Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Ethiopian languages – Phonology, Comparative'

This thesis explores three fundamental issues in the phonology and morphology of Ethiopian Semitic languages: mobile morphology, reduplication and epenthesis. In each chapter I draw on comparative evidence from different Ethiopian Semitic languages, an approach which provides greater insight into how the languages vary with respect to these three issues, and how the issues themselves are best analyzed.
The first issue is that of 'mobile morphology' a term I coin to describe the ability of a particular morphological category to be realized on various segments within a stem. The two major types in the South Ethio-Semitic languages are palatalization and labialization. I develop an analysis of palatalization in five different languages which relies on a hierarchy of preferred targets, along with a number of constraints regulating the appearance of palatalization within the stem.
Ethio-Semitic languages have several different types of reduplication. I draw a distinction between phonological and morphological reduplication and argue that phonological reduplication should be viewed as copying rather long-distance geminate structures created by spreading. I also examine the interaction of reduplication with mobile morphology and I present an analysis of double reduplication, showing how languages will avoid the creation of double reduplication relationships.
I develop an analysis of epenthesis which contrasts the behaviour of one set of languages which epenthesize following final consonant clusters with other languages which epenthesize between consonant clusters. I show that while all Ethio-Semitic languages follow the same general pattern, this may be overridden by templatic constraints and more importantly, by sonority considerations holding of adjacent syllables in coda-onset sequences. This last observation is important because it shows that while languages may on the whole violate heterosyllabic contact constraints, in particular circumstances, the constraints will be obeyed, giving rise to an emergence of the unmarked scenario.

Language games have fascinated linguists in that they can provide unusual insight into the grammars of languages. The evidence provided by the study of a language game has usually been used by linguists to argue for certain phonological and morphological analysis of the source language. Recent studies of the mechanism that derives language games also discuss broader theoretical issues like the nature of this mechanism, its reflection of internal structure of the syllable and morpheme, its relationship with the morphological and phonological processes in natural languages, and the proper phonological and prosodic representations in describing the formation of language games (e.g., McCarthy 1981, 1982; Yip 1982 ). Chinese secret languages are language games spoken by children, thieves, or fortune tellers. They are also called Fanqie languages because their formation follows the traditional Chinese Fanqie principle which divides a syllable into an Initial and a Final. (1) gives some examples illustrating this traditional division of syllables . (1) Initials and Finals in Chinese (Tones are omitted): a. /ma/; Initials: /m/; Finals: /a/ b. /kuai/ [kway]; Initials: /k/; Finals: /uai/ [way] c. /pan/; Initials: /p/; Finals: /an/ d. /tuan/ [twan]; Initials: /t/; Finals: /uan/ [wan] e. /uan/ [wan]; Initials: none; Finals: /uan/ [wan]. Within a syllable the first consonant is the Initial, what remains is the Final. (1) e. is an example of the "zero Initial" syllable. Chao (1931) describes eight varieties of Chinese secret languages in terms of this traditional view on the Chinese syllable. In these languages each syllable is typically split into two syllables with the addition of a fixed Initial and /or a Final. For example, one of the Mandarin secret languages derives [may ka] from the base word /ma/, the fixed Initial /k/, and the fixed Final /ay /. Departing from this traditional view, Yip (1982) proposes to treat the formation of these secret languages as instances of reduplication within the framework of CV phonology (McCarthy 1979, Clements & Keyser 1983). In this paper I examine the behavior of nasal segments in Taiwanese secret languages described by Li (1985) in the hope of revealing the relationship between the phonological structure of the source language and that of the secret languages, and throwing some light on the understanding of the formal mechanism and principles employed by Chinese secret languages. I follow Yip in treating the formation of Chinese secret languages as reduplication,3 and assume an autosegmental model of phonology that incorporates underspecification (e.g. Archangeli & Pulleyblank 1986) and feature geometry (e.g. Clements 1985a; Sagey 1986). In Section 1, an introduction of three types of Taiwanese secret languages is given. Section 2 shows that the spreading of nasality of the nasalized vowels throughout the whole reduplicated domain in the secret language argues for the existence of a floating nasal feature in Taiwanese and the treatment of this domain as a basic morphological word. The behavior of the syllable final consonants in these Taiwanese secret languages presented in Section 3 calls for an assimilatory treatment rather than the dissimilatory one proposed by Yip (1982). Section 4 discusses some theoretical implications with respect to the theory of reduplication in analyzing the syllabic nasals in Taiwanese secret languages. Finally, a conclusion summaries the preceding sections.

