SESOTHO PHONOLOGY

• 'Nasalization' (alternatively Nasal permutation or Strengthening) is a process in Bantu languages by which, in certain circumstances, a prefixed nasal becomes assimilated to a succeeding consonant and causes changes in the form of the phone to which it is prefixed. In the Sotho language series of articles it is indicated by "''[N]''."
  In Sotho it usually occurs in the formation of class 9 and 10 nouns, the formation of some class 6 plurals, in the use of the objectival concord of the first person singular, in the use of the adjectival and enumerative concords of some noun classes, and in the forming of reflexive verbs (with the reflexive prefix).
  ''Very roughly speaking'', voiced consonants become devoiced and fricatives (except ^[6]) lose their fricative quality.
  
  ★ Vowels and the approximant ^[7] get a in front of them
  
  ★ Voiced plosives become ejective:
  : ⇒
  : ⇒
  
  ★ Fricatives become aspirated:
  : ⇒
  : ⇒
  : ⇒
  : ⇒
  : ⇒ (except for adjectives)
  
  ★ becomes
  
  ★ becomes .
  The syllabic nasal causing the change is usually dropped, except for monosyllabic stems and the first person objectival concord. Reflexive verbs don't show a nasal.
  : to answer ⇒ response, to answer me, and to answer oneself
  : to give ⇒ gift, to give me, and to give oneself
  Other changes may occur due to contractions in verb derivations:
  : to see ⇒ to cause to see (causative + )
  'Nasal homogeneity' consists of two points:
  #When a consonant is preceded by a (visible or invisible) nasal it will undergo nasalization, if it supports it.
  #When a nasal is immediately followed by another consonant with no vowel betwixt them, the nasal will change to a nasal in the same approximate position as the following consonant, after the consonant has undergone nasal permutation. If the consonant is already a nasal then the previous nasal will simply change to the same.
  
  
• 'Palatalization' is a process in certain Bantu languages where a consonant becomes a palatal consonant.
  In Sotho it usually occurs with the short form of passive verbs and the diminutives of nouns, adjectives, and relatives.
  
  ★ Labials:
  : ⇒ /
  : ⇒ /
  : ⇒ /
  : ⇒ /
  
  ★ Alveolars:
  : ⇒
  : ⇒
  : ⇒
  
  ★ The nasals become :
  : , , and ⇒
  : to pay ⇒ / to be paid
  
  


• 'Alveolarization' is a process whereby a consonant becomes an alveolar consonant. It occurs in noun diminutives, the diminutives of colour adjectives, and in the pronouns and concords of noun classes with a di or di[N] prefix. It results in either or .
  
  ★ , , and become
  
  ★ , , and become
  : black with white spots ⇒ (dim.)
  : your actions
  Other changes may occur due to phonological interactions in verbal derivatives:
  : to ask ⇒ to ask on behalf of (applied + )
  The alveolarization which changes Sotho to is by far the most commonly applied phonetic process in the language. It's regularly applied in the formation of some class 8 and 10 concords and in numerous verbal derivatives.
  
  


• 'Velarization' in Sotho is a process whereby certain sounds become velar consonants due to the intrusion of an approximant. It occurs with verb passives, noun diminutives, the diminutives of relatives, and the formation of some class 1 and 3 prefixes.
  
  ★ becomes
  
  ★ becomes
  : to destroy ⇒ to be destroyed (short passive + )
  : Class 1 + ⇒ year (cf Kiswahili ''mwaka'')
  
  


• 'Elision' of vowels occurs in Sotho less often than in those Bantu languages which have vowel "pre-prefixes" before the noun class prefixes (such as Zulu), but there are still instances where it regularly and actively occurs.
  There are two primary types of regular vowel elision:
  #The vowels , , and , may be removed from between two 's, thereby casing the first to become syllabic. This actively occurs with verbs, and has historically occurred with some nouns.
  #When forming class 1 or 3 nouns from noun stems beginning with the middle is removed and the is contracted into the , resulting in . This actively occurs with nouns derived from verbs commencing with and has historically occurred with many other nouns.
  : read ⇒ read for (applied), and person who reads
  
  


• 'Vowel raising' is a form of vowel harmony where a non-open (i.e., any vowel other than ) vowel is raised in position by a vowel at the same or higher position. The first variety — in which the open-mid vowels become close-mid — is commonly found in most Southern African Bantu languages (where the Ur-Bantu "mixed" vowels have separated). In the 9-vowel Sotho-Tswana languages, a much less common process also occurs where the near-close vowels become raised to a position slightly lower than the close vowels (closer to the English b'ea't and b'oo't than the very high Sotho vowels ''i'' and ''u'') without ATR.
  
  • 'Mid vowel raising' is a process where becomes and becomes under the influence of close vowels or consonants that contain "hidden" close vowels.
    : ''ho tsheha''^‡ to laugh () ⇒ ''ho tshehisa''^‡ to cause to laugh ()
    : ''ke a bona''^‡ I see () ⇒ ''ke bone''^‡ I saw ()
    : ''ho kena''^‡ to enter () ⇒ ''ho kenya''^‡ to insert ()
    These changes are usually recursive to varying depths within the word, though, being a left spreading rule, it is often bounded by the difficulty of "foreseeing" the raising syllable:
    : ''diphoofolo''^‡ animals () ⇒ ''diphoofolong''^‡ by the animals ()
    Additionally, a right-spreading form occurs when a close-mid vowel is on the penultimate syllable and, due to some inflection or derivational process, is followed by an open-mid vowel. In this case the vowel on the final syllable is raised. This does not happen if the penultimate syllable is close ( or ().
    : ''-besa'' roast ⇒ subjunctive ''ke bese'' so I may roast...
    but
    : ''-thola'' find ⇒ subjunctive ''ke thole'' so I may find...
    These vowels can occur phonemically, however, and may thus be considered to be separate phonemes:
    : ''maele'' wisdom
    
  • 'Close vowel raising' is a process which occurs under less much common circumstances. Near-close becomes and near-close becomes when immediately followed by a syllable containing the close vowels or . Unlike the mid vowel raising this processes is not iterative and is only caused directly by the close vowels (it cannot be caused by any hidden vowels or by other raised vowels).
    : to pass over ⇒ to comfort
    : to itch ⇒ period pains
    Since these changes are allophonic, the Sotho-Tswana languages are rarely said to have 11 vowels.
    
  
  
  


• 'Labialization' is a modification of a consonant due to the action of a bilabial element which persists throughout the articulation of the consonant and is not merely a following semivowel. This labialization results in the consonant being pronounced with rounded lips (but, in Sotho, with no velarization) and with attenuated high frequencies (especially noticeable with fricatives and aspirated consonants).
  It may be traced to an original or being "absorbed" into the preceding consonant when the syllable is followed by another vowel. The consonant is labialized and the transition from the labialized syllable onset to the nucleus vowel sounds like a bilabial semivowel (or, alternatively, like a diphthong). Unlike in languages such as Shona and Venda, Sotho labialization does not result in "whistling" of any consonants.
  Almost all consonants may be labialized (indicated in the orthography by following the symbol with "w"), the exceptions being labial plosives and fricatives (which become palatalized), the bilabial and palatal nasals (which become velarized), and the voiced alveolar allophone of (which would become alveolarized instead). Additionally, syllabic nasals (where nasalization results in a labialized instead) and the syllabic (which is always followed by the non-syllabic ) are never directly labialized. Note that the unvoiced heterorganic doubled articulant fricative only occurs labialized (only as ).
  Due to the inherent bilabial semivowel, labialized consonants never appear before back vowels.^[8]
  

Stress

Notes

References