Aspects of Olukumi Phonology

University of Nigeria, Nsukka Department of linguistics, Igbo and other Nigerian Languages

ASPECTS OF OLUKUMI PHONOLOGY

A project report Submitted in partial fulfilment for the Requirements of the award of (MA) in Linguistics (Phonology)

OKOLO-OBI BOSCO PG/MA/12/62409

PROJECT SUPERVISOR: DR (Mrs) J.O. UGURU

JULY 2014

ASPECTS OF OLUKUMI PHONOLOGY

APPROVAL PAGE This research work has been read and approved on meeting the requirements for the award of the degree of Masters in Linguistics (Phonology).

...... Dr J.O Uguru Internal Examiner (Supervisor)

...... External Examiner Prof. R.I. Okorji (Head of Department)

...... Prof. P.U. Okpoko Dean of Faculty

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CERTIFICATION

This is to certify that OKOLO-OBI BOSCO, a postgraduate student of the Department of Linguistics, Igbo and Other Nigerian Languages, University of Nigeria, Nsukka with registration number PG/MA/12/62409 has satisfactorily completed the requirements for the research work for the award of Master degree in Linguistics (Phonology). This project work is original and has not been submitted in part or in full for any other degree of this or any other institution.

...... Dr J.O. Uguru OKOLO-OBI BOSCO Supervisor Student

DEDICATION

This research work is dedicated to God Almighty, whose grace and love is forever sufficient.

and In loving memory of Mrs Margaret Okolie A woman who gave love freely

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write. John Adams (US President 1797-1801)

All thanks be to the Spirit of God who teaches me all things, without whose divine guidance, this work would not have been made possible. Forever and always, my profound gratitude goes to my family; my ever supportive father, beloved mother, five lovely sisters and my wonderful uncle, Rev. Fr Paul Okolie for your unquantifiable love. I love you all. This work would not have turned out well the way it did if not for the seasoned and tireless effort of my supervisor Dr (Mrs) J.O.Uguru. May the good Lord who rewards every good deed continually bless you ma. Special thanks to my darling mother Pastor (Mrs) M.I Obadan for her prayers, advice and care. My stay in Nsukka would forever remain a very memorable one, because of the constant care of my best friend Chidimma and my brothers in arms King, Chigo, Ebube, Ifeanyi, Fidel, Joe, Ediri; words cannot express my gratitude for your support during this bloodless war. To my bosom friends Egnr. Joy, Dr Precious and Chuks; thanks for always adding beautiful colours to my life. I would not have come this far in this field of study but for the dedication of Prof. R.O Aziza, my academic mentor and referee. Her strong desire to promote learning has always been a source of inspiration to me. At this point I will also not forget to appreciate my undergraduate phonology lecturer, Dr. Don Utulu whose seasoned lectures inspired my interest in the field of phonology. Thanks to all the lecturers of the department of Linguistics department, UNN for your various academic impacts and more thanks to Dr B.M Mbah, for making learning an easy and enjoyable experience. I am highly indebted to all of you. Special thanks to Mrs Ogedegbe for her constant encouragement. I owe all my success in this work to my respondents from Ukwunzu. I thank most especially Mr Okenyi for his fatherly love and total cooperation in gathering most of the data for this work. My profound gratitude goes to His Royal Highness Obi Christopher Ogoh 1, the Obi of Ukwunzu for creating out time from his busy schedule to attend to my questions during the cause of my fieldwork. May you live long on the throne of your fathers. To everyone who has been a part of my progress, may God continually bless you all. Bosco Okolo-obi vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS PRELIMINARY PAGES Title Page…….………………………………………………………………………...... i Approval Page…………………………………………………………………………… ii Certification Page……………………………………………………………………….. iii Acknowledgement………………………………………………………………………. iv Table of Contents……….………………………………………………………………. v Abstract………………………………………………………………………………….. viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Study...... 1 1.2 An Overview of Ukwunzu Speakersof Olukumi...... 3 1.2.1 History of the Ukwunzu People...... 3 1.2.2 Language Situation...... 5 1.2.3 Geographical Location...... 6 1.2.4 Linguistic Classification...... 6 1.3 Statement of Problem...... 8 1.4 Research Questions...... 8 1.5 Research Objectives...... 8 1.6 Scope and Limitation of the Study...... 9 1.7 Significance of the Study...... 9 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction...... 11 2.1 Theoretical Review...... 11 2.1.1 Phonological Processes...... 11 2.2 Empirical Review...... 25 2.3 Summary of Literature...... 45 2.4 Theoretical Framework...... 46 2.4.1 Minimal Pair Test...... 46 2.4.2 Generative Phonology Theory...... 47 2.4.2 Autosegmental Model...... 49

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CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Area of Study...... 52 3.2 Selection of Respondent...... 52 3.3 Methods of Data Collection...... 53 3.4 Method of Data Analysis...... 53 CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS 4.0 Introduction...... 54 4.1 Sound System of Olukumi Language...... 54 4.2 Phonological Processes...... 63 4.2.1 Assimilation...... 64 4.2.2 Syllable Structure Processes...... 74 4.2.3 Tonal Processes in Olukumi...... 78 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary...... 83 5.2 Findings...... 84 5.3 Conclusion and Recommendation...... 86 References...... 89

List of respondents Appendix I Map Showing Area of Study Appendix II SPE Feature Matrix Appendix III . Ibadan Four Hundred Wordlist Appendix IV. Self Structured word list

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Abstract Olukumi is a Yoruboid language spoken by the Ukwunzu and Ugbodu people of Delta state, Nigeria. Hitherto the study, Arokoyo (2012) superficially described the sound system of the language in comparative study of four Yoruba group of languages. Her analysis however did not account for certain vital aspects of the phonology of the Olukumi language. As such, this study sets out to study those aspects of the phonology of the language that were not adequately accounted for. This research work provides an adequate description of the sound system of the language including tone and syllable structure. It also highlights and describes those assimilatory processes that are evident in the language. Furthermore the study provides adequate description of those processes that affects the syllable structure of the language. Since syllable structure processes converts or deletes tone bearing units (TBUs), the study also highlights some of the tonal processes that take place when TBUs are deleted in the language. Data for this study were collected primarily by means of oral interview of four indigenes of Ukwunzu who have native competence in Olukumi. The Ibadan four hundred word list and a self constructed word list were used to gather primary data from the four respondents. The minimal pair test was used to identify distinctive consonants, vowels and tones in the language. The Sound Pattern of English (SPE)framework propounded by Chomsky and Halle (1965) was used for the analysis of assimilation and syllable structure processes. However, since the SPEframework is not capable of handling non-linear/suprasegmental features, the Autosegmental framework propounded by Goldsmith (1976) was adopted for the analysis of tone and other suprasegmental features. This research shows that contrary to earlier claims, the Olukumi language has twenty-four consonants, nine oral and five nasal vowels, three possible syllable types (two basic syllable V, CV and a third phonological syllable CGV), and two basic tones. Some of the prevalent phonological processes includes: palatalisation, labialisation, nasalisation, nasal spread, nasal stability, vowel harmony, vowel harmony spread, vowel deletion, vowel insertion, consonant deletion and glide formation. Some tonal processes that are prevalent in the language includes: tone deletion, tone stability and tone mobility. Contour tone in this language is a concatenation of the Low and High tone which merge as a result of tone stability. Given that phonology is one of the basic areas of linguistic description, this study serves as a foundation for further research into such areas like syntax, lexicography, morphology documentation and so on.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Background to the Study

Phonology as an important aspect of linguistics is generally concerned with the study of the sound pattern of a language. Identifying the phonemes of any given language is an important aspect of phonology; however, often times, phonological analysis entails more than that. In other words, besides highlighting the distinctive sounds of a language, a phonologist examines what happens to speech sounds when they are combined to form words and how they interact with each other. Given the fact that speech is a continuum, speech sounds are not articulated independently as series of distinct segment, rather sound segments merge and blend into one another during speech. Thus phonemes patterned in this way influence one another. Consequently, Schane (1973:49) observes that:

When morphemes are combined to form words, the segments of neighbouring morphemes become juxtaposed and sometimes undergo changes. Consider the morphologically related forms electric, electrical, electricity, and fanatic, fanatical, fanaticism. Here the final /k/ of electric and fanatic becomes /s/ before a morpheme beginning with /i/.

Such changes, identified by Schane are referred to as phonological processes. Phonological processes are those changes which segments undergo to produce the various phonetic realizations of underlying phonological segments (Ifode, 1999:144). In the light of the foregoing, Halle (2002:11) remarked that “phonology, from the mentalist-generative perspective, is concerned with the connections between the abstract underlying representations of words and morphemes in memory and their surface representations that serve as instructions to the articulators”. Olùkùmi is a Defoid language spoken in Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria. It belongs to Edekiri of the Yoruboid group in the West Benue Congo family of Niger –Congo phylum. This language was first identified by Arokoyo (2012) in her comparative analysis of the phonological systems of the Yorùbá, Owé, Igala and Olùkùmi languages. Probably because her interest was purely comparative, her work superficially describes the phonological system of the language. More so, her analysis of the sound system of the language 2 is insufficient in that some of the sounds which exist in the language were not highlighted in her study and most importantly, Olukumi tone system was not discussed in her work. Apart from her study, there has been no other attempt to further study some of these other aspects of the phonology of the language. This study is therefore very necessary in that it aims at bringing to light those aspects of the Olukumi phonology that were not discussed in her work. In other African languages like Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Igala, Efik, Urhobo, and the likes where lots of research efforts have been devoted to phonology, several phonological processes have been noted. For instance, assimilation process is known to be one of the most prevalent processes in natural languages. However, different languages have been shown to manifest different assimilatory processes. Given this fact, there is a need to further investigate the phonology of the Olukumi language in order to uncover those phonological processes that operate in the language which have hitherto not been studied. In fact observing the way the Olukumi language is spoken one can notice some evidence of nasalisation of vowels in most cases and in few instances some class of consonant. This nasalisation effect can be traced to a contiguous nasal segment. One important aspect of this assimilation process is the environment; a sound may affect another sound either preceding or following it by transferring some or all of its features. Aside nasalisation, there are other prevalent assimilation processes that have been reported to characterise the phonology of various languages; for example cases of labialisation and palatalization have been reported to occur in some West Inland Igbo dialects (Okorji, 1999). Also, in other cases, phonological processes are known to affect the syllable structure resulting in an alternation in the distribution of consonants and vowels. The basic syllable form in most African languages is the CV (consonant vowel) syllable structure. As such, most languages do not encourage clusters of consonants or vowels. Therefore across word or morpheme boundary, when two consonants or vowels are in sequence, languages have been observed to adopt certain phonological processes in order to maintain the preferred syllable type. In phonology, such occurrence of identical elements violates the universal principle of Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP); first proposed by Leben (1973) for tonal constraints but subsequently expanded to accommodate both segmental processes. This principle states that adjacent identical elements are prohibited. Thus it has been reported that languages undergo the processes of insertion, deletion or glide-formation to prevent either vowel or consonant clusters. These syllable structure processes are also worth investigating in Olukumi. 3

Tonal process is another interesting aspect of phonological processes. In most African languages, when tone bearing units (vowels or syllabic consonants) undergo the process of deletion, the tones they bear do not always get elided with them. They resurface, aligning with the tones of neighbouring segments. There are also cases where tones affect their neighbouring tones resulting in a lowering or raising effect and in some other cases creating contour tones. These features of African tone laid the ground work for Goldsmith (1976) autosegmental theory. In the light of this tonal dynamism, it becomes necessary to examine how the tones of Olukumi interact with one another. Another rich aspect of African phonological system is the way in which certain restrictions are imposed on the strings of vowels occurring in a word, thus permitting or forbidding certain set of vowels from co-occurring. This phonological process known as vowel harmony occurs in very many African languages such as Igbo, Urhobo, Akaan, and Yoruba. For proper analysis and comprehension, the study has been systematically divided into five chapters. This first chapter gives an overview of the research work. In our chapter two, related literatures will be reviewed on all the relevant terminologies and theoretical approaches. Chapter three will deal with all the methodological concern of this work. In chapter four, data will be presented and analyzed. Finally, chapter five will centre on summary of findings, conclusion and recommendations.

1.2 An Overview of Ukwunzu Speaker of Olukumi 1.2.1 History of the Ukwunzu People

The traditional ruler of Ukwunzu, his Royal Highness Obi Christopher Ogoh 1, gave a very detailed account of the origin of the Ukwunzu people of Delta State. According to him, many decades ago, when Benin and its environs were still under the Ife Empire whose ruler was Oba Oduduwa, the Bini’s were directly governed by lesser kings who reported back to the Oba of Ife. It was during this era that Ojiso and Odiowere emerged as the direct rulers of Bini subject to the Oba of Ife. Due to their high handedness and lack of leadership charisma, the people protested and appealed to the Oba of Ife to send them one of his sons to be their king. The Oba who agreed to their plea, agreed to send his first son Orumiha. As a prince, during his journey to Benin, Orumiha was accompanied by advisers, soldiers, friends and slaves. On getting to Benin, 4 he was crowned as the first Oba of Benin, to have directly descended from the Oba of Ife. After his coronation, most of those who accompanied him refused to go back to Ife rather they chose to stay back in Benin. The new king Orumiha married from amongst the Binis and then gave birth to Iweka who became the crown prince. Iweka 1 ascended the throne after the demise of his father as the first Oba, born and brought up in Benin. During Iweka’s reign, there were series of wars, owing to the fact that Iweka intended for the Benin Empire to extend across the Niger towards the Igbo lands. Stiff resistance were met from the Igbo settlements across the Niger. It was during this war era that Eko (a place that was later known as Ukwunzu) was formed as a war camp. This was due to its strategic position, being close to both the citadel of power (Benin) and the Igbo lands across the Niger. It should be noted here that Eko in the Bini language means war camp. Being a war camp, it was from Eko that troops of soldiers were sent out into Igbo lands during this conquest. History has it that this conquest was quite successful because the Bini Empire was able to capture some areas around Onitsha. On the other hand, it was not a total success because penetrating further into the Igbo land was met with tough resistance by the rulers of those areas. It was at this point that the king decided to regroup his army at Eko with the intent of ending the war and amalgamating his newly conquered territories. On getting to Eko, he marched his soldiers back to Benin, signifying the end of the war. However, some soldiers refused to go back to Benin and chose to remain in Eko. Their reason cannot be detached from the fact that the war lasted for a very long time and during the cause of the war, some have started living their normal lives in Eko. The leader of this extraction who refused to go back to Benin after the war was Ogbe. Though this group were later joined by Igbo immigrants, both traditional and empirical evidence gives credence to the fact that the present day Ukwunzu was founded by Ogbe and his followers around later 11th century to late 12th century. One of the proofs that the Ukwunzu’s were the first to settle in their present day location is their Olukumi language. Historians are of the opinion that if the Ukwunzu people were not the first to settle, they would have dropped their language Olukumi for the new language of their host. However, the reverse is the case because the Igbo settlers who later joined them picked up Olukumi. Ukwunzu, formerly known as Eko, is one of the oldest towns in present day Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State. 5

1.2.2 Language Situation The people of Ukwunzu, along with their Ugbodu neighbours, speak Olukumi as their native language. These communities are surrounded by the Enuani speaking people of Aniocha North and South, and Oshimili. Consequently, the Olukumi language is believed to constitute a ‘linguistic island’; being the only Defiod language spoken in the heart of Igbo speaking communities in Anioch-south. Olukumi in both the Yoruba and Igala languages (Onukumi) means ‘my friend’. Though people have tried to classify Olukumi as a dialect of Yoruba, however, the Ukwunzu people agree that though they originated from Yoruba land hundreds of years ago (like every other people have their history traced back to migration from someplace), they do not see themselves as Yoruba people. It is important to note here that the Olukumi spoken in this area is not mutually intelligible with Yoruba. This is because their history of migration (from Yoruba land to Benin then later to their present place in Delta State) has led to a lot of ‘cultural and linguistic diffusion’ in the language. This is evident in the language which has a mixture of Igbo, Yoruba and Bini. One interesting peculiarity of the Ukwunzu people is their linguistic diversity expressed in form of ‘communal bilingualism’. In this community natives speak both Olukumi and Igbo. However, historians have it that in their earlier formative years, the Ukwunzu people only spoke Olukumi. Over time, due to the need to interact and relate with their Enuani speaking neighbours who surrounded them, it became imperative to learn the ‘Delta Igbo’ language. From thence, every child born in the community acquires both Olukumi and Igbo. One important thing worth taking note of here is their language attitude. Within the community, the Ukwunzu people speak mainly Olukumi, except in cases where they may have strangers in their midst. In such instances, they either communicate in English language or in Igbo (where the person is from an Igbo speaking community). This positive attitude in the form of language loyalty has ensured the preservation of the language even when its speakers are very few and the language liable to ‘linguistic colonization’ by their Igbo neighbours, who are greater in number. Outside the community, the Ukwunzu people interact with their neighbours in Igbo (or in English when the need arises).With the gross increase in language endangerment due to lack of intergenerational transmission and too much borrowing from Igbo into Olukumi, puts Olukumi language in a very delicate position. This forms one of the foremost bases for the interest in this research. It is important to note that code switching and code-mixing between Olukumi and Igbo is also a 6 general norm amongst speakers. This is due to the fact that every child, born and bred in Ukwunzu is competent in both Olukumi and Igbo.

1.2.3 Geographical Location

Ukwunzu is located in Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State Nigeria. It lies closely to the equator being only about lat 6°27’45E and 6°25’35N. Ukwunzu is the head of the Odiani clan with a population of about 39,526 people according to the 2006 National Population Census. Ukwunzu is bounded on the east by Ezechime, on the north by Obomkpa on the west by Idumuje and on the south by Onicha-uku in Issele-uku. There are seven quarters that make up the Ukwunzu community. Namely: Idumu-afo, Idumu-akwu, Ogbe-agidi, Eko-onicha, Odo, Ogbe-okwe, Inyogo. All these quarters speak both Olukumi and Igbo fluently. For the map showing the Olukumi speaking people (see appendix I).

1.2.4 Linguistic Classification

The most comprehensive and widely accepted genetic classification of African languages is that by Greenberg (1963). Greenberg grouped African languages into four phyla, namely: Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Khoisan, and Niger-Kordofanian which was later renamed Niger Congo by Heine and Nurse (2000). Olukumi is a Defiod language spoken in Aniocha North Local government area of Delta State Nigeria. It belongs to Edekiri of the Yoruboid family of the Niger Congo Phylum (Lewis 2009).

