Typology of African tongue root systems

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry van der Hulst
Keyword(s):  
Root Systems ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Phonetic Detail

The focus of this chapter is African languages and the various manifestations of tongue root harmony. While there is general agreement on the fact that a typical manifestation of vowel harmony involves the position of the tongue root, there is much controversy both on the phonetic detail of the tongue root distinction and on the nature of the phonological primes that are needed to account for tongue root harmony. Specific topics addressed include: the markedness paradox, patterns of merger, and opacity and transparency. There is also a discussion of vowel harmony in Bantu-C.

Phonology and Phonetics

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-29
Author(s):  
Michael J. Kenstowicz
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Phonological Variation ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Hiatus Resolution ◽  
Compensatory Lengthening ◽  
Nasal Consonant

This chapter focuses on the contributions African languages have made to phonological theory. The first section reviews some of the highlights in the development of autosegmental representations, concentrating on the interface of sound segments with prosodic structure. It is shown how one–many and many–one relations between phonemes and syllable positions elucidate the behavior of geminate consonants and the compensatory lengthening that accompanies processes of devocalization and prenasalization. The sections that follow consider the African contribution to studies concerning the scope and limits of phonological variation. Typologies of vowel harmony, vowel hiatus resolution and nasal-consonant coalescence, syllabification, reduplication, and phonological phrasing are surveyed.

Case studies of African tongue root systems

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry van der Hulst
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Root Systems ◽  
Language Family ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Theoretical Literature ◽  
Family Membership

This Chapter presents a variety of case studies of tongue root harmony in African languages. These case studies are arranged according to language family membership. The cases selected are those which have occupied a significant place in the theoretical literature. The objective is to demonstrate that the theory developed here can handle the cases that other theories have been built on: Niger-Congo (Yoruba), Nilo-Saharan (Maasai, Turkana), Afro-Asiatic (Somali, Kera) among many others. The RcvP model demonstrated that it can deal with all harmony patterns that were discussed, including most extra complications that individual systems exemplify.

Asymmetries in Vowel Harmony

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry van der Hulst
Keyword(s):  
Root Systems ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Phonological Process ◽  
Central Concern ◽  
Phonological Structure ◽  
European Languages ◽  
The World ◽  
Turkic Languages

This book deals with the phenomenon of vowel harmony, a phonological process whereby all the vowels in a word are required to share a specific phonological property, such as front or back articulation. Vowel harmony occurs in the majority of languages of the world, though only in very few European languages, and has been a central concern in phonological theory for many years. In this volume, Harry van der Hulst puts forward a new theory of vowel harmony, which accounts for the patterns of and exceptions to this phenomenon in the widest range of languages ever considered. The book begins with an overview of the general causes of asymmetries in vowel harmony systems. The two following chapters provide a detailed account of a new theory of vowel harmony based on unary elements and licensing, which is embedded in a general dependency-based theory of phonological structure. In the remaining chapters, this theory is applied to a variety of vowel harmony phenomena from typologically diverse languages, including palatal harmony in languages such as Finnish and Hungarian, labial harmony in Turkic languages, and tongue root systems in Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, and Tungusic languages.

A Review and evaluation of Machine Translation methods for Lumasaaba

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-17
Author(s):  
Peter Nabende
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Machine Translation ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
East African ◽  
Data Set ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Translation Methods

Natural Language Processing for under-resourced languages is now a mainstream research area. However, there are limited studies on Natural Language Processing applications for many indigenous East African languages. As a contribution to covering the current gap of knowledge, this paper focuses on evaluating the application of well-established machine translation methods for one heavily under-resourced indigenous East African language called Lumasaaba. Specifically, we review the most common machine translation methods in the context of Lumasaaba including both rule-based and data-driven methods. Then we apply a state of the art data-driven machine translation method to learn models for automating translation between Lumasaaba and English using a very limited data set of parallel sentences. Automatic evaluation results show that a transformer-based Neural Machine Translation model architecture leads to consistently better BLEU scores than the recurrent neural network-based models. Moreover, the automatically generated translations can be comprehended to a reasonable extent and are usually associated with the source language input.

