Anthologica Universe Atlas / Universes / The Allosphere / Kaam-Yerte / Ubghuu / Ubghuu Grammar / Phonology and Morphophonology / Morphophonology
Ubghuu morphophonology is somewhat complicated. Here are some of the most important things about it.
When the voiced stop <d> weakens intervocalically, the exact pronunciation of the result varies significantly across dialects. All of [ð ʐ ɻ ɽ ɭ] are attested. To prevent confusion, this is always written <dh>.
The glottal stop, in many ways, acts as a sandhi breaker. Realized as an actual glottal stop before vowels, it halts the normal rightward tone spread in an ubghuu word; syllables following a glottal stop have mid tone unless they are themselves tone-bearing.
When the glottal stop occurs before a consonant, it drops unless in pausa, when it usually provokes vowel epenthesis in non-careful speech. Pronounced in isolation, ʔgihoŋgɔrʔɛɛ̀yɛ̀d "he did not burn it" will be (ignoring tone) [ʔĭɡihoŋɡɔrʔɛɛjɛ̆ɖ]. When a ʔC cluster occurs after a vowel, the glottal stop is dropped, with the following consonant not undergoing the usual allophony in this environment. This applies even across word boundaries. Thus, in a phrase such as eyáa ʔgihoŋgɔrʔɛɛ̀yɛ̀d khaà we would see [ɡihoŋɡɔrʔɛɛjɛ̆ɖ], with the underlying /ʔɡ-/ distinguished from /ɡ-/ by the lack of allophonic breathy voice.
Vowel length in Ubghuu historically changed depending on syllable structure, with vowels lengthening in open syllables and shortening in closed ones. The impact of this on modern Ubghuu is complicated by the interaction of this sound change with others. For now, it suffices to illustrate with vowel-final words. These words are invariant when they end on a long vowel (since final long vowels are secondary), and change to having a final long vowel when followed by a CV suffix. For instance:
kháʔa "many", kháʔááhi "from many".
Vowel hiatus with a short first element was resolved by deleting that vowel, compensatorily lengthening a preceding consonant in the process. This applied also to now-deleted final short vowels.
As a consequence, words with a final rhyme of -VVC are liable to undergo shortening when a vowel-initial suffix is added, although the exact scope of this varies by dialect. Such words with final aspirates are affected in every dialect, other final consonants can vary.
Ex. paath- "suffer", path-ii- "suffer-PFV"; dialectally even ŋáad (< Tsi ngáád) "emperor, lord", ŋádh-áa "emperor-COM".
Syllables with the structure of C(r/l)VC are usually invariant under open syllable change, because many of them were historically in the form CVRC and later underwent metathesis.
Apart from vowel epenthesis between glottal stop and consonant, epenthetic vowels also occur where morphology would create either a final consonant cluster or an impermissible cluster in any other position. In this case, the cluster is broken up with a short echo vowel. Note that the epenthesis of echo vowels occurs after the word's tone contour is assigned; they are transparent to e.g. downstep.
Consonant allophony
The morphophoneme dh
When the voiced stop <d> weakens intervocalically, the exact pronunciation of the result varies significantly across dialects. All of [ð ʐ ɻ ɽ ɭ] are attested. To prevent confusion, this is always written <dh>.
Sandhi
The glottal stop
The glottal stop, in many ways, acts as a sandhi breaker. Realized as an actual glottal stop before vowels, it halts the normal rightward tone spread in an ubghuu word; syllables following a glottal stop have mid tone unless they are themselves tone-bearing.
When the glottal stop occurs before a consonant, it drops unless in pausa, when it usually provokes vowel epenthesis in non-careful speech. Pronounced in isolation, ʔgihoŋgɔrʔɛɛ̀yɛ̀d "he did not burn it" will be (ignoring tone) [ʔĭɡihoŋɡɔrʔɛɛjɛ̆ɖ]. When a ʔC cluster occurs after a vowel, the glottal stop is dropped, with the following consonant not undergoing the usual allophony in this environment. This applies even across word boundaries. Thus, in a phrase such as eyáa ʔgihoŋgɔrʔɛɛ̀yɛ̀d khaà we would see [ɡihoŋɡɔrʔɛɛjɛ̆ɖ], with the underlying /ʔɡ-/ distinguished from /ɡ-/ by the lack of allophonic breathy voice.
Meter
The open syllable law
Vowel length in Ubghuu historically changed depending on syllable structure, with vowels lengthening in open syllables and shortening in closed ones. The impact of this on modern Ubghuu is complicated by the interaction of this sound change with others. For now, it suffices to illustrate with vowel-final words. These words are invariant when they end on a long vowel (since final long vowels are secondary), and change to having a final long vowel when followed by a CV suffix. For instance:
kháʔa "many", kháʔááhi "from many".
Compensatory gemination
Vowel hiatus with a short first element was resolved by deleting that vowel, compensatorily lengthening a preceding consonant in the process. This applied also to now-deleted final short vowels.
As a consequence, words with a final rhyme of -VVC are liable to undergo shortening when a vowel-initial suffix is added, although the exact scope of this varies by dialect. Such words with final aspirates are affected in every dialect, other final consonants can vary.
Ex. paath- "suffer", path-ii- "suffer-PFV"; dialectally even ŋáad (< Tsi ngáád) "emperor, lord", ŋádh-áa "emperor-COM".
Liquid diphthongs
Syllables with the structure of C(r/l)VC are usually invariant under open syllable change, because many of them were historically in the form CVRC and later underwent metathesis.
Epenthetic vowels
Apart from vowel epenthesis between glottal stop and consonant, epenthetic vowels also occur where morphology would create either a final consonant cluster or an impermissible cluster in any other position. In this case, the cluster is broken up with a short echo vowel. Note that the epenthesis of echo vowels occurs after the word's tone contour is assigned; they are transparent to e.g. downstep.