Medumba phonology

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Medumba phonology is the way in which the Medumba language is pronounced. Medumba is a Bamileke language of Cameroon; the people who speak it originate from the Nde division of the West Region of the country. It deals with phonetics, phonotactics and their variation across different dialects of Medumba.

Segments

Initial research on the Medumba segment inventory was conducted by Voorhoeve in the early 1960s, and published in Voorhoeve (1965).^[1] He identified 15 vowels and 40 consonants. Not described by Voorhoeve (1965) are the plain and pre-nasalized bilabial trills /ʙ/, /ᵐʙ/, which occur most often before central vowels /ʉ, ə/, which brings the total number of consonants to 42.^[2] The following two subsections survey the vowel and consonant inventory.

Vowels

Medumba has a 12 simple vowels, and 5 complex vowels (diphthongs).

Simple vowels

Medumba has 12 phonemic vowels given in the following inventory:

Diphthong vowels

Medumba has five phonemic diphthongs.

Diphthongs involve a combination of a closed (high) vowel (V1) /i,ʉ,u/ with a non-closed (non-high) vowel (V2) /a,ə,ɑ/, as follows:

• front /i/ combines with front or centre /a/ and /ə/ to form /ia/ and
  • front /i/ does not combine with back /ɑ/, so */iɑ/ is not a possible diphthong
• central /ʉ/ combines with front or back /a/ and /ɑ/ to form /ʉa/ and /ʉɑ/
  • central /ʉ/ does not combine with central /ə/; so */ʉə/ is not a possible diphthong
• back /u/ combines with back /ɑ/ to form /uɑ/
  • back /u/ does not combine non-back vowels, so */ua/ and */uə/ are not possible diphthongs

Consonants

The canonical morpheme in Medumba is a single syllable, either an open CV syllable or a closed CVC syllable (Voorhoeve 1965:319).^[1] This morpheme structure constraint has consequences for the consonant inventory. Indeed, a notable property of Medumba is that the number of contrastive consonants differs according to whether one considers consonants in onset position (i.e., consonants that begin a CV or CVC syllable) or consonants in coda position (i.e. consonants that end a CVC syllable). Below, the consonant inventory is introduced, and the distributional differences between coda (C2) and onset (C1) consonants are described.

Medumba has 42 consonants, of which 18 are simplex consonants and 24 are complex consonants.

Simplex consonants

There are 18 simplex consonants in Medumba (Voorhoeve 1965).

Medumba has 18 simple consonants, with three of them (placed in parentheses in the table below) being extremely rare.

Note the absence of the following segments:

• there is a voiced bilabial stop /b/, but no counterpart voiceless bilabial stop */p/
  • but [p] occurs as an allophone of /b/
• there is a voiceless palatal fricative /ʃ/ (with limited distribution), but no counterpart voiced palatal fricative */ʒ/
  • but [ʒ] occurs as an allophone of /ɟ/
• there are velar nasal and oral stops, but no counterpart velar fricatives */ɣ/ or */x/
  • but [ɣ] occurs as a release in the /ᵑg/~[ᵑgɣ] alternation, and [x] occurs as a release in the /ᵑk/~[ᵑkx] alternation

Complex consonants

There are 24 complex consonants found in Medumba (Voorhoeve 1965:326, section 3.1.9). Complex consonants only occur in onset position.

Note the following gaps in the inventory of complex consonants:

• no labialized labial nasal or voiceless stop: */mʷ/, */pʷ/, */ᵐpʷ/
• no labialized alveolar (nasal or oral) stop: */nʷ/, */dʷ/, */ⁿdʷ/, */tʷ/, */ⁿtʷ/
• no labialized voiceless labial, palatal or velar fricative: */fʷ/, */ᵐfʷ/, */ʃʷ/, */ᶮʃʷ/, */xʷ/, */ᵑxʷ/

Final consonants

Of the 40 consonants found in Medumba, only 7 can be coda consonants: the 3 nasal stops /m, n, ŋ/, the 3 counterpart voiced oral stops /b, d, ɡ/, and the glottal stop /ʔ/.

Final nasals

Final nasals include bilabial /m/, alveolar /n/, and velar /ŋ/.

