Volume 07 Issue 01 (2019) Jan. 2019

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International Journal Advances in Social Science and Humanities Available Online at: www.ijassh.com

REVIEW ARTICLE

Segmental Phonology of Dagbani Dialects

Abdul-Razak Inusah*

University of Ghana, Legon Department of Linguistics. *Corresponding Author: E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: The paper discusses segmental phonology of Dagbani dialects-Tomosili, Nayahili and Nanunli, a Mabia language spoken in the northern part of Ghana. The paper is premised on the framework of Lexical phonology (LP) and argues that the application of phonological processes is conditioned by the morphological and phonological domains in which potential target sounds occur. It shows that the processes that lead to dialectal variation in Dagbani phonology are deletion, compounding, lengthening and shortening. It is observed that Dagbani dialects exhibit ordering of strata in their lexicon as [[[base] S1] S2] indicating that stratum 1(S1) suffixes are attached to the base while stratum 2 (S2) suffixes are attached to the form [[base] S1] as input. Based on the data available, it also examines how neutral suffixes have no phonological effect on the base to which they are attached while the non-neutral suffixes affect the segments of the base to which they are attached. It suggests that Great Vowel Shift (GVS) changes the quality of underlying vowels such as /a/ as in daʔ-ʊ ‘stick’ to a surface vowel [ɔ] as in dɔʔ-ʊ ‘stick’ and this results into dialectal variation showing vowel alternation of [a~ɔ]. It also demonstrates how GVS rules on vowel alternation triggers S1 suffixes to change [+ATR] long vowels /ee, oo, uu/ in a CV+_{stem to lax vowels [e,}_ɔ_,_ʊ_{] showing the order of [[base]S1] in complex words. The paper concludes} that among the three dialects of Dagbani, it is only Nanunli dialect that has the word-order of [S1affix [base] S1affix].

Keywords: Dagbani, Dialects, Segment, Strata, Variation.

Article Received: 01 Nov. 2018 Revised: 21 Nov. 2018 Accepted: 12 Dec. 2018

Introduction

Halle and Mohanan [1] observe that Lexical Phonology (LP) embraces the notion that lexicon consists of ordered strata (levels) and that each morphological affixation process occurs at a particular stratum (level). In English for instance, class I affixes, such as -ic as in atom-ic, -ion as in education, -ity as in divinity, are attached to stratum 1(S1) while class II affixes, such as –ness as in goodness, -hood as in manhood, are attached to stratum 2 (S2). In LP, it is noted that the rules of phonology interact with the strata of morphology in that phonological rules are assigned to specific morphological strata as their domain and a given phonological rule applies only at the stratum that is associated to it.

Mc-Mahon [2] defines Lexical Phonology as a generative derivational model that describes a set of underlying representations of morphemes which are converted to their surface forms by passing through a series of phonological rules. In LP, phonological rules are split between two components-those that

operate within the lexicon and those that apply in a post lexical. Katamba & Stonham [3] explains that the major claim made by the proponents [4] of lexical phonology or lexical morphology is that there is a symbiotic relationship between the rules that build the morphological structure of a word and the phonological rules responsible for the pronunciation of the word.

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the morphological conditioning of certain phonological processes. The word is regarded as a key item in LP and the morphological processes such as compounding, affixation, conversion, have the word as input but not the morpheme. Some Bantu languages for example, have all their word forms ending in a vowel but morphemes do not as Bantu verb

roots and verbal suffixes end in consonant. In English for example, conversion changes the word-class of a pre-existing word without any overt change in shape of the input as illustrated in (1a) while affixation processes have the root word as an input plus the rules that attach prefix re- ‘again’ and suffix –ly as in (1b)

1a:

headN ̴ headV

staffN ̴̴ staffV

narrowA ̴ narrowV

walkV ̴ walkN

1b:

open ̴ re-open write ̴ re-write play ̴ re-play slow ̴ slowly nice ̴ nicely

[3] This paper aims at providing the description of Dagbani dialects, Tomosili, Nayahili and Nanunli, within the framework of Lexical phonology (LP) put forth in Halle & Mohanan [1] Mc-Mahon [2] Katamba & Stonham [3] and Paradis [5]. It shows that the variation in the dialects are applicable in morphological and phonological basis and that the phonological processes such as deletion, compounding, lengthening and shortening lead to dialectal variation in Dagbani phonology.

It argues that Dagbani dialects exhibit ordering of strata in their lexicon reflecting the ordering of [[[base] S1] S2] indicating that the strata in the lexicon are ordered in a way that S1suffixes are closer to the base while S2 suffixes are attached to the outer layer [[base] S1]. It also argues that neutral suffixes have no phonological effect on the bases to which they are attached while non-neutral suffixes affect the segments of the base to which they are attached. It also argues that the result of Great Vowel Shift (GVS) changes the vowel quality of underlying vowels such as /a/ to surface vowels such as [ɔ] resulting into dialectal variation with the alternation of a~ɔ.

The paper demonstrates that vowel alternation triggered by S1 suffixes changes long vowels /ee, oo, uu/ in a CV+_{stem to short}

vowels [e, ɔ, ʊ] showing the order of [[base] S1]. The paper concludes that only Nanunli dialect has the word-order of [[S1affix [base] S1affix] in complex word forms. The rest of the paper discusses the data in 1, segmental

phonology of Dagbani dialects in section 2, lexical strata in section 3, phonological processes in section 4 and section 5 concludes the paper.

Data

The data for this paper were both primary and secondary; the primary data was collected as samples of natural conversations by native speakers in Tolon, Sang and Bimbila in markets and homes through focus interviews. The interview methods employed were rapid and anonymous surveys interviews and sociolinguistic interviews as by Labov [6], Milroy and Gordon [7].

To elicit the data, the rapid and anonymous surveys was used to collect the initial data (with the awareness of the participants who were earlier informed about the exercise) with a wordlist, while the sociolinguistic interview was used on one-on-one exchanges between the researcher and the participants to cross-check the initial data obtained.