This thesis investigates two types of alternate languages: LUDLINGS (also known as language games, speech disguises, etc.), which involve primarily nonconcatenative morphological manipulation of their source languages, and SURROGATE LANGUAGES, which substitute alternative sound-producing mechanisms (whistling or a musical instrument) for the larynx. Chapter 2 explores the autonomy of surrogate systems in relation to both their own modalities and their source language phonologies. After presenting a formal analysis of Akan drum speech, I develop a complete model of the surrogate component. I argue that many properties which distinguish whistle surrogates from instrumental surrogates can only be attributed to the modular organization of this component. The last part of the chapter provides an inventory of the types of processes present in each module of the surrogate component. Chapter 3 presents theoretical treatments of representatives of each of the three major categories of ludlings (templatic, infixing, and reversing), beginning with the katajjait (throat games) of the Canadian Inuit. Although customarily regarded as a form of music, the katajjait are actually a well-developed form of templatic ludling. The implications of an infixing ludling in Tigrinya for tiered and planar geometry are then investigated. The chapter concludes with a detailed analysis of reversing ludlings, based on a parametrized version of the Crossing Constraint. In Chapter 4 I develop an integrated model of alternate linguistic systems, starting with an investigation of where in the grammar the ludling component is located. Drawing on data from more than fifty languages, I propose that there are three conversion modules in this component, each taking a well-defined level of representation as its input. In the last portion of the chapter I explore the possibility that one or more of these modules overlaps with the last module of the surrogate component. I conclude that the similarities exhibited by ludlings and surrogates are not due to a shared conversion module, but rather reflect the interaction of three factors: 1) the salience of certain levels of representation within the grammar; 2) general properties of the domains in which conversion takes place; and 3) membership in a common alternate linguistic component.
Arts, Faculty of
Linguistics, Department of
Graduate

Orientador: Wilmar da Rocha D'Angelis
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
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Resumo: Este trabalho é um estudo tanto descritivo quanto comparativo do que consideramos duas variantes da mesma língua, conhecidas como Baniwa do Içana e Kuripako, pertencentes à família Aruak. Aqui, se faz uma análise linguística da relação entre ambas as variantes, pautada em parte do seu componente linguístico, isto é, o sistema fonológico, com vistas a colaborar para uma definição da classificação dialetal. Sua base teórica linguística é fundamentada nas ideias estruturalistas europeias da Escola de Praga. Neste trabalho, há uma discussão da variação dialetal deste ramo da família Aruak, um breve histórico dos estudos sobre esse ramo da família e uma descrição da fonologia da língua. Esta pesquisa é, assim, uma tentativa de discutir tanto questões da Fonologia quanto da Sociolingüística, com ênfase nos aspectos fonético-fonológicos como um dos requisitos para as discussões sobre variação dialetal
Abstract: This work is both a descriptive and comparative analysis, of what we consider two variants of the same language, known as Baniwa of Içana and Kuripako, which belong to the Arawakan family. Here there is a linguistic analysis of the relationship between both variants based in part of its linguistic component, it means, the phonologic system, in order to colaborate to a definition of the dialectical classification. Its linguistic theoretical basis is grounded on the structuralist ideas from the School of Prague. In this work, there is a discussion about the dialectical variation of this branch of the Arawakan Family, a brief history of the studies on the branch of this family and a description of the phonology of the language. This research is thus an attempt to discuss issues related to the Phonology and Sociolinguistics as well, with emphasis on the phonetic and phonological aspects as one of the requirements for the discussions about dialectical variation
Mestrado
Linguistica
Mestre em Linguística

