Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-t6hkb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T16:32:31.305Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A nonlinear analysis of vowel harmony in Luganda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Francis Katamba
Francis Katamba
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics and Modern English Language, University of Lancaster
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In some languages, vowels occurring in some specified domain, which is usually the word, must share some phonetic property or properties. Such languages are said to have vowel harmony.

Luganda, a Bantu language of Uganda, is unusual in having a vowel harmony system which is entirely morphologically conditioned. There is one subsystem which operates in the noun phrase and another irregular subsystem which operates in the verb phrase. The aim of this paper is to show how the non-linear theory of phonology developed by writers like Clements (1980, 1982) can throw some light on this apparently irregularity-ridden system.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , September 1984 , pp. 257 - 275
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ashton, E. O., Muliira, E. M. K., Ndawula, E. G. M. & Tucker, A. N. (1954). A grammar of Luganda. London: Longmans, Green.Google Scholar
Carnochan, J. (1960). Vowel harmony in Igbo. African Language Studies I. 155–63.Google Scholar
Clements, G. N. (1980). Vowel harmony in nonlinear generative phonology: an autosegmental model. Reproduced by Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar
Clements, G. N. (1981). Akan vowel harmony: a nonlinear analysis. In Clements, G. N. (ed.) Harvard studies in phonology, Vol. II. Reproduced by Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar
Clements, G. N. (1982). Vowel and consonant disharmony in Turkish. In van der Hulst, H. & Smith, N. S. H. (eds), The structure of phonological representations: Part II. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.Google Scholar
Clements, G. N. (forthcoming). Compensatory lengthening and consonant gemination in Luganda.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, J. (1976). Autosegmental phonology. MIT Doctoral Dissertation. Reproduced by Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar
Hayes, B. (1982). Extrametricality and English stress. Lin 13. 227–76.Google Scholar
Herbert, R. K. (1975). A reanalysis of Luganda vowels. AuÜ 59. 113–24.Google Scholar
Katamba, F. (1984). A nonlinear account of the syllable in Luganda. In Goyvaerts, D. (ed.), African and general linguistics. Dordrecht: Foris Publications. 267–83.Google Scholar
Lightner, T. (1965). On the description of vowel and consonant harmony. Word 25, 244–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, J. (1962). Phonemic and nonphonemic phonology. IJAL 28. 127–133.Google Scholar
Marlett, S. A. & Stemberger, J. P. (1983). Empty consonants in Seri. Lin 14. 617–39.Google Scholar
Meeussen, A. E. (1955). Les phonèmes du ganda et du bantou commun. Africa 25. 170–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmer, K. E. (1970). On the evaluation of alternative phonological descriptions. JL 6. 89–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar