Vol. 35 No. 1 (2026): NJAS Special Issue: Auxiliary Verb Constructions in Bantu Languages
Special Issue: Auxiliary Verb Constructions in Bantu

Introduction to the Special Issue: Advancing the Study of Auxiliary Systems in Bantu

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Ponsiano Kanijo
Mkwawa University College of Education
Rasmus Bernander
University of Gothenburg
Eva-Marie Bloom Ström
University of Gothenburg
Thera Marie Crane
University of Helsinki & University of Pretoria
Hilde Gunnink
Ghent University & Leiden University

Published 2026-03-31

Keywords

  • auxiliary constructions,
  • Bantu

Copyright (c) 2026 Ponsiano Kanijo, Rasmus Bernander, Eva-Marie Bloom Ström, Thera Marie Crane, Hilde Gunnink

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Introduction to the Special Issue: Advancing the Study of Auxiliary Systems in Bantu. (2026). Nordic Journal of African Studies, 35(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.53228/13p8xq96

Abstract

Bantu languages are notoriously “verby” (Nurse 2008, 21), referring to the highly agglutinative nature of the inflected verb, whose complexities have sparked extensive research. Now that Bantu verbal morphology is much better understood, the time has come to widen the scope of research beyond the limits of the inflected, lexical verb to auxiliary verbs, which play an important role in Bantu verbal constructions but have enjoyed relatively little dedicated attention. This special issue is the outcome of an open call for papers issued by editors of the Nordic Journal of African Studies, inviting contributions on auxiliary verb constructions in Bantu languages. The call was designed to capture the breadth and diversity of current research on Bantu auxiliaries, encouraging submissions that address their categorical status, functional range, diachronic development, contact-induced change, and interaction with broader grammatical systems. 

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