Lexical Variation in Kinyarwanda: Grammaticization at work
by Alexandre Kimenyi

California State University at Sacramento

Linguistic variation is very active and found in all areas of Kinyarwanda grammar: lexicon, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Each form or structure can have alternates with the same concept or function. The present study confines itself to lexical variation. Lexical variation manisfests itself in the assignment or non-assignment of high tone, vowel length, consonant voice, consonant prenasalization, palatalization, syllable truncation or syllable addition, reduplication, segment substitution, and prefix or suffix variation. This high frequency of linguistic variation is probably common to all languages in oral societies in which there is no standardization imposed by writing systems. The present study is important for three reasons. First, it sheds light on the process of linguistic change which is seen not as later development but as a result of a fight between contemporary competing forms. A large number of doublets, words with slight semantic and phonetic variation, has resulted from lexical variation also. Second, lexical variation also supports current research on grammaticization which clearly shows the dynamic nature of language which has to be studied panchronically rather than just diachronically or synchronically. This type of research has mainly concentrated on the genesis of signs and structures mostly on categorization and decategorization, desemanticization and syntactization but no study has been done on lexical variation. It also supports Charles Peirce's semiotic theory which also sees signs and structures as dynamic going from icons and indices to symbols and symbols to icons again. Thus, the whole linguistic process being cyclical. This study is thus a contribution to both areas. It is clear that lexical forms are not fixed. They are also dynamic. Third: Of relevant practical and theoretical interest is that of lexical representations or underlying structures. Clearly a theory which would put all different phonetic realizations of the same word as separate lexical entries in the dictionary would be redundant. Treating all surface representations as the same would also be wrong. The question therefore is how to choose among all these competing forms the more abstract or basic one from which others derive. The markedness theory seems to resolve some of these problems.
This phenomenon is also very relevant to cognitive grammar because it shows that fuzzy concepts are not restricted to semantic notions but to formal aspects as well.

In (1) some examples are presented to show how this variation manifests itself. As examples clearly show one single concept can be expressed by a lexical item with multiple phonetic variations.

1. 'or': cyáangwá, byáangwá, cyáangá, cyaangwé, náangwá, yáangwá

'but/however': cyákorá, cyókorá, cyókozé, icyákorá, icyóbikorá, icyóbikozé, icyókorá, icyókozé
2. 'at least': byíiburá, byíibuzé, cyáaburá, cyáabuzé, cyíiburá, cyíibuzé, níiburá,
náabuzé, níibuzé, yáaburá, yáabuzé, yíibuzé.

3. 'to squeeze' kwáagagaza, kwáagaganya, kwáagaaganya, kwáagaanya, kwáagiriza, kwáagagarika
4. 'very small': -núuyá, -nígiriyá, -nígiiyá, níniiyá, -níiyá, -núguurú, núgurunyá, - núguruyá, -núguruyú, -núguuyá, -núnuurú, -núnuuyá, -núnuuyú, -núurú, - núuyú, -nyúnyuuyá, -nyúnyuuzwá, -nyúuyá, -nzígiinyá, -nzígirinyá, -nzíinyá, -nzúguunyá, -nzúguunyú, -nzúgurunyá, -nzúgurunyú, -nzúunyá, -nzúunyú.

5. 'diploma': dipóroómi; dipóromá; dipóromé; dipóromí; dipóromó; dipóromú; dipóroóma; dipóroóme; dipóroómo; dipóroómu; diipóroóma; diipóroóme; diipóroómi; diipóroómo, diipóroómu.

6. 'a lot of small objects without value'bucáagucáagu/ubucóogocóogo /ubucaágu/ubucaágurikane/ubucóokoóri/ubucoónsho

7. 'water separated from the meterial contained in it'
umucaáyuuke/umucaáyuure/umucecúre/umuceéyuuke/umuceéyuure
8. 'to be stupefied'gucemeerwa/gucemeererwa/ /gucamaarirwa/ kujámaarirwa/ kujúmarara/kujúmararirwa/kujúmana
9. 'to have an easy life'gucikanyara/gucíkanyara/gucíkarara/gutsikarara/gutsikaara
10. 'to talk about nonsense' gucóogacooga/gucoogacooga/gucóogooga
11. 'to be very busy' gufúrufuumba/gufúruumba/gucúrucuumba

II. Typology of Lexical Variation

This lexical variation occurs by means of either one of the following linguistic processes: Tone variation, vowel lengthening or shortening; sound substitution or variation, syllable truncation or syllable addition, preprefix deletion, prefix variation, suffix variation, phonological rules and reduplication.

