IKOMA ORTHOGRAPHY STATEMENT

SIL International Uganda- Branch Ikoma 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 Holly Robinson, and it is an updated and expanded version of the Ikoma Orthography Sketch, which was also authored by Holly (Higgins) Robinson. Additional contributors from SIL International include consultants Tim Roth and Brigitte Niederseer, who reviewed and helped to improve this document. Contributors from the Ikoma language community include: Mussa Karume Thobias and Paul Muya (Ikoma Bible translators), as well as Thobius Masanja, Daniel Mahagura, John Siringo, Thabitha Gabriel, Wilsoni Machota, Samina Mahemba, Yohana Sigori, Samwel Shanyangi, and Dominick Maguye.

© SIL International Uganda-Tanzania Branch

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: 2018

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Contents

ABBREVIATIONS ...... V

1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

1.1 CLASSIFICATION ...... 1 1.2 DATA ...... 1 1.3 DIALECTS ...... 1 1.4 FORMAT AND PURPOSE OF THIS ORTHOGRAPHY STATEMENT ...... 2

2. PHONOLOGY ...... 3

2.1 VOWELS ...... 3 2.1.1 Vowel inventory ...... 3 2.1.2 Vowel length ...... 4 2.1.3 Vowel length in conditioned environments ...... 5 2.2 CONSONANTS ...... 7 2.2.1 Consonant inventory ...... 7 2.2.2 Palatalization ...... 8 2.2.3 Labialization ...... 9 2.2.4 Prenasalization ...... 10 2.3 TONE ...... 11 2.3.1 Lexical tone...... 11 2.3.2 Grammatical tone ...... 12 2.3.2.1 Past and Anterior ...... 12 2.3.2.2 Narrative and Inceptive ...... 14

3. MORPHOPHONOLOGY ...... 15

3.1 VOWELS ...... 15 3.1.1 Vowel harmony processes ...... 15 3.1.1.1 Vowel harmony in prefixes ...... 15 3.1.1.2 Vowel harmony in suffixes ...... 17 3.1.1.3 Vowel harmony in noun stems ...... 18 3.1.2 Vowel adjacency processes ...... 20 3.1.2.1 Elision ...... 21 3.1.2.2 Desyllabification ...... 22 3.1.2.3 Assimilation ...... 23 3.1.2.4 Intervocalic semivowels ...... 24 3.1.3 Additional vowel length conventions ...... 25 3.1.3.1 Class 5 and 10 prefix vowel length ...... 25 3.1.3.2 Word-initial vowel shortening ...... 28 3.1.3.3 Long vowels in seemingly conditioned environments (verbs) ...... 28 3.1.3.4 Multiple long vowels within a verb ...... 29 3.1.3.5 Non-Past, Inceptive and Narrative verbs...... 31 3.1.3.6 1SG object prefix written as vowel length ...... 32 3.1.4 1SG subject prefix ...... 33 3.2 CONSONANTS ...... 33 3.2.1 Dahl’s Law ...... 33

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4. WORD BOUNDARIES ...... 35

4.1 COPULA ...... 35 4.2 LOCATIVES ...... 38 4.3 ASSOCIATIVES ...... 40 4.4 CONJUNCTION ...... 42 4.5 QUESTION WORDS ...... 43 4.6 REDUPLICATION ...... 45 4.7 COMPOUND WORDS ...... 46

5. LOAN WORDS ...... 46

6. PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALIZATION ...... 47

6.1 SENTENCE-FINAL PUNCTUATION ...... 47 6.2 COMMAS ...... 48 6.3 COLON ...... 48 6.4 QUOTATION MARKS ...... 48 6.5 CAPITALIZATION ...... 49

APPENDIX A: IKOMA NOUN CLASSES ...... 50

APPENDIX B: HISTORY OF IKOMA ORTHOGRAPHY DEVELOPMENT...... 52

REFERENCES ...... 54

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Abbreviations * ungrammatical; incorrect spelling 1 first person; class 1 2 second person; class 2 3 third person; class 3 4 class 4, etc V unspecified vowel; vowel ANT anterior aspect FV final vowel H high tone INC inceptive INF infinitive L low tone NARR narrative tense PL plural PST past tense R verb root SBJ subject marker SG singular V1 the first vowel (in a stem, or in a sequence of adjacent vowels) V2 the second vowel (in a stem, or in a sequence of adjacent vowels)

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1. Introduction

1.1 Classification Ikoma is a Bantu language spoken in the Mara Region of Tanzania by approximately 19,400 people (Lewis, Simons and Fennig 2018). In Swahili, the language name is Kiikoma, and in Ikoma, it is Eghiikoma. In Maho’s (2009) update of Guthrie’s classification, Ikoma is classified as E45 (J) within the E40 Ragoli-Kuria Group. The ISO 639-3 code is [ntk]. Also listed under this same code are Nata and Isenye, which are closely related language varieties; see §1.3 for more information.

1.2 Data The data in this orthography statement comes from a variety of sources, including the Ikoma people who attended SIL orthography development and orthography testing workshops in the Mara region between the years of 2007 and 2009, as well as ongoing research by SIL linguists and Ikoma Bible translators. Trial Orthography status was granted to Ikoma in 2009, and those orthography decisions are documented in Higgins (2010). The orthography continued to be tested more thoroughly after that, especially between the years of 2014 and 2017, when village-based literacy teachers were trained and began teaching in Ikoma and Nata villages. Data also comes from ongoing research and orthography discussions at the SIL office in Musoma, as well as more formal research, including Aunio (2010; 2013), Higgins (2012), Robinson (2016), and Aunio et al. (forthcoming). See Appendix B for a detailed list of the significant events and milestones of the orthography development process. The SIL team in the Mara Region is very grateful to the many Ikoma and Nata people who gave of their time to accomplish this work.

1.3 Dialects There are not any dialects within the Ikoma language, but there are two other closely related language varieties listed under the same ISO 639-3 code—Nata and Isenye. Nata and Isenye are spoken by an estimated 7,100 people and 8,200 people, respectively (Lewis, Simons and Fennig 2018). The most recent research among these language communities has led to the conclusion that the Ikoma orthography is very usable for both Ikoma and Nata speakers, but it poses difficulties for many Isenye speakers. Therefore, the orthography presented in this report is intended for use especially among Ikoma and Nata speakers, with Ikoma being the “reference dialect” which is followed when the two varieties are different. Isenye speakers who are more familiar with Ikoma are, of course, very welcome to use this orthography as well!

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At the time of publication, the decision to remove Isenye speakers from the target audience of this orthography is a recent one (2017). From early on in the development of this orthography, it was hoped that all three varieties would be able to use the same written materials. A sociolinguistic survey of the Mara languages conducted in 2005 found that Ikoma, Nata, and Isenye share 85-89% cognates (Hill et al. 2007). Despite the acknowledged linguistic differences, during that survey, as well as during a follow-up survey in 2008 (Higgins et al. 2008), community representatives of these three language varieties thought that they should all be able to share one orthography quite easily. However, in more recent years, as more Isenye people have attempted to use materials written in Ikoma, the SIL project began to receive strong feedback from Isenye speakers that Ikoma was not easy for them to read and understand. A meeting among Isenye representatives took place in April 2017, at which point they made a united decision that they would prefer their own orthography development project for the sake of preserving their Isenye language and for ease of reading and writing (Robinson 2017).

1.4 Format and purpose of this orthography statement This orthography statement is designed to show the Approved Orthography of Ikoma and the reasons behind the orthographic decisions which were made. Although there is phonological and grammatical information in this paper, the primary intent of this document is to give necessary rationale for the orthographic decisions which have been made. Data is written using the orthography as much as possible. In some sections, however, data is also written phonemically and/or phonetically, especially in the discussion of vowels in sections 2.1 and 3.1. Showing both the orthographic, phonemic and/or phonetic representations together is done in order to avoid confusion between the IPA symbols for Ikoma vowels and their corresponding orthographic symbols. All phonemic or phonetic transcriptions are indicated by the use of phonemic slashes (//) or phonetic brackets ([]). Orthographic brackets (<>) are used when necessary, but any data not otherwise in brackets should be assumed to be in orthographic form. All glosses are listed first in Swahili, which is the national language of Tanzania, and then in English. The following sections focus on phonology, morphophonology, word- boundaries, loan words, punctuation and capitalization rules.

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2. Phonology

2.1 Vowels 2.1.1 Vowel inventory Ikoma has a seven-vowel system, having one set of high vowels, two sets of mid vowels, and one low central vowel. See Higgins (2012) for a thorough description of the vowel system. Evidence of these seven vowel phonemes is found in the following table. These examples all have bisyllabic noun stems with identical vowels, and the noun stems are in bold for ease of reference. The example words are shown along with the corresponding IPA and chosen orthographic symbols. Table 2.1.1a: Ikoma vowel inventory

Phoneme Grapheme Example Swahili English

/i/ ahiti fisi hyena

/e/ obhorere kitanda bed

/ɛ/ eghisëbhë kiwele udder

/a/ omukama upepo wind

/ɔ/ obhuhörö kiporo leftovers

/o/ oghoghoro mguu leg

/u/ eghesusu sungura rabbit

The contrast between the mid vowel pairs and can be difficult for mother tongue speakers to distinguish, but there are clear minimal pairs, at least in verbs.1 Some verb stems with mid vowel contrasts are shown in the table below.

1 Many outside researches have also noted the difficulty of consistently hearing the difference between the two sets of mid vowels. One reason for this could be the overlapping vowel space, especially between the front vowels and , as demonstrated with vowel formant plots in Higgins (2012). 3

Table 2.1.1b: Mid vowel minimal pairs Vowel Ikoma Swahili English e mera meza swallow ë mëra mea sprout (v.) o kora kua grow ö köra fanya do o hoora pura thresh ö hööra chonga carve

Note that there is a complex vowel harmony system in Ikoma, which is described in §3.1.1 below. Also note that the [–ATR] mid-vowels only occur within roots and, in some cases, in verbal extensions (see §3.1.1.2). Therefore, all mid-vowels in prefixes are written as and . 2.1.2 Vowel length There are three types of vowel length in Ikoma: phonemic, derived and conditioned. Phonemic and derived long vowels are written, whereas conditioned vowel length is usually not. Long vowels are indicated by writing the same vowel grapheme twice. Table 2.1.2a below shows examples of bisyllabic noun stems with phonemic long vowels. Noun stems are shown in bold. Table 2.1.2a: Phonemic vowel length

Phoneme Grapheme Ikoma Swahili English

/i:/ asiisi sisimizi ant

/e:/ egheseese donda ndugu ulcer

/ɛ:/ anyëëtë mnyoo intestinal worm

/a:/ obhusaagha ugonjwa disease

/ɔ:/ akööbhö pango cave

/o:/ ankoono kisogo back of head

/u:/ orosuusu manyunyu drizzle

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There are also minimal pairs distinguished only by vowel length. Vowel length is common in both nouns and verbs, but minimal pairs have only been found in verbs. See examples of minimal pairs in the following table. Table 2.1.2b: Vowel length minimal pairs Vowel Ikoma Swahili English a sama onja taste aa saama hama migrate ö höra pona heal öö hööra chonga carve o tora weza be able oo toora weka put ë këma guna grunt ëë këëma pinda twist

