Relevant bibliographies by topics / African languages, phonology

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Academic literature on the topic 'African languages, phonology'

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Published: 4 June 2021

Last updated: 27 July 2024

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Journal articles on the topic "African languages, phonology"

McPherson, Laura, and Michael Obiri-Yeboah. "Akan tone encoding across musical modalities." Studies in African Linguistics 52, no. 1and2 (April 28, 2024): 160–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.32473/sal.52.1and2.133067.

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Musical surrogate languages like talking drums remain understudied in the linguistics literature, despite their close connection with the phonetics and phonology of the spoken language. African surrogate languages tend to be based on tone, making them a unique angle for studying a language’s tonal system. This paper looks at the encoding of Akan tone in three instrumental surrogate languages: the atumpan drums, the seperewa harp, and the abɛntia horn trumpet. Each instrument presents different organological constraints that could shape how the tone system is transposed to musical form. Drawing on novel data elicited with musicians in Ghana, we show that all three systems are built on a two-tone foundation mirroring the Akan tone system, but with subtle differences in the treatment of downstep and intonational effects like phrase-final lowering and lax question intonation.

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AOR, Terfa, Margaret Nguemo IOREMBER, and Moses TSEVENDA. "PALATALISATION IN THE TIV PHONOLOGY." International Journal of Language, Linguistics, Literature and Culture 01, no. 01 (2022): 05–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.59009/ijlllc.2022.0002.

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Palatalisation is a well-known phonological process and a repairing strategy in the Tiv phonology which has not been adequately explored. Palatalisation in the Tiv phonology examines the phonotactic constraints of palatalisation and explores the functions that palatalisation performs in the Tiv phonology. This study has adopted Generative Phonological Model that was jointly co-authored by Chomsky and Halle’s (1968) Sound Patterns of English (SPE). The study used participant-observation instrument in this study. The study used both primary and secondary materials for gathering of data. In this study, the researcher got raw data, transcribed, translated and classed them into phonotactic constraints and functions of palatalisation in Tiv. From this study, it has been discovered that Tiv palatalisation has phonetic and orthographic classes; palatalisation results in consonant clusters, pluralisation, epenthesis, deletion and metathesis; palatalisation is a phonological process, secondary articulation and phonological change. The study is, therefore, recommended to scholars, lecturers and writers who are learning, teaching, researching and writing scholarly works on Linguistics, Nigerian and African Languages and English Language.

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Downing, Laura J. "Introduction." ZAS Papers in Linguistics 55 (January 1, 2011): 1–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.21248/zaspil.55.2011.405.

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In spite of this long history, most work to date on the phonology-syntax interface in Bantu languages suffers from limitations, due to the range of expertise required: intonation, phonology, syntax. Quite generally, intonational studies on African languages are extremely rare. Most of the existing data has not been the subject of careful phonetic analysis, whether of the prosody of neutral sentences or of questions or other focus structures. There are important gaps in our knowledge of Bantu syntax which in turn limit our understanding of the phonology-syntax interface. Recent developments in syntactic theory have provided a new way of thinking about the type of syntactic information that phonology can refer to and have raised new questions: Do only syntactic constituent edges condition prosodic phrasing? Do larger domains such as syntactic phases, or even other factors, like argument and adjunct distinctions, play a role? Further, earlier studies looked at a limited range of syntactic constructions. Little research exists on the phonology of focus or of sentences with non-canonical word order in Bantu languages. Both the prosody and the syntax of complex sentences, questions and dislocations are understudied for Bantu languages. Our project aims to remedy these gaps in our knowledge by bringing together a research team with all the necessary expertise. Further, by undertaking the intonational, phonological and syntactic analysis of several languages we can investigate whether there is any correlation among differences in morphosyntactic and prosodic properties that might also explain differences in phrasing and intonation. It will also allow us to investigate whether there are cross-linguistically common prosodic patterns for particular morpho-syntactic structure.

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Fuchs, Susanne, and Silke Hamann. "Papers in phonetics and phonology." ZAS Papers in Linguistics 37 (January 1, 2004): 243. http://dx.doi.org/10.21248/zaspil.37.2004.243.

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Table of Contents: T. A. Hall (Indiana University): English syllabification as the interaction of markedness constraints Antony D. Green: Opacity in Tiberian Hebrew: Morphology, not phonology Sabine Zerbian (ZAS Berlin): Phonological Phrases in Xhosa (Southern Bantu) Laura J. Downing (ZAS Berlin): What African Languages Tell Us About Accent Typology Marzena Zygis (ZAS Berlin): (Un)markedness of trills: the case of Slavic r-palatalisation Laura J. Downing (ZAS Berlin), Al Mtenje (University of Malawi), Bernd Pompino-Marschall (Humboldt-Universitat Berlin): Prosody and Information Structure in Chichewa T. A. Hall (Indiana University). Silke Hamann (ZAS Berlin), Marzena Zygis (ZAS Berlin): The phonetics of stop assibilation Christian Geng (ZAS Berlin), Christine Mooshammer (Universitat Kiel): The Hungarian palatal stop: phonological considerations and phonetic data

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Wolff, H. Ekkehard. "Did Proto-Chadic have velar nasals and prenasalised obstruents?" Afrika und Übersee 95 (December 31, 2022): 135–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.15460/auue.2022.95.1.265.

