A phonemic analysis of Bemba: A presentation of Bemba syllable structure, phonemic contrasts and their distribution

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A PHGNEM-IC ANALYSIS OF ECiBEMBA: A FRESEN‘EATEON 0F BEMBA SYLLQBLE SYRUCTURE: PHONEMEC GONTP‘MTS AND THEER DISTREBUTION Thesie for the Degree of M. A. MiCl-IEGAN STATE UNi‘a’ERSiTY MUBANGA E KASHOK! 1967

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

I

L [BR A R V Michigan Stem.

00591 5289

University

1

A PHONEMIC ANALYSIS OF ICIBEMBA: A PRESENTATION OF BEMBA SYLLABLE STRUCTURE; PHONEMIC CONTRASTS AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION By Mubanga E. Kashoki

A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Linguistics and Oriental and African Languages

1967

As initiall; reinvestigaZe ex

tais end, the or: logical and Gram Nan-fusion of Var-a ride a practical iciBezba in ccpin h1the cours that the study c; liming an ads :1 Ia al‘tiv‘ear that this hagdsts wno r1 :59 structure

cf 1

This present

this?) will attempt Hr:

' .

ACLBE

PREFACE

As initially conceived by this investigator, it was his aim to investigate more closely vowel fusion patterns in iciBemba.

To

this end, the originally proposed study was entitled "Some Phono— logical and Grammatical Considerations Governing the Fusion and Non-fusion of Vowels in iciBemba" the purpose of which was to pro-

vide a practical framework for both the student and the teacher of iciBemba in coping more effectively with fusion problems. In the course of the investigation,

however,

it became evident

that the study COle not be undertaken without first of all establishing an adequate phonemic analysis of the language.

It would

appear that this type of analysis has not been attempted by Bantu linguists who have applied more traditional methods to determine

the structure of the language. This present study is therefore a pilot phonemic analysis

which will attempt primarily to establish an inventory of phonemic contrasts in iciBemba.

The setting up of segmental and supraseg-

mental phonemes will accordingly constitute the main content of

the thesis.

Further considerations will be a discussion of the

distribution of the phonemes and Bemba syllable structure.

This

Study does not purport to be either definitive or exhaustive but rather tentative and suggestive since the analysis is based on a limited corpus.

Although, wherever relevant, morphological and

syntactical levels will be taken into account, the study is ii

primarily COZCE

Since 311K

’1

crzhegrapi'ly m

language, it i

U)

0‘)

for a better g

o

toeards that

from its potent. gical theory, w: research on the

This study

E‘Jiiance, sugges

'2 r. .red, and the N

All

fer

. DTOVldlng Ire

xP‘ériehcp 1

li

n Dirnp‘

primarily concerned with phonological evidence.

Since almost all existing debates aimed at producing a viable orthography inidciBemba are quite clearly concerned with a quest for a better grasp of the phonology, morphology and syntax of the language,

it is hoped that this study will be a modest contribution

towards that goal.

It is further hoped that the undertaking, apart

from its potential significance as a contribution to Bemba phonological theory, will later help the investigator to resume research on the fusion or non-fusion of vowels. This study would not have been possible without the advice, guidance,

suggestions and criticisms of the Chairman, Dr.

Ruth M.

Brend, and the members of my Thesis Committee; Dr. irvine Richardson and Mr. A. Oladele Awobuluyi.

I am especially grateful to them.

I

wish to remember also those teachers at Michigan State University whose tutoring in linguistic principles has afforded me the know-

ledge I am able to bring'to bear on the present problem.

I am also

indebted to the African Studies Center, Michigan State University, for providing me with a graduate assistantship without which my experience in linguistics would not have been possible.

To the

Director, Dr. Charles C. Hughes, Ph.D., goes my sincere appreciation for the use of the office equipment which very much facilitated the production of this thesis.

Special thanks go to Raphael Chileshe Mulenga who sacrificed a great deal of his valuable time to record on tape most of the data utilized in this study.

iii

Finally, I corrections in t to Miss N. Jamin

Finally, I am grateful to my wife who has patiently made many corrections in the manuscript and typed most of the work, and also to Miss N. Jamini Vincent for being helpful in so many ways.

iv

INTRODUCT]

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SECTION I

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22291

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I1 SEC TION

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5031 5.1 031 .12 6

'

0.1

The Bemba Language ...... . .......................

0.2

Nature of the Study .......... . ..................

0.3

The Corpus Used .................................

0.4

Analytical Procedures Used ................. .....

[\JNF—‘l-J

INTRODUCTION .................................................

H

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 1.1 1.2

Introduction ................. . ........ .......... Key to Symbols. ....................... ....... Phonemic Chart for Consonants ........ .. . .......

