The Phonology of Chichewa

Laura J. Downing is Professor of African Languages at Gothenburg University, Sweden. Her research interests are in the phonology, prosodic morphology, and phonology-syntax-focus interface in Bantu languages, and she travels regularly to Malawi for fieldwork on two Malawian Bantu languages, Chichewa and CiTumbuka. Her work has been published in journals such as Phonology, Lingua, and the Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, and in multiple edited volumes. She is also the author of the 2006 OUP volume Canonical Forms in Prosodic Morphology. Al Mtenje is Professor of African Languages and Pro Vice Chancellor at the University of Malawi. His research focuses on prosodic aspects of Malawian languages, particularly tone and its relationship with morphology. His work on Malawian languages such as Ciyawo, Cisena, Cinamwanga, and CiTonga has provided useful comparative data for the study of lesser-known African languages. He has published numerous articles in journals including Lingua, Linguistic Analysis, Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, and Studies in African Linguistics.

• 1: Introduction 2: Grammatical sketch 3: Segmental phonology: Consonants 4: Segmental phonology: Vowels 5: Syllable structure 6: Tonal phonology: Lexical tone patterns 7: Grammatical tone patterns of affirmative main clause verbs 8: Grammatical tone patterns of negative and relative verbs 9: Prosodic morphology 10: Phrasal phonology 11: Intonation