Homorganic Nasal Assimilation in Arsi-Bale Afan Oromo: A Non-Linear Phonology

Abstract

This paper is entitled: “Homorganic nasal assimilation in Arsi-Bale Afan Oromo: A non linear Approach”. The paper is limited to nasal assimilation found in one of the Afan oromo (AO) dialects spoken in Ethiopia. The dialect is a member of the AO language cluster, which belongs to East-Cushitic branch of Afro-Asiatic super family. The study attempts to use Feature Geometry branched from the theory of Autosegmental Phonology proposed by Goldsmith (1976). The paper is basically based on the fieldwork in Arsi, one of the Zones in Oromia Regional State of Ethiopia. The data were gathered from five native speakers of Arsi-Bale Afan Oromo (ABAO) who were born in Arsi regional state of Ethiopia. The informants were made to gather those words and sentences that contain nasal sounds. They were made to repeat the words and sentences several times in different order and the data were recorded by using an audio tape recorder for analysis. Then, the pronunciations were transcribed phonemically and phonetically using the IPA conventions as revised to 2005. The results show that the /n/ in emphatic prefix {hin-} and word internally undergoes partial and total assimilation. When the alveolar /n/ in the prefix boundary or word internally is followed by a word with initial stops /b/, /m/, /g/, /k/ ejective /k’/, fricative /f/, and liquids /l/, /r/, the partial homorganic nasal assimilation occurs and the nasal /n/ totally assimilates to the semi-vowels /w/ and /j/.