Draft September 2012

Chapter ##

PHONOLOGY: VOWELS

ole has a five vowel system and, like most Chadic languages, it has a contrast between long and short vowels. Bole is unusual in having a length contrast for all five vowels, both within a word and word final. Most Chadic languages, at least those of the West Branch, if they have mid vowels at all, have only the phonologically long variants, and for high vowels, a four-way contrast between long and short variants is often marginal and/or environmentally restricted. Bole does share with most other Chadic languages a prohibition against long vowels in closed syllables, and the length distinction in high vowels is neutralized before homorganic glides. Vowels tend to be quite stable. There is one limited elision process affecting short high vowels, and for vowels than can be viewed as epenthetic, there is some variation between short i and short u. 1. Inventory of vocalic nuclei The monophthongal vowel system of Bole is the following, where a macron represents a long vowel: i e a u o

Convention for marking vowel length and contour tones: Contour tones (F and R) are allowed only on heavy syllables, the only exception being the Previous Reference Marker y (##), which has a short vowel with a F tone when final in a phrase. We therefore do not mark vowel length on syllables bearing a contour, e.g. z [z] cubit, m [m ] you (pl.), min [min ] these. Bole also has a full set of diphthongs rising to the high vowels, though all but ai and au are restricted in occurrence (3): ui ei oi ai 2. Monophthongal Vowel Contrasts Bole is unusual among Chadic languages in having a five vowel system with both length and quality contrasts for all vowels in open syllables. In Hausa for example, short 1 iu ou eu au

Segmental Phonology: Vowels

mid-vowels contrast with their long counterparts only in word final position, and the contrast between medial short i and u is marginal, if there is a contrast at all (Parsons 1970, Schuh 2002). 2.1. Word medial contrasts Contrasts in length i~ lo e~ lele u~ buyo o~ sni a~ d voice smearing blowing year Combretum spp. lo lle by sni da kerker tla bd b le yla ker bl pt b winding rock outcropping beard honey peanut sauce (id.) stubby failed attempt male servant night small guinea corn a tip scar tail five

Contrasts in short vowels i~e kirkir all i~a dila jackal i~u bid thatching needle i~o mi python u~o yule saliva u~a yula testicle u~e kur red earth e~o ble crying e~a pt exiting o~a b night

Because contrastive medial short mid vowels are not common in languages related to Bole, the question arises as to their source. A full answer to this question must await further comparative linguistic work, but one source may be a reconfiguration of labialized and palatalized consonants + a. Proto-West Chadic had at least labialized velars and possibly palatalized velars, whereas Bole has no phonologically distinct labialized or palatalized consonants. In borrowing from Hausa, Bole realizes Cwa as [Co] and Cya as [Ce]. gd kob kndo kyi gngei kellbi knkes blanket < Hausa gwd kobo coin < Hausa kwab basket < Hausa kwnd greed < Hausa kwy nodding from drowsiness < Hausa gyngya headscarf < Hausa kyallb cockroach < Hausa kynkyas

2.2. Word final contrasts. As opposed to word medial position, where the length contrast in vowels bears a high functional load, there are no lexical distinctions based on final vowel length alone, and the small number of words that end in long vowels almost

Segmental Phonology: Vowels

all fall into restricted sets of semantic and syntactic categories. Below are lists of most words that can occur before pause and end in long vowels. Ideophonic adjectives of the kololo type (##) and ideophones of the kolola and Cv types (##) always have long final vowels, so the lists include only one word exemplifying each vowel. This list excludes words and clitics that appear only phrase medially. Such items are nearly all monosyllabic conjunctions, prepositions, pronominal clitics, and suffixes, e.g. b if, l = y which, that (relative clause marker), g in, interior of , t her, to her (nonfinal object suffix), j progressive marker (originally a bound form of jwo body), m us, to us (non-final object suffix), l even if, every- (as in ll everyone), kob = kab let not (prohibitive operator). The lists are sorted by lexical category. Words ending in long - gll ideophonic adj. mbrr n. sh pronoun Words ending in long - mrss ideophonic adj. mbrr n. gu = gb (Gadaka) n. Words ending in long - mll p k = k = ky d ideo. adj. id. part. part. small and round mud-dauber wasp you (f.s. indep. pronoun) big, strong a type of colorful locust corpse lying long and stretched out exhaling indeed, also (H. kuma, ma) used for emphasis as in Hausa ba or ko (yes/no question) this; this one (masculine) this; this one (feminine) these here heres , here it is thus so-and-so, whateverused as a hesitation marker or filler (H. abin nan) this town this year

em det. m. osh det. m. min det. pl. ten adv. loc. ss presentative mamm adv. man. nn (from yn em this part. thing)1 griy < gru + y adv. loc. sniy < sni + y adv. tem.
1

The item nn is, historically at least, not a unitary word. The derivation from this thing is speculative, based partly on a reasonable phonological resemblance, partly on the functional relationship to the morphologically transparent Hausa counterpart. An item with a somewhat different function, but probably with the same historical source is nn, a particle introducing an surprising or unexpected event, e.g. nn ka nd bn sa so you didnt go home after all. Functionally this item cannot occur phrase final and hence is not listed here.

Segmental Phonology: Vowels payy < pai place concn = honcn sh b (VN of - mount) k (VN of k- transplant) Words ending in long - shrr insh = inshyi y = y nd-k b adv. loc. adv. tem. adv. man. n. n. n. over there now like this, thus son copulation by animals seedling watery today well, mhm coming, arrival mouth; language; sharpness (of blade)

ideophonic adj. adv. tem. interjection ventive VN suff. n. ideo. adj. id. id. interjection interjection interjection det. m. presentative det. pl. det. f. adv. loc. adv. loc. adv. loc. conj. pro. n. n. n. adj.

