PHONOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF VOWEL HARMONY IN TÈÈ ON VOWEL HARMONY
VOWEL
HARMONY
4.0 Introduction
Various approaches have been employed
in the discussion of the process of vowel harmony in languages. These include
the segmental approach which views vowel harmony as an assimilation process;
the linear generative approach which employs the iterative and simultaneous
rules to account for vowel harmony and the prosodic approach as employed by
Lightner (1965).
All these approaches put together, one
way or the other left lots of issues dangling in the air with no substantial
explanation. Such issues include: the neutral vowel hypothesis, the mixed vowel
roots and opacity.
4.1 Vowel Harmony Process
Vowel harmony is an interesting and a
prominent feature of vowels in Tèè. Tèè has seven oral vowels divided into two
equal sets with two narrow and two wide vowels each and three neutral vowels.
All these, as well as the nasalized vowel participate in this process. Examples
in (1) below illustrate the manifestation of vowel harmony in roots language:
1. (a) /kpòbè/ ‘hoe’
/kòròkè/ ‘ground’
/ákóbē/ ‘head’
(b) /tOgE/ ‘show’
/kEgO/ ‘laugh’
/bEtO/ ‘chair’
(c) /kpùgì/ ‘money’
/áwíí/ ‘grass’
/nṹtO@/ ‘door’
/sínùló/ ‘stink’
/bùrá/ ‘think
/lErà/ ‘send
/tòrá/ ‘abuse’
The
examples in (4.1(a) and b) indicate the co-occurrence of [e, o] and [E,
O]
to the exclusion of [i, a, u] and in (4.1(c) which co-occur with the two sets
as neutral vowels. These examples show the occurrence of vowels [e, o] which
produce with non-retraction of the tongue root, and the occurrence of [E,
O]
which are produced with retracted tongue root. Based on this observation one
can therefore posit two harmonic sets and a neutral set for Tèè as done in
earlier works. The two harmonic sets are shown in 2 below:
2. Harmonic Set A Harmonic Set B
[-ATR] e o [+ATR] E O
(a, u, i) (a, u, i)
One
observes that in 1(c) that vowels [i, a, u] function as neutral vowels because
they do occur with vowels of Sets A and B. This is a unique feature of vowel
harmony process in Tèè unlike some other African languages in which only one or
two vowels might be neutral vowels. Examples of neutral vowels in Tèè include
[i, u, a].
3. [lErà] ‘send’
[ĩ́E)@] ‘heart’
[pie] ‘medicine’
[pĩ̀O@] ‘finger nail’
[pio] ‘village
name
[ákpó] ‘bone’
[sùé] ‘spear’
[álóló] ‘bottle
4.2
Characteristics of Vowel Harmony
Following
the observation of Clements (1977) on Akan, Chumbow (1982) on Ogori, Ihionu
(1984) on Igbo and Ngulube (2013), this study produces evidence which shows
that Tèè also displays the following properties like all symmetrical and
asymmetrical systems.
1. Phonetic Motivatedness
Vowels in Tèè are classified into two
harmonic sets using phonetic property of the Advancement/retraction of the
tongue root.
Thus, vowel harmony process in Tèè
involves the spreading of a phonetic feature: Advanced Tongue Root [ATR] to
vowels within a phonological word. It is the root vowel that harmonize category
of affixes and clitics. To see how this operates, let us look at a process of
word formation in Tèè.
3. Agentive Nouns
dáá ‘sleep’ ádám ‘sleeper’
táá ‘work’ átám ‘worker’
bOO ‘fear’ ObOm ‘fearful person’
zágbárá ‘dream’ ázágbárám ‘dreamer’
Agentive
nouns in Tèè are derived from verbs by the prefixation of the affix [a-] or [O-]
to the existing verb stems. The choice between [a-] and [O-]
is determined by the root. Such that, [a-] which is [-ATR] vowel occurs with
[-ATR] root vowels while [O-] which is [+ATR] vowel occurs with
[+ATR] root. Vowels as shown in the data in 3 above.
2. Root Control
The principle of root control operates
in the Tèè vowel harmony process. Within a phonological word, it is the root
vowel that determines the harmonic category of affixes and clitics. To see how
this operates, let us look at a process of word formation in Tèè where nouns
are derived from verbs as shown in 3 above.
Another important point worth noting
in connection with the agentive nouns is the co-occurrence relationship between
the vowels. [+ATR] vowels interact freely and exclude [-ATR] vowels while
[-ATR] vowels interact freely also to the exclusion of [+ATR] vowels. This
constitutes evidence that the vowel harmony process in Tèè is real.
3. Non-Optionality
Vowel harmony operates on every vowel
controlled by the stem and within its domain. To illustrate this, let us
consider the following examples on question formation.
4. (i) mdéè
è/èè? ‘What did I eat?’
(ii) msíìm
mOOO@? ‘Where did I go?’
(iii) mdēè
è/ēè? ‘What should I do?’
(iv) msiimmOO? ‘Where should I go?’
The
non-optionality feature of vowel harmony is proved in where all vowels obey the
harmony rule.
The alternating forms of the question
markers mdéè and msíì is determined by the harmonic category of the vowels of
the verb stems /èè and mOO@
respectively.
