Igala Syllable and Phonotactics, Study Guides, Projects, Research of Linguistics

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IGALA SYLLABLE AND PHONOTACTICS

Unubi, Sunday Abraham

Department of English and Literary Studies, Kogi State University, PMB 1008 Anyigba, Kogi State, Nigeria

Ikani, Eneojo Friday

Department of Igala Language and Culture, Kogi State College of Education PMB 1033 Ankpa, Kogi State, Nigeria ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Abstract

This paper discusses Igala syllable and phonotactics. As phonological phenomena in which a unit of sound is made up of a central peak of loudness in a word, and certain sounds (either consonants or vowels) are not permissible to occur in certain positions or environments, the subject of syllable with phonotactics is both unique and important generally in the languages of the world, including the Igala. The instrument adopted for data collection in this study is that of the secondary source, which comprises extant material or works done by other scholars over the past years. This is done in conjunction with the researchers’ intuition or insight as native speakers of the language. The data for this research was presented in two sets: that on syllable was labelled (1) while the one on phonotactics was labelled (2) respectively. The first data was presented orthographically while the second was presented phonemically. This was done intentionally to enhance readership comprehension, which comprised both the layman and the linguist. Since vowel sounds seem to be the focus in syllable, and consonant sounds in phonotactics, the two data were presented along with both charts. The study revealed that neither a consonant nor a cluster of consonants are permissible or allowable in the syllable of Igala at the word final positions, except in few ideophonic words as claimed by Ejeba (2016), and syllabic velar nasal /ŋ/ as also claimed by Omachonu (2011) previously.

Keywords

Syllable, Phonotactics, Linguistic Description of Sounds, Suprasegmental Phonology, Igala. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

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2. Statement of the Research Problem

There has been miniature of literature on syllable and phonotactics in Igala studies. This implies that few researches on this subject actually exist but it is just that they are inadequate for adequate preservation and documentation of this language. Factually speaking, more researches or studies that express different ideas and approaches to the subject are required for purposes of easy readership (both students and language scholars) comprehension and assimilation. Consequent upon this, a yawning knowledge gap has been created which needs to be continuously filled by language scholars in order to forestall death or extinction of this language. It is against this backdrop that the researchers have decided to carry out this study with a view to contributing their own idea as a quota to this subject matter, which is an aspect of the phonological study of the Igala language.

3. Literature Review Under this section, the main concepts of this topic, which are syllable and phonotactics as well as empirical studies conducted previously by other researchers either directly on the topic of this study or related to it, will be reviewed accordingly. 3.1 Conceptual Review A syllable can be defined as a unit of sound that is made up of a central peak of loudness in a

word. It can also be defined as a unit of sound made up of a central peak of loudness or sonority, or

the voiced part of a word (usually a vowel), and the consonants that cluster around this central

peak. To make it clearer, Latilo and Beckley (2001:265) say that in speech, words are formed from

the combination of sound units. Each word has a set of sounds produced together as a unit. For

example, in the word coming , the first two letters form a unit while the last four letters form

another unit. This shows that the word coming is divided into two sound units or syllables. From

this explanation, a syllable therefore can be described as divisions of sounds that come together as

units within a word. A syllable can also be defined as a word or part of a word pronounced with a

single, uninterrupted sounding of the voice or a unit of pronunciation consisting of a single sound

of great sonority (usually a vowel) and generally one or more sounds of lesser sonority (usually

consonants). Similarly, a syllable is one or more letters representing a unit of spoken

language consisting of a single uninterrupted sound. The syllable can be structured hierarchically

into the following components as shown below, which is common to the most languages of the

world:

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Figure 1: Syllable Structure In this example, the English word plant consists of a single CCVCC syllable. This syllable has been broken up into its onset and its rhyme. The onset of a syllable consists of the consonants that precede the vowel. The rhyme is the part of a syllable which consists of its vowel and any consonant sounds that come after it. The rhyme is further divided into the nucleus and the coda. The nucleus is made up of the vowel or vowels that come after the onset and before the coda. This means that the nucleus is often placed in between the onset and the coda. Lastly, the coda is any consonant or consonant cluster that comes after the nucleus. It is usually the last on the structure of syllable. Katamba (1989:165) defines phonotactics as the rules which reflect speakers’ knowledge of what combinations of sounds are allowed in their language. As maintained by Giegerich (1992:151), “it is part of the phonological study of a language to address the question of how the phonemes of that language can be put together to make well-formed syllables and words: what consonant clusters are permissible; what sequences of vowels and consonants; and in what positions within words and syllables are these clusters and sequences allowed? This aspect of phonology is called phonotactics ”. He goes further to say that without argument, the domain of phonotactics is syllable. This is because any constraints on possible clusters and sequences hold within the syllable rather than the word. Also, Yule (1996:57) states that phonotactics involves minimal sets which allow us to see that there are indeed definite patterns to the types of sound combinations permitted in a language. According to him, it is, however, no accident that forms such as [fslg] or [rnlg] do not exist or unlikely ever to exist. They have been formed without obeying some constraints on the sequence or position of English phonemes. Such constraints are called the phonotactics of that language, and are obviously part of every speaker’s phonological knowledge. Moreover, Szczegielniak (2001:38) declares that the knowledge of phonology includes information about what sequences of phonemes are possible and which are not in a particular language. Such limitations on sequences of segments are called phonotactic constraints. According to him, phonotactic constraints are based on syllables and vary from l anguage to

