Suba‑Simbiti Orthography Statement

SUBA‑SIMBITI ORTHOGRAPHY STATEMENT

SIL International Uganda-Tanzania Branch Suba‑Simbiti Orthography Statement

Approved Orthography Edition

Acknowledgements

Many individuals contributed to this document by formatting the structure, contributing the language data, organizing the data, writing the document and by giving advice for editing the document. This document was authored by Rebekah Overton and John B. Walker, and it is an updated and expanded version of the Suba‑Simbiti Orthography Sketch. Other SIL members who have been involved in the development of the Suba-Simbiti orthography include Dave Brewerton, Alison Compton, Leila Schroeder and Oliver Stegen, as well as Holly Robinson and Brigitte Niederseer, who reviewed and helped to improve this document. Contributors from the Suba‑Simbiti language community include Albinus Waynse and Robert Mago (Simbiti Bible translators), as well as Julius Kishërë Mwita, Wilfred Matesi, Grace Barasa, Jackson Mangarai, Stephen Bwana, Joyce Kazi, Peter Mwita Nyakamande, Dorka Kimera, Vincent Marwa, and Stephen Shirati.

P.O. Box 1235 Musoma, Tanzania

P.O. Box 60368 Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

P.O. Box 750 Entebbe, Uganda

P.O. Box 44456 00100 Nairobi, Kenya

Approved Orthography Edition: July 2018

Table of Contents

Abbreviations ...... 5 1. Introduction ...... 6 1.1 Classification ...... 6 1.2 Data ...... 6 1.3 Dialects ...... 6 1.4 Format and Purpose of this Orthography Statement ...... 8 2. Phonology ...... 8 2.1 Vowels ...... 8 2.1.1 Phonemic Vowel Length ...... 9 2.1.2 Vowel Length in Conditioned Environments ...... 10 2.1.3 Vowel Length in Noun Class Prefixes ...... 13 2.2 Consonants ...... 14 2.2.1 Palatalisation ...... 16 2.2.2 Labialisation ...... 18 2.2.3 Prenasalisation ...... 18 2.3 Tone ...... 19 3. Morphophonology ...... 22 3.1 Vowels ...... 22 3.1.1 Vowel Harmony Processes ...... 22 3.1.2 Vowel Adjacency at Morpheme Boundaries ...... 28 3.1.3 Word-Initial ...... 35 3.2 Consonants ...... 38 3.2.1 Dahl’s Law ...... 38 3.2.2 Elision of /ɾ/ ...... 38 3.2.3 1SG Nasal Prefix ...... 39 3.3 Morphophonological Process between Verb Suffixes ...... 40 3.3.1 Creation of the Trill ...... 40 3.3.2 Applicative with Anterior ...... 42 3.3.3 Causative with Anterior ...... 43 4. Word Boundaries ...... 43 4.1 Copula ...... 43 4.2 Locatives ...... 47 4.3 Associatives ...... 49

4.4 Conjunction ...... 51 4.5 Negative Clitics ...... 51 4.6 Question Words...... 53 4.7 Adverbial ...... 54 4.8 Reduplication ...... 54 4.9 Compound Words ...... 57 5. Loan Words ...... 58 6. Punctuation ...... 59 6.1 Sentence-Final Punctuation...... 59 6.2 Comma ...... 59 6.3 Colon ...... 60 6.4 Quotation Marks ...... 60 7. Capitalisation ...... 61 References ...... 63 Appendix A: Suba‑Simbiti Noun Class Chart ...... 64 Appendix B: Noun Class Pairings ...... 67 Appendix C: The History of Suba-Simbiti Orthography Development ...... 68

Abbreviations

1 1st person, or Noun Class 1 FOC Focus Marker 2 2nd person, or Noun Class 2 FV Final Vowel 3 3rd person, or Noun Class 3 HAB Habitual 4 Noun Class 4 HYP Hypothetical 5 Noun Class 5 INF Infinitive 6 Noun Class 6 N Nasal 7 Noun Class 7 NAR Narrative 8 Noun Class 8 NEG Negative 9 Noun Class 9 P2 Remote Past (before today) 10 Noun Class 10 P3 Untimed Past 11 Noun Class 11 PL Plural 12 Noun Class 12 (diminutive) PRS Present 14 Noun Class 14 PST Past 15 Noun Class 15 REFL Reflexive 16 Noun Class 16 SBJV Subjunctive 17 Noun Class 17 SG Singular 18 Noun Class 18 V Vowel ANT Anterior1 APPLIC Applicative ATR Advanced Tongue Root C Consonant CAUS Causative F1 Immediate Future F2 Today’s Future

1 This term is taken from Walker’s (2013) analysis. 5

1. Introduction

1.1 Classification Suba‑Simbiti is a Bantu language spoken in the Mara Region of Tanzania. The ISO 639-3 code for Suba‑Simbiti is [ssc] (Simons and Fennig, 2018), and it should not be confused with the Suba language of Kenya [sxb], classed as JE403 by Maho (2009). It is part of the Lacustrine languages, a name given because of the proximity to Lake Victoria. The language name Suba‑Simbiti includes a number of language varieties (see §1.3 below).

