: 106–108) call these constructions “compound ideophonic verbs”.

However, Amharic also has a number of echo-words that are used like nominals and that never occur as coverbs, such as *arti murti* ‘nonsense speech’ and *tirki mirki* ‘rubbish, empty chatter’ (see Bezza 2013: 58–60; Teferi & Baye 2022a: 107). Thus, as is the case of onomatopoeia, not all echo-words are ideophones, even if the majority of them belong to this group.

## 6. Derived ideophones

In addition to the lexical word class of ideophones, Amharic also productively derives ideophones by interdigitating a lexical root with one of the two templates for triliteral roots: $C_1CC_2CC_3$ for an intensive reading and $C_1äC_2äC_3$ for an attenuated reading, compared to the event expressed by a regularly inflected verb from the same root. This derivation is shown in (35) with the triliteral root $\sqrt{s_1-b_2-r_3}$ ‘break’ (for other verb types and bi- and quadriliteral roots, see Leslau 1995: 586–593).
(35) a. INTENSIVE TEMPLATE: $C_1CC_2CC_3$

sibbirr alä ‘break completely, suddenly (ITR)’

$s_1ibb_2irr_3$ sibbirr~sibbirr alä ‘(several things) break completely (ITR)’

sibbirr adärrägä ‘break completely (TR)’

b. ATTENUATIVE TEMPLATE: $C_1äC_2äC_3$

säbär alä ‘crack (ITR)’

$s_1äb_2är_3$ säbär~säbär alä ‘(several things) crack (ITR)’

säbär adärrägä ‘crack (TR)’

Derived intensive and attenuative ideophones behave exactly like lexical ideophones, i.e. they appear as the coverb of the light verbs alä ‘say’ and adärrägä ‘do’, and they can be reduplicated. Compared to conjugated simple verbs, complex predicates with the intensive and attenuative templates denote a gradation in the intensity or force of the verbal event (see e.g. Leslau 1995: 582; Baye 1999: 30–31; Mengistu 2010: 296–297; Teferi & Baye 2022a: 108–110).

Since these derived ideophones are very productive in Amharic, most verbs occur in a tripartite system that distinguishes between the neutral form, i.e. the regularly conjugated verb, e.g. for (35), the noncausal mediopassive täs₁äbb₂är₃ä ‘break ITR’ or the causal simplex s₁äbb₂är₃ä ‘break TR’, and its intensive and attenuative forms in (35a) and (35b) (see Mengistu 2010: 296–297).

The derivation of ideophones from other words is typologically rare. Apart from Amharic (and other Ethiosemitic languages, see Section 7), it occurs in some Bantu languages, such as Cilubà (lua) (Kabuta 2001), Shona (sna) (Franck 2014), Tetela (tll) (Tassa 2001) and Sena (Guérois this volume), and also in Bulgarian (bul) (Kovatcheva 2014).

## 7. Complex predicates with the verb ‘say’ in Ethiosemitic

Complex predicates consisting of an invariant coverb followed by the verb ‘say’ occur in all Ethiosemitic languages, and are called “(descriptive) compound verbs” or “composite verbs” in the literature. Most likely, some of these coverbs also represent
(35) a. INTENSIVE TEMPLATE: $C_1CC_2CC_3$

sibbirr alä ‘break completely, suddenly (ITR)’

$s_1ibb_2irr_3$ sibbirr~sibbirr alä ‘(several things) break completely (ITR)’

sibbirr adärrägä ‘break completely (TR)’

b. ATTENUATIVE TEMPLATE: $C_1äC_2äC_3$

säbär alä ‘crack (ITR)’

$s_1äb_2är_3$ säbär~säbär alä ‘(several things) crack (ITR)’

säbär adärrägä ‘crack (TR)’

Derived intensive and attenuative ideophones behave exactly like lexical ideophones, i.e. they appear as the coverb of the light verbs alä ‘say’ and adärrägä ‘do’, and they can be reduplicated. Compared to conjugated simple verbs, complex predicates with the intensive and attenuative templates denote a gradation in the intensity or force of the verbal event (see e.g. Leslau 1995: 582; Baye 1999: 30–31; Mengistu 2010: 296–297; Teferi & Baye 2022a: 108–110).

Since these derived ideophones are very productive in Amharic, most verbs occur in a tripartite system that distinguishes between the neutral form, i.e. the regularly conjugated verb, e.g. for (35), the noncausal mediopassive täs₁äbb₂är₃ä ‘break ITR’ or the causal simplex s₁äbb₂är₃ä ‘break TR’, and its intensive and attenuative forms in (35a) and (35b) (see Mengistu 2010: 296–297).

The derivation of ideophones from other words is typologically rare. Apart from Amharic (and other Ethiosemitic languages, see Section 7), it occurs in some Bantu languages, such as Cilubà (lua) (Kabuta 2001), Shona (sna) (Franck 2014), Tetela (tll) (Tassa 2001) and Sena (Guérois this volume), and also in Bulgarian (bul) (Kovatcheva 2014).

## 7. Complex predicates with the verb ‘say’ in Ethiosemitic

Complex predicates consisting of an invariant coverb followed by the verb ‘say’ occur in all Ethiosemitic languages, and are called “(descriptive) compound verbs” or “composite verbs” in the literature. Most likely, some of these coverbs also represent
ideophones.<fnref n="22" /> But ideophones are generally not distinguished from other elements (e.g. interjections or adverbials) in older grammatical descriptions. Cohen (1939: 287)—the first summary of the composite verbs in Ethiosemitic—considers them to be a language contact phenomenon due to Cushitic influence. This assumption was widely accepted by others—including Leslau (1945a: 72), Hetzron (1972: 18), Tosco (2000: 346), Appleyard (2001: 9), Cohen et al. (2002: 244)—mostly because Asian Semitic languages lack such constructions.<fnref n="23" /> Ferguson (1970: 73–74) considers them a defining feature of the Ethiopian Linguistic Area (for further details, see Crass & Meyer 2008: 232–233). However, Wetter (1999; 2002), Crass et al. (2001), Cohen et al. (2002) and Güldemann (2005) show that these complex predicates result from a grammaticalization process of the respective verb ‘say’, which is also found in other languages, even outside Africa (see also Mengistu 2010: 296).

One remarkable construction with the grammaticalized verb ‘say’ contains a fully reduplicated noun as coverb, as in (36), (37a) or (14f, g).

(36) a. ṭ'äw~ṭ'äw alä (salt~salt) 'taste salty'
b. k'ibe~k'ibe alä (butter~butter) 'taste/smell like butter'
c. ṭ'is~ṭis alä (smoke~smoke) 'smell like smoke'

(37) a. bird~bird al-ä-ŋŋ.
CNV.cold~PLR say\PFV-SBJ.3SM-OBJ.1SG
'I have the chills.' or 'I feel cold.'
b. bärräd-ä-ŋŋ.
be(come)_cold\PFV-SBJ.3SM-OBJ.1SG
'I feel cold.'

Based on a survey of their distribution in Ethiosemitic, these constructions are very widespread (for the sources, see *fn.below*). They have been reported for Tigrinya

<footnote n="22">²² See also Treis (this volume) for Kambaata (ktb), a Cushitic language spoken in Ethiopia. Like Amharic, Kambaata ideophones form a distinct word class and typically occur as coverbs with the respective light verbs for ‘say’ and ‘do’, marking an intransitive/transitive contrast. Additionally, other elements can function as coverbs in Kambaata, and the border between ideophones and interjections is vague.</footnote>

<footnote n="23">²³ In fact, similar complex predicates occur sporadically in Hebrew (heb), Babylonian Aramaic (tmr) and Neo-Aramaic (cld) (Goldenberg 2013: 224–225).</footnote>
ideophones.<fnref n="22" /> But ideophones are generally not distinguished from other elements (e.g. interjections or adverbials) in older grammatical descriptions. Cohen (1939: 287)—the first summary of the composite verbs in Ethiosemitic—considers them to be a language contact phenomenon due to Cushitic influence. This assumption was widely accepted by others—including Leslau (1945a: 72), Hetzron (1972: 18), Tosco (2000: 346), Appleyard (2001: 9), Cohen et al. (2002: 244)—mostly because Asian Semitic languages lack such constructions.<fnref n="23" /> Ferguson (1970: 73–74) considers them a defining feature of the Ethiopian Linguistic Area (for further details, see Crass & Meyer 2008: 232–233). However, Wetter (1999; 2002), Crass et al. (2001), Cohen et al. (2002) and Güldemann (2005) show that these complex predicates result from a grammaticalization process of the respective verb ‘say’, which is also found in other languages, even outside Africa (see also Mengistu 2010: 296).

One remarkable construction with the grammaticalized verb ‘say’ contains a fully reduplicated noun as coverb, as in (36), (37a) or (14f, g).

(36) a. ṭ'äw~ṭ'äw alä (salt~salt) 'taste salty'
b. k'ibe~k'ibe alä (butter~butter) 'taste/smell like butter'
c. ṭ'is~ṭis alä (smoke~smoke) 'smell like smoke'

(37) a. bird~bird al-ä-ŋŋ.
CNV.cold~PLR say\PFV-SBJ.3SM-OBJ.1SG
'I have the chills.' or 'I feel cold.'
b. bärräd-ä-ŋŋ.
be(come)_cold\PFV-SBJ.3SM-OBJ.1SG
'I feel cold.'

Based on a survey of their distribution in Ethiosemitic, these constructions are very widespread (for the sources, see *fn.below*). They have been reported for Tigrinya

<footnote n="22">²² See also Treis (this volume) for Kambaata (ktb), a Cushitic language spoken in Ethiopia. Like Amharic, Kambaata ideophones form a distinct word class and typically occur as coverbs with the respective light verbs for ‘say’ and ‘do’, marking an intransitive/transitive contrast. Additionally, other elements can function as coverbs in Kambaata, and the border between ideophones and interjections is vague.</footnote>

<footnote n="23">²³ In fact, similar complex predicates occur sporadically in Hebrew (heb), Babylonian Aramaic (tmr) and Neo-Aramaic (cld) (Goldenberg 2013: 224–225).</footnote>
(North Ethiosemitic), Amharic and Silt'e (both Transversal Ethiosemitic), and Kistane, Muher, Gumer and Endegagn (all South Ethiosemitic). Even the little known and now extinct language Mesmes has at least one construction of this type, *k'o:t'o~k'o:t'o barä' 'arrange in orderly manner (lit. say k'o:t'o k'o:t'o)'* (Ahland 2010: 111 line 7), where the reduplicated element is probably the noun 'place'. This construction has not been mentioned in the grammars of Geez (North Ethiosemitic), and Argobba and Zay (both Transversal Ethiosemitic). In North Ethiosemitic, it seems to be limited to Tigrinya, as it does not exist in Tigre and Dahaalik. Harari (Transversal Ethiosemitic) also lacks it. However, Dahaalik and Harari have a construction in which a simple noun can be combined with the verb 'say', as in the Dahaalik example (38).

(38) Dahaalik (Afroasiatic, Semitic; PC Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle, July 2019)

hibes bila
work.N say\PFV.3SM
'he worked'

According to Beniam (2013: 150–152), the construction of simple noun plus verb ‘say’ is very common and productive in Harari, and often coexists with a regularly inflected verb from the same root. The meaning of such constructions with respect to the regular verbs is still not well described, but the coverbs are clearly nouns.

The combination of a reduplicated noun as coverb and the verb ‘say’ typically describe the perception of tastes and smells, e.g. (14g) and (36), besides a few other sensations, such as love in (14f) or the perception of temperature in (37a). However, in contrast to constructions with an ideophone, a fully reduplicated noun as a coverb cannot form a causal counterpart by exchanging the light verb ‘say’ with the verb ‘do’ (or the causative of ‘say’). Furthermore, reduplicated nouns or imperative verbs as coverbs do not denote a change in intensity, speed, etc., as is the case with fully reduplicated ideophones (Section 5), but only express a sensory experience related to the semantics of the respective simple nouns. In some cases, the semantics of such a complex predicate denotes nuances that cannot be expressed by a simple verb, as in (37), where only the construction with the reduplicated noun ‘cold’ in (a) has the sense of ‘having the chills’, from which probably the second sense ‘feeling cold’ developed, which is also denoted by the simple verb in (37b).

Loan verbs from languages with fully vocalized verb stems are often integrated into Amharic using a complex predicate based on the light verb *adärrägä* ‘do’. This is
(North Ethiosemitic), Amharic and Silt'e (both Transversal Ethiosemitic), and Kistane, Muher, Gumer and Endegagn (all South Ethiosemitic). Even the little known and now extinct language Mesmes has at least one construction of this type, *k'o:t'o~k'o:t'o barä' 'arrange in orderly manner (lit. say k'o:t'o k'o:t'o)'* (Ahland 2010: 111 line 7), where the reduplicated element is probably the noun 'place'. This construction has not been mentioned in the grammars of Geez (North Ethiosemitic), and Argobba and Zay (both Transversal Ethiosemitic). In North Ethiosemitic, it seems to be limited to Tigrinya, as it does not exist in Tigre and Dahaalik. Harari (Transversal Ethiosemitic) also lacks it. However, Dahaalik and Harari have a construction in which a simple noun can be combined with the verb 'say', as in the Dahaalik example (38).

(38) Dahaalik (Afroasiatic, Semitic; PC Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle, July 2019)

<table><tr><td><b>hibes</b></td><td><b>bila</b></td></tr><tr><td>work.N</td><td>say\PFV.3SM</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2">'he worked'</td></tr></table>

According to Beniam (2013: 150–152), the construction of simple noun plus verb ‘say’ is very common and productive in Harari, and often coexists with a regularly inflected verb from the same root. The meaning of such constructions with respect to the regular verbs is still not well described, but the coverbs are clearly nouns.

The combination of a reduplicated noun as coverb and the verb ‘say’ typically describe the perception of tastes and smells, e.g. (14g) and (36), besides a few other sensations, such as love in (14f) or the perception of temperature in (37a). However, in contrast to constructions with an ideophone, a fully reduplicated noun as a coverb cannot form a causal counterpart by exchanging the light verb ‘say’ with the verb ‘do’ (or the causative of ‘say’). Furthermore, reduplicated nouns or imperative verbs as coverbs do not denote a change in intensity, speed, etc., as is the case with fully reduplicated ideophones (Section 5), but only express a sensory experience related to the semantics of the respective simple nouns. In some cases, the semantics of such a complex predicate denotes nuances that cannot be expressed by a simple verb, as in (37), where only the construction with the reduplicated noun ‘cold’ in (a) has the sense of ‘having the chills’, from which probably the second sense ‘feeling cold’ developed, which is also denoted by the simple verb in (37b).

Loan verbs from languages with fully vocalized verb stems are often integrated into Amharic using a complex predicate based on the light verb *adärrägä* ‘do’. This is
because these stems cannot be easily converted into a consonantal root that would fit
the conjugational templates. The loan verbs from English in (39) illustrate this
phenomenon.

<table>
   <tr>
    <td>
     (39) a.
    </td>
    <td>
     tajb
    </td>
    <td>
     adärrägä
    </td>
    <td>
     &lt;English type
    </td>
    <td>
     ‘type (v.)’
    </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>
     b.
    </td>
    <td>
     kalär
    </td>
    <td>
     adärrägä
    </td>
    <td>
     &lt;English color
    </td>
    <td>
     ‘color (v.)’
    </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>
     c.
    </td>
    <td>
     kopi
    </td>
    <td>
     adärrägä
    </td>
    <td>
     &lt;English copy
    </td>
    <td>
     ‘copy (v.)’
    </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>
     d.
    </td>
    <td>
     särğäri
    </td>
    <td>
     ädärrägä
    </td>
    <td>
     &lt;English surgery
    </td>
    <td>
     ‘operate’
    </td>
   </tr>
  </table>

The noncausal counterpart of the complex predicates in (39) are formed by
exchanging *adärrägä* ‘do’ with its mediopassive derivation *tädärrägä* ‘be done’, e.g.
*tajb tädärrägä* ‘be typed’.<fnref n="24" /> A few of the loanwords, usually those with three
consonants, may also be converted into a root, and then be inflected like a simple
verb of Type B, e.g. *täjjäbä* ‘type’ or *källärä* ‘color’ for the examples (a) and (b) in (39).

In the previous sections, it has been shown that Amharic has two different types of
ideophones that occur as coverb in a complex predicate with the verb *alä* ‘say’, as
summarized in (40).

<table>
  <tr>
    <td>(40)</td>
    <td>a. Basic lexical ideophones, e.g. <i>zimm alä</i> ‘be quiet’</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td></td>
    <td>b. Derived degree ideophones through combining a verb root with either an intensive or attenuative template, e.g. <i>sibbir alä</i> ‘break completely/suddenly’ vs. <i>säbärr alä</i> ‘crack’</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Not much is known about the actual distribution of the two types of ideophones
identified for Amharic in (40) in other Ethiosemitic languages. The results of a survey
based on published sources and a short questionnaire answered by specialists in some
of the languages are given in Table 2.<fnref n="25" />

<footnote n="24">²⁴ In Zay (Transversal Ethiosemitic), ideophones and loanwords systematically use different pairs of light verbs to express the noncausal/causal relation. With ideophonic coverbs, the light verbs are *bal* ‘say’ and its causatives *ʾabāʾ* ‘cause to say’ or *ʾatbiʾ* ‘facilitate to say’, whereas loanwords as coverbs cooccur with the light verbs *han* ‘become’ and *san* ‘do’ (Meyer 2005: 164–171; see also Meyer 2006: 816–817).</footnote>

<footnote n="25">²⁵ The survey is based on information gathered from the following sources: Amharic (Leslau 1995: 580–596), Argobba (Wetter 2010: 148–150, 214–215), Dahaalik (PC with Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle July 2019), Endegagn (Yohannes 2015: 138–145; PC with Yohannes Adigeh, July 2019), Gafat</footnote>
because these stems cannot be easily converted into a consonantal root that would fit
the conjugational templates. The loan verbs from English in (39) illustrate this
phenomenon.

<table>
   <tr>
    <td>
     (39)
    </td>
    <td>
     a. tajb adärrägä &lt;English type ‘type (v.)’
    </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>
    </td>
    <td>
     b. kalär adärrägä &lt;English color ‘color (v.)’
    </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>
    </td>
    <td>
     c. kopi adärrägä &lt;English copy ‘copy (v.)’
    </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>
    </td>
    <td>
     d. särğäri ädärrägä &lt;English surgery ‘operate’
    </td>
   </tr>
  </table>

The noncausal counterpart of the complex predicates in (39) are formed by exchanging *adärrägä* ‘do’ with its mediopassive derivation *tädärrägä* ‘be done’, e.g. *tajb tädärrägä* ‘be typed’.<fnref n="24" /> A few of the loanwords, usually those with three consonants, may also be converted into a root, and then be inflected like a simple verb of Type B, e.g. *täjjäbä* ‘type’ or *källärä* ‘color’ for the examples (a) and (b) in (39).

In the previous sections, it has been shown that Amharic has two different types of ideophones that occur as coverb in a complex predicate with the verb *alä* ‘say’, as summarized in (40).

<table>
  <tr>
    <td>(40)</td>
    <td>a. Basic lexical ideophones, e.g. <i>zimm alä</i> ‘be quiet’</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td></td>
    <td>b. Derived degree ideophones through combining a verb root with either an intensive or attenuative template, e.g. <i>sibbir alä</i> ‘break completely/suddenly’ vs. <i>säbärr alä</i> ‘crack’</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Not much is known about the actual distribution of the two types of ideophones
identified for Amharic in (40) in other Ethiosemitic languages. The results of a survey
based on published sources and a short questionnaire answered by specialists in some
of the languages are given in Table 2.<fnref n="25" />

<footnote n="24">²⁴ In Zay (Transversal Ethiosemitic), ideophones and loanwords systematically use different pairs of light verbs to express the noncausal/causal relation. With ideophonic coverbs, the light verbs are *bal* ‘say’ and its causatives *ʾabāʾ* ‘cause to say’ or *ʾatbiʾ* ‘facilitate to say’, whereas loanwords as coverbs cooccur with the light verbs *han* ‘become’ and *san* ‘do’ (Meyer 2005: 164–171; see also Meyer 2006: 816–817).</footnote>

<footnote n="25">²⁵ The survey is based on information gathered from the following sources: Amharic (Leslau 1995: 580–596), Argobba (Wetter 2010: 148–150, 214–215), Dahaalik (PC with Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle July 2019), Endegagn (Yohannes 2015: 138–145; PC with Yohannes Adigeh, July 2019), Gafat</footnote>
<table><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Language</th><th colspan="2">Basic lexical ideophones</th><th colspan="2">ideophones from other roots</th></tr><tr><th>only<br>'say'</th><th>noncausal/causal<br>contrast</th><th>no<br>pairs</th><th>intensive/attenuative<br>pair</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td colspan="5" style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;">North Ethiosemitic</td></tr><tr><td>†Geez</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>?</td><td>?</td></tr><tr><td>Dahaalik</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>no</td><td>no</td></tr><tr><td>Tigre</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>yes</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Tigrinya</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td></td><td>yes</td></tr><tr><td colspan="5" style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;">Transversal Ethiosemitic</td></tr><tr><td>Amharic</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td></td><td>yes</td></tr><tr><td>Argobba</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td></td><td>yes</td></tr><tr><td>Harari</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td></td><td>yes</td></tr><tr><td>EG Silt'e</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>yes</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>EG Zay</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>yes</td><td></td></tr><tr><td colspan="5" style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;">South Ethiosemitic</td></tr><tr><td>GG Kistane</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td></td><td>yes</td></tr><tr><td>GG Muher</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>yes</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>GG Gumer</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>yes</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>GG Endegagn</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>yes</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>†Gafat</td><td>yes</td><td></td><td>?</td><td>?</td></tr></tbody></table>

(EG East Gurage, GG Gunnän Gurage)

<caption>**Table 2:** Distribution of ideophones in Ethiosemitic.</caption>

Table 2 shows that ideophones exist in all Ethiosemitic languages, even if the situation for the two extinct languages, Geez and Gafat, is not entirely clear. For these two languages, the coverb of complex predicates with the verb ‘say’ could also be an interjection, as assumed by Praetorius (1886: 156–157) for Geez in (41).

