Yoruba Vowel Distribution in Word Positions

initial middle final

i X X X

i X

e X

ɛ X X X

a X X X

a X

ɔ X X

ɔ� X

o X X

u X X

u X

n� X

Although there is contrast between the oral and nasal vowels at the ends of words, the

contrast is neutralized at the beginning and middle of words where nasal vowels do

not occur. The syllabic nasal only occurs at the beginnings of words. /i/, /ɛ/, /a/

occur in all three word positions. /ɔ/, /o/ were not found in the middle of words and

/u/ was not found at the beginnings of words, but may be with more data.

Yoruba Vowel Distribution in Word Positions

There is no [ATR] or height harmony. All vowels occur as second vowels. Only the oral vowels /ɛ/, /ɔ/, /a/, /i/, /u/, /o/ occur as first vowels.

ɛ ɔ ɔ� a a i i u u e o

ɛ X X X X X

ɔ X X X X

ɔ�

a X X X X X X

a

i X X X X X X X X

i

u X X

u

e

o X X X

Vowel Harmony Review

What are the common [ATR] systems in Africa? Which ones tend to have neutral vowels?

[ATR] Vowel Harmony Systems10-vowel system ‘BELI 9-vowel system LAARIM[-ATR] [+ATR] [-ATR] [+ATR]ɪ ʊ i u ɪ ʊ i uɛ ɔ e o ɛ ɔ e o a ə a a

/a/ is neutral; occurs with both sets

8-vowel system MUNDARI 7-vowel systemɪ ʊ i u Type A ɛ ɔ [-ATR] [+ATR] a ə i u

ɛ ɔ e o a

Type B [-ATR] [+ATR]

ɪ ʊ i uɛ ɔ

a a/a/ is neutral; occurs with

both sets

How do phonemes help literacy development?

• It is the phonemes that decide which sounds in a language should have an alphabet symbol.

• Speakers choose an alphabet symbol or symbols for each phoneme.

• Each alphabet symbol becomes a page in the language’s alphabet book or primer.

Lumun Alphabet ListPhoneme Orthography IPA Orthography Englisha a kattal kattal ‘k.o. pot’c c cɔɽɔt co’rot ‘cooking stone’ɛ e cɛnɛ cene ‘grinding place’ɪ i cɪðɪðɪ cithithi ‘pelvis’i ï miðin mïthïn ‘heels’k k kaβʊ kapu ‘hole’l l kattal kattal ‘k.o. pot’m m maɣal makal ‘sesame’n n nʊt It Iɛ nuththe‘cloud’ɔ o cɔɽɔt co’rot ‘cooking stone’p p pɪɾa pira ‘tree’ɾ r puɾut purut ‘ostrich’ɽ ’r pɔɽɔk po’rok ‘k.o. tree’t I th t Iɔn thon ‘dura dust’t t tɔn ton ‘mouth’ʊ u kʊjʊk kucuk ‘big leaf’u ü cuccu cüccü ‘bead’

DIGRAPHː Alphabet symbol with two letters that represents one phoneme.ng [ŋ], ny [ɲ], th [ʈ], ‘r [ɽ], ah [ə]

DIACRITICː A mark above or below an alphabet symbol.

e [ɛ], a [ə], oR [ɔ], e [e], u [u]

How do we choose the orthography letters for each phoneme?

Consider the following important factorsː1. Accuracy2. Functional Load3. Distinguish-ability4. Transferability5. Harmonization6. Practicality7. Acceptability

AccuracyThe written form of the language should correspond to

the spoken form.

• Do not use more than one symbol to represent the same phoneme (over-differentiation). Each phoneme in the language should be written with only one symbol.

ENGLISH (Example of what not to do)/k/ cot /kɔt/ ‘bed type’ koala /koala/ ‘Australian bear’

Instead (Example of what we could do)/k/ kot /kɔt/ ‘bed type’ koala /koala/ ‘Australian bear’

AccuracyThe written form of the language should correspond to

the spoken form.

• Do not use the same symbol for more than one phoneme (under-differentiation). (Examples of what not to do).‘BELI Sudan/a/ - /ə/da /da/‘meat’ da /də]/ ‘grandparent’/a/ - /a/ka /ka/ ‘and’ ka /ka/ ‘be, is’

Instead (Examples of what we could do).‘BELI Sudan/a/ - /ə/da /da/‘meat’ da /də]/ ‘grandparent’/a/ - /a/ka /ka/ ‘and’ kaR /ka/ ‘be, is’

UNDER-DIFFERENTIATIONː Using only one symbol to represent two phonemes. bep /bep/ ‘giraffe’ dep /dɛp/ ‘goat’

OVER-DIFFERENTIATIONː Using more than one symbol to represent the same phoneme.ENGLISHcot /kɔt/ ‘bed type’ koala /koala/ ‘Australian bear’

FUNCTIONAL LOADː The number of environments and words in which a phoneme occurs, and the frequency of those environments and words.

Functional loadThe fewer the symbols, the quicker speakers will learn to read. It is

possible to use the same symbol for more than one phoneme (under-differentiation) if a phoneme is rare (has a low functional load) but not if the phoneme is common or frequent (has a high functional load).

