DOCSLIB.ORG

A Grammar of Agolle Kusaal Revised Version

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Grammar of Agolle Kusaal Revised Version A Grammar of Agolle Kusaal Revised Version David Eddyshaw i Contents Preface....................................................................................................................... x Preface to the Revised Version.................................................................................xii Introduction to the Grammar..................................................................................xiii Other Studies of Kusaal............................................................................................xv Abbreviations......................................................................................................... xvii Interlinear Glossing...............................................................................................xviii Transcription Conventions.......................................................................................xx Sources................................................................................................................... xxii References/Bibliography.......................................................................................xxiii 1 Introduction to Kusaal and the Kusaasi.....................................................................1 1.1 The Kusaasi People.............................................................................................2 1.2 The Kusaal Language..........................................................................................4 1.2.1 Language Status..........................................................................................4 1.2.2 Dialects........................................................................................................5 1.2.3 Related Languages......................................................................................6 1.2.4 Languages in Contact................................................................................15 1.3 Outline of Kusaal Grammar..............................................................................17 Morphophonemics....................................................................................................... 32 2 Orthography............................................................................................................. 32 2.1 Orthography of Written Materials....................................................................36 2.1.1 Vowels and Consonants..............................................................................36 2.1.2 Other Issues...............................................................................................38 3 Words, Morae and Syllables.....................................................................................40 3.1 Word Classes.....................................................................................................40 3.2 Apocope............................................................................................................ 40 3.2.1 Superscript Notation.................................................................................44 3.2.2 Predictability of Long Forms......................................................................47 3.3 Word Division....................................................................................................51 3.3.1 Compound Noun Phrases...........................................................................51 3.3.2 Liaison........................................................................................................53 3.3.3 Words with Zero Segmental Representation.............................................56 3.4 Morae and Syllables..........................................................................................57 3.5 Ordering of Morphophonemic Rules.................................................................58 4 Consonants............................................................................................................... 59 4.1 Inventory and Symbols.....................................................................................59 4.2 Consonant Clusters...........................................................................................64 ii 5 Vowels...................................................................................................................... 67 5.1 Inventory and Symbols.....................................................................................67 5.1.1 Agolle Vowel Breaking...............................................................................68 5.2 Root Vowels.......................................................................................................70 5.2.1 Nasalisation...............................................................................................70 5.2.2 Glottalisation..............................................................................................73 5.2.3 Diphthongs.................................................................................................75 5.3 Epenthetic Vowels.............................................................................................78 5.4 Affix Vowels....................................................................................................... 79 6 Tones........................................................................................................................ 81 6.1 Tonemes............................................................................................................82 6.2 Realisation Rules...............................................................................................84 6.2.1 H Spreading...............................................................................................85 6.2.2 Downstepping before H.............................................................................88 6.2.3 LM Levelling..............................................................................................92 7 Word Segmental Structure......................................................................................94 7.1 Roots, Prefxes and Suffixes..............................................................................94 7.1.1 Root Alternations.......................................................................................97 7.1.1.1 CV:~CV...............................................................................................97 7.1.1.2 CV:C~CVC.........................................................................................101 7.1.1.3 CV:~CVC...........................................................................................102 7.1.1.4 Glottalisation before Derivational Suffixes.......................................103 7.2 Consonant Changes........................................................................................104 7.2.1 Assimilation versus Insertion of Epenthetic Vowels................................104 7.2.1.1 Cluster Simplifcation.......................................................................106 7.2.1.2 Consonant Assimilation in Derivation...............................................108 7.2.1.3 Unexpected Epenthetic Vowel Insertion...........................................109 7.2.1.3.1 After Nasals...............................................................................109 7.2.1.3.2 Between Alveolars.....................................................................113 7.2.2 Epenthetic Consonants............................................................................113 7.3 Vowel Changes................................................................................................117 7.3.1 Fusion...................................................................................................... 