Academic Research Akunna Onyedum

ASPECTS OF THE PHONOLOGY OF GUNGANCHI LANGUAGE BABATUNDE, Oluwatobi Olayemi 07/15CB045 A RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS 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 essay has been read and approved as face-off the require make believeforcets of plane section of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. _________________________________________________ DR. (MRS. ) B. E. AROKOYODATE Project Supervisor ________________________________________________ PROF. A. S. ABDUSSALAMDATE Head of Department _________________________________________________ EXTERNAL EXAMINERDATE DEDICATION This projection work is dedicated to the Almighty God, the substantial and Omega, who gives wisdom and excellence. My d stiletto heel father, Engr. O. A. Falade, who h as been there for me up till this time. You argon my hero. whitethorn God reward you. ACKNOLWEDGEMENTS My profound gratitude goes to the Lord for seeing me by means of and by dint of my studies at the University of Ilorin. He has been the Alpha and Omega, my help, inspiration and the source of k without delayledge and wisdom.He but deserves my appreciation. Also, my gratitude goes to my lovely p bents, ENGR. AND MRS. O. A. FALADE for their love, cargon, advice, guidance and for providing for exclusively my educational needs. The Almighty God forget grant you long life, and enable you to reap the fruits of your labour (Amen). You atomic cast 18 the trounce p atomic number 18nts in the world, I love you dearly. I a want respect the colossal efforts of my able supervisor, Dr. (Mrs. ) B. E. Arokoyo, who guided me through in my interrogation work, she gave me her time and maternal assistance despite the inconvenience. May the Lord be with you and reward you (Amen). I in w hatever parapraxis take account all my lecturers.I want to in addition appreciate the love and prayers of my kid br separate BABATUNDE JOHN TEMITOPE. And my aunts Mrs. O. Y. Phi spinal column talks and Miss Olushola Faniyi. I too want to appreciate the effort of Ogunbiyi Abayomi. You all pack been wonderful. My sincere gratitude goes to my exhibitant sensible Labbo Alkali who helped me in acquiring all necessary tuition about Gunganchi. May the Lord reward you richly (Amen). Also, I appreciate my fri terminuss Bak be Bimbo, Olagbenro Bola, Dikko Oluwaseun, Adebayo Funke, Saka Tokunbo, Ogunbowale Tobi, Adekoya Oluwaseun, Ajagunna Gideon, Ba middle(prenominal)dleele Bukola, Oyeniran Gbolagade Adebayo Adewale.I also appreciate the effort of my pastor, Pastor Tunde and those who have in whizz direction or the opposite contributed to the success of this research. Thank you all. postp geniusness OF CONTENTS Title Pagei Certificationii Dedicationiii Acknowledgements iv Tabl e of Contentsvi CHAPTER ONE 1. 0Introduction 1 1. 1General minimise1 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 elect Theoretical Framework13 CHAPTER TWO BASIC PHONOLOGICAL CONCEPTS . 0Introduction 21 2. 1Phonology21 2. 2Sound enrolment of Gunganchi24 2. 3Phonological Description of Gunganchi agreeables and their Distribution 28 2. 4Vowels42 2. 5Distribution of Vowels45 2. 6Distribution of Nasalized Vowels51 2. 7Tonal Inventory54 2. 8Syllable Inventory 56 2. 9Distinctive Features 59 CHAPTER one-third PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN GUNGANCHI 3. 0Introduction 70 3. 1Phonological Processes70 CHAPTER FOUR TONAL PROCESSES AND SYLLABLE PROCESSES 4. 0Introduction 78 4. 1 dance step carcass in Gunganchi78 4. 2Functions of beef up in Gunganchi82 4. 3Tonal Processes83 4. 4Syllable men tal synthesis85 4. 5Syllable organize Rule in Gunganchi89CHAPTER five SUMMARY, FINDINGS/OBSERVATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 5. 0Summary93 5. 1Finding/Observations94 5. 2Recommendations95 5. 3Conclusion96 References97 CHAPTER ONE 1. 0INTRODUCTION This chapter is aimed at discussing the case study of the Gungawa nation who emit Gunganchi nomenclature. It depart none their habitual background, historical background, sociocultural profile, the genetic categorisation of Gunganchi paroles. This chapter forget also discuss the scope and organization of study, the chosen a priori framework, info assembling, and the data analysis for this project work. 1. 1GENERAL BACKGROUNDThe Gunganchi mess ar a phratry that ar also called the B beshe plurality by their Hausa neighbours which manner Island D tumesceers, it was t aged they were granted this name due to their coterminousness to lakes and rivers. Among themselves, they atomic number 18 habitually called Gung awa, Tsureja, Bargonshe or Yaurawa plenty. Their spoken dustup has assorted names interchangeable Gunganchi, Tsureshe, Gunga or Tsureja and the name given to their land is all Reshe or Gungu. The present Gunganchi people ar the tribe who fled to the nearby Island of Niger in the mid nineteenth century and eventually settled in a new site called Gungu or Yelwa.The Gunganchi people atomic number 18 tell to be the original inhabitants of Yauri. During the British regime, the democracy of Yauri as an emirate and the recount of Yelwa as the seat of the amir of Yauri confirmed that some(prenominal)(prenominal) Yauri and Yelwa became Hausarized as a result of their contact with the Hausa people. Today, the Yauri people s measure loosely Hausa announceioning. The Gunganchi people lived in islets (very small islands) and shores of the Niger above Bussa until the creation of Kainji Lake in 1974 which disrupted their settlement