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Ever since the Afroasiatic affiliation of Chadic as a whole was suggested by Joseph H. Greenberg in his seminal re-classification of African languages since the 1950s and has been generally accepted, i.e. encompassing both ‘Chado-Hamitic’ and ‘Chadic’ languages of influential pre-Greenbergian genetic classifications, the issue of whether Proto-Chadic possessed prenasalised obstruents and velar nasals has been repeatedly raised and debated in the literature, yet without final consent. All of the 196 presently known Chadic languages would appear to possess these consonants in their synchronic phonemic inventories. The present article reviews the debate in view of recently available new insights on the historical phonology and lexical reconstruction based on data from 66 of the 79 known Central Chadic languages, i.e. the most numerous and most diverse branch of Chadic. According to these recent comparative studies of Central Chadic that allow to reconstruct Proto-Central Chadic phonology and lexicon, there is massive evidence to show that both velar nasals and prenasalised obstruents emerged as results of natural phonological processes probably already on the proto-language level, but need not be reconstructed for the proto-language’s phonemic inventory. And if Proto-Central Chadic did not have these consonants as inherited phonemes, then this would also be true for its predecessor, Proto-Chadic. The major processes leading to the emergence of velar nasals and prenasalised obstruents were segmental fusion and the emergence of prensalisation prosody that arose from the de-segmentalisation and prosodification of reconstructed nasals. The article summarises the evidence and gives illustrative examples for the reconstructed phonological processes, which created conditioned allophones that eventually became phonologised yielding synchronic phonemes in the modern Central Chadic languages.

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Bird, Steven. "Strategies for Representing Tone in African Writing Systems." Written Language and Literacy 2, no. 1 (July 23, 1999): 1–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/wll.2.1.02bir.

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Tone languages provide some interesting challenges for the designers of new orthographies. One approach is to omit tone marks, just as stress is not marked in English (zero marking). Another approach is to do phonemic tone analysis, and then make heavy use of diacritic symbols to distinguish the "tonemes" (shallow marking). While orthographies based on either system have been successful, this may be thanks to our ability to manage inadequate orthographies, rather than to any intrinsic advantage which is afforded by one or the other approach. In many cases, practical experience with both kinds of orthography in sub-Saharan Africa has shown that people have not been able to attain the level of reading and writing fluency that we know to be possible for the orthographies of non-tonal languages. In some cases this can be attributed to a socio linguistic setting which does not favour vernacular literacy. In other cases, the orthography itself may be to blame. If the orthography of a tone language is difficult to use or to learn, then a good part of the reason may be that the designer either has not paid enough attention to the FUNCTION of tone in the language, or has not ensured that the information encoded in the orthography is ACCESSIBLE to the ordinary (non-linguist) user of the language. If the writing of tone is not going to continue to be a stumbling block to literacy efforts, then a fresh approach to tone orthography is required — one which assigns high priority to these two factors. This article describes the problems with orthographies that use too few or too many tone marks, and critically evaluates a wide range of creative intermediate solutions. I review the contributions made by phonology and reading theory, and provide some broad methodological principles to guide those who are seeking to represent tone in a writing system. The tone orthographies of several languages from sub-Saharan Africa are presented throughout the article, with particular emphasis on some tone languages of Cameroon.

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Benson, Peace. "Ideophones in Dzə (Jenjo), an Adamawa language of Northeastern Nigeria." Language in Africa 1, no. 3 (December 25, 2020): 336–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.37892/2686-8946-2020-1-3-336-352.

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Ideophone is a phenomenon dominant in African languages. Dzə is an under-investigated and under-documented Adamawa language found in Taraba, Adamawa and Gombe States, Northeastern Nigeria. It was noticed that the language has a lot of ideophones. It became necessary to study it to understand its importance in the language. This study is to draw the attention of scholars working on Adamawa languages and ideophones. It will also thus form part of the grammar of Dzə someday. The study of ideophone is not exhaustive, especially in the minority languages of Northeastern Nigeria. The study shows that Dzə ideophones express intensity, emphasis and description. Dzə ideophones have unique phonological features and some of the sounds found in the conventional phonology of Dzə are not found in the ideophones. The phoneme /ŋ/ is common in the coda position of the ideophones. Ideophones modify verbs, adjectives and nouns in Dzə. They also function as adverbs and are elements that constitute a noun phrase. They augment other word classes like nouns, verbs and adjectives.

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Suzman, Susan M., and Busi Tshabalala. "Investigation of Language Impairment in Zulu." South African Journal of Communication Disorders 47, no. 2 (December 31, 2000): 25–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajcd.v47i2.975.

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Research into the nature of language impairment in African languages is just beginning (Demuth and Suzman, 1997). This paper presents findings from two case studies of Zulu children diagnosed as language-impaired. Speech samples from Sipho, 2;7 and 3;7 and Nompumelelo 5;6 were analysed for phonology, morphology, syntax and pragmatics. From these case studies, a profile of language impairment begins to emerge for Zulu. It is characterized by use of simple sentences and nonstandard verbal complexes. It reflects differential access to morphology. Children use NC and agreement morphology productively but they do not have access of subtle syntactic markers encoding semantic complexity. Infrequent use of verb extensions, participials, subjunctives and relative clause markers in Zulu contributes to reliance on simple sentences and stereotyped connectives.

