The nature of vowel length in Ekegusii A theoretical account

Abstract

This article is aim ed at presen ti ng a report on vowel length in Ekegusii , a Narrow Bantu language spoken in south western Kenya by about 2.2 million Abagusii. Abagusii are found in Kisii and Nyamira counties, S outh of Kavirondo Gulf in Kenya . Th e objectives of the study were to: investigate the relationship between vowel length and mean ing in Ekegusii; determine the p honological processes that trigger vowel length in Ekegusii and find out the orthographic presentation of vowel length in Ekegusii. Data for this study was c o llected from reading published books in Ekegusii. A word list was generated and presented to n ative Ekegusii speakers who were instructed to read it aloud . T heir speech was recorded and analysed following the tenets of Autosegmental Phonology Theory. The analyses have shown that vowel length in Ekegusii is either phonemi c or phonetic. Phonemic vowel length in E kegusii makes lexical contrasts, that is, distinguishes word meaning . This kind of vowel length is reflected in the spellings of Ekegusii words as double letters. Phonetic vowel length, on the other hand, is realize d after the phonetic environment is altered. This vowel length is realized as a result of the interaction between the morphological process of affixation and the phonological processes of glide formation, vowel raising and vowel deletion . Such processes ha ve been viewed as hiatus resolution strategies in the language. Phonetic vowel length, the findings indicate , does not make lexical distinctions and is not reflected in the spellings of a word. Such observations, it is hoped, will be important to writers, readers, teachers , learners and researchers of Ekegusii