1.2 Data The data in this study comes from a variety of sources, including the Suba‑Simbiti people who attended numerous orthography development and orthography testing workshops in the Mara Region between 2006 and 2009. There has also been ongoing research conducted by SIL linguists and Suba-Simbiti Bible translators. Trial orthography status was granted to Suba‑Simbiti in 2009, as described in the “Suba‑Simbiti Orthography Sketch” (Compton and Walker, 2010). Additional orthography refinement and testing was carried out among Suba‑Simbiti speakers over the years, and changes and additions based on that research are included in this document. The SIL linguists are very grateful to all the Suba‑Simbiti people who have participated in this process.

1.3 Dialects The name “Suba” is an umbrella term which includes several related ethnolinguistic groups. Table 1.3 below lists each of these groups, including Maho’s (2009) classification (which exists for some groups but not others), as well as population figures (Simons and Fennig, 2018).

Table 1.3: Suba language varieties Language variety Population (2011 estimate) Simbiti (JE431) 33,000 Hacha (JE432) 4,200 Surwa (JE433) 4,200 Sweta (JE434) 12,800 Kine 14,500

Language variety Population (2011 estimate) Rieri2 unknown

Simbiti is by far the largest of these groups. It is the reference dialect chosen for written materials intended to serve the Suba people, thus the name “Suba-Simbiti”. In Swahili, the language name is “Kisimbiti”, and in Simbiti it is “Ikisimbëtë”. A 2011 sociolinguistic survey confirmed close ties between these Suba groups, a high level of mutual intelligibility, and a general willingness for each of them to use Simbiti written materials (Mitterhofer and Robinson, 2012). However, the survey also confirmed some significant linguistic differences between some of the language varieties, including different vowel inventories, regular sound changes, and some vocabulary differences. Therefore, current language development and translation activities continue to target the Suba group as a whole, while also acknowledging that some of the Suba groups might be better served in the future by materials in their own language varieties, dependant on community interest and resources. Simbiti itself has some dialectal differences, with some speakers influenced by proximity to the Kuria language area, and others influenced by Sweta. The most notable dialect difference throughout the Simbiti language area is pronunciation of the class 10 nominal prefix. The form used in the standardised orthography is /sɛ-/, realised as , which represents the speech of the Makutano/Irienyi/Komuge area, which is in the centre of the Simbiti language area.3 There is also great similarity between Simbiti and the languages of the nearby Kiroba and Iregi people. Kiroba and Iregi are currently listed under the same [ssc] language code, and they are indeed linguistically similar to Simbiti. They do not, however, consider themselves to be part of the “Suba” group, so for sociolinguistic reasons these two groups might be most ideally served by separate written materials.

2 The Rieri are ethnically Suba, but most Rieri have adopted the Luo language as their mother tongue, so they have not been significantly involved in Suba-Simbiti orthography development activities. 3 Note that this is different to the recommendation received from some Simbiti speakers during the 2011 survey. At that time, some suggested following the more northern dialect spoken in the Kisumwa area, which has the prefix pronunciation instead of . However, further research and discussion has shown that is also a very acceptable option which actually represents the speech of more Simbiti speakers. 7

1.4 Format and Purpose of this Orthography Statement The purpose of this orthography statement is to show the approved orthography of Suba‑Simbiti and the reasons behind the orthographic decisions that have been made. Although there is phonological and grammatical information in this paper, the primary intent is to give necessary documentation for orthography decisions. All data is written using the orthography itself, unless otherwise stated. Orthographic brackets <> are used when necessary, but any data not in brackets should be assumed to be in orthographic form. Slashes // are used to indicate underlying phonemes, and square brackets [] the phonetic form. All glosses are in both Swahili, the national language of Tanzania, and English. The following sections focus on phonology (§2), morphophonology (§3), word-boundary rules (§4), loan words (§5), punctuation (§6), and capitalisation (§7).

