69 understand the basic harmony patterns in Ikoma, and to determine how well Ikoma fits
into Casali’s typology, it is crucial to nail down the inventory type. Therefore, several sections within this chapter especially §3.5 and §3.6 are especially motivated by the
degree 2 issue.
3.1 Vowel Phonemes
Ikoma has the seven-vowel inventory i e a o u, shown in 54 with the vowel features which are used in this description. Proposals of different feature geometries are
mentioned in §1.4.3 above, but for the descriptive purposes of this thesis I use the more traditional categories of binary [high], [low] and [ATR].
54 Vowel inventory
i u
[+high, +ATR] heightdegree 1
e o
[-high, +ATR] heightdegree 2
[-high, -ATR] heightdegree 3
a [+low, -ATR]
heightdegree 4 On the right, I have also included another set of labels which are helpful for referring to
different vowel pairs. For example, the e o set may be referred to as the height 2, degree 2 or second degree vowels.
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The mid vowels are the most difficult to distinguish from one another, but the examples in 55 below show a number of infinitive verbs which give evidence that these
vowels are contrastive. These are all examples of verb roots which differ solely on the [ATR] value of the root vowel. All examples below have the same infinitive prefix ko-,
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These labels are especially helpful when comparing an i e a o u inventory with an i a u inventory, in which case the height and [ATR] specification of the degree 2 vowels is the only difference.
70 and different surface realizations of that prefix are a result of Dahl’s Law and vowel
harmony with the root vowel see §2.3.4 and §5.2, respectively. 55
Mid-vowel contrast examples verbs VWHGNX
VWHGNX VWHGNX
VWHGNX VVVV HGNX
HGNX HGNX
HGNX 7
8 9
9 8
2 8
. : 8
- 2
-7 8
9 8
8 8
. The examples in a show front-vowel roots, and b shows back-vowel roots. Note also
that the prefix vowels are different with each [ATR] set. The [+ATR] roots have [o] in the prefix, and the [-ATR] roots have [u] in the prefix. These prefix alternations are
discussed in detail in Chapter 5. As for nouns, I do not have any minimal pairs within the same noun class, but the
examples in 56 below show noun stems with contrastive front vowels a and back vowels b.
56 Mid-vowel contrast examples nouns
VWHGNX VWHGNX
VWHGNX VWHGNX
VVVV HGNX HGNX
HGNX HGNX
7 - :
= - .8-
-7 8
8 :2
́1 - .8
As with the verb in 55, here also the prefix vowels are different for each [ATR] set. Each of the seven phonemes is widely attested in the stem-initial V1 syllable of
both nouns and verbs. In nouns, for each phoneme there are examples of bisyllabic stems in which both vowels are the same which I refer to as V1=V2. In 57 below, I show
71 examples of infinitive CVCa verbs and canonical nouns with the shape pfx-CVCV for
each of the seven vowels. Where possible, noun stems were selected in which both vowels are identical.
57 Vowel contrast examples
ST 2
ST 2
ST 2
ST 2
ST 2
ST 2
ST 2
ST 2
. .
8 . 4
8 8
9 8 8
. 8
2 2 2 .8
8 8 9
8 6
-, . 8
6 2
8, - 2
6 9 .8 9 8
,8 2
8, 9
6 :
,8 8
, ST
2 ST
2 ST
2 ST
2 ST
2 ST
2 ST
2 ST
2 8
9 9
8 -
8 . :
8 9 2
. 8
8 9
8 .
- : 8
2 : 8
2 -
- : 8
- .8 =
8 =
- .8- -
; 9
= -
: 9 .
1 9
72 ST
2 ST
2 ST
2 ST
2 ST
2 ST
2 ST
2 ST
2 8
8 8
8 8
- 2
8 2
8 .
. :
8 8
9 8 1
. 2 8 ́8
8 ́8
8 F ́ 8 ́
́ - .8
́ 1
́8 . .8
́8 - 8
́ 8
:2 ST
2 ST
2 ST
2 ST
2 8
F 8 9
8 8
4 8 8
8 .
8 : T
F :
1 2
9 8
.8 8
Examples of these vowels in other positions and combinations are given in Chapter 4 below in the discussion of vowel harmony in noun stems.
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3.2 Relative frequency of vowels