La présente thèse propose une étude comparative des langues bantu A80 (aussi appelées « makaa-njem »). Celle-ci répond à un double objectif : proposer une synthèse des connaissances linguistiques (et des disciplines connexes) sur les langues du groupe A80, en apportant des données et analyses nouvelles pour le bekwel du Gabon, d’une part et présenter les résultats d’une étude comparative sur deux niveaux – synchronique et diachronique – d’autre part. La comparaison prend en compte huit langues A80 : le shiwa, le kwasio, le bekol, le makaa, le konzime, le njem, le bekwel et le mpiemo. Cette étude comparative adopte en premier lieu une perspective synchronique (correspondances « horizontales ») pour ensuite aborder les données sous un angle diachronique (correspondances « verticales », reconstructions et réflexes). Elle porte sur la phonologie et plus marginalement sur la morphologie nominale et verbale. L’étude se base également sur un lexique de 1029 cognats établis à partir de données de premières mains pour le bekwel et de données issues de la littérature spécialisée pour les autres langues. Les données ont été traitées à l’aide des outils du site du projet RefLex. La première partie de la thèse constitue une synthèse globale des connaissances sur les langues A80 et sur le bekwel en particulier. La deuxième partie présente le corpus (modalités de constitution, puis nature, provenance et traitement des données) et une série d’esquisses phonologiques (et morphologiques) synthétiques pour les huit langues élaborées sur la base des données collectées et/ou rassemblées. La troisième et dernière partie présente les résultats de l’étude comparative. Celle-ci met en lumière les processus morphologiques et phonologiques qui ont façonné les langues du groupe makaa-njem au cours de leur évolution. Au niveau morphologique, on relève une simplification du système des classes nominales (due à l’intégration de plusieurs anciens préfixes aux bases démultipliant le nombre de préfixe zéro), de nombreux cas de reclassement, le rôle d’anciens préfixes nasals dans le dévoisement des occlusives en initiale de base nominale ainsi que l’émergence de mi-voisées en bekwel. Au niveau de la phonologie, on observe une tendance au monosyllabisme plus ou moins avancé selon les langues. Celle-ci s’explique par l’étude diachronique qui met en évidence que les langues A80 ont souvent subi la chute de la voyelle finale (V2) ou parfois même de la syllabe finale. La voyelle initialement en V2 est généralement maintenue d’une manière ou d’une autre par des anticipations qui peuvent prendre plusieurs formes : diphtongaisons, séquences V11-V12 (parfois avec dévocalisation de V11), nouveaux timbres par coalescence, etc. Enfin, la conclusion de la thèse récapitule les principaux résultats concernant la morphologie, la phonologie et le lexique, et montre comment ces résultats pourront être utiles pour l’analyse et la description (futures) des langues A80
This thesis presents a comparative study of the Bantu languages of the A80 group (also known as Makaa-Njem). The goal of the thesis is two-fold: (i) offer a synthesis of the state of knowledge in linguistics (and related disciplines) about the languages of the Bantu A80 group by adding new data and analysis for the Bekwel language of Gabon ; (ii) present the results of a comparative study at the synchronic and diachronic levels. The comparative study includes eight A80 languages: Shiwa, Kwasio, Bekol, Makaa, Konzime, Njem, Bekwel and Mpiemo. The study adopts in the first place a synchronic perspective ("horizontal" correspondences) then approaches the same data from a diachronic point of view ("vertical" correspondences, reconstructions and reflexes), focusing mainly on phonology, and to a lesser extent, on nominal and verbal morphology. It is based on a 1029 cognate lexicon established on the basis of first-hand data for Bekwel and published data for the other languages. Data was processed using the online tools of the RefLex project.The first part of the thesis establishes a general summary of the knowledge on the Bantu A80 languages and on Bekwel in particular. The second part presents the corpus (gathering methods then nature of the data, sources and processing) and a series of concise phonological (and morphological) sketches for all eight languages constituted on the basis of the collected and/or compiled data. The third and final part presents the results of the comparative study. It brings into light the morphological and phonological processes that have shaped the languages of the Makaa-Njem group through their evolution. At the morphological level, it reveals a process of simplification of the noun class system (due to the assimilation of old prefixes into the stems leading to an increase in the number of zero prefixes), numerous cases of re-classification and the role of old nasal prefixes in occlusive devoicing stem initially as well as the mergence of semi-voiced consonants in Bekwel. At the phonological level, a tendency to monosyllabicity can be observed, at a greater or lesser extent depending on the language. This finds an explanation in the diachronic analysis that shows that the languages of the A80 group often were subject to final vowel dropping (V2), in some cases even the whole final syllable. The vowel originally in V2 is generally preserved thanks to anticipations of various types: emergence of diphthongs, V11-V12 sequences (sometimes including devocalization of V11), new vowel quality by fusion, etc. Finally, the conclusion of the thesis summarizes the main results with regards to morphology, phonology and the lexicon, illustrating how these results will be useful for (future) analyses and descriptions of languages of the A80 group