Primi appunti sulla manipolazione dell’assegnazione del genere in sanvalentinese

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-350
Author(s):  
Diana Passino
Keyword(s):  
Peculiar Feature ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Gender Shift

"Preliminary Notes on Gender Assignment Manipulation in Sanvalentinese. This contribution draws attention on a peculiar feature of the Italo-Romance dialect spoken in San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore, where a subgroup of feminine nouns displays both feminine and masculine plural options. Gender shift to masculine in the plural seems to be exploited to obtain semantic differences related to countability and evaluation, namely to refer respectively to weak differentiation and pejorative meaning. This phenomenon, known as recategorization or gender assignment manipulation, is rather common in African languages of different families, but less pervasive and systematic in Romance. Gender and recategorization in Sanvalentinese are discussed in relation to inflectional classes, of which this contribution provides a sketch. Keywords: gender, number, recategorization, inflectional class, overdifferentiation, collective plural, Romance dialectology, metaphony."

FOLKTALE NARRATION IN THE INDIGENOUS SOUTH AFRICAN LANGUAGES: AN ARTFUL CUL-DE-SAC?

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-37
Author(s):  
Eric Mabaso
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
South African ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
A Performance

This article highlights the problem that the print mode that the indigenous South African languages (IndiSAL) have largely adopted to preserve the folktale is inadequate. It raises shortfalls in support of the contention that not enough is being done to preserve the art of folktale narration and suggests a way out of the cul-de-sac. Most works on IndiSAL folktales focus on the value of preserving the art itself rather than the mode of preservation. The research follows a performance-centred approach as advocated by inter alia Marivate (1991), Bill (1996), Dorji (2010) and Backe (2014). Compared to countries such as Nigeria and Malawi, IndiSAL are lagging behind in digitization for the preservation of folktales. The article is an empirical study based on the author’s experiences and observation of folktale narration and the analysis of the transcribed form. The article critically reviews the various preservation modes and highlights their pros and cons.

Khawuleza—An Instantiation of the Black Archive

Imbizo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siseko H. Kumalo
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
African History ◽  
Art Practice ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Philosophical Consideration ◽  
Theory Generation ◽  
Artistic Works

South African history is such that Blackness/Indigeneity were excluded from institutions of knowledge production. Contemporarily, the traditional University is defined as an institution predicated on the abjection of Blackness. This reality neither predetermined the positions and responses, nor presupposed complete/successful erasure of Blackness/Indigeneity owing to exclusion. I contend and detail how theorising, thinking about and through the Fact of Blackness, continue(d)—using the artistic works of Mhlongo, Makeba, Mbulu, and contemporarily, Leomile as examples. Analysing the music of the abovementioned artists, a move rooted in intersectional feminist approaches, will reveal modes of theorising that characterised the artistic expressions that define(d) the country. Theory generation, so construed, necessitates a judicious philosophical consideration if we are to resurrect the Black Archive. I conclude with an introspective question aimed at inspiring similar projects in other traditions that constitute the Black Archive, i.e. African languages and literature, theatre, art practice and theory.

Em busca de explicações sobre Vocábulos Africanos: Uma investigação em alguns dicionários e/ou glossários brasileiros (1889-2006)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
César Costa Vitorino
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Singular Value ◽  
Academic Life ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Look ◽  
Afro Brazilian

The book “In search of explanations about African words: an investigation in some Brazilian dictionaries and / or glossaries (1889-2006)” raises controversial and relevant questions about the usefulness of Africanism for Brazil and the delimitation between Afro-Brazilian and africanists studies. The work is one of the results of the work that the author has been developing throughout his long and rich academic life. The author shows enthusiasm for the study of Brazilian Africanism, especially in what concerns on the relationships that are established between words and culture.It shows the participation of African languages in the constitution of the Brazilian Portuguese lexicon, since it considers that studies in this area have been taking place very slowly. Therefore, this work intends to promote the production of future researches that discuss about the social place of African words in Brazilian Portuguese. It makes a point of which we should have no doubt in affirming - unequivocally and systematically - that one can speak of Brazilian Africanism. It takes as a starting point the analysis of dictionaries and glossaries (1889-2006), while taking a retrospective look.It reflects, with such observation, about what is classified as Africanism in the Brazilian Portuguese lexicon. It suggests the need to draw a line between Afro-Brazilian and Africanists studies. Finally, it is expected that such a work can bring new look and perspectives. It is even verified that, in his text, there is a lot of work for everyone. That´s why this work in this book is considered by the author as a singular value.

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