Otjiherero (R30)

Abstract This chapter provides a descriptive overview of Otjiherero (R31), a Bantu language spoken mainly in Namibia, Angola, and Botswana. Like other Bantu languages, Otjiherero is agglutinative with a tendency to inflection. Otjiherero has an elaborate system of noun classes that prescribes and directs the majority of its grammatical structures. It also has complex verbal forms with concordance that agrees with respective noun classes and its verbal roots are typically agglutinative with several morphemes, such noun class agreements and various verbal extensions. From a prosodic point of view, Otjiherero makes use of lexical and grammatical tone distinctions as well as tonal inflection such as default, complement, copulative, and vocative ‘tone cases’.