117 7.3.2 Fronting and Rounding............................................................................121 7.3.3 Length Constraints..................................................................................124 7.4 Apocope Blocking............................................................................................126 7.5 Clitic Pronouns and Particles..........................................................................127 iii 8 Word Tonal Structure.............................................................................................128 8.1 Tone Patterns..................................................................................................128 8.2 Nominals.........................................................................................................131 8.2.1 Pattern H..................................................................................................131 8.2.1.1 Forms with Deleted Morae...............................................................132 8.2.2 Pattern HL................................................................................................133 8.2.3 Pattern L..................................................................................................134 8.2.4 Pattern O..................................................................................................135 8.2.4.1 Anomalies before Prosodic Clitics....................................................136 8.2.5 Forms with Nominal Prefxes...................................................................137 8.3 Verbs............................................................................................................... 138 8.3.1 Pattern H..................................................................................................138
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: an Annotated Bibliography
    Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography Volume 11 Prosody and Intonation in Non- Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Article 1 Bibliography 2009 Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Bibliography Christopher R. Green Indiana University Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/ejab Part of the African History Commons, and the African Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Green, Christopher R. (2009) "Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Bibliography," Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography: Vol. 11 , Article 1. https://doi.org/10.17077/1092-9576.1010 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Iowa Research Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography by an authorized administrator of Iowa Research Online. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Volume 11 (2009) Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Bibliography Christopher R. Green, Indiana University Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Atlantic – Ijoid 4 Volta – Congo North 6 Kwa 15 Kru 19 Dogon 20 Benue – Congo Cross River 21 Defoid 23 Edoid 25 Igboid 27 Jukunoid 28 Mande 28 Reference Materials 33 Author Index 40 Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages Introduction Most linguists are well aware of the fact that data pertaining to languages spoken in Africa are often less readily available than information on languages spoken in Europe and some parts of Asia. This simple fact is one of the first and largest challenges facing Africanist linguists in their pursuit of preliminary data and references on which to base their research.
    [Show full text]
  • Dagbani Tongue-Root Harmony: a Formal Account with Ultrasound Investigation
    Dagbani Tongue-root Harmony: a formal account with ultrasound investigation by Fusheini Angulu Hudu B.A., University of Ghana, 2002 M.Sc., University of Alberta, 2005 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (Linguistics) The University of British Columbia (Vancouver) August, 2010 c Fusheini Angulu Hudu 2010 ! Abstract The aim of this dissertation is (i) to contribute to understanding of [ATR] harmony patterns with a formal account of Dagbani [ATR] harmony using the theory of Headed Spans (Span Theory) and (ii) to answer basic empirical questions about the relations between tongue-root phonological features and the articulatory gestures involved in producing vowels with these features. In Dagbani [+ATR] harmony, there are three vowel triggers: the high front vowel /i/ triggers progressive assimilation of [+ATR]; the mid vow- els [e] and [o] trigger regressive assimilation. Mid vowel triggers predictably surface in domain-final open syllables while /i/ is contrastive. I account for [+ATR] harmony using the theory of Grounded Phonology and the in- teraction of height-based markedness constraint hierarchies. In addition to the basic harmonic patterns, Dagbani [ATR] harmony is constrained by a height similarity condition limiting the trigger and target to vowels of the same specification for [ high]. Within Span Theory, this is argued to be a ± restriction on height featural combination in a [+ATR] span. A unique part of the formal analysis is the account of direction-specific consonant opacity. Having challenged previous harmony theories, the ac- ii Abstract count here demonstrates the relative strength of Span Theory and supports the assumption that intervocalic consonants are targets of vowel harmony features.
    [Show full text]
  • Segmental and Non-Segmental Phonology of Kūnámá ̄
    Segmental and Non-Segmental Phonology of ūáá̄ Anteneh Getachew Damtew A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Linguistics and Philology Presented in Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in Documentary Linguistics and Culture Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa, Ethiopia June 2018 ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES This is to certify that the dissertation prepared by Anteneh Getachew Damtew, entitled: Segmental and Non-Segmental Phonology of ūáá ̄ and submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in Documentary Linguistics and Culture) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the Examining Committeeː Examinerː____________________Signature____________Date_________ (External) Examinerː____________________Signature____________Date_________ (Internal) Advisor:_____________________Signature____________Date_________ Chair of Department or Graduate Program Coordinator ABSTRACT This dissertation presents the descriptions of the segmental and non-segmental phonology of Kunama, a Nilo-Saharan dialect cluster spoken in Western Eritrea and Northern Ethiopia. It also provides an annotated multimedia corpus of the names and description of the Kunama cultural artifacts. The study uses primary data recorded from speakers of the Kunama Shukre dialect, spoken by an isolated minority group living in Tahtay Addi Yabo Woreda of Northwestern Zone of the Tigray Regional State, Ethiopia.
