Yoruba Vowel Distribution in Word Positions
initial
middle final
i
X
X
X
ĩ
e
ɛ
a
ã
ɔ
ɔ̃
o
u
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
ũ
X
n̩
X
Although there is contrast between the oral and nasal vowels at the ends of words, the
contrast is neutralized at the beginning and middle of words where nasal vowels do
not occur. The syllabic nasal only occurs at the beginnings of words. /i/, /ɛ/, /a/
occur in all three word positions. /ɔ/, /o/ were not found in the middle of words and
/u/ was not found at the beginnings of words, but may be with more data.
Yoruba Vowel Distribution in Word Positions
ɔ
X
ɔ̃
X
a
ɛ
ɛ
X
ɔ
X
X
X
X
ɔ̃
a
X
X
ã
i
X
ĩ
u
ã
X
X
X
i
ĩ
X
u
e
o
X
X
X
X
X
X
ũ
X
X
X
X
X
ũ
e
o
X
X
X
There is no [ATR] or height harmony. All vowels occur as second vowels. Only the oral vowels /ɛ/, /ɔ/, /a/, /i/,
/u/, /o/ occur as first vowels.
Vowel Harmony Review
What are the common [ATR] systems in Africa? Which ones tend
to have neutral vowels?
[ATR] Vowel Harmony Systems
10-vowel system ‘BELI
[-ATR]
[+ATR]
ɪ
ɛ
ʊ
ɔ
i
e
u
o
ə
a
9-vowel system LAARIM
[-ATR]
[+ATR]
ɪ
ɛ
ʊ
ɔ
i
e
u
o
8-vowel system MUNDARI
a
a
/a/ is neutral; occurs with both sets
7-vowel system
ɪ
ɛ
Type A
[-ATR]
ʊ
ɔ
a
i
u
ɔ
[+ATR]
i
e o
a
Type B
[-ATR]
[+ATR]
ə
ɛ
u
ɪ ʊ
i
u
ɛ ɔ
a
a
/a/ is neutral; occurs with both sets
How do phonemes help literacy development?
•
•
•
It is the phonemes that decide which sounds
in a language should have an alphabet
symbol.
Speakers choose an alphabet symbol or
symbols for each phoneme.
Each alphabet symbol becomes a page in the
language’s alphabet book or primer.
Lumun Alphabet List
Phoneme Orthography IPA
a
a
kattal
c
ɛ
ɪ
i
c
e
i
ï
cɔɽɔt
cɛnɛ
cɪðɪðɪ
miðin
k
l
k
l
m
n
ɔ
p
ɾ
ɽ
t̪
t
ʊ
u
m
n
o
p
r
’r
th
t
u
ü
Orthography
kattal
English
‘k.o. pot’
co’rot
cene
‘cooking stone’
‘grinding place’
cithithi
‘pelvis’
mïthïn
‘heels’
kaβʊ
kattal
kapu
kattal
‘hole’
‘k.o. pot’
maɣal
nʊt̪t̪ɛ
cɔɽɔt
pɪɾa
puɾut
pɔɽɔk
t̪ɔn
tɔn
kʊjʊk
cuccu
makal
nuththe
co’rot
pira
purut
po’rok
thon
ton
kucuk
cüccü
‘sesame’
‘cloud’
‘cooking stone’
‘tree’
‘ostrich’
‘k.o. tree’
‘dura dust’
‘mouth’
‘big leaf’
‘bead’
DIGRAPHː Alphabet symbol with two letters
that represents one phoneme.
ng [ŋ],
ny [ɲ],
th [ʈ], ‘r [ɽ], ah [ə]
DIACRITICː A mark above or below an alphabet
symbol.
ẽ [ɛ],
ä [ə],
o̠ [ɔ], é [é], ū [ū ]
How do we choose the orthography letters for
each phoneme?
Consider the following important factorsː
1. Accuracy
2. Functional Load
3. Distinguish-ability
4. Transferability
5. Harmonization
6. Practicality
7. Acceptability
Accuracy
The written form of the language should correspond to
the spoken form.
•
Do not use more than one symbol to represent the same phoneme (over-differentiation). Each
phoneme in the language should be written with only one symbol.
ENGLISH (Example of what not to do)
/k/
cot /kɔt/ ‘bed type’ koala /koala/ ‘Australian bear’
Instead (Example of what we could do)
/k/
kot /kɔt/ ‘bed type’ koala /koala/ ‘Australian bear’
Accuracy
The written form of the language should correspond to
the spoken form.
•
Do not use the same symbol for more than one phoneme (under-differentiation). (Examples of
what not to do).
‘BELI Sudan
/a/ - /ə/
/à/ - /á/
da /dá/
ka /kà/
‘meat’
‘and’
da /də᷅/
ka /ká/
‘grandparent’
‘be, is’
Instead (Examples of what we could do).
‘BELI Sudan
/a/ - /ə/
/à/ - /á/
da /dá/
ka /kà/
‘meat’
‘and’
dä /də᷅/ ‘grandparent’
ka̠ /ká/ ‘be, is’
UNDER-DIFFERENTIATIONː Using only one
symbol to represent two phonemes.
bep /bep/
‘giraffe’
dep /dɛp/ ‘goat’
OVER-DIFFERENTIATIONː Using more than
one symbol to represent the same phoneme.
ENGLISH
cot /kɔt/
‘bed type’ koala /koala/ ‘Australian bear’
FUNCTIONAL LOADː The number of
environments and words in which a
phoneme occurs, and the frequency of
those environments and words.