Prefix Variation

Although the majority of nouns belong to specific classes, thus assigned specific prefixes, some type of fluidity seems to be allowed for nouns which belong to the non-human category as seen in the following examples in which the same concept can have a different class marker without any changes in meaning.

12. ubwáato/amáato 'boat'
ubura/amara 'intestines'
igitúgu/urutúgu 'shoulder'
inzira/akayira 'trail'
umwaánya/akaánya 'spare time'
hagatí/rwaagatí 'in the middle'
barihó/barimó barakóra 'they are working'
mushaandimúshaandi/bishaandibíshaandi
urubocó/icobó 'big stomach'
miroongo umunaáni/miroongo inaáni 'eighty'
magana umunaáni/magana inaáni 'eight hundred'
miroongo icyeénda/miroongo cyeendá/miroongo urweénda 'ninety'
magana icyeénda/magana cyeendá/magana urweénda 'nine hundred'
kazima/kizima 'fortunately'
imfáano/igipfáano 'relationship'
ubucwabari/incabari 'rugged clothes'
ari hó arakóra/ari m(w)ó arakóra 's/he is working'
ni yó akigarúka 's/he just came back'
ni hó akigarúka
ni bwó akigarúka

ni hó agiiyé 'it is there that s/he is going'
ni yó agiiyé

ni aaho bigezé 'that's how things are'.
ni iiyo bigezé

Many prefixless stems which start with voiceless consonants (lacking the nasal prefix -n-) can take either class 6 or class 10 for plural marking. Incidently, in many Bantu languages, nouns in class 9 which start with a voiceless consonant, have lost the nasal class marker.

13. isihá/amasihá 'watches/hours'
ifí/amafí 'fish'
isúka/amasúka 'hoes'
ifiriimbi/amafiriimbi 'whistles'
ikáramú/amakáramú 'pens'
ipaantaro/amapaantaro 'pants'
ipaási/amapaási 'irons'
ipetá/amapetá 'medals'
ishaáti/amashaáti 'shirts'
iseengeri/amaseengeri 'T-shirts'
ifaraasi/amafaraasi 'horses'
ikaanzu/amakaanzu 'dresses'
ikáratá/amakáratá 'playing cards'

Preprefix Deletion

A lot of prefixless nouns in class 9 but not 5 can appear with or without the preprefix.

14. imáshiíni/mashiíni 'machine'
ifiriimbi/firiimbi 'whistle'
ihóteeri/hotéeri 'hotel'
isáandaári/saandaári 'sandals'
isáabató/saabató 'sabbath'

The words which refer to numbers 8, 9 and 10 use the preprefix optionally.

15. umunaáni/munaáni 'eight'
icyeénda/cyeendá 'eight'
icúmi/cúmi 'nine'

Suffix addition

Words may have added suffixes.

16a. gupfúumbata var.gupfúumbatira 'to put arm on somebody's body while sleeping together'
gutéengata var.gutéengatira 'to hold things in both hands while carrying sthg else on the head'
guhágata var. *guhágatira 'to hold in the armpit'
kubúumbata var. *kubúumbatira 'to hold together'
gucígatira var. gucigata 'to hold in the palm'

b. waaramutse var.waramutse hó 'good morning'
uraramuke var.uraramuke hó 'good night'
wiíriwe var.wiiriwe hó 'good afternoon'
uriirirwe var. uriirirwe hó 'have a nice afternoon'
*úrabe var. urabe hó 'bye bye'
c. kwíiruka/kwíirukaanka 'to run'

17. -aant- insertion

gushínura/gushínaantura 'to pull the vagina lips'
kumínura/kumínaantura 'to go down the hill'
guhanura/guhanaantura 'to bring down from the top'

Tone variation

Some words appear with or without a high tone and sometimes that high tone can also be assigned to different moras or syllables.

