# The role of the Babanki noun phrase-final enclitic class marker

Pius W. Akumbu

CNRS, UMR 8135 Langage, langues et cultures d'Afrique (Llacan)

&

Roland Kießling

Universität Hamburg

## Abstract

Babanki, a Grassfields Bantu language of the North-West Region of Cam-
eroon exhibits a noun phrase (NP) level enclitic class marker related to
that found in other Ring languages such as Aghem and Lamnso'. As is
common in Ring noun class systems generally, all modifiers within the
Babanki NP agree with their nominal heads by prefixed or procliticised
concords. Surprisingly, under certain conditions, there is an additional
NP-final enclitic, which also indexes the noun class of the head noun. The
question that arises is why such an additional enclitic indexing of noun
class is necessary. The aim of this paper is to provide a description of the
Babanki noun class enclitic with respect to both syntactic and semantico-
pragmatic parameters — something which has not been tackled before in
any of the available descriptions of Babanki grammatical structures. As
for syntactic conditions, two crucial parameters determine the presence vs.
absence of the NP enclitic class marker: (1) the internal composition of the
NP with respect to (a) the type of modifier involved and (b) the presence of
the head, and (2) the NP-external conditions, in particular with respect to
the syntactic position of the NP. As for pragmatic factors, a minimal trace
of the influence of the NP's focus status on the occurrence of the enclitic
can be detected in the systematic absence of the enclitic on modifiers that
are inherently focalized.
## Keywords

Babanki, Grassfields Bantu, noun class enclitic, noun class system, noun phrase, pragmatics, syntax

## Résumé

Le babanki, une langue bantoue des Grassfields, dans la région Nord-Ouest du Cameroun, présente un marqueur de classe enclitique au sein du syntagme nominal (SN), apparenté à celui que l'on trouve dans d'autres langues Ring comme l'aghem et le lamnso'. Comme c'est généralement le cas dans les systèmes de classes nominales des langues Ring, en babanki, tous les modifieurs dans le SN s'accordent avec la tête nominale via des marques d'accord préfixées ou procliticisées. De manière surprenante, dans certaines conditions, il existe un enclitique final supplémentaire dans le SN, qui exprime également la classe nominale du nom tête. La question qui se pose est de savoir pourquoi un tel enclitique supplémentaire exprimant la classe nominale est nécessaire. L'objectif de cet article est de fournir une description de cet enclitique en babanki, à la fois en ce qui concerne les paramètres syntaxiques et sémantico-pragmatiques – ce qui n'a pas été abordé auparavant dans les descriptions disponibles des structures grammaticales babanki. Concernant les conditions syntaxiques, deux paramètres cruciaux déterminent la présence ou l'absence du marqueur de classe enclitique dans le SN : (1) la composition interne du SN en ce qui concerne (a) le type de modifieur impliqué et (b) la présence de la tête, et (2) les conditions externes au SN, en particulier la position syntaxique du SN. Quant aux facteurs pragmatiques, une trace minimale de l'influence du statut de focalisation du SN sur l'occurrence de l'enclitique peut être détectée dans l'absence systématique de l'enclitique sur les modifieurs qui sont intrinsèquement focalisés.

## Mots clés

babanki, bantou Grassfields, enclitique de classe nominale, pragmatique, syntagme nominal, syntaxe, système de classe nominale

## 1. Introduction

This paper explores the syntactic and pragmatic conditions which determine the presence or absence of the noun phrase (NP) level enclitic class marker in Babanki, a Central Ring Grassfields Bantu language of North-West Cameroon. The Babanki enclitic is clearly related to a formally and functionally similar item found in other Ring languages such as Aghem (Hyman 1979a and 2010), Isu (Kießling 2010), and Lamnso' (McGarrity & Botne 2001).

Babanki has twelve noun classes which form nine genders based on distinct agreement patterns. The noun classes are indexed by prefixes or
proclitics across a full range of syntactic targets such as modifiers within the NP, e.g. pronominal possessives (POSS), nominal possessives (ASS), demonstratives (DEM), and attributive adjectives (ADJ), as shown in Table 1. Noun class membership is, to a large extent, overtly marked by nominal affixes in the noun itself. The large majority of these affixes are prefixes with the single exception of class 10, which is marked by a suffix.

Surprisingly, under certain conditions, there is an additional NP-final enclitic, which also indexes the noun class of the head noun, as indicated for the possessive pronouns, the demonstrative, and the attributive adjective in Table 1. One of the crucial conditions to trigger the presence of the enclitic is the type of modifier that follows the head noun. Thus, attributive adjectives (1a) require the enclitic, whereas the interrogative determiner (1b) requires the enclitic to be absent.

(1) Presence vs. absence of the enclitic

a. wàyn yì zèn fə̄-nín fə̄-f́i=fə̄
1.child P1 buy 19-bird 19-new=19.ENC
'The child bought a new bird.'

b. wàyn yì zèn fə̄-nín fə̄-kɔ̄(∗=fə̄)
1.child P1 buy 19-bird 19-which
'Which bird did the child buy?'

But the situation is more complex. Beside the modifier type, two other factors determine the presence or absence of the enclitic: the syntactic position of the NP, i.e. whether it is the subject, direct object, or prepositional complement, and the presence or absence of a lexical head in the NP. Moreover, the distribution of the enclitic across these morphosyntactic contexts is not simply a matter of yes or no. Rather, three scenarios have to be taken into account: (a) obligatory presence (e.g. with attributive adjectives and participles), (b) optional presence (e.g. with demonstratives, genuine pronominal possessives, and the quantifier tsén 'some, certain'), and (c) obligatory absence (e.g. with derived pronominal possessives, the quantifier tsèm 'whole, all', numerals, and interrogative modifiers). We show in this paper that the enclitic is syntactically motivated, depending on the nominal modifier and on the syntactic role of the head noun. We proceed in §2 by outlining relevant facts about nominal modifiers and then examine the syntactic and pragmatic conditions of the enclitic in detail in §3. This is followed by a conclusion in §4.
<table><caption>Table 1 — Babanki noun class system and some agreement markers</caption><thead><tr><th>Class¹</th><th>Affix</th><th>Ex.</th><th>POSS ɔ́m ‘my’</th><th>DEM ɛ́n ‘this’</th><th>ADJ f̥i ‘new’</th><th>AM ‘of the...’</th><th>Gloss</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>Ø-</td><td>tsɔ́ŋ</td><td>àγ-ɔ̄m</td><td>y-ɛ̄n</td><td>à̄-f̥i</td><td>à=</td><td>thief</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>và-</td><td>và-tsɔ́ŋ</td><td>àvw-ɔ́m=à</td><td>v-ɛ̄n=à</td><td>và-f̥i=và</td><td>và=</td><td>thieves</td></tr><tr><td>3²</td><td>à-</td><td>à-tó</td><td>àγ-ɔ́m=à</td><td>y-ɛ̄n=à</td><td>à̄-f̥i=γà</td><td>à=</td><td>hut</td></tr><tr><td>5³</td><td>à-</td><td>à-wúm</td><td>àγ-ɔ́m=à</td><td>y-ɛ̄n=à</td><td>à̄-f̥i=γà</td><td>à=</td><td>egg</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>à-</td><td>à-wúm</td><td>àγ-ɔ́m=à</td><td>y-ɛ̄n=à</td><td>à̄-f̥i=γà</td><td>à=</td><td>eggs</td></tr><tr><td>6a</td><td>mà-</td><td>mà-pín</td><td>àmw-ɔ́m=à</td><td>m-ɛ̄n(=mà)</td><td>mà̄-m-f̥i=mà</td><td>mà=</td><td>birds</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>kà-</td><td>kà-mbò</td><td>àk-ɔ́m(=kà)</td><td>k-ɛ̄n(=kà)</td><td>kà-f̥i=kà</td><td>kà=</td><td>bag</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>à-</td><td>à-mbò</td><td>àvw-ɔ́m=à</td><td>v-ɛ̄n=à</td><td>à̄-f̥i=và</td><td>à=</td><td>bags</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>Ø-</td><td>byí</td><td>àγ-ɔ̄m</td><td>y-ɛ̄n</td><td>à̄-f̥i</td><td>à=</td><td>goat</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>-sà</td><td>byí-<sup>+</sup> sà</td><td>àf-ɔ́m(=sà)</td><td>s-ɛ̄n(=sà)</td><td>sà-f̥i=sà</td><td>sà=</td><td>goats</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>tà-</td><td>tà-tó</td><td>àty-ɔ́m(=tà)</td><td>t-ɛ̄n(=tà)</td><td>tà-f̥i=tà</td><td>tà=</td><td>huts</td></tr><tr><td>19</td><td>fà-</td><td>fà-pín</td><td>àfw-ɔ́m(=fà)</td><td>f-ɛ̄n(=fà)</td><td>fà-f̥i=f̥à</td><td>fà=</td><td>bird</td></tr></tbody></table>

1. Standard Bantu numbering has been used since the 12 noun classes that exist in Babanki correspond to those reconstructed for Proto-Bantu (Meeussen 1967).

2. A merger of classes 3 and 5 in Babanki can be seen in their identical schwa prefixes as well as various agreement markers. While it is not completely transparent, the pairing with plural classes provides a basis to distinguish between the two singular classes, i.e. a 3~5 sg which pairs with a 6 pl is categorized as class 5, whereas a 3~5 sg which pairs with a 13 pl is categorized as class 3.

3. The numbering of noun classes is not continuous, as 4, 11, 12, 14-18 are missing because no Babanki nouns are assigned to these classes.

4. It is puzzling that -m is retained after n in class 6a. All consultants we checked with did this consistently.
## 2. Nominal modifiers

Previous work on the Babanki noun class system has centered around the morphosyntax and morphotonology of elements within the NP (Hyman 1979b and 1980; Mutaka & Chie 2006; Akumbu 2011, 2016 and 2019; Chie 2014) and the concordial prefixes and proclitics which index noun classes across the full range of syntactic targets, i.e. modifiers within the NP: demonstratives (§2.1), pronominal possessives (§2.2), nominal possessives (§2.3), adjectives and participles (§2.4), interrogatives (§2.5), numerals (§2.6), and other quantifiers (§2.7). These modifiers generally follow their head noun. Demonstratives and possessives may precede under special focus conditions (§3.6). In addition to the concordial prefixes and proclitics, a set of agreement markers in post-modifier position has also been identified and categorized as suffixes without providing any functional characterisation (Hyman 1980; Akumbu & Chibaka 2012). We reanalyze these “suffixes” as enclitics at the NP level, due to their morphosyntactic behaviour discussed in §3, and explore their function(s) in detail.<fnref n="5" />

### 2.1 Demonstratives

Three demonstrative categories exist in Babanki, i.e. proximal (near speaker), distal (away from speaker), and anaphoric (previous reference). The underlying forms for these demonstrative roots proposed in Hyman (1980: 246) are èn, ì, and ì...á, respectively. Agreement c- prefixes are found in all classes and a set of additional =(c)v class markers, i.e. the enclitics discussed in §3, follow the demonstrative. The full forms of the demonstratives are given in Table 2 with the meanings ‘this’, ‘that’, and ‘the one referred to’. The =cv enclitics, i.e. those of classes 6a, 7, 10, 13, and 19 are optional, as seen with the demonstratives here and genuine possessives in §2.2.