This research work has several aims, demanded by a number of external and internal factors. First of all, it aims to identify Lala: whether it is simply a dialect of Tekela- Nguni, or perhaps the substratum Bantu language spoken in the eastern parts of Southern Africa since the fourth century of the first millennium A.D. on which every new migratory wave imposed its language (chapters one and two). The lexical-statistical method has been attempted (chapter three), but with mixed results. In fact, relexification is widely used in southern African societies, and this renders the identification of the core vocabulary a very difficult task. The result is that all that can be said is that Lala indeed shows the characteristics of a Tekela-Nguni language, but it is impossible to determine at this stage whether Lala is the mother or the daughter of Tekela. Another important aim, dictated by an earlier research by Wilkes (1981 ), was to compare the two main branches of Lala, called North and South Lala, to prove whether the differences between the two dialects are so wide as to justify a division into two separate entities or not. Here the verdict is emphatically negative. In fact the various stages of the research abundantly re-affirm the view that Lala is one language, with only marginal differences caused by the different linguistic environments: Zulu in the north and IsiZansi in the south. African societies in this part of the world have affirmed themselves in the realm of the written word only recently, i.e. during the last 150 years or so. The background culture of these societies is still vigorously oral, and this means that the spoken word is used for much more than simple communication of thought and feeling. Language is felt as the major binding element in a society that has seen constant political break-ups, upheavals, migrations, wars, attempted exterminations. This means that Lala, as a language or the dominant dialect of a group, is banded about as a cultural-historical flag around which people are proud to gather. This sense of unity is an emotion, a feeling, rather than a deep reality. The colours of the flag, or the distinguishing elements of the language, may be fading away, and only a core might be preserved. But this is quite enough to kindle emotions and to rally people. At least in areas where people are still proud of their cultural heritage. hnicity and language should not be the same, but most of the people interviewed (cf chapter two) felt very strongly that they were Lalas because they spoke Lala; and that they spoke Lala because they are Lalas. Their either glorious or sad histories are recorded in chapter two to demonstrate how Shaka's wars, and the Mfecane, forced them to leave their homeland and to migrate. The trauma of this latest migration is still felt so strongly that it is often superimposed and confused with the great migrations from Central and Western Africa that took place in mythological times, or very long ago. But through their histories, they keep alive their memories and the certainty of the unity of the Lala nation, even though it is now spread from Kranskop to Harding and IZingolweni. Chapter four examines the phonetics and phonology of the two Lala dialects in the context of Swati and Zulu. Lala is a Tekela dialect indeed, but with its own phonetic and phonological peculiarities. The same can be said with regard to the research exposed in chapter five, on the morphology of Lala compared to Swati and Zulu. The grammatical system among the three languages is extremely similar, and there is hardly any substantial difference between North and South Lala. This can also be said with regard to tonology (chapter six) The last chapter reflects on what has been achieved. The ancient Lala language, about which James Stuart stated in the 1920's that it was nearly extinct, is proving very strong and resilient. Possibly the very dynamism experienced in its ability to adapt to the colonial languages and the new material culture by assimilating many foreign lexical items, and that South Lala has adopted many words from IsiZansi, is proof that Lala has got a life of its own that cannot be taken for granted, nor extinguished. The more one is able to study the local languages, the more one dusts up some ancient treasure that needs to be admired and constantly re-valued. The functional word here is 'treasure': because all languages, as carriers of culture, are a treasure that together form the mosaic of our beautiful "Rainbow Nation".
