INFLECTIONAL FORMS OF TENSE AND ASPECT IN ATESO

Abstract

This paper is an analysis of tense and aspect in Ateso, an Eastern Nilotic
language. Ateso distinguishes between past and non-past tenses: the past
tense is marked by a low tone on the syllable peaks of the verb, while the
non-past is marked by a high tone on the verb nucleus. With regard to
aspect, it distinguishes between the following: imperfective, perfective,
consecutive, perfect, habitual, and iterative. The first five aspects are
marked morphologically by the morphemes -i, -it, ko-, a- and -nene
respectively. The iterative is marked by reduplication of the verb root.
Since tone, tense and aspect are assigned differently in each of the TesoTurkana subgroups, it is important that they are analysed separately for a
clear view of these concepts and how they are represented specifically in
Ateso.