The Augment in Ihanzu as a Potential Topic Marker?

The aim of this talk is to present and discuss a range of data on the role of the augment in Ihanzu. The augment – also called the ‘initial vowel’ or the ‘pre‑prefix’ – is a morpheme that can precede nominal expressions in Bantu. In the Bantu languages that have such an augment, there is quite some variation in the syntax and semantics of the augment: it has been considered a D‑head with a range of different D‑related meanings (existence, uniqueness, givenness), an agreement marker, or a marker for topicality (see Halpert 2025 for a recent overview and references). Following an introduction which provides a background on Ihanzu and on the data used, the talk then sketches the general structure of the noun phrase in the Bantu languages, then specifically treat the data we’ve collected on augments in Ihanzu. We will then explore the proposal we’re putting forward in this talk – that is, that augments in Ihanzu are markers of topichood. Note: This talk has not gone through a process of peer review, and findings should therefore be treated as preliminary and subject to change. Acknowledgement and citation: Harvey, Andrew, and Jutta M. Hartmann. 2026. The Augment in Ihanzu as a Potential Topic Marker? Talk given at the Bielefeld University Linguistics Seminar Series, Bielefeld University. 28/01/2026. DOI: <10.5281/zenodo.18265518>