Words ending in long 2 prtt dk p yy gidib hb am [am] ss [ss] min [min] osh [osh] tan [tan] paipayy (< payya) payy [payy] < pai place kaa = kala m arkl b, b (polar tone) b lpl
2

tall, strong very dirty falling with a bang (as question) is that right?! how amazing! come on, now! that; that one (masculine) theres , there it is those that; that one (feminine) there way over there over there as for, but, moreover you (pl.) (indep. pronoun) Abyssinian roller added to a proper name or title as a polite form of address, e.g. B M, B Gimb Dad; often combined with a mans name to make a proper name, e.g. B Idi, B Muhammad, Alaji B blue

See the end of this section for a discussion of the items that have a form in brackets terminating in a glottal stop.

Segmental Phonology: Vowels mb ng ptn kiy [ptn kiy] rkk s s s = sra sh tm z zl n. adj. adv. temp. n. n. n. n. n. n. n. n. upper arm; wing; branch strong, healthy day before yesterday heavy silver bracelet oclock victory, luck hand circumcision thinking, believing ell, cubit mudfish

Words ending in long vowels fall into the following categories: Ideophonic adjectives: These are ideophone-like words that can directly modify nouns (##). The kololo type have three syllables, all H or all L and the last two syllables are identical, with a long vowel, e.g. mbrr small and skinny (see ## for more examples). There are a couple of insect names that seem to be ideophonic adjectives in origin, e.g. mbrr mud-dauber wasp. Ideophones: All CV ideophones end in a long vowel, e.g. p exhaling, as do all ideophones of the kolola type (##) e.g. dk dirty. Interjections: A significant number of interjections end in long vowels. Unlike the ideophonic categories typified by long final vowels, there are no apparent formal generalizations that differentiate interjections ending in long vowels vs. those ending in short vowels. For example, nothing about the form of yy is that right?!ending in a long vowel seems to distinguish it from aww how terrible! ending in a short vowel. Modal particles: A few monosyllabic modal particles end in long vowels. Like interjections, however, final long vowels are not a universal property of such particles, e.g. m emphasizer for imperative, pa indeed (stressing the certainty of a statement) end in short vowels. Demonstratives and related words: All demonstratives end in long vowels as do words broadly related to the demonstrative system, including the words for here and there, a set of locatives derived from pai place, the near and far presentatives, and probably the words mamm thus and the words for now, today, and day before yesterday. The words griy this town and sniy this year derive from gru town and sni year respectively plus the Previous Reference Marker y (##), but the PRM in its productive function has a short vowel, and in fact the expressions this town and this year contrast with the corresponding analytic constructions meaning the town/year in question (##). Ventive verbal noun suffix -k: This suffix has a final long vowel, and hence every verbal noun bearing this suffix ends in long -. Independent pronouns; The independent pronouns sh you (f.s.) and m you (pl.) have long vowels. Significantly, these are the only independent pronouns which would

Segmental Phonology: Vowels

have only one mora if they ended in short vowels (see ## for the full independent pronoun paradigm). Monosyllabic nouns: All monosyllabic nouns except ko head, lo meat, jo running, and ya thing have long vowels. This is the instantiation of a widespread minimum word feature of Chadic languages requiring non-clitic words to have at least two moras.3 The only other monosyllabic words in Bole that can occur independently and end in short vowels are l who? and l what?. All other short monosyllables are syntactic clitics: sa negative, n quotative, g with, ko from, nko because of, ta via (< Hausa), and several phrase-ending clitics. Miscellaneous nouns and adjectives with final contour tones or derived from disyllables: A fair number of nouns and adjectives have long vowels with contour tones on the final syllable. Nearly all are loanwords and all end in long with the exception of a few deictic words ending in . A few words have long vowels resulting from elision of a consonant between two short vowels (see corpse and hand). The resultant nouns are monosyllables and hence conform to either the two mora principle and/or the contour tone principle for requiring long vowels. Aside from the rarity of words with long final vowels and the lexical restrictedness of such words, it is not at all clear that there is a consistent phonetic contrast between long and short vowels before pause. Some speakers add a glottal stop after prepausal short vowels, at least for nouns. This is not a consistent diagnostic for final short vowels, however, since pronunciation without glottal stop is also common. There is, however, one morphosyntactic category of words where presence or absence of final glottal stop is a lexical property. All deictic words (demonstratives, presentatives, words differentiating distal vs. proximal space or time) distinguish proximal with final long - and no glottal stop vs. distal with final long /-. The distal is always terminated by a glottal stop before pause.4 These facts are exemplified here by the words for here and there. A complete list of relevant deictic words is found in the tables above. See ## for discussion of tones. Final ten, *ten tan, *tan Medial ten sa tan sa

Proximal Distal

here there

not here not there

3. Diphthongal Contrasts The diphthongs ai and au are fairly common in both root medial and root final positions: au ai
3

ndur ik

gum Arabic squirrel

kshu di

sesame red

Ba- daughter is cited as bati, with a suffix ti or takes a possessive pronoun, whose consonant is geminated, e.g. batt her daughter, both forms presumably related to the minimum word principle. 4 This property is reminiscent of a group of Hausa words and grammatical morphemes described in (Newman Ma 19##) that have final long vowels terminated by glottal stops phrase final but not medial, e.g. the monosyllabic verb [sh] drink, the first person singular possessive suffix ([gidn] my house, and ventive verbs ([tah] came.

