We argue that a set of facts about the plural nominal class prefixes in Southern
Bantu languages shows that some plural prefixes spell out a phrasal constituent,
a Specifier bottoming out in a classifier-like noun. This leads us to adopt a theory
of lexicalization that leads to the conclusion that all nominal class prefixes in Southern
Bantu lexicalize Specifiers of this sort, and we argue that the relation between
primary and secondary prefixes supports this conclusion. We also discuss the consequences
of our conclusion for the pairing of prefixes and nouns and for the analysis
of agreement.

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• Class prefixes as specifiers in Southern Bantu