VOWEL DELETION AND INSERTION IN ÚWù Текст научной статьи по специальности «Языкознание и литературоведение»

National Research University Higher School of Economics Journal of Language & Education Volume 3, Issue 2, 2017

Idris Olawale, A. (2017). Vowel Deletion and Insertion in Uwu. Journal of Language and Education, 3(2), 19-29. doi:10.17323/2411-7390-2017-3-2-19-38

Vowel Deletion and Insertion in Úwu

Idris Olawale Allison

Ekiti State University

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Idris Olawale Allison, Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, Faculty of Arts, Ekiti State University, Iworoko road, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria, 360213. E-mail: idrisallison2012@yahoo.com

Úwu is one of the many endangered languages in Nigeria.The number of its fluent speakers is believed to be less than 2000. The language is spoken in a small community known as Ayere in Ijumú Local Government Area (LGA) of Kogi state. This paper describes the manifestation of vowel deletion and insertion in the language with the view of testing earlier assertions on the nature of vowel deletion and insertion in languages that are genetically related to Úwu. Apart from this, the paper is also an attempt to document these phonological phenomena (i.e. vowel deletion and insertion) before the language goes into extinction. About six hundred (600) lexical items of Úwu were collected for this research work with the aid of the 1000 word-list of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Both linear and non-linear models were adopted for analysis in this research work. Cases involving segmental phonemes were analyzed with the linear phonology, while cases of feature stability and feature spread wereanalyzed using the non-linear model. The paper, among other things, reveals that the pattern of vowel deletion is predictable in Úwu, auto-segments like tone (mostly high tone), nasality and labial or round features usually persist even when the vowel which bore them was deleted. Apart from this, the paper also reveals that [i] is the epenthetic vowel in Úwu, and lastly, it is argued in the paper that nouns in Úwu are virtually vowel initial.

Keywords: vowel deletion, insertion, linear phonology, autosegmental phonology, prothesis

Earlier scholarly works in the area of phonology have proven that vowel deletion and insertion are two of the most productive phonological processes observed in many languages of the world (Glowacka, 2001; Uffmann, 2002; Frajzyngier, 2003; Hall, 2006). Research works carried out on the phonology of many African languages and precisely Benue-Congo languages have shown that there is hardly any African language that does not manifest the two or at least one of these phonological processes. Scholars, including Elugbe (1973), Egbokhare (1990), and Abiodun (2000; 2004), have all shown the pattern of vowel deletion in, Edo, Emai, Ukaan, and Yoruba languages. Elugbe (1973) and Egbokhare (1990), report that vowel deletion is unpredictable in Edo and Emai languages because sometimes the first vowel (henceforthVi) is deleted and some other times the second vowel (henceforth V2) could be deleted in a Vi# V2 construction. According to Egbokhare (1990), the choice of the deleted vowel is determined by the morpho-syntactic relations between the lexical sequences bearing the vowels (in Emai). Abiodun (2000; 2004) also reports that vowel deletion is also unpredictable in both Ukaan and

Yoruba languages. According to him, on vowel deletion within a verb phrase in Yoruba, the vowel of the verb is most likely deleted if the noun is a derived one. However, in the case of an underived noun, any of Vi or V2 could be deleted.

On the pattern of vowel insertion, earlier scholars who have worked on various Benue-Congo languages have shown that vowels are usually inserted to break unwanted consonant clusters in languages that do not manifest consonant clusters. Apart from this, vowels may also be inserted to ensure that a vowel ends every word in a language that operates only the open syllable type. Lastly, a vowel may also be inserted in the form of a prothesis so that a consonant-initial word conforms to the syllable structure of a language where non-verbal words are mainly vowel initial. A typical example of such a language is Edo as reported in Adeniyi (2008).

In this paper, these two phonological phenomena are described and by implication documented in the Uwu language. The paper is divided into four sections. Section one is the introduction, section two presents the pattern of vowel deletion in Uwu, while section

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

three presents the pattern of vowel insertion in the language. Finally, section four is the conclusion of the paper.

Materials and Methods

Vowel Deletion Uwu

According to Abiodun (2007), the deletion process involves a loss of sound, which may be a vowel, a consonant, or a suprasegment. This paper shows that vowel deletion is very robust in the Uwu language. The process is technically referred to as elision. As the name implies, it is the loss of a vowel in the course of derivation. On the effect of vowel deletion in languages where it occurs, Bamgbose (2006, p. 56) comments that; "Such a loss (of vowel) leads to the reduction in the number of syllables in the word or phrase".

