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Zulu grammar is typical for Bantu languages, bearing all the hallmarks of this language family. These include agglutinativity, a rich array of noun classes, extensive inflection for person (both subject and object), tense and aspect and a subject–verb–object word order. == Nouns == The Zulu noun consists of two essential parts, the prefix and the stem. For ease of classification, prefixes are used to group nouns into noun classes. So, for example, the nouns abafana (boys) and abangani (friends) belong to Class 2, characterised by the prefix aba-, whereas isibongo (surname) and isihlahla (tree) belong to Class 7, characterised by the prefix isi-. Examples: Classes 14 (ubu-), 15 and 17 (both uku-) form an exception to this rule, as they have no corresponding plural classes (if necessary, plurals of Class 14 and 17 are formed from class 6. Nouns of Class 15 have no plural forms). Furthermore, the class of the noun determines the forms of other parts of speech, i.e. verbs, adjectives, etc. - their prefixes are derived from those of the substantive classes, and will be in agreement with them. Examples: :umfana omkhulu (big boy) :isihlahla esikhulu (large tree) In terms of semantics, groups of similar nouns belong to similar noun classes. For example, names and surnames are only found in class 1a. Designations of persons which are derived from verbs (e.g. singer, from ''sing'') are commonly in class 1, abstract concepts (e.g. beauty) in class 14, loanwords in classes 9 and 5, and nouns derived from the infinitives of verbs (e.g. eating, from ''eat'') in class 15. The following table gives an overview of Zulu noun class, arranged according to singular-plural pairs. :: 1 umu- replaces um- before monosyllabic stems, e.g. umuntu (person). 2 ab- and im- replace aba- and imi- respectively before stems beginning in a vowel, e.g. aba--bhikishi (protesters). 3 abe- occurs only in rare cases, e.g. in abeSuthu (the Sothos) or abeLungu (the Whites, the Europeans) where it has a collective, not plural meaning. 4 ame- occurs only in two instances, namely amehlo (eyes) the plural of iso (eye; originally: ihlo), and ameva (thorns) the plural of iva. 5 is- and iz- replace isi- and izi- respectively before stems beginning with a vowel, e.g. isandla/izandla (hand/hands). 6 The placeholder N in the prefixes iN- and iziN- for m, n or no letter at all, i.e. in classes 9 and 10 there are three different prefixes, though only one per noun stem. Examples: iN- = i-: iMali (money) iN- = im-: impilo (life) iN- = in-: inhlanzi (fish) 7 Rare, see above. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Zulu grammar」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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