118 Having learned to read in Swahili, the people had written their nine-vowel system
against the grid of the Swahili five-vowel system in such a way that the [-ATR] and its [+ATR] counterpart were systematically represented by the same symbol.
Therefore, [i] and [ ] had been grouped together and written with the letter i. Similarly, [u] and [ ] were both written as u. For the mid vowels, [e] and [ ] were written as e,
while both [o] and [ ] were written as o. We see then that Ngiti and the Mara languages show the same tendency for Swahili-literate speakers to group [ATR] contrasts
at the same height together under a single vowel symbol. For Ikoma, this is strong evidence that the height 2 and 3 vowels, which were both written as the Swahili e, o,
are mid vowels. I have taken the time to outline these procedures, results and correlations for a
number of reasons. First, it is helpful to document this less-than-typical research procedure, especially as it relates to understanding mother tongue speaker intuitions
about their vowels systems, particularly in the Tanzanian context in which seven-vowel languages are spoken within reach of the strong influence of Swahili’s five-vowel
system. Secondly, and more importantly, in this trial involving the Mara languages, as well as in Ngiti, there is a clear correlation between a language’s vowel inventory type
and the vowels which speakers tend to group together. I conclude that this record of native speaker intuition is additional evidence that the height 2 vowels in Ikoma are the
mid vowels e o, not the high vowels as in neighboring Zanaki.
3.7 Summary of evidence of a 7VM inventory
In this final section, I summarize the main points made throughout this chapter. §3.1, §3.2 and §3.3 serve primarily to exemplify the fact that there are seven distinct vowel
phonemes in the language, and that each has a long-vowel counterpart. §3.4 compares
119 this with Mekacha’s previous 1985 analysis of the closely-related Nata language. The
next two sections of the chapter describe the phonetic characteristics of the seven phonemes, including an acoustic study §3.5 as well as notes on the auditory perception
of the degree two and three vowels §3.6. These final two sections provide strong evidence that the degree two vowels in the language are e o, not . A summary of the
arguments for the 7VM inventory are in 94 below. 94
Arguments for a 7VM inventory a.
Vowel formant analysis shows that degree 2 and 3 vowels are spaced closer together than degree 1 and 2 vowels, which suggests that the degree 2 and 3
vowels are at the same height i.e. mid.
b. The F1 bandwidth B1 of degree 2 vowels is usually lower than Fant’s
predicted B1, whereas the B1 of degree 3 vowels is generally higher than Fant’s predicted B1. This conforms to our expectations that [+ATR] vowels
have a narrower bandwidth than [-ATR] vowels, and consequently, that the degree 2 vowels are [+ATR].
c. Degree 2 and 3 vowels can be difficult to distinguish by both linguists and
native speakers alike, but the degree 1 and 2 vowels are never confused by native speakers.
d. Native speakers associate the degree 2 and 3 vowels with the Swahili
graphemes e o. Kutsch Lojenga’s 1996 report on Ngiti highlights the tendency for native speakers to group vowels by height when
underdifferentiating seven or nine vowels.
The remaining chapters of the thesis describe vowel harmony patterns in stems, prefixes and suffixes, and those chapters each introduce additional evidence in favor of a 7VM
inventory.
120
Chapter 4: Vowel harmony in noun stems
This chapter describes vowel harmony within noun stems. In particular, I examine vowel co-occurrence patterns of basic bisyllabic noun stems. As previously mentioned in §2.1,
there are a number of monosyllabic noun stems as well, and all seven vowels are attested in these stems see examples in 15 above. There are also a number of 3-syllable noun
stems, many of which are derived, borrowed or involve reduplication. Because of time constraints and the complexity of those longer stems, I restrict the discussion here to
bisyllabic stems. One interesting theme that begins to emerge in this chapter is that Ikoma vowel
harmony patterns show evidence of both [-ATR] and [+ATR] markedness. We see these clues not only in stem harmony patterns in this chapter but also in the discussion of
harmony in verbal suffixes in Chapter 6. Potential analyses and possible historical reasons for these ambiguous markedness patterns are discussed in Chapter 7.
This chapter is organized as follows. In §4.1, I describe vowel co-occurrence patterns in two-syllable noun stems, especially noting the distribution of mid vowels with
both high and low vowels. In §4.2, I discuss the unexpected process in which are raised before i u. This section also includes acoustic analysis which supports this mid-
vowel raising.
46
46
I use the term “raising” to refer to a change in phonetic height. I do not intend to claim that the alternation is a phonological change in height as opposed to a change in tongue root position. This chapter
begins the discussion on whether or not this “raising” should in fact be considered categorical tongue root assimilation or if it is simply a co-articulation effect in anticipation of a following high vowel. I argue that
there is in fact categorical [ATR] assimilation for short vowels but only gradient assimilation of long vowels. With gradient assimilation, it is difficult to be sure if the relevant factor is tongue height, tongue
root or both.