1.3

Description, Occurrence and Example of Each

l.h l.h.l

Vowels .......................................... A110phones of Vowels ............. . ..............

1.5 1.5.1 1.5.2 1.5.3

Tonemes ......................................... Bemba Pitch Contrasts ........................ -.. Allotones ........ . .............................. Phonemic Status of Tone Glides ............ . .....

1.5.h

Tonal Typology of iciBemba ......................

Consonant ........... . ..... . .......... . .......

SECTION II - PHONEMIC SYLLABLE STRUCTURE 2.0 2.1 2.2

Introduction ................................... The Bemba Phonemic Syllable ................... . Phonemic Status of Syllabic Nasals .............

2.3'

Phonemic Status of Long Vocoids ........... , .....

2.h

Phonemic Status of [w] and [y] .................

2.5

Phonemic Status of a Nonvocoid Plus a Semivowel

2.6 2.7

Phonemic Status of Three-Segment Sequences ..... Phonemic Status of Affricates ..................

Off-glide ............................ . ......

SECTION III - DISTRIBUTION OF PHONEMES 3.0 ’ Introduction .................................. 3.1 Consonant Phonemes ............................ 3.1.1 Two-Consonant Phoneme C1usters................ 3.1.2 Three-Consonant Phoneme Clusters .............. 3.2 Vowel Clusters ................... . ............

O\O\\J‘I

SECTION I - BEMBA PHONEMIC CONTRASTS .........................

3.2.1 3.2.2

Vowel Clusters with /i/ as First’Member ..... . ....... 36 Vowel Clusters with /e/ as First Member ............. 36

3.2.3

Vowel Clusters with /a/ as First Member ............. 37

3.2.11

Vowel Clusters with /o/ as First Member ............. 38

3.2.5

Vowel Clusters with /u/ as First Member ...... . ......

39

NOTES ............................................................ j+0

BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................... 141+

APPENDICES. ........................ w.............................. 1+6

vi

To Juanita, my wife; but for her companionship, forbearance, understanding and, her self-sacrifice,

above all,

I would not have ventured

one step more into the dark, unexplored jungle ahead.

INTRODUCTION

0.1

The Bemba Language IciBemba, the language on which the present study is based,

also referred to as Chibemba or RENEE: constitutes relatively speaking the largest language unit in Zambia.

It is spoken by

approximately half a million native speakers and by a considerable but unestimated number of non-native Speakers.

It is of the Bantu

family and is entirely surrounded by related languages.

IciBemba

is becoming increasingly widespread in use in the principal urban centers of Zambia.

The chief areas where it is spoken, however,

are in the Northern, Luapula and Western Provinces of Zambia and to a somewhat lesser extent in the Congo. The term iciBemba is used to cover several regional variants of the language.

It is, however, difficult to establish definite

geographical boundaries of these varieties by linguistic criteria.

The variant examined in this study is known as "Central Bemba" This is the variety most familiar to the investigator and is Spoken in the Kasama District and contiguous areas of the Northern Province. 0.2

Nature of the Study To reiterate, this study is an attempt at establishing an

inventory of phonemic contrasts in iciBemba, both segmental and suprasegmental.

A closely related treatment will be the discussion

of the distribution of the phonemes and Bemba syllable structure in general. 0.3

The Corpus Used The main body of the data used in this study was compiled with

the kind assistance of Raphael Chileshe Mulenga,

an undergraduate

student in Political Science and History at Hampton Institute, Hampton,

Virginia, who acted as informant. sisted of citation forms, simple phrases,

e.g.,

Characteristically, the data con-

i.e., words uttered in isolation,

noun plus adjective,

and short,

e.g., imperative verb form plus direct object.

short,

simple clauses,

All items were first

recorded on tape and then transcribed as carefully as possible in phonetic notation.

The phonetic notation adopted here (and also the

phonemic notation) is by and large after Kenneth L. Pikel.

Since the

symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet are not easily accessible on standard typewriters,

Pike's phonetic notation seemed the most practical

to adopt under the circumstances. The investigator was careful to choose an informant who spoke

"Central Bemba".

Supplementary data came from the investigator himself

who is also a native Speaker of the same variety of the language.

But

even in this case most of the items were recorded on tape in an effort to minimize self-persuasion.

O.h

Analytical Procedures Used In attempting to prove and establish whether or not a particular

sound unit (i.e., phone) were phonemic,

the analytical procedures

suggested and outlined by Kenneth L. Pike in his book‘Phonemics:E

-5served as the groundwork for most of the phonemic contrasts which have been set up in this study.

