Remnants of Nasal Prefixes in Western Grassfields Bantu

Studies on Grassfields Bantu nominal morphology have often cast doubt on the presence of nasals in prefixes in Western Grassfields Bantu (WGB). In fact, the presence of nasals in prefixes in Eastern Grassfields Bantu and their assumed absence in WGB has been used, among other factors, to establish the distinction between the two groups of Grassfields Bantu. This paper illustrates that Babanki and other WGB languages display remnants of nasal prefixes of various lexical items. These remnants cannot be completely accounted for by borrowing and phonological processes but rather they suggest that Proto‑Western‑Grassfields also had nasal prefixes as seen in Proto-Eastern-Grassfields and Proto-Bantu.