The data were collected from the villages around Tolon for Tomosili and Sang for

Nayahili and the villages around Bimbila for

Nanunli. Oral interview was employed as the

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The participants from each area were five males and five females between the ages of 20 to 50 years. The secondary data were collected from the existing literature in Dagbani phonology [8-9-10-11-12].

Segmental Phonology of Dagbani

Dialects – Dagbani vowels

Inusah [13] observes that Dagbani has nine (9) short vowels [i, ɨ, u, ʊ, e, ɛ, o, ɔ, a] and five (5) long vowels [ii, aa, ee, uu, oo] taking the

three dialects, Tomosili, Nayahili and Nanunli into consideration. Six (6) of the short vowels / i, ɨ, ʊ, ɛ, ɔ, a/ are the underlying forms while three (3) are the Surface variants. These vowels which are contrastive are grouped into class one vowels and class two vowels according to the feature [±ATR] as discussed in Hudu [14]. It is observed that the Class I vowels are [+ATR] while the Class II vowels are [-ATR] as illustrated below:

Class I Class II

i i: u u: ɨ ʊ

e e: o o: ɛ ɔ

a a:

In Dagbani, both short vowels and long vowels bring about difference in meaning in Tomosili, Nayahili and Nanunli. The long vowels are usually represented by two vowels as [aa] while the short vowel is represented with a single vowel [a]. Hudu [15] notes that vowel length in Dagbani is phonemic and all

non-low long vowels are [+ATR] while the low long vowels are [-ATR]. The data in (3) show the contrast between short and long vowels:

Contrast between Short and Long Vowels [8]

3:

màn_ɨ́ ‘1.sg. emph’ máá-n_ɨ́ ‘okro-sg.’ mí-bû ‘raining’ míí-bû‘becoming sour’ fé ‘finger-V’ féé- bʊ̂ ‘scarce’ ` kpέ-bʊ̂ ‘entering’ kpéé-bʊ̂ ‘boiling’

t_ʊ̀lɨ̀ ‘hot’ tùù-lɨ́ ‘first’

The Table in (1) below shows the surface contrast among the long vowel nuclei in Dagbani dialects and presents the pronunciations based on Tomosili, Nayahili and Nanunli. The analysis is based on Hudu [15-16] and Inusah [8]. The surface vowel

[uu] in Tomosili and Nayahili is realized as [ua] in Nanunli. The underlying short vowels in the dialects are also represented in table (2) in which all the 6 underlying short vowels in Dagbani appear the same in all the three dialects.

Table 1: Dagbani Surface Vowels [8]

[+back]

[- back] [- round] [+back]

+high -low

[i] bì ‘cooked’

[ii] bìì ‘heat ’ [u] tù ‘put beads in string’ [uu] túú ‘boabab tree’ [ua] tùà ‘baobab’ Nanunli -high

-low

[e] tè ‘filter’ [ee] tèè ‘remember’

[o] gò ‘travel’ [oo] gòòí ‘stop a fight’ -high

+low

[ɛ] t_ɛ̀-má ‘filtering’

[*ɛɛ] [a] dáŋá ‘wound’ [aa] dààŋá ‘hearth’

[ɔ] t_ɔ́l_ɨ́ ‘mortar’ [*ɔɔ]

Table 2: Dagbani Underlying Short Vowels [8]

[+back]

[- back] [- round] [+back]

+high

-low bì ‘cooked’ i ɲú ‘drink’ u

-high -low

bè ‘smear’ e

ɲó ‘burn’ o -high

+low bɛ́ ‘live’ ɛ bá ‘father’ a ɲɔ̀ ‘smell’ ɔ

It is necessary to introduce vowel length

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Halle and Mohanan [1] Goldsmith [17] and Hudu [16]. Following the practice in auto segmental phonology Goldsmith [17], the phonological strings are represented in three dimensional objects which comprise core skeleton that is made up of slots whose phonological patterns are represented by distinctive features that are found in separate melody tiers linked to the slots of the skeleton. In this representation, the short vowels are linked to single skeleton slots

while the long vowels are linked to two consecutive slots. The distinctive features on the melody tier are provided by phonetic symbols and the skeleton tiers are represented by X as shown in example (4). Goldsmith [17] explains that a skeletal tier provides a representation of the length and arrangement of segments in a word, independent of particular articulator’s gestures.

4. Skeleton: X X X X X X X

Melody d a m d a *

The example in (4) shows that it is only root word with short vowels that accept consonants in a word-final position in CVC structure; X which represents skeleton slots is a phonetic symbol. The long vowels do not accept word-final consonants; so they only show contrast with short vowels in CV, CVV (CV+_{) or CVCV structure as in}_du_{‘climb’ and}

duu ‘room’. Long vowels occur before the suffix -ni in a CVV.CV syllable in all the dialects to show a word structure as seen in (5) below. Short vowels and long vowels do not contrast in CVC structure in Nanunli due to dialectal variations. For instance dám ‘alcohol’ in Tomosili and Nayahili may be pronounced as dáám in Nanunli.

5.

dáá-nì ‘market’

púú-nì ‘inside’

góó-nì ‘fence’

béé-nì ‘shin’

It is noted that Halle and Mohanan [1] do not distinguish timing slots linked to vowels from those linked to consonants. It is observed that long vowels in Dagbani are redundantly [+ATR] (e.g. dúú ‘room’; dóó ‘man’) where

short vowels are lax monothongs [-ATR] (e.g. dám ‘alcohol’; dém ‘play’). The following rule accounts for the redundant [+ATR] long vowel in Dagbani:

6. Long Vowel [+ATR] Rime

X X

[-cons] → [+ATR] /____[- cons]

As shown in (6), a [-ATR] long vowel becomes a [+ATR] short (or lax) vowel and does not permit a consonant at word final. It must be noted that in Dagbani, it is not all the underlying short vowels that are lax. For example /i/ and /u/ are both [+ATR]. Halle and Mohanon [1] explains that Bloomfield draws the attention that many GA dialects exhibit the contrast between the vowels /ɔ/ in bomb and [a] in balm noting that the lax [a] is derived from the underlying /ɔ/.