<footnote n="5">5. Most of the data for this study has been provided by the first author and checked with five other native speakers of Babanki Tungo (Kejom Ketinguh) during WhatsApp conversation sessions in March 2021. The four WhatsApp sessions dedicated for this purpose lasted 3 hours. Many thanks to Vivian Ba-ah, Regina Phubong, Cornelius Wuchu, Stanley Amuh, and Benjamin Nkwenti for sharing their knowledge of Babanki with us. Some examples have been taken from the existing literature as well as from texts collected by the first author. Babanki Tungo differs from Big Babanki (Kejom Keku) in only minor ways. There are a few lexical differences (examples to the left are from Big Babanki while those to the right are from Babanki Tungo): fə́mváŋ vs. túbù ‘jigger’; kə́bwiń vs. dзи ‘road’; wúŋ vs. fə́làm ‘fishing net’. The following sound differences have also been identified: kə́bɔ́nə vs. kə́bɔ́lə ‘calabash’; kə́bwá vs. kə́byá ‘half’; wàn vs. wáyn ‘child’; kə́nfiʃ vs. kə́nfiyi ‘blindness’. Babanki has 26 consonant phonemes /b, t, d, k, g, ʔ, m, n, j, ŋ, f, v, s, z,ʃ,ʒ, y, pf, bv, ts, dz, tf, dʒ, l, w, y/, 8 vowel phonemes /i, i, u, u, e, o, ə, a/, and two tonemes /L, H/. Babanki is an SVO language, where the direct object, whether nominal or pronominal, follows the verb. There is a subject-verb agreement marker (sm) which follows the nominal subject and differs from subject pronouns. The sm is most visible in classes which have a Cə shape since the schwa that marks other classes may completely fuse with a neighboring vowel.</footnote>
<table><caption>Table 2 — Demonstratives</caption><thead><tr><th>Class</th><th>'this'</th><th>'that'</th><th>'the one referred to'</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>y-èn</td><td>y-ì</td><td>y-ì-á</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>v-èn=á<sup>6</sup></td><td>v-ì=i</td><td>v-ì-á</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>y-èn=á</td><td>y-ì=i</td><td>y-ì-á</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>y-èn=á</td><td>y-ì=i</td><td>y-ì-á</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>y-èn=á</td><td>y-ì=i</td><td>y-ì-á</td></tr><tr><td>6a</td><td>m-èn(=má)</td><td>m-ì(=má)</td><td>m-ì(=má)-á</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>k-èn(=ká)</td><td>ky-ì(=ká)</td><td>ky-ì(=ká)-á</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>v-èn=á</td><td>v-ì=i</td><td>v-ì-á</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>y-èn</td><td>y-ì</td><td>y-ì-á</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>s-èn(=sá)</td><td>f-ì(=sá)</td><td>f-ì(=sá)-á</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>t-èn(=tá)</td><td>ty-ì(=tá)</td><td>ty-ì(=tá)-á</td></tr><tr><td>19</td><td>f-èn(=fá)</td><td>fy-ì(=fá)</td><td>fy-ì(=fá)-á</td></tr></tbody></table>

## 2.2 Pronominal possessives

Babanki pronominal possessives fall in two distinct groups which could be defined by morphosyntactic criteria. The first set of “genuine” possessives includes ɔ́m 1SG, yɔ́ ~ wù 2SG, yɛ́s 1PL.EXCL, and ɔ́ŋ 2PL (Table 3a), while the second set of “derived” possessives is made up of wén 3SG, vɔ́yɔ́ŋ 1PL.INCL, and vɔ́wɛ́¹ná 3PL (Table 3b). While genuine possessives have (v)C- prefixes and require possessive concords, the derived ones have (c)v- prefixes and require associative concords (discussed in §2.3).<fnref n="7" /> The additional =(c)v class marking enclitics seen on demonstratives also occur with possessives. The concord consonants of classes 2, 6a, 7, 8, 13, and 19, i.e. v, m, k, t, and f, are either labialized or palatalized caused by the vowel that follows the consonants. Class 13 also shows palatalization before a rounded back vowel revealing a trace of the Proto-Bantu palatal vowel in the prefix, i.e. *ti- (de Wolf 1971). 2SG exhibits variation in classes 1, 3, 5, 6, and 9 based on the alternation of y ~ w.

<footnote n="6">6. When followed by a H tone, the L tone of the demonstrative root is raised to a M tone, as elaborated in Hyman (1979b) and Akumbu (2019). This general process is also displayed by possessives (§2.2) and the numeral ‘three’ (§2.6) among others.</footnote>

<footnote n="7">7. This suggests that the derived possessives originate from full-fledged nouns, retaining some nominal properties on their way to becoming grammaticalized as pronouns, as demonstrated by Hyman (1979a and 2018) for Aghem. While it is evident that 3SG and 3PL originate from ɔ́wén ‘body’, the source of 1PL.INCL is not equally obvious.</footnote>
<table><caption>Table 3a — Genuine possessives</caption><thead><tr><th>Class</th><th>1SG ɔ́m</th><th>2SG yə̃ ~ wù</th><th>1PL.EXCL yɛ́s</th><th>2PL ɔ́ŋ</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>ày-ɔ̃m<sup>8</sup></td><td>à-yà/à-wù</td><td>à-yɛ̃s</td><td>ày-ɔ̃ŋ</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>àvw-ɔ́m=ɔ́</td><td>àv-yɔ̃=ɔ́</td><td>àv-yɛ́s=ɔ́</td><td>àvy-ɔ́ŋ=ɔ́</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>ày-ɔ́m=ɔ́</td><td>à-yɔ̃=ɔ́/à-wū=ú</td><td>à-yɛ́s=ɔ́</td><td>ày-ɔ́ŋ=ɔ́</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>ày-ɔ́m=ɔ́</td><td>à-yɔ̃=ɔ́/à-wū=ú</td><td>à-yɛ́s=ɔ́</td><td>ày-ɔ́ŋ=ɔ́</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>ày-ɔ́m=ɔ́</td><td>à-yɔ̃=ɔ́/à-wū=ú</td><td>à-yɛ́s=ɔ́</td><td>ày-ɔ́ŋ=ɔ́</td></tr><tr><td>6a</td><td>àmw-ɔ́m=à</td><td>àm-yà(=mɔ́)</td><td>àm-yɛ́s=à</td><td>àmy-ɔ́ŋ=à</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>àk-ɔ́m(=kɔ́)</td><td>àk-yà(=kɔ́)</td><td>àk-yɛ́s(=kɔ́)</td><td>àky-ɔ́ŋ(=kɔ́)</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>àvw-ɔ́m=ɔ́</td><td>àv-yɔ̃=ɔ́</td><td>àv-yɛ́s=ɔ́</td><td>àvy-ɔ́ŋ=ɔ́</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>ày-ɔ̃m</td><td>à-yà/à-wù</td><td>à-yɛ̃s</td><td>ày-ɔ̃ŋ</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>àf-ɔ́m(=sɔ́)</td><td>àf-yà(=sɔ́)</td><td>àf-ɛ́s(=sɔ́)</td><td>àf-ɔ́ŋ(=sɔ́)</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>àty-ɔ́m(=tɔ́)</td><td>àt-yà(=tɔ́)</td><td>àt-yɛ́s(=tɔ́)</td><td>àty-ɔ́ŋ(=tɔ́)</td></tr><tr><td>19</td><td>àfw-ɔ́m(=fɔ́)</td><td>àf-yà(=fɔ́)</td><td>àf-yɛ́s(=fɔ́)</td><td>àfy-ɔ́ŋ(=kɔ́)</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><caption>Table 3b — Derived possessives</caption><thead><tr><th>Class</th><th>3SG <sup>†</sup>wén</th><th>1PL.INCL váγáŋ</th><th>3PL vàwé<sup>†</sup>ná</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>à-wén</td><td>à-váγáŋ</td><td>à-vàwé<sup>†</sup>ná</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>vá-<sup>†</sup>wén</td><td>vá-váγáŋ</td><td>vá-váwé<sup>†</sup>ná</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>á-<sup>†</sup>wén</td><td>á-váγáŋ</td><td>á-váwé<sup>†</sup>ná</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>á-<sup>†</sup>wén</td><td>á-váγáŋ</td><td>á-váwé<sup>†</sup>ná</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>á-<sup>†</sup>wén</td><td>á-váγáŋ</td><td>á-váwé<sup>†</sup>ná</td></tr><tr><td>6a</td><td>mà-wén</td><td>mà-váγáŋ</td><td>mà-vàwé<sup>†</sup>ná</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>ká-<sup>†</sup>wén=ká</td><td>ká-váγáŋ</td><td>ká-váwé<sup>†</sup>ná</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>á-<sup>†</sup>wén</td><td>á-váγáŋ</td><td>á-váwé<sup>†</sup>ná</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>à-wén</td><td>à-váγáŋ</td><td>à-vàwé<sup>†</sup>ná</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>sá-<sup>†</sup>wén=sá</td><td>sá-váγáŋ</td><td>sá-váwé<sup>†</sup>ná</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>tá-<sup>†</sup>wén=tá</td><td>tá-váγáŋ</td><td>tá-váwé<sup>†</sup>ná</td></tr><tr><td>19</td><td>fá-<sup>†</sup>wén=fá</td><td>fá-váγáŋ</td><td>fá-váwé<sup>†</sup>ná</td></tr></tbody></table>

<footnote n="8">8. The lowering of the H tone of 1SG, 1PL.EXCL, and 2PL in classes 1 and 9 reveals that these two classes come with an additional suffix, i.e. a floating L tone class marker in genuine possessives. This might be the same for the proximal and distal demonstratives, where the L suffix of classes 1 and 9 merges with the demonstrative roots.</footnote>
The behavior of the derived possessives is not uniform with respect to the enclitic, i.e. 3SG shows enclitics in 7, 10, 13, 19, but not in the rest, and deviates in this from the genuine possessives. 1PL.INCL and 3PL do not show any enclitics throughout the entire paradigm.

## 2.3 Nominal possessives

A possessive relationship between a possessed head noun and a following possessor noun is marked by associative morphemes (AM), which index the noun class of the possessed noun, as listed in Table 4. Since morphophonological processes link the associative marker (AM) with N2 rather than N1 (Hyman 1979a; Akumbu 2011), the associative markers are considered to be proclitics to N2. Associative markers reflect a tonal contrast of L tone for classes 1, 6a, and 9 vs. H tone for all other classes (Hyman 1980: 239), inherited from Proto-Grassfields (Watters 2003: 241).

<table><caption>Table 4 — Associative markers</caption><thead><tr><th>Class</th><th>AM</th><th>Class</th><th>AM</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>à=</td><td>7</td><td>kɔ́=</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>vɔ́=</td><td>8</td><td>ɔ́=</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>ɔ́=</td><td>9</td><td>à=</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>ɔ́=</td><td>10</td><td>sɔ́=</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>ɔ́=</td><td>13</td><td>tɔ́=</td></tr><tr><td>6a</td><td>mà=</td><td>19</td><td>fɔ́=</td></tr></tbody></table>

The associative marker occurs between the two nouns and agrees with the modified head noun, which is in N1 position, e.g. *kàmbò kɔ́=vãtsɔ́ŋ* ‘bag of thieves’.

## 2.4 Adjectives and participles

Genuine adjectives and deverbal adjectives, i.e. participles, have (C)v-concordial prefixes as well as a set of additional =CV class markers, i.e. the enclitics, e.g. *fàpín fã-fí=fã* ‘new bird’, *fàpín fã-fífã=fã* ‘white bird’. The full paradigm of genuine and derived adjectives is given in Table 5.

Classes 1 and 9 lack additional class markers following the adjectives and participles, and there is no indication of the presence of a floating concordial L tone, as with the genuine possessives (see fn. 8). Unlike the other classes where the prefix tone is L, classes 1, 6a, and 9 prefixes have H tone, an exact mirror image of the tonal patterns found in associative concords. This phenomenon remains a puzzle that needs further exploration as we are
unable to explain it so far. A similar pattern is found with the quantifier tsén 'some, certain' (§2.7).<fnref n="9" />

<table><caption>Table 5 — Genuine and deverbal adjectives</caption><thead><tr><th>Class</th><th>f'i 'new'</th><th>f'if 'be(come) white'</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>á-fí</td><td>á-fífǎ</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>và-fí=vá</td><td>và-fífǎ=vá</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>à-fí=yá</td><td>à-fífǎ=yá</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>à-fí=yá</td><td>à-fífǎ=yá</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>à-fí=yá</td><td>à-fífǎ=yá</td></tr><tr><td>6a</td><td>má-m-fí=mà</td><td>má-m-fífǎ=mà</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>kà-fí=ká</td><td>kà-fífǎ=ká</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>à-fí=vá</td><td>à-fífǎ=vá</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>á-fí</td><td>á-fífǎ</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>sà-fí=sá</td><td>sà-fífǎ=sá</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>tà-fí=tá</td><td>tà-fífǎ=tá</td></tr><tr><td>19</td><td>fà-fí=fǎ</td><td>fà-fífǎ=fǎ</td></tr></tbody></table>

## 2.5 Interrogative modifiers

The interrogative modifiers kɔ̀ɔ ‘which’ and fəʔ ‘how many’ are indexed for noun class by means of prefixes only, as shown in Table 6.

