Yoruba Vowel Distribution in Word Positions initial middle final i X X X ĩ X e X

1. Yoruba Vowel Distribution in Word Positions initial middle final i X X X ĩ X e X ɛ X X X a X X X ã X ɔ X X ɔ̃ X o X X u X X ũ X n̩ X Although there is contrast between the oral and nasal vowels at the ends of words, the contrast is neutralized at the beginning and middle of words where nasal vowels do not occur. The syllabic nasal only occurs at the beginnings of words. /i/, /ɛ/, /a/ occur in all three word positions. /ɔ/, /o/ were not found in the middle of words and /u/ was not found at the beginnings of words, but may be with more data.

2. Yoruba Vowel Distribution in Word Positions There is no [ATR] or height harmony. All vowels occur as second vowels. Only the oral vowels /ɛ/, /ɔ/, /a/, /i/, /u/, /o/ occur as first vowels.

3. Vowel Harmony Review What are the common [ATR] systems in Africa? Which ones tend to have neutral vowels?

4. [ATR] Vowel Harmony Systems 10-vowel system ‘BELI 9-vowel system LAARIM [-ATR] [+ATR] [-ATR] [+ATR] ɪ ʊ i u ɪ ʊ i u ɛ ɔ e o ɛ ɔ e o a ə a a /a/ is neutral; occurs with both sets 8-vowel system MUNDARI 7-vowel system ɪ ʊ i u Type A ɛ ɔ [-ATR] [+ATR] a ə i u ɛ ɔ e o a Type B [-ATR] [+ATR] ɪ ʊ i u ɛ ɔ a a /a/ is neutral; occurs with both sets

5. How do phonemes help literacy development? It is the phonemes that decide which sounds in a language should have an alphabet symbol. Speakers choose an alphabet symbol or symbols for each phoneme. Each alphabet symbol becomes a page in the language’s alphabet book or primer.

6. Lumun Alphabet List Phoneme Orthography IPA Orthography English a a kattal kattal ‘k.o. pot’ c c cɔɽɔt co’rot ‘cooking stone’ ɛ e cɛnɛ cene ‘grinding place’ ɪ i cɪðɪðɪ cithithi ‘pelvis’ i ï miðin mïthïn ‘heels’ k k kaβʊ kapu ‘hole’ l l kattal kattal ‘k.o. pot’ m m maɣal makal ‘sesame’ n n nʊt̪t̪ɛ nuththe ‘cloud’ ɔ o cɔɽɔt co’rot ‘cooking stone’ p p pɪɾa pira ‘tree’ ɾ r puɾut purut ‘ostrich’ ɽ ’r pɔɽɔk po’rok ‘k.o. tree’ t̪ th t̪ɔn thon ‘dura dust’ t t tɔn ton ‘mouth’ ʊ u kʊjʊk kucuk ‘big leaf’ u ü cuccu cüccü ‘bead’

7. DIGRAPHː Alphabet symbol with two letters that represents one phoneme. ng [ŋ], ny [ɲ], th [ʈ], ‘r [ɽ], ah [ə] DIACRITICː A mark above or below an alphabet symbol. ẽ [ɛ], ä [ə], o̠ [ɔ], é [é], ū [ū]

8. How do we choose the orthography letters for each phoneme? Consider the following important factorsː • Accuracy • Functional Load • Distinguish-ability • Transferability • Harmonization • Practicality • Acceptability

9. Accuracy The written form of the language should correspond to the spoken form. • Do not use more than one symbol to represent the same phoneme (over-differentiation). Each phoneme in the language should be written with only one symbol. ENGLISH (Example of what not to do) /k/ cot /kɔt/ ‘bed type’ koala /koala/ ‘Australian bear’ Instead (Example of what we could do) /k/ kot /kɔt/ ‘bed type’ koala /koala/ ‘Australian bear’

10. Accuracy The written form of the language should correspond to the spoken form. • Do not use the same symbol for more than one phoneme (under-differentiation). (Examples of what not to do). ‘BELI Sudan /a/ - /ə/ da /dá/ ‘meat’ da /də᷅/ ‘grandparent’ /à/ - /á/ ka /kà/ ‘and’ ka /ká/ ‘be, is’ Instead (Examples of what we could do). ‘BELI Sudan /a/ - /ə/ da /dá/ ‘meat’ dä /də᷅/ ‘grandparent’ /à/ - /á/ ka /kà/ ‘and’ ka̠ /ká/ ‘be, is’

11. UNDER-DIFFERENTIATIONː Using only one symbol to represent two phonemes. bep /bep/ ‘giraffe’ dep /dɛp/ ‘goat’ OVER-DIFFERENTIATIONː Using more than one symbol to represent the same phoneme. ENGLISH cot /kɔt/ ‘bed type’ koala /koala/ ‘Australian bear’

12. FUNCTIONAL LOADː The number of environments and words in which a phoneme occurs, and the frequency of those environments and words.

