Benue-Congo Prosodic Phonology and Morphology in Optimality Theory

Olanike-Ola Orie
Tulane University

This is the first book to address prosodic problems in African languages within the constraint-based Optimality Theory, a recently developed alternative to derivational generative phonology. With compelling data from several Benue-Congo languages spoken in Nigeria, Togo, and the Republic of Benin, the book examines and evaluates current issues in prosodic theory; it argues based on prosodic asymmetries that some prevailing claims on prosodic structure cannot be maintained.

First, it is argued, based on asymmetries involving tone-bearing status and the ability to constitute a syllable peak, that there is a structural distinction between consonantal moras and vocalic moras: the nuclear-mora and non nuclear-mora distinction. Second, while languages such as Ondo-Yoruba and Emai syllabify a vowel regardless of whether it is preceded by an onset or not, in languages such as Gokana, Standard Yoruba, and Owon-Afa, a syllable is phonologically active only if it has an onset. Onsetless syllables are phonologically inert. To account for the inertness of these superficial syllables, it is argued that they are in fact not syllables, but moras which remain phonologically unsyllabified. Third, the foot utilized for morphological processes in examined tonal non-stress languages is binary and headed, contradicting the hypothesis that morphological feet are binary and headless. Fourth, evidence is adduced to sho that minimal and maximal size effects are attested at the prosodic word level. Contrary to the existing view, it is argued that two separate constraints, properheadedness and foot binarity, are required for an adequate analysis of minimality. This makes it possible to explain the diverse instantiation of the minimal word and to account for the erstwhile recalcitrant data in the language acquisition literature. Concerning maximality, it is observed that the prosodic word is maximally expressed as two feet. This restriction is proposed to follow form the principle of binarity, a pervasive principle in antural language phonology.

This book also addresses the issue of formalizing typological variation: despite the typological unity in the Benue-Congo system, the specific instantiation of prosodic constituents vary typologically from language to language. Attested typological variation is straightforwardly accounted for in otpimality Theory by the variable rankings of a set of constraints provided by Universal Grammar. On this view, the prosodic unity is rooted in the universality of the constraints, while the diversity simply follows from the rankings assigned to the constraints by individual grammars.

This book will interest linguists, africanists, and all those interested in natural language phenomena.

"This is a fine contribution, with significant new analysis throughout, important ideas about prosodic structure developed in a new context, and strong evidence for the proposals offered"
-- Alan Prince, Rutgers University

ISBN 9783895861741. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 15. 240pp. 1997.

Le dialecte peul du Fouladou (Casamance - Sénégal)

Gloria Lex


L'étude phonétique portant sur les consonnes dites glottalisées du peul est resituée par rapport aux mécanismes de "l'implosion" dans diverses langues du monde. Vu que le terme de glottalisation apparaît à travers la littérature phonétique et linguistique avec les significations les plus diverses, des analyses physiologiques et acoustiques étaient destinées à mettre en évidence la nature phonétique de ces consonnes. Il en résulte qu'il s'agit de consonnes implosives sourdes et sonores, dont certains traits caractéristiques qui les différencient des consonnes explosives, ont pu être mis en évidence. L'étude du système vocalique et consonantique du parler peul du Fouladou montre qu'il existe 10 phonèmes vocaliques et 27 phonèmes consonantiques. Le système consonantique est organisé selon 6 corrélations: une corrélation d'implosivité, une corrélation d'explosivité incluant une corrélation de sonorité et les corrélations de prénasalité, de nasalité et de fricativité. Le système vocalique comprend 2 classes de localisation, 3 degrés d'aperture et atteste une corrélation de quantité.

ISBN 9783895861758. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 16. 320pp. 2001.

Comparative Morphology of the Omotic Languages

M. Lionel Bender
University of Southern Illinois-Carbondale

Omotic is the least-known family in the Afrasian (=Afroasiatic or "Hamito-Semitic") phylum. No book-length synthesis of the family has appeared previously and it is not generally known that Omotic is a highly agglutinative family with many obvious Afrasian characteristics. Omotic is located entirely within southwest and west Ethiopia, on both sides of the Omo River, from which it takes its name. Some still consder Omotic not to be an independent family, but rather West Cushitic.