Figure 1: Olukumi Family Tree Diagram

NIGER CONGO

ATLANTIC MANDE KORDOFANIAN CONGO

VOLTA ATLANTIC IJOID (?) CONGO

BIJAGO SOUTH NORTH

BENUE KRU (NEW) DOGON (?) NORTH VOLTA CONGO KWA CONGO

EAST WEST GUR ADAMAWA UBANGI

EDOID OKO AKPES NUPOID DEFOID IGBOID AKPES

YORUBOID

EDEKIRI YORUBA

IGALA ITSEKIRI OLUKUMI Adapted from Williamson and Blench (2000:31) and Lewis (2009) 8

1.3 Statement of Problem

In understanding the phonological system of a language, aside from being able to properly identify the phonemes, there are some relevant phonological information (such as assimilation, deletion, insertion, tonal processes) which can only be properly understood when adequate consideration is given to the way sound segments interact and influence one another. As mentioned earlier, the only known study of the Olukumi language is a comparative analysis of the sound system of Owe, Igala, Olukumi and Yoruba by Arokoyo (2012). In her study, she observes that Olukumi has twenty-two consonants, seven oral vowels and five nasal vowels. She further notes that the language has a V, CV, CVV and a C ̣ syllable types. Aside that nothing more was said about the phonology of the language, thus leaving out important areas such as tone for instance. Her phonological analysis therefore excludes vital information such as the phonological processes these sounds undergo when they interact with each other within a word/morpheme and across morpheme boundaries. In summary, the phonological information about the Olukumi language as provided by previous study is not descriptively adequate; as such necessitating the need for this study. 1.4 Research Questions Thus from the forgoing observations, we propose the following questions: 1. What segments and features (consonant, vowel, tone, syllable) characterise the sound system of the Olukumi language. 2. What are the various assimilatory processes that segments and features undergo in this language? 3. What syllable structure processes do words undergo in this language? 4. What are those processes that affect tones in the language? 1.5 Research Objectives Generally, the goal of this study is to adequately describe the phonology and examine the various phonological processes that segments and tones undergo in the Olukumi language. The specific objectives are to: 1. Properly describe the sound system of the language (this will include, vowels, consonants, tone and syllable types). 2. Examine the various types of assimilation process that are prevalent in the language 9

3. Account for those syllable structure processes like deletion, insertion and coalescence that affect the distribution of vowel and consonant within a word. 4. Explore the various tonal processes that are evident in the language. 1.6 Scope and Limitation of the Study This work sets out to properly describe the sound system and highlight phonological features in the Olukumi language. To this end, the scope of this work will include identification of distinctive sounds (phonemes), tone and syllable types. Some phonological processes which are obtainable in the language will be discussed. We shall investigate such common phonological process of assimilation (such as palatalization, labialization, nasalization, homoganicity) where they apply in the language. Emphasis will also be given to syllable structure processes such as deletion, insertion and glide formation and finally we shall pay attention to some common tonal processes in the language. However, as a result of the colossal financial involvement associated with this kind of study, given the fact that the language has not been studied in much detail, and also coupled with time constraint, this study has been limited to first investigating the Olukumi spoken in Ukwunzu. Again, given the fact that the researcher is not a speaker of this language, we can therefore only be able to account for only those prevalent processes in the language based on the linguistic data gathered from informants.

1.7 Significance of Study

Phonological process plays a crucial role in understanding the overall phonology of a language. Thus the main significance of this study is to provide a better understanding of the regularities and patterns which underlie the sound system of the Olukumi language when they interact with each other within a word/morpheme or across morpheme boundaries.Studying the sound system of the language again (after the work of Arokoyo 2012) serves as a means of validating her assertions about the language and also providing more accurate evidence in light of the shortcomings of an earlier study. Thus the work is significant in that it provides a more authentic and vast information on the nature of the sound system of the language considering the amount of data gathered for this study. Again, there are various principles that govern the organisation of sounds in a language, and understanding these principles play a very vital role in explaining some phonological features in 10 the second language learning process, for instance the English word school /skʊl/ being realised as /sukulu/ by Igbo speakers. This is so because since the Igbo language does not manifest closed syllables and consonant clusters, then such words undergo vocalic insertion to conform to Igbo syllable structure. Such information only comes from the understanding of the phonological processes of the Igbo language. Thus, this study gives us a better understanding of the phonological constraint of the Olukumi language. Theoretically, as Hyman (2003) notes, African languages have contributed immensely to the development of various phonological theories most especially in the areas of tone (autosegmental phonology, Goldsmith 1976), nasalisation and vowel harmony (Clements 1981). In line with this observation, it is hoped that examining such phonological processes in the Olukumi language will contribute to a better understanding of the applicability of such linguistic theories. It will also add to the body of literature on African languages generally and the Olukumi language in particular, while providing impetus for further research.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

Phonology as an area of linguistic investigation basically aims at discovering the principles that govern the organization of sounds in a language. Though languages differ in their phonological systems, it has however been discovered that languages tend to exploit the same phonetic parameter in building their phonological systems. In this chapter, we shall review literatures on some common phonological processes which languages undergo in general; after which we shall look at some empirical evidence of how languages employ such phonological processes. Finally we shall adopt and review some theoretical frameworks that are relevant in our analysis.

2.1 Theoretical Review

2.1.1 Phonological Processes

In the phonological system of any language, some sounds are distinctive (effecting change in meaning), while others are not. These classes of sounds capable of affecting meanings are referred to as phonemes. As Ifode (1999) suggests, phonemes as abstract units of sounds may be phonologically realized in two ways (phonetically or phonemically). This is because when we speak, sounds tend to be modified by the environments in which they occur; sounds slur into each other or may be affected by the silence at the end or beginning of a word. When this happens, the phonetic units or variety of phones we produce are non-distinctive and non- significant. As such, in phonological analysis, we have two level of representations; underlying representation (phonetic representation) and surface representation (phonemic representation). In line with the above assertion, Ore (2007:59) notes that, In normal speech, sounds are not produced in isolation, rather morphemes and words are joined together in a string to make meaningful utterances. As words and morphemes are combined, sounds are influenced by their environments thereby undergoing some adjustments. A sound may change to resemble another contiguous sound, it may be lost, or some segments introduced into the combination. These changes are technically known as phonological processes. 12

In more formal terms, Shobomehin (1999) defines phonological processes as systematic transformation which speech sounds undergo from the phonemic level to the actual speech level when they occur in company. These transformations can be in the form of sound segment addition, deletion modification or total change of certain sound segments occurring in company of other sounds. Aronoff and Ress-Miller (2001) point out that the articulatory adjustments that occur during the production of connected speech are processes. Their cumulative effect often result in making words easier to articulate and in this sense they are said to make speech more efficient. Similarly, Oyebade (2007) contends that these sound modifications are motivated by the need to maintain euphony in a language or to rectify the violation of well-formedness constraints in the production of utterances. From the foregoing discussions it has been established that in actual speech, sounds that characterize speech have ways in which they affect each other. Therefore between the phonemic and phonetic level, certain changes take place in a language. These changes are referred to as phonological processes. To further aid our discussion in this section, we shall broadly classify phonological processes into assimilation and syllable structure processes.

Assimilation

Assimilation is the most frequent and common of all the phonological processes found in the languages. Roach (2001:138) reveals that the significant difference in natural connected speech is the way that sounds belonging to one word can cause changes in sounds belonging to the neighbouring words. According to Ifode (1999:145), assimilation as a phonological process refers to the situation in which sounds become more similar to each other. In assimilation, one sound causes another to change; this is known as the conditioning or assimilation sound, while the sound that is affected by the change is known as the assimilated sound. She further notes that in discussing assimilation, scholars usually take three things into consideration: the direction of assimilation, the extent of assimilation and the class of feature that is being assimilated. Furthermore, Iloene (2007) observes that in terms of direction, assimilation can either be regressive or progressive. Ifode (1999: 146) explains these assimilation types thus: In regressive assimilation, the assimilated sound precedes the conditioning sound. This is kind of ‘anticipatory’ phenomenon. Formalized, it is AC, where ‘A’ stands for the assimilated sound and ‘C’ the conditioning sound. Assimilation is progressive if the assimilated sound occurs after the conditioning sound. This is a 13

kind of ‘hangover’ phenomenon giving a sequence CA, where ‘C’ stands for the conditioning sound and ‘A’, the assimilated sound, the shaft of the arrow indicates the direction of the movement of features from C to A. She gives the following examples to clarify the various types of assimilation defined above. According to her, homorganic nasal assimilation is a regressive type of assimilation. She gives the following examples in Akan.

Example 1

a. pɛ ‘likes’ mpɛ ‘doesn’tlike’ b. te ‘understand’ nte ‘doesn’t understand’ c. kɔ ‘goes’ ŋkɔ ‘doesn’t go’ In Igbo, she cites nasalisation as typical example of progressive assimilation. Examples are shown below:

Example 2

a. /ímí/ [ímĩ] ‘nose’ b. /ńné/ [ńnẽ] ‘mother’ c. /áɲá/ [áɲã] ‘eye’ By extent, assimilation can either be partial or total. Partial assimilation affects the values of one or more, but not all the features of the segment(s) involved, whereas, assimilation is complete when the assimilated sound takes over all the features of the conditioning segment (Ifode 1999). Assimilatory processes like palatalization and labialization are instances of partial assimilation; this is because all the features of the segment being assimilated are not taken over by the assimilated sound. For example in English, when a stop assimilates the feature of a vowel, it still retains its identity. Example 3 a. /kit/ [kjit] b. /pin/ [pjin] c. /tip/ [tjip] 14

d. /ku:/ [kwu:] c. /pul/ [pwul] On the other hand, Abiodun (2007) notes that in Yoruba, full assimilation process occurs where two contiguous segments have identical features. He cites the following example in Yoruba. Example 4

a. ilé + ìwé → iléèwé ‘school’ b. owó + ilé → owóolé ‘house rent’ c. ilé + iṣe ̣́ → iléeṣe ̣́ ‘office’ d. ata + ire → ataare ‘alligator pepper’ In addition to treating assimilation in terms of directionality and extent, Schane (1973:49) asserts that assimilation can also be treated in terms of the class of segments involved in the process of assimilation. According to him, a consonant may pick up features from a vowel, a vowel may take on features of a consonant, one consonant may influence another, or a vowel may have an effect on another. Features of a vowel may be extended onto a consonant as secondary modification. Several scholars have identified and classified many of such processes; however, due to time constraint, we shall discuss those prevalent processes that characterize African phonological systems. They include: • Labialization • Palatalization • Homorganicity • Nasalization • Vowel harmony According to Oyebade (2007), labialization and palatalization involve consonant assimilating a vowel feature. Abiodun (2007:64) states that in palatalization, consonants that are produced without the raising or fronting of the tongue end up acquiring these features when they are followed by front vowels particularly the high front vowels [i]. For example in English: Example 5

a. pin [pjin] 15

b. bin [bjin] c. pit [pjit] d. bit [bjit]

He further notes that labialisation on the other hand, occurs when a consonant that is produced without lip rounding becomes rounded due to the influence of a rounded vowel, mostly [u], after it. The process involves the super-imposition of lip rounding on a non rounded consonant. Labialized consonants are normally represented with superscript [w], while palatalization is represented with the superscript [j] on the relevant segment. For the sake of clarity we cite Ladefoged (2011:236) summary of some secondary gestures (superimpositions) which manifest in African languages as:

Table 1

Secondary gestures Phonetic Term Brief Description Symbols palatalization raising of the front of the tongue sj lj dj velarization raising of the back of the tongue sɣ ł dɣ pharygealization retracting of the tongue root sʕ ł bʕ labialization rounding of lips sw lw dw

Homorganicity is a phonological process which involves a nasal and any other consonant (NC) sequence, in which a preceding consonant, that is, the nasal adopts the same place of articulation with the following consonant (Utulu 2007). Iloene (2007:117) refers to homorgamicity as homorgarnic nasal assimilation. He categorises it as a type of regressive assimilation which involves a nasal consonant to take on the feature of place of articulation of a following consonant. Abiodun (2007:62) points that the nasal consonant represented by /N/ has various realizations in the derived forms [m,n,ŋ] due to the effects of place of articulation of the consonants following it. Evidence on the occurrence of this phonological process has been provided in many African languages such as Akan, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, etc.

Example 6

Igbo

a. ḿbà ‘no’ b. m̀ pànáká ‘lantern’ c. ḿbídó ‘begining’ d. ńtá ‘hunting’ e. ńdù ‘life’ f. ńchà ‘soap’ g. ǹjọ́ [ɲ̀dʒɔ́] ‘bad’ h. ǹgá [ŋ̀gá] ‘prison’ i. ǹko ̣́ [ŋ̀kɔ́] ‘sharp’

According to Mbah & Mbah (2010:97), nasalization is the “supermposition of the lowering of the velum on the primary place of articulation. The lowering of the velum makes the airstream issue through the oral and nasal cavities”. Similarly, Ore (2007) adds that an oral phoneme may acquire nasality thereby becoming nasalized in the environment of a nasal segment. Iloene (2007) avers that it is quite common for vowels to be nasalized when adjacent to a nasal consonant. She cites examples of this process in Igbo. Example 7

a. /ímí/ [ímı͂ ] ‘nose’ b. /ńné/ [ńne͂ ] ‘mother’ c. /áɲá/ [áɲa͂ ] ‘eye’ d. /ɔ́nʊ/ [ɔ́nʊ͂ ] ‘mouth’ e. /ànɔ́/ [ànɔ͂ ] ‘four’ f. /ánʊ́ / [ánʊ͂ ] ‘meat’

Hyman (2003) notes that one important phonological feature of African languages is the harmony among vowel. According to Abiodun (2007:75), Vowel harmony is a feature of African languages. It is a phonological phenomenon in which a span of vowels within a derived or underived word exhibits a single value for some phonological (vowel) feature, which may relate to height, 17

roundness, or position of the tongue (say, advanced tongue root versus retracted tongue root). To this extent, vowels in a language that operate vowel harmony system fall into two or more harmonic sets based on shared phonetic properties. Furthermore, Hyman notes that two types of vowel harmony exists; namely, full or complete and partial or incomplete systems. When vowels of a language fall into two or more harmonic sets without an overlap, that is, where vowels in one harmonic sets are not found in any other sets, such a language is said to operate a full or complete. On the other hand, a language operates a partial or incomplete vowel harmony if the vowels in the language fall into two or more harmonic sets with overlaps, that is, the same vowels are found in different harmonic sets. In Yoruba for instance, Oyebade (2007:238) reveals that the ATR process groups the seven vowels of the language into three harmonizing set. Example 8 Yoruba

SET 1 SET 2 SET 3

e, o ẹ, ọ i, u, a

SET 1 SET 2 SET 3

(+ATR) (-ATR) (NEUTRAL)

a. epo ‘oil’ efọ̀ ̣́ ‘spinach’ obì ‘colanut’ ọtí ‘liquor’ b. edé ‘shrimp’ ejẹ̀ ̣̀ ‘blood’ ebi ‘hunger ebị̀ ‘blame’ c. oko ‘farm’ ọbe ̣̀ ‘soup’ àpò ‘bag’ opạ́̀ ‘stick’ d. òde ‘outside’ yẹyẹ ‘mockery’ eku ‘rat’ ekụ́̀ ‘costume’ e. wèrè ‘madman’ kokọ̀ ̣̀ ‘nook’ àdí ‘palm oil’ ạbó ‘plate’

Oyebade (2007:238) observes that members of set 1 and set 2 are mutually exclusive, while set 3 alone can occur indiscriminately. This is evident from his examples in the Yoruba language.The Igbo language is a typical example of a language that operates total vowel harmony rule. According to Iloene (2007:164), Igbo has eight vowels which are grouped into two harmonic set.

Igbo SET I SET II

ɪ ʊ i u

a ɔ e o

He explains that the vowel in set-1 usually co-occur in basic morphemes or words in the language. To buttress his facts, he presents examples in the language of word with [-ATR] vowels and words with [+ATR] vowels.

Example 9 SET I [-ATR]

a. ákwukwọ́ ̣́ ‘book’ b. okụ̀ kụ̀́ ‘chicken’ c. okpụ́ rụ̀ kpụ̀ ̣̀ ‘lumpy’ d. ocḥ̀ ıch ̣́ ı ̣́ ‘darkness’ e. osọ́ ọ́ sọ́ ̣́ ‘quickly’ f. àchıchà ̣̀ ‘bread’

SET II [+ATR]

g. òkwúté ‘stone’ h. èkwúrèkwú ‘talkativeness’ i. ósísí ‘tree’ j. ékwùrò ‘hatred’ k. ìsì ‘blindness’ l. ùdé ‘pomade’

Syllable Structure Processes According Schane (1973:52), some phonological processes affect changes in the syllable. These syllable structure processes affect the relative distribution of consonants and vowels within the word. Consonants or vowels may be deleted or inserted. Two segments may coalesce into a single segment. A segment may change major class feature, such as a vowel becoming a 19 glide which is a consonant. Two segments may interchange positions. Any of these processes can cause an alternation in the original syllable structure. From the above definition we can highlight some of these processes to include • Elision or deletion • Insertion • Coalescence • Glide formation Ifode (1999:161) defines elision as a phonological process involving the omission, deletion or total loss of a sound segment. The process may affect a vowel or consonant segment that are heard in the deliberate pronunciation of a word in isolation thereby causing it to get elided or lost in quick speech. She further notes that syncope is a general term used to refer to the loss of segment while apocope is the loss of a final segment in a word. Abiodun (2007) avers that vowels are not the only class of segment that undergo deletion. He observed that in rapid speech, consonants have been discovered to undergo deletion in Yoruba. Example 10

a. dára dáa ‘be good’ b. jowọ̀ ̣́ jọọ ‘please c. àwúro ̣̀ àúrò ‘morning’ d. àkàrà àkàà ‘bean nuggets’ Ifode (1999) defines insertion as a phonological process in which a segment which did not exist originally is introduced in a particular environment. She argues that vowels may be inserted to break up clusters of two or more consonants; it can be inserted initially before a consonant or at word final position to repair words with consonant endings (coda).Like elision, different names are given to this process depending on the segment and where it is inserted. According to Crystal (1997) epenthesis is a general term, while prothesis and anaptyxis are subordinate terms. It is a prosthesis when a vowel is inserted initially and anaptyxis when the vowel is inserted between consonants.

