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Zero Stem Allomorphy in Consonant Gradation

Abubakar Atiku Alkali

Abstract

This paper studies zero stem allomorphy in consonant gradation in Fulfulde. Consonant gradation in Fulfulde involves the modification of stem-initial segments through the concatenation of suffixes in the case of nouns or a change in person and number in the case of verbs. Although Fulfulde is a language noted to exhibit a complex pattern of consonant gradation, there are stems that do not participate in this morphophonological phenomenon and they are substantial in number. These stems as characterised in this paper are equivalent to what Arnott (1970) describes as uniform stems in Fulfulde consonant gradation. Both in the literature and in the data for this study obtained from fieldwork, it is noted that Fulfulde stems with [t, l; m, n, ?, ?; ?, ?, ? ?] as their initial segments do not undergo gradation. Consonant gradation follows the continuant – stop – nasal pattern in many dialects of the language. Findings suggest that the absence of gradation in these stems stem from a prohibition against their continuancy in the phonotactics of Fulfulde. This paper consequently identifies the constraints militating against their continuancy from the point of view of Optimality Theory.

Keywords

Consonant gradationUniform stemsOptimality TheoryPhonotactics

References

Alhjouj, A. A. (2013). Against the class of liquids: Evidence from English and Arabic. Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literature 5/1, 31-56. Arnott, D. W. (1970). The nominal and verbal system of Fula. Clarendon Press. Fallon, P. D. (2006). Consonant mutation and reduplication in Blin singulars and plurals. In J. Mugane, et al. Selected Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 114-124. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. Grijzenhout, J. (2011). Consonant Mutation. In M. van Oostendorp, C. J. Ewen, E. Hume and K. Rice eds., The Blackwell Companion to Phonology 1537- 58. Blackwell Publishing. Hayes, Bruce. 2009. Introductory Phonology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. McCarthy, J. J. and Prince, A, S. (1994). Generalized alignment. Yearbook of Morphology 1993. 79-154. Mielke, Jeff. 2005. Ambivalence and ambiguity in laterals and nasals. Phonology 22, 169-203. Prince, A. S. & Smolensky, P. (1993). Optimality theory: constraint interaction in generative grammar. (Technical Report 2.) Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science. Prince, A. S. & Smolensky, P. (2004). Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar. Malden: Blackwell Publishing. van de Weijer, J. (1995). Continuancy in Liquids and in Obstruents. Lingua 96, 45-61. Wiese, R. (1996). The phonology of German. Clarendon Press.

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