2. Phonology

2.1 Vowels Suba‑Simbiti has seven vowel phonemes plus contrastive length. However, different vowel systems are displayed in nouns and verbs. Nouns have a seven-vowel system, with one set of high-vowels, two sets of mid-vowels, and one low central vowel: , phonemically /i, u, e, o, ɛ, ɔ, a/ respectively. Verbs, on the other hand, show a five-vowel system in stems, , with allophonic variations of the mid-vowels to when certain verbal suffixes are added (see §3.1.1.3 on vowel harmony in verbal suffixes). Evidence of all vowel phonemes, not regarding length or tone, is found in the following bisyllabic roots with identical vowels (i.e. V1=V2), shown in Table 2.1 below.

Table 2.1: Vowel phoneme inventory Phoneme Grapheme Orthography4 Swahili English i i urusiri kamba rope e ë ëngërë ngiri boar ɛ e engere aina ya samaki type of fish a a enkara kiroboto flea

4 The stem of each word in highlighted in bold. 8

Phoneme Grapheme Orthography4 Swahili English ɔ o rikongo ugali mgumu stiff ugali (maize meal) o ö riköngö nchi kame barren land u u umukungu mzee wa kike elder woman

There are minimal pairs for the mid-vowel pairs and , as shown in the table above. See §3.1.1.2 concerning vowel harmony in prefixes. The vowel combination also appears root internally in twelve words in the data set, including the word ‘mamba’ ‘crocodile’. It seems to be a diphthong, functioning as a single phoneme in a way comparable to long vowels (Overton, 2018). (See §2.3 and §3.1.2.1 for details of when the vowel sequence is written.)

2.1.1 Phonemic Vowel Length

Vowel length is contrastive in Suba‑Simbiti, and there are minimal pairs which are distinguished only by length (or near minimal pairs where the roots are contrastive but are in different classes). The following table gives evidence of this contrastive vowel length. Long vowels are represented by writing the vowel grapheme twice.

Table 2.1.1a: Vowel length minimal pairs Vowel Short Vowel Swahili /English Long Vowel Swahili /English i /i/ ukusika kuangamia /to disappear ukusiika kufunga /to close ugonjwa wa mnyama kiwete /crippled ë /e/ öröbhëru ömöbhëëru /type of animal disease person aina ya mtego wa e /ɛ/ ritera pembe /horn riteera samaki /type of fish trap a /a/ okobhasha kuvamia /to attack okobhaasha kuchonga /to carve o /ɔ/ okoghota kuzeeka /to age okoghoota kushika /to grasp ö /o/ righöti shingo /neck righööti kodi /tax laika (ya wanyama) upande wa bega u /u/ ribhuri ibhuuri /body hair (animal) /side of the shoulder

Table 2.1.1b below gives examples of phonemic long vowels in different syllable structures.5 All syllables in Suba‑Simbiti are open, as is normal for Bantu languages. Long vowels can occur in adjacent syllables but never word finally.

Table 2.1.1b: Vowel length in different syllable structures Stem syllable Stem syllable Simbiti Swahili English count structure 1 CV öröme umande dew V.CV umwibhi mwizi thief 2 CV.CV ribhina muziki music CVV.CV ikimiira pokeo tradition CV.CV.CV ikibhisirë methali proverb CVV.CV.CV obhoreenero ngazi ladder 3 CV.CVV.CV ikisukaare ndizi banana CVV.CVV.CV ëkësëëkaani chemichemi spring of water CV.CV.CV.CV ikibhurughusi aina ya mjusi type of lizard CVV.CV.CV.CV etaabharanda kivunjavunja praying mantis 4 aina ya mmea type of CV.CVV.CV.CV ritaraatora wa dawa medicinal plant CVV.CV.CVV.CV ëkëkëërikëëri aina ya mmea type of plant

2.1.2 Vowel Length in Conditioned Environments

Suba‑Simbiti also has conditioned long vowels, which are found after labialised or palatalised consonants, before prenasalised consonants, and before the alveolar trill. In these environments, phonetically the vowels sound longer; this means that the vowel length contrast is neutralised in these environments. Therefore, within roots (of both nouns and verbs), even though these conditioned vowels are phonetically lengthened to some degree, they are not phonemically long and are written short. Table 2.1.2a gives examples of each of these environments, showing the words written according to the aforementioned rule.

