Table Of ContentMinistry of Scientific Research and Innovation
A Phonology Sketch of the Iyive Language
By
Suzanne E. Foster
SIL
BP 1299, Yaounde, Cameroon
October 2012
© SIL Cameroon 2012
Table of Contents
1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................................4
2 Consonants............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Consonant Phoneme Inventory....................................................................................................4
2.1.1 Plosives..................................................................................................................................5
2.1.2 Affricates...............................................................................................................................7
2.1.3 Fricatives...............................................................................................................................8
2.1.4 Glottal Fricative.....................................................................................................................9
2.1.5 Nasals and Prenasalised......................................................................................................10
2.1.6 Approximants......................................................................................................................14
2.2 Consonant Modification.............................................................................................................15
3 Vowels.................................................................................................................................................16
3.1 Vowel Phoneme Inventory.........................................................................................................16
3.2 Long Vowels................................................................................................................................18
3.3 Vowel Harmony...........................................................................................................................18
3.4 Vowel Harmony in Natural Speech.............................................................................................20
3.5 Vowel Glide.................................................................................................................................21
4 Syllable Structure................................................................................................................................21
5 Tone....................................................................................................................................................23
6 Plural Formations................................................................................................................................25
7 Vowel Prefixes.....................................................................................................................................27
7.1 Prefix Agreement........................................................................................................................27
8 Morphophonemic Alternations..........................................................................................................28
8.1 Palatalisation...............................................................................................................................28
8.2 Vowel change..............................................................................................................................29
8.3 Hiatus Resolution........................................................................................................................29
8.3.1 Vowel elision.......................................................................................................................29
8.3.2 Vowel Assimilation..............................................................................................................30
8.4 Epenthetic vowels.......................................................................................................................31
9 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................32
10 Bibliography....................................................................................................................................32
Appendix A - Iyive Word List.......................................................................................................................33
Appendix B – Tentative Iyive Alphabet Chart.............................................................................................91
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1 Introduction
This paper provides a phonology sketch of the Iyive language spoken by around 2000 people in
the Akwaya Sub-division. The Yive are situated in the South West Region of the Republic of
Cameroon in the Manyu Division. Many of the Yive people are currently residing in Nigeria
after an intertribal conflict. But the government have intervened and are helping the Yive to
rebuild back on their land in Cameroon and the Yive are gradually moving back.
However as the majority of the Yive have been inaccessible to me for the majority of my
research time, I have conducted most of my research in Manko village which is in Assumbo
territory where the Ipulo language is spoken. I stayed with a Yive family that moved there.
Pastor David Iwen Menge was my main informant to help provide me with a list of 1700 Iyive
words from which much of the analysis work was done. Ajili Linus was also a great help with
checking and verifying the findings and providing additional data for my research. Several
other Iyive speakers helped me during my time there too.
Robert Hedinger and Bruce Cox also gave helpful linguistic advice regarding this paper.
All data in this paper is presented phonemically unless otherwise indicated.
The Ethnologue (Lewis 2009) describes the Iyive language as being 75% lexically similar with
the Tiv language of Nigeria and its classification is given as NIGER-CONGO: ATLANTIC-
CONGO: VOLTA-CONGO: BENUE-CONGO: BANTOID: SOUTHERN: TIVOID: Yive.
2 Consonants
2.1 Consonant Phoneme Inventory
Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p b t k g
d
Double Plosive kp gb
Affricate ts tʃ dʒ
dz
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Fricative f v s ʃ h
Approximant j w
Lateral l
Prenasalised mb nd ŋg
Plosives
Prenasalised nz
Fricative
Prenasalised ndz ndʒ
Affricates
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2.1.1 Plosives
There is contrast in Iyive between voiceless and voiced plosives. However voiced plosives never
occur word finally.
2.1.1.1 Bilabial plosives
Examples for /p/ and /b/ are as follows:
Word initially:
/pɛl̀/ ‘to cross’ /bɛl̀í/ ‘garden’
/pànə/́ ‘to open (mouth)’ /bàn/ ‘lack’
Stem initially:
/kí-pútsùkú/ ‘cornhusk’ /kí-bù/ ‘grasshopper (lg)’
Word medially:
/ùpúpù/ ‘white’ /kúbú/ ‘to hunt’
2.1.1.2 Alveolar plosives
Examples for /t/ and /d/ are as follows:
Word initially:
/tùk/ ‘to meet’ /dù/ ‘to remove’
/tá/ ‘to kick’ /dáŋ/ ‘to hate’
Stem initially:
/í-tjɔ/́ ‘bottom’ /kì-djɔ/̀ ‘latrine’
/ú-tál/ ‘country’ /ù-dâm/ ‘hawk’
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2.1.1.3 Velar Plosives
Examples for /k/ and /g/ are as follows:
Word initially:
/kəm̀ á/ ‘to hit’ /gəm̀ á/ ‘to return’
/kálá/ ‘there’ /gâl/ ‘to tear’
Stem initially:
/ɛ-̀kûnd/ ‘hoe (mid size)’ /ɛ-̀gùnd/ ‘cow’
2.1.1.4 Double Plosives
There is also contrast between the voiceless and voiced double plosives:
Examples for /kp/ and /gb/:
Word initially:
/kpâ/ ‘sex’ /gbà/ ‘to fall’
/kpɛt̀s/ ‘to reduce’ /gbɛt̀ í/ ‘to cut down’
Stem initially:
/ɛ-́kpɛv́ / ‘scabies’ /kì-gbɛn̂ d/ ‘stool’
Examples of contrast between voiced velar plosive /g/ and voiced double plosive /gb/:
Word initially:
/gɔv̀ əl̂ / ‘to bend’ /gbɔk̀ əl̀ / ‘fat’
Stem initially:
/ɛ-́gɛ/́ ‘power’ /ɛ-̀gbɛŋ́ gɛ/̀ ‘lime’
and between voiced bilabial plosive /b/ and voiced double plosive /gb/:
Word initially:
/bɛǹ dí/ ‘to draw water’ /gbɛt̀ í/ ‘to cut down’
Stem initially:
/ì-bɛ/́ ‘law’ /kì-gbɛn̂ d/ ‘stool’
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Contrast can also be seen between the voiceless counterparts /k/ and /kp/:
Word initially:
/kà/ ‘to fry’ /kpâ/ ‘sex’
Stem initially:
/í-kât/ ‘headpad’ /ì-kpà/ ‘bag’
/ì-kɔḿ / ‘corpse’ /í-kpɔḿ / ‘bottles’
and with /p/ and /kp/:
Word initially:
/pɛt̂/ ‘to winnow’ /kpɛt̀s/ ‘to reduce’
/pǎ/ ‘to clear’ /kpâ/ ‘sex’
2.1.2 Affricates
The voiceless and voiced alveolar affricates are contrasting.
