Vowel Harmony in Bale: A study of ATR harmony in a Surmic language of Ethiopia
2009 (engelsk)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 poäng / 15 hp
Oppgave
Abstract [en]
ATR, advanced tongue root, is a phonological feature among vowels. As vowels assimilate to share the same value of that feature, they display ATR harmony. This is a common phenomenon among many African languages. ATR harmony is examined in this paper as manifested across morpheme boundaries wihin nouns in a Surmic language of Ethiopia called Bale. The data presented was collected at a workshop on ATR harmony held by SIL International in Mizan Teferi, Ethiopia, 2009. The vowel system in Bale displays a nine vowel inventory with a feature dominance of [+ATR] vowels which spread their feature both leftward and rightward to recessive [–ATR] vowels. The [+ATR] dominance is also present as a floating feature without any phonological material. The vowel /a/ is analysed as a neutral vowel, co-occuring with both [+ATR] and [–ATR] vowels within roots.
sted, utgiver, år, opplag, sider
2009. , s. 35
Emneord [en]
Vowel harmony, African linguistics, phonology, ATR, Surmic languages, Bale, Kacipo-Balesi, nominal suffixes
HSV kategori
Identifikatorer
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-29444OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-29444DiVA, id: diva2:233078
Presentation
2009-08-19, C307, Institutionen för Lingvistik, Stockholms Universitet, 106 91 Stockholm, Stockholms Universitet, 13:00 (engelsk)
Uppsök
Humanities, Theology
Veileder
Examiner
2009-09-142009-08-272018-01-13bibliografisk kontrollert