5 For the purpose of this description, I have analysed prenasalised consonants as units, as opposed to sequential consonant clusters. 10

Table 2.1.2a: Vowel length in conditioned environments within roots Orthography Phonetic Phonemic Swahili English Prenasalisation ekeghambo [ɛkɛɣaːmbɔ] /ɛkɛ-ɣambɔ/ lugha language tobacco pipe Labialisation ikikwabhë [ikikwaːβe] /ɛkɛ-kwaβe/ kiko /elbow Palatalisation umubhyara [umuβjaːɾa] /ɔmɔ-βjaɾa/ binamu cousin Alveolar trill6 omorro [ɔmɔːrɔ] /ɔmɔ-rɔ/ moto fire

Exceptions to this rule are across morpheme boundaries in inflected verbs: for example, if a vowel-initial stem has a prenasalised consonant, the vowel of a subject prefix might join with the stem-initial vowel to create a derived long vowel. It is desirable to preserve the vowels of the underlying morphemes wherever possible, since vowel length in verbs often carries grammatical meaning, sometimes distinguishing tense or aspect. In verbs therefore, multiple vowels are written if there are multiple underlying morphemes, even in a seemingly conditioned environment. Some examples are shown in Table 2.1.2b below. (See §2.3 for examples of where writing derived long vowels can differentiate tenses orthographically.)

Table 2.1.2b: Long vowels written in conditioned environments Orthography Phonetic Phonemic Swahili English araanga [aɾaːŋga] /a-ɾa-aŋg-a/ anakataa he is refusing 3SG-PRS-refuse-FV bhaandeke [βaːndɛkɛ] /βa-andɛk-ɛ/ waandike they should 3PL-write-SBJV write tweeghya [tweːɣja] /tɔ-a-ɛɣ-i-a/ tulifundisha we taught (P2) 1PL-PST-teach-CAUS-FV

Certain verb roots have a phonemic long vowel followed by /ɾ/, and very often the addition of certain suffixes (e.g. Applicative <‑er>, Anterior <‑ire>) causes a trill /r/ to be formed. Since the long vowel is underlying present, not present only phonetically because of the conditioned environment before the trill, the long vowel is written even in forms with the trill:

6 The trill is often formed from the earlier elision of a vowel between two taps . This can be clearly seen by comparing the word omorro with the same stem in other Mara languages: Kabwa omururo; Ikizu omurero; Kwaya, Zanaki and Jita omuriro; Ikoma omororo. Nurse and Philippson (2006) give the Proto-Bantu as *mʊ-lɪlo. 11

Table 2.1.2c: Long vowels before trill Orthography Phonetic Phonemic Swahili English ukwinaara [ukwinaːɾa] /ɔkɔ-inaːɾ-a/ kuzunguka to go around INF-go.around-FV bhainaarrë [βainaːre] /βa-inaːɾ-iɾe/ wamezunguka they have gone 3PL-go.around-ANT around ukukuura [ukukuːɾa] /uku-kuːɾ-a/ kulia to cry INF-cry-FV bhakuurrë [βakuːre] /βa-kuːɾ-iɾe/ wamelia they have cried 3PL-cry-ANT

Usually no more than two adjacent vowels are written, since, even if there are underlyingly more than two vowels, the resulting vowel is still recognised as a normal long vowel – Suba‑Simbiti does not have phonemically ‘extra-long’ vowels. More than two adjacent vowels are written only in the combination ; see §2.3 for an explanation of this. Table 2.1.2d below shows examples of where two vowels are written for a long vowel, but there are three vowels underlyingly:

Table 2.1.2d: Absence of ‘extra-long’ vowels Orthography Phonetic Phonemic Swahili English bhaandëkirë [βaːndekiɾe] /βa-a-andɛk-iɾe/ waliandika they wrote (P2) 3PL-PST-write-ANT βaangirë [βaːŋgiɾe] /βa-a-aŋg-iɾe/ walikataa they refused (P2) 3PL-PST-refuse-ANT

Across morpheme boundaries in noun-related words it was decided not to break the rule, because there are no known instances where vowel length in a seemingly conditioned environment would distinguish between different meanings in these types of words. Thus, in nouns and adjectives one vowel is written in a conditioned environment at a morpheme boundary, even if there is more than one vowel underlyingly, for example:

Table 2.1.2e: Conditioned environments at morpheme boundaries in nouns Orthography Phonetic Phonemic Swahili English abhenga [aβɛːŋga] /aβa-ɛŋga/ bibi harusi bride 2-bride bhonswe [bhɔːnswɛ] /βa-ɔnswɛ/ wao pia they also 2-also

2.1.3 Vowel Length in Noun Class Prefixes The class 5 nominal prefix surfaces as long with monosyllabic noun stems, and in these cases it is written long . With stems with two or more syllables, the prefix is short and is written short. Some examples of the Class 5 prefix with stems of different lengths are given in Table 2.1.3a below:

Table 2.1.3a: Class 5 prefix with different length stems Class 5 noun Swahili English riibhu jivu ash 1-syllable stem riihë vita war ribhina muziki music 2-syllable stem rireebhwa mhogo cassava ribhaabhayö papai papaya 3-syllable stem riwensero madhabahu altar

The class 10 nominal prefix also shows a variant with a long vowel when occurring before monosyllabic stems. This variation is shown in the orthography. Before monosyllabic stems the prefix is clearly perceived as long, and therefore in this environment it is written long. Before stems of two or more syllables, the prefix is perceived as short and is written short.7 Table 2.1.3b below shows examples of the class 10 prefix with nouns of different stem lengths.