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Roberts, David, and Stephen L. Walter. "Writing grammar rather than tone." Units of Language – Units of Writing 15, no. 2 (August 10, 2012): 226–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/wll.15.2.06rob.

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Some orthographies represent tone phonemically by means of diacritics; others favor zero marking. Neither solution is entirely satisfactory. The former leads to graphic overload; the latter to a profusion of homographs; both may reduce fluency. But there is a ‘third way’: to highlight the grammar rather than the tone system itself. To test this approach, we developed two experimental strategies for Kabiye: a grammar orthography and a tone orthography. Both are modifications of the standard orthography that does not mark tone. We tested these in a quantitative experiment involving literate L1 speakers that included dictation and spontaneous writing. Writers of the grammar orthography perform faster and more accurately than writers of the tone orthography, suggesting that they have an awareness of the morphological and syntactic structure of their language that may exceed their awareness of its phonology. This suggests that languages with grammatical tone might benefit from grammatical markers in the orthography. Keywords: tone; grammar; orthography; African languages; quantitative experiment

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Lee, Jackson L. "The Representation of Contour Tones in Cantonese." Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 38 (September 25, 2012): 272. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/bls.v38i0.3335.

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<p>A central question in tonal phonology is the representation of tone. One of the focal points is the representation of contour tones, especially since Goldsmith (1976) and subsequent works have analyzed contour tones in Bantu languages as sequences of level tones. Cross-linguistically, it is generally well-recognized, following Yip’s (1989) terminology, that contour tones in African languages are typically clusters, which are sequences of level tones and consist of multiple tonal root nodes, and that contour tones in Asian languages are typically tone units, which have only one tonal root node. This paper points out an important exception—Cantonese— particularly in light of Yip (2001) and Barrie (2007) on Chinese contour tones. The correct view is at least implied in earlier analyses: Cantonese tones, contour and level alike, should be represented as sequences of level tones but not unitary tone units.</p>

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic "African languages, phonology"

Shoba, F. M. (Feziwe Martha). "The representation of phonetic-phonological information in Nguni dictionaries." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52562.

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Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The concern of the study of phonetics and phonology is the speech sounds of languages. Phonetics is concerned with the description and the classification of speech sounds. Phonology, on the other hand is responsible for the sound patterns of speech sounds in a given language namely, the sound inventory, permissible sequences and how the sounds change in different circumstances. This study examines and evaluates the manner in which phonetic-phonological information is applied in South African dictionaries with particular reference to Nguni dictionaries. Dictionaries are regarded as authoritative linguistic tools, therefore, the phonetic-phonological aspects of the language is one of the important information categories that is included in dictionaries. A word as the linguistic unit consists of speech sounds which are in turn regarded as phonological units as well as phonetic entities. The phonetic-phonological signification of the lexical unit in the dictionary entry plays a role in access to facilitating the spoken form of the language recorded. This critical analysis and evaluation of Nguni dictionaries reflects on the current approaches pertaining to the presentation of both segmental and suprasegmental features of speech sound. Secondly, it also demonstrates the types of pronunciation information that is lexicographically relevant for the thorough treatment of the lemma. Although phonetic-phonological information is almost the prevalent feature of all dictionary types, there are problems encountered during its presentation. In the evaluation of Nguni dictionaries the treatment of pronunciation information is coupled with inadequacies and inconsistencies. This is due to the lack of lexicographic planning and the sound application of lexicographic principles. It is evident from the investigation that pronunciation information remains the essential component of the dictionary entry. The inclusion of phonetic-phonological information requires lexicographic planning that is actually based on linguistic theories that are primarily aimed at practical lexicography. The general guidelines that are presented in this study compel lexicographers to introduce innovative methods when handling pronunciation. The proposed approaches in future dictionaries will enhance the accessibility of information when harmonised. It is concluded that lexicographical products in the multilingual South Africa should begin to document the spoken form of various languages for the general record of the sounds of the language and also for pedagogic purposes. A good phonological and phonetic description of the official languages is also pertinent especially in the design stage of the dictionary. The lexicographic approaches followed in the treatment of any linguistic information should based on the (a) functional criteria of the dictionary compiled and (b) also on the prospective user's skills.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Fonetiek en fonologie is die studie van die spraakklanke van tale. Fonetiek sien om na die beskrywing en klassifikasie van spraakklanke. Fonologie daarenteen is verantwoordelik vir die klankpatrone van spraakklanke in 'n gegewe taal nl. die klankinventaris, die toelaatbare sekwensies en hoe die klanke omvorm word in wisselende omstandighede, dit wil se die fonologiese proses. Hierdie studie ondersoek die manier waarop foneties-fonologiese inligting in Suid-Afrikaanse woordeboeke, veral die van die Nguni-tale, vergestalt word. Woordeboeke word gesien as gesaghebbende linguistiese werktuie en die foneties-fonologiese aspekte van taal kom as 'n vername informasiekategorie daarin voor. Die woord as linguistiese eenheid bestaan uit spraakklanke wat op hul beurt beide as fonologiese eenhede sowel as fonetiese entiteite beskou word. Die foneties-fonologiese komponent van die leksikale eenheid speel 'n betekenisvolle rol in die toegang tot die gesproke vorm van die opgetekende taal. Die kritiese analise en evaluasie van Nguni-woordeboeke oorweeg die huidige benaderings wat betrekking het op die aanbieding van beide segmentele en suprasegmentele kenmerke van spraakklanke. Tweedens toon dit ook die tipes uitspraakinformasie wat leksikografies relevant is vir die deeglike uiteensetting van die inligting. Alhoewel foneties-fonologiese inligting die mees algemene verskynsel in alle woordeboektipes is, is daar nietemin probleme met die aanbieding daarvan. Uit die evaluasie van Nguni woordeboeke blyk dit dat ontoereikendhede en inkonsekwensies voorkom. Dit is toe te skryf aan die gebrek aan leksikografiese beplanning en die tekort aan deeglike toepassing van leksikografiese beginsels. Dit blyk uit die ondersoek dat uitspraakinformasie 'n essensiele komponent van die woordeboekinskrywing bly. Die insluiting van foneties-fonologiese inligting verg leksikografiese beplanning wat gebaseer is op 'n linguistiese teorie primer gefokus op praktiese leksikografie. Die algemene riglyne wat in hierdie studie aangebied word dwing leksikograwe om innoverende maatreels toe te pas by die hantering van uitspraak. Die voorgestelde benaderings vir woordeboeke van die toekoms sal die toeganklikheid tot hul inhoud verhoog indien die benaderings harmonieer word. Die slotsom is dat leksikografiese produkte in die veeltalige Suid-Afrika die gesproke vorm van die verskillende tale moet dokumenteer beide as 'n algemene rekord en ook vir pedagogiese doeleindes. 'n Goeie fonologiese en fonetiese beskrywing van die amptelike tale is ook van belang veral in die ontwerpstadium van die woordeboek. Die leksikogafiese benaderings wat gevolg word in die behandeling van enige linguistiese informasie moet gegrond wees op (a) funksionele kriteria van die saamgestelde woordeboek en (b) ook op die vaardighede van die voorgestelde gebruiker.

