SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis sets out the results of research into the phonology of Edo (Bini), with emphasis on tonal behaviour. Although the study of tone has led me into the paths of grammar, this is not a complete grammar of the language. The study falls into two main parts. The first part is concerned with the problem of describing the phonemes of the language. Chapters one and two deal with the general aspect of the question. The second part, chapters three and four, examines the specific question of tones which are considered to be related to individual words in isolation and to words in phrases. Arrangement of the Thesis Chapter One, 'The Vowels', examines the features which characterize vowel sounds, and their distribution. Phonological features such as vowel patterning, nasalization, and contraction of vowels are shown to occur not only in verbs but in non-verbs as well. Chapter Two, 'The Consonants' presents the description and then the distribution of the consonant phonemes. It investigates the tendency for kp and gb to be pronounced with an egressive airstream, and the problem of the /r/ sound, A few consonants such as /r, s, gh, h/ are shown to be "weak" in that they elide in certain intervocalic positions. Also discussed here is the correspondence between y and y w and [diacritic]; h and [diacritic]; r and [diacritic] which represents the absence versus the presence of nasalization. Chapter Three is concerned with classification. First it deals with the criteria for setting up nominal classes and then examines particular subclasses of items in the verbal phrase. Besides, it points out several tonal morphological and syntactic features which distinguish nouns from verbs. These tonal differences underline the difficulty of finding a solution to the problem of a tonal classification of verbs. Chapter Four, "Categories of the Verbal Phrase" examines the behaviour of tones related to the verbal phrase in a clause. The categories which are important to the analysis are: mood, transitivity, aspect, tense and polarity, and they show tone patterns which are not haphazard but follow a given scheme according to the items of each category.