Abstract

BICKMORE, Lee. Phonological and morphological influences on vowel hiatus resolution in Rutooro. SPiL plus (Online) [online]. 2022, vol.62, pp.39-55. ISSN 2224-3380.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5842/62-0-900.

When the morphology of a language creates instances of successive vowels, these cases of vowel hiatus are often resolved or repaired. This paper presents a wide variety of instances where vowel hiatus is created within verbs in Rutooro, a Ugandan Bantu language. It is shown that five different strategies are employed to resolve vowel hiatus: deletion, gliding, diphthongisation, epenthesis, and lexical allomorphy. While some of these processes are largely phonological, there are a number of morphological factors which also play a role in determining which of the various strategies are employed. All of these are explored and discussed.

Keywords : Rutooro; phonology; vowel hiatus; allomorphy; epenthesis; gliding.

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