The process of elision in Uwu occurs in three different grammatical constructions that include:

i. associative morpheme + noun

ii. verb + noun

iii. pronoun + future tense morpheme

Vowel Deletion in Associative Morpheme + Noun

In Uwu, a noun-noun construction is usually mediated by a medial particlewhich prevents the occurrence of two nouns across word boundaries. Ibikunle (2014) observes a similar particle which performs the same function in Iyinno (a dialect of Aika spoken in Ondo state). Ibikunle (2014) referred to this particle as "associative morpheme" henceforth (AM). The same nomenclature is therefore adopted for the particle in this study. In Uwu, this study reveals that the associative morpheme is underlyingly "ni". However, the vowel of the morpheme is usually deleted whenever thenoun after the word boundary in the construction begins with a vowel, but when the noun after the word boundary begins with a consonantthe vowel of the associative morpheme becomes overt. Consider the examples in 1 (a) and (b) below:

1. (a)

1(b)

i. opini ata water AM gushing — opinatá 'spring'

ii. adjaniajiku house AMfaeces — adjánajiku 'toilet'

iii. anuniuwa mouth AMdoor — anünüwá 'door way'

iv. ahi ni adja stomach AM house — ahinadjá 'room'

v. 3k6 niedje niopi vehicle AM eye AM water — 3kóne~d3én5jii 'boat/ ship'

vi. 3k3 ni Ade vehicle AM Ade — sksnadé 'Ade's car'

vii. e^a ni irigongo egg AM ant — e^anirígongo 'rice'

opi ni koqga water AM well — ojünikóqga 'well water'

aki ni Bsla cloth AM Bsla — aki nib3lá 'Bola's cloth'

uwajeni tija food AM teacher — úwaje nitíja 'teacher's food'

a^a ni taj3 house AM Tayo — a^á nitáj3 'Tayo's house'

As shown in 1 (a-b) above, the vowel of the associative morpheme which is contiguous with the first sound of the noun after the word boundary is lost at the derived form of the construction throughout the examples in 1 (a). This is because the initial sound of the noun after the word boundary is a vowel. However, the case in 1 (b) is different because the nouns after the word boundaries begin with consonants. This implies that for deletion to take place in an "associative morpheme + noun construction" in Uwu, the noun after the morpheme boundary must begin with a vowel. It is noted that the nasal feature of the alveolar nasal; [n] is usually acquired by the vowel [i] of the associative morpheme. It is also noted that the nasal feature is usually transferred to the initial vowel of the noun after vowel [i] is deleted. This shows that when the vowel is deleted, its nasal feature persists. The deletion rule is captured by the rule below: +syll

" '0 / -# [+syll]

+high -back

On the pattern of deletion in Uwu, it is observed that, the vowel [i] of the associative morpheme which is always the deleted segment shows that in an "associative morpheme + noun construction", Vi is usually deleted and its nasal feature transfers to V2 in a Vi # V2 construction.

It should be recollected as said earlier that this phenomenon is not peculiar to Uwu alone as Ibikunle (2014) reports a similar case in Iyinno. The examples below show the manifestation of the associative morpheme in Iyinno: (Ibikunle, 2014, p. 13)

3 a. ena me ahai

meat AM farm

b. aju me ititi faeces AM Titi

c. aju me ehu

faeces AM rat

— [emmaháí] 'animal'

— [ajumititi] 'Titi's faecces'

—>

[ajuméhú] 'rice'

The examples from Iyinno have shown that just as the vowel [i] of the associative morpheme is deleted whenever the noun after the word boundary begins with a vowel in Uwu, the vowel [e] of the morpheme is also deleted in Iyinno whenever the noun after the word boundary begins with a vowel.

Vowel Deletion in Verb + Noun

Elision within a verb phrase is highly productive in Uwu. This is not strange as several scholars have shown that vowel deletion is highly productive in various languages of the worl. Scholars like Elugbe (1973), Egbokhare (1990), Schiffman (1993), Abiodun (2000; 2004), Molczanow (2007) among others have shown the robustness of vowel deletion within a verb phrase in different languages. Apart from the robustness of vowel deletion within a verb phrase, scholars in the area of phonology have also shown that the choice of the deleted vowel across word boundries in a Vi# V2 construction varies from one language to another. While some languages delete Vi (e.g. Ukaan as shown in Abiodun (2000), other languages either delete Vi or V2 (e.g. Yoruba as shown in Awobuluyi (1978; 1988), Bamgbose (2006), and Abiodun (2004). For instance, the data below taken from Abiodun (2004, pp. 3-8) show that any of Vi and V2 could be deleted in a Vi # V2 construction in Yoruba:

4. (a) pa ejo —> pejô 'kill a snake'

wo onà —> wonà 'be on the look out'

ra epo — repo 'buy oil / fuel'

Je èpè — Jepè 'put a curse'

(a) ta ojà — tajà 'sell goods'

ra ojà — rajà 'buy goods'

se obè — sebe 'cook soup'

ro obe — robe 'stir soup'

In the examples above, V2 survives deletion in 4 (a) while Vi survives deletion in 4 (b). Based on the data presented above, it becomes convincing that the choice of the deleted vowel is unpredictable in Yoruba.

