Abstract
Like the other Berber dialects, Tashlhiyt has an underlying distinction between the high vowels /i, u/ and the semivowels /y, w/. In § 7.1 we examine in detail how hiatus is avoided in vocoid sequences which do not contain underlying semivowels. The rest of the chapter deals with the phonology of the underlying semivowels. In § 7.2 we show the need for an underlying distinction between glides and vowels. In § 7.3 we discuss the behaviour of glides when they occur as sonority peaks in the underlying representations. In some cases (§ 7.3.1, § 7.3.3) they surface as glides, in violation of some of the constraints discussed in Chapter 4, whereas in others (§ 7.3.2) they undergo lengthening and surface as vowel-plus-glide sequences. Finally, § 7.4 is devoted to a discussion of geminate glides and we end with a brief conclusion in § 7.5.
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Notes
We have come across a few cases in which hiatus may not altogether be excluded. In all of these, ME’s judgements are not clearcut, or when they are, they are not consistent over time. These instances all involve adjacent vowels belonging to words located on either side of a major syntactic break. Such cases warrant further research. An example is found in the following sentence, an interrogative cleft: i-kru a mmi ra !t-yrs-t (kid AD dat RAD 2-cut:throat:aor-2s) ‘is it the kid whose throat you will slit?’ It may be possible to put the sentence’s pitc]h maximum on u in ikru, the clefted noun, in which case the sentence contains a sequence of vowels (ua).
Except in quite exceptional circumstances, on which v. the end of § 7.2.
This statement could seem to be falsified by the insertion of the chameleon vowel in the formation of imperfective stems, as in the imperfective of gnugi ‘tumble down’, which is tt-gnuguy. Chameleon insertion is better viewed as a nonconcatenative process, however. On the chameleon vowel, v. § 5.2.
Homophonous, up to the second t, with t-adaw-t=nn-s (f-hump-fs=gen-3s) ‘its hump (camel)’.
The clitics iyilyyi and iyt/yyt may be analyzed as beginning with geminate glides in their lexical representations (/yyi/ and /yyt/). On geminate glides, v. § 7.4.
One must bear in mind that this statement only pertains to sequences of potential hvs which are brought about by concatenative morphology. The VG sequences created in some imper-fective stems by the ‘insertion’ of a chameleon vowel (v. note 3) are due to nonconcatenative morphology, as is also sequence uw in plural nouns such as i-šuwaš ‘pitc]hforks’, which is related to the singular a-šawš as i-mudal ‘mountainsides’ is related to the corresponding singular a-madl.
In fast speech the final i of certain grammatical morphemes contracts with a following u, yielding uw, e.g. in /w-a=lli ufi-x/ (m-s=det find-Is) ‘the one which I found’, /lli#u/, which is normally pronounced lliw, can also be pronounced lluw in fast speech. We only know of one case in which /u+i/ may be realized as iy, that of the phrases headed by the empty nouns bu and mmu, e.g. /bu i-zrga-n/ (ms:with bp-mill-p) ‘the one with the mills’ can be pronounced either as bu yzrgan or as bi yzrgan, v. § 2.5.3.2.
Although they begin with vowels, isti and ižža can occur without a prefix in the bound state, v. § 2.5.1, note 22.
We do not mean to imply that there are no phonetic differences which correlate with the syllable count difference. We simply mean that it is not necessary to know what these differences are to be able to chose appropriately between the symbols ‘i’ and ‘y’ when transcribing French sentences.
There are no verbal affixes beginning or ending with /a/, and in nouns the only uncon-troversial instance of such an affix is the free state augment /a-/, which can only occur before a consonant-initial morpheme. As for the putative masculine plural suffix -an which appears in certain nouns, it is never suffixed to nouns whose singular forms end in a.
When the second /a/ in an /a=a/ sequence belongs to a clitic pronoun, the sequence can also be pronounced ay, e.g. in waxxa=as bbi-x a-gayyu (even:if=dat3s cut-ls u-head) ‘even if I cut his head off’, the first Pword can be pronounced waxxaas, waxxayas or waxxays.
Preposition bla requires the following noun to be in the free state.
From AD (/ad/), whose final consonant assimilates to the following consonant.
Another idiosyncracy of /ar/ is that y is obligatorily inserted between it and a preceding word ending in a, provided the two words belong to the same clause (v. DE 1989: 187-8), e.g. mra [y]a n-aqqra (if AR lp-read:impf) ‘if we read’.
Literally ‘the daylight is difficult’.
u-wzal, bound state form of a-wzal, a proper name. The contrast between a and aa is not neutralized before a geminate glide, v., e.g. the following quasi-minimal pair: i-šqqa w-wzal ‘Awzal is a tough fellow’ (same meaning as the last example in the main text) vs. i-fqqaa w-wzal ‘Awzal got upset’.
