49 27
Examples of the [ ~ d] alternation in class 1110 nouns 3333
= .
= 6
. 6
9 .8 9 8 ́
. ́
In the singular class 11 words, the root-initial consonant is intervocalic and surfaces as [ ], but when adjacent to the nasal-final class 10 prefix, the sequence surfaces as [nd].
The stops [b d g] arise only when prenasalized. Prenasalization occurs not only across morpheme boundaries, as in 27 above, but also within roots. Prenasalization is
discussed more generally in §2.3.1 below. Many consonants can also be palatalized and labialized, and these modifications are discussed in sections §2.3.2 and §2.3.3
respectively. Finally, note that Dahl’s Law is active in Ikoma, causing an alternation between the phonemes k and . This is discussed in §2.3.4.
2.3.1 Prenasalized Consonants
Prenasalized consonants occur within roots, and they are also derived across morpheme boundaries. Nearly all examples of prenasalization in the root involve the second or later
root consonant, not the first. Root-internal prenasalization is attested for [mb, nt, nd, nt , k, g], but the voiceless prenasalized stops [nt, nk] are far less common than the
others.
28
Examples of each of these prenasalized consonants in nouns are in 28 below.
28
I use the term “root-internal” to refer to any consonant in the root, both root-initial and the second or later root consonant.
50 28
Root-internal prenasalization in nouns
---- F, -
E F, - , -
, - 8,
8, ́
E ́ E
8 E
2 8888
8 ́ E
8 ́ 9
8 8
1111 8
1 1
2 - F1
E F1 Note that there are no instances of [nt] occurring as the second consonant of the root in
nouns. Instead, [nt] occurs root-internally only in verbs see 29 below, and oddly only root-initially in nouns see 30 below.
Table 29 below shows examples of prenasalization of the second or later root consonant in verbs.
29 Root-internal prenasalization in verbs
---- 8
- 8
- 9
8 2
8 .8:
8 8
2 . 2
1111 8 1
- . 1
2 .
51 Note that there are no examples in my data of [nk] in verb roots. The two examples for
[nt] are the only two examples in the data, but the other prenasalized consonants are well attested.
There are far fewer examples of root-initial prenasalization. All of the examples in my data are given below in 30. Note that only [nd, nk, nt, nt ] are attested in this
position, and only in nouns. 30
Root-initial prenasalization
8= 8=
Q F
F - -
9 :2
8888 8
8 .8
8 8
8 8
2 Aside from morpheme-internal examples, prenasalization is also common across
morpheme boundaries. These cases involve the initial consonant of a morpheme when it is preceded by a nasal or nasal-final morpheme. This is common in nouns in classes 9
and 10 which have the prefixes an-, t an-, as in the examples in 31.
29
Note that the asterisk indicates words for which tonal data is unknown or questionable. See §2.4 for a description of tone and the method of tonal transcription used in this thesis.
52 31
Class 910 Prenasalization
---- -
E -
.8 - ́
E - ́
- ́
E ́
8 ,
E ,
- E
E 2
́ E
E ́ 1111
1 ́8
E 1 ́8
. .8 1 , 8
E 1 , 8 Classes 9a and 10a are similar to 910, but the nasal is absent. As seen in 32 below, the
class 9a10a prefix occurs with a larger variety of root-initial consonants compared with those in 31 above.
53 32
Class 9a10a examples with a variety of root consonants
6 E
6 -
= = E
= = E ,
E , E
8 = 8
E = 8 4
E . .8
6 E 6
8 : ,8
E ,8 -
E -
FFFF F61
E F61 9
8888 86
E 86 E -
- 81
E 81 9
8 ́ E 8 ́
,1 E
,1 . -
, E
, --
The voiced obstruents nearly always occur with the an-, chan- prefixes, which results in the prenasalized stops [mb, nd, g]. But as seen in 32 above there are also a
limited number of examples with without the nasal. Otherwise, we can make the generalization that Ikoma allows for prenasalization of voiced obstruents more readily
than voiceless obstruents, as is common in Bantu languages.
2.3.2 Palatalized Consonants
