Academic Research Akunna Onyedum

ASPECTS OF THE PHONOLOGY OF GUNGANCHI LANGUAGE BABATUNDE, Oluwatobi Olayemi 07/15CB045 A RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF linguals AND NIGERIAN LANGUAGES, FACULTY OF ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN ILORIN NIGERIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS (B. A. Hons) IN LINGUISTICS MAY, 2011. CERTIFICATION This es think has been read and nurseonical as meeting the requirements of De berthment of Linguistics and Nigerian styles, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. _________________________________________________ DR. (MRS. ) B. E. AROKOYODATE Project Supervisor ________________________________________________ PROF. A. S. ABDUSSALAMDATE Head of De varyment _________________________________________________ EXTERNAL EXAMINERDATE DEDICATION This stomach melt is dedicated to the ecclesiastic God, the Alpha and Omega, who gives wisdom and excellence. My d pinnule father, Engr. O. A. Falade, who has been at that place for me up till this time. You argon my hero. May God reward you. ACKNOLWEDGEMENTS My pro piece gratitude goes to the Lord for seeing me through my studies at the University of Ilorin. He has been the Alpha and Omega, my help, inspiration and the source of knowledge and wisdom.He al superstar deserves my appreciation. Also, my gratitude goes to my lovely p arnts, ENGR. AND MRS. O. A. FALADE for their love, c be, advice, guidance and for providing for altogether my educational needs. The Almighty God testament hand you long life, and enable you to reap the fruits of your labour (Amen). You ar the best p bents in the world, I love you d advance(prenominal). I as well appreciate the great efforts of my able supervisor, Dr. (Mrs. ) B. E. Arokoyo, who channelise me through in my search work, she gave me her time and mformer(a)ly assistance despite the inconvenience. May the Lord be with you and reward you (Amen). I also appreciate completely my lecturers.I want to also appreciat e the love and prayers of my kid brformer(a) BABATUNDE JOHN TEMITOPE. And my aunts Mrs. O. Y. Philips and Miss Olushola Faniyi. I also want to appreciate the effort of Ogunbiyi Abayomi. You both attain been wonderful. My sincere gratitude goes to my averant Corporal Labbo Alkali who helped me in acquiring all unavoidable information about Gunganchi. May the Lord reward you richly (Amen). Also, I appreciate my fri hold ons Bakare Bimbo, Olagbenro Bola, Dikko Oluwaseun, Adebayo Funke, Saka Tokunbo, Ogunbowale Tobi, Adekoya Oluwaseun, Ajagunna Gideon, Bamidele Bukola, Oyeniran Gbolagade Adebayo Adewale.I also appreciate the effort of my pastor, Pastor Tunde and those who have in mavin air or the other contributed to the success of this research. thank you all. TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Pagei Certificationii Dedicationiii Acknowledgements iv Table of Con ten-spottsvi CHAPTER matchless 1. 0Introduction 1 1. 1General Backg fill out1 1. 2Historical Background of Gunganchi People2 1. 3Sociocultural Background or Profile of the Gunganchi People4 1. 4Genetic Classification of Gunganchi10 1. 5Scope and Organization of Study 11 1. 6Data Collection12 1. 7Data Analysis13 1. 8Review of the chosen Theoretical Framework13 CHAPTER TWO BASIC phonologic CONCEPTS . 0Introduction 21 2. 1Phonology21 2. 2Sound Inventory of Gunganchi24 2. 3 phonologic Description of Gunganchi Consonants and their Distribution 28 2. 4 vowel sounds42 2. 5Distribution of Vowels45 2. 6Distribution of Nasalized Vowels51 2. 7Tonal Inventory54 2. 8Syllable Inventory 56 2. 9Distinctive Features 59 CHAPTER THREE PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN GUNGANCHI 3. 0Introduction 70 3. 1Phonological Processes70 CHAPTER FOUR TONAL PROCESSES AND SYLLABLE PROCESSES 4. 0Introduction 78 4. 1 wraith System in Gunganchi78 4. 2 wait ons of pace in Gunganchi82 4. 3Tonal Processes83 4. 4Syllable Structure85 4. 5Syllable Structure Rule in Gunganchi89CHAPTER FIVE SUMMARY, FINDINGS/OBSERVATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 5. 0Summary93 5. 1Finding/Observations94 5. 2Recomm stopping pointations95 5. 3Conclusion96 References97 CHAPTER ONE 1. 0INTRODUCTION This chapter is aimed at talk abouting the case study of the Gungawa peck who speak Gunganchi voice communication. It will note their general background, historical background, sociocultural profile, the genetic salmagundi of Gunganchi wrangle. This chapter will also discuss the scope and shaping of study, the chosen theoretical framework, data collection, and the data compendium for this project work. 1. 1GENERAL BACKGROUNDThe Gunganchi people are a tribe that are also inspected the Bareshe people by their Hausa neighbours which means Island Dwellers, it was told they were given this chance upon due to their closeness to lakes and rivers. Among themselves, they are comm besides called Gungawa, Tsureja, Bareshe or Yaurawa people. Their wrangle has discordent names like Gunganchi, Tsureshe, Gunga or Tsureja and the name given to their land is both Reshe or Gungu. The present Gunganchi people are the tribe who fled to the nearby Island of Niger in the mid nineteenth century and lastly settled in a new site called Gungu or Yelwa.The Gunganchi people are said to be the line of credital inhabitants of Yauri. During the British regime, the arouse of Yauri as an emirate and the state of Yelwa as the seat of the amir of Yauri confirmed that both Yauri and Yelwa became Hausarized as a result of their contact with the Hausa people. Today, the Yauri people speak mostly Hausa verbiage. The Gunganchi people lived in islets ( real atrophied islands) and shores of the Niger above Bussa until the creation of Kainji Lake in 1974 which disrupted their settlement and their living outside Kebbi disk operating system. 