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This article probes into the nature of discontinuous elements in the morphology of some African languages, but in Northem Sotho in particular. The discussion is conducted against the backdrop of two principles which are generally held to be characteristic of 'pure' agglutinative languages, namely the principle of invariance of morphemes and the principle of a one-to-one matching between a form and a meaning. Agglutinating languages such as the African languages, including Northem Sotho, display deviations from these ideal agglutinative norms. The deviations may assume various forms, but in this article the scope is narrowed down to instances where the deviations manifest as 'discontinuous' or 'interrupted' elements. Terms such as infixes, circiimfixes and extended exponents, which form an integral part ofthe discussion, are elucidated.

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The morpheme is generaliy understood as a unit which has form as well as content, i.e. a physical substance (phonological and phonetic) and a meaning or function within a grammatical system. With reference to examples from Northem Sotho and Zulu, this article demonstrates that zero morphs and empty morphs, as realizations of morphemes, fail to comply in one way or another with the above-mentioned characteristics posited for morphemes. Zero morphs lack a physical form, while empty morphs lack a meaning. These facts render the recognition of zero morphs and empty morphs somewhat controversial, but many linguists nevertheless tind it convenient to identify such morphs in their analyses.