Phonological phrasing in Northern Sotho (Bantu)

Abstract

The article discusses penultimate lengthening and the finality restriction in Northern Sotho, a Bantu language of South Africa. These suprasegmental rules crucially refer to prosodic structure in the definition of their domain of application. Relying partially on acoustic evidence, the article shows that the prosodic domains at whose right edges lengthening and the finality restriction apply are co-extensive and that they can be characterized as Intonational Phrase. By investigating the contexts in which lengthening and the finality restriction apply, the article argues that the right edge of the Intonational Phrase in Northern Sotho is aligned with the right edge of the syntactic InfP. The findings of this article match the patterns of phrasing reported for the Bantu languages Haya and Kinyambo. The languages differ, however, in the phonetic cues employed for phrasing. The article thus contributes to comparative work across Bantu languages in what concerns phonetic cues to phrasing as well as relevant constraints on the phonology-syntax mapping.