<table><caption>Table 6 — Interrogative modifiers</caption><thead><tr><th>Class</th><th>kɔ`ɔ 'which'</th><th>Class</th><th>kɔ`ɔ 'which'</th><th>Class</th><th>fəʔ 'how many'</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>kɔ`ɔ/kɔ̄ɔ</td><td>7</td><td>kə-kɔ`ɔ</td><td>2</td><td>və-fəʔ</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>və-kɔ`ɔ</td><td>8</td><td>ə-kɔ`ɔ</td><td>6</td><td>ə-fəʔ</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>ə-kɔ`ɔ</td><td>9</td><td>kɔ`ɔ/kɔ̄ɔ</td><td>6a</td><td>mə-n-fəʔ</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>ə-kɔ`ɔ</td><td>10</td><td>sə-kɔ`ɔ</td><td>8</td><td>ə-fəʔ</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>ə-kɔ`ɔ</td><td>13</td><td>tə-kɔ`ɔ</td><td>10</td><td>sə-fəʔ</td></tr><tr><td>6a</td><td>mə-ŋ-kɔ`ɔ</td><td>19</td><td>fə-kɔ`ɔ</td><td>13</td><td>tə-fəʔ</td></tr></tbody></table>

With the interrogative modifier kɔ`ɔ ‘which’, classes 1 and 9 also have a form with M tone, which occurs after L tone nouns (Hyman 1980: 241),

<footnote n="9">⁹. Class 6a has an additional homorganic nasal following the ordinary agreement prefix. This addition-al nasal is also seen on numerals (§2.6) and quantifiers (§2.7). Its origin and function remain unclear, requiring further investigation beyond the scope of this study.</footnote>
e.g. class 9: *byí kɔ̀ɔ* ‘which goat?’ vs. *nàm kɔ̄ɔ* ‘which animal?’.<fnref n="10" /> A similar pattern is seen with the numeral ‘one’ in the following section.

## 2.6 Numerals

Only the numbers 1 through 5 exhibit noun class concord by a set of (c)v- prefixes identical to those on interrogative modifiers (except for class 6a), as shown in Table 7. The numerals 1, 2 and 4 come with a floating H tone, which prevents the L tone from downgliding.

<table><caption>Table 7 — Numerals</caption><thead><tr><th>Class</th><th>mùʔ 'one'</th><th>bò' 'two'</th><th>táʔ 'three'</th><th>kàʔ 'four'</th><th>tàn 'five'</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>mùʔ/mūʔ</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>-</td><td>và-bò</td><td>và-táʔ</td><td>və-kàʔ</td><td>và-tàn</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>à-mùʔ</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>à-mùʔ</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>-</td><td>à-bò</td><td>à-táʔ</td><td>à-kàʔ</td><td>à-tàn</td></tr><tr><td>6a</td><td>-</td><td>à-m-bò</td><td>à-n-táʔ</td><td>à-ŋ-kàʔ</td><td>à-n-tàn</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>kà-mùʔ</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>-</td><td>à-bò</td><td>à-táʔ</td><td>à-kàʔ</td><td>à-tàn</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>mùʔ/mūʔ</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>-</td><td>sà-bò</td><td>sà-táʔ</td><td>sà-kàʔ</td><td>sà-tàn</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>-</td><td>tà-bò</td><td>tà-táʔ</td><td>tà-kàʔ</td><td>tà-tàn</td></tr><tr><td>19</td><td>fà-mùʔ</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr></tbody></table>

## 2.7 Quantifiers

The quantifier *tsén* ‘some, certain’ requires (c)v- concordial prefixes and a set of additional =cv enclitics identical to those found on adjectives and participles, discussed in §2.4.<fnref n="11" />

<footnote n="10">10. The raising of the L tone of *kɔ́ɔ* to M in classes 1 and 9 is due to the presence of a floating H between the noun and the interrogative, which merges with the interrogative L to form a HL and subsequently simplifies to M. This points to a reflex of some H tone concordial element which triggers L raising in a preceding L environment, but which otherwise merges with the preceding root H tone. The details of this tonal behaviour as well as how it is linked to the deviant H tones in the concordial prefixes of classes 1, 6a, and 9 with adjectives need further investigation.</footnote>

<footnote n="11">11. Classes 2, 3, 5, 6, 6a, and 8 have an additional H schwa, seemingly an epenthetic vowel between two voiced consonants, and which prevents the deletion of the enclitic consonant of the sort seen in demonstratives and genuine possessives.</footnote>
<table><caption>Table 8 — Quantifier tsén ‘some, certain’</caption><thead><tr><th>Class</th><th>tsén<br>'some, certain'</th><th>Class</th><th>tsén<br>'some, certain'</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>á-tsén</td><td>7</td><td>kà-tsén=ká</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>và-tséná=vá</td><td>8</td><td>à-tséná=vá</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>à-tséná=yá</td><td>9</td><td>á-tsén</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>à-tséná=yá</td><td>10</td><td>sà-tsén=sá</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>à-tséná=yá</td><td>13</td><td>tà-tsén=tá</td></tr><tr><td>6a</td><td>mà-n-tséná=mà</td><td>19</td><td>fà-tsén=fá</td></tr></tbody></table>

Another quantifier tsèm ‘whole’ (that occurs with singular nouns) and ‘all’ (which occurs with plural nouns) has only L tone (c)v- concordial prefixes, as in Table 9. The concordial prefixes are the same as with tsén ‘some, certain’, except that the tone in classes 1, 6a, and 9 is also L.

<table><caption>Table 9 — Quantifier tsèm ‘whole/all’</caption><thead><tr><th>Class</th><th>tsèm 'whole, all'</th><th>Class</th><th>tsèm 'whole, all'</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>à-tsèm</td><td>7</td><td>kà-tsèm</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>và-tsèm</td><td>8</td><td>à-tsèm</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>à-tsèm</td><td>9</td><td>à-tsèm</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>à-tsèm</td><td>10</td><td>sà-tsèm</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>à-tsèm</td><td>13</td><td>tà-tsèm</td></tr><tr><td>6a</td><td>mà-n-tsèm</td><td>19</td><td>fà-tsèm</td></tr></tbody></table>

Other quantifiers such as fàndéʔ (19/6a) ‘few’ and kàdìŋ (7/8) ‘much/many’ are actually quantity nouns, which are typically used as heads in associative constructions under dependency reversal for attributing quantities, e.g. kàdìŋ ká=víʔí ‘a multitude of people’. Their concordial behaviour thus follows the one of nominal possessives (§2.3).

### 3. The noun phrase enclitic

In many cases, modified NPs require a final enclitic element that agrees in noun class with the head noun. The full set of enclitic noun class indexes is given in Table 10 in contrast to both the associative marker (AM) set, which procliticizes to a nominal modifier, and the subject marker (SM), which procliticizes to the verb.
<table><caption>Table 10 — NP-final enclitics in contrast to associative and subject proclitics</caption><thead><tr><th>Class</th><th>ENC<sup>12</sup></th><th>AM</th><th>SM</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>=</td><td>ð</td><td>Ø</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>=(v)ð</td><td>vð</td><td>ð</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>=(y)ð<sup>13</sup></td><td>ð</td><td>ð</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>=(y)ð</td><td>ð</td><td>ð</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>=(y)ð</td><td>ð</td><td>ð</td></tr><tr><td>6a</td><td>=(m)ð</td><td>mð</td><td>Ø</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>=kð</td><td>kð</td><td>kð</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>=(v)ð</td><td>ð</td><td>ð</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>=</td><td>ð</td><td>Ø</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>=sð</td><td>sð</td><td>sð</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>=tð</td><td>tð</td><td>tð</td></tr><tr><td>19</td><td>=fð</td><td>fð</td><td>fð</td></tr></tbody></table>

While there is considerable formal overlap of the three concordial series, the following observations can be made: The =cv allormorph of the enclitic is identical in form with the associative markers of cv= structure, i.e. vð, mð, kð, sð, tð, and fð of classes 2, 6a, 7, 10, 13, and 19, respectively. In all other classes, the enclitic is distinct from both the associative marker and the subject proclitic. Associative markers which consist of a single low-toned schwa vowel only, i.e. in classes 1 and 9, correspond to a floating L tone enclitic. In the remaining classes, i.e. 3~5, 6, and 8, the enclitic is distinct by the additional presence of an initial consonant, which is absent in the associative and subject proclitics, i.e. y in classes 3~5 and 6 and v in class 8.<fnref n="14" /> In a historical perspective, the formal contrast for classes 3~5 and 6 vs. 8 has been retained only in the enclitic and is neutralized in the associative and subject markers. The full paradigm of the enclitic is illustrated by NPs modified by the adjective *fi* ‘new’ in (2).

<footnote n="12">12. Bracketing indicates the deletion of the initial consonants of enclitics in classes 2, 3, 5, 6, 6a, and 8, as triggered by immediately preceding voiced consonants (Hyman 1980: 229).</footnote>

<footnote n="13">13. As suggested by one of the reviewers, Proto-Bantu agreement prefixes of classes 3 and 6 have been reconstructed with an initial *g* consonant, of which y is a reflex in Babanki. The fact that y is also observed in the enclitic of class 5 shows that, as mentioned in fn. 2, classes 3 and 5 have actually merged in Babanki due to the phonological merger of their noun class prefixes, and only the enclitic of class 3 based on Proto-Bantu *gó- was maintained. If they had not merged, one would have expected here an enclitic based on the Proto-Bantu concord of class 5, i.e. *dí*.</footnote>

<footnote n="14">14. Outside the Babanki NP, agreement is seen on subject markers between the subject noun and the verb, as in other Ring languages (McGarrity & Botne 2001: 60). The subject marker always follows the preverbal subject noun in a main clause and precedes the following verb or tense/aspect marker (Hyman 1980: 237).</footnote>
(2) The enclitic by noun class

a. wàyn ɔ́-f́i=<fnref n="15" />
1.child 1-new=1.ENC
‘new child’

c. ò-lyòŋ ɔ́-f́i=ɣɔ́
3-bamboo 3-new=3.ENC
‘new bamboo’

e. à-wúm ā-f́i=ɣɔ́
6-egg 6-new=6.ENC
‘new eggs’

g. kò-kí kɔ̄-f́i=kɔ́
7-chair 7-new=7.ENC
‘new chair’

i. byí ɔ́-f́i=
9.goat 9-new=9.ENC
‘new goat’

k. tò-lyàŋ tò-f́i=tɔ́
13.bamboo 13-new=13.ENC
‘new bamboos’

b. vò-tsɔ́ŋ vɔ̄-f́i=vɔ́<fnref n="16" />
2-thief 2-new=2.ENC
‘new thieves’

d. ò-wúm ɔ̄-f́i=ɣɔ́
5-egg 5-new=5.ENC
‘new egg’

f. mò-ŋín mɔ̄-m-f́i=mɔ́
6a-bird 6a-N-new=6a.ENC
‘new birds’

h. ò-kí ɔ̄-f́i=vɔ́
8-chair 8-new=8.ENC
‘new chairs’

j. byí<fnref n="17" /> sɔ̄-f́i=sɔ́
goat.10 10-new=10.ENC
‘new goats’

l. fò-ŋín fɔ̄-f́i=fɔ́
19-bird 19-new=19.ENC
‘new bird’

When an NP occurs in subject position as in (3a-e), a situation arises in which it becomes difficult to decide whether the agreement marker following the subject NP is the NP-final enclitic or rather the subject marking proclitic to the verb. Both never co-occur. Their distribution can be captured by the following generalization: The occurrence of the subject marker is the default, as shown in (3a-b). Depending on the internal composition of the NP, however, the enclitic is required as final bracket of the NP, blocking the subject marker. This happens, for example, in case the subject head noun is modified by an attributive adjective as in (3c-e).

