Degema is an Edoid language of Nigeria whose ten vowels are organized phonologically into two sets of five. The two sets are thought to be differentiated by the degree of tongue root advancing. This paper examines the acoustic nature of these vowels as represented in field recordings of six speakers. The most consistent acoustic correlate of the tongue root contrast was found to be the first formant frequency which consistently distinguishes four of the five vowel pairs, the exception being the two low vowels. Three of the five pairs could also be distinguished by F₂, though the direction of the difference was not consistent. Additionally, a comparison of corresponding advanced and retracted vowels using a normalized measure of relative formant intensity demonstrated that this correlate could also distinguish them in general, but only operated reliably in two of the five vowel pairs. The pair of low vowels could not be distinguished from each other by any of these measures. Finally, a perceptual study was conducted which demonstrates that Degema speakers do not classify their vowels very well using formant frequencies as the sole acoustic variable; only the two pairs of mid vowels were reliably singled out by native listeners from an array of synthesized vowels.

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This paper presents the first systematic study of tone in nouns and noun phrases in Degema. From a database of approximately 1,000 nouns, we find that nouns fall into three main tone patterns: /L-L/ (48% of nouns), /H-H/ (18%), and /L-HH/ (13%). This last case is theoretically important in that it includes cases where two separate H tones associate to the same tone-bearing unit, in violation of the Obligatory Contour Principle. In isolation, nouns are subject to two basic tone rules which alter their underlying forms: downstep is inserted between two final H’s (e.g. /H-H/ → [H↓H]), and H is inserted at the end of an all-low sequence (e.g. /L-L/ → [LH]). The combined effect of these rules is that virtually all nouns and noun phrases have a pitch change. Further, we catalog tonal effects found on nouns in 33 distinct modificational contexts within the noun phrase. We attribute these tonal effects to whether modifiers plus the noun form phonological phrases (φ) or phonological words (ɷ), and whether they form recursive prosodic structures, e.g. of the type ( ( A )φ B )φ. By positing recursive structure, we can localize tonal effects to an outermost prosodic layer (e.g. φ[+max]), innermost layer (e.g. φ[+min]), non-inner or outermost layers (e.g. φ[-max]), or to the prosodic category as a whole (i.e. all layers of a φ).

This paper presents an overview of the phonology, morphology and syntax of Central Delta languages. It also provides information on the geo-linguistic, demographic and sociolinguistic situation of these languages. It notes that Central Delta languages have a 20-vowel system, which divides into two sets of 10 vowels distinguished by pharyngeal size. The consonant systems of these languages range between 22 and 27, showing alternation between some pairs of consonants. Central Delta languages are noted to be rich in nominal and verbal morphologies, showing evidence of prefixal noun classification and morphological marking of nominal and verbal categories. The pronominal systems of these languages make a threeway number-person-case distinction with some of them formally distinguishing between inclusive and exclusive in their first-person plural forms. Common syntactic features observed in these languages include subject-object-verb basic word order and serial verb constructions. The paper highlights the fact that mother-tongue speakers of Central Delta languages also speak one or more other languages and that the daily exposure of Central Delta languages and their speakers to more powerful languages around them makes them endangered. Furthermore, the paper recommends that a survey be undertaken to determine the level of endangerment of Central Delta languages.Keywords: Nigeria, Central Delta languages, nominal and verbal systems, morphology, language endangerment IntroductionThis paper aims at presenting an overview of the phonology, morphology and syntax of Central Delta languages, including some information on the geo-linguistic, demographic and sociolinguistic situation of these languages. It is divided into six sections. Section 1 introduces the aim of the study and presents geo-linguistic and demographic information and the sources of data. In section 2, information on the linguistic classification and sociolinguistic situation of Central Delta languages is provided. The phonological, 1 I am thankful to Ozo-Mekuri Ndimele for the valuable information he provided on Ọ chi ̣chi ̣ and to Salem Ejeba for the sundry help he offered in the course of writing this paper. I am also thankful to the two anonymous Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics reviewers for their incisive and enlightening comments that have made this paper richer and better than what it was.