This present study shows that vowel deletion within a verb phrase is highly productive in the Uwu language. Although, the phenomenon only occurs between a monosyllabic verb and a noun, in the case of a disyllabic or tri-syllabic verb, deletion does not occur, rather no phonological change is observed. But if the contiguous vowels are identical, then deletion will occur as the occurrence of identical vowels across the morpheme boundary is not allowed in Uwu. Consider the data below:

kwüjo èn^é 'gather/ collect fruits'

ruhi ólá 'remember dream'

fupá oqwu 'climb tree'

lólé ogo 'swim river'

bèrè a^ó 'start work'

Jueu éwó 'beat goat'

Júéü óma 'beat child'

wúréé olowù 'ask for somebody'

(b) gbala alè ^ gbalalè 'sweep floor'

ruhi in ^ ruhirï 'remember a song'

ruhi ilemu ^ ruhilemu 'remember an orange...' kwujo owu ^ kwujowu 'gather/ collect threads'

As shown in data 5 (a and b) above, the items in 5 (a) do not reflect any phonological change, but those in 5 (b) reflect deletion. The difference is due to the kind of the contiguous segments as already said; those in 5 (b) are identical vowels, whereas those in 5 (a) are different vowels.

Apart from the above, the study also reveals that within a verb phrase where the verb before a noun is monosyllabic, in a Vi # V2 construction in the language, it is always the Vi that gets deleted. The corpus data presented below validate our claim:

i. ii take + °.pi water — io.pï 'take water'

ii. Je be + 3ba king — Jaba 'become king'

iii. hi cook + 6d6 soup — hóódó 'cook soup'

iv. jwi give birth + 6ma child — jóma 'give birth to a child'

v. fo wash + aki cloth — fàki 'wash cloth'

vi. kpu kill + ena animal — kpena 'kill (an) animal'

vii. 139° weave + aki cloth — ggàki 'weave cloth'

viii. Je eat + ekpej3 groundnut — Jèkpèjà 'eat groundnut'

ix. steal + o^i thief — 'steal something'

x. ko learn + i^u dance (N) — kí^ú 'to dance'

xi. ku pack + aki cloth — kwáki 'pack clothes'

xii. ku pack + awu shirt — kwàwù 'pack shirts'

xiii. 9" pound + 6de pounded yam — gwódéé 'pound pounded yam'

xiv. Je do + ij6la fight(N) — jijóla 'fight(V)'

xv. he" throw + ekita stone — hekíta 'throw stone'

xvi. ja tear + ele money — jelé 'tear money'

xvii. gb6 hear/listen + iri song — gbirï 'hear/ listen to song'

xviii. ja boil + e^a egg — je^a 'boil egg'

xix. gbe abuse + 6ga boss — gbógá 'abuse/ insult the boss'

da + eje —> dèje 'buy yam'

buy yam

wu + aki —> wàki 'wear

wear cloth cloth'

gu + a^a — gw à^à 'demolish

demolish house house'

fu + ewo — féwô 'untie goat'

untie goat

gbu + akoko — gbàkôko 'tie cock'

tie cock

kpu + apa — kpapa 'kill dog'

kill dog

From the examples above, it is apparent that the choice of the vowel that gets deleted is predictable; that is, only the vowels of the verbs are deleted. It is also evident in the data that the choice of vowels deleted is by no means dependent on the type of vowels of the verbs or nouns involved, or the form of the nouns (i.e. whether derived or underived); rather, it depends on the position of the vowel as it must be Vi which is the vowel of the verb. Another point that needs to be emphasized here is that the vowels are not usually deleted with all their features. We observe that, such autosegmental features like tone (specifically high tone) (e.g. iii), nasality (e.g. xv), and roundness features (e.g. xi) usually persist only to realign with other segments within their environments. This kind of behavior is referred to as feature stability within the autosegmental theory, and it has shown us the relevance of the theory to this work. The illustration below shows the pattern of deletion within a verb phrase in the language:

[V] j ^ 0 / - # [V]2 : [+syll] ^ 0 / - # [+syll]

It is also important that we discuss a type of phonological change that occurs between a verb and a consonant-initial noun as shown in the data below: Note that the asterisked examples below are deviant.

