Reconstruction talk:Proto-Bantu/ìgèmbè

@Smashhoof: What's the story with Zulu izembe vs ilembe and all that? —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 19:12, 9 February 2020 (UTC)

@Metaknowledge: It seems that those two could be doublets, but the tone difference in ilembe is odd. Doke notes that the sense of hoe was almost obsolete at the time, with its main sense being hero (which is its modern meaning). Perhaps the tone that Doke recorded was from the sense hero, while the sense hoe would have LL tone? It's impossible to tell. /z/ is a regular reflex of *g after the class 5 noun prefix, and Zulu has leveled any phonological alternations caused by class 5, hence amazembe. Perhaps ilembe is leveled in the other direction, with the regular *g > ∅ hat would occur in class 6. The root-initial /l/ could come from the class 5 prefix ili-. Smashhoof (Talk · Contributions) 22:50, 9 February 2020 (UTC)

@Smashhoof: Thanks, still confusing, though. Could you please add the Nguni items to this entry with some sort of explanation or disclaimer? —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 22:54, 9 February 2020 (UTC)

@Metaknowledge: I see a variant *-dembe in BLR (tone not marked), and that seems to be supported by Tswana selêpê and cognates, so I think a better explanation is that two variants of this term made it into the Nguni languages. Smashhoof (Talk · Contributions) 23:09, 9 February 2020 (UTC)