Table 2.1.3b: Class 10 prefix with different length stems Class 10 noun Swahili English seeka koo tribe, families 1-syllable stem seesa masaa hours sehagho matunda fruits 2-syllable stem sembaara pande parts sehakëri akili mind 3-syllable stem sembeehera makaburi graves

7 There is at least one exception to this, with the bisyllabic stem seehera ‘hela’ ‘money’ in which the prefix is clearly perceived as long. It is not yet understood why this is an exception, but it is written with a long vowel in the prefix. 13

2.2 Consonants Suba‑Simbiti contains the following consonant phonemes, shown in Table 2.2a according to their place and manner of articulation (the graphemes are given below, with the phonetic realisation as necessary):

Table 2.2a: Suba‑Simbiti consonant phonemes Voicing velar Manner of articulation labial alveolar palatal /nasalisation /glottal Stops and affricates voiceless p t k voiced bh [β] d j [dʒ] gh [ɣ] prenasalised8 mb nd ng [ŋg]

Fricatives voiceless f s sh [ʃ] h

Sonorants nasal m n ny [ɲ] ng’ [ŋ] r [ɾ] oral w y [j] rr [r] The fricatives /β/ and /ɣ/ become stops when prenasalised, and in those cases they are written and respectively. When palatalised or labialised these consonants are pronounced as fricatives, and written as , , and . Simbiti has a phonemic contrast between the alveolar tap /ɾ/ and the trill /r/ , as shown by the following minimal pairs:9

Table 2.2b: Alveolar tap and trill minimal pairs10 Orthography Phonetic Phonemic Swahili English omooro [ɔmɔːɾɔ] /ɔmɔ-ɔɾɔ/ mto river omorro [ɔmɔːrɔ] /ɔmɔ-rɔ/ moto fire okoghora [ɔkɔɣɔɾa] /ɔkɔ-ɣɔɾ-a/ kununua to buy okoghorra [ɔkɔɣɔːra] /ɔkɔ-ɣɔr-a/ kunyoosha to straighten

8 These prenasalised consonants are included in the table of consonant phonemes because the nasal changes the nature of the following consonant; see explanations following the table. 9 Note that the vowel preceding the alveolar trill is compensatorily lengthened, see §2.1.2. 10 Note than the first pair are a minimal pair phonetically, and the second pair are a minimal pair phonemically. 14

The consonants /p/, /f/, /d/ and /dʒ/ occur almost exclusively in Swahili loan words and are written

, , and respectively, following the Swahili orthography.11 Other phonemes are written following the Swahili orthography as well, including /ʃ/ as , /ɲ/ as , /ŋ/ as , /ŋg/ as , and /j/ as . The only consonants that are usually restricted to stem-medial position are prenasalised consonants. Class 9/10 nouns stems often appear to begin with prenasalised consonants, but underlyingly the nasal is actually part of the prefix. This can be seen in the following example, where the Suba‑Simbiti word has a class 11 singular prefix and a class 10 plural prefix. These prefixes make the root evident, showing that the is underlyingly an at the beginning of the root:

Table 2.2c: is underlying /Nɾ/ Orthography Phonetic Phonemic Swahili English ororara [ɔɾɔɾaɾa] /ɔɾɔ-ɾaɾa/ aina ya mti type of tree sendara [sɛndaɾa] /sɛN-ɾaɾa/ aina ya mti (wingi) type of tree (plural)

The common exceptions, which do have stem-initial prenasalised consonants, are ‘maji’ ‘water’, and the /nto/ noun stem, found in words including ‘mtu’ ‘person’ and ‘kitu’ ‘thing’. Evidence of each phoneme is available in the following table, showing if they occur both stem-initially and stem-medially. The phoneme is in the leftmost column, while the orthographic representation is shown in the stem-initial and stem-medial columns:

Table 2.2d: Occurrences of Suba‑Simbiti consonant phonemes Stem-initial Swahili English Stem-medial Swahili English /p/ ripeera pera guava ekekapo kikapu basket aina ya /mb/ - - - emamba type of fish samaki garbage /f/ umufuko mfuko pocket ubhushafu takataka dump