<footnote>(Leslau 1945b: 88 further examples given on pp. 150, 153, 180), Geez (Praetorius 1886: 157), Gumer (Völlmin 2017: 171–173; PC with Sascha Völlmin, July 2019), Harari (Beniam 2013: 138–154), Kistane (PC with Bedilu Wakjira, July 2019), Muher (own fieldwork data, 2010), Silt'e (Gutt 1997: 933; PC with Rawda Siraj, July 2019), Tigre (Raz 1983: 66–67; PC with Saleh Idris, July 2019), Tigrinya (Tsehaye 1979: 108–111; PC with Shimelis Mazengia and Dagnew Machew, July 2019) and Zay (Meyer 2005: 164–167).</footnote>
<table><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Language</th><th colspan="2">Basic lexical ideophones</th><th colspan="2">ideophones from other roots</th></tr><tr><th>only<br>'say'</th><th>noncausal/causal<br>contrast</th><th>no<br>pairs</th><th>intensive/attenuative<br>pair</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td colspan="5" style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;">North Ethiosemitic</td></tr><tr><td>†Geez</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>?</td><td>?</td></tr><tr><td>Dahaalik</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>no</td><td>no</td></tr><tr><td>Tigre</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>yes</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Tigrinya</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td></td><td>yes</td></tr><tr><td colspan="5" style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;">Transversal Ethiosemitic</td></tr><tr><td>Amharic</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td></td><td>yes</td></tr><tr><td>Argobba</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td></td><td>yes</td></tr><tr><td>Harari</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td></td><td>yes</td></tr><tr><td>EG Silt'e</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>yes</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>EG Zay</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>yes</td><td></td></tr><tr><td colspan="5" style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;">South Ethiosemitic</td></tr><tr><td>GG Kistane</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td></td><td>yes</td></tr><tr><td>GG Muher</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>yes</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>GG Gumer</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>yes</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>GG Endegagn</td><td></td><td>yes</td><td>yes</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>†Gafat</td><td>yes</td><td></td><td>?</td><td>?</td></tr></tbody></table>

(EG East Gurage, GG Gunnän Gurage)

<caption>**Table 2:** Distribution of ideophones in Ethiosemitic.</caption>

Table 2 shows that ideophones exist in all Ethiosemitic languages, even if the situation for the two extinct languages, Geez and Gafat, is not entirely clear. For these two languages, the coverb of complex predicates with the verb ‘say’ could also be an interjection, as assumed by Praetorius (1886: 156–157) for Geez in (41).

<footnote>(Leslau 1945b: 88 further examples given on pp. 150, 153, 180), Geez (Praetorius 1886: 157), Gumer (Völlmin 2017: 171–173; PC with Sascha Völlmin, July 2019), Harari (Beniam 2013: 138–154), Kistane (PC with Bedilu Wakjira, July 2019), Muher (own fieldwork data, 2010), Silt'e (Gutt 1997: 933; PC with Rawda Siraj, July 2019), Tigre (Raz 1983: 66–67; PC with Saleh Idris, July 2019), Tigrinya (Tsehaye 1979: 108–111; PC with Shimelis Mazengia and Dagnew Machew, July 2019) and Zay (Meyer 2005: 164–167).</footnote>
(41) Geez (Afroasiatic, Semitic)

a. s'ätt'

b. s'ätt'

INTJ/IDPH.quiet

ji-be

3SM-say\PFV

'shh (interjection used to call for silence)'

i. ‘He said, “Shh!”’ > ii. ‘He kept quiet.’

If we assume that Geez possessed constructions like those in the Amharic example (7), the element *s'ätt* in (41a) could also be an ideophone in an emphatic construction without the verb ‘say’. For Geez, at least one pair with the noncausal/causal contrast was reported (42).

(42) Geez (Afroasiatic, Semitic; Praetorius 1886: 156–157; Leslau 1987: 12)

a. ?oho

bihl-ä

IDPH.yes

say\PFV-3SM

‘he agreed’

b. ?oho

?a-bäl-ä

IDPH.yes

CAUS-say\PFV-3SM

‘he persuaded’

The Geez examples (41) and (42) illustrate the general problem of distinguishing between ideophones and other word classes, especially interjections. Some of them may actually belong to two word classes, without a strict demarcation line, as in the Amharic example (12), where *imbi* ‘no’ is a quoted interjection in (12a), but also resembles an ideophone in the broader semantic sense of ‘refuse’ in (12b).

The most important morphosyntactic criterion for the definition of ideophones in Amharic is that they cooccur with a noncausal/causal light verb pair. This probably presents a more general feature of ideophones in Ethiosemitic. The noncausal light verb is the verb ‘say’, while its noncausal counterpart is either the light verb ‘do’ or the causative of ‘say’ in Ethiosemitic. However, the absence of the causal or, less frequently, also the noncausal light verb does not automatically mean that the coverb is not an ideophone. The noncausal/causal contrast expressed by the verbs *alä* ‘say’ and *adärrägä* ‘do’ systematically excludes certain semantic verb types. Without going into detail, with the exception of Gafat, all of the other Ethiosemitic languages in Table 2 have at least a few coverbs that occur in contrasting noncausal/causal pairs, and thus most probably represent ideophones.

Ideophones derived from roots occur in most Ethiosemitic languages (see also Appleyard 2001: 5). They are missing only in Dahaalik, and probably also in Geez and Gafat. In the remaining languages of Table 2, they occur in two distributions: In Tigre, East Gurage and Gunnän Gurage except Kistane, ideophones can be derived
(41) Geez (Afroasiatic, Semitic)

a. s'ätt'

b. s'ätt'

INTJ/IDPH.quiet

ji-be

3SM-say\PFV

‘shh (interjection used to call for silence)’

i. ‘He said, “Shh!”’ > ii. ‘He kept quiet.’

If we assume that Geez possessed constructions like those in the Amharic example (7), the element *s'ätt* in (41a) could also be an ideophone in an emphatic construction without the verb ‘say’. For Geez, at least one pair with the noncausal/causal contrast was reported (42).

(42) Geez (Afroasiatic, Semitic; Praetorius 1886: 156–157; Leslau 1987: 12)

a. ?oho

bihl-ä

IDPH.yes

say\PFV-3SM

‘he agreed’

b. ?oho

?a-bäl-ä

IDPH.yes

CAUS-say\PFV-3SM

‘he persuaded’

The Geez examples (41) and (42) illustrate the general problem of distinguishing between ideophones and other word classes, especially interjections. Some of them may actually belong to two word classes, without a strict demarcation line, as in the Amharic example (12), where *imbi* ‘no’ is a quoted interjection in (12a), but also resembles an ideophone in the broader semantic sense of ‘refuse’ in (12b).

The most important morphosyntactic criterion for the definition of ideophones in Amharic is that they cooccur with a noncausal/causal light verb pair. This probably presents a more general feature of ideophones in Ethiosemitic. The noncausal light verb is the verb ‘say’, while its noncausal counterpart is either the light verb ‘do’ or the causative of ‘say’ in Ethiosemitic. However, the absence of the causal or, less frequently, also the noncausal light verb does not automatically mean that the coverb is not an ideophone. The noncausal/causal contrast expressed by the verbs *alä* ‘say’ and *adärrägä* ‘do’ systematically excludes certain semantic verb types. Without going into detail, with the exception of Gafat, all of the other Ethiosemitic languages in Table 2 have at least a few coverbs that occur in contrasting noncausal/causal pairs, and thus most probably represent ideophones.

Ideophones derived from roots occur in most Ethiosemitic languages (see also Appleyard 2001: 5). They are missing only in Dahaalik, and probably also in Geez and Gafat. In the remaining languages of Table 2, they occur in two distributions: In Tigre, East Gurage and Gunnän Gurage except Kistane, ideophones can be derived
from roots through different patterns, which do not contrast in terms of intensity/attenuation. Amharic, Argobba, Harari, Kistane and Tigrinya, on the other hand, regularly derive two types of ideophones from roots in order to express an intensive vs. attenuative contrast, which is, in turn, opposed to a semantically neutral, regularly inflected verb, as described for Amharic in Section 6 and for Tigrinya in (43), where only gemination or its absence expresses the contrast in degree.

(43) Tigrinya (Afroasiatic, Semitic; PC Shimelis Mazengia, July 2019)

a. **Neutral**

säbir-u

break\CNV-3SM

‘he broke it’

b. **Intensive**

sibbir

?a-bil-u

IDPH.break

CAUS-say\CNV-3SM

‘he broke it completely’

c. **Attenuative**

sibir

?a-bil-u

IDPH.break

CAUS-say\CNV-3SM

‘he broke it somewhat’

All Ethiosemitic languages which express the intensity/attenuation contrast through derived ideophones from the same verbal root seem to be in close contact with Amharic. Argobba and Tigrinya border the Amharic homeland, and the Kistane homeland is close to Addis Ababa. Harari has a very large diaspora in Addis Ababa and other Ethiopian cities (see Beniam 2013: 4), where Amharic is used as a lingua franca. Thus, contact with Amharic could have triggered the introduction of the intensive/attenuative contrast in these languages.

8. Conclusion

In this article, I have argued that ideophones form a separate word class in Amharic whose members commonly cooccur as a coverb in a complex predicate with the light verbs ‘say’ and ‘do’. All Ethiosemitic languages have at least a few lexical ideophones that can express this noncausal/causal contrast, even though the causal light verb may differ across the languages. Some ideophones can also be the input of a nominalization process with the suffix -ta. Syntactically, ideophones resemble verbs. Their position is fixed to the clause-final syntactic slot, usually occupied by verbs, and ideophones can also take direct objects and be modified by converb clauses.
from roots through different patterns, which do not contrast in terms of intensity/attenuation. Amharic, Argobba, Harari, Kistane and Tigrinya, on the other hand, regularly derive two types of ideophones from roots in order to express an intensive vs. attenuative contrast, which is, in turn, opposed to a semantically neutral, regularly inflected verb, as described for Amharic in Section 6 and for Tigrinya in (43), where only gemination or its absence expresses the contrast in degree.

(43) Tigrinya (Afroasiatic, Semitic; PC Shimelis Mazengia, July 2019)

a. **Neutral**

säbir-u

break\CNV-3SM

‘he broke it’

b. **Intensive**

sibbir

?a-bil-u

IDPH.break

CAUS-say\CNV-3SM

‘he broke it completely’

c. **Attenuative**

sibir

?a-bil-u

IDPH.break

CAUS-say\CNV-3SM

‘he broke it somewhat’

All Ethiosemitic languages which express the intensity/attenuation contrast through derived ideophones from the same verbal root seem to be in close contact with Amharic. Argobba and Tigrinya border the Amharic homeland, and the Kistane homeland is close to Addis Ababa. Harari has a very large diaspora in Addis Ababa and other Ethiopian cities (see Beniam 2013: 4), where Amharic is used as a lingua franca. Thus, contact with Amharic could have triggered the introduction of the intensive/attenuative contrast in these languages.

8. Conclusion

In this article, I have argued that ideophones form a separate word class in Amharic whose members commonly cooccur as a coverb in a complex predicate with the light verbs ‘say’ and ‘do’. All Ethiosemitic languages have at least a few lexical ideophones that can express this noncausal/causal contrast, even though the causal light verb may differ across the languages. Some ideophones can also be the input of a nominalization process with the suffix -ta. Syntactically, ideophones resemble verbs. Their position is fixed to the clause-final syntactic slot, usually occupied by verbs, and ideophones can also take direct objects and be modified by converb clauses.
Ideophones are morphologically simple forms that do not inflect, and which can be reduplicated to express a pluractional meaning. Phonologically, ideophones are characterized by a stress on the ultimate syllable, but do not exhibit uncommon segmental features.

Ideophones are the only coverbs in complex predicates with the two light verbs ‘say’ and ‘do’ which express a noncausal/causal contrast. Other coverbs, such as interjections, adverbials, reduplicated nouns and verbs, and quotations, do not express this contrast.

Moreover, complex predicates with the light verbs ‘say’ and ‘do’ are so common in Amharic that they must be considered a separate inflectional verb class, contrasting with the regularly inflected verbs formed by nonconcatenative morphology. This verb class is characterized by reduced morphological complexity: it inflects only with the paradigms of two light verbs and can only contrast noncausal and causal events using distinct light verbs. Probably for this reason, complex predicates with the verb ‘say’ are a very productive strategy to incorporate loanwords that do not easily fit into nonconcatenative inflectional morphology.

Finally, Amharic has a special type of ideophones derived from roots by two distinct templates, expressing the contrast between an intensified and an attenuated event. Derivational processes of ideophonization are rare from a typological point of view, but they also exist in Ethiosemitic languages in close geographical contact with Amharic, namely Tigrinya, Argobba, Kistane and Harari.

## Acknowledgements

This study of ideophones in Amharic was supported by a public grant overseen by the French National Research Agency (ANR) as part of the program "Investissement d'Avenir" (ANR-10-LABX-0083). It contributes to the IdEx Université de Paris (ANR-18-IDEX-0001). The analysis has benefited greatly from many fruitful discussions with members of the EFL research groups *Ideophones and Interjections in a Typological, Areal and Diachronic Perspective* (axe 3, GL1) and *Contact-Induced Morphosyntactic Change* (axe 2). I am also grateful for the helpful comments made during the *Workshop on Ideophones and Interjections* at the *Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea* from 21–24 August 2019 in Leipzig and the 9th *Annual Conference and Annual Research Week of the College of Humanities, Language Studies, Journalism and Communication*, 10–
Ideophones are morphologically simple forms that do not inflect, and which can be reduplicated to express a pluractional meaning. Phonologically, ideophones are characterized by a stress on the ultimate syllable, but do not exhibit uncommon segmental features.

Ideophones are the only coverbs in complex predicates with the two light verbs ‘say’ and ‘do’ which express a noncausal/causal contrast. Other coverbs, such as interjections, adverbials, reduplicated nouns and verbs, and quotations, do not express this contrast.

Moreover, complex predicates with the light verbs ‘say’ and ‘do’ are so common in Amharic that they must be considered a separate inflectional verb class, contrasting with the regularly inflected verbs formed by nonconcatenative morphology. This verb class is characterized by reduced morphological complexity: it inflects only with the paradigms of two light verbs and can only contrast noncausal and causal events using distinct light verbs. Probably for this reason, complex predicates with the verb ‘say’ are a very productive strategy to incorporate loanwords that do not easily fit into nonconcatenative inflectional morphology.

Finally, Amharic has a special type of ideophones derived from roots by two distinct templates, expressing the contrast between an intensified and an attenuated event. Derivational processes of ideophonization are rare from a typological point of view, but they also exist in Ethiosemitic languages in close geographical contact with Amharic, namely Tigrinya, Argobba, Kistane and Harari.

## Acknowledgements

This study of ideophones in Amharic was supported by a public grant overseen by the French National Research Agency (ANR) as part of the program "Investissement d'Avenir" (ANR-10-LABX-0083). It contributes to the IdEx Université de Paris (ANR-18-IDEX-0001). The analysis has benefited greatly from many fruitful discussions with members of the EFL research groups *Ideophones and Interjections in a Typological, Areal and Diachronic Perspective* (axe 3, GL1) and *Contact-Induced Morphosyntactic Change* (axe 2). I am also grateful for the helpful comments made during the *Workshop on Ideophones and Interjections* at the *Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea* from 21–24 August 2019 in Leipzig and the 9th *Annual Conference and Annual Research Week of the College of Humanities, Language Studies, Journalism and Communication*, 10–
12 May 2022, Addis Ababa. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Maria Bulakh, Dagnew Mache, Fekede Menuta, Rawda Siraj, Saleh Idris, Shimelis Mazengia, Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle, Sascha Völlmin and Yohannes Adigew for providing me with data and information on several Ethiosemitic languages. I also express my appreciation to Sitti Gragn Nasir, Seid Ahmed Ali and Delombera Negga for their patience in explaining and correcting the Amharic data. Finally, I thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors, especially Yvonne Treis, for their constructive suggestions.

## Abbreviations

1, 2, 3 = first, second, third

person

ABL = ablative

ACC = accusative

AUX = auxiliary

C = slot for a consonant in an inflectional tempalte

CAUS = causative

CND = conditional

CNV = converb

COMP = complementizer

COP = copula

DAT = dative

DEF = definite

DIM = diminutive

EC = ethiopian calendar

EG = east Gurage

F = feminine

FOC = focus

GG = Gunnän Gurage

IDPH = ideophone

IMP = imperative

INTJ = interjection

IPFV = imperfective

ITR = intransitive

LNK = linker (genitive, relative verb)

M = masculine

MIL = malefactive, instrumental, locative

NEG = negation

N = noun

NPST = non-past

OBJ = object

PFV = perfective

PL = plural

PLR = pluractional

POSS = possessive

PROG = progressive

PRX = proximal demonstrative

PST = past

REL = relative clause marker

SBJ = subject

SF = singular-feminine

SG = singular

SM = singular-masculine

SNG = singulative

TR = transitive

VN = verbal noun (infinitive)

## References

Ahland, Michael. 2010. *Language death in Mesmes: a sociolinguistic and historical-comparative examination of a disappearing language*. Dallas TX: SIL International.

Alemayehu Haile. 1987. *Lexical stress in Amharic*. *Journal of Ethiopian Studies* 20. 19–43.

Anbessa Teferra & Grover Hudson. 2007. *Essentials of Amharic*. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
12 May 2022, Addis Ababa. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Maria Bulakh, Dagnew Mache, Fekede Menuta, Rawda Siraj, Saleh Idris, Shimelis Mazengia, Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle, Sascha Völlmin and Yohannes Adigew for providing me with data and information on several Ethiosemitic languages. I also express my appreciation to Sitti Gragn Nasir, Seid Ahmed Ali and Delombera Negga for their patience in explaining and correcting the Amharic data. Finally, I thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors, especially Yvonne Treis, for their constructive suggestions.

## Abbreviations

1, 2, 3 = first, second, third

person

ABL = ablative

ACC = accusative

AUX = auxiliary

C = slot for a consonant in an inflectional tempalte

CAUS = causative

CND = conditional

CNV = converb

COMP = complementizer

COP = copula

DAT = dative

DEF = definite

DIM = diminutive

EC = ethiopian calendar

EG = east Gurage

F = feminine

FOC = focus

GG = Gunnän Gurage

IDPH = ideophone

IMP = imperative

INTJ = interjection

IPFV = imperfective

ITR = intransitive

LNK = linker (genitive, relative verb)

M = masculine

MIL = malefactive, instrumental, locative

NEG = negation

N = noun

NPST = non-past

OBJ = object

PFV = perfective

PL = plural

PLR = pluractional

POSS = possessive

PROG = progressive

PRX = proximal demonstrative

PST = past

REL = relative clause marker

SBJ = subject

SF = singular-feminine

SG = singular

SM = singular-masculine

SNG = singulative

TR = transitive

VN = verbal noun (infinitive)

## References

Ahland, Michael. 2010. *Language death in Mesmes: a sociolinguistic and historical-comparative examination of a disappearing language*. Dallas TX: SIL International.

Alemayehu Haile. 1987. *Lexical stress in Amharic*. *Journal of Ethiopian Studies* 20. 19–43.

Anbessa Teferra & Grover Hudson. 2007. *Essentials of Amharic*. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
Appleyard, David. 2001. The verb ‘to say’ as a “verb recycling” device in Ethiopian languages. In Andrzej Zaborski (ed.), *New data and new methods in Afroasiatic linguistics – Robert Hetzron in memoriam*, 1–11. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.

Armbruster, Carl Hubert. 1908. *Initia Amharica. An introduction to spoken Amharic*. Part I: grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Baye Yimam. 1999. The verb ‘to say’ in Amharic. *Journal of Ethiopian Studies* 32(1). 1–50.

Baye Yimam. 2008. *Jəʔamariŋna səwasiw [Amharic Grammar]*. Addis Ababa: Elleni Publishing.

Beniam Mitiku. 2013. *Harari: a descriptive grammar*. Doctoral dissertation, Addis Ababa University.

Bezza Tesfaw Ayalew. 2013. *The submorphemic structure of Amharic: toward a phonosemantic analysis*. Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Cohen, David & Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle & Martine Vanhove. 2002. The grammaticalization of ‘say’ and ‘do’: an areal phenomenon in East Africa. In Tom Güldemann & Manfred von Roncador (eds.), *Reported discourse: a meeting ground for different linguistic domains*, 227–251. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Cohen, Marcel. 1939. *Nouvelles études d’éthiopien méridional*. Paris: Ancienne Honoré Champion.

Crass, Joachim, Barbara Dehnhard, Ronny Meyer & Andreas Wetter. 2001. Von ‘sagen’ zum Verbbildungsmorphem: Die Grammatikalisierung des Verbs ‘sagen’ einmal anders. *Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere* 65. 129–141.

Crass, Joachim & Ronny Meyer. 2008. Ethiopia. In Bernd Heine & Derek Nurse (eds.), *A linguistic geography of Africa*, 228–249. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dingemanse, Mark. 2012. Advances in the cross-linguistic stud of ideophones. *Language and Linguistics Compass* 6(10). 654–672.
https://doi.org/10.1002/lnc3.361

Dingemanse, Mark. 2018. Redrawing the margins of language: lessons from research on ideophones. *Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics* 3(1). 1–30.
https://doi.org/DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.444

Eberhard, David M. & Gary F. Simons & Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2022. *Ethnologue: languages of the world*. 25th edn. Dallas, TX: SIL International. Online version.
http://www.ethnologue.com. (1 September, 2022)
Appleyard, David. 2001. The verb ‘to say’ as a “verb recycling” device in Ethiopian languages. In Andrzej Zaborski (ed.), *New data and new methods in Afroasiatic linguistics – Robert Hetzron in memoriam*, 1–11. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.

Armbruster, Carl Hubert. 1908. *Initia Amharica. An introduction to spoken Amharic*. Part I: grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Baye Yimam. 1999. The verb ‘to say’ in Amharic. *Journal of Ethiopian Studies* 32(1). 1–50.

Baye Yimam. 2008. *Jəʔamariŋna səwasiw [Amharic Grammar]*. Addis Ababa: Elleni Publishing.

Beniam Mitiku. 2013. *Harari: a descriptive grammar*. Doctoral dissertation, Addis Ababa University.

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Cohen, David & Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle & Martine Vanhove. 2002. The grammaticalization of ‘say’ and ‘do’: an areal phenomenon in East Africa. In Tom Güldemann & Manfred von Roncador (eds.), *Reported discourse: a meeting ground for different linguistic domains*, 227–251. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

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Hetzron, Robert. 1972. *Ethiopian Semitic: studies in classification*. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

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Mengistu Amberber. 2023. Amharic. In Ronny Meyer, Bedilu Wakjira & Zelealem Leyew (eds.), *The Oxford handbook of Ethiopian languages*, 414–442. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Leslau, Wolf. 1945a. The influence of Cushitic on the Semitic languages of Ethiopia: a problem of substratum. *Word* 1. 59–82.

Leslau, Wolf. 1945b. *Gafat documents: records of a South Ethiopic language – grammar, text and comparative vocabulary*. New York, NY: American Oriental Society.

Leslau, Wolf. 1961. Echo words in Ethiopic. *Annales d'Éthiopie* 4. 205–238.

Leslau, Wolf. 1987. *Comparative dictionary of Gəʻəz: Gəʻəz-English / English-Gəʻəz with an index of the Semitic roots*. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.

Leslau, Wolf. 1995. *Reference grammar of Amharic*. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.

Ludolf, Hiob. 1698a. *Grammatica Linguae Amharicae*. Frankfurt/Main: Prostat apud Johannen David Zunnerum.

