A feature geometric approach to Bondu-so vowel harmony

• Main Authors: Christopher R. Green, Abbie E. Hantgan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Open Library of Humanities 2019-03-01
• Series: Glossa
• Subjects: vowel harmony; ATR; Dogon; Parallel Structures Model; feature geometry
• Online Access: https://www.glossa-journal.org/articles/793

Bondu-so (Dogon; Mali) vowel harmony exhibits both typologically and theoretically interesting properties. The language’s vocalic system displays surface patterns that implicate a ten-vowel system with an underlying [ATR] contrast at three vowel heights that is not immediately apparent given only mid vowels maintain an [ATR] contrast on the surface. The current paper presents previously unaccounted for data that show alternations associated with Bondu-so vowel harmony correlate not only with the [ATR] specification of a given root vowel, but also with properties of the root-final consonant. We appeal to a combination of featural and prosodic licensing to analyze these outcomes and do so in a modified version of the 'Parallel Structures' Model of feature geometry. The PSM framework has been employed in studies of consonant assimilation and consonant-vowel interaction, but to our knowledge, the current paper is the first to extend it specifically to the analysis of vowel harmony.