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Okoudowa, Bruno. "Descrição preliminar de aspectos da fonologia e da morfologia do lembaama." Universidade de São Paulo, 2005. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8139/tde-11032008-121559/.

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Este trabalho propõe uma análise preliminar de aspectos da fonologia e da morfologia da língua lembaama2, que pertence ao subgrupo banto, B.62 (Guthrie, 1971), do grupo Benuê- Congo, phylum Niger-Congo. Como esta língua não apresenta ainda nenhum estudo deste gênero, espera-se que esta primeira análise possibilite estudos posteriores mais aprofundados neste e em outros campos lingüísticos. A análise fonológica revelou de um lado, a existência de consoantes palatalizadas, labializadas, pré-nasalizadas, e pré-nasalizadas-palatalizadas, de outro, mostrou a existência de vogais longas. A análise de processos fonológicos demonstrou que a nasalidade é uma propriedade das consoantes que se transmite às vogais adjacentes aos segmentos nasais. Quanto à análise nominal, ela definiu a composição dos nomes da seguinte maneira: Prefixo Nominal (PN) + raiz, e os classificou em 12 classes. Foram também identificados em lembaama fenômenos fonológicos como a semivocalização, o alongamento vocálico, o apagamento vocálico, a variação livre e a palatalização que servem para evitar a ditongação e manter a estrutura CV desta língua. A análise dos tons evidenciou dois tons pontuais: um alto [´] e um baixo [`] e uma regra de apagamento do primeiro tom quando dois tons se encontram.
This work proposes a preliminary analysis of the phonological and morphological aspects of the lembaama language (B62) according to Guthrie (1971). This language is officially called obamba in Gabon. Lembaama is a Bantu language, from the Benue-Congo group and Niger-Congo phylum. As far as we know this language has not received any detailled study yet. Lembaama shows some interesting features. Endeed, the phonological analysis shows the existence of palatalized, labialized, and prenasalized consonants and of long vowels in the phonemic inventory. The analysis of phonological processes shows that nasality is a property of nasal or of prenasalized consonants which is transmitted to adjacent vowels.

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Xavier, Francisco da Silva. "Fonologia segmental e supra-segmental do Quimbundo: variedades de Luanda, Bengo, Quanza Norte e Malange." Universidade de São Paulo, 2010. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8139/tde-20102010-091425/.