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Mengistu Amberber. 2023. Amharic. In Ronny Meyer, Bedilu Wakjira & Zelealem Leyew (eds.), *The Oxford handbook of Ethiopian languages*, 414–442. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Meyer, Ronny. 2012. The converb in Amharic. In Domenyk Eades (ed.), *Grammaticalization in Semitic*, 165–192. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Meyer, Ronny. 2016a. Aspect and tense in Ethiosemitic languages. In Lutz Edzard (ed.), *The morpho-syntactic and lexical encoding of tense and aspect in Semitic*, 159–239. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.

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Meyer, Ronny. 2018. On the internal classification of Ethiosemitic. *Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft* 168(1). 93–124.

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Täklä Maryam Fantaye. 1964EC. ናንተ ጥበብ አስተ ጸሑፍ (hohitä t'ibäb zäsinä s'ihuf) [*Way of wisdom for the art of writing*]. Addis Ababa: Bërhanənna Sälam Printing Press.

Tassa, Obombe-Lukumbu. 2001. La formation des radicaux déidéphoniques et des idéophones déverbatifs en tɛtɛla (dialected ewango). In Erhard F. K. Voeltz & Christa Kilian-Hatz (eds.), *Ideophones*. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Teferi Mulugeta & Baye Yimam. 2022a. The morphology of Amharic ideophones. *አማርኛ Zena-Lissan* 31(1).
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Meyer, Ronny. 2009. The quotative verb in Ethiosemitic languages and Oromo. In Joachim Crass & Ronny Meyer (eds.), *Language contact and language change in Ethiopia*, 17–42. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.

Meyer, Ronny. 2011a. The role of Amharic as a national language and an African lingua franca. In Stefan Weninger (ed.), *The Semitic languages: an international handbook*, 1212–1220. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

Meyer, Ronny. 2011b. Amharic. In Stefan Weninger (ed.), *The Semitic languages: an international handbook*, 1178–1212. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

Meyer, Ronny. 2012. The converb in Amharic. In Domenyk Eades (ed.), *Grammaticalization in Semitic*, 165–192. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Meyer, Ronny. 2016a. Aspect and tense in Ethiosemitic languages. In Lutz Edzard (ed.), *The morpho-syntactic and lexical encoding of tense and aspect in Semitic*, 159–239. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.

Meyer, Ronny. 2016b. The Ethiopic script: linguistic features and socio-cultural connotations. *Oslo Studies in Language* 8(1). 457–492.

Meyer, Ronny. 2016c. Emergence of tense in Ethio-Semitic. In Ronny Meyer & Lutz Edzard (eds.), *Time in languages of the Horn of Africa*, 179–236. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.

Meyer, Ronny. 2018. On the internal classification of Ethiosemitic. *Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft* 168(1). 93–124.

Praetorius, Franz. 1879. *Die amharische Sprache*. Halle: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses [Reprint: Hildesheim: Olms, 1970].

Praetorius, Franz. 1886. *Äthiopische Grammatik mit Paradigmen, Litteratur, Chrestomathie und Glossar*. Karlsruhe: H. Reither.

Raz, Shlomo. 1983. *Tigre grammar and texts*. Malibu: Undena Publications.

Täklä Maryam Fantaye. 1964EC. ናንተ ጥበብ አስተ ጸሑፍ (hohitä t'ibäb zäsinä s'ihuf) [*Way of wisdom for the art of writing*]. Addis Ababa: Bërhanənna Sälam Printing Press.

Tassa, Obombe-Lukumbu. 2001. La formation des radicaux déidéphoniques et des idéophones déverbatifs en tɛtɛla (dialected ewango). In Erhard F. K. Voeltz & Christa Kilian-Hatz (eds.), *Ideophones*. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Teferi Mulugeta & Baye Yimam. 2022a. The morphology of Amharic ideophones. *አማርኛ Zena-Lissan* 31(1).
Teferi Mulugeta & Baye Yimam. 2022b. The syntax of Amharic ideophones. *Macrolinguistics and Microlinguistics* 3(1-2). 1-14.
https://doi.org/10.21744/mami.v3n1/2.28.

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Tosco, Mauro. 2000. Is there an “Ethiopian language area”? *Anthropological Linguistics* 42(3). 329–365.

Treis, Yvonne. 2024. Ideophones in Kambaata (Cushitic): grammar, meaning and use. *Linguistic Typology at the Crossroads* 4(1): 147-200.

Tsehaye Teferra. 1979. *Reference grammar of Tigrinya*. Washington, DC: Georgetown University, School of Languages and Linguistics.

Voeltz, Erhard F. K. & Christa Kilian-Hatz. 2001. Introduction. In Erhard F. K. Voeltz & Christa Kilian-Hatz (eds.), *Ideophones*, 1–8. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Völlmin, Sascha. 2017. *Towards a grammar of Gumer. Phonology and morphology of a Western Gurage variety*. Doctoral dissertation, University of Zürich.

Wetter, Andreas. 1999. *Zur Entstehung eines Auxiliars im Amharischen—Grammatikalisierungsprozesse im nordäthiopischen Sprachraum*. Master Thesis, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz.

Wetter, Andreas. 2002. A new analysis of the alə compound verbs in Amharic based on the grammaticalization theory. In Baye Yimam, Richard Pankhurst, David Chapple, Yonas Admassu, Alula Pankhurst, & Birhanu Tefera (eds.), *Proceedings of the 14th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, 6–11 November 2000, 1829–1839*. Addis Ababa: Institute of Ethiopian Studies.

Wetter, Andreas. 2003. Ideophones in Amharic. In Kézié K. Lébikaza (ed.), *Actes du 3e Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Africaine, Lomé 2000*, 257–267. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.

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Zelealem Leyew. 2011. Onomatopoetic-ideophones in Ethiopian languages, with particular reference to Amharic. *Journal of Ethiopian Studies* 44. 1–46.

CONTACT

ronny.meyer@inalco.fr
Teferi Mulugeta & Baye Yimam. 2022b. The syntax of Amharic ideophones. *Macrolinguistics and Microlinguistics* 3(1-2). 1-14.
https://doi.org/10.21744/mami.v3n1/2.28.

Titov, Evgeniï Grigor'evich. 1976. *The Amharic language*. Moscow: Nauka.

Tosco, Mauro. 2000. Is there an “Ethiopian language area”? *Anthropological Linguistics* 42(3). 329–365.

Treis, Yvonne. 2024. Ideophones in Kambaata (Cushitic): grammar, meaning and use. *Linguistic Typology at the Crossroads* 4(1): 147-200.

Tsehaye Teferra. 1979. *Reference grammar of Tigrinya*. Washington, DC: Georgetown University, School of Languages and Linguistics.

Voeltz, Erhard F. K. & Christa Kilian-Hatz. 2001. Introduction. In Erhard F. K. Voeltz & Christa Kilian-Hatz (eds.), *Ideophones*, 1–8. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Völlmin, Sascha. 2017. *Towards a grammar of Gumer. Phonology and morphology of a Western Gurage variety*. Doctoral dissertation, University of Zürich.

Wetter, Andreas. 1999. *Zur Entstehung eines Auxiliars im Amharischen—Grammatikalisierungsprozesse im nordäthiopischen Sprachraum*. Master Thesis, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz.

Wetter, Andreas. 2002. A new analysis of the alə compound verbs in Amharic based on the grammaticalization theory. In Baye Yimam, Richard Pankhurst, David Chapple, Yonas Admassu, Alula Pankhurst, & Birhanu Tefera (eds.), *Proceedings of the 14th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, 6–11 November 2000, 1829–1839*. Addis Ababa: Institute of Ethiopian Studies.

Wetter, Andreas. 2003. Ideophones in Amharic. In Kézié K. Lébikaza (ed.), *Actes du 3e Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Africaine, Lomé 2000*, 257–267. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.

Wetter, Andreas. 2010. *Das Argobba: Eine deskriptive Grammatik der Varietät von Shonke und T'ollaha (Zentraläthiopien)*. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.

Yohannes Adigeh. 2015. *Descriptive grammar of Endegagn*. Doctoral dissertation, Addis Ababa University.

Zelealem Leyew. 2011. Onomatopoetic-ideophones in Ethiopian languages, with particular reference to Amharic. *Journal of Ethiopian Studies* 44. 1–46.

CONTACT

ronny.meyer@inalco.fr
# Ideophones in Sena (Bantu, Mozambique)

ROZENN GUÉROIS

CNRS, UMR 8135 LANGAGE, LANGUES ET CULTURES D'AFRIQUE

UNIVERSITY KWAZULU-NATAL

Submitted: 30/03/2023 Revised version: 12/02/2024

Accepted: 12/02/2024 Published: 12/06/2024

<figure><img src="image_22.png" /></figure>

Articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (The authors remain the copyright holders and grant third parties the right to use, reproduce, and share the article).

## Abstract

Based on a recently collected fieldwork corpus, this paper offers an overview of ideophones in Sena, a Bantu language spoken along the Lower Zambezi River in central Mozambique. By closely examining the different features (phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics) of Sena ideophones, this paper aims to identify the language-internal aspects of ideophones. The claim is that Sena ideophones are best treated as a distinctive word class whose members can be used in a variety of syntactic constructions. A crucial aspect of their syntactic properties is their ability to be used as holophrastic predicates.

**Keywords:** ideophones; word classes; holophrastic predication; Sena; Bantu.

## 1. Introduction

This paper provides a detailed description of ideophones in Sena, an Eastern Bantu language coded as seh (ISO 693-3), nucl1396 (Glottolog) and N44 in Guthrie's (1967-71) referential classification. It is spoken along the lower Zambezi valley in central Mozambique in the provinces of Sofalá, Tete, Zambézia and Manica. The number of speakers is estimated to be more than 1,600,000 speakers (Instituto Nacional de Estatísticas 2017).

There is a vast body of literature on ideophones, but despite important typological research (e.g. Hinton, Nichols & Ohala 1994; Voeltz & Kilian-Hatz 2001; Dingemanse
# Ideophones in Sena (Bantu, Mozambique)

ROZENN GUÉROIS

CNRS, UMR 8135 LANGAGE, LANGUES ET CULTURES D'AFRIQUE

UNIVERSITY KWAZULU-NATAL

Submitted: 30/03/2023 Revised version: 12/02/2024

Accepted: 12/02/2024 Published: 12/06/2024

<figure><img src="image_22.png" /></figure>

Articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (The authors remain the copyright holders and grant third parties the right to use, reproduce, and share the article).

## Abstract

Based on a recently collected fieldwork corpus, this paper offers an overview of ideophones in Sena, a Bantu language spoken along the Lower Zambezi River in central Mozambique. By closely examining the different features (phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics) of Sena ideophones, this paper aims to identify the language-internal aspects of ideophones. The claim is that Sena ideophones are best treated as a distinctive word class whose members can be used in a variety of syntactic constructions. A crucial aspect of their syntactic properties is their ability to be used as holophrastic predicates.

**Keywords:** ideophones; word classes; holophrastic predication; Sena; Bantu.

## 1. Introduction

This paper provides a detailed description of ideophones in Sena, an Eastern Bantu language coded as seh (ISO 693-3), nucl1396 (Glottolog) and N44 in Guthrie's (1967-71) referential classification. It is spoken along the lower Zambezi valley in central Mozambique in the provinces of Sofalá, Tete, Zambézia and Manica. The number of speakers is estimated to be more than 1,600,000 speakers (Instituto Nacional de Estatísticas 2017).

There is a vast body of literature on ideophones, but despite important typological research (e.g. Hinton, Nichols & Ohala 1994; Voeltz & Kilian-Hatz 2001; Dingemanse
2012; Haiman 2018; Akita & Pardeshi 2019), there is no strict consensus on either the definition or the functions of ideophones across languages. It appears that crosslinguistically there are different profiles of languages when it comes to defining ideophones. Classically considered as “vivid representations[s] of an idea in sound” (Doke 1935: 118), they were later defined as “marked words that depict sensory imagery” (Dingemanse 2012: 655). Ideophones have iconic properties that convey depiction associated to sensory perceptions as well as motion, temporal unfolding, feelings and cognitive states (Kilian-Hatz 1999: 31–52; Dingemanse 2012: 661; Dingemanse et al. 2015: 607). Controversies exist in terms of word class affiliation, i.e. whether ideophones can be subsumed under (an)other word class(es) or constitute their own part of speech. In African studies, ideophones are either analysed as a subcategory of adverbs (see, e.g. Doke 1931: 221 for Shona, sna), or they are considered as a distinct word class (Cole 1955).

By closely examining the different features (phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics) of Sena ideophones, this paper aims to offer a first analysis of this type of lexemes in the language, and reach a language-internal definition of ideophones. I argue that Sena ideophones are better treated as a separate word class, featuring phonological, morphological and syntactic properties not otherwise attested in other word classes.

The article is organized as follows. The basic morphosyntactic aspects of Sena word classes are presented in Section 2. Section 3 provides main properties of Sena ideophones as well as the inventory used in this study. Sections 4 to 7 examine their properties in terms of phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, respectively. Finally, Section 8 offers some discussion and conclusions.

The data used in this paper come from Prieto (2015), which includes a dictionary section in which a fairly large number of ideophones were found, and two periods of fieldwork carried out by the author in Maputo (fall 2021) and in the town of Caia and its surroundings, in the north of the Sofalá Province (summer 2022). Throughout the paper, I use a phonological notation for the linguistic data. Note, however, that <y> stands for the palatal approximant /j/, as conventionally practiced in Bantu studies.

## 2. Major word classes in Sena

In many respects, Sena is a typical Bantu language: its morphology is highly agglutinative and ruled by a gender system of agreement classes, and it follows a basic
2012; Haiman 2018; Akita & Pardeshi 2019), there is no strict consensus on either
the definition or the functions of ideophones across languages. It appears that
crosslinguistically there are different profiles of languages when it comes to defining
ideophones. Classically considered as “vivid representations[s] of an idea in sound”
(Doke 1935: 118), they were later defined as “marked words that depict sensory
imagery” (Dingemanse 2012: 655). Ideophones have iconic properties that convey
depiction associated to sensory perceptions as well as motion, temporal unfolding,
feelings and cognitive states (Kilian-Hatz 1999: 31–52; Dingemanse 2012: 661;
Dingemanse et al. 2015: 607). Controversies exist in terms of word class affiliation,
i.e. whether ideophones can be subsumed under (an)other word class(es) or constitute
their own part of speech. In African studies, ideophones are either analysed as a
subcategory of adverbs (see, e.g. Doke 1931: 221 for Shona, sna), or they are
considered as a distinct word class (Cole 1955).

By closely examining the different features (phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics) of Sena ideophones, this paper aims to offer a first analysis of this type of lexemes in the language, and reach a language-internal definition of ideophones. I argue that Sena ideophones are better treated as a separate word class, featuring phonological, morphological and syntactic properties not otherwise attested in other word classes.

The article is organized as follows. The basic morphosyntactic aspects of Sena word classes are presented in Section 2. Section 3 provides main properties of Sena ideophones as well as the inventory used in this study. Sections 4 to 7 examine their properties in terms of phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, respectively. Finally, Section 8 offers some discussion and conclusions.

The data used in this paper come from Prieto (2015), which includes a dictionary
section in which a fairly large number of ideophones were found, and two periods of
fieldwork carried out by the author in Maputo (fall 2021) and in the town of Caia and
its surroundings, in the north of the Sofalá Province (summer 2022). Throughout the
paper, I use a phonological notation for the linguistic data. Note, however, that <y> stands for the palatal approximant /j/, as conventionally practiced in Bantu studies.

## 2. Major word classes in Sena

In many respects, Sena is a typical Bantu language: its morphology is highly
agglutinative and ruled by a gender system of agreement classes, and it follows a basic
SVO word order.<fnref n="1" /> The canonical syllabic structure is CV, where C stands for any consonant, including prenasalized consonants, affricates, glides, and labialized/palatalized consonants. By default, the nucleus is the vowel, but syllabic nasals commonly appear noun-initially as a result of vowel apocope between a nasal onset and a following labial or coronal consonant, followed by homorganic nasal assimilation (e.g. noun class prefix 3 *mu- > ᶠ- in *nsoro 'head'). There are no closed-syllable words in Sena. The only exception to this generalization is ideophones, as examined in detail in §4.2. Unlike most Bantu languages, Sena does not have phonemic tones. It instead shows a rather predictable accentual system associated to the penultimate syllable, similar to that found in Swahili (swh).

The rest of this section briefly describes major word classes in Sena, i.e. word classes which have inflecting members, ruled by a predominantly head-marking morphology characterized by an extensive system of noun class agreement (gender-number agreement patterns). These are nouns, adnominal modifiers and verbs. Adverbs are also presented at the end of the section.

Sena nouns are generally bi- or trisyllabic. As a typical Bantu language, it has an elaborate system of noun classes (gender-number agreement patterns) numbered from 1 to 18. Structurally, nouns minimally consist of a stem to which a noun class prefix is assigned. Most classes function in singular/plural pairs. Compare, e.g. singular class 1 *η-kazi 'woman' versus plural class 2 *a-kazi 'women'. Class 15 *ku-* serves to form infinitives (e.g. *ku-roŋga* 'to speak'), hence it is glossed as *INF* throughout. The language also retained the three historical Proto-Bantu locative classes *pà* (class 16), *kù* (class 17), and *mù* (class 18) (Meeussen 1967; Grégoire 1975), realized as *pa-*, *ku-* and *mu-*, respectively (e.g. *pa-nyumba* 'at home'). In the NP, nouns by default appear phrase-initially and function as the head of the construction. In verbal clauses, they usually serve as subjects and/or objects. There is no different marking of nouns in different argument positions or different oblique roles.

Nouns as heads of NPs may combine with adnominal modifiers, which usually follow them and agree with them through class prefixes. Adnominal modifiers include adjectives, demonstratives, possessives, numerals/quantifiers, and interrogatives. Some of these modifiers share the same agreement paradigm, others have their own.

<footnote n="1">¹ For more information on what typical Bantu languages are, the reader is referred to general works such as Williamson and Blench (2000: 11–42), Nurse and Philippson (2003) and Van de Velde et al. (2019).</footnote>
SVO word order.<fnref n="1" /> The canonical syllabic structure is CV, where C stands for any consonant, including prenasalized consonants, affricates, glides, and labialized/palatalized consonants. By default, the nucleus is the vowel, but syllabic nasals commonly appear noun-initially as a result of vowel apocope between a nasal onset and a following labial or coronal consonant, followed by homorganic nasal assimilation (e.g. noun class prefix 3 *mu- > η- in *nsoro 'head'). There are no closed-syllable words in Sena. The only exception to this generalization is ideophones, as examined in detail in §4.2. Unlike most Bantu languages, Sena does not have phonemic tones. It instead shows a rather predictable accentual system associated to the penultimate syllable, similar to that found in Swahili (swh).

The rest of this section briefly describes major word classes in Sena, i.e. word classes which have inflecting members, ruled by a predominantly head-marking morphology characterized by an extensive system of noun class agreement (gender-number agreement patterns). These are nouns, adnominal modifiers and verbs. Adverbs are also presented at the end of the section.

Sena nouns are generally bi- or trisyllabic. As a typical Bantu language, it has an elaborate system of noun classes (gender-number agreement patterns) numbered from 1 to 18. Structurally, nouns minimally consist of a stem to which a noun class prefix is assigned. Most classes function in singular/plural pairs. Compare, e.g. singular class 1 *η-kazi 'woman' versus plural class 2 *a-kazi 'women'. Class 15 *ku-* serves to form infinitives (e.g. *ku-roŋga* 'to speak'), hence it is glossed as *INF* throughout. The language also retained the three historical Proto-Bantu locative classes *pà* (class 16), *kù* (class 17), and *mù* (class 18) (Meeussen 1967; Grégoire 1975), realized as *pa-*, *ku-* and *mu-*, respectively (e.g. *pa-nyumba* 'at home'). In the NP, nouns by default appear phrase-initially and function as the head of the construction. In verbal clauses, they usually serve as subjects and/or objects. There is no different marking of nouns in different argument positions or different oblique roles.

Nouns as heads of NPs may combine with adnominal modifiers, which usually follow them and agree with them through class prefixes. Adnominal modifiers include adjectives, demonstratives, possessives, numerals/quantifiers, and interrogatives. Some of these modifiers share the same agreement paradigm, others have their own.

<footnote n="1">¹ For more information on what typical Bantu languages are, the reader is referred to general works such as Williamson and Blench (2000: 11–42), Nurse and Philippson (2003) and Van de Velde et al. (2019).</footnote>
In this paper, for ease of reading, agreement prefixes within noun phrases are all glossed as AGRP for ‘agreement prefix’, then followed by the noun class number.<fnref n="2" />

Like most Bantu languages, Sena has rich agglutinative verbal morphology. The verbal complex consists of a string of affixes and clitics assigned to specific verbal slots that are ordered around the verb root contained in the radical slot. As can be seen in Table 1, a range of grammatical information is conveyed by these elements.

<table><caption>**Table 1:** The morphological structure of the finite verb in Sena (based on Güldemann 1999’s terminology).</caption><thead><tr><th>Slots</th><th>pre-initial</th><th>initial</th><th>post-initial</th><th>pre-radical</th><th>radical</th><th>pre-final</th><th>final</th><th>post-final</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th>Functions</th><td>TAM<br>negation</td><td>subject</td><td>TAM<br>AM</td><td>object</td><td><b>verb</b><br><b>root</b></td><td>derivation<br>TA</td><td>TAM</td><td>PLA<br>locative<br>subject<br>pronouns<br>in relatives,<br>etc.</td></tr></tbody></table>

The example in (1) illustrates the ordering and type of information that may be encoded in the verb form, with temporal and aspectual information (present na- prefix), subject and object agreement (ndi-, ku-), and derivational suffixes (applicative -ir).

(1) *ine ndinakutʰamangira*

*ine ndi-na-ku-tʰamang-ir-a*

PRO1SG SP1SG-PRS-OP2SG-run-APPL-FV

‘I’m going to chase you away.’ (Story_HareCobra_#31)

Like a typical Bantu language, Sena displays nominative-accusative alignment. The unmarked and default word order is Subject-Verb(-Object)(-Adjunct/Oblique). The initial agreement slot of the conjugated verb form invariably expresses agreement with the subject (except in relative constructions). NP arguments whose identity is recoverable from the context can freely be omitted. This is especially true for subjects, which are indexed through verb agreement anyway.

<footnote n="2">² Readers are referred to Güldemann & Fiedler (2019) for an overview on noun classes and gender in Bantu and beyond.</footnote>
In this paper, for ease of reading, agreement prefixes within noun phrases are all glossed as AGRP for ‘agreement prefix’, then followed by the noun class number.<fnref n="2" />

Like most Bantu languages, Sena has rich agglutinative verbal morphology. The verbal complex consists of a string of affixes and clitics assigned to specific verbal slots that are ordered around the verb root contained in the radical slot. As can be seen in Table 1, a range of grammatical information is conveyed by these elements.

