the university of chicago the phonology and ... - SIL International

ilabial or labiodental. Lim considers it labiodental. Boyd attests the sound in the words
L=H L=H ‘man/husband’, L ‘to wash’, L= L= ‘to hit’, and LK LK ‘to throw’. Lim attests the sound in
the following lexical items—nouns: C=bL=bH=b C=bL=bH=b ‘G-string’, I=L-H- I=L-H- ‘bitter wild yam’, L=H=
L=H=
‘testicles’, L-bH-b L-bH-b ‘vulva’, L L ZH ZHZH ZH c c c c ‘excrement’, L L ZH ZHZH ZH Z Z Z Z K(HK( K(HK( K(HK( K(HK( ‘wax, polish’, L L L L ‘sorcery’; animal
names: C>HLH C>HLH C>HLH C>HLH ‘type of reptile’, L LL L ZH ZHZH ZH c c c c ‘beetle’, @L-H- @L-H- @L-H- @L-H- ‘type of insect’, LK(@ LK(@ LK(@ LK(@
‘type
of water insect’; plant names: C C L LL L H HH H
‘type of tree’, CIK( CIK( CIK( CIK( C=(L C=(L C=(L C=(L
‘type of tree’, C=L-(H=( C=L-(H=( C=L-(H=( C=L-(H=(
301
‘type of herb’, L=(H=( L=(H=( ‘type of tree’, L L K K K K ‘type of herb’, L-L-(H=( L-L-(H=( L-L-(H=( L-L-(H=( ‘type of herb’; verbs: L= L= L= L= ‘hit,
cry, shout’, LA( LA( ‘cut’, LAHA LAHA ‘break’, L L H HH H
‘become slack, cook many times’, L L
‘ask’, LK(
LK(
‘throw’; adjectives: C=L= C=L= C=L= C=L= ‘stupid’; and ideophones: LA LA LA LA ‘of a hard knock’.
Kuo [KHO] (Chad, Cameroon). A labial flap is reported in Kuo by Boyd
(1974:71) (“Ko”), James Roberts (per. comm.), and Marcia Bleeker (per. comm.). Boyd
and Bleeker consider the sound to be either bilabial or labiodental. Bleeker considers the
sound to be a phoneme. She attests it in the words LE LE LE ‘ask’, LK LK ‘throw’, L L M M M M ‘question’,
and LKKK LKKK LKKK LKKK ‘pell-mell’. She notes that it occurs in nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and
ideophones, and that it occurs only in word-initial position. Boyd attests it in the word
L=( L=( L=( L=( ‘play a game’.
Mambai [MCS] (Cameroon, Chad). Eguchi (1971, cited by Stefan Elders, per.
comm.) reports a “labio-dentale semivoyelle” 8 in Mambai. Elders confirms that it is
actually a labiodental flap. It is more rare than w.
Mbum [MDD] (Cameroon). A labiodental flap is reported in Mbum by
Richardson (1957) (“Kapere” dialect), Hagège (1968, 1970) (West Mbum dialect), and
Hino (1978) (in the town of Mbang-Mboum). Hagège (1968, 1970) refers to the sound as
a stop, but later he refers to it as a vibrant (Hagège 1981). Evidence for the phonological
status of the labial flap in Mbum is given in Section D.5.2.
Mundang [MUA] (Cameroon, Chad). A labial flap is reported in Mundang by
Elders (2000) and James Roberts (per. comm.). Elders considers the sound to be