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sequence which languages permit, phonotactics refers to the tactics, arrangement or systematic patterning of phonemes in a language. He exemplified the non-occurrence of the glottal fricative / h /, the velar nasal / ŋ / and others in certain environments in English as phonotactic constraints in the language. Likewise, the non-occurrence of consonant clusters and consonants in syllable final position in most New-Benue Congo languages are also instances of such restrictions. While concluding, he said that in Igala, consonants do not occur in syllable or word final position except the velar nasal / ŋ / orthographically written as ‘n’, where it is always syllabic. Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008) carried out a study titled Finnish Sound Structure: Phonetics, Phonology, Phonotactics and Prosody. Under phonotactics, the writers discussed elaborately the combination of individual phonemes as well as sound sequences that are either allowed or prohibited in the Finnish language. One of them is the word-initial CC that consists of a number of plosive + liquid sequences such as /pl/, /pr/, /ṭr/, /kl/, /kr/, etc. Out of these possible word-initial plosive + liquid sequences, */ṭl/ is clearly prohibited; this is very probably due to the fact that this sequence is prohibited word-initially also in the languages from which words have mostly been borrowed to the language (formerly Swedish, now English). These sequences are also common in native descriptive words, e.g. prätkä ‘motorbike’, plörö ‘liquor’ (both words have humorous connotations). Besides, CC sequences can be divided into double consonants or geminates and sequences of two dissimilar consonants. In all word-internal CC sequences, there is a syllable boundary between the two consonants. The double consonants /dd/, /bb/, /gg/, /ff/ and /ʃʃ/ only occur in recent loanwords, but /hh/, /jj/ and /ʋʋ/ do not occur at all. Lastly, the glottal stop never occurs word-internally in Finnish, but it does occur elsewhere: between x- morphemes and vowel-initial words, before phonologically vowel-initial words, etc. Finally, Celata & Calderone (2015) embarked on a research titled Introduction to Phonotactics: Cross-linguistic Perspectives from Acquisition, Speech Production and Corpus Studies. The corpus for the study comprised a selection of papers that were presented at the Second International Workshop on Phonotactics and Phonotactic Modeling (PPM), which was held in Pisa, Italy in November 2013 and jointly organised by the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and the Université de Paris Ouest. The paper presentation at the workshop centred around three thematic sessions: “Phonotactics and frequency, phonotactic modelling”, “Phonotactics and language acquisition”, and “Phonotactics and speech production”. From these papers, the researchers explored type and token frequencies of Slovak and German word-initial, word-medial and word- final consonant clusters (both monomorphemic and across morphemes). The study showed that the two languages differ to the extent that German has a proliferation of word-final clusters while Slovak is much richer in word-initial clusters. This difference is related to historical phonology as well as to different morphological processes characterising the two languages, thus reinforcing the idea of phonotactics as cueing morphological information, in addition to the phonological one.

4. Theoretical Framework This work is dependent on or tied to the phonological theory, as advanced by John A. Goldsmith in 1995. And inherent in the phonological theory is the concept of phonotactics. One of the focuses of the phonological theory, as Goldsmith (1995:1) pronounces, is to characterise and make an inventory of the sounds in the language, how the sounds can be combined to form

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syllables and words (well-formed phonological words), what the stress patterns are like in the language, and so on, adding that such conditions on well-formed phonological words have traditionally been called phonotactics. As a follow-up to this, Goldsmith (1995:3) emphasises that the most basic of the traditional goals of phonological theory has been to establish the means of specifying, for any given language, just what a phonologically well-formed word in that language is. This is the question of phonotactics: in what ways can the items of phonology be put together to make a well-formed word. We may, after all, wish to express the notion that [ blik ] is a possible word of English, while [ bnik ] is not. Phonological theory, of course, is the most appropriate framework for the present study because our focal point is to specify or state what constitutes phonologically well-formed words in Igala. That is, to express clearly the acceptable or allowable and unacceptable or disallowable combination of sounds in certain contexts or environments for well-formed syllable or phonological words in the Igala language.

