In a critical reappraisal of the treatment of Shona noun classes, I challenge the hypothesized form of class 5 nominal prefix, ri-, as it hardly ever appears as such in the language. A comprehensive view of class 5 merges class 21 into class 5 and suppresses the need for a 'prosthetic' element to account for monosyllabic stems. Class 5 nominal prefix then includes all allomorphic realizations of the nominal prefix, from i- or ri- in monosyllabic stems, to voicing and zero as well as zi- with vowel-commencing stems; augmentatives which exhibit voicing and zi-. The copulative construction, which calls for a prefixed i- in class 5, further suggests that i- is simply the longer form of this class nominal prefix, and provides grounds for positing i- as a cover form.
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