Tongue Root Harmony in Nata

Abstract

An examination of vowel harmony in Nata (Bantu, E45), reveals a fairly straightforward pattern of harmony in tongue root values for adjacent mid vowels. A problem arises, however, when we look at the behavior of harmony in prefixes. In some nouns, the class prefixes are retracted when the initial root vowel is retracted and advanced when the initial root vowel is advanced. Problematic, however, are other forms in which roots with initial retracted vowels condition the appearance of high vowels in the noun class prefixes. In earlier work, Gambarage argued that to account for the distinction between cases where mid vowels retract and cases where mid vowels raise to high, it is necessary to invoke two distinct co-phonologies. It is argued that the two patterns observed in Nata are readily accounted for within an “allomorphy account,” without the need to invoke multiple co-phonologies. The integration of general phonotactics governing vowel harmony with allomorphy appropriate for particular roots derives the two patterns in a unified fashion.