1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF GUNGANCHI PEOPLE According to oral history, the Gunganchi people has unlike histories that has been narrated which associated with their origin that will be discussed be downhearted-pitched. I n the nineteenth century, a descendant of a warrior called kasira who is also kn testify as Kachin allied with the Hausa soldiers to conquer the territory in the ingrained North who later settled with his co-fighters in the present Yauri town. A essential speaker of Gunganchi who is known as Agmalafiya believe that the Gunganchi people came from Kabbawa.He said they were hunters from Katsina sound out and further explained that whateverwhat people said the Gunganchi people are from the other Yauris ethnic groups which are Shangawa, Kambari, Kabbawa or Sarkawa, Dukawa etc. Another history told us of their trace to the Songhai warriors who came from Mali to seek territorial control and they eventually settled in Yauri and parts of Lopa and Laru (Gunganchis neighbouring areas). From the histories narrated above, it is obvious that the Gunganchi people has no specific history concerning their origin.They are divergent in their historical roots. 1. 2. 1Population The Gunganchi peopl e were about forty to sixty thousand in 1993. About thrity- 5 percent lived outside Yauri Local Government in Kebbi State, sixty percent lived in Yauri town, nine percent in Kotangora, Bussa and Borgu Local Government and wizard percent in Kiama Local Government Area in Kwara State. Back to 1990, the population of the speakers in Yauri were referred to as Yaurawa or Reshewa in Hausa language.According to Agmalafiya who was menti aned earlier, the Gunganchi people were called Yaurawa by Queen Amina of Zaria but generally called Gungawa among the Gunganchi in Diaspora and sometimes call themselves Bareshe, which is the plural, or Ureshe, which is the singular. 1. 3SOCIOCULTURAL BACKGROUND OR PROFILE OF THE GUNGANCHI PEOPLE According to the Oxford Advanced Leaners Dictionary, culture is the way of life, the customs and beliefs, art and social organization of a particular country or group. The Gunganchi people have a social and cultural profile that is similar to that of their neighbou ring ethnic group, Hausa.It is said that their lifestyle is center on on the Emirates system. The Gunganchi people have their sociocultural beliefs which are expressed in their culture, mode of dressing, occupation, religion, festivals, marriage system, naming watching, burial ceremony, their education system and governmental administration. 1. 3. 1Culture The Bareshe (Gunganchi) people are heightsly cultured which reflect in their mode of dressing, greetings, occupation and body adornment like decorating the womans legs with tattoos and heavy tribal attach on her face during the wedding ceremony. . 3. 2Mode of Dressing The Gunganchi peoples mode of dressing in the olden days is different from their dressing in these redbrick days. In the olden days, they utilise to dress in animal skin, speckle in these modern days, they dress in Banbariga which is the traditional dress for men while the women dress in loose covered clothing with a local embroidery scarf which is tied aro und the womans body to walk off the sun. They are mostly dressed in loose robe for relaxation. 1. 3. 3 Occupation The Gunganchi people are mostly farmers and fishermen.Their major crops are guinea corn, beans, rice, and onions while the fishing equipment which is a fish cage is called Suru and Hauwuya in Gunganchi language. The people are also known for their provokeoe and mat making. 1. 3. 4 Religion The Gunganchi people are mostly Muslims and few traditional worshippers and very little Christians. 1. 3. 5Festivals The festivals done in Gunganchi are called Anipo festival and Idembe. Festival. The blood of animals like goat or bushmeat is used as sacrifices to their gods during the festival.During the festival, a round seat is created by the people when eating. Such sittings are also formed at events like wedding, naming ceremony, sallah festival and at relaxation joints. 1. 3. 6 Marriage System of the Gunganchi People The Gunganchi has a distinct way by which marriage is done. It shows a lazy man cannot marry every Gunganchi skirt because marriage is said to be a bit difficult most especially for the men. Firstly, a man must inform his parents if he is in love with a lady. Then, the mans parents must make their sons put downest known to the ladys parents.He will therefore farm for the ladys family he intends to marry from ahead giving their consent. The farming duration is not specified, the man is said to stop the farming when ladys father is satisfied and the final consent will be given to the mans family. The ladys family will past inform his relatives formally about their daughters courtship with the man before the wedding date is chosen. According to Muauzu, the marriage or engagement ceremony is base on Islamic rites whereby the bride price (Zadaki) will be paid. The bride will be decorated with tattoos on her legs and heavy tribal marks on her face.Foods eaten at the ceremony are guinea corn pap, which is served in the morning and rice with f ish soup and burukutu is served at dusk. Their sitting position is related to that of the festivals as mentioned earlier they sit round a dish of guinea corn pap on a mat, their sitting culture is the same with the Hausas. Hence, the Gunganchi people inter marry with the Hausas. 1. 3. 7Naming honoring The Gunganchi do their naming ceremony seven days after the infants birth and its hair will be shaved. sift or guinea corn pap is served at the ceremony with people sitting round the food.Therefore, the child will be circumcised after ten years. 1. 3. 8Burial Ceremony Like most tribes, the Gunganchi celebrate the expiration of aged person and mourn the death of a young person. They investigate sudden or unusual death by consulting the oracle called Gigo (true god) or Ujigo (a god of thunder and rain). The oracle will make the spirit of the deceased to revenge for his or her death by killing the person who is responsible for his or her death. However, this practice is peculiar to t he local or extreme Gunganchi people. 1. 3. 9Education SystemThe Gunganchi value the Western education, they give education to both their potent and fe masculine children. They have schools they also make use of their personal houses as schools. 1. 3. 