    [Show full text]
  • Cover Title: Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology Author
    cover file:///D:/Documents%20and%20Settings/superstar/Mes%20document... Cover title: Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology author: Trask, R. L. publisher: Taylor & Francis Routledge isbn10 | asin: print isbn13: 9780203696026 ebook isbn13: 9780203695111 language: English subject Phonetics--Dictionaries, Grammar, Comparative and general--Dictionaries.--Phonology , Gramática comparada y general--Fonología--Diccionarios, Phonetics, Phonology. publication date: 1996 lcc: P216.T73 1996eb ddc: 414/.03 subject: Phonetics--Dictionaries, Grammar, Comparative and general--Dictionaries.--Phonology , Gramática comparada y general--Fonología--Diccionarios, Phonetics, Phonology. cover Page i A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology Written for students of linguistics, applied linguistics and speech therapy, this dictionary covers over 2,000 terms in phonetics and phonology. In addition to providing a comprehensive yet concise guide to an enormous number of individual terms, it also includes an explanation of the most important theoretical approaches to phonology. Its usefulness as a reference tool is further enhanced by the inclusion of pronunciations, notational devices and symbols, earliest sources of terms, suggestions for further reading, and advice with regard to usage. R.L.Trask is Lecturer in Linguistics in the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences at the University of Sussex. His previous publications include A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguistics (1993), Language Change (1994) and Language: The Basics (1995). page_i Page ii This page intentionally left blank. page_ii Page iii A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology R.L.Trask London and New York 1 of 246 10/04/2010 11:56 cover file:///D:/Documents%20and%20Settings/superstar/Mes%20document... page_iii Page iv First published 1996 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
    [Show full text]
  • A Grammar of Agolle Kusaal Revised Version
    A Grammar of Agolle Kusaal Revised Version David Eddyshaw i Contents Preface...................................................................................................................... ix Preface to the Revised Version..................................................................................xi Introduction to the Grammar...................................................................................xii Other Studies of Kusaal...........................................................................................xiv Abbreviations.......................................................................................................... xvi Interlinear Glossing................................................................................................xvii Transcription Conventions......................................................................................xix Sources..................................................................................................................... xx References/Bibliography.........................................................................................xxi 1 Introduction to Kusaal and the Kusaasi.....................................................................1 1.1 The Kusaasi People.............................................................................................2 1.2 The Kusaal Language..........................................................................................4 1.2.1 Language Status..........................................................................................4
    [Show full text]
  • Code-Switching Between Structural and Sociolinguistic Perspectives Linguae & Litterae
    Code-switching Between Structural and Sociolinguistic Perspectives linguae & litterae Publications of the School of Language & Literature Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies Edited by Peter Auer, Gesa von Essen and Frick Werner Editorial Board Michel Espagne (Paris), Marino Freschi (Rom), Ekkehard König (Berlin), Michael Lackner (Erlangen-Nürnberg), Per Linell (Linköping), Angelika Linke (Zürich), Christine Maillard (Strasbourg), Lorenza Mondada (Basel), Pieter Muysken (Nijmegen), Wolfgang Raible (Freiburg), Monika Schmitz-Emans (Bochum) Volume 43 Code-switching Between Structural and Sociolinguistic Perspectives Edited by Gerald Stell and Kofi Yakpo DE GRUYTER ISBN 978-3-11-034354-0 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-034687-9 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-038394-2 ISSN 1869-7054 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston Typesetting: Meta Systems Publishing & Printservices GmbH, Wustermark Printing and binding: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Contents Acknowledgements VII Gerald Stell, Kofi Yakpo Elusive or self-evident? Looking for common ground in approaches to code-switching 1 Part 1: Code-switching
    [Show full text]
  • Open JAS Final.Pdf
    THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH, ITALIAN, AND PORTUGUESE AND INTERCOLLEGE PROGRAM THE PHONETIC IMPLEMENTATION OF TONE IN COATZOSPAN MIXTEC JANALYN A. SHEETZ Spring 2010 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for baccalaureate degrees in Bachelor of Philosophy, Spanish, and International Studies with interdisciplinary honors in Endangered Languages and Spanish. Reviewed and approved* by the following: Chip Gerfen Associate Professor and Head of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese Department Thesis Supervisor Eric White Executive Director for the Division of Undergraduate Studies Honors Adviser John M. Lipski Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Spanish and Linguistics Honors Adviser * Signatures are on file in the Schreyer Honors College. i ABSTRACT With fewer than 5000 native speakers remaining, the Mexican indigenous language of Coatzospan Mixtec (CM) faces potential extinction in coming generations. Spoken only in the remote northern mountains of the Mexican state of Oaxaca in San Juan Coatzospan, the language has received relatively little linguistic documentation, though some fundamental work has been conducted by Pike and Small (1974) and Gerfen (1999). The primary goal of this project is to continue the process of describing this endangered language in the hope of gaining a more complete knowledge of the linguistic systems of tone used around the world. Specifically, this thesis is concerned with the description of how lexical tone is implemented phonetically in CM both in words produced in isolation as well as in combination with other words. Using voice recordings of a selection of single words and two word phrases, the fundamental frequency of the voice was measured and averaged across repetitions to show how the phonological process of terracing downstep influences the fundamental frequencies of an isolated word.