Examples for /ts/ and /dz/ word initially:
/tsɛn̂ / ‘to dry’ /dzɛǹ dí/ ‘to walk’
/tsù/ ‘straight’ /dzû/ ‘sad’
Stem initially:
/ú-tsâl/ ‘bridge’ /ú-dzál/ ‘liquid’
/tsɛk̂ / ‘small’ /kə-̀ dzəń d/ ‘calabash’
Word finally:
/álóts/ ‘lie’ /ìwɔd̂ z/ ‘marriage’
/ɛŋ́ gùts/ ‘caterpillar’ /ìwùdz/ ‘louse’
Post-alveolar affricates also contrast between voiceless and voiced:
Word initially:
/tʃì/ ‘to boil’ /dʒìl/ ‘to deceive’
Stem initially:
/í-tʃɛ/̀ ‘hairs’ /í-dʒì/ ‘flies’
/ì-tʃɔm̂ b/ ‘navel’ /ì-dʒɔǹ / ‘lump’
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There are no words that end in either of these phonemes.
The voiceless alveolar and post-alveolar affricates are in contrast:
Word initially:
/tsəŋ̂ g/ ‘to castrate’ /tʃəŋ́ / ‘many’
Stem initially:
/ì-tsàl/ ‘squirrel’ /ì-tʃân/ ‘suffering’
The voiced alveolar and post-alveolar affricates /dz/ and /dʒ/ are in contrast as demonstrated
below:
Examples of contrast for /dz/ and /dʒ/ are as follows:
Word initially:
/dzàkíjɔt́ / ‘hardship’ /dʒàv dʒàv/ ‘dim’
Stem initially:
/dzû/ ‘sad’ /ì-dʒùá/ ‘penis’
/dzɔn̂ d/ ‘harvest’ /ì-dʒɔǹ ú/ ‘hunger’
However, there are some words where there is variation between speakers as to which sound
can be used and even by the same speaker. For example the word ‘plum’ can be heard as
/dzwɛm̀ bí/ or /dʒwɛm̀ bí/.
/tʃ/ is also in contrast with /tj/:
Stem initially:
/ì-tʃɔm̂ b/ ‘navel’ /í-tjɔ/́ ‘bottom’
And dʒ with dj:
/ì-dʒɔǹ / ‘lump’ /kì-djɔ/̀ ‘latrine’
2.1.3 Fricatives
Labiodental fricatives are in contrast between voiceless and voiced:
Word initially:
/fɛt̀/ ‘to blow’ /vɛl̀/ ‘to keep’
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/fàfà/ ‘fast’ /vá/ ‘to come’
Stem initially:
/kí-fɔt́ ɔḱ / ‘empty shell’ /kì-vóvò/ ‘cockroach’
Word finally:
/gbòf/ ‘to bark (like a dog)’ /vígbòv/ ‘to stumble’
The voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ is in contrast with the voiceless post-alveolar fricative /ʃ/:
Contrasting word initially:
/sɛǹ í/ ‘to descend’ /ʃɛ/́ ‘to laugh’
Stem initially:
/á-sà/ ‘earrings’ /á-ʃà/ ‘good’
Word finally:
/jɛŝ / ‘sharp’ /jìʃ/ ‘to rub’
The voiceless alveolar fricative is freely occurring, however it is not contrasted with its voiced
counterpart; [z] is only ever found as part of another sound, not standing alone.
Examples:
/dz/, /nz/, /ndz/
/dzwèmbí/ ‘plum’
/mínyánzəm̀ ə/́ ‘urine’
/úndzwá/ ‘door’
Whilst there are many words containing the phoneme /dz/, there are very few words that
contain /nz/ and /ndz/, but these do stand in contrast with each other:
Word finally:
/ìɲânz/ ‘semen’ /úvándz/ ‘rock’
2.1.4 Glottal Fricative
Phoneme /h/ also stands in contrast with phonemes /f/ and /s/ as shown in the examples
below:
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