PHONOLOGY OF MOSIYE by ERIKA HARLOW A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Master of Arts in Linguistics and Exegesis We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard ............................................................................... Dr. Roderick Casali, PhD; Thesis Supervisor ................................................................................ Dr. Keith Snider, Ph.D.; Second Reader ................................................................................ Dr. Andreas Joswig, Ph.D.; External Examiner TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY December 2016 © Erika Harlow 1 Abstract This thesis is a description of the phonology of Mositacha, a Lowland East Cushitic language of the Afro-Asiatic family, based on original field research. Mositacha is spoken by approximately 6,000 Mosiye people who live in the North Omo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region in southwestern Ethiopia. Very little has been written on the Mositacha language. With the exception of a brief overview of the phonology in Wondwosen’s recent grammar (2015), which identifies the consonant and vowel phonemes, notes the presence of consonant gemination and vowel length, and briefly comments on tone, there has been no systematic study on the Mositatcha phonology. This thesis offers a more comprehensive study on the phonology of Mositacha. It examines consonant and vowel phonemes, syllable structure, phonotactics, phonological processes and tone. Of particular interest in this phonology are marginal consonant phonemes which may be attributed to ongoing language shift, phonemic vowel length, consonant sequences and gemination, and a description of pitch patterns in words in isolation. 2 Table of Contents Abbreviations.............................................................................................................................................. 5 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 8 Overview of thesis .................................................................................................................................. 8 1 Background Information ..................................................................................................................... 9 1.1 The Mosiye People ..................................................................................................................... 9 1.2 Linguistic context ..................................................................................................................... 15 1.2.1 Multilingualism and Language Shift ................................................................................. 15 1.2.2 The Classification Question .............................................................................................. 17 1.2.3 Dialects ............................................................................................................................. 19 1.3 Previous Studies ........................................................................................................................ 20 1.3.1 Some Notes on Morphology ............................................................................................. 22 1.4 Summary of field research ........................................................................................................ 24 2 Segmental Phonology: Consonants ................................................................................................... 26 2.1 Consonant Phonemes ................................................................................................................ 26 2.2 Description of Consonant Phonemes ........................................................................................ 28 2.2.1 Voiceless Stops /p, t, k, ʔ/ ................................................................................................. 28 2.2.2 Voiced Stops /b, d, g/........................................................................................................ 30 2.2.3 Implosives /ɓ, ɗ/ ................................................................................................................ 31 2.2.5 Ejectives /tsʼ, tʃʼ, kʼ/ ............................................................................................................ 33 2.2.6 Nasals /m, n/ ..................................................................................................................... 34 2.2.7 Fricatives /f, s, ʃ, h/ ........................................................................................................... 35 2.2.8 Affricates /tʃ, ts/ ................................................................................................................ 37 2.2.9 Liquids /l, r/ ...................................................................................................................... 38 2.2.10 Approximants /w, j/ .......................................................................................................... 39 2.3 Marginal Phonemes .................................................................................................................. 39 2.3.1 Voiced stops /b, d, g/ ........................................................................................................ 39 2.3.2 Alveolar affricate /ts/ ........................................................................................................ 42 3 2.4 Consonant Adaptations in Loanwords ...................................................................................... 42 3 Segmental Phonology: Vowels ......................................................................................................... 45 3.1 Vowel Phoneme Inventory ....................................................................................................... 45 3.2 Phonetic Quality of Vowels ...................................................................................................... 46 3.2.1 Accoustic Measurements and Formant Plots .................................................................... 46 3.3 Examples of Short Vowels ....................................................................................................... 51 3.4 Vowel Length ........................................................................................................................... 53 3.5 Voiceless Vowels ...................................................................................................................... 56 4 Syllable Structure and Phonotactics ................................................................................................. 58 4.1 The Syllable .............................................................................................................................. 58 4.1.1 Syllable Types ................................................................................................................... 58 4.1.2 Syllable-Internal Phonotactics........................................................................................... 60 4.2 Syllable Profiles of Roots ......................................................................................................... 61 4.2.1 Syllable Profiles of Noun Roots ....................................................................................... 62 4.2.2 Syllable Profiles of Verb Roots ........................................................................................ 65 4.3 Consonant Sequences and Geminate Consonants ..................................................................... 66 4.3.1 Consonant Sequences ........................................................................................................ 66 4.3.2 Consonant Gemination ...................................................................................................... 72 4.3.3 Cw / Cj Sequences ............................................................................................................ 76 4.4 Vowel Phonotactics .................................................................................................................. 76 4.4.1 Vowel Co-occurrence ....................................................................................................... 76 4.4.2 Vowel Sequences .............................................................................................................. 77 4.4.3 Vowel Assimilation Across Glottal Stop .......................................................................... 78 5 Phonological Processes ..................................................................................................................... 80 5.1 Assimilation .............................................................................................................................. 80 5.2 Epenthesis ................................................................................................................................. 82 5.3 Metathesis ................................................................................................................................. 83 5.4 Deletion....................................................................................................................................