Dschang Syllable Structure--论文代写范文精选

一旦理解音节结构，可以解释各种必要的施工节段出现的现象。这一章的结构如下。关于节段库存和概述语言的基本分布情况,包括一系列节段交替变化的讨论。用这个背景我们应当准备好继续音节的结构。下面的essay代写范文进行研究。

Introduction 
Dschang is one of about ten Bamileke languages,1 spoken by over 300,000 people in Cameroon (Grimes 1988). The considerable interest in the language has focussed almost solely on tone, stemming from work by Hyman & Tadadjeu (1976). However, the language is also interesting for its syllable structure. The purpose of this chapter is to give a detailed description of the syllable in Dschang and show how syllable structure aids the understanding of a diverse range of diachronic, phonotactic and morphophonemic evidence. A striking property of Dschang syllables is aspiration, which can accompany most segments (including voiced stops) and which, I shall argue, does not occupy a position in the syllable onset. Aspiration behaves in a curious way in the morphophonology of the language, as illustrated in (1). As an aid to the reader, verb roots have been underlined.2

In order to address such questions we shall first study the phonotactics of the language, using synchronic and diachronic evidence to construct a model of the syllable. Once syllable structure is understood it will be possible to explain a variety of segmental phenomena that arise in the imperative construction. This chapter is structured as follows. In x2 I present the segmental inventory and give an overview of the basic distributional facts of the language, including a discussion of a range of segmental alternations. With this background we shall be ready to move on to the structure of the syllable, first with the rhyme in x3 and then the onset x4. Next I demonstrate in x5 how, equipped with an understanding of syllable structure, we can understand the interesting morphophonological behaviour that appears in the imperative construction. Loanword phonology is considered in x6. Finally, the major proposals of previous sections are harmonised in x7.

Segmental Inventory 
This section will give an overview of the inventory of vowels and consonants, along with some of the phonologically conditioned segmental alternations which affect them. Not all of these segments are phonemes, and one aim of this article will be to explain some of the alternations and distributional asymmetries in terms of syllable structure. The only consonant clusters which occur have the form (N)C(G)(h) where N is a homorganic nasal and G is a glide, or have the form (N)OL, where O is an obstruent and L is a liquid, as is characteristic of Niger-Congo languages in general (Maddieson 1981:89). Some complex articulations have not been entered into (3) since they are treated as sequences. The trill r only occurs in loanwords, while the flap D is the intervocalic allophone of t. Unless accompanied by the h segment, voiceless stops are unaspirated. The uvular place of articulation arises only when a velar obstruent follows a low back vowel in the same syllable. Although the palatals 7, M, ` and , are just palatalised versions of their alveolar counterparts, and the palatal stops are probably palato-alveolar affricates, we still need a palatal series for the sake of c, since it patterns with the stops and not with the affricates. Other Bamileke languages also require a palatal series in addition to palatalisation rules (e.g. Fe’fe’, Hyman 1972:17,30).

Aspiration 
It is a striking fact about Dschang, and Bamileke languages in general, that all (oral) obstruents can be aspirated. For example, in Dschang we find aspirated voiced stops in the words mbh ` !T´ dog and ndh` ` u descendents. Aspirated nasals, attested in some dialects of Dschang, are rare in Bafou, and only one example has been found: l `nhT` lay. Although referred to as aspiration, it is widely noted that aspiration in Bamileke languages often appears as a homorganic fricative.3 In Dschang, aspiration is realised as It is reasonable to view Dschang aspiration in terms of vowel devoicing. However, unlike other languages having voiceless vowels (such as Japanese), vowel voicing in Dschang is lexically contrastive. Evidence for this is given in (5). The first group of four lines concerns voiceless onsets, and the second group concerns voiced onsets.

Vowels 
At least superficially, the vowel inventory contains eight vowels, as displayed in (6). A ninth vowel, the high front rounded vowel y, is also included although it plays a very marginal role. Note that the high central unrounded vowel ' will everywhere be represented as T, following the orthography and the phonology literature (e.g. Hyman 1985). Similarly, the semi-high back rounded vowel ? will be represented as o. In open syllables, the high vowels are often characterised by frication. A regular exception to this is the vowel i which cannot be fricated in some positions (e.g. in the verbal suffixes -ni and -ti), an issue still requiring investigation. Haynes (1989:214), following Anderson (1977:52f), analyses [T] as /iu/. This is an extension of the way that [y] can be analysed as /ui/. However, treating y on a par with T ignores the fact that y is in free variation with ui (e.g. nz` ` y nzw` ` ı panther), while T is stable.5 Furthermore, if we set up T as a phoneme then we can show later how palatalisation and aspiration are in complementary distribution. If T is analysed as /iu/ then hT becomes the sole case of an aspirated palatalised vowel, and the analysis of aspiration as a kind of palatalisation breaks down.

Diphthongs 
Dschang allows sequences of two vowels in a single syllable; a high vowel followed by a low vowel. Whether the sequence appears as a diphthong or as a glide-vowel sequence depends on the number of moras available. So the contrast between VV and GV will be treated as a structural property. (As pointed out above, the final vowel of (unsuffixed) disyllabic roots, such as k´ı ´l ´, must be treated as extrametrical so that the l is in the coda.) I have written the glides using the IPA vowel symbols, since there is no symbol for the glide which corresponds to IPA ['] (orthographic T).

The Structure of the Rhyme 
Dschang syllables may be either open, or closed by a single consonant. The coda inventory is p, t, k, b , m, and 8. This gives an inventory of 56 possible syllable rhymes.6 Examples are displayed in Table 1, where numbers indicate the lexical frequency of the rhymes. The table also shows that there are many VC combinations which are unattested. The purpose of this section is to attempt to explain the gaps and arrive at a fuller understanding of the vowel inventory. In x3.1 and x3.2 I argue that o and   in closed syllables ought to be viewed as allophones of u and T respectively, based on distributional evidence. 

This accords with Voorhoeve’s approach to Bangangte, another Bamileke language, where ‘the distinction between closed and half-closed vowels ... is a slight degree of aperture, that might be less distinctive than the distinction between the allophones of the preceding consonants’ (Voorhoeve 1965:323). However, my approach (after Hyman 1972) will be to connect this allophony with the following rather than the preceding consonant. In x3.3 we see how this approach extends to open syllables. Finally, in x3.4 I discuss the constraints on the rhyme which arise when a syllable contains aspiration.

Aspiration There is another kind of open syllable, having the form ChV, which resists the approach taken above. Aspiration must properly be thought of as occupying a position in the rhyme rather than the onset for several reasons. First, the presence of aspiration in a syllable forces the syllable to be open. Thus aspiration is in complementary distribution with syllable codas, and we can say that aspiration helps to saturate the rhyme. Second, aspiration does not add to the complexity of the syllable onset, since the inventory of onset clusters is not reduced when aspiration is present. Finally, aspirated syllables behave durationally like CVV syllables.

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