SONORITY SEQUENCING PRINCIPLE OF NKARI CGV VS. CɾV INFINITIVE VERBS: AN OPTIMALITY ACCOUNT

Authors

Abstract

Sonority of a segment usually rises toward the syllable peak and falls following the peak. This refers to sonority principle. This research examines the sonority Principle of Nkari CGV vs. CɾV verbal nouns. This paper adopts the descriptive approach and data were collected from respondents who were selected using stratified sampling. Findings of the study, which revolved round Optimality Theory, show that: the tap is not so-sonorous and therefore cannot be copied in the REDuplicant and is wielded to the true onset node. The constraints accounting for the tap are: *Cɾ(RED) > DEP-BR >>MAX-IO while the glide is copied to the RED with the doubling of the accompanying vowel. This implies that the glide is more sonorous than the tap and therefore can be duplicated in the RED and capable of taking the nucleus position. Results of this study show that Nkari syllable structure has some similarity with what is known in some Lower Cross languages and could be universally attested.

Keywords

Sonority, Principles of Nkari, CrV Infinite Verbs, & Optimality Account

DOI

10.0000/wijamssae.v1i2.sonority-sequencing-principle-of-nkari-cgv-vs-cv-i

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