This opens up the discussion to vowel alternation in Dagbani dialects.

Vowel Alternation

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particular vowels are pronounced. Dagbani dialects exhibit the contrast between the vowels in d_ɔ́h_ɨ́m ‘birth’ and dáh_ɨ́m ‘try-perf’. This is noted to be a contrast between the

retracted vowel [a] and the advanced vowel [at]. The retracted (Lax) [a] is derived from

underlying short vowel /ɔ/ as shown by alternations illustrated in (7) below:

7.

a ~ ɔ

d_ɔ̀ʔʊ́ ‘stick’ ~ dáʔ-s_ɨ́ ‘deliver.N’ k_ɔ̀l_ɨ́ ‘sweep-perf’ ~ kál-b_ʊ́ ‘sweep-N’ w_ɔ̀lg_ɨ́ ‘separate’ ~ wálg_ɨ̀-rá ‘separate-imperf.’

In (7), the unsuffixed base in column one show the underlying vowel in Tomosil to be /ɔ / with the features [+low, +back] while the suffixed base in column two show the surface which is heard in Nayahili and Nanunli. The dialects of Dagbani show vowel alternation between the surface [a] and the underlying

vowel /ɔ/ between stems due to dialectal variation. For instance, the dialects exhibit the alternation between d_ɔ̀_ʔʊ́ ‘stick’ and dá_ʔʊ́ ‘stick’ which do not contrast and where the surface [a] is derived from the underlying vowel /ɔ/. This is shown in the vowel alternations [a ~ ɔ] illustrated in (8) below:

8.

ɔ~ a

Tomosili Nayahili Nanunli Gloss

l_ɔ̀r_ɨ́g_ɨ́ làr_ɨ́g_ɨ́ làr_ɨ́g_ɨ́ ‘untie’

v_ɔ́ʔʊ̀ va_́ʔʊ́ váh_ʊ̀ ‘leaf’

d_ɔ́ʔʊ́ da_́ʔʊ́ dáhú ‘stick’

b_ɔ̀h_ɨ̀m bàh_ɨ̀m bàh_ɨ̀m ‘learn’

k_ɔ̀ʔʊ́ ká_ʔʊ́ káh_ʊ́ ‘antelop’

The data in (8) show that the unsuffixed root word in Tomosili is /ɔ/ with the feature [+low, +back, + round] that undergoes vowel shift and surfaces as a monothong [a] in Nayahili

and Nanunli. The underlying vowel /ɔ/ in Tomosili which surfaces as [a] in the roots in Nayahili and Nanunli obeys the unrounding rule formulated in example (9).

9. ɔ- Unrounding +low

+back → [-round] / —

+back X

R

The ɔ-Unrounding rule is interpreted as /ɔ/ with the feature [+round] surfacing as [a] with the feature [-round] before a preceding consonant. In order to account for the fact that long vowels in words like báá-nì ‘stream’, dáá-bù ‘push-N’, dáá-ní ‘market’ which are phonetically [+ATR], there is the need to formulate a rule where /a/ applies before ɔ-rounding but which does not affect

the underlying short /ɔ/. The dialects also exhibit the alternation of a~o due to dialectal variation as illustrated in (10) below. It shows that [a] which is derived from the underlying vowel /ɔ / in Tomosili also occurs in Nayahili and Nanunli in the same environment as /o/ where /a/ applies before ɔ -Unrounding as shown in the data below:

10.

a ~ o

Tomosili Nayahili Nanunli Gloss

dàb-l_ɨ́m dòb-l_ɨ́m dòb-l_ɨ́m ‘bravery' sàkól-ô sòkól-ô sòkól-ô ‘fufu’

gár-ó gór-ó gór-ó ‘bed’

zàb_ɨ́r_ɨ́ zòb_ɨ́r_ɨ́ ʤòb_ɨ́r_ɨ́ ‘hair’

pàl-ó pòl-ó pòl-ó ‘plot’

sál-ô sól-ô sól-ô ‘crowd’

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The data show that the stem in Tomosili has the short vowel underlying short vowel /a/ with the features [- high, +back, -round] that undergoes vowel shift and surfaces as [o]. In

the stems in Nayahili and Nanunli, the root vowel surfaces as [o] obeying a-Rounding in the other dialects as in example (11):

11. A-Rounding

-back

+low → [+round] / —

-round X

R

The rule in (11) shows that the underlying /a/ can become [ɔ] before ɔ-Unrounding and indicates that apart from /a/ occurring in Nayahili and Nanunli after it occurs in Tomosili as well in the same environment as [o] in the other dialects. In Dagbani dialects, the short vowel [o] is said to be lowered when it occurs in Nayahili and Nanunli to realise the form in Tomosili. In all the dialects, [o] lowering yields the right surfaces of Dagbani

vowels as shown in (12). Apart from the dialectal variation where the form in Tomosili seems to be the underlying forms, the o-lowering shows the evidence of /a/ as the underlying form in the language since in both dialects in certain linguistic environments [a] and [ɔ] are contrastive phonemes and neutralizes in certain environment to show dialectal variations.

12. O-Lowering +high

+back → [- low] / — + Round X R

In the rule in (12) the high vowel /o/ in Nayahili and Nanunli in certain environments is lowered before a voiced consonant to yield the surface low vowel [ɔ] that occurs in Tomosili in the same

13.

environment. Applying the rules in (9), (11) and (12) by following the ordering ɔ- Unrounding after a-Rounding before o- Lowering, the following derivations are realized as in.

d_ɔ́ʔʊ́ dàbl_ɨ́m gór-ó Rules ɔ a o Underlying - o - a-Rounding a - - ɔ- Unrounding - - ɔ o- Lowering

It is observed from (13) that Dagbani makes use of ɔ-Unrounding, a-Rounding and o-Lowering and the derivation stops after a-rounding. It is also noted tha d_ɔ̀_ʔʊ́ ‘stick’ and dá_ʔʊ́ ‘stick’ do not contrast due to dialectal variation, so the ordering of ɔ-Unrounding is ordered before a-Rounding.