<footnote n="15">15. The floating enclitic L tone of classes 1 and 9 docks leftwards to form a HL contour tone, which subsequently simplifies to M.</footnote>

<footnote n="16">16. When found between two H tones, the L tone on the agreement prefix is realized M following the general Prefix L-Raising rule in Babanki (Akumbu 2019: 6f.).</footnote>

<footnote n="17">17. The plural form *byí-*sɔ́ ‘goats’ is realized as *byí* without its plural class 10 suffix. Unlike the other noun classes which employ prefixes, class 10 nouns appear in isolation with a plural suffix. When followed by a sə́-initial modifier a situation arises where the -sə́ plural suffix and the sə́- concord prefix are contiguous. Since doubling of sə́ is not permitted a general rule deletes “the suffix of *byí*- *sə́* and other class 10 nouns whenever followed by a sə́- concord” (Hyman 1980: 228). This type of noun suffix deletion to prevent doubling is also found in Lamnso’ (McGarrity & Botne 2001: 57). We argue in §3.1 that this Babanki class 10 “suffix” is actually the enclitic.</footnote>
(3) a. və-tfí (*=vɔ́) ə́= yì vì nəntfwo
2-in.law (*=2.ENC) 2.SM= P1 come afternoon
‘In-laws came in the afternoon.’

b. və-tfí və-tsèm (*=vɔ́) ə́= yì vì nəntfwo
2-in.law 2-all (*=2.ENC) 2.SM= P1 come afternoon
‘All in-laws came in the afternoon.’

c. və-tfí və̄-fí=vɔ́ (*ɔ́=) yì vì nəntfwo
2-in.law 2-new=2.ENC (*2.SM=) P1 come afternoon
‘New in-laws came in the afternoon.’

d. ə-lyəŋ ə̄-fí=yɔ́ (*ɔ́=) yì fəŋ nəntfwo
3-bamboo 3-new=3.ENC (*3.SM=) P1 fall afternoon
‘A new bamboo fell in the afternoon.’

e. mə-ŋín mó-m-fí=mɔ́ (*Ø=) yì tə́yn nəntfwo
6a-bird 6a-N-new=6a.ENC (*6a.SM=) P1 fly afternoon
‘New birds flew in the afternoon.’

As can be seen in (3), the head noun of the subject NP, və-tfí ‘in-laws’,
triggers concordial agreement for class 2 in all cases (3a-c), just as ə́-lyəŋ
‘bamboo’ does for class 3 in (3d), and mə-ŋín ‘birds’ for class 6a in (3e).
With the bare noun as subject in (3a) and with the quantifier tsèm ‘all’ as
final modifier in (3b), no NP-final enclitic =vɔ́ is required and instead the
subject marker ə́= serves as agreement target for the head noun. As soon
as there is an attributive adjective such as fí ‘new’ as final modifier of the
subject in (3c-e), however, agreement is realized in the NP-final enclitic
=vɔ́ for class 2 in (3c), =yɔ́ for class 3 in (3d), and =mə for class 6a in (3e),
all of which block the subject marker. This clearly shows that only a single
syntactic slot is available for one of the two, i.e. the NP-final enclitic to the
subject or the subject proclitic to the verb, and combining both of them, as
in (4), is ungrammatical.

(4) a. \*və̄-tfí ə́= =vɔ́ yì vì nəntfwo
2-in.law 2.SM= =2.ENC P1 come afternoon

b. \*və̄-tfí =vɔ́ ə́= yì vì nəntfwo
2-in.law =2.ENC 2.SM= P1 come afternoon

c. \*və̄-tfí və̄-fí ə́= =vɔ́ yì vì nəntfwo
2-in.law 2-new 2.SM= =2.ENC P1 come afternoon

d. \*və̄-tfí və̄-fí =vɔ́ ə́= yì vì nəntfwo
2-in.law 2-new =2.ENC 2.SM= P1 come afternoon
<table><tr><td>e.</td><td>*və̏-tʃi</td><td>və̏-tsɛ̂m</td><td>ə̄=</td><td>=və̄</td><td>yì</td><td>vì</td><td>nə̄ntʃwì</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>2-in.law</td><td>2-all</td><td>2.SM=</td><td>=2.ENC</td><td>P1</td><td>come</td><td>afternoon</td></tr><tr><td>f.</td><td>*və̏-tʃi</td><td>və̏-tsɛ̂m</td><td>=və̄</td><td>ə̄=</td><td>yì</td><td>vì</td><td>nə̄ntʃwì</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>2-in.law</td><td>2-all</td><td>=2.ENC</td><td>2.SM=</td><td>P1</td><td>come</td><td>afternoon</td></tr></table>

In cases of ambiguity, i.e. where the contrast of enclitic and subject marker is neutralized, as in classes 1, 7, 9, 10, 13, and 19, the placement of a pause is the only way to distinguish the enclitic from the subject marker. If an intonational break or pause (|) can occur before the element, it must be the subject marker as in (5a). If the break can be inserted after the element, it must be the enclitic, as in (5b).

(5) a. və̏-tʃi və̏-tsɛ̂m | ə̄= yì vì nə̄ntʃwì
2-in.law 2-all 2.SM= P1 come afternoon
‘All in-laws came in the afternoon.’

b. və̏-tʃi və̄-f̩i=və̄ | yì vì nə̄ntʃwì
2-in.law 2-new=2.ENC P1 come afternoon
‘New in-laws came in the afternoon.’

In general, the distribution of the enclitic is determined by two parameters, i.e. NP-internal conditions pertaining to the type of modifier, as specified in the columns of Table 11a, and NP-external conditions pertaining to the wider syntactic environment, as specified in the lines of Table 11a. These conditions determine whether the enclitic is either obligatorily present (indicated by +), optionally present (indicated by (+)) or obligatorily absent (indicated by –). Patterns of identical parametrical values are conflated in the condensed Table 11b.

The patterns that emerge from Table 11 will be discussed and exemplified in the following sections, i.e. the obligatory presence of the enclitic with attributive adjectives, participles, and bare nouns (§3.1), its optional presence with demonstratives, genuine pronominal possessives, and the quantifier tsén ‘some, certain’ (§3.2), and its obligatory absence with derived pronominal possessives, the quantifier tsèm ‘whole, all’, numerals, interrogative modifiers, and relative clauses (§3.3). As for the NP-external syntactic conditions, the occurrence of the enclitic also depends on the syntactic role of the NP as subject, direct object or prepositional complement and its interaction with the clause type, i.e. whether it occurs in affirmative declarative (DECL) or negative declarative clauses (NEG), in WH-questions (WH-Q) or in imperatives (IMP). In §3.4, we discuss the occurrence of the enclitic in complex NPs with combined modifiers, before proceeding to examine the relationship between the enclitic and the presence or absence
of a nominal head in §3.5. Finally, an attempt is made in §3.6 to determine
whether the distribution of the enclitic is influenced by focus conditions.

<table><caption>Table 11a — Overview of syntactic contexts of the enclitic according to NP-internal and NP-external conditions</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2"></th><th rowspan="2">N<sup>18</sup></th><th rowspan="2">ADJ/ PART</th><th rowspan="2">DEM</th><th colspan="2">POSS</th><th colspan="2">QUAN</th><th rowspan="2">N+N</th><th rowspan="2">NUM</th><th rowspan="2">INT</th><th rowspan="2">REL</th></tr><tr><th>GEN</th><th>DER</th><th>tsén</th><th>tsèm</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td colspan="12"><strong>Subject</strong></td></tr><tr><td>DECL</td><td>–</td><td>+</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td>NEG</td><td>–</td><td>+</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td>WH-Q</td><td>–</td><td>+</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td colspan="12"><strong>Direct object</strong></td></tr><tr><td>DECL</td><td>–</td><td>+</td><td>(+)</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td>NEG</td><td>–</td><td>+</td><td>(+)</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td>WH-Q</td><td>–</td><td>+</td><td>(+)</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td>IMP</td><td>–</td><td>+</td><td>(+)</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td colspan="12"><strong>Prepositional complement</strong></td></tr><tr><td>DECL</td><td>+</td><td>+</td><td>(+)</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td>NEG</td><td>+</td><td>+</td><td>(+)</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td>WH-Q</td><td>+</td><td>+</td><td>(+)</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td>IMP</td><td>+</td><td>+</td><td>(+)</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td><td>–</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><caption>Table 11b — Condensed overview of syntactic contexts of the enclitic according to NP-internal and NP-external conditions</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>N</th><th>ADJ/ PART</th><th>DEM, GEN POSS, QUAN tsén</th><th>DER POSS, QUAN tsèm, N, NUM, INT, REL</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Subject</strong></td><td>–</td><td>+</td><td>–</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Direct object</strong></td><td>–</td><td>+</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Prepositional complement</strong></td><td>+</td><td>+</td><td>(+)</td><td>–</td></tr></tbody></table>

## 3.1 Obligatory presence of the enclitic

The enclitic obligatorily follows an NP under two general conditions: (a) the NP terminates in an adjectival or participial modifier and (b) the

<footnote n="18">18. Minus in this slot indicates the obligatory absence of the enclitic for all nouns except those of class 10, which behave differently in that they retain the enclitic in their unmodified form under all conditions, as discussed in §3.1.</footnote>
non-modified noun occurs as prepositional complement. These conditions
will be exemplified in the following.

First, NPs concluded by an adjectival or participial modifier require the presence of the enclitic under all syntactic conditions, i.e. in the affirmative declarative (6a, 7a, 8a), under negation (6b, 7b, 8b), in WH-questions (6c, 7c, 8c), in imperatives (7d, 8d) irrespective of whether they are in subject (6), direct object (7), or prepositional complement position (8).<fnref n="19" />

As discussed above, subject position presents a tricky case since the enclitic can easily be confused with the subject marker due to a high degree of syncretism, as shown in Table 10. As soon as the subject NP terminates in an adjectival or participial modifier, the enclitic blocks the surfacing of the subject marker. This is clearly visible with the nouns *vətʃí* ‘in-laws’ (6a), *àwúm* ‘egg’ (6b), and *àwúm* ‘eggs’ (6c), which require the concordial enclitic forms =və of class 2 and =yə of classes 5 and 6, respectively, and not their subject marking counterparts, which would converge in the form ə́ = for all three classes.

(6) Noun class enclitics with subjects modified by adjectives

a. və-tʃí və-fí=və yì vì
2-in.law 2-new=2.ENC p1 come
‘New in-laws came.’

b. à-wúm ā-kú=yə kó yì fəŋ
5-egg 5-raw=5.ENC NEG p1 fall
‘The raw egg didn’t fall.’

c. à-wúm ā-kú=yə yì fəŋ zɛ́
6-egg 6-raw=6.ENC p1 fall when
‘When did raw eggs fall?’

(7) Noun class enclitics with direct objects modified by adjectives

a. kə-kās kə= yì kù ā-sáŋ ā-fiʃə=yə à wù
7-slave 7.SM= p1 give 5-corn 5-white=5.ENC to 2SG
‘The slave gave white corn to you.’

b. kə-kās kə= kó yì kù ā-sáŋ ā-fiʃə=yə à wù
7-slave 7.SM= NEG p1 give 5-corn 5-white=5.ENC to 2SG
‘The slave didn’t give white corn to you.’

c. kə-kās kə yì yèn ā-káŋ ā-fi=və fɛ́
7-slave 7.SM p1 see 8-dish 8-new=8.ENC where
‘Where did the slave see new dishes?’

