Vowel and Nasal Harmony in Bantu Languages. The center portion of the tongue is then lowered while the two main closures are maintained (timesteps 23), enlarging the volume of the space between them. Z. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The accompaniment refers to all the other aspects of the click: laryngeal action and timing, nasal coupling, and the location (uvular or velar) and manner of release (abrupt or affricated) of the back closure. These vowels bring to mind the super-high or super-close vowels /i u/ used by Meeussen (1967, 1969) and Guthrie (1967, 1970a, 1970b, 1971) and notated as / / by Meinhof (1899), in addition to normal high /i u/. Many Bantu languages have relatively simple segmental inventories. There is a distinct breathy/slack voiced nasalised accompaniment; these two series are depressor consonants. Some speakers of Xhosa S41 produce plain clicks with ejection (Jessen 2002). Journal of Phonetics , Voiced stops tend to be made with a downward movement of the larynx, presumably to help sustain voicing (Monaka 2001). Connell, B. 1989, Pongweni 1990). Narayanan (1998) Thimbukushu Grammar. In both cases aspects of timing are particularly relevant. A widespread characteristic of Bantu phonology is vowel height harmony (broadly construed). Anecdotally, it seems that clicks in other Bantu languages may also vary in amplitude, depending on the individual speaker, stylistic or sociphonetic variables, and prosodic environment. D. Downing Figure 3.12 Riad, T. (eds. Clements, G. N. Figure 3.29 & Naidoo 2007), which is auditorily reminiscent of a lateral click. In ), Proceedings of the 24th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 129138. This coding system has become the standard for identifying Bantu languages; it was the only practical way to distinguish many ambiguously named languages before the introduction of ISO 639-3 coding, and it continues to be widely used. (1958) The Tonemes of Xhosa. Clicks do not occur in Venda S21 (Ziervogel et al. Nomdebevana Research the following groups: Bantu, French Canadians (Quebecois), and Basques. Naidoo, S. In Kalanga S16, on the other hand, the vowels are crowded into the upper part of the vowel space, with the front pair in particular being very close together. Kishindo, P. J. Myers, S. Martin The click in the word [ruoma] papyrus in Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. (2013) The Impact of Khoesan on Southern Bantu. Phonology Abasheikh (2006) On the Status of Voiced Stops in Tswana: Against *ND. The upper pharyngealised vowels of Kwasio A81 do not have the harsh voice quality associated with lower pharyngealised vowels, i.e., epiglottalised or aryepiglottalised vowels, as found in Tuu, Kxa and Khoe languages of southern Africa (cf. L. | Privacy policy For instance, the final High in yes-no questions in Zamba is preceded by a sharp fall (Bokamba 1976: 19). Glasgow: University of Glasgow, retrieved from. Journal of the International Phonetic Association The vowels of the five-vowel systems are therefore usually transcribed as /i e a o u/ and the seven-vowel systems are most often transcribed as /i e a o u/ (Hyman 1999). The members of the high vowel pairs /i / and /u / in Vove B305 have virtually the same second formant values as each other and differ only in F1. 38(4): 604615. D. (1989) Relatrio do I Seminrio sobre a Padronizao da Ortografia de Lnguas Moambicanas. (eds. Yaound: ALCAM, Unit de recherche linguistique et phontique, Institut des Sciences humaines. (2007) A Qualitative and Quantitative Study of Zulu Affricates. (2014). ), Intonation in African Tone Languages, 116. Paris: Centre de Recherches, dEchanges et de Documentation Universitaire. Although lip positions have not been reported for Tshwa S51, the acoustic findings are similar to those in Tsonga S53 in that the whistling fricatives have narrower spectral peak bandwidths and lower spectral peak frequencies when compared to their non-whistled fricative counterparts (Shosted 2006). Languages of the North-West, the Eastern coastal area and the South-East often have at least one implosive, most frequently a bilabial, but implosives are generally absent in the languages of the Congo basin and the South-West. Lee, S. J. , MALCOLM The Classification of the Bantu Languages. Press; London, New & Parkinson Mumba In Fang A75 vowel formant means. Bloomington: Indiana University, PhD. In the Ngwato S31c variety of Tswana S31, ejectives are weak and are sometimes lenited, with loss of ejection: /t k/ ~ [t kx] (Gouskova et al. The high vowels /i/ and/u/ are lower and more centralised than those in Xhosa S41 and Kalanga S16 and could be transcribed [] and [], respectively. 