Aspects of Northern Mao Phonology

Abstract

In general terms, the phonology of Omotic languages has received little attention. This paper presents core phonological properties of on Omotic language, Norther Mao. The discussion includes inventories of contrastive consonants, contrastive vowels, an examination of the vowel space, contrastive vowel length, vowel harmony in roots, syllable patterns, sibilant harmony, and an inventory of surface tonal melodies in nouns and verbs in citation form.

Keywords

• phonology
• Mao
• Afroasiatic
• Ethiopia
• consonant
• vowel
• Omotic