14.

The o-Lowering rule in (12) shows evidence of contrast between /a/ and /ɔ/. The stem surfacing with [ɔ] has the underlying short /a/ as in (14) while the stem surfacing with [o]

has the underlying /a/. This shows the alternation of /ɔ~a/, /a~ɔ/ and /o~a/ in all the dialects.

a ~ ɔ

Tomosili Nayahili Nanunli Gloss

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dábl_ɨ́m d_ɔ́bl_ɨ́m d_ɔ́bl_ɨ́m ‘bravery’ záb_ɨ́r_ɨ́ z_ɔ́b_ɨ́r_ɨ́ _ʤɔ̀b_ɨ́r_ɨ́ ‘hair’

sábl_ɨ́ s_ɔ́bl_ɨ́ s_ɔ́bl_ɨ́ ‘rat’

Similarly, in (14), it is clear that Tomosili prefers /a/ before voiced consonants /r, b/ while Nayahili and Nanunli pronounce /ɔ/ in the same linguistic environment. /a/ in this context can thus be pronounced in a variety of [ɔ] or [o] depending on the dialect. Dagbani dialects may have /a/ occurring as both [+ATR] in CV syllables and [-ATR] in CVC syllables. Dakubu [19] observes that [æ] as a dialectal variant occurs after palatalised consonants only in Tomosili dialect and a variant of [ɛ] in the Nayahili dialect, but the question whether [æ] actually occurs as a variant of [ɛ] especially in any of the dialects is not addressed. In all the dialects, [a] appears at word-final in CV since voiceless stops do not occur at the word-final position

of a CVC syllable in the language but the [-ATR] [a] does appear before the coda of a CVC syllable with the feature [+nasal] since the nasals mostly occur at the coda of a close syllable. Olawsky [12] notes “For [a], the contrast [+/-ATR] is neutralised. It has an exceptional status, since it is very frequent in suffixes: it occurs in all number classes, as a suffix by itself or part of it (singular suffixes /-a/ (cl.2), /-ga/); plural suffixes /-a/ (cl.1), /-ba/ (cl.2), /-a/ (cl.5), /(N)a/ (cl.5))” “In languages with a dominant [+ATR] harmony, /a/ is often the only vowel claimed to be opaque to the spread of [+ATR] feature”. He explains that Dagbani /a/ undergoes [+ATR] harmony in harmonic context. This is illustrated in (15) below:

15.

[+ATR] [-ATR]

dá-á ‘market’ dám ‘alcohol’ bí-à ‘child.sg’ dáŋ ‘clan’

ʒí-á ‘settlement’ zám ‘measure’ mí-á ‘rope’ mám ‘girlfriend’ tí-á ‘tree.sg’ tám ‘stand on’

In a CVC word [a] occurs in all the dialects as a variant of [ɔ] but not [ɛ] in Nayahili dialect as mentioned by Dakubu [18]. The rule in (11) accounts for the data in (15) in all the dialects. The rule shows that /a/ is [-ATR] before a coda consonant in a CVC close syllable. C in the rule is a coda consonant with the features [+ voiced, + nasal,]. It is observed that Dagbani vowels are underlying specified for [ATR] as well as for length as observed by about English vowels.

Lexical Strata

Lexical strata are the levels or layers from

which phonological rules found in a lexicon are organized hierarchically in blocks. Central to LP is the principle that the lexicon is hierarchically organized by the strata that are defined on the basis of the properties of affixes [3]. The English affixes on the basis of their phonological behavior are classified into neutral and non-neutral types. In Dagbani, the neutral affixes have no phonological effects on the base to which they are attached as in (16) while the non-neutral affixes in one way or the other have some effects on the segments of the base to which they are attached to as illustrated in (18).

16.

Neutral affixes - lana

jí-lì ‘house’ → jílì-lana ‘landlord’ páʔ-à ‘woman’ → páʔà-lana ‘husband’ lóóri ‘vehicle’ → lóóri-lana ‘car owner’ kõm ‘water’ → kõm-lana ‘chief’s last wife’ dãm ‘alcohol’ → dãm-lana ‘pito seller’ sáhìm ‘TZ ’ → sáhìm-lana ‘TZ seller’

The data in (16) show an example of a neutral suffix –Lana attached to root forms to form new words and it is clearly seen that the suffix lana is a neutral affix since it does not phonological affects the bases to which it is

Att*ached. Similarly, Inusah [8] observes that a CV stem words occurs fully with the neutral suffix -nima in plural formation without a single change in sound as presented below:

17.

Neutral affixes – nima

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bà bà-n_ɨ́má ‘fathers’

mà mà-n_ɨ́má ‘mothers’

àfá àfá-n_ɨ́má ‘malams’ dárá dàrá-n_ɨ́má ‘drafts’ tàkárá takà ́rá-n_ɨ́má ‘papers’

fárá fárá-n_ɨ́má ‘poor people’ sárá sárá-n_ɨ́má ‘tobacco’ zárá zárá-n_ɨ́má ‘zara and co’ nàsárá nasà ́rá-n_ɨ́má ‘successes’ márá márá-nɨmà ‘rules’

18.