Glide Formation According to Aziza (2006), glide formation (G.F) is a phonological process that affects the first two of two vowels occurring in a sequence within a word/morpheme or across word boundary, provided certain conditions are met. a. The first vowel in the sequence must be a high vowel, while the second vowel must be a non-identical vowel. b. The vowel sequence must be preceded by a consonant, that is, the high vowel occurs in the frame ‘CVV’. She states that when these two conditions have been met, it results in the front high vowel [i] being converted to a palatal approximant [j], while the back high vowel [u] is converted to the labial velar approximant [w]. She cites the following examples in Urhobo: Example 11 a. miè CVV [mjè] CCV ‘take’ b. vie ̣̀ CVV [vjɛ̀] CCV ‘cry’ c. guà CVV [gwà] CCV ‘drive’ d. kuà CVV [kwà] CCV ‘to pack’ Similarly, Schane (1973) states that coalescence as a process involves two contiguous sounds being replaced by a single one which shares features of the two original ones. In other words, this process involves the merging of two segments to derive a new segment which has a common feature with the original segments. He observes that in Korea, whenever a noncontinuant and /h/ are contiguous they are replaced by an aspirated noncontinuant. Example 12

a. nak fall + hwa flower → nakhwa fallen flower b. kup bend + hita (causative suffix) → kuphita to bend c. čoh good + ko and čokho good and d. noh to lay + ta (verb ending) notha to lay (eggs)

2.1.2 Tonal Processes In African languages, tones are important features of a word. As Aziza (2007) avers, in tone languages, tone is as important as consonant and vowel segments because it can be used to differentiate the meaning of words that appear very similar. The tone(s) a word bears is part of the meaning of the word. Her examples in Urhobo include: 21

Example 13

a. i. ùkpè ‘year’

ii. úkpè ‘bed’

b. i. ènì ‘elephant’

ii. èní ‘head-pad’

Studies of African tone system by Williams (1971), Leben (1973), Goldsmith (1976), and Yip (2002) have presented several facts that suggest that as segmental phonemes undergo various changes in various environments, tone also undergo changes. These changes are referred to as tonal processes. Some of these tonal processes/features as have been discussed by Goldsmith (1976) include: • Tone spreading • Tone stability • Floating tone • Tone deletion • Contour tone • Downstep Heine and Nurse (2000:53) define tonal spreading as a process whereby a single level tone may spread over several syllables at once, that is, tone spreading is a tonal process where a level tone is prolonged into the next syllable. Yip (2002:68) describes this process of tone spreading as “one-to-many”. He notes that unlike most segmental features, tone may spread to cover a long span. Citing example in Chilungu (Bantu: Bickmore 1996), he observes that the unbounded H tone spreads from the infinitival prefix /kú/, clearly visible when it is attached to toneless roots. The H spreads to all except the last syllable. Example 14

a. kú- vúl- à ‘to be enough’ b. ku- vííb- à ‘to hatch’ c. kú- fúlúmy- à ‘to come d. ku- sáákú- à ‘to come’ 22

e. kú- sóóból-à ‘to sort out’ The origin of these H spans (according to Yip), is clearly a single H-toned vowel, and yet the output shows H pitch across a long polysyllabic sequence. One important featural property of African tone system that intrigued Goldsmith (the proponent of the autosegmental framework) is the stability effect of tone. Goldsmith (1976) argues that in a tone language, we find that when a vowel desyllabifies or is deleted by some phonological rule, the tone it bore does not disappear; rather, it shifts to a neighbouring segment. This suggests that the toneme of tone melody has a stability which is maintained independently of other aspect of the segment, and thus is preserved despite modifications to the syllable structure. Yip (2007:86) adds that “tone stability is the survival of tone after the deletion of segmental material”. He asserts that since tones are on a separate tier, and are associated to prosodic structure, there is no particular reason to expect them to be affected by segment deletion rules. He concludes that tone stability under deletion is thus the norm and re-association will follow from other properties of grammar. Egbokhare (1990) highlights this stability effect of tones in Emai language. Example 15

a. /ógìè jé èkó/ [òdʒè jêkó]

King go lagos ‘the king went to lagos’

b. /ófè dɛ́ ɔ̀kpà/ [ófé dɔ̂ kpà]

Rat buy cock ‘the rat has bought a cock’

c. /ɔ́ fí ɔ̀ta͂́ / [ɔ́ fjɔ̂ ta͂́ ]

He/she throw squirrel ‘he/she threw away squirrel’

d. /ɔ̀ xú ɛ̀sɔ͂́ / [ɔ̀ xwɛ̂ sɔ͂̀ ]

He/she chase poverty ‘he/she chased poverty away’

He observes that when a vowel of the verb is deleted (as in a & b above) or converted to a glide (as in c & d above) in the output, the tone the vowel bears does not delete, rather it realigns with the tone of the object NP. The opposite of tone stability is tone deletion. As Katamba (1989:195) points out, tone stability is not a universal phenomenon. According to him, there are many cases where deletion 23 of tone bearing elements spells doom from the tone which it carries. Aziza (2006:10) notes that when vowel deletion and glide formation affects a vowel segment, the tone it bears in the underlying representation may undergo one of the tonological processes; (a) the tone maybe deleted from the phonetic string or (b) the tone may relink into a neighbouring vowel segment. According to her, there is a rule that deletes tone together with their tone bearing units in associative constructions, if it is identical to the tone thatprecedes it. Her examples in Urhobo include:

Example 16

a. cèrè + ɔ̀nɛ́ → [cèrènɛ́] b. ɔ́mɔ́tɛ̀ + ójójòvì → [ɔ́mɔ́tɛ̀jójòvì] c. àŋmá + ɔ́fuáfõ̀ → [àŋmáfuáfõ̀] d. ɔ̀gɔ́ + óbiébì → [ɔ̀gɔ́biébì] e. ɔ̀jénà + ɛ̀vé → [ɔ̀jénàvé] f. ènànà + ìwèvì → [ènànàwèvì] g. éwũ̀ + ɔ̀wɛ̃́ → [éwũ̀wɛ̃́] Another important feature of African tonal system is floating tone. Goldsmith (1976:153) notes that a floating tone is in essence a segment specified only for a tone which at some point during the derivation merges with some vowels, thus passing on its tonal specifications to that vowel. He cites the following examples in two Igbo dialects. Example 17

a. Central Igbo: àgbà + ́ èŋwè → [àgbêŋwè] ‘jaw of monkey’

jaw monkey

b. Aboh Igbo: egbạ̀̀ + ́ èŋwè → [egbệ̀ ŋwè] ‘jaw of monkey’

jaw monkey Similarly, Abiodun (2007:72) observes that in some tone languages, some morphemes do not consist of segments; rather they are represented by tone at the underlying level. Such tones that do not have overt tone bearing segments are referred to as floating tones. Apart from morphological floating tones, a floating tone may be created when a segment that originally bore 24 the tone is deleted. A floating tone may eventually be relinked to a segment at the surface level, it may be left floating, or it may change the status of tone in its vicinity. In the Yoruba language, a floating tone is posited between a noun subject and a verb that immediately follows it in a declarative sentence (Abiodun, 2007:72). Example 18 a. omọ̄ ̣̄ ́ lọ̄ omọ́̄ lo ̣̄ ‘the child went’ b. īgī ́ wo ̣́ īgí wo ̣́ ‘the tree fell’ c. òjò ́ ro ̣̀ òjó ro ̣̀ ‘rain fell’ d. āyo ̣̀ ́ sùn āyo ̣́ sùn ‘Ayo slept’ From the foregoing discussions, it is evident that tone stability, tone spreading and floating tones affect adjacent tones in some ways. Hartmann (2007) suggests that contour tones may however arise as a result of tone spreading. Also Goldsmith (1976) analyses contour tones as concatenation of two level tones. In a similar view Katamba (1989) defines contour tone as the combination of two basic tones. For instance, a falling tone is made up of a high tone followed by a low tone, while a rising tone consists of a low tone followed by a high tone. In line with the foregoing assertions, Yip (2002:47) notes that in Yoruba as in many Benue-Congo languages, bisyllabic words never surface with H tone on one syllable and L tone on the other. Instead, the transition from one to the other shifts half-way through the second syllable, so that the surface pattern is either [H HL] or [L LH], with a contour on the second syllable: [àlá] ‘dream’ → [àlǎ]; /rárà/ ‘elergy’ → [rárâ]. Thus, Yip concludes that if contour is viewed as a sequence of level tones, this is simply tone spreading from the first syllable onto the second. While some tonal modifications (such as contour tones) can be traced to the assimilatory effect of adjacent or underlying tones, some are not; this is the case of downstep tones. According Katamba (1989), downstep is the name given to the process where a high tone is lowered in the absence of any proceeding low tone in the phonetic representation. A downstepped high tone is represented by [!H]. To this end, Aziza (2006:112) observed that “it involves the lowering of the second of two high tones found in a sequence but without low tone in the phonetic representation”. Examples include: Example 19 a. [ɔ́!ré] ‘native doctor’ b. [ùgbú!kó] ‘back’ 25

c. [óré!ré] ‘village’ d. [ú!dí] ‘grasscutter’ e. [ɛ́!βé] ‘eczema’

2.2 Empirical Review Having considered phonological processes in a general sense with relevant examples in various languages by scholars, in this section we shall further review some empirical works to see how several scholars have analysed these phonological processes (reviewed above) in the African languages where they manifest. Assimilation As earlier noted (in section 2.1), assimilation is a common phonological process in natural languages. Several researches have been carried out in many languages to uncover the various assimilation types that are prevalent in the language. Okorji (1999) succinctly states that some assimilation processes involve consonantal and vocalic segments being modified in a language or dialects. However, in some languages/dialects, segment modification brings about meaning distinction. In other words, the contrast between the ‘modified’ segments and their ‘plain’ counterparts results ina contrast in meaning. Some aspect of Okorji (1999) investigation covers palatalization and labialization in Umuchu dialect of Igbo. Data for her study were obtained through recorded interviews from three indigenous speakers. Her findings show that consonantal modifications such as labialization and palatalization are contrastive in Umuchu dialect. She provides some empirical evidence to support her assertion. Example 20 Labialisation

a. /tɔ́/ ‘loosen or extricate’ /twɔ́/ ‘surpass in age’ b. /dɔ́/ ‘pull’ /dwɔ́/ ‘struggle for ownership’ c. /kʊ́ / ‘knock’ /kwʊ́ / ‘pay’ d. /gá/ ‘go’ /gwá/ ‘mix’ e. /ŋʊ́ / ‘drink’ /ŋwʊ́ / ‘die’ f. /lɔ́/ ‘draw’ /lwɔ́/ ‘arrive’

Example 21 Palatalization

a. má /má/ ‘know’ miá /mjá/ ‘lose dignity’ b. lá /lá/ ‘go home’ liá /ljá/ ‘tear’ c. rá /rá/ ‘lick’ riá /rjá/ ‘crush’ d. rà /rà/ ‘lure’ rià /rjà/ ‘cry’ e. pé /pé/ ‘fall short’ pié /pjé/ ‘enter’ f. pá /pá/ ‘carry’ piá /pjá/ ‘whip’ g. bá /bá/ ‘grow rich’ biá /bjá/ ‘come’ Adive (1985:58-59) reports that in Ebira language, alveolar fricatives /s,z/ change to the palatal counterpart when they are followed by the front high vowel /i/ “in what seem like a contraction”. Example 22 Ebira.

a. si ezí → ∫ezí ‘to look for children’ b. si anó → ∫anó ‘to look for salt’ c. zi ozí → ʒozí ‘to hurt a child’ d. zi èvạ → ʒevạ̀ ‘to hurt the oracle’ As presented above, his finding shows that when the alveolar sounds [s,z] acquire this palatal feature, they change to their palatal counterparts [∫,ʒ] respectively.

Homorganicity Schane (1973) notes that the nasal consonant represented by /N/ has various realizations in the derived forms [m,n,ŋ] due to the effects of place of articulation of the consonants following it. He provides an analysis of this process in English using the SPE framework. As shown in his examples in English, /N/ becomes [m] before bilabial consonants, [ŋ] before velar consonants, and [n] before alveolar consonants. Example 23 a. iN-posibble impossible b. iN-balance imbalance 27

c. iN-tolerance intolerance d. iN-direct indirect e. iN-correct iŋcorrect f. iN-complete iŋcomplete Thus he asserts that we might use a simple formula to summarize this process in English as:

+ /N/ + ŋ +

Further evidence on the occurrence of this phonological process has been provided in many African languages(see page 26). Nasalisation As earlier noted (in section 2.1.1, example 7), it is a general tendency in languages for vowels to acquire nasality when they appear in the vicinity of nasal vowels. However, Aziza (2002) reports a case in Urhobo language where nasalisation is considered a property of certain vowels. In other words, these vowels bear the feature [+nasal] in the absence of a nasal consonant. She contends that nasalisation is a contrastive feature between otherwise homophonous words in the language. Some of her examples include: Example 24 a. ɣare - divide ɣa͂ re - expensive b. ja - catch ja͂ - walk c. ɣɔ - entertain ɣɔ͂ - be stiff d. okɔ - boat okɔ͂ - be stiff In the analysis of nasal vowels several arguments have been put forward by scholars regarding the source of their nasalization across languages. Greenberg (1966:509) was the first to posit that such nasal vowels are derive diachronically from earlier states of oral vowels in proximity with nasal consonants. That is, a syllable final sequence of an oral vowel followed by a nasal consonant; vN. According to Greenberg, the typical sequence of event from one point of evolution of nasalized vowels to this final stage can be represented as: VN > VN > V . It then implies that an oral vowel assimilated the nasal feature of a syllable-final N and the later (i.e. the N-coda) is deleted. On the source of nasal vowels in some African languages, second argument is put forward by Hyman (1972) and Williamson (1973) which differs significantly from 28

Greenberg (1966). They argue that Benue- Kwa languages could historically have a CNV sequence, meaning that the source of Kwa CV͂ developed from a historic CNV. However, further research on African languages tends to support Greenberg (1966) analysis. For example, Atoyebi (2009) analysis of vowel nasalization in Oko presents this process in line with Greenberg (1966) observation. Example 25 Oko a. /ɛ́kɔN/ [ɛ́kɔ͂ ] ‘war’ b. /gaN/ [ga͂ ] ‘to read’ c. /ɛ́gbaN/ [ɛ́gba͂ ] ‘chest’ d. /ɔʃɛN/ [ɔʃɛ͂ ] ‘leg’ e. /haN/ [ha͂ ] ‘to shave’ Atoyebi notes that there is no contrast in the language between a word with a final nasal vowel and a word with a nasal vowel followed by a nasal stop. To buttress this fact, he attempts a minimal pair contrast in the following examples. Example 26 Oko a. i. ɛ́kɔ͂ ii. *ɛ́kɔ͂ m

b. i. ìgbe͂̀ ii.*ìgbe͂̀ m c. i. fo͂́

ii. *fo͂́ d.i.óbı͂́

ii. *óbı͂́m Atoyebi explains that such asterisk forms in the minimal pair are not possible in the language. Ifode (1990) also aligns her analysis of nasal vowels in Ora with Greenberg’s proposition. She 29 notes that a sequence of VN is in accordance with even the way such words are written orthographically. She cites the following examples in Ora.

Example 27 Phonetic Orthography a. [ma͂̀ ma͂̀ ] manman ‘learn’ b. [mı͂rɛ͂́ ] minrẹn ‘ask’ c. [ur͂ ir͂ı͂ ] urinrin ‘cold’ d. [ih͂ e͂ r͂ e͂ ] inhenren ‘fire’ e. [áhı͂ɛ͂ hı͂ɛ͂ ] anhiẹnhiẹn ‘star’ f. [éȷ͂ ε͂̀r͂ ε͂] ejẹrẹ ‘breast’

Furthermore, her findings shows that the nasalization process also affect some classes of consonants in the language [r,h,j]. She contends that there are two kinds of nasalisation processes; nasalization which results from nasal consonant, and nasalization from nasal vowels. She notes that Ora languagehas two nasal consonant phonemes, /m/ and /n/ and any vowel that immediately follows these consonants is automatically nasalised. The nasalisation of such vowels can be accounted for by the universal tendency for vowels to be at least slightly nasalised in the environment of nasal consonants. Example 28 Ora

a. /ímè/ [íme͂̀ ] ‘fera’ b. émelạ́̀ / [émelạ́͂̀ ] ‘cow’ c. /ámàko/ [áma͂̀ ko] ‘hawk’ d. /tonọ̀ /̣́ [tɔ̀nɔ͂́ ] dig’ She asserts that in these examples, nasalisation of a vowel by a consonant does not extend beyond a syllable. In terms of direction, nasalization in this instance is progressive.On the other hand, she observes that there is another class of nasalization in Ora language which originates from nasal vowels. These nasal vowelshave the effect of nasalising contiguous segments. This nasalisation process affects both consonants (as shown in her data). Example 29 a. [ur͂ ir͂ı͂ ] urinrin ‘cold’ 30

b. [ih͂ e͂ r͂ e͂ ] inhenren ‘fire’ c. [áhı͂ɛ͂ hı͂ɛ͂ ] anhiẹnhiẹn ‘star’ d. [éȷ͂ ε͂̀r͂ ε͂] ejẹrẹ ‘breast’ On the issue of consonant nasalisation, Oyelaran (1972), Pulleyblank (1988:258) note that a sonorant will always be nasalised when tautosyllabic to a nasal segment in Yoruba. Therefore, the segments /r,w,y,h/ becomes [r,̃ w̃, ỹ, h]̃ respectively before nasal vowels (Data from Pulleyblank 1988: 259). Example 30 a. /rı̃̀/ → [r̃ı̃̀] ‘walk’ b. /wı̃́/ → [w̃ı̃́] ‘lend’ c. /yṹ/ → [ỹṹ] ‘dispense’ d. /hṹ/ → [h̃ṹ] ‘weave’ They refer to this process as ‘sonorant nasalisation’. Aziza (2002)observes that, “when the conditioning segment is a vowel, nasalisation is regressive and may extend beyond a syllable until it is blocked by the presence of an obstruent or a prefix vowel”. She argues that nasality should be treated as a spreading feature which can only be properly analyzed autosegmentally. According to her, “since nasality can float and be relinked onto a neighbouring segment, and it can spread onto other segments which are receptive to it within the stem”. She attributes this effect of nasalization of consonants to the spreading effect of the nasality feature of nasal vowels. To establish this fact, she critically analyses this process of nasal spreading in the formation of gerunds and verb + object pronoun in Urhobo using the autosegmental theory by Goldsmith. Example 31 Urhobo (Gerundization) Verb stem Infinitive/gerund a. dı͂ ‘grow’ edio [edȷ͂o͂ ] b. su͂ ‘lead esuo [esw͂ o͂ ] c. se͂ ‘reject/refuse ɛsiɔ [ɛsȷ͂ ɔ͂ ] d. we͂ ‘thread’ ewe [ew͂ a͂ ]

Urhobo (verb + object pronoun construction) e. su͂ + we ‘lead you’ [su͂ w͂ e͂ ] 31

f. fa͂ + we ‘confessed you’ [fa͂ w͂ e͂ ] g. mu͂ + ve ‘caught me’ [mu͂ v͂ e͂ ] h. se͂ + ve ‘rejected me’ [se͂ v͂ e͂ ] She analyses this spreading feature autosegmentally as: Figure 2(i). Urhobo

Autosegmental tier [N] (underlying representation) a) CV tier C V

Segmental tier s u ‘lead’

b) [N] (by affixation)

V C V V (by nasal spreading)

e s u o

c) [N]

V C C V (by glide formation)

e s wo [esw͂ o͂ ]

Figure 2(ii).

Autosegmental tier [N] (underlying representation) a) CV tier C V

Segmental tier f a ‘confess’ b) [N] (by suffixation)

C V C V

f a r e 32

c) [N] (by spreading)

C V C V

f a r e [fa͂ r͂ e͂ ] ‘confessed’

Vowel Harmony

According to Hyman (2003), African languages are known for providing vast numbers of phonological systems with vowel harmony (VH), particularly of the advanced tongue root (ATR) variety. Clement (1977, 1981) was the first to argue that vowel harmony is not the feature of the segment. To him, the ability of [+ATR] or [-ATR] feature to spread beyond certain domains affirms its autonomy. He proposed the autosegmental treatment of vowel harmony spread, drawing examples of this process in the Akan language. Clements provided an autosegmental account of opaque neutral vowels, based on Akan, since this language has both prefixal and suffixal harmony, as seen in one of his data in the schema below.

ATR Harmony in Akan O + f I t I + I [o-fiti-i] ‘he punctured (it)’

[+ATR]

In line with Clement’s proposal, Utulu and Obadan (2011) examine vowel harmony process in gerunds in the Ewulu language, using the autosegmental approach.Data for their analysis were gathered from native speakers of the language. Their analysis is provided in the data below.