<table><caption>**Table 1:** The morphological structure of the finite verb in Sena (based on Güldemann 1999’s terminology).</caption><thead><tr><th>Slots</th><th>pre-initial</th><th>initial</th><th>post-initial</th><th>pre-radical</th><th>radical</th><th>pre-final</th><th>final</th><th>post-final</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th>Functions</th><td>TAM<br>negation</td><td>subject</td><td>TAM<br>AM</td><td>object</td><td><b>verb</b><br><b>root</b></td><td>derivation<br>TA</td><td>TAM</td><td>PLA<br>locative<br>subject<br>pronouns<br>in relatives,<br>etc.</td></tr></tbody></table>

The example in (1) illustrates the ordering and type of information that may be encoded in the verb form, with temporal and aspectual information (present na- prefix), subject and object agreement (ndi-, ku-), and derivational suffixes (applicative -ir).

(1) *ine ndinakutʰamangira*

*ine ndi-na-ku-tʰamang-ir-a*

PRO1SG SP1SG-PRS-OP2SG-run-APPL-FV

‘I’m going to chase you away.’ (Story_HareCobra_#31)

Like a typical Bantu language, Sena displays nominative-accusative alignment. The unmarked and default word order is Subject-Verb(-Object)(-Adjunct/Oblique). The initial agreement slot of the conjugated verb form invariably expresses agreement with the subject (except in relative constructions). NP arguments whose identity is recoverable from the context can freely be omitted. This is especially true for subjects, which are indexed through verb agreement anyway.

<footnote n="2">² Readers are referred to Güldemann & Fiedler (2019) for an overview on noun classes and gender in Bantu and beyond.</footnote>
Adverbs, along with nouns and verbs, are an open word class. In particular, the derivational prefix *ci-* (class 7) is a productive way of creating adverbs, especially manner adverbs. Most of them include reduplication (e.g. *cinjala-njala* 'always with hunger' < *njala* 'hunger'), but non-reduplicated *ci-* adverbs are also attested (e.g. *cimpira* 'in the shape of a ball' < *mpira* 'ball'). Several temporal adverbs are also based on the class prefix *ci-*, e.g. *cino* 'now', *cipo* 'never', *citi-citi* 'midnight', *citʰanjki* 'at the beginning, formerly', etc., however the lexical (or grammatical) sources from which they derive are synchronically not retrievable. Other temporal adverbs are uninflected, e.g. *rero* 'today', *mangwana* 'tomorrow' or *kare* 'formerly'. As for locative adverbs, they usually take one of the three locative prefixes, e.g. *pa-kati/ku-kati/η-kati* 'in the middle'.

### 3. Sena ideophones: main characteristics and inventory

Ideophones are “marked words” (Dingemanse 2012: 654) in the sense that they stand out from other lexemes. How markedness manifests itself may differ from language to language and has to be defined in language-internal terms. This section summarizes the main characteristics of this word class in Sena (§3.1) and provides basic information on the inventory used in this study (§3.2).

#### 3.1 Main characteristics

The Sena language has been the subject of a number of studies led mostly by missionaries since the late 19th century. Anderson's (1897) short grammatical account does not discuss ideophones at all. Torrend (1900: 173–176) refers to ideophones as “*informal words*” which can be used as *adjectives* (after *li* ‘be’), *adverbs* or *interjections*. Only a few examples are provided for each use, and none are accompanied by additional comments or analysis. There is no subsection on ideophones in Moreira (1924). A couple of ideophones can be identified as part of superlative constructions (p. 51). The author refers to them as “*invariable nouns*”. A few other ideophones are found in temporal expressions, such as *dzua pióo* ‘at sun rise’ (p. 159) or *dzua tobi* ‘after sunset’ (p. 160). Alves (1939: 40–41) talks about *adverbs* and proposes a handful of examples. The studies by Funnell (2004) and Kiso (2012) focus on some specific
Adverbs, along with nouns and verbs, are an open word class. In particular, the derivational prefix *ci-* (class 7) is a productive way of creating adverbs, especially manner adverbs. Most of them include reduplication (e.g. *cinjala-njala* 'always with hunger' < *njala* 'hunger'), but non-reduplicated *ci-* adverbs are also attested (e.g. *cimpira* 'in the shape of a ball' < *mpira* 'ball'). Several temporal adverbs are also based on the class prefix *ci-*, e.g. *cino* 'now', *cipo* 'never', *citi-citi* 'midnight', *citʰanjki* 'at the beginning, formerly', etc., however the lexical (or grammatical) sources from which they derive are synchronically not retrievable. Other temporal adverbs are uninflected, e.g. *rero* 'today', *mangwana* 'tomorrow' or *kare* 'formerly'. As for locative adverbs, they usually take one of the three locative prefixes, e.g. *pa-kati/ku-kati/η-kati* 'in the middle'.

### 3. Sena ideophones: main characteristics and inventory

Ideophones are “marked words” (Dingemanse 2012: 654) in the sense that they stand out from other lexemes. How markedness manifests itself may differ from language to language and has to be defined in language-internal terms. This section summarizes the main characteristics of this word class in Sena (§3.1) and provides basic information on the inventory used in this study (§3.2).

#### 3.1 Main characteristics

The Sena language has been the subject of a number of studies led mostly by missionaries since the late 19th century. Anderson's (1897) short grammatical account does not discuss ideophones at all. Torrend (1900: 173–176) refers to ideophones as “*informal words*” which can be used as *adjectives* (after *li* ‘be’), *adverbs* or *interjections*. Only a few examples are provided for each use, and none are accompanied by additional comments or analysis. There is no subsection on ideophones in Moreira (1924). A couple of ideophones can be identified as part of superlative constructions (p. 51). The author refers to them as “*invariable nouns*”. A few other ideophones are found in temporal expressions, such as *dzua pióo* ‘at sun rise’ (p. 159) or *dzua tobi* ‘after sunset’ (p. 160). Alves (1939: 40–41) talks about *adverbs* and proposes a handful of examples. The studies by Funnell (2004) and Kiso (2012) focus on some specific
aspects of Sena grammar. None describes ideophonic words. Finally, Prieto (2015) is
divided into several sections, including a Sena-Portuguese lexicon and a short
grammatical sketch. In the latter, ideophones are treated in one paragraph, where the
author refers to them with the label “onomatopeic adverbial expression” (Prieto 2015:
413). Here too, a handful of examples are given. Crucially, even if Prieto’s
grammatical analysis of ideophones is very superficial, his Sena-Portuguese lexicon
(p. 3–234) has the advantage of providing a significant number of ideophones (at
least 400), which serve as the main source for the current study.

The way these different authors classify ideophones is unfortunately not based on
any given definition. The variety of attributes provided and italicized above shows to
what extent the authors disagree about their status. The rest of this section is devoted
to the main characteristics of Sena ideophones. Only high-level points are highlighted
here. Details are provided in the different following sections.

With regard to phonology (§4), ideophones in Sena only contain phonemes that
also belong to the general phoneme inventory of the language. The most salient
phonological properties of ideophones are the following: i) they recurrently resort
to vowel lengthening (in a system where long vowels are non-phonemic); ii) they
exhibit several strategies of reduplication; iii) they include a handful of items with
closed syllables (CVC pattern), a syllabic structure unattested in other parts of
speech; and iv) in a prosodic system marked by stress, ideophones exhibit tones.

With regard to morphology (§5), ideophones are uninflected, and, with a few
exceptions, deprived of derivational morphology. Ideophones thus have the
appearance of being underived roots. A frequent morphological process, however,
involves the reduplication, triplication or multiplication of the radical element,
something which is a common characteristic of ideophones cross-linguistically (see,
e.g. Voeltz & Kilian-Hatz 2001: 2; Childs 2003: 8; Dingemanse 2012: 656; Andrason
2020: 127–128). Many Sena ideophones which describe a property or manner have
the shape of verb roots. The relationship between verbs and ideophones has long been
postulated in Bantu (Doke 1954; Fortune 1961; Childs 1994). In Sena, the presence
of derivational morphology in a handful of ideophones suggests a one-way
derivational mechanism, that is deverbal derivation. Deverbal ideophones in Sena
could be analyzed as defective verbs, but since they share the same properties as the
other ideophones, they are treated as ideophones.

With regard to syntax (§6), Sena ideophones can appear in three different
constructions summarized in (2).
aspects of Sena grammar. None describes ideophonic words. Finally, Prieto (2015) is
divided into several sections, including a Sena-Portuguese lexicon and a short
grammatical sketch. In the latter, ideophones are treated in one paragraph, where the
author refers to them with the label “onomatopeic adverbial expression” (Prieto 2015:
413). Here too, a handful of examples are given. Crucially, even if Prieto’s
grammatical analysis of ideophones is very superficial, his Sena-Portuguese lexicon
(p. 3–234) has the advantage of providing a significant number of ideophones (at
least 400), which serve as the main source for the current study.

The way these different authors classify ideophones is unfortunately not based on
any given definition. The variety of attributes provided and italicized above shows to
what extent the authors disagree about their status. The rest of this section is devoted
to the main characteristics of Sena ideophones. Only high-level points are highlighted
here. Details are provided in the different following sections.

With regard to phonology (§4), ideophones in Sena only contain phonemes that
also belong to the general phoneme inventory of the language. The most salient
phonological properties of ideophones are the following: i) they recurrently resort
to vowel lengthening (in a system where long vowels are non-phonemic); ii) they
exhibit several strategies of reduplication; iii) they include a handful of items with
closed syllables (CVC pattern), a syllabic structure unattested in other parts of
speech; and iv) in a prosodic system marked by stress, ideophones exhibit tones.

With regard to morphology (§5), ideophones are uninflected, and, with a few
exceptions, deprived of derivational morphology. Ideophones thus have the
appearance of being underived roots. A frequent morphological process, however,
involves the reduplication, triplication or multiplication of the radical element,
something which is a common characteristic of ideophones cross-linguistically (see,
e.g. Voeltz & Kilian-Hatz 2001: 2; Childs 2003: 8; Dingemanse 2012: 656; Andrason
2020: 127–128). Many Sena ideophones which describe a property or manner have
the shape of verb roots. The relationship between verbs and ideophones has long been
postulated in Bantu (Doke 1954; Fortune 1961; Childs 1994). In Sena, the presence
of derivational morphology in a handful of ideophones suggests a one-way
derivational mechanism, that is deverbal derivation. Deverbal ideophones in Sena
could be analyzed as defective verbs, but since they share the same properties as the
other ideophones, they are treated as ideophones.

With regard to syntax (§6), Sena ideophones can appear in three different
constructions summarized in (2).
(2) - Complement of cognate verbs (adverbial use)

- Complement of copula verbs or light verbs (complex predicates)

- Ideophonic predicates (predicative and holophrastic use)

This wide distribution results in different degrees of syntactic integration. When they combine with cognate verbs, they behave as manner adverbs co-expressing the event expressed by the verb, such as ‘he fell IDEO(falling)’. They form complex predicates when they combine with copula verbs (‘be’ + IDEO) or light verbs (‘do’ + IDEO). When they are used predicatively and holophrastically, Sena ideophones function as “complete autonomous utterance[s]” (Andrason 2020: 130). They can substitute for verbs and function on their own as predicates with the capacity to induce argument positions. This corresponds to the prototypical syntactic definition of ideophones (Childs 1994; Dingemanse 2012: 656–657; Andrason 2020: 130).

Finally, with regards to semantics (§7), all semantic fields identified by Dingemanse (2012: 663), i.e. movements, all types of sensory perceptions, inner feelings and cognitive states, are covered by Sena ideophones. A complementary pattern ruled by phono-semantic principles is observed in many deverbal ideophones. The first pattern correlates vowel lengthening with a single, durative and usually intense event (e.g. nyá:ŋgu ‘licking’), while the second pattern semantically associates reduplication (or multiplication) with a recurrent, repetitive or rhythmic event (e.g. nyangú-nyangú ‘licking repeatedly’).

## 3.2 The inventory

Bantu languages differ considerably as to their number of ideophones. Large inventories are posited for Duala (dua, Cameroon, Meinhof 1912), Nkundo (lol, North-Western DRC, Hulstaert 1938), and a number of central Bantu languages such as Tumbuka (tum, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Young 1932). At the other end of the spectrum, Rundi (run, Burundi, Meeussen 1959) and Gusii (guz, Kenya, Whiteley 1956) are two Bantu languages with seemingly few ideophones. In between, there are languages like Tswana (tsn), where “ideophones do appear to be fewer in number and to be less frequently used in Tswana than in many other Bantu languages” (Cole 1955: 370). Unfortunately, speaking of large or small inventories does not say anything about exact numbers, and as can be expected, the differences in size assessment may easily be attributed to different definitions of the authors and/or the depth at which
(2) - Complement of cognate verbs (adverbial use)

- Complement of copula verbs or light verbs (complex predicates)

- Ideophonic predicates (predicative and holophrastic use)

This wide distribution results in different degrees of syntactic integration. When they combine with cognate verbs, they behave as manner adverbs co-expressing the event expressed by the verb, such as ‘he fell IDEO(falling)’. They form complex predicates when they combine with copula verbs (‘be’ + IDEO) or light verbs (‘do’ + IDEO). When they are used predicatively and holophrastically, Sena ideophones function as “complete autonomous utterance[s]” (Andrason 2020: 130). They can substitute for verbs and function on their own as predicates with the capacity to induce argument positions. This corresponds to the prototypical syntactic definition of ideophones (Childs 1994; Dingemanse 2012: 656–657; Andrason 2020: 130).

Finally, with regards to semantics (§7), all semantic fields identified by Dingemanse (2012: 663), i.e. movements, all types of sensory perceptions, inner feelings and cognitive states, are covered by Sena ideophones. A complementary pattern ruled by phono-semantic principles is observed in many deverbal ideophones. The first pattern correlates vowel lengthening with a single, durative and usually intense event (e.g. nyáŋŋu ‘licking’), while the second pattern semantically associates reduplication (or multiplication) with a recurrent, repetitive or rhythmic event (e.g. nyangú-nyangú ‘licking repeatedly’).

## 3.2 The inventory

Bantu languages differ considerably as to their number of ideophones. Large inventories are posited for Duala (dua, Cameroon, Meinhof 1912), Nkundo (lol, North-Western DRC, Hulstaert 1938), and a number of central Bantu languages such as Tumbuka (tum, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Young 1932). At the other end of the spectrum, Rundi (run, Burundi, Meeussen 1959) and Gusii (guz, Kenya, Whiteley 1956) are two Bantu languages with seemingly few ideophones. In between, there are languages like Tswana (tsn), where “ideophones do appear to be fewer in number and to be less frequently used in Tswana than in many other Bantu languages” (Cole 1955: 370). Unfortunately, speaking of large or small inventories does not say anything about exact numbers, and as can be expected, the differences in size assessment may easily be attributed to different definitions of the authors and/or the depth at which
ideophones have been described in each language. A dedicated study is needed to avoid these pitfalls.

Earlier work on Sena (§3.1) does not convey a precise idea of the number of ideophones and even less of their frequency in the language. In terms of numbers, the 412 lexemes found in Prieto probably represent just a sample. Prieto himself states that “[t]here is a whole dictionary of onomatopoeic and alike sentences to be written yet.”<fnref n="3" />

As for my own fieldwork corpus, excluding elicitation, a total of almost 6:30 hours of naturalistic data were recorded and transcribed.<fnref n="4" /> These include radio broadcasts, conversations, life stories, folktales and descriptions of cultural practices. I also included poems written in the 1970s by two Sena speakers while they were living and studying in Zobwe, Tete Province. In Table 2, the different audio files are listed by genre. The number of recordings (with an indication of their total length in time) and the number of types and tokens are specified for each genre. In total, across the different genres, there are 175 instances (tokens) of ideophones for 54 types.

<table><caption>**Table 2:** Occurrences of ideophones (in types and tokens) based on available discourse genres. (Guérois 2021 – 2022 field data)</caption><thead><tr><td>Genre</td><td>Number of recordings (+ recording time)</td><td>Type number of ideophones</td><td>Token number of ideophones</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>radio broadcasts</td><td>2 recordings (00:33:36)</td><td>1</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>life stories</td><td>11 recordings (03:03:50)</td><td>6</td><td>14</td></tr><tr><td>descriptions</td><td>9 recordings (00:50:47)</td><td>7</td><td>23</td></tr><tr><td>conversations</td><td>4 recordings (00:36:05)</td><td>5</td><td>37</td></tr><tr><td>folktales</td><td>12 recordings (01:02:33)</td><td>23</td><td>81</td></tr><tr><td>poems</td><td>11 recordings (00:21:40)</td><td>16</td><td>19</td></tr></tbody></table>

Among the discourse genres listed in Table 2, radio broadcasts and life stories have very few ideophones overall. The discourse genre ‘descriptions’ closely follows, with at most one or two ideophones for recordings between 5 and 15 minutes. Two very short recordings (between 01:30 and 2:00 minutes) have 10 and 7 ideophone tokens, respectively, but with 15 occurrences of *gedé* ‘completing, concluding an action’. The last three discourse genres in Table 2, conversations, folktales and poems, have

<footnote n="3">³ Translated from the original: «Há um dicionário inteiro, ainda por escrever, de frases onomatopeicas e similares.»</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ As the raw data is still being processed, this corpus has not yet been made available in open access.</footnote>
ideophones have been described in each language. A dedicated study is needed to avoid these pitfalls.

Earlier work on Sena (§3.1) does not convey a precise idea of the number of ideophones and even less of their frequency in the language. In terms of numbers, the 412 lexemes found in Prieto probably represent just a sample. Prieto himself states that “[t]here is a whole dictionary of onomatopoeic and alike sentences to be written yet.”<fnref n="3" />

As for my own fieldwork corpus, excluding elicitation, a total of almost 6:30 hours of naturalistic data were recorded and transcribed.<fnref n="4" /> These include radio broadcasts, conversations, life stories, folktales and descriptions of cultural practices. I also included poems written in the 1970s by two Sena speakers while they were living and studying in Zobwe, Tete Province. In Table 2, the different audio files are listed by genre. The number of recordings (with an indication of their total length in time) and the number of types and tokens are specified for each genre. In total, across the different genres, there are 175 instances (tokens) of ideophones for 54 types.

<table><caption>**Table 2:** Occurrences of ideophones (in types and tokens) based on available discourse genres. (Guérois 2021 – 2022 field data)</caption><thead><tr><td>Genre</td><td>Number of recordings (+ recording time)</td><td>Type number of ideophones</td><td>Token number of ideophones</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>radio broadcasts</td><td>2 recordings (00:33:36)</td><td>1</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>life stories</td><td>11 recordings (03:03:50)</td><td>6</td><td>14</td></tr><tr><td>descriptions</td><td>9 recordings (00:50:47)</td><td>7</td><td>23</td></tr><tr><td>conversations</td><td>4 recordings (00:36:05)</td><td>5</td><td>37</td></tr><tr><td>folktales</td><td>12 recordings (01:02:33)</td><td>23</td><td>81</td></tr><tr><td>poems</td><td>11 recordings (00:21:40)</td><td>16</td><td>19</td></tr></tbody></table>

Among the discourse genres listed in Table 2, radio broadcasts and life stories have very few ideophones overall. The discourse genre ‘descriptions’ closely follows, with at most one or two ideophones for recordings between 5 and 15 minutes. Two very short recordings (between 01:30 and 2:00 minutes) have 10 and 7 ideophone tokens, respectively, but with 15 occurrences of *gedé* ‘completing, concluding an action’. The last three discourse genres in Table 2, conversations, folktales and poems, have

<footnote n="3">³ Translated from the original: «Há um dicionário inteiro, ainda por escrever, de frases onomatopeicas e similares.»</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ As the raw data is still being processed, this corpus has not yet been made available in open access.</footnote>
proportionally more ideophones. That conversations and folktales contain a considerable number of ideophones is not surprising, considering that ideophones are used for dramatic enhancement through sound effects. The speaker not only narrates the event but also dramatizes for his audience (or interlocutor) by the means of an ideophone (the linguistic feature), which may be accompanied by a simultaneous imitation, in the form of a gesture (the extralinguistic feature). It is also not surprising to find ideophones in poems, as this genre not only embraces orality through rhythm, sonic qualities and acoustic resonance, but also invokes imagery, just as ideophones typically do. Four ideophones extracted from poems are used in this study.

Another interesting fact, which would deserve more in-depth research, is speaker variation. The current corpus suggests that monolingual Sena speakers tend to use ideophones more frequently than non-monolingual speakers. Coincidentally, monolingual Sena speakers are more likely to live in rural areas and usually have a lower level of scholarly instruction.

The inventory of ideophones used in the present study brings together the 54 types of ideophones found in fieldwork data and those provided in Prieto's lists. The final corpus is thus based on a total of 466 ideophones.

## 4. Phonological aspects

This section describes the most salient phonological properties of Sena ideophones. It first delves into the segmental inventory (§4.1), then examines the different syllabic shapes (§4.2), and ends with the suprasegmental level (§4.3).

### 4.1 Segmental inventory

An often-stated criterion in defining the ideophone class is their ability to incorporate phonemes not otherwise attested in the phonological inventory of the language (see, e.g. Samarin 1971: 135–136; Childs 1994; Voeltz & Kilian-Hatz 2001; Dingemanse 2012: 656; Andrason 2017: 146; Andrason 2020: 125–126). Ideophones in Sena do not make use of special phonemes. The segmental inventory in Sena consists of five vowels and 44 consonants. Vowel length is not a contrastive feature in the language, but vowel lengthening plays a crucial role in ideophones, as discussed in §4.2. Each of the five vowels participates in the expression of ideophones. There is no strict rule as to the nature of co-occurring vowels in ideophones. Some ideophones display
proportionally more ideophones. That conversations and folktales contain a considerable number of ideophones is not surprising, considering that ideophones are used for dramatic enhancement through sound effects. The speaker not only narrates the event but also dramatizes for his audience (or interlocutor) by the means of an ideophone (the linguistic feature), which may be accompanied by a simultaneous imitation, in the form of a gesture (the extralinguistic feature). It is also not surprising to find ideophones in poems, as this genre not only embraces orality through rhythm, sonic qualities and acoustic resonance, but also invokes imagery, just as ideophones typically do. Four ideophones extracted from poems are used in this study.

Another interesting fact, which would deserve more in-depth research, is speaker variation. The current corpus suggests that monolingual Sena speakers tend to use ideophones more frequently than non-monolingual speakers. Coincidentally, monolingual Sena speakers are more likely to live in rural areas and usually have a lower level of scholarly instruction.

The inventory of ideophones used in the present study brings together the 54 types of ideophones found in fieldwork data and those provided in Prieto's lists. The final corpus is thus based on a total of 466 ideophones.

## 4. Phonological aspects

This section describes the most salient phonological properties of Sena ideophones. It first delves into the segmental inventory (§4.1), then examines the different syllabic shapes (§4.2), and ends with the suprasegmental level (§4.3).

