Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Linguistics

UTA Working Papers in Linguistics

Series

1994

Diphthongization

Articles 1 - 1 of 1

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Diphthongization And Underspecification In Kɔnni, Mike Cahill Jan 1994

Diphthongization And Underspecification In Kɔnni, Mike Cahill

UTA Working Papers in Linguistics

The problems of analyzing vowels of Gur languages are well-known to those who work among them. The bulk of the difficulty in K?nni comes in the analysis of the mid vowels, which manifest themselves in diverse and initially confusing ways. In this paper, I demonstrate that phonetic vowel sequences in K?nni can be analyzed as a diphthongization of long mid vowels. Evidence from phonetics, phonological rules, and tone is cited to support this conclusion. In the remainder of Section 1, I present the vowel harmony system of K?nni. In Section 2, I introduce the question of how putative vowel sequences …