In this monograph, the author covers all nine Omotic families in descriptive chapters as follows: 1. Northwest Ometo, 2. Southeast Ometo and C'ara, 4. Gimira-Yem (Janjero)-Kefoid, 6. Dizoid, 7. Aroid, 8. Mao. Chs. 3 and 5 are analytic chapters covering preceding chapters and Ch. 9 is an overall analysis, summary, and conclusions. All varieties having sufficient documentation (about 30 in number) are covered, along with notes on others.

Sources are all available published sources which contain significant linguistic material, many of them obscure and difficult to obtain, plus extensive unpublished fieldnotes of the author and others. All are fully referenced.

Each descriptive chapter has an introduction featuring nomenclature, locations, demographic estimates, and a listing of main sources. There follows a brief phonological sketch divided into consonants, vowels, and suprasegmentals and phonotactics. Morphological categories are then taken up in the order: pronouns, including independents, possessives, verbal affixes, gender, number, and case; demonstratives; interrogatives; nouns, including species and the categories applying to pronouns; verbal TMA (tense-mode-aspect) system; copulas and connecters; nominal and verbal derivations. In the comparative analysis, the author surveys grammatical formatives by family and indicates potential proto-forms where possible. Conclusions include remarks on the sub-classification of Omotic and the position of Omotic in the Afrasian phylum.

The book contains about 250 pages including Notes, References, Map. It is to be followed by a second volume on Omotic phonology and lexicon.

ISBN 9783895862519. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 19. 250pp. 2000.

Apects of the Grammar of Kukú

Kevin Bretonnel Cohen
Ohio State University

Kukú is a previously undescribed southeastern Nilotic language of the Bari family. It is spoken in southern Sudan and northern Uganda. Kukú has a wide variety of verbal affixes. These affixes are involved in a number of vowel harmony and tone assignment patterns. In this grammar sketch, particular attention is paid to the qualitative morpheme, which functions quite differently in Kukú than in other Nilotic languages. In Kukú its distribution, both with respect to the verbs on which it can appear and the aspects in which it must appear, is related to a contrast between telicity and atelicity. If the performance of the verb has a potential end-point, and if the aspect is completive, then these conditions are marked by the presence of the qualitative morpheme.

The syntax section focuses on problems in the distribution of the complementizers and in the use of two copula-like elements, one of which is clearly verbal and the other of which is a particle. The phonological section of this description is based on traditional elicitation from a consultant. The morphological and syntactic sections also draw heavily from texts of various types, ranging from traditional songs to electronic mail.

ISBN 9783895862762. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 25. 220pp. 2000.

Isixhosa Tonology: An Optimal Domains Theory Analysis

Farida Cassimjee
Benedict College

This book provides both a comprehensive description of the tonal system of the verb in Isixhosa (a language belonging to the Nguni subgroup of the Bantu language family) and a detailed exemplification of the Optimal Domains Theory approach to tone in general and Bantu tone in particular. A set of universal constraints governing the behavior of High tone is proposed and motivated on the basis of a survey of the major tonal phenomena in several representative Bantu languages. This set of universal constraints then provides the basis for the development of an analysis of the tone pattern of Isixhosa as manifested in the verbal system. While much of the tonology of Isixhosa can be insightfully analyzed in terms of the central notion of a High Tone Domain, the very complex effects of the so-called depressor consonants are particularly challenging. The final analysis of these complex data requires the postulation of (a) a second type of domain, the Register Domain, and (b) two levels with different constraint rankings. An extremely rich and complex set of data turns out to reflect the interaction of a number of well-motivated universal principles. This book thus lays the basis for further research into the universal tonal patterns exemplified by the many Bantu languages of sub-Saharan Africa.

ISBN 9783895865213. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 29. 200pp. 1998.

The Boko/Busa Language Cluster

Ross McCallum Jones
Monash University

Boko/Busa is a cluster of three closely related south-eastern Mande languages or dialects spoken in Benin and Nigeria. The aim of this research has been to describe the phonological, tonological, morphological and grammatical system and processes which occur within the Boko/Busa language cluster, using the approaches of modern linguistics to analyse and present the material. The author, Ross Jones, has had twenty eight years of practical experience with these languages in Bible translation and literacy. As Boko is the major language of the cluster, as well as the most stable and complex, the basic description is of Boko, with variations in the related languages of the cluster, Bokobaru and Busa, being described as they occur. The sources of evidence and authority consist in a thorough set of language examples. Tone is both lexical and grammatical and is an integral part of these languages. Tone changes in verbs and subject pronouns express aspect and mood, while the final tone on NP items differentiates specific from non-specific items. Tone also plays a major role in the complex and pervasive system of logophoricity. The introduction puts these languages in their setting by looking at the ethnography, language classification and historical background, while appendices give lists of lexical material, including an extensive list of loanwords and some sample texts.

