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Prosodic Domains in the Bantu Noun Phrase

Larry Hyman

UC Berkeley

Dewey Hall 1-101 Auditorium

On the basis of evidence from several Bantu languages and Kalabari, an Ijoid language, the goal of this talk is to explore the diverging ways in which noun phrase phonology requires grammatical information beyond classical XP-based prosodic domain theory (PDT), further justifying the observation that, despite parallels, noun and verb phrase phonologies can be quite different (Hyman 2022). I first focus on three cases, the Tiania variant of Kimeru [mer] (Kenya), Makonde [kde] (Tanzania and Mozambique), and Kalabari [ijn] (Nigeria), which illustrate what I will refer to as “choppy” vs. “integrated” phrasing in the NP marked by tone and/or penultimate vowel lengthening. I conclude with discussion of why there should be such variation, focusing in particular on the exact opposite phrasing of demonstratives in one vs. another language. Although I will focus on the above African languages, the facts I present are designed to invite comparison of noun phrase vs. verb phrase phonology across languages in general. (Reference: Hyman, Larry M. 2022. Prosodic asymmetries in nominal vs. verbal phrases in Bantu. In Haruo Kubozono, Junko Ito, and Armin Mester (eds), Prosody and prosodic interfaces, 125-142. Oxford: Oxford University Press.)