7 i.

i. Je + dodo — Jîdodo 'fry plantain'

eat plantain

ii. da + bata — dibata 'buy shoe'

buy shoe

iii. ta + beliiti — tibéliiti 'sell belt'

sell belt

iv. da + sùkùrù — disùkùrù 'go to school'

go school

v. wa + sùkùrù — wisùkùrù 'come to

come school school'

vi. wa + Joôfl — wijôàjî 'come to

come church church'

vii. * bere + sùkùrù — bèrè 'start

start school sùkurù schooling'

viii. * + bàtà — wùrèé 'ask/request

wuree shoe bàtà for shoe'

From the data above, it is observed that a high front vowel [i] which is not present at the underlying representation surfaces at the phonetic representation. This change may make a casual observer to assume that the vowel of the verb changed to [i] whenever the noun begins with a consonant. However, this kind of assumption may not be correct because one may not be able to account for this kind of change as it is not a common phonological process that occurs in natural languages. Alternatively, one may assume that the vowels of the monosyllabic verbs were deleted and an extraneous vowel [i] introduced to block the cluster of consonants resulting from the deleted vowels. Consider the illustration below:

dà + bata ddbàtà dibàta dibàta

underlying representation'

v-deletion

i-insertion

surface representation

Although this assumption may appear to be more logical than the first one, it is worrisome to have the two rules; v-deletion and i-insertion to both apply to a single structure to arrive at its surface representation. One needs to ask the following questions:

i. Why would a language delete a vowel only to replace it with another one?

ii. How logical is the order of application of the two rules in terms of naturalness, economy, simplicity and plausibility?

The complexity and illogicality of the above rules may also compel one to consider a more appropriate and logical argument. This will lead one to assume that an extraneous vowel [i] which is technically referred to as a prothesis is introduced before the consonant initial-nouns so as to ensure that all nouns begin with a vowel in the language. The prothetic vowel [i] is covert when the nounsoccur as the subject of sentences as shown below:

Note that 9iii is deviant.

9. i. sukuru ne Olu a da school foc. O prv go

ii. bata ne Ade a da shoe foc. A prv sold

iii. *isukuru ne olu a da school foc O prv go

'it is school that Olu went' 'it is shoe that Ade sold' 'it is school that Olu went'

Meanwhile, the vowel is overt whenever the nouns occur before a monosyllabic verb. Based on this new hypothesis, the underlying forms of the data in (7) may now be re-presented as:

10. i.

ask

i. Je + idodo ^ Jidodo 'fry

eat plantain plantain'

ii. da + ibata ^ dibata 'buy

buy shoe shoe'

iii. ta + ibeliiti ^ tibelfiti 'sell

sell belt belt'

xxv.

iv. da + isùkurù — disùkurù 'go to

school school'

v. wâ + isùkurù — wisùkurù 'come to

come school school'

vi. wâ + ijooji — wijoàjî 'come to

come church church'

One salient observation about the data above is that all the nouns are borrowed words. It can also be deduced from the data that nouns in Uwù must begin with a vowel; this explains why all the nouns in (10) begin with vowel [i]. It can therefore be argued that vowel [i] is usually inserted at the beginning of a consonant-initial loanword so that such a word fits into the phonotactic structure of the Uwù language. This kind of insertion is not strange. Elugbe (1989) and Adeniyi (2008) have both demonstrated that all nouns (and all non-verbal words) in Edo are vowel-initial. As a result, when the language borrows a word that begins with a consonant, a prothetic vowel [e] or [i] is usually introduced to nativise such a word. According to Adeniyi (2008), the extraneous vowel is usually inserted at the beginning of every consonant-initial borrowed word so that the word conforms to the phonotactic rule of Edo. Whereas, the prothetic vowel in Uwù is [i], it is [e/i] in Edo. Consider the data below from Edo which were drawn from Adeniyi (2008, p. 65)

that all nouns in Yoruba are vowel-initial. Oyebade (2008, p. 75) also reports a case of [e]-prothesis in Spanish. According to him, the language does not allow a consonant cluster that starts with the sibilant [s] to begin a word. When such happens, a vowel [e] is inserted at the beginning of the word:

14. espa_pol 'spanish' eslavo 'slavic' esplin 'spleen'

The data presented in this section have also shown that just like the case of the 'associative marker + noun' Vi is always the deleted vowel in a construction consisting of Vi # V2 in the Uwu language.