African Languages
D.Litt et Phil.

by Pun Shiu Kau.
Thesis (M.A.Ed.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1990.
Bibliography: leaves 92-98.
LIST OF TABLES --- p.i
LIST OF FIGURES --- p.iii
Chapter CHAPTER 1 --- THE PROBLEM --- p.1
Background --- p.1
Purpose of the Study --- p.3
Significance of the Study --- p.3
Chapter CHAPTER 2 --- REVIEW OF LITERATURE --- p.4
Cognition and Metacognition --- p.4
Metalinguistic Awareness --- p.5
Linguistic and metalinguistic awareness --- p.5
Types of metalinguistic awareness --- p.6
Metalinguistic awareness of cognitive development --- p.7
Awareness in Speech Segmentation --- p.10
Segmentation of speech sound --- p.10
Development of segmental abilities --- p.11
Perception of Speech Sounds --- p.14
Acoustic-phonetic relationship --- p.14
Perception of vowels --- p.15
Perception of consonants --- p.15
Categorical perception --- p.19
Perceptual unit in speech perception --- p.20
Perception of Written Language --- p.23
Comparison between listening and speaking --- p.23
Perceptual unit in reading --- p.24
Writing Systems --- p.28
Variety and universality of writing systems --- p.28
Psychological characterization of orthographies --- p.30
The psychology of reading Chinese --- p.35
Phonemic Segmental Awareness and Reading Acquisition --- p.39
Phenemic segmental awareness in relation to reading acquisition --- p.39
Effect of phonemic segmental awareness on reading acquisition --- p.43
Effect of literacy on phonemic segmental awareness --- p.45
Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- METHOD --- p.47
Hypothesis --- p.47
Subjects --- p.48
Instruments --- p.49
Research Design --- p.54
Procedure --- p.59
Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- RESULTS --- p.62
Academic Results --- p.62
Intelligence --- p.64
English Spelling-sound Proficiency --- p.64
Chinese Task 1 ： Classifying Character Sounds --- p.65
Chinese Task 2 ： Fanqie - Manipulation of Chinese Phonemes --- p.67
Relations between Intelligence and Phonemic Segmental Awareness --- p.70
Relations between English Spelling-sound Proficiency and Academic Results --- p.71
Relations between Chinese Phonemic Awareness and Academic Results --- p.73
Relations between English Spelling-sound Proficiency and Chinese Phonemic Awareness --- p.74
Chapter CHAPTER 5 --- "DISCUSSION, SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION" --- p.79
Discussion --- p.79
"Academic results, sex, intelligence and phonemic awareness" --- p.79
Proficiency in English spelling-sound rules --- p.80
Chinese phonemic segmental awareness --- p.81
Relations between proficiency in English spelling-sound rules and academic results --- p.83
Relations between Chinese phonemic segmental awareness and proficiency in English spelling-sound rules --- p.84
Summary --- p.88
Conclusion --- p.90
REFERENCES --- p.92
APPENDICES --- p.99

This thesis is concerned with the perception and production of lexical tone. In the first experiment, categorical perception of asymmetric synthetic tone continua was examined in speakers of tonal (Thai, Mandarin, and Vietnamese) and non-tonal (Australian English) languages. It was observed that perceptual strategies for categorisation depend on language background. Specifically, Mandarin and Vietnamese listeners tended to use the central tone to divide the continuum, whereas Thai and Australian English listeners used a flat no-contour tone as a perceptual anchor; a split based not on tonal vs. non-tonal language background, but rather on the specific language. In the second experiment, tonal (Thai) and non-tonal (Australian English) language speaking musicians and non-musicians were tested on categorical perception of two differently shaped synthetic tone continua. Results showed that, independently of language background, musicians learn to identify tones more quickly, show steeper identification functions, and display higher discrimination accuracy than non-musicians. Experiment three concerns the influence of language aptitude, musical aptitude, musical memory, and musical training on Australian English speakers‟ perception and production of non-native (Thai) tones, consonants, and vowels. The results showed that musicians were better than non-musicians at perceiving and producing tones and consonants; a ceiling effect was observed for vowel perception. Musical training per se did not determine acquisition of novel speech sounds, rather, musicians‟ higher accuracy was explained by a combination of inherent abilities - language and musical aptitude for consonants, and musical aptitude and musical memory for tones. It is concluded that tone perception is language dependent and strongly influenced by musical expertise - musical aptitude and musical memory, not musical training as such.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Faculty of Humanities School of Literature, Language and Media University of the Witwatersrand A Master’s Dissertation
