Phonetic and Phonological Effects of Depressor Consonants in Malawian CiTonga
In this paper we show that certain consonants have the effect of depressing the tone on adjacent vowels in Malawian CiTonga, a Bantu language spoken mainly in Nkhata Bay. We argue that some of these effects are phonological, changing High vowels to Low. In other cases the effect is not categorical,...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nordic Africa Research Network
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Nordic Journal of African Studies |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.njas.fi/njas/article/view/822 |
| _version_ | 1827830295258202112 |
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| author | Winfred Mkochi Jamilläh Rodriguez Lee Bickmore |
| author_facet | Winfred Mkochi Jamilläh Rodriguez Lee Bickmore |
| author_sort | Winfred Mkochi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
In this paper we show that certain consonants have the effect of depressing the tone on adjacent vowels in Malawian CiTonga, a Bantu language spoken mainly in Nkhata Bay. We argue that some of these effects are phonological, changing High vowels to Low. In other cases the effect is not categorical, but gradient, as certain consonants have a greater lowering effect than others on the tone of the adjacent vowel. For these cases we propose the effect is phonetic overall. Still, we demonstrate that in these latter cases where the lowering effect is most pronounced, there are near-neutralization effects, which in some cases can lead to neutralization and homophony in the judgment of native speakers. We make some general typological observations, comparing the set of depressor consonants in CiTonga to other Bantu languages.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T04:26:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-07d5b6a13d2b4232bb6a4c16660f3254 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1459-9465 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T04:26:30Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Nordic Africa Research Network |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nordic Journal of African Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-07d5b6a13d2b4232bb6a4c16660f32542023-09-03T10:17:22ZengNordic Africa Research NetworkNordic Journal of African Studies1459-94652022-06-0131210.53228/njas.v31i2.822Phonetic and Phonological Effects of Depressor Consonants in Malawian CiTongaWinfred Mkochi0Jamilläh Rodriguez1Lee Bickmore2University of MalawiUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillUniversity at Albany & University of the Free State In this paper we show that certain consonants have the effect of depressing the tone on adjacent vowels in Malawian CiTonga, a Bantu language spoken mainly in Nkhata Bay. We argue that some of these effects are phonological, changing High vowels to Low. In other cases the effect is not categorical, but gradient, as certain consonants have a greater lowering effect than others on the tone of the adjacent vowel. For these cases we propose the effect is phonetic overall. Still, we demonstrate that in these latter cases where the lowering effect is most pronounced, there are near-neutralization effects, which in some cases can lead to neutralization and homophony in the judgment of native speakers. We make some general typological observations, comparing the set of depressor consonants in CiTonga to other Bantu languages. https://www.njas.fi/njas/article/view/822CiTongaBantutonedepressor consonantsneutralization |
| spellingShingle | Winfred Mkochi Jamilläh Rodriguez Lee Bickmore Phonetic and Phonological Effects of Depressor Consonants in Malawian CiTonga Nordic Journal of African Studies CiTonga Bantu tone depressor consonants neutralization |
| title | Phonetic and Phonological Effects of Depressor Consonants in Malawian CiTonga |
| title_full | Phonetic and Phonological Effects of Depressor Consonants in Malawian CiTonga |
| title_fullStr | Phonetic and Phonological Effects of Depressor Consonants in Malawian CiTonga |
| title_full_unstemmed | Phonetic and Phonological Effects of Depressor Consonants in Malawian CiTonga |
| title_short | Phonetic and Phonological Effects of Depressor Consonants in Malawian CiTonga |
| title_sort | phonetic and phonological effects of depressor consonants in malawian citonga |
| topic | CiTonga Bantu tone depressor consonants neutralization |
| url | https://www.njas.fi/njas/article/view/822 |
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