<footnote n="19">19. The obligatory presence of the enclitic after adjectival modifiers is also reported in Aghem (Hyman 1979a: 32, 67).</footnote>
d. kú fə-ɲín fə̄-fɛ̂nə́=fə̄ à wàyn
give.IMP 19-bird 19-black=19.ENC to 1.child
‘Give the black bird to the child!’

(8) Noun class enclitics with prepositional complements modified by adjectives

a. kə̄-kɔ̄s kɔ́= yì wù ə̄-sáŋ à və̄-tʃí və̄-fí=və́
7-slave 7.sm= p1 keep 5-corn for 2-in.law 2-new=2.ENC
‘The slave kept corn for new in-laws.’

b. kə̄-kɔ̄s kɔ́= kó yì wù ə̄-sáŋ à mə̄-ɲín
7-slave 7.sm= NEG p1 keep 5-corn for 6a-bird
mə̄-m-fɛ̂nə́=mə̄
6a-N-black=6a.ENC
‘The slave didn’t keep corn for black birds.’

c. kə̄-kɔ̄s kɔ́= yì wù ə̄-sáŋ à mə̄-ɲín
7-slave 7.sm= p1 keep 5-corn for 6a-bird
mə̄-m-fɛ̂nə́=mə̄ źé
6a-N-black=6a.ENC when
‘When did the slave keep corn for black birds?’

d. kú wāyn nə̄ fə̄-ɲín fə̄-fí=fə̄
give.IMP 1.child with 19-bird 19-new=19.ENC
‘Give the child a new bird!’

With non-modified, i.e. bare nouns, the enclitic is obligatorily present only when it is the prepositional complement in affirmative declaratives (9a), negative declaratives (9b), WH-questions (9c), and imperatives (9d).

(9) Noun class enclitics with non-modified nouns as prepositional complements

a. kə̄-kɔ̄s kɔ́= yì vì nə̄ kə̄-mbò=kɔ́
7-slave 7.sm= p1 come with 7-bag=7.ENC
‘The slave came with a bag.’

b. kə̄-kɔ̄s kɔ́= kó yì kù à tə̄-fɔ̄yn=tɔ́
7-slave 7.sm= NEG p1 give to 13-chief=13.ENC
‘The slave didn’t give to chiefs.’

c. kə̄-kɔ̄s kɔ́= yì vì nə̄ fə̄-ɲín=fə̄ źé
7-slave 7.sm= p1 come with 19-bird=19.ENC when
‘When did the slave come with a bird?’
d. *fí* wāyn fà fə̌-pn̩=fə̋
take.IMP 1.child from 19-bird=19.ENC

‘Take the child from a bird!’

Class 10 nouns present a special case. In contrast to all other nouns, they never come with a noun class prefix, but instead with a final class marker =só, under various NP-internal and NP-external conditions, as shown in (10), where the NP (whether modified or not) is subject (10a-b), direct object (10c-d), or prepositional complement (10e-f).

(10) Noun class 10 enclitic

a. *byí*=sá yì vì nàntfwì

goat=10.ENC P1 come afternoon

‘Goats came in the afternoon.’

b. *byí* sá= wāyn= sá yì vì nàntfwì

goat 10.AM= 1.child=10.ENC P1 come afternoon

‘The child’s goats came in the afternoon.’

c. *mà* yì lyì ndzàm=sá fá kà-mbò

1SG P1 take axe=10.ENC from 7-bag

‘I took axes from a bag.’

d. *mà* yì lyì ndzàm sā-fí=sá fá kà-mbò

1SG P1 take axe 10-new=10.ENC from 7-bag

‘I took new axes from a bag.’

e. *wàyn* yì wù ā-gə́ŋ á pám= sá

1.child P1 keep 6-grass for animal=10.ENC

‘The child kept grass for cattle.’

f. *kà-kɔš* kɔ= yì wù ā-gə́ŋ á pám sā-kwáʔá= sá

7-slave 7.SM= P1 keep 6-grass for animal 10-sick=10.ENC

‘The slave kept grass for sick cattle.’

Previous analyses (Hyman 1980; Akumbu & Chibaka 2012) have identi-
fied the adnominal marker of class 10 as a suffix. We argue that this “suf-
fix” is in fact identical to the enclitic. As seen, for example in (10d), the
item sá that follows ndzàm is not a noun “suffix”, i.e. it is not ndzàm-sá fí,
but rather the concordial prefix for the adjective, i.e ndzàm sā-fí. Similarly,
in (10b), the item sá after byí is the associative proclitic on N2, i.e. it is not
byí-sá wāyn, but rather byí sá=wāyn. Under a “suffix” analysis this would
force us to assume that class 10 nouns regularly lose their adnominal noun
class “suffix” under modification (through replacement by the dependent
agreement marker, as pointed out in fn. 16, i.e. ndzàm-sá sā-fí → ndzàm
sā-fí). Under the enclitic analysis, this would not be needed at all since the enclitic is actually retained, i.e. ndzàm sā-fí=sá, and only separated from the noun by intervening modifiers. The only extravagance that sets class 10 apart from all other classes is the fact that the enclitic is obligatory present in unmodified class 10 nouns, i.e. in a context where it is obligatorily absent in all other classes.

This is illustrated with the nouns *byí=ṣṣá* ‘goats (class 10)’ and *tò-yàm* ‘mats (class 13)’ when they occur in subject position, as direct objects, or as prepositional complements.

(11) Presence vs. absence of enclitic on non-modified subjects of class 10 and class 13

a. *byí=ṣṣá* yì fəŋ á nsé
   goat=10.ENC p1 fall on 9.ground
   ‘Goats fell on the ground.’

b. *tə-yām (*=tə́)* tə́ yì fəŋ á nsé
   13-mat 13.SM p1 fall on 9.ground
   ‘Mats fell on the ground.’

(12) Presence vs. absence of enclitic on non-modified direct objects of class 10 and class 13

a. *wàyn yì zèn byí=ṣṣá fà tsɔŋ*
   1.child p1 buy goat=10.ENC from 1.thief
   ‘The child bought goats from the thief.’

b. *wàyn yì zèn tə-yàm (*=tə́)* fà tsɔŋ
   1.child p1 buy 13-mat from 1.thief
   ‘The child bought mats from the thief.’

(13) Presence vs. absence of enclitic on non-modified prepositional complements of class 10 and class 13

a. *wàyn yì wù ā-gɔ́ŋ á pám=ṣṣá*
   1.child p1 keep 6-grass for animal=10.ENC
   ‘The child kept grass for cattle.’

b. *wàyn yì kíʔí ō-kó fà tɔ́-yàm (*=tɔ́)*
   1.child p1 have 5-money from 13-mat
   ‘The child made money from (selling) mats.’

The presence of the enclitic on non-modified class 10 nouns in contexts where the enclitic is obligatorily absent in other classes suggests that the enclitic originated as a device to explicitly mark the plurality of class 10
nouns.<fnref n="20" /> Hyman (1980: 229) notes that “the -sá noun suffix is actually introduced by rule just in case there is no overt mark distinguishing class 10 from its class 9 singular”. Bantoid languages with both prefixes and suffixes and the few Narrow Bantu languages with suffixes might have developed in similar ways like Babanki, but the issue requires further investigation.

## 3.2 Optional presence of the enclitic

The enclitic is optionally present when the NP terminates in a demonstrative modifier, a genuine possessive (i.e. 1SG, 2SG, 1PL.EXCL, and 2PL) or the quantifier tsén ‘some, certain’. This holds for all syntactic positions except for subject NPs, as demonstrated below for direct objects (14) and prepositional complements (15) in affirmative declaratives, negative declaratives, WH-questions, and imperatives. The optional presence of the enclitic refers to the fact that speakers freely use or leave out the enclitic without any functional difference, e.g. fəpín fən=fə ‘this bird’ alternates freely with fəpín fən. In the examples given here and elsewhere, the optional presence of the noun class enclitic is indicated by bracketing, e.g. fəpín fən(=fə).

(14) Optional presence of noun class enclitics with modified direct objects

a. kə'-kās ká= yì kù kā-káng k-èn=(ká) à wù<fnref n="21" />
7-slave 7.SM= p1 give 7-dish 7-DEM=(7.ENC) to 2SG
'The slave gave this dish to you.'

b. kə'-kās ká= kó yì kù fə'-pín fy-ì=(fə) à wù
7-slave 7.SM= NEG p1 give 19-bird 19-DEM=(19.ENC) to 2SG
'The slave didn't give that bird to you.'

c. kə'-kās ká= yì yèn kā-kí ək-yɛ́s=(ká) fɛ́
7-slave 7.SM= p1 see 7-chair 7-1PL.EXCL=(7.ENC) where
'Where did the slave see our chair?'

d. kú kə'-mbò kə-tsén=(ká) á ⚫wén
give.IMP 7-bag 7-certain=(7.ENC) to 3SG
'Give a certain bag to him!'

<footnote n="20">20. The reason for dropping the erstwhile prefix of class 10 as well as that of the singular class 9 is not obvious. Classes 9/10 are reconstructed with *ì/-i-* prefixes, respectively, in Proto-Grassfields (Hyman 1980: 253). Both classes lost their prefixes, and the singular/plural distinction was re-established by class 10 taking an extra overt marker, i.e. the enclitic.</footnote>

<footnote n="21">21. Unlike in Aghem, where the enclitic and the demonstrative are mutually exclusive, both can co-occur, suggesting that the Babanki enclitic does not originate from the demonstrative.</footnote>
(15) Optional presence of noun class enclitics with modified prepositional complements

a. kə'-kɔ̄s kə' = yì wù ə̄-sáŋ à tə'-fɔ̄yn ty-ī=(tə')
7-slave 7.SM= P1 keep 5-corn for 13-chief 13-DEM=(13.ENC)
'The slave kept corn for those chiefs.'

b. kə'-kɔ̄s kə' = kó yì wù ə̄-sáŋ à tə'-fɔ̄yn t-ēn=(tə')
7-slave 7.SM= NEG P1 keep 5-corn for 13-chief 13-DEM=(13.ENC)
'The slave didn't keep corn for these chiefs.'

c. wàyn yì kù ə̄-sáŋ à kə̄-kɔ̄s ə̄k-ɔ́m=(kə́) zé
1.child P1 give 5-corn to 7-slave 7-1SG=(7.ENC) when
'When did the child give corn to my slave?'

d. ýá? mə̄-pín mə̄-n-tsɛ́nə́=(mə) á *́wén
catch.IMP 6a-bird 6a-N-some=(6a.ENC) for 3SG
'Catch some birds for him!'

It should be noted that the relevant modifier has to occur in final position of the entire NP since the situation might change as modifiers are combined in complex NPs (§3.4).

3.3 Obligatory absence of the enclitic

The enclitic is obligatorily absent when NPs terminate in derived posses-
sive modifiers (i.e. 3SG, 1PL.INCL, 3PL), nominal possessives, interrogative
modifiers,<fnref n="22" /> the quantifier tsèm ‘whole, all’, numerals, and relative clauses.
This holds for all syntactic contexts, irrespective of whether the NP is in
subject position (16), in direct object position (17), or occurs as preposi-
tional complement (18) in affirmative declaratives, negative declaratives,
WH-questions, and imperatives. The obligatory absence of the enclitics ter-
minating the NP is shown by marking them with an asterisk and placing
them in parentheses after the final modifier.

(16) Obligatory absence of noun class enclitics with modified subjects

a. kə'-kɔ̄s kə'=wén (*=kə́) kə' = yì pfi
7-slave 7.AM=3SG 7.SM= P1 die
'His slave died.'

b. və'-tfí və' =wùwì (*=və́) ó' = yì vì nəntfwì
2-in.law 2.AM=1.woman 2.SM= P1 come afternoon
'The woman's in-laws came in the afternoon.'