18. isafuriya/isafuriyá 'cooking pot'
ishakaaka/ishákaaká 'large quantity'
amataratara/amataratará 'eyeglasses'
igishákashaka/igishakáshaká
umushómeeri/umushómeéri/umushúmeéri 'unemployed'
umusharati/umusharatí 'prostitute'
ingeege/ingeége/umugeége 'type of plant'
ruganiirwa/ruganíirwa 'the one who is talked about'
hegitomeetero/hegígomeetéro/hegitomeetéro
meetero/meetéro 'meter'
guvuruneéri/guveríneeri/guvuruneéri
hotéeri/hoteéri/ihóteeri/ihóteéri
amahenéhene/amahenéhené
igihoóbe/igihóobé 'bowed musical instrument'
igihoónnyo/igihóonnyó 'type of mushroom'
igihurira/igihúrirá 'shy'
cyaanecyaane/cyaanécyaane 'especially'
igishaámbara/igishaámbagara 'rugged piece of cloth'
umukaáti/umukaati 'bread'
nyamúhuúngu/nyamúhuungú 'the boy in question'
nyamúkoóbwa/nyamúkoobwá 'the girl in question'
agafúumbafúumba/agafuúmbafúumba

Although tones play a very important lexical and grammatical role, verb lexical tones are not as contrastive as noun tones. For this reason there are many verbs which are lexically used with or without a high tone. Verbs which are differentiated by tones are very few compared to nouns.

19. guhiizaana/guhíizaana 'to quarrel'
guhoova/guhóova
guhonyoora/guhónyoora 'to step on something'
gushaanya/gusháanya/gushanya 'to rot (tubercules)'
gushaanya/gusháanya 'to get spoiled (potatoes)
gushoonga/gushóonga 'to melt'
gushuungushura/gushúungushura 'to give a conic shape'
kumaramaza/kumáramaza 'to work hard/to exterminate'
kuraraaga/kuráraaga 'to leave a distance between objects'
kuruundaruunda/kurúundaruunda 'to pile things in the same spot'
kuryooza/kuryóoza 'to punish somebody for something'
guhayahaya/guháyahaya 'to be busy doing small chores'
kweegeega/kwéegeega 'to move painfully because of heavy weight'
kugwaabira/kugwáabira 'to lose all one's children'
guhiragura/guhíragura 'to eat very fast'
kuganuura/kugánuura 'to squeeze banana skins to obtain juice'
gufúruguta/gufuruguta 'constant coming and going'

Consonant substitution

A vowel or a consonant can be replaced by another segment

20a. huuu/shyuuu 'interjection which is used as a response to a verbal menace'
kuzuutuura/gufuutuura 'to show the anus'
kugwéeragweera/kugwéejagweeja 'to walk very slowly'
guhíirahiira/guhíiyahiiya 'to do one's best without any result'
guhuhubukwa/guhururukwa 'to desire very much'
igihwiigiri/ikijwiigiri 'bad tobacco'
hogi/hoshi 'go!'
guháraamba/guháraanga 'to climb'
amahúnuhunu/amashúnushunu 'goat milk'
igihúumá/igihúubá 'dehydration '
guhúheetwa/guhúungeetwa 'to lose strength because of fear'
guhuunguura/guhuunduura 'to confiscate sbdy else's property'
kubwáatarara/kumáatarara 'to squat'
gusharaambura/gusharaatura 'to scratch'
umuhóvu/umuhópfu 'slime'
guhúubuuba/gushúubuuba 'to milk squeezely a cow without milk'
igishurúshuru/igishugúshugu/igishuríshuri 'type of plant'
isaamburuma/isaanduruma 'assembly'
igishabágwe/igitabágu 'rugged clothes'
gushábuka/gusháduka 'to be fast'
gusáazirana/gusáagirana 'to get old'
igiseembeseembe/igitsembetseembe/igiseembe/igiseemeseeme
guséengeseera/kubúngeseera 'to carry with great care'
umucoóndo/umukoóndo 'navel'
gucucumuka/gucucunyuka/gucukunyuka 'get out of something' (many things)
amacáandwé/amacáanshwé 'sputum'
ibíriká/ibíniká 'kettle'
gucúrucuumba/gufúrufuumba 'to be very busy at many things at the same time'
kubíriinduka/kubíraanduka 'to roll down'
ikinoónko/ikinoomboori 'mudball'
ikáawá/ikáahú/ikáahwá 'coffee'
nyaábuneka/nyaábuna/nyaámuneka
umuferége/umufurége/umuserége 'fossé/rigole/caniveau
ifiíshi/ipiíshi 'card/file'
gucwéekeera/gucweekeera/guhweekeera 'to get extiinguished'
eré-ré-ré-ré/eérererere/ará-rá-rá-rá 'pain or astonishment'

As all the examples above show, the segmental change is not at all predictable.

b.m/n alternation

20b. gutsímuza/gutsínuza 'to respond to somebody with contempt and anger'
kuvuumvumuka/kuvuumvunuka 'to grow very fast'
kumimina/kuminina 'to separate water from food'

Voicing

One of the consonant may appear voiced or voiceless:

21. umukaáti/umugaati 'bread'
isáandukú/isáandugú 'box'
umusakávu/umusagávu
gufooyagurika/kuvóoyagurika

Labialization

Many words are found in which some consonants are optionally with the presence of the labio-velar glide -w-.

