Phonology

Phonological Sketch of Ngiemboon

(translated from Esquisse phonologique du ngiemboon) by Stephen C. Anderson

1 Introduction

A detailed phonological description of Ngiemboon has already been published (Anderson, 1976a). It was done following the prosodic approach without the use of symbols found in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).This article, however, presents only a brief description of the sound system of Ngiemboon, using a more transparent model and incorporating IPA symbols. Since the phonological system of Ngiemboon is quite complex, it is rather difficult to explain in a concise manner. In this article, we will attempt to show the various phonological sub-systems of the language via tables using as little prose explanation as possible.

2 Types de morphemes

2.1 Roots

In Ngiemboon, almost all the roots are composed of C₁(S₁)V₁(C₂)(V₂), i.e., an obligatory consonant, an optional semivowel, an obligatory vowel, a second optional consonant, and a second optional vowel.

2.2 Affixes and pronouns

In addition to morphemes C(S)V(C)(V), certain Ngiemboon prefixes and three pronouns can reduce to one syllable consisting of a vowel or a homorganic nasal consonant, symbolized

"/N-/". The suffixes, on the other hand, consist of only two forms:  /-te/ or a single vowel.

 

3 Consonants

3.1 Underlying consonants

In Ngiemboon, there are 16 underlying consonants, each of them able to occupy the C₁ position mentioned above, as illustrated in the following table:

 

		Labials	Coronals	Velars
Occlusives:	voiceless		t	k
	voiced	b	d	ɡ
Affricates:		pf	ts
Fricatives:	voiceless	f	s
	voiced	v	z
Nasals:		m	n	ŋ
Semivowels:			j	w

3.2 Variation due to changes of position in a root

In Ngiemboon, the four consonants below vary in accordance to the position they occupy in the word:  initial position preceded by a vowel or by nothing; initial position of a root after a syllabic consonant; between two vowels within the root; word-final position before the suffix /-te/ or word-final position of the root at the end of a clause. The table below illustrates these phenomenon:

Underlying consonants	Word-initial position of a root	After the prefix /N-/	Between two vowels	Before the suffix /-te/	At the end of a clause
/b/	p	b	β	p	p̚
/d/	l	d	l	t	t̚
/g/	ɣ	ɡ	ʁ	q	q̚
/k/	k	k	ʔ	ʔ	ʔ

Four other consonants only appear in word-initial position of a root. They change form depending on the presence or absence of the nasal prefix, as shown in the following table:

Underlying consonants	Word-initial position	After the prefix  /N-/
/v/	v	bv
/z/	z	dz
/j/	j	ɡj
/w/	w	ɡw

 

3.3 Variation before the vowels [u] and [ʉ]

Certain apical consonants become post alveolar or retroflexed before the vowels [u] and [ɯ] while remaining respectively alveolar and dental before other vowels, as shown in the table below:

Underlying consonants	Before the vowels [u] and [ɯ]	Before other vowels
/s/	ʃ	s
/z/	dʒ	dz
	ʒ	z
/ts/	tʃ	ts
/t/	ʈ	t̪
/d/	ɖ	d̪
	ɭ	l̪
/n/	ɳ	n̪

3.4 Predictable aspiration

In other circumstances (Anderson, 1982: 32, 58), we demonstrated that the aspiration common to Grassfield Bantu languages is manifested as a homorganic voiceless fricative release in Ngiemboon. These releases therefore vary according to the preceding consonants, as in the table below:

		BL	LD	DN	AL	RT	PA	VL
Occlusives:	voiceless	pɸ		t̯θ̯		ʈθ̻		kx
	voiced	bɸ		d̯θ̯		ɖθ̻		ɡx
Affricates:	voiceless				ts:		tʃ:
	voiced		bvf		dzs		dʒʃ
Fricatives:	voiceless		f:		s:		ʃ:
	voiced		vf		zs		ʒʃ	ɣx
Semivowels:				l̯ɬ̯		ɭɬ̻

 

BL: bilabial

LD: labiodental

DN: dental

AL: alveolar

RT: retroflex

PA: post-alveolar

VL: velar

The process which gives rise to these modified consonants takes place if the initial syllable of the root of the word fills all three of the following conditions: be an open syllable; have one or another of the semivowels after the initial consonant; have a mid vowel (that is, the aspiration is only manifested if the vowel of this syllable is either /e/ or /o/). Ngiemboon has many minimal pairs that show this contrast, like those shown below:

[ŋ̩́kjɛ́]	jump
[ŋ̩́kxjé]	abandon

3.5 Unpredictable Aspiration

In contrast to the "predictable aspiration" presented above, Ngiemboon has "unpredictable aspiration". It appears in the same environment as the other type, but without a semivowel and is limited to the consonants shown in the table below:

		BL	LD	DN	AL	RT	PA	VL
Affricates:	voiceless
	voiced		bvf		dzs
Fricatives:	voiceless		f:		s:
	voiced		vf		zs

 

 