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Desde os primeiros trabalhos lingüísticos efetuados sobre o quimbundo, língua banta H20 na classificação de Guthrie (1948), nota-se uma ausência de informações detalhadas e confiáveis a respeito de elementos sua estrutura prosódica e de sua fonologia como um todo. Essa lacuna me instigou a realizar, seguindo o quadro de pesquisas sobre as línguas africanas estabelecido pelo Departamento de Lingüística da Universidade de São Paulo, um estudo descritivo da fonologia segmental e supra-segmental do quimbundo, cujos resultados se organizam nesta tese de doutorado. O presente trabalho, tomando como base de investigação quatro variedades regionais representadas por cinco falantes nativos do quimbundo, abrange, no bojo da descrição lingüística, fenômenos verificáveis na estrutura segmental e prosódica da língua, tais como a harmonia vocálica, alterações de natureza fonética na configuração da estrutura silábica, casos de mudança de timbre vocálico, apagamento de segmentos, direção e extensão do espraiamento de traços consonantais e de tons fonológicos. Finalmente, a observação e a análise do fenômeno de sândi ao nível dos suprasegmentos permitem afirmar que o quimbundo utiliza variações de altura com valor distintivo apenas numa perspectiva paradigmática, o que comprova, portanto, seu estatuto de língua tonal. Acredito que a descrição aqui realizada é uma forma de lançar visibilidade ao quimbundo nas pesquisas sobre as línguas africanas e de atualizar as perspectivas de estudo da língua dentro das teorias lingüísticas.
From the first linguistic works on Kimbundu, a Bantu language coded as H20 according to Guthries zone classification (1948), there has been a lack of detailed and reliable information about the elements comprising its prosodic structure, and its phonology altogether. This gap has instigated my conducting a detailed description of both segmental and prosodic phonology of Kimbundu within the research framework for African languages set forth by the Linguistics Department of the University of São Paulo, and whose results make up this Ph.D. dissertation. Based on four regiolects represented by five native Kimbundu speakers, this descriptive study covers phenomena which can be found in the segmental and prosodic structure of this language, such as vowel harmony, phonetic alternations in the setup of the syllable structure, vowel quality changes, segment deletion, and the direction and range of consonantal feature and phonological tone spreading. Finally, the study of prosodic sandhi corroborates that Kimbundu makes use of different distinctive pitches only on a paradigmatic perspective, which proves true the claim that this is a tonal language. I strongly believe that this description work can be used to shed light upon Kimbundu on further research on African languages, in addition to updating the prospect studies of this language within linguistic theories.

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Carter-Enyi, Aaron. "Contour Levels: An Abstraction of Pitch Space based on African Tone Systems." The Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1461029477.

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Rekanga, Jean-Paul. "Essai de grammaire Himba (langue bantoue du Gabon, B36)." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/211695.

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Guerois, Rozenn. "A grammar of Cuwabo (Bantu P34, Mozambique)." Thesis, Lyon 2, 2015. http://www.theses.fr/2015LYO20032.

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Le cuwabo est une langue bantoue parlée par plus de 800.000 locuteurs au Nord-Est du Mozambique. Elle est répertoriée sous le code P34 selon la classification de Guthrie et appartient donc au groupe makhuwa (P30). Le cuwabo se divise en cinq variétés: le cuwabo central, le karungu, le mayindo, le nyaringa, et le manyawa. Ce travail se base sur le cuwabo central parlé dans le district de Quelimane. Des données de première main ont pu être collectées auprès d’une dizaine de locuteurs, lors de trois terrains réalisés entre 2011 et 2013, totalisant 10 mois. Cette thèse fournit une description grammaticale de la langue couvrant en détail les domaines de la phonologie et de la morphosyntaxe. La phonologie comprend deux chapitres : le premier est dédié à la phonologie segmentale tandis que le deuxième analyse le fonctionnement du système tonal de la langue. Notons que le cuwabo est l’unique langue P30 ayant retenu un ton lexical contrastif sur les thèmes lexicaux et verbaux. Morphologiquement, le syntagme nominal est dominé par un riche système d’accords des classes nominales, typique dans les langues bantoues. Le verbe cuwabo a une morphologie de type agglutinant, qui renferme un riche système de Temps-Aspect-Mode combinant préfixes et suffixes finaux. Il convient de noter l’existence de plusieurs enclitiques selon les constructions (enclitiques locatifs, enclitiques pronoms personnels dans les relatives, enclitiques comitatif ou instrumental). Enfin, la syntaxe s’étend sur trois chapitres : le premier s’intéresse aux constructions prédicatives verbales et non-verbales ; le deuxième s’intéresse aux constructions relatives et à la formation des questions ; le dernier aborde la question de l’ordre des constituants en lien avec la structure informationnelle. Les domaines préverbaux et postverbaux sont examinés, ainsi que leur interaction avec le marquage morphologique sur le verbe qui distingue les formes conjointes et les formes disjointes. L’annexe de cette thèse compile sept textes, glosés et traduits, qui permettent d’illustrer en contexte un grand nombre d’items grammaticaux présentés dans les chapitres descriptifs
Cuwabo is a Bantu language, spoken by more than 800,000 people (INE 2007) in the north-eastern part of Mozambique. It is numbered P34 in Guthrie’s classification, and thus belongs to the P30 Makhuwa group. Cuwabo can be subdivided into five main varieties: central Cuwabo, Karungu, Mayindo, Nyaringa, and Manyawa. This work is based on central Cuwabo spoken in the district of Quelimane. First-hand data were recorded from 10 speakers in the course of three fieldtrips realised between 2011 and 2013, achieving a total duration of 10 months. This thesis provides a grammatical description of the language, covering in detail its phonology and its morphosyntax. Phonology is divided into two chapters: the first is devoted to segmental phonology whereas the second describes the tonal system of the language. Note that Cuwabo is the only P30 language whose nominal and verbal stems have retained a lexical tone contrast. Morphologically, the noun phrase is marked by a rich agreement system ruled by the noun classes, as typical in Bantu. Cuwabo has a highly agglutinative verbal morphology, which conveys a rich Tense-Aspect-Mood system combining both prefixes and final suffixes. Note the existence of several enclitics depending on the constructions (locative enclitics, personal pronoun enclitics in relative clauses, comitative or instrumental enclitics). The last three chapters address syntactic issues: the first presents a description of the basic clause structure, involving verbal and non-verbal predication; the second looks into the relative constructions in close interaction with question formation; the last one investigates word order and information structure in Cuwabo. Preverbal and postverbal constituents are examined, as well as their interaction with the morphological marking on the verb, distinguishing conjoint and disjoint tenses. The appendix contains seven Cuwabo texts glossed and translated into English, which allow to illustrate in context many of the grammatical items presented in the descriptive chapters