The procedures consist principally

in finding suspicious pairs of sounds in identical or analogous

environments (in which case they are phonemic), or in mutually exclusive environments or in free fluctuation and never in contrast

(in which case they are subphonemic). Regarding the question of Bemba tone,

it became quite clear

in the course of the investigation that an attempt to determine

the number and kinds of tonemes (i.e., phonemic pitch) by simply comparing groups of words uttered in isolation (e.g., minimal pairs) might prove totally inadequate. levels of pitch,

In order to observe the various

it seemed desirable to set up constant frames

Similar to those suggested by Kenneth L. Pike in his Tone Languages3

The Specific methodology used in setting up frames in this study will become apparent in sub-section 1.5 where Bemba tone is discussed at some length.

The question of intonation phenomena was excluded from this study primarily because such a consideration would seem in iciBemba to require a detailed examination of not only contexts of situation (i.e., emotional intonation) resulting in the expression of excitement, anger, impatience, etc. but also syntactical arrangements

(i.e., "syntactical" intonation) which, in turn, would necessitate iconsideration of large phonological units such as phonological phrases, clauses and/or sentences.

These qwestions are clearly

beyond the scope of this preliminary study.

_h_

The majority of available works on iciBemba are primarily concerned with the grammar of the language.

B. H. Barnes'

and C. M. Doke's

study entitled "The Pronunciation of the Bemba Language: being some deductions resulting from phonetic research with the aid of the kymo-

graph and palatograph"u represents the best available phonological work on the language.

Even this study, however,

is primarily concerned

with the phonetics of the language and in any case deals with a variety which is not the concern of the present investigator.

Furthermore,

what might seem at first glance to be phonemic statements are in many cases orthographic suggestions which only occasionally reflect an adequate phonemic notation.

SECTION I - BEMBA PHONEMIC CONTRASTS

1.0

Introduction

The present Section will deal with the presentation of the phonemes of the language.

This phonemic analysis is based, in

the main, upon contrasts arrived at in terms of citation forms and short, simple phrases and clauses.

Little or no attempt has

been made to arrive at phonemic contrasts in terms of longer or nmuficomplex constructions.

There is reason to believe that evidence

of this (latter) kind would not affect materially the ultimate inventory of segmental phonemes established primarily in terms of citation forms and simpler constructions. In presenting the list of phonemes, all possible care has been taken to provide, systematically, data that should Show clear contrasts between suspicious pairs of sounds.

1.1

Key to Symbols

Syllable division

[

.

] e.g., [ka.la.ta]

Morphemic Signs

(

Morpheme division

( - ) e.g., (im-pao)

Lengthened nonvocoid

[Cz]

Backing

[O]

) e.g., (iN-

)

Syllabic nonvocoid

[C]

Voiceless vocoids

[A, U]

Nasalized vocoids

[5, fi]

Long vocoids

[a:, u:]

High tone

[

' 1

High mid tone

[

'

Low tone

[

Phonetic down glide

[/\ ]

] ] (i.e, absence of tone mark)

I

High toneme

Low toneme

1.2

/

/ (unmarked)

Phonemic Chart for Consonants BILABIAL

Stops and

p

.ALVEOLAR

t

ALVEOPALATAL

VELAR

c

k

*j

*g

Affricates b

Fricatives

f

s

S

Nasals

m

n

h

Lateral

Semivowels

1

w

y

9

-7-

As the chart above indicates, seventeen consonant phonemes have been set up in this study.

In iciBemba, all the consonants (and

vowels) are pronounced with egressive lung air. The asterisks Shown above against /j g/ indicate a distributional restriction since, in the phonological system of iciBemba, the voiced

counterparts of the velar stop /k/ and the alveopalatal affricate /c/ never occur as single consonants but always occur preceded by homorganic nasals.

This being so, there ardSeS a number of possible interpre-

tations of [hdz 0g].

(i)

It is possible, for example, to analyze [nae gg] phonemically

as single etically-complex emic units consisting of two or three etic

constituents of nasal and stop, or nasal and affricate.

The designa-

tion for this type of etically-complex phoneme could be "nasal-onset" stop or affricate.

The rationale underlying such an analysis would

be based on the fact that, in iciBemba, many nominal stems, e.g.,

(umu-ntfi) 'person' and verb roots, e.g., -taagt- 'cut up meat in strips' possess what appears to be a "unitary phoneme."

Thus, rather than

limit the feature of nasal-onsetness to only [fidi 9g], this could be extended to other sound sequences such that [m] plus [p], [n] plus [t], [9] plus [k], [n] plus [3], etc... could also be included in this phonological category of nasal-onset phonemes rather than in that of ”consonant clusters.

