Block 5 · pages 26-32

Chapter 2: Sound Rules – Consonant Assimilation, Nasalization, Devoicing, Sibilant Harmony, Metathesis, and Morphophonological Lengthening

2.4 Sound Rules

2.4.1 Consonants

2.4.1.1 Assimilation of place of articulation of /n/

/n/ regularly assimilates to the point of articulation of the immediately following consonant. This applies within lexemes (e.g., yinbay 'hit on the cheek' pronounced [jmbay]) and across word boundaries, notably with the genitive postposition n (e.g., ayan caray [a'jan caraɪ] 'my friend').

2.4.1.2 Nasalization in the vicinity of /n/

When followed by a sibilant, /n/ is mostly realized as nasalization of the preceding vowel (e.g., yinsi 'to beg' [yĩsi]).

2.4.1.3 Devoicing of voiced fricatives

Voiced fricatives are devoiced when followed by a voiceless consonant due to regressive assimilation (e.g., yiyser 'jump down on' [jixser]). The 1s subject clitic ay- becomes [ax] before voiceless MAN markers (e.g., ay- sa- wi [axsawi] 'I won't kill'). The imperfective b- becomes f- before voiceless consonants.

2.4.1.4 Sibilant harmony

Mono-morphemic words contain only sibilants that agree in place of articulation and voicing (e.g., azagaz 'wild cat', ʃaʃuʃ 'be light', zizil 'draw water').

2.4.1.5 Irregular loss and assimilation of /k/

Two frequent verbs show irregular loss or assimilation: yekat (< yed + -kat) 'return here' and yikkal (< yidkal) 'lift up'.

2.4.1.6 Optional consonant metathesis

A few words show optional metathesis (e.g., mayras ~ maryas 'keep character of').

2.4.1.7 Long consonants at morpheme boundaries

Consonant lengthening occurs in intervocalic position at morpheme boundaries for:

- Genitive n (e.g., bora nn aa-yil 'at the right hand side of a person')

- MAN markers b- (imperfective) and m- (subjunctive) when preceded by a vowel (e.g., aya- bb- agmam 'I chew')

- The initial consonant of a verb in unmarked perfective aspect when preceded by a vowel-final subject clitic (e.g., aya- ddabata-a 'I can do it').

This lengthening also occurs after vowel-final elements like the focus marker nà, the determiner ay(o), and the question word ci.

Keywords : assimilation nasalization devoicing sibilant harmony metathesis gemination morphophonology genitive MAN markers