    [Show full text]
  • Finite State Processing of Tone Systems
    FINITE STATE PROCESSING OF TONE SYSTEMS Dafydd Gibbon (U Bielefeld) ABSTRACT as floating tones and compound tones. Floating tones are not associated with syllables, but are po- It is suggested in this paper that two-level stulated to explain appparent irregularities in pho- morphology theory (Kay, Koskenniemi) can be ex- netic patterning in terms of regular tone sandhi tended to include morphological tone. This exten- properties. sion treats phonological features as I/O tapes for Finite State Transducers in a parallel sequential The tone sandhi rules define how tones affect incrementation (PSI) architecture; phonological their neighbours. The example to be treated here is processes (e.g. assimilation) are seen as variants of a kind of tonal assimilation known as tonal sprea- an elementary unification operation over feature ding in which low tones are phonetically raised tapes (linear unification phonology, LUP). The following a high tone or, more frequently, high phenomena analysed are tone terracing with tones are lowered after a low tone, either to the tone-spreading (horizontal assimilation), down- level of the low tone (total downstep) or to a mid step, upstep, downdrift, upsweep in two West Afri- level (partial downstep). The newly defined tone is can languages, Tem (Togo) and Baule (C6te then the reference point for following tones. d'Ivoire). It is shown that an FST acccount leads to more insightful definitions of the basic pheno- The latter kind of assimilation produces a cha- mena than other approaches (e.g. phonological racteristic perceptual, and experimentally measu- rules or metrical systems). rable, effect known as tone terracing. Tone se- quences are realized at a fairly high level at the beginning of a sequence, and at certain well- 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Nasal Vowel Patterns in West Africa” 1 [email protected]
    UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2013) Nicholas Rolle UC Berkeley 1 “Nasal vowel patterns in West Africa” [email protected] 1. INTRODUCTION Nasal vowels are a common feature of West African phonologies, and have received a significant amount of attention concerning their (suprasegmental) representation, their interaction with nasal consonants, and their phonetic realization. Numerous authors have presented surveys of varying degrees of (targeted) depth which address the distribution of contrastive nasal vowels in (West) Africa, including Hyman (1972), Williamson (1973), Ruhlen (1978), Maddieson (1984, 2007), Clements (2000), Clements & Rialland (2006), and Hajek (2011). Building on this literature, this present study provides a more extensive survey on contrastive nasal vowels in West Africa, and specifically studies the types of systematic gaps found. For example, the language Togo-Remnant language Bowili has a 7 oral vowel inventory canonical of West Africa /i e ɛ a ɔ o u/, as well as a full set of nasal counterparts /ĩ ẽ ɛ ̃ ã ɔ̃ õ ũ/ (Williamson 1973). In contrast, the Gur language Bariba has the same 7 oral vowel inventory, though a more limited nasal set /ĩ ɛ ̃ ã ɔ̃ ũ/, missing mid-high vowels */ẽ õ/ (Hyman 1972:201). Using this as a starting point, this paper addresses the following questions: . What are the recurring patterns one finds in West African nasal vowel systems and inventories? o What restrictions are there on mid vowels in the nasal inventory? . In which families/areal zones do we find these patterns? . To which factors can we attribute these patterns? o Genetic – Vertical inheritance o Areal – Horizontal spread o Universal Phonetic – Parallel Developments .
