Length Harmony in Leggbó: A Counter-Universal?
Larry M. Hyman (UC Berkeley) & Imelda Udoh (University of Uyo)
Studies on vowel harmony typically assume that the features involved VCV assimilations are
restricted to Color (Front, Round) and Aperture (Open/Close, ATR/RTR). For example, typical
Bantu Open harmony produces alternations which can be schematized as follows:
(1) a.
b.
CeC-iC-iC-iC-a
CiC-iC-iC-iC-a
→
→
CeC-eC-eC-eC-a
(no change)
(also CoC-)
(also CuC-, CaC-)
As seen in (1a), derivational suffixes of the shape -iC- are realized -eC- after a CeC- (or CoC-)
verb root. (The verb stem ends in a final vowel morpheme, here -a). There is no change in (1b),
when the root is CiC- (or CuC-, and, in most Bantu languages also when it is CaC-).
Some of these same studies explicitly mention that length harmony is not attested, i.e. we
don’t expect a vowel to assimilate in length to a vowel in a neighboring syllable. The clearest
counterexample would be a language that has a direct analogue to Open harmony (1) as in (2).
(2) a.
b.
CiiC-iC-iC-iC-a
CiC-iC-iC-iC-a
→
→
CiiC-iiC-iiC-iiC-a
(no change)
(also CeeC-, CuuC-, CooC-, CaaC-)
(also CeC-, CuC-, CoC-, CaC-)
In this case, the same -iC- derivational suffixes harmonize in length to the long vowel of the root
CiiC- in (2a), but do not change after a CVC- root in (2b).
In this paper we present just such a case of length harmony from Leggbó, an Upper Cross
language spoken in Nigeria. The length harmony arises when CVCV verbs are followed by one
of the vocalic object enclitics, -O´ ‘2sg’ or -E ‘3sg’. As seen in (3), these enclitics are underlyingly
short, and realized as such either after a consonant or after a vowel with which they do not fuse:
(3) a.
du-O´
zoo-O´
dum-O´
tOOm-O´
beeli-O´
‘beat yourself!’
‘find yourself!’
‘bite yourself!’
‘send yourself!’
‘escort yourself!’
b.
du-E ‘beat him!’
zoo-E‘find him!’
dum-E
‘bite him!’
tOOm-E
‘send him!’
beeli-E
‘escort him!’
Now compare these with the following, where -O´ and -E fuse with the preceding vowel:
(4) a.
mana
‘catch!’
b.
maan-OO´
maan-EE
‘catch yourself’
‘catch him!’
As seen, /a+O´/ and /a+E/ become [OO´] (MH tone) and [EE], respectively. Surprisingly, the vowel of
[man] also lengthens! In (5) we see the same thing in the future tense, where the verb has a M-L
tone pattern:
(5) a.
E´ manà
‘he will catch’
b.
E´ maàn-O`O´
E´ maàn-EE
‘catch yourself’
‘catch him!’ (E`E → EE)
As seen, both derived long vowels count as two TBUs capable of realizing a contour (ML, LH).
It thus appears that length harmony is possible. We present other arguments that this is length
harmony, which not only means that the typology must be expanded, but also raises questions as
to the very nature of vowel harmony itself.