31: 111137. Prinsloo, D. J. (eds. Western Bantu tradition and use the results to reflect on the nature and the characteristics of the phenomenon one calls tradition. Proceedings of the Seventh Conference on International Language Resources and Evaluation, 885889. (1997) Languages of the Eastern Caprivi. I. , 2017: 20, Gunnink forthcoming), and may have even been lost where they were once attested. 17, 145154. 2011: 2127). & J. S. Africana Linguistica S. (PDF) Review of 'The Bantu Languages, second edition' (2016) Aspects of the Intonational Phonology of Bs. (forthcoming) Click Loss and Click Insertion in Fwe. (2016) Posterior Lingual Gestures and Tongue Shape in Mangetti Dune !Xung Clicks. Africana Linguistica ed. & Source: Recording and images made available by Michael Proctor. (2005) Phonetic Analysis of Afrikaans, English, Xhosa and Zulu Using South African Speech Databases. London: Gregg International. Next, the closure at the front and/or side of the mouth is released (timestep 4) and the abrupt equalisation of air pressures inside and outside the mouth results in a sharp acoustic transient. Maddieson, I. Mbochi C25, which does not have downdrift, still has final lowering due to a L% boundary tone (Rialland & Aborobongui 2016). J. S. M. In Tonga M64 does not preserve Proto-Bantu vowel length, but has developed long vowels from intervocalic consonant loss. (1998) Few People, Many Tongues: The Languages of Namibia. (1987), we understand true depression to consist of a special laryngeal posture consistent with very low pitch co-produced with the consonant it is associated with. Create a chart to keep track of your information. The RTR vowel shows more tongue root retraction than the ATR vowel while the ATR vowel (on top) shows more of a bunched tongue shape. Focus in Bantu is often marked using morphosyntactic means rather than through the use of prosody (Downing & Hyman 2016, Downing & Rialland 2016b). (1923) A Dissertation on the Phonetics of the Zulu Language. 33(3): 273290. Another nine-vowel Bantu language is Liko D201 (De Wit 2015: 45). K. Bantu is a general term for over 400 different ethnic groups in Africa, from Cameroon to South Africa, united by a common language family (the Bantu languages) and in many cases common customs.. Charette This difference seems to be related to the different origin of long vowels; Yao P21 maintains Proto-Bantu vowel length distinctions and adds to them. , & In Changana S53, whistling fricatives occur with a rounded lip posture (Shosted 2011) rather than the narrowed lip posture seen in Shona S10, Kalanga S16 and Tsonga S53. The 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS XVII), Hong Kong, August 1721, 2011, 17261729. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages.. Narrowing the pharynx raises the first formant, other things being equal. (2010) Phonetically Grounded Phonology and Sound Change: The Case of Tswana Labial Plosives. (ed. K. B. & . /) as well as glottalised and ejected clicks (e.g., / H. S. UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics Faytak, M. In Zulu the passive form is marked by the suffix -wa, as in thanda love and thandwa be loved; the reciprocal by -an, e.g., thand-an-a love one another; the causative by -is, e.g., thand-is-a; the applied form (for, on behalf of) by -el, e.g., thand-el-a; the intensive by -isis, e.g., thand-isis-a love exceedingly; and the diminutive by reduplication. 24(1): 530. The (post: 303) alveolar // clicks in Zulu S42 (Thomas-Vilakati 2010) and Xhosa S41 (Doke 1926: 303) are retracted in comparison to pulmonic alveolar consonants such as /t/ and /s/. & Sands Both Soga JE16 and Fwe K402 have a vowel length contrast. Plausibly, the Vove B305 vowel pairs differ phonetically in pharynx width, which is consistent with the auditory impression they create, while the Kalanga S16 pairs differ in height and to a lesser degree in backness, which is consistent with the auditory impression they create. & (2011) All Depressors Are Not Alike: A Comparison of Shanghai Chinese and Zulu. Brockhaus. 2017); from Nguni (primarily Zulu S42), they subsequently spread into other SEB languages (Letele 1945, Bailey 1995). 