Non-neutral affixes - hi

Column 1 Column 2 Gloss

tú-á t_ʊ́hɨ ‘baobabs’

ʃí-á _ʃɨ́h_ɨ́ ‘bees’

mì-á m_ɨ̀h_ɨ́ ‘ropes’

tí-á t_ɨ́h_ɨ́ ‘trees’

bí-á b_ɨ́h_ɨ́ ‘children’

sú-á s_ʊ́h_ɨ́ ‘knives’

The data in (18) present root nouns that are attached with the non-neutral suffix –hi which affects the root phonologically by replacing the number marker /a/ with a plural marker -hi to form the plural forms in Dagbani. The data show an example of non-neutral suffix –hi substituting the final V in the stem CV+ _{in polarization indicating how}

the stem is affected when the non-neutral affix is attached to it. The phonological effect is that the patterns of sounds in the CVV syllable in the input changes to CV syllable

in the base of the output form. Katamba & Stonham [3] notes that non-neutral suffixes also tend to trigger changes on the shape of the base to which they are attached. This in English, non-neutral suffix –ic induces the replacement of the vowel [ǝʊ] of cone ['kǝʊn] with [ɔ] in comic ['kɔnik]. An example of this is nasal place assimilation in Dagbani which is obligatory within wordhood and optional across words as illustrated in (19) in Dagbani dialects.

19.

Root.sg Tomosili Nayahili Nanunli Gloss t_ɨ́ŋ-á t_ɨ́n-s_ɨ́ t_ɨ́n-s_ɨ́ t_ɨ́n-s_ɨ́ ‘towns’ l_ʊ́ŋ-á l_ʊ̀n-s_ɨ́ l_ʊ̀n-s_ɨ́ l_ʊ̀n-s_́ɨ́ ‘drums’ báŋ-á bán-s_ɨ́ báns_ɨ́ bán-s_ɨ́ ‘bracelets’

sɨŋ-á s_ɨ́n-s_ɨ́ s_ɨ́n-s_ɨ́ s_ɨ́n-s_ɨ́ ‘pots’ k_ɔ̀ŋ-á k_ɔ̀n-s_ɨ́ k_ɔ̀n-s_ɨ́ k_ɔ̀n-s_ɨ́ ‘lepers’

The data show nasal place assimilation where /ŋ/ becomes [n] in the environment of /s/. The non-neutral suffix –si tend to trigger the changes on the shape of the base by

replacing the segment /ŋ/ with [n] in the surface form. Following the Sound Pattern of English (SPE) by Chomsky and distinctive features, this is formulated as:

[+nasal] → [α place] / — [α place]

This rule is interpreted as a nasal /ŋ/ becomes [n] before a preceding consonant in which both [n] and that consonant occur in the same place of articulation. This rule generalizes all the homorganic nasal assimilations in Dagbani. The rule also show an example of nasal segmental deletion that applies to the edge of a word target and an example of the germination of obstruent’s which applies at the junction between two

stems in a sub compound where the second stem is Dravidian [19]. Katamba & Stonham [3] notes that the distinction between non-neutral affixes (associated with + boundary in SPE) and neutral affixes (associated with # boundary) corresponds roughly to the more traditional distinction between primary and secondary affixes.

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Primary Secondary

+ Boundary # boundary Non-neutral Neutral

Larinate Germanic Weak

Derivation in Lexical Phonology

It is observed that the ordering of strata in the lexicon reflects the ordering of word-formation processes. Primary affixes which are phonological non-neutral are attached first to sratum 1 but the process of compounding, as well as the attachment of secondary affixes, which are phonological neutral, ocurse in sratum 2 [3] . This implies

that in the lexicon, stratum 1 attaches to the base to which non-neutral affixes are attached as in (21b). Thus stratum 2 attaches the base plus S1 affixes as its underlying form as in (21c). A neutral consequence of assuming that the strata in lexicon are ordered in this way is that S1 affixes are closer to the base of the word and the neutral affixes of S2 are added an outer layer.

21a. [base]

b. [S1 affix [base] S1 affix]

c. [ S2 affix [ S1 affix [base] S1 affix ] S2 affix] 22. [3]

a. [jílì]

b. [Ø [jílì] Lana]

c. [Ø [Ø [jílì] Lana] ba] 23.[jílì]

a. [N [jílì] lana ]

b. [Ø [n [jílì] Lana] ba] Nanunli

The ordering in (22) is common in Tomosili and Nayahili dialects where the suffix –lana is attached to the base jílì without a phonological change in the base in the out-put jílì-lana in (22b) and the attachment of the suffix –ba to the jílì-lana ‘landlord as input to form the out-put jílì-lam-ba’ landlords’ in (22c) where the base is affected by the attachment of the nonneutral suffix -ba. The segment /n/ in the underlying input

changes to [m] in the out-put surface form before the suffix –ba which triggers the changes of the shape of the base. The symbol Ø indicates that both S1affixes and S2 affixes are not permissible in the two dialects but in (23a) and (23b) there is the evidence of S1 prefix which is the nasal [n] permissible in the Nanunli dialect which also permits S2 prefix. This again is illustrated in (24) below with the derivational suffixes –lana and –ba 24.

[Base] [[Base] S1]

páʔ-à ‘woman’ páʔà-lana ‘husband’ lóóri ‘vehicle’ lóóri-lana ‘car owner’ kõm ‘water’ kõm-lana ‘chief’s last wife’

dãm ‘alcohol’ dãm-lana ‘pito seller’

[[[base] S1] S2] [[[base] S2] S1

páʔ-lam-ba ‘husbands’ *páʔà-ba-lana ‘husband’ lóóri-lam-ba ‘vehicle owners’ *lóóri-ba-lana ‘car owner’ kõm-lam-ba ‘chief’s last wives’ * kõm-ba-lana ‘chief’s last wives’ dãm-lam-ba ‘alcohol owners’ * dãm-ba-lana ‘pito owners’

The data above show that the idea of S1 non-neutral suffixes closer to the base while S2 neutral suffixes attach to the base plus S1

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phonologically affecting the base and the S2 non-neutral suffixes attach to the base plus S1as the input to yield an out-put where the base is phonologically affected as in (13c). It is also shown in the data that Dagbani permits the word order of [[[base] S1] S2] but the does not permit the word order [[[base] S2] S1] as seen in (3d).