Results

Vowel Deletion in Pronoun + Future Tense Morpheme

This study also reveals that vowel deletion normally occur between a pronoun and a future tense morpheme. The future tense morpheme (henceforth FTM) in Uwu is ega. Its manifestation is illustrated with the examples below;

15.(a)

mi égà da I FTM go

mégà dà

'I will go'

11. efiimu 'film' ii. qgo ega da you FTM go —> ggega da 'you will go'

ebeliti 'belt' iii. wa ega da —> wega da 'he/she will

ekoomu 'comb' he/she TM go go'

ekorisa 'chorister iv. awa ega (i(u — awega ^i^ü 'we will dan-

we FTM dance ceo'

iburu 'blue'

eburedi 'bread' v. eme ega (i(u — emega ^i^ü 'you(pl) will

In the same vein, Awobuluyi (2013) argues that the you(pl) FTM dance dance'

vowel that exists between two nouns where the second

one begins with a consonant in a Yoruba noun phrase vi. ami ega (i(u they FTM — amega ^i^ü 'they will dance'

like: dance

12. iwe e dada 'Dada's book' (b) i. Ade ega da A FTM go 'Ade will go'

isu u kola 'Kola's yam' ii. Olu ega da 'Olu will go'

bata a tisa 'Teacher's shoe' O FTM go

ilu u kano 'the town of kano' iii. wale ega da W FTM go 'Wale will go'

is underlyingly [i] which is a prothetic vowel iv. e(i ega da 'it will rain'

inserted at the beginning of a consonant-initial- noun rain FTM fall

as presented below: v. mama ega (i 'thunder will strike'

thunder FTM strike

13. iwe idada ^ iwe e dada vi. à^à égà gu 'the house will collapse'

isu ikola ^ isu u kola house FTM collapse

bata itisa ^ bata a segun ilu ikano ^ ilu u kano

The [i]-prothesis normally undergoes a perseverative assimilation such that it becomes like the final vowel of the first noun. He further asserts

In 15 (a) above, it is observed that the vowels of the pronouns get deleted before the FTM. However, in 15 (b) where the words before the FTM are nouns, the vowels of the nouns were not deleted. It appears therefore that Uwu language distinguishes between

its nouns and pronouns by ensuring that the vowel of a pronoun is deleted before a FTM while that of a noun is not deleted in the same environment. It is also an indication that pronouns in Uwu may constitute clitics, since they have the ability to concatenate with the FTM which occurs after them. Radford et al (1999) describe such clitics as proclitics since they precede their hosts. This kind of concatenation between pronouns and verbs or preverbal particles is not strange. Radford et al (1999, p. 174) report that pronouns in Romance languages behave like proclitics while those of Spanish may behave like proclitics or enclitics depending on the form of the verb. The examples in 15 (a) above have also affirmed the earlier claim in this paper that Vi is always deleted while V2 survives in a Vi # V2 constructionin Uwu language. This implies that the pattern of deletion in Uwu is predictable. The illustration below shows the general pattern of deletion in the language.

[+syll] ^ 0 / - # [+syll]

Discussion

Epenthesis in Uwu

This is a process in which an extraneous segment (consonant or vowel) is introduced into a word to break up unacceptable sequences. It is also used to achieve the preferred syllable structure of a language. In Uwu,only vowels can be inserted into a word, consonant insertion does not exist in the language. Adeniyi (2008) reports that vowel insertion takes place in three positions in Edo. These are morpheme initial, medial and final. In Uwu, the same positions are also observed. According to Adeniyi (2008), the following forms can be pronounced in isolation in Edo (p. 65):

16. efiimu ebeliti eköömü ekorisa iburu ebüredi

'film'

'belt'

'comb'

'chorister

'blue'

'bread'

However, in Uwu, they are realized as:

17. fiimu beliiti köömü kOrisita bulu büredi

'film'

'belt'

'comb'

'chorister

'blue'

'bread'

ifiimu 'film'

ibeliiti 'belt'

iköömü 'comb'

ikOrisita 'chorister

ibulu 'blue'

ibüredi 'bread'

The realization of the prothetic vowel in Uwu has already been discussed in the previous section. In order to avoid repeating the same presentation; readers are advised to revisit section 2 for the argument on how the prothesis manifests in Uwu. Concerning the observation that the prothetic vowel [i] in Uwu only surfaces when a consonant initial-noun occurs after a verb, one can simply assume that the vowel is deleted when the nouns are in citation forms. The assumption that the vowel is deleted when the nouns are in citation forms appears to be correct because during an interaction with some native speakers of Uwu, it was observed that Uwu speakers do not normally distinguish between the forms of nouns in 19 and 20 below:

ilögbö 'rat'

ijbla 'fight (N)'

ijekpe 'cane'

ilemu 'orange'

lögbö 'rat'

jbla 'fight (N)'

