The canar-yi in the coal mine: The loss of yi in Zulu reduplication

This paper describes the loss of -yi- in Zulu reduplication and suggests a possible connection between the loss of -yi- and the potential for obsolescence of reduplication. The data presented are collected from 79 speakers, and clearly demonstrate the loss of -yi- is stratified along sociolinguistic lines. The absence of -yi- in reduplication is categorical among urban speakers, while it is beginning to be lost among younger rural speakers. Furthermore, some urban speakers are wholly unfamiliar with reduplication, exhibiting no knowledge of the process as a morphophonological phenomenon, nor with the semantic change it effects on the verb. While Zulu is far from being an endangered language, it is unsurprising that urban and rural varieties should show structural differences, and the phenomenon discussed here constitutes one such example.