Table 2 Ewulu

[+ATR] Spreading (a) [+ATR] [+ATR]

O.k I. k E ‘creating’ o.k i. k e ‘creating’

[-ATR] Spreading (b) [-ATR] [-ATR]

Ọ. s Ị. s Ị ‘saying’ ọ. s ị. s ị ‘saying’

Findings show that in Ewulu, the spreading of ATR significantly spans the entire vocalic (vowel) elements of the gerund (as seen in their data above), moving from right to left, in a one-to-many fashion, regardless of morphological boundary between the base and its adjoining reduplicant prefix.

Syllable Structure Processes In languages there is always a preferred syllable (which has been universally stated as CV) and when words which do not conform to such syllable structure is found in the language (either as a result of borrowing or through morphological processes such as compounding or reduplication) one of the three processes are bound to take place; insertion, deletion or coalescence. Insertion The phonological process of insertion has been given a lot of research attention in various languages/dialects, especially in the area of borrowing. For instance, in Shona,Mheta and Zivenge (2005) observed that when English words are borrowed into Shona, the process of vowel insertion is used to nativise such words. Some data from their investigation are provided below. 34

Table 3 English form Shona Rephonologised form /bæd/ [bendi] /bəsu:n/ [basuni] /kʌntrɪ/ [kandiri] /ɔ:gen/ [oganɪ] /ɔprə/ [opera] /əlegro/ [aregiro] /flu:t/ [fureti] /trænsfɔ:mə/ [tiranzifoma] /disk/ [disiki] /kɔnet/ [koneti] /klef/ [kirefu] /bæsdrʌm/ [besidiramu]

Mheta & Zivenge (2005) contend that vowel epenthesis is a systematic process regulated by the language that would have borrowed words from another, which is the case of Shona. Furthermore they note that all vowel epenthesis processes are carried out to satisfy Shona’sphonotactic constraints. In other words, any sequence that violates Shona syllable structure is repaired by this process of insertion. Deletion Aziza (2007:285) contends that phonological processes such as elision and glide formation must be used to repair the deviant structure in order to make the output acceptable. In the case of glide formation, when two vowels co-occur, the process turns V1 into a consonant. Thus the close front vowel [i] is realized as a palatal approximant [j] while close back vowel [u] is realized as a labial-velar approximant [w]. This means that a syllable that is underlyingly CVV is realized as CCV.She cites examples of the process of vowel elision in the Urhobo language. Example 32 a. dɛ́ + úkó → [dúkó] buy cup ‘buy a cup’ b. cèrè + ɔ̀nɛ͂́ → [cèrɔ̀nɛ͂́ ] 35

cook yam ‘cook yam’ c. àŋmá + ɔ̀fʊáfò → [àŋmɔ́fʊáfò] cloth white white cloth d. íkpù + ɪvɛ̀ → [íkpɪvɛ̀] bags two two bags e. íkó + ɛ́né → [íkɛ́né] cup four four cups f. ègɔ́+ ɪrɪ́rɪ͂ →[ègɪrɪ́rɪ͂ ] bottle nine nine bottles

Aziza notes that all the cases cited above are all instances of V1 deletion. She further notes that V2 deletion is less common but however does occur in the language as exemplified in the following noun phrases. Example 33 Urhobo a. úkó + ɔ̀nànà → [úkónànà] cup this one this cup b. ɛ̀vé + ɔ̀jènà → [ɛ̀véjènà] goat that one that goat c. íkpètì + èjènà → [íkpètìjènè] boxes those ones those boxes d. úkó + ɔ̀mɛ́ → [úkómɛ́] cup mine my cup e. éwu͂́ ɔ̀mɛ͂́ → [éwu͂̀ wɛ͂́ ] dress yours your dress

Aziza (2007) observes that in the cases of the noun phrases cited above, the V2deletion might have been determined by grammatical function. To her, grammatically functional vowel such as the prefix vowels of nouns and adjectives are retained to retain the singular/plural distinction of 36 the nouns. Also retained is the initial vowel of numerals. She avers that in Urhobo, vowels which play no real grammatical function are deleted. From the foregoing discussion, it might seem as if vowels are the only class of segments that undergoes the process of deletion; however, this is not the case. Utulu and Obadan (2011) investigate the process of consonant deletion in Ewulu dialect of Igbo, using the OCP (Obligatory Contour Principle; a rule initially proposed by Leben (1973) for the dealing with identical tones within the autosegmental domain). Their findings show that deletion of segments and glide formation are processes used to repair deviant segment sequence. In Ewulu, they observe that in rapid speech, the first consonant (C1) of the V. C1V.C2V syllable structure which typifies the prosodic structure of simple gerunds may be omitted. Table 4 Ewulu consonant-deletion Lexical form Derived form C1-deletion Glide Gloss formation o.li.le o.Øi.le o.i.le o.j.le ‘selling’ ọ.mụ.mụ ọ .Øụ. mụ ọ.ụ. mụ ọ.w.mụ ‘learning’ o.si.si o. Øi.si o.i.si o.j.si ‘cooking’ ọ.ɓɪ.ɓ ̣ a ọ. Øɪ.ɓ ̣ a ọ.ɪ.ɓ ̣ a o.j.ɓa ‘shooting’ o.nu.nu o. Øu.nu o.u.nu o.w.nu ‘pushing’ ọ.zụ.zụ ọ. Øu.zụ ọ.u.zụ o.w.zụ ‘training’ Note: the null symbol (Ø) signifies deletion of an element

In their conclusion, they suggests that C1- deletion rule is triggered by the OCP rule, due to the need to eliminate its violation at the surface representation, as C1 and C2 are not only identical but autosegmentally adjacent on their node as shown above. Awobuluyi (1983)investigates the process of coalescence in Yoruba, using a descriptive method to analyse how this process manifests in the language. He points out that, aside from deletion, insertion and glide formation, a language like Yoruba employs the process of 37 coalescence to prevent the co-occurrence of two identical vowels. As shown in the data below (Awobuluyi 1983:6). Example 34 Yoruba a. pa irɔ́ → purɔ́ (a + i → u) ‘to tell a lie’

b. jɛ ìbà → júbà (ɛ + i → u) ‘to acknowledge’

c. ibi ìgbé → ibùgbé (i + i → u) ‘dwelling place’

d. ibi isu͂̀ → ibùsu͂̀ (i + i → u) ‘bed’

His investigation shows that in instances like the ones cited above, rather than delete, insert or convert to glides, the process of coalescence is employed.

Tonal Processes Clement and Rialland (2000:152) comment, “Perhaps the most outstanding characteristic of tones in African languages is there independence with respect to their segmental support”. Goldsmith (1976) first proposed an auto-segmental analysis in his study of tones in Igbo language to address some basic issues of tonal representation. Goldsmith in one of his analysis in Igbo (Ohuhu dialect), observes that the low tone of a verb can spread to a preceding high tone of the subject, resulting in a contour. Example 35 Ohuhu Igbo

ai) Ézè chì àkhwá ‘the chief was carrying eggs’

ii) Ùwà chì àkhwá ‘Uwa was carrying eggs’ bi) Ékwé chì àkwá ‘Ekwe was carrying eggs’

ii) Àdhá chì àkwá ‘Adha was carrying eggs’

Goldsmith analyzes the spreading effect of a low tone autossegmentally as:

Figure 3.i. s

NP VP

V NP

akwa Ekwe chi

H H L L H Ékwê chì àkwá

Figure 3.ii s

NP VP

V NP

Adha chi akwa

H H L L H Àdhâ chì àkwá Goldsmith explains that in examples (28ai & ii), the tone of the second vowel of the subject NP is identical to the L tone of the verb, thus there is no spreading effect in that instance. However, in the case of example (28bi & ii) the L tone of the verb (chì) spreads backward to the second vowel of the subject NP forming a contour with the H-tone as shown in the above figure (2bi & ii). This proposition of Goldsmith (1976) was further advanced by Akinlabi and Liberman (2000) in their treatment of lexical tone spread in Yoruba. According to them, “we often see a process in which the transition from one tonal level to another so as to create a salient tonal contour on the syllable beginning the new level. Thus ‘High’and ‘Low’ tone spreads, resulting in 39 the creation of rising and falling tones”. In Yoruba (Data from Akinlabi and Liberman 2000:11) we observe the following. Example 36 a. ala (L H) → ala (L LH) ‘dress’ b. rara (H L) → rara (H HL) ‘elergy’ They observe that in Yoruba, a sequence of [L H] is realised as [L LH] and a sequence of [H L] is realised as [H HL], that is adjacent H and L tones always spread (right ward) onto each other, creating LH and HL contours in this fashion. Figure 4 a. a l a → a l a

L H H L

b. r a r a → r a r a

H L H L Another important argument raised by Goldsmith (1976) bothers on “the ability of tones to survive when a vowel desyllabifies or is deleted by some phonological rule”. He referred to this phenomenon as “tone stability”. According to Nwaokolo (2012), in the Ubulu-okiti language, the tone can only survive deletion of a vowel segment if the tone of the deleted vowel segment is not identical with the tone of the next vowel. She gives the following analysis in the language, using the autosegmental approach to further buttress her assertion. Figure 5 Ubulu-okiti a. /ʊɓɔ + ɔka / [ʊɓ(ɔ) ɔka] [ʊɓɔka] =

H L H L H L H L H L H L pudding maize ‘maize pudding’

b. / afe+ akwʊkwɔ/ [af (e) akwʊkwɔ] [af akwʊkwɔ]

L L H H H L L H H H L L H H Cloth school ‘School uniform’

. c. /P ʊ a / [P w a] /P wa/ = L H L H L H

Leave

d . /b ɪ a / → [b ja] /b j a /

L H L H L H Come

She asserts that the re-association of the stranded tone of the deleted vowel on the next vowel is a clear illustration of tone stability. Furthermore, she noted that there are also cases where a tone gets elided together with the vowel in the language; a case of tone deletion. Figure 6 Ubulu-okiti a. /ʊ ɓ ɔ / e n u ʊ ɓ(ɔ) en u [ʊ ɓ e n u]

= H L H H H H H H H !H ‘boat ’ ‘up’ ‘aeroplane’ b. /anu + eke/ [nweke] [nweke]

= H H H H H H H H H !H

animal bush Wild animal

c. /oɲe+ o ∫ i/ /oɲ(e) o ∫ i/ [oɲo ∫ i]

= H H H !H H H H !H H !H

person thief criminal

Maduagwu (2009) investigates some tonological processes in Ahan language by adopting the autosegmental framework in her analysis. Her investigation shows that when a vowel gets elided and its tone is not joined to the next vowel, it is deleted. Some her data are presented below. Figure 7 a.)Tonal tier L M M L (M) M L M

CV tier C V V C V → C V V C V → C V C V

Seg. tier f u + o d e f u + Ø gb a f u d e (underlying form) (vowel& tonal elision) (surface form) b.)Tonal tier M H H M (H) (H) M H

CV tier C V V C V → C V V C V → C V C V

Seg. tier r a + u gb a r a +Ø gb a r a gb a (underlying form) (vowel& tonal elision) (surface form) Floating tones as we have seen in our previous section is a class of tone not aligned to any TBU in the underlying representation. Katamba (1989:200) gives an autosegmental analysis of floating tone in the Etsako (Nigeria). Figure 8 Etsako

a. L L (H) L L L (L) H L L

+ = e m eθa a m ɛ e θa Ⓔ / àmɛ̀ + è θ à/ [àměθà] water hot hot water

To him, there is an existence of floating high tone across word boundaries in the language. This line of thought was further advanced by Utulu (2007) in his analysis of floating tone in compound words in Ewulu dialect of Igbo. Using the autosegmental framework in his analysis, Utulu (2007) proposes certain prerequisite conditions that must be met before underlying floating tones can surface in the output/surface representation. First, the final vowel of the first word/morpheme must bear a low tone, while the first vowel of the second word/morpheme must 42 bear a low tone too. When this condition has been met, OCP rule then deletes the final vowel of the first word/morpheme together with its tone during the process of compounding. When, these two conditions have been met, the floating high tone across the boundary then surfaces by docking on the adjacent low tone of the next vowel. Data from his analysis are presented below. Figure 9 Ewulu a. H L L (H) L LL → H L (L) H L LL

+ abʊbɔ ul i om a b ʊb(ɔ) ul i o m ‘feather’ ‘chick’ [ábʊ̀ bûlìòm] ‘feather of a chick’

b. H L (H) L L L → H (L) H L L L

+ ukwu akasi ukw(u) akasi ‘waist’ ‘cocoyam’ [úkwâkàsì] ‘cocoyam stem’ Contour Tone Earlier on in section (2.1.2) we noted that contour tones are combinations of two basic tones, since cross linguistic study of contour tones in African languages have shown that they could result from partial spreading, merger of two unlike tones across morpheme boundaries, association of a floating tone to a syllable with an unlike non-floating tone. In addition to some of these resultant possibilities of contour tones already presented in the sections above, we present another interesting possibility as present by Maduagwu (2009). In her investigation into the autosegmental behaviour of Ahan tones, she discovers that contour tones can also result from vowel lengthening. Figure 10 Ahan (Maduagwu 2009:3) Orthography Autosegmental representation

oloyee Tonal tier M H L H

CV tier V C V C V

Seg. tier o l o y e 43

taa Tonal tier L H

CV tier C V

Seg. tier t a She explains that since sequence of two vowels is not permissible in Ahan, there is a process of vowel lengthening, thereby allowing the lengthened vowel to bear two tones; a clear case of contour. Downstep and Downdrift Abiodun (2007) asserts that the concept of downdrift and downstep involves the lowering of high tones. He observed in the process of downdrift, the low tone that triggers the lowering of the high tone is overtly present. Although the high tone that is lowered retains the status of a high tone, its pitch level is lower than the high that is not influenced by the preceding low tone. This is captured in the illustration below: Figure 11

H1 L H2 H3 L H4 H5 L

He explains that H2-H3 is realized on a lower pitch than H1 and H4-H5 are equally lower than H2-H3. The intervening low tone is responsible for lowering. He provides data in Hausa and Igbo (Abiodun 2007:73).

Figure 12

Hausa

Βíntà tá tàfí kàsúwá ‘Binta want to the market

Igbo

Ó nwèré àkó nà úchè ‘He is clever and sensible

He explains that the high tone when followed by a low tone does not remain on the same level. Furthermore, Abiodun (2007) states that downstep differs from downdrift in the sense that the low that triggers lowering of a high tone is never overtly present. In Tiv, Yip (2002:150) provides the following data. Figure 13 Tiv

a. ílú kwá gá ‘it was not a leaf’

ílú !kwá gá ‘it was not a ring of hurt’ b.

He points out that the last two H tones in 35b are lower in pitch than the first two despite the fact that no low is present. Pullyblank (1986:34) also made the same observation. He presents more data in Tiv to show that grammatical construction (phrase or clause) can have one of its tones downstepped. Pulleyblank (1986:28) argues that this phenomenon results from the effect of a floating L-tone in the phonological representation. To him, such a tone appears on the tonal tier but is not linked to any vowel; as a consequence, it is not itself pronounced although it does trigger downstep. A downstepped H-tone is realized on a slightly lower pitch drop in preceding H-tone; the pitch drop in a H!H sequence is considerably less than the drop in a HL sequence.

Figure 14

Tiv

Káséú mbá !gá ‘There are not any women

mbá!váń ‘They are coming

Nwaokolo (2012) examines the existence of downstep in Ubulu-Okiti. She observes that vowels that bear high tones in isolation get downstepped in associative constructions. Using the autosegmental theory, she analyses downstepped tones as shown in some of her data below.

Figure 15 Ubulu-Okiti (Nwaokolo 2012:68)

/a k a + ewu/ [akⓐewu] [akewu]

H H H H H H H !H H !H Hand goat ‘a goat’s hand

/oɲe + a l a/ [oɲ a l a] . [oɲe + a l a]

H H H H H H H !H H !H Person mad ‘a madman’

/n n i + aƥʊ/ [n n j a ƥ ʊ] [nnjaƥ ʊ]

= H H H !H H H H !H H !H

Food cassava fufu

She notes that the second vowel of second word carries a high tone when it occurs in isolation; however, when it is merged together to form a new compound, the high tone of the final syllable is lowered (down stepped). This down stepping of high tone cannot be attributed to the effect of any low tone.

2.3 Summary of Literature

From the review of available literature, we have seen that much have not been said about the phonology of the Olukumi language. Also (in section 2.1 and 2.2 above), we have been able to establish that phonological processes are universal principle that operates in languages. For instance, empirical facts from Igbo (Iloene 2007), Urhobo (Aziza, 2002, 2006, 2007), Yoruba (Abiodun 2007, Oyebande 2007) etc, have provided ample evidence to show that assimilation process is a prevalent feature of the phonology of these languages. Thus, even though languages may vary in their phonological systems, they still undergo similar phonological processes. Also tonal features such as stability, spreading, down-stepping, down-drifting etc, have been affirmed to characterize the structure of tones in various languages; Ubulu-okiti (Nwaokolo 2012), Igbo 46

(Goldsmith 1976), Etsako (Katamba 1989), Chilungu (Yip 2002), Emai (Egbokhare 1990). The spreading features of nasalization (Ora; Ifode 1990, Urhobo; Aziza 2002) and vowel harmony (Akan; Clements 1977, 1981, Ewulu; Utulu and Obadan 2011) have gained them autosegmental treatment. In the Olukumi language (as earlier stated in our introduction), the only work that has been carried out was limited to “A comparative phonology of the Olukumi, Igala, Oweand Yoruba languages”, (Arokoyo, 2012). In the study, Arokoyo described the Olukumi language as having twenty-two (22) consonants, twelve (12) vowels and syllable structures V, CV, CVV, and C.Thẹ scope of her study did not include any subject pertaining to phonological processes in the language. Also suprasegemental features in the language (such as tone) were not discussed. From the foregoing, both theoretical and empirical facts have shown that phonological processes very play important role in understanding some of the basic principles that underlie the structure of sound segments in a language as well as understanding the rules that govern the organisation of sounds. From the available literature, we have seen that in the only know study of the Olukumi language was limited to identifying the phonemes in the language (Arokoyo 2012). In the light of this observation, it is therefore considered important to examine those phonological processes that characterize the language. 2.4 Theoretical Framework In this research work, we shall adopt the generative phonology theory proposed by Chomsky and Halle (1968) for the analysis of phonological processes. In the analysis of tone and some spreading features (nasal and harmony spreading), we shall adopt the autosegmental theory proposed by Goldsmith (1976). It should be noted that for the identification of distinctive sounds, we shall adopt the minimal pair test which was proposed by classical phonologist in the 19th century. 2.4.1 Minimal Pair Test

In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme or toneme and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate that two phones constitute two separate phonemes in the language. Many phonologists in the middle part of the 20th century had a strong interest in developing techniques for discovering the phonemes of unknown languages, and in some cases setting up writing systems for these languages. The major work of Kenneth Pike on the subject 47 has the title Phonemics: a technique for reducing languages to writing (Pike, 1947). The minimal pair was an essential tool in the discovery process, arrived at by substitution or commutation tests.Modern phonology is much less interested in such issues, and the minimal pair is consequently considered to be of little theoretical importance. As an example for Englishvowels, the pair "let" + "lit" can be used to demonstrate that the phones [ɛ] (in let) and [ɪ] (in lit) do in fact represent distinct phonemes /ɛ/ and /ɪ/. An example for English consonants is the minimal pair of "pat" + "bat"

2.4.2 Generative Phonology Theory Within the overall theory of the transformational generative grammar (TGG), Chomsky and Halle present a view of phonology as a subsystem separate from other components of grammar that transforms an underlying phonemic sequence according to rules and produces its output (the phonetic form) that is uttered by a speaker. Chomsky and Halle (1968) in their work sound pattern of English (SPE) outlined the basic architecture of the phonological component as:

ununder UNDERLYING REPRESENTATION

PHONOLOGICAL RULES

SURFACE REPRESENTATION

In this model, an underlying representation was postulated which constituted strings of highly abstract phonological segments that were converted by phonological rules into surface representations that mirrored faithfully the actual pronunciation of phonetic sequence. As Schane (1973) puts it, generative phonology is a part of a model of language (more strictly, a model of linguistic competence) which proposes that underlying representations are converted into surface representation by the application of rules. 48

One major highlight of this theory was the idea that phonemes are composed of distinctive features. Chomsky and Halle criticized the view that the segment is the smallest unit of phonological analysis, not further decomposed into anything smaller. They argue that segments ought to differ randomly from one another, yet this is not the case. They note that in English for instance, if we compare [k] and [g], [k] alternates with [s] in certain environments; electric – electricity. Under the same condition the other velar stop [g] is in alternation; analogous – analogy. They therefore conclude that “it is advantageous to view segments as composed of set of properties rather than indivisible entities”. Thus a segment is seen as comprising a bundle of distinctive features (see appendix II). These distinctive features are meant to perform certain functions. Chomsky and Halle (1968) set up two of such functions from their features; (a) distinctive features are to capture the phonological contrast in language (b) the features are also to describe the phonetic content of segments specified by phonological rules as well as underlying segments specified. These distinctive features were based on the principle of binarity and were defined primarily in articulatory terms. Phonological rules which transform underlying representations to surface representations were an important component of the SPE framework. According to Hyman (1975), these phonological rules can perform the following functions. Phonological rules can • Change segments • Delete segments • Insert segments • Coalesce segments • Permute or interchange segments Most phonological analysis from 1968 till date use this for phonological analysis. As noted by Hyman (1975), SPE framework is unarguably one of the most comprehensive and important framework in phonology. Schane (1973) adopted the SPE framework in the analysis of some phonological processes in French. In his analysis, Schane (1973), deduced the following phonological rules in French.