BL: bilabial

LD: labiodental

DN: dental

AL: alveolar

RT: retroflex

PA: post alveolar

VL: velar

 

 

This "non predictable aspiration" produces minimal pairs that show contrasts between short and long consonants, but only for voiceless fricatives, as in the following examples:

[fó]	come from	[sé]	his/her	[sǒ]	friend
[f:ò]	leaf	[s:é]	land, god	[s:ó]	fish

3.6 The homorganic syllabic nasal prefix

Like all Grassfield Bantu languages, the Ngiemboon nasal prefix is homorganic to the consonant that follows, resulting in the phonetic realizations below:

	BL	LD	DN	AL	RT	PA	VL
Nasals:	m	ɱ	n̪	n	ɳ	ɲ	ŋ

 

BL: bilabial LD: labiodental

DN: dental AL: alveolar

RT: retroflex PA: post-alveolar

VL: velar

Like in most Eastern Grassfield Bantu languages, the Ngiemboon nasal prefix is syllabic. Also, it carries either a high or low tone, a feature that is not common in other Grassfield Bantu languages.

3.7 The flapped "r"

The Ngiemboon language has a flapped "r" sound that is only perceptible during rapid speech, but is pronounced "l" when spoken slower and more carefully, illustrated in the following example:

[ésə̀lè] ~ [ésɾè]            to turn

 

3.8 Phonetic table of consonants

Setting aside all the complexities related to aspiration, the phonetic table of Ngiemboon consonants is presented as follows:

		BL	LD	DN	AL	RT	PA	VL	UV	GL
Occlusives:	voiceless	p		t̯	t	ʈ		k	q	ʔ
	voiced	b		d̯		ɖ		ɡ
	unreleased	p̚			t̚				q̚
Affricates:	voiceless		pf		ts		tʃ
	voiced		bv		dz		dʒ
Fricatives:	voiceless		f		s		ʃ	x
	voiced	β	v		z		ʒ	ɣ	ʁ
Nasals:		m	ɱ	n̯	n	ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
Semivowels:				l̯		ɭ	j	w

 

 

BL: bilabial

LD: labiodental

DN: dental

AL: alveolar

RT: retroflex

PA: post-alveolar

VL: velar

UV: uvular

GL: glottal

 

 

 

4 Vowels

4.1 Underlying vowels

The Ngiemboon language has seven vowels most of which can be modified by length and/or nasalization, presented in the table below:

Vowels Underlying	Short orals	Long orals	Short nasals	Long nasals
/i/	i	i:	ĩ	ĩ:
/e/	e	e:	ẽ	ẽ:
/ɛ/	ɛ	ɛ:
/a/	a	a:	ã
/ɔ/	ɔ	ɔ:		ɒ̃:
/o/	o	o:	õ	õ:
/u/	u	u:	ũ	ũ:

4.2 Variation before a consonant in syllable final position

The semi-closed vowel /e/ centralizes when it precedes a nasal consonant in syllable-final position, as illustrated below:

/sèm/ [sə̀m] drum                    /mȅŋ/ [mə̃̏ŋ] myself

 

Similarly, the mid-high vowel /o/ becomes unrounded before an /m/.

/fóm/ [fɤ́m] to choke

4.3 Variation by fusion with a semi-vowel

Certain semivowels and vowels merge to form fused vowels [y] and [ɯ]. These modifications will be explained in section 3.5.2 below:

 

 

4.4 "Echo vowels"

When open monosyllabic roots are lengthened (for example, imperfective verbs), the vowel becomes long. When closed monosyllabic roots are lengthened, they add a weak "echo vowel" that corresponds to the vowel of the first syllable. This is due to the fact that in Ngiemboon, the first syllable of the root is always accentuated, while the second syllable, like all other suffixes, is never accentuated. Here is an example:

Perfective/Imperfective/gloss:

[fàʔ] [fàʔà] to work

4.5 Nasalized vowels

In Ngiemboon, there are two types of vowel nasalization that occur in different contexts.

Firstly, vowels that immediately precede the consonant /ŋ/ automatically nasalize, as in the example below:

Perfective/Imperfective/Gloss

[sã́ŋ]       [sã́ŋá]         to count

Secondly, contrastive nasal vowels are always lengthened and do not change, even with the  imperfective aspect when roots normally receive additional vowel lengthening, as in the following example:

Perfective/Imperfective/Gloss

[zõ̀:]         [zõ̀:]            to curse

We can therefore say that, for a vowel that is already long in its shortest form (i.e., "lexical form"), it cannot be given additional length, even if another vowel is added as a suffix. Furthermore, as Ngiemboon consonants /m/ and /ŋ/ are often found in word-final position while the /n/ never does, the underlying lexical form of the long nasal vowel is posited to consist of the consonant /n/ fused with vowel length.