5. Methodology The main source of data collection for this study is the secondary source. This means that we will make use of extant material as sources of our data, which include both the consonant and vowel sounds of this language. The data for this research is presented in two sets: the one on syllable is labelled ( 1 ) while the one on phonotactics has been labelled ( 2 ) respectively. This is done this way mainly for purposes of clarity. Since vowel sounds seem to be the focus in syllable, and consonant sounds in phonotactics, the two data are presented along with both charts. Then we will present the individual phonemes of the consonant sounds according to their classifications, use them to generate words in Igala, and indicate or state in clear terms whether they appear word-initially, word-medially and word-finally in the language. In addition, we will use the data presented for our analysis and discussion on all syllable and phonotactic issues emanating from the presentation. And lastly, we will ustilise whatever we observe from the presentation and the analysis to draw or reach a conclusion in this research. All these will be realised in consonance with the intuition as well as the insight of the researchers, being native speakers of Igala. 6. Presentation of Data, Analysis/Discussion 6.1. Data on Syllable The primary data to be presented here is the one on syllable, and we begin by drawing a vowel chart. This is borne out of the definition of syllable in our section of literature review, which sees syllable as a unit of sound made up of a central peak of loudness or sonority or voiced part of a word (usually a vowel). According to McGregor (2009:39), vowels are speech sounds produced without interruption to the passage of air through the vocal tract. He adds that the vocal tract is used as a resonating chamber for airstream vibrating from the action of the vocal folds; as this suggests, vowels are normally voiced in all languages.

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o ̀pìà ‘cutlass’ or ‘machete’ ò͎bìà ‘local gum’. e ́piọ ‘mud’ (viii) VCVCV as in àmọmá ‘children’ ùdàmá ‘unity’ úko ́lo ́ ‘work’ ùgbògbò ‘scarf’ or ‘head tie’. (ix) VCVVC as in ùjẹun ‘food’ ùchẹun ‘activity/programme’ ùnẹun ‘one who has something’ or ‘the owner’ o ̀laun ‘his/her matter’ (phrasal) o ́laun ‘his/her body’ (phrasal) (x) VCVVCV as in ìhìòló ‘catarrh’ ìhìe ̀ne ̀ ‘abomination’ o ̀wailo ‘chameleon’ o ̀bìo ̀lo ̀ ‘gruel’. (xi) VCVCVCV as in ò͎mè͎mè͎lè͎ ‘good one’ ónonojò ‘visitor’ ùkpàkàlà ‘trap’ òtákáda ‘book’ ùkòkòló ‘eagle’. 6.2 Data on Phonotactics Presented secondarily as stated afore, is an Igala consonant chart, followed by the individual phonemes of the consonants according to their classification, which we have used to generate words in Igala. Again, this is consequent upon the claim of Omachonu (2011:57) in our literature review section, which says “It is typical in almost all the West Benue Congo languages that consonant clusters are not permitted”. This, however, is not to say that vowels should not be mentioned at all in reference to phonotactics. Place→ Manner↓

Labial Alveola r

Palatal Palatalised Labial/Alveol ar

Velar Labial/ Velar

Labialise d Velar/ Glottal S T O P S

Nasal m n ɲ mʲ ŋ ŋʷ Plosive p b t d pʲ bʲ k ɡ kp ɡb kʷ ɡʷ Affricate ʧ ʤ Trill r

Fricative f fʲ h Approximant Ɩ j lʲ w Chart 2: Igala Consonant Phonemes (Culled from Ejeba, 2016:97)