Derived vowel length is one possible result of vowel hiatus across morpheme boundaries, and this length is usually written. For example, the noun ‘mtumbwi/canoe’ is composed of the morphemes /ama-ato/, and the long vowel is a result of hiatus of two adjacent vowels from different morphemes. See §3.1.2 for more details concerning vowel adjacency processes and how the resulting vowels are written. Conditioned vowel length, which is not written in the orthography, is explained in §2.1.3 below. There is only one known example of a long vowel in word-final position, which is in the adverb ‘sana/very much’. Otherwise, word-final length is not at all typical. There are also restrictions on word-initial vowel length. If a word is consonant-initial, length is allowed in the first syllable, but if the word is vowel- initial, the first vowel is always short. Therefore, a long vowel should never be written word-initially. See more discussion of word-initial vowel length in §3.1.3.2. Vowel length in basic noun and verb stems is relatively straightforward, but in inflected verb forms, it can be significantly more complicated. See §3.1.3 especially for a variety of more specific rules guiding the writing of vowel length in verbs. 2.1.3 Vowel length in conditioned environments Phonetically, vowels sound longer before prenasalized consonants and after palatalized and labialized consonants. However, the length heard in these environments is not phonemic but conditioned, and there is no contrast between short

5 and long vowels in these environment. Also, note that the length of these conditioned long vowels is not quite as long as phonemic long vowels (Higgins 2012). Therefore, particularly within roots, although the vowels sound long, they are written as short. Table 2.1.3a below gives examples of each of these environments, showing the words written according to the aforementioned rule. In each example, the conditioned vowel and its conditioning environment are underlined, and the nouns stems are in bold. Table 2.1.3a: Vowel length in conditioned environments

Ikoma Swahili English

Prenasalization eghetumbe kiti chair

Labialization orochweri nywele hair

Palatalization eribhyema uwindaji hunting

See §2.2 for additional examples of words with prenasalization, labialization, and palatalization. The above orthographic decision concerns compensatory lengthening within roots, but we also must consider how it applies across morpheme boundaries, both in nouns and verbs. First, looking at nouns, Table 2.1.3b below shows some examples of nouns in which there is a conditioning environment at a morpheme boundary. Table 2.1.3b: Vowel length at morpheme boundaries in nouns

Orthography Morphemes Swahili English

ekyaro eke-aro kijiji village

a) omwëri omo-ɛri mwezi month, moon

emyongo eme-ongo daraja bridges

omongo omo-ongo daraja bridge b) amandeko ama-andeko maandiko writings

In the first three examples above, the prefix vowel desyllabifies before a vowel-initial stem, causing the initial vowel of the stem to be compensatorily lengthened. However, in each of these three words, the stem vowel is written short, since this length is conditioned. In the final two examples, the vowel at the morpheme boundary sounds long, and it is actually a derived long vowel—the result of two vowels merging to form one long vowel. Even though derived long vowels are usually written long, in 6 this case the rule against writing long vowels in conditioned environments is deemed to be more important. Therefore, in the few cases in which there is a derived long vowel in a conditioned environment in nouns, these vowels are written as short, so that there will be no exceptions to the “compensatory vowel length” rule in nouns. Ikoma writers appreciate being able to think simply in terms of conditioned length environments, without having to think through nominal morphology as well, especially since there is no ambiguity created by writing this derived vowel length with a short vowel. In inflected verbs, however, derived vowel length is always written across morpheme boundaries, even in seemingly conditioned environments. Representing derived length in verbs is significantly more important than in nouns, since the difference between long and short vowels can change the tense or aspect of a verb. See §3.1.3.3 for more examples and discussion.

2.2 Consonants 2.2.1 Consonant inventory The consonants of Ikoma are shown in Table 2.2.1 below. They are listed in the order in which they occur in the alphabet chart. The chosen grapheme is listed together with the IPA symbol and an example noun. All examples show the consonant in stem- initial position, and the noun stems are in bold for ease of reference. Table 2.2.1: Consonant inventory

Phoneme Grapheme Example Swahili English

/β/ ekibhara uwanda grassland

/tʃ/ omuchare mchele rice

/ɣ/ omughaate mkate bread

/h/ ekihamu kidevu chin

/k/ akanga kanga guinea fowl

/m/ maghema tai eagle

/n/ erinaasi nanasi pineapple

/ŋ/ ang'ana habari report

/ɲ/ nyaamu paka cat

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/ɾ/ eriiraka sauti voice

/s/ eghisara paa roof

/ʃ/ ashishiita mswaki toothbrush

/t/ omutamishi tarishi messenger

/w/ omowaara zizi cattle pen

/j/ amayayegha mashavu (ya gills samaki)

All of the consonants above can occur root-initially and root-medially. Note that and represent the bilabial and velar fricatives.2 These consonants are only pronounced as stops when prenasalized, in which case they are written as and (see §2.2.4). One exception to this is when the nasal is actually the copula or , in which case a hyphen separates the copula from the following consonant, and these sequences are written as and . See examples in §4.1 about the copula. The consonant also has an allophone , which occurs only when it is prenasalized, in which case it is written (see §2.2.4). There are three digraphs and one trigraph which were chosen because they are the Swahili graphemes for the same consonants. These include . Note that many consonants can be palatalized, labialized, and/or prenasalized, sometimes within roots, and sometimes across morpheme boundaries. This is the topic of the following sections. 2.2.2 Palatalization The current data set shows that can be palatalized within roots, and only in root-initial position. Palatalization occurs with other consonants across morpheme boundaries (see §3.1.2.2 for more about desyllabification). Table 2.2.2

2 Note that these consonants were originally written as and instead of and , since there is no contrast between /b~β/ and /g~ɣ/ in the language, and monographs are preferred for literacy reasons. However, because these consonants are pronounced as fricatives in Ikoma, Ikoma speakers felt strongly that they should be written differently than the Swahili consonants, which are pronounced as stops. After changing the graphemes to and , community feedback has been very positive. 8 below shows examples of palatalization in root-initial positions. The palatalized consonants are underlined, and the entire stem of each word is in bold. Table 2.2.2: Palatalization

Example Swahili English

ghotyari kunoa to sharpen Root-initial omobhyëmi mwindaji hunter palatalization omobhya mshale arrow

Note also that in the words above, it is evident that palatalization (as well as labialization) affects prefix vowel harmony. These semivowels, when following a consonant, are phonologically considered to be [+ATR].3 See the end of §3.1.1.1 for more explanation and examples.

2.2.3 Labialization Within nominal and verbal roots, labialization only occurs root-initially. The current data set shows that can be labialized within roots. Also, like palatalization, labialization is more common across morpheme boundaries and can occur with more consonants. Table 2.2.3 below shows examples of labialization. The labialized consonants are underlined, and the entire stem of each word is in bold. Table 2.2.3: Labialization

Example Swahili English

ang'wina mamba crocodile Root-initial eghekwera kiatu shoe labialization ambwe bweha jackal

3 For example, in a word such as with as the first root vowel, we would expect the high vowel in the prefix, but instead the palatalized root consonant has a [+ATR] quality, which causes the mid vowel in this prefix. 9

2.2.4 Prenasalization Most instances of prenasalization within roots involve the second or later root consonant, not the first. Particularly in verbs, the consonant-initial verb roots never have a prenasalized initial consonant. In nouns, very few initial consonants are prenasalized. Prenasalization is attested for , but the voiceless prenasalized stops are much less common than the others. Table 2.2.4 below shows examples of both root-initial and root-medial prenasalization. Prenasalized consonants are underlined, and word stems are in bold. Table 2.2.4: Prenasalization

Example Gloss Gloss

nd erindeke mahindi maize Root-initial nk erinkanankana kaakaa palate prenasalization nch amanche maji water

mb kobhomba kuumba to create

nd eghekundi ngumi fist

Root-medial ng akanga kanga guinea fowl prenasalization nch eghisënchö kikombe cup

nt kumanteera kunata to stick

nk omusönköma mchongoma thorn tree

Consonant prenasalization is also common across morpheme boundaries, especially in noun classes 9 and 10, as well as in verbs which have the 1SG object prefix . Class 9 and 10 noun prefixes often include a nasal, e.g. and , which is adjacent to the initial consonant of the root and thus forms a prenasalized consonant, e.g. ‘panya/rat.’ The 1SG object prefix can occur before many verb stems, e.g. ‘kuniombea/to ask for me,’ from ‘kuomba/to ask for’. Note, however, that when this nasal prefix occurs before verb stems that start with the consonants , the prefix actually does not cause prenasalization, but instead it causes the previous vowel to be lengthened. See §3.1.3.6 for examples.

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As mentioned in 2.2.1 above, when is prenasalized, it becomes . For example, the following Ikoma word has a class 11 singular prefix and a class 10 plural prefix . These prefixes make the root apparent. ‘aina ya mti/type of tree (unknown)’ ‘aina ya miti/type of trees (unkown)’ The consonant does not occur by itself in the language, only in combination with the alveolar nasal.

2.3 Tone 2.3.1 Lexical tone Ikoma has lexical tone on nouns but not verbs. A total of five tonal minimal pairs have been found, but tone does not seem to have a high functional load. After trials of both writing and not writing tone in the early years of orthography development, all evidence and mother-tongue speaker feedback points to the fact that writing lexical tone is not necessary in Ikoma, and even the minimal pairs are left unmarked in the orthography. For reference, the five tonal minimal pairs are listed in Table 2.3.1 below. The first three have monosyllabic stems, and the final two have bisyllabic stems. The words are written phonemically with a hyphen separating the prefix from the root, and the High tone on each word is indicated with an acute accent.4 The labels L, H, H, and LH within the Table refer to the stem melodies. Table 2.3.1: Tonal minimal pairs – nouns L Swahili / English H Swahili / English /a-ka/ simba / lion /a-ká/ nyumbani / home a) /an-da/ tumbo / stomach /an-dá/ chawa / louse /omo-te/ dawa / medicine /omo-té/ mti / tree H Swahili / English LH Swahili / English b) /a-mémbe/ kengele / bell /a-membé/ ukoko / crust /omu-ɣɛ́ndi/ msafiri / traveler /omu-ɣɛndí/ mwenzi / companion

4 Surface tones can be realized somewhat differently when the word is pronounced in utterance-final position. The tone represented here is as it occurs in non-final position, e.g. when the noun is followed by a demonstrative pronoun. 11

Since tone is not marked, these words are orthographically written as , and thus far context has always been sufficient to distinguish the intended meaning. For a further description of the nominal tone system, see Aunio (2010) and Aunio et al. (forthcoming). 2.3.2 Grammatical tone There are two pairs of verbal tense/aspect forms which require grammatical tone marking in the orthography: Past versus Anterior, and Narrative versus Inceptive. See Aunio (2013) for a more thorough description of Ikoma verbal tone.

