Morphophonological Processes of the C’lela Noun
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4314/gjl.v4i1.13Keywords:
morphophonology, vowel copying, metathesis, vowel lengtheningAbstract
This article discusses some aspects of the morphophonology of C’lela nouns. It will be shown that the addition of inflectional affixes to certain noun stems in C’lela, sometime motivate certain phonological processes. The analysis demonstrates that when the plural suffix [-nV] attaches to animate nouns in C’lela, it triggers certain morphophonological processes such as vowel copying, metathesis, vowel lengthening, final-vowel deletion, and initial-consonant deletion. For example, the paper argues that in plural formation, stem final-vowel sometimes undergoes metathesis when the plural marker /-nV/ attaches to a noun stem, thus; à̱rmá̱ ‘man’ + na becomes à̱rá̱m-nà̱ ‘men, as against the rule of vowel epenthesis assumed in (Dettweiler 2012). In addition, the analysis discovers that the processes of metathesis and vowel lengthening are simply conditioned by phonological structure.
References
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Buckley, Eugen, 2011. Metathesis. In Marc Van-Ootendorp, Colin J. Ewen, Elizabeth Hume and Karen Rice, eds., The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, Volume 1. London: Blackwell. www.companiontophonology.com/subscriber/ accessed April 15, 2013.
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Chomsky, Noam A. and Morris Halle, 1968. The Sound Pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row.
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Gerhardt, Ludwig, 1989. Kainji and Platoid. In J. Bendor-Samuel, ed., The Niger-Congo Languages pp. 359-376. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America..
Goldsmith, John, 1976. Autosegmental Phonology. PhD Dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Harley, Matthew, 2012. Unusual sounds in Nigerian languages. In Roger M. Blench and Stuart McGill, eds., Advances in Minority Languages in Nigeria, vol. 1, pp. 39- 66. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
Hoffmann, Carl, 1967. An outline of the Dakarkari noun class system and the relation between prefix and suffix noun class systems. In G. Manessy, ed., La Classification Nominale dans les Langues Négro-Africaines, pp. 237-259. Paris: Editions du Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique.
Hume, Elizabeth, 2001. Metathesis: formal and functional considerations. In Elizabeth Hume, Norval Smith and Jeron van de Weijer, Surface Syllable Structure and Segment Sequencing, pp. 1-25, HIL Occasional Papers, Leiden, NL: HIL. www.ling.ohio-state.edu/-ehume/Hume.cv, accessed April 20, 2012.
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Hume, Elizabeth and Jeff Mielke, 2001. Consequences of word recognition for metathesis. In Hume et al. eds. (2001), pp. 135-158. www.ling.ohio-state.edu/-ehume/Hume.cv, accessed May 6, 2012.
Hyman, Larry M., 2007. Niger-Congo verb extensions: overview and discussion. In Doris L. Payne and Jaime Peña, eds., Selected Proceedings of the 37th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 149-163, Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Projects.
http://www.lingref.com. Accessed November 23, 2012.
Kenstowicz, Michael, 1994. Phonology in Generative Grammar. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers.
Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons and Charles D. Fenning, eds., 2015. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth Edition. Dallas, Texas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
McGill, Stuart J. (2009). Gender and Person Agreement in Cicipu Discourse. PhD Dissertation. The School for Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
McGill, Stuart J. and Roger M. Blench, 2012. Documentation, development and ideology in the Northwest Kainji languages. In Peter K. Austin and Stuart J. McGill, eds., Language Documentation and Description 11, pp. 90-135. London.
Morgan, David, 1993. Vowel harmony, syllable structure, and causative extension in Lobala: a government phonology account. Journal of West African Languages 23.3: 46-63. http://www.journal.JWAL-23-1-morgan, accessed November 12, 2012.
Onukawa, M. C., 1999. The order of extensional suffixes in Igbo. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 59: 109-129.
Rose, Sharon and Rachel Walker, 2011. Harmony systems (Chapter 8). In John Goldsmith, Jason Riggle, and Alan C. L. Yu, eds., The Handbook of Phonological Theory, Second Edition. Vol. 75. West Sussex: Willy-Blackwell.
Simons, Garry F., 1994. Principles of multidialectal orthography design. Notes on Literacy 20.2: 13-32.
Smith, Rabecca D., 2007. The Noun Class System of ut.Ma’in: A West Kainji Language of Nigeria. M. A. Thesis, University of North Dakota.
Stark, Janie P., 2010. Kambari Orthography Design. SIL, SIL International. http://www-01.sil.org/silepubs/52284/stark_OrthographyDesign_52284.pdf accessed November 10, 1012.
Williamson, Kay, 1984. Practical Orthography in Nigeria. Ibadan: Heinemann.
Williamson, Kay, 1989. Niger-Congo overview. In J. Bendor-Samuel, ed., The Niger-Congo Languages pp. 247-274. Lanham Maryland: The University Press of America.
Anttila, Arto and Adams Bodo̱mo̱, 2007. Prosodic morphology in Dagaare. In Fiona McLaughlin, Eric Potsdam, and Masangu Matondo, eds., Selected Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 38), pp. 56-68. Cascadilla Proceedings Project, Somerville, Massachusetts, 2009. http://www.lingref.com/cpp/acal/38/paper, accessed September 7, 2012.