ISBN 9783929075977. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 30. 346pp. 1998.

Les manières d'« être » et les mots pour le dire dans les langues d'Afrique Centrale

Paulette Roulon-Doko (éd.)
LLACAN, CNRS, Paris

Cet ouvrage collectif présente une exploration des structures qui prennent en charge l'expression du statique pour dire les manières d'« être » dans six langues africaines (un dialecte banda, un dialecte gbaya, le yakoma, le sango véhiculaire et le zande) appartenant à la branche "oubanguienne" de la famille Niger-Congo ainsi qu'une langue adamawa (le tupuri). Dans ces langues d'Afrique centrale, l'état simplement constaté est du ressort d'une prédication que les auteurs appellent non processive qui exprime les opérations logiques correspondant, en français, au domaine couvert par les verbes "être", "exister" et "(y) avoir". Cette prédication repose, selon la procédure mise en œuvre pour conférer à un élément non verbal un statut de prédicat, sur trois modèles syntaxiques dont les langues étudiées font un usage différent. Sur le plan sémantique, cette prédication a le monopole de l'expression des différentes nuances du champ notionnel d'être, (valeurs existentielle, identificatrice, présentative, équative et situatives). Un index permet de se repérer dans l'ensemble des concepts techniques utilisés. L'ouvrage peut intéresser non seulement les étudiants de ce groupe de langues, mais aussi ceux qui se sentent concernés par les problèmes de la description linguistique en Afrique ou de la typologie des langues, africaines ou autres.

Les six chercheurs ayant contribué à ce volume sont tous membres d'une unité de recherche du CNRS. Chacun a effectué, au cours de plusieurs années, une étude approfondie de la langue qu'il décrit. Collectif édité par Paulette Roulon-Doko (LLACAN, CNRS, Paris).

Introduction (Marcel Diki-kidiri et Paulette Roulon-Doko), le banda (France Cloarec-Heiss), le zande (Raymond Boyd), le yakoma (Pascal Boyeldieu), le sango (Marcel Diki-Kidiri), le gbaya (Paulette Roulon-Doko), le tupuri (Suzanne Ruelland). Index. 160 p.

ISBN 9783895865206. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 31. 200pp. 1998.

Aperçu sur la morphosyntaxe de la langue isangu

(Bantou, B42)

Daniel Franck Idiata
Préface par Bernard Comrie
Université Lumière Lyon 2; Université Omar Bongo, Libreville

L'étude présentée dans le cadre de cette publication porte sur la descrption de la morphosyntaxe de la langue isangu, une langue bantoue du nord-ouest parlée au Gabon par le peuple des Masangu (ou Massango, selon l'appelletion administrative). Partant du questionnaire proposé par le Professeur Comrie (Lingua descriptive studies : questionnaire, Lingua, 42, 1977), nous y développons trois grands aspects : la phonologie, la syntaxe et la morphologie. En ce qui concerne la phonologie, y sont décrits les systèmes vocaliques et consonantique et une large part réservée à l'étude des schèmes tonals des nominaux et des verbaux. En ce qui concerne la syntaxe, nous avons développé de nombreux aspects tels que les types de phrases, avec une place de choix réservée aux phrases interrogatives ; la subordination ; la détermination ; la coordination ; la négation ; l'anaphore ; les processus de mise en valeur et la passivisation. Pour ce qui est de la morphologie, une place d'honneur revient à l'étude des classes nominales, tant sur un plan synchronique que diachronique. L'essentiel de la morphologie verbale est aussi traitée, avec une place importante réservée au problème du temps et l'aspect et celui des extensions du verbe. Nous présentons en annexe un lexique isangu-français de près de mille entrées lexicales.

ISBN 9783929075984. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 32. 240pp. 1998.