18 Consonants preceding semivowels
y w
n ----
hinwara ‘ash’
l
bɛ̀lyɛ̌
‘skin’
lɔlwari
‘dry ground’ r
hàry
ɛ̂ ‘night’
ŋɔ̀rwɔ̀
‘wives’ Lengthened consonants are analyzed to be two of the same consonant across adjacent syllables
VC.CV rather than single- unit syllable onsets V.CːV. As mentioned in section 1.1.2, the geminate
consonant analysis eliminates the need for the phonemes tː, dː, lː, rː, wː, yː. Instead, the CVC syllable type that unambiguously occurs in word-final position is analyzed as also occurring in word-
initial position, having the same consonant coda as the consonant onset of the following syllable. 19
Word-medial lengthened consonants tt
hìttɔ̀ ‘anus, source, root, beginning’
dd hàddɛ̀
‘roots’ ll
ìllá ‘friend, brother’
rr mɔ̀rrɔ̂
‘beans’ ww
hàww- ɛ̀
‘arrow’ yy
hayy ɔhɔ-ni
‘shepherd’
1.4 Tone
As in related languages, Lopit is analyzed to have two underlying level tones, High and Low, as in h ɔ̀y
‘you sg.’ and h ɔ́y ‘us’. Contour tone consists of more than one level tone on the same syllable. The
syllable is the tone-bearing unit, and at most two tones are allowed on the same syllable. Rising tone such as in h
ɔ̌yt ‘bones’ and bɛ̀lyɛ̌ ‘skin’ is rare. Falling tone is common on the final syllable of words, but rare elsewhere, as in b
ɔ̂rɛ̀ ‘stable’ and hɔ̀fît-tî ‘hair-sg.’ The lexical function of tone is low in that there are few tone minimal pairs. The grammatical distinctions of case and noun plural formation can be made
solely by tone, and are discussed in section 1.8. Noun tone melodies are represented by the nouns in isolation of 20–21, where the number of
nouns with the given tone and syllable structure is shown to the left of each noun. There are four tone melodies in CVCV and CVCVC syllable structure of nouns, besides combination tone melodies, which
indicates a system with two underlying level tones.
20 Singular noun root
Plural noun root CV
CVC CV
CVC H
3 háy ‘rain’
9 bɔ́k
‘stable’ 1
kɔ́y ‘pathes’ 2 sáŋ ‘properties’
L 2 mày ‘place’
10 fɔ̀k
‘earth’ 1
hì ‘breasts’
4 hùŋ ‘knees’
HL 1 yɛ̂y ‘death’
LH 1
hɔ̌yt ‘bones’ 21
Singular noun root Plural noun root
CVCV CVCVC
CVCV H
32 hábú
‘chief’ 20
tɔ́bɔ́k ‘bowl’
8 mɔ́ɲí
‘intestines’ L
16 kɔ̀rì
‘giraffe’ 16 bùsùk
‘bull’ 11
ŋàmà ‘grain’
HL 3
lɛ́ymɛ̀ ‘lion’
4 ítàk
‘ostrich’ LH
3 gàráy
‘bush, pasture’
4 hìlúk
‘hyena’ 1
fàrá ‘leaves’
LHL 11
ɟànî ‘broom’
5 màdɔ̂k
‘gum 5
ɲɔ̀ŋɔ̂ ‘beeswax’
I now discuss the morphophonology of Ngotira Lopit. Sound alternations across morpheme boundaries include vowel alternations 1.6, consonant alternations 1.7, and tone alternations 1.8.
Noun plural formation is briefly described in section 1.5 to assist the reader in following the noun examples of later sections. For further explanation of Lopit morphology and syntax, see the Lopit
Grammar Book Ladu et al. 2014.
1.5 Noun plural formation
There are three ways that nouns have singular and plural forms. As shown in table 4, nouns can attach various suffixes or a certain specific prefix to mark the singular form, as in
hàddɛ́-tí ‘root-sg’ or hì-yɛ̀nì ‘sg- rope’. They can attach suffixes to mark the plural form as in c
yàŋ-ì ‘animal-pl’, or they can mark both the singular and plural form as in hi-
ɲaŋɲaŋ-i ‘sg-crocodilecrocodile-pl’. A suffix or prefix before the slash indicates affixation on singular nouns, whereas following the slash indicates affixation on plural nouns.
Table 4. Three segmental ways of forming singular and plural nouns
Suffixes, Prefix Singular noun
Root Plural noun
-ti hàddɛ́-tí
hàddɛ̀ hàddɛ̀ ‘root’
hi- hì-yɛ̀nì
yɛ́ní yɛ́ní
‘rope’ -i
cyà ŋ
c yàŋ
c yáŋ-ì
‘animal general’ hi--i
hi- ɲaŋ
- ɲaŋ-
ɲaŋ-i ‘crocodile’
The noun system has multiple singular and plural marker suffixes, the most common of which are listed in 22–24. They are listed according to the number of nouns found to attach the suffix or prefix.
The suffixes are mostly unpredictable as to which root they attach, by either the root-final segments or by the semantics of the root. Vowel-initial suffixes attach to roots with either vowel or consonant-final
roots. Consonant-initial suffixes attach to vowel-final roots, and only rarely to consonant-final roots.
22 Noun singular suffixes and prefix
Root-finalinitial Suffix, Prefix
Singular Plural
17 con., vow. -i
f àrá-y
fàrá ‘leaf’
11 con., vow. -ti
mɔ̀rrɔ̀-tí mɔ̀rrɔ̂
‘bean’ 2
con., vow. -
ɔ hɔyt-ɔ
hɔ̌yt ‘bone’
1 con., vow.
- ɛ
hàm- ɛ̂
hàm ‘fish’
3 con.
hi- hì-yɛ̀nì
yɛ́ní ‘rope, trap’
23 Noun plural suffixes
Root-final Suffix
Singular Plural
32 con., vow.
-i gùs
gús- ì
‘skin’ 22
con., vow. -a
kɛ̀bù kɛ̀bw-â
‘hoe’ 19
con., vow. -
ɔ hárí
háry-ɔ́ ‘beating stick’
13 vow.
- ɟin
wɔ̀lɔ̂ wɔ̀lɔ̀-ɟín
‘dove’ 6
vow. -n
hɔhɔrɔ hɔhɔrɔ-n
‘chicken’ 4
vow. -ha
lɛmini lɛmini-ha
‘leopard’ 4
vow. -
hɔ haswani
haswani- hɔ
‘buffalo’ 4
vow. -
sɛn lɛtiri
letiri- sɛn
‘hoe’ 3
vow. -si
múrɔ́ múrɔ́-sì
‘thigh’ 2
vow. -
ɛ hɔ́ɲɛ́
hɔ̀ɲy-ɛ̂ ‘mother’
2 con.
-in íkát
ìkát-ìn ‘door’
2 vow.
-na gɔ̀rɔ̀
gɔ̀rɔ̀-nà ‘gourd jug’
24 Combinations of singular and plural affixes
Root-final Suffix
Singular Plural
3 con., vow.
hi--i hi-
ɲaŋ ɲaŋ-i
‘crocodile’ 3
vow. hi--si
hì-tɔ̂ tɔ-si
‘scorpion’ 2
vow. -i-ara
hanas-i hanas-ara
‘sister’ 2
con. -
ɛ-a hamuh-
ɛ hamuh-a
‘shoe’ In addition, there are three nouns that only differ by tone in singular and plural form.
25 Nouns that differ only by tone in singular and plural form
Root-final Suffix
Singular Plural
3 vow.
ToneTone yànì
yání ‘tree general’
1.6 Vowel morphophonology