A study of syllable weight and its effects in dholuo phonology

Abstract

This work is essentially a study of syllable weight and its effects in Dholuo phonology. It is assumed that a wide range of phonological processes are affected by syllable weight. The study therefore attempts to define syllable weight in Dholuo, showing how it is related to stress, tone and vowel processes ( namely, deletion, compensatory lengthening and glide formation). The data used in the study consists of monosyllabic, bisyllabic, trisyllabic and other polysyllabic words drawn from the speech of speakers of the KSN variety of Dholuo. The study is carried out within the frameworks of Autosegmental Phonology, Metrical Phonology and CV Phonology. The three theories are used in a complementary manner. Using the CV phonology model in Chapter 3, the Dholuo syllable structure is first analysed to show or make clear the syllable types that exist in the language. This then paves way for a discussion of the relationship between syllable weight and stress. In Chapter 4, it is then demonstrated within the framework of Metrical Phonology that stressed syllables are heavy and that stress has the effect of doubling vowels. In 'other words, some syllables are stressed because they are inherently heavy .and they appear in positions where stress is also detected, while others have a doubled vowel because they occur as either the penultimate or the last syllable of a word .. Syllable weight is also given a language specific definition. All the heavy syllables have been demonstrated to have a branching nucleus and all the light syllables a non-branching nucleus. It is also observed that almost all the heavy syllables are stressed and

almost all the light syllables are unstressed. It is concluded that syllable weight and stress have a mutual relationship and that Dholuo is a Quantity Sensitive language in stress assignment. With the distinction between heavy and light syllables in mind, the

relationship between syllable weight and tone is analysed in Chapter 5. The theory of Autosegmental Phonology is used in the analysis. The high-falling tone (a contour tone) is found on heavy syllables. All these heavy syllables are stressed. It is also noted that the high tone has the effect of making the weight of each syllable quite distinct, unlike the low tone. It is concluded that Dholuo is a Quantity Sensitive language in the assignment of the high-falling tone. The rest of the tones do not show any special relationship with syllable weight. The relationship between syllable weight and vowel processes is also investigated in Chapter 6. It is observed that the vowel that undergoes deletion is normally a word-final vowel at word boundary. It is always in a light (CV) syllable and only undergoes deletion if it precedes a word beginning with another light (V) syllable at word boundary. The syllable that emerges is also a light (CV) syllable. Deletion often leads to compensatory lengthening. It is demonstrated that after deletion has taken place, the word initial vowel that is in a light syllable doubles to occupy the space left by the deleted vowel. The syllable that emerges is a heavy (CVV) syllable. The vowels that glide are all high vowels in light (CV) syllables. They glide when they precede word initial vowels that are in light (V) syllables or heavy (VV) syllables. The syllables that emerge as aresult of glide formation are either light (CCV) syllables or ,

heavy (CCVV) syllables. As far as vowel processes are concerned, Dholuo is a

Quantity Sensitive language. The three vowel processes directly affect vowels that are in a light (CV) syllable. It is concluded in Chapter 7 that Dholuo is a Quantity Sensitive

language in stress assignment, tone assignment, deletion, compensatory lengthening and glide-formation. It is also concluded that syllable weight in Dholuo has an effect on stress, tone, deletion, compensatory lengthening and glide-formation