<footnote n="22">22. It can be argued that the absence of the enclitic with the interrogative modifiers and numerals is due to the fact that they are inherently focalized, as discussed in §3.6.</footnote>
c. à fàn mā-jín mà-ŋ-kɔ̂ (*=mà) á kà-mbò á
it remain 6a-bird 6a-N-which in 7-bag Q
‘Which birds are left in the bag?’

d. à-kòs à-tsèm (*=á) á= yì vì zé
8-slave 8-all 8.SM= P1 come when
‘When did all the slaves come?’

e. kà-kòs kà-mù? (*=ká) kó= kó yì zí
7-slave 7-one 7.SM= NEG P1 eat
‘One slave didn’t eat.’

f. và-tsɔ́ŋ (*=vá) á mà yì zís (*=vá) á= búná ♦lí
2-thief REL 1SG P1 feed 2.SM= sleep P0
‘The thieves that I fed have slept.’

(17) Obligatory absence of noun class enclitics with modified direct objects

a. kà-kōs kó= yì kù kā-kí kó=wén (*=kó) à wù
7-slave 7.SM= P1 give 7-chair 7.AM=3SG to 2SG
‘The slave gave his chair to you.’

b. kà-kúm kó= kó yì kù kā-kí kó=kā-kòs (*=kó) à wù
7-juju 7.SM= NEG P1 give 7-chair 7.AM=7-slave to 2SG
‘The juju didn’t give the chair of a slave to you.’

c. kà-kōs kó= kó yì yà? vā-tsɔ́ŋ và-fà? (*=vá)
7-slave 7.SM= NEG P1 catch 2-thief 2-how.many
‘How many thieves did the slave not catch?’

d. wàyn yì kù mā-jín mà-n-tsèm (*=mà) à ndà
1.child P1 give 6a-bird 6a-N-all to who
‘Who did the child give all birds to?’

e. kú fà-jín fà-mù? (*=fə̃) à wàyn
give.IMP 19-bird 19-one to 1.child
‘Give one bird to the child!’

f. wù bà?lá kà-kōs (*=kó) á mà yì zís (*=kó)
2SG sell 7-slave REL 1SG P1 feed
‘You have sold the slave that I fed.’

(18) Obligatory absence of noun class enclitics with modified prepositional complements

a. wàyn yì wyè ō-sáng á kā-káng kó=vóγéŋ (*=kó)
1.child P1 put 5-corn in 7-dish 7.AM=1PL.INCL
‘The child put corn in our dish.’
b. kə'-kúm kə'- kó yì wù byí á kə'-kí kə'-kəs (*=kə')
7-juju 7.SM= NEG P1 keep 9.goat on 7-chair 7.AM=7-slave
'The juju didn't keep a dog on the chair of a slave.'

c. kə'-kúm kə'- kó yì tèm pàm à fə'-pín fə'-kə` (*=fə')
7-juju 7.SM= NEG P1 shoot 9.animal for 19-bird 19-which
'Which bird did the juju not shoot an animal for?'

d. wàyn yì wù ə'-sán á ví? və'-tsèm (*=və) fɛ̈
1.child P1 keep 5-corn for 2.people 2-all where
'Where did the child keep corn for everyone?'

e. kú ə'-sán à fə'-pín fə'-mù? (*fə')
give.IMP 5-corn to 19-bird 19-one
'Give corn to one bird!'

f. wù kù pàm à kə'-kəs (*=kə') á mà yì zís (*=və')
2SG give 9.meat to 7-slave REL 1SG P1 feed
'You gave the meat to the slave that I fed.'

Note that in contrast to the genuine possessive pronouns (14c, 15c) — which
allow for the enclitic to be present — the derived possessive pronouns (17a,
18a) align with the nominal possessives (17b, 18b) in that they require the
enclitic to be absent obligatorily. This actually points to the origin of the
derived possessive pronouns in erstwhile nouns as argued in §2.2.

The enclitic is also obligatorily absent when non-modified nouns occur
as direct object in imperatives, as in (19).

(19) Obligatory absence of noun class enclitics with non-modified direct objects in imperatives

a. kú kə'-kán (*=kə')
give.IMP 7-dish
'Give the dish!'

b. γ`əη zís fə'-pín (*=fə')
2PL feed 19-bird
'You (PL) feed the bird!'

c. tɔ́ηtɔ́ və'-tʃí (*=və')
greet 2-in.law
'Greet the in-laws!'

3.4 Complex NPs with combined modifiers

When several modifiers combine in an NP the possessive pronoun and ad-
jective occur closest to the modified noun in either order, followed by the
participle, quantifier, demonstrative, numeral, interrogative, and the relative clause, as schematized in the formula in (20a) and illustrated in (20b-d).<fnref n="23" />

(20) Order of modifiers in the NP

a. N {POSS.PRO ADJ / ADJ POSS.PRO} PART QUAN DEM NUM INT REL

b. fə̄-ɲín ə̄fw-ɔ́m fə̄-fí fə̄-fífə̄ fə̄-tsén f-ɛ̂n fə̄-mù?
19-bird 19-1sg 19-new 19-white 19-certain 19-DEM 19-one
'This one other new white bird of mine.'

c. mə̄-ɲín mə̄-m-fífə̄ mə̄-wén mə̄-m-fí m-yì mə̄-n-fə̄?
19-bird 6a-N-white 6a-3sg 6a-N-new 6a-DEM 6a-N-which
'How many of those new white birds of his?'

d. mə̄-ɲín mə̄-m-fífə̄ mə̄-wén mə̄-m-fí m-yì mə̄-m-bò á
19-bird 6a-N-white 6a-3sg 6a-N-new 6a-DEM 6a-N-two REL
wù yì yén
2sg p1 see
'Those two new white birds of his that you saw.'

When modifiers are combined, the presence or absence of the enclitic is determined by the final modifier in the NP. The enclitic is present if the NP-final modifier is one that requires the presence of the enclitic (21), optionally present if the NP-final modifier is one that permits the presence of the enclitic (22), and obligatorily absent if the NP-final modifier is one that requires the absence of the enclitic (23), whether the NP is in subject, direct object, or prepositional complement position.

(21) Obligatorily present when NP-final modifier requires the enclitic

a. ə̄-wúm ə̄ɣ-ɔ́mə̄ ə̄-dʒúŋə́=ɣə̄ |<fnref n="24" /> yì pfi
5-egg 5-1sg 5-good=5.ENC p1 die
'My nice egg got broken.'

b. wàyn yì zèn fə̄-ɲín ə̄fw-ɔ́m fə̄-fí=fə̄
1.child p1 buy 19-bird 19-1sg 19-new=19.ENC
'The child bought my new bird.'

<footnote n="23">23. The free order of a possessive pronoun and an adjective in a complex NP is also reported in Aghem (Hyman 2010: 105).</footnote>

<footnote n="24">24. The class 5 enclitic =ɣɔ́ is formally different from the sm ɔ́. In addition, the intonational break after =ɣɔ́ confirms that it is enclitic to the NP and not to the verb.</footnote>
c. wàyn yì kù ə̄-sáŋ à fə̄-ɲín ə̄fw-ɔ̄m fə̄-dʒúŋə́

1.child p1 give 5-corn to 19-bird 19-1sg 19-good

fə̄-fí=fə́

19-new=19.ENC

‘The child gave corn to my nice new bird.’

(22) Optionally present when NP-final modifier permits the enclitic

a. fə̄-ɲín ə̄fw-ɔ̄m fə̄-dʒúŋə́ fə̄-fí f-yì (=fə̄) (fə̄)<fnref n="25" />

19-bird 19-1sg 19-good 19-new 19-DEM (=19.ENC) (19.SM=)

yì pfí

p1 die

‘That nice new bird of mine died.’

b. wàyn yì zèn fə̄-ɲín fə̄-dʒúŋə́ fə̄-fí fə̄-tsén (fə̄)

1.child p1 buy 19-bird 19-good 19-new 19-certain 19.ENC

‘The child bought a certain nice new bird.’

c. wàyn yì kù ə̄-sáŋ à fə̄-ɲín ə̄fw-ɔ̄m fə̄-fí

1.child p1 give 5-corn to 19-bird 19-1sg 19-new

f-èn=(fə̄)

19-DEM=(19.ENC)

‘The child gave corn to this new bird of mine.’

(23) Obligatorily absent when NP-final modifier does not permit the enclitic

a. fə̄-ɲín fə̄-dʒúŋə́ fə̄-fí f-yì fə̄-mù?(*=fə̄) fə̄ yì pfí

19-bird 19-good 19-new 19-DEM 19-one 19.SM p1 die

‘That one nice new bird died.’

b. wàyn yì zèn fə̄-ɲín fə̄-fɛ́nə́ fə̄-kɔ̂ɔ̂ (*=fə̄)

1.child p1 buy 19-bird 19-black 19-which

‘Which black bird did the child buy?’

c. wàyn yì kù ə̄-sáŋ à mə̄-ɲín ə̄m-yə̄ m-yì mə̄-n-tsèm

1.child p1 give 6-corn to 6a-bird 6a-2sg 6a-DEM 6a-N-all

à mà yì yén (*=mə̄)

REL 1sg p1 see

‘The child gave corn to all those your birds that I saw.’

<footnote n="25">25. For the enclitic, the brackets represent the status of optional presence, while for the sm, the brackets indicate that it must occur in the absence of the enclitic. Since the two are mutually exclusive, the presence of the enclitic blocks the sm.</footnote>
## 3.5 The enclitic and headedness

Another factor which determines the occurrence of the enclitic is the presence or absence of a lexical head in the NP. Its influence, however, is marginal since headless NPs differ only in one diagnostic environment from NPs with lexical heads with respect to the enclitic, i.e. modification by a derived possessive pronoun. This is shown in Table 12, which contrasts the distribution of the enclitic across all diagnostic modifier types of NPs in dependency from the presence of a lexical head.

<table><caption>Table 12 — Distribution of the enclitic across modifier types in dependency from the presence of a head</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>+ lexical head</th><th>- lexical head</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>ADJ/PART</td><td>+</td><td>+</td></tr><tr><td>DEM</td><td>(+)</td><td>(+)</td></tr><tr><td>GEN POSS</td><td>(+)</td><td>(+)</td></tr><tr><td>DER POSS</td><td>-</td><td>+</td></tr><tr><td>QUAN <i>tsén</i> ‘some, certain’</td><td>(+)</td><td>(+)</td></tr><tr><td>QUAN <i>tsèm</i> ‘whole, all’</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>NUM</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr></tbody></table>

In contrast to the obligatory absence of the enclitic in lexically headed NPs modified by derived possessive pronouns, as presented in §3.3 and exemplified in (17a), (18a), and (24a), the enclitic is obligatorily present in their headless counterparts, as shown in (24b).

### (24) Occurrence of enclitic in NPs modified by derived possessive pronouns

#### a. Obligatory absence of enclitic in lexically headed NPs

kə̑-kɔ̑s kɔ̑= yì kù kɔ̑-kí kɔ̑=wén (*kɔ̑) à wù
7-slave 7.SM= P1 give 7-chair 7.AM=3SG to 2SG
‘The slave gave his chair to you.’

#### b. Obligatory presence of enclitic in headless NPs

kə̑-kɔ̑s kɔ̑= yì kù kɔ̑=wén=kɔ̑ à wù
7-slave 7.SM= P1 give 7.AM=3SG=7.ENC to 2SG
‘The slave gave his own to you.’

Derived possessives provide a clue to understanding the relationship between headedness and the enclitic. It seems that the absence of a lexical head gives room for the enclitic to appear. We speculate that historically there was a significant distinction between headed NPs and headless ones
by the presence of the enclitic on headless NPs. It seems that an NP needs to be headed by a full noun, otherwise the enclitic has to be present. It is as if the enclitic is present to make a well-formed NP when the nominal head is absent. Since this relationship between headedness and the enclitic is manifest only on derived possessives, where the enclitic is obligatorily present with headless NPs and obligatorily absent with headed ones, it is unclear whether the heterogeneity is archaic or rather an innovation.