Assimilation rule

V [+nasal] _ +

He explains that this is a rule in French where a vowel is nasalized when preceded by a nasal consonant.

Deletion rule

O _ + +

Also in French, nasal consonants are deleted after nasalized vowels.

In Hanunoo, when two consonants begin a word, the vowel /u/ is inserted to break up the consonant cluster (Schane 1973). This rule is formalised as;

O + ℎℎ # C - C +

The applicability of the SPE framework in accounting for the various phonological processes (segmental processes) in languages therefore makes relevant in our analysis.

2.4.3 Autosegmental Model Before we study the behaviour of tone in any detail in any language, it is essential to adopt a framework to couch its analysis, and one of the foremost theories that sets out to address some of the basic issues of tone is the autosegmental model proposed by Goldsmith (1976). Autosegmental phonology was initially developed in response to the challenge of developing an adequate theory of tone. This was noted by Goldsmith (1976:203); he states that “the aim of autosegmental phonology is to deal with the consequences for generative phonology of multi-linear phonological analysis and representation. That is, we let go of the assumption that phonological and phonetic representations consist of a single string, or concatenation of segments. Instead, we set up underlying and surface forms consisting of parallel strings of segments arranged in two or more tiers”. Its immediate source of inspiration was the works of Williams (1971) and Leben (1973). They were the first to introduce non-linear treatments of tone in West Africa languages such as Margi, Igbo and Mende. However, part of this idea, was not 50 new to linguistics study. Prior to this model of phonological analysis, there was the Firthian’s who introduced prosodic phonology. Goldsmith (1976) proposes autosegmental phonology which presents interesting answers to questions bothering on the linear ordering in phonological representation of suprasegmental features. To him, autosegmental phonology is a model that makes an attempt to provide a more adequate understanding of the relationship between segmental and suprasegmental levels of phonological representation. Yip (2002:72) notes that in autosegmental phonology, tone is represented on a separate ‘tier’ from the segmental or prosodic materials, like a musical melody. A tone is only realized on the surface if it is ‘associated with some segment or prosodic entity such as the syllable or the mora on which it is eventually pronounced. These associations are denoted by lines connecting the tiers. σ stands for the syllable, and T for any tone. σ σ σ

T T T According to Hyman (2003:2), Goldsmith’s autosegmental theory resolved the representational problems of tone. He further notes that the association of tones to tone bearing units is governed by a convention called the “Well- Formedness Condition” (WFC). This convention has the effect of adding or deleting association lines at any point throughout the derivation. Yip (2002:76) states and explains the WFC (see Goldsmith 1976 for more unified statement) thus: Well formednes condition 1) Every TBU must have a tone. 2) Every tone must be associated to some TBU 3) Association proceeds one-to-one left-to-right. 4) Association line must not cross.

He further explains these principles by citing examples, using the schema below: (a) σ σ σ (bσσσ) σσσ σσσ (c) (d) (e) σσσ

T T T T T T T T T T T T T 51

He notes that from the above only (a) satisfies all the WFC above (b) violates all of (1-3). (c) Violates (2 & 3). (d) Violates (1&3), and (e) violates (3&4).

Yip (2002:99) points out that, in addition, to WFC, Leben (1973) proposes that tone is governed by a principle he called the obligatory contour principle, usually referred to as OCP: Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) Adjacent identical elements are prohibited. This means that words with sequence of high- tone syllables must be represented as in (a), not as in (b):

σ σ σ σσσ (a) not (b)

H H H H Since Leben’s original proposal, it has become clear that this principle covers more than tone.

According to Yip (2002), tone differs from many other phonological features in the following ways, rarely or observed in more familiar consonantal or vocalic features: (a) Mobility: The movement of tone away from the point of origin. (b) Stability: the survival of tone after the loss of the original host segment. (c) One-to-many: A single tonal feature shares two or more segments (tone spreading). (d) Many-to-one: Multiple tonal features may surface on a single host segment (contour tone). (e) Toneless segments: Segments may not acquire phonological tone. He noted that autosegmental analysis was able to account for these tonal properties. However, it was Clements (1977, 1981) who adopted the autosegmental model for the analysis of vowel harmony in Akan. He observes that the intricacies of vowel harmony spread cannot be fully accounted for by the generative framework. Since then, many scholars have popularized this approach and also elaborated it to accommodate other features such as nasal spreading.

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Area of Study

As previously stated in our introductory chapter, Olukumi language is spoken in Ukwunzu and Ugbodu towns which both belong to Odiani clan in the current Aniocha South Local Government Area. For the purpose of this study, Ukwunzu town was chosen as our primary area of study on the basis of the fact that: (1) All the communities that comprise Ukwunzu speak Olukumi. (2) The Ukwunzu people were the first to settle before the Ugbodu people in that area. (3) History has it that it was some of the Ukwunzu people who later migrated in large number to Ugbodu that founded the Olukumi speaking communities in the area. (4) There is no difference in the Olukumi spoken in Ugbodu and that spoken in Ukwunzu. It is for these reasons that the Olukumi in Ukwunzu was chosen as a representative of the Olukumi language for this study.

3.2 Selection of Respondents In order to obtain adequate data for this study, we adopted the purposive sampling method which involves four respondentswithin the ages of twenty-nine (29), sixty-eighty (68), seventy (70) and eight-two (82)which were selected on the basis of their level of competence in the language. These four persons were born and brought up in the town and spent most of their lives in the village. The very first informant was the traditional ruler of the village, followed by an eighty two years old retired headmaster who served and retired in both Ukwunzu and Ugbodu. The third was a civil servant who worked in Isele-uku but resident in Ukwunzu. These three were selected because they possessed native speaker competence in the language. This follows from Chomsky’s (1965) remarks that if you want to describe a language, you should describe the knowledge a native speaker has of his language, because he is an authority in the language. However, to eliminate any form of mistake which could be as a result of personal idiosyncrasies, the same list of English words was being dictated to the three respondent to 53 provide their alternatives in Olukumi. This method of selection helped in the elicitation of correct and adequate data used in this research.

3.3 Method of Data Collection The nature of this research is such that all information was sourced primarily from the respondents who are native speakers. This is because Olukumi language has no previously written form. As a scientific study, data were collected by means of oral interview using the Ibadan four hundred word listof basic items (see appendix III). In addition to this, the researcher also designed another word list (see appendix IV) to capture some phonologically relevant information which occur in such environments as word boundary, morpheme boundary which were not captured by the Ibadan four hundred word list. The wordlist was useful in analysisng processes such as nasal deletion, nasal stability, floating tone realignment, etc. The interview was conducted personally by the researcher who dictated the words in English while the respondents provided the Olukumi equivalents. The interviews were recorded with the aid of a recording device.

3.4 Method of Data Analysis The data in this work was analysed using the phonology Assistant for managing transcribed speech analyzer sound file and ‘IPA help software’ for learning to hear, transcribe and produce sounds of the International Phonetic Alphabet. These two software packages were downloaded from the Summer Institute of Linguistics speech tool database. After transcription, data were first analysed using the minimal pair test to identify distinctive speech sound in the language. This same method was used to also identify distinctive tones in the language. For the analysis of segmental based processes such as palatalisation, labialisation and syllable structure processes such as deletion and insertion, the generative phonology theory proposed by Chomsky and Halle (1968) was adopted as the theoretical framework for analysis. Suprasegmental features (nasal spread, vowel harmony and tonal features) were analysed using the autosegmental theory proposed by Goldsmith (1976). For more information on method of data analysis, see pages 46- 51 (Theoretical framework).

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

4.0 Introduction In our previous chapter (chapter 2), we discussed some phonological processes that are prevalent in natural languages and how they apply. In this chapter, we shall be presenting ample data on the various phonological processes that manifest in the Olukumi language. In doing so, we shall provide analysis of some of these features using the appropriate theoretical framework (see section 2.4). However, before we proceed with the above stated objectives, it is pertinent to first describe the sound system of the language as it will keep the reader abreast with certain vital phonological information.

4.1 Sound System of Olukumi Language Basically, the sound system of a language consists of consonants and vowels (phonemes). Also in discussing the sound system of a language, the way in which these consonants and vowels are organised into larger units called the syllable is equally very important. Prior to this study, Arokoyo (2012)carried out a comparative analysis of the phonological system of the Yoruba, Owe, Igala, and Olukumi languages. In her study, she claims that the Olukumi language has twenty-two consonants, twelve vowels, and four syllable structures. Probably due to the fact that the scope of her work was more of comparative than descriptive, her description of the Olukumi language was quite inefficient. Take for instance, no information was given on the tone system of the languages compared. In African languages, tone is as important as consonants and vowels. This is because they are capable of distinguishing meanings of otherwise homophonous words. Summarily, in this section we shall take a look at Olukumi consonants, vowels, syllable and tone.

Table 5

Bilabial Labio- Alveolar Palate- Palatal Velar Labio- Glottal detal alveolar velar Plosive b t d k g kp gb Nasal m n ɲ ŋ ŋw Trill r Fricatives f s z ʃ ɣ gw H Affricates dʒ Approximant j w Lateral l approximant

Olukumi consonantal chart Minimal contrast of these twenty-four consonantal phonemes is provided in the following examples. Example 37 Consonant Sound Minimal Orthography English Pairs gloss 1. /b/ /bá/ - bá father /wá/ - wá come 2. /t/ /tá/ - tá shoot /gbá/ - gbá kill 3. /d/ /ódó/ - ódó motar /ókó/ - ókó farm 4. /k/ /ókó/ - ókó farm /ówó/ - ówó horn 5. /g/ /ʊ́ gà/ - ugạ̀́ room /ʊ́ dà/ - udạ̀́ Negro pepper 6. /kp/ /kpè/ - kpè call /ŋwè/ - nwè swallow 7. /gb/ /gbɔ́/ - gbo ̣́ hear 56

/fɔ́/ - fo ̣́ say 8. /f/ /fá/ - fá pull /já/ - já tear 9. /s/ /sé/ - sé make /té/ - té cook 10. /z/ /ózú/ - ózú eye /óŋwú/ - ónwú sleep 11. /ʃ/ /ʃí/ - shí bury /ní/ - ní put 12. /ɣ/ /éɣó/ - éghó money /ékpó/ - ékpó oil 13. /gw/ /gwó/ - gwó beat (drum) /wó/ - wó swell 14. /h/ /há/ - há run /wá/ - wá come 15. /dʒ/ /édʒí/ - éjí tree /étí/ - étí ear 16. /l/ /lɔ́/ - lo ̣́ grind /hɔ́/ - họ́ blow 17. /m/ /má/ - má mould /tá/ - tá shoot 18. /n/ /ɔ́nà/ - onạ́́ road /ɔ́zà/ - ozạ́́ market 19. /ɲ/ /ɲà/ - nyà choose /rà/ - rà buy 20. /ŋ/ /áŋɔ́/ - áṇọ́ tortoise /áʃɔ́/ - ásho ̣́ cloth 21. /ŋw/ /ŋwè/ - nwè swallow /kpè/ - kpè call 22. /r/ /kéré/ - kéré small /kéké/ - kéké short 57

23. /w/ /wá/ - wá come /bá/ - bá father 24. /j/ /já/ - yá tear /má/ - má mould Minimal pair test is so far the best and easiest method of identifying the phonemes of a language. In the data above the first word in every consonantal entry exemplifies how the consonant is used while the second entry stands as a minimal pair, to show contrast. From these minimal contrast, we can therefore conclude that the language consist of 24 consonantal phonemes. This contrast Arokoyo (2012) claims that there are twenty-two consonants in Olukumi language. In her study, she identifies the following as distinct consonants in the language: /b, t, d, k, g, kp, gb, f, s, z, ʃ, ɣ, gw, h, dʒ, l, m, n, ŋ, r, w,j/. This consonantal inventory is not an adequate description of the consonant system of the Olukumi language. From the minimal contrast above, we can observe the exclusion of two consonants; the labio-velar nasal /ŋw/ and the palatal nasal /ɲ/ in her description. Both nasals fall into minimal contrast with some other distinctive consonants in the language and as such have attained the status of a phoneme in their own rights.This brings the exact number of consonants in the language to twenty-four rather than twenty-two earlier claimed. Vowels In identifying the vowels of the language, we shall also adopt the minimal pair test as we did in the case of consonants. The vowel chart of the language is shown below.

Figure 16 front central back high i u ũ ɪ ɪ̃ ʊ mid-high e o mid-low ɛ ɛ̃ ɔ ɔ̃

low a ã

Olukumi vowel chart

Minimal contrasts are presented in the data below.

Example 38

Sound Minimal Orthography English Pairs gloss 25. /i/ /ómí/ - ómí river /ómú/ - ómú sun 26. /ɪ/ /ɪ́má/ - ımá ̣́ children /ɔ́má/ - omạ́́ child 27. /e/ /té/ - té cook /tá/ - tá shoot 28. /ɛ/ /ɛ́dɔ̃́/ - edọ́ ṇ́ monkey /ɔ́dɔ̃́/ - odọ́ ṇ́ year 29. /a/ /bá/ - bá weave /bɔ́/ - bọ́ cloth 30. /u/ /órú/ - órú night /órí/ - órí head 31. /ʊ/ /ʊ́ wɔ́/ - uwọ́ ̣́ navel 59

/ɔ́wɔ́/ - ọ́wọ́ hand 32. /o/ /ódó/ - ódó motar /ódé/ - ódé compound 33. /ɔ/ /árɔ́/ - árọ́ story /árá/ - árá surface 34. /ĩ/ /tı̃́/ - tín push /tí/ - tí crack 35. /ɛ̃/ /ʊ̀ kpɛ̃́/ - ukpẹ́ ṇ́ destiny /ʊ̀ kpɛ́/ - ukpẹ́ ̣́ tip 36. /ɔ̃/ /hɔ̃́/ - hoṇ́ roast /hɔ́/ - ho ̣́ blow 37. /ã/ /ɔ̀kã́/ - okàṇ̀ one /ɔ̀kà/ - okạ̀̀ greater 38. /ũ/ /úgwṹ/ - úgwún vulture /úgwú/ - úgwú hill The Olukumi language consists of nine oral vowels and five nasal vowels which makes it a total of 14 distinctive vowels. As seen in the examples presented above these nasals vowels contrasts meanings with their oral counterparts in their minimal pairs. This is quite contrary to Arokoyo (2012) description of the vowel system of the language. She identified twelve vowels (seven oral vowels and five nasal vowels) in the language. Her inventory excluded the front high vowel /ɪ/ and its back high counterpart /ʊ/ which are full-fledged phonemes in the language as shown in the minimal contrast in example (38) above (see the minimal contrast in 26 and 31 above).

Syllable Basically, the Olukumi language has two syllable types: V and CV syllable. However, phonologically, there is a CGV syllable which is a product of glide formation. Below, we present data to showcase these syllable types.

V-syllable In Olukumi language, the third person singular pronoun is a clear example of a V-syllable type.

Example 39 a. ɪ́ - he/she/it In addition to this we also have the V syllable in the following examples b. ókó [ó.kó] - farm v.cv c. àkpíkpá [à.kpá.ká] - beans v.cv.cv d. ıto ̣̀ ̣̀ [ɪ̀.tɔ̀] - urine v.cv e. ọ́hẹ̀n [ɔ́.hɛ̃̀] - leg v.cv Our interest here is on the first syllable only. In the language, nouns always begin with just a vowel followed by a CV syllable. So the first syllables in the data above are examples of a V- syllable type. Note that the dot [.] marks the syllable boundary.

CV-syllable This is the most prevalent syllable type in the language. Most verbs in the language have simple CV syllable structure, while most of the words in the language are a combination of at least the CV syllable and any other syllable type. Example 40 a. ka /ká/ - count cv b. rá /rá/ - buy cv c. ózú /ózú/ - eye v.cv d. ówó /ówó/ - horn v.cv e. kéké /kéké/ - small cv.cv f. kéré /kéré/ - short cv.cv CGV-syllable This syllable type is not basic in that its occurrence is phonologically triggered. In Olukumi, when two vowels co-occur across morpheme/word boundary, the first vowel is converted to a glide if it is a front high vowel /i/ or the back high vowel /u/. In the case of /i/, it is 61 converted to /j/ while /u/ is converted to /w/; a process known as glide formation. This syllable structure is shown in the data below.

