A Grammatical Description of Nyakyusa Phonology

Abstract

This paper offers a grammatical description of the phonology of Nyakyusa (M31), as an integral part of grammar. The literature review suggests that, in many Bantu languages, phonological description has received little attention since many scholarly works in Bantu linguistics primarily focus on morphology. Data for this study were collected in Kyela District, where many native speakers of Nyakyusa reside. Data collection techniques included reviewing available written texts, recording narrative stories, observing speakers’ conversations, and interviewing native speakers to assess the acceptability of certain constructions. The findings reveal that Nyakyusa has 14 pure consonants, 4 pre-nasalized stops, and seven vowels. Additionally, the study indicates that the contact between consonants and vowels gives rise to various phonological processes aimed at speech simplification. Such phonological processes are gliding, deletion, homorganic nasal assimilation, continuant stopping, consonant alternation, consonant mutation, voicing, vowel coalescence, and vowel harmony. In conclusion, the paper asserts that, despite some phonological aspects being common in Bantu languages according to the literature, the environments enabling them to occur to a large extent remain language-specific for Nyakyusa. Consequently, the paper recommends a systematic comparative phonological description across Bantu languages.

Keywords: Grammar, language description, Nyakyusa, phonology