A phonological description of the sounds of lower Kipfokomo

Abstract

This study is an attempt at an analysis and description of the sounds of the southernmost dialect of the Pfokomo language. We have called this dialect, Lower Kipfokomo (LK). The opening chapter introduces the Wapfokomo and their Language; We give a classification of the wapfokomo into dialect groups and a short review of literature on the Wapfokomo. Chapter Two is basically analytical. We determine the underIying sounds of the language from which curface segments are derived. Chapter Three discusses vowel length in LK. We classify vowel length into three categories, derived, emphatic and underlying. We also establish a set of five underlying long vowels. Chapter Four continues from where Chapter Two and Chapter Three left off. Here the processes that both consonants and vowels undergo, are discussed. The relationship between underlying and surface segments is shown to be natural or not and explanations are given on the failure of rules to apply despite their Structural Descriptions being met. The final chapter, Chapter Five, summarizes our discussions of the four previous chapters. We also try to explain how this work could be useful to linguistic research and to society at large.