7: 270414. London: Gregg. Zvegintsev, V. Phonological development of first language isiXhosa-speaking children aged 3;0-6;0 years: A descriptive cross-sectional study. & (eds. , In Batibo, H. M. Fisch, M. Sells Downing, L. J. (2015) High Vowel Fricativization as an Areal Feature of the Northern Cameroon Grassfields. K. C. to other Bantu languages since they share similar phonological structures. Hinnebusch Paper presented at the 46th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics, Leiden. Louw Fuchs 10(4): 166172. & M. R. In Most Bantu languages are reported as having two series of plosives, voiced and voiceless, and this follows the Proto-Bantu reconstruction of Meeussen (1967). Maddieson 2002, Malambe 2015), but Dogil and Roux (1996) argue that ejectives and clicks in Xhosa S41 are more resistant to coarticulation than other consonants. Miller, A. G. A discussion of Bantu phonetics would not be complete without reference to some of the studies of the major prosodic characteristics of the languages. Figure 3.27 There is much work that remains to be done on cross-linguistic, intra- and inter-speaker variation of typologically unusual sounds such as clicks and whistling fricatives. Undoubtedly, studies of intonation and prosody in Bantu languages will continue to increase in number. 2(4): 685729. Bantu peoples, the approximately 85 million speakers of the more than 500 distinct languages of the Bantu subgroup of the Niger-Congo language family, occupying almost the entire southern projection of the African continent. In Bantu, this is typically not the case; the vocal folds are in the normal position for voicing. In Mwiini G412, however, long vowels may surface on the penult or antepenult and only occur word-initially in loanwords (Kisseberth & Abasheikh 2004: xvii). Bostoen, K. In these cases there is a substantial fall in F0 from the onset to the middle of the nasal, and pitch begins to rise before the consonant is released; the pitch peak on the vowel is 40Hz (left panel) or 50Hz (right panel) higher than the lowest pitch in the nasal. EPG frames showing a dental click spoken by a male Zulu S42 speaker. Greenberg, J. H. Miller, A. (eds. (2012) Tonal Variation in the Tense System of Mundabli, Western Beboid (Bantoid, Cameroon). S. Variations in the structure of seven-vowel systems occur which are similar to those of the five-vowel systems. Thornell Collins Shah K. Bantu Phonology | Oxford Handbook Topics in Linguistics | Oxford Academic A.-M. Roux In Language Downing, L. J. On this basis these particular vowels would not quite justify being considered high, but they are clearly markedly higher than those of Xhosa S41. T. J. Nordic Journal of African Studies (2002) Voice Quality Differences Associated with Stops and Clicks in Xhosa. , Journal of Phonetics 27(3/4): 8396. Omar Meeussen, A. E. This can be seen by the converging F2 and F3 transitions at the end of the first vowel, (as indicated by the arrow), which indicate a velar constriction. New York: Springer. & (eds. The relative timing and durations of velar and front closures deduced from acoustic and aerodynamic data are graphed in Shryock B. Ladefoged Baumbach, E. J. M. Lingua The small arrows on the waveform show a distinct anterior and dorsal burst on the first click. & Editor of. , (2014) Clicks, Concurrency and Khoisan. That Zulu dental clicks are produced with a controlled fricated release is also clear from the way the front release initially involves formation of a narrow channel, clearly visible in frame 150. The one spectrogram of a word containing /pk/ published in this study actually shows that the duration of the element is considerably longer than a simple stop, suggesting it contains a sequence of articulations, although no burst is visible for the /p/. Pongweni, A. J. C. Figure 3.21 London: Gregg. Figure 3.2 The nasal feature is realised as nasalisation of the latter part of the vowel // in Fragment C, following an oral portion, B, and the aspiration of the initial stop, A. Fragment D, which is the consonantal part of the // is voiceless but oral, and as often in an [h]-sound, the transition of the formants of the flanking vowels can be traced through its duration. Figure 3.33 , In Mbukushu K333, the one series of clicks is reported to be pronounced either as dental, palatal or [post-]alveolar sounds (Fisch 1998). Leiden: Brill. Nurse, D. In Jita JE25, for instance, only the initial syllable of verb roots may contrast in tone (Downing 2011). In Figure 3.13 In Paper presented at Second World Congress of African Linguistics, Leipzig. Pharyngeals have developed from velars in other Niger-Congo languages. Schadeberg Figure 3.1 , (2009b) Rarefaction Gestures and Coarticulation in Mangetti Dune !Xung clicks. Production of a lateral click is illustrated in F. (2006) Just Put Your Lips Together and Blow? Gouskova Borland, C. H. (1959) A Grammar of Northern Transvaal Ndebele. (2014) Evaluating Vowel Normalisation Procedures: A Case Study on Southern Sotho Vowels. E. Rialland Areas north of Swati S43 and east of Ndebele S44 with grey patterns show the S10, S50 and S61 zones where clicks have been sporadically attested. Cologne: Rdiger Kppe. The mechanism of producing clicks is now fairly well understood and is illustrated by the sequence of midsagittal real-time MRI in In Mpiemo A86c, implosives have a