2.3.2.1 Past and Anterior The two primary differences between Past and Anterior verbs are vowel length and tone. However, the vowel length contrast is often neutralized when the verb root is vowel-initial, leaving tone as the only difference between the two forms. See Table 2.3.2.1 below, which shows examples of Past and Anterior verbs, exemplified first with a consonant-initial verb stem and then a vowel-initial verb stem, each inflected with the 3PL subject marker /βa-/. Table 2.3.2.1 Past and Anterior with consonant- and vowel-initial stems Consonant-initial stem: Vowel-initial stem:

‘chimba/dig’ ‘jenga/build’ /n-βa-tuk-iri/ /n-βa-aβɛk-iri/ Anterior ‘wamechimba’ [mbatukiri] ‘wamejenga’ [mbaaβɛkiri] /n- -iri/ ‘they have dug’ ‘they have built’ <:mbaatukiri> /n-βa-V-tuk-iri/ <:mbaabhëkiri> /n-βa-V-aβɛk-iri/ Past ‘walichimba’ [mbaatúkiri] ‘walijenga’ [mbaaβɛ́kiri] /n- V- -iri/ ‘they dug’ ‘they built’

As the table shows, the only segmental difference between the Anterior and the Past tense is the Past tense prefix /V-/, which is an unspecified vowel. Therefore, with a consonant-initial verb stem in the Past tense, it is clear that a long vowel must be written where these prefix morphemes meet, whereas a short vowel is written for the Anterior verbs. However, with a vowel-initial stem, both the Past and Anterior forms have a long vowel, causing orthographic ambiguity unless tone is marked. In the table above, a surface High tone is transcribed on the phonetic forms in the Past tense using an acute accent. Mother tongue speakers are aware of these differences in pronunciation and grammatical meaning, so these forms are

12 distinguished orthographically. The colon (:) is used to mark all Past tense forms. It is written at the very beginning of the word. For example: Anterior: ‘wamejenga/they have built’ Past: <:mbaabhëkiri> ‘walijenga/they built’

Sometimes the difference between Past and Anterior is evident without the colon, particularly with consonant-initial roots. Nonetheless, the colon is still used on all Past tense forms, with the goal that it reduces the work for the writer to constantly have to evaluate whether or not the particular form is ambiguous with the regard to tense, and therefore whether or not the colon should be written. The goal is also that the colon becomes so identified with the Past tense that it is an aid to readers to more quickly decode the verb tense, even when there is also a vowel length distinction. For example: Anterior: m-ba-mar-iri  ‘wamemaliza’ ‘they have finished’ Past: m-ba-V-mar-iri  <:mbaamariri> ‘walimaliza’ ‘they finished’ Anterior: n-tu-abhëk-iri  ‘tumejenga/we have built’ Past: n-tu-V-abhëk-iri  <:ntwaabhëkiri> ‘tulijenga/we built’

It is also important to be careful about Past tense verbs in relative clauses, especially with a 3SG subject prefix /a-/. When the verb-initial focus marker /n-/ is removed in a relative clause, the Past vs. Anterior vowel length contrast is also lost, since word-initial long vowels are prohibited in Ikoma. This is another case in which the presence of the colon becomes helpful to distinguish the verb tense. Compare the following examples: Anterior: ‘ambaye amefanya hivyo’ ‘he who has done this’ Past: ‘ambaye alifanya hivyo’ ‘he who did this’ Anterior: ‘ambaye amezaliwa’ ‘he who has been born’ Past: ‘ambaye alizaliwa’ ‘he who was born’

A final note concerns Past tense copular forms. Though all non-copular Past verbs are written with the colon, only one copular form is written with the colon:

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<:bhaare> ‘walikuwa/they were’ uses the colon in order to distinguish it from the class 2 far demonstrative . These two words are both quite common in writing, and readers and writers have found it very helpful to have a way to distinguish them. Note also that <:bhaare> occurs only in relative causes; its main clause equivalent , which has the initial nasal focus marker, is written without the colon. All other Past copular verbs are also written without the colon, since they are never in danger of confusion with corresponding anterior forms, e.g. ‘nilikuwa/I was,’ ‘tulikuwa/we were,’ etc.

2.3.2.2 Narrative and Inceptive There are two verb forms which are differentiated only by tone. The Narrative prefix is the toneless /Vka-/, in which /V/ is an unspecified vowel, causing the subject prefix to be lengthened. The Inceptive prefix is /Vká-/ with a high tone, and with the same unspecified vowel. Therefore, these verbs are segmentally the same, but tonally different. See the examples in Table 2.3.2.2. Table 2.3.2.2 Narrative and Inceptive verbs

[βa:ɣatuka]

‘wakachimba / they dug’ /βa-Vka-tuk-a/

Narrative 3PL-NARR-chimb-a

<^bhaghatuka> [βa:ɣátuka] ‘wamechimba / they have dug’ /βa-Vká-tuk-a/

Inceptive 3PL-INC-chimb-a

As shown in the table above, a caret (^) is written before all Inceptive verbs in order to distinguish them from Narrative verbs. Readers and writers find this symbol helpful, since they can think of it as an upward pointing arrow, which reminds them that it goes with the Inceptive form, which has an “upward” High tone. Note that even though the unspecified vowel of these two tense prefixes causes the subject prefix to sound long, the length in that prefix is usually not written in the orthography. In fast speech, and even in slower speech in longer words, the length is often not clearly pronounced, and it creates no ambiguity to write those prefixes short. See §3.1.3.5 for more explanation of this vowel length rule.

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3. Morphophonology

3.1 Vowels There are a number of vowel processes which occur across morpheme boundaries, including vowel harmony (§3.1.1) and vowel adjacency processes (§3.1.2). This section also outlines a number of specific orthographic conventions involving vowel length (§3.1.3). 3.1.1 Vowel harmony processes Ikoma has a variety of different vowel harmony processes, some of which are very unusual cross-linguistically. Ikoma vowel harmony is described at length in Higgins (2012). The following three subsections of this document explain the orthographic implications of vowel harmony in prefixes, verbal suffixes, and noun stems.

3.1.1.1 Vowel harmony in prefixes Many Ikoma prefixes (both nominal and verbal) alternate as a result of [-ATR] vowel harmony. That is, when a [-ATR] vowel such as occurs as the first vowel (V1) in a stem, it triggers a vowel height alternation in the prefix, causing underlying mid vowels in prefixes to alternate to high vowels.5 These alternations are written in the orthography. For example, Table 3.1.1.1 below shows the possible allomorphs of noun class prefixes. Only the alternating prefixes are shown, thus excluding classes 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, and 16, which do not have vowel alternations. See Appendix A for a full noun class chart. Table 3.1.1.1 Noun prefix vowel harmony Class Stem V1= i, e, o, u Stem V1= ë, a, ö 1 omo- omu- 3 omo- omu- 4 eme- emi- 7 eke- eki- 8 ebhe- ebhi- 11 oro- oru- 14 obho- obhu-

5 The pattern presented here is a very unusual vowel harmony pattern, occurring only in Ikoma, Nata, and the neighboring . 15

Class Stem V1= i, e, o, u Stem V1= ë, a, ö 15 oko- oku- 19 ehe- ehi- 20 ogho- oghu-

Only the prefix vowel closest to the stem alternates; the augment vowels always stay mid. Ikoma readers and writers are very aware of these prefix alternations. Some writers who have struggled to differentiate the two sets of mid vowels within stems (that is, to distinguish from ) have found it very helpful to use the prefix alternations as a guide for correctly writing mid vowels in the stem. For example, if they see a high vowel in the prefix, they know that the stem vowel is usually [-ATR], and vice versa. Note that vowels of classes 5 and 18 do not alternate. The class 5 prefix is . Since it is already high, it is unaffected by harmony. The class 18 locative clitic does not alternate, even though it is underlyingly a mid vowel. This is likely because the clitic is outside of the domain of prefix harmony. This evidence supports the decision to hyphenate the locative instead of writing it conjunctively. See §4.2 for locative spelling rules. In verbs, subject and object agreement markers and tense/aspect prefixes are also susceptible to the same vowel harmony process as noun class prefixes. If the vowel in the prefix is underlyingly , it alternates to before in the stem. Recall that only the prefix closest to the stem alternates; that is, the leftward harmony does not spread through one prefix to trigger another. It is only the [–ATR] vowels in a stem (not a prefix) which are able to trigger a vowel alternation. The [-ATR] vowels do not even occur in prefixes.6 The following examples show that even an in a prefix (in this case, in the 3PL object prefix and class 6 object prefix ) does not cause the infinitive prefix to alternate: /ko-βa-mar-a/ ‘kuwamaliza/to finish them’ INF-3PL-finish-FV

6 Only two exceptions have been found, with the [-ATR] mid vowel occuring in augment vowel and prefix position: There are two known vowel-initial noun stems which begin with the [-ATR] vowel , and this [-ATR] quality spreads leftward to the class 3 noun prefix and even the augment vowel. For example: Singular/Plural ‘shimo/hole', with singular form morphemes /omo-ɔβɔ/. Also ‘bonde/valley', with singular form morphemes /omo-ɔrɔ/. 16

/ko-ɣa-rom-a/ ‘kuyauma/to bite them’ /INF-6-bite-FV

In these examples, the infinitive does not alternate to , even before the of the object prefix. Labialization and palatalization of stem-initial consonants affects vowel harmony in prefixes. See the following examples, all of which have [-ATR] vowels as the first stem vowel (stems are in bold), and each of the stem-initial consonants are either labialized or palatalized. Instead of the prefixes alternating to high vowels, the prefix vowels remain mid, thus indicating that the labialization and palatalization have a [+ATR] vowel quality: Labialization: ‘kuchumbiwa/to be engaged’ ‘kupatana/to agree’ Palatalization: ‘mshale/arrow’ ‘mji/town’

3.1.1.2 Vowel harmony in suffixes There are five verbal suffixes which alternate based on the root vowel. These alternations are written as they are pronounced. The first three are the front-vowel suffixes for the Applicative, Stative and Subjunctive, which have vowels which alternate between and . The final two suffixes are the back-vowel Inversive and Inversive-Stative extensions, which have three-way vowel alternations between , , and . See a summary of the patterns in Table 3.1.1.2a below, which lists the forms of each suffix which occur following different vowel qualities in the verb root. Table 3.1.1.2a Summary of vowel harmony in verbal suffixes

Applicative & -ër / -ëk following Stative -er / -ek following -e following Subjunctive -ë following -or / -ok following Inversive & -ur / -uk following Inversive Stative -ör / -ök following

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For the Applicative, Subjunctive and Inversive suffixes, one example of each alternation is given in the following table, with the relevant suffix in bold. The Stative suffix follows the same vowel harmony pattern as the Applicative, and the Inversive Stative follows the same pattern as the Stative. Table 3.1.1.2b Examples of vowel harmony in verbal suffixes Suffix Ikoma Swahili English

Applicative -ër ghukörëra kufanyia to do to/for -er ghokorera kukulia to grow at/for -e bhakore wakue they should grow Subjunctive -ë bhakörë wafanye they should do -or ghwighora kufungua to open Inversive -ur kohunyura kufunua to uncover -ör ghuköröra kukohoa to cough

Note that there are some other types of vowel harmony previously described in Higgins (2012) which are not written in the orthography, since these types of harmony do not occur in the most careful speech, and Ikoma speakers are not usually aware of these alternations.7

3.1.1.3 Vowel harmony in noun stems There are restrictions concerning which vowels can co-occur within noun stems. The clearest restrictions concern the mid vowels. The [-ATR] mid vowels are never adjacent to the [+ATR] mid vowels . The mid vowels also do