11 Note that when the tap is prenasalised it becomes , which occurs in non-loanwords. 15

Stem-initial Swahili English Stem-medial Swahili English /β/ ribhaara kipande slice ukwisaabha kuoga to bathe /m/ okomanya kujua to know ekenama paja thigh /w/ ikiwembe wembe razor ekesaawa chamvua corn husk /t/ okotanga kuanza to begin engata twisho headpad aina ya /d/ indighi ukuta wall domodomo type of fish samaki praying /nd/ abhandë wengine others etaabharanda kivunjavunja mantis /s/ omosaani rafiki friend ikyasamötë aina ya mti type of tree /n/ okonaghya kulinda to herd ekeghanana aina ya mti type of tree /ɾ/ obhorabhu nuru light ikibhisirë methali proverb to be strong /r/ öbhörrë kitanda bed okohangarra kukakawana (physically) yoke (for /dʒ/ amajöki12 nira edaraja daraja bridge oxen) /ʃ/ umushaasha mwanaume man okobhaasha kuchonga carve /ɲ/ inyaamu paka cat okomanya kujua to know /j/ bhayö hao those mayaayi njano yellow /k/ okokebha kukata to cut nyakarare pilipili hot pepper nape of /ŋg/ ëkëngötiira ukosi enkangaaru -ekundu red neck /h/ umuhyö panga machete righuha mfupa bone /ɣ/ okoghenda kutembea to walk okoghegha kubeba to carry aina ya /ŋ/ eng’ana neno word nyaang'anda type of bird ndege

2.2.1 Palatalisation Within nouns and verbs, palatalisation13 occurs stem-initially and stem-medially (see §3.1.2.2 on glide formation, a common cause of palatalised consonants). According

12 This is one of the few apparently non-loanword examples of /dʒ/ in Simbiti. 16

to the data set, three consonant phonemes do not display palatalisation within roots: . (Also, and are never palatalised.) Table 2.2.1a shows examples of palatalisation in all three root positions.

Table 2.2.1a: Palatalisation Palatalisation Orthography Phonetic Phonemic Swahili English Stem-initial isyaghara [isjaːɣaɾa] /ɛ-sjaɣaɾa/ mjusi lizard Stem-medial rikumyö [ɾikumjo] /ɾi-kumjo/ sifa praise

Palatalisation occurs across morpheme boundaries, commonly root-finally in verbs when the root is followed by the Causative suffix (see §3.1.1.3.1 for further details about the Causative suffix). Usually the Causative suffix is written <‑y>:

Table 2.2.1b: Palatalisation with the Causative suffix Orthography Phonetic Phonemic Swahili English okotema [ɔkɔtɛma] /ɔkɔ-tɛm-a/ kupiga to hit INF-hit-FV ökötëmya [okotemja] /ɔkɔ-tɛm-i-a/ kupigisha to cause to hit INF-hit-CAUS-FV

When the Causative follows verb roots ending with an alveolar or palatal nasal, the Causative suffix is written with an <-i>. In these cases there is a syllable break before the final vowel <-a>. For example:

Table 2.2.1c: Causative suffix with alveolar and palatal nasals Orthography Phonetic Phonemic Swahili English okomeena [ɔkɔmɛːna] /ɔkɔ-mɛːn-a/ kulamba to lick INF-lick-FV ökömëënia [okomeːnia] /ɔkɔ-mɛːn-i-a/ kulambisha to cause to lick INF-lick-CAUS-FV okokenya [ɔkɔkɛɲa] /ɔkɔ-kɛɲ-a/ kukimbia to run INF-run-FV ökökënyia [okokeɲia] /ɔkɔ-kɛɲ-i-a/ kukimbiza to cause to run; to INF-run-CAUS-FV chase

13 Within this paper the use of the term ‘palatalisation’ does not mean that we are claiming that a separate set of palatalised consonants are formed, but rather that a sequence is formed of a consonant followed by a palatal glide /j/. 17

This issue is especially important because the palatal nasal is already written . The palatalised alveolar nasal is differentiated from the palatal nasal by being written . The palatal nasal followed by the Causative is written .

