Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-94d59 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T02:31:54.025Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An articulatory view of Kinyarwanda coronal harmony*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2009

Rachel Walker
Affiliation:
University of Southern California
Dani Byrd
Affiliation:
University of Southern California
Fidèle Mpiranya
Affiliation:
University of Chicago and CNRS/Université Sorbonne Nouvelle

Abstract

Coronal harmony in Kinyarwanda causes alveolar fricatives to become postalveolar preceding a postalveolar fricative within a stem. Alveolar and postalveolar stops, affricates and palatals block coronal harmony, but the flap and non-coronal consonants are reported to be transparent. Kinematic data on consonant production in Kinyarwanda were collected using electromagnetic articulography. The mean angle for the line defined by receivers placed on the tongue tip and blade was calculated over the consonant intervals. Mean angle reliably distinguished alveolar and postalveolar fricatives, with alveolars showing a lower tip relative to blade. Mean angle during transparent non-coronal consonants showed a higher tip relative to blade than in contexts without harmony, and the mean angle during transparent [m] was not significantly different than during postalveolar fricatives. This is consistent with a model where Kinyarwanda coronal harmony extends a continuous tip-blade gesture, causing it to be present during ‘transparent’ segments, but without perceptible effect.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Benus, Stefan & Gafos, Adamantios (2007). Articulatory characteristics of Hungarian ‘transparent’ vowels. JPh 35. 271300.Google Scholar
Benus, Stefan, Gafos, Adamantios & Goldstein, Louis (2004). Phonetics and phonology of transparent vowels in Hungarian. BLS 29. 485497.Google Scholar
Campos-Astorkiza, Rebeka (2007). Minimal contrast and the phonology–phonetics interaction. PhD dissertation, University of Southern California.Google Scholar
Clements, G. N. (2001). Representational economy in constraint-based phonology. In Hall, T. Alan (ed.) Distinctive feature theory. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 71146.Google Scholar
Coupez, André (1980). Abrégé de grammaire rwanda. Butare: Institut National de Recherche Scientifique.Google Scholar
Downing, Laura J. (2005). On the ambiguous segmental status of nasals in homorganic NC sequences. In van Oostendorp, Marc & van de Weijer, Jeroen (eds.) The internal organization of phonological segments. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 183216.Google Scholar
Dyck, Carrie (1995). Constraining the phonology-phonetics interface, with exemplification from Spanish and Italian dialects. PhD dissertation, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Flemming, Edward (1995). Vowels undergo consonant harmony. Paper presented at TREND (Trilateral Phonology Weekend), University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Flemming, Edward (2003). The relationship between coronal place and vowel backness. Phonology 20. 335373.Google Scholar
Gafos, Adamantios (1996). The articulatory basis of locality in phonology. PhD dissertation, Johns Hopkins University. Published 1999, New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Gafos, Adamantios (1998). Eliminating long-distance consonantal spreading. NLLT 16. 223278.Google Scholar
Gafos, Adamantios & Benus, Stefan (2003). On neutral vowels in Hungarian. In Solé, M. J., Recasens, D. & Romero, J. (eds.) Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Barcelona: Causal Productions. 7780.Google Scholar
Gafos, Adamantios & Benus, Stefan (2006). Dynamics of phonological cognition. Cognitive Science 30. 139.Google Scholar
Gick, Bryan, Pulleyblank, Douglas, Campbell, Fiona & Mutaka, Ngessimo (2006). Low vowels and transparency in Kinande vowel harmony. Phonology 23. 120.Google Scholar
Hamann, Silke (2003). The phonetics and phonology of retroflexes. PhD dissertation, University of Utrecht.Google Scholar
Hansson, Gunnar Ólafur (2001). Theoretical and typological issues in consonant harmony. PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Hansson, Gunnar Ólafur (2006). Understanding harmony as agreement. Paper presented at the 80th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Hansson, Gunnar Ólafur (2007). Blocking effects in agreement by correspondence. LI 38. 395409.Google Scholar