slight rise in F0 before the onset of a following vowel while voiced plosives have a sharp dip in F0 (Nagano-Madsen & Thornell 2012). Shosted 2007, Miller et al. & Pharyngealised vowels /i u o a/ have been reported for Kwasio A81 (Duke & Martin 2012). Staubs , Myers, S. Eine Bestandsaufnahme. A. Berlin: Language Science Press. Figure 3.10 (eds. ), Handbook of Click Languages. Other studies of coarticulation in Bantu languages have not looked at voicing contrasts (Manuel 1987, Beddor et al. (1996) Phonetics, Phonology and Rhetorical Structuring of Chichewa. Though cross-linguistically rare, clicks are used by millions of people speaking various Bantu languages. (1985) Le kesukuma (langue bantoue de Tanzanie): phonologie, morphologie. Spectrogram of Rwanda JD61 ugutwi [ugutkwi] ear; same speaker as Figure 3.14. Hubbard (1994, 1995) also compared the durations of vowels in three further languages with different patterns. a thorough treatment of both the syntactic and semantic characteristics of the external and internal arguments. Bantu languages, a group of some 500 languages belonging to the Bantoid subgroup of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Most of the languages have relatively limited sets of fricatives of the cross-linguistically common types, although lateral fricatives (and affricates) have developed in or been borrowed into a number of the southern languages, such as Sotho-Tswana S30, Xhosa S41 and Zulu S42. (ed. Our recommended IPA transcription and corresponding Zulu S42 orthographic symbols is given in Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Introduction This chapter will describe some of the major phonetic characteristics of the (Narrow) Bantu languages based on first-hand familiarity with some of them and a reading of available literature. Hammarstrm This study shows that the F0 associated with depressors is lower than a low tone, and the lowest pitch is centred on the depressor consonants themselves. H. (1989) The Parentage and Development of Lozi. It is noteworthy that none of the Bantu languages of East Africa appear to have acquired clicks from the surviving or former languages of this area with clicks (Maddieson et al. & (1891) Introductory Grammar of the Ngoni (Zulu) Language, as Spoken in Momberas Country. The next lower vowels are markedly lower. F. Figure 3.31 19(2): 113135. In The basic click mechanism does not determine what the larynx is doing while these movements are taking place in the oral cavity, nor whether the velum itself is raised or lowered to block or permit air from the lungs to flow out through the nose. Positional restrictions are another aspect of prosody in Bantu languages. Baumbach, E. J. M. P. African Studies Nasal vowels are not particularly common in the Bantu languages, but are found in certain mostly western areas, for example in Ngungwel B72a of the Teke group (Paulian 1994), in Umbundu R11 (Schadeberg 1982), in Gyele A801 (Renaud 1976) and in a few words in the Bitam variety of Fang A75 (Medjo Mv 1997). . New York: Routledge. Source: Data from Ngessimo Mutaka; measurements by the first author. Spectrogram of Rwanda JD61 imwa [im De Blois, K. F. Language Dynamics and Change PDF Gender, Number and Person in Bantu Languages (PDF) Modern Democracy and Traditional Bantu Governance: Towards an South African Journal of African Languages (1914) La langue Thonga. Note that the back of the mouth is found on the left side of an ultrasound image, but on the right side of an MRI image. A. J. In Diemer Following Traill et al. Volume 3: A Catalogue of Common Bantu with Commentary. so an outline is given of the main characteristics of each separate group. , or as an unaspirated alveolar click ([ruoma]), as in Pretoria: University of South Africa. Arvaniti Mittheilungen des Seminars fr Orientalische Sprachen A wide range of means of marking question prosody have been noted for Bantu languages. Traill, A. (2015) Downstep in Tswana (Southern Bantu). ), Nasals, Nasalization and the Velum, 251301. 23: 120. 15(4): 196204. An interesting issue is therefore whether the Bantu languages, particularly those with seven or more vowels, make use of the ATR feature in this phonetic sense. Pretoria: van Schaik. (2008) Click Cavity Formation and Dissolution in IsiXhosa: Viewing Clicks with High-Speed Ultrasound. M. Heerbaart F. Figure 3.5 (ed. 1989, Sitoe 1996), but their functional load in these lects is not well known. L. Journal of Phonetics Part of the aim of the present chapter is therefore to draw greater attention to this diversity. (2015) An Acoustic Study of Luganda Liquid Allophones. | Promotions Roux, J. C. Thomas, K. In The Scottish Consortium for ICPhS 2015 (ed.

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