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Möller, Mirjam. "Vowel Harmony in Bale : A study of ATR harmony in a Surmic language of Ethiopia." Thesis, Stockholm University, Stockholm University, Stockholm University, Stockholm University, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-29444.

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ATR, advanced tongue root, is a phonological feature among vowels. As vowels assimilate to share the same value of that feature, they display ATR harmony. This is a common phenomenon among many African languages. ATR harmony is examined in this paper as manifested across morpheme boundaries wihin nouns in a Surmic language of Ethiopia called Bale. The data presented was collected at a workshop on ATR harmony held by SIL International in Mizan Teferi, Ethiopia, 2009. The vowel system in Bale displays a nine vowel inventory with a feature dominance of [+ATR] vowels which spread their feature both leftward and rightward to recessive [–ATR] vowels. The [+ATR] dominance is also present as a floating feature without any phonological material. The vowel /a/ is analysed as a neutral vowel, co-occuring with both [+ATR] and [–ATR] vowels within roots.

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Soubrier, Aude. "L’ikposso uwi : phonologie, grammaire, textes, lexique." Thesis, Lyon 2, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013LYO20037/document.

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Cette thèse est une description phonologique et grammaticale de l’ikposso uwi, langue de la famille kwa, du phylum Niger-Congo. Elle est parlée au Togo par la population akposso, située dans la Région des Plateaux et comptant environ 150 000 personnes. Cette langue se divise en six dialectes : le logbo, l’uma, l’uwi, le litimé, l’ikponou et l’amou-oblo. Le corpus sur lequel se base cette étude est constitué (i) de 36 textes narratifs, (ii) de phrases élicitées à partir de livres d’images, (iii) du lexique issu de ces données, (iv) ainsi que de phrases d’élicitation libres, généralement en rapport avec les textes. La langue de travail et de traduction a toujours été le français. Phonologie et tonologie : La phonologie segmentale de l’ikposso uwi (chap. 1) est relativement simple. Les schèmes syllabiques sont peu nombreux et peu complexes. La principale caractéristique de la phonologie segmentale est l’harmonisation vocalique, avec un système à 10 voyelles. L’ikposso est une langue tonale (chap. 2). Les tons sont essentiels au niveau lexical mais supportent aussi des informations grammaticales. Il y a quatre tons ponctuels en uwi. Morphologie : Le nom et le syntagme nominal sont étudiés dans le chap. 3. La morphologie nominale est peu développée, contrairement à la morphologie verbale qui est très riche. Les adpositions font l’objet du chap. 4 et les pronoms celui du chap. 5. Les autres catégories de mots sont répertoriées dans le chap. 6. La morphologie verbale est beaucoup plus complexe que la morphologie nominale, avec de nombreux auxiliaires et préfixes de personne et d’aspect (chap. 7). Ce chapitre montre la richesse du système aspectuel.Syntaxe : L’ikposso est une langue avec un ordre des mots relativement fixe, SVOX. Cette caractéristique est toutefois en évolution, comme le montrent les constructions sérielles avec le verbe yɔ̄‘prendre’ (chap. 13) qui conduisent à un ordre des mots SOVX dans certains contextes discursifs. Le chap. 8 présente les différents types énonciatifs de phrases ainsi que les prédicats non verbaux. Le chap. 9 décrit le système de transitivité et de valence de la langue
Introduction : This thesis is a phonological and grammatical description of Ikposo Uwi, language of the phylum Niger-Congo and Kwa family. It is spoken in Togo by the people Akposso, about 150 000 people that live in the Région des Plateaux. This language divides itself into six dialects : Logbo, Uma, Uwi, Litimé, Ikponou and Amou-Oblo. The study relies on a corpus composed of (i) 36 narratives, (ii) elicitedsentences from picture books, (iii) the lexicon build on these data, (iv) and elicited sentences, generally in connection with the texts. The language used during work session and for translation has always been French.Phonology et tonology : The segmental phonology of Ikposo Uwi (Chapter 1) is quite simple. There are few syllabic schemes and they are not complex. The main characteristic is vocalic harmony, with a 10 vowel system.Ikposo is a tonal language (Chapter 2). Tones are very important on a lexical level, but they encode grammatical informations too. There are four level tones in the Uwi dialect.Morphologie : Nouns and nominal phrases are studied in Chapter 3. Nominal morphology is not very much developed, on the contrary to the rich verbal morphology, with auxiliaries, person index and aspectual prefixes (Chapter 7). Adpositions are studied in Chapter 4 and pronouns in Chapter 5. The other categories are identified in Chapter 6.Syntaxe : The word order is quite rigid : SVOX. This feature is however evolving, as we can see with the yɔ̄ serial verb construction (Chapter 13) that lead to a SOVX word order in some specific discursive contexts.Chapter 8 presents the different enunciative sentence types as well as non verbal predicates.Chapter 9 describes the transitivity and valency system of the language. Modifications in the argument structure are generally not morphologically marked. The only exception is the grammaticalization of 3rd person singular commitative pronoun fà : it makes a transitive-causative construction out fromverbs usually found in intransitive constructions. Ikposo uses massively serial verb constructions. Syntax and types of Ikposo’s serial verb constructions are studied in Chapter 10.The verb dʊ́‘to be at, to put’ (Chapter 11) is one of the most frequent positional verbs, due to its broad meaning. It is also used a lot as V2 in serial verb constructions : with this function dʊ́ undergoes either a grammaticalization process or a lexicalization process. The verb ká‘to give’ (Chapter 12), as V2 of serial verb constructions, undergoes a grammaticalization process, with a global dative meaning.The verb yɔ̄‘to take’ (Chapter 13) is used in serial verb constructions that tend to modify the word order of the arguments from SVO to SOV in some discursive contexts. yɔ̄introduces the object of the main verb or represents it on the main verb. In the latter case, the grammaticalized verb is prefixed yɔ̄-.Chapter 14 gathers the other frequent verbs that do not have a dedicated chapter. Among them, we find lɛ́‘to be, to be at’ used as a copula, bá‘to come’ and ɣā‘to go’ used as deictic verbs, tʊ̄‘to come from’ that grammaticalizes into a prepositional locution, and bā ‘to exceed’ used in comparative serial verbconstructions. Chapter 15 analyses the complex sentences of Ikposo. Among them, completivesare probably the most interesting. They are from two types : build with nominalized verbal predicates or with the quotative nʊ̄, more generally marker of reported speech.Finally, Chapter 16 shows the information structure of the language. I mostly studied the morphological markers of that structure, but a deeper analysis should show that the structure is more complex that these markers let think