22a. igúfa/igúfwa 'bone'
umufá/umufwá 'sauce'
igifwaána/igifáana
igifweébu/igifeébu 'tout objet mou'
igifweera/igifeera '
impísi/impíswi
amahíiré/amahíirwé
gucámakaza/gucámakazwa
amacaámbwa/amacaámba
kumwáaramwaara/kumáaramaara

Other words in which palatalization is found are those which have fricative sounds or nasals.

22b. umuswáari/umushwáari 'handkerchief'
gusaayuura/gushaayuura 'to remove something from the mud'
isáambushá/isháambushá '
isakapuraári/ishakapuraári 'medal'
sakáraanda/jakáraanda 'type of tree'
gusáragata/kujáragata
gusámata/gucámata 'to catch'
kumyéemyeetura/kuméemeetura
guhinarara/guhinyarara 'to fold'
kumyéemyeeduka/kuméemeeduka 'to glitter'
gufáagira/gufyáagira/gupyáagira 'to clean/broom'

Prenasalization

A consonant may be preceded by a homorganic nasal.

23. viteénsi/viteési 'speed'
ivúunja/imvúunja 'jagger'
níjoro/nínjora 'in the evening'
avoka/amvoka 'lawyer/advocado'
aviyo/amviyo 'airplane'
ishíishi/inshíinshi 'black ant'
iswá/inswá 'winged termite'
ihené/imhené 'goat'
amaánzaga(nya)/amaanzaanga 'bad luck'
ipaataro/ipaantaro 'pants'
ipiijama/ipiinjama 'pyjamas'
kugorama/kugoondama 'to be bent'

Vowel lengthening

The lexical variation may be caused by vowel lengthening :

24. inzára/inzáara 'nails'
igipóoropóoro/igipóropóro 'useless/old metal object'

Syllable truncation

The last syllable is deleted in some words. Sometimes, the first syllable can also be deleted as the first two words in the examples below shows.

25. (pere)fegituúra/fegituúra 'prefecture/district'
i(ka)butura/ibutura 'shorts'
nyokaragasha/nyokaragasha(ahurwa) 'may your mother be castrated'
reka da/daá/daáta/daaweéya 'no, dear'
reka ma/maá/maáma/maaweéya 'no, dear'
yee/yeego 'yes'
oya ra/oya raáta 'no dear'
ashwi da/ashwi daáta 'no deart'
eesé/mbeesé/sé 'Is it?'
imódoká/imódokaári 'car'
ikizaami/ikizaamíni 'exam'
muhuú/muhuúngu 'boy!'
mwaána/mwaá 'child!'

Incidently vocatives, can appear the last syllable truncated. They also lose the preprefix.
Most of the addressee expressions lack the preprefix and appear with or without the final syllable:

26. diísi/diií 'dear'
sheénge/sheé 'dear'
shaáhu/shaá 'man!'

Liquid addition or deletion

A lot of words with or without a liquid. This is very likey a liquid deletion rather than a liquid addition because in many Bantu languages and in Kinyarwanda phonology, it is indeed deleted in certain environments.

27. inkootanyi/inkorootanyi 'great fighter'
umusúusheéfu/umusúrusheéfi 'subchief'
guforomoza/gufoomoza 'to abort'
igifóondoogó/igifóondogóro 'viscères de l'abdomen'
guséseerwa/gusésererwa 'to get hurt on the finger while cutting nails
gucokorora/gucokoora
igiceberi/igiceébu 'short'
gusháangarara/gusháangaara 'to be very tired'
gufoorooka/gufoodooka 'to relax'
umufóroóde/umufórodéeri/foroódi 'smuggler'
arahágaze/arahágaraye 's/he is standing up'
gucúruungutanya/gucúruunguturanya 'to sell many types of things without value'
kirinyoteéri/ikirinyotéeri 'car signal'

Reduplication

Sometimes the same word can appear in a stem reduplication form without afftecting the meaning.