Functional load
The fewer the symbols, the quicker speakers will learn to read. It
is possible to use the same symbol for more than one
phoneme (under-differentiation) if a phoneme is rare (has a
low functional load) but not if the phoneme is common or
frequent (has a high functional load).
•
Generally, there should be one alphabet symbol for each phoneme in
the language. But there are exceptions. For example, if there are only
3 of 1000 nouns with /e/ and
bep ‘giraffe’
dɛp
50 of 1000 nouns with /ɛ/,
‘goat’
Speakers could choose to write both phonemes /e/, /ɛ/ with the same symbol since /e/ is so rare.
bep/bep/
‘giraffe’
dep
/dɛp/
‘goat’
Functional load
•
In English, stress has a low functional load; it only shows the difference in a few
words that don’t occur so often such as rebel, content, transfer, desert. Because
stress has a low functional load, it can be under-differentiated (not marked)
•
In some African languages such as ‘Beli, tone has a high functional load. In
nearly every sentence, there is at least one word where tone is the only sound
showing the difference between that and another word. And tone shows the
difference between frequently used words such as kà ‘be, is’, ká ‘and’; mà ‘me’,
mâ ‘go’; mó ‘I’, mô ‘his’; ʄâ ‘see’, ʄá ‘run’. Because tone has a high functional load,
it should be marked in the orthography for speakers to read well.
Distinguish-ability
Symbols should be as unlike each other as possible.
This makes it easier to see differences so the eye
can take in more words in one focus when reading.
1.
Individual symbols are more easily distinguished than digraphs
n /n/, ŋ /ŋ/
better than
n /n/, ng /ŋ/
2.
Digraphs are more easily distinguished than symbols with diacritics
a /a/, ah /ə/
better than
a /a/, ä /ə/
3.
Diacritics above the letter are more easily distinguished than diacritics
written below the letter
e /ɛ/, ë /e/
better than
e /ɛ/, e̤ /e/
Transferability
The orthography should be as much as possible like that of the second
language that people will learn to read. Consider languages used for
education and written trade languages. The orthography chosen should
enable a reader to transfer easily into (or out of) the larger language.
•
For languages of Sudan which transfer into English,
o /ɔ/
is better than
ɔ /ɔ/
•
For languages of Tanzania which transfer into Swahili,
ng /ŋ/
is better than
ŋ /ŋ/
Harmonization
The orthographies of neighboring languages should be
as similar as possible to each other even if it is not
anticipated that speakers will read each others
literature.
•
For Mundari which is closely related to Bari with ŋ /ŋ/,
ŋ /ŋ/
is better than
ng /ŋ/
•
For Tocho which is closely related to Lumun with ü /u/,
ü /u/
is better than
ũ /u/
Practicality
The orthography should be such that it can be typed
and printed locally. Consider if the symbols are
available on mobile phones.
‘r /ɽ/
‘d /ɗ/
ny /ɲ/
is better than
is better than
is better than
ɽ /ɽ/
ɗ /ɗ/
ɲ /ɲ/
Acceptability (The most important factor)
The orthography must be acceptable to the people who
are going to use it; otherwise, they will not likely
use it.
•
•
Consider strong feelings against governments and languages
associated with such governments. Orthography symbols
can be political symbols!
It is harder to change an unsatisfactory system than to
develop a new one. Once an orthography has been used
for several years, the people may believe that changing the
writing system is the same as changing the language itselfǃ
HOW TO CHOOSE THE SYMBOLS
A. When a sound in the language is
approximately same as that of the language
of transfer (English, Swahili), use the symbol
that is used in the language of transfer to
represent the phoneme in the language.
Use the English t [t], [tʰ] to represent the Lumun /t/
Use the English o [ɔ], [o] to represent the Lumun /ɔ/
HOW TO CHOOSE THE SYMBOLS
B.
When a sound in the language has no matching sound in the language of
transfer, choose one of five solutions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Use a single 'left-over' Roman symbol to represent the phoneme. (However, do not use leftover vowel symbols.)
Murle z /ð/,
Tira h /ɽ/
Use a special symbol taken from the phonetic alphabet.
Kwalib ŋ /ŋ/, ɽ /ɽ/
Use a digraph.
Lumun th /t̪/,
Gaahmg ah /ə/.
Use a diacritic.
Lumun ü /u/, ’r /ɽ/, Ama á /á/, ä /à/
Use a spelling rule.
Amaː Place an apostrophe ’ after the first vowel in a word that is
breathy, as in thä’mil /t̪à̤mi ̤l/‘place of eating’
HOW TO CHOOSE THE SYMBOLS
C.
Consider influence of phoneme sequences and frequency for the symbol
1. Consonant sequences and digraphs must be chosen so that they will not be
confused with sequences of consonants or vowels that are present in the
language.
•
/nʲo/ and /ɲo/ should not both be written nyo
Rather, they could be written nio /nʲo/, nyo /ɲo/
• /a. ga/ and /aŋ.ŋa/ should not both be written angga
Rather, they could be written aŋga /a. ga/, aŋŋa /aŋ.ŋa/
or, they could be written angga /a. ga/ annga /aŋ.ŋa/
2.
The less desirable ways of representing phonemes should be assigned to the
rarer phonemes.
Lumun [t] is more common than [t̪]. Therefore, the less common [t̪] is given the special
symbol th and the more common [t] is given t.
Class Assignmentː
1. Make an alphabet word list for all Yoruba phonemes based on the things you
learned in this lesson.
Reading Assignment
A Guide to Phonological Analysis pg 82-86; 146