Phonological Processes that Result in Dialectal Variations in LP

This section examines the description some phonological processes that are characteristic of Dagbani dialects. It gives account of the phonological processes which account for the differences in the distribution of sounds in Dagbani dialects –Tomosili, Nayahili and Nanunli and looks at the application of phonological processes conditioned by the morphological and phonological domains. There are some differences between the pronunciation of a word in isolation and of the same word in connected speech, but the changes which take place are mostly quite

regular and predictable in showing dialectal variation [8]. The major processes discussed in this paper are the deletion, lengthening and shortening.

Deletion

Deletion is one of the commonest processes of sound reduction which is a common speech phenomenon found in natural languages. Here a phonemic feature or segment is deleted as a result of some external phonological processes. The most common instances of feature deletion in English are vowel reduction. Hudu [10] explains that lateral deletion applies in a number of contexts in Dagbani as a means of blocking adjacent coronal consonants noting that whether dissimilation occurs or not, it depends on the morphological category in which the lateral consonant occurs. In one context, a nominal/adjectival root-final /l/ is deleted when followed by a non-neutral suffix with initial /j/.

25. Deletion of /l/ in nominal roots [10]

UR Singular Plural Gloss

jíl jíl-ɨ̂ jí-jâ ‘house’

gál gál-_ɨ́ gá-já ‘thread’

ɡbál ɡbál-_ɨ́ ɡbá-jâ ‘legs’

g_ɔ́l g_ɔ́l-ɨ̂ g_ɔ́-jâ ‘moon’

ɲɛ̀v_ɨ́l _ɲɛ̀v_ɨ́l-ɨ̂ _ɲɛ̀v_ɨ́-jâ ‘soul’ kàl kàl-ɨ̂ kà-jâ ‘traditions’ dàg_ʊ́l dàg_ʊ́l-_ɨ́ dàg_ʊ́-já ‘merchandise’

The data in (25) show lateral deletion in Tomosili, Nayahili and Nanunli dialects which occurs when the non-neutral suffix –ja is attached to the root with /l/ at word final.

This phonological process occurs in all the Dagbani dialects. This variation can also be represented in the realization rule in (26)

26. +ant.

+cont. → Ø / — j +nas.

[8]

The rule in (26) show lateral deletion in Tomosili, Nayahili and Nanunli dialects where /l/ with the features [+ant, +cont, +nas.] becomes [j] with the features [ant, -cont, -nas].

Shortening- Great Vowel Shift (GVS) GVS is a drastic upheaval in pronunciation of long vowels; it was first used during the era of the late Middle English through the modern English era and later English.

The main tenant of GVS is the principle of the long vowels changing their qualities that results in shorning. This occurs as a result of non-high long vowels raised and assumed the quality of the vowel immediately above them. For example, the high vowels /i:/ and /u:/ became the diphthongs [ei] and [oʊ] in the 16th_{century and later changed to [ei] and [}_əʊ_]

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Late Middle English Early Modern English Later English

/a: / as in spade → /ӕ:/ ˃ /ɛ:/ → /e:/, /ei/ /e: / as in dẽd → /i:/ → /i:/ /ɛ: / as in greet → /e:/ → /ei/

[3]

In the English data in (27), the macron over the vowel /ẽ/ as in [dẽd] is interpreted as long vowel. The result of the GVS in vowel alternations is triggered by the stratum 1 suffixes which causes trisyllabic laxing. This rule has its roots in GVS which rule changes

a tense vowel (long vowel or diphthong) in a stem to a lax vowel (short vowel). For example in Dagbani, this occurs when the target long vowel in two of the dialects (Tomosili and Nayhili) changes into a short a vowel in Nanunli as in (28).

28.

Tomosili Nayahili Nanunli Gloss

pùù-ní puù ̀-ní pʊ́nɨ́ ‘farm’

dùù-ni dùù-ní dʊ́nɨ́ ‘room’

nùù-ní nuù ̀-ní nʊ́nɨ́ ‘hand’

wùù-ní Wùù-ni wʊ́nɨ́ ‘dry season’

The data show the change of long vowel /uu/ in the underlying forms with a CV+._Syllable

in Tomosili and Nayahili which shortens to a surfface short vowel [ʊ] in Nanunli when the suffix -ni is attached to the CV+ _{root resulting}

to a dialectal variation by preserving the GVS rule in the language. GVS rule prohibit long vowels from occurring in closed syllables in roots as seen in the data. The shortening

occurs because the syllabification rules can license only a single V-position (or mora) of an underlying long vowel when it occurs in a closed syllable in Nanunli. This can also occur when a non-neutral S1 suffix is attached to a CV+ _{(CVV) base; the long vowel}

is shortened due to the attachment as illustrated below:.

29.

Column 1 Column 2 Gloss

dáá dáh_ɨ́ ‘markets’

báá báh_ɨ́ ‘dogs’

néé n_ɛ́h_ɨ́ ‘type of trees’

déé d_ɛ́hí ‘bush pigs’

gbéé gb_ɛ́h_ɨ́ ‘hoes

zóó z_ɔ́hɨ ‘flies’

nóó n_ɔ́h_ɨ́ ‘fowls’

sóó s_ɔ́hɨ ‘frogs’

Lengthening- Stem-Final Advancement (SFA) & Stem-Final Lengthening (SFL) Stem-Final Advancement (SFA)

Stem-Final Advancement (SFA) determines word-final vowels as tense (advanced) while word-medial vowels are lax. The tense and lax correspond to the traditional feature of voicing. Tense refers to voiceless phoneme that is described as a speech sound produced with muscular effort with relative long in duration displaying a long sound interval and accurate in articulation.

Tense sounds require more energy because they do not have the voice to separate them. Chomsky and used tense/lax to distinguish long vowels from short vowels. For instance, in some English dialects, the word-final vowel in ‘city’ [siti] is tense, whereas the word-medial vowel is lax. Again, the tense short vowel in cities [sitiz] contrast with the tense long vowel in theses [θi:si:z]. Using this notation, the Stem-Final Tensing (SFT) rule in English is written as follows:

30.