10 Political Administration The Gunganchi adopted the system of their neighboring tribe (Hausa) which is the Emirates system because it is a multi-ethnic area that consist Yelwa, Lopa, Yauri, Laru people which co-exist with them. The Emirs palace is situated in Yelwa, thus, the Gunganchi are the basic settlers in Yauri. The official Emir is the radiation patternr of all the ethnic groups under Yauri.During the British regime, recognition was given to the Yauri emirate and Gungu (Island) district of the Yauri Local Government which are now the center of Reshe (Gunganchi) population. In the political administration of the Gunganchi people, succession is not by hereditary because the Emir must be appointed, despite the fact that a Gu nganchi man was the first Emir of Yauri. The Emir must have some qualities before he can be appointed, like he must be an elderly person, famous and well-thought-of among the ethnic groups made up of Yauri.When a new Emir is appointed, turbaning will be done as a sign of leadership. The Emir rules the territory with his local chiefs called Sariki in areas like Gungunsariki, Banha, Rekubolo, Toro, Zamari, Jalubabu etc. Presently, the Local Government Chairman is responsible for the executive function of Yauri and other governmental activities are executed by the Kebbi State Government. However, most of the Gunganchi people are bilingual, (they speak both Gunganchi and Hausa) but the majority speaks Gunganchi at home especially the youths. Thus, the language of the emirate is Hausa with high prestige. . 4GENETIC CLASSIFICATION OF GUNGANCHI Genetic assortment is the sub-grouping of all relevant languages into genetic nodes (group of languages in each of which one language is more clos ely related to the other in that group than to some(prenominal) language outside the group). The basis for genetic classification is the idea that group of languages that share certain systemic resemblances have inherited those similarities from a common origin. Thus, genetic classification makes cardinal statements. First, it affirms that certain languages are infact related to each other (i. e. hare a common ancestor). Second, it specifies how the languages are interrelated in the form of a leg diagram. Gunganchi language falls under the Niger-Kordofanian language family. African Language Afro-AsiaticNiger KordofanianNilo SaharanKhoisan Mande tonic Benue Congo AtlanticVolta Congo Kordofanian OkoDefoidKainjiIdomoidEdoidWolof Western KainjiEastern Kainji KamukuKainji LakeGunganchi (Gungawa)KambariBassaLopa 1. 5SCOPE AND ORGANIZATION OF STUDY This work is limited to the aspects of the phonemics of Gunganchi language and it is divided into five chapters.Chapter one deals with the i ntroductory part, which includes the general background, historical background, sociocultural profile of Gunganchi people, genetic classification of Gunganchi language, scope and organization of study, data collection, data analysis and the review of the chosen theoretical framework. Chapter dickens deals with the basic phonological concepts that consumes the sound inventory of Gunganchi language whereby the tonal inventory and syllable inventory of the language of study shall be discussed and the sound distributions which includes classifiable features.Chapter terzetto is establish on the phonological affectes found in Gunganchi language. Then, chapter quaternion will boil down on the tonal and syllable processes of Gunganchi language. Chapter five will summarize and conclude the work. 1. 6DATA COLLECTION In this research work, the method used for our data collection is the cipher translation method from English language to the project language which is Gunganchi based on th e Ibadan 400 rule booklist. There was a direct interview with the language helper, thus, data elicitation was carried out with the countersignaturelist recorded on sound cassette.Informants Data NameCorporal Labbo Alkali OccupationSoldier Age 40 years ReligionMuslim Languages spoken obscure from Gunganchi Hausa and English Number of years spent in Reshe (Gunganchi) 20 years 1. 7DATA ANALYSIS To ensure an accurate data analysis in this research work, all the data collected were carefully and correctly written, tone marked and transcribed. The data collected were used according to how the native speaker used them without imposing every extra rules or norms. 1. REVIEW OF THE CHOSEN THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The framework adopted for this research work is Generative Phonology, which was developed by Chomsky and Halle in the early 1950s it is a component of generative grammar. This framework assigns the correct phonetic re foundings to utterances in such(prenominal) a way as to reflect a native speakers internalized grammar. According to Oyebade (2008 9), Generative Phonology is a theory which is built on the insight of taxonomic phonemics even while remodeling the focus of phonological analysis.The major motivation for this theoretical framework was the clash between theoretical assumptions and lingual data under the theory of classical (taxonomic) phonemics. Generative phonemics took off at maximum speed in the 1960s, following the works of Chomsky and Halle (published in 1968 as Sound Pattern of English (SPE). This theory argues that the taxonomic access code of classical phonemics was not adequate enough to address appropriately the phenomenon of charitable speech.The proponents of this new school of phonemics suggest that an adequate theory of phonology must account for a) The phenomenon of language acquisition b) The puzzling fact that man can still understand the speech of some other even when this speech is defective and c) The native speakers intuitio n about the physical make-up of the speech of his language. 1. 8. 1The Structure of Generative Phonology Generative phonology assumes three very crucial components the underlying representation, the phonetic representation and the rules which link the both together that is called the phonological rules.These components will be reviewed below. 1. 8. 1. 