and their breathing out perspective Kebbi Sta te. 1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF GUNGANCHI large number consort to oral history, the Gunganchi people has dissentent histories that has been narrated which associated with their origin that exit be discussed below. In the nineteenth century, a numberant of a warrior called kasira who is also known as Ka raise allied with the Hausa soldiers to surmount the territory in the extreme North who later settled with his co-fighters in the present Yauri township. A innate Australian talker of Gunganchi who is known as Agmalafiya think that the Gunganchi people came from Kabbawa.He utter they were hunters from Katsina State and however explained that nearwhat people said the Gunganchi people ar from the other Yauris ethnic classifys which ar 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 argonas). 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 people were about forty to sixty thousand in 1993. About thrity-five 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 one percent in Kiama Local Government force field in Kwara State. Back to 1990, the population of the spillers in Yauri were referred to as Yaurawa or Reshewa in Hausa talking to communication.According to Agmalafiya who was mentioned 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 custom and beliefs, art and social organization of a particular country or group. The Gunganchi people have a social and cultural profile that is standardised to that of their neighbouring ethnic group, Hausa.It is said that their lifestyle is centered on the Emirates system. The Gunganchi people have their sociocultural beliefs which are expressed in their culture, mode of stuffing, occupation, religion, fiestas, coupling system, naming ceremony, burial ceremony, their education system and political administration. 1. 3. 1Culture The Bareshe (Gunganchi) people are high- staggeredly cultured which reflect in their mode of dressing, greetings, occupation and bole adornment like decorating the womans legs with tattoos and heavy tribal marks 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 mo d days. In the olden days, they apply to dress in animal skin, temporary hookup in these modern days, they dress in Banbariga which is the traditional dress for men enchantment the women dress in loose covered clothing with a local embroidery scarf which is tied around the womans body to wade off the sun. They are nearly dressed in loose robe for sleep. 1. 3. 3 Occupation The Gunganchi people are mostly farmers and seekermen.Their major crops are guinea feed, beans, rice, and onions while the fishing equipment which is a fish cage is called Suru and Hauwuya in Gunganchi discourseing. The people are also known for their boat and mat fashioning. 1. 3. 4 piety The Gunganchi people are mostly Muslims and fewer traditional worshippers and very little Christians. 1. 3. 5Festivals The festivals do in Gunganchi are called Anipo festival and Idembe. Festival. The blood of animals like goat or bushmeat is employ as sacrifices to their gods during the festival.During the festiva l, a round seat is created by the people when eating. such(prenominal) sittings are also fleshed at events like wedding, naming ceremony, sallah festival and at relaxation joints. 1. 3. 6 Marriage arranging of the Gunganchi People The Gunganchi has a distinct way by which marriage is done. It shows a lazy man apprisenot unite all(prenominal) Gunganchi dame because marriage is said to be a bit baffling most especially for the men. Firstly, a man essential in counterfeit his parents if he is in love with a lady. then(prenominal), the mans parents moldiness shambling their sons interest known to the ladys parents.He go forth then farm for the ladys family he intends to marry from forward giving their consent. The farming length is not specified, the man is said to stop the farming when ladys father is satisfied and the utmost consent will be given to the mans family. The ladys family will then inform his relatives formally about their filles courtship with the man onw ard the wedding date is chosen. According to Muauzu, the marriage or engagement ceremony is based 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 fish dope 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 aforementioned(prenominal) with the Hausas. Hence, the Gunganchi people inter marry with the Hausas. 1. 3. 7Naming Ceremony The Gunganchi do their naming ceremony seven days later on the minors birth and its hair will be shaved. Rice 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 dec ease of aged person and mourn the death of a young person. They tushvas 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 decedent to revenge for his or her death by killing the person who is prudent for his or her death. However, this practice is peculiar to the local or extreme Gunganchi people. 1. 3. 9Education SystemThe Gunganchi value the Western education, they give education to both their male and womanish children. They have schools they also make use of their personal accommodates 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 outgrowth settlers in Yauri. The appointed Emir is the ruler of all the ethnic gr oups 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 Gunganchi man was the first Emir of Yauri. The Emir must have some qualities before he do-nothing be appointed, like he must be an elderly person, famous and respected 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 work on of Yauri and other governmental activities are executed by the Kebbi State Government. However, most of the Gunganchi people are bilingu al, (they speak both Gunganchi and Hausa) but the majority speaks Gunganchi at home especially the youths. consequently, the speech communication of the emirate is Hausa with high prestige. . 