In tt-mm-ktay, the imperfective stem of mm-kti, a is the chameleon vowel, on which see § 5.2. The conjugation of reciprocal verbs is presented in DE (1991: 100-102).
In Rifian, on the other hand, postpausal glides preceding a consonant are commonplace, see Dell and Tangi (1992: 144).
From gnugi, zuzwa.
The syllabic parses in (5) are those which obtain when the forms in question occur at the beginning of a line of verse and are immediately followed by a CV sequence. The same is true of all the syllabic parses given in this chapter.
In the right-hand column in (6), the verbs in lines c-g have the following perfective stems: (c) hwa, (d) !rwa, (e) xwa and (f, g) ħya.
The corresponding singular forms are a-lkkawsu and a-mzwaru.
Perfective sniri.
Iwr (impf lgwgwr) ‘flee’ is a rather formal word; it has a variant rwl (impf rgwgwl) which is used in more colloquial styles of speech.
‘As soon as you release him, he breaks his fetters and escapes you’.
For other such instances, see e.g. Jouad (1995), line 6 on p. 102 and lines 1 and 12 on p. 106.
Guerssel (1986) has proposed an answer to this question for Ait Seghrouchen Tamazight, but his proposal does not carry over to Tashlhiyt, due to differences between the two dialects.
For reasons of convenience, the syllabic parse that we give between parentheses in an example may represent only a portion of the complete parse of the expression under consideration. In such cases the enclosing parentheses always correspond to syllable edges in the complete parse.
On u fronting, see § 3.8.
swi is the negative stem of swa. The verbs in the sentences in (13) have two arguments, a subject and a direct object. The direct object is the do3fs pronoun tt in (13)a,b; it is the noun ažyay in (13)a’, b’.
Perfective xwa.
On the gemination of causative /s-/, v. § 5.4.
On the morphology of vowel-initial nouns, see § 2.5.1 and § 2.5.2.
Since a noun in the bound state is always preceded by the word which governs it, it is impossible to elicit the pronunciation of bound state nouns after a pause. When we cite a bound state form out of context, the pronunciation we give is that occurring after a contoid, e.g. after the preposition d ‘and’.
(Jewelry). Besides twznawast and twškin the only other similar bound state noun with a syllabic fricative is !twždatt, a place name (u !tawždatt).
From /t-wznawaz-t/, cf. tiwznawazin, ‘id, pu’.
Of argan nut.
The nouns in (18) have the following meanings: (a) ko feline, p; (b) hinge, dim; (c) hollow in which to put sauce; (d) bridle (horse); (e) ko leather bag, dim; (f) ankle; (g) fringe of hair; (h) scroll.
Singular a-wtil.
The meanings of the feminine forms are ‘female hare’ and ‘Jewish woman’.
The nouns in (21) have the following meanings: (a) hare, f; (b) hill; (c) yellow, f; (d) ko medicinal plant; (e) foul-brood; (f) ko medicinal plant, indiv; (g) goatskin (container), dim; (h) shepherd (the occupation); (i) dog, f; (j) ear of cereal; (k) amulet; (1) worm; (m) old one, f.
Cf. (15)a.
Cf. (31)a.
From m a-yddid.
Tautosyllabic uw and iy are realized as [u:] and [i:].
On DEP, see McCarthy and Prince (1995).
An exception must be made for uwrri (impf tt-uwrruy) ‘come back’. The only other /CC:i/ verb we know of is nqqi ‘be clean’, whose impf stem is tt-nqqi, not *tt-nqquy.
Besides the three verbs listed in (26)a-c, the only other verb of this type we have encountered is uwfa ‘be in excess’.
Cf. (21)m.
After a vowel the prefix in the last two forms is realized as a glide: ašku y-wažb ‘because he answered’, w-a=lli y-wažb-n ‘the one (ms) who answered’, ašku y-rgl ‘because he locked’, t-i=lli y-rgl-n ‘those (fp) who locked’.
Words beginning with iw are otherwise attested, e.g. iws-n ‘they helped’.
Homosyllabic aww is attested in Imdlawn Tashlhiyt, witness a-wwtif ‘heap of threshed cereal’.
On this variant, see § 2.5.2.
In this pair the initial vowel in the first form is the nominal augment, whereas that in the second form is the fronted variant of the bound state prefix, see § 2.5.2.