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Somte, Madeleine. "Le nom et le pronom en ngam, langue sara du Tchad et de Centrafrique." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/210340.

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Dans l'étude présente, nous avons fait une analyse distributionnelle du ngam, langue sara parlée au Sud du Tchad et au Nord de la République Centrafricaine. L'étude s'est subdivisée en cinq parties:

- la phonologie

- une description générale des structures du syntagme nominal

- une description du nom

- un chapitre consacré à l'expression de la qualification en nous basant essentiellement sur la définition de la catégorie des adjectifs qualificatifs

- une étude pronominale

Le verbe ne fait partie de cette étude, elle fera l'objet d'une publication dans un futur proche. L'annexe comprend un lexique et un texte d'illustration.
Doctorat en Langues et lettres
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Luffin, Xavier. "Un créole arabe: le kinubi de Mombasa :étude descriptive." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/211199.

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Les Nubi, une communauté musulmane répartie principalement entre l'Ouganda, le Kenya et la Tanzanie, sont originaires du Sud du Soudan. Ils sont arrivés à la fin du 19ème siècle en Afrique de l'Est, mais ils sont conservé leurs traditions et surtout leur langue :le kinubi. Il s'agit d'un créole arabe, proche du parler de Juba (Soudan), fortement influencé par le kiswahili (et l'anglais). Le but de cette recherche est de comparer le parler de Mombasa à ceux de Kibera (Kenya) et de Bombo (Ouganda), et d'analyser l'importance et les causes de l'influence du kiswahili sur cette langue, sur le plan du vocabulaire et de la grammaire.

The Nubi, a Muslim community living mainly in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, originate from Southern Sudan, which they left at the end of the 19th century. They kept their traditions alive, as well as their language :the Kinubi. This language is an Arabic based Creole, related to Juba Arabic (Sudan) but strongly influenced by Swahili (and English). Our aim is to compare the Kinubi spoken in Mombasa with the one of Kibera (Kenya) and Bombo (Uganda), and to analyze the way Swahili influences this language, in both vocabulary and grammar, as well as the reasons of this phenomenon.
Doctorat en philosophie et lettres, Orientation langue et littérature
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Books on the topic "African languages, phonology"

Ka, Omar. Wolof phonology and morphology. Lanham: University Press of America, 1994.

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Ngunga, Armindo. Phonology and morphology of the Ciyao verb. Stanford, Calif: CSLI Publications, 2000.

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1926-, Stewart John M., Bogers Koen, Hulst Harry van der, and Mous Maarten, eds. The Phonological representation of suprasegmentals: Studies on African languages offered to John M. Stewart on his 60th birthday. Dordrecht, Holland: Foris Publications, 1986.