Jskps 'cane'

lemu 'orange'

The same words are also assumed to be produced underlyingly as presented below when they are preceded by a verb:

The data above show that the presence or absence of vowel [i] in nouns that begin with the vowel does not distort meaning. It therefore appears that vowel [i] is commonly deleted optionally when it begins a noun in Uwu.This also points to the fact that Uwu nouns are probably vowel-initial and those nouns that are consonant-initial in the language are only products of clipping; it also seems like there is an on-going process of [i]-deletion at the initial position in Uwu nouns. It is also believed that the deletion of the vowel extends to consonant-initial borrowed words even when it was inserted to nativise such words. However, while the vowel is optionally deleted in the case of Uwu native words when they occur in isolation, it is obligatorily deleted in the case of borrowed words. The obligatory deletion of the vowel [i] at the beginning of a borrowed word when in isolation is believed to be influenced by the contact with Yoruba language which is the lingua franca of the Ayere people, or alternatively, those forms are rendered in Yoruba, while the Uwu forms are already eroded. In Yoruba, borrowed words are pronounced without the prothetic vowel [i] in citation

form as presented below:

21. bíbéli tábíli JoôJî

sùkùùlù

'bible' 'table' 'church' 'school'

24. ilekùn 'door'

iyará 'room'

idowú 'name'

idôgbé 'name'

iyewù 'room'

inàbi/ nàbi 'prostitution'

Awobuluyi (1988) and Abiodun (2004) both report that the pattern of deletion in Yoruba may be predictable whenever [i] is involved. In the following examples, [i] is deleted as Vi and V2:

Inspite of the forms presented above, Awobuluyi (2008; 2013) has consistently argued thatall Yoruba nouns are vowel-initial. He buttressed his claim by citing examples from the Moba dialect where all consonant-initial nouns in Standard Yoruba begin with vowel [i] in Moba. Consider the examples below:

22. SY Mob a dialect

bode ibode 'name'

kola ikola 'name'

moto imoto 'vehicle'

tunde itunde 'name'

In view of the above argument by Awobuluyi, Ajiboye (2011) argues that the realization of the prothetic vowel [i] in Moba is context-based. According to Ajiboye, the prothetic vowel performs certain functions which include indicating possession and emphasis. However, when a supposed consonant-initial noun is pronounced in isolation, the prothetic vowels do not feature. This according to him explains why the following forms (Ajiboye, 2011, p. 58) are not acceptable forms in Moba and by extension in the Yoruba language;

23. * ifila

* ikokoro

* lgele

Although the above forms may not be acceptable in citation, there are some other nouns in Yoruba that begins with vowel [i]. Consider the examples below:

25. ^í # owó ^ ^ówó ra # iju ^ raju

'steal money' 'buy yam'

Ebira is another language just like Edo where nouns are mainly vowel-initial. Consonant-initial loanwords are also nativised in Ebira by inserting vowel [i] at the beginning of such words. The examples below are drawn from Abiodun (2007):

26. English Ebira

motsu imoto motor

bred kaum sku:l palis

iburedi bread

ikoomu comb

isukuru school

iporiisi police

In the same vein, Anaang; a Benue-Congo language spoken in the Akwa Ibom state of Nigeria is another language whose nouns are mainly vowel-initial. When the language borrows a consonant-initial noun, [a]-prothesis is inserted at the beginning of such a word so as to conform to the phonotactic structure of the language. Consider the examples below (Ekpe, 2012):

27. English

/waia/

/maqgau/

/glœs/

/kampju:ta/

/fœn/

Anaang

àwaya 'wir

amargo àglas

àkomputa afan

mango 'glass' 'computer' 'fan'

The nouns in (24) above and some others of the same form are believed to be the relics of the nouns that begin with the vowel [i] in Yoruba. It therefore implies from a historical perspective that Yoruba developed a rule that deletes the vowel [i] at word initial position in nouns, at some point along its historical development, and such words in (24) above and few others of the same form are the radical ones that were never affected by the deletion rule. Another area that supports the claim that [i] is often deleted in the Yoruba language is the verb-noun construction.