2.2.2 Labialisation Within nouns and verbs, labialisation14 occurs stem-initially and stem-medially (see §3.1.2.2 on glide formation, a common cause of labialised consonants). All true phonemes (i.e. those which do not only occur in Swahili loanwords) display labialisation (apart from and , which are never labialised). Also, like palatalisation, labialisation is prevalent across morpheme boundaries (particularly with the Passive verbal suffix) and can occur with consonants which had no examples of stem-medial labialisation. Table 2.2.2 shows examples of labialisation. Table 2.2.2: Labialisation

Suba‑Simbiti Swahili English Stem-initial labialisation ikimwensi aina ya kifutu type of viper irinyamwiti bundi owl Stem-medial labialisation okong’entwa kusama to choke

2.2.3 Prenasalisation Prenasalisation occurs in Suba‑Simbiti root-internally in both nouns and verbs. Table 2.2.3a shows examples of stem-internal prenasalisation at many different places and with different manners of articulation.

Table 2.2.3a: Prenasalisation Prenasalised Consonants Suba‑Simbiti Swahili English mb okwighomba kutapia to be eager nd okokandora kubandua to strip off ns okosensa kupembua to winnow nt okonantera kunata to stick nsh okotanshora kuponyoka to escape

14 Within this paper the use of the term ‘labialisation’ does not mean that we are claiming that a separate set of labialised consonants are formed, but rather that a sequence is formed of a consonant followed by a labio-velar glide /w/. 18

Prenasalised Consonants Suba‑Simbiti Swahili English ng okohongora kutapika to vomit nk engonkone mjusi kafiri gecko

Prenasalisation is also common across morpheme boundaries, especially with noun classes 9 and 10. As mentioned above (§2.2), when is prenasalised, it becomes . Prenasalised also occurs with the 1sg subject and object verb prefix (see §3.2.3 for further details). There are some Suba‑Simbiti words which have prenasalised consonants in a root-initial position. The following words from classes 1, 6, 7, 14 and 15 were found.

Table 2.2.3b: Prenasalisation in root-initial position Orthography Phonetic Phonemic Swahili English ömöntö [omoːnto] /ɔmɔ-nto/ mtu person amanshë [amaːɲʃe] /ama-ɲʃe/ maji water ëkëntö [ekeːnto] /ɛkɛ-nto/ kitu thing ëkëngötiira [ekeːŋgotiːɾa] /ɛkɛ-ŋgotiːɾa/ ukosi nape of neck ubhunsha [uβuːnʃa] /ɔβɔ-ɲʃa/ ua la maboga pumpkin flower okongerya [ɔkɔŋgɛɾja] /ɔkɔ-ŋgɛɾja/ kujumlisha to add

2.3 Tone There is no lexical tone in Suba‑Simbiti. There is grammatical tone on verbs, and two verb tenses in particular sometimes form tonal minimal pairs. The minimal pairs occur between the Anterior and the Remote Past with certain vowel-initial verb roots. Below are firstly examples of these tenses when they are not ambiguous, followed by examples illustrating ambiguous forms. With consonant-initial roots, the Anterior and Remote Past are distinguished by the presence of the /a-/ past tense prefix in the Remote Past, shown in the examples below:

Table 2.3a: Anterior and Remote Past with consonant-initial roots Orthography Phonetic Phonemic Swahili English bhatöbhërëkirë [βatóβeɾekíɾe] /βa-tɔ-βɛɾɛk-iɾe/ wametubeba they have 3PL-1PL-carry-ANT carried us bhaatöbhërëkirë [βaːtoβeɾékiɾe] /βa-a-tɔ-βɛɾɛk-iɾe/ walitubeba they carried 3PL-PST-1PL-carry-ANT us (P2) ötëmirë [otemíɾe] /ɔ-tɛm-iɾe/ umepiga you have hit 1PL-hit-ANT watëmirë [watemíɾe] /ɔ-a-tɛm-iɾe/ ulipiga you hit (P2) 1PL-PST-hit-ANT

The distinct tone patterns for these two tense-aspect forms can be most clearly seen with longer verb roots, as shown in the first two examples above: the Anterior has a high tone underlyingly on the first and fourth moras of the macrostem, and the Remote Past has a high tone underlyingly on the third mora of the macrostem (see Walker and Aunio, 2016, for further details on Simbiti melodic tone pattens).