1Underlying Representation Oyebade (2008 12) assumes underlying representation to be an bunco representation existing in the linguistic competence of the native speaker. The underlying representation is the most basic form of a word before any phonological rules have been applied to it. Underlying representation shows what a native speaker knows about the abstract underlying phonology of the language. At this level, items with invariant heart have identical representation.The underlying representation is also known as the phonological representation, thus, the ability (competence) of a native speaker to compute a clip is referred t o as the phonological representation and this competence can be scientifically investigated. There is an assumption of an underlying level where there is a one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning and which is exactly the same from one competent speaker to another which explains the puzzling reaction of children in the acquisition process.Since the child shares the same competence (and therefore the same underlying representation) as the big, it is reasonable to assume that the child will expect the same output as the adult will expect. The child may not be able to produce such an output since his production capability is slower in the acquisition process than his competence. The assumption of an underlying representation which accounts for the rapid processing of defective input.Both interlocutors have a shared competence which is accurate and invariant the decoder part participant thus has a proto fiber with which he can re building the defective utterance of the enco der. Also, the underlying representation has the property of being encoded in typical features (these features will be discussed in the next chapter). This assumption is motivated by the fact that language seems to target these features in making its choices rather than divides. 1. 8. 1. 2 The phonic Representation The phonetic representation is the form of a word that is spoken and heard. It is also known as the surface level.Phonological structure reflects the linguistic competence of the native speaker to compute a phonetic representation for the potentially infinite number of sentences generated by the syntactic component of the grammar. We can say that there is no speaker of a language that has heard all the sentences in his language but speaker has the ability to understand any sentence heard. Phonetic representation indicates how the lexical item is to be realized in speech. It is characterized by degree of narrowness such that, at the very least, any devil sounds that ar e distinguished in any human language are differently represented.Generative phonology seems to consider this level as being vain and not worth too much attention except, perhaps as a source for the verification and justification of the proposed underlying representation. 1. 8. 13 Phonological Rules Phonological rules map underlying representation onto phonological representations. They delete, insert, or change segments, or change the features of segments. They are said to show the derivational sequence or bridle-path of an item in its journey from the underlying level to the phonetic level. They must be able to capture the phonological phenomenon in the simplest form.There are two fibres of rules in phonological rules feature changing rules and fill-in rules. The feature changing rules change the features of the input to that of the output. However, the other kind of rules called fill-in rules are rules, as the name implies, which fill in empty slots. Phonological rules have to be precise in a scientific account of linguistic phenomena. It was therefore suggested that the rules should have their own format. For instance, a rule can say insert a high front vowel between a cluster of conformables and we can have another rule which says insert a high front vowel after a word-final concurring(a).These rules can be formalized thus a. O(i/C____C b. O(i/C____ As you can retain from the formalization of the two rules, they are identical in input and output. Furthermore, they have a lot of similarities in the environs. If the rules are left like this, that is, as two separate rules, the implied claim will be that these are two separate and distinct processes. This is intuitively incorrect and it loses a linguistically pregnant generalization. These two rules can then be collapsed into one and to capture the linguistically significant fact that we are dealing with the same process.Thus (a) and (b) can be combined as in (c) below C c. O(i/C that is, a high fro nt vowel is inserted either between two amenables or after a consonant at word final position. In phonological rules, notational devices are applied. They are conventions which make it achievable to combine distinct but related phonological rules in a single statement rules may be collapsed in this way only if they involve the same process. In other words, notational devices are abbreviation conventions aimed at reducing several rules into one. The purpose is to present more economically the facts of language.There are notational devices like brace notation (), angled bracket notation (), changeable features or alpha notation ((), mul solicitle variable notation ((,(, ? , etc. ). The role of these devices is to make it possible for the phonologists to precisely and unambiguously state in rule form and the process that is taking place in language when a pattern is observed. Secondly, it makes linguistiscally significant generalizations and claims about the way language works. Fina lly, and perhaps most trivially, it provides a shorthand abbreviatory method by which a complex process can be captured as briefly as possible.CHAPTER TWO BASIC PHONOLOGICAL CONCEPTS 2. 0INTRODUCTION This chapter is based on the phonology of Gunganchi language. The sound inventory which involves the tonal inventory and the syllable inventory will be discussed. It also focuses on the sound distribution of Gunganchi language where the distinctive features will be discussed. 2. 1PHONOLOGY According to Davenport and Hannahs (2005 2), phonology deals with how speech sounds are organized into system for each individual language for example how the sounds can be combined, the traffic between them and how they affect each other.In phonology, the root phone relates to voice, sound and logos which means word speech originates from the Greek words. Phonology as a subfield of linguistics is the study of the rules behind the way sounds encode meaning in language. Also, it is the study of sounds and patterns in a language. It can be said that phonology seeks to discern the sounds made in all human languages. In addition, phonology studies how sounds alternate that is the minimal meaningful sounds which are PHONEMES. However, phonemes are sets of phones, which function as one unit in a language, and provide contrast between different words.It is also a sound segment of words or syllables. In human language, a phoneme is the smallest