Such a hypothesis would ultimately provide nasal-

onset stops, nasal-onset affricates and nasal-onset fricatives, thus:

BILABIAL

ALVEOLAR

ALVEOPALATAL

VELAR

p

mp

t

c

k

b

mb

Fricatives

f

mf

Nasals

m

Stops and Affricates

Lateral

nt nd

5

ns

n

he nJ

S

gk US

hS

h

0

l

Semivowels

w

y

However, even though such a solution would clearly demonstrate a neat, symmetrical, phonological pattern in the language,

rejected for two main reasons.

it is here

First, it would considerably proli-

ferate the number of consonant phonemes in the language.

Specifically,

if the hypothesis that would posit nasal-onset phonemes were tO'be up— held, the inventory of consonant phonemes would swell from seventeen to

twenty-six.

Secondly, the hypothesis would require a great deal of

qualification.

It would be necessary, for example, to state that .I

nasaleonsetness is true only for certain positions in the nominal Stem or verb root.

Moreover, to account for the other contexts where nasal-

onsetness is not applicable,

it would again be necessary to bring in

morphological evidence (which falls outside the scope of this paper

and, therefore, is relegated to an appendix (Cf. Appendix 1, p.4fl). (ii)

The alternate hypothesis of regarding [9g hdi] as the only

nasal-onset phonemes has also proved somewhat unworkable.

For, if

such a point of view is maintained for purposes of proving;phonenNc£mdnmfig

then the phonetic sequences [gg hdi] consisting of two and three etic constituents each respectively, could not easily be contrasted with

-9-

their somewhat suspiciously Similar counterparts [k tS] which, on the other hand, consist of only one and two constituents each respectively.

(iii)

.A further possible hypothesis has been considered,

namely, that of analyzing [9g hdi] as clusters of nasal plus stop or affricate.

The solution of regarding [gg ndi] as clusters of nasal

plus another non-nasal consonant is the one preferred in this study. It is the least complicated in its formulation and application (in

that it allows, for example, all clusters of nasal and non-nasal

consonant to be treated uniformly) and it keeps the number of consonant phonemes in the language to a minimum of seventeen. On this basis, similar suspicious phonetic phenomena such as lengthened nasals should also be analyzed as a sequence of two nasal

consonants, e.g., [nzoka] /nnoko/ 'your (sg.) mother', [h:ina] /Hhina/ 'his mother'. Further evidence that the sequences [mp mb nt nd, etc.] each consist of a sequence of phonemes is that the nasal occurs not only with stops but also with fricatives and nasals thus making it less likely that such a sequence forms a Single phonetically complex phoneme.

1.3

Description, Occurrence and Example of Each Consonant

Phoneme

Allophone

/p/

[p]

Voiceless bilabial stop: /pano/ l/ukUpUUta/

/ukusaampa/

[pane]

'at this spot (i.e., near speaker)‘

[ukfipfizta]

'to blow With mouth‘

[ukusazmpa]

'to scramble'

-10-

Phoneme

/b/

Allophone

[b]

Voiced bilabial stop.

Occurs following a

bilabial nasal:

[b]

/mboola/

[mb3:la]

/imbwa/

[mbwa] or [imbwa]

/ukfisaamba/

[ukfisa:mbé] 'to wash'

Voiced bilabial fricative.

/ban6/

[bane]

’hit me!’

'dog'

Occurs elsewhere:

'these (e.g.,people near speaker)’

/ukfibfifita/

/t/

[t]

[té]

, [ukfibfizta]

'to become white'

Voiceless alveolar stop:

/talala/

[talala]

'be quiet’: '

/taaté/

[ta:té]

'my father'

/ukfitaata/

[ukfita:ta]

'to hum (as flies)‘

Voiceless alveopalatal affricate:

/ceembe/

[t§e:mbe]

'Sea-eagle'

/fimuca/

[fimutSa]

'toothache'

/ukficiificilé/ [ukfit§i:fitéi16] 'to be active'

/:J/

/k/

[d2]

[k]

Voiced alveopalatal affricate:

/fijita/

[ndzité]

'call me!‘

/cééfijela/

[tSézfidZela] 'be wary!’

Voiceless velar stop:

/kapaéso/

[kapa:so]

'chief's messenger'

/ukfisfika/

[ukfisfiké]

'to go bad (e.g., egg)‘

/ukfisfifigka/

[ukfisfizgka] 'to push'

-11-

Phoneme

/8/

Allophone

[8]

Voiced velar stop: /Ugupé/

[ggupa]

' /ukfisfifigga/

/f/5

[f]

'marry me!'(said by

a woman)?

[ukfisfi:ggé] 'to keep in custody'

Voicelesa slightly rounded31abiodental fricative. Occurs preceding [ e o 9]:

/féneegke§é/

[fénézgkeéa] 'shut tight (door)!'

/fona/

[fona]

'roll up clothing!‘

/fimuf6610/

[fimuf6:lo]

'furrow'

..