Otherwise, the distribution of the enclitic with headless NPs matches precisely the one in NPs with lexical heads. The enclitic is obligatorily present with adjectives and participles whether there is a lexical head or not.

(25) Obligatory presence of enclitic with adjectives/participles in the presence or absence of a lexical head

a. kə'-kə̄s kə' = yì yèn (fə'-ŋín) fə'-fí=fə' 7-slave 7.SM= P1 see (19-bird) 19-new=19.ENC
'The slave saw a new bird/one.'

b. kə'-kə̄s kə' = yì zèn (kə'-káŋ) kə'-yɔ́ʔə́'=kə' 7-slave 7.SM= P1 buy (7-plate) 7-big=7.ENC
'The slave bought a big plate/one.'

c. kə'-kə̄s kə' = yì zèn (kə'-káŋ) kə' lì ə́=wén 7-slave 7.SM= P1 buy (7-plate) 7.AM 1.mother 1.AM=3SG
kə'-yɔ́ʔə́'=kə' 7-big=7.ENC
'The slave bought his mother's big plate/one.'

The enclitic is optionally present on demonstratives, genuine possessives, and the quantifier tsén 'some, certain', irrespective of whether there is a lexical head.

(26) Optional presence of enclitic with demonstratives and the quantifier tsén
'some, certain' in the presence or absence of a lexical head

a. kə'-kə̄s kə' = yì yèn (fə'-ŋín) f'-èn=(fə') 7-slave 7.SM= P1 see (19-bird) 19-DEM=(19.ENC)
'The slave saw this bird/one.'

b. kə'-kə̄s kə' = yì yèn (fə'-ŋín) ə̄fw-ɔ́m=(fə') 7-slave 7.SM= P1 see (19-bird) 19-1SG=(19.ENC)
'The slave saw my bird/mine.'

c. kə'-kə̄s kə' = yì zèn (kə'-káŋ) kə'-tsén=(kə') 7-slave 7.SM= P1 buy (7-plate) 7-certain=(7.ENC)
'The slave bought a certain plate/one.'
The obligatory absence of the enclitic is observed with numerals, the quantifier *tsèm* ‘whole, all’, interrogative modifiers, and nominal possessives whether there is a lexical head or not.

(27) Obligatory absence of enclitic with numeral and quantifier *tsèm* ‘whole, all’ in the presence or absence of a lexical head

a. *kə́-kɔ̄s kɔ́= yì yèn (fɔ̄-ʃìn) fə̄-mùʔ (*=fɔ̄)*
7-slave 7.SM= P1 see (19-bird) 19-one
‘The slave saw one (bird).’

b. *kə́-kɔ̄s kɔ́= yì pfè (à-wùm) à-tsèm (*=ɣɔ̄)*
7-slave 7.SM= P1 cook (6-egg) 6-all
‘The slave cooked all (eggs).’

c. *kə́-kɔ̄s kɔ́= yì pfè (à-wùm) à-kɔ̄ʔ (*=ɣɔ̄)*
7-slave 7.SM= P1 cook (6-egg) 6-which
‘Which (eggs) did the slave cook?’

d. *kə́-kɔ̄s kɔ́= yì pfè (kə́-tú) kɔ́=fɔ̄-ʃìn (*=kɔ́)*
7-slave 7.SM= P1 cook (7-head) 7.AM=19-bird
‘The slave cooked the bird’s (head).’

## 3.6 The enclitic and focus

Focalisation does not seem to have any influence on the distribution of the NP-final enclitic. Evidence presented in §§3.1-3.5 shows that the presence vs. absence of the enclitic is determined synchronically by NP-internal and NP-external syntactic factors, particularly the type of modifiers involved. When focused for contrastive purposes by means of a pseudo-cleft construction with the copula *dìʔ*, the enclitic is obligatorily present in NPs modified by adjectives and participles (28a-b), optionally present on demonstratives (28c), the quantifier *tsén* ‘some, certain’ (28d), and genuine possessives (28e), and obligatorily absent on derived possessives (28f), nominal possessives, the quantifier *tsèm* ‘whole, all’, interrogative modifiers, numerals (28g), and relative clauses (28h).

(28) Pseudo-cleft constructions for contrastive focus

a. *à dìʔ tɔ̄-ɣɔ̄ŋ tɔ̄-fì=tɔ́ á ɔ̄-ŋgàŋ*
DS COP 13-spear 13-new=13.ENC in 5-house
‘There are NEW spears in the house (correcting a presupposition that they are old).’

b. *à dìʔ tɔ̄-ɣɔ̄ŋ tɔ̄-fɛ̃nɔ́=tɔ́ á ɔ̄-ŋgàŋ*
DS COP 13-spear 13-black=13.ENC in 5-house
‘There are BLACK spears in the house (correcting a presupposition that they are red).’
c. à dìʔ tš-ɣɔ́ŋ t-èn(=tš) á wù yì zén
DS COP 13-spear 13-DEM(=13.ENC) REL 2SG P1 buy
'It is THESE spears that you bought (correcting a presupposition that they are some others).'

d. à dìʔ tš-ɣɔ́ŋ tš-tsén(=tš) á wàyn yì kwà?
DS COP 13-spear 13-some (=13.ENC) REL 1.child P1 break
'The child broke SOME spears (correcting a presupposition that it did not break any).'

e. à dìʔ tš-ɣɔ́ŋ šty-ɔ́m(=tš) á wàyn yì kwà?
DS COP 13-spear 13-POSS (=13.ENC) REL 1.child P1 break
'The child broke MY spears (correcting a presupposition that it broke yours).'

f. à dìʔ tš-ɣɔ́ŋ tš=wén (*=tš) á wàyn yì kwà?
DS COP 13-spear 13.AM=3SG REL 1.child P1 break
'The child broke HIS spears (correcting a presupposition it broke mine).'

g. à dìʔ tš-ɣɔ́ŋ tš-bò (*=tš) á wàyn yì kwà?
DS COP 13-spear 13-two REL 1.child P1 break
'It is TWO spears that the child broke (correcting a presupposition that it broke ten).'

h. à dìʔ tš-ɣɔ́ŋ á vš-tsɔ́ŋ ă yì tsɔ́ŋ (*=tš)
DS COP 13-spear REL 2-thief 2.SM P1 steal
'It is spears THAT THE THIEVES STOLE (correcting a presupposition that they are spears that were bought).'

Although the distribution indicates that the presence vs. absence of the enclitic in both focus and non-focus conditions matches, one difference is that demonstratives, genuine possessives and derived possessives can also be preposed under focus conditions. When demonstratives and genuine possessives are preposed in the presence of a lexical head, the enclitic is obligatorily absent (whereas it is optionally present in non-focus conditions), revealing a situation where focalization precludes the presence of the enclitic. Table 13 summarizes the distribution of the enclitic under focus conditions in dependency on the position of the modifier and the presence of a lexical head.
<table><caption>Table 13 — Distribution of the enclitic across modifier types under focus conditions</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>Postposed<br>modifier</th><th>Preposed<br>modifier</th><th>+ lexical head</th><th>- lexical head</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>ADJ/PART</td><td>+</td><td>n.a.<sup>26</sup></td><td>n.a.</td><td>n.a.</td></tr><tr><td>DEM</td><td>(+)</td><td>-</td><td>+</td><td>+</td></tr><tr><td>GEN POSS</td><td>(+)</td><td>-</td><td>+</td><td>+</td></tr><tr><td>QUAN <i>tsén</i> ‘some, certain’</td><td>(+)</td><td>n.a.</td><td>n.a.</td><td>n.a.</td></tr><tr><td>DER POSS</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>+</td><td>+</td></tr><tr><td>NOM POSS</td><td>-</td><td>n.a.</td><td>n.a.</td><td>n.a.</td></tr><tr><td>QUAN <i>tsêm</i> ‘whole, all’</td><td>-</td><td>n.a.</td><td>n.a.</td><td>n.a.</td></tr><tr><td>INT</td><td>-</td><td>n.a.</td><td>n.a.</td><td>n.a.</td></tr><tr><td>NUM</td><td>-</td><td>n.a.</td><td>n.a.</td><td>n.a.</td></tr><tr><td>REL</td><td>-</td><td>n.a.</td><td>n.a.</td><td>n.a.</td></tr></tbody></table>

The enclitic is obligatorily present when demonstratives (29a), genuine possessives (29b), and derived possessives (29c) occur without a lexical head.

(29) Obligatory presence of enclitic with preposed demonstratives, genuine possessives, and derived possessives in the absence of a lexical head

a. kə'-kúm kə́ kó zì kə́ bén. à bìʔ ndə́
7-juju 7.SM NEG can 7.SM dance DS play who
ək-ən=kə́ á
7-DEM=7.ENC Q

‘The juju cannot dance. Who has played THIS (kind of music)?’

b. à dìʔ ək-ə́m=kə́ tá lə́. kə́ ɣəŋ bé lù dzàŋ
DS COP 7-POSS=7.ENC only such NEG 2PL again F3 call
mò á ə-ŋù ə́ kə-ŋkɔ́yn
1SG for 8-thing 8.AM 7-foolish

‘Such is MY (fate). You (PL) should never call me for such trivial things.’

c. à sá n-dìʔ kə́=wén=kə́ vá wyú tá ntɛ́?
DS then N-COP 7.AM=3SG=7.ENC 3PL put only little
‘When it was HIS (plate) they served him very little (food).’

<footnote n="26">26. “n.a.” (not applicable) indicates that the modifier does not occur in that position.</footnote>
On the other hand, the enclitic is obligatorily absent when demonstratives (30a), genuine possessives (30b), and derived possessives (30c) are preposed for contrastive focus in the presence of a lexical head.

(30) Obligatory absence of enclitic with preposed demonstratives, genuine possessives, and derived possessives in the presence of a lexical head

a. kə́-kúm kə́ kó zì kə́ bén. à bíʔ ndə́ àk-èn
7-juju 7.SM NEG can 7.SM dance DS play who 7-DEM
kə́-bɔ́ʔ (*=kə́) á
7-music Q

‘The juju cannot dance. Who has played THIS kind of music?’

b. à dìʔ ə́k-ɔ́m kə́-nù (*=kə́) á lə́. kə́ yèŋ bé lù
DS COP 7-POSS 7-thing only such NEG 2PL again F3
dzàŋ mò á ə́-nù ə́ kə̄-ŋkɔ́yn
call 1SG for 8-thing 8.AM 7-foolish

‘Such is MY fate. You (PL) should never call me for trivial things.’

c. à sá n-dìʔ kə́=wén kə́-káŋ (*=kə́) vá wyú tá ntéʔ
DS then N-COP 7.AM=3SG 7-plate 3PL put only little
‘When it was HIS plate they served him very little (food).’

Since the absence of the enclitic with preposed demonstratives, genuine possessives, and derived possessives appears to be triggered by focus, we can assume that focused NPs reject the enclitic in the presence of lexical heads.

Support for this analysis comes from the fact that some quantifiers (*tsèm*) ‘whole, all’, (numerals) and the interrogative modifiers are inherently focused and so consistently reject the enclitic, as seen in §§3.3-3.5 and further exemplified in (31).

