Aspects of Khohumono Phonology

ABSTRACT

This research was motivated by my curiosity to explore some aspects of the phonology of  Khohumono, a language spoken by the Bhahomono people in Abi Local Government area of Cross River State, Nigeria and to contribute to the development and standardization of the language which is still in the minority. The work therefore seeks to establish accurately the number of consonants and vowels in the phonetic and phonemic inventory of the language and also examine their distribution in their environment of occurrence, with the view to propose orthography for the language.  It also evaluates their tonal operation, syllable structure, as well as the phonemic contrast of tone in the language. Simple random sampling method was used and the data for the research was collected from twenty-one native speakers from the seven villages. They elicited the data from the reduced SIL 1700 word list after several days of field work. The computer software Pratt was used in the analysis, for the authentication of phonemic sounds and appropriate placement of tones. The work which is descriptive and expository was based on the framework of phonemic theory, auto segmental theory and distinctive feature theory. Finally, the research established twenty six phonemic consonants and six phonemic vowels for the language, and revealed the operations and functions of tone in the language, the distinctiveness of their vowel harmony and syllable structure and proposed thirty two distinct alphabets for the Khohumono orthography, hoping that this will be a stepping stone for further research and scholarship in the language. It is recommended that the Government and national language planners should encourage this effort by making sure that the enshrinement of the National Policy on Education is put to use. If this is ensured therefore, it would make it possible for the language to be used as a medium of instruction in the first three years of schooling in Abi Local Government Area. If deliberate effort is made to improve and standardize a language, and this just ends up as a document without being used, the effort turns out to be wasted, so it goes beyond proposing an  orthography as the Government and the native speakers have a role to play. (Word count : 365)

                                                 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

TITLE PAGE                                                                                                              i CERTIFICATION                                                                                                                            ii

DECLARATION                                                                                                       iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS                                                                                       iv

ABSTRACT                                                                                                               v

TABLE OF CONTENTS                                                                                           vi

LIST OF TABLES                                                                                                      x

LIST OF FIGURES                                                                                                    xi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS/SYMBOLS                                                                xii

 

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1          Background to the Study                                                                                1

1.1.1    The History of the Bhahumono People                                                          2

1.1.2    Language classification                                                                                 5       

1.2       Statement of problem                                                                                      7

1.3       Objectives of study                                                                                         7

1.4       Research questions                                                                                          7

1.5       Delimitation of study                                                                                      8

1.6       Significance of study                                                                                      8

                                                                                                                                    

 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

  2.1       Review of previous works on Khohumono                                                  9

  2.1.1    Phonological structures                                                                       10            

  2.1.2    Morphological/syntactic structures                                                               11

  2.2       Phonemic analysis                                                                                         12

  2.3       Phonological theories relevant to the study                                                  15

2.3.1   The phonemic theory                                                                                      15

2.3.2   Distinctive feature theory                                                                               24

2 .3.3  Autosegmental theory                                                                                     29

2.4       The segment                                                                                                    32

2.5      Tone                                                                                                 34                   

CHAPTER THREE:  RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND THEORETICAL

                                      FRAMEWORK

3.1        Theoretical framework                                                                                   36

3.1.1      Phonemic theory                                                                                           36

3.1.2      Distinctive feature theory                                                                             37

3.1.3      Autosegmental theory                                                                                   37

3.2         Research design                                                                                            38

3.3         Area of study                                                                                             38      

3.4         Population of the study                                                                                38

3.5         Sample technique                                                                                          39

3.6         Instrumentation                                                                                          39    3.7         Data collection procedure                                                                             39

3.8         Procedure for data analysis                                                                           40

 

CHAPTER FOUR:  DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

4.1         The Khohumono consonant inventory                                                          41

4.1.1      The Khohumono phonetic consonant inventory                                           41

4.1.2      Phonetic description of Khohumono consonants                                         42

4.1.3      Distribution of Khohumono consonants                                                       44

4.2         The Khohumono vowel inventory                                                                56

4.2.1      The Khohumono phonetic vowel chart                                                         57

4.2.2     Phonetic description of Khohumono vowels                                                 58

4.2.3      Distribution of Khohumono vowels                                                             58

4.2.4      Vowel harmony in Khohumono                                                                    71

4.2.5      Vowel lengthening                                                                                        74

4.3         Application of  phonemic theory to the consonants and vowels                  75

         of Khohumono                                                                                             

4.3.1      The minimal pair test                                                                                    75

4.3.2      Complementary distribution test                                                                   81

4.3.3      Free variation test                                                                                          82

4.4         Application of the distinctive feature theory to the Consonants and            84

   vowels of Khohumono                                                                               

4.5          The tonal system of Khohumono                                                                87

4.5.1       Establishing the existence of tones in Khohumono using PRATT            90

 4.5.2      Application of the autosegmental theory to the tonal system                      93                of Khohumono                                                                                                    4.5.3       Lexical functions of tones in Khohumono                                                  94

4.5.4      Grammatical functions of tones in Khohumono                                          95

4.5.5      Tonal homophones  in Khohumono                                                              95

4.6         The syllable structure of Khohumono                                                          96

4.6.1      Phonotactical constraints on Khohumono syllable structure                       100

4.6.2     Application of the autosegmental theory to the syllable structure           101 

            of Khohumono                                                                                                       4.7         Proposed orthography                                                                                 102

4.7.1      Unusual consonant symbols                                                                          103

4.7.2      Unusual vowel symbols                                                                                104

4.7.3      Rationale for choice of symbols                                                                   104

4.7.4      Digraphs                                                                                                        106

4.7.5      Diacritics                                                                                                       107

4.8         Discussion of findings                                                                                  107

 

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1        Summary of findings                                                                                     111

5.2        Conclusion                                                                                                     113

5.3        Recommendations                                                                                         113

            REFERENCES                                                                                              116      APPENDIX                                                                                                          120