Segmental Phonology: Vowels

The remaining phonetic diphthongs are not common, and, with a couple of apparent exceptions, they occur only in morpheme final position, though they may be word medial as part of reduplicant or a root with a suffix added. Since there are so few tokens, we list all those in currently available data: ui: dnkui the tree Mitrascarpum scabrum, di gossiping, kuimi a type of tree, rui ideophone for striking, ri ideophone for swelling, si thats good!, (w)i pregnancy, bish blowing (< buyu- blow), kitu stimulate pompous behavior (< kuyu- be pompous) jingiu a type of fish trap, klliuliu fulvous tree duck, liuliu flexible, liuliu purlin inside thatched roof, lyyu slimy, miu ideophone for stinging pain, pu awl, piu ideophone for sourness, zingu bouncing, ziriu sacred ibis Bamoi nickname for Muhammad, boi back, goib guava, gigoi a type of spirit, jgi small mound in which seeds are planted, koikod5 beads worn around waist, mbi fleshy part of birds ribs, moi king, emir, poishi drought (cf. pu- dry up), zi pleasant, tasty, mish watching (< moyu- watch) blou two, monu how many?, zu life; next year, oushe scorning (< owu- scorn), utu- = tu- seat (< owu- sit down), gush beating (< gowu- beat), lush an answer (< lowu- to answer), sush touching (< sowu- touch), yutu- disturb (< yowu- be upset), zush putting (< zowu- put) gu strength, leulewe ringworm (the Gadaka dialect has a couple of additional words with eu) dei emphatic particle, lit having supernatural powers, njei force, necessity, ditu guard (cf. dyi tending animals); all words with a full form Cyi have a contracted forme Ci (##): bi = byi place, di = dyi tending animals, l = lyi child of... (< leyu- give birth) (the Gadaka dialect has a few additional words with ei where Fika has ai, e.g. Gadaka di, Fika di red)

iu: oi:

ou:

eu: ei:

Phonological structure in some Chadic languages provides evidence for whether diphthongs are best viewed as VC, with a consonantal glide coda, or as a VV vocalic syllable nucleus. Miya, for example, has the former structure while Hausa has the latter (Newman and Salim 1981, Schuh 1989). In Bole there seems to be no evidence from phonological alternations nor morphological behavior for one analysis over the other. Some phonetic diphthongs in Bole derive from VC, e.g. the verb moyu- watch belongs to a class of verbs with CVC- root structure but has a verbal noun mish, in which the nucleus of the first syllable is identical to the nucleus of the first syllable of boish your (f.) back, from boi back + possessive pronoun. We use the Bole practical orthography, which writes diphthongs as vowel sequences in conformity with the widely used standard orthography of Hausa.

Along with kuimi (a type of tree), this is only one of two words with what looks like a word internal diphthong other than ai or au. Koi- is reminiscent of kyi head, but the combining form of head is ko, not koi.

Segmental Phonology: Vowels 4. Vowel Alternations

4.1. Short non-high vowel assimilation and height matching. Bole has a rule that applies in some morphological environments to assimilate short a to e when the nucleus of next syllable is e: a e / ___Ce This assimilation takes place most productively in class B verbs. Verbs of this class all have CvC(C)- root structure (V = short vowel). Most have verbal nouns of the form CVCe (tone lexically determined), FUTURE CvC(C), HABITUAL CvC(C)e, and SUBJUNCTIVE CvC(C)e. If the root vowel is /a/, which is it for most class B verbs, this vowel assimilates to the final -e of the verbal noun, FUTURE, HABITUAL, and SUBJUNCTIVE. The table below illustrates the alternation between PERFECTIVE, with stem final -a and hence no root vowel alternation, and verbal nouns with final -e. The same alternations take place for the other forms, e.g. PERFECTIVE ptw he went out, but FUTURE pt he will go out, HABITUAL pete he goes out, SUBJUNCTIVE pte that he go out.
PERFECTIVE

ptw bswyi wwyi krwyi bttwyi lmwyi krrwyi

(pluractional of krwyi)

Verbal Noun pete bse ewe kr bette leme krr dise gr

go out spin (thread) open cut, slaughter trick, scare lick slaughter repeatedly lean against dig away

cf. dswyi grwyi

which do not have /a/ in the first syllable and do not assimilate

The conditioning for the a e alternation is both phonological and morphological. On the one hand, it applies in class B verbs even when the environmental e is not in a contiguous syllable. This arises in pluractional verbs with an infixed -gi- (##), which interrupts the contiguity between the initial /Ca-/ syllable and the syllable with the conditioning -e-. Compare the following forms with the same verbs in the table above. kryi ewyi he will cut he opens kgryi egiwyi he will cut repeatedly he opens repeatedly

On the other hand, the a e rule is not an automatic morphophonemic alternation. For example, it does not apply to noun plurals ending in -e nor to verbs of other classes in forms that end in -e.

Segmental Phonology: Vowels manshe (sg. mnshi) garr (sg. gra) gajje (sg. gz) ishi kcc ishi kmt old people tall, long (pl.) roosters that he intercept (SUBJUNCTIVE of kccu- class A2) that he persevere (SUBJUNCTIVE of kmtu- class A2)

Although a e /__e in verbs is the only assimilation process that has the nature of a rule affecting the quality of underlying vowels in Bole, there is a tendency for any short non-high vowel to match a non-high vowel in a following syllable,6 i.e. e-e (rwe tree, shk foot, etc.), o-o (bz well, gdo much, etc.), a-a (pt tail, d dog, etc.). There are a number of lexically related pairs where members of the pair have matched non-high vowels, but the vowels are different. gompor wro rkkumbttm7 kkkk bni bamboo door closure fart chase away heavy and fat hard house (bound form, as in bni uww pen for goats) gmprm metal awning yr biliousness rekke chasing birds from farm = mbccm = kkkk = kekkiek bn house

