Nuer Phonology The Role Of Syllable Structure

This paper deals with the phonology of Nuer. It attempts to givern~brief description of the phonology and examines t he r ole of the syllablern'lk~rnstructure in light of ",auto segmental approach.rnChapter one gives some background information about the p.-e-ople and the ~n~ge, the r eview of literature and the theoretical modelsrnemployed in the analyses.rnChapter two deals with a brief description of t he phonology, describingrnand a nalyzing the consonant and vowel p h onemes in"A'"-l ight of underspecificationrntheory. The underspecified feature matrices a re given with the r elevantrnredundancy rules for both consonants and vowels. The description givesrnspecial attention to the vowel system, because of its interesting but difficultrn...-rnna ture. There are sixteen vowel phonemes against the twenty consonantrnphonemes . T he vowels b elong to two types of voice qualities: plain andrnbreathy. It is a distinction based on the acou s tic analyses of the twornsets of vowels . Besides, the t onal system is briefly described and threerntone levelS-high, mid and low- are recorded.rnChapter three discusses the morphophonemic processes and the rolernt he syllable s tructure plays. From both descriptive and theoretical point srnof view, .• syllable structure is found to be an interesting aspect ofrnNuer phonology. It can control most of the morphophone mic processesrnof the language and these processes are conditioned both by the principlernof licensing and the syllable t emplate of Nuer.rnThe fourth and the last chapter gives the summary and conclusionrnof the thesis.

Get Full Work

Report copyright infringement or plagiarism