structural unit that distinguishes meaning. The phonemic inventory of a language is the set of phonemes it possesses. In the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabets), phonemes are conventionally enclosed in anterior sashes (//) and speech sounds that are not phonemes are placed in brackets ( ). For example, the /t/ sound in the English words tip, stand, cat and irrigate are conceived of as being the same sound, despite the fact that in each word they are pronounced somewhat differently the passing may not even be audible to native speakers.One of the most important tools for examining phonemes is the minimal pair which means different words but differ as a result of one sound, that is, a pair of words which differ only in one segment. In a minimal pair, one can be sure that the difference between words is phonemic in nature, because the segments in question are surrounded by the same environment and this cannot be allophones of each other. Examples of minimal pair in Gunganchi are ut(itree at(i firewood hinacow winatail uretaright(side) upetamedicine kwubanohopen kwubalohclose itamiapush igamiasweep A phoneme may encompass several recognizable different speech sounds called PHONES. In phonetics, the smallest perceptible segment is a phone. In the examples stated earlier, the /t/ in tip is aspirated th, while the /t/ in stand is unaspirated t. Thus, phones that belong to the same phonemes are called allophones such as th and t are allophones of the phoneme /t/ given in the examples given earlier. Allophones are often condi tioned by their environment.For example, the English phoneme /t/ is realized as a tap r between vowels in normal speech when not preceeding a stressed vowel as in butter. In a case like this we can say that the stop t and tap r which are allophones of the phoneme /t/ are in complementary distribution, as every environment selects for either one or the other, and the allophones themselves may be referred to as COMPLEMENTARY dispersal. 2. 2SOUND INVENTORY OF GUNGANCHI Human sounds can be grouped into two basic classes whereby they are found in Gunganchi. They are 1. Consonants 2. Vowels 2. . 1Consonants Consonants are sounds produced with an obstruction of the air race somewhere along the plainspoken tract. A consonant in terms of sound production is a sound which is obstructed in some way by the language or lip contact e. g. in Gunganchi, sounds like /k/, /p/ as in /k/(ka? inareply /p/(puteta draw a blank as opposed to the unobstructed sound of a vowel. Consonant sounds require a certain degree of constriction of the vocal tract in their production, therefore, at some point, diverting, impeding or completely shutting off the airflow of air in the oral cavity.This constriction of the vocal tract may involve complete closure or partial closure. In terms of the sound system, the consonant is a sound that typically occurs at the beginning or end of the syllable rather than in the middle of it, thus contrasting with vowels. Thus, the organs of speech that obstruct at some point in the oral cavity are known as the articulators. From the glottis, past the velum, the hard palate and alveolar ridge and the tongue, to the teeth and lips.The consonant sounds are classified by a) Voicing b) Place of vocalism c) Manner of occasion 2. 2. 1. 1 Voicing Consonants may be voiced or voiceless. As the airstream comes to or from the lungs, it passes through the opening between the glottis. If the vocal cords are open, the air passes through without obstruction and the sounds that are made in this way, are described as voiceless. If the vocal cords closed, then the air passing through the glottis causes them to vibrate producing voiced sounds.Some of the consonant sounds in Gunganchi come in pairs that differ in being voiced or voiceless e. g. /b/ and /p/ ( /b/ is voiced and /p/ is the voiceless consonant in one pair. /k/ and /g/ are found in another pair, /k/ is voiceless and the voiced sound is /g/. Also, it applied to /d/ and /t/, /d/ is voiced while /t/ is the voiceless consonant which forms another pair. 2. 2. 1. 2 Place of Articulation It is the point of articulation where both the active and passive articulators meet or contact to produce the desired consonant.Here, we have to do with the position of the tongue and lips. The places of articulation in Gunganchi are bilabial, alveolar palato-alveolar, velar, labial-velar, palatal, glottal, palatalized velars and alveolar, labialized-alveolar and velars. 2. 2. 1. 3 Manner of Articulation Manner of ar ticulation makes reference to the type of stricture which the articulators are making to produce the consonant sounds. The obstructions made may be total, intermittent, partial or narrow enough to cause friction.The manners of articulation in Gunganchi are stop, nasal, fricative, affricate, trill, lateral and approximant. However, it is observed that there is the presence of consonant clusters in Gunganchi language that is consonants occurring together side by side e. g. riaddamatchet ubalkarimale kwa take(one thing) Thus, the consonants certifyed in Gunganchi are /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /tw/ /dw/ /dj/ /k/ /g/ /kw/ /gw/ kj/ /gj/ /gb/ /r/ /m/ /n/ /s/ /z/ /(/ /h/ /hj/ /ts/ /t(/ /? // /l/ /j/ /w/ /r/. 2. 2. 2. 1 Gunganchi Consonant Chart Bilabial Alveolar Labialized Palatalize Palate-alveolar Palatal velar alveolar alveolar High + - - - - - + Low - - - + - - - Round - - - - + + + ATR + + - - - + + 2. 9. 4Segment Redundancy for Gunganchi ConsonantsRedundancy is the principle that h elps in predicting some features from the presence of other features thus, the feature that predicts the feature of the other is said to be redundant. Gunganchi language attest to a number of features that are completely predictable at all stages of derivation. All the redundant features are expressed as fill-in rule or if then. However, the output of the phonological components must specify all feature in such a way that it indicates necessary features used in derivation. i)If+ syll Then+ son cons ii)If+ cons Then+ voice strid iii)If+ ant Then+ cons iv)If+ nas Then- cont strid + voice + son 2. 9. 