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Explorations in the Phonology, Typology and Grounding of Height Harmony in Five-Vowel Bantu Languages

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Explorations in the Phonology, Typology and Grounding of Height Harmony in Five-Vowel Bantu Languages Explorations in the phonology, typology and grounding of height harmony in five-vowel Bantu languages A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2021 Stephen Nichols School of ARts, Languages and CultuRes Contents List of tables .................................... 8 List of figures .................................... 10 List of abbreviations ................................ 13 Abstract ....................................... 14 Declaration ..................................... 15 Copyright statement ............................... 16 Acknowledgements ................................ 17 Epigraph ....................................... 20 1 Introduction .................................. 21 1.1 General introduction ........................... 21 1.2 Synopsis .................................. 23 1.3 Structure of the thesis ........................... 25 2 Descriptive background ........................... 27 2.1 Introduction ................................ 27 2.2 A brief introduction to vowel harmony . 28 2.3 Height harmony outside Bantu ...................... 32 2.3.1 Metaphony in Romance ..................... 33 2.3.2 Old Norwegian .......................... 34 2.3.3 Buchan Scots ........................... 35 2.3.4 English-based creoles of the Pacific . 36 2.3.5 Colloquial Iranian Persian .................... 38 2.3.6 Lhasa Tibetan ........................... 38 2 Height harmony in five-vowel Bantu languages 2.3.7 Menominee ............................ 40 2.3.8 Jingulu ............................... 41 2.3.9 Esimbi ............................... 42 2.4 Introduction to the Bantu languages ................... 43 2.4.1 General background information . 43 2.4.2 Vowel inventories ......................... 44 2.4.3 Morphological overview ..................... 46 2.5 Preliminaries to vowel harmony in Bantu . 46 2.5.1 Harmonic feature ......................... 47 2.5.2 Direction of harmony ...................... 47 2.5.3 Domain of harmony ....................... 47 2.5.4 Transparency and opacity .................... 48 2.5.5 Canonical vowel harmony .................... 49 2.6 A survey of vowel harmony in Bantu . 49 2.6.1 Tonga (M.64) ........................... 50 2.6.2 Yao (P.21) ............................. 52 2.6.3 Mbunda (K.15) .......................... 52 2.6.4 South Kongo (H.16a) ....................... 53 2.6.5 Mbukushu (K.333) ........................ 54 2.6.6 Kikamba (H.112a) ......................... 56 2.6.7 Punu (B.43) ............................ 57 2.6.8 Nyamwezi (F.22) ......................... 58 2.6.9 Rangi (F.33) ............................ 59 2.6.10 Kikuyu (E.51) ........................... 59 2.6.11 Nyakyusa (M.31) ......................... 60 2.6.12 Kisi (G.67) ............................. 61 2.6.13 Kinga (G.65) ............................ 62 2.6.14 Matumbi (P.13) .......................... 62 2.6.15 Ndendeule (N.101) ........................ 64 2.6.16 Nande (D.42) ........................... 65 2.6.17 Mongo–Nkundo (C.61) ...................... 67 2.6.18 Koyo (C.24) ............................ 68 2.6.19 Zulu (S.42) ............................. 69 2.6.20 Venda (S.21) ............................ 72 3 Height harmony in five-vowel Bantu languages 2.6.21 Sotho (S.33) ............................ 74 2.6.22 Phuthi (S.404) ........................... 76 2.7 Historical considerations of vowel harmony in Bantu . 78 2.7.1 The vowel inventory of Proto-Bantu . 78 2.7.2 An overview of the diachrony of vowel harmony in Bantu . 81 2.7.2.1 An initial review .................... 81 2.7.2.2 Verbal extensions ................... 82 2.7.2.3 Hyman’s (1999) “peripheralisation” account . 83 2.7.2.4 Evidence from the Kikongo Language Cluster . 86 3 Theoretical background ............................ 88 3.1 Introduction ................................ 88 3.2 Previous analyses ............................. 89 3.2.1 Underspecification ........................ 90 3.2.2 Elements .............................. 91 3.2.3 Positional faithfulness ...................... 94 3.2.4 Contrastive hierarchy ...................... 99 3.3 Particular issues .............................. 102 3.3.1 Asymmetry ............................ 103 3.3.2 Peripheral vowels . 105 3.3.3 Lexical category . 106 4 Vowel-pair frequency study ......................... 109 4.1 Introduction ................................ 109 4.2 Background information . 111 4.3 Lexical statistics, phonetic naturalness and phonotactics . 114 4.4 Methodology ................................ 115 4.4.1 Data sources ............................ 115 4.4.2 Data processing . 116 4.4.3 Data analysis . 