Abstract
In this paper we investigate the distribution of vowel systems in the Macro-Sudan Belt, an area of Western and Central Africa proposed in recent areal work (Güldemann 2008, 2011; Clements & Rialland 2008). We report on a survey of 615 language varieties with entries coded for two phonological features: advanced tongue root (ATR) harmony and the presence of interior vowels (i.e. non-peripheral vowels, such as [ɨ ɯ ɜ ə ʌ …]). Our results show that the presence of ATR harmony in the Macro-Sudan Belt is limited to three separated zones: an Atlantic ATR Zone, a West African ATR Zone, and an East African ATR Zone, all geographically unconnected to one another. We additionally show that between the West and East African ATR Zones is a geographically extensive, genetically heterogeneous region of Central Africa where ATR harmony is systematically absent which we term the Central African ATR-less Zone. Our results also show a large region where phonemic and allophonic interior vowels are disproportionately prevalent, which we term the Central African Interior Vowel Zone. This zone noticeably overlaps with the Central African ATR-less Zone, suggesting that ATR and interiority have an antagonistic relationship. Chi-squared tests support the presence of a strong relationship between the two types of vowel contrasts.
Highlights
This paper explores the distribution of vowel system properties within the Macro-Sudan Belt, a proposed macro-linguistic area of West and Central Africa identified in Güldemann (2008) and independently called the Sudanic Belt in Clements & Rialland (2008)
Our results show Advanced Tongue Root (ATR) prevalent in three geographically unconnected zones: an Atlantic ATR Zone centered around Senegal, a West African ATR Zone along the West African shore of the Gulf of Guinea and further inland, and an East African ATR Zone stretching from Northern Chad to Tanzania
We investigated the distribution of vowel systems in the Macro-Sudan Belt using a survey of 615 language varieties coding for phonological features related to Advanced Tongue Root (ATR) harmony compared to the presence of interior vowels
Summary
This paper explores the distribution of vowel system properties within the Macro-Sudan Belt, a proposed macro-linguistic area of West and Central Africa identified in Güldemann (2008) and independently called the Sudanic Belt in Clements & Rialland (2008). Additional literature has shown that many languages within the MacroSudan Belt lack ATR contrasts and harmony, many of which appear in a large region of Central Africa (Boyd 1989:197, Dimmendaal 2001:370). In this Central region, other vowel system tendencies have been noted, such as the prevalence of highly restricted vowel co-occurrence phonotactics within morphemes and words that are not reducible to ATR harmony, e.g. in Mbay [myb] (Sara, Central-Sudanic: Chad – Keegan 1997). One phonological feature which does coincide with this Central area is the widespread presence of interior vowels, i.e. nonperipheral vowels such as [ɨɯɜəʌ ...], noted to our knowledge only by Thomas et al (1973)
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