A number of loanwards, particularly from Hausa, have been nativized by assimilating a short a- in the source language to a following mid vowel, as in the following nonexhaustive lists. a>e rke dembe brwa gde a>o bongo orgo mongr zong < Hausa rk < Hausa dambe < Hausa brw < Kanuri gde other

sugar cane boxing gazelle different

< Hausa bang < Hausa arg < Hausa mangwr < Hausa zang

wall marrow mango area of town where travelers stay

The vowel-matching tendency applies only to SHORT non-high vowels. There are many words with LONG non-high vowels followed by non-matching non-high vowels, e.g. tr anvil, jsa mane of a horse, gr lizard, ko tick, kr type of mans gown, ra diarrhea. 7 The words mbttm = mbccm and kkkk = kkkk = kekkiek are ideophonic adjectives (##). One property of this class of words is matching vowels, and there are others with variants like those here, all involving non-high vowels. Note that the matched vowels skip the medial syllable, where the -i- can be considered epenthetic.

Segmental Phonology: Vowels

10

Borrowed words also show a tendency to vowel matching through perseverative assimilation if a syllable containing a short a- in the source language FOLLOWS a syllable containing a mid-vowel. This includes cases where, as described in 2.1, Bole nativizes the source configurations Cwa > Co and Cya > Ce in the earlier syllable. lokshi kellbi ori koyi time < Hausa lkc headscarf < Hausa kyallb effort < Hausa ar greed < Hausa kway

RETHINK THIS: RATHER THAN ATTEMPT TO GIVE EXHAUSTIVE LISTS FOR EACH CONFIGURATION, MAYBE MAKE A TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF NON-VERBS WITH e-e, o-o, a-a vs. THE NUMBER OF NON-VERBS WITH EACH OF THE PAIRINGS, PLUS SELECTED EXAMPLES. The following lists give an idea of the strength of the matching tendency for each pairing of vowels. The apparent avoidance of the sequence eC(C)[-high, -front] is particularly strong. Avoidance of aC(C)[-low] seems somewhat less strong, but the fact that a number of loanwords have assimilated a e/o, suggests that this is a dispreferred sequence. On the other hand, words with the sequence oC(C)[-high, -round] are more common than the other sequences, and loanwords do not show a tendency to assimilate o to following non-high vowels. THIS LIST IS COMPLETE e-o: Two words have an eCo sequence, and four words have an eCCo sequence: knkes cockroach < Hausa kynkyas njnjel a type of tag game tto bitterleaf (Vernonia amygdalina) kerto flintstone kerwo fish pensh pension NOT YET CHECKED IN THE NEW DICTIONARY FOR FURTHER EXAMPLES e-a: Only one word has an eCa sequence, and only four words have an eCCa sequence: prey a type of calabash decoration lkebb burnous < Hausa lkyabb < Arabic Kebb name applied to a hefty woman (cf. kw- be well nourished) mbccmbrm rhinoceros temka sheep (pl. of tmshi; Gadaka has tamka) ADDITION OF ITEMS FROM THE NEW VERSION OF THE DICTIONARY MAKES THE CLAIM ABOUT BEING DISFAVORED LOOKED QUESTIONABLE. a-e: The sequence aCe is disfavored lexicallythe list below may be complete. alad r At, Bat bad karkare mt pig ? < Hausa lad type, kind mens names greater bustard Karekare them

Segmental Phonology: Vowels

11

FROM NEW DICTIONARY: kkkare, pagji, mbr, tabbar-tabbar, bar, jakt, pirmr, sakatar, kast, Ym; also mlka, mlna There is a substantial number of words such as rk nanny goat, bang baboon, ass big (ones) (plural of sr) where two consonants separate the vowels. Note in the verb table above, however, that this underlying sequence changes to [eCCe] in class B verbs. NOT YET CHECKED IN NEW DICTIONARY FOR FURTHER EXAMPLES a-o: Unlike the a e rule affecting class B verbs, there is no comparable active process of a assimilating to following o. Verbs with underlying short a in the first syllable retain a in a productive class of verbal nouns ending in o (##), e.g. baro withdrawing < baru-, kacco intercepting < kccu-. Nonetheless, there are more words with an o-o sequence than a-o, and there is a tendency for source a to assimilate to o in borrowings. Below is an (nearly?) exhaustive list of roots with an aCo sequence. There are also fewer than 20 words with the sequence aCCo, such as yuno elephant, ka'ng gum Arabic. goggo clock < Hausa ggo kar collision ? < Hausa kar layypo spinach ? < Hausa layyh ngm Ngamo wo stomach rw bowstring Bamoi a mans name shato drops of rain Bbay a mans name ynylo a game gro Euphorbia unispina ywo granary kmo wrestling NOT YET CHECKED IN NEW DICTIONARY FOR FURTHER EXAMPLES o-e: The following is a (nearly?) exhaustive list of non-derived words with this sequence. This list is large enough that there is some question as to whether there is a true avoidance of this sequence. Moreover, nouns with o in the first syllable and plurals ending in -e resist assimilation of o to e, e.g. bbb fathers < bwu, tosse gourd cups < tsum. Finally, we have not identified any cases of o e assimilation in loanwords, though medial short o would not exist in languages that would be the main sources of Bole loanwords.8 bl strip of palm frond weaving bon difficulty < Kanuri zng Balanites aegyptiaca le small znge hyena mbole dove konte a type of trap mbl sexual intercourse bongl mans sleeveless shirt mle younger sister gotigjje Tribulus terrestris tombole snail shell osh this (f.s.) nglngole dum palm shshonge a type of plant NOT YET CHECKED IN NEW DICTIONARY FOR FURTHER EXAMPLES scar ynge for

Kanuri, a primary source of loanwords in all Yobe State Chadic languages, does not have a vowel length distinction. Kanuri o is normally borrowed as long in Chadic languages.