[f]

[f]

'

/8/

[s]

Voiceless,unrounded,labiodental fricative. Occurs preceding [i y]: /fino/

[find]

'these (e.g., doors, near speaker)‘

/ifiibi/

[ifi:bi]

'doors'

/ifyfifini/

[ifyfizni]

'birds'

Voiceless,highly rounded,labiodental fricative.

Occurs preceding [u w]: /fuufu/

[fuzfu]

'wood-boring beetle'

/ukfiffifita/

[ukfiffizta]

'to erase'

Voiceless alveolar grooved fricative:

/saana/

[S3:né]

/umfisa/

[umfisa]

'very much‘ 'draught of liquid'

(e.g., beer) /fikusaama/

[fikusazma]

'to get suspended'

-12-

Phoneme

/!/

[m/

Allophone

[E]

Voiceless alveopalatal grooved fricative:

[m]

/§aani/

[38:ni]

'how'

/umn§a/

[umfifié]

~'slave'

/uku§aeme/

[fiku§a:ma1

1

'to become unlucky'

Voiced.bilabial nasal: /mwaa/

.[mwfihli

'is that so'

/ukmeme/

A [ukfimézma] . 'to smoothen mush with stirring‘paddle!

/n/

/fl/

/0/

[n]

[fl]

[n]

‘

_Voiced alveolar nasal:

/nwé/

[nwé]

'drink!’

/ukunaana/

[ukfinézna]

'to scramble for'

Voiced alveopalatal nasal .‘defecate!’

/flé/

[fiE]

humans/

[ukesémé] r'to spoliate'

Voiced velar nasal:

/gaaga/

[n.zna]

-'a kind of green grasshopper (living on leaves)'

/ukfig£éga/

, [ukfigézga]

'to growl (as a dog)’

In addition, all nasals occur as syllabic nasals utterance-initially if they are the first member of a consonant cluster of a nasal

plus another consonant other than /w/ or /y/.

This aspect of the

prdblem, however, is discussed in more detail in a subsequent section,

viz., Section II, 2.2 , p. 2h, to which reference should.be-made.

-15-

Phoneme

/l/

Allophone

[l]

[1]

[1]

Voiced alveolar lateral. Occurs preceding [e a o] and never following [n]:

/leelo/

[18:16]

'today'

/ubulalo/

tubulalé]

'bridge'

Voiced alveolar flapped lateral. Occurs preceding [1] or [y] and never following [n]:

/lfno/

[ifh61.

'this one (e.g., egg, near speaker)‘

/fcilyé/

[ftSiné]

'council'

Voiced alveolar backed lateral.

Occurs preceding

[u] or [w] and never following [n]:

/lfino/

[IUné]

'this one (e.g., hoe, near Speaker)'

[d]

/filukasu/

[ulukasu]

'hoe'

/kolwé/

[k31Wé]

'monkey'

Voiced alveolar stop.

Occurs following an alveolar

nasal:

/w/

[w]

/nleka/

[Qdeké]

'let go (of me)!‘

/fnlimi/

[édimi] or

[fndimi] 'tongues'

/ibéénlé/

[ibé:ndé]

'mortar'

Voiced grooved bilabial fricative: /wa/

[W5]

'fall down!‘

/fwé/

[fwé]

'second person sing. disjunctive pronoun'

/ukfiwaama/ /y/

[y]

[ukfiwaimé]

'to become good'

Voiced alveopalatal semivowel: /ya/

[yé]

'go'

/yaama/

[yézma]

'my uncle'

/uyfi/

[uyfi]

'this one (e.g., person)‘

-1h-

The question of whether to analyze [w] and [y] in this language either as consonants or as vowels is considered at some length in

a subsequent section. l.h

(Cf. Section II, 21; , p.26).

Vowels

Front Unrounded

High Mid

Central Unrounded

Back Rounded

i

u e

~Low

o a

Vowels will be presented somewhat differently from the manner in which consonant phonemes have been presented.

The allophones of

vowels appear below in the form of summary statements and are not

listed under their respective vowel phonemes as was the case for the allophones of consonants. There are five vowels in iciBemba:

/i/, high front, /e/, mid front,

/a/, low central, /o/, mid back and /u/, high back vowel.

The front

and central vowels are unrounded and the back vowels are rounded. The mid vowels /e/ and /0/ each appear to have two allophones,

viz., [e e] or [o a], which are in free fluctuation. ~With regard to [o] and [13], however, there are certain phonological environments where [.9] generally seems to occur more frequently than [0],

namely,

following velar stops and wherever /o/ occurs as a sequence of two

identical vowels (i.e., as a long vocoid).