5Segment Redundancy for Gunganchi Vowels i e ( a ? o u High + - (-) (-) (-) - + Low (-) - - + (-) (-) (-) Round - - - (-) + + + ATR (+) + - (-) - + (+) All of the predictable redundancies can be expressed as fill-in rules which are also called if then segment structure constraints as done for consonants above. i)If+ high Then- low ii)If+ low Then- high iii)If+ high Then+ ATR iv) I f+ round Then- low v)If+ low Then- round vi)If+ low Then- ATR vii)If+ ATR Then- low viii)If- ATR Then- highHowever, redundancies come from any of two sources the first is the attempt to express the physiological possibilities (or impossibilities) of the vocal organs. For example, the constraints if + high then - low makes the claim that the tongue cannot be raised and lowered at the same time. In other words, if the tongue is raised then it is not lowered and if it is lowered then it is not raised. Since the physiological possibilities of the human vocal tract is universal to all human beings, this type of redundancy is a universal one. The second source comes from the fact that languages do not always maximally utilize all combinatorial possibilities logically judge when features come together. CHAPTER THREE PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN GUNGANCHI 3. INTRODUCTION This chapter will be discussing the phonological processes found in Gunganchi language. 3. 1PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES Phonolog ical processes are sound modifications motivated by the need to maintain euphony in a language or to rectify violations of well-formedness constraints in the production of an utterance. (Oyebade 2008 61). Segments are either within the same morpheme or at morpheme boundary under various conditions may undergo certain changes. Therefore, these changes are known as phonological processes. Environment within which sounds occur may affect changes. The phonological processes in Gunganchi are 3. 1. 1AssimilationAccording to Oyebade (2008 63), assimilation is when two contiguous sounds which have different modes of production become identical in some or all of the features of their production. Assimilation is the modification of sounds in the direction of greater similarity to the surrounding phonological environment (Langacker 1972 270). Assimilation may be either partial or total. Tonal assimilation is the converting of the changing segment to become identical to other segment and assimi lation may be partial such that only some features of the changing consonant (or vowel) becomes identical with that of the initiating segment. Examples of assimilation in Gunganchi ugikaugjkabagIn the above example, the voiced velar stop bears the feature high of the vowel i. It is observed that when the voiced velar stop occur before a high unrounded front vowel, it becomes palatalized which shows assimilation has taken place. cont+ syll ant(high__________- back cor- round + voice+ high unununumouth anuhinanuhiteeth In the examples above, vowels take on the feature of the alveolar nasal. Thus, vowel becomes nasalized before alveolar nasal. + syll- cont -cons(+ nas__________+ ant + cor + nas 3. 1. 2Vowel Elision Vowel elision is another common phonological process. According to Oyebade (2008 69), vowels are usually deleted when two or more vowels occur across morpheme boundary.When such an occurrence is introduced by morphological processes, the language may choose to drop the fi rst or the second of the contiguous vowels. Examples in Gunganchi are itsuriaakatua(itsuriakatua buy horseshoebuy (a) shoe ikabiauwapo ( ikabiuwapo money househouse rent However, it is observed that low back unrounded vowels are deleted at morpheme boundary if the next morpheme begins with a vowel. + syll+ syll + low(O___________- cons + back round 3. 1. 3Labialisation Labialisation is the super-imposition of liprounding on a segment in such a way that the feature of a vowel now attaches to the consonant articulated (Oyebade 2008 66).Examples of labializationin Gunganchi language are utw? haear rotwuaneck abakjrdwolaanimal ndwuwaperson The alveolar boodle t and d that are not naturally, they labialized take on the feature of the rounded vowels. We can therefore, say that alveolar lettuce become labialized before back rounded vowels. cont+ syll + ant(lab_____________+ back + cor+ rounded Other examples of labialization are igbagwua pepper ugwohuakolanut ribulukwucooking alokwotw osnail It is also observed that velar stops k and g become labialized before back rounded vowels. cont+ syll ant(+lab_____________+ back cor+ round 3. 1. 4PalatalisationAccording to Oyebade (2009 65), palatalisation is the super-imposition of tongue raising on a segment. Here are examples in Gunganchi language ugjikabag akjikwamillet inagjipull gjiranadescend In the above examples, velar stops are palatalized before high vowel. cont+ syll ant(+ high_____________+ high cor 3. 1. 5Insertion Oyebade (2008 74) states that Insertion is a phonological process whereby an extraneous element not present originally is introduced into the utterance usually to break up unwanted sequence. Examples in Gunganchi are shown below. upowabetatsunia(upowabetatsunia ten +oneeleven upowabetat(zuwa(upowabetat(zuwa ten +sixsixteen alosobetatsunia(alosobetatsunia twenty +onetwenty one alosobetajisoh(alosobetajisoh twenty +twotwenty two 1. 3. 6Nasalisation Nasalisation is a process whereby an oral segm ent acquires nasality from a neighbouring segment (Katamba 1989 93). Nasalisation is significant in Gunganchi, for instance matsunih? surpass ijisee tsunia one udaga stick Therefore, vowels become nasalised before alveolar nasal, that is + syll- cont cons(+ nas_____________+ ant + cor + nas CHAPTER FOUR TONAL PROCESSES AND SYLLABLE PROCESSES 4. 0INTRODUCTION This Chapter will be discussing the tone system and the processes found in Gunganchi language.It will also focus on the syllable processes in Gunganchi language. 4. 1TONE SYSTEM IN GUNGANCHI Davenport and Hannahs (2005 84-85) states that In many languages, pitch variation is used to distinguish one word from another. Languages which use pitch in this way are known as tone languages, and the individual pitch patterns associated with words or syllables are known as tones. According to Carlos and Haike (2005 12), tone languages used pitch contrasts to keep words apart in the same way that languages use vowel and consonant for this purpose. Tone is the differentiation of two words with the same segmental presentation with the use of its pitch.And a language is said to be a tone language when the differences in word meaning are signaled by the differences in pitch. Tone is essentially a property of individual syllables or words and also it is typically used as a way of distinguishing between items at word level (such as minimal pairs, words which are identical except for one component). 