An extension that we see in a number of verbs is –ol-, the reversive extension. We will explain its use only briefly here as it has limited use to new Lingala speakers.
When we look at Lingala from 50 years ago or more we see that whenever a word had an –ol– extension the meaning of the root was reversed. That still is true, however many times in Lingala we don’t use the unextended root and so to some extent the intent of the –ol– extension has been lost.
Notice some of the verbs we have that use the –ol– extension.
| –limbola | explain |
| –longola | remove |
| –tambola | walk |
| –yekola | learn |
Knowing about this reversive extension is useful for the next section of our lesson.
The Changed Spelling of the Reversive –ol–
While the reversive –ol– extension is not an extension we need to understand extensively, we do need to know about the changes in spelling that occur because of this extension.
As mentioned in the section before we have four words we have learned previously that have the –ol– extension. Of these four words, –tambol– (meaning to walk) changes in an unusual way when we add the extension –is-, it becomes –tambwis-. In this change the meaning of the word is to cause to walk, or to direct. We notice that we lose the –ol– and it becomes –w-. This is done to many words that contain the –ol– extension and another extension is added to it.
Watch out for these changes as we continue with the lessons.