Final stops

Final stops includes bilabial /b/ (with allophone [p]), alveolar /d/ (with allophones [l,t]), velar /g/ (with allophone [ʁ, k]), and glottal /ʔ/.

Initial consonants

The below table presents the inventory of onset consonants and their allophones. The only consonant excluded from onset position is the glottal stop /ʔ/. All other consonants occur in onset position, so there are 39 possible onset consonants. In onset position, nasals may be plain (C) or labialized (Cʷ). All other consonant types (voiced plosives, voiceless plosives, fricative) occur as plain (C), labialized (Cʷ), pre-nasalized (ⁿC), or pre-nasalized and labialized (ⁿCʷ). In addition, onset consonants display allophonic variation that is conditioned by the following vowel.

Initial labials

Initial labials include:

• plain consonants (C: /m/, /b/ (with allophone [p]), and /f/ (with allophone [ᵐv])
• labialized consonants (Cʷ): /bʷ/ (with allophone [bⱽ]^{[clarification needed]})
• pre-nasalized consonants (ⁿC): /ᵐb/ and /ᵐf/
• pre-nasalized labialized consonants (ⁿCʷ): /ᵐbʷ/

Initial alveolars

Initial alveolars include:

• plain consonants (C): /n/, /d/ (with allophone [l]), /t/ (with allophone [tʰ]), and /s/
• labialized consonants (Cʷ): /sʷ/
• pre-nasalized consonants (ⁿC): /ⁿd/, /ⁿt/ (with allophone [ⁿtʰ]), and /ⁿs/ (with allophone [ⁿz])
• pre-nasalized labialized consonants (ᴺCʷ): /ⁿsʷ/

Initial palatals

Initial palatals include:

• plain consonants (C): /ɲ/, /ɟ/ (with allophones [j], [ʒ], [z]), /c/ (with allophones [ts] and [cʃ]), and /ʃ/
• labialized consonants (Cʷ): /ɲʷ/, /ɟʷ/ (with allophones [ʒʷ],[zʷ]), and /cʷ/ (with allophones [ʃ] and [tsʷ])
• pre-nasalized consonants (ᴺC): /ᶮɟ/ (with allophones [ᶮʒ], [ⁿz]), and /ᶮc/ (with allophones [ᶮcʃ] and [ⁿts])
• pre-nasalized labialized consonants ('ⁿCʷ): /ᶮcʷ/ with allophone [ᶮʃ]

Initial velars

Initial velars include:

• plain consonants (C): /ŋ/, /g/ (with allophone [ʁ]), /k/ (with allophones [kʰ] and [kx])
• labialized consonants (Cʷ): /ŋʷ/ and /gʷ/ (with allophones [w] and [v])
• pre-nasalized consonants (ᴺC): /ᵑg/ (with allophone [ᵑgˠ])and /ᵑk/ (with allophones [ᵑkʰ] and [ᵑkx])
• pre-nasalized labialized consonants (ⁿCʷ): /ᵑgʷ/ and /ᵑkʷ/

Phonological processes affecting segments

Vowel insertion

Consonant-final words - which are generally CVC because of the size constraint that favours CV or CVC words - are often augmented by a final vowel. This process of vowel insertion happens in one of two contexts: (i) before a pause; (ii) at the end of a sentence. The quality of the inserted vowel is conditioned by the final consonant: if the final C is a glottal stop, then the inserted vowel is schwa; elsewhere, the inserted vowel is a copy of the stem vowel. Examples illustrating vowel insertion are given in (60).

(60) a. koo                          b.  cintEE
       ko-o                             cin-te-e
       love-FV                          xx-yy-FV
       'to want, to love'               'to urinate'
       (adapted from Voorhoeve 1965:332)

Consonant mutation

Consonants in onset position surface with different variants. This consonant allophone, a form of consonant mutation, is conditioned by the following vowel. There are seven conditioning contexts, as follows:

1. the non-closed vowels
2. the closed vowels
3. the high front vowel /i/
4. the high non-front vowels /ʉ/ and /u/
5. the high central (non-front, non-back) vowel /ʉ/
6. the high back vowel /u/
7. the vowels /o/ and /ə/

Tone

Medumba is famous for the extent to which tone shapes grammar. Although having only a two-tone contrast, namely High (H) and Low (L), surface tone melodies are conditioned by a variety of lexical, morphological and syntactic factors:

