Vowel harmony in Gunu

Abstract

The vowel harmony systems of the Bantu A.60 languages of Cameroon provide an extraordinary wealth of uncommon properties not yet exploited by linguistic theory. In this paper, the author focuses on one variant of the Yambasa cluster, Gunu A.62a, as described by Ambadian [1990, 1991], Orwig [1989], Quilis et al [1990], and Robinson [1979, 1983]. An analysis of long-distance ATR and rounding harmonies in Gunu is presented in terms of the privative features ATR, Front, Round, and Open. Both the featural representations and their "direct mapping" onto outputs account for the derivational opacity as well as transparency of front vowels to Round harmony.

Keywords

• vowel harmony
• Bantu
• Yambasa
• Gunu