28. urusakú/urusakúsakú 'noise'
imógo/imogómogó 'many small things spread all over'
akamáari/akamáarimáari 'gambling'
umurukú/umurukúruku 'type of plant'
umutaaba/umutaabataaba 'type of plant'
kudíigadiiga/kudíigiira/kudíigiiga 'to walk very slowly'
urunwaanwa/urunwaarunwa 'indiscretion'

Metathesis

There are words whose lexical variation consists of switching places of certain syllbables.

29. isaáfi/ifaási 'region'
ikinetenete/igitenetene 'type of plant'

III. Predictable Variation

The lexical variation is very productive in some areas: preprefix deletion or addition, suffix addition, initial vowel epenthesis, palatalization and last syllable truncation.

1. Palatalization (numbers and class 5)

All numerals from 2 to 6, which modify nouns belonging to class 10 can take class prefix zi- or the vowel e- with palatalization of the initial stem initial consonant.

30. ebyiri/zibiri 'two'
eshatu/zitatu 'three'
enyé/ziné 'four'
eshaanu/zitaanu 'five'
esheeshátu/zitaandátu 'six'
indwi/ziriindwi 'seven'

2. -yá addition to adjectives

All words which add -yá to the last syllable happen to be adjectives.

31. -tó/-tóoyá 'small/young'
-gufí/-gufíiyá 'short'
-ké/-kéeyá 'few'

3. imperatives

The epenthesis of initial vowel i which is also found in loan-words as vowel default insertion with consonant clusters is probably added for phonological reasons. The foot is bimoraic. Thus monosyllabic verb stems in the imperative form have to have this vowel added to satisfy this metric condition.

32. rya >ijya 'eat'
nywa >inywa 'drink'
gwa > igwa 'fall'
pfa >ipfa 'die'

This phenomenon of i default epenthesis seems to apply to all monosyllabic words:

33. só/isó 'your father'
syí/isyí 'interjection used to show disgust and contempt'
wé/iwé 'him/her'

4. Suffix addition

All the greeting expressions can have the clitic hó added.

34. waaramutse/waaramutse hó 'Good morning'
uraramuke/uraramuke hó
wiíriwe/ wiiriwe hó 'Good afternoon'
uriirirwe/uriirwe hó
uraramuke/uraramuke hó 'goodnight'
uririrwe/uririrwe hó 'good afternoon'

Similarly, all "hold" verbs can have the applicative suffix -ir- on them. Note that the verb which means 'to hold in the armpit' has to have this suffix.

35. gupfúumbata/gupfúumbatira 'to hold somebody while sleeping in the same bed'
gutéengata/gutéengatira 'to hold something in both hands while carrying something on the head'
*guhágata/guhágatira 'to hold in the armpit'

Many expressive monosyllabic words which have the vowel e can have the glide y prefixed to it.

36. eego kó/yeego kó!
eé mwe/yeé mwe!
ee kooyó/yee kooyó!
eé/yeé! 'oh! oh!'

IV. The effect of lexical variation on the language

As expected, the lexical variation has created specialized meanings for some words or some new grammatical functions as examples show below:

Genesis of doublets

Doublets are words which have slight phonetic and semantic differences. Phonetically, they differ in one segment or syllable and semantically, they happen to be metonymically related as the following English examples show.

37.
pray/praise
salon/saloon
troop/troupe
raise/rise
fall/fell
further/farther
broken/broke
beau/beautiful
petty/petite
premier/prime
gender/genre
car/chariot
memory/memoirs
new/novel
moon/month
regal/royal
warden/guardian/guard
turtle/tortoise
shade/shadow
arab/arabic/arabian
baggage/luggage
guaranty/warranty
aid/aide
reward/award
avenge/revenge
wait/await
price/prix
gentle/genteel
sleepy/asleep
live/alive
lone/alone/lonely
venture/adventure
vantage/advantage
council/counsel
sample/example
rank/range
chastise/castigate
salvage/save
detail/retail
person/persona
chief/chef
product/produce
circle/cycle

In Kinyarwanda this lexical variation has also produced doublets as the followng examples indicate:

