PRECIS FROM THE TWELFTH CONFERENCE ON AFRICAN LINGUISTICS STANFORD, APRIL 10-12, 1981 Edited by William R. Leben Stanford University Supplement 8 Studies in African Linguistics Department of Linguistics University of California, Los Angeles December 1981 FOREWARD This volume contains summaries of papers presented at the Twelfth Confer­ ence on African Linguistics at Stanford, April 10, 11, and 12, 1981. This is the first time that the proceedings volume for the annual conference has con­ tained summaries rather than full papers, and I wish to thank all of our authors for cooperating in this experiment. The main reason for attempting this new format was simply that it would have been financially impossible for us to publish all of the proceedings in unabridged form. In addition, I hope that readers will find it handy to have substantive summaries of the confer­ ence papers all gathered in one small volume, and I am sure that a good num­ ber of papers from the conference will appear in full form elsewhere, as a few already have. One of the most interesting observations that can be made about the Twelfth Conference on African Linguistics is that of the sixty formal regis­ trants, one third were either black Africans, or had traveled to the confer­ ence directly from their place of work in Africa, or both. As far as I know, this is the first time that Africa has been so well represented at the confer­ ence, and this bodes well for the future of African linguistics. Everyone who has run a conference knows that it is more trouble than you would like to think, and 'this one was no exception. But thanks to a lot of people, only a few of whom I can mention here, the process went a good deal more smoothly than I could have reasonably expected. Special thanks to Joseph H. Greenberg for generously lending his advice, support, and wisdom to the whole operation, to Peter Duignan for helping to secure our lavish confer­ ence facilities, to Paul Kozelka and David Cusic for adding their brain power and brawn power to the local arrangements, to Thomas Hinnebusch, Larry Hyman, and Russell Schuh for serving on the abstracts committee with me, to Judy Muchowski for answering a thousand questions, for anticipating a thousand de­ tails, and for overseeing the entire venture from start to finish, and to an untold number of conference participants who by virtue of being in the wrong place at the right time got drafted into table moving, wine bottle opening, and all those other activities that make a conference into a conference. Funding for the conference came from the Stanford office of the Stanford/ Berkeley Joint Center for African Studies. For publication of the present volume, we are indebted to Russell Schuh for permitting this to happen and for waiting patiently while the present edi­ tor struggled with the final version of the manuscript, to Judy Muchowski for proofreading and corresponding with our authors, and to John Singler for ad­ ditional proofreading. Financial support for this volume came from the UCLA African Studies Center, the Stanford Department of Linguistics, and the Stan­ ford/Berkeley Joint Center for African Studies. W. R. L. 15 March 1982 STUDIES IN AFRICAN LINGUISTICS Supplement 8 December 1981 TABLE OF CONTENTS Hounkpatin C. Capo, SIBILANTIZATION IN GBE 1 Chin-Chuan Cheng and Charles W. Kisseberth, HIGH TONE DOUBLING IN TWO MAKUA DIALECTS . 5 Benedicte Chorier and Nicholas Farac1as, A CLOSEF LOOK AT SHORT HIGH VOWELS IN RAUSA • . 9 G.N. Clements, AN OUTLINE OF LUGANDA SYLLABLE STRUCTURE 12 J Ronayne Cowan, THE SYNTAX OF BAKA AND KRESH 16 Carol M. Eastman, KISWAHILI DIGLOSSIA IN KENYA: IMPLICATIONS FOR LANGUAGE POLICY . • . 20 S. Ayotunde Ekundayo, YORUBA SERIAL VERB STRING COMMUTABILITY CONSTRAINT 21 Rosalie Finlayson, HLONIPRA - THE WOMEN'S LANGUAGE OF AVOIDANCE AMONG THE XHOSA .........•........... 25 Barn. Forson, PHONOLOGICAL REGULARITIES IN AKAN-ENGLISH CODE-SWITCHING 29 Zygmunt Frajzyngier, PRE-PRONOMINAL MARKERS IN CRADIC: PROBLEMS AND HYPOTHESES .. • . 34 Orin D. Gensler, THE REPRESENTATION OF VOCALIC OBJECT-AFFIXES AND TENSE-AFFIXES IN THE BAKWERI VERB . • . 38 Joseph H. Greenberg, NILO-SAHARAN ~ - AS A STAGE III ARTICLE 43 Magdalena Hauner, KIUJAMAA: NOTES ON POLITICAL LANGUAGE 46 Georges Herault, L'INFORMATION SEGMENTALE NECESSAIRE A L'ELABORATION DES REGLES TONALES DE L'ADIOUKROU . 51 Jean-Marie Hombert, FROM PROTO-BENUE-CONGO TO PROTO-BANTU NOUN CLASSES 55 John P. Hutchison, THE ROLE OF DEFINITIZATION IN RELATIVE CLAUSE FORMING STRATEGIES • • • • . • . • • . • • • • • 59 Larry M. Hyman, AN AUTO SEGMENTAL ACCENTUAL ACCOUNT OF LUGANDA TONE 64 Larry M. Hyman and Bernard Comrie, COREFERENCE AND LOGOPHORICITY IN GOKANA . • . 69 Phil Jaggar, VARIETIES OF PASSIVE IN RAUSA 73 Jonathan D. Kaye, IMPLOSIVES AS LIQUIDS . 