An investigation into the absence of voicedstop and fricative sounds in Kabarasi

Abstract

This study set out to investigate the absence of voiced stop and fricative sounds in Kabarasi. The major aim was to establish whether the language had these sounds and had lost them or if it never had these sounds at all. 'We used the generative phonology framework to work out general rules that could account for the various phonological processes in Kabarasi. We also used a historical-and-comparative Linguistics approach to work back to what the earlier form of the language may have looked like. The work is divided into five chapters. Chapter one provides an introduction to the study with the background information on the language under study, the statement of the problem, objectives, hypotheses, theoretical framework, review of related literature and the methodology. Chapter two is a presentation of the consonant sounds of Kabarasi and Logooli. We also have data to show native Kabarasi articulation of words with voiced stops and fricatives in this section. Chapter three is an analysis of the various phonological processes involving stops and fricatives in Kabarasi. Chapter four is an attempt to reconstruct proto-Luyia through comparative data to establish what the unattested Luyia may have looked like. The summary of this study is given in chapter five. It reveals that Kabarasi has not lost voiced stops and fricative sounds. It never had them. The words and names in Kabarasi that have voiced stops and fricatives have borrowed this feature from Logooli. This study is very important in the sense that it provides a starting point for more extensive work to be done in all the Luyia dialects to verify the conclusions we have drawn here.