Avatime language
| Subclass of | Kwa  |
|---|---|
| Country | Ghana |
| Indigenous to | Volta Region |
| Linguistic typology | subject–verb–object |
| Ethnologue language status | 5 Developing |
Avatime, dem sanso know as Afatime, Sideme, anaa Sia, be a Kwa language of de Avatime (self designation: Kedone (m.sg.)) people of eastern Ghana. De Avatime dey live primarily insyd de seven towns den villages of Amedzofe, Vane, Gbadzeme, Dzokpe, Biakpa, Dzogbefeme, den Fume.
Phonology
[edit | edit source]Avatime be a tonal language plus three tones, e get vowel harmony, wey na e be claimed e get doubly articulated fricatives.
Vowels
[edit | edit source]Avatime get nine vowels, /i ɪ e ɛ a ɔ o ʊ u/, though de vowels /ɪ ʊ/ be overlooked insyd chaw descriptions of de language. E no be clear if de difference between /i e o u/ den /ɪ ɛ ɔ ʊ/ be one of advanced den retracted tongue root (laryngeal contraction), as insyd so chaw languages of Ghana, anaa of vowel height: different phonetic parameters dey support different analyses.
Avatime get vowel harmony. A root chaw no dey mix vowels of de relaxed /i e o u/ den contracted /ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ/ sets, den prefixes dey change vowels to harmonize plus de vowels of de root. For example, de human singular gender prefix be /ɔ ~ o/, den de human plural be /a ~ e/: /o-ze/ "thief", /ɔ-ka/ "father"; /be-ze/ "thieves", /ba-ka/ "fathers"; sanso /o-bu/ "bee" buh /ɔ-bʊ/ "god".
Vowels fi be long anaa short. Records from 1910 show say all vowels fi be nasalized, buh dat be disappearing, den few words plus nasal vowels remain by de end of de century.
Consonants
[edit | edit source]| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Velar | Labio-velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ŋʷ | ||
| Plosive | Voiceless | p | t | k | k͡p | ||
| Voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɡ͡b | |||
| Affricate | Voiceless | t͡s ~ t͡ʃ | |||||
| Voiced | d͡z ~ d͡ʒ | ||||||
| Fricative | Voiceless | f | s | x | xʷ | ||
| Voiced | β | v | z | ɣ | ɣʷ | ||
| Approximant | l ~ r | j | w | ||||
/ɸ/ be found insyd Ewe borrowings,[1] as be /kʷ/, wich fi be seen to be distinct from /kw/ (wich no fi be followed by anoda consonant) insyd de loanword /àkʷlɛ̄/ 'boat'.[2]
De language be claimed e get doubly articulated fricatives /x͡ɸ ɣ͡β/. However, as plus similar claims give Swedish [ɧ], de labial articulation no be fricated, den dese be actually labialized velars, /xʷ ɣʷ/.[3] All velar fricatives be quite weak, wey be more often [h ɦ hʷ ɦʷ].[1]
De affricates dey vary between [t͡s], [d͡z] den [t͡ʃ], [d͡ʒ], wich fi be a generational difference.[4]
Phonotactics
[edit | edit source]Syllables be V, CV, CGV, den N: Avatime dey allow consonant-approximant clusters, wer de approximant fi be /l/, /w/, /j/. Der sanso be a syllabic nasal, wich dey take ein own tone: /kpāŋ̄/ "chaw".
Any consonant buh /n/, /l/ fi form a cluster plus /l/: /ɔ̀kplɔ̄nɔ̀/ "table", /ɔ̀ɡblāɡɛ̄/ "snake", /káɣʷlɪ̀tsã̀/ "chameleon", /sɪ̄ŋʷlɛ̀sɛ̃̀/ "mucous". After a coronal consonant, de /l/ be pronounced [r].
Wen two vowels cam togeda, dem either be separated by a glottal stop [ʔ], fuse into a single vowel, anaa de first vowel dey reduce to a semivowel. Insyd de latter case, de four front vowels dey reduce to [j] den three of de back vowels dey reduce to [w], buh /u/ be fronted to [ɥ].
However, der be /Cw/ den /Cj/ sequences wich no be derived from vowel sequences. Dese be /fw/, /mw/, /fj/, /vj/, /βj/, /tj/, /dj/, /sj/, /zj/, /lj/, /ŋʷj/.
Notes
[edit | edit source]- 1 2 Schuh 1995, p. 33.
- ↑ Schuh 1995, p. 36.
- ↑ Schuh 1995, p. 35.
- ↑ Schuh 1995, p. 34.
References
[edit | edit source]- Maddieson, Ian (October 1995). "Collapsing vowel harmony and doubly-articulated fricatives: two myths about the phonology of Avatime". UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics. 91: Fieldwork Studies of Targeted Languages III: 67–84.
- Schuh, Russel (1995). "Aspects of Avatime phonology". Studies in African Linguistics. 24 (1): 31–67. doi:10.32473/sal.v24i1.107410. S2CID 118027311.
External links
[edit | edit source]- The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive: Avatime - Phonetic fieldwork on Avatime