117 4.5 Results and discussion . 119 4.5.1 Non-harmonic vowel pairs . 120 4.5.1.1 Results . 120 4.5.1.2 Discussion . 123 4.5.2 Non-low vowel pairs (same backness) . 124 4 Height harmony in five-vowel Bantu languages 4.5.2.1 Results . 124 4.5.2.2 Discussion . 128 4.5.3 Non-low vowel pairs (different backness) . 130 4.5.3.1 Results . 130 4.5.3.2 Discussion . 133 4.5.4 Low–non-low vowel pairs . 134 4.5.4.1 Results . 134 4.5.4.2 Discussion . 136 4.5.5 General discussion . 137 4.6 Summary .................................. 138 5 Phonotactics in Lozi .............................. 140 5.1 Introduction ................................ 140 5.2 Methodology ................................ 141 5.3 Results ................................... 142 5.4 Initial discussion .............................. 145 5.5 Exceptions ................................. 147 5.5.1 In verbs .............................. 147 5.5.2 In nouns .............................. 149 5.5.3 Summary ............................. 152 5.6 Vowel epenthesis ............................. 152 5.6.1 Epenthesis in borrowings . 153 5.6.2 Epenthesis in native vocabulary . 156 5.6.3 Perspectives on epenthesis in loan words . 157 5.6.4 Epenthesis as compromise . 159 5.6.5 Epenthesis and weak versus full vowels . 163 5.6.6 Summary ............................. 166 5.7 Further discussion and implications . 167 5.7.1 Environments where [o.u] can occur . 167 5.7.2 On prosodic structure . 169 5.7.3 On morphological structure . 171 5.8 Summary .................................. 172 6 Production experiment ............................ 173 6.1 Introduction ................................ 173 5 Height harmony in five-vowel Bantu languages 6.2 Languages of study ............................ 174 6.3 Vowel-to-vowel coarticulation and vowel harmony . 176 6.4 Rule scattering ............................... 179 6.5 The present experiment . 180 6.6 Methodology ................................ 183 6.6.1 Stimuli ............................... 183 6.6.2 Participants ............................ 184 6.6.3 Data collection . 185 6.6.4 Forced-alignment and measurement extraction . 185 6.6.5 Post-processing . 189 6.6.6 Statistical methods . 190 6.7 Results ................................... 191 6.7.1 Summary ............................. 192 6.7.2 Bemba ............................... 194 6.7.2.1 Statistical models . 194 6.7.2.2 Further data exploration . 200 6.7.3 Nyanja ............................... 202 6.7.3.1 Statistical models . 202 6.7.3.2 Further data exploration . 208 6.7.4 Lozi ................................ 209 6.7.4.1 Statistical models . 209 6.7.4.2 Further data exploration . 215 6.8 Initial discussion .............................. 217 6.8.1 Bemba ............................... 217 6.8.2 Nyanja ............................... 218 6.8.3 Lozi ................................ 219 6.9 Further discussion ............................. 220 6.9.1 Front versus back height harmony . 220 6.9.2 Notes on [e.u] and [e.o] . 224 6.9.3 Vowel-pair frequencies and differences in F1 . 224 6.9.4 Height harmony and the coarticulation of F1 . 227 6.9.5 A note on the F1 of the low vowel . 228 6.10 Summary .................................. 229 7 General discussion ............................... 231 6 Height harmony in five-vowel Bantu languages 7.1 Introduction ................................ 231 7.2 Correlates of markedness . 232 7.3 Nasal–plosive clusters and nasal place assimilation . 233 7.4 Bantu height harmony . 235 7.4.1 Reviewing the present evidence . 235 7.4.2 Implications for grounding . 236 7.4.3 Interim summary . 240 7.4.4 Typology, language history and formal analysis . 240 7.4.5 On markedness in formal accounts . 240 8 Conclusion ................................... 243 References ...................................... 246 A Stimuli used in chapter 6 ........................... 304 A.1 Bemba ................................... 304 A.2 Nyanja ................................... 308 A.3 Lozi ..................................... 314 Word count: 66,984 7 List of tables 1 Vowel inventory of Degema ....................... 29 2 Vowel inventory of Proto-Bantu ..................... 78 3 Summary of Bantu Spirantisation .................... 80 4 Alternative vowel inventory of Proto-Bantu . 81 5 The six-language sample of five-vowel Bantu languages . 111 6 Data sources taken from the Comparative Bantu OnLine Dictionary . 115 7 Intervening segments in simple Lozi nouns containing [o.u] in Lozi . 152 8 Harmonic and non-harmonic vowel pairs in Bemba, Nyanja and Lozi 176 9 Contrasting properties of phonological and phonetic rules . 177 10 Contrasting properties of vowel harmony and vowel-to-vowel coar- ticulation .................................. 178 11 Summary of expected differences in the F1 of non-low vowels inBe- mba, Nyanja and Lozi should coarticulation mirror harmony . 181 12 Details
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