BIMORAIC SYLLABLES IN A LANGUAGE WITHOUT LENGTH CONTRAST AND WITHOUT CONSONANTS IN CODA POSITION: THE CASE OF SISWATI (S43) (original) (raw)

Lee Bickmore, ,Chilungu Phonology (2007) CSLI Publications, University of Chicago Press,Stanford

2009

Cilungu Phonology provides a comprehensive description of the intricate and diverse tone system of Cilungu, a Bantu language of Zambia classified as M14 in Guthrie's (1967Guthrie's ( -1971 Bantu classification. An asset of this work for which the author must be commended is that it provides a thorough and fully worked out tone system of a particular language in contrast to fragments of tonal systems abounding in the Bantu literature.

On the role of margin phonotactics in Colloquial Bamana complex syllables

Data from two closely related varieties of Bamana (Bambara), a Mande language spoken in West Africa, reveal that these varieties differ significantly from one another in terms of the syllable shapes they permit in their inventories. A comparison of normative 'standardʼ Bamana and that spoken by a young cohort of individuals in the Malian capital, Bamako, reveals that the latter colloquial variety has synchronically developed complex CCV and CVC syllable shapes, while the normative variety permits only maximal CV syllables. We posit that this development of complex syllable shapes in Colloquial Bamana is a result of an overall drive towards word minimization in the language and that the languageʼs chosen trajectory of minimization is predicted and best analyzed in reference to the Split Margin Approach to the syllable (e.g. . This paper formalizes Colloquial Bamana in an optimality-theoretic framework and details preferential vowel and consonant deletion patterns that create complex syllable shapes, the role of syllable margin phonotactics in driving these patterns, and other important phonological characteristics of the language that interact with and/or prevent minimization from occurring. keywords: syncope, syllable structure, Split Margin Approach, Optimality Theory * We would like to thank Dan Dinnsen, Laura Downing, Lee Bickmore, two anonymous reviewers, and Junko Ito for their challenging comments and suggestions on portions of this work. Any remaining shortcomings are our responsibility.

Tone sandhi and vowel deletion in Margi

Studies in African linguistics, 1994

Within the theoretical framework of nonlinear phonology, this paper proposes an account of tone sandhi and vowel deletion in Margi, a Chadic language spoken in Northern Nigeria. The database is Hoffman's Grammar of the Margi Language. Language-specific tonal processes in Margi are shown to originate in tone trapping, i.e., the impossibility for a tone to anchor to a skeletal slot by a universal mechanism. The paper identifies the circumstances leading to tone trapping (e.g., Vowel Elision) and formalizes the various tone-rescue processes available both word-internally and across words. Whereas trapped high tones are always saved (either taking over low-tone vowel positions or giving rise to contour tones), trapped low tones may remain trapped throughout a derivation and thus receive no phonetic realization (by universal convention).

Competition between syllabic and metrical constraints in two Bunun dialects

Linguistics, 2008

This article shows how syllabic and metrical constraints interact di¤erently in two dialects of Bunun, despite their similarity in that both dialects exhibit modifications of vowel clusters in response to the ONSET constraint. In Isbukun Bunun, foot forms are constrained both syllabically and moraically. Stress shifts from the unmarked penultimate syllable to final position under duress to satisfy both ONSET and the requirement that heavy syllables must not stand in a prosodically weak position. In contrast, in Takituduh Bunun, metrical wellformedness is considered more important, so the preferred disyllabic foot forms are maintained at the cost of creating onsetless syllables. The analysis is formalized within Optimality Theory by ranking syllabic and metrical constraints di¤erently in the two dialects. OT is advantageous in analyzing the data for two additional reasons: 1) the correlation between stress assignment in nonsu‰xed and su‰xed words in Isbukun can be directly captured by an output constraint, and 2) the metrical influence on syllabification in Takituduh can be readily handled by allowing syllabic and metrical constraints to interact in the same hierarchy. An implication of the Isbukun data for the properties of surface glides is that pre-peak glides can be moraic or not, depending on whether they follow a tautosyllabic consonant.

Syllabification and prosodic templates in Yawelmani

Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 1991

This article addresses the interaction of syllabification and templatic morphology in Yawelmani. The morphological templates (in CV terms, CVCC, CVVCC, and CVCVVC) do not parse directly into well-formed Yawelmani surface syllables (CV, CVV, CVC). Nonetheless, as argued here, these templates can be expressed in terms of legitimate prosodic units, thereby supporting the prosodic morphology hypothesis (McCarthy and Prince 1986, 1987, 1990). The basic idea is that segments map from left to right to the template, but if a template is too small, any leftover stem consonants simply undergo right to left syllabification. This analysis accounts for the general templatic mapping of verbs and nouns as well as the different kinds of reduplication in Yawelmani. It also provides a more explanatory account of the "ghost' consonantsinitial consonants of some of the suffixes which surface only when the stem is biconsonantal, but not if the stem is larger. The analysis not only provides support for the prosodic morphology hypothesis, it also argues in favor of a templatic view of syllabification (It6 1986, 1989) and a rule of Weight-by-Position (Hayes 1989) operating independently of the general syllabification process.

Dagbani vowel phonology: competition between constraint hierarchies

2014

This chapter provides a formal analysis of Dagbani vowel phonology, arguing that the surface forms of vowels emerge from: (i) faithfulness and markedness constraint hierarchies based on sonority, [ATR] and height features; (ii) prosodic conditioning and (iii) [+ATR] harmony. In non-final positions, mid vowels become [a] because they are marked in height specification. The preference for more sonorous vowels as syllable nuclei produces a hierarchy in which faithfulness to non-high vowels outranks faithfulness to high vowels. Prosodically-sensitive markedness constraints produce [i, ɨ, a, ʊ] in minimally bimoraic words. In sub-minimal words, an [ATR] markedness constraint hierarchy ensures that [i, e, o, u] are the only non-low [+ATR] surface forms. Rules of [+ATR] harmony produce [+ATR] variants of /a, ɛ, ɔ/ in nonfinal positions. The analyses demonstrate that in spite of the inherent differences between markedness and faithfulness-based approaches, analyses of harmonic patterns may require an eclectic approach.

Lee Bickmore, Chilungu Phonology , CSLI Publications

Lingua, 2009

Cilungu Phonology provides a comprehensive description of the intricate and diverse tone system of Cilungu, a Bantu language of Zambia classified as M14 in Guthrie's (1967Guthrie's ( -1971 Bantu classification. An asset of this work for which the author must be commended is that it provides a thorough and fully worked out tone system of a particular language in contrast to fragments of tonal systems abounding in the Bantu literature.