38.
kugabura/kujabura 'to feed'/to feed uncooked food'
kunúunuuza/kunyúunyuuza 'to pull the dregs with a straw'/'to suck'
inyama/inyamáaswa 'meat'/'wild animal'
igabo/ijabo 'courage/manhood'
kugabura/kujabura 'to feed/to feed uncooked food'
gupyoonda/guhoonda 'to knock on the head/to knock'
ibigaanza/amajaanja 'palms/paws'
só/syó 'father/father (demeaning)'
nyoko/nyokó 'mother/mother! (insult)'
kúuzura/kuuza 'to fill/to be plentiful
gufúnika/gupfúnyika 'to cover/to wrap'
ikoóni/iguúni 'corner'/wall corner'
umusírimú/umusáriyamú 'civilized/muslim'
amahaánga/ishyaánga 'abroad/exile'
igihano/ishyano 'punishment/calamity'
ikaríta//ikáratá 'map'/card'
daáta/daáwe 'father/'father' (latter more formal)
maáma/maáwe 'mother/mother' (latter more formal)
impeta/ipetá 'ring'/medal'
ubwéenge 'knowledge'/ubugeenge 'trick'
kuzéreera 'to wander'/kubúyeera 'to wander'
kuyoberwa 'not to know'/gushóberwa 'to lose composure'
inkoni 'walking stick'/inkwí 'firewood'

Definiteness and indefiniteness with loan-words

Loan-words which refer to human beings (professions or titles) as well as places, have a definite meaning when used without the preprefix but a general meaning when the preprefix is present.

39.
perezida >umuperezida 'the president/a president'
mugaanga >umugaanga 'the doctor/a doctor'
mwaarimú>umwáarimú 'the teacher/a teacher
paadíri >umupáadíri 'the priest/a priest'
paapá >umupáapá 'the pope/a pope'
purefe >umupurefe 'the prefect/a prefect'
fureére >umufúreére 'the friar/a friar'
shoféeri >umushófeéri 'the driver/a driver'
kapiteéni >umukapiteéni 'the captain/a captain'
diregíteeri >umudiregíteeri 'the director/a director'
maraáya >imáraáya 'the prostiture/a prostitute'
hotéeri > ihóteeri 'the hotel/a hotel'
baáre > ibaáre 'the bar/a bar'
poosíta >ipóosíta 'the post office/ a post office'
baánki > ibaánki 'the bank/a bank'

V. Triggers and Targets of Lexical Variation

The lexical variation in Kinyarwanda seems to have been caused by the following factors:
contact with other languages, loan-words, reanalysis or folk etymology, language acquisition, dialectal and generation differences, the application or non-application of phonological rules.

1. Analogy.

In Kinyarwanda, usually all language names take the 7 class -ki- prefix as
in ikinyarwanda 'KInyarwanda', ikirundi 'KIrundi', igiswáhilí (or igiswayire) 'Swahili', igishinwá 'Chinese', igifaraansá 'French', icyáarabú 'arabic', ikidaáge 'German', etc.
There are languages, however, as seen in the examples which follow that start with other prefixes.

40a. amaangara/iriingara 'Lingala' cfr. amashí
b. ikigáandá/urugáandá 'Luganda'
ikinyáankóre'/urunyáankóre 'Runyankole'
igitooro/urutooro 'Lutoro'

In (a) the -ma- prefix is used because another language of Zaire, Amashi 'Mashi' has this prefix. The languages which have the -ru- prefix in (b) are spoken in Uganda and have that prefix in the original languages.

2. Reanalysis/Folk Etymology

Some words are wrongly reanalysed in which in many cases a syllable is added to the stem or to the prefix. In (41), the syllable which follows the preprefix is thought to be an object prefix whereas in (42), it is seen as a class marker.

2.1.

41. igikóona/icyiíyoni 'vulture' from kwóona 'to graze in the crops' [what grazes you]/what grazes itself]
igikoóni/icyíikoóni 'kitchen'
ikidúha/icyiíha 'type of plant' guhá 'to give' [what gives us]/[what gives itself]
icyóntaazí/icyíintaazí 'worthless thing' icyó ntaazí 'what I dn't know'
icyóontaazí/icyiíntaázi 'worthless thing'

In the cases above, the consonant k is thought as belonging to the morpheme -ku- second person singular object pronoun -du-, to first person plural object pronoun whereas the vowel -ii- is mistaken to be the reflexive pronoun.

