Gemination and Morphophonological Organisation in Kisa
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Published:
Dec 31, 2024
Keywords:
Affixation, Bantu Languages, Geminates, Kisa, Morpho-phonology, Segmentability
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Abstract
Gemination is a linguistic property that abounds in the phonology of natural langauges as a language universal property. All language, however, do not display this phonological aspect in the same way. Language specific variations exist, in which case, languages of the world uniquely exhibit gemination. Though a phonological phenomenon, gemination, in natural langauges, could be seen to interact with morphological aspects of language in the Phonology-Morphology interface. Kisa, a Bantu language spoken in western Kenya and one of the seventeen Luhya languages, exhibits phonemic geminates, albeit very few. Cases of two adjacent identical consonants word internally as a result of affixation and vowel syncope are common in this language, and vary depending on the type of the consonants in question. Nonetheless, empirical studies on such language specific unique behaviour of geminates in Kisa and evidence of the morphology – phonology interface are rare. The study to which this paper is based investigated the behaviour of derived geminates in Kisa basing on natural speech data generated by native speakers of Kisa and adopting a descriptive analytic research desingn. The study looked into how morpho phonological variability and phonetic detail relate to gemination in Kisa. The results show that gemination occurs tautomorphemically and heteromorphemically and that not all consonants geminate. Gemination depends, on the one hand, the type of consonant in question and, on the other hand, the type of affix in question and segmentability of the affix. Kisa, is shown to have morphological geminates, discerned from their morphological properties. Kisa morphological geminates, however, behave like phonological geminates based on the phonological properties they portray. The analysis shows a distinction between phonological rules and phonetic implementation rules and that the strength of morphological boundaries impacts the gemination properties of certain affixes and sounds, providing evidence of the morphoplogy - phonology interface in Kisa.
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Ondondo, E. A. (2024). Gemination and Morphophonological Organisation in Kisa. International Journal of Multilingualism and Languages for Specific Purposes , 6(02), 13-29. Retrieved from https://revue.univ-oran2.dz/Revue/IJMLSP/index.php/IJMLSP/article/view/51
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References
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Davis, S. (1999). On the Representation of Initial Geminates. Phonology, 16. 93-104.
Ham, W. H. (1998). Phonetic and Phonological Aspects of Geminate Timing. Ph.D. Dissertation, Cornell University (distributed by CLC Publications).
Hume, E., Muller, J., & Aone van Engelenhoven. (1997). Non-Moraic Geminates in Leti. Phonology, 14, 371-402.
Selkirk, E. (1991). On the Inalterability of Geminates. In P. M. Bertinetto, M. Kenstowicz, M. Loporcaro (Eds.), Certamen Phonologicum II, 187-209. Rosenberg & Sellier: Torino.
Arvaniti, A., & Georgios, T. (2000). On the Phonetics of Geminates: Evidence from Cypriot Greek. 6th International Conference on Spoken Language Processing, Beijing, China, 2, 559–562.
Arvaniti, A. (2001). Cypriot Greek and The Phonetics and Phonology of Geminates. In Proceedings of the First International Conference of Modern Greek Dialects and Linguistic Theory, University of Patras, 19-29.
Clements, G. N., & Keyser, S. J. (1983). CV Phonology: A Generative Theory of the Syllable. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Leben, W. (1980). A Metrical Analysis of Length. Linguistic Inquiry, 10, 497-509.
Levin, J. (1985). A Metrical Theory of Syllabicity. Ph.D. Dissertation, MIT.
Schein. B. & Steriade, D. (1986). On Geminates. Linguistic Inquiry, 17, 691-744.
Hayes, B. (1989). Compensatory Lengthening in Moraic Phonology. Linguistic Inquiry, 20, 253-306.
Hyman, L. M. (1985). A Theory of Phonological Weight. Dordrecht : Foris.
Hubbard, K. (1995a). Prenasalized Consonants and Syllable Timing: Evidencefrom Runyambo and Luganda. Phonology, 12, 235- 256.
Hubbard, K. (1995b). Toward a Theory of Phonological and Phonetic Timing. In B. A. Connell & A. Arvaniti (eds), Phonology and Phonetic Evidence: Papers in Laboratory Phonology, IV, 168-187. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Maddieson, I. (1993). Splitting the Mora. UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics, 83, 9-18.
Tranel, B. (1991). CVC Light Syllables, Geminates and Moraic Theory. Phonology, 8. 291-302.
Ham, W. H. (2001). Phonetic and Phonological Aspects of Geminate Timing (Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics). New York: Routledge.
Selkirk, E. (1990). A Two Root Theory of Length. University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers, 14, 123-171.