Example 41 a. ébíómí /ébí/ + /ómí/ → [ébjómí] v.cv v.cv v.cgv.cv ‘thirst’ water hunger b. ùlùedọ́ ̣́n /ùlù/ + /ɛ́dɔ̃́/ → [ùlwɛ́dɔ́] v.cv v.cv v.cgv.cv ‘a monkey’s tail’ tail monkey In isolation, the words in the data above carry a VCV syllable structure. However, when these two words are combined and two vowels are adjacent to each other, the first vowel across the boundary becomes a glide; deriving a V.CGV.CV from a V.CV + V.CV structure. It is pertinent to note here that our analysis of all the possible syllable type in this language shows some disagreement with the earlier claims of Arokoyo (2012). In her study, she claims that this language has four syllable types: V, CV, CVV and C̟ . While the V and the CV syllable exist in the language, same cannot be said for the two additional syllable types. From the analysis of the data gathered for this work, we observed that this language prohibits the occurrence of two vowels. Even in the case of associative construction where this constraint would have been violated, the language converts one of the vowels to a glide (see example 5 above). It is therefore safe to categorically state that the CVV syllable type cannot occur in the Olukumi language. Again there is no instance in the language where we have syllabic consonants. In some African languages (even in Yoruba), there are evidence of syllabic nasals; however this class of segment does not exist in Olukumi and since Arokoyo’s work was a comparative study, her claims might have been a case of overgeneralization. Summarily, this work shows that there are three possible syllable structures in the language: V, CV, CGV rather than V, CV, CVV, C̟ .

Tone Olukumi is a register tone language, with two basic tones; high (H) and low (L). The occurrence of these two tones in the language is shown in the data below.

Example 42 High tone a. órí /órí/ - head b ózú /ózú/ - eye c dó /dó/ - cover d bó /bó/ - dwell e ekṕ̣ ıkpá ̣́ /ɛ́kpɪ́kpá/ - surface f ákı̣́kọ́ /ákɪ́kɔ́/ - cock

Example 43 Low a ıto ̣̀ ̣̀ /ɪ̀tɔ̀/ - urine b. ànyìnyà /àɲɪ̀ɲà/ - horse c. ebùbẹ̀ ̣̀ /ɛ̀bʊ̀ bɛ̀/ - dust d. obẹ̀ ̣̀ /ɔ̀bɛ̀/ - soup e. òshìn /òʃı̃̀/ - left f. kpè /kpè/ - call g. ko ̣̀ /kɔ̀/ - refuse

These two tones are capable of contrasting meanings of otherwise homophonous words.

Contrast between high and low tone in minimal pairs Example 44 a1). ko ̣̀ /kɔ̀/ - refuse a2). ko ̣́ /kɔ́/ - throw b1). mà /mà/ - know b2). má /má/ - mould c1). etụ̀ ̣́ /ɛ̀tʊ́ / - cap c2). etụ́ ̣́ /ɛ́tʊ́ / - antelope d1). okọ́ ̣̀ /ɔ́kɔ̀/ - boat d2). okọ́ ̣́ /ɔ́kɔ́/ - hoe 63 e1). ògwùgwù /ògwùgwù/ - darkness e2). ógwúgwú /ógwúgwú/- bone

In most two-tone languages, there is always a third tonal phenomenon referred to as downstep. However in the case of Olukumi, downstep tones do not exist. Worth noting here is that the Enuani-Igbo spoken by the Ukwunzu’s as their second language is also a two tone language, though unlike the Olukumi language, the downstep ton is present in the language. This study shows that they are several loanwords borrowed from Enuani-Igbo into the Olukumi language. Some of these words carry downstep tones; however, by the time they are transferred into the Olukumi language, the downstep tone is converted to a high tone.From the data analysed, two instances of such were observed. Example 45 Enuani Olukumi English a. ódó [ód!ó] ódó [ódó] motar b. óbé [ób!é] óbé [óbé] cross

4.2 Phonological Processes in Olukumi

Languages tend to exploit similar phonetic parameters in building their phonological system. In our literature review, we identified three major classes of phonological processes. • Phonological processes that affect segments (assimilation) • Phonological processes that affect the syllable structure (syllable structure processes) • Phonological processes that affects tone (tonal processes) In this sub-section, we shall provide empirical evidence to demonstrate how some of these processes operate in the language. As stated earlier, we shall also provide analysis using the appropriate theoretical frameworkSPE for segmental based features like palatalisation, labialisation and syllable structure processes like deletion. While Autosegmental framework will account for tone and other suprasegmental features like nasalisation and vowel harmony spread. 4.2.1 Assimilation Processes in Olukumi Assimilation processes that are relevant in this discussion are those that operate in the language. They include: palatalisation, labialisation, nasalisation, vowel harmony.

Palatalisation and labialisation processes These are the two most prevalent (if not universal) processes in natural languages. The process of consonant taking up the feature of the following vowel is a prevalent process in the language. In Olukumi, the phonological process of palatalisation and labialisation is usually triggered by the process of glide-formation. Since vowel clusters are prohibited in the language and given the fact that when the front high vowel /i/ and back high vowel /u/ is followed by another vowel, deletion becomes impossible, rather, glide-formation takes place, converting /i/ into /j/ and /u/ into /w/. When this process has taken place, in rapid speech, we have the /j/ and /w/ produced as some form of secondary articulation on a preceding consonant; a clear instance of palatalisation and labialisation respectively. Processes in Olukumi are exemplified in the data below. Example 46 Palatalisation Orthography Input Glide-formation Output (palatalisation) a. óbìógbe ̣́ /óbì + ógbɛ́/ → [óbjǒgbɛ́] → [óbjǒgbɛ́] ‘dry kola’ kola dry b. étíázá /étí + ázá/ → [étjázá] → [étjázá] ‘dog’s ear’ ear dog c. ébíómí /ébí + ómí/ → [ébjómí] → [ébjómí] ‘thirst’ hunger water d. óríeẓ́ ı̣́ /órí + ɛ́zɪ́/ → [órjɛ́zɪ́] → [órjɛ́zɪ́] ‘sheep’s head’ head sheep j e. ıw ̣́ ı̣̃́áṇọ́ /ıw ̣́ ı̣̃́ + áŋɔ́/ → [ıwja ̣́ ̃́ŋó] → [ıw ̣́ ã́ŋó] Example 47 Labialisation Orthography Input Glide-formation Output (palatalisation) a. òkpùòkè /òkpù + òkè/ [òkpwòkè] [òkpwòkè]

‘palm-wine’ wine palm

w b. ákpụ́éghó /ákpʊ́ + éɣó/ [ákpwéɣó] [ákp éɣó] 65

‘moneybag’ bag money w c. ákpụ́ókó /ákpʊ́ + ókó/ [ákpwókó] [ákp ókó] ‘farm bag’ bag farm w d. ẹ̀tụ́ézú /ɛ̀tʊ́ + ézú/ [ɛ̀twézú] [ɛ̀t ézú] ‘shower-cap’ cap rain w e. ẹ́rụ́ẹ́lạ́ /ɛ́rʊ́ + ɛ́lá/ [ɛ́rwɛ́lá] [ɛ́r ɛ́lá] ‘the mouth mouth cow tortoise feaces' feaces tortoise ofa cow’

Within the generative framework, these two processes are appropriately captured by a simple rule: Figure 17: Palatalisation Rule

/b/ → [bj] / __ /i/ # V

+cons +cons -cons -cons -syll -syll +syll -syll -son → -son +son # +son +high +high

By this rule, a consonant preceeding a high vowel that is followed by any other vowel across a word boundary becomes palatalised. Figure18: Labialisation Rule

/kp/ → [kpw] /__ /u/ # V

+cons +cons -cons -cons -syll → -syll __ +syll #+syll -son -son +son +son +round +round

By this rule, a consonant preceeding a high vowel that is followed by any other vowel across a word boundary becomes palatalised. However for both rules to take place, the rule of glide formation must apply first. See example 60 for further explanation on glide formation rule. It should be noted that these consonant 66 modification in both palatalisation and labialisation is not distinctive, that is, the difference between the phonemic and phonetic form does not lead to any change in meaning. Nasalisation There are different types of nasalization that operate in the languages in the world. A more general type of nasalization involves a vowel being slightly nasalized by the nasal consonant preceding it. This type of nasalization is exemplified in the data below. Example 48 a. ẹ̀rùnwù /ɛ̀rùŋwù/ → [ɛ̀rùŋwũ̀] dry season b. rı ̣́ṇo ̣̀ /rɪ́ŋɔ̀/ → [rɪ́ŋɔ̃̀] sweet

c. dánwù /dáŋwù/ → [dáŋwũ̀] taste

d. bùmézí /bùmézì/ → [bùmezì̃́ ] divide

e. dáno ̣̀ /dánɔ̀/ → [dánɔ̃̀] pour

f. ımo ̣́ ̣́ /ɪ́mɔ́/ → [ɪ́mɔ̃́] nose

g. ónyú /óɲú/ → [óɲṹ] night

This class of nasalisation in the data above is universal and quite predictable. This is because every language has a nasal consonant and when there is a vowel in the environment of the nasal consonant, it ultimately assimilates the nasality feature of the consonant. This class of nasalisation is not distinctive i.e. the appearance of the nasal tilde on the vowel does not affect or contrast meaning. Again, as can be seen from the examples (in 48) above, the nasal consonant that causes the assimilation (source) is present in the surface form. In addition to that, this class of nasal assimilation is not too contagious, as such; only the preceding vowel takes up nasality as a result of anticipating the following vowel before its articulation of the nasal consonant is complete. Within the generative model, vowel nasalisation is captured by the rule: Nasalisation Rule V → Ṽ / _ C [+nasal] By this rule, example 48g can therefore be analysed as; /o/ → [õ ] / m _ In the second class of nasalisation process however, vowels are nasalised in the absence of a nasal consonant. Instances of this process in the language are shown in the data below. 67

Example 49 a. orụ́ ̣̀nrıràn ̣́ [ɔ̃́rʊ̃̀̃ rɪ̃́̃ rã ]̃̀ sunshine b. eráṇ́ [ɛ̃́rã ]̃́ animal c. ıro ̣́ ṇ́ [ɪ̃́rɔ̃́̃ ] hair d. erụ́ ṇ́ [ɛ̃́rʊ̃́̃ ] mouth e. orọ́ ̣̀ [ɔ̃́rɔ̃̀̃ ] neck f. árıro ̣́ ṇ́ [ã́rɪ̃́̃ rɔ̃́̃ ] bite g. ıw ̣́ ın ̣́ [ɪ̃́w̃ɪ̃́] feaces h. ágbàn [ágbã̀] jaw i. ıto ̣́ ṇ́ [ɪ́tɔ̃́] saliva j. egbáṇ́ [ɛ́gbã́] senior The source of this nasalisation is not underlyingly present in the derivation.Greenberg’s postulation (which we have adopted in this work) suggests that the source of the nasalisation is a nasal consonant that has been lost diachronically in the development of the language. However, the loss of the deleted consonant resulted in the ‘heavy’ nasalisation of the preceding vowel. As a result of the ‘heavy’ nasal quality of the vowel, it becomes too contagious and spreads its feature across to other preceding vowels, including some class of consonants like the alveolar trill /r/ and labial velar approximant /w/ (see examples 49a-g). This spread can only be blocked by the presence of a plosive as can be observed in examples 49h-j. The presence of this underlying nasal vowel is distinctive, in other words the major semantic contrast between two otherwise homophonous words can be as a result of the presence of the nasal feature on one vowel. Instances where contrast is drawn between oral and nasal vowels in Olukumi are exemplified below. Examples 50 Oral Nasal a. zẹ́ /zɛ́/ - eat zen /zɛ̃́/ - fry b. hó /hɔ́/ - blow hon /hɔ̃́/ - roast c. tị /tɪ́/ - crash tịn /tɪ̃́/ - push d. úgwú /úgwú/ - hill úgwún /úgwṹ/ - vulture e. ukpẹ̀ ̣́ /ʊ̀ kpɛ́/ - tip ukpẹ̀ ṇ́ /ʊ̀ kpɛ̃́/ - destiny 68

From the above, we observe that the only difference between the two oppositions is the presence or absence of nasality. This feature alone brings about the difference in meaning. This type of nasalization is problematic to capture within the generative framework for three distinct reasons. • The absence of the of the nasal consonant (which is the source of the nasality) in the underlying structure • The ability of the nasal feature of a nasal vowel to spread across a long span. • Nasal stability i.e. the ability of the nasal feature to survive the deletion of the original segment that bears it. To tackle these obvious loopholes, Clements proposes an autosegmental analysis for such processes that are beyond segmental domain. The above two aforementioned features of nasalisation (nasal spreading and nasal stability) shall be examined in more details in the following section. Nasal Spreading Going by the assertion of Greenberg (1966), (see page 20), we propose that nasal vowels in Olukumi originated by a diachronic process that first spread the nasal feature of a nasal consonant (coda) before deleting the nasal consonant. Example 51 a. ẹgban [ɛ́gbáN] → [ɛ́gbã̀N] → [ɛ́gbã̀] ‘senior’ b. ọ̀kàn [ɔ̀kàN] → [ɔ̀kã̀N] → [ɔ̀kã̀] ‘one’ c. ı̣́roṇ́ [ɪ́rɔ́N] → [ɪ́rɔ̃́N] → [ɪ́rɔ̃́] ‘hair’ d. eráṇ́ [ɛ́ráN] → [ɛ́rã́N] → [ɛ́ra]̃́ ‘animal’ Autosegmentally, this process is analysed as Figure 19 Nasal [N] [N] [N] [N] tier syllable v c v c nasal v c v c diachronic v c v c surface v c v tier spreading coda realisation deletion segmental tier [ɛ́gbáN] → [ɛ́gbã́N] → [ɛ́gbã́N] → [ɛ́gbã́] 69

Diachronically, certain words in Olukumi end with a nasal consonant i.e., syllable permit codas. However, due to the general tendency for most African languages (if not all) to favour open syllable, such nasal codas were lost. One interesting phenomenon in this process (as observed in the analysis above) is that the nasal feature of the nasal consonant is transferred to the preceding vowel ‘totally’, such that the vowel is contagious enough to nasalize other neighbouring segments. In other words in the application of the nasal deletion rule, the principle of ‘rule ordering’ must be strictly adhered to. This is because the violation of the rule will delete the nasal without transferring its nasality to the preceding vowel. Instances of nasal spreading in Olukumi by nasal vowels are shown in the example below. Example 52 Orthography Phonological Gloss representation a. orụ́ nṛ̀ ırán ̣́ [ɔ̃́rʊ̃̀̃ rɪ̃́̃ rã ]̃̀ sunshine b. árı̣́rọ́n [ã́rɪ̃́̃ rɔ̃́̃ ] bite (noun) c. ıró ̣́ n [ɪ̃́rɔ̃́̃ ] hair d. ıw ̣́ ın ̣́ [ɪ̃́wɪ̃́] feaces e. írùrùn [ı̃́rũ ̃̀rũ ̃̀] grass f. àgbàn [àgbã̀] jaw g. okàṇ̀ [ɔ̀kã̀] one h. ıto ̣́ ṇ́ [ɪ́tɔ̃́] saliva Within the autosegmental framework, this spreading process is analysed as; Figure 20 Nasal [N] [N] tier syllable v c v c v nasal v c v c v tier spreading segmental tier [ á r ɪ́ r ɔ́ ] → [ á r ɪ́ r ɔ́ ][ã́rɪ̃́̃ rɔ̃́̃ ] ‘bite (noun)’

As stated earlier in our discussion above, the historical loss of the nasal segment ‘empowered’ the vowels to underlyingly bear nasal quality as strong and contagious as that borne by nasal consonant. It is this nasal quality that enables these nasal vowels to nasalise both vowels and 70 some class of consonants (see examples 15a-e), even as far as segments of adjacent syllables. However this process of spreading is blocked by the presence of a stop (plosive) as can be seen in examples 52f-h above; where the initial syllables (initial vowels) are not affected by nasalisation process due to the presence of plosives [gb, k, t]. Again nasal vowels have the ability of spreading across morpheme boundaries in the language. For instance, gerunds are derived in the language by the process of reduplication or prefixation. During this morphological process, the reduplicant segments or the prefixed vowel is also affected by nasalisation. These instances are shown in the examples below. Examples 53 Simple verb Gerunds roots a. rọ́n [rɔ̃́̃ ] bite rıro ̣́ ṇ́ [rɪ̃́̃ rɔ̃́̃ ] biting b. reṇ́ [rɛ̃̀̃ ] walk urẹ́ ṇ́ [ʊ̃́rɛ̃́̃ ] walking c. hoṇ́ [hɔ̃̃ ] roast ıho ̣́ ṇ́ [ɪ̃́hɔ̃́̃ ] roasting d. huṇ̀ [hʊ̃̀̃ ] sleep ıhu ̣́ ṇ̀ [ɪ̃́hʊ̃̀̃ ] sleeping e. deṇ́ [dɛ̃́] fry dıde ̣́ ṇ́ [dɪ́dɛ̃́] frying f. tìn [tı̃̀] push títìn [títı̃̀] pushing Within the autosegmental model, this spreading can be captured as; Figure 21

Nasal [N] [N] tier syllable c v nasal c v c v tier spreading via segmental reduplication tier [ r ɔ́ ] → [ r ɪ́ r ɔ́ ]

From the above we can see that there is a kind of nasal harmony of both the root vowel and the prefixed or reduplicated morpheme. This harmony is ensured by the spreading of the nasality feature of root vowel which is the source of the nasality. Here again, we notice that in the case examples 53e-f, the nasalisation is unable to spread into the preceding syllable because of the presences of a plosive onset [d,t]. We can therefore draw a generalisation that plosives/stops are barriers to nasal spreading. 71

Nasal Stability One intrinsic property of nasality that is prevalent in Olukumi language is stability, that is, the ability of the nasal feature to survive deletion of the segment that bears it. In the language, when two vowels are adjacent to each other, the first vowel in the sequence is either deleted or in some cases converted to a glide. In a case where the first vowel bears a nasal feature, when deleted, the nasal feature does not delete with it, rather it realigns with the next vowel in the sequence. This is usually the case when a nasal vowel is juxtaposed with an oral vowel across word/morpheme boundary during the morphological process of compounding as shown in the examples below. Example 54 Orthography Input Output a. ıro ̣́ ṇ́ + ágbán ɪ̃́rɔ̃́̃ + àgbã̀ → [ɪ̃́rã ̃́gbã̀] hairjaw beard

b. ohẹ́ ṇ̀ + òtón ɔ̃́hɛ̃̀̃ + ɔ̀tɔ̃́ → [ɔ̃́hɔ̃̌̃ tɔ̃́] leg right right leg

c. ıw ̣́ ın ̣́ + elạ́́ ɪ̃́w̃ɪ̃́ + ɛ́lá → [ɪ̃́w̃ jɛ̃́lá] feaces cow cow dung

d. erụ́ ṇ́ + elạ́́ ɛ̃́rʊ̃́̃ + ɛ́lá → [ɛ̃́rw̃ ɛ̃́lá] meat cow beef

In the examples above, we see that in the input, when two words are in isolation, the final vowel of the first word bears nasality (represented by the tilde) while the first vowel of the second word in isolation is an oral vowel (lacks nasality). On the other hand, when these two words are combined to form a compound (see the output in the examples above), the final vowel of the first word is juxtaposed with the first vowel of the second word. Since there is a phonological rule that prohibits adjacent identical element (whether consonant, vowel or tone) in the language, the final vowel of the first word is deleted. Interestingly, this deletion does not affect the nasal feature that it bears; rather, the nasality realigns and docks on the following vowel. This is a clear case of nasal stability. Autosegmentally, this process is represented as;

