The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu
eBook - ePub

The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu

  1. 380 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu

About this book

Originally published in 1940, this book was the result of 3 years' worth of phonetic research and analysis with the aim of laying foudnations for improved methods of teaching and ascertaining the most scientific basis for current orthography of the Kikuyu language of Kenya.

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Yes, you can access The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu by Lilias A. Armstrong in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Languages & Linguistics & Historical & Comparative Linguistics. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

SECTION I

THE SOUNDS AND TONES OF SOUTHERN KIKUYU

CHAPTER I

THE VOWEL PHONEMES

REPRESENTATION OF THE VOWEL PHONEMES

§ 1. The various systems of orthography hitherto used in Kenya are defective in that they do not provide a distinctive letter for each essential vowel sound, i.e. for each vowel phoneme. The system advocated as the standard by the United Kikuyu Language Committee and used by Barlow in his Kikuyu Grammar1 endeavours to compensate for this defect by introducing diacritical marks which in practice tend to be omitted.2
§ 2. There are seven vowel phonemes in Kikuyu, each of which should be represented in orthography by a letter easily distinguishable from every other vowel letter. The following symbols are used in this book: i, e, ε, a, ɔ, o, u. They are symbols of the alphabet of the International Phonetic Association and also of the alphabet of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures which has been approved in principle by the educational authorities in Kenya.

REPRESENTATION OF VOWEL LENGTH

§ 3. In this book most long vowels are represented by double letters, the method of indicating length advocated by the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures3 It is unnecessary in a Kikuyu orthography to mark in this way all vowels which are long. But it would seem generally advisable to record as long those vowels which are long in words pronounced in isolation. It must be decided whether this is really necessary or desirable. Certainly, where significant, long vowels should be shown as long. (See Chapter II on ‘Length of Kikuyu Vowels'.)

REPRESENTATION OF VOWEL SEQUENCES

§ 4. The vowels of Bantu lang...

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Table of Contents
  6. PREFACE by PROFESSOR DANIEL JONES
  7. LIST OF FIGURES
  8. LIST OF PHONETIC SYMBOLS AND TONE MARKS
  9. SECTION I: THE SOUNDS AND TONES OF SOUTHERN KIKUYU
  10. SECTION II: TEXTS WITH TRANSLATIONS AND NOTES
  11. APPENDIX. A SUGGESTED ORTHOGRAPHY FOR KIKUYU
  12. GLOSSARY OF NOUNS (showing Tonal Classes)
  13. GLOSSARY OF PROPER NAMES (showing Tonal Classes)
  14. GLOSSARY OF VERBS (showing Tonal Classes)