Affrication of Voiced Labials (/B, V/) in Changana

Abstract

This article describes and analyses the frication of the voiced labial consonants (/b/ and /v/) in Changana, a Bantu language (S53, in Guthrie’s 1967-1971 classification). In the light of the autosegmental phonology (Leben 1973, 1978, 2006; 1973, Goldsmith 1976, 2004; Odden 1986) combined with the Feature Geometry theory, the article discusses phonological processes that turn voiced labials into labial-alveolar affricate [bz]. In this study, we assume that the process of hiatus resolution by gliding is the trigger of the alteration under analysis. That is, when derivative suffixes with low vowel (/a/) and the high front vowel (/i/) in the initial position are attached to words with rounded vowels (/o, u/) in final position in some morphological processes such as diminutivisation and locativisation, the results are undesirable sequences (hiatus). In order to resolve such hiatus, a series of phonological processes such as the turning of the rounded vowel in the word final position into labial-velar glide allowing the adjacency of voiced labials with labial glide which violates the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) takes place. The present study analyses the OCP using empirical Changana data collected both in the fieldwork supplemented by data from other sources including bibliographical and introspective data. The article is organised as follows. Firstly, it discusses the theoretical framework; secondly it analyses the Hiatus Resolution in Changana; thirdly, it analyses the data and lastly, it presents the main conclusions of the study.