An Autosegmental Analysis of Verbal Tone in Mushunguli
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Date
2013-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Mushunguli is a Bantu language spoken in southern Somalia by a population of around 20,000 people. This study attempts to explain the underlying morphological and phonological processes that contribute to the tone found in some verbal forms of this language. This study was conducted through interviews and elicitations with Mohamed R., a speaker from Mogambo, Somalia currently living in Columbus, Ohio. These interviews were recorded using an Edirol recorder and were subsequently transcribed. The interviews were conducted weekly during the academic year over the course of 4 quarters from January 2011 to June 2012, with additional sessions during the 2012-2013 academic year.
Chapter 1 of the thesis gives an overview of the phonological inventory of the language. In addition, it introduces the basic morphological structures seen throughout the thesis specific to verbs, along with the tonal inventory of the language. It also gives a brief introduction to Autosegmental Phonology, the phonological framework used to analyze the language.
Chapter 2 explains the tonal patterns of the present, past and future tenses stemming from analysis of the subject (person, number) and temporal distance prefix, in addition to tonal phonological rules that can be derived from these tenses. Present tense is characterized by a penultimate tone assignment rule, in combination with toneless 1st and 2nd person subject markers and high toned 3rd person subject markers. Past tense consists of an antepenultimate tone assignment rule, in combination with toneless singular subject markers and high toned plural subject markers. Future tense shows consistency across the paradigm and displays a penultimate high despite differences in subject prefix.
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Keywords
Phonology, Bantu linguistics, Mushunguli, Autosegmental Phonology, Tonal Phonology, Zigua