Even so, no definite en-

vironments can be determined to Show that [o] and [O] exclusive in their occurrence.

are mutually

-15—

The occurrence of [e] and [e] is even less predictable. seems to occur wherever [8] occurs and vice versa. only one phonetic symbol, viz.,

[e]

For this reason,

[e], has been employed throughout

this study. The following are examples of vowel contrasts:

Phoneme

/i/

/£be/

[iba]

/=/

/-sa/

[ebé]

'Steal!'

/lila/

[iiié]

'cry!’

‘tell

/lela/

[lela]

'nurse (baby)i'

[lala]

‘break (it)i'

(someone)!’l

/a/

/aba/

[aha]

/0/

/oba/

[oba]

'paddle!‘

/lola/

[lola]

‘remain awake!’

/u/

/uba/

[uba]

’peel!’

/lulé/

[lulé]

’be bitteri'

l.h.l

’these (e g., /lala/ people)’

Allqphones of Vowelg (i)

Utterance-initially, vowels are generally rapidly slurred

over with the result that they are often somewhat devoiced.6

The only

exception to this rule is that utterance—initial sequences of vowels, whether identical or dissimilar,

are always voiced:

/ifikaansa/

[Ifika:nsa]

'argument'

/ukfiwéama/

[Ukfiwa:ma]

'to become good'

/Umuunsfifinlu/

[Umu:nsu:ndu]

'leech'

/eenla/

[eznda]

'come on (i.e., walk)! '

/éémbe/

[é:mbe]

'mango'

/aagka/

[a:gka]

'catchi'

/afiti/

[afiti]

'(what did) you say?’

but

-16-

Similarly, vowels in utterance-final position are somewhat devoiced, particularly following voiceless consonants:

/umfiSipi/

[umfiSipI]

'belt'

/pyeeta/

[pyeztA]

'scream'

/popsa/

[pazsA]

'throw (it)!'

(ii) Vowels tend to be devoiced7 following‘voiceless velar stop, particularly if the vowel is immediately followed by another voiceless consonant:

/ukUsapé/

[UkUsapA]

'to become dense'

/umfikfikfi/

[UmUkUkU]

'(water) current'

/filukasu/

[filukAsU]

'hoe'

(iii) Furthermore, vowels are somewhat nasalized if they occur between two nasals.

Nasalized vocoids, therefore, are in complemen-

tary distribution with non-nasalized vocoids:

/ména/

[ména]

'see!‘

/ukfigaaga/

[ukugézga]

'to growl (as a dog)’

/umfinagfi/

[umfinSgd]

'black ant'

(iv)

Long vocoids can best be analyzed in terms of the (Bemba)

phonemic syllable.

section. 1.5

Their analysis is therefore deferred until a later

(Cf. Section II, 2.3

p.25)

Tonemes Departing somewhat from the standard practice of describing Bemba

tone primarily from a morphotonological standpoint,8 this study seeks only to focus attention on the relationship between phonetic and phonemic levels of pitch.

The present aim,

accordingly,

is simply to

establish the number and kinds of levels of phonemic pitch,

i.e.,

tonemes.

-17Due to the limited nature of the data and consequently the type of frames used in this study, the following statements relating to the pitch contrasts in iciBemba are only tentative pending a more detailed investigation of this aspect of the phonology of the language. This is particularly true of those statements which refer to the number

of phonetic pitch levels in the language. Notwithstanding, it is noteworthy that in iciBemba words uttered in isolation can be assorted into phonological tone patterns or

classes.

Some nouns, for example, will be found to exhibit a low-high-

high sequence pattern, e.g., /umde/ [umdSi] ‘village', others a low— low-low sequence pattern, e.g., /baakafi/ [bazkafi] '(spitting) cobras' and so on.

Such tone classes in the case of nouns often cut across

the grammatical system of classification. The immediate advantage of such a grouping is that,

in itself,

it is already a kind of rudimentary setting for the comparison of

levels of pitch.

In other words, it provides a Simple phonetic envi-

ronment for the initial identification of two different levels of relative pitch.

In this way, an item such as /laamba/ [lazmba]

'go around

(i.e., avoid)1', evincing a high—high tonal pattern, can be contrasted with /laamba/ [lajmba] 'spleen', «which displays a high-low tonal pattern. Secondly, this kind of classification furnishes one with categories Iamenable to testing in a rigidly controlled frame.

In this connection,

the actual employment of a frame in this study consisted in selecting

an item of a particular tone class and retaining it as a control while the words to be examined were substituted in turn in the appropriate slot, thus:

-18-

Frame

Substitution list

[ati]

[use]

[atifibé]

'he said, "take shelter!"

[uba]

[atiuba]

'he said, "peel!"

[mfizba]

[atimfi:ba]

’he said, ”it is (a pair of) bellows"'

[mfifiba]

[atimuzba]

'he said, "it is a coffin"'

[kéfya]

[atikafya]

'he said, "make a noise!”'

