Cameroon

Akɔɔse, like other Bantu languages, has a number of verbal extensions, that is verbal suffixes which are added to the root resulting in a new verb stem. Extensions are either productive or non-productive. The productive ones have a clearly identifiable meaning and in many cases also cause a change in the verb valency. In other words, the addition of an extension results in the addition or subtraction of a verbal complement such as an indirect object, instrument, etc. Non-productive extensions can be formally isolated as suffixes but cannot be attributed separate meanings. This paper first presents the forms of the extensions, then discusses the morphophonemic changes that occur between root and suffixes. The paper ends with a comparison of Akɔɔse extensions with proto-Bantu extensions.