1. lexically specified level Low (L) and High (H) tone
2. morphologically derived falling (HL) and rising (HL) contour tones
3. syntactically conditioned downstep, where H is produced at a lower pitch than a preceding H tone

Two tones: high versus low

Medumba is described as a two-level tone system with low (L) and high (H) tones; examples are given in Table 16. Observe that the L/H contrast is found with all Lexical (open) class categories; this includes verbs, nouns and prepositions. Likewise, Functional (closed-class) categories show an L/H contrasts; this includes verbal F-categories (C, T, and Aspect) and nominal F-categories (Dem, Det, Pl). [Describe examples; also give minimal pairs]

Tone contrasts with verbs

Verb stems come in two shapes, CV and CVC, with each one contrasting Low and High tone. See (1-5) for examples of High/Low tone contrast with CV stems, and (6-6) for examples of High/Low tone contrast with CVC stems.

Tone contrasts with nouns

In principle, given the possibility of a stem bearing associated with one of four tone melodies — namely L(L), L(H), H(L) and H(H) for nouns and L or H for verbs — one expects to find a four-way tone contrast for a given segmental base (either CV or CVC). No such examples are attested within a given word-class, but there is one instance elf a 4-way contrast across word-classes. In addition, there are a few three-way contrasts for a given noun base, and numerous many four-way tone contrasts with the same base, if one looks at tone melodies across word-classes.

• CV tɔ, which has L(H), H(L) and H(H) stems
• CVC m-vɛd, which has L(L)
• CVC lɛn, to, and mvdd.

Examples are given in (1-3).

(3)  Low-tone           fù                          (4) High-tone          tʃə́ŋ   
                       [fù]                                                [tʃə́ŋ]
                       'medicine'                                           'food'         

(From Kouankem 2013:60; Mucha 2017: 8)

Tone contrasts with prepositions

(5)  Low-tone    (a)   mbàŋ       [ᵐbàŋ]      (b)   nùm     [nùm]       (c)   ɲàm     [ɲàm]                                                             
                       'next to'                    'on'                      'behind'

(6) High-tone          mʙə́    [ᵐʙə́]
                       'in front of'  (from Hawkes et al. 2015:122)

Tone contrasts with complementizers

(7)  Low-tone    (a)   ndà                        (8) High-tone         mbʉ   
                       [ⁿdà]                                           [ᵐbʉ́]
                       'C'                                              'C'    

(From)

Tone contrasts with demonstratives

(9)  Low-tone    (a)    s-ə̂n                     (10) High-tone         N yə́n   
                       [s-ə̂n]                                           [N  yə́n]
                       AGR-this                                          N    Dem.Dist
                                                                       'that N'    

(Kouankem 2013:60)

Tone contrasts with plural-marking

(11)  Low-tone    (a)   bà   N                    (12) High-tone        ba N 
                       [bà]                                             [bá]
                       'PL'                                            'PL'   

(Kouankem 2013:62)

Falling and rising tones

In addition to level high and low tones, Medumba exhibits falling (HL) and rising (LH) contour tones. These contour tones are morphologically derived from floating H tones that occur as affixes preceding or following the stems they associate with. These floating tones make themselves known by docking to tone-bearing units (TBUs) associated with L-tone, thus forming a tone contour. [DESCRIBE EXAMPLES; add LH examples]

(13)  L-tone verb (put in sentence)
      ghʉ̀ 
      [ɣʉ̀] 
      do
      'do’


(14)  Derived HL-tone verb (put in sentence)
      nghʉ̀ 
      [N-ɣʉ̀] 
      N-do
      'do, consecutive’

(identify source)

Downstep

This section needs expansion with: examples. You can help by adding to it. (January 2024)

Medumba shows downstep, where H is produced at a lower pitch than an immediately preceding H tone; downstep is represented as (ꜜ). Downstep is viewed as resulting from a floating Low tone that shifts the pitch level of a following High tone one step lower than the preceding High tone.^[3] Downstep is syntactically conditioned in that it occurs at phrasal boundaries:

• Downstep occurs between Subject and following Verb,
• Downstep occurs between Verb and following Complement
• Downstep occurs between Noun and following Complement

References