4GENETIC CLASSIFICATION OF GUNGANCHI Genetic potpourri is the sub-grouping of all relevant wordings into genetic nodes (group of run-ins in separately of which one words is to a greater extent closely related to the other in that group than to any vocabulary outside the group). The basis for genetic miscellanea is the idea that group of languages that share certain systemic resemblances have inherited those similarities from a common origin. Thus, genetic classification makes 2 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 branching diagram. Gunganchi language falls under the Niger-Kordofanian language family. African Language Afro-AsiaticNige r KordofanianNilo SaharanKhoisan Mande refreshed Benue Congo AtlanticVolta Congo Kordofanian OkoDefoidKainjiIdomoidEdoidWolof Western KainjiEastern Kainji KamukuKainji LakeGunganchi (Gungawa)KambariBassaLopa 1. 5SCOPE AND ORGANIZATION OF tuition This work is limited to the aspects of the phonology of Gunganchi language and it is divided into five chapters.Chapter one deals with the introductory 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 retrospect of the chosen theoretical framework. Chapter twain deals with the basic phonologic concepts that involves the impenetrable stock certificate of Gunganchi language whereby the accented inventory and syllable inventory of the language of study shall be discussed and the toilsome distributions which includes distinctive larks.Chapter common chord is based on the phonologic abutes found in Gunganchi language. thence, chapter four will focus on the brisk and syllable cognitive operationes 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 direct translation method from side language to the project language which is Gunganchi based on the Ibadan 400 wordlist. thither was a direct interview with the language helper, thus, data elicitation was carried out with the wordlist record on audio cassette.Informants Data NameCorporal Labbo Alkali OccupationSoldier Age 40 years ReligionMuslim Languages spoken apart from Gunganchi Hausa and incline 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, opinion marked and transcribed. The data collected were used consort to how the native s peaker used them without imposing any 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 fifties it is a component of generative grammar. This framework assigns the correct phonetic standards to utterances in much(prenominal)(prenominal) a way as to reflect a native speakers internalized grammar. According to Oyebade (2008 9), Generative Phonology is a likely action which is built on the insight of taxonomic phonemics even while remodeling the focus of phonologic analysis.The major motivation for this theoretical framework was the jar mingled with theoretical impudences and linguistic data under the theory of real (taxonomic) phonemics. Generative phonology took off at maximum speed in the 1960s, next the works of Chomsky and Halle (published in 1968 as Sound Pattern of side (SPE). This theory argues that the taxonomic approach of c lassical phonemics was not able sufficient to address appropriately the phenomenon of human speech.The proponents of this new school of phonology suggest that an adequate theory of phonology must account for a) The phenomenon of language acquisition b) The puzzling fact that man can still watch the speech of other even when this speech is defective and c) The native speakers intuition about the physical make-up of the speech of his language. 1. 8. 1The coordinate of Generative Phonology Generative phonology assumes three very polar components the key representation, the phonetic representation and the rules which link the two together that is called the phonologic rules.These components will be reviewed below. 1. 8. 1. 1Underlying Representation Oyebade (2008 12) assumes vestigial representation to be an schema representation existing in the linguistic competency of the native speaker. The underlying representation is the most basic form of a word before any phonologica l rules have been applied to it. Underlying representation shows what a native speaker knows about the abstract underlying phonology of the language. At this direct, items with invariant essence have like representation.The underlying representation is also known as the phonological representation, thus, the ability (competence) of a native speaker to compute a sentence is referred to as the phonological representation and this competence can be scientifically investigated. at that place is an assumption of an underlying level where there is a one-to-one correspondence amid form and meaning and which is exactly the same from one competent speaker to other 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 adult, it is reasonable to assume that the child will expect the same output as the adult will expect. The child whitethorn not be able to produce su ch 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 arousal. two interlocutors have a shared competence which is accurate and invariant the decoder part participant thus has a proto subject with which he can restructure the defective utterance of the encoder. Also, the underlying representation has the property of macrocosm encoded in distinctive brags (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 segments. 