[

'h

la.

2a.

[kafi]

3a.

ha.

1.5.1

Utterance

a t.k l a f.] l

e saied,

M

cob ra N]

[kfizpala]

[atikfizpala]

'he said "it is to scratch (ground)"'

[Iiipéla]

[atilfzpala]

'he said, "it is a bald patch"'

Bemba Pitch Contrasts

IciBemba can be said to have a two-way tonal contrast of high, / ’/,and low;/

/,

(unmarked).

This contrast has a fairly high

functional load in the language since it constitutes very frequently the (may difference between otherwise identical citation forms:

la.

/1aamba/

[1a:mba]

'go around (i.e. avoid)!‘

lb.

/1aamba/

[lazmba]

'spleen'

2a..

/iruumbé/

[ibuzmbé]

'crowd'

2b.

/ibuumba/

[ibu:mba]

'clay (for pottery)’

3a.

/iffim6/

[ifumo]

'abdomen'

/ifumo/

[ifumo]

'spear'

ha.

/mfifiba/

[mfizba]

'it is (a pair of) bellows'

hb.

/muuba/

[mfizba]

'it is a coffin'

5a.

/fiibi/

[fizbi]

'they are doors'

-19-

5b.

/ffibi/

[ffzbi]

'they are bad things'

6a.

/nffnsa1a/

[nfznsala]

'it is hunger'

6b.

/nifnsala/

[niznsala]

'I have (already) chosen'

1.5.2

Allotones

The evidence set out in the frame in sub-section 1.5 provides an example of the occurrence of phonetic relative pitches in a controlled context.

It is quite certain from this and other evi-

dence considered in this study that the two-way tonal contrast of high and low tonemes noted in minimal pairs of citation forms is maintained in utterances,

(i.e., constructions other than words

uttered in isolation, e.g., a phrase or clause). It seems at the same time, however, that the high toneme has phonetic variants which are predictably conditioned by the following (tentatively identified) tonal context, viz., the manner in which one pitch phoneme affects the phonetic realization of another pitch;

phoneme. l.5,

In certain contexts, as exemplified in No. ha, sub-section

3 low fame/me. in the substitution listycauses a preceding high toneme to be

realized phonetically at a slightly lower pitch level.

The lowered

tone is represented in this study as a high mid tone, [hm], and analyzed as an allotone of the high pitch phoneme. 1.5.3

Phonemic Status of Tone Glides On the phonetic level, it appears that iciBemba has both level

and contour or glide tones.

Long vocoids and also contiguous but

dissimilar vocoids occur both with level pitch and with dissimilar

juxtaposed pitches e.g., [hl] or [1h].

Some of the [hl] occurrences

are regularly heard as a high to normal short down-glide while others

-20..

seem to be phonetically a slower sequence of high plus low pitches. Phonetic short down-glides are indicated by means of circumflex accent .

over the symbols involved.

appropriate high and low tone marks are used. of a short glide of 1 to h.

Short.

Where there 18 no perceptibleAglide the No cases have been noted

There appears to be no predictable pattern

for the occurrence of short perceptible down-glides as opposed to the slower manifestation of juxtaposed high and low pitches:

[éb]

'it is he'

[iota]

'bawll'

[anti]

'(what did) you say?'

[udsuma]

'a good one (e.g., village)‘

In iciBemba, level tones seem to act as the minimum structural contrastive feature of the composition of syllables in that the nucleus of a nonsuspect phonetic syllable is always a short vocoid bearing

only one level tOHEDespite the fact that it has not been possible to demonstrate in

this study that the two manifestations of [hl]

sequences of pitches

when occurring on contiguous vocoids are either mutually exclusive or in free variation in their occurrence, this investigator has found that the most economical and simplest solution

at this juncture

(since evidence of contrast cannot be established) is to analyze them, together with [1h], as sequences of two juxtaposed tonemes, i.e., as a high followed by a low or as a low followed by a high toneme:

421-

[661

/éo/

'it is he'

[data]

/oota/

'bawl!‘

[anti]

/auti/

'(what did) you say?'

[uusuma]

/uusuma/

'a good one (e.g., village)‘

Apart from being at this time the simplest and most economical interpretation, this analysis has the advantage of being consistent

with statements made elsewhere in this study on the phonemic syllable

(cf. 2.1, p.22) and vowel cluster (cf. 5.2, p.2fin.

Furthermore, it

can be accommodated within the system of the two-way tonal contrast of high and low.

It also receives considerable support from an ana-

lysis of the morphological structure of the language.

