The phonology of Wolayta (generative approach)

112 Pages·1983·41.059 MB·English

by  Yitbarek Ejigu

THE PHONOLOGY OF WOLAYTA
(GENERATIVE APPROACH)
A Thesis
Presented to
School of Graduate Studies
Addis Ababa University
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements of the Degree
Master of Arts in Linguistics
b Y
Yitbarek Ejigu
June 9, 1983
ii
ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY
School--of Graduate Studies
THE PHONOLOGY OF WOLAYTA
by
Yitbarek Ejigu
1. L. S.
Approval by Board of Examiners:
Chairman, Department
Graduat'e Committee
Advisor
Examiner
Examiner
iii
A K NOW LED GEM E N T S
I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to Dro Klaus Wedekind
who was my advisoro I am also obliged to Dro G~rard Despatie for
having read and commentedo
I express my deep sense of gratitude to Mro Peter Edward
Unseth, for his priceless advice, expended time and for providing
me with some valuable reading materialso His continued support
in my efforts enabled me to produce this papero
I also express my thanks to Woizero Enanu Fentaw for typing
this thesis clearly.
iv
ABSTRACT
The study has three main partso
The first is an introduction which gives the review of
literature of previous works and of the generative approacho
This part also explains the purpose and scope of the study.
The second part is a description of the phonology of
Wolayta in detail. The possible phonetic sounds, the short
and long phonemes, the allophonic and morphophonemic variants,
the syllable structure and its processes including vowel
harmony and supra-segmentals are discussed.
The third part consists of the conclusiono It presents
the summary of the preceding parts and gives remarks on further
study of supra-segmentals for more complete work of Wolayta
phonologyo
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
List of Charts and Figures 0000000000 ••• 000••0.00.00 ••00 vii
Definitions of Diacrtic marks ••00••000000000.0000 ••000. viii
List of Abbreviations ix
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooe.oooooo
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. THE STATEIVJENT }\ND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF
'rHE PROBLEl'-'l. 1
0 e _ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 000 0000 0 0 0000 00 CI0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1020 THE PROCEDURE AND THE LIMITATIONS 000000000000 4
1 3 REVIEW OF LITERATURE
0 0
Previous Works 7
1 3 20 A Generative Approach 000000000 ••00000 26
0 0
(As exemplified by Larry MoHyman)
20 D8SCRIPTION OF THE PHONOLOGY OF WOLAYTA
2.1. THE CONSONf\NTS AND THE VOWELS
2.1.10 The Consonants
2.10101. The Consonant Sounds 0000 ••0 28
201.1.20 'I'heConsonant Phonemes 000.. 42
20102. The vowels
20102010 The Vowel Sounds 00000000000 51
20102020 The Vowel Phonemes 00000 ••00 55
201030 The Consonant and Vowel Vari~nts
201.301. Allophonic Variants .00••• 56
0.
2010302. Morphophonemic Vowel Harmony.o 61
vi
THE SYLLABLE AND THE PHotJOLOGIC],LPROCESSES
202010 The Syllable Structure 0••00.0.00000000 '64
2.2020 Phoneme Distribution 000000000000000000 67
20203. Syllable Structure ~rocesses 0000000000
202,,301, Deletion and Coalescence 69
2020302. hetathesis OOOODOO.eooooooooo 69
20203030 Epenthesis 70
SUPRASEGHENTALS
Stress 71
oooooooooooooooooooooeooooooOOOO
Intonation 73
0000000000000000000000000000
3 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 76
0 000000000000000000000000000000
POOTNOTES 79
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
APPENDIX WORD LIST 83
0000000000000000000000000000000000
BIBLIOGRAPHY 97
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
vii
LIST 01" CHARTS AND FIGURJ:::S
Pages
CHARTS: 1 Phonetic Chart of Consonants ooooooooooocoooo 41
2 Phoneme Chart of the Anteriors and Coronals 42
0
3 Phoneme Chart of the Non-Coronals 44
0 OOOOOQO.ooo
4 Phoneme Chart of Glottalized Consonants o 0 0 0 0 45
5 Phoneme Chart of Consonants 50
DOOOOOQlOOCOOOOOOCI
6 Phonetic Chart of Vowels 54
00000000000000000000
7 Phoneme Chart of Vowels 55
000000000000000 •• 0000
8 Syllable Distribution Chart 67
00000000000000000
9 Phoneme Chart of Juxta-positional Consonants~ 68
FIGURES: 1 PRo'ro - OI"lOTIC 9
2 PROTO - 0l'10TIC 10
3 SYLLABLE STRUC'rURE 64
000 00 00 ? • 00 00 000 00 00 00. 000
viii
DEFI1HTIONS •,OF DIACI.ITIC MARKS
-
over, trilled sound
on top of nasal consonant, palatalization
on top of vowel, nasalization
• under consonant, glottalization
after consonant, gemination
after vowel, length
o under consonant or vowel, devoicing
I
before a syllable, main stress
I
(slash), phonological environment
the position of a sound in the environment
~ becomes or re-written as
~ fronting of a consonant
> when a consonant is back
0( alpha
f.Q) Beta
au· gamma
~__'/(question) rising intonation
.--1
(imperative) rising intonation
x the existence of the proposed sound
$ syllable boundary
# word boundary
## sentence boundary
~. under consonant, dental
ix
A B B n. E V I A T I o N S
aj adjectiv.e N North
an anterior na nasal
as aspiration nodo no date
ba back oj object
C consonant p person
cn continuant pI plural
cr coronal pr present
dl delayed release ps past
Ex E.xample rd round
Exso I:;xamples S South
fe female sg singular
fl flap sj subject
gl glottal so sonorant
hi high st stress
im imperative with sharp sy syllable
raised pitch
tr trilled
la lateral
V Vowel
In long
v verb
10 low
vo voice
ma masculine
W West
n noun
x
In the list of references, the titles of books quoted more than
twice are abbreviated as follows, in order to avoid unnecessary
repetitionso
TNSLE The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia, MoL. Bender ed.
Michigan: Published by the African Studies Center,
Michigan State University, 1976 (Monograph No.5)
LE Language in Ethiopi~, Bender and et.al. eds. London:
Oxford University press, 1976
0