Evidence from Edo, Uwu, Yoruba, Ebira and Anaang languages presented above shows that nouns of most Benue-Congo languages are mainly vowel-initial, and various languages employ different prothesis to nativise loan words that are consonant-initial. For instance; it is [e/i] in Edo, it is also [i] in Uwu, Yoruba and Ebira, whereas in Anaang it is [a]. From the foregoing, it becomes quite convincing that the prothetic vowel [i] is prespecified in the Uwu lexicon but it may be deleted when the nouns are in citation forms. However, the difference between Uwu and Yoruba, and Edo, Ebira and Anaang is that while the prothetic vowels are deleted when the nouns are pronounced in isolation in the former, they are never deleted in the case of the latter.

Oyebade (1998, p. 75) reports that epenthesis is a very common phenomenon in the loan-word phonology of many African languages. The case of Uwu affirms this report as shown in the examples below: 28. English Uwu

/belt/ /beliiti/ 'belt'

/brAJ/ /burosji/ 'brush'

/breik/ /bureeki/ 'brake'

/sku:l/ /sukurü/ 'school'

/sleit/ /sileeti/ 'slate'

/kaum/ /köömü/ 'comb'

/freim/ /furemü/ 'frame'

/bred/ /büredi/ 'bread'

/treib/ /tirela/ 'trailer'

/teibl/ /tebü/ 'table'

29. Seg. tier:

bred

b

d

Skeletal tier: c c v c

30. Seg. tier:

s r u: l

Skeletal tier: c c v c

c v c v cv

s k u r

c v c v cv

31. Seg. tier: f r ei m

Skeletal tier: c c v c

f rem

c v c v cv

Using the linear model, the epenthetic rules are presented thus:

32.

From the examples above, one notices that the sound [l] in /sku:l/ is realized as [r]; /sukuru/ 'school' in Uwu, whereas the sounds do not alternate in other words. The question posed by this irregular alternation is "how come it is only restricted to /sku:l/?" Two logical answers could be provided for this question; the first one is to suggest that the form must have been influenced by contact with Owe dialect of Yoruba spoken in Kabba which is about 8 kilometers from Ayere. Findings reveal that school is also pronounced as sukuru in Owe. This assumption is possible due to the close relationship that exists between the people of Ayere and Kabba. The second one is to suggest that the form is influenced by the contact with Ebira spoken in Okenne which is about 28 kilometers away from Ayere. The [l] ^ [r] alternation is common to Ebira. Apart from the close distance between Okenne and Ayere, some speakers of Ebira who are mainly farmers are also settled in Ayere.

It is also observed that Uwu breaks the cluster of consonants either by the introduction of an epenthetic vowel [u] or [i] depending on the roundness or unroundness of the vowels that occur after such clusters, on the one hand, and also the involvement or non-involvement of a labial consonant on the other hand. [u] is usually inserted whenever the vowel that occurs after the cluster is a round vowel or when the cluster involves a labial consonant otherwise, the vowel [i] is usually inserted. The same condition also determines which of the vowels is inserted when a word ends with a consonant. Consider the illustration below:

0-

+syl

+high

i/u

C -V

+cons -cons

. C „

33.

0

+syl +high

The alternative use of the epenthetic vowels [i] and [u] as seen in the data above is not peculiar to Uwu. Egbokahare (1990) observes in Emai that [u] occurs also as the epenthetic vowel after labial consonants, it also occurs after other consonants if a rounded vowel occurs in an adjacent syllable. [i] occurs as the epenthetic vowel in non-labial environments. Adeniyi (2008) also asserts that the case of Emai as reported by Egbokhare (1990) is also applicable to Edo. Egbokhare (1990) further observes that a similar situation is reported in Yoruba by Awobuluyi (1967; 1978) and Pulleyblank (1988). He notes that Pulleyblank accounts for the phenomenon in Yoruba in terms of the application of redundancy rules and labial harmony rule. Redundancy rules account for the occurrence of [i] being the underspecified vowel while labial harmony ensures that [i] becomes [u] in the labial context. He stated further that "since consonants can only occur in the onset position, any unsyllabified consonant must be assigned a rhyme. And since there would be no motivation for any particular vowel quality to be present on that rhyme, the unmarked expectation will be for redundancy rules to fill in feature values for such an epenthetic vowel. The illustration below shows the pattern of epenthesis in Yoruba:

G

allowable

syllabification

syllabification of consonants

u

u

#

r

e

u

u

u

S

35.

G

G

C k

V C i 1

V a

G

V a

G

37.

