Negation in Ngoreme

This chapter is an overview of various aspects of negation in Ngoreme, a Lacustrine Bantu language spoken in the Mara Region of Tanzania. Ngoreme marks standard negation via verbal morphology, either with the prefix ta- following the subject marker (termed post-initial) or the prefix te- preceding the subject marker (termed pre-initial). These forms are in free variation in standard negation, reflecting an ongoing process of change from the original post-initial marking to the pre-initial one, likely due to the influence of related languages to the north. We also describe negation in non-main clauses, where only the older post-initial marking can be used, and the use of various negative auxiliaries in certain contexts, such as prohibitives and the nondum (‘not yet’). We also cover non-verbal negation as well as various other related phenomena such as negative indefinites and reinforcement of negation. Finally, the chapter includes a separate discussion of diachrony.