7 Higgins (2012) describes a process of leftward [+ATR] spreading from high-vowel suffixes such as the anterior <-iri>, passive <-u>, causative <-i>, agentive <-i>, and even from the mid-vowel subjunctive suffix <-e>. These suffixes cause vowel raising in verb roots which have the vowels /ɛ ɔ/ underlyingly, thus causing an alternation in the root to [e o]. These root vowel alternations differ in their degree of raising, with the change from /ɛ/ to [e] seeming to be more categorical (i.e. full assimilation), while raising of /ɔ/ to [o] is more gradient (i.e. partial assimilation). In discussing these patterns with Ikoma speakers, we conclude that this pattern of leftward [+ATR] spreading is likely a post-lexical phenomenon associated with fast speech. The most convincing evidence of this is that vowel contrasts which would otherwise be neutralized because of this spreading can still be distinguished in careful speech. Ikoma writers therefore prefer writing the underlying vowel qualities of verb roots, not the raised forms. Thus the following verbal minimal pairs can still be distinguished orthographically: /m-ba-mɛr-iri/ 'wameota/they have sprouted' and /m-ba-mer-iri/ 'wamemeza/they have swallowed'. 18

not occur following the high and low vowels . Table 3.1.1.3 below gives examples of the vowel co-occurrence patterns in noun stems. Table 3.1.1.3: Vowel distribution in noun stems V2 i u e o ë ö a V1 i ahiti omokwiru angighe ahaghiro X X omobhisa ‘fisi/ ‘bibi harusi/ ‘nzige/ ‘mahali/ ‘adui/ hyena’ bride’ locust’ place’ enemy’ u andughi angubhu angughe atugho X X eghekubha ‘panya/ ‘kiboko/ ‘nyani/ ‘mifugo/ ‘kifua/ rat’ hippo’ baboon’ livestock’ chest’ e omoremi eriigheghu obhorere ekemero X X omokera ‘mkulima ‘gego/ ‘kitanda/ ‘umio/ ‘mkia/ / farmer’ molar’ bed’ throat’ tail’ o omosori obhoghonchu eriikore oghoghoro X X obhorobha ‘mchuzi/ ‘uchafu/ ‘mwanzi/ ‘mguu/ ‘pamba/ sauce’ dirt’ bamboo’ leg’ cotton’ ë ekirëngi eghisëku X X eghisëbhë omuhëtö eriibhëgha ‘proverb/ ‘mlango/ ‘kiwele/ ‘mtego/ ‘bega/ methali’ door’ udder’ trap’ shoulder’ ö eriighöti omubhöhu X X orughöhë obhuhörö anchöka ‘shingo/ ‘mfungwa/ ‘usi/ ‘kiporo/ ‘nyoka/ neck’ prisoner’ eyelash’ leftovers’ snake’ a eghitati ekihamu eghisare omughabho X X omukama ‘ukope/ ‘kidevu/ ‘pacha/ ‘mganga/ ‘upepo/ eyelid’ chin’ twin’ doctor’ wind’

Note that for the co-occurrence patterns CaCë and CaCö, there are actually a few examples in which the word-final mid-vowels might actually be the [-ATR] mid- vowels , but the examples are very few, and it is difficult to confidently distinguish the quality of these word-final vowels.8 Therefore, the practical decision has been made to write word-finally only when preceded by other [-ATR] mid-vowels in the stem. Therefore, following the high and low vowels , the [+ATR] mid-vowels are written by default. This is a helpful guide for wrtiers who struggle to distinguish these word-final vowels, and it creates no ambiguity of meaning.

8 For example: ‘damu/blood’, ‘kikapu/basket’, ‘shida/problem’. 19

3.1.2 Vowel adjacency processes When two vowels are adjacent across a morpheme boundary, a few different vowel hiatus resolution strategies are used. Depending on the combination and order of the vowels, sometimes the first vowel in the sequence elides, sometimes it desyllabifies (i.e. it forms a glide), and sometimes two identical vowels merge to form one long vowel. Table 3.1.2 below gives a summary of these vowel adjacency processes, showing (in orthographic form) all possible combinations of vowels and how hiatus is resolved in each case. Throughout this section, the abbreviations V1 and V2 are used to refer to the first vowel and second vowel in a sequence, in which each of the vowels are from a different morpheme. Table 3.1.2 Vowel adjacency processes V2 i u e o ë ö a V1 i ii yo u e ii ye yo yë yö ya o wi we oo wë öö wa ë ö a ii ee oo ëë öö aa Color coding: Yellow: Identical adjacent vowel assimilation, Green: Elision of V1 with Compensatory Lengthening, Blue: Glide formation

The table uses dark grey for vowel combinations which are unattested. For example, there are no examples of adjacent vowel combinations in which V1 is in V1 position are class 5 nouns, with the prefix , but in this class there are a very small number of vowel-initial stems, limited to those beginning with the vowels . There are no known examples of any type of word stem which begins with , which means that this vowel is unattested in V2 position. The following subsections give examples and orthographic conventions used when writing each type of vowel adjacency, including elision (§3.1.2.1), desyllabification (§3.1.2.2), assimilation (§3.1.2.3), as well as some cases of inserting intervocalic semivowels (§3.1.2.4). The overarching writing rule applied to these processes is simply to write these words as pronounced, while also following the 20 standard vowel length conventions, particularly avoiding writing conditioned vowel length (i.e. compensatory lengthening which results from glide formation), but writing derived vowel length (i.e. length resulting from assimilation, as well as compensatory lengthening which results from vowel elision).9 Before moving on, we should mention a few exceptions to the patterns in the table above, which occur when these adjacent vowels are word-initial. Because long vowels are unacceptable word-initially (see §3.1.3.2), all of the derived long vowels are shortened in word-initial position, e.g. /a+i/ usually results in , but word- initially it surfaces as the short vowel , as in ‘aue/he should kill’, from the morphemes /a-it-e/. There are also two vowel combinations which result in long vowels word-medially but result in glide formation word-initially. The combination /o+o/ usually results in , but word-initially the result is , e.g. ‘(ambayo) umesikia/(which) you have heard’, from /o-oɣu-iri/. Similarly, /e+i/ usually results in , but word-initially it is , e.g. ‘imeua/it (9) has killed’ from /e-it-iri/.10

3.1.2.1 Elision If V1 (i.e. the vowel to the left of the morpheme boundary) is , it elides before all other non-identical vowels, and the following vowel (V2) is compensatorily lengthened, created a derived long vowel. This vowel length is written, in order to preserve each of the underlying segments. The other vowel combinations resulting in elision of V1 are /e+i/, which results in , and /o+ɔ/, which results in . Examples of elision are in Table 3.1.2.1 below.

9 Recall the three types of vowel length mentioned in §2.1.2: phonemic, conditioned and derived. Though these terms have various uses in the linguistic literature, the definitions given in this paragraph are those used throughout this document. See use of these terms also in §2.1.3 above and §3.1.3.3 below. 10 When glide formation does not form a palatalized or labialized consonant, e.g. when the desyllabified vowel is word-initial, any phonetic compensatory lengthening is written, thus instead of . This allows for simplification of the writing rule: The rule concerning conditioned vowel length is taught in the context of labialized and palatalized consonants, so when desyllabification occurs outside of the context of another consonant, the vowel is written long if it sounds long. 21

Table 3.1.2.1: Elision of V1 with lengthening of V2

V1-V2 Orthography Morphology Swahili English

a-i = ii abhiiti aβa-iti wauaji killers

a-e = ee ghogheemba ko-ɣa-emb-a kuyaimba to sing them (6)

a-o = oo abhooghu aβa-oɣu wasikivu receptive people

a-ë = ëë akëënda a-ka-ɛnda akataka he wanted (NARR)

a-ö = öö aköörö aka-ɔrɔ kabonde small valley

e-i = ii ekiiriri eke-iriri kivuli shade

o-ö = öö ömöörö omo-ɔrɔ bonde valley

Other examples of elision in Ikoma involve word boundaries, e.g. the augment vowel of a noun elides following an associative or a locative proclitic. In other cases, the vowel of the conjunction elides before some vowel-initial word. See §4.2 (Locatives), §4.3 (Associatives), and §4.4 (Conjunction) for examples.

3.1.2.2 Desyllabification Desyllabification occurs at morpheme boundaries when V1 is and V2 is any non-identical vowel. (The exceptions to this general rule are the combinations /e-i/ and /o-ɔ/, which were dealt with in the section on elision directly above.) The vowel labializes, and both and palatalize. A few examples of desyllabification are in given in Table 3.1.2.2 below. Table 3.1.2.2: Desyllabification

V1-V2 Orthography Morphology Swahili English

i-o = yo eryobha eri-oβa jua sun

o-i = wi ghwita ko-ita kuua to kill

o-e = we omwembo omo-embo wimbo song

o-ë = wë omwëri omo-ɛri mwezi month/moon

o-a = wa omwame omo-ame tajiri rich person

e-e = ye emyeya eme-eja nafasi opportunity

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V1-V2 Orthography Morphology Swahili English

e-ë = yë emyëri eme-ɛri miezi months/moons

e-o = yo emyongo eme-ongo daraja bridge

e-ö = yö emyörö eme-ɔrɔ mabonde valleys

e-a = ya ekyaro eke-aro nchi land, country

The combination /e-e/, e.g. , is the only combination of adjacent identical vowels which results in glide formation instead of simply assimilating to form a long vowel. Note that desyllabification does not occur with the causative <-i> and passive <-u> extensions, which occurs in many other surrounding . In Ikoma, these extensions completely replace the final vowel of the verb. For example: Basic form: ‘kulima/to farm’ Passive: ‘kulimwa/to be farmed’ Causative: ‘kulimisha/to cause to farm’

3.1.2.3 Assimilation For the vowels /i, o, a/, when identical vowels are adjacent at a morpheme boundary, they simply merge to form a long vowel. Examples are in Table 3.1.2.3a below. Table 3.1.2.3a: Assimilation of identical adjacent vowels

V1-V2 Orthography Morphology Swahili English

i-i = ii eriino eri-ino jino tooth

o-o = oo kooma ko-om-a kukauka to dry

a-a = aa amaato ama-ato mitumbwi canoes

Another type of assimilation involves noun stems which have an initial “unspecified vowel.” See examples in Table 3.1.2.3b below, in which “V” represents the unspecified vowel.

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Table 3.1.2.3b: Assimilation of prefix vowels with unspecified vowel-initial stems

Stem Singular Plural Swahili English

-Vto omooto abhaato mtu person

-Vna omoona abhaana mtoto child

-Vnyo omoonyo emeenyo chumvi salt

-Vka omooka emeeka mwaka year

When comparing singular and plural forms, we see that the noun prefixes for both forms are long, and there is no other type of elision or glide formation taking place, which we would expect to find if the initial vowel had a specific underlying vowel quality. These words are simply written as pronounced, with long vowels at the prefix-stem morpheme boundary.

3.1.2.4 Intervocalic semivowels There is one environment in which semivowels are regularly inserted between two vowels: when the reflexive verbal prefix occurs as the middle vowel of a sequence of three adjacent vowels. The reflexive undergoes any normal hiatus resolution processes with the preceding vowel (namely, causing labialization or elision of the preceding vowel), but in order to prevent vowel adjacency with the third vowel in the sequence, a semivowel is inserted after the reflexive. The therefore is not underlyingly present, but Ikoma writers perceive its presence and naturally write it in this environment. See examples in Table 3.1.2.4 below. Table 3.1.2.4 Semivowel insertion following the reflexive prefix Morphemes Orthography Swahili English βa-ka-i-ahur-ɛr-a bhakiyahurëra wakajichagulia they chose for themselves n-o-i-ahur-ɛr-e nwiyahurërë ujichagulie you should choose for yourself a-ka-i-aβɛk-ɛr-a akiyabhëkëra akajijengea he built for himself ko-i-andɛk-a kwiyandëka kujiandikisha to register oneself ne-ko-i-oɣu nekwiyoghu ninajisikia I feel (myself)

See also §5 concerning how loan words are written in Ikoma, especially conventions guiding when semivowels are written between adjacent non-identical vowels.

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3.1.3 Additional vowel length conventions The basic phonemic contrast between short and long vowels was described above in §2.1.2, followed by discussion of a set of environments which cause non-phonemic (i.e. conditioned) vowel lengthening in §2.1.3. And directly above, in §3.1.2, there is discussion concerning vowel hiatus resolution across morpheme boundaries, which is also very relevant to how vowel length is written in Ikoma. The current section takes things a step further, detailing a variety of other orthographic conventions which guide how vowel length is written in more specific environments. One of the complicating factors in Ikoma concerns the interaction of multiple long vowels throughout the word. For example, when two (or more) long vowels, usually from different morphemes, occur within the same word, the leftward long vowel is often shortened to some degree. As a general rule, phonemic vowel length, especially within noun and verb roots, is always preserved. And within verbs, care is taken to preserve derived length in grammatical morphemes, especially when tense or aspect distinctions depend on it. There are, however, a couple of specific writing conventions which follow mother tongue speaker perception of vowel shortening, including in some nominal prefixes, as well as with a specific set of verb forms. §3.1.3.1 below is the primary section which pertains to nouns. It addresses vowel length alternations in class 5 and 10 nominal prefixes, which shorten depending on vowel length in the noun stem. Later sub-sections each concern specific situations in inflected verb forms. The rules outlined below have been designed to balance two main criteria as carefully as possible: to write vowel length at the level of mother- tongue speaker awareness, while also aiming to preserve the most essential phonemic contrasts.