G

V i

Redundancy rules

Pulleyblank provided strong motivations for recognizing [i] as supplied by redundancy rules in Yoruba which is also observed to be true about Uwu. [i] is therefore postulated as the epenthetic vowel in Uwu. The Vowel becomes [u] in a labial environment as a result of the application of labial harmony rule which spreads the labial feature of a labial sound occurring in an adjacent syllable on the inserted vowel [i]. Egbokhare (1990) gives an accurate picture of the insertion process in Emai which fits squarely into Uwu. This is captured by the derivation below:

36. 0 — [i]

by insertion

[u]/[+ labial] by labial harmony

Borrowed into Yorùbâ word, the word presents the structure below:

38.

G

G

b

Other salient observations are the cases of vowel lengthening, the High-Low (HL) tone sequence on the lengthened vowels and the low tone on the epenthetic vowel [i/u] that ensures that a nativised English word conforms to the open syllable structure of the Uwu language. On this note, Oyebade (2008) reports that Ayo Bamgbose and Kenstowicz (2000, p. 1) had observed a similar case in the Yoruba language and both claimed that the lengthening was an attempt by the recipient language to stay faithful to the falling intonation pattern of English stressed syllable; since Yoruba disallows glide tone on short vowels, it adopts the strategy of lengthening to accommodate the gliding pitch of English stress. However, Oyebade takes a look at the lengthening using the optimality theory, and makes a convincing argument about the process in Yoruba. According to him, vowel lengthening in Yoruba is motivated by the desire to preserve the prosodic structure of the input syllable from English. He argues this by saying that "stressed syllables in English are mainly bimoraic. In other words, they have a duration that is longer than their unstressed counterparts. This fact can be asserted more firmly for heavy syllables. Heavy syllables are those ones with long vowel, diphthong or an arresting coda (that is, closed syllable)" (Oyebade 2008, p. 43). He went further to remark that lengthening in Yoruba words on English providence is motivated by the desire of Yoruba to preserve the prosodic structure of the syllable(s) of such word(s) as they come from their source. Thus, a monosyllabic word like 'brush' with an arresting coda comes with the prosodic structure:

Notice that the structure of the input syllable is preserved subject to the ban, in Yoruba, of complex onset in a syllable and prohibition of arresting consonant. The same is applicable to all monosyllabic words. Oyebade's argument is affirmed in this paper as the same case is applicable to Uwu.

Conclusion

This paper has described the manifestation of vowel deletion in Uwu. The paper observes that the process of elision in Uwu occurs in three different grammatical constructions that include associative morpheme + noun, verb + noun, and pronoun + future tense morpheme. The vowel of the AM is usually deleted whenever the morpheme precedes a vowel-initial noun. In a verb phrase (or verb + noun construction), the vowel of the verb is usually deleted when the verb is a monosyllabic one. In a verb phrase where the verb is a disyllabic or tri-syllabic one, no phonological change occurs unless the contiguous vowels are identical (in which one of the vowel is usually deleted). In a construction involving a pronoun + future tense morpheme, the vowel of the pronoun is usually deleted. When a vowel is deleted, autosegmental features like high tone, nasality and roundness usually survive the process and then realign with other neighboring segments. From the foregoing, it could be concluded that in a Vi # V2 construction in Uwu, Vi is usually deleted while V2 survives the deletion process, which the pattern of vowel deletion is predictable in Uwu.

On the pattern of epenthesis in the language, this research work reveals that only vowels can be inserted into a word, consonant insertion does not

D

—*

exist in the language. Vowel insertion takes place in three positions in Uwu; these are morpheme initial, medial and final. The paper also reveals that [i] is the underlying form of the inserted vowel, and that the vowel usually becomes [u] in a labial environment. Another salient observation in the paper is the case of vowel lengthening, the HL tone sequence on the lengthened vowels and the low tone on the epenthetic vowel [i/u] that ensures that a nativised English word conforms to the open syllable structure of Uwu language. On this note, it is observed that these were motivated by the need to stay faithful to the prosodic structure of the donor language. These various observations imply that the pattern of insertion in Uwu does not differ from findings in earlier research on the manifestation of epenthesis in Benue-Congo languages. Finally, the paper holds that nouns in the language are mainly vowel-initial.

One of the major problems confronting minor languages is that not only are they endangered, quite a number of them are fast going into extinction without any form of documentation (Allison, 2015, p. 7). One of the ways to salvage endangered languages from going into extinction is to document them. It is therefore recommended in this paper that more researches should be carried out on Uwu. Future researchers should look into other aspects of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and sociolinguistics. The native speakers of Uwu are also enjoined to produce literature materials on the language. These two steps will make people know about the structure and grammar of Uwu and by implication ensure that the language is documented.

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