The Baruga dialects

The Baruga dialects are characterised by changes to the phonemes *j and *s which have resulted in alveolar sonorants. The language Doghoro, as observed very early in this study (see §1.1), is essentially a dialect of Baruga, sharing in the sound changes which define this group, and is thus incorporated in this section.43

The Baruga dialects have the reflexes j~r~n for *j. An incomplete sound change has occurred as follows:

C20: *J > n preceding syllable with nasal consonant onset (including prenasalised plosives, and plain voiced plosives following nasalised vowels) (Proto Baruga)

447 pBin *jiijgaba ‘snake’ > BBa, MBa, Dog niijgabulniijgabo, TBa nigabulmgabo

495 pBin *jimbi ‘tail’ > BBa, MBa, Dog nimbi', TBa nibi

109 pBin *jajama ‘cold’ > BBa, MBa, TBa nanemo

255 pBin *ijimb- ‘ignite, be red’ > BBa, MBa inimba, TBa iniba

526 pCstBin *ojin/a,o} ‘two days ago or hence’ > MBa, TBa onino

> r elsewhere

241 pBin *ji- ‘hold’ > BBa, TBa riyari

296 pSBin *jigi ‘louse’ > BBa, MBa, TBa, Dog riyi

431 pBin *jawa ‘sister of woman’ > MBa, TBa rao

534 pBin *jo ‘liver’ > BBa, MBa, TBa ro[va]

22 pBin * bija ‘banana’ > BBa, MBa, TBa, Dog biro

178 pBin *aju ‘fear’ > BBa, MBa, TBa uro

193 pBin * wuji ‘flower’ > BBa yuri, TBa vuri. Dog wuri

227 pBin *baj- ‘grow’ > TBa bari

482 pBin *iji ‘sun’ > MBa, Dog iri

Exception', the reflex of *j in item 130 has become n where no other nasal consonant was present; hence

uno from pBin *uja ‘desire’.

No further conditioning environment can be found to determine which particular forms should have been affected, except perhaps to say that in about half of the dozen sets in which Baruga/Doghoro retain *j as j the sound occurs before e. These are shown below, with the instances of the environment _ e in bold.

43 Three lexical differences worth noting which set Doghoro apart from the other Baruga dialects are jauro

vis-ä-vis Tafota (and all Coastal Binandere) jeuro ‘fat’ (see set 173), Doghoro yoto vis-ä-vis Bareji and Mado (and other Coastal Binandere) sato ‘bush’ (see set 203), and Doghoro eti vis-ä-vis Bareji, Mado, and Tafota esi ‘string bag' (see set 478).

63 pBin *bej- ‘break' > TBa beje

100 pBin *gaj- ‘close’ > TBa gaje. BBa, TBa gadjari

110 pNucBin *jamojamo ‘cold' > BBa, MBa, TBa jam o,jam a

173 pCstBin *jeuro ‘fat’ > TBa jeuro. Dog djauro

194 pSBin *jinonda ‘fly species’ > MBa, Dog jinonda. TBa jinöda

349 pBin *jewa ‘pandanus’ > BBa djege. Dog djeya[buru]

369 pNucBin * jeburu ‘puffer fish’ > Dog jeburu

370 pBin *jumb- ‘puli' > TBa jübu

383 pBin *jenj{e,a}gi ‘ribs’ > MBa jenjago. janjago. TBa jejago. jäjagu

406 pBin *jeje ‘sandfly’ > MBa jenjera, TBa jejera

492 pBin * {n,nd}aji ‘when? (interrogative)’ > TBa nanji[go]

541 pBin *jumi ‘wasp’ > MBa, TBa ju m i

(Note that in the first two items of this list the reflexes ending in e, beje and gaje, are the verb stem I forms (see §4.2.1). The reflex ending in -ari in the second item is the deverbal form (see §4.2.11).)

No such environment appears in the forms with the iin reflexes, which appear before any other vowel, the exception being nanemo, from 109 *jajema ‘cold', and this could be interpreted as a case of total assimilation to the preceding n.

The rule may be restated as follows:

C20: *j > tin except before e. but not applying to some eligible forms (110, 194, 370, 541)

It may be that the change began in one dialect and was not completed due to contact with the other dialects or with another language, for example Korafe; or that it was completed but was reversed in some words as a result of this contact.

Similarly, *s in the Baruga dialects has the reflexes s~r~n. An incomplete change has occurred in Proto Baruga, as follows:

C33: *s > n if another nasal consonant is present (Proto Baruga) 139 pBin *siri3 ‘dog’ > BBa, MBa, TBa, Dog nino

289 pBin *saijgV‘lizard (generic)’ > MBa, Dog naijgijro/ TBa nagijroj

256 pBin si ‘insect species’ > BBa mimini, MBa mimisi’, TBa mumuni

277 pNucBin *usasa ‘light’ > BBa, MBa, TBa unana > t elsewhere

285 pBin *sasaka ‘liquid/wet’ > MBa raraka

328 pBin *seka ‘new’ > BBa, MBa, TBa, Dog reka

116 pBin *oso ‘co-wife’ > TBa oro

362 pSBin *gisi ‘pineapple club’ > TBa yiriri(BBa, MBa yisi)

48 pBin *pus- ‘blow’ > BBa furan\ TBa purari See also:

533 pBin *asi(N) ‘vine, rope, string' 559 pBin *siwa ‘worm'

564 pBin *susu ‘urine’ 192 pBin *pisi ‘flesh’

263 pBin *kasiw3 ‘knife’ 308 pBin *sipa ‘morning’ 450 pBin *s- ‘speak'

Exception .the reflex o f *s in 277 has become n where no other nasal consonant is present; hence unana

from *usasa ‘light’. Note also that items 256 and 362 show disagreement among dialects as to whether the sound shift has applied or not.

Of the 30 sets in which Baruga/Doghoro have retained *s as half of them have the environment and the rest occur before any other vowel (in three of these sets (256, 362, 564) the dialects are divided between retention and shift of *5). These are shown below, with the instances of the environment _ / in bold.