In:The Form of Structure, the Structure of Form: Essays in honor of Jean Lowenstamm
Edited by Sabrina Bendjaballah, Noam Faust, Mohamed Lahrouchi and Nicola Lampitelli
[Language Faculty and Beyond 12] 2014
► pp. 37–56
On vowel harmony and vowel reduction
Some observations on canonical shapes of disyllabic nouns in Yukuben, Mòoré and German*
Published online: 17 December 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.12.04ren
https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.12.04ren
This paper examines vowel reduction and vowel harmony in disyllabic nouns of Yukuben, Mòoré and German. Morphologically, all nouns under consideration have a stem and a number + gender marker. The order of these two morphemes, namely stem-final in Yukuben but stem-initial in Mòoré and German, seems to have little effect on the phonological processes affecting the nouns. The canonical word shapes of all three languages have frequent strengthening of first syllables (by phonological lengthening in Yukuben and Mòoré, and by vowel harmony in all three languages), and weakening of second syllables: reduction to schwa in Yukuben and German; non-final elision in Mòoré. No definite conclusion can yet be proposed as to why phonology does not reflect the differing morphology more directly.
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