### 4.1 Segmental inventory

An often-stated criterion in defining the ideophone class is their ability to incorporate phonemes not otherwise attested in the phonological inventory of the language (see, e.g. Samarin 1971: 135–136; Childs 1994; Voeltz & Kilian-Hatz 2001; Dingemanse 2012: 656; Andrason 2017: 146; Andrason 2020: 125–126). Ideophones in Sena do not make use of special phonemes. The segmental inventory in Sena consists of five vowels and 44 consonants. Vowel length is not a contrastive feature in the language, but vowel lengthening plays a crucial role in ideophones, as discussed in §4.2. Each of the five vowels participates in the expression of ideophones. There is no strict rule as to the nature of co-occurring vowels in ideophones. Some ideophones display
identical vowels, as in (3). Some combine high/close vowels (4a), front vowels (4b) or back vowels (4c). Others put vowels with different features together (5).

(3) i-i gwibídí 'being entered, introduced'
e-e ndéŋgere 'left aside, useless'
a-a dára 'aged, from a previous round'
o-o toro 'swelling of pregnant belly'
u-u gugú:du 'be dry (soil, spread maize, cloth, heart, etc.)'

(4) a. i-u cíŋgu 'turning around to look behind'
u-i cúbwi 'splashing sound'
b. e-i yetí 'shining, sparkling'
cipézi-pézi 'naked'
c. o-u gómú 'negate completely'
ó:bvu 'rotten'

(5) i-o zikó: 'very deep'
o-i o:tsí 'sound of sneezing'
u-e búré: 'straight (for hair)'
a-u katú-katu 'lukewarm (liquid, food)'

Sena has a rich consonantal system including implosives and a large series of prenasalized clusters and affricates. Although some consonants are less frequent than others, as is the case with the other word classes, the whole consonantal inventory is represented in ideophones. Voiced bilabial and dentals are by default implosive. Very few words in the language have the plosives /b/ and /d/. Ideophones are no exception: only four ideophones in the corpus, listed in (6), have them. The minimal (or near) pairs show the contrast between plosives and implosives.

(6) a. dúdu:ru 'sound of impact on the ground'
dudú:ru 'something turned dry (lake, pan, bone)'
b. bwí-bwi-bwí 'making bubbles on the water surface'
bwí-bwí-bwí 'throwing food in the mouth'
c. dí-dí-dí 'sound of running strides or door knocking'
dé-dé-dé 'sleeping on the back'
identical vowels, as in (3). Some combine high/close vowels (4a), front vowels (4b) or back vowels (4c). Others put vowels with different features together (5).

(3) i-i gwibídí 'being entered, introduced'
e-e ndéŋgere 'left aside, useless'
a-a dára 'aged, from a previous round'
o-o toro 'swelling of pregnant belly'
u-u gugú:du 'be dry (soil, spread maize, cloth, heart, etc.)'

(4) a. i-u cíŋgu 'turning around to look behind'
u-i cúbwi 'splashing sound'
b. e-i yetí 'shining, sparkling'
cipézi-pézi 'naked'
c. o-u gómú 'negate completely'
ó:bvu 'rotten'

(5) i-o zikó: 'very deep'
o-i o:tsí 'sound of sneezing'
u-e búré: 'straight (for hair)'
a-u katú-katu 'lukewarm (liquid, food)'

Sena has a rich consonantal system including implosives and a large series of prenasalized clusters and affricates. Although some consonants are less frequent than others, as is the case with the other word classes, the whole consonantal inventory is represented in ideophones. Voiced bilabial and dentals are by default implosive. Very few words in the language have the plosives /b/ and /d/. Ideophones are no exception: only four ideophones in the corpus, listed in (6), have them. The minimal (or near) pairs show the contrast between plosives and implosives.

(6) a. dúdu:ru 'sound of impact on the ground'
dudú:ru 'something turned dry (lake, pan, bone)'
b. bwí-bwi-bwí 'making bubbles on the water surface'
bwí-bwí-bwí 'throwing food in the mouth'
c. dí-dí-dí 'sound of running strides or door knocking'
dé-dé-dé 'sleeping on the back'
d. *bó(;) 'spreading out, spilling'

*bó::do 'be damaged'

There does not seem to be any strong correlation between Sena ideophones and sound symbolism (§7.2).

## 4.2 Syllabic shapes

The different shapes of Sena ideophones are listed in Table 3. The vast majority are not distinct in shape from non-ideophonic words, in that they maintain the canonical CV syllable structure of the language (but see below for exceptions). There are both mono- and polysyllabic ideophones.

<table><caption>**Table 3:** Syllabic structure of Sena ideophones.</caption><thead><tr><th>Shape</th><th>Ideophone</th><th>Meaning</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>monosyllabic</td><td>zwí</td><td>'act of throwing'</td></tr><tr><td>disyllabic</td><td>ná.wa</td><td>'be in a seated position'</td></tr><tr><td>polysyllabic</td><td>ru.bu.du<br>bo.ndo.kó.te<br>dzí.ndzí.rí.ki.ti</td><td>'with big belly button'<br>'woman sitting with knees bent'<br>'recalling sth. forgotten (& going back)'</td></tr></tbody></table>

Monosyllabic ideophones are proportionally few (81 out of 466, i.e. 17%), but still far more frequent than in other word classes. Most ideophones in Sena are disyllabic. By default, they have a C-initial structure. Vowel-initial ideophones are rare. The whole corpus-based list is provided in Table 4.

<table><caption>**Table 4:** V-initial ideophones in Sena.</caption><thead><tr><th>Ideophone</th><th>Meaning</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>enwá-enwá</td><td>'being visible (game, fugitive)'</td></tr><tr><td>ófu-ófu</td><td>'sound of pig's grunt'</td></tr><tr><td>ó::bvu</td><td>'being rotten'</td></tr><tr><td>o::tsí</td><td>'sound of sneezing'</td></tr><tr><td>oyó-oyo</td><td>'speaking at the same time'</td></tr><tr><td>uyá-uyá</td><td>'movement triggered by strong winds'</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><tr><td>d. bó(;) 'spreading out, spilling'</td></tr><tr><td>bó::do 'be damaged'</td></tr></table>

There does not seem to be any strong correlation between Sena ideophones and sound symbolism (§7.2).

## 4.2 Syllabic shapes

The different shapes of Sena ideophones are listed in Table 3. The vast majority are not distinct in shape from non-ideophonic words, in that they maintain the canonical CV syllable structure of the language (but see below for exceptions). There are both mono- and polysyllabic ideophones.

<table><caption>**Table 3:** Syllabic structure of Sena ideophones.</caption><thead><tr><td>Shape</td><td>Ideophone</td><td>Meaning</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>monosyllabic</td><td>zwí</td><td>'act of throwing'</td></tr><tr><td>disyllabic</td><td>ná.wa</td><td>'be in a seated position'</td></tr><tr><td>polysyllabic</td><td>ru.bu.du<br>bo.ndo.kó.te<br>dzí.ndzí.rí.ki.ti</td><td>'with big belly button'<br>'woman sitting with knees bent'<br>'recalling sth. forgotten (& going back)'</td></tr></tbody></table>

Monosyllabic ideophones are proportionally few (81 out of 466, i.e. 17%), but still far more frequent than in other word classes. Most ideophones in Sena are disyllabic. By default, they have a C-initial structure. Vowel-initial ideophones are rare. The whole corpus-based list is provided in Table 4.

<table><caption>**Table 4:** V-initial ideophones in Sena.</caption><thead><tr><td>Ideophone</td><td>Meaning</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>enwá-enwá</td><td>'being visible (game, fugitive)'</td></tr><tr><td>ófu-ófu</td><td>'sound of pig's grunt'</td></tr><tr><td>ó::bvu</td><td>'being rotten'</td></tr><tr><td>o::tsí</td><td>'sound of sneezing'</td></tr><tr><td>oyó-oyo</td><td>'speaking at the same time'</td></tr><tr><td>uyá-uyá</td><td>'movement triggered by strong winds'</td></tr></tbody></table>
Although ideophones overall follow regular phonotactic rules, they may violate certain structure conditions. A first phonological anomaly has to do with the extensive use of vowel lengthening, a feature shared with interjections such as *wá:* ('exclamation of surprise'), *zí:* ('exclamation of surprise'), *ázy:* ('exclamation of pain').<fnref n="5" /> In a system where long vowels are non-phonemic, vowel lengthening is used for expressive purposes in ideophonic words. With the exception of fully-reduplicated ideophones used to express recurrent, repetitive or rhythmic events (see §7.2), it seems that all ideophones can be subjected to vowel lengthening. Depending on intensity, vowels can be extra-long, with no apparent limit on the length. Lengthening occurs in mono- as well as polysyllabic ideophones as shown in Table 5. Where lengthening occurs in polysyllabic ideophones is not always predictable. In disyllabic ideophones, it may be on the last vowel (e.g. *bídó:*) or the first one (e.g. *dé:*fu). In longer ideophones, lengthening may not apply to the first vowel; it is restricted to either the last (e.g. *bveséré:* and *dodorído:*) or penultimate vowel (e.g. *ndungú:*ndu and *bondokó:*te).

<table><caption>**Table 5:** Vowel lengthening in Sena ideophones.</caption><thead><tr><th>Shape</th><th>Ideophone</th><th>Meaning</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>monosyllabic</td><td>gwí / gwí:</td><td>'with strength'</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">disyllabic</td><td>bí.gó / bí.gó:</td><td>'dark, black'</td></tr><tr><td>dé.fu / dé:.fu</td><td>'be empty (stomach, food bag)'</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">trisyllabic</td><td>bve.sé.ré / bve.sé.ré:</td><td>'listening'</td></tr><tr><td>ndu.ngú.ndu / ndu.ngú:.ndu</td><td>'getting calm (body pain, sea wave)'</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">four-syllable</td><td>do.do.rí.do / do.do.rí.do:</td><td>'waiting for s.o. in vain'</td></tr><tr><td>bo.ndo.kó.te / bo.ndo.kó:.te</td><td>'woman sitting with knees bent'</td></tr></tbody></table>

Examples (7) and (8), extracted from the same conversation, illustrate the use of the ideophone *pʰwí* in similar contexts and with equivalent meaning, with and without vowel lengthening.

(7) ufa basi udama ra) kwenda uku, basiya pʰwí:!

u-fa basi u-da-mara ku-enda uku basiya pʰwí:

14-flour only AGRP14-PFV.REL-finish INF-go 17.DEM.I 5.basin IDEO(full)

'(...) flour only which ended up going there, a full basin!' (Conv.06_MaMa-BeCh-CeTh#262)

<footnote n="5">⁵ Vowel lengthening in other parts of speech may occur for emphasis or insistence, but it seems much less frequent.</footnote>
Although ideophones overall follow regular phonotactic rules, they may violate certain structure conditions. A first phonological anomaly has to do with the extensive use of vowel lengthening, a feature shared with interjections such as *wá:* ('exclamation of surprise'), *zí:* ('exclamation of surprise'), *ázy:* ('exclamation of pain').<fnref n="5" /> In a system where long vowels are non-phonemic, vowel lengthening is used for expressive purposes in ideophonic words. With the exception of fully-reduplicated ideophones used to express recurrent, repetitive or rhythmic events (see §7.2), it seems that all ideophones can be subjected to vowel lengthening. Depending on intensity, vowels can be extra-long, with no apparent limit on the length. Lengthening occurs in mono- as well as polysyllabic ideophones as shown in Table 5. Where lengthening occurs in polysyllabic ideophones is not always predictable. In disyllabic ideophones, it may be on the last vowel (e.g. *bídó:*:) or the first one (e.g. *dé:*fu). In longer ideophones, lengthening may not apply to the first vowel; it is restricted to either the last (e.g. *bveséré:* and *dodorído:*) or penultimate vowel (e.g. *ndungú:*ndu and *bondokó:*te).

<table><caption>**Table 5:** Vowel lengthening in Sena ideophones.</caption><thead><tr><th>Shape</th><th>Ideophone</th><th>Meaning</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>monosyllabic</td><td>gwí / gwí:</td><td>'with strength'</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">disyllabic</td><td>bí.ánd / bí.ándó:</td><td>'dark, black'</td></tr><tr><td>dé.fu / dé:.fu</td><td>'be empty (stomach, food bag)'</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">trisyllabic</td><td>bve.sé.ré / bve.sé.ré:</td><td>'listening'</td></tr><tr><td>ndu.ngú.ndu / ndu.ngú:.ndu</td><td>'getting calm (body pain, sea wave)'</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">four-syllable</td><td>do.do.rí.do / do.do.rí.do:</td><td>'waiting for s.o. in vain'</td></tr><tr><td>bo.ndo.kó.te / bo.ndo.kó:.te</td><td>'woman sitting with knees bent'</td></tr></tbody></table>

Examples (7) and (8), extracted from the same conversation, illustrate the use of the ideophone *pʰwí* in similar contexts and with equivalent meaning, with and without vowel lengthening.

(7) ufa basi udama ra) kwenda uku, basiya pʰwí:!

u-fa basi u-da-mara ku-enda uku basiya pʰwí:

14-flour only AGRP14-PFV.REL-finish INF-go 17.DEM.I 5.basin IDEO(full)

'(...) flour only which ended up going there, a full basin!' (Conv.06_MaMa-BeCh-CeTh#262)

<footnote n="5">⁵ Vowel lengthening in other parts of speech may occur for emphasis or insistence, but it seems much less frequent.</footnote>
(8) ora zonsene uŋgafika kwenda kafungura basiya unagumana basiya pʰwi!
ora zi-onsene u-ŋga-fika ku-enda ka-fungura basiya
10.time AGRP10-all SP2SG-SIT-arrive INF-go AM.ITV-open 5.basin
u-na-gumana basiya pʰwí
SP1-PRS-meet 5.basin IDEO(full)
‘Any time when you arrive and open the basin, you find the basin
completely full.’ (Conv.06_MaMa-BeCh-CeTh_#268)

In some cases, vowel length participates in the distinction between ideophones. This
is interesting because this is the only domain of the language where vowel length
plays a distinctive role. Examples of minimal pairs based on vowel length are provided
in (9). Again, the length depends on the intensity conveyed.

(9) a. dára ‘aged, from a previous round’
dára ‘in large number’
b. gá ‘sound of cutting with strength’
gá: ‘rising, ascending (sun, light)’
c. bvu-bvú-bvu-bvu ‘spending helplessly’
bvú:-bvú:-bvú: ‘movement of wind or fan’
d. pfé-pfé-pfé ‘installing/hanging on walls’
pfé: ‘relying unitedly to a song’

Another exceptional feature of Sena ideophones is their ability to end in consonants. This is found with six items only (1,3%), listed in Table 6. Except for *pʰurúrɛ́*, all are monosyllabic. The single occurrence with a nasal coda, *mvú:n*, has a long vowel. All the others end in a long trill [r::] following a short vowel. Free variation between C-final *cúrɛ́* and V-final *cú:* suggests that lengthening may occur either on the trill, or on the vowel, but not both. Consonantal codas as well as trill lengthening are not found in other parts of speech.

<table><caption>**Table 6:** C-final ideophones in Sena.</caption><thead><tr><td>Ideophone</td><td>Meaning</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>mvú:n</td><td>‘smelling bad’</td></tr><tr><td>gwír::</td><td>‘in abundance’</td></tr><tr><td>tírí::</td><td>‘being squeezed and plentiful’</td></tr><tr><td>dúrí::</td><td>i) ‘silent with fear (in front of chiefs)’ - ii) ‘fading away (for plant)’</td></tr><tr><td>cúrí:: ~ cú::</td><td>‘spilling (for liquid)’</td></tr><tr><td>pʰurúrí::</td><td>i) ‘unrolling mat’ - ii) ‘trying to fly away (trapped bird)’</td></tr></tbody></table>
(8) ora zonsene uŋgafika kwenda kafungura basiya unagumana basiya pʰwi!
ora zi-onsene u-ŋga-fika ku-enda ka-fungura basiya
10.time AGRP10-all SP2SG-SIT-arrive INF-go AM.ITV-open 5.basin
u-na-gumana basiya pʰwí
SP1-PRS-meet 5.basin IDEO(full)
‘Any time when you arrive and open the basin, you find the basin
completely full.’ (Conv.06_MaMa-BeCh-CeTh_#268)

In some cases, vowel length participates in the distinction between ideophones. This
is interesting because this is the only domain of the language where vowel length
plays a distinctive role. Examples of minimal pairs based on vowel length are provided
in (9). Again, the length depends on the intensity conveyed.

(9) a. dára ‘aged, from a previous round’
dára ‘in large number’
b. gá ‘sound of cutting with strength’
gá: ‘rising, ascending (sun, light)’
c. bvu-bvú-bvu-bvu ‘spending helplessly’
bvú:-bvú:-bvú: ‘movement of wind or fan’
d. pfé-pfé-pfé ‘installing/hanging on walls’
pfé: ‘relying unitedly to a song’

Another exceptional feature of Sena ideophones is their ability to end in consonants. This is found with six items only (1,3%), listed in Table 6. Except for *pʰurúrɛ́*, all are monosyllabic. The single occurrence with a nasal coda, *mvú:n*, has a long vowel. All the others end in a long trill [r::] following a short vowel. Free variation between C-final *cúrɛ́* and V-final *cú:* suggests that lengthening may occur either on the trill, or on the vowel, but not both. Consonantal codas as well as trill lengthening are not found in other parts of speech.

<table><caption>**Table 6:** C-final ideophones in Sena.</caption><thead><tr><td>Ideophone</td><td>Meaning</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>mvú:n</td><td>‘smelling bad’</td></tr><tr><td>gwír::</td><td>‘in abundance’</td></tr><tr><td>tírí::</td><td>‘being squeezed and plentiful’</td></tr><tr><td>dúrí::</td><td>i) ‘silent with fear (in front of chiefs)’ - ii) ‘fading away (for plant)’</td></tr><tr><td>cúrí:: ~ cúri::</td><td>‘spilling (for liquid)’</td></tr><tr><td>pʰurúrí::</td><td>i) ‘unrolling mat’ - ii) ‘trying to fly away (trapped bird)’</td></tr></tbody></table>
Two sentences with C-final ideophones are provided in (10) and (11).

(10) nyama zidagureye zikanuŋkʰa, ziri mvú:n!

nyama zi-da-gura = eye

10.meat AGRP10-PFV.REL-buy = PRO1

zi-ka-nuŋkʰa

SP10-PST.IPFV-smell.bad

zi-ri

SP10-be

mvú:n

IDEO

‘The meat s/he bought was smelling bad, it stinks!’ (Elicitation)

(11) tsanga iri dúr:: na dzuwa

tsanga i-ri dúr:: na dzuwa

5.weed SP5-be IDEO by 5.sun

‘Weeds faded away because of the sun.’ (Elicitation)

**4.3 Suprasegmental level**

As mentioned in §2, Sena does not have tones, but rather stress or accent associated to the penultimate syllable of phrasal domains, and realized through phonetic properties such as loudness and higher pitch. Amidst this predictable stress system, it is interesting to observe that ideophones have a special prosody which makes the distinction between high tones (H), indicated with an acute accent, and zero tones (Ø). The coexistence of stress-like and tone-like properties within the prosodic system of a language is not unique to Sena. It is discussed in detail by Downing (2019) for Tumbuka, a Malawian Bantu language in which tonal contrasts emerge in ideophones only.

In Sena, many tonal patterns on ideophones can be isolated, as listed and illustrated in Table 7 for non-reduplicated ideophones, and Table 8 for reduplicated ideophones. The tone position in an ideophone does not depend on phonological rules; it is largely unpredictable and must be learnt for each ideophone. The two lists below do not claim to be exhaustive; more research is needed to determine to which extent these tone patterns are strictly assigned to ideophones, and whether they are consistently used across speakers. Crucially, none of these patterns are attested elsewhere, except H:: for interjections. Unlike polysyllabic ideophones, monosyllabic ideophones all seem to
Two sentences with C-final ideophones are provided in (10) and (11).

(10) nyama zidagureye zikanuŋkʰa, ziri mvú:n!

nyama zi-da-gura = eye
10.meat AGRP10-PFV.REL-buy = PRO1

zi-ka-nuŋkʰa
SP10-PST.IPFV-smell.bad
SP10-be

mvú:n

IDEO

‘The meat s/he bought was smelling bad, it stinks!’ (Elicitation)

(11) tsanga iri dúr:: na dzuwa

tsanga i-ri dúr:: na dzuwa
5.weed SP5-be IDEO by 5.sun

‘Weeds faded away because of the sun.’ (Elicitation)

**4.3 Suprasegmental level**

As mentioned in §2, Sena does not have tones, but rather stress or accent associated to the penultimate syllable of phrasal domains, and realized through phonetic properties such as loudness and higher pitch. Amidst this predictable stress system, it is interesting to observe that ideophones have a special prosody which makes the distinction between high tones (H), indicated with an acute accent, and zero tones (Ø). The coexistence of stress-like and tone-like properties within the prosodic system of a language is not unique to Sena. It is discussed in detail by Downing (2019) for Tumbuka, a Malawian Bantu language in which tonal contrasts emerge in ideophones only.

In Sena, many tonal patterns on ideophones can be isolated, as listed and illustrated in Table 7 for non-reduplicated ideophones, and Table 8 for reduplicated ideophones. The tone position in an ideophone does not depend on phonological rules; it is largely unpredictable and must be learnt for each ideophone. The two lists below do not claim to be exhaustive; more research is needed to determine to which extent these tone patterns are strictly assigned to ideophones, and whether they are consistently used across speakers. Crucially, none of these patterns are attested elsewhere, except H:: for interjections. Unlike polysyllabic ideophones, monosyllabic ideophones all seem to
attract a high tone. As can be seen, high-toned syllables may be pronounced longer, but
this is not systematic.