3.1.3.1 Class 5 and 10 prefix vowel length There are two noun class prefixes which have vowel length alternations, and the pattern is the same for both: the class 5 and 10 nominal prefixes, and respectively, have long vowels when they occur before noun stems which contain only short vowels. Inversely, if there is a long vowel in the noun stem, whether it is a phonemic or even a conditioned long vowel, then the prefix vowel is shortened. Testing has revealed that this rule is in line with how mother tongue speakers perceive vowel length in these words. Therefore, careful writers are able to follow this rule fairly easily. Examples of class 5 nouns and their class 6 plural forms are in Table 3.1.3.1a below, where noun stems are in bold. Examples in (a) have long prefix vowels,

25 whereas those in (b) have short prefix vowels. In the plural forms, the prefix always has a short vowel. Table 3.1.3.1a Class 5 prefix vowel length: and Singular Plural Swahili English eriito amato jani leaf eriihe amahe vita war eriiho amaho mwiba thorn eriiru amaru goti knee a) eriighuha amaghuha mfupa bone eriighano amaghano hadithi story eriiraheri amaraheri kiapo oath eriikanisa amakanisa kanisa church eriibhateri amabhateri shahidi witness erinyëërö amanyëërö pua nose erishaako amasaako ngozi skin b) erikinda amakinda kundi group erihundughu amahundughu maiti corpse eritwangero amatwangero kinu mortar (for pestle)

Note that all monosyllabic stems have a long prefix vowel, but with bisyllabic and longer stems, the prefix length is based solely on the presence of any long vowels in the stem, even compensatorily lengthened vowels. For example, in the word , the stem vowel is actually pronounced long because of lengthening before the prenasalized consonant (e.g. [erikiinda]), and even though the compensatory lengthening in the stem is not written, it still affects the way the prefix vowel is written. As mentioned above, the second occurrence of lengthening is in class 10, and examples are shown in Table 3.1.3.1b. Examples in (a) have long prefix vowels, whereas those in (b) have short prefix vowels. In the singular forms, the class 9 or class 11 prefix vowels are all short.

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Table 3.1.3.1b Class 10 prefix vowel length: and Singular Plural Swahili English anyo chaanyo mtungi cooking pot asu chaasu samaki fish aka chaaka simba lion oroku chaaku kuni firewood a) oroko chaako kifo death orosiko chaasiko siku day atugho chaatugho mfugo livestock atetere chaatetere mbegu seed atikere chaatikere punda donkey aseese chaseese mbwa dog atyenyi chatyenyi mnyama animal b) ashekeeri chashekeeri shekeli shekel oronyiibhoro chanyiibhoro kizazi generation

Note that the class 10 prefix has an additional form. The class 9 and 10 nominal prefixes often occur with a nasal, e.g. and . When the nasal is present in the prefix, the prefix vowel is always written short, even if it is pronounced long. This is done so that there is no confusion about the “compensatory lengthening” rule in nouns. That is, the rule which prohibits writing long vowels in conditioned environments takes precedence over any other vowel length rules concerning the class 10 prefix. See examples in Table 3.1.3.1c below. Table 3.1.3.1c Class 10 prefix vowel length: Singular Plural Swahili English angi changi inzi fly (insect) angwe changwe chui leopard anda chanda tumbo stomach anchöta chanchöta nyota star ororeme chandeme ulimi tongue ambërëtë chambërëtë mbuzi goat ambusuru chambusuru mbegu seed

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3.1.3.2 Word-initial vowel shortening As mentioned in §2.1.2 above, there are restrictions on word-initial vowel length. If a word is consonant-initial, vowel length is allowed in the first syllable, but if the word is vowel-initial, the first vowel is always short. In verbs, this rule is particularly evident with 2SG and 3SG subject prefixes /o-/ and /a-/, since these prefixes do not contain a consonant and often occur word-initally. Table 3.1.3.2 below shows some examples using the 3SG subject prefix, contrasting the vowel length when the prefix is word-initial versus when there is another (consonant) prefix word-initially. Table 3.1.3.2: Word-initial vowel shortening Orthography Morphology Swahili English :naabhughiri n-a-V-βuɣ-iri alisema s/he said a) :abhughiri a-V-βuɣ-iri alisema s/he said (relative clause) naare n-a-V-re alikuwa s/he was b) are a-V-re alikuwa s/he was (relative clause)

In these examples, the focus marker at the beginning of the verb creates a consonant-initial syllable, which allows the presence of the derived long vowel. But when the focus marker is removed (e.g. in a dependent clause), the first syllable is vowel-initial, so the initial vowel can no longer be long. Therefore, a long vowel should never be written in a vowel-initial first syllable. This rule closely follows native speaker perception of vowel length, so Ikoma writers follow it intuitively.

3.1.3.3 Long vowels in seemingly conditioned environments (verbs) In §2.1.3 above, three environments are listed which cause conditioned vowel lengthening: before prenasalized consonants, and after palatalized or labialized consonants. Within word stems, vowels are always written short in these three environments, since vowel length in these environments is never contrastive. In inflected verbs however, there are times when long vowels are written, even in seemingly conditioned environments. When a derived long vowel occurs across a morpheme boundary, the long vowel is written. This is particularly an issue with vowel-initial verb roots which have a prenasalized consonant. See examples in the table below. In (a), vowels are written short before the prenasalized consonant because the first vowel in hiatus desyllabifies, so each morpheme is still represented in the word. The stem-initial is pronounced long, but the length is simply compensatory, following glide formation of the prefix vowel, so is written

28 short. In (b), the underlined vowels are written long, since these are derived long vowels, created as a result of vowel elision, not a result of glide formation. Table 3.1.3.3: Long vowels in seemingly conditioned environments Orthography Morphology Swahili English kwanga ko-ang-a kukataa to refuse a) ntwangiri n-to-ang-iri tumekataa we have refused (ANT) akaanga a-ka-ang-a akakataa he refused (NARR) akëëndërëra a-ka-ɛndɛrɛr-a akaendelea he continued (NARR) b) bhakëënda βa-ka-ɛnd-a wakataka they wanted (NARR) :ntwaangiri n-to-V-ang-iri tulikataa we refused (PST)

In teaching this rule to Ikoma writers, the guiding principle is whether or not each underlying vowel is properly represented in writing. If the vowel desyllabifies, it is represented with the semivowel or sometimes . But if hiatus of V1 and V2 results in a long vowel without desyllabification, then the long vowel is written. These rules require writers to be familiar with verbal morphology. If a long vowel occurs anywhere in a normal (not potentially “conditioned”) environment, it is simply written as it is pronounced. But in a potentially “conditioned” environment, care must be taken to consider whether or not the perceived length is a result of glide formation (in which case a semivowel followed by a short vowel is written), or if the length is derived from two adjacent vowels without glide formation (in which case a long vowel is written, thus representing each underlying vowel).

3.1.3.4 Multiple long vowels within a verb When multiple long vowels, usually from different morphemes, occur in the same verb, the long vowel closest to the end of the word is pronounced most clearly long, whereas the other vowels are less clearly long, especially in fast speech. Nonetheless, the general rule is that all phonemic and derived long vowels should be written. The examples below include verb roots with a phonemic long vowel, as well as derived long vowels at the subject prefix morpheme boundary.

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Table 3.1.3.4a: Two long-vowel syllables Orthography Morphology Swahili English :naatiiniri n-a-V-tiin-iri aliogopa he was scared (PST) :niituuriri n-a-V-ituur-iri alifikiri he thought (PST) niituuriri n-a-ituur-iri amefikiri he has thought (ANT)

Other times there can be as many as three long vowels in a single verb form, all of which should be written. In the examples below, when the Applicative extension /-ɛr/ is adjacent to the Past/Anterior suffix /-iri/, concatenation of these suffixes results in forms such as /-iire/ or /-iiru/ (the final form a having the passive /-u/ as well). Therefore, if the verb has this suffix combination, as well as a phonemic long vowel in the root and a derived long vowel in the prefix, forms such as those in the following table can occur. Table 3.1.3.4b: Three long-vowel syllables Orthography Morphology Swahili English :naasaamiire n-a-V-saam-ɛr-iri alihamia he moved to (PST) a) nasaamiire n-a-saam-ɛr-iri amehamia he has moved to (ANT) :naasamiire n-a-V-sam-ɛr-iri alionjea he tasted for (PST) :naatooriiru n-a-V-toor-ɛr-iri-u aliwekewa he was placed at (PST) b) natooriiru n-a-toor-ɛr-iri-u amewekewa he has been placed at (ANT) :naabhabhooriire n-a-V-βa-βoorer- aliwaambia he told them (PST) c) iri

In (a) and (b), writing short or long vowels in different syllables can change the tense of the verb, as well as the meaning of the root (e.g. /saam/ ‘move’ vs. /sam/ ‘taste’). The example in (c) is a common word, and even though the basic stem /βoorera/ does not clearly contain the applicative extension, it undergoes the same suffix concatenation, resulting in a long vowel. This example is written with three long vowels. Note that there are exceptions to the rule presented in this section. Some Non- Past, Inceptive and Narrative verbs are written with short prefix vowels, as described in the following section.

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3.1.3.5 Non-Past, Inceptive and Narrative verbs Aside from the Past tense, there are three other tense/aspect prefixes which contain an unspecified vowel: the Non-Past /Vko-/, Inceptive /Vka-/, and Narrative /Vka-/. The unspecified vowel has no quality of its own, but it lengthens the preceding adjacent vowel, which is always the subject prefix. When any of these three prefixes occur with monosyllabic verb stems, the subject prefix is very clearly long, and writers consistently write the vowel length in these words. See examples in the table below, with examples of Non-Past verbs (a), Inceptive verbs (b), and Narrative verbs (c).11 Table 3.1.3.5a: Long prefix vowels with monosyllabic verb stems Orthography Morphology Swahili English ntookubha n-to-Vko-βa tutakuwa we will be a) ndeeghuye n-re-Vko-je linaenda it (5) is going ^bhaakabha βa-Vka-βa wamekuwa they have become b) ^cheekanyo tʃe-Vka-ɲo zimekunywa they (10) have drunk bhaakare βa-Vka-re wakala they ate c) bhaaghaku βa-Vka-ku wakafa they died

When these three prefixes occur with bisyllabic or longer verb stems, Ikoma speakers hear the prefix vowel length less consistently. The longer the verb, the less likely the length is recognized. Therefore, verbs with longer stems are all written with a short subject prefix vowel, which results in more consistent writing, shorter words, and creates no ambiguity. See examples in the table below, once again with examples of Non-Past verbs in (a), Inceptive verbs in (b), and Narrative verbs in (c). Table 3.1.3.5b: Short prefix vowels with longer verb stems Orthography Morphology Swahili English ntokorema n-to-Vko-rem-a tutalima we will farm a) mbaghoghora n-βa-Vko-ɣor-a wananunua they are buying ^gheghaghëri ke-Vka-ɣɛr-i kimesababisha it (7) has caused b) ^cheghatuka tʃe-Vka-tuk-a zimechimba they (10) have dug bhaghatuka βa-Vka-tuk-a wakachimba they dug c) bhaghasëngëra βa-Vka-sɛngɛr-a wakaabudu they worshipped