Stem-final Tensing V

-low → [+high] / —C

X X

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The rule in (30) shows that a non-low vowel (V) becomes a long vowel in a word-final after a suffix is attached to the root. Based on this rule, a low vowel /u/ in CV root in Dagbani

changes to a long vowel [uu] when a suffix – ni is attached to the root resulting into a CVV base in the output form as in (31).

31.

base Tomosili Nayaɣili Nanunli Gloss

dú dúú-nì dúú-nì dún_ɨ́ ‘market’

pú púú-nì púú-nì p_ʊ́n_ɨ́ ‘farm’

nú núú-nì núú-nì n_ʊ́n_ɨ́ ‘hand’

wú wúú-nì wúú-nì w_ʊ́n_ɨ́ ‘hit.perf’

In Dagbani, the equivalent of tense and lax vowel features is [+ATR] (advanced vowels) and [-ATR] (non-advanced vowels). The relevant feature in Dagbani is advancement and not tensing when the process of Stem-Final Tensing (SFT) is applied to Dagbani. So in Dagbani, Stem-final advancement is preferred to Stem-final tensing where the terms “advanced” and “retracted” are used in place of “tense” and “lax” respectively. The

non-low vowels [i,u,e,o] in Dagbani are [+ATR] variants which surface in CV words where the low vowels [ɨ,ʊ,ɔ,ɛ] are [-ATR] vowels that surface in CVC words and all non-final positions outside harmonic contexts where their [+ATR] variants do not occur . In this regards, the advanced vowels are [+ATR] while the retracted vowels are [-ATR] as presented below:

32

Tense [+ATR] Lax [-ATR]

tì ‘give’ tɨm ‘send’

dì ‘eat’ d_ɨ̀m ‘bite’

tú ‘inult’ t_ʊ̀m ‘work’

dú ‘climb’ dʊ̂ŋ ‘enmity’

té ‘filter.V’ t_ɛ́m-lɨ̂ ‘filter it’

pé ‘milk.V’ p_ɛ́m ‘bow’

tò ‘pound’ t_ɔ́m ‘bitter’

*gò ‘travel.V’ g_ɔ̀m ‘sleep.nom’

A study of the dialects of Dagbani conducted using the Stem-Final Advancing (SFA), it is noticed that the SFA receives four distinct

dialectal treatments. The main findings are summarized in the table below:

Table 3: Dialectal Variations in Stem-Final Advancing

Environment E.g. Underlying Dialect Gloss

Tomo Naya Nan

Word final bì i i i i ‘ripe’

Before inflection bì-h_ɨ́ i ɨ ɨ ɨ ‘children’ Stem-final compounds bì-s_ɔ́ŋ i ɨ ɨ ɨ ‘goodchild before– bi-a, - lana’ bì-lána i ɨ ɨ ɨ ‘mother’

[1]

It is observed from Table 3 that all the forms in Tomosili, Nayahili and Nanunli dialects are subjected to all the rules where compounds occur at S2 with non-neutral suffixes - s_ɔ́ŋ and –lana. This rule shows a condition that if word-final vowel is [+low], then SFA rule will be violated in all the

dialects but if word-final is [-low], then SFA rule is possible in all the dialects. The example in table 3 can be illustrated by using the SPE theory of boundaries which may not account for the fats in the dialect since they do not show variation in (33b) and (33d). This is represented in (33) below:

33.a. bì ‘ripe’ ##bi## b. bɨ́-ja ‘riped’ ## bí # ja ##

c. bɨ́-sɔŋ ‘goodchild’ ## bí##sɔŋ## d. bii-lana ‘mother’ ## bíí # lana##

The data above show that in (33b) and (33d) do not show difference in inflectional suffixes associated with the # boundary. However, it

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derivational suffixes. This implies that SPE boundaries failed to account for the appropriate distinctions between them. Again, the data shows that the suffix -lana is attached to the root bi-a ‘child’; so the two morphemes forming the complex morpheme

bii-lana ‘mother’ are treated as two lexical

morphemes without references to the fact that they are next to each other. This is illustrated in (34) below where the external brackets of the word are omitted to introduce extra space between the morphemes.

34. [Bi-a] ‘Child’ [lana] ‘-suffix’

The phonological rule that applies to the two morphemes in (34) is deletion. The first step is the attachment of the suffix –lana to the

root bi-a to creates the stem morpheme bii-lana ‘mother’ as illustrated in (35).

35. [[bi-a] [-lana]] → [[base] [S1]]

The process at which the suffix -lana is attached to the stem bi-a to form the complex morpheme bii-lana is seen in (36) after applying vowel deletion rule. The brackets delimiting the two constituents of the complex morpheme can be erased by using the convention Bracket Erasure Convention (BEC). So the word will appear as

demonstrated in (37) where the final vowel in the base /i/ changes to [ii] in the output. “BEC” is the convention responsible for modification by erasing the internal brackets at the end of a complex morpheme after the application of the phonological rule of deletion.

36. [bii-lana]

 *[bi-lana]

The lengthening of the final vowel in the CV base in the input after the suffix is attached is obligatory because it must yied a long vowel in the output otherwise it becomes ungrammatical in any of the dialects and also violate SFT rule in (30).

Lentening- Stem-Final Lengthening

(SFL)

Tomosili and Nayahili dialects show special features of Stem-final lengthening with advancement contrast in Nanunli dialect. It is predicted that in Tomosili and Nayahili dialects, a rule of stem final lengthening 37.

applies in which stem final vowels are lengthened. Olawsky (1999) explains that the distinction between long and short vowels is of phonological significance in Dagbani and minimal pairs differing from each other just by the feature of vowel length can be found for all vowels as seen in (37). Stem-final lengthening may be the cases of vowel lengthening or compensatory lengthening which occur when two vowels V1 and V2 of

different words are adjacent and the first vowel in the stem is unstressed as illustrated below.