Segmental Phonology: Vowels

12

o-a: The list below is (nearly?) exhaustive for words with an o-a sequence. As in the case of o-e, the list is large enough that it provides only weak evidence for avoidance of the vowel sequence. Moreover, class A1 verbs, which end in -a in the Future and many of which have verbal nouns ending in -a, do not assimilate a root o to final -a, e.g. lotu-, VN lot chip a piece off. As in the case of the o-e sequence, borrowed words that might illustrate o a assimilation would be rare to non-existent because likely source languages would not have medial short o. gma market wn dancing9 korkr mat used for a door covering losh flower balls of locust bean tree which are putting out beans dkolba a dance in which the feet are shuffled forward gomnat government < Hausa gwamnat < English gnd a type of womens wrapper kry storm lnga a decorative band tied around the hair on the top of the head nzonna twins (cf. singular nznni and general resistance of vowel alternation in plurals) osh this (feminine) wkk = wkk large calabash ngorwa guests (cf. singular ngropi and general resistance to vowel alternation in plurals) 4.2. Long vowel shortening in closed syllables. The maximal syllable in Bole has two moras (##). A two-mora syllable may have rimes of one of three types: Long vowel: z Diphthong: ju Consonant coda: zan before difficult Kanuri

In order to maintain the two-mora limit, Bole shortens underlying long vowels that surface in syllables closed by a consonant. A number of morphological situations create the condition for shortening. Noun plurals: Some nouns with a long root vowel in the singular have a plural with a geminate, creating a closed first syllable and concomitant shortening of the root vowel. bti, (pl.) byyti bwu, (pl.) bbb ddati, (pl.) dddti gz, (pl.) gajje gsho, (pl.) gucce nnu, (pl.) nnnti ywi, (pl.) ybbi zti, (pl.) zppti elder brother father elder sister rooster stone mother chicken compatriot

Formally and semantically wn dancing looks like a class A1 verbal noun. There is a related verb, but it is derived from the noun, viz. wntu- make dance, make dance movements.

Segmental Phonology: Vowels

13

The vowel in the singular shows whether the root vowel is underlyingly long or short. There are nouns with plurals of this type have short vowels in the singular, e.g. bd, (pl.) budde dshti, (pl.) dkkti gra, (pl.) garr mj, (pl.) mojje servant grandfather; grandson tall husband

PERFECTIVE verbs with feminine and plural subjects or the ventive extension: Verbs in the PERFECTIVE show feminine singular subject agreement by adding -aG--G- (G = geminate copy of the next consonant) and plural subject agreement by adding -an--n-. PERFECTIVE verbs with the ventive extension add -n--n- (plus a verb stem vowel change in some verb classes). Pronoun clitics that fall in the slot indicated by dots have underlying long vowels, which surface as short in the three environments here because the second element closes the syllable including the pronoun.

bs-at-ta-k-k she shot her cf. bs-t-w he shot her ngr-an-ta-n-t they tied for her cf. ngor-t-t he tied for her ppi-n-ta-n-go he followed her (here) cf. ppi-t-wo he followed her
SUBJUNCTIVE ventive; The SUBJUNCTIVE with the ventive extension geminates the consonant of a pronoun clitic. If the final vowel of the verb is underlyingly long, it becomes short.

bse-t-t-yi that he shoot (and bring) her i-t-to that he do for her (and bring)

cf. bs-t cf. -to

that he shoot her that he do for her

Class C and D IMPERATIVES with agreement clitics: IMPERATIVES of Class C and D verbs (verbs with only one root consonant) have alternative forms: C-V and C-V-G-Pro. In the latter, the vowel of the IMPERATIVE stem is short because of the syllable being closed by G (gemination of the next consonant). ri-k-ko ri-sh-shi ra-k-ku enter! (m.s.) = r- enter! (f.s.) = r- enter! (pl.) = r-

Miscellaneous cases of CVC + C CVCC: There are a few forms that are lexically related through non-productive processes showing an originally long vowel appearing as short in a closed syllable: sai-n wet, stative related to syu- be cold could uses some more miscellaneous examples 4.3. Neutralization of high vowel length before homorganic glides. Conforming to what may be a universal feature of Chadic languages, the distinction between long and short u is neutralized to short u before w and the distinction between long and short i is

Segmental Phonology: Vowels

14

neutralized to short i before y.10 Thus, there are words such as those in the left hand column, but none such as those in the right. gwa rw biy ya forging strolling sauce honey comb but no *gwa *rw *by *ya