Figure 22 Input

Nasal [N] [N] [N] [N] [N] [N] tier syllable v c v v c v compo- v c v v c v vowel v c v v c v tier nuding deletion process process segmental tier [ ɪ́ r ɔ́ ] + [àgbà] → [ɪ́ r ɔ́ àgbà] [ɪ́ r ɔ́ àgbà]

Output

Nasal [N] [N] tier syllable v c v c v tier segmental tier [ ɪ́ r à gbà]

Vowel Harmony The Olukumi language has nine (9) oral vowels and five (5) nasal vowels that are distinctive. In certain domain (word/morpheme), these vowels show certain restriction in the class of vowels that co-occur with one another. As such, vowels in a word/morpheme show agreement (harmony) in the position of tongue root; advanced tongue root or retracted tongue root. The fourteen vowels of the language are divided into two set in this fashion:

+ATR -ATR i u ũ ɪɪ̃ ʊ e o ɛ ɛ̃ ɔ ɔ̃ a ã 73

Lexically, these two group of vowels show restriction in the kind of vowel that co-occurs with them. In other words, +ATR vowels consistently co-occur with +ATR vowels, why -ATR vowels consistently co-occur with -ATR in words. For instance; Example 55 +ATR -ATR a. òwú /òwú/ - thread uwọ̀ ̣́ /ʊ̀ wɔ́/ - dawn b. íwù /íwù/ - beard ıno ̣́ ̣́ /ɪ́nɔ́/ - belly c. ókó /ókó/ - farm okọ́ ̣́ /okọ́ /̣́ - hoe d. ògèdè /ògèdè/ - plantain ụ̀bebẹ̀ ̣̀ /ʊ̀ bɛ̀bɛ̀/ - spear e. ùlé /ùlé/ - house ukpẹ̀ ṇ́ /ʊ̀ kpɛ̃́/ - destiny f. órí /órí/ - head íròn /ɪ́rɔ̃̀/ - hair g. íwú /íwú/ - beard ıw ̣́ ın ̣́ /ɪ́wɪ̃́/ - feaces w w h. óg ùng ũ̀n/ógwũ̀gwũ̀/ - medicine ègbán /ɛ̀gbã́/ - senior w i. úg ṹ /úgwṹ/ - vulture àgbàn /àgbã̀/ - jaw From the example above, we can observe the synchrony/harmony of the class of vowels that constitute the words in this language. However, there are some instances of opaque association of vowels which oppose this uniformity of harmony. Such instances are shown in the examples below. Example 56 a. àbéké /àbéké/ - knife b. edòkẹ̀̀ /ɛ̀dòkè/ - mountain c. òkwútá /òkwútá/ - stone d. erúlẹ́́ /ɛ́rúlé/ - goat e. òbúko ̣́ /òbúkɔ́/ - he-goat The ability of the harmonic feature to spread beyond the word is an interesting feature that has been observed in this language. This is evident in the derivation of gerunds from simple verbal root through the process of prefixation. In Olukumi, the prefix vowel is either /i/ or /ɪ/ as determined by the class of vowel in the root verb. A clear case of harmony spread. Some of these instances are shown below

Examples 57 +ATR -ATR Simple verbs Gerunds Simple verbs Gerunds a. fó -fly fífó - flying fɔ́ - say fɪ́fɔ́ - saying b. té - cook títé - cooking dɛ̃́ - fry dɪ́dɛ́ - frying c. gwo - beat igwo - beating hɔ̃́ - roast ɪ́hɔ̃́ - roasting d. gwṹ - pound gwígwũ - pounding hʊ̃́ - sleep ɪ́hʊ́ - sleeping This process is adequately analysed using the autosegmental framework as shown below. Figure 23 ATR- Spreading ATR +ATR +ATR +ATR tier syllable c v prefixa-c v. c v +ATR c v c v tier tion spreading process segmental tier f ó → f I. f ó → f í. f ó

ATR- Spreading ATR +ATR +ATR +ATR tier syllable c v prefixa-c v. c v +ATR c v c v tier tion spreading process segmental tier f ọ́ → f I. f ọ́ → f ı̣́. f ọ́

As earlier stated, the harmonic feature of the prefix vowel is not predetermined, until the spreading process. Observe from the above analysis, the capital letter [I] during the process of prefixation clearly signifies that the harmonic feature of the vowel is neutral and can only be determined after harmonic spreading from the root vowel has taken place. This ATR spreading clearly spans from left to right, regardless of morphological boundary or the property of the intervening consonant. As such the prefix vowel must harmonise with the root vowel. 75

4.2.2 Syllable Structure Processes in Olukumi

In this section, our discussion will be centred on the following processes: vowel insertion, vowel deletion, glide-formation and consonant deletion. These aforementioned processes are prevalent processes in the language and they affect the underlying syllable structure of the language. Vowel Insertion Like every other African language, the Olukumi language borrows directly from English language to make up for words that are lacking in their lexicon. Given the sharp contrast between the syllable structures of the two languages, words borrowed from the donor language (the English language) has to be restructured to fit the permissible syllable structure of the recipient language (the Olukumi language). Unlike the English language, the Olukumi language does not permit consonant cluster, as such when English words are borrowed into the language vowel insertion process becomes a norm. Some of these examples are shown in the example below. Example 58 English Olukumi a. bicycle /baɪsɪkl/ basikolo b. wheel /wi:l/ wịlụ c. table /teibl/ tebulu d. miss /mis/ misi/ e. penalty /penǝlti/ penariti/ f. card /ka:d/ kadị g. phone /fonu/ fonu From the above, we can observe that vowels are inserted for two major reasons. The first is to break up consonant when they occur. Again we can observe that when words end with a consonant in English, a vowel is inserted after it to ensure that consonants do not end word, which is in line with the language’s phonotactics. Vowel Deletion 76

In Olukumi language, obligatory contour principle (OCP) prohibits adjacent identical elements (vowels in this case) from co-occurring, where there is a violation of this principle (in most cases, due to some morphological processes like compounding), one of the processes the language adopts is to delete one of the vowels. The first vowel in the sequence (V1) always gets deleted. Examples of vowel deletion in the language are given below. Example 59 Orthography Input Output a. árá + úlé /árá + úlé/ → [árúlé] bodyhouse wall

b. ínyá + ósú /ɪ́ɲá + ósú/ → [íɲósú] food yam pounded yam

c. owọ́ ̣́ + ódó /ɔ́wɔ́ + ódó/ → [ɔ́wódó] hand mortar pestle

d. odọ́ ̣́ + orụ̀ ̣́ /ɔ́dɔ́ + ɔ̀rʊ̃́/ → [ɔ́dɔ́rʊ̃́] year hundred century

e. ıkp ̣́ ıkpá ̣́ + ıj ̣́ı ̣́ /ɪ́kpɪ́kpá + ɪ́dʒɪ́/ → [ɪ́kpɪ́kpɪ́dʒɪ́] surface tree bark

f. ıj ̣́ı ̣́ + ụ́ná /ɪ́dʒɪ́ + ʊ́ ná/ → [ɪ́dʒʊ́ ná] tree fire firewood This process is clearly captured by the generative framework as: -cons +syll -cons +son +syll -high → Ø __ # +son

Following this rule, /a/ → Ø __ # u There is a need to keenly note what the rule above stipulates here. It specifies exactly the feature of the vowel that undergoes deletion; on the other hand, any other class of vowel can follow it (in that case, it does not specify the feature of the following vowel). In other words, the vowel must be a [-high] vowel before deletion can take place. In Olukumi when the vowel is [+high], deletion becomes impossible, instead the vowel is converted to glide. A question may then arise 77 about example 59f above, as to why the vowel /i/ got deleted instead of converting to the glide [j]. The answer lies on workings of the OCP rule which prohibits adjacent identical elements from co-occuring.As such, /i/ cannot be converted to /j/ because it is already preceded by a glide /j/.

Glide-Formation Process As stated above, there are certain prerequisite conditions that must be fulfilled for deletion to take place. When two vowels follow each other, either in a word or across word boundary, the first vowel is deleted if it is not a [+high] vowel. In a case where the vowel is a [+high] vowel, it is converted into a glide. In Olukumi language, the vowel /i/ becomes [j], while [u] becomes [w]. Within the generative framework, this process is adequately captured by the phonological rule; -cons +cons +son +son +cons +syll syll +son +high → +high / __ # +syll It is by this phonological rule that the outputs in the examples below are derived in the language. Example 60 Orthography Input Output a. erụ́ ṇ́ + elạ́́ /ɛ́rʊ̃́+ ɛ́lá/ → [ɛ́rwɛ̃́lá] mouth cow ‘a cow’s mouth’

b. órí + eẓ̀ ɪ̀ /órí + ɛ̀zɪ̀/ → [órjɛ́zɪ̀] head sheep ‘a sheep’s head’

c. ózú + erụ́ ̣́lé /ózú + ɛ́rʊ́ lé/ → [ózwɛ́rʊ́ lé] eyegoat ‘a goat’s eye’

d. étí + ázá /étí + ázá/ → [étjázá] eardog ‘a dog’s ear’

e. ébí + ómí /ébí +ómí/ → [ébjómí] hunger water thirst

We can see that all front high vowels followed by any other vowel are converted into [j] in their output, while the back high vowels /u/ becomes [w]. Using the generative (phonological) rule we can summarise both cases as; 78

a. /ʊ/ → [w] /__ # /ɛ/ b. /i/ → [j] / __ # /ɛ/ Consonant Deletion Unlike insertion, where the only class of segments that are usually inserted are vowel, deletion process affects both vowels and consonants. In Olukumi, consonant deletion is born out of the need to maintain euphony and ease articulation of words. By their nature consonants take a lot of energy to articulate, as such when two identical consonants are juxtaposed across neighbouring syllabic boundaries. When that happens, the consonant in the first syllable deletes in rapid speech leaving the second identical segment. This deletion does not in any way distort the semantic content of the word. Examples are shown below. Example 61 Orthography Input Output a. ekṕ̣ ıkpá ̣́ /ɛ́kpɪ́kpá/ → [ɛ́ɪ́kpá] surface

b. èbùbe ̣̀ /ɛ̀bùbɛ̀/ → [ɛ̀ùbɛ̀] dust

c. ògwùgwù /ògwùgwù/ → [òùgwù] darkness

d. ànyı̣̀nyà /àɲɪ̀ɲà/ → [àɪ̀ɲà] horse

e. ákıko ̣́ ̣́ /ákɪ́kɔ́/ → [áɪ́kɔ́] cock

f. ótùtù /ótùtù/ → [óùtù] cold

4.2.3 Tonal Processes in Olukumi In the Olukumi language when phonological processes (such as vowel deletion and glide-formation) occur, the tone of the deleted segment undergoes one of three possible modifications; tone deletion, tone realignment (tone stability), tone mobility. The kind of modification, the tone of a deleted segment undergoes is based on its value/feature (whether low or high) and the value of the adjacent tone. These three tonal possibilities in the language are explored with relevant examples below. 79

Tone Deletion In this language, tone deletion is only possible if the tone of the deleted tone bearing unit (vowel in this case) is identical with the tone of the adjacent segment. The rule of OCP which prohibits adjacent identical elements ensures that even identical tones that adjacent to each other does not violate its principle by co-occurring together at the surface level. Examples of this process are shown below. Example 62 Orthography Input Output a. áráúlé /árá + úlé/ → [árúlé] wall body house

b. ébíómí /ébí + ómí/ → [ébjómí] thirst hunger water

c. ıkp ̣́ ıkpaíjí ̣́ /ɪ́kpɪ́kpá + ɪ́jɪ́/ → [ɪ́kpɪ́kpɪ́jɪ́] bark surface tree

d. okpụ̀ òkẹ̀̀ /ɔ̀kpʊ̀ + òkè/ → [ɔ̀kpwòkè] palmwine wine palm

e. onàẹ̀ kwụ̀ ̣̀ /ɔ̀nà + ɛ̀kwʊ̀ / → [ɔ̀nɛ̀kwʊ̀ ] doorway way door

In the examples above we can observe the consistency in the deleting of both high tones (a-c) and low tones (d-e) due to their adjacency to identical tones. This process of tone deletion is triggered by either vowel deletion process (examples a,c, and e) or glide-formation process (examples b and d) as can be seen above. The autosegemental theory provides a vivid analysis of how this process of tone deletion takes place. We present such analysis using one of the examples cited above.

Figure 24 Input Output

Tonal H H H H H H H H H HH H H H H tier syllable vowel tone tier v cv v cv deletion v cv v cv deletion v c vc v v cv c v segmental tier /a r a + u l e/ [a r a u l e] [a r u l e] [a r u l e]

At the level of input (when the words were in isolation), we observe four high tones. However, when the process of compounding takes place two vowels become juxtaposed to each other. This co-occurrence of two vowels obligatorily triggers the process of vowel deletion (or glide- formation as the case might be). The deletion of the vowel leaves its tone stranded; and within the autosegmental framework, the well formedness condition (WFC) stipulates that every tone must be associated to a tone bearing unit. So since the OCP prohibits adjacent identical element (in this case two identical H tones), the stranded tone of the deleted vowel, obligatorily deletes to derive just three H tones at the output level.

Tone Stability Stability is the opposite of deletion. Recall in the examples we cited under tone deletion, carry identical tones. So what then happens when the tone of the deleted vowel is not identical to the tone of the following vowel? One of the possibilities is for the tone to realign with the adjacent unidentical tone. Some examples in the language are given below. Example 63 Orthography Input Output a. obẹ̀ ̣̀ılá ̣́ /ɔ̀bɛ̀ + ɪ́lá/ → [ɔ̀bɪ̌ lá] soup okra okra soup b. usàómị́̀ /ʊ̀ sà + ómí/ → [ʊ̀ sǒmí] pot water waterpot c. ukàọ̀ wọ́ ̣́ /ʊ̀ kà + ɔ́wɔ́/ → [ʊ̀ kɔ̌ wɔ́] nail finger fingernail 81

d. usạ̀̀ ı̣́nya /ʊ̀ sà + ɪ́ɲá/ → [ʊ̀ sɪ̌ɲá] pot food cooking pot e. ukàọ̀ hẹ́ ̣̀n /ʊ̀ kà + ɔ́hɛ̃̀/ → [ʊ̀ kɔ̌ hɛ̃̀] nail leg toenail This process is analysed as; Figure 25 Input Output

Tonal L L H H L L H H L L H H L LL H tier syllable vowel tone tier v c v v cv deletion vcv vcv realign- v c vc v v c v c v ment segmental (stability) tier /ɔ b ɛ + ɪ l a/ [ɔ bɛ ɪ l a] [ɔ b ɪ l a] [ɔ b ɪ l a]

From the examples and the analysis above we observe a contour tone at the output level which is as a result of the contraction of the floating tone of the tone of the deleted segment with the tone of the following vowel; a case of stability. Note that the same number of tones that are in the input also resurfaces on the output irrespective of the fact that the number of tone bearing unit (vowel) originally in the input level have been reduced on the output level due to deletion process. Again we observe that the vowel that gets elided carries a low tone while the next vowel begins with a high tone in all the examples cited above. So does it then imply that sequence of a H L cannot result in stability? Yes, that is the case in Olukumi language. A clear explanation of this exertion will lead us to the next tonal possibility in Olukumi language.

Tone Mobility In Olukumi language, when the tone of a deleted vowel is a H tone and the next vowel begins with a L tone, the H tone does not reassociate itself with the next vowel carry the L tone irrespective of the fact that they are unidentical. When there is a H L sequence what happens is this: • First the L tone originally borne by the second vowel (the vowel that was not affected by deletion) gets deleted. • Then the H tone of the deleted vowel then moves unto the vowel from where the tone was deleted. 82

What this implies is that in Olukumi a H-L sequence in the input results in a H form in the output. Examples in the language include: Example 64 Orthography Input Output a. ı̣́woạ̀́ gbà /ɪ́wɔ́ + àgbã̀/ → [ɪ́wágbã̀] beard hair jaw

b. éwéògèdè /éwé + ògèdè/ → [éwógèdè] plantain leaf leaf plantain

c. ékpóòrúrú /ékpó + òrúrú/ → [ékpórúrú] cotton oil oil cotton

d. ónyéìfè /óɲé + ìfè/ → [óɲífè] moon person light

e. ọ́dọ́nọ̀ruṇ́ /ɔ́dɔ̃́ + ɔ̀rʊ̃́/ → [ɔ́dɔ̃́rʊ̃́] century year hundred

An autosegmental analysis of tone Figure 26 Input Output

Tonal H H L L H H L L HH L L H H L tier syllable vowel L tone reasso- tier v c v v c v deletion v cv v c v deletion v c v c v citation v c v c v of float- segmental ing H tone tier /ɪ w ɔ + a gb a/ [ɪ wɔ a gb a] [ɪ w a gb a] [ɪ w a gb a]

From the analysis above, we observe that before tone mobility can take place, the vowel that ends a word must end with a H vowel and another word across another word must begin with a vowel. When this first condition has been satisfied and compounding process takes place it juxtaposes two boundary vowel and the first must then obligatorily delete. When this vowel gets deleted its tone neither deletes nor contracts with the unidentical tone of the next vowel. Rather it floats and compels the L tone of the next vowel to delete; when that happens, it then aligns with the toneless vowel to produce an output with three tones instead the four tones at the input level.

