Thread:User talk:CodeCat/bantu

Strictly speaking the Xhosa entry is wrong. The (nominative) plural of umntu is abantu, not bantu. But the form bantu does occur. It is a form of the word abantu where the first element of the concord prefix aba is elided. This form is used as vocative but also in negative sentences like "there are no people" and also after demonstrative pronouns: the first element a- functions a bit like our articles. Other classes have similar elisions. At nl.wikt I have just called the shortened form the vocative, but that is not quite correct therefore. I have no idea what else to call it though. Any ideas? Jcwf (talk) 03:29, 12 September 2012 (UTC)