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Fundamentals of phonetics, phonology and tonology: With specific African sound patterns. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2008.

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I͡A︡, Porkhomovskiĭ V., and Institut i͡a︡zykoznanii͡a︡ (Akademii͡a︡ nauk SSSR), eds. Afrikanskoe istoricheskoe i͡a︡zykoznanie: Problemy rekonstrukt͡s︡ii. Moskva: Izd-vo "Nauka," Glav. red. vostochnoĭ lit-ry, 1987.

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Boyeldieu, Pascal. La langue lua ('niellim'): Groupe Boua - Moyen-Chari, Tchad : phonologie-morphologie-dérivation verbale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press pour la Société d'études linguistiques et anthropologiques deFrance, 1985.

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Ian, Maddieson, Hinnebusch Thomas J, and Conference on African Linguistics (26th : 1995 : Santa Monica, Calif.), eds. Language history and linguistic description in Africa. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1998.

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Zwarts, Joost. The phonology of Endo: A Southern Nilotic language of Kenya. München: Lincom Europa, 2004.

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1880-1949, Ward Ida C., ed. Practical phonetics for students of African languages. London: K. Paul International, in association with the International African Institute, 1990.

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Harry, Otelemate G. Aspects of the tonal system of Kalabari-Ijo. Stanford, CA: Center for the Study of Language and Information, 2004.

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Book chapters on the topic "African languages, phonology"

Makasso, Emmanuel-Moselly, Fatima Hamlaoui, and Seunghun J. Lee. "Aspects of the intonational phonology of Bàsàá." In Intonation in African Tone Languages, edited by Laura J. Downing and Annie Rialland, 167–94. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110503524-006.

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Kenstowicz, Michael, and Mairo Kidda. "The Obligatory Contour Principle and Tangale Phonology." In Publications in African Languages and Linguistics, edited by David Odden, 223–38. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 1987. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110882681-018.

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Mc Laughlin, Fiona, and Caroline R. Wiltshire. "Chapter 10. Syllable weight in the phonology of Pulaar." In Syllable Weight in African Languages, 161–76. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/cilt.338.10lau.

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McHugh, Brian D. "Syntactic Structure, Empty Categories and Phrasal Phonology in Chaga." In Publications in African Languages and Linguistics, edited by David Odden, 247–66. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 1987. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110882681-020.

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Keegan, John M. "16. The Role of Syllabic Structure in the Phonology of Moroccan Arabic." In Publications in African Languages and Linguistics, edited by Gerrit J. Dimmendahl, 209–26. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 1986. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110883350-017.

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"3. Phonetics and phonology." In An Introduction to African Languages, 55–95. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2003. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/z.121.09pho.

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"5. Current issues in African phonology." In The Languages and Linguistics of Africa, 602–708. De Gruyter Mouton, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110421668-006.

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Gensler, Orin D. "Ethiopian English." In The Oxford Handbook of Ethiopian Languages, 1149—C48P118. Oxford University Press, 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198728542.013.48.

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Abstract This chapter presents a detailed structural account of the salient points of “Ethiopian English” (EE): English as it is actually spoken and written in Ethiopia. As far as I know, it is the first description of this sort. Although highly distinctive, EE is undiscussed in studies of African Englishes. There have been articles on “English in Ethiopia”, but these are almost entirely sociolinguistic in nature (variations on the theme “the role of English vs. Amharic in Ethiopia”). This study, by contrast, is heavily descriptive, structural and grammatical, and only minimally sociolinguistic. Methodologically, a major point is the phonological insight into EE to be gained by studying the nature of spelling mistakes. Typologically, in every sphere (phonology, morphosyntax, lexicon and phraseology), EE reveals itself over and over as a near-clone of Amharic --- a textbook case of substratal influence.

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Hyman, Larry M. "Prosodic asymmetries in nominal vs. verbal phrases in Bantu." In Prosody and Prosodic Interfaces, 125–42. Oxford University PressOxford, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198869740.003.0005.

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Abstract Investigations into phonological differences between nouns and verbs focus almost exclusively on the lexical (word) level, showing that underlying contrasts are more numerous and stable (“faithful”) on nouns (Smith 1998, 1999). This raises the question of whether these (or other) alleged differences in word-level phonology generalize to the nominal vs. verbal phrase. The Bantu family provides an ideal testing ground for such an investigation. Based on Bantu, I show that nouns are more likely to undergo modification at the phrase level than verbs, thereby obeying less “faithfulness” to the input than verbs. Nominal phrases also show more distinct outputs and complex idiosyncrasies than their verbal counterparts. After establishing that there are distinct asymmetric properties in the phrasal phonology of nominal vs. verbal constituents in Bantu, the chapter raises the question of what causes these asymmetries and whether they are general or pertain only to Bantu and other African languages.

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Bloomquist, Jennifer, Lisa J. Green, Sonja L. Lanehart, Erik R. Thomas, and Guy Bailey. "Segmental Phonology of African American English." In The Oxford Handbook of African American Language. Oxford University Press, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199795390.013.13.

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