13. Functional load The fewer the symbols, the quicker speakers will learn to read. It is possible to use the same symbol for more than one phoneme (under-differentiation) if a phoneme is rare (has a low functional load) but not if the phoneme is common or frequent (has a high functional load). • Generally, there should be one alphabet symbol for each phoneme in the language. But there are exceptions. For example, if there are only 3 of 1000 nouns with /e/ and 50 of 1000 nouns with /ɛ/, bep ‘giraffe’ dɛp ‘goat’ Speakers could choose to write both phonemes /e/, /ɛ/ with the same symbol since /e/ is so rare. bep /bep/ ‘giraffe’ dep /dɛp/ ‘goat’

14. Functional load • In English, stress has a low functional load; it only shows the difference in a few words that don’t occur so often such as rebel, content, transfer, desert. Because stress has a low functional load, it can be under-differentiated (not marked) • In some African languages such as ‘Beli, tone has a high functional load. In nearly every sentence, there is at least one word where tone is the only sound showing the difference between that and another word. And tone shows the difference between frequently used words such as kà ‘be, is’, ká ‘and’; mà ‘me’, mâ ‘go’; mó ‘I’, mô ‘his’; ʄâ ‘see’, ʄá ‘run’. Because tone has a high functional load, it should be marked in the orthography for speakers to read well.

15. Distinguish-ability Symbols should be as unlike each other as possible. This makes it easier to see differences so the eye can take in more words in one focus when reading. • Individual symbols are more easily distinguished than digraphs n /n/, ŋ /ŋ/ better than n /n/, ng /ŋ/ 2. Digraphs are more easily distinguished than symbols with diacritics a /a/, ah /ə/ better than a /a/, ä /ə/ 3. Diacritics above the letter are more easily distinguished than diacritics written below the letter e /ɛ/, ë /e/ better than e /ɛ/, e̤ /e/

16. Transferability The orthography should be as much as possible like that of the second language that people will learn to read. Consider languages used for education and written trade languages. The orthography chosen should enable a reader to transfer easily into (or out of) the larger language. • For languages of Sudan which transfer into English, o /ɔ/ is better than ɔ /ɔ/ • For languages of Tanzania which transfer into Swahili, ng /ŋ/ is better than ŋ /ŋ/

17. Harmonization The orthographies of neighboring languages should be as similar as possible to each other even if it is not anticipated that speakers will read each others literature. • For Mundari which is closely related to Bari with ŋ /ŋ/, ŋ /ŋ/ is better than ng /ŋ/ • For Tocho which is closely related to Lumun with ü /u/, ü /u/ is better than ũ /u/

18. Practicality The orthography should be such that it can be typed and printed locally. Consider if the symbols are available on mobile phones. ‘r /ɽ/ is better than ɽ /ɽ/ ‘d /ɗ/ is better than ɗ /ɗ/ ny /ɲ/ is better than ɲ /ɲ/

19. Acceptability (The most important factor) The orthography must be acceptable to the people who are going to use it; otherwise, they will not likely use it. Consider strong feelings against governments and languages associated with such governments. Orthography symbols can be political symbols! It is harder to change an unsatisfactory system than to develop a new one. Once an orthography has been used for several years, the people may believe that changing the writing system is the same as changing the language itselfǃ

20. HOW TO CHOOSE THE SYMBOLS When a sound in the language is approximately same as that of the language of transfer (English, Swahili), use the symbol that is used in the language of transfer to represent the phoneme in the language. Use the English t [t], [tʰ] to represent the Lumun /t/ Use the English o [ɔ], [o] to represent the Lumun /ɔ/

21. HOW TO CHOOSE THE SYMBOLS B. When a sound in the language has no matching sound in the language of transfer, choose one of five solutions: • Use a single 'left-over' Roman symbol to represent the phoneme. (However, do not use left-over vowel symbols.) Murle z /ð/, Tira h /ɽ/ • Use a special symbol taken from the phonetic alphabet. Kwalib ŋ /ŋ/, ɽ /ɽ/ • Use a digraph. Lumun th /t̪/, Gaahmg ah /ə/. • Use a diacritic. Lumun ü /u/, ’r /ɽ/, Ama á /á/, ä /à/ • Use a spelling rule. Amaː Place an apostrophe ’ after the first vowel in a word that is breathy, as in thä’mil /t̪à̤mī̤l/‘place of eating’

22. HOW TO CHOOSE THE SYMBOLS C. Consider influence of phoneme sequences and frequency for the symbol • Consonant sequences and digraphs must be chosen so that they will not be confused with sequences of consonants or vowels that are present in the language. • /nʲo/ and /ɲo/ should not both be written nyo Rather, they could be written nio /nʲo/, nyo /ɲo/ • /a.ga/ and /aŋ.ŋa/ should not both be written angga Rather, they could be written aŋga /a.ga/, aŋŋa /aŋ.ŋa/ or, they could be written angga /a.ga/ annga /aŋ.ŋa/ 2. The less desirable ways of representing phonemes should be assigned to the rarer phonemes. Lumun [t] is more common than [t̪]. Therefore, the less common [t̪] is given the special symbol th and the more common [t] is given t.

23. Class Assignmentː • Make an alphabet word list for all Yoruba phonemes based on the things you learned in this lesson. Reading Assignment A Guide to Phonological Analysis pg 82-86; 146