4.6 Phonetic table of vowels

As the result of variations described above, the following oral vowels exist in Ngiemboon:

Vowels orals short	+ANT - POST - RND	+ANT - POST +RND	- ANT - POST - RND	- ANT - POST +RND	- ANT +POST - RND	- ANT +POST +RND
+high, - low	i	y			ɯ	u
- high, - low	e		ə		ɤ	o
- high, +low	ɛ		a			ɔ

 

 

ANT: anterior

POST: posterior

RND: round

 

 

5 The semivowel "S"

In this section, we are not referring to semivowels that function as ordinary consonants, but the class of semivowels (symbolized by "S" compared to "C" and "V") that appear between an initial consonant of the root and the vowel that follows.

5.1 Underlying semivowels

The best way to understand the phonology of Ngiemboon is to interpret the four semivowels as underlying units, even if the parallel high vowels are not.

Phonetic Vowels	i	y	ɯ	u
Underlying Semivowels	j	ɥ	ɰ	w

N.B.: The table above uses the IPA symbols:

[i] Unrounded high anterior vowel

[j] Palatal semivowel (i.e. unrounded, high, anterior)

[y] Rounded high anterior vowel

[ɥ] Labial-palatal semivowel (rounded, high, anterior)

[ɯ] Unrounded high posterior vowel

[ɰ] Velar semivowel (unrounded, high, posterior)

[u] Rounded high posterior vowel

[w] Labial-velar semivowel (rounded, high, posterior)

 

The following examples show that each of the four semivowels may occur on the surface in identical environments, that which shows their importance in Ngiemboon:

Semivowel	Example	Gloss
(nothing)	[kɛ̂]	(question marker)
j	[kjɛ́]	jump!
w	[kwɛ́]	attach!
ɥ	[kɥɛ̀]	leave!
ɰ	[kɰɛ́]	monopolize!

5.2 Amalgamate vowels

The Ngiemboon language has two types of fused vowels, where the underlying semivowel-vowel sequences combine on the surface to a unique fused vowel. The more transparent case is where Ngiemboon speakers freely vary between the semivowel-vowel sequence and the fused vowel.

[ky̌] ~ [kɥǐ] bone

[kýʔ] ~ [kɥíʔ] namesake

A more opaque case, although symmetric, is where Ngiemboon speakers only use the fused vowel (from an underlying combination of /j/ plus /u/), as illustrated below:

[ŋ̩́kɯ̀] to throw things in a sack

[ŋ̩́kɯ̃̀ŋ] to carve

6 Tone

The Ngiemboon languages, Yemba (Dschang) and the other Eastern Grassfields Bantu languages are known for their complex tonal systems. This complexity is more noticeable because of the frequency of tonal perturbations, especially when words in isolation undergo tonal perturbations when they are used in clauses. Readers interested in these tonal changes should examine Anderson (1983). Fortunately, it is not necessary to understand these complex changes in order to learn to read and write Ngiemboon, since it is the underlying lexical tone at the word level that is written.

 

6.1 Underlying tones

As in related languages, Ngiemboon has four tonal melodies on nominal roots. For example, monosyllabic noun roots with a syllabic prefix carrying a low tone will be realized on the following tones when they appear in isolation:

Rising:	[ǹ̩d̪ə̌m]	God	[ǹ̩t̪ɔ̃̌ː]	type of fruit
High low:			[ǹ̩t̪ɔ̃̄ː]	thigh
Low:	[ǹ̩d̪ə̀m]	buttock
Low falling:	[ǹ̩d̪ə̏m]	arguement, discussion	[ǹ̩t̪ɔ̃̏ː]	intervals

N.B.: The phonetic tones "low" and "low falling" in this scientific paper correspond to the orthographic tones "mid" and "low" in the orthography and in didactic materials.

 

The verbal roots have much simpler tone patterns in that there is only high and low tones contrast. Ngiemboon has a high number of verbal roots that are minimal tone pairs, which shows that underlying lexical tone on verbs carries a high functional load in this language.

6.2 Tonal change in tense, aspect and mood systems

In Ngiemboon, tonal complexity is especially evident in the frequency of changes for conjugated verbs. This is due to the presence of many tonal morphemes (i.e. floating tones that are present for indicating tense, aspect or mood "TAM", but only show their presence by the changes caused on adjacent tones). Fortunately, most of these tonal morphemes only occur in addition to other parallel markers of TAM. So, their presence is signaled in advance by grammatical words, even if these are not adjacent to a verb. In this case, if the reader of Ngiemboon recognizes all the words of a verb phrase (written with their underlying lexical tone), he will be able to read without difficulty, pronouncing each tonal perturbation at the correct phonetic level.

 

7 Conclusion

This brief phonological sketch has presented an overview of the underlying phonological units, the different environments in which these units vary, as well as the resulting phonetic surface realizations, except for the correspondence between the underlying tones and their surface realizations which would be too complex and overwhelming for such a minimal description. Interested readers can find details on these topics in articles that include various aspects of Ngiemboon phonology.

The above phonological sketch is a scientific explanation of the manner in which sounds are used in the Ngiemboon language. It can serve as the basis for the practical orthography for this language that is described in other documents.