2.2.Loan-words

Some words are mistaken to be native words and if the initial consonant ressembles one of the noun class prefix, it becomes the prefix and the stem starts with the following syllable.

42. uburetí/ibúreéti 'ballmeat' -bu- class
umukasí/imákasí 'scissors' -mu- class
uburíingiíti/ikiríingiíti 'blanket' -bu-/-ki- classes
biro/ibiro 'office': biro ebyiri/ibiro bibiri 'two offices' -bi- class
kiliziyá/ikiliziya 'church': kiliziyá/ibiliziyá 'churches' -ki- class
byeéri/ikiyéeri 'beer' -ki- class
kirinyoteéri/ikirinyotéeri 'car signal' -ki- class

3. Borrowing

As seen above, some loan-words initial syllables are mistaken to be class markers. Others are lumped in class 5 or 9 because these 2 don't have any class markers.

43. ishaáti 'shirt' iyi shaáti 'this shirt' (class 9)
isáahá 'watch/hour' iyi sáahá 'this watch' (class 9)
icupa 'bottle' iri cupa 'this bottle' (class 5)
ishuúri 'school/class' iri shuúri 'this school/class' (class 5)

Not only are they put in either class 5 or 9 but sometimes they may not have the preprefix as also seen earlier.

Ohter factors responsible for lexical variation are language acquisition and the mixing of dialects.
Children sometimes have problems of putting words in the right class or the rigth tone or the right consonant.
The two main dialects of Kinyarwanda are the Notherd Dialect and the Southern Dialect. The Nothern Dialect is known as igikiga and the Southern Dialect as ikinyanduga. Igikiga is divided into two main subdialects: ikiréera and ikigoyi. Ikinyanduga consists of the central dialect spoken in Kigali, Gitarama and Butare. the eastern dialect spoken in Gisaka and the western dialect spoken in Kinyaga. There is a generational dialect as well. There are certain forms which are used by old people only such as syó [skyó] 'your father' instead of só.
Other cases of lexical variation occur also as either generalizations or exceptions to
to morphophonological rules thus being an instance of analogy.
For instance, some words are seen to be exceptions to the nasal deletion rule before
stems starting with voiceless consonants.

VI. Problems in Lexical Representations

In a generative approach, how should this dictionary be written. Is it one underlying form with different surface manifestations. Which one among all these competing forms shall be chosen as the underlying or more basic form?

The current dictionary by Jacob Irenée (1980) lists all these alternating forms in the dictionary. There is nothing wrong with this approach but some important theoretical and philosophical implications are ignored and missed. Nothing is said about the monogenetic hypothesis or polygenetic hypothesis of lexical items. Is it one single form that develops other forms or do all these alternating forms arise simultaneously? Another problem with this approach is redundancy. Choosing one form over others implies taking a stand and making strong claims that this one is the basic one. Listing all of them also implies that they are the same.
The stand taken here is that indeed one form should be selected and others mentioned as its variants. This variation is not linear and unidirectional, however, but multilineal and multitiered and also cyclical. When it stabilizes and standardizes , it comes back to the original form which is the least marked of all.
The selection of this single form also makes another strong claim that there must be indeed one single underlying form for all these alternating phonetic forms. Just like the emic and etic of cultural anthropology for the different cultural manifestations of the same cultural paradigm. Or the phonemic form vs the phonetic representations of segments in phonology.
This position is corroborated and evidenced by the fact that indeed native speakers recognize them to be the same words without any problem of ambiguity.