<table><caption>**Table 7:** Tone patterns in non-reduplicated Sena ideophones.</caption><thead><tr><th>Tone pattern</th><th>Ideophone</th><th>Meaning</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td colspan="3"><strong>1-syllable</strong></td></tr><tr><td>H::</td><td>bzwé::</td><td>'dry a little, in part'</td></tr><tr><td>HH::</td><td>dúŕ::</td><td>i) 'silent with fear (in front of chiefs)'<br>ii) 'fading away (for plant)'</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3"><strong>2-syllable</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø</td><td>to.ro</td><td>'swelling of pregnant belly'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H</td><td>bo.fó</td><td>'be damaged, deformed (following some pressure)'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H::</td><td>zi.kó::</td><td>'very deep'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø:.H</td><td>bvu:mbú</td><td>'leaving suddenly'</td></tr><tr><td>H.Ø</td><td>cé.tu</td><td>'glowing, sparkling'</td></tr><tr><td>H:.Ø</td><td>bé:pʰe</td><td>'experiencing emotional distress'</td></tr><tr><td>H.Ø::</td><td>cé.te::</td><td>'in silence'</td></tr><tr><td>H.H</td><td>fú mbú</td><td>'in vain'</td></tr><tr><td>H.H:</td><td>bí.dó:</td><td>'dark, black'</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3"><strong>3-syllable</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø.Ø</td><td>kwi.kwi.nya</td><td>'buttocks swaying'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H.H::</td><td>bve.sé.ré::</td><td>'listening'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H.H</td><td>dzo.ró.ró</td><td>'standing on feet, be vertical, erected'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H:.H</td><td>so.ró:.ré</td><td>'tearing, extracting sth. stuck'</td></tr><tr><td>H.H::Ø</td><td>bzwé.ré::re</td><td>'being smooth (skin, bark, surface)'</td></tr><tr><td>H.H.H</td><td>jé.ré.ré</td><td>'well lit, burning (light, fire)'</td></tr><tr><td>H.Ø::Ø</td><td>dó.ndo::ro</td><td>'well straight on the way'</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3"><strong>4-syllable</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø.H:.Ø</td><td>ta.mba.rá.re</td><td>'sitting with stretched legs'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø.H.Ø:</td><td>do.do.rí.do:</td><td>'waiting for s.o. in vain'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø.H.H</td><td>pa.pa.rá.rá</td><td>'extending (wings, arms) while walking'</td></tr><tr><td>H.H.H.H</td><td>pʰá.ná.má.ná</td><td>'observing, watching someone'</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3"><strong>5-syllable</strong></td></tr><tr><td>H-H-H-Ø-Ø</td><td>dzí.ndzí.rí.ki.tʰi</td><td>'recalling sth. forgotten (& going back)'</td></tr></tbody></table>
attract a high tone. As can be seen, high-toned syllables may be pronounced longer, but this is not systematic.

<table><caption>**Table 7:** Tone patterns in non-reduplicated Sena ideophones.</caption><thead><tr><th>Tone pattern</th><th>Ideophone</th><th>Meaning</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td colspan="3"><strong>1-syllable</strong></td></tr><tr><td>H::</td><td>bzwé::</td><td>'dry a little, in part'</td></tr><tr><td>HH::</td><td>dúŕ::</td><td>i) 'silent with fear (in front of chiefs)'<br>ii) 'fading away (for plant)'</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3"><strong>2-syllable</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø</td><td>to.ro</td><td>'swelling of pregnant belly'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H</td><td>bo.fó</td><td>'be damaged, deformed (following some pressure)'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H::</td><td>zi.kó::</td><td>'very deep'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø:.H</td><td>bvu:mbú</td><td>'leaving suddenly'</td></tr><tr><td>H.Ø</td><td>cé.tu</td><td>'glowing, sparkling'</td></tr><tr><td>H:.Ø</td><td>bé:pʰe</td><td>'experiencing emotional distress'</td></tr><tr><td>H.Ø::</td><td>cé.te::</td><td>'in silence'</td></tr><tr><td>H.H</td><td>fú mbú</td><td>'in vain'</td></tr><tr><td>H.H:</td><td>bí.dó:</td><td>'dark, black'</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3"><strong>3-syllable</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø.Ø</td><td>kwi.kwi.nya</td><td>'buttocks swaying'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H.H::</td><td>bve.sé.ré::</td><td>'listening'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H.H</td><td>dzo.ró.ró</td><td>'standing on feet, be vertical, erected'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H:.H</td><td>so.ró:.ré</td><td>'tearing, extracting sth. stuck'</td></tr><tr><td>H.H::Ø</td><td>bzwé.ré::re</td><td>'being smooth (skin, bark, surface)'</td></tr><tr><td>H.H.H</td><td>jé.ré.ré</td><td>'well lit, burning (light, fire)'</td></tr><tr><td>H.Ø::Ø</td><td>dó.ndo::ro</td><td>'well straight on the way'</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3"><strong>4-syllable</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø.H:.Ø</td><td>ta.mba.rá.re</td><td>'sitting with stretched legs'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø.H.Ø:</td><td>do.do.rí.do:</td><td>'waiting for s.o. in vain'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø.H.H</td><td>pa.pa.rá.rá</td><td>'extending (wings, arms) while walking'</td></tr><tr><td>H.H.H.H</td><td>pʰá.ná.má.ná</td><td>'observing, watching someone'</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3"><strong>5-syllable</strong></td></tr><tr><td>H-H-H-Ø-Ø</td><td>dzí.ndzí.rí.ki.tʰi</td><td>'recalling sth. forgotten (& going back)'</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><caption>**Table 8:** Tone patterns in reduplicated Sena ideophones.</caption><thead><tr><th>Tone pattern</th><th>Ideophone</th><th>Meaning</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td colspan="3">monosyllabic reduplication</td></tr><tr><td>H-H-H</td><td>jó-jó-jó</td><td>'dripping'</td></tr><tr><td>H-Ø-H</td><td>rú-ru-rú</td><td>'comforting gesture to calm a crying child'</td></tr><tr><td>H-Ø-Ø</td><td>fá-fa-fa</td><td>'filling up too much, exceeding'</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3">disyllabic reduplication</td></tr><tr><td>Ø-Ø-Ø.Ø</td><td>tsa.ri-tsa.ri</td><td>'having last convulsions before dying'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H-Ø.Ø</td><td>ra.sá-ra.sa</td><td>'throwing'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø-H.H</td><td>ri.kwi-rí.kwí</td><td>'stuck in the throat'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H-Ø.H</td><td>ca.rí-ca.rí</td><td>'bypassing, deviating'</td></tr><tr><td>H.H-H.H</td><td>bú.rú-bú.rú</td><td>'in movement (water, liquid)'</td></tr><tr><td>H.H-Ø.Ø</td><td>fí.dá-fi.da</td><td>'with lots of cash'</td></tr><tr><td>H.Ø-H.Ø</td><td>ó.fu-ó.fu</td><td>'sound of pig's grunt'</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3">trisyllabic reduplication</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H.H-Ø.H.H</td><td>ba.rá.rá-ba.rá.rá</td><td>'walk in an uncontrolled way'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø.Ø-H.Ø.Ø</td><td>ke.ŋke.re-ké.ŋke.re</td><td>'sound of foreign language'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø.Ø-Ø.H.H</td><td>dzo.ro.ro-dzo.ró.ró</td><td>'standing on feet, be vertical, erected'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø.H-Ø.Ø.Ø</td><td>pe.ke.té-pe.ke.te</td><td>'movement of confusion, disorder (in the forest)'</td></tr></tbody></table>

Ideophonic tones can be contrastive and contribute to semantic variation. For instance, the three ideophones in (12) are all derived from the verb stem *beruka* 'surface, float' (see §5.1 for deverbal ideophone formation), but differ in their syllabic shapes as well as their tone pattern. Very often, vowel lengthening is combined with a H tone on the syllable (but cases of toneless long vowels such as *bvumbú* 'leaving suddenly', *céte::* 'in silence' or *dóndo::ro* 'well straight on the way' in Table 7 also exist). This leads to two tone patterns in case of disyllabic ideophones: H::Ø as in *bé::ru* or Ø.H:: as in *berú::*. Reduplicated (or triplicated) patterns usually do not involve vowel lengthening, and the assignment of the tone-bearing syllable is less predictable. The tone pattern Ø.H-Ø.H-Ø.H is found in *berú-berú-berú*.

<table><tr><td>(12) <b>bé::ru</b></td><td>'emerging, surfacing' = from bottom to the surface</td></tr><tr><td><b>berú::</b></td><td>'floating on the surface' = at the surface already</td></tr><tr><td><b>berú-berú-berú</b></td><td>'moving back and forth on the surface' = with movements</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; verb <b>beruka</b></td><td>'surface, float'</td></tr></table>
<table><caption>**Table 8:** Tone patterns in reduplicated Sena ideophones.</caption><thead><tr><th>Tone pattern</th><th>Ideophone</th><th>Meaning</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td colspan="3">monosyllabic reduplication</td></tr><tr><td>H-H-H</td><td>jó-jó-jó</td><td>'dripping'</td></tr><tr><td>H-Ø-H</td><td>rú-ru-rú</td><td>'comforting gesture to calm a crying child'</td></tr><tr><td>H-Ø-Ø</td><td>fá-fa-fa</td><td>'filling up too much, exceeding'</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3">disyllabic reduplication</td></tr><tr><td>Ø-Ø-Ø.Ø</td><td>tsa.ri-tsa.ri</td><td>'having last convulsions before dying'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H-Ø.Ø</td><td>ra.sá-ra.sa</td><td>'throwing'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø-H.H</td><td>ri.kwi-rí.kwí</td><td>'stuck in the throat'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H-Ø.H</td><td>ca.rí-ca.rí</td><td>'bypassing, deviating'</td></tr><tr><td>H.H-H.H</td><td>bú.rú-bú.rú</td><td>'in movement (water, liquid)'</td></tr><tr><td>H.H-Ø.Ø</td><td>fí.dá-fi.da</td><td>'with lots of cash'</td></tr><tr><td>H.Ø-H.Ø</td><td>ó.fu-ó.fu</td><td>'sound of pig's grunt'</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3">trisyllabic reduplication</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.H.H-Ø.H.H</td><td>ba.rá.rá-ba.rá.rá</td><td>'walk in an uncontrolled way'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø.Ø-H.Ø.Ø</td><td>ke.ŋke.re-ké.ŋke.re</td><td>'sound of foreign language'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø.Ø-Ø.H.H</td><td>dzo.ro.ro-dzo.ró.ró</td><td>'standing on feet, be vertical, erected'</td></tr><tr><td>Ø.Ø.H-Ø.Ø.Ø</td><td>pe.ke.té-pe.ke.te</td><td>'movement of confusion, disorder (in the forest)'</td></tr></tbody></table>

Ideophonic tones can be contrastive and contribute to semantic variation. For instance, the three ideophones in (12) are all derived from the verb stem *beruka* 'surface, float' (see §5.1 for deverbal ideophone formation), but differ in their syllabic shapes as well as their tone pattern. Very often, vowel lengthening is combined with a H tone on the syllable (but cases of toneless long vowels such as *bvumbú* 'leaving suddenly', *céte::* 'in silence' or *dóndo::ro* 'well straight on the way' in Table 7 also exist). This leads to two tone patterns in case of disyllabic ideophones: H::Ø as in *bé::ru* or Ø.H:: as in *berú::*. Reduplicated (or triplicated) patterns usually do not involve vowel lengthening, and the assignment of the tone-bearing syllable is less predictable. The tone pattern Ø.H-Ø.H-Ø.H is found in *berú-berú-berú*.

<table><tr><td>(12) <b>bé::ru</b></td><td>'emerging, surfacing' = from bottom to the surface</td></tr><tr><td><b>berú::</b></td><td>'floating on the surface' = at the surface already</td></tr><tr><td><b>berú-berú-berú</b></td><td>'moving back and forth on the surface' = with movements</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; verb <b>beruka</b></td><td>'surface, float'</td></tr></table>
As can be seen, the meaning of these three ideophones is very close. It seems that the H::Ø tone pattern (*bé::ru*) depicts the length of the action of floating up, until it eventually reaches the end point (the surface). In contrast, the Ø.H:: pattern (*berú::*) depicts an unbounded action. The regular Ø.H-Ø.H-Ø.H pattern in triplicated *berú-berú-berú* seems to convey the rhythm of movement. Further research would be needed to check whether there is any correlation between the tone pattern and the lexical aspect the ideophone encodes. Tone variation alone is, however, not responsible for the nuances of interpretation observed in (12). Nor is it associated to specific meaning, as reported, e.g. for Ewe (ewe), where raised pitch (high tone) is symbolic of niceness, pleasantness, goodness and small dimension, whereas unraised pitch (low tone) indicates badness, unpleasantness and big dimension (Ameka 2001: 30).

# 5. Morphological aspects

## 5.1 Derivation

Compared to other word classes, Sena ideophones display very little morphology, a characteristic shared by most African languages with ideophones (Childs 1994: 185). First, Sena ideophones are uninflected words. Unlike adnominal modifiers and (most) verb forms, they do not take agreement prefixes. This suggests a stronger syntactic independence, or “syntactic aloofness” in Kunene’s (1978: 13) terms.

As for derivational morphology, two types of ideophones may be distinguished: (i) those which have the shape of primary roots with no derivational affixes (e.g. *rámbá* ‘lying, resting, sleeping’ or *zíyú* ‘without return, for good’) and (ii) those which are derived from verbs. The rest of this section is devoted to the second type.

The majority of ideophones in Sena have the shape of verb roots, i.e. verbs without derivational and inflectional suffixes (including the final vowel -a of the verb, the applicative -ir ~ -er, the causative -is ~ -es, the neuter/reflexive -ik ~ -ek, and the reciprocal/associative -an). Two main patterns emerge. In the first, ideophones copy full verb roots as in (13) for simple ideophones and (14) for reduplicated ideophones. Since Sena phonotactics forbids syllable codas (with the exception of a handful of ideophones listed in Table 6, §4.2), a final vowel is added to C-final verb roots. The value of this added vowel is difficult to predict. If disyllabic (or more) verb roots have identical vowels, the added vowel often harmonizes (e.g. in *tʰíndini*, *tʰúkutu* and *barárá-barárá*), but this rule of vowel harmonization does not always hold, as e.g. in *funukúré*. The choice for the vowel added to ideophones derived from monosyllabic verb roots (*zikóz*, *redé-rede*, *bwekú-bweku*, *topó-topo*) does not seem to follow any principle.
As can be seen, the meaning of these three ideophones is very close. It seems that the H::Ø tone pattern (*bé::ru*) depicts the length of the action of floating up, until it eventually reaches the end point (the surface). In contrast, the Ø.H:: pattern (*berú::*) depicts an unbounded action. The regular Ø.H-Ø.H-Ø.H pattern in triplicated *berú-berú-berú* seems to convey the rhythm of movement. Further research would be needed to check whether there is any correlation between the tone pattern and the lexical aspect the ideophone encodes. Tone variation alone is, however, not responsible for the nuances of interpretation observed in (12). Nor is it associated to specific meaning, as reported, e.g. for Ewe (ewe), where raised pitch (high tone) is symbolic of niceness, pleasantness, goodness and small dimension, whereas unraised pitch (low tone) indicates badness, unpleasantness and big dimension (Ameka 2001: 30).

# 5. Morphological aspects

## 5.1 Derivation

Compared to other word classes, Sena ideophones display very little morphology, a characteristic shared by most African languages with ideophones (Childs 1994: 185). First, Sena ideophones are uninflected words. Unlike adnominal modifiers and (most) verb forms, they do not take agreement prefixes. This suggests a stronger syntactic independence, or “syntactic aloofness” in Kunene’s (1978: 13) terms.

As for derivational morphology, two types of ideophones may be distinguished: (i) those which have the shape of primary roots with no derivational affixes (e.g. *rámbá* ‘lying, resting, sleeping’ or *zíyú* ‘without return, for good’) and (ii) those which are derived from verbs. The rest of this section is devoted to the second type.

The majority of ideophones in Sena have the shape of verb roots, i.e. verbs without derivational and inflectional suffixes (including the final vowel -a of the verb, the applicative -ir ~ -er, the causative -is ~ -es, the neuter/reflexive -ik ~ -ek, and the reciprocal/associative -an). Two main patterns emerge. In the first, ideophones copy full verb roots as in (13) for simple ideophones and (14) for reduplicated ideophones. Since Sena phonotactics forbids syllable codas (with the exception of a handful of ideophones listed in Table 6, §4.2), a final vowel is added to C-final verb roots. The value of this added vowel is difficult to predict. If disyllabic (or more) verb roots have identical vowels, the added vowel often harmonizes (e.g. in *tʰíndini*, *tʰúkutu* and *barárá-barárá*), but this rule of vowel harmonization does not always hold, as e.g. in *funukúré*. The choice for the vowel added to ideophones derived from monosyllabic verb roots (*zikó::*, *redé-rede*, *bwekú-bweku*, *topó-topo*) does not seem to follow any principle.
(13) Simple full verb root

<table><tr><td><strong>zikó::</strong></td><td>'very deep'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-zik-a</td><td>'to be deep'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>funukúré</strong></td><td>'movement of opening'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-funukur-a</td><td>'to open'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>tʰíndini</strong></td><td>'in silence, refusing to talk'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-tʰíndin-a</td><td>'to be silent, refuse to talk'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>tʰúkutu</strong></td><td>'landing carefully'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-tʰukutiz-a</td><td>'to land carefully'</td></tr></table>

(14) Reduplicated full verb root

<table><tr><td><strong>barárá-barárá</strong></td><td>'walk in an uncontrolled way'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-barar-ik-a</td><td>'to be uncontrolled'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>redé-rede</strong></td><td>'as equals'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-red-an-a</td><td>'to do sth. in the same way'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>bwekú-bweku</strong></td><td>'speaking a lot and unnecessarily'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-bwek-a</td><td>'to speak a lot and unnecessarily'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>topó-topo</strong></td><td>'falling asleep'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-top-a</td><td>'to get very tired, fall asleep'</td></tr></table>

In the second pattern, illustrated in (15)-(16), ideophones copy only the first part of verb roots but leave out the coda. This corresponds to the initial CV segments of monosyllabic roots or the initial CVCV segments of disyllabic (or trisyllabic) roots. Again, reduplication (or triplication) may operate (16) or not (15). Vowel lengthening is more prone to occur in non-reduplicated ideophones (see §7.2).

(15) Simple partial verb root

<table><tr><td><strong>bofó</strong></td><td>'be damaged, deformed (following some pressure)'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-bofor-a</td><td>'to damage, deform, squeeze (following some pressure)'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>bvú::</strong></td><td>'heating, warming up (sun)'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-bvuk-a</td><td>'to heat, warm up (sun)'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>bzwé::</strong></td><td>'dry a little, in part'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-bzwer-er-a</td><td>'to dry a little, in part'</td></tr></table>

(16) Reduplicated partial verb root

<table><tr><td><strong>jó-jó-jó</strong></td><td>'dripping'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-joj-a</td><td>'to drip'</td></tr></table>
(13) Simple full verb root

<table><tr><td><strong>zikó::</strong></td><td>'very deep'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <strong>ku-zik-a</strong></td><td>'to be deep'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>funukúré</strong></td><td>'movement of opening'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <strong>ku-funukur-a</strong></td><td>'to open'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>tʰíndini</strong></td><td>'in silence, refusing to talk'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <strong>ku-tʰindin-a</strong></td><td>'to be silent, refuse to talk'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>tʰúkutu</strong></td><td>'landing carefully'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <strong>ku-tʰukutiz-a</strong></td><td>'to land carefully'</td></tr></table>

(14) Reduplicated full verb root

<table><tr><td><strong>barárá-barárá</strong></td><td>'walk in an uncontrolled way'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <strong>ku-barar-ik-a</strong></td><td>'to be uncontrolled'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>redé-rede</strong></td><td>'as equals'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <strong>ku-red-an-a</strong></td><td>'to do sth. in the same way'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>bwekú-bweku</strong></td><td>'speaking a lot and unnecessarily'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <strong>ku-bwek-a</strong></td><td>'to speak a lot and unnecessarily'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>topó-topo</strong></td><td>'falling asleep'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <strong>ku-top-a</strong></td><td>'to get very tired, fall asleep'</td></tr></table>

In the second pattern, illustrated in (15)-(16), ideophones copy only the first part of verb roots but leave out the coda. This corresponds to the initial CV segments of monosyllabic roots or the initial CVCV segments of disyllabic (or trisyllabic) roots. Again, reduplication (or triplication) may operate (16) or not (15). Vowel lengthening is more prone to occur in non-reduplicated ideophones (see §7.2).

(15) Simple partial verb root

<table><tr><td><strong>bofó</strong></td><td>'be damaged, deformed (following some pressure)'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <strong>ku-bofor-a</strong></td><td>'to damage, deform, squeeze (following some pressure)'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>bvú::</strong></td><td>'heating, warming up (sun)'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <strong>ku-bvuk-a</strong></td><td>'to heat, warm up (sun)'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>bzwé::</strong></td><td>'dry a little, in part'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <strong>ku-bzwer-er-a</strong></td><td>'to dry a little, in part'</td></tr></table>

(16) Reduplicated partial verb root

<table><tr><td><strong>jó-jó-jó</strong></td><td>'dripping'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <strong>ku-joj-a</strong></td><td>'to drip'</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td>derú-derú</td><td>'swinging, rocking'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-derump<sup>h</sup>-a</td><td>'to swing, rock'</td></tr><tr><td>wá-wá-wá</td><td>'pouring and spreading (salt in pan, water on land)'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-wadz-a</td><td>'to pour and spread (salt in pan, water on land portion)'</td></tr></table>

Following Steriade's (1988) formal account of reduplication, referred to in Ameka (2001: 31), it is likely that the second pattern above (partial reduplication) derives from the first pattern (full reduplication), i.e. reduplication of verb roots is total, and then followed by pruning of the final segment of the reduplicated material.

More rarely, some segmental material is added to the derived ideophone, as in (17), but the examples are too few to make any generalizations.

<table><tr><td>(17) dyókó-dyoko</td><td>'craving for food'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-dy-a</td><td>'to eat'</td></tr><tr><td>timbwí-timbwi</td><td>'with tightened belt; suffering because of s.o.'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; ku-timb-a</td><td>'to tighten too much (rope, belt)'</td></tr></table>

Among these two examples, the shape of *timbwí-timbwi* is intriguing, as it looks as if the passive suffix -(i)w was added to the verb root *timb*. Similarly, the recurring segment *erere* in the four ideophones *themberé::re* 'sick in bed', *reberé::re* 'about to fall', *jéréré* 'being alight' and *bzwéré::re* 'being smooth (skin, bark, surface)', suggests the presence of the applicative morpheme -er. Unlike *timbwí-timbwi*, synchronic underived verb forms are not attested for these four ideophones. Even though it is not unusual to have verbs with applicative morphology but no verbal base, a verbal origin might still be postulated. The possible presence of passive and applicative morphology in a handful of ideophones is interesting in two respects. First, it would provide some exception to the generalization that ideophones have no derivational morphology. Second, it would confirm that this type of ideophones is indeed derived from verbs, and not the other way around. This is in line with what a number of Africanist scholars have proposed for other languages, including Meyer (this volume), Courtenay (1976), Childs (1994) and Doke (1954), although the latter also advocate for a two-way derivation (verb > ideophone and ideophone > verb) in Lamba (lam).

Deverbal ideophones are often used with the verb to which they are morphologically related, as in (18), where the ideophone *bwandzú* 'being open, uncovered, discovered' follows the conjugated verb *bwandzuka* 'be open, uncovered,
derú-derú 'swinging, rocking'

< ku-derumpʰ-a 'to swing, rock'

wá-wá-wá 'pouring and spreading (salt in pan, water on land)'

< ku-wadz-a 'to pour and spread (salt in pan, water on land portion)'

Following Steriade's (1988) formal account of reduplication, referred to in Ameka (2001: 31), it is likely that the second pattern above (partial reduplication) derives from the first pattern (full reduplication), i.e. reduplication of verb roots is total, and then followed by pruning of the final segment of the reduplicated material.