1.5.h

Tonal Typology of iciBemba Typologically, iciBemba may be quite conveniently classified as

a yregister-tone" 9 or "discrete level"lo type of language since it evinces on the phonemic level a two-way tonal contrast of high and low tonemes. Three relative phonetic levels of pitch, all ultimately analyzable into two tonemes, have been identified.in this study:

high [h], high mid [hm] and low [1], marked as [’], ['], and [ ],

i.e., unmarked, respectively. .[h] and [hm] are assignable to one phoneme, namely high, /H/. Intermediate levels appear to be the result of aucombination/of

phonological features variously labelled as "tone-slip "ll , "downstep" 12 ’ or'"downdrift"13.

SECTION II - PHONEMIC SYLLABLE STRUCTURE

2.0

Introduction

The purpose of this Section is to present and describe the phonemic syllable structure of iciBemba.

To do this adequately it has seemed

necessary to take into consideration two important aspects:

(i) the

establishment of the basic structural unit to serve as the most convenient point of departure for describing the phonemic syllable in the language; (ii) the interpretation of suspicious sound segments or sequences of sound segments either as single phonemes or as sequences of phonemes. The interpretation of suspicious segments or suspicious sequences

of segments as.single phonemes or sequences of phonemes is based chiefly

on Pike's premise that "characteristic

sequences of sounds exert struc-

tural pressure on the phonemic interpretation of suspicious segments or

suspicious sequences of segments."lh

In other words, the predominant

pattern in the language should be the most compelling criterion for structural analogy, for which phonetic and distributional evidence is extremely important. 2.1

The Bemba Phonemic Syllable The most convenient basic structural unit serving as the starting

point fer the description of the phonemic syllable in iciBemba is a tonebearing unit, i.e., a unit of tone-placement, consisting of a single vowel

with or without (a) preceding consonant(s).

Thus, every phonemic syllable

in this language must have One (level) toneme.

«22-

-23-

It should be pointed out immediately that the Bemba phonemic syllable does not always coincide with the phonetic syllable since the latter is sometimes manifested by a syllabic nasal which constitutes a nucleus by virtue of its being a tone-bearing unit.

The

nucleus, however, of a non-suspect phonetic syllable is always a

single vocoid, with or without (a) preceding nonvocoid(s). Therefore, the shape of the phonemic syllables of the following

phonetic examples:

[kalata] 'letter', [mailo] 'tomorrow' or 'yester-

day' and filutao] 'garden fence' would be /ka.lata/, /ma.i.1o/, /u.lu.ba.6/, thereby manifesting the following forms CV.CV.CV, CV.V.CV and V.CV.CV.V. The phonemic syllable in igiBgmba can, accordingly, be adequately

represented by the two formulas -+V'and tNtCiC+V (where V stands for a single short vowel bearing either of the two tonemes, C for conso-

nant,+-for obligatory,i for optional and N for any nasal).

Each pho-

nemic syllable is by this formula Shown to comprise a tone-bearing nucleus with or without nonsyllabic, presyllabic consonants.

In other

words, there are no marginal post-syllabic consonants in iciBemba since all phonemic syllables are characteristically open.

2.2

Phonemic Status of Syllabic Nasals With regard to the question of phonemic status of syllabic nasals,

it is useful to postulate two types of such nasals: (l) syllabic nasals manifested by two alternate phonetic forms, i.e., free variant pronunciations;

(ii) syllabic nasals in complementary distribution

with nonsyllabic nasals.

(i) The first type of syllabic nasal may be illustrated by the class prefix (iN- ), whose phonetic shape is either [C] or [VC].

This

-2h-

syllabic nasal also bears an isolatable toneme:

[ypéé]

or [impaé]

‘provisions'

[pkalamo]

or [fhkalamo]

'lion'

This type of syllabic nasal has been interpreted phonemically

as containing both a vowel and a consonant, viz., /im-, in-, ih-, ig/. This interpretation is confirmed by morphophonemic evidence.

Utterance-

medially, for example, the final vowel of a preceding morpheme fuses

with the /i/ of /im-, in-, etc./ according to any forthe vowel-fusion patterns outlined in Appendix 2, p.48, thereby demonstrating the exis-

tence or presence of a phonemic vocalic nucleus: /impa6/'jprovi3ion5' --%>’ "*t‘t

[léztezmpao] /lééteempao]

/lééta[f’bringf’4—

"'

'bring provisionsl'

In this type of syllabic nasal, the phonemic shape /im-, in-, etc./, coinciding exactly with the morphemic break, by no means constitutes a phonemic syllable break.

Such a break, if posited, would be singu-

larly asymmetrical in iciBemba.

For, all nonsuspect syllable patterns

are characteristically open in the language.

It is best then to con-

sider the final nasal of the /VN/ sequence as always forming part of .

l.’

the next phonemic syllable 5.-

Thus [mpao] or [impao] 'provisions'

evinces a v.ccv.v pattern phonemically, i.e., /i.mpa.