Studies in African Linguistics (Jun 1999)
Vowel harmony and vowel alternation in Mayak
Abstract
Like several other Western Nilotic languages, the Mayak variety of Northern Burun has two sets of vowels distinguished by the feature [ATR], the [-ATR] vowels [I, E, a, i, u] and the [+ATR] vowels [i, e, A, 0, u]. However, the mid [+ATR] vowels [e] and [o] are variants of the mid [-ATR] vowels /e/ and /i/ conditioned by a following high I+ATR] vowel. This allophony is the effect of one of four general vowel harmony processes. In addition, [-ATR) root vowels exhibit grammatically conditioned alternation which affects either [ATR] or height. The mixed character of this alternation invites the hypothesis that original mid [+ATR] vowels have merged with the high [-ATR] vowels, and this hypothesis is confirmed by a comparison of Mayak with other Western Nilotic languages.
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