Aronoff, Mark, 1976. Word Formation in Generative Grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Baba, Ahmad Tela 1998. The Morphophonological Alternations in the Hausa Verbal Form Frankfurt am Main.
Barnwell, Katherine, 1998. Course Notes on the Introductory Course in Applied Linguistics. Jos: Nigeria Bible Translation Trust.
Blench, Roger M. and J. Stuart McGill, n.d., The West Kainji Languages of Northwestern and Central Northern Nigeria: Comparative Wordlists.
http://www.rogerblench.info/language%20data/Niger-Congo/Benue-CongoWest%20/Kainji.
Buckley, Eugen, 2011. Metathesis. In Marc Van-Ootendorp, Colin J. Ewen, Elizabeth Hume and Karen Rice, eds., The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, Volume 1. London: Blackwell. www.companiontophonology.com/subscriber/ accessed April 15, 2013.
Crozier, David, 2012. From verb morphology to discourse in Central Kambari. In Roger M. Blench and Stuart McGill, eds., Advances in Minority Languages in Nigeria, vol. 1 pp. 325-65. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
Crystal, David, 2008. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (3rd edition). London: Blackwell.
Chomsky, Noam A. and Morris Halle, 1968. The Sound Pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row.
Dettweiler, Stephen H., 2012. C’lela Grammar Sketch. Manuscript, Zuru.
Gerhardt, Ludwig, 1989. Kainji and Platoid. In J. Bendor-Samuel, ed., The Niger-Congo Languages pp. 359-376. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America..
Goldsmith, John, 1976. Autosegmental Phonology. PhD Dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Harley, Matthew, 2012. Unusual sounds in Nigerian languages. In Roger M. Blench and Stuart McGill, eds., Advances in Minority Languages in Nigeria, vol. 1, pp. 39- 66. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
Hoffmann, Carl, 1967. An outline of the Dakarkari noun class system and the relation between prefix and suffix noun class systems. In G. Manessy, ed., La Classification Nominale dans les Langues Négro-Africaines, pp. 237-259. Paris: Editions du Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique.
Hume, Elizabeth, 2001. Metathesis: formal and functional considerations. In Elizabeth Hume, Norval Smith and Jeron van de Weijer, Surface Syllable Structure and Segment Sequencing, pp. 1-25, HIL Occasional Papers, Leiden, NL: HIL. www.ling.ohio-state.edu/-ehume/Hume.cv, accessed April 20, 2012.
Hume, Elizabeth, 2004. The indeterminacy/attestation model of metathesis. Language 80.2.
Hume, Elizabeth, 2007. The interaction of internal and external factors in metathesis and deletion. Conference on Precedence Relations, CUNY Phonology Forum 9.
Hume, Elizabeth and Jeff Mielke, 2001. Consequences of word recognition for metathesis. In Hume et al. eds. (2001), pp. 135-158. www.ling.ohio-state.edu/-ehume/Hume.cv, accessed May 6, 2012.
Hyman, Larry M., 2007. Niger-Congo verb extensions: overview and discussion. In Doris L. Payne and Jaime Peña, eds., Selected Proceedings of the 37th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 149-163, Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Projects.
http://www.lingref.com. Accessed November 23, 2012.
Kenstowicz, Michael, 1994. Phonology in Generative Grammar. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers.
Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons and Charles D. Fenning, eds., 2015. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth Edition. Dallas, Texas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
McGill, Stuart J. (2009). Gender and Person Agreement in Cicipu Discourse. PhD Dissertation. The School for Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
McGill, Stuart J. and Roger M. Blench, 2012. Documentation, development and ideology in the Northwest Kainji languages. In Peter K. Austin and Stuart J. McGill, eds., Language Documentation and Description 11, pp. 90-135. London.
Morgan, David, 1993. Vowel harmony, syllable structure, and causative extension in Lobala: a government phonology account. Journal of West African Languages 23.3: 46-63. http://www.journal.JWAL-23-1-morgan, accessed November 12, 2012.
Onukawa, M. C., 1999. The order of extensional suffixes in Igbo. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 59: 109-129.
Rose, Sharon and Rachel Walker, 2011. Harmony systems (Chapter 8). In John Goldsmith, Jason Riggle, and Alan C. L. Yu, eds., The Handbook of Phonological Theory, Second Edition. Vol. 75. West Sussex: Willy-Blackwell.
Simons, Garry F., 1994. Principles of multidialectal orthography design. Notes on Literacy 20.2: 13-32.
Smith, Rabecca D., 2007. The Noun Class System of ut.Ma’in: A West Kainji Language of Nigeria. M. A. Thesis, University of North Dakota.
Stark, Janie P., 2010. Kambari Orthography Design. SIL, SIL International. http://www-01.sil.org/silepubs/52284/stark_OrthographyDesign_52284.pdf accessed November 10, 1012.
Williamson, Kay, 1984. Practical Orthography in Nigeria. Ibadan: Heinemann.
Williamson, Kay, 1989. Niger-Congo overview. In J. Bendor-Samuel, ed., The Niger-Congo Languages pp. 247-274. Lanham Maryland: The University Press of America.
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Published
07/01/2015
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Aliero, M. A. (2015). Morphophonological Processes of the C’lela Noun. Ghana Journal of Linguistics, 4(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4314/gjl.v4i1.13
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