11 Recall that the Inceptive and Narrative are tonal minimal pairs, and the Inceptive is marked for grammatical tone. See §2.3.2.2 for more details. 31

3.1.3.6 1SG object prefix written as vowel length The 1SG object prefix is /n-/, as exemplified in ‘akaniomba/he requested of me.’ With most consonant-initial verb roots, this object prefix causes prenasalization of the following consonant, and it is written as , but before bilabial roots it is , e.g. ‘akaniambia/he told me.’ The difficulty comes with verb roots which begin with the following set of nasal, glottal, and semi-vowel consonants: . Instead of this nasal prefix causing prenasalization, the nasal completely elides before this set of consonants, but its presence is preserved by lengthening the preceding vowel, which is usually a vowel from either a tense/aspect or a subject prefix. Therefore, the vowel lengthening is written as it is pronounced. Table 3.1.3.5: 1SG object prefix represented with vowel length Without 1SG object With 1SG object Swahili English kohicha koohicha ku(ni)shinda to conquer (me) nahichiri naahichiri ame(ni)shinda he has conquered (me) konenda koonenda ku(ni)linda to protect (me) okamënya okaamënya uka(ni)jua you knew (me) akanyaaki akaanyaaki aka(ni)sumbua he annoyed (me) koweeri kooweeri ku(ni)pumzisha to make (me) rest koyaari kooyaari ku(ni)kimbiza to chase (me) kohiita koohiita ku(ni)kumbuka to remember (me)

Ikoma speakers are able to decode this vowel length as referring to the 1SG object, and they find this way of writing to be far superior than any other options. For example, attempts at preserving the nasal in writing are deemed unacceptable, e.g. * is not an acceptable way to represent the object prefix, since it is not pronounced as a lengthened nasal, and because this spelling could actually be misinterpreted to mean ‘ukamjua/you knew him' (correct spelling would be ). Though this vowel lengthening helps to preserve the 1SG object in the orthography in most cases, there are a few cases in which the presence of this prefix remains ambiguous. For example, in the Past tense verb <:naahichiri> ‘alishinda/he conquered', the subject prefix is already long because of the Past tense vowel, so the vowel cannot be lengthened more to account for the 1SG object. Therefore the spelling <:naahichiri> can mean both ‘alishinda’ as well as ‘alinishinda/he

32 conquered me.’ Note that the Past tense grammatical tone marker distinguishes these verbs from the Anterior ‘amenishinda/he has conquered me.’ Finally, ambiguity can also occur if word-initial vowel shortening prevents a long vowel at the beginning of a verb. For example, in the following examples of subjunctive verbs with a 3SG subject prefix, there is no way to distinguish the presence of the 1SG object prefix: ‘a(ni)shinde/he should conquer (me)’ ‘a(ni)linde/he should protect (me)’ In these cases, we rely on context to make the meaning clear. If needed, the pronoun ‘mimi/me’ can also be added to the sentence for extra clarity.

3.1.4 1SG subject prefix The 1SG subject prefix is , but in quicker speech it can be pronounced as just a nasal . Both of these pronunciations are considered accurate for Ikoma speakers, but a decision has been made to write the full form of the prefix as much as possible. See Table 3.1.4 below for examples. Table 3.1.4: 1SG subject prefix Verb stem Subjunctive with 1SG subject Spelling decision tuka netuke or ntuke netuke ‘chimba/dig’ ‘nichimbe/I should dig’ roma nerome or ndome nerome ‘uma/bite’ ‘niume/I should bite’

3.2 Consonants 3.2.1 Dahl’s Law Dahl’s Law, a process of voicing dissimilation, is very active in Ikoma prefixes, and all alternations are written as they are pronounced. The velar consonants and alternate in prefixes in which the underlying form is the voiceless /k/. Specifically, this rule affects noun class prefixes and concords for classes 7, 12, and 15, which are underlyingly , as well as three tense/aspect prefixes (Non-past, Narrative and Inceptive). The consonant alternations are triggered by voicelessness in the following consonant. Therefore, for these affected prefixes, if the following consonant is voiceless, the prefix consonant becomes voiced. But if the following consonant is voiced, there is no trigger and the prefix remains voiceless, with some exceptions, 33 which are discussed below. Examples of the basic pattern are in Table 3.2.1a below, where the relevant velar consonant in underlined. For each prefix listed in the table, both a voiceless and a voiced version of the prefix is shown. Recall that vowel harmony causes vowel alternations in many of these prefixes as well (§3.1.1.1), and these tense/aspect prefixes each have an unspecified vowel (V) which may or may not cause vowel length in the subject prefix (§3.1.3.5). Table 3.2.1a: Dahl’s Law basic pattern Prefix Orthography Morphology Swahili English Cl 7 ekibhari eke-βari ua flower /eke-/ eghisaka eke-saka kichaka thicket Cl 15 okubhökö oko-βɔkɔ mkono arm /oko-/ oghotu oko-tu sikio ear NP nekumara ne-Vko-mar-a nitamaliza I will finish /Vko-/ ntoghusabha n-to-Vko-saβ-a tunaomba we are praying NARR bhakabhomba βa-Vka-βomb-a wakaumba they created /Vka-/ bhaghatuka βa-Vka-tuk-a wakachimba they dug

Velar prefixes which do not alternate are those which are underlyingly voiced. The class 20 prefix , for example, never changes to . Likewise, many of the agreement prefixes for classes 4 and 6 involve a voiced , which never alternates. Ikoma does have an interesting exception to its normal application of Dahl’s Law. Voicing in the prefix is usually triggered by a following voiceless consonant, but the voiced velar fricative unexpectedly acts as a trigger as well, causing voicing in the affected prefixes. Therefore, instead of voicing dissimilation, there are adjacent syllables with the voiced consonant . Examples from class 15, which is also the prefix used for infinitives, show this pattern in the table below. Table 3.2.1b: Dahl’s Law exception: as trigger Orthography Morphology Swahili English oghoghoro oko-ɣoro mguu leg ghoghora ko-ɣor-a kununua to buy ghughabha ko-ɣaβ-a kurithi to inherit

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Note that multiple velar prefixes in a single word can alternate, as in the following examples. Table 3.2.1c: Dahl’s Law with multiple prefixes Orthography Morphology Swahili English ghekabhugha ke-Vka-βuɣ-a kikasema it (7) said gheghatabhera ke-Vka-taβer-a kikatafuta it (7) looked for ghoghotena ko-ko-ten-a kukukata to cut you

Finally, note that only velar prefixes are affected by Dahl’s Law. In suffixes like the stative <-ek>, the does not alternate. Also, the voiceless of this suffix does not trigger voicing in root-final consonants. For example, the final in ‘kupaka/to smear’ is not voiced when the stative is added, e.g. ‘kupakika/to be smeared’.

4. Word boundaries Ikoma has a number of small function words which are often pronounced together with the following word, and this section outlines the conventions used to write these complicated word boundaries. In some cases, these words are written completely disjunctively, i.e. fully separated by a space. This includes associatives (§4.3), the conjunction (§4.4), and question words (§4.5). In other cases, a hyphen is used as a way to partially separate small words which are phonologically dependent on the following word, including the copula (§4.1) and locatives (§4.2). This section also deals with reduplication (§4.6) and compound words (§4.7).

4.1 Copula The underlying form of the basic copular is simply /n-/, without a vowel, so it is necessarily pronounced together with the following word. This copular verb is written with a hyphen and occurs primarily in two forms, and , as well as a third form , which is quite rare. The hyphen is written between the copula and the first letter of the following word. See examples in Table 4.1a below, showing the copula before vowel-initial words in (a), and before consonant-initial words in (b). Though the copula most often is written as , in the examples in (c) the bilabial nasal occurs before bilabial consonants. Finally, (d) shows examples of , which occurs only before words beginning with , in which case it is pronounced as a slightly lengthened semivowel. 35

Table 4.1a: Basic copula examples Orthography Swahili English n-omutëmi ni mfalme is king n-emighaate ni mikate are breads a) n-abhasaani ni marafiki are friends n-umu ni mmoja is one (person) n-taata ni baba is father n-changibho ni nguo are clothes b) n-kende ni tisa is nine n-che ni za are of (10) n-ghaare ni yale is them (6) m-bhoheene ni vizuri is good c) m-bhaare ni wale is them (2) w-wuure ni yule is that one (1) d) w-wowoose ni yeyote is anyone (1)

When the copula occurs with words beginning with the fricatives and , the copular nasal causes the following fricative to harden to a stop in pronunciation. Nonetheless, Ikoma speakers have decided to continue to write the fricative forms of these consonants, e.g. and from the table above. This keeps the word form constant despite the hardening effects of the nasal. Note that for nouns which have an augment (pre-prefix) vowel, there are times when the augment vowel is not pronounced, seemingly for subtle grammatical and discourse-related distinctions which are not yet fully understood. In order to allow for these distinctions in the orthography, the presence of the augment is optional in writing, which means that in some of the examples in the table above, there are acceptable alternatives, e.g. ‘are friends’ could also be written depending on its context. When the word following the copula begins with a nasal, the nasal of the copula assimilates to the place of articulation of the nasal of the root and is written as either or . For example, see class 1a nouns in Table 4.1b below. Class 1a noun do not have a prefix, so when the root begins with a nasal, there are two adjacent nasals, which are separated by the hyphen.

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Table 4.1b: Copula before nasal-initial words Orthography Swahili English m-moguuku ni mdudu is insect n-ng’ong’ooi ni korongo is stork n-nyaamu ni paka is cat n-nööra ni tunutunu is agama lizard

Also, there has been confusion about how to write some other grammatical words which seem like they might begin with the copula. There are cases in which an initial nasal is best analyzed as a frozen (lexicalized) focus marker and is therefore not written with a hyphen. The copular hyphen is typically reserved for cases in which, (1) there are clearly two different words, and (2) whatever is to the right of the hyphen is an understandable word. For example, the question word ‘nini/what’ is written without a hyphen, since if we suppose that the initial is a copula, then it would mean that the remainder of the word * is an understandable word, which it is not. Therefore, the spelling of * is not preferred. Another set of examples is the contrast between the following three words: ‘ni yeye/is him’ (c.f. ‘yeye/him’) ‘ndiye/is indeed’ ‘(ni) nani/(is) who’ In the first example above, the initial nasal is clearly a copular verb, and when the hyphen is used, the part of the word following the hyphen is clearly understood to mean ‘yeye/him’. The second example is an emphatic copular pronoun which in itself functions as the verb of the clause (examples to be presented below). The final example is hyphenated in an exceptional manner, not following the normal principles.12 Hyphenation here is used primarily to distinguish these three similar forms in the orthography. Ikoma writers find these spelling distinctions to be particularly helpful for disambiguating these similar words. See examples of each of these three words:

12 The Swahili gloss for is sometimes ‘ni nani/is who’ and other times just ‘nani/who’, depending on the specific example. We consider this to be an exceptional use of the hyphen since the hyphen is used for both glosses ‘nani’ and ‘ni nani’, and we consider the initial nasal of this word to be more of a lexicalized focus marker than a true copula. 37

‘Mkulima ni yeye. / The farmer is him.’ ‘Yeye ndiye mkulima. / He is indeed the farmer. ‘Mama yangu ni nani? / Who is my mother?’ ‘Nani ataweza kuokolewa? / Who is able to be saved?’

The word ‘nani/who’ is the only question word which is written with a hyphen. All other question words are written without a hyphen. See §4.5 for more discussion and examples of other question words.