Evidence that the neutralization is specific to the SHORT variants, not just to a vowel of indeterminant length comes from metrics. Native Bole poetry/song metrics use syllable weight as the organizing principle. The syllables Ci /__y and Cu /__w scan as light. For example, in the song kona, in the lines Bba Dll an d niy Baba Daleli the worldly one, Kn Ds b K wuw But its Disa, son of Kawuwa, the underlined portions must scan v , i.e. the boxed syllables must be short11 (Schuh 2001). There are words containing the sequence uwwV-, e.g. tuww day after tomorrow and iyyV-, e.g. jmiyy political party. One might thus hypothesize a rule /wV/ [uwwV], e.g. /tw/ [tuww] day after tomorrow and similarly for /yV/. This analysis fails, however, because in cases where an underlying long high vowel combines with a homorganic glide, the result is not V + geminate glide but rather a short vowel followed by the glide, e.g. /ld-w/ [ldu-w] it has been cancelled. This verb appears in the kona line Yya Gimb wn l duw Big brother Gimba the dance has been cancelled, where the scansion requires vv v . See 4.4.2 for evidence that the vowel is underlyingly long. A second argument against the sequence -uwwV being underlying /wV/ (and similarly for iyyV) is the fact that the sequences wV and yV exist in Bole. There are no roots containing such sequences and shortening demonstrably takes place in some cases (see preceding paragraph), but under certain morphological conditions, speakers may retain a long high vowel before a homorganic glide (##). Object pronouns before the PERFECTIVE suffix -wo have a lengthened final vowel (4.4.2) as do object pronouns in the IMPERATIVE before the suffix -yi (4.4.1):12 ngor-n-wo ngor-sh-wo ngor-m-wo ngor-t-yi! ngor-s-yi! ngori-n-yi!
10

he tied me he tied you (fs) he tied us tie her! tie them! tie him!

Bole does have a length contrast in high vowels before NON-homorganic glides: by beard vs. buyo winnowing, wa looking at vs. bwr naked. Note also, that unlike Hausa, Bole has a phonetic contrast between short /i/ and /u/ before glides, e.g. buyo winnowing vs. biy sauce, bwr naked vs. kwi handle of an axe or hoe. Finally, there is a length contrast of long and short MID vowels before homorganic glides, e.g. w sit down! vs. dw horses, byi place vs. py roast!. 11 Line final syllables are weight-neutral, so the final syllables are arbitrarily scanned as heavy though they are phonologically light in these examples. 12 As pointed out in ##, the -yi suffix on IMPERATIVES with object pronouns is anomalous inasmuch as this suffix is normally present only on transitive verbs where there is no expressed object. It is thus an unexplained feature particular to IMPERATIVES, but presumably it is the same suffix as the object marker for transitive verbs elsewhere.

Segmental Phonology: Vowels

15

Speakers feel that the vowels on the pronouns are long in all these cases, including -m- before the -w of the completive suffix and -n- before the -y of the imperative suffix. Inspection of vowel duration in spectrograms of a small set of examples confirms this intuition of speakers.13 It may be the case that speakers have a sense of paradigm uniformity. Pronouns with vowels that do not match the glides clearly have long vowels. To fit the overall paradigm, pronouns of the form C before w (ngorm-wo) and pronouns of the form C before y (ngor-n-yi) also must have long vowels. 4.4. Morphologically conditioned vowel lengthening. Bole has no phonologically conditioned processes of vowel lengthening that are parallel to processes of vowel shortening described in 4.2. There are, however, several morphological environments that condition lengthening of underlyingly short vowels. These all involve stem final vowels when certain suffixes are added, but unlike the tone rule of PRE-SUFFIX LOWERING (##), which is an essentially exceptionless rule H L /H__+suffix, pre-suffix lengthening is restricted to specific suffixes and/or to specific lexical items with suffixes. 4.4.1. -y object suffix. Transitive verbs without an overtly expressed object require the object marker, -yi. This suffix conditions lengthening of the preceding vowel. The clearest examples are FUTURE and HABITUAL verbs. In these TAMs, the final vowel of the verb stem is long before -yi, but with transitive verbs, the final vowel is short before both pronominal and nominal objects, and intransitive verbs always have a final short vowel.
ngr-yi yra opp-yi sro he will tie (it) he will stop he follows (it) he falls opp-n he follows him oppo temshi he follows a sheep ngra-n he will tie him ngra temshi he will tie a sheep

4.4.2. -w PERFECTIVE suffix. Evidence that the PERFECTIVE suffix -wo conditions lengthening of a preceding vowel is circumstantial, but it explains certain facts. Consider the following verb forms:

It is difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the phonetic facts about duration of the high vowels from impressionistic listening because there is no clear demarcation point between the end of the high vowel and the beginning of the homorganic glide. Measurement of the vowels in spectrograms reveals no significant differences in duration between the different vowels before the glideindeed, in the case of uw, the u actually appears to be a bit longer than a or i. What we are really talking about, however, is phonological. length, rather than phonetic duration. Evidence from metrics above shows that in roots and in at least some morphologically complex environments, such as ldu-w it has been cancelled, speakers treat Cu before w and Ci before y as having phonologically short vowels. As an independent test that the vowel in ngorm-wo is phonologically long, we would like similar metrical evidence, but currently available data does not include examples of the crucial type.

13

Segmental Phonology: Vowels

-u before -wo No extensions ppu-w-yi he followed (it) he followed (it) he fell Long - pp tmshi ppu-t tmshi sr jn he followed a sheep he followed a sheep he fell down

16

Totality extension ppu-t-wo Without and with ICP sru-w

Verbs of class A2 have final stem vowel -u in the PERFECTIVE, as does the TOTALITY extension -tu. Vowel length of u is neutralized before the homorganic glide w of the PERFECTIVE suffix (4.3), but we assume that the PERFECTIVE -u stem vowel is underlyingly short since it is short preceding the TOTALITY extension -tu, and -tu has no effect on the length of the preceding vowel (cf. Class B verb bs-t-wo he shot (it) which has a long stem vowel -). In the column labeled Long - in the paradigm above, the final vowel of the verb and the vowel of the TOTALITY extension are long when followed by an object or the Intransitive Copy Pronoun (ICP##). The PERFECTIVE suffix is suppressed in phrase medial position (##), but the explanation for the long vowels in the Long - column must be that the underlying presence of -wo conditions lengthening. We propose the following derivations for the forms in the No extensions row above:
Underlying14
PRE-SUFFIX LOWERING

