Concise grammar of the Digo language by Steve Nicolle This sketch of the grammar of the Digo language is not intended to be complete. It focuses on words rather than on sentences, clauses or paragraphs, since dictionaries deal primarily with words rather than with longer units. This concise grammar is divided very simply into three main sections dealing with nouns, verbs, and other parts of speech, reflecting the fact that nouns constitute approximately half of the dictionary entries, with the next most frequent part of speech being verbs. Nouns Digo nouns can be grouped into noun classes, each of which has a characteristic prefix. Each noun (with singular and plural forms being treated as distinct) belongs to a particular noun class, and all adjectives and verbs associated with a given noun show agreement with its noun class. Bantu noun classes have traditionally been numbered for ease of reference; noun classes 12, 13 and 19 do not occur in Digo but are found in some other Bantu languages. The noun classes and their prefixes are listed in Table 1. prefix examples 1 mu/mw/m mutu “person”/ mwana “child”/ mjeni “guest, stranger” 2 a atu “people”/ ana “children”/ ajeni “guests, strangers” 1a - baba, sowe, ise “father”/ simba “lion” 2a - (ano) ano baba “fathers”/ simba “lions” 3 mu/mw/m muhi “tree, wild plant”/ mwezi “moon, month”/ moyo “heart” 4 mi mihi “trees, wild plants”/ miezi “moons, months”/ mioyo “hearts” 5 dz/- dzina “name”/ dziwe “stone”/ bofulo “bread roll” 6 ma madzina “names”/ mawe “stones”/ makongo “illnesses” 7 chi/ch chitsulu “anthill”/ chala “finger” 8 vi-vy vitsulu “anthills”/ vyala “fingers” 9 N/- nyumba “house”/ tsi “country” 10 N/- nyumba “houses”/ mbiga “clay bowls”/ pazi “ladles” 11 li liga “clay bowl”/ liphazi “ladle”/ lichigo “fence” 14 u usiku “night”/ uchigo “fence”/ uchiya “poverty”/ ukongo “illness” 15 ku kufwitsa “hiding, to hide” (infinitive) 16 pha phahali, phatu “place” 17 ku kpwahali “place” (ku+a = kpwa) 18 mu mwahali “inside place” (mu+a = mwa) Table 1: Noun classes