4.2 Locatives Locatives in Ikoma are most often shown by attaching the class 18 prefix to the beginning of a noun, which causes the noun’s augment vowel to elide.13 The locative prefix is written with a hyphen, except in class 5, as shown below. See Table 4.2 for examples. Table 4.2: Locatives Class Class 18: mo- Noun in isolation Swahili English

1 mo-mutëmi omutëmi kwa mfalme to the king

2 mo-bhaato abhaato kati ya watu among the people

5 mwishaaro erishaaro mbinguni heaven

7 mo-ghetumbe eghetumbe kwenye kiti in the chair

9 mo-ngibho angibho kwenye nguo in the clothes

Note that the form of the locative in class 5 is exceptional. The consonant of the class prefix elides when the preceded by the locative, which in turn causes labialization of the locative. In cases such as this, the hyphen is not written; the locative noun is written as pronounced. Two other forms of nominal locatives have been found, though they are much less common than the class 18 examples above. The locatives and are

13 Ikoma does not use locative class 17, and class 16 is used only for a few nouns, such as ‘mahali/place.’ 38 sometimes used, but apparently with a very limited set of nouns. The locative is used only with kinship terms, and it means ‘kwa/to’, as in ‘kwenda kwa mtu/to go to a person’. This could possibly be from class 17 (a result of consonant elision), which is otherwise not a productive locative class in Ikoma. See examples with class 1a nouns: ‘baba/father’  ‘kwa baba/to father’ ‘babu/grandfather’  ‘kwa babu/to grandfather’ ‘mama/mother’  ‘kwa mama/to mother’ ‘bibi/grandmother’  ‘kwa bibi/to grandmother’

Each of these nouns can also take the class 18 locative, as in , but the meaning would then be ‘inside father’s room’ or something more specific than ‘to father.’ The locative is perhaps from class 16, again with consonant elision. This locative occurs far less frequently than the class 18 . It often occurs with just a handful of lexical items, mote notably the following:14 ‘shamba/farm’  ‘shambani/at the farm’ ‘mgongo/back’  ‘mgongoni/on the back’ ‘mti/tree’  ‘mtini/on the tree’ ‘mlima/mountain’  ‘mlimani/on the mountain’

All of these locatives are written with a hyphen, following the same rule as class 18. Class 16 and 18 locatives can also be used with verbs. In these cases they occur as the suffixes <-ho> and <-mu>. These verbal locatives are also written with hyphenation, following the same rule as the nominal locatives. See examples below: ‘panda (hapo) juu/climb up here’ ‘yameisha (ndani)/it has finished inside’

14 These nouns can also be pronounced with the class 18 , but the meaning changes slightly. For example, means ‘on top of the tree’, whereas means ‘under the tree’, e.g. in the shade of the tree. Similarly, is ‘on top of the mountain’, whereas is ‘at the foot of the mountain.’ With other nouns, the distinction is a little different: is the general area of the farm/field, whereas is specifically ‘inside the field.’ 39

4.3 Associatives Associative constructions in Ikoma are unique. In many related Bantu languages, the associative is formed with a class agreement prefix followed by a final vowel /-a/, but Ikoma does not have this final /-a/. Instead, the associative is the shape of the agreement prefix itself, and it almost always occurs in this exact form, both in pronunciation and in writing. If the first vowel of the following word is an augment, the augment vowel elides. The associatives for all noun classes are listed in Table 4.3a below. Note that Dahl’s Law affects the consonants in classes 7, 12 and 15. Table 4.3a: Associatives 1 o 10 che 2 bha 11 ro 3 o 12 ka, gha 4 ghe 14 bho 5 re 15 ko, gho 6 gha 16 ha 7 ke, ghe 18 -- 8 bhe 19 he 9 e 20 gho

Associatives are written as separate words. See example phrases below, all of which show elision of the augment vowel of the word following the associative. ‘mfalme wa kiti/king of chair’ ‘wafalme wa kiti/kings of chair’ ‘wafalme wa kamba/kings of rope’ ‘kiti cha kifaru/chair of rhino’ ‘nguo ya kamba/clothes of rope’ ‘mahali pa bangili/place of bracelets’

Even when the augment vowel of the following word is part of a proper noun or name, if the augment is elided in careful pronunciation, then it is also elided in writing. For example: ‘Neno la Mungu/Word of God’ (c.f. ) ‘kwa Roho Mtakatifu/by the Holy Spirit’ (c.f. )

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If the word following an associative begins with a vowel which is not an augment (that is, it is simply part of the name or word stem), then the initial vowel is pronounced in careful speech, and this vowel is written. For example: ‘bustani ya Edeni/garden of Eden’ ‘kwa nafasi ya Abeli/in the place of Abel’ ‘watoto wa Israeli/children of Israel’

There is a small list of words which begin with the vowel , and associatives behave differently when they occur before these words. This is the primary environment in which associatives are written (and pronounced) differently than in Table 4.3a above. In these cases, the initial of the following word causes the associative to be pronounced with the vowel as well. Ikoma speakers strongly prefer that these words be written as they are pronounced in these contexts. See examples in Table 4.3b below. Table 4.3b: Associatives before words which begin with Noun class and Example before Swahili English normal form wi ishe wa baba yake of his father Class 1: o wi ikomi wa kumi of ten bhi iso wa baba yako of your father Class 2: bha bhi ibheere wa sasa of now chi ibhara za nje of outside Class 10: che chi ishe za baba yake of his father

Another interesting note is that the class 1 and 3 associatives and the class 9 can sometimes look like the augment of the following noun or adjective, and this can actually change the meaning of a phrase if it is not written correctly. For example: ‘mtoto mganga/child doctor’ ‘mtoto wa mganga/child of doctor’ Therefore, writers should be aware that the associative can sometimes ‘hide’ and simply look like the augment of the following word. Another writing convention involving associatives concerns ordinal numbers. Table 4.3c below shows the correct spelling for a variety of ordinal numbers agreeing

41 with a variety of noun classes. The first part of each of these ordinal numbers is a small particle which looks like an associative, though sometimes the form is somewhat different, e.g. in class 2 the particle is , whereas the normal class 2 assocative is . Table 4.3c: Associatives as part of ordinal numbers Noun class and Example before Swahili English normal form o mumbërë wa kwanza first Class 1/2: o, a a bhambërë wa kwanza first (ones) o kabhere wa pili second e chimbërë ya kwanza first Class 9: e e kabhere ya pili second ro kabhere la pili second Class 11: ro ro ghatato la tatu third

Also, note that the word ‘mwanzoni/in the beginning’ is different than the examples above. It is pronounced and written as a single word. Concerning associative agreement, note that for locative nouns, the associative agrees with the class of the noun itself, not with the class of the locative. For example, see the phrase ‘mdomoni mwa simba/in the mouth of the lion.’ This is the class 18 locative attached to the class 3 noun ‘mdomo/mouth’. The associative is , agreeing with class 3, not class 18. Another example is ‘kitini cha mfalme/in the chair of the king.’ The associative agrees with the original class of the noun (class 7), not the class 18 locative. See §3.1.2.1 for another complex phrase involving the application of the associative word boundary rule.

4.4 Conjunction The conjunction ‘na/and’ is written separately from the following word, and vowel changes in the conjunction are written as they are pronounced. The underlying form of the conjunction is /na/, but its vowel can change depending on the following word. When the following word is consonant-initial, or if its augment is , then the conjunction remains , as in the phrase ‘mama na baba/ mother and father’. But if the following word begins with any other vowel, then the vowel of the conjunction assimilates to the quality of the following vowel. Therefore, 42 the conjunction has the three primary forms , corresponding with the three common augment vowels . For example: ‘na nguo (nyingi)/and clothes’ ‘na majembe/and hoes’ ‘na mti/and a tree’ ‘na kiti/and a chair’

When the conjunction occurs with any of the few words which begin with the vowels or , the conjunction is pronounced and written as or . For example: ‘kumi na moja (class 10)/eleven’ ‘(watu) kumi na mmoja/eleven (people)’

Note that in some cases there can be multiple word break issues occurring at the same time. In the following example, we find the conjunction /na/ and the class 3 associative /o/ fused directly onto a class 9 noun: /na o ahiti/ = [nohiti]  ‘na wa fisi’ ‘and of hyena’ Even in slow speech, this phrase is pronounced together as a single phonological word. The augment of the noun elides following the associative, and then the vowel of the conjunction elides. By following the word boundary rules for associatives and conjunctions, the orthographic representation of this phrase preserves the three separate grammatical words.

4.5 Question words For many question words, there are both full forms and short forms which occur in different situations, often depending on whether or not the question word is in focus. See examples in Table 4.5 below. Table 4.5: Question words Full form Short form Swahili English neke ke nini, gani what, which nibhu bhu vipi how n-niwe we nani who ngwake --- kwa nini why

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For the “full forms,” the relevant word boundary question is whether or not the initial nasal in these words might actually be a copula and therefore should be written with a hyphen. As was discussed in §4.1 above, these question words are written without hyphens, with the exception of ‘(ni) nani/(is) who.’ The word is written with a hyphen in order to distinguish it from the emphatic copular pronoun ‘ndiye/is indeed.’ Ikoma readers and writers find it very helpful to have a way to distinguish these words in writing. In all of the other full forms, the question words are written without hyphens, even in cases when the gloss includes the copula ‘ni/is’.15 Examples of each of the full forms are below: ‘Nini kimesababisha ufanye hivi?’ ‘What has made you do this?’ ‘Vipi nimefanya umenikubali?’ ‘How have I done, that you would accept me?’ ‘Nani ataweza kuokolewa?’ ‘Who will be able to be saved?’ ‘Kwa nini umesimama hapa nje?’ ‘Why are you standing here outside?’

For the short forms of the question words, the word boundary issue is whether or not these forms should be written together with the preceding word, or if they should be written as separate words. Ikoma writers find it quite natural to separate these small words and to write them independently, as the following examples illustrate: ‘Ni jambo gani? / Which issue is it?’ ‘Nifanye vipi? / What (literally: how) should I do?’ ‘Kwa uwezo wa nani? / By the power of whom?’

15 These full forms of the question words tend to occur when the question word is in focus (often in cleft constructions, as the examples show). And even though Swahili back-translations of these words sometimes include the copula ‘ni’, e.g. ‘ni nini’, or ‘ni vipi’, it is often difficult (and not particularly helpful) to try to differentiate when an additional copula may or may not need to be written at the beginning of the word. Therefore, as a general rule, the word is the only one written with a hyphen and additional nasal. For example, ‘how’ is never written as * or as *. 44

4.6 Reduplication Reduplication of nouns, verbs, and adjectives are written conjunctively, whereas reduplication of demonstratives, numbers and some adverbs are written disjunctively. Pronunciation is the primary criterion used to determine how each of these forms is written. Also, for most of those which are written conjunctively, the stem is reduplicated, but the prefixes are not. Table 4.6a shows reduplicated forms which are written conjunctively, including verbs in (a), and other types of words in (b). Reduplication of the verb stem often means that the resultant stem implies continuous, ongoing action. Table 4.6a: Conjunctively written reduplication Ikoma Swahili English ghusëkasëka kuchekacheka laugh repeatedly ghutachatacha kukanyagakanyaga step on repeatedly a) ghotombatomba kuelea float ghutëmitëmi kupepesa macho blink repeatedly ghotuumatuuma kurukaruka jump up and down erikoorukooru kunguru crow amasuuhusuuhu madogomadogo (various) small things b) ebhetenekateneka vipandevipande (several) pieces ghateghate katikati in between

Table 4.6b shows reduplicated forms which are written disjunctively, including adverbs in (a), numerals in (b), and demonstratives in (c). Table 4.6b: Disjunctively written reduplication Ikoma Swahili English haghare haghare mbalimbali various bhwango bhwango haraka haraka quickly a) kimu kimu moja kwa moja immediately hang’u hang’u hivyo hivyo in the same way umu umu mmoja mmoja each one; one at a time b) bhabhere bhabhere wawili wawili two (people) at a time ibhere ibhere mbili mbili two (class 10) at a time

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Ikoma Swahili English hayo hayo hapo hapo right then; right there uyo uyo huyo huyo that same person c) wuure wuure yule yule that same person riire riire (Mungu) yule yule that same (God)

4.7 Compound words There are not many compound forms in Ikoma. Table 4.7 below shows many of the examples which have been found. Each of these examples is clearly pronounced as one word and is written as such. Table 4.7: Compound words Ikoma Swahili English hagirohamu pamoja together omoonamwegha (m)wanafunzi student(s) abhaanabheegha omontomonkoro mkuu, wakuu boss(es) abhantomonkoro obhorerebhongi aina ya nyasi type of grass omukamoona mkamwana daughter-in-law nyinabhiyaara mama mkwe mother-in-law ishebhiyaara baba mkwe father-in-law hawubhaabha amina amen

5. Loan words Most words which are borrowed from other languages are adjusted to fit Ikoma phonological and syllable structure, which often includes changing non-Ikoma consonants to comparable Ikoma consonants, inserting semivowels between adjacent non-identical vowels, as well as adding vowel length in some syllables. See some examples in Table 5 below, most of which are biblical loan words. When borrowed into Ikoma, it is the Swahili version of the Biblical loan word which is adjusted.

