Vowel length

Gyeli uses vowel length as a distinctive feature. This is quite expected, according to Cheucle (2014: 327):

La longueur vocalique semble avoir une fonction distinctive dans la plupart des langues A80. La longueur est considérée comme phonémique, par les auteurs, en bekol, en makaa, en njem, en konzime et en bekwel. [Vocalic length seems to have a distinctive function in the majority of A80 languages.

Length is considered as phonemic by the authors in Bekol, Makaa, Njem, Konzime, and Bekwel.]¹⁹

For Gyeli, there are numerous (near-)minimal pairs showing the contrastive func-tion of vowel length. Some examples are given in (54). All plain (oral, short) vow-els have a long counterpart except for /o/.

(54) tʃíì‘life’ vs. tʃì‘prohibition’

nkùù‘evil spirit’ vs. nkù‘animal den’

mbɛ́ɛ́‘metal oven’ vs. mbɛ̂‘door’

dɔ̀ɔ̀‘puddle’ vs. dɔ̀‘negotiate’

mpàà‘fog, vapor’ vs. mpà‘bush-baby (Galago thomasi)’

/e/ does occur sometimes as a long vowel, as shown in (55), but the frequency is so low that I did not find any minimal pairs with potential plain vowel opposi-tions.

(55) pèè‘conscience’

téè‘start walking’

19Cheucle (2014: 327) assumes that vowel length is currently developing phonemic status in Kwasio and Mpiemo.

Long vowels are clearly longer than short vowels and perceivable as such.

Also, speakers are aware of vowel length and reliably indicate whether a vowel is short or lengthened (tiré). (56) contrasts two minimal pairs, measuring their vowel length. In the first case, the long vowel [aa] innzáàlɛ̀ ‘beggar’ is about 100ms longer than the short [a] innyàlɛ́‘son/brother-in-law’. In the second ex-ample, the long vowel [uu] innkùù‘evil spirit’ is 180ms longer than [u] innkù

‘animal den’, which is more than twice as long. Of course, these two examples only provide an impressionistic picture and a more systematic investigation of a larger quantity of vowels would be desirable in future work.

(56) ɲáàlɛ̀ ‘beggar’ → [aa] = 235ms ɲàlɛ́ ‘son/brother-in-law’ → [a] = 135ms nkùù ‘evil spirit’ → [uu] = 430ms nkù ‘animal den’ → [u] = 150ms

Contrastive long vowels are most often found in monosyllabic stems. Table 2.17 shows the frequency and distribution of long vowels in monosyllabic stems, con-trasting nouns and verbs. In general, long vowels are more frequent than diph-thongs. 26.5% of monosyllabic noun stems contain a long vowel, but only 8.0%

have diphthongs. The same is true for verb stems, of which 19.3% have a long vowel, but only 12.5% have a diphthong (see Table 2.16 in §2.2.2).

Table 2.17: Long vowels in monosyllabic noun and verb stems

Long vowel Noun stems (total 223) Verb stems (total 88)

ii 7 3.1% 1 1.1%

uu 13 5.8%

-ee 2 0.9% 1 1.1%

oo -

-ɛɛ 8 3.6% 3 3.4%

ɔɔ 7 3.1% 1 1.1%

aa 22 9.9% 11 12.5%

Total 59 26.5% 17 19.3%

As with other phonological features, long vowels differ in frequency and dis-tribution in noun and verb stems, but also show some similarities. For both noun and verb stems, /aa/ is the most frequent long vowel. In contrast, while /uu/ is

relatively often found in noun stems, it is completely absent in verb stems. Gen-erally, the long high and higher mid vowels /ii/, /uu/, and /ee/ are rather rare in verb stems, while /oo/ is absent altogether.

Even though long vowels are most frequently found in monosyllabic stems, they are not restricted to this environment, but can also occur in stems that have two syllables, as (57) shows, and in syllables other than the first. As such, long vowels differ from diphthongs. Long vowels in second syllables only occur in noun stems and are so rare that I did not find any minimal pairs. Nevertheless, (58) shows a few examples.²⁰

(57) ɲùùlɛ̀ ‘mosquito’ vs. ɲùlɛ̀ ‘flame’

káàsa ‘imitate’ vs. kàsà ‘bridge’

ɲáàlɛ̀ ‘beggar’ vs. ɲàlɛ́ ‘son/brother-in-law’

(58) sìsùù ‘apparition’

ŋɡòmbáà ‘lemon’

nákúlúú ‘forest tortoise (Kinixys homeana)’

Table 2.18 shows the distribution of long vowels other than in monosyllabic stems.

Table 2.18: Long vowels in di- and trisyllabic noun and verb stems

Long vowel Noun stems Verb stems

Disyllabic, VV in𝜎1 20 3.6% 4 1.9%

Disyllabic, VV in𝜎2 10 1.8%

-Disyllabic, VV in𝜎1 and𝜎2 2 0.4%

-Trisyllabic, VV in𝜎3 1 1.0%

-In comparison to noun stems, long vowels are rather restricted in verb stems.

Apart from monosyllabic stems, long vowels are only allowed in the first sylla-ble of disyllabic stems. All cases exclusively have /aa/ as the long vowel in this position. Noun stems, in contrast, are more flexible as to where long vowels are permitted as well as to which vowel quality can occur in disyllabic stems. In di-syllabic noun stems where the first syllable has a long vowel, the majority (60%) of these long vowels are /aa/, but the remaining 40% have other vowel qualities including /uu/, /ɛɛ/, and /ɔɔ/. Long vowels in the second syllable of a disyllabic

20I analyzenákúlúú‘forest tortoise (Kinixys homeana)’ as a disyllabic stem which is preceded by a similative prefix, as discussed in §4.1.1.1.

noun stem are evenly distributed across /aa/ and /uu/. Long vowels in the last syl-lable of trisyllabic stems are negligible since I only came across one occurrence in the lexemele-dèlɛ́mɔ́ɔ̀‘mud wasp’.

As to the origin and development of long vowels, it is possible that (some) long vowels developed, just like diphthongs, from disyllabic stems where an in-tervocalic /b/ or glide was lost, contracting two adjacent vowels into one syllable.

Either these two vowels were of the same vowel quality or they assimilated to become so. Cheucle (2014: 328) shows in her example (41) that long vowels in one language correspond to disyllabic stems with an intervocalic or syllable fi-nal /b/ or glide in other languages. These correspondences are, however, by no means regular. Also, this scenario does not account for all instances of long vow-els because if long vowvow-els originated solely from intervocalic loss, one would not expect long vowels in disyllabic stems, especially not in second syllables.