This study investigates how Hausa, a West Chadic language (Afro Asiatic phyla) remodells loanwords from English (Indo – European) to suit its pre-existing phonology. Loanword adaptation is quite inevitable due to the fact that languages of the world differ, one from another in many ways: phonological, syntactical, morphological and so on (Inkelas & Zoll, 2003, p. 1). Based on this claim, receptor languages therefore employ ways to rephonologize new words borrowed into their vocabularies to fit, and to conform to native structure demands. Hausa disallows complex onsets, preferably operates open syllables and avoids consonant clustering in word-medial positions as at its best can tolerate no more than a single consonant at a syllable edge (Clements, 2000; Han, 2009). On the contrary, English permits complex onsets as well as closed syllables (Skandera & Burleigh, 2005). Such distinctions in both phonologies motivate for loanword adaptation. Hausa therefore employs repair strategies such as vowel epenthesis, consonant deletions and segmental substitutions and/or replacements (Newman, 2000; Abubakre, 2008; Alqhatani & Musa, 2014) to remodell loanwords. For analytical purposes, this research adopts theoretical tools of Feature Geometry (FG) (Clements & Hume, 1995) and Optimality Theory (OT) (Prince & Smolensky, 2004) to clearly illustrate how loanwords are modified to satisfy Hausa native demands (Kadenge, 2012). Vowel epenthesis in Hausa involves two main strategies: consonantal assimilation and default insertions. During consonantal assimilation, coronal and labial segments spread place features unto the epenthetic segment in the process determining the vowel type and/or quality, while in the case of default insertions, fresh segments are introduced context independently. Concerning segmental substitutions, most notably are English consonants /p/ and /v/ maximally replaced with similar ones, [f] and [b] that exist in Hausa on the basis that former and latter segments share same phonation features

Problem of Archaism and Innovation in the Eastern Iranian Languages The presented dissertation aims to bring new information concerning the classification of the Eastern Iranian languages. Instead of commonly accepted two branches of Eastern Iranian (Northern and Southern) it seems that there can be classified at least five branches of Eastern Iranian languages, moreover, Avestan can form its own branch, which possibly may include also Khwārezmian. The main issue of the presented thesis was to show archaisms and innovations of the language group in focus. Such task is an issue for numerous studies so the main attention was paid to historical development of Sogdian and Yaghnōbī - two closely related Eastern Iranian languages. Linguistic proximity of Sogdian and Yaghnōbī has been observed shortly after discoveries of the first Sogdian documents in Chinese Turkestan on the beginning of the 20 th century, for a long time it has been supposed that Yaghnōbī is a modern descendent of Sogdian. By analysis of phonology, grammar and vocabulary of both languages I tried to find clues that may answer this question. From diachronic view there is no much difference between Sogdian and Yaghnōbī, individual changes may be interpreted as "dialectal", but there is one phenomenon that influenced different...

South Africa is a multilingual country and this has certain implications on the development of cognitive-linguistic skills such as phonological processing (amongst others), which are essential for reading development. Research has, in the past, not adequately addressed the development of, and relationship between, a broad range of phonological processing and reading skills in South Africa. The study investigates the relationship between phonological processing skills and reading development in Northern Sotho-English bilingual children. Ninety-eight participants, divided into group 1 (n=48) and group 2 (n=50) based on their Language of Learning Language of Teaching were sampled. Group 1 received literacy instruction in Northern Sotho, whilst group 2 in English. Participants were assessed using a battery of phonological processing tests and on reading abilities in English and Northern Sotho. Correlations, multiple regressions and multivariate analyses of variance were conducted. Findings revealed that phonological processing skills are essential in reading development in both the first and second language of the participants.
African Languages
M.A. (Linguistics)