View this page "Step 1 - Phonological Analysis"
Mike
Click on http://groups.google.com/group/kusaal/web/step-1---phonological-analysis
- or copy & paste it into your browser's address bar if that doesn't
work.
Ryan....@gmail.com
standard for how many pairs you need to find for sufficient evidence?
Also, when you generate a word list for a specific phoneme (where it
is highlighted in yellow), you can left click, select 'show columns,'
and remove all the columns you don't want. Then export the .rtf file
and you won't have to do any editing when you open it in a word
processor.
Should I just post groups of minimal pairs as I finish them. I'll
make a list of minimal pairs for groups of phonemes initially,
medially, and finally. I still have access to the library of my
university and might be able to get some articles electronically about
Kusaal or neighboring languages. My professor works on Kikuyu and
receives the Journal of African Linguistics so that may be of help
too. I'll see if there's anything written about this or any other
dialects for some background knowledge of the family group. Is there
anything you know already in this area?
Mike
you're starting to assemble minimal pairs already, I've taken the
liberty of filling in the rest of the phone chart for the consonants
to start with, and have started to list some of the phonetically
similar phones that I think need to be compared. Please verify the
phone chart to make sure that I've got them all in there when you get
a chance. We should all be in agreement on this. Note that this is
just a list of phones, not phonemes yet. It's through the process of
identifying and comparing phonetically similar phones that we'll
eventually come up with a chart of phonemes. Feel free to continue
the list of phonetically similar phones that need to be compared too.
I should explain the presence of [kp,kw] and [gb,gw] on the phone
chart: Phonology Assistant doesn't seem to have a way to indicate
consonant clusters, yet these are a feature of Kusaal. Sometimes
they're articulated [kp] and [gb], and sometimes [kw] and [gw],
depending on the speaker and/or how fast they're saying the word :) I
have sound files for some of the words, so if you'd like them to
listen to and verify some of the phonetic transcriptions, let me know
and I'll send them to you.
As for which minimal pairs to list for evidence, pick the best one for
each position, word-initially, word-medially, and word-finally. If
someone comes up with a better one at some point, we can always add or
change it later. I've set up a possible format for you to display
your minimal pairs in each of the three positions (if possible), where
(a) is word-initial, (b) is word-medial, and (c) is word-final.
Please include the gloss (English translation) of each word too.
I do have some material on Kusaal. It's mostly on the agole dialect
(ours is the tonde dialect), but will probably prove useful in helping
us know what to look for (no use totally re-inventing the wheel if we
don't have to, eh?), although sometimes it's more fun to discover
stuff first and have it confirmed afterwards. I should probably put
it on a page for people to look at. If you find anything, feel free
to post links and/or relevant points on the Kusaal Language
Characteristics page.