Compensatory lengthening

a. záŋ tì ó → záŋ tó:

take.perf give.perf him ‘give it to him’

b. nì ó káná → nó: káná

‘that’ him come. perf ‘that he has come’

c. nì ákárm-á → na: kármá

that’ ‘drummer’ ‘and drummer’

d. bíh_ɨ́ á-tà → bìh-á:tá

‘child.pl ’‘three’ ‘three children’

The data show vowel lengthening that is based on the fact that V1 in ti in (37a) is

deleted in this context and therefore loses its place features making V2 in [o] to become

[+long]. Also [a] can be subject to this alternation as seen in (37c-d). It must be noted that even though the lengthening is

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The process of stem-final lengthening is

represented in example (38) as follows: 38. Spreading of ‘o’ and Deletion of ‘i’

C V V C V V C V V C V V

→ → →

t i o t i o t o t o

In Example (38) (/ti/ + /o/), V1 is completely

delated and the feature spreads to V2 to fill

the empty slot created by the deletion of the segment /i/. The result is a long vowel [o:] which has the features of V2. The formular

shows compensatory lengthening by spreading /o/ (dotted line) before the final output where /o/ undergoes lengthening

across phrase boundaries. It shows that /i/ in ti is first delated and ten spreads to /o/ so that the vowel is lengthened in word-final position in Dagbani. The Stem-final lengthening is formulated as follows:

X X X

→ C —

/+syll/ [+long]

In the rule above, X is a phonetic symbol representing a vowel in a root final that is lengthened by occurring after a consonant (C__) when certain conditions are met. The rule in (39) works for Tomosili, Nayahili and Nanunli. In order to account for the fact that in Nanunli, /n/ before a verb is likly in the dialects, it will be assumed that in all the dialects, all verbs are subjected to Stem-final lengthening.

Conclusion

The paper discussed segmental phonology of Dagbani dialects and argued that the

application of phonological processes is conditioned by the morphological and phonological domains in which potential target sounds occur. It demonstrated that all non-low long vowels [ii, ee, oo, uu] are [+ATR] while the low long vowel [aa] are [-ATR]. The long vowels in Dagbani are [+ATR] between consonants C_____C and show lengthening as in pììjá ‘choose’, tùùl_ɨ́ ‘first’, ɡòòn_ɨ́ ‘fence’ where short vowels are [-ATR] in the same environment as in p_ɨ̀já ‘bury’, t_ʊ̀l_ɨ̀ ‘hot’, ɡɔ̀n_ɨ́‘expert’ and do not show lengthening. This formulated as a rule as follows:

4. [+long] → [+ ATR] / C_____C

The rule in (40) shows that a long vowel becomes [+ATR] when it occurs between two consonants. It is noted that not all the underlying short vowels in Dagbani dialects are [-ATR] for example /i/ and /u/ are both [+ATR]. It showed that in Dagbani, the neutral affixes have no phonological effects to the base to which they are attached while the non-neutral affixes on the other hand have some effects on the segments of the base to which they are attached as the affixes triggers changes on the shape of the base. In word ordering, S1 neutral suffixes are closer to the base without phonologically affecting the base and the S2 non-neutral suffixes attach to the base plus S1as the input to yield an out-put where the base is phonologically affected. It revealed that Dagbani permits the word order of [[[base] S1] S2] but the does not permit the word

order [[[base] S2] S1] where S2 surfix is closer to the base and that only the Nanunli dailects permits the order with /n/ prefix showing the order of [ S1 [base] S1] S2].

The major phonological processes employed in this paper to explain Dagbani dialectal variations were deletion shortening and lengthening. It demonstrated lateral deletion in Tomosili, Nayahili and Nanunli dialects which occur when a non-neutral suffix –ja is attached to the root with a lateral /l/ at word final. GVS which has the principle that when a non-low long vowel change their qualities, it results in shortening. This occurs as a result of non-high long vowels such as /uu/ as

in púú.nì ‘farm’ as the underlying forms with

a CV+._{Syllable in Tomosili and Nayahili is}

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attached to the CV+ _{root. Again lengthening}

is discussed using stem-final advancement (SFA) and Stem-final lengthnig (SFL).

The SFA determines word-final vowels as advance (tense) while word-medial vowels are lax. The learning in SFA is the process at which where the suffix -lana is attached to the stem bi-a ‘child’ to form the complex morpheme bii-lana. In this, the vowel /i/ in the CV root is lengthened after the suffix is attached. The Stem-final lengthening (SFL) on the other hand showed the cases of vowel lengthening or compensatory lengthening which occur when two vowels V1 and V2 of

different words are adjacent and the first vowel in the stem is unstressed (low tone). It observed that though the lengthening is found in all the dialects, the lengthening is normal in Tomosili and Nayahili dialects in all phrases while in Nanunli an alveolar nasal /n/ is inserted phrase-internally before a verb showing evidence of vowel lengthening

as a result of dialectal variation. It is observed that dɔʔʊ and daʔʊ do not contrast in Dagbani due to dialectal variation; thus the ordering of the rules ɔ-Unrounding before a-Rounding.

The o-Lowering rule showed evidence of contrast between /a/ and /ɔ/ as phonemes in the language. The stem surfacing with [ɔ] has the underlying short vowel /a / while the stem surfacing with [o] also have the underlying /a/ which showed the alternation of ɔ~ a in dɔʔʊ and daʔʊ‘stick’; a ~ɔ kalɨ and kɔlɨ ‘sweep’ and o~a in palo and polo ‘plot’ showing dialectal variation between the dialects. It also demonstrated the alternation of long vowel /ee, oo, uu/ in a CV+_{stem that}

become a short vowel [ɛ, ɔ, ʊ] in the plural form. The paper showed that adequacy of some of the features may be judged from speakers’ behavior in language acquisition and dialectal variation.

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