Abstract
Every word contains one or more vowels 5). Each vowel may be preceded by one consonant-phoneme or by none. Consequently a word always ends with a vowel. If a vowel is followed by an identical vowel and they are not separated by a consonant, they sound like one vowel of nearly double the length. If three identical vowels follow each other without a consonant separating them, the length is a little more than twice the normal length but triple length is seldom fully virtualised. These “long vowels” behave in every respect in the same way as two (respectively three) different vowels and are accordingly written twice (or threefold). According to these rules the vowel-consonant-pattern of the word is : VV, CVV, VCV, CVCV, CVVV, CVCVV, CVCVCV, CVVCV, VCVV, VCVCV, etc., e.g. eo, tua, uwe, pada, buea, poteo, incana, mpearo, alia, atumpu, etc. Exceptions to these rules are found in interjections, e.g. sio — a cry used in driving away hens.
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© 1938 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Anceaux, J.C. (1938). The Word. In: The Wolio Language. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6814-6_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6814-6_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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