With vowel-initial roots, it is possible to distinguish the two tenses orthographically when the subject prefix ends in a vowel other than , as shown in the examples below:

Table 2.3b: Anterior and Remote Past distinguished orthographically Orthography Phonetic Phonemic Swahili English twëbhirë [tweːβíɾe] /tɔ-ɛβ-iɾe/ tumesahau we have forgotten 1PL-forget-ANT twëëbhirë [tweːβíɾe] /tɔ-a-ɛβ-iɾe/ tulisahau we forgot (P2) 1PL-PST-forget-ANT kyöbhöhirë [kjóːβohíɾe] /kɛ-ɔβɔh-iɾe/ kimeogopa it has feared 7-fear-ANT kyööbhöhirë [kjoːβohíɾe] /kɛ-a-ɔβɔh-iɾe/ kiliogopa it was afraid (P2) 7-PST-fear-ANT

In the examples above, when the vowel of the subject prefix desyllabifies, the following vowel is compensatorily lengthened; this means that the Anterior also has a phonetically long vowel before the root, as well as the Remote Past, meaning that the two tenses are identical in terms of vowel length. Also, they are sometimes completely phonetically identical, even in tone pattern, especially with short verb roots in which the tone patterns cannot be so clearly distinguished (as in the first two 20

examples above). However, it is possible to distinguish the two tenses orthographically in this environment by representing the underlying morphemes: only a short vowel is written in the Anterior (representing the root-initial vowel), but a long vowel is written for the Remote Past (representing the past tense prefix and the root-initial vowel). With /i/-initial roots, it is also possible to differentiate the two tenses orthographically, regardless of the vowel of the subject prefix. When the subject prefix ends in , the two tenses are distinguished by writing the underlying morphemes; this leads to writing a sequence of three vowels in the Remote Past, as shown in the table below:15

Table 2.3c: Anterior and Remote Past distinguish by writing Orthography Phonetic Phonemic Swahili English bhaighuurë [βaíɣúːɾe] /βa-iɣw-iɾe/ wamesikia they have heard 3PL-hear-ANT bhaaighuurë [βaiɣúːɾe] /βa-a-iɣw-iɾe/ walisikia they heard (P2) 3PL-PST-hear-ANT

However, when the subject prefix ends in , and the vowel-initial root is other than /i/-initial, it is not possible to differentiate the two tenses orthographically. Sometimes, often with longer verb stems, the two forms are tonally distinct, but sometimes with short verb roots they are completely phonetically identical.

Table 2.3d: Anterior and Remote Past identical orthographically Orthography Phonetic Phonemic Swahili English bhaandëkirë [βáːndekíɾe] /βa-andɛk-iɾe/ wameandika they have written 3PL-write-ANT bhaandëkirë [βaːndekíɾe] /βa-a-andɛk-iɾe/ waliandika they wrote (P2) /3PL-PST-write-ANT/ bhëëghirë [βéːɣíɾe] /βa-ɛɣ-iɾe/ wamejifunza they have learnt 3PL-learn-ANT bhëëghirë [βeːɣíɾe] /βa-a-ɛɣ-iɾe/ walijifunza they learnt (P2) 3PL-PST-learn-ANT

15 The sequence is also written with /i/-initial roots with the Immediate Future (SBJ‑raa‑R‑e), with the Hypothetical (SBJ‑kaa‑R‑irë) and with the Negative Hypothetical (SBJ‑ta-kaa‑R‑irë) (see §3.1.2.1 for further details about ). 21

As all of the examples above have shown, it has been decided to distinguish the Anterior and Remote Past orthographically wherever possible, by representing the underlying morphemes. But for those few cases where it is not possible to distinguish them orthographically, context will make it clear which tense is required. For further details of Suba‑Simbiti grammatical tone contrasts, see Walker and Aunio (2016).

3. Morphophonology

3.1 Vowels

Morphophonological phenomena on vowels are found frequently in Suba‑Simbiti. Vowel harmony will be looked at in section 3.1.1. First, vowel harmony within noun roots will be examined, followed by nominal and verbal prefixes, and then verbal suffixes. Section 3.1.2 looks at the various processes that happen when vowels are adjacent at morpheme boundaries, including the diphthong , glide formation, assimilation, and intervocalic glide insertion. Section 3.1.3 describes how a glide is sometimes inserted word-initially, creating word-initial .

3.1.1 Vowel Harmony Processes Suba‑Simbiti has extensive vowel height harmony, affecting roots, prefixes and suffixes, which harmonise with other vowels in the word. There are four vowel heights: high /i, u/ , high-mid /e, o/ , low-mid /ɛ, ɔ/ , and low /a/ . The low vowel /a/ is neutral, not participating in the vowel-harmony processes, and opaque, blocking vowel harmony processes. Vowel harmony operates from right-to-left, moving leftward from suffixes or roots all the way to prefixes. All of the vowel harmony processes described in this section are at the level of mother-tongue speaker awareness, and the overarching orthography rule is to write the vowels as they are pronounced, even in cases of root vowel alternations. First, we describe vowel harmony within noun roots (§3.1.1.1), followed by vowel harmony in both nominal and verbal prefixes (§3.1.1.2), followed by vowel harmony in verb stems and suffixes (§3.1.1.3).