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(i) THE NASALS Word-initially Word-medially Word-finally /m/ mɔ́ ‘to drink’ ámɔ̂ ‘pot’ Ɩìm ‘a thud’(ideoph.) ″ m{ ‘to know’ ùm{ ‘knowledge’ k|m ‘exactly’(ideoph.) /n/ nɔ̀ ‘to grind’ únɔ̂ ‘palm kernel’ * ″ n{ ‘to boil’ ún| ‘fire’ * /ɲ/ ɲ| ‘be small/haggle’ ùɲ| ‘smallness’ * ″ ɲa ‘to break’ àɲ{ ‘bicycle’ * /mʲ/ mí ‘to breathe/rest’ ími ‘life’ * ″ míɛ́ ‘to lick’ ímíɛ́ ‘dew’ * /ŋ/ ŋɔ́ ‘to pack’ |ŋɔ ‘skin’ òŋ ‘he/she/it’ ″ ŋa ‘to scratch/peel’ ɔ̀ŋ| ‘peeling instrument’ ɛ́ŋ̂ ‘what’ /ŋʷ/ ŋʷ{ ‘to test/measure’ ɛ̀ŋʷ{ ‘a test/set-up’ * ″ ŋʷɔ́ ‘to scratch the body’ {ŋʷ{ɡó ‘examination’ * (ii) THE PLOSIVES Word-initially Word-medially Word-finally /p/ pú ‘to bend’ ɔ̀pù ‘lineage’ * ″ pɔ ‘to peel’ ɔ̀p| ‘groundnut’ * /b/ bɔ́ ‘to mould’ ɔ̀bɔ̀ ‘a foolish person’ * ″ ba ‘to weave’ ɔ̀b{ ‘the setting sun; * /t/ tɔ ‘to jump’ ɔ̀tɔ́ ‘right’ * ″ t{ ‘to sell’ ìt{ ‘proverb’ * /d/ d{ ‘to draw’ ɔ́dâ ‘law’ * ″ dú ‘to carry’ ódú ‘name’ * /pʲ/ pi ‘remove by pressing’ |pí ‘melon’ * /bʲ/ bì ‘to open’ ɛ̀bʲɛ̀ ‘blood’ * /k/ kɔ ‘to write’ ɔ́kɔ́ ‘money’ * ″ k{ ‘to talk’ {k{ ‘a type of snake’ * /ɡ/ ɡ| ‘to sew’ íɡóɡo ‘beniseed’ * ″ ɡɔ́ ‘to swear’ ɛ́ɡɔ́ ‘mate/contemporary/equal’ * /kp/ kp| ‘be red’ |kp| ‘cloud’ * ″ kpɔ́ ‘to nail’ ɔ́kpɔ ‘mediocrity’ * /ɡb/ ɡb| ‘to sweep’ ɔ́ɡb| ‘height’ * ″ ɡbɔ́ ‘to hear’ ɔ̀ɡbɔ̀ ‘tasteless/meal without salt or fish’ * /kʷ/ kʷú ‘to die’ òkʷú ‘corpse’ * ″ kʷù ‘to smell’ òkʷúkʷù ‘knee’ * /ɡʷ/ ɡʷ| ‘to greet’ óɡʷù ‘medicine’ * ″ ɡʷó ‘to flog/cut grasses’ ɔ̀ɡʷɔ́ ‘deceit’ *

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nasal / m / could appear word-finally but that only happens in ideophonic and few other words in the language. Thus we have Ɩìm ‘a thud’, kám ‘exactly’. Other examples include: ɡbɛ̀m ‘a thud’, tìm ‘a thud’, tɔ̀m ‘used to describe something tasteless’ etc. Similarly, the velar nasal / ŋ / could occur word-finally according to the data but that only takes place when the sound is a syllabic consonant (when such a consonant is as sonorous as a vowel). Thus we have òŋ ‘he/she/it’ (3SGP), ɛ́ŋ̂ ‘what’. Other examples in the language include: úŋ ‘him/her’ (3SGOBJPRO), ɔ̀làuŋ ‘his/her matter/issue’, ɔ́lauŋ ‘his/her/its body, and ideophonic words such as kɔ́ŋ-kɔ́ŋ ‘sound of a gong’, géƖéŋ-géƖéŋ ‘the ringing of a bell, kɛ́ŋ-kɛ́ŋ ‘the tick-tock sound of clocks and watches’, etc. Apart from these few exceptions which are exclusively limited to the labial and the velar nasals, the data also reveals that even in disyllabic, trisyllabic and polysyllabic words, consonants are not permitted to appear word-finally. This way, we have ú nɔ̂ ‘palm kernel’, ɛ̀fʲá ‘children’s faeces’, ùʤí ‘trick/deceit’; ìʧòʧó ‘local sponge’, òʤìʤi ‘shadow’, ɛ́rɛrɛ ‘immediately’, etc. Examples of polysyllabic words in the language include: ónónóʤò ‘stranger’, ɔ̀tákáda ‘book’, ɔ́ʤɔ́ʧàmaʧááƖâ ‘the almighty God’, etc. Lastly, as seen in the above data, when consonants appear word-initially, such words are verbs in the Igala language, and when they appear word-medially after vowels, they are nouns. 7.1 Findings of the Research

In the course of this research, which explores syllable and phonotactics in the Igala

language, the following have been discovered: (i) the pattern of distribution of V, VC and CV

syllables goes from monosyllabic to polysyllabic configurations such as i ‘he/she/it’ (3SG) [V]; dá