• Generally, there should be one alphabet symbol for each phoneme in the language. But there are exceptions. For example, if there are only

3 of 1000 nouns with /e/ and 50 of 1000 nouns with /ɛ/,bep ‘giraffe’ dɛp ‘goat’

Speakers could choose to write both phonemes /e/, /ɛ/ with the same symbol since /e/ is so rare.bep /bep/ ‘giraffe’ dep /dɛp/ ‘goat’

Functional load

• In English, stress has a low functional load; it only shows the difference in a few words that don’t occur so often such as rebel, content, transfer, desert. Because stress has a low functional load, it can be under-differentiated (not marked)

• In some African languages such as ‘Beli, tone has a high functional load. In nearly every sentence, there is at least one word where tone is the only sound showing the difference between that and another word. And tone shows the difference between frequently used words such as ka ‘be, is’, ka ‘and’; ma ‘me’, ma ‘go’; mo ‘I’, mo ‘his’; ʄa ‘see’, ʄa ‘run’. Because tone has a high functional load, it should be marked in the orthography for speakers to read well.

Distinguish-abilitySymbols should be as unlike each other as possible.

This makes it easier to see differences so the eye can take in more words in one focus when reading.

1. Individual symbols are more easily distinguished than digraphsn /n/, ŋ /ŋ/ better than n /n/, ng /ŋ/

2. Digraphs are more easily distinguished than symbols with diacriticsa /a/, ah /ə/ better than a /a/, a /ə/

3. Diacritics above the letter are more easily distinguished than diacritics written below the letter

e /ɛ/, e /e/ better than e /ɛ/, e /e/

TransferabilityThe orthography should be as much as possible like that of the second

language that people will learn to read. Consider languages used for education and written trade languages. The orthography chosen should enable a reader to transfer easily into (or out of) the larger language.

• For languages of Sudan which transfer into English,o /ɔ/ is better than ɔ /ɔ/

• For languages of Tanzania which transfer into Swahili,ng /ŋ/ is better than ŋ /ŋ/

HarmonizationThe orthographies of neighboring languages should be

as similar as possible to each other even if it is not anticipated that speakers will read each others literature.

• For Mundari which is closely related to Bari with ŋ /ŋ/,ŋ /ŋ/ is better than ng /ŋ/

• For Tocho which is closely related to Lumun with u /u/,u /u/ is better than u /u/

PracticalityThe orthography should be such that it can be typed

and printed locally. Consider if the symbols are available on mobile phones.

‘r /ɽ/ is better than ɽ /ɽ/‘d /ɗ/ is better than ɗ /ɗ/ny /ɲ/ is better than ɲ /ɲ/

Acceptability (The most important factor)The orthography must be acceptable to the people who

are going to use it; otherwise, they will not likely use it.

• Consider strong feelings against governments and languages associated with such governments. Orthography symbols can be political symbols!

• It is harder to change an unsatisfactory system than to develop a new one. Once an orthography has been used for several years, the people may believe that changing the writing system is the same as changing the language itselfǃ

HOW TO CHOOSE THE SYMBOLS A. When a sound in the language is

approximately same as that of the language of transfer (English, Swahili), use the symbol that is used in the language of transfer to represent the phoneme in the language.

Use the English t [t], [tʰ] to represent the Lumun /t/Use the English o [ɔ], [o] to represent the Lumun /ɔ/

HOW TO CHOOSE THE SYMBOLS B. When a sound in the language has no matching

sound in the language of transfer, choose one of five solutions:

1. Use a single 'left-over' Roman symbol to represent the phoneme. (However, do not use left-over vowel symbols.)

Murle z /ð/, Tira h /ɽ/2. Use a special symbol taken from the phonetic alphabet.

Kwalib ŋ /ŋ/, ɽ /ɽ/3. Use a digraph.

Lumun th /t I/, Gaahmg ah /ə/.4. Use a diacritic.

Lumun ü /u/, ’r /ɽ/, Ama a /a/, a /a/5. Use a spelling rule.

Amaː Place an apostrophe ’ after the first vowel in a word that is

breathy, as in tha’mil /t Iamil/‘place of eating’

HOW TO CHOOSE THE SYMBOLS C. Consider influence of phoneme sequences and

frequency for the symbol1. Consonant sequences and digraphs must be chosen

so that they will not be confused with sequences of consonants or vowels that are present in the language. • /nʲo/ and /ɲo/ should not both be written nyo

Rather, they could be written nio /nʲo/, nyo /ɲo/• /a.ga/ and /aŋ.ŋa/ should not both be written angga

Rather, they could be written aŋga /a.ga/, aŋŋa /aŋ.ŋa/

or, they could be written angga /a.ga/ annga /aŋ.ŋa/

2. The less desirable ways of representing phonemes should be assigned to the rarer phonemes. Lumun [t] is more common than [t I]. Therefore, the less common [t I] is given the special symbol th and the more common [t] is given t.

Class Assignmentː1. Make an alphabet word list for all Yoruba

phonemes based on the things you learned in this lesson.

Reading AssignmentA Guide to Phonological Analysis pg 82-86; 146