Harjula, Lotta (2004). The Ha language of Tanzania: grammar, texts and vocabulary. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Jouannet, Francis (1983). Phonétique et phonologie: le système consonantique du kinyarwanda. In Jouannet, Francis (ed.) Le Kinyarwanda, langue bantu du Rwanda: études linguistiques. Paris: SELAF. 5573.Google Scholar
Kimenyi, Alexandre (1979). Studies in Kinyarwanda and Bantu phonology. Carbondale & Edmonton: Linguistic Research Inc.Google Scholar
Krull, D., Lindblom, B., Shia, B.-E. & Fruchter, D. (1995). Cross-linguistic aspects of coarticulation: an acoustic and electropalatographic study of retroflex consonants. In Elenius, Kjell & Branderud, Peter (eds.) Proceedings of the 13th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Vol. 3. Stockholm: KTH & Stockholm University. 436439.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter (2005). Vowels and consonants. 2nd edn.Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter & Maddieson, Ian (1996). The sounds of the world's languages. Cambridge, Mass. & Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
McCarthy, John J. (2007). Consonant harmony via correspondence: evidence from Chumash. In Bateman, Leah, O'Keefe, Michael, Reilly, Ehren & Werle, Adam (eds.) Papers in Optimality Theory III. Amherst: GLSA. 223237.Google Scholar
Mpiranya, Fidèle (1998). Perspective fonctionnelle en linguistique comparée des langues bantu. Lyon: CEL.Google Scholar
Mpiranya, Fidèle & Walker, Rachel (2005). Kinyarwanda sibilant harmony and coronal opacity. Paper presented at GLOW 28, University of Geneva.Google Scholar
Myers, Scott (2005). Vowel duration and neutralization of vowel length contrasts in Kinyarwanda. JPh 33. 427446.Google Scholar
Ní Chiosáin, Máire & Padgett, Jaye (1997). Markedness, segment realization, and locality in spreading. Report LRC-97-01, Linguistics Research Center, University of California, Santa Cruz.Google Scholar
Ní Chiosáin, Máire & Padgett, Jaye (2001). Markedness, segment realization, and locality in spreading. In Lombardi, Linda (ed.) Segmental phonology in Optimality Theory: constraints and representations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 118156.Google Scholar
Ntihirageza, Jeanine (1993). Kirundi palatalization and sibilant harmony: implications for feature geometry. MA thesis, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Puppel, Stanisław, Nawrocka-Fisiak, Jadwiga & Krassowska, Halina (1977). A handbook of Polish pronunciation for English learners. Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.Google Scholar
Rose, Sharon & Walker, Rachel (2004). A typology of consonant agreement as correspondence. Lg 80. 475531.Google Scholar
Rugege, Geoffrey (1984). A study of Kinyarwanda complementation (Rwanda, Uganda, Zaire). PhD dissertation, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Shaw, Patricia A. (1991). Consonant harmony systems: the special status of coronal harmony. In Paradis, Carole & Prunet, Jean-François (eds.) The special status of coronals: internal and external evidence. New York: Academic Press. 125157.Google Scholar
Sibomana, Leonidas (1974). Deskriptive Tonologie des Kinyarwaanda. Hamburg: Buske.Google Scholar
Steriade, Donca (1986). A note on coronal. Ms, MIT.Google Scholar
Steriade, Donca (1995). Positional neutralization. Ms, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Steriade, Donca (2001). Directional asymmetries in place assimilation: a perceptual account. In Hume, Elizabeth & Johnson, Keith (eds.) The role of speech perception in phonology. San Diego: Academic Press. 219250.Google Scholar
Stone, Maureen (1991). Toward a model of three-dimensional tongue movement. JPh 19. 309320.Google Scholar
Tiede, Mark K., Vatikiotis-Bateson, Eric, Hoole, Philip & Yehia, Hani (1999). Magnetometer data acquisition and analysis software for speech production research. ATR Technical Report TR–H 1999. Kyoto: ATR Human Information Processing Labs.Google Scholar
Walker, Rachel (2005). Weak triggers in vowel harmony. NLLT 23. 917989.Google Scholar
Walker, Rachel & Mpiranya, Fidèle (2006). On triggers and opacity in coronal harmony. BLS 31. 383394.Google Scholar
Wiltshire, Caroline & Goldstein, Louis (1997). Tongue tip orientation and coronal consonants. In Austin, J. & Lawson, A. (eds.) Proceedings of the Eastern States Conference on Linguistics 14. 216225.Google Scholar