4. 1. 1Tone Typologies There are two categories of tone a. Level tones b. Contour tones 4. 1. 1. 1 Level Tones The tones whereby the pitch is maintained at the same rate for the duration of the syllable are known as level tones (Davenport and Hannahs 2005 85). Level tones are high, mid and low tones. These tones may occur on all syllables.The high tone is indicated by an acute mark (/), the low tone is marked with a grade accent () and the mid tone is represented as (-) or unmarked. Thus, the mid tone is not marked in Gunganch i. 4. 1. 1. 2 Contour Tones According to Davenport and Hannahs (2005 85), contour tones are tones exhibiting pitch variation during their production. Contour tones consists of the falling tone () which is a tone that starts high and end low, and the rising tone (V) which starts low and end high. Contour tones only appear on monosyllables and on the final syllables of disyllabic words. 4. 1. 2Tonal Pattern in Gunganchi Gunganchi is a tone language and it is a level tone language which attests to the high, low and mid tones. Each syllable of Gunganchi language bears a tone.Examples of words that bears the high tone in Gunganchi are kwatake(one thing) ? w? sun ribathing Occurrence of low tones in Gunganchi language can be shown in the following examples djahere riaddamatchet Occurrences of mid tones in Gunganchi are alahagw? mijaw wurumoon ajabaplantain However, there are two or more words in Gunganchi language which have exactly the same consonants and vowels but have different meanin g because of a difference in contrastive pitch. These are referred to as tonemes that contrast minimally. For instance rotwuaneckHHH rotwuabelly(externall)HHM kwubalohcover(in hand)HLH kwubalohcloseHML Co-occurrence of tones in GunganchiIn Gunganchi, the low, high and mid tones co-occur. There is the musical accompaniment of the low and mid tones, examples are ol? hanose t(ib? town hia(idust Examples of the co-occurrence of high, mid and low tones in Gunganchi are hirokwahorse ibulukw? he goat alakana(afour hundred 4. 2. 1 Functions of Tone in Gunganchi Tone performs two distinct functions, they are a) Lexical function b) Grammatical function 4. 2. 1. 1 Lexical Function Tone can be used to differentiate lexical items that have identical segments. For example in Gunganchi kwubalohcover (in hand)HLH kwubalohcloseHML rotwuabelly(external)HHM rotwuaneckHHHNote that the different tonemes have resulted in the differences in the meaning of the words above. 4. 2. 1. 2 Grammatical Function Tone is also used to differentiate between different well-formed forms. But, this function is not found in Gunganchi language. 4. 3TONAL PROCESSES As with segments, tones are also modified by their environment. Thus, this gives rise to tonal processes. 4. 3. 1 Tone Elision This occurs when two tones are juxtaposed across morpheme boundary and the final vowel of the first word gets elided causing the tone on it to be elided too. Examples in Gunganchi are ikabiauwapo(ikabiuwapohouse rent moneyhouse itsuriaakatua(itsuriakatua buyshoebuy(a) shoe 4. 3. 2 Tone StabilityIn relation to tone, the issue is that in tone languages, we rise that when a vowel desyllabifies or is deleted by some phonological rules, the tone it was bearing does not disappear, rather, it shifts its location and shows up on some other vowel. (Goldsmith197630). Example of tone stability in Gunganchi ubula alokat(i ( ubulalokat(i rainy season raintime 4. 3. 3 Tone Spreading This is a tonal process whereby there are m ore segments than tone, the tone will then spread to the segment as it is a must that the segments bear tone. This process is not found in Gunganchi language. 4. 3. 4 Floating Tone Oyebade (2008 15) says that during derivation, segment is specified for tone but merges with vowel, thus, passing its tonal specification to that vowel. Gunganchi does not have floating tone. 4. 3. 4 Tone ContractionThis is when tone segmentalization creates two identical tones on the same syllable, the two identical tones are contracted to give only one. Gunganchi language does not attest to this tonal process. However, it is observed that there is the case of nasal consonant that bears tone. Such nasal is referred to as a syllabic nasal because it is interpreted as a vowel that carries a tone. Examples of this in Gunganchi are nduwaperson nduwakabiold person In the words above, the nasal n bears the high tone which makes it to function the way other vowels functions. 4. 4SYLLABLE STRUCTURE The syllable is a supra-segmental unit. It can be easily recognized in a language.Davenport and Hannahs (2005 73) states that One such articulatorily based attempt at the definition involves the flavour of a chest pulse or initiator burst, that is, a muscular contraction in the chest (involving the lungs) which corresponds to the production of a syllable each syllable, on this view, involves one burst of muscular energy. Williamson (1984) defines the syllable as the smallest unit of language which can be pronounced. It is a unit of sound made up of one or more segments during which there is a single chest pulse and a single peak of sonority. Hyman (1975 188) states that a syllable is made up of an infringement, and a sum of money. And the core is further divided into a peak and coda. However, a syllable is divided into three parts 1) The onset 2) The core or nucleus 3) The coda The syllable can be represented thus Syllable OnsetCorePeak (Nucleus)Coda C V(C) This can be illustrated in the exam ple in Gunganchi below joh stand (up) ( OnsetCore ConsonantPeakCoda (Nucleus) JVowel(Consonant) ( h The syllable coda and onset are made up of consonant segments while the peak is made up of vowel segment and syllabic consonants. The peak is an obligatory part of the syllable, thus, there must be a peak. The onset (beginning) and coda (end) which usually consist of consonant(s) are optional parts of the syllable. Each syllable carries at least one significant unit of tone in tonal languages. 4. 4. 