Vago, R. M. (1992). The Root Analysis of Geminates in the Moraic Phonology of Hungarian. In István Kenesei and Csaba Pléh (eds.) Approaches to Hungarian, Vol. 4: The Structure of Hungarian, Szeged: JATE,
Buchstaller, I., & Khattab, G. (2003). Population Samples. Data without generalisation is just gossip. Pirsing 1991: 55, in Chambers 2003: xix.
Chomsky, N. (1962). The Logical Basis of Linguistic Theory. International Congress of Linguists.Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin and Use. New York: Praeger.
Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Traditions.London: Sage Publication.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches: Sage publications.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.). (2011). The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research: Sage Publication.
Vaux, B., & Cooper, J. (2005) Introduction to Linguistic Field Methods, Lincom. Europa, Muechen.
Gordon, M. J. (2006). Interview with William Labov. Journal of English Linguistics, 34(4), 332–351.
Gordon, M. J. (2009). Prominence and gemination in Ingrian. Linguistica Uralica 45, 81–100.
Baker, B. J. (2008). Word Structure in Ngalakgan. Stanford: CSLI.
Ondondo, E. A. (2018). Long Vowels and Nasal-Consonant Sequences in Kisa. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 8(10), 1329-1337.
Ondondo, E. A. (2013). Word Structure in Kisa [PhD Thesis, University of Newcastle Australia]. University of Newcastle Library Repository.
Dmitrieva, O. (2012). Geminate Typology and the Perception of Consonant Duration. PhD Dissertation, Stanford University.
Krämer, M., & Zec, D. (2020). Nasal Consonants, Sonority, and Syllable Phonotactics: the Dual Nasal Hypothesis. Phonology, 37(1), 27-63.
[35] Bolozky, S. (2004). Complementary Distribution between Pre-Tonal Lengthening and Vowel Centralization in Colloquial Hebrew. Paper Read at the National Association of Professors of Hebrew’s Annual Conference on Hebrew Language, Literature and Culture, Austin, Texas, June 5–8.
McCarthy, J. J. (1986). OCP Effects: Gemination and Antigemination. Linguistic Inquiry, 17, 207-63.
Tucker, B.V., & Ernestus, M. (2016). Why We Need to Investigate Casual Speech to Truly Understand Language Production, Processing and the Mental Lexicon. The Mental Lexicon, 11, 375-400.
Kurisu, K. (2000). Richness of the Base and Root Fusion in Sino-Japanese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 9, 147–185. https://doi.org/ 10.1023/A:1008323215522
Crystal, D. (2008). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. The language library (6th ed.). Oxford: Credo Reference; Blackwell Publishing.
Catford, J. C. (1988). A Practical Introduction to Phonetics. Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press and Oxford University Press.
Hartmann, R. R. K., & Stork, F. C. (1972). Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Matthews, P. H. (1997). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford University Press, Oxford University Press, USA.
Trask, R. L. (1996). Historical Linguistics. Arnold, USA: St. Martin's Press.Harris, J. (1994). English Sound Structure. London: Blackwell.
Hedia, S.B., & Plag, I. (2017). Gemination and Degemination in English Prefixation: Phonetic Evidence for Morphological Organization. J. Phonetics, 62, 34-49.
Hay, J. (2007). The Phonetics of Un-. In Judith Munat (ed.), Lexical Creativity, Texts and Con-texts (Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics, 58, 39–57. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Hay, J. (2003). Causes and Consequences of Word Structure. New York: Routledge.
Kiparsky, P. (1982). Lexical Morphology and Phonology. In Yang, I.-S. (Ed.), Linguistics in the Morning Calm. Seoul: Hanshin, 3-91.
Harris, J. (1994). English Sound Structure. London: Blackwell.
Harris, J. (1996). Full Interpretability in Phonology. Current Trends in Phonology: Models and Methods, edited by J. Durand & B. Laks, 305-332. Salford: ESRI.
Kristina, R., & Seunghun, J. L. (2023). Notes onGeminates in Sesotho Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 67, 49-58. Doi: 10.5842/67-1-1006.
Issa, A. (2023). Durational and Non-durational Correlates of Lexical and Derived Geminates in Arabic. Proc. Interspeech, 4753-4757. Doi: 10.21437/Interspeech.2023-2187.
Nina T., & Eva, Z. (2023). Reconciling “Heavy” and “Long”: The Typology of Lexical Geminates. Linguistic Inquiry, 1-41 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00499 1-41
Al-Deaibes, M., & Jarrah, M. (2023). Production of Arabic geminates by Englishspeakers. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 52(6), 2877-2902.