After a vowel the prefix is pronounced as a glide (v. § 7.1.3): i-kti w-rgaz ‘the man remembered’, ddu=w-rgaz ‘under the man’, ikti y-kzin ‘the puppy remembered’, ddu=y-kzin ‘under the puppy’.
In w-iydi the bound state prefix does not assimilate to the following i, as it does e.g. in y-ilf /u-ilf/ ‘wild boar, b’. There are various ways of accounting for this fact. One way would be to order the fronting rule (rule WI/YI in § 2.5.2) before the pass of syllabification which is responsible for the gemination of yod in /w-ydi/. Another is to formulate rule WI/YI so that it can only apply if the front vowel triggering fronting belongs to the kernel. As illustrated in (22), the extra slot added to the glide by gemination does not belong to the kernel.
In Imdlawn Tashlhiyt the verb /rws/ exists only in the causative. The closest item built on a monomorphemic stem is rwas (impf tt-rwas) ‘resemble, seem’, but the morphological relationship between ss-rws and rwas in a synchronic description of Imdlawn Tashlhiyt is not a regular one. On the gemination of the causative prefix, v. § 5.4.
a i-ss-rws=ak 1-ħal is=d i-llas 1-makan ‘Ah! you have the impression (lit. ‘the situation gives you the impression’) that the world is darkening’. The metrical pattern of this line is the same as that of the piece in Appendix II.
‘Lay down for him! impf’.
‘Entertain for him!’ (cau-amuse=dat3s).
V. § 6.3.2.
On u fronting, see § 3.8.
ME does not consider trûlak as absolutely unacceptable, but he finds it very sloppy. Acceptability judgements are made more difficult by the existence of Tashlhiyt dialects in which the normal pronunciation of this form is trulak.
Iwi, negative of Iwa ‘pick unripe fruit’.
ss-nwi, negative stem of ss-nwa ‘(cause to) cook’, from nwa ‘cook, ripen’.
isnwi, an action noun derived from nwa ‘cook’.
The same state of affairs obtains in Lmnabha Moroccan Arabic, v. § 9.3.3.2.
On that constraint, see Kenstowicz (1994b) and McCarthy and Prince (1995).
Both nouns have identical singular forms: taqqayt.
From a-mayg and a-gayyu.
Singular a-zawwu.
!riys ‘lead (performers), be in charge’; !r-rays ‘director, skipper, travelling musician’.
A deverbal noun of shape /a-CC:aC/ derived from rwi’ stir’.
The corresponding perfective is /šwwš/ šwwš ([šu:š]).
The corresponding singular is a-šawš. a-šawš forms its plural like a-madl ‘mountainside’, p i-mudal.
Cf. (48)g below.
This verb is conjugated below in (45)a.
See § 3.2.1.2 on this assimilation.
Except in the case of back high vocoids in u-fronting environments, see (13).
That same segment is realized as a vowel in the perfective stem sniri.
Such verbs were already given in the left-hand side column in (6)b,e.
On imperfective stems, see § 5.2.
During a religious festival.
This is a simplification. Imdlawn Tashlhiyt actually has a few nouns built on a template a-CVCaC, but they all have to do with physical defects. Here is a list of all those which we have come across, with their source verb between parentheses when there is one. !a-bukad ‘blind’ (!b(b)ukd ‘be blind’), a-kušam ‘paralyzed’ (kušm ‘be paralysed’), .!a-bidar ‘lame’ (!b(b)idr ‘limp’), a-šiban ‘old’ (šib ‘grow old’), a-titaw’ stutterer’, a-ziwal ‘crosseyed’.
The other verbs in class A are Iwr (lgwgwr), a formal variant of rwl, nwa (ngwgwa) ‘be cooked’, rwi (rgwgwi)’ stir (a liquid, e.g.)’, zwa (zggu ‘become dry’, zwi (zgwgwi) ‘beat down’, !zwi (!zgwgwi) ‘ladle’, and zwur or zwar (zggur) ‘be first’. The latter verb is exceptional in that it is the only CCVC verb which geminates a consonant in the imperfective.
Compare with a-bzzag’ swelling’ (bzg’ swell’), a-fitak’ sprain’ (ftk’ sprain one’s X).
Compare with !mqqur (aor !myur) ‘grow’. The nouns a-zgwgway ‘red’ and a-lgwgway’ soft’ have regular plural forms: i-zgwgway-n and i-lgwgway-n.
But /ww/ does not surface as a stop in !a-duwar ‘village’ (/!dwwar/; p !i-dura-n).
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Dell, F., Elmedlaoui, M. (2002). The Syllabification of Vocoids. In: Syllables in Tashlhiyt Berber and in Moroccan Arabic. Kluwer International Handbooks of Linguistics, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0279-0_7
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