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Table 5: Loan words Ikoma Swahili English eriitirisha dirisha window a) Bhawuro Paulo Paul Tawuti Daudi David Kebhuraaniya Kieburania Hebrew b) Mariyamu Mariamu Mary Isiraeri Israeli Israel c) Abhiisiraeli Waisraeli Israelites Ishimaeri Ishmaeli Ishmael asafina safina ark d) adivaayi divai wine

In (a), we see examples in which non-Ikoma consonants such as are changed to , respectively. In (a) there are also instances of vowel clusters such as in Swahili; in this environment the semivowel is inserted in Ikoma, thus breaking up the vowel cluster, e.g. . Similarly, the examples in (b) represent the many Biblical names which have the vowel sequence in the Swahili transcriptions, but in Ikoma the semivowel is inserted, e.g . Examples in (c) are somewhat exceptional, since the vowel sequence from Swahili is the only regular combination of adjacent vowels which is allowed in Ikoma loan words; a semivowel is not inserted between these vowels, thus . Examples in (d) are also exceptional, since the non-Ikoma consonants and are allowed in these loans. Attempts to adapt these two words using normal Ikoma consonants results in words which are not easily understood by readers, so the Swahili consonants are preserved for the sake of comprehension.

6. Punctuation and capitalization

6.1 Sentence-final punctuation Sentence-final punctuation can include a period (full-stop) for declarative sentences, a question mark for interrogative sentences, or an exclamation mark for exclamatory sentences. For example:

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Bhaomwito mbaghiire mo-moghya. ‘Kaka zangu wameenda mjini. / My brothers have gone to town.’

Toraanga kubhöna ambura, tukörë ke? ‘Tusipopata mvua, tufanye nini? / If we don't get rain, what should we do?’

Nakariire chwee! ‘Amekasirika sana! / He is very angry!’

6.2 Commas Commas are used to represent small breaks in speech, especially between clauses, and thus break longer sentences into more managable segments of reading. Commas are also used to separate items in lists: Naghoriri anyama, asurukare, omoonyo, na amaghuta gha ghutërëkëra. ‘Amenunua nyama, sukari, chumvi, na mafuta ya kupikia.’ ‘He has bought meat, sugar, salt, and cooking oil.’

Commas are also used with quotation marks when quoting direct speech, as is exemplified in §6.4 below.

6.3 Colon Colons in Ikoma are primarily used for Past tense grammatical tone marking (see §2.3.2.1). They are not usually used as punction, except when giving Scripture references, e.g. ‘Mathayo 13:24 / Matthew 13:24’.

6.4 Quotation marks Quotation marks are used in Ikoma for the quotation of direct speech. For example: Akamberekera, akamboorera kubha, “Nyaako waacho nabhughiri oghi ibherebhere! Omoona waacho m-mubhabharu.” ‘Akaniita, akaniambia kuwa, “Mama yako amesema uende sasa hivi! Mtoto wako ni mgonjwa.”’ ‘He called me, he told me that, “Your mother said you should go right now! Your child is sick.”’

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If there is a quotation inside another quotation, the single quote marks <‘ ’> are used to highlight this imbedded quotation. For example: Taata aghagharokeri, “Orabhugha, ‘Ntekwënda ghuköra emeremo gheene,’ neghoghutëma!” ‘Baba alijibu, “Ukisema, ‘Sitaki kufanya kazi yangu,’ nitakuchapa!”’ ‘Father replied, “If you say, ‘I don’t want to do my work,’ I will beat you!”

6.5 Capitalization The first letter of a word should be capitalized if it starts a sentence or a direct quotation, as many examples earlier in §6 have already illustrated. Proper nouns and names should also have a capitalized first letter. For proper nouns, the first letter of the word (not including clitics) should be capitalized. Table 6.5 below gives examples of the proper name ‘Mungu/God’ in a variety of post-clitic environments, illustrating correct use of capitalization. Table 6.5: Capitalization Environment Ikoma Swahili English normal Eryobha Mungu God following a conjunction ne Eryobha na Mungu and God following an associative bha Ryobha wa Mungu of God following a copula n-Eryobha ni Mungu is God following a locative mo-Ryobha katika Mungu in God

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Appendix A: Ikoma noun classes The table below lists all Ikoma noun classes, showing all prefix alternations which result from vowel harmony and Dahl’s Law. There are other forms of each prefix which occur in other environments, e.g. with vowel-initial noun stems, but those forms are not listed here. For each noun class, the underlying form of the prefix is listed first.

Class Prefix Ikoma Swahili English omo- omoremi mkulima farmer 1 omu- omutëmi mfalme king 1a ∅ nööra tunutunu agama lizard 2 abha- abhatëmi wafalme kings 2a bha- bhanööra tunutunu (wengi) agama lizards omo- omoghondo shamba farm 3 omu- omughaate mkate bread eme- emeghondo mashamba farms 4 emi- emighaate mikate breads erii- eriishërë jembe hoe 5 eri- erishaako ngozi skin 6 ama- amashërë majembe hoes 6a ama- amanche maji water eke- ekehoore fuvu skull eghe- eghetumbe kiti chair 7 eki- ekimööri ndama calf eghi- eghisaka kichaka thicket 8 ebhe- ebhetumbe viti chairs ebhi- ebhimööri ndama (wingi) calves 9 an- angibho nguo clothing 9a a- ahimbo fimbo cane 10 chan- changibho nguo (wingi) clothing (pl) chaa- chaasiko siku day 10a cha- chahimbo fimbo (wingi) canes

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oro- orosiri kamba rope 11 oru- orughëndö safari journey aka- akahuuhe kipepeo kidogo small butterfly 12 agha- aghakö kibuyu kidogo small gourd obho- obhorito uzito weight 14 obhu- obhutööti bangili (wingi) bracelets oko- okoreghesa ugomvi quarrel ogho- oghoghoro mguu leg 15 oku- okubhökö mkono arm oghu- oghughase kuvu mold 16 aha- ahaghiro mahali place 18 mo- mo-mihëtö mitegoni in the traps ehe- ehetumbe viti vidogo small chairs 19 ehi- ehikö vibuyu vidogo small gourds ogho- oghosiri kamba kubwa large rope 20 oghu- oghukö buyu kubwa large gourd

Standard singular/plural noun class pairings are shown in the table below. Singular Plural 1 2 1a 2a 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10, 6 9a 10a 11 10, 14 12 19 14 6 15 6 20 6

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Appendix B: History of Ikoma orthography development This is a record of the history of the Ikoma orthography, including initial orthography development workshops, as well as a variety of events or types of changes affecting the orthography.

History of pre-Trial Orthography Status events:

Date Event or orthography issues tested or changed October 2007- Initial word collection workshop and a series of two orthography February 2008 development workshops were held, resulting in an experimental orthography. May 2008 Dialect survey conducted in multiple Ikoma, Nata and Isenye villages in order to further evaluate the possibility of these three language varieties using the same written materials. August 2008 Writers Awareness workshop to practice and test the orthography with a group of Ikoma speakers. November Orthography testing at SIL office with Ikoma speakers. 2008 March 2009 Two Ikoma speakers began working full-time as Ikoma Bible translators, using the orthography daily. July 2009 Trial Orthography Status granted.

History of testing events and orthography changes and additions during the Trial Orthography period:

Date Event or orthography issues tested or changed 2010-2011 Testing and feedback gathered from Ikoma participants during a series of literacy workshops at SIL office; no orthography changes made at this time. April 2013 At the persistent request of the community, and with the endorsement of the Ikoma language committee, four graphemes were changed: the vowels <ɛ, ɔ> were changed to , and the consonants were changed to . June 2014 Ikoma and Nata literacy teacher training workshop in the town of Mugumu, during which some orthography testing took place, especially concerning class 5 and 10 prefix length, grammatical tone, and some vowel quality questions.

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2014-2015 Formation of Ikoma Reading Group in the village of Bwitengi, with a series of reading and writing workshops, in which the orthography continued to be informally tested. February-April Orthography evaluation and discussion at SIL office, followed by a 2017 formal testing event with all of the Ikoma and Nata literacy teachers, as well as the Bwitengi Reading Group members. Issues tested include: writing the 1SG object prefix with a variety of different verb stems; writing and ; vowel length with class 5 and 10 prefixes; vowel length issues in inflected verbs. April 2017 Meeting with representatives of the Isenye language community, in which the Isenye people requested their own Isenye language development and Bible translation project. July 2017 The Ikoma Language Committee gave their approval of the Ikoma orthography.

August 2018 Approved Orthography Status granted by SIL Uganda-Tanzania Branch.

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References

Aunio, Lotta, Holly Robinson, Tim Roth, Oliver Stegen & John B. Walker. forthcoming. The Mara Languages (JE40). Submitted to The Bantu Languages, 2nd edition.

Aunio, Lotta. 2010. Ikoma nominal tone. Africana Linguistica XVI: 3–30.

---. 2013. Ikoma verbal tone. Nordic Journal of African Studies 22(4): 274–321.

Casali, Roderic. 2003. [ATR] value asymmetries and underlying vowel inventory structure in Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan. Linguistic Typology 7: 307-382.

Higgins, Holly, Bernadette Mitterhofer, Bryan Smith, Rachel Smith, and Mussa Karume Thobias. 2008. Dialect Survey Among the Ikoma-Nata-Isenye Peoples. SIL International, Uganda-Tanzania Branch.

Higgins, Holly. 2010. Ikoma Orthography Sketch. Unpublished Manuscript. SIL International, Uganda-Tanzania Branch.

---. 2012. Ikoma vowel harmony: Phonetics and phonology.

Hill, Dustin, Anna-Lena Lindfors, Louise Nagler, Mark Woodward, and Richard Yalonde. 2007. A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Bantu Languages in Mara Region, Tanzania. SIL International, Uganda-Tanzania Branch.

Lewis, Paul, Gary Simons & Charles Fennig (eds). 2018. Ethnologue: Languages of the world. Twenty-first edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: .

Maho, Jouni. 2009. New updated Guthrie list. .

Robinson, Holly. 2016. The Grammar Basics of Ikoma. Unpublished Manuscript. SIL International, Uganda-Tanzania Branch. < http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/64348>.

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---. 2017. Isenye Extensibility Workshop Report. Internal document. SIL International, Uganda-Tanzania Branch.

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