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION

5.1 Summary

This research work is centred on the Olukumi language; the aboriginal language of the Ukwunzu people of Delta state. Prior to this research, In the Olukumi language the only previous study that existed in this language was limited to “A comparative phonology of the Olukumi, Igala, Owe and Yoruba languages”(Arokoyo, 2012). In her study, she described the Olukumi language as having twenty-two (22) consonants, twelve (12) vowels and syllable structures V, CV, CVV, and C.̣ Some of her claims pertaining to the sound system of the Olukumi language showed a lot of inadequacies. For instance, beside the fact that the sound inventory of the language in her work excluded some distinctive sounds of the language, her work did not cover a topic like tone.Again, since the nature of her work was comparative, the scope of her study did not include any subject pertaining to phonological processes in the language. Also suprasegemental features in the language (such as tone) were not discussed at all. Thus, based on the fact that so many phonologically relevant information about the language was not accounted for in her study, the general objective of this study hinged on revealing the aspects of Olukumi phonology that was not discussed in her study. To facilitate a more detailed and extensive study, the general objective was formulated into three categories. First phonological processes that affect segments (assimilation), phonological processes that affect the syllable structure (insertion, deletion and glide-formation) and phonological processes that affects tone (tonal processes). Data for this work was gathered using the Ibadan four hundred word list (see appendix III) and personal structured word list (appendix IV), which was used at a later stage to capture some vital phonological information which only exists in associative constructions. Four indigenes of Ukwunzu were randomly selected and interviewed and their responses were recorded using a digital recorder. Phonological analysis was done with the aid of IPA help software. Phonemes were identified in the language using the minimal pair test. Basically, two linguistic theories were adopted in analysing phonological processes in this work; SPE framework by Chomsky and Halle was used for the analysis of segmental features, while the autosegmental framework by Goldsmith was used for the analysis of suprasegmental features. However, before we proceeded into our main objective, we did a brief study to ascertain the 84 number of phonemes, syllables and tones in the language. In determining the tones and phonemes of the language, the minimal pair test was used to establish phonemic contrast. 5.2 Findings In our introductory chapter, we outline four principal objectives of this study. Based on these objectives, data were gathered and analysed, from which the following findings were made. The first objective which is the description of the sound system of the Olukumi language yielded the following findings: 1. The Olukumi language has twenty-four distinctive consonantal phonemes as against Arokoyo’s twenty-two consonants. Her study failed to highlight the labio-velar nasal /ŋw/ and the palatal nasal /ɲ/ as distinct consonants in the language. 2. There are fourteen distinctive vowels in the language and among these fourteen vowels; nines are oral vowels, while five are nasal vowels. Contrary to Arokoyo (2012) description of the vowel system of the language which only highlighted twelve vowels (seven oral vowels and five nasal vowels). Her inventory excluded the front high vowel /ɪ/ and its back high counterpart /ʊ/ which are full-fledged phonemes in the language 3. Basically, Olukumi has two syllable types; the V and the CV. However in addition to these two syllable types, there is also a third phonological syllable; the CGV, which is a product of glide-formation process. This is contrary to Arokoyo’s claim that the V,CV,CVV and the C̟ exists in the language. 4. Olukumi is a register tone language with only two tones. Unlike most two tone languages that have a third possible tonal phenomenon called downstep, Olukumi has just the (H)igh and (L)ow tone which are identifiable using minimal pair test. The following findings were made from investigation into the various types of assimilation process that are existent in the language. 5. Palatalisation and labialisation are two segmental processes which are prevalent in the language. When glide formation takes place in the language, if the vowel being converted is the high front vowel /i/, it results in the voiced palatal approximant [j] following another consonant. On the other hand, if the vowel being affected is the back high vowel /u/, then it results in the voiced labio-velar approximant [w] following another consonant. In rapid speech, usually due to the need to ease articulation, the voiced palatal approximant [j] and the voiced labio-velar approximant [w] are not articulated as distinct units; rather they are 85

produced as some form of superimposed features or secondary articulation. A clear instance of palatalisation and labialisation. 6. There are two types of nasalisation process in Olukumi language; a. the first is the common type of nasalisation process results from a nasal consonant which is present in the construction. This type of nasalisation is progressive and can only affect the vowel that follows it immediately. b. In the second type of nasalisation, the nasal consonant which is the source of this nasalisation have been lost historically. This type of nasalisation is very contagious unlike the first. 7. There is evidence of vowels which are nasalised underlyingly and show contrast with their oral counterparts lexically. In other words, the feature [+nasal] is a distinctive feature in this language. 8. Nasalised vowels are capable of spreading their nasal features across a word, nasalising both vowels and some classes of consonants like [r,j,h]; however, stops cannot be nasalised. In fact, the spreading of the nasal feature is blocked by the presence of a stop. 9. Nasal spread spans beyond word boundary across morphological boundary. This is evident in the formation of gerunds in the language. 10. Interestingly, findings show that this nasal feature is capable of existing independent of segmental support. This study shows instances where a vowel bearing nasality ( ̃ ) gets deleted where as the nasality feature does not delete but rather resurfaces on a following non-nasal vowel; a clear case of nasal stability. 11. The vowels of the Olukumi language are organised into two harmonising sets; [+ATR] and [-ATR] vowels. This harmony feature plays a very important role in the selection of the affix vowels in the formation of gerunds in the language. [+ATR] root vowels select [+ATR] affix vowels, while [-ATR] root vowels select [-ATR] affix vowels. This a form of harmony spread. Finding from our investigation on the syllable structure processes in the language includes: 12. In loan words, vowel insertion process is used to break up consonant clusters and to ensure that the phonotactic constraint of the language is not violated. 13. When there is a co-occurrence of two vowels in the language (usually in associative

constructions), the first vowel in the sequence (V1) obligatorily deletes. 86

14. However when the first vowel across the boundary is a high vowel /i/ or /u/, deletion becomes impossible. Rather the front high vowel is converted to the voiced palatal approximant [j], while the back high vowel is converted to the voiced labio-velar approximant. 15. When two identical consonants are juxtaposed across syllable boundaries, the need to ease articulation in rapid speech results in the deletion of the consonant in the first syllable. Our investigation on tonal processes yielded the following findings. 16. When a tone bearing unit (TBU) delete usually across word/morpheme boundary, there are four possibilities for the tone it bears, depend on the feature of the tone on the following TBU in this language. 17. Vowels are the only TBUs in the language since syllabic consonants do not exist. 18. Tone deletion is the standard norm when the tone of the vowel deleted is identical to the tone of the following vowel. Thus we have a sequence of H+H → H and L+L → L. 19. A low tone survives the deletion of its TBU if the following vowel bears a high tone. In formal rule, we would have L+H → LH. 20. There are only two basic tones in this language; the H and the L tone. Contour tones are non-basic; they are mere concatenation of two basic tones (L+H) produced by the stability effect of tones whose TBU have been deleted. 21. A sequence of a H+L does not result in a contour tone, rather it yields a simple H tone.

5.3 Conclusion and recommendation This research work has adequately achieved its four major objective set out at the beginning of the work. From the findings of this research, the following conclusions are drawn. Contrary to earlier claims by Arokoyo (2012), there are twenty-four consonants and fourteen distinctive segments in the language. Among these fourteen vowels, nine are oral vowels while five are nasal vowels. There are three possible syllable structures in the language; the two basic ones are the V and the CV while the CGV is non basic. As opposed to claims by earlier study, Olukumi language completely lacks a syllabic nasal; therefore there are three rather than four syllable types in the language. It should be noted that since there are no syllabic nasals in Olukumi, the processes of homorganicity is not possible given the fact that since most African languages do not permit consonant clusters, for homorganic nasals to occur there must be a sequence of a syllabic nasal sharing the place of assimilation of a following consonant. Again 87 there are only two basic tones in the language, the high and low tone. Contour tones in the language are therefore merger of two basic tones. There are no instances of downstep tones in this language. Palatalisation, labialisation, nasalisation and vowel harmony are the prevalent assimilation processes in the language. In palatalisation, labialisation and nasalisation (in some instances) the assimilatory effect is usually within a syllable. Nasal and harmony spread however span longer distance, even beyond a syllable. As such while palatalisation, labialisation and nasalisation (which results from nasal consonants that are present in the word) can be accounted for by the SPE framework, same cannot be said for nasal or harmony spread. Since their domain spans beyond syllabic and even word/morpheme boundaries, it can only be properly captured by the autosegemntal framework. Again the ability of nasal feature to survive the deletion of the vowel that originally bears it is a clear indication that the nasal feature like tone is independent of segmental support. Vowel insertion, vowel insertion, consonant deletion and glide-formation are resultant effect of the OCP which strives to ensure that the language’s phonotactic constraints are not violated as well as ensuring that adjacent identical elements do not co-occur within the same minimal phonological unit. These processes therefore ease articulations, most especially in rapid rather than deliberate speech process. When a tone bearing unit gets deleted or converted by the phonological process of deletion or glide-formation, one of the four processes has to take place; tone deletion, tone contraction (stability effect), and tone mobility. The specific tonal process that can take place is based on the features of the juxtaposed tones. The OCP rule which was originally proposed to handle tonal complexes (leben 1973) ensures that in associative constructions when a TBU gets deleted, a sequence of H+H yields a single H in its output and a sequence of L+L yields a single L in as its output in the language. In the case where the tone of the deleted segment is a L tone and the next vowel is a H tone, then the tone must realign itself on that following vowel, creating a contour. In the case where the tone of the deleted vowel is a H tone and the tone of the next vowel is a L tone, the H tone forces the vowel to drop its original tone before it realigns itself with the TBU as a single H tone. Having satisfied the objectives of this work which were stated ab initio, and by implication has provided answers to the research questions raised; this work has to a large extent 88 provided an adequate description of the phonology of the Olukumi language. Taking these facts into consideration, we recommend that this work be seen as a basic foundation for carrying out further research in the different aspects of the language such as morphology, phonology, syntax, semantics, lexicography, documentation and so on. Such extensive research in the language when undertaken successfully would ensure that the Olukumi language is properly described and documented.

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Respondents Mr Alex Okenyi. Sixty-eight years old. Mr E.E.Okenyi. Eighty-two years old. Mr Emeka Okolie. Twenty-nine years old. HRH Obi Christopher Ogoh. Seventy years old.

APPENDIX I

APPENDIX II: SPE FEATURE MATRIX

APPENDIX III

IBADAN WORDS LIST OF 400 ITEMS (ENGLISH) VERSION

Give the following information Investigator’s name:……………………………………………………………… Investigator’s addresse ..………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… Informate name:…………………………………………………………………. Informant age……………………………………………………………………. Informant’s language (A) official name……………………………………… (B) name used by speakers:………………………….. What other language does the informant speak?:……………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………………… Informant home town or village?...... How long has informant lived in home town or village?:………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………… Where is this town? (a) list the nearest large town and state their distance and direction :………………………………………………………………………… (b) Name the local government Authority:………………….. Name by which speakers language are known (a) official :…………………….. (b) Among themselves :………………… Does the language have written form :………………………………………….. If it doesn’t name the language whose spelling is taken as the basic for the spelling of the word in the list (English, Hausa):………………………………...

1. head 2. hair (head) 3. Eye 4. ear 5. Nose 6. mouth 7. Tooth 8. Tongue 9. jaw 10. Chin 11. Beard 12. Neck 13. breast (female) 14. Heart 15. belly (external) 16. stomach (internal) 17. Navel 18. Back 19. Arm 20. Hand 21. nail (finger or toe) 22. Buttocks 23. penis 24. Vagina 25. thigh 26. leg 27. Knee 28. body 29. Skin 30. Bone 31. blood 32. Saliva 33. Urine 34. Faces 35. Food 36. Water 97

37. soup/sauce/stow 38. Meat 39. Fat 40. fish 41. oil 42. Salt 43. wine/bear (general word) 44. palm wine 45. Yam 46. cassava 47. guinea corn 48. Millet 49. maize 50. Beans 51. pepper 52. Okra 53. plantain 54. banana 55. orange 56. ground nut 57. kola nut 58. Tobacco 59. Cotton 60. oil palm 61. Seed 62. Grass 63. Tree 64. Leaf 65. bark (of tree) 66. Root 67. thorn 68. Stick 69. firewood 70. charcoal 71. fire 72. Smoke 98

73. Ashes 74. water pot 75. cooking pot 76. calabash 77. grinding stone 78. Mortar 79. Knife 80. hoe 81. Axe 82. Matchet 83. spear (war) 84. bow (weapon) 85. arrow 86. iron (metal) 87. Mat 88. Basket 89. Bag 90. Rope 91. Needle 92. Thread 93. cloth (material ) 94. robe/ gown/smock (men’s) 95. hat/cap 96. Shoe 97. Money 98. door (way) 99. wall (of house) 100. Room 101. House 102. compound 103. Town 104. village 105. Well 106. rubbish heap 107. Road 108. Market 99

109. Farm 110. “bush” 111. River 112. Sea 113. boat (canoe) 114. Stone 115. Mountain 116. Ground 117. earth (soil) 118. Sand 119. Dust 120. Mud 121. Wind 122. Rain 123. Sunshine 124. sun 125. Moon 126. Star 127. Day 128. Night 129. Drawn 130. Darkness 131. Sleep 132. Work 133. War 134. Fear 135. Hunger 136. Thirst 137. Year 138. rainy seasons 139. dry seasons 140. Song 141. Story 142. Word 143. lies (s) 144. Thing 100

145. Animal 146. Goat 147. he-goat 148. Sheep 149. cow (zebu) 150. Horse 151. Donkey 152. Dog 153. Cat 154. Rat 155. chicken (domestic fowl 156. Cock 157. Duck 158. Egg 159. Wing 160. Feather 161. Horn 162. Tail 163. Leopard 164. Crocodile 165. Elephant 166. buffalo (bush cow) 167. Monkey 168. Tortoise 169. Snake 170. lizard (common variety) 171. crab 172. toad (frog) 173. snail 174. Housefly 175. Bee 176. mosquito 177. Lice 178. bird 179. vulture 180. kite 101

181. Hawk 182. guinea fowl 183. bat 184. Person 185. Name 186. Man 187. Male 188. husband 189. women 190. female 191. wife 192. old person 193. senior/older 194. Father 195. Mother 196. Child 197. Children 198. Son 199. Daughter 200. brother(elder)(for man) 201. brother (younger) (for man) 202. sister (elder) (for man) 203. sister (younger) (for man) 204. mother’s brother 205. inlaw 206. guest (stranger ) 207. friend 208. king 209. hunter 210. Thief 211. doctor (native) 212. Witch 213. Chief 214. medicine(charm) 215. fetish(῝juju῍) 216. Corpse 102

217. God 218. One 219. Two 220. Three 221. Four 222. Five 223. Six 224. Seven 225. Eight 226. Nine 227. Ten 228. Eleven 229. Twelve 230. Thirteen 231. Fourteen 232. Fifteen 233. Sixteen 234. Seventeen 235. Eighteen 236. Nineteen

237. Twenty 238. twenty-one 239. twenty-two 240. thirty 241. forty 242. Fifty 243. sixty 244. seventy 245. eighty 246. ninety 247. hundred 248. two hundred 249. four hundred 250. black 251. white 252. Red 103

253. big(great, large) 254. Small 255. long (of stick) 256. short (of stick) 257. old (opp. new) 258. New 259. Wet 260. Dry 261. hot (as fire) 262. Cold 263. right (side) 264. Left 265. good

266. Bad 267. sweet (tasty) 268. Heavy 269. Full 270. Strong 271. Hard 272. Eat 273. Drink 274. Swallow 275. Bite 276. Lick 277. Tast 278. Spit 279. Vomit 280. Urinate 281. Defecate 282. give birth 283. Die 284. stand (up) 285. sit down 286. Kneel 287. lie (down) 104

288. Sleep 289. Dream 290. Go 291. Come 292. return (intr) 293. Arrive 294. Enter 295. Climb 296. Desend 297. Fall 298. Walk 299. Run 300. Jump 301. Fly 302. pass (by) 303. turn round (intr) 304. Follow 305. See 306. Hear 307. touch (with hand) 308. Know 309. Remember 310. Forget 311. Think 312. Learn 313. Laugh 314. weep (cry) 315. Sing 316. Dance 317. play (games) 318. Fear 319. greet (salute) 320. Abuse 321. Fight 322. call (summon) 323. send (someone to do something) 105

324. say (direct speech) 325. ask (question) 326. Reply 327. ask (question) 328. Refuse 329. Like 330. Want 331. look for 332. lose (something) 333. get (obtain) 334. gather (things) 335. Steal 336. take (one things) 337. carry (load) 338. show (something) 339. give 340. Sell 341. Choose 342. Buy 343. pay (for something) 344. Count 345. divide (share out) 346. finish (intr) 347. Catch 348. Shoot 349. Kill 350. skin (flay) 351. Cook 352. Fry 353. Roast 354. pound (in mortar) 355. Grind 356. Pour 357. Throw 358. Sweep 106

359. burn (tr) 360. extinguish (tr) 361. plait (hair) 362. weave (cloth) 363. spin (thread) 364. Sew 365. put on (clothes) 366. take off (clothes) 367. wash (things) 368. wash (body) 369. wring (clothes) 370. Pull 371. Push 372. beat (person) 373. beat (drum) 374. break (pot, calabash) 375. break (a stick) 376. tear (tree) 377. split (tree) 378. Pierce 379. Hoe 380. Dig 381. sow (seeds in holes) 382. plant (tubers) 383. Bury 384. build (house) 385. mould (pot) 386. carve (wood) 387. Make 388. hold (in hand) 389. tie (rope) 390. Untie 391. cover (a pot) 392. open (door) 393. Close 107

394. be rotten 395. Stink 396. swell (intr. of boil) 397. blow (with mouth) 398. blow (0f wind) 399. Surpass 400. Dwell

108

APPENDIX IV: SELF STRUCTURED QUESTIONAIRE 1. bite - /rɔ̃́/ rọn biting - /rɪ̃rɔ̃/ rịrọn 2. walk - /rɛ̃́/ rẹn walking - /ʊ̃́rɛ̃́/ ụrẹn 3. roast - /hɔ̃́/ họn roasting - /ɪ̃́hɔ̃́/ ịhọn 4. sleep - /hʊ̃̀/ hụn sleeping - /ɪ̃́hʊ̃̀/ ịhụn 5. push - /tɪ̃́/ tịn pushing - /tɪ́tɪ̃̀/ titin 6. fly - /fó/ fo flying - /fífó/ fifo 7. cook - /té/ te cooking - /títé/ tite 8. pound - /gwṹ/ gwun pounding - /gwígwũ/ gwigwun 9. say - /fɔ́/ fọ saying - /fɪ́fɔ́/ fịfọ 10. weave - /bá/ ba weaving - /bɪ́bá/ ịba 11. sell - /tà/ ta selling - /tɪ́tà/ tịta 12. ‘body’ árá + úlé ‘house’ áraúlé - wall 13. ‘food’ ɪ́nyá + ósú ‘yam’ ɪ́nyósú - pounded yam 14. ‘body’ árá + úgwṹ ‘vulture’ árúgwṹ - vulture carcass 15. ‘meat’ ɛ́rã́ + ugḅ́ ɛ̃́ ‘snail’ ɛ́rugḅ̃́ ɛ̃́ - snail meat 16. ‘cow’ ɛ́ru ̣̃́ + ɛ́lá cow ɛ́rɛ̃́lá - a cow’s mouth 17. ‘hair’ ɪ́rɔ̃́ + àgbã̀ jaw ɪ́rã́́gbã̀ - beards 18. ‘faeces’ ɪ́wɪ̃́ + ɛ́lá cow ɪ́wɛ̃́lá - dung 19. ‘leg’ ɔ́hɛ̃̀ + ɔ́tɔ̃́ right ɔ́hɔ̃̌tɔ̃́ - right leg 20. ‘soup’ ɔ̀bɛ̀ + ɪ́lá okra ɔ̀bɪ̌ lá - okra soup 21. ‘pot’ usạ̀̀ + ómí water uṣ̀ ǒmí - water pot 22. ‘nail’ ukạ̀̀ + ɔ́wɔ́ ‘finger’ uḳ̀ ɔ̌ wɔ́ - fingernail 23. ‘hunger’ ébí + ómí ‘water’ ébjǒmí - thirst 24. ‘surface’ ɪ́kpɪ́kpá + ɪ́jɪ́ ‘tree’ ɪ́kpɪ́kpɪ́jɪ́ - bark 25. ‘ear’ étí + ázá ‘dog’ étjázá - a dog’s ear 26. ‘head’ órí + ákɪ́kɔ́ ‘cock’ órjákɪ́kɔ́ - a fowl’s head 27. ‘year’ ɔ́dɔ̃́ + ɔ̀rʊ̃́ ‘hundred’ ɔ́dɔ̃́rʊ̃́ - century 28. ‘person’ ónyé + ìfè ‘light’ ónyífé - moon 29. ‘leaf’ éwé + ògèdè ‘plantain’ éwógèdè - plantain leaf 30. ‘oil’ ékpó + òrúrú ‘cotton’ ékpórúrú - cotton oil