Lengthening before -wo

Suppression of -wo

u /__w

ppu-wo-yi ppu-wo tmshi

ppu-w-yi ---

pp-w-yi pp-wo tmshi

--pp tmshi

ppu-w-yi ---

It is this the last two steps in the derivation, working together, that obscure the lengthening effect of -wo: if -wo is overt, its initial glide, w, undoes the lengthening of u that the suffix conditioned (4.3), but if the suffix is absent, the vowel is free to retain the length that the underlying suffix conditioned. 4.4.3. Certain nouns with genitive pronouns. A small set of nouns, mainly body part terms, kin terms, and common household items, lengthen their final vowels before genitive pronoun suffixes. Though it is the nouns that undergo lengthening that must be lexically marked, it is the pronoun suffixes that trigger the lengthening. These nouns all end in either -a or -e, and in the Fika dialect, all have two syllables, but there are no skewings with respect to root syllable weight or tone pattern. See ## for a complete list of nouns that undergo pre-genitive suffix lengthening and more discussion. yul-n tmb-n kul-to j-no dnd-su shk-no his testicle(s) (< yula with PRE-SUFFIX LOWERING##) my navel (tmba) her calabash (kul) my hoe (j) their children (dnd) my foot (shk)

The object marker -yi in the left-hand column is present only with transitive verbs when no overt object is present.

14

Segmental Phonology: Vowels

17

4.4.4. Class B verbs in the FUTURE and HABITUAL with object suffixes. Intransitive class B verbs and transitive class B verbs with a nominal direct object have short final vowels in the FUTURE and HABITUAL, but with pronominal suffixes (direct or indirect objects) the final vowel is lengthened. Class A1 and A2 verbs do not undergo lengthening in this environment (e.g. A1 FUTURE ngrat he will tie her, A2 HABITUAL oppn he follows him). Thus, lengthening before object suffixes is not an instatiation of a general rule, but rather is a process restricted to a specific class of verbs in a specific environment.
FUT.

bs-to bes-to

he will shoot her/for her

cf. bs tmshi pt cf. bese temshi pete

he will shoot a sheep he will go out he shoots a sheep he goes out

HAB.

he shoots her/for her

4.4.5. -wa plural suffix. A number of nouns, particularly those referring to ethnic and occupational groups, add a suffix -wa to the singular stem, which takes all low tones and a lengthened final vowel. Singular bulam Karekare lkli kro Plural blmwa Krkrwa lklwa krwa

ward head Karekare person judge donkey

5. Vowel Epenthesis and Elision 5.1. Vowel epenthesis. Bole is quite restrictive in the types of consonant sequences that it allows. As a general statement, obstruent+obstruent sequences are disallowed. Thus, for example, the word bakit white cloth from Kanuri bakt has added an epenthetic vowel between k+t. See ## for a detailed discussion of syllable structure and epenthesis. 5.2. HIGH VOWEL ELISION. As a counterpoint to epenthesis, Bole has the following process of vowel elision:
HIGH VOWEL ELISION:

i, u /CV[C, +sonorant]/___# X]PHRASE (# = stem final, X )

That is, stem final short high vowels may be elided under certain specific circumstances. Consider the following tables, which is (as far as we know) comprise an exhaustive list of environments for this rule: CVCi/u NOUNS + GENITIVE BASE to her a. byi bit b. dyi dit NOUN bi Bamoi di Bamoi

place herding

Segmental Phonology: Vowels c. d. e. f. cf. lyi gru sni bni shi zwu lit grt snt bl l? shit zwut li Bamoi gr Bamoi sni (*sn) Bamoi bni (*bn) Bamoi shi Bamoi zwu Bamoi birth town year(s), age house15 skin message

18

LH-o BODY PARTS + GENITIVE BASE to her g. lo lt h. kmo kmt i. pdrno pdrt j. tlo tlt k. wo wt l. do ditt cf. pndo pndit sra srat

NOUN l Bamoi km Bamoi pdr Bamoi tl Bamoi wu (*w) Bamoi di (*dib) Bamoi pndi Bamoi sra Bamoi

voice ear side heart stomach neck thigh hand

SUBJUNCTIVE A1 VERBS + OBJECT SUFFIXES

m. n. o. p. q. r. s. cf.

OBJECT ly dw ngr wl kn tm ng wd

to her lit dwt ngrt wlt knt tmt ngtt wdit

NOUN lyi Bamoi dwi Bamoi ngri temshi wli dwun kni kari tmi Bamoi ng lo wdi Bamoi

give birth beat tie (sheep) throw down (mat) pick up (load) threaten eat (meat) bite

PERFECTIVE A1 ROOTS + PERFECTIVE SUFFIX -wo NOUN DO

t. u. v. w. x.
15

ley lw duw Bamoi ngor tmshi wol dwun kon kari

VERB-w- DO

leiwyi duwwyi [dwyi] ngor(u)wyi woluwyi konuwyi

progeniter (child) beat tie (sheep) throw down (mat) pick up (load)

House with pronoun possessors is expressed by the form bn rather than bni, e.g. bnko your (m) house. Elision of the final in the possessed form is unique to this word.