4. The Autosegmental Analysis of Vowel
Harmony in Tèè
One of the major faults of the
Generative theory is the claim that phonological features are single tiered and
linearly ordered. This claim stems from the hypothesis that speech utterances
are made up of discrete units which can be split into segments. These segments
are linearly ordered and made up of unordered bundles of features. Thus the
word ‘pin’ is represented below as:
 |
|||||
 |
|
||||
+cons +syll +cons
-nasal -nasal +nasal
+aut -High +son
-cont -Back +Aut
-Delrel +Tense °
-Cor ° °
-voice ° °
° ° °
° ° °
P I N
Goldsmith
(1976) claims that this assumption constitutes a problem to the Generative
theory. Thus, issues such as floating tones, contour tones, and so forth cannot
be adequately accounted for in the Generative theory. These facts are
extensively treated in Goldsmith (1976). The most basic notion of autosegmental
theory is that phonological representation is non-linear. Speech sounds
constitute features which can be abstracted and placed on separate autonomous
tiers.
Thus, phonological features such as
tones, nasality, vowel harmony are extractable and be represented on
independent tiers parallel to the segmental tier. The relationship between the
extracted features on the autosegmental tier and the segmental tier is
indicated by the association convention which preserves the well-formedness
condition throughout the course of phonological derivation.
The diagram below illustrates the
autosegmental representation of tone:
Tonal tier: +H -H
Segmental tier: +syll. +syll.
-cons. -cons.
The
Association Principles
The WFCS proposed by Goldsmith (1976)
for tones are stated below:
(a)
All vowels are associated with at least
one tone.
(b)
All tones are associated with at least
one vowel.
(c)
Association lines do not cross.
These
principles play an important role in linking the tonal tier to the segmental
tier. Apart from the Goldsmith (1976) linking proposals, various versions are
available from different authors. Among the authors are Clements (1976),
Clements (1980), Halle and Vergnaud (1982), Vander Hulst and Smith (1982) and
Pulleyblank (1986).
However, the version employed for the
treatment of vowel harmony in this study, is the Clements (1981:146) where he
states that, ‘For association to take place, element on the ‘P-level’, ‘P-base’
and ‘Open String’ need to be determined. The interpretation of this in relation
to the autosegmental tier is given below: Level I, P-base. The level at which
P-bearing units are represented in this case, units which bear the P-segments
or features. It is the level at which the vowels (which bear harmonic features)
and intervening consonants are represented # CVCVCV #.
Level 2, P-level: The level at which
the harmony autosegment or harmonic feature [+back, + ATR] is
represented. Clement’s version of the association conventions are given below
in order of priority on it will be employed in this study.
(a)
Given a continuous string ‘S’ consisting
of one or more free P-segments and an open string ‘T’ which occurs in its
domain, associate P-segments in ‘S’ with P-bearing units in ‘T’ in a one to one
manner from left to right.
(b)
Given an open string ‘T’ remaining after
the operation of (a), associate each P-bearing unit in ‘T’ with the P-segment
in whose domain it fools (giving precedence to the P-segment associated with a
P-bearing unit which occurs to the left of T).
Having
stated the motions of the autosegmental theory, we are now going to employ the
theory for a full description of the vowel harmony process in Tèè. Chumbow
(1982:75) proposes that all vowels of affixes and clitics that undergo vowel
harmony are reducible to four basic vowels from which the seven surface vowels
are derived by root controlled vowel harmony, determined by the feature [+ATR]
we shall apply this to Tèè with seven vowel system. These are represented
below:
i
e
o
E
O
u
a
A
Instead
of seven vowels, four vowels and an autosegment [A] are stated, and the
principles governing their distribution are two:
(1)
Phonemic similarity.
The principle states that, the most phonetically similar vowels on either side
of the harmony feature are paired. This is viable in Tèè where we observe these
pair [E
and e], [o and O], [u and O], [i and a], [e
and a] and [E
and a].
(2)
Optional utilization:
This second principle states that all attested vowels in the language are
maximally used. Thus, in Tèè as evident from our examples provided earlier, we
observe that every vowel participates fully in the vowel harmony process.
We
have provided evidence early in this chapter to show that vowel harmony
operates in Tèè. We stated some universal characteristics of vowel harmony and
provided examples to justify the existence of vowel harmony in Tèè. We now
present the autosegmental analysis of some of these examples to justify the
fact that vowel harmony is an autosegment in Tèè.
Agentive
Noun:
As earlier mentioned these are nouns derived from verbs.
Verb
dáá ‘sleep’ ádám ‘sleeper’
táá ‘work’ átám ‘worker’
bOO ‘fear’ ObOm ‘fearer’
zágbárá ‘dream’ ázágbárá ‘dreamer’
Agentive
nouns are derived from monosyllabic verbs by affixation of a prefix and suffix
to the verb root. The affixes are a-/-O prefixes and -m
suffix. The vowel prefixes a-/-O must harmonize the verb root vowels.
The prefixes copy the tone of the vowel in the verb root.
The harmony feature [+/-ATR] spreads
from the verb stem into the prefixes and the suffix. The stages of derivation
include, the first stage is the underlying representation of the verb stems
which is linked to [+ATR] or [-ATR] depending on the harmonic group of verb.
Stage two is how the harmony features
spreads from vowels of the verb stem into the prefixes and suffixes. The
autosegmental representations are presented below:
-A -A
a+da+m adam
-A -A a+ta+m atam
+A +A O+bO+m ObOm
-A -A
a+zagbara+m
a+zagbaram
In
this chapter we have presented the vowel harmony processes as it obtains in Tèè
with evidence from roots and affixes. In this process we stated features
expected of a harmony and as it is in Tèè. We employed the autosegmental theory
to describe the vowel harmony process in Tèè.
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