More rarely, some segmental material is added to the derived ideophone, as in (17), but the examples are too few to make any generalizations.

(17) dyókó-dyoko 'craving for food'

< ku-dy-a 'to eat'

timbwi-timbwi 'with tightened belt; suffering because of s.o.'

< ku-timb-a 'to tighten too much (rope, belt)'

Among these two examples, the shape of timbwi-timbwi is intriguing, as it looks as if the passive suffix -(i)w was added to the verb root timb. Similarly, the recurring segment erere in the four ideophones tʰemberɛ́re 'sick in bed', remberɛ́re 'about to fall', jéréré 'being alight' and bzwérére 'being smooth (skin, bark, surface)', suggests the presence of the applicative morpheme -er. Unlike timbwi-timbwi, synchronic underived verb forms are not attested for these four ideophones. Even though it is not unusual to have verbs with applicative morphology but no verbal base, a verbal origin might still be postulated. The possible presence of passive and applicative morphology in a handful of ideophones is interesting in two respects. First, it would provide some exception to the generalization that ideophones have no derivational morphology. Second, it would confirm that this type of ideophones is indeed derived from verbs, and not the other way around. This is in line with what a number of Africanist scholars have proposed for other languages, including Meyer (this volume), Courtenay (1976), Childs (1994) and Doke (1954), although the latter also advocate for a two-way derivation (verb > ideophone and ideophone > verb) in Lamba (lam).

Deverbal ideophones are often used with the verb to which they are morphologically related, as in (18), where the ideophone bwandzú 'being open, uncovered, discovered' follows the conjugated verb bwandzuka 'be open, uncovered,
discovered' (see §6.1 for more details on this construction). This is, however, not systematic. In (19), the same ideophone is used without its cognate verb.

(18) ṅkazi ure, nguwo zace zabwandzuka na mpʰepo bwandzú
    ṅ-kazi ure nguwo zace za-će bwandzuka na mpʰepo
1-woman 9.DEM.III 9.cloth 9.POSS3SG SP9.PFV-be.uncovered with 9.wind
    bwandzú

IDEO(being uncovered)

‘That woman, her cloth has been uncovered by the wind, [IDEO].’ (Elicitation)

(19) n̥suwo uri bwandzú
n̥-suwo u-ri bwandzú
3-door SP3-be IDEO(being open)

‘The door is open.’ (Elicitation)

The derivation of ideophones from verbs is very productive in Sena, and it is not clear whether there are any restrictions in terms of semantics or types of verbs. From the available data, it rather looks as if almost any verb could yield an ideophone with an associated depictive function. Possible exceptions exist with verbs which already trigger the formation of adverb-like words in ci- (§2). The two forms in (20) formally differ in the presence or absence of the derivational prefix ci-. Whereas the adverb cikwatakwata morphologically and semantically derives from the verb stem kwata ‘hold, take’, the origin of the ideophone kwatakwata ‘leaning’ and its semantic assignment are unknown. It is not possible to predict at this stage when verbs will be derived adverbially with ci- and when they use the “bare” ideophonic verb form only.

(20) ci-kwata-kwata ‘willing to touch and take everything around’
kwata-kwata ‘leaning’

It is also not clear from the corpus whether verbs or nouns can be derived from ideophones. The few verbs listed in (21) are possible candidates. Notably, the ideophones they (possibly) derive from are all onomatopoeic. This is particularly evident for animal sounds, such as wú-wu-wú and mé-mé. In these two cases, a deverbal derivational direction seems less likely. The direction of the last three pairs of examples is less obvious, but their mimetics is such that it is easy to conceive a de-ideophonic derivational process. Onomatopoeic ideophones appear as relevant sources to create new verbs.
discovered' (see §6.1 for more details on this construction). This is, however, not systematic. In (19), the same ideophone is used without its cognate verb.

(18) ṅkazi ure, nguwo zace zabwandzuka na mpʰepo bwandzú
 ṅ-kazi ure nguwo zace za-:bwandzuka na mpʰepo
1-woman 9.DEM.III 9.cloth 9.POSS3SG SP9.PFV-be.uncovered with 9.wind
bwandzú

IDEO(being uncovered)

‘That woman, her cloth has been uncovered by the wind, [IDEO].’ (Elicitation)

(19) ṅsuwo uri bwandzú

n-suwo u-ri bwandzú

3-door SP3-be IDEO(being open)

‘The door is open.’ (Elicitation)

The derivation of ideophones from verbs is very productive in Sena, and it is not clear whether there are any restrictions in terms of semantics or types of verbs. From the available data, it rather looks as if almost any verb could yield an ideophone with an associated depictive function. Possible exceptions exist with verbs which already trigger the formation of adverb-like words in ci- (§2). The two forms in (20) formally differ in the presence or absence of the derivational prefix ci-. Whereas the adverb cikwatakwata morphologically and semantically derives from the verb stem kwata ‘hold, take’, the origin of the ideophone kwatakwata ‘leaning’ and its semantic assignment are unknown. It is not possible to predict at this stage when verbs will be derived adverbially with ci- and when they use the “bare” ideophonic verb form only.

(20) ci-kwata-kwata ‘willing to touch and take everything around’
kwata-kwata ‘leaning’

It is also not clear from the corpus whether verbs or nouns can be derived from ideophones. The few verbs listed in (21) are possible candidates. Notably, the ideophones they (possibly) derive from are all onomatopoeic. This is particularly evident for animal sounds, such as wú-wu-wú and mé-mé: In these two cases, a deverbal derivational direction seems less likely. The direction of the last three pairs of examples is less obvious, but their mimetics is such that it is easy to conceive a de-ideophonic derivational process. Onomatopoeic ideophones appear as relevant sources to create new verbs.
<table><tr><td>(21) <b>ku-wut-a</b></td><td>'to bark'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <b>wú-wu-wú</b></td><td>'sound of dog barking'</td></tr><tr><td><b>ku-memes-a</b></td><td>'to bleat'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <b>mé:-mé:</b></td><td>'sound of goat bleating'</td></tr><tr><td><b>ku-fot-a</b></td><td>'to make a silent fart'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <b>fó::</b></td><td>'sound of a silent fart'</td></tr><tr><td><b>ku-gagađ-a</b></td><td>'to cut in pieces with a hoe, machete, knife'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <b>gá</b></td><td>'sound of cutting with strength, in one go'</td></tr><tr><td><b>ku-nyenyen-a</b></td><td>'to gnaw'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <b>nyenyena</b></td><td>'gnawing'</td></tr></table>

## 5.2 Reduplication (and multiplication)

Many ideophones are formed by total reduplication (*gabí-gabi*), which may extend to triplication (*fyé-fye-fye*) and even multiplication (*bvu-bvú-bvu-bvu*). Albeit rarer, partial reduplication is also attested, either initial reduplication (*kwikwinya*) or final reduplication (*dzoróró*). Submorphemic segments such as *erere* (with or without vowel lengthening), occurring in *tʰemberɛ́:re, remberɛ́:re, jéréré* and *bzwéré:re, are rare.*

<table><caption>**Table 9:** Reduplication patterns in Sena ideophones.</caption><thead><tr><th>Shape</th><th>Ideophone</th><th>Meaning</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="3">total reduplication</td><td><i>rwá-rwá</i></td><td>'with eyes wide open, without blinking'</td></tr><tr><td><i>gabí-gabi</i></td><td>'movement of choppy water'</td></tr><tr><td><i>pʰeperú-pʰeperu</i></td><td>'staggering'</td></tr><tr><td>triplication</td><td><i>fyé-fye-fye</i></td><td>'staying mute, not reporting a culprit'</td></tr><tr><td>multiplication</td><td><i>bvu-bvú-bvu-bvu</i></td><td>'spending helplessly'</td></tr><tr><td>first syllable repeated</td><td><i>kwikwinya</i></td><td>'buttocks swaying'</td></tr><tr><td>last syllable repeated</td><td><i>dzoróró</i></td><td>'standing on feet, be vertical, erected'</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="4">with recurring segments</td><td><i>tʰemberɛ́:re</i></td><td>'sick in bed'</td></tr><tr><td><i>remberɛ́:re</i></td><td>'about to fall'</td></tr><tr><td><i>jéréré</i></td><td>'being alight'</td></tr><tr><td><i>bzwéré:re</i></td><td>'being smooth (skin, bark, surface)'</td></tr></tbody></table>

Reduplication is a recurrent derivational mechanism in Sena. As can be seen from Table 9, reduplication may be full or partial. Reduplication of reduplication, or double reduplication, resulting in four identical segments, is also commonly attested. Full
<table><tr><td>(21) <b>ku-wut-a</b></td><td>'to bark'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <b>wú-wu-wú</b></td><td>'sound of dog barking'</td></tr><tr><td><b>ku-memes-a</b></td><td>'to bleat'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <b>mé:-mé:</b></td><td>'sound of goat bleating'</td></tr><tr><td><b>ku-fot-a</b></td><td>'to make a silent fart'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <b>fó::</b></td><td>'sound of a silent fart'</td></tr><tr><td><b>ku-gaga<span style="text-decoration: overline;">d</span>-a</b></td><td>'to cut in pieces with a hoe, machete, knife'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <b>gá</b></td><td>'sound of cutting with strength, in one go'</td></tr><tr><td><b>ku-nyenyen-a</b></td><td>'to gnaw'</td></tr><tr><td>&lt; <b>nyenyena</b></td><td>'gnawing'</td></tr></table>

## 5.2 Reduplication (and multiplication)

Many ideophones are formed by total reduplication (*gabí-gabi*), which may extend to triplication (*fyé-fye-fye*) and even multiplication (*bvu-bvú-bvu-bvu*). Albeit rarer, partial reduplication is also attested, either initial reduplication (*kwikwinya*) or final reduplication (*dzoróró*). Submorphemic segments such as *erere* (with or without vowel lengthening), occurring in *tʰemberɛ́:rɛ́*, *remberɛ́:rɛ́*, *jéréré* and *bzwéré:re*, are rare.

<table><caption>**Table 9:** Reduplication patterns in Sena ideophones.</caption><thead><tr><th>Shape</th><th>Ideophone</th><th>Meaning</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="3">total reduplication</td><td><i>rwá-rwá</i></td><td>'with eyes wide open, without blinking'</td></tr><tr><td><i>gabí-gabi</i></td><td>'movement of choppy water'</td></tr><tr><td><i>pʰeperú-pʰeperu</i></td><td>'staggering'</td></tr><tr><td>triplication</td><td><i>fyé-fye-fye</i></td><td>'staying mute, not reporting a culprit'</td></tr><tr><td>multiplication</td><td><i>bvu-bvú-bvu-bvu</i></td><td>'spending helplessly'</td></tr><tr><td>first syllable repeated</td><td><i>kwikwinya</i></td><td>'buttocks swaying'</td></tr><tr><td>last syllable repeated</td><td><i>dzoróró</i></td><td>'standing on feet, be vertical, erected'</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="4">with recurring segments</td><td><i>tʰemberɛ́:rɛ́</i></td><td>'sick in bed'</td></tr><tr><td><i>remberɛ́:rɛ́</i></td><td>'about to fall'</td></tr><tr><td><i>jéréré</i></td><td>'being alight'</td></tr><tr><td><i>bzwéré:re</i></td><td>'being smooth (skin, bark, surface)'</td></tr></tbody></table>

Reduplication is a recurrent derivational mechanism in Sena. As can be seen from Table 9, reduplication may be full or partial. Reduplication of reduplication, or double reduplication, resulting in four identical segments, is also commonly attested. Full
reduplication involves base forms which have the segmental structures CV (rwá-rwá ‘with eyes wide open, without blinking’), VCV (oyó-oyo ‘speaking at the same time’), CVCV (gabí-gabi ‘movement of choppy water’) or CVCVCV (pʰeperú-pʰeperu ‘staggering’). While reduplication applies to disyllabic (or trisyllabic) ideophones, triplication most often targets monosyllabic ideophones. Since Sena has both prefixal and suffixal morphology, it is difficult to determine the base and the reduplicated part. Reduplication of the otherwise very rare CVC pattern (§4.2) is not attested. Partial reduplication of ideophones involves reduplication of the final CV (dzoróró) or the initial CV of the base form (kwikwinya).

Total reduplication is not the exclusive property of ideophones in Sena. It is a recurrent morphological process also attested in nouns (22), adjectives (46), verbs (23) and adverbs (24). However, only ideophones allow partial reduplication, triplication and multiplication.

(22) kunacitao ṛṣoŋkʰo, kunaburuka ṛṣoŋkʰo-ṇṣoŋkʰo, ndi kweko kunapʰatene basa.

ku-na-cita = o

AGRP17-PRS-do.REL = PRO2

ndi kweko ku-na-pʰat = ene basa

COP 17.DEM.II AGRP17-PRS-take.REL = PRO1SG 5.work

‘Where they charge taxes, where taxes are levied (go out), it is where I work.’

(Life.Story_DoDa_#89)

(23) onoyu anakʰara bwera kandimenya-menya pano

onoyu a-na-kʰara bwera ka-ndi-menya-menya pano

1.DEM.III AGRP1-PRS-be.REL come AM.ITV-OP1SG-beat-RED 16.DEM.I

‘That one who keeps coming and beating me here.’ (Story_HareTurtle_#88)

(24) a. cinŋala-nŋala
< nŋala

cimanŋa-manŋa
< manŋa

cipʰata-pʰata
< kupʰata

cisuzi-suzi
< kusuzumira

‘always with hunger’
‘hunger’
‘with empty hands’
‘hands’
‘willing to touch everything around’
‘to take, seize’
‘looking with curiosity’
‘to observe, watch, spy on’
reduplication involves base forms which have the segmental structures CV (rwá-rwá 'with eyes wide open, without blinking'), VCV (oyó-oyo 'speaking at the same time'), CVCV (gabí-gabi 'movement of choppy water') or CVCVCV (pʰeperú-pʰeperu 'staggering'). While reduplication applies to disyllabic (or trisyllabic) ideophones, triplication most often targets monosyllabic ideophones. Since Sena has both prefixal and suffixal morphology, it is difficult to determine the base and the reduplicated part. Reduplication of the otherwise very rare CVC pattern (§4.2) is not attested. Partial reduplication of ideophones involves reduplication of the final CV (dzoróró) or the initial CV of the base form (kwikwinya).

Total reduplication is not the exclusive property of ideophones in Sena. It is a recurrent morphological process also attested in nouns (22), adjectives (46), verbs (23) and adverbs (24). However, only ideophones allow partial reduplication, triplication and multiplication.

(22) kunacitao ṇsoŋkʰo, kunaburuka ṇsoŋkʰo-ṇsoŋkʰo, ndi kweko kunapʰatene basa.

ku-na-cita = o

AGRP17-PRS-do.REL = PRO2

ndi kweko ku-na-pʰat = ene

COP 17.DEM.II AGRP17-PRS-take.REL = PRO1SG 5.work

ṇsoŋkʰo ku-na-buruka ṇsoŋkʰo-ṇsoŋkʰo

10.tax AGRP17-PRS-go.out.REL 10.tax-RED

basa

‘Where they charge taxes, where taxes are levied (go out), it is where I work.’

(Life.Story_DoDa_#89)

(23) onoyu anakʰara bwera kandimenya-menya pano

onoyu a-na-kʰara bwera ka-ndi-menya-menya pano

1.DEM.III AGRP1-PRS-be.REL come AM.ITV-OP1SG-beat-RED 16.DEM.I

‘That one who keeps coming and beating me here.’ (Story_HareTurtle_#88)

(24) a. cinŋala-ṇŋala
<ṇŋala

cimanja-manja
<manja

cipʰata-pʰata
< kupʰata
cisuzi-suzi
< kusuzumira

‘always with hunger’
‘hunger’
‘with empty hands’
‘hands’
‘willing to touch everything around’
‘to take, seize’
‘looking with curiosity’
‘to observe, watch, spy on’
## 6. Syntactic and distributional aspects

This section explores the syntactic and distributional aspects of ideophones and the different degrees of syntactic integration they exhibit. Before doing so, it is worth mentioning that ideophones in Sena are predominantly used in affirmative declarative utterances, but also frequent in subordinate clauses, especially relatives. This is not the case with other utterance types such as questions, imperatives and negatives, where ideophones are not attested, except for the negative sentence in (25).

(25) *ŋkʰabe kwenda kwene gumu-gumu tayu, kwenda kabvundzira*

*ŋkʰabe ku-enda ku-ene gumu-gumu tayu*

NEG INF-go AGRP15-INT IDEO(walking insecurely palpating) NEG

*ku-enda ka-bvundzira*

INF-go AM.ITV-ask.for

‘(...) to go dating (lit. asking for) is not about going randomly here and there (lit. it is not going randomly here and there, go dating).’ (Poem_Kubvundzira)

### 6.1 Collocational ideophones

Collocational ideophones are those which co-express the event expressed by a verb. They function similarly to manner adverbs or converbs (defined as dependent verbs marking adverbial subordination). Most often, the ideophone is deverbal and combines with its source verb, as in (26)-(27), where *bó::* and *cé::* follow a conjugated form of the verb roots *bom* ‘spill’ and *cek* ‘cut’, respectively. In these constructions, ideophones are to a certain extent similar to so-called “cognate objects” (Jones 1988; Levin 1993), with the difference that they do not exhibit nominal features. Since they denote the same meaning as the verb, they are also optional. Their function is merely expressive.

(26) *madzi abomeka bó::!*

ma-dzi a-bom-ek-a bó::

6-water SP6.PFV-spill-NTR-FV IDEO(spilling)

‘The water spilled/spread.’ (Elicitation)

(27) *iye akaceka cé:: mbaramba*

iye a-ka-ceka cé:: mba-ramba

PRO3SG SP1-PST.IPFV-cut IDEOPERT CUT CVB.SP2-FALL

‘He was cutting, and they fell down.’ (Story_HareLion_#10)
## 6. Syntactic and distributional aspects

This section explores the syntactic and distributional aspects of ideophones and the different degrees of syntactic integration they exhibit. Before doing so, it is worth mentioning that ideophones in Sena are predominantly used in affirmative declarative utterances, but also frequent in subordinate clauses, especially relatives. This is not the case with other utterance types such as questions, imperatives and negatives, where ideophones are not attested, except for the negative sentence in (25).

(25) ngkʰabe kwenda kwene gumu-gumu tayu, kwenda kabvundzira

ngkʰabe ku-enda ku-ene gumu-gumu tayu

NEG INF-go AGRP15-INT IDEO(walking insecurely palpating) NEG

ku-enda ka-bvundzira

INF-go AM.ITV-ask.for

‘(...) to go dating (lit. asking for) is not about going randomly here and there (lit. it is not going randomly here and there, go dating).’ (Poem_Kubvundzira)

### 6.1 Collocational ideophones

Collocational ideophones are those which co-express the event expressed by a verb. They function similarly to manner adverbs or converbs (defined as dependent verbs marking adverbial subordination). Most often, the ideophone is deverbal and combines with its source verb, as in (26)-(27), where *bó*:: and *cé*:: follow a conjugated form of the verb roots *bom* ‘spill’ and *cek* ‘cut’, respectively. In these constructions, ideophones are to a certain extent similar to so-called “cognate objects” (Jones 1988; Levin 1993), with the difference that they do not exhibit nominal features. Since they denote the same meaning as the verb, they are also optional. Their function is merely expressive.

(26) madzi abomeka bó::!

ma-dzi a-bom-ek-a bó::

6-water SP6.PFV-spill-NTR-FV IDEO(spilling)

‘The water spilled/spread.’ (Elicitation)

(27) iye akaceka cé:: mbaramba

iye a-ka-ceka cé:: mba-ramba

PRO3SG SP1-PST.IPFV-cut IDEOPERT act of cutting CVB.SP2-fall

‘He was cutting, and they fell down.’ (Story_HareLion_#10)
By default, the ideophone immediately follows its cognate verb, even if the latter has a complement. In (28), *nyenyena* intervenes between the verb and its object *pyatʰu* 'our belongings'. The privileged after-verb position of the ideophone is, however, not mandatory. In (29), the ideophone *bwandzú* appears sentence-finally and is separated from its cognate verb by the complement *na mpʰepo* 'by the wind'.

(28) *tiri kupinyenyena nyenyena pyatʰumbo tepo kupidýa*

<table><tr><td>ti-ri</td><td><b>ku-pi-nyenyena</b></td><td><b>nyenyena</b></td><td>pi-atʰu = mbo</td></tr><tr><td>SP1PL-be</td><td>INF-OP8-gnaw</td><td>IDEO(gnawing)</td><td>8-belonging(POSS1PL) = too</td></tr><tr><td>tepo</td><td><b>ku-pi-dya</b></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>like this</td><td>INF-OP8-eat</td><td></td><td></td></tr></table>

‘We are gnawing our belonging too, eating it this way.’
(Conv.05_BeCh&CeTh_#24)

(29) *ŋkazi ure, nguwo zace zabwandzuka na mpʰepo bwandzú*

<table><tr><td>ŋ-kazi</td><td>ure</td><td>ŋguwo</td><td>zace</td><td><b>za-bwandzuka</b></td><td>na</td><td>mpʰepo</td></tr><tr><td>1-woman</td><td>9.DEM.III</td><td>9.cloth</td><td>9.POSS3SG</td><td>SP9.PFV-be.uncovered</td><td>by</td><td>9.wind</td></tr><tr><td colspan="8"><b>bwandzú</b></td></tr></table>

IDEO(being uncovered)

‘That woman, her cloth has been uncovered by the wind.’ (Elicitation)

Collocational ideophones may also combine with non-cognate verbs. These verbs can be semantically close, but not morphologically related. In (30), the ideophone *dwára*, used to characterize something dried, combines with the verb *wuma* 'dry'. Again, the ideophone is optional, and again, it is located between the verb and its complement.

(30) *mapira awuma dwára na dzuwa*

<table><tr><td>ma-pira</td><td>a-wuma</td><td><b>dwára</b></td><td>na</td><td>dzuwa</td></tr><tr><td>6-maize</td><td>SP6.PFV-dry</td><td>IDEO(very dry)</td><td>with</td><td>5.sun</td></tr><tr><td colspan="5">'Maize dried with the sun.' (Elicitation)</td></tr></table>

More exceptionally, ideophones may precede the verbs to which they are semantically related, as in (31), with *káwo* preceding *atʰawa suro*. Crucially, in this example the prototypical SV structure is also reversed to VS, literally ‘fleeing fled the hare’. It is likely that this permutated word order is pragmatically determined (further research is needed on this topic).
By default, the ideophone immediately follows its cognate verb, even if the latter has a complement. In (28), *nyenyena* intervenes between the verb and its object *pyatʰu* 'our belongings'. The privileged after-verb position of the ideophone is, however, not mandatory. In (29), the ideophone *bwandzú* appears sentence-finally and is separated from its cognate verb by the complement *na mpʰepo* 'by the wind'.

