Morphological and Semantic Analysis of Plant Names Attested in Hehe Language in Tanzania

This paper examines the morphological structure of plant names in Hehe, a Bantu language spoken in the Iringa Region of Tanzania, specifically in the rural areas of Mufindi and Kilolo districts, involving 169 participants. Data were collected through free listings, field interviews (also known as walk-in-the-woods interviews), focus group discussions, and the analysis of written texts containing Hehe plant names. The study shows that Hehe plant names consist of a noun class prefix and a noun stem, with most falling into the 3/4 and 5/6 pairs. Some plant names are also categorised in the 7/8, mainly small plants, and 9/10 pairs, while others are placed in noun class 11 without a plural form. The paper also highlights how the language uses the noun class 5 prefix li- to mark the attributes of a tree, whether negative (like a bad tree) or positive (big or good tree), with the plural form created using the noun class 4 prefix mi-. It was further noted that the language does not use the diminutive class 13 in naming any plant, despite the plant's size. The Hehe language adopts the Kiswahili noun class system for foreign plants. Dialectal variation was not a major focus of the study, but some minimal lexical differences in plant names were observed between the two districts. These differences did not significantly alter the shared morphological patterns, so the results reflect the common linguistic system of the Hehe-speaking community, with a few exceptions. Given the increasing pressures of climate change and habitat loss, the findings suggest that further research is necessary to understand how Indigenous classifications contribute to sustainable resource management and conservation strategies.