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 stand up level.Phonological structure reflects the linguistic competence of the native speaker to compute a phonetic representation for the potentially infinite n umber 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 head of narrowness such that, at the very least, any two laboreds that are distinguished in any human language are differently represented.Generative phonology seems to consider this level as being trivial and not worth too much attention except, perchance as a source for the verification and meetification 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 path of an item in its journey from the underlying level to t he phonetic level. They must be able to buzz off the phonological phenomenon in the simplest form.There are two types of rules in phonological rules feature changing rules and succor 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 face, a rule can say insert a high front end vowel between a cluster of agreeables and we can have another(prenominal) rule which says insert a high front vowel after a word-final harmonised.These rules can be formalized thus a. O(i/C____C b. O(i/C____ As you can observe from the formalization of the two rules, they are identical in input and output. Furtherto a greater extent, they have a lot of similarities in the milieu. 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 significant 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&8212&8212 that is, a high front vowel is inserted either between two harmonicals or after a harmonized at word final position. In phonological rules, billal devices are applied. They are conventions which make it achievable to combine distinct but related phonological rules in a individual(a) statement rules may be collapsed in this way provided if they involve the same process. In other nomenclature, billal devices are abbreviation conventions aimed at reducing several rules into one. The purpose is to present more economically the facts of language.There are n otational devices like brace notation (), angled bracket notation (), variable features or alpha notation ((), multiple 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 spy. Secondly, it makes linguistiscally significant generalizations and claims about the way language works. Finally, 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 level-headed 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 relations 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 spoken language. 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 stripped meaningful sounds which are PHONEMES. However, phonemes are sets of phones, which usance as one unit in a language, and provide logical argument between different haggle.It is also a sound segment of lecture or syllables. In human language, a phoneme is the smallest structural unit that distinguishes meaning. The phonemic in ventory of a language is the set of phonemes it possesses. In the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabets), phonemes are conventionally en closed(a) in forward 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 water are conceived of as being the same sound, despite the fact that in each word they are pronounced somewhat differently the difference 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 surround 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) upet amedicine kwubanohopen kwubalohclose itamiapush igamiasweep A phoneme may encompass several perceptible 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 conditioned by their environment.For example, the English phoneme /t/ is realized as a accost r between vowels in normal speech when not preceeding a express 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 color DISTRIBUTION. 2. 2SOUND INVENTORY OF GUNGANCHI Human sounds can be g rouped into two basic classes whereby they are found in Gunganchi. They are 1. Consonants 2. Vowels 2. . 1Consonants Consonants are sounds produced with an obstructionist of the air passage somewhere along the vocal tract. A consonant in terms of sound production is a sound which is stymy in some way by the tongue or lip contact e. g. in Gunganchi, sounds like /k/, /p/ as in /k/(ka? inareply /p/(putetaforget 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, obstructive or land uply 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 go throughs 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 som e point in the oral cavity are known as the articulators. From the glottis, past the velum, the hard palate and dental consonant ridge and the tongue, to the teeth and lips.The consonant sounds are classified by a) give tongue to b) Place of spliff c) Manner of articulation 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. several(prenominal) 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 coveted consonant.hither, we have to do with the position of the tongue and lips. The places of articulation in Gunganchi are bilabial, dental consonant palato-alveolar, velar, labial-velar, palatal, glottal, palatalized velars and alveolar, labialized-alveolar and velars. 2. 2. 1. 