Lee, A., Li, X., & Mok, P. (2023). False geminates as an effective transitional strategy for Cantonese learners of Japanese. Second Language Research, 39(4), 1219-1234. https://doi.org/10.1177/02676583221128530
[55] Ridouane, R. (2024). The Phonetics and Phonology of Tashlhiyt Geminates : An Overview. In : Korangy, A., Bensoukas, K. (eds). The Handbook of Berber Linguistics. Springer Handbooks in Languages and Linguistics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5690-6_5
McGill, J. (2024). The Long and Short of it: L2 Production of Finnish Geminates. Proceedings of 14th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference, 1-10. Purdue University.
https://doi.org/10.31274/psllt.17595
Brandão de Carvalho, J. (2024). The Ibero-Romance Rhotics: Of fake geminates, weight and sonority. Open Journal of Romance Linguistics 10(1) /7, 1-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/isogloss.376
Aldossari, A., Stevenson, R. A., & Rafat, Y. (2024). An Investigation of Language-Specific and Orthographic Effects in L2 Arabic geminate production by Advanced Japanese- and English-speaking learners. Language and Speech, https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309241267876.
Davis, S. (1999). On the Representation of Initial Geminates. Phonology, 16. 93-104.
Ham, W. H. (1998). Phonetic and Phonological Aspects of Geminate Timing. Ph.D. Dissertation, Cornell University (distributed by CLC Publications).
Hume, E., Muller, J., & Aone van Engelenhoven. (1997). Non-Moraic Geminates in Leti. Phonology, 14, 371-402.
Selkirk, E. (1991). On the Inalterability of Geminates. In P. M. Bertinetto, M. Kenstowicz, M. Loporcaro (Eds.), Certamen Phonologicum II, 187-209. Rosenberg & Sellier: Torino.
Arvaniti, A., & Georgios, T. (2000). On the Phonetics of Geminates: Evidence from Cypriot Greek. 6th International Conference on Spoken Language Processing, Beijing, China, 2, 559–562.
Arvaniti, A. (2001). Cypriot Greek and The Phonetics and Phonology of Geminates. In Proceedings of the First International Conference of Modern Greek Dialects and Linguistic Theory, University of Patras, 19-29.
Clements, G. N., & Keyser, S. J. (1983). CV Phonology: A Generative Theory of the Syllable. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Leben, W. (1980). A Metrical Analysis of Length. Linguistic Inquiry, 10, 497-509.
Levin, J. (1985). A Metrical Theory of Syllabicity. Ph.D. Dissertation, MIT.
Schein. B. & Steriade, D. (1986). On Geminates. Linguistic Inquiry, 17, 691-744.
Hayes, B. (1989). Compensatory Lengthening in Moraic Phonology. Linguistic Inquiry, 20, 253-306.
Hyman, L. M. (1985). A Theory of Phonological Weight. Dordrecht : Foris.
Hubbard, K. (1995a). Prenasalized Consonants and Syllable Timing: Evidencefrom Runyambo and Luganda. Phonology, 12, 235- 256.
Hubbard, K. (1995b). Toward a Theory of Phonological and Phonetic Timing. In B. A. Connell & A. Arvaniti (eds), Phonology and Phonetic Evidence: Papers in Laboratory Phonology, IV, 168-187. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Maddieson, I. (1993). Splitting the Mora. UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics, 83, 9-18.
Tranel, B. (1991). CVC Light Syllables, Geminates and Moraic Theory. Phonology, 8. 291-302.
Ham, W. H. (2001). Phonetic and Phonological Aspects of Geminate Timing (Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics). New York: Routledge.
Selkirk, E. (1990). A Two Root Theory of Length. University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers, 14, 123-171.
Vago, R. M. (1992). The Root Analysis of Geminates in the Moraic Phonology of Hungarian. In István Kenesei and Csaba Pléh (eds.) Approaches to Hungarian, Vol. 4: The Structure of Hungarian, Szeged: JATE,
Buchstaller, I., & Khattab, G. (2003). Population Samples. Data without generalisation is just gossip. Pirsing 1991: 55, in Chambers 2003: xix.
Chomsky, N. (1962). The Logical Basis of Linguistic Theory. International Congress of Linguists.Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin and Use. New York: Praeger.
Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Traditions.London: Sage Publication.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches: Sage publications.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.). (2011). The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research: Sage Publication.
Vaux, B., & Cooper, J. (2005) Introduction to Linguistic Field Methods, Lincom. Europa, Muechen.
Gordon, M. J. (2006). Interview with William Labov. Journal of English Linguistics, 34(4), 332–351.
Gordon, M. J. (2009). Prominence and gemination in Ingrian. Linguistica Uralica 45, 81–100.
Baker, B. J. (2008). Word Structure in Ngalakgan. Stanford: CSLI.
