Comparative tense and aspect in the Mara Bantu languages: towards a linguistic history

Through the elicitation of 91 Swahili sentences and the collection of one oral text, this research compares the TAM systems of several Mara Bantu languages (Tanzania/Kenya) with the aim of finding any shared “individual-identifying” innovations (Nichols 1996) that can either affirm Mara as a coherent genetic linguistic sub-group (Schoenbrun 1990) or point toward a different historical scenario. A secondary goal is to provide a preliminary linguistic description of the TAM systems of five Mara languages: Ikizu (JE402, [ikz]), Ikoma (JE45, [ntk]), Kabwa (JE405, [cwa]), Simbiti (JE431, [ssc]), and Zanaki (JE44, [zak]). The research concludes that there is sufficient “individual-identifying” evidence from TAM systems to validate both a North Mara and a South Mara sub­group (Schoenbrun 1990). There is not, on the other hand, a sufficient base of shared “individual-identifying” innovations to propose a unique proto-Mara TAM system uniting North Mara and South Mara at a post-proto-Great Lakes phase of development.