78 Jonathan D. Kaye and Monik Charette, TONE SENSITIVE RULES IN DIDA 82 Alexandre Kimenyi, LINKLESS CLAUSES IN BANTU 85 Ian Maddieson, UNUSUAL CONSONANT CLUSTERS AND COMPLEX SEGMENTS IN EGGON 89 Sam A. Mchombo and Francis Moto, TONE AND THE THEORY OF SYNTAX 92 Roxana Ma Newman and Vincent J. van Heuven, AN ACOUSTIC AND PHONOLOGICAL STUDY OF PRE-PAUSAL VOWEL LENGTH IN RAUSA . 95 David Odden, A NONLINEAR APPROACH TO VOWEL LENGTH IN KIMATUUMBI 99 Michael C. Onwuemene, ARVEE-THREE: THE MEANING OF AN IGBO VERBAL SUFFIX 103 Olasope O. Oyelaran, ON THE SCOPE OF THE SERIAL VERB CONSTRUCTION IN YORUBA .• .•.•••..•.•.. 106 Geoffrey Rugege, THE INFINITIVE IN KINYARWANDA . III Ronald P. Schaefer, A STRENGTH HIERARCHY FOR TSWANA 114 Russell G. Schuh, TYPES OF GENITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS IN CRADIC 117 Carol Myers Scotton, RETHINKING INALIENABLE POSSESSION IN SWAHILI: THE EXTENSIVE CASE . 121 John Victor Singler, TONE AND INTONATION IN LIBERIAN ENGLISH NEGATION 124 Susan U. Stucky, WORD ORDER FREEDOM AND THE STATUS OF THE VERB PHRASE IN MAKUA • . • . • • . • • . • . • • • • 128 Judith Timyan, A SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF QUANTIFICATION: EVIDENCE FROM BAULE • • . • • . 131 A. Traill, KHOISAN CONSONANTS AND PHONOLOGICAL UNIVERSALS 134 Laurice Tuller, VOWEL NEUTRALIZATION IN (DAMAGARAM) RAUSA 136 Ebo Ubahakwe, TOWARDS A STANDARD LITERARY DIALECT OF IGBO 140 Benji Wald, ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE TENSE MARKER NA IN EASTERN BANTU (SUMMARY) ......••.................• 142 Ekkehard Wolff, VOCALISATION PATTERNS, PROSODIES, AND CRADIC RECONSTRUCTIONS . • . • . 144 SIBILANTIZATION IN GBE Hounkpatin C. Capo University of B~nin 1. Introduction The purpose of this presentation is to argue that "palatalization" is simply a manifestation (although the commonest one) of a more fundamental process we term "sibilantization"; other manifestations of sibilantization are "affrication" of lamina 1 stops, and "alveolarization" (cum affrication) of velars/uvulars. Our argument is based on Gbe, spoken in the southern part of the Volta Region in Ghana, the southern half of the Republics of Togo and B~nin and parts of the Ogun and Lagos States in Nigeria. Gbe is made up of a number of dialects including Hwe, Av~no, Kpando, Pec!, Gen, and Fon, selected here for their relevance to the topic. 2. Sample of the Data a) Common Gbe laminal alveolars: It/, Id/, lsi and Izl Common Fon Cen Ped Hwe Gbe 1. at flat f' at r at f ad atsf 'tree' 2. tu tu tu tu tu 'grind' 3. did i/di'd i' , didi didi dzidZi 'be far' 4. vodu/vodu vodu vod~ vod~ vod~ 'deity' 5. sf sf sf sf sf 'respect' 6. azT azT aZI a~T a;;T 'egg' 7. su~ su~ su<. su su 'tear out' b) Proto-Gbe laminal alveolars and velars/uvulars: *t, *d, *ts, *dz, *X and *R Proto­ Fon Gen Pec! Hwe Gbe ,.... ... ".(. 8. *ty~- t.1~1 ts~ 'cover' 9. *tya- tJya H~ tsa 'select' 10. *dy:.1 9.,3:.1 ~o ~o 'happen' 11. *dYE d?E d?E iJze 'land' 12. *tsi/tsT 51 si t si 'grow up' 13. *dzu/dzu g-.ZU zu- dzu , abuse' 14. *g i er· 8"Zi 'deliver a child' 15. *k f nr nr tsf 'quench' 16. *Xy~ sy~ sy~ 'dry' x~1 -.(. 17. *Rya Rya zya Ry~ 'need' 18. *aXi aXi asi asi 'market' (For 14 and 15 Westermann gives gi and kf as 'Dahomey' forms.) 1 3. Comments on the Data a) Synchronically: 1- In Hwe: It I tfJ before -y, i, I, u, U Idl [d'V[ l lsi [f ~ before -y, i and I; Izi [3] optionally before u, U 2. In Avtno:/t/ before -y, i, i Itsl [t ] (but not before u and u) Idl lBlJ[~] Idzl [ j] lsi [ f /zl [3] 3. In Kp~ndo: It I [is ]J before -y, i and T Idl [dZ] 4. In Gen, Pee! and Fon, no effect of the process. b) Diachronically: 1- i. *t ~ before -y, in all dialects except KpAndo *d > d3 (Note, however, item 9 in Pee!) ii. *t > °1 before -y, in Kpcindo *d '> dZfSl 2. i. *t > before i, i, u, U in Hwe *d > d°1 ii. *t '> before i, i in KpAndo *d '> Rl 3. i. *k '> before en in all dialects except KpAndo *9 '> dtIl ii. *k> before en in KpAndo *9 > ~l 4. i. *X '> before -y, en in Hwe at least *R > [] ii. *x > before -y, and i en in Gen at least *R > ~l 4. Case for Sibilantization According to Ladefoged (1971:57), sibilant segments have a comparatively large amount of acoustic energy at high frequencies; in fact, sibilance is an auditory feature that we could equate with the hissing and hushing impression that derives from the perception of alveolar fricatives and affricates, palato­ alveolar fricatives and affricates, palatal stops, fricatives and post­ consonantal glide. 2 Now, looking at the input and output segments involved in the phonological process under discussion, we notice that: 1. When the alveolar and velar stops are the input segments, the outputs are either palato-alveolar affricates or alveolar affricates.