(31) a. yè yì dzàŋ mò fá dʒī lá mà bwín à vì à
3SG P1 call 1SG from road QT 1SG return CSC come CSC
byèʔè kò-mbò kə́ ndɔ́ŋ kò-mùʔ (*=kə́)
carry 7-bag 7.AM 1.potato 7-one

‘He called me to come back from the road and carry ONE bag of potatoes.’

b. tòlɔ́kyí gàʔ à wí ə́ wén lá yè tsén-tá
tortoise say to 1.wife 1.AM 3SG QT 3SG gather-REP
ə́-fó à-tsèm (*=ə́) à wyù á nsé
8-thing 8-all CSC keep on 9.ground

‘Tortoise told his wife to gather EVERYTHING and place it on the ground.’
c. mbì wàyn tfò à bèm á wén lá yà byéʔé kò-mbò
first 1.child pass CSC ask to 3SG QT 3SG carry 7-bag
kò-kɔ̀ (*=kɔ́) à dʒù á ə́-wɔ́ŋ lɔ́
7-which CSC keep on 5-market EMPH

‘The first child moved forward and asked him WHICH bag she should carry to the market.’

In a historical Ring perspective, it makes sense to interpret these few in-
stances of focus-driven absence of the enclitic as residual. The enclitic
may have started out in Babanki as a pragmatically driven strategy to mark
non-focalised NPs, possibly reflecting the contemporary situation of the
West Ring languages Aghem (Hyman 1979b and 2010) and Isu (Kießling
2010), where the defocalising function of the enclitic is more prominent.
In a pan-Ring trend that involves the progressive syntacticization of the
enclitic and its concomitant depragmaticization, Babanki seems to have
advanced considerably further than West Ring, allowing purely syntactic
conditions for the appearance of the enclitic to almost completely replace
erstwhile pragmatic ones.

4. Conclusion

In the preceding sections various syntactic and pragmatic conditions of the
NP-final enclitic have been presented. Specifically, we have shown that the
type of nominal modifier almost completely determines the presence or
absence of the enclitic. As seen, it is obligatorily present on attributive ad-
jectives, participles, and bare nouns, optionally present on demonstratives,
genuine pronominal possessives, quantifier tsén ‘some, certain’, and oblig-
atorily absent on derived pronominal possessives, quantifier tsèm ‘whole,
all’, numerals, and interrogative modifiers.

Noun class enclitic markers also crop up in other branches of Ring,
where they serve similar functions. Thus, evidence from Lamnso' (East
Ring) (McGarrity & Botne 2001) suggests that the presence vs. absence
of an NP-final enclitic is conditioned by NP-internal and NP-external fac-
tors, similar as in Babanki. For example, the enclitic attaches to adjectives/
participles (32a) and the quantifier 'some' (32b).

(32) a. f̮i-nən f-e teri=f̮i
19-bird 19-REL small=ENC
‘small bird’

b. mi-ndzəv-mi dzə laav mi-moʔ=mi
6-water-SM be.in house 6-some=ENC
‘Some water is in the house.’
Nouns in prepositional phrases exhibit the enclitic (33a-d) unless they are in locative phrases (33e), probably because locative phrases are not headed by prepositions but retain nominal properties, so that the construction may rather have to be analysed as a nominal possessive.

(33) a. Ntaŋ naa vi-faveyi fo ſi-nən=ſi
Ntang cook 8-food for 19-bird=19.ENC
'Ntang is cooking food for the bird.'

b. Ntaŋ fo vi-faveyi i ſi-nən=ſi
Ntang give 8-food to 19-bird=19.ENC
'Ntang is giving food to the bird.'

c. wu ki koʔ ki-tʃi i ki-raŋ=ki
3SG PST climb 7-tree with 7-ladder=7.ENC
'He climbed the tree with a ladder.'

d. wu ki wiy i mi-luʔ=mi
3SG PST climb with 6-wine=6.ENC
'He came up with wine.'

e. a-ŋwaʔ-a dzə sar ki-daŋ
2-book-SM be under 7-desk
'The books are under the desk.'

A comitative adjunct that modifies a direct object requires the enclitic, as in (34b-c).

(34) a. m yen ſi-nən
1SG see 19-bird
'I see a bird.'

b. m yen ſi-nən wuna ki-tam=ki
1SG see 19-bird COM 7-elephant=7.ENC
'I see a bird and an elephant.'

c. m ker ki-soo ſi-nən wuna ki-yin=ki
1SG have 7-hoe 19-bird COM 7-bowl=7.ENC
'I have a hoe, a bird, and a bowl.'

While the occurrence of the enclitic in Babanki (Central Ring) and Lamn-
so' (East Ring) appears to be largely dependent on purely syntactic NP-in-
ternal and NP-external factors, it is largely driven by pragmatic conditions
in West Ring in that the enclitic that characterizes the so-called "B-forms"
is required for nouns in out-of-focus positions in Aghem (Hyman 1979a
and 2010) and Isu (Kießling 2010). As illustration, consider the Aghem
example in (35) taken from Hyman (1979a: 56), in which the direct object *kí-bé* ‘fufu’ forms part of the focus of the clause, i.e. the sentence could answer either questions such as ‘what did you eat?’ or ‘what did you do?’.

(35) *m̂ mɔ̂ zì kí-bé nɛ́*
1SG P1 eat 7-fufu today
‘I ate FUFU today.’

When focused, the noun *kí-bé* ‘fufu’ occurs in its “A-form”, i.e. the enclitic is obligatorily absent, while the noun retains its class 7 prefix *kí-*. If, however, the focus is placed on other elements of the clause, e.g. the verb (36a), an adverb (36b), or the subject (36c), the direct object *kí-bé* ‘fufu’ is required in its out-of-focus “B-form” *bɛ́=kɔ́*, i.e. it has to take the enclitic =kɔ́ of class 7 and drop its noun class prefix.

(36) a. *m̂ mɔ̂ zì nô bɛ́=kɔ́ nɛ́*
1SG P1 eat FOC fufu=7.ENC today
‘I ATE fufu today (not sell it).’
b. *m̂ mɔ̂ zì nɛ́ bɛ́=kɔ́*
1SG P1 eat today fufu=7.ENC
‘I ate fufu TODAY (not yesterday).’
c. *à mɔ̂ zì mùɔ bɛ́=kɔ́ nɛ́*
DS P1 eat 1SG fufu=7.ENC today
‘I ate fufu today (not someone else).’

This is also seen in negation (37a) and in imperatives (37b), which in Aghem are inherently focused independent of information structure.

(37) a. *ỳ kâ zì bɛ́=kɔ́ nɛ́*
1SG NEG eat fufu=7.ENC today
‘I didn’t eat fufu today.’
b. *zì bɛ́=kɔ́*
eat fufu=7.ENC
‘Eat fufu!’

From a general Bantu perspective, the role of the Babanki NP-final enclitic appears to be reminiscent of that of the augment in Bantu languages (De Blois 1970; Grégoire & Janssens 1999; Van de Velde 2019). Even though the Bantu augments are (pre)prefixes while the Babanki enclitics are NP-final, their functions and distribution are similar in some ways. Although pervasive in Bantu, certain factors, e.g. propositional act function, and
syntactic context determine “whether the use of the augment is prohibited, obligatory or syntactically optional” (Van de Velde 2019: 251). The obligatory absence of the Babanki enclitic under focus when demonstratives and pronominal possessives are preposed can be likened to the absence of the augment on an object noun when it is under focus, e.g. in Ganda JE15 (Hyman & Katamba 1993).

(38) Ganda JE15 (ibid.: 228).

a. y-à-gúl-ìr-à à-bá-ànà è-bí-tábó
SP₁-PST-buy-APPL-FV AUG-2-child AUG-8-book
‘He bought the children books.’

b. y-à-gúl-ìr-à bá-ànà è-bí-tábó
SP₁-PST-buy-APPL-FV 2-child AUG-8-book
‘He bought the CHILDREN books.’

Van de Velde (2019: 251) further points out that “on the level of the noun phrase, head nouns often lose their augment in the presence of (certain types of) preposed modifiers. The augment can then either function as a phrasal affix and appear on the prenominal modifier (39) or be left out (40)”.

(39) Nande JD42 (ibid.)

a. ò-mò-tí ‘the tree’

b. ò-γò-ntì mò-tí ‘the other tree’

(40) Zulu S42 (ibid.)

a. i-ndawo leyo ‘that place’

b. le ndawo ‘this place’

As seen in Babanki, numeral and interrogative modifiers are incompatible with the enclitic, just as in some Northwestern Bantu languages such as Zamba C322, where the interrogative ‘which’ (41) and numerals (42) are incompatible with the augment (Grégoire & Janssens 1999: 415).

(41) Zamba C322 (ibid.)

a. ízíkèì ‘an egg’

b. zíkèì zídò ‘which egg?’

(42) Zamba C322 (ibid.)

a. bábâ:ná ‘children’

b. bâ:ná díbòà ‘nine children’

c. ínswě: ‘fishes’

d. ńswě: nsámbó ‘seven fishes’
A detailed discussion of the conditions on the presence vs. absence of the augment in Bantu is given in Van de Velde (2019: 249-254).

Regarding the role of headedness in Babanki, it has been shown that the enclitic is obligatorily absent on derived possessives if the NP is headed but obligatorily present if the NP is headless, making it the only NP-internal syntactic condition where the behaviour of headed NPs deviates with respect to the presence or absence of the enclitic. Since an NP needs to be headed by a full noun (keeping aside the quantifier ‘whole, all’ and numerals which do not require the enclitic even if the lexical head is missing), the enclitic is present to make a well-formed NP when the nominal head is absent but is not needed if the head noun is present.

Concerning focus, it appears that the pragmatic influence on the enclitic has almost given way entirely to syntactic factors with the only indicator seen in the obligatory absence of the enclitic under focus when demonstratives and pronominal possessives move to the position immediately before the noun, as opposed to when it is optionally present on demonstratives and genuine possessives in non-focus conditions. In contrast to West Ring languages, the Babanki enclitic is overwhelmingly driven by syntactic conditions, while pragmatic conditions such as focalization only marginally interfere when the enclitic is required to be absent. This is seen with demonstrative and possessive modifiers under focus conditions, specifically when preposed to their nominal heads.

## Abbreviations

| | downstep

1SG | | intonational break or pause

2SG | | first person singular

3SG | | second person singular

1PL | | third person singular

2PL | | first person plural

3PL | | second person plural

1...19 | | third person plural

ADJ | | noun classes

AM | | adjective

APPL | | associative marker

AUG | | augment

COM | | comitative

COP | | copula

CSC | | consecutive
<table><tr><td>DECL</td><td>declarative</td></tr><tr><td>DEM</td><td>demonstrative</td></tr><tr><td>DER</td><td>derived</td></tr><tr><td>DS</td><td>dummy subject</td></tr><tr><td>EMPH</td><td>emphatic</td></tr><tr><td>ENC</td><td>enclitic</td></tr><tr><td>EXCL</td><td>exclusive</td></tr><tr><td>F3</td><td>distant future tense</td></tr><tr><td>FOC</td><td>focus</td></tr><tr><td>FV</td><td>final vowel</td></tr><tr><td>GEN</td><td>genuine</td></tr><tr><td>IMP</td><td>imperative</td></tr><tr><td>INT</td><td>interrogative</td></tr><tr><td>MOD</td><td>modifier</td></tr><tr><td>N</td><td>noun</td></tr><tr><td>N</td><td>nasal</td></tr><tr><td>NEG</td><td>negative</td></tr><tr><td>NUM</td><td>numeral</td></tr><tr><td>P0</td><td>present/perfect tense</td></tr><tr><td>P1</td><td>immediate past tense</td></tr><tr><td>PART</td><td>participle</td></tr><tr><td>POSS</td><td>possessive</td></tr><tr><td>PRO</td><td>pronoun</td></tr><tr><td>PST</td><td>past</td></tr><tr><td>Q</td><td>question</td></tr><tr><td>QUAN</td><td>quantifier</td></tr><tr><td>QT</td><td>quotative</td></tr><tr><td>REL</td><td>relativizer/relative clause</td></tr><tr><td>REP</td><td>repetitive</td></tr><tr><td>SM</td><td>subject marker</td></tr><tr><td>SP</td><td>subject prefix</td></tr><tr><td>WH-Q</td><td>WH-question</td></tr></table>
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