The markedness approach

The less marked form should be the one which is listed and others should be listed under this main entry. Markedness refers to both the use and the form. The least used form is the marked one and the most frequently used the basic form. For instance, affricates, palatalized and velarized consonants, are more marked in Kinyarwanda than other segments. Words which have these sounds would thus be listed after the variants which have the basic sounds. The phonology of Kinyarwanda and comparative studies support this claim. Affrication, palatalization and velarization consonants result because of phonological rules and are seen to be an innovation in the language. Formally speaking, marked forms have distinctive linguistic markers (segmental or suprasegmental). The assignment of tone is a linguistic marker. The toneless form would thus be selected in this case as the basic word. The presence of an affix is a marker as well. We saw for instance that greeting expressions can appear with or without the clitic -hó and that "hold" verbs also can have the applicative suffix -ir- added. The unaffixed forms are thus the basic ones.
The addition of the clitic and the applicative suffix is again an innovation in the language. It is also interesting to note that the less used expressions such as waaráaye/*waaraaye hó ?
'good morning!' and bwaakéeye/*bwaakeeye hó? 'good morning' don't get this clitic.
The expression urabe hó/*urabe 'bye bye!' has to have this clitic due to the fact that a doublet has been created by this clitic. The cliticized form kubá hó means to 'to exist' whereas the one without the clitic kubá means 'to be/to reside'.
The suffix -ya on adjectives is also an addition, first because there is no way all adjectives would have been created with it and also because it doesn't spread to all adjectives.
The presence and absence of the liquid r in some words (cfr. 25) is a case of deletion, however. The form which lacks it is more marked. There is indeed a phonetic motivation for this phenomenon. This deletion always occurs if the liquid is intervocalic. It is thus a case of assimilation or weakening. The same liquid is deleted as a phonological rule of the language if it is part of the applicative suffix -ir- before the perfective aspect -ye

44. ba-kin-ir-a hanó 'they play here'
ba-kin-ir-ye [bakiniye]hanó 'they just played here'
ba-koror-a 'they cough'
ba-koror-ye [bakoroye] 'they just coughed'

This intervocalic liquid deletion is common in Eastern Bantu languages as evidenced for instance by loss of r the applicative suffix -ir- and the class marker -ru- in Swahili.
What happens then when both forms seem to be equally marked such as words which appear in two noun classes as following examples.

45. umwáanya var.akáanya 'time'
inzira var. akayira 'way/path/trail'

In Kinyarwanda it is again easy to select the most basic class marker because indeed there are both basic classes and derived classes. In this language any word can appear in the derived class. These classes are classes 7/8: -ki-/-bi- to create augmentative or expressive meanings; class 11: -ru- which is also expressive or pejorative; 12/13: -ka-/-tu- diminutive or expressive; and 14: -bu- quality. It is impossible to derive words into class 1/2 since this one is exclusively for human beings. There are no derived words found in class 3, 5 and 9 either. Few are found in class 4 and 10 and all have pejorative meanings.
In the examples given above then umwáanya and inzira are the basic forms since they have class markers -mu- and -n- of class 3 and 9, respectively whereas the other ones have the derivative prefix -ka-.
Markedness is thus a very powerful device which can help without any difficulty the linguist to choose among competing forms the most abstract one.

Grammaticization

The current work in grammaticization (Givón, Heine, Truggot, Hopper) better describes and explains what is going on in language. Languages should be described panchronically. It is not only structures which are dynamic and emerging but forms as well. Grammaticization has been used in reference to the genesis of linguistic signs and syntactic structures: decategarization (change of grammatical category such as from nouns to verbs, verbs to nouns, nouns to adjectives or adverbs, ...) and the genesis of function words (complementizers, auxiliariaries, articles, tense-aspect-modality morphology) from content words, desemanticization , and phonetic erosion. It has been used, however, by different linguists to mean different things. Different words are also used to refer to this concept, namely syntactization, grammaticalization, emerging grammar and deiconization or symbolization. Givón uses both syntactization and grammaticalization. Heine (1990) and Truggot and Hopper(1990) use grammaticization also. Hopper also talks about "emerging grammars". For him there are no fixed categories or structures. These are always looking for better forms. It is in the latter sense that the term has been used here. De-iconization or symbolization is used by Charles Peirce in his semiotic theory in which both signs and structures are classified into three types: icons, indices and symbols. They always start as icons where a similarity (physical or functional) is seen between the sign and the referent but later on become symbols (where the similarity becomes opaque). The iconicity can come back and the cycle continues.

References

Coupez, André. 1980. Grammaire rwanda. Butare: Institut National de Recherche Scientifique.
Givón, Talmy. 1980. Understanding Grammar. New York: Academic Press.
Heine, Bernard. 1993. Grammaticization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Jacob, Irenée. 1980 Dictionnaire Kinyarwanda-Français. Tome 1-3. Butare: Institut National de Recherche Scientifique.
Kimenyi, Alexandre. 1979. Studies in Kinyarwanda and Bantu Phonology. Edmonton:
Alberta. Linguistics Research Inc.
Kimenyi, Alexandre. (In Preparation). Sound, Sight, Sense and Structure in Kinyarwanda: Evidence of the iconicity of language.
Peirce, Charles. 1951-1959. Collected Writing. Harvard: Cambridge.