    [Show full text]
  • Appeared in the First Glot International State-Of-The-Article Book: the Latest in Linguistics, Edited by Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng and Rint Sybesma
    1 Appeared in The First Glot International State-of-the-Article Book: The Latest in Linguistics, edited by Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng and Rint Sybesma. Studies in Generative Grammar 48. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 251-286, 2000. Tone: An Overview San Duanmu University of Michigan May 1998 1. Introduction This article surveys developments and achievements in research on tone in the past thirty years, primarily in the generative framework, and outstanding issues that pertain to current research. I begin with a discussion of what tone languages are and point out some similarities between tone and intonation. 1.1. Tone languages and non-tone languages It is not hard to identify some languages that are clearly tone languages. A good example is Standard Chinese (also called Mandarin), which has four tones on full syllables, shown in (1). (1) Contrastive tones in Standard Chinese (Mandarin) [ma1] [ma2] [ma3] [ma4] 'mother' 'hemp' 'horse' 'to scold' The numbers 1-4 refer to the four tones: tone 1 is a high, tone 2 is a rise, tone 3 is a low (or low-rise in final position), and tone 4 is a fall. The four words in (1) are phonologically identical in all respects except tone (I forgo the issue of duration for the moment). In other words, tone (or pitch contour) is lexically contrastive in Standard Chinese (for other functions of tone, see section 3.14). Most tone languages are found in Asia and Africa. In addition, tone had been reported in some European and Native American languages. It is not hard, either, to identify some languages that are non-tone languages.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Representation of Tone in Peñoles Mixtec
    UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2005) Submitted to IJAL On the Representation of Tone in Peñoles Mixtec John P. Daly Summer Institute of Linguistics and Larry M. Hyman University of California, Berkeley ABSTRACT This paper presents a systematic account of the tone system of Peñoles Mixtec (PM). While /H/ and /L/ tones are unambiguously needed in underlying representations, it is argued that the third tone is not /M/, but must rather be underspecified as /Ø/. Perhaps the most interesting of the several arguments presented is that strings of /Ø/ tone-bearing units are invisible to a process which deletes the second /L/ of a /L-Ø*-L/ sequence. We propose that all /L/ tones are underlying floating and that /L/ rather than /H/ is the marked tone in this three-value system. The surface mid and low-falling pitches in outputs are shown to derive by a small number of realizational rules, which also are responsible for producing successively upstepped H tones. The PM tone system is unusually interesting both from a general tonological perspective as well as for its relation to Dürr’s (1987) Proto-Mixtec tones which have the inverted values in PM. KEYWORDS: underspecification, markedness, obligatory contour principle, upstepping, floating tones 1. Introduction The complexity of Mixtec tone systems has been recognized for some time. Following Kenneth Pike’s (1944, 1948) pioneering work on San Miguel El Grande dialect, there has been a steady succession of descriptive studies on other Mixtec languages and dialects. These studies have revealed a wide range of tonal variation which has great significance not only for the understanding of Mixtec, but of tone systems in general.
    [Show full text]
  • Toward an Ecological Phonology
    Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 45(1), 2009, pp. 73–102 © School of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland doi:10.2478/v10010-009-0012-8 FORMAL IS NATURAL: TOWARD AN ECOLOGICAL PHONOLOGY DAFYDD GIBBON Universität Bielefeld [email protected] ABSTRACT Naturalism Phonology (NP) has a history of opposition to abstractness, to generative linguistics, to formalist approaches, and differs from these in its strong focus on external rather than distribu- tional, structural evidential domains. But evidence domains are orthogonal to empirical and for- mal methods, and, like formalist theories such as Optimality Theory (OT), the pedigree of NP in- cludes structuralist and generative phonology. In an analysis which is sympathetic to both NP and OT, this contribution examines the relation between NP and OT, analyses a classic OT case study of syllabification in Tashlhiyt Berber, and presents computational linguistic analyses of this case, as well as of English syllable phonotactics and of tone language tonotactics. The contribution ad- vocates an opening towards these methods, and the adoption of explicit, consistent, precise, complete and sound formal criteria for theories, which enable an exact interpretation in terms of operational models and computational implementations, and practical applications. The general frame of reference is a the Ecological Cycle in theory formation, from clarification of the domain through theory construction, interpretation with a model, evaluation and application in the origi- nal evidential domain, with payback to the language community from which the evidence was gained. KEYWORDS : Natural Phonology; Optimality Theory; Finite State Phonology; syllable; tone. 1. Background and objectives: the natural and the formal 1 1.1.
    [Show full text]