Ondondo, E. A. (2018). Long Vowels and Nasal-Consonant Sequences in Kisa. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 8(10), 1329-1337.
Ondondo, E. A. (2013). Word Structure in Kisa [PhD Thesis, University of Newcastle Australia]. University of Newcastle Library Repository.
Dmitrieva, O. (2012). Geminate Typology and the Perception of Consonant Duration. PhD Dissertation, Stanford University.
Krämer, M., & Zec, D. (2020). Nasal Consonants, Sonority, and Syllable Phonotactics: the Dual Nasal Hypothesis. Phonology, 37(1), 27-63.
[35] Bolozky, S. (2004). Complementary Distribution between Pre-Tonal Lengthening and Vowel Centralization in Colloquial Hebrew. Paper Read at the National Association of Professors of Hebrew’s Annual Conference on Hebrew Language, Literature and Culture, Austin, Texas, June 5–8.
McCarthy, J. J. (1986). OCP Effects: Gemination and Antigemination. Linguistic Inquiry, 17, 207-63.
Tucker, B.V., & Ernestus, M. (2016). Why We Need to Investigate Casual Speech to Truly Understand Language Production, Processing and the Mental Lexicon. The Mental Lexicon, 11, 375-400.
Kurisu, K. (2000). Richness of the Base and Root Fusion in Sino-Japanese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 9, 147–185. https://doi.org/ 10.1023/A:1008323215522
Crystal, D. (2008). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. The language library (6th ed.). Oxford: Credo Reference; Blackwell Publishing.
Catford, J. C. (1988). A Practical Introduction to Phonetics. Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press and Oxford University Press.
Hartmann, R. R. K., & Stork, F. C. (1972). Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Matthews, P. H. (1997). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford University Press, Oxford University Press, USA.
Trask, R. L. (1996). Historical Linguistics. Arnold, USA: St. Martin's Press.Harris, J. (1994). English Sound Structure. London: Blackwell.
Hedia, S.B., & Plag, I. (2017). Gemination and Degemination in English Prefixation: Phonetic Evidence for Morphological Organization. J. Phonetics, 62, 34-49.
Hay, J. (2007). The Phonetics of Un-. In Judith Munat (ed.), Lexical Creativity, Texts and Con-texts (Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics, 58, 39–57. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Hay, J. (2003). Causes and Consequences of Word Structure. New York: Routledge.
Kiparsky, P. (1982). Lexical Morphology and Phonology. In Yang, I.-S. (Ed.), Linguistics in the Morning Calm. Seoul: Hanshin, 3-91.
Harris, J. (1994). English Sound Structure. London: Blackwell.
Harris, J. (1996). Full Interpretability in Phonology. Current Trends in Phonology: Models and Methods, edited by J. Durand & B. Laks, 305-332. Salford: ESRI.
Kristina, R., & Seunghun, J. L. (2023). Notes onGeminates in Sesotho Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 67, 49-58. Doi: 10.5842/67-1-1006.
Issa, A. (2023). Durational and Non-durational Correlates of Lexical and Derived Geminates in Arabic. Proc. Interspeech, 4753-4757. Doi: 10.21437/Interspeech.2023-2187.
Nina T., & Eva, Z. (2023). Reconciling “Heavy” and “Long”: The Typology of Lexical Geminates. Linguistic Inquiry, 1-41 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00499 1-41
Al-Deaibes, M., & Jarrah, M. (2023). Production of Arabic geminates by Englishspeakers. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 52(6), 2877-2902.
Lee, A., Li, X., & Mok, P. (2023). False geminates as an effective transitional strategy for Cantonese learners of Japanese. Second Language Research, 39(4), 1219-1234. https://doi.org/10.1177/02676583221128530
[55] Ridouane, R. (2024). The Phonetics and Phonology of Tashlhiyt Geminates : An Overview. In : Korangy, A., Bensoukas, K. (eds). The Handbook of Berber Linguistics. Springer Handbooks in Languages and Linguistics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5690-6_5
McGill, J. (2024). The Long and Short of it: L2 Production of Finnish Geminates. Proceedings of 14th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference, 1-10. Purdue University.
https://doi.org/10.31274/psllt.17595
Brandão de Carvalho, J. (2024). The Ibero-Romance Rhotics: Of fake geminates, weight and sonority. Open Journal of Romance Linguistics 10(1) /7, 1-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/isogloss.376
Aldossari, A., Stevenson, R. A., & Rafat, Y. (2024). An Investigation of Language-Specific and Orthographic Effects in L2 Arabic geminate production by Advanced Japanese- and English-speaking learners. Language and Speech, https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309241267876.