(28) *tiri kupinyenyena nyenyena pyatʰumbo tepo kupidýa*

<table><tr><td>ti-ri</td><td><b>ku-pi-nyenyena</b></td><td><b>nyenyena</b></td><td>pi-atʰu = mbo</td></tr><tr><td>SP1PL-be</td><td>INF-OP8-gnaw</td><td>IDEO(gnawing)</td><td>8-belonging(POSS1PL) = too</td></tr><tr><td>tepo</td><td><b>ku-pi-dya</b></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>like这时</td><td>INF-OP8-eat</td><td></td><td></td></tr></table>

‘We are gnawing our belonging too, eating it this way.’
(Conv.05_BeCh&CeTh_#24)

(29) *ŋkazi ure, nguwo zace zabwandzuka na mpʰepo bwandzú*

<table><tr><td>ŋ-kazi</td><td>ure</td><td>ŋguwo</td><td>zace</td><td>za-<b>bwandzuka</b></td><td>na</td><td>mpʰepo</td></tr><tr><td>1-woman</td><td>9.DEM.III</td><td>9.cloth</td><td>9.POSS3SG</td><td>SP9.PFV-be.uncovered</td><td>by</td><td>9.wind</td></tr><tr><td colspan="7"><b>bwandzú</b></td></tr></table>

IDEO(being uncovered)

‘That woman, her cloth has been uncovered by the wind.’ (Elicitation)

Collocational ideophones may also combine with non-cognate verbs. These verbs can be semantically close, but not morphologically related. In (30), the ideophone *dwára*, used to characterize something dried, combines with the verb *wuma* ‘dry’. Again, the ideophone is optional, and again, it is located between the verb and its complement.

(30) *mapira awuma dwára na dzuwa*

<table><tr><td>ma-pira</td><td>a-wuma</td><td>dwára</td><td>na</td><td>dzuwa</td></tr><tr><td>6-maize</td><td>SP6.PFV-dry</td><td>IDEO(very dry)</td><td>with</td><td>5.sun</td></tr><tr><td colspan="5">‘Maize dried with the sun.’ (Elicitation)</td></tr></table>

More exceptionally, ideophones may precede the verbs to which they are semantically related, as in (31), with *káwo* preceding *atʰawa suro*. Crucially, in this example the prototypical SV structure is also reversed to VS, literally ‘fleeing fled the hare’. It is likely that this permutated word order is pragmatically determined (further research is needed on this topic).
(31) *pidamara kudya iye nyimo zonsene gédé* | káwo atʰawa suro
[pi-da-mara ku-dya iye nyimo zi-onsene gédé]SUB
AGRP8-PFV.REL-finish INF-eat PRO3SG 10.bean AGRP10-all IDEO(completed)
[káwo a-tʰawa suro]MAIN
IDEO(fleeing) SP1.PFV-flee 1a.hare
‘After having eaten all the beans, the hare fled.’ (Story_HareTurtle_#58)

Finally, manner-adverbial ideophones may modify verbs which are not semantically linked. This is the case in the verses of a poem in (32), where the verb form *tinafika* ‘we (will/are to) arrive’ governs the preposed ideophone *nsanga-nsanga* as a manner adverb.

(32) *tʰaŋgwi ndife ana ako*
tinadzabwerera
*nsanga-nsanga tinafika mbatikʰariratu*
*tʰaŋgwi ndife ana ako* ti-na-dza-bwer-er-a
because COP.PRO1PL 2.child AGRP2.POSS2SG SP1PL-PRS-AM.VTV-return-APPL-FV
*nsanga-nsanga ti-na-fika mba-ti-kʰar-ir-a=tu*
IDEO(quickly)-RED SP1PL-PRS-arrive CVB-SP1PL-stay-APPL-FV = EMPH
‘because we are your children | we are to come back | as soon as possible we are to come and remain for good.’ (Poem_SenaSena)

**6.2 Complements of copula verbs or light verbs**

Ideophones may appear as complements of copula verbs or light verbs. In such combinations, the meaning and subcategorization properties are no longer conveyed by the verb, but by the ideophone itself. Complex predicates involving a semantically fairly empty verb and an ideophone are cross-linguistically widespread (cf., among others, Childs 1994: 187; Schultze-Berndt 2001: 360–367; Güldemann 2008: 280; Dingemanse 2012).<fnref n="6" />

Sena has two copula verbs: *ri* and *kʰara*. The copula verb *ri* is defective, with inflection markers limited to subject information and two TAM distinctions, namely zero-marked present and imperfective past *kʰa-* ~ *ka-*-. The copula *ri* is typically used to express identity and inclusion predication, introducing nominal and adjectival predicates. Ideophones introduced by *ri* are thus used predicatively, a property

<footnote n="6">⁶ Also see the contributions by Meyer, by Treis and by Authier in this special issue, which all discuss these constructions for their languages.</footnote>
(31) *pidamara kudya iye nyimo zonsene gédé* | káwo atʰawa suro
[pi-da-mara ku-dya iye nyimo zi-onsene gédé]SUB
AGRP8-PFV.REL-finish INF-eat PRO3SG 10.bean AGRP10-all IDEO(completed)
[káwo a-tʰawa suro]MAIN
IDEO(fleeing) SP1.PFV-flee 1a.hare
‘After having eaten all the beans, the hare fled.’ (Story_HareTurtle_#58)

Finally, manner-adverbial ideophones may modify verbs which are not semantically linked. This is the case in the verses of a poem in (32), where the verb form *tinafika* ‘we (will/are to) arrive’ governs the preposed ideophone *nsanga-nsanga* as a manner adverb.

(32) *tʰaŋgwi ndife ana ako*
tinadzabwerera
*nsanga-nsanga tinafika mbatikʰariratu*
*tʰaŋgwi ndife ana ako* ti-na-dza-bwer-er-a
because COP.PRO1PL 2.child AGRP2.POSS2SG SP1PL-PRS-AM.VTV-return-APPL-FV
*nsanga-nsanga ti-na-fika mba-ti-kʰar-ir-a=tu*
IDEO(quickly)-RED SP1PL-PRS-arrive CVB-SP1PL-stay-APPL-FV = EMPH
‘because we are your children | we are to come back | as soon as possible we are to come and remain for good.’ (Poem_SenaSena)

**6.2 Complements of copula verbs or light verbs**

Ideophones may appear as complements of copula verbs or light verbs. In such combinations, the meaning and subcategorization properties are no longer conveyed by the verb, but by the ideophone itself. Complex predicates involving a semantically fairly empty verb and an ideophone are cross-linguistically widespread (cf., among others, Childs 1994: 187; Schultze-Berndt 2001: 360–367; Güldemann 2008: 280; Dingemanse 2012).<fnref n="6" />

Sena has two copula verbs: *ri* and *kʰara*. The copula verb *ri* is defective, with inflection markers limited to subject information and two TAM distinctions, namely zero-marked present and imperfective past *kʰa-* ~ *ka-*-. The copula *ri* is typically used to express identity and inclusion predication, introducing nominal and adjectival predicates. Ideophones introduced by *ri* are thus used predicatively, a property

<footnote n="6">⁶ Also see the contributions by Meyer, by Treis and by Authier in this special issue, which all discuss these constructions for their languages.</footnote>
otherwise shared by nouns and adjectives. Many examples of *ri* + ideophone are available in the corpus, see (10), (11) and (19). Another example is provided in (33) with *ri* + *pyá-pya-pya*. Note that the presence of the copula verb is optional. When absent, the ideophone becomes a holophrastic predicate on its own (see §6.3), as is *gúgúdú* 'being dry' in the same example.

(33) *agumana ari pyá-pya-pya, ama' uma zá gúgúdú*

*a-gumana* *a-ri* **pyá-pya-pya** *a-mala* *uma zá*
*SP1.PFV-meet* *SP1-be* *IDEO(wrapping)-RED* *SP1.PFV-finish* *dry already*

**gúgúdú**

*IDEO(being dry)*

‘He found (it), it was wrapped up and had already dried.’ (Story_HareLion_#45)

The semi-copula *kʰara* ‘be, stay’ is used both predicatively and as a copula in non-verbal predication. Unlike *ri*, *kʰara* behaves as a regular verb (or almost) in terms of morphology, and replaces *ri* when TAM features other than present and imperfective past are expressed. In contrast to *ri*, examples of *kʰara* + ideophone are rare. Only three occurrences were found, one of which is given in (34).

(34) *apʰare akamenya bora, pidafika asupayi, onsene akʰara dúr::!*

*a-pʰare* *a-ka-menya* *bora* *pi-da-fika*
*2-youth* *SP2-PST.IPFV-beat* *5-ball* *AGRP8-PFV.REL-arrive*
*a-supayi* *a-onsene* *a-kʰara* **dúr::**
*2-policeman* *AGRP2-all* *SP2.PFV-be/stay* *IDEO(silent in fear)*

‘The youth were playing football; when the police arrived, all stayed silent in fear.’
(Elicitation)

It also happens that the occurrence of ideophones is conditioned by individual verbs, which function as “dummy” or “introductory” verbs (Childs 1994: 187), best known in typology as light verbs (Jespersen 1965). The basic meaning of these ideophonic complex predicates relies on the ideophone and not on the supporting verb, whose original meaning tends to be bleached, as the English verb ‘take’ in ‘take a walk’. At least two verbs fulfill this role in Sena, namely *cita* ‘do, make’ and *bveka* ‘feel, hear’. While the combination *cita* + ideophone is highly productive, the use of the light verb *bveka* appears to be more restricted. In (35), the only example retrieved from the corpus, *bveka* combines with the ideophone *cúbwi*
otherwise shared by nouns and adjectives. Many examples of *ri* + ideophone are available in the corpus, see (10), (11) and (19). Another example is provided in (33) with *ri* + *pyá-pya-pya*. Note that the presence of the copula verb is optional. When absent, the ideophone becomes a holophrastic predicate on its own (see §6.3), as is *gúgúdú* 'being dry' in the same example.

(33) *agumana ari pyá-pya-pya, ama' uma zá gúgúdú*

a-gumana a-ri **pyá-pya-pya** a-mala uma zá
SP1.PFV-meet SP1-be IDEO(wrapping)-RED SP1.PFV-finish dry already
**gúgúdú**
IDEO(being dry)

‘He found (it), it was wrapped up and had already dried.’ (Story_HareLion_#45)

The semi-copula *kʰara* ‘be, stay’ is used both predicatively and as a copula in non-verbal predication. Unlike *ri*, *kʰara* behaves as a regular verb (or almost) in terms of morphology, and replaces *ri* when TAM features other than present and imperfective past are expressed. In contrast to *ri*, examples of *kʰara* + ideophone are rare. Only three occurrences were found, one of which is given in (34).

(34) *apʰare akamenya bora, pidafika asupayi, onsene akʰara dúr::!*

a-pʰare a-ka-menya bora pi-da-fika
2-youth SP2-PST.IPFV-beat 5-ball AGRP8-PFV.REL-arrive
a-supayi a-onsene a-kʰara dúr::
2-policeman AGRP2-all SP2.PFV-be/stay IDEO(silent in fear)

‘The youth were playing football; when the police arrived, all stayed silent in fear.’
(Elicitation)

It also happens that the occurrence of ideophones is conditioned by individual verbs, which function as “dummy” or “introductory” verbs (Childs 1994: 187), best known in typology as light verbs (Jespersen 1965). The basic meaning of these ideophonic complex predicates relies on the ideophone and not on the supporting verb, whose original meaning tends to be bleached, as the English verb ‘take’ in ‘take a walk’. At least two verbs fulfill this role in Sena, namely *cita* ‘do, make’ and *bveka* ‘feel, hear’. While the combination *cita* + ideophone is highly productive, the use of the light verb *bveka* appears to be more restricted. In (35), the only example retrieved from the corpus, *bveka* combines with the ideophone *cúbwi*
'splash' to express 'plunge' (literally 'hear splash').<fnref n="7" /> It is likely that other ideophones expressing a sound may be used with the light verb *bveka*. It is also likely that *cita* would be accepted in the same context.

(35) *iye bveka cúbwi muŋcera mure*

*iye bveka cúbwi mu-n-cera mure*

PRO3SG feel/hear.NARR IDEO(splash) 18-3-well 18.DEM.III

'He plunged into that well.' (Story_HareTurtle_#96)

The light verb *cita*, on the other hand, seems to combine with any ideophone to express actions that are normally denoted by dynamic verbs. In (36), *cita* + *gwibídi* means ‘enter’. It is naturally followed by a locative complement. In these constructions, the light verb *cita* does not serve, however, to predicate qualities or other stative situations. In this sense, one might conclude that *cita* used with ideophones has not completely lost its original semantics and still conveys a dynamic interpretation. These ideophonic constructions thus differ from those based on copula verbs seen above which feature identity and inclusion predication.

(36) *ŋkazi angacita gwibídi ŋnyumba, menyerwatu*

*ŋ-kazi a-ŋga-cita gwibídi ŋ-nyumba*

1-woman SP1-SIT-do IDEO(being entered, introduced) 18-9.house

*meny-er-w-a = tu*

beat.NARR-APPL-PASS-FV = EMPH

'The woman, as soon as she gets home, is beaten right away.' (Conv.06_MaMa-BeCh-CeTh_#366)

Complex predicates based on *cita* + ideophone are frequently attested in relatives. Two consecutive relative clauses based on this combination are provided in (37). In the first, *cita* + *zwi* express ‘throw’. In the second, *cita* applies to two subsequent ideophones, *ntʰúngúrú* ‘sound of joy and satisfaction’ and *mezi* ‘way of swallowing any food’. This last case is interesting in that it shows that ideophones can be juxtaposed. Note that no pause or prosodic break between *ntʰúngúrú* and *mezi* is heard, probably because they participate in the same event.

<footnote n="7">⁷ Note that bare verb stems, i.e. without subject and TAM marking, as *bveka* in (35), are frequently heard in Sena narratives when a sequence of events occurs (hence they are glossed *NARR* for narrative). Other examples are found in (41) with *fika* ‘he arrived’ and in (62) with *funa* ‘it wanted’.</footnote>
'splash' to express 'plunge' (literally 'hear splash').<fnref n="7" /> It is likely that other ideophones expressing a sound may be used with the light verb *bveka*. It is also likely that *cita* would be accepted in the same context.

(35) *iye bveka cúbwi muŋcera mure*

*iye bveka cúbwi mu-n-cera mure*

PRO3SG feel/hear.NARR IDEO(splash) 18-3-well 18.DEM.III

'He plunged into that well.' (Story_HareTurtle_#96)

The light verb *cita*, on the other hand, seems to combine with any ideophone to express actions that are normally denoted by dynamic verbs. In (36), *cita* + *gwibídi* means ‘enter’. It is naturally followed by a locative complement. In these constructions, the light verb *cita* does not serve, however, to predicate qualities or other stative situations. In this sense, one might conclude that *cita* used with ideophones has not completely lost its original semantics and still conveys a dynamic interpretation. These ideophonic constructions thus differ from those based on copula verbs seen above which feature identity and inclusion predication.

(36) *ŋkazi angacita gwibídi ŋnyumba, menyerwatu*

*ŋ-kazi a-ŋga-cita gwibídi ŋ-nyumba*

1-woman SP1-SIT-do IDEO(being entered, introduced) 18-9.house

*meny-er-w-a = tu*

beat.NARR-APPL-PASS-FV = EMPH

'The woman, as soon as she gets home, is beaten right away.' (Conv.06_MaMa-BeCh-CeTh_#366)

Complex predicates based on *cita* + ideophone are frequently attested in relatives. Two consecutive relative clauses based on this combination are provided in (37). In the first, *cita* + *zwi* express ‘throw’. In the second, *cita* applies to two subsequent ideophones, *ntʰúngúrú* ‘sound of joy and satisfaction’ and *mezi* ‘way of swallowing any food’. This last case is interesting in that it shows that ideophones can be juxtaposed. Note that no pause or prosodic break between *ntʰúngúrú* and *mezi* is heard, probably because they participate in the same event.

<footnote n="7">⁷ Note that bare verb stems, i.e. without subject and TAM marking, as *bveka* in (35), are frequently heard in Sena narratives when a sequence of events occurs (hence they are glossed *NARR* for narrative). Other examples are found in (41) with *fika* ‘he arrived’ and in (62) with *funa* ‘it wanted’.</footnote>
(37) *pinaciteye zwí muńcera mure, pinaciteye ntʰúngúrú mezi ...*

*pi-na-cit = eye* **zwí** **mu-ṇ-cera** **mure**
AGRP8-PRS-do.REL=PRO1 IDEO(throwing) 18-3-well 18.DEM.III

*pi-na-cit = eye* **ntʰúngúrú** **mezi**
AGRP8-PRS-do.REL=PRO1 IDEO(sound of joy) IDEO(swallowing)'''

‘When he throws (it) in that well, and when he noisily (and) happily swallows (it), ...’ (Story_HareTurtle_#134)

Although the combination *cita* + ideophone generally yields intransitive constructions, it may be used transitively. In (38), the noun phrase *suro ure* ‘that hare’ functions as the object licensed by the predicative construction *cita cíŋgu* ‘turn around to look behind’.

(38) *pidafika iye aŋfikira na kukʰodoro, pinaciteye cíŋgu suro ure ...*

*pi-da-fika* **iye** **a-ṇ-fik-ir-a** **na** **ku-kʰodoro**
AGRP8-PFV.REL=arrive PRO3SG SP1-OP1-arrive-APPL-FV by 17-back

*pi-na-cit = eye* **cíŋgu** **suro ure**

AGRP8-PRS-do.REL=PRO1 IDEO(turning around to look behind) 1a.hare 1.DEM.
‘When he (the hare) arrived, he arrived behind his back. When he (the turtle) turns around and looks at that hare behind ....’ (Story_HareTurtle_#50)

Crucially, in all these examples, the ideophone cannot be separated from the light verb by any other constituents. This rigid order constitutes further evidence that they form a syntactic and semantic unit.

**6.3 Ideophonic predicates**

Very often, ideophones occur in verbless clauses and act as holophrastic predicates by themselves. The event is expressed by the ideophone, which does not take any verbal morphology and functions as the comment of a topic-comment sentence. The ideophone also determines the argument structure of the clause, in that it controls the semantic roles assigned to the noun phrases present in the clause, a function typically fulfilled by verbs.

More often, it combines with a single noun phrase assuming the semantic role of agent. In (39), *míyó*:: (< verb stem *miyɔŋga* ‘flee’) and *pʰé*:: designate the act of fleeing and hiding and the act of staying still and watching silently, respectively. The action
(37) *pinaciteye zwí muńcera mure, pinaciteye ntʰúngúrú mezi ...*

*pi-na-cit = eye* **zwí** **mu-ṇ-cera** **mure**
AGRP8-PRS-do.REL=PRO1 IDEO(throwing) 18-3-well 18.DEM.III

*pi-na-cit = eye* **ntʰúngúrú** **mezi**
AGRP8-PRS-do.REL=PRO1 IDEO(sound of joy) IDEO(swallowing)'''

‘When he throws (it) in that well, and when he noisily (and) happily swallows (it), ...’ (Story_HareTurtle_#134)

Although the combination *cita* + ideophone generally yields intransitive constructions, it may be used transitively. In (38), the noun phrase *suro ure* ‘that hare’ functions as the object licensed by the predicative construction *cita cíŋgu* ‘turn around to look behind’.

(38) *pidafika iye aŋfikira na kukʰodoro, pinaciteye cíŋgu suro ure ...*

*pi-da-fika* **iye** **a-ṇ-fik-ir-a** **na** **ku-kʰodoro**
AGRP8-PFV.REL=arrive PRO3SG SP1-OP1-arrive-APPL-FV by 17-back

*pi-na-cit = eye* **cíŋgu** **suro ure**

AGRP8-PRS-do.REL=PRO1 IDEO(turning around to look behind) 1a.hare 1.DEM.
‘When he (the hare) arrived, he arrived behind his back. When he (the turtle) turns around and looks at that hare behind ....’ (Story_HareTurtle_#50)

Crucially, in all these examples, the ideophone cannot be separated from the light verb by any other constituents. This rigid order constitutes further evidence that they form a syntactic and semantic unit.

**6.3 Ideophonic predicates**

Very often, ideophones occur in verbless clauses and act as holophrastic predicates by themselves. The event is expressed by the ideophone, which does not take any verbal morphology and functions as the comment of a topic-comment sentence. The ideophone also determines the argument structure of the clause, in that it controls the semantic roles assigned to the noun phrases present in the clause, a function typically fulfilled by verbs.

More often, it combines with a single noun phrase assuming the semantic role of agent. In (39), *míyó*:: (< verb stem *miyōga* ‘flee’) and *pʰé*:: designate the act of fleeing and hiding and the act of staying still and watching silently, respectively. The action
is performed by the agentive participant *kamba* ‘turtle’, which functions as the subject argument of both ideophonic predicates.

The whole sentence is verbless: ideophones express events which would otherwise be expressed by inflected verbs in a sequence of independent clauses, and the remaining constituents express the participants of the event (i.e. *iye kamba* ‘he the turtle’ in (39) as subject argument) and optionally, adjuncts (i.e. ṅkʰundu-ṇkʰundu mwa ņyira mure ‘on that side of the path’ as locative adjunct).

(39) então iye kamba míyó:: ṅkʰundu-ṇkʰundu mwa ņyira mure pʰé::

então iye kamba míyó:: ṅ-kʰundu-ṇkʰundu

then PRO3SG 1a.turtle IDEO(fleeing to hide) 18-9(side-RED

mu-a ņyira mure pʰé::

AGRP18-CONN 9.path 18.DEM.III IDEO(staying still and watch)

‘Then, (he) the turtle fled and hid on that side of the path, he stayed still and watched.’ (Story_HareTurtle_#90-91)

Very often, the ideophone forms an independent (verbless) clause on its own, and the previously expressed agent does not need to be repeated. In (40), the ideophone *tsari-tsari* is used alone to depict the action of convulsing before dying endured by the cobra (*nyoka*), mentioned previously in the sentence. In (41), the ideophone *kwíz*, which depicts the action of entering discretely, is integrated into a sequence of events performed by the turtle, whose identity is known from context.

(40) ṅkazace ure azakabuka mbasiya nyoka iri pepare tsari-tsari

[η-kazi = ace ure a-za-ka-buka]MAIN [mba-siya nyoka]SUB

1-woman = POSS3SG 1.DEM.III SP1-AM.VTV?-PST.IPFV-go.out CVB-leave 9.cobra

[i-ri pepare]INDPDT [tsari-tsari]INDPDT

SP9-be 16.DEM.III IDEO(having last convulsions before dying)

‘That woman had just gone out and left the cobra (it is) there having its last convulsions.’ (Story_AvengingCobra_#79)

(41) fika patʰendere kwíz:: iye amona suro akwenda

[fika pa-tʰendere]INDPDT [kwíz::]INDPDT

arrive.NARR 16-5.bush IDEO(fit in, enter to hide)

[iye a-mu-ona suro]MAIN [a-ku-enda]SUB

PRO3SG SP1.PFV-OP1-see 9.hare SP1-PRS.PROG-go