1 Types of Syllable A syllable can be either an open syllable or closed syllable.It is language specific some languages may exhibit either of the two syllable types while some languages make use of the two (open and closed syllables) like Gunganchi language. 4. 4. 1. 1Open Syllable This is a syllable in which words end in a vowel, it is a syllable without the coda. Examples in Gunganchi are ububaleaf akahojvillage babichildren hilelioelephant 4. 4. 1. 2 Closed Syllable Closed syllable is a syllable typology that has at least one consonant following the vowel or closing the nucleus. Examples are lakapitwohold(opp. new) kakawpour rimonohwork Gunganchi attests to both the open and closed syllable. 4. 5SYLLABLE STRUCTURE RULE IN GUNGANCHI This is the rule that states the possible sequence of sounds or segment in a syllable.Words differ with regard to the number of syllables contained in them. Some words have just one syllable, others may have two or more, hence, words are classified as being monosyllabic, disyllabic, trisyllabic and polysyllabic depending on how many syllable(s) such words have. The syllable structures in Gunganchi are CV VCV N- Syllable Structure Cw- Syllable Structure Cj- Syllable Structure 4. 5. 1 CV-Syllable Structure The CV-syllable structure is the most common type of syllable structure in Gunganchi. It is mostly found in monosyllabic and disyllabic or trisyllabic and polysyllabic. 4. 5. 1. 1 CV-Structure in Monosyllabic Monosyllabic is a word havi ng a single syllable.For instance, in Gunganchi djahere 4. 5. 1. 2 CV-Structure in Disyllabic Disyllabic is a word consisting of two syllables. For example nanacome ribathing riwocorpse hinobee 4. 5. 1. 3 CV-Structure in Trisyllabic A word consisting of three syllables is called trisyllabic. Examples of such words in Gunganchi language are rihamafood rirogwocassava rigwulaknife hi(ahohawk 4. 5. 1. 4 CV-Structure in Polysyllabic Polysyllabic is a word consisting of more than three syllables. Examples in Gunganchi language are ribulukwucooking hamatsaromaize rit(at(? puachin ri(iteitwohat/cap 4. 5. 2 VCV-Syllable StructureExamples of VCV-syllable structure in Gunganchi language are illustrated below uwidie ut(aguest(stranger) ubichild ut? father 4. 5. 3 N-Syllable Structure This type of syllable is a syllabic-nasal. It will be interpreted as a vowel because like a vowel, the syllabic nasal carries at tone. In Gunganchi, examples are nduwaperson nduwakabiold person ndukamiman 4. 5. 4 C w-Syllable Structure The CwV structure in Gunganchi includes the following hitsokwutsoguinea fowl ukwuluroom mutwoashes 4. 5. 5 Cj-Syllable Structure Examples in Gunganchi language are inagjipull (ikjitwolearn gjiranadescend CHAPTER FIVESUMMARY, FINDINGS/OBSERVATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 5. 0SUMMARY This research work has examined the phonological aspects of Gunganchi language. Words are said to be well-patterned and the principles of well-formedness are followed. The method used for the data collection in this research work is the direct translation method from English language to Gunganchi language based on the Ibadan 400 word-list. There was a direct interview with the informant, thus, data elicitation was carried out. The message of using the illuminating data is to be able to make linguistically significant generalizations. This project work is divided into five chapters.Chapter one is the introductory part which dealt with the general background of Gunganchi people , their sociocultural profile, genetic classification of the language, the scope and organization of study, review of the chosen theoretical framework, data collection and data analysis. Chapter two of this work examined the basic phonological concepts. The sound inventory which involves the tonal inventory and syllable inventory of Gunganchi language was discussed, also, their sound distributions whereby the distinctive features was examined. The third chapter then discussed phonology itself, thus, examined the phonological processes in Gunganchi language. Meanwhile, the phonological processes found in Gunganchi language are assimilation, nasalisation, labialisation, palatalisation, insertion and vowel elision. However, the phonological rules were also accounted for.Chapter four of this work discussed the tonal and syllable processes. These processes were well examined with illuminating examples from Gunganchi language. Finally, chapter five summarized the work. It also made observ ations, recommendations and conclusion. 5. 1FINDING/OBSERVATIONS Majority of Gunganchi speakers also speak Hausa language and it is observed that some words in Gunganchi are borrowed from Hausa language. Gunganchi language attests to both open syllable structure and closed syllable structure. Also, when some words in Gunganchi occur across morpheme boundary, the last vowel of the first word gets deleted. There is the case of consonant cluster in Gunganchi language which is another observation.It was also observed that Gunganchi attest to the level tones (high, mid, low) and these tones co-occur in words. Finally, there are some words in Gunganchi that differs as a result of tone which is tonemic contrast. 5. 2RECOMMENDATIONS Through this research, useful insight has been drawn from the phonological aspects of Gunganchi language. As a matter of fact, the language has not been exposed to thorough linguistic scrutiny. There is need for linguists to focus their attention more on the lan guage. This project has studied the aspects of the phonology of Gunganchi language. I hereby recommend that linguists should shed more feeble on this aspect and other aspects of Gunganchi language. Researchers who would like to research further onGunganchi will find this research work a reliable reference. 5. 3CONCLUSION Some aspects of the phonology of Gunganchi language have been surveyed. For want of space and time, it has not been possible to treat all aspects of the language. However, I hope this study will inspire further research in the language. REFERENCES Carlos, G. and Haike, J. (2005). Understanding Phonology (2nd Edition). Great Britain Hodder Arnold. Goldsmith, J. (1976). Autosegmental Phonology. MIT DIssertion IVLC, New York Grandland Press. Hyman, L. M. (1975). Phonology Theory and Analysis. 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