‘to cut’ [CV]; ɛ́ŋ ‘something’ [VC]; àtá ‘father’ [VCV], óʧóʧi ‘truth’ [VCVCV]; ɔ̀nàʤíʤì ‘farthermost’

[VCVCVCV]; ɔ̀taɡàlàmá ‘sparrow’ [VCVCVCVCV]; etc.; (ii) specifically, consonants could occur

word-initially and word-medially but not word-finally as seen in words such as tùnɔ̀

‘advertise/announce’, ɡòló ‘to hawk about’, óʤô ‘gift’, àʧáná ‘matches’, ŋɔ́ ‘to pack’, áŋɔ ‘skin’,

ùkòkòló ‘eagle’, etc.; (iii) consonants could occur word-finally in idiophonic words and few others

in the language but strictly limited to labial nasal /m/ and the velar nasal /ŋ/. Both consonants

(/m/ and /ŋ/) could be syllabic and may not in some cases, as observed in words such as ɡbɛ̀m ‘a

thud’, Ɩìm ‘a thud’, kám ‘exactly’, tɔ̀m ‘used to describe something tasteless’, áɡʷɔ́ḿ ‘a type of

Igala music’, ɔ̀làm ‘a way of describing something ordinary’, àʤam ‘bit’, áɡbám ‘roofing zinc’, etc.;

kɔ́ŋ-kɔ́ŋ ‘sound of a gong’, géƖéŋ-géƖéŋ ‘the ringing of a bell, kɛ́ŋ-kɛ́ŋ ‘the tick-tock sound of

clocks and watches’, ɛ́ŋ ‘something’, ɛ́ŋ̂ ‘what’, ɔ́lauŋ ‘his/her/its body’, òŋ ‘he/she/it’, ɔ̀làuŋ

‘his/her matter/issue’, etc.; and (iv) when consonants appear word-initially in the language, such

words are verbs, and when they appear word-medially, the words are nouns as in lʲɛ́ ‘to destroy’ -

élʲɛ́ ‘destruction’; wɔ́ ‘to remove’ - ɔ́wɔ́ ‘hand’; Ɩà ‘to sell’ - ìƖà ‘the act of selling’; híá ‘to sneeze’ -

íhia ‘an act of sneezing’; fʲá ‘to spread/defecate’ - ɛ̀fʲá ‘children’s faeces’; ʧí ‘to open’ - áʧíbebene

‘butterfly’; ré ‘to close’ - éré ‘mermaid’; kʷù ‘to smell’ - òkʷúkʷù ‘knee’; kʷú ‘to die’ - òkʷú

‘corpse’; etc.

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8. Contribution to Knowledge This study which looks at syllable and phonotactics in the Igala language, no doubt, has

important and salient contribution to knowledge, as far as the field of linguistics is concerned. As

one considers the findings of this work as enumerated above, one could perceive evidently that

they speak volumes of such contribution. Aside from the findings, recall that in our statement of

the research problem, we did mention that studies in syllable and phontactics are inadequate for

adequate preservation of the phonological aspect of this language. Therefore, making this study

available in the field of language study in such a simplified manner in order for both the linguist

and the layman to access, which is an addendum to the existing works, is a worthy contribution.

Furthermore, this research has obviously provided a template or pattern for the replication of

similar studies by both scholars and students in other Nigerian as well as African languages in

particular and languages of the world in general.

9. Conclusion This research is never a mere review of the existing ones. The obvious fact that consonants are not allowed or permitted to occur word-finally in Igala also implies that no record of consonant clusters (i.e. no consonants at word-final positions and no consonant clusters), except the very few cases mentioned earlier in our analysis. This is seen from the examples of disyllabic, tri-syllabic as well as polysyllabic words both in our data presentation and analysis. In addition, even when two consonants appear orthographically like a cluster in the spelling of some words, they are fused together as affricates and digraphs. Thus we have óʧóʧi ‘truth’, áʧiʧi ‘fly’, òʤìʤi ‘shadow’, óʤoʤí ‘different’, ùɡbòɡbò ‘scarf/head-tie’, ìɡbóɡbo ‘chaff’, òkʷúkʷù ‘knee’, òɡʷùɡʷù ‘owl’, íkpákpa ‘a type of food’, etc. In this study, we have succeeded in offering more comprehensive examples using the consonant phonemes of Igala for more clarity to the readership. The case of consonants not permitted to occur word-finally in Igala is akin to many of the African languages including those of the Benue-Congo family; e.g. Yoruba, Idoma, Igede, just to mention a few.

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