Chicheŵa reciprocals #

Chicheŵa marks reciprocity with the verbal suffix -an-, the Bantu reciprocal extension reconstructed for Proto-Bantu as *-an: Mbiǐdzi zi-ku-mény-an-a 'The zebras are hitting each other', Nordlinger's example from Dalrymple, Mchombo and Peters. The suffix derives an intransitive verb whose subject names the reciprocants, so, as Hyman and Mchombo observe, it does not combine with the passive -idw- in either order: a transitive verb such as mang- 'tie' is detransitivized only once. The reflexive, on Dalrymple, Mchombo and Peters's analysis as Palmieri reports it, is instead an incorporated pronoun that leaves its clause transitive. The reciprocants may also be split between the subject and a comitative ndi phrase, Mtengo u-na-gwer-ana ndi munthu 'A tree and a person fell on each other', an example of Mchombo and Ngalande's that Palmieri cites.