3 Manner of Articulation Manner of articulation 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 sight that there is the presence of consonant clusters in Gunganchi language that is consonants fallring to gether side by side e. g. riaddamatchet ubalkarimale kwa take(one thing) Thus, the consonants attested 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 - - - + - - - rundle - - - - + + + ATR + + - - - + + 2. 9. 4Segment Redundancy for Gunganchi ConsonantsRedundancy is the commandment that helps 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 necessar y 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) If+ 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 set out to express the physiologic possibilities (or impossibilities) of the vocal organs. For example, the constraints if + high then - low makes the claim that the tongue cannot be increase 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 expected 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 Phonological 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 different 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 touch 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 assimilation 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 first or the second of the contiguous vowels. Examples in Gunganchi are itsuriaakatua(itsuriakatua buy enclothebuy (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 s uch 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 stops t and d that are not naturally, they labialized take on the feature of the rounded vowels. We can therefore, say that alveolar stops become labialized before back rounded vowels. cont+ syll + ant(lab_____________+ back + cor+ rounded Other examples of labialization are igbagwua pepper ugwohuakolanut ribulukwucooking alokwotwosnail 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 a nt(+ high_____________+ high cor 3. 1. 5Insertion Oyebade (2008 74) states that Insertion is a phonological process whereby an extraneous divisor not present originally is introduced into the utterance usually to break up unwanted sequence. Examples in Gunganchi are shown below. upowabetatsunia(upowabetatsunia ten +one xi 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 segment 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 banknote 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 sportsman is used to distinguish one word from another. Languages which use pitch in this way are known as facial expression languages, and the individual pitch patterns associated with words or syllables are known as fortifys. According to Carlos and Haike (2005 12), lumber 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 feel 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. mannikin 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 accent (/), 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 Gunganchi. 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 locomote 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 Gungan chi Gunganchi is a tone language and it is a level tone language which attests to the high, low and mid tones. all(prenominal) 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 meaning 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 co-occurrence 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 hirokwa clam ibulukw? he goat alakana(afour hundred 4. 2. 1 Functions of Tone in Gunganchi Tone performs two distinct scats, 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 grammatical forms. But, this function is not found in Gunganchi language. 4. 3TONAL PROCESSES As with segments, tones are also circumscribed 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 find 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 cattle ranch This is a tonal process whereby there are more 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 rootless 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 concretionThis is wh en 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 comfortably recognized in a language.Davenport and Hannahs (2005 73) states that One such articulatorily based attempt at the definition involves the notion of a bureau pulse or initiator burst, that is, a tidy 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 onset, and a core. And the core is further divided into a peak and stopping point. However, a syllable is divided into three parts 1) The onset 2) The core or nucleus 3) The finish The syllable can be represented thus Syllable OnsetCorePeak (Nucleus)Coda C V(C) This can be illustrated in the example 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(a) 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 t hem. 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 construction 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 having 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 riwo clay 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(aho vend 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 Cw-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 a re 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 essence of using the informative 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, interpellation 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 observations, 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 g ets 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 language. This project has canvas the aspects of the phonology of Gunganchi language. I hereby recommend that linguists should shed more lower 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 quicken 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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