Segmental Phonology: Vowels y. z. cf. tom Bamoi nga lo wod Bamoi tomuwyi ngauwyi woduwyi her progeniter beat tie throw down pick up threaten eat bite threaten eat (meat) bite

19

PERFECTIVE A1 VERBS + OBJECT SUFFIXES VERB-t-PERF. SUFF. VERB

aa. bb. cc. dd. ee. ff. gg. cf.

leitwo duwtwo [dtwo] ngortwo woltwo kontwo tomtwo ngattwo woditwo

a-f. C1VS2i/u NOUNS + GENITIVE. The nouns in this list are disyllabic with a light first syllable, where S2 is a sonorant consonant or . They also all have a LH tone pattern.16 Only nouns ending in yi consistently elide the final i in all genitive environments. The words in d-f, which end in other sonorants, each have idiosyncrasies, shown in the table. No noun ending in a non-sonorant undergoes elision (exemplified by shi skin), and in fact, the only nouns that end in sonorants that do undergo elision are those listed in a-f. The word zwu message shows that even when elision would result in an acceptable word form (cf. zu life), it is prohibited, as is also the case with nouns like bni grindstone, li land, shri theft, slu building, and numerous others. g-l. LH-o BODY PARTS + GENITIVE. Body part terms that end in a LH tone pattern and the vowel o change the o to i in genitive constructions, as exemplified by pndo thigh (see ## for details). When the last consonant of the noun is a sonorant or , the i may be elided, as examplified in g-l. The word in (k), wo stomach, changes the final vowel to u rather than i, presumably under the influence of the preceding w-. This u is elided before pronoun genitives but not nouns. The word in (l), do neck likewise does not allow elision before a nominal genitive. With a pronominal genitive, -i does elide, and the resultant syllable final - completely assimilates to the following consonant, a regular process for // (##). Though // assimilation is not idiosyncratic to this word, its tonal behavior is: for (l) neck the tone becomes H with a suffixed pronoun. For all other words, the tone pattern of the base is presevered even after elision. The original LH pattern is realized as R in a-k and also in m-s below, esp. (s), where S2 is

For unknown reasons, nouns of the C1VS2i/u configuration are heavily skewed toward a LH pattern. In Gimba and Schuh (forthcoming), there are 24 such nouns (including those in the table here). The following is an exhaustive list of all nouns having the C1VS2i/u configuration with other tone patterns: HH biri corral, kuri first ten verses of the Koran, jimu a type of grass, kulu a type of small gourd; HL hal personality, ker a tip, kur red earth, shay tea, jur brownish-grey horse. There are no LL nouns with this pattern. None of these nouns undergo elision of the final vowel in genitive constructions.
16

Segmental Phonology: Vowels

20

//. The word sra hand shows that if the final vowel is not a high vowel, it is not elided.17 m-s. SUBJUNCTIVE A1 VERBS + OBJECTS. SUBJUNCTIVES of A1 verbs (verbs with a CVCbase, see ##) have a LH tone pattern with final i, seen in the left-hand column as well as for all forms of bite.18 With a pronominal object suffix, the final i is elided for verbs whose C2 is a sonorant or . Unlike the nouns in a-l, where the final i elides before pronominal complements and before nouns as well in most cases, the final i may not be elided with SUBJUNCTIVE verbs. t-z. PERFECTIVE A1 ROOTS + PERFECTIVE SUFFIX -wo. Class A1 verbs have a PERFECTIVE stem vowel u, which shows up as long before noun objects (seen in the left-hand column of t-z), as short u before PERFECTIVE suffix wo (see in v-z, optionally in u), and as being elided when C2 is a glide, optionally when C2 is r (seen in t-v). The fact that elision of u before w applies after a smaller class of sonorant consonants than in a-s can be accounted for by the sonority hierarchy and the Sonority Sequencing Principle (??best ref.). Language sounds can be classed as more to less sonorous as in this diagram:
MORE SONOROUS

vowels > glides > r > l > nasals > glottalized > fricatives > stops LESS SONOROUS

By the Sonority Sequencing Principle, syllables want to increase in sonority from onset to nucleus. When a syllable begins in a glide (as with the PERFECTIVE suffix wo) and the preceding syllable ends in a less sonorant consonant (as would be the case if u were elided after anything other than a glide), there is a clash, since there would be a tendency to want to group w with the preceding consonant (following the Sonority Sequencing Principle), yet Bole does not allow CC syllable onsets (##). This clash is obviated by not eliding the stem vowel u. aa-gg. PERFECTIVE A1 VERBS + OBJECT SUFFIXES. Class A1 verbs (also class A2) have a stem vowel i before object suffixes, as seen in bite, unless the verb root ends in a sonorant consonant, as in aa-gg, in which case the i is elided.19 The environments illustrated in a-gg have in common that they all involve stem final (but not phrase final) short high vowels following light syllables. From a typological perspective, this is a natural and commonly encountered process. On the other hand, HIGH VOWEL ELISION is in no sense a general phonological process of Bole. Each of the environments where it takes place has restrictions and idiosyncrasies that cannot be generalized across the whole set of elisions. Such restrictions range from what appears to be almost entirely specific lexical idiosyncrasies in a-f, to a highly specific phonosematic class in g-l, to regular but morophologically specific cases as in the verb forms in m-gg. Stem-final vowel elision seems to be an old property of the Bole-Tangale group of
There are no body part terms with root structure C1VS2- ending in e, -i, or u, and none with o other than those in g-l. 18 The forms in the left-hand column all end in a falling tone, the result of attaching a -object suffix . Intransitive verbs have the expected LH pattern, e.g. yri that he stop. 19 One might argue that the i is epenthetic and inserted before pronouns except after A1 roots ending in a sonorant. In modern Bole, the presence or absence of particular stem vowels in verbs seems to be completely grammaticalized, i.e. vowel insertion in verb forms does not seem to fall under some more general process of epenthesis.
17

Segmental Phonology: Vowels

21

languages. For example, in Tangale it basically applies to all word final vowels that are not phrase final (Kidda 19##). In modern Bole, it seems to have sorted itself out in the rather ragged way described here.