Avatime language

Avatime is a tonal language with three tones, has vowel harmony, and has been claimed to have doubly articulated fricatives.

Avatime has nine vowels, {{IPA|/i ɪ e ɛ a ɔ o ʊ u/}}, though the vowels {{IPA|/ɪ ʊ/}} have been overlooked in most descriptions of the language. It is not clear if the difference between {{IPA|/i e o u/}} and {{IPA|/ɪ ɛ ɔ ʊ/}} is one of advanced and retracted tongue root (laryngeal contraction), as in so many languages of Ghana, or of vowel height: different phonetic parameters support different analyses.Since the IPA does not have distinct letters for ±ATR vowels, they are transcribed here as differing in height for legibility.

Avatime has vowel harmony. A root many not mix vowels of the relaxed {{IPA|/i e o u/}} and contracted {{IPA|/ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ/}} sets, and prefixes change vowels to harmonize with the vowels of the root. For example, the human singular gender prefix is {{IPA|/ɔ ~ o/}}, and the human plural is {{IPA|/a ~ e/}}: {{IPA|/o-ze/}} "thief", {{IPA|/ɔ-ka/}} "father"; {{IPA|/be-ze/}} "thieves", {{IPA|/ba-ka/}} "fathers"; also {{IPA|/o-bu/}} "bee" but {{IPA|/ɔ-bʊ/}} "god".Tone not marked. Other prefixes vary as {{IPA|/ɛ ~ e/}}

Vowels may be long or short. Records from 1910{{Clarify|reason=Which records?|date=September 2022}} showed that all vowels could be nasalized, but that is disappearing, and few words with nasal vowels remained by the end of the century.

{{IPAslink|ɸ}} is found in Ewe borrowings,{{sfn|Schuh|1995|p=33}} as is {{IPAslink|kʷ}}, which can be seen to be distinct from {{IPA|/kw/}} (which cannot be followed by another consonant) in the loanword {{IPA|/àkʷlɛ̄/}} {{gloss|boat}}.{{sfn|Schuh|1995|p=36}}

The language has been claimed to have doubly articulated fricatives {{IPA|/x͡ɸ ɣ͡β/}}. However, as with similar claims for Swedish {{IPAblink|ɧ}}, the labial articulation is not fricated, and these are actually labialized velars, {{IPA|/xʷ ɣʷ/}}.{{sfn|Schuh|1995|p=35}} All velar fricatives are quite weak, and are more often {{IPA|[h ɦ hʷ ɦʷ]}}.{{sfn|Schuh|1995|p=33}}

The affricates vary between {{IPAblink|t͡s}}, {{IPAblink|d͡z}} and {{IPAblink|t͡ʃ}}, {{IPAblink|d͡ʒ}}, which may be a generational difference.{{sfn|Schuh|1995|p=34}}

Syllables are V, CV, CGV, and N: Avatime allows consonant-approximant clusters, where the approximant may be {{IPA|/l/, /w/, /j/}}. There is also a syllabic nasal, which takes its own tone: {{IPA|/kpāŋ̄/}} "many".

Any consonant but {{IPA|/n/, /l/}} may form a cluster with {{IPA|/l/}}: {{IPA|/ɔ̀kplɔ̄nɔ̀/}} "table", {{IPA|/ɔ̀ɡblāɡɛ̄/}} "snake", {{IPA|/káɣʷlɪ̀tsã̀/}} "chameleon", {{IPA|/sɪ̄ŋʷlɛ̀sɛ̃̀/}} "mucous". After a coronal consonant, the {{IPA|/l/}} is pronounced {{IPA|[r]}}.

When two vowels come together, they are either separated by a glottal stop {{IPA|[ʔ]}}, fuse into a single vowel, or the first vowel reduces to a semivowel. In the latter case, the four front vowels reduce to {{IPA|[j]}} and three of the back vowels reduce to {{IPA|[w]}}, but {{IPA|/u/}} is fronted to {{IPA|[ɥ]}}.

However, there are /Cw/ and /Cj/ sequences which are not derived from vowel sequences. These are {{IPA|/fw/, /mw/, /fj/, /vj/, /βj/, /tj/, /dj/, /sj/, /zj/, /lj/, /ŋʷj/}}.

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite journal |last=Maddieson |first=Ian |date=October 1995 |title=Collapsing vowel harmony and doubly-articulated fricatives: two myths about the phonology of Avatime |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3h25w3h3#page=69 |journal=UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics |volume=91: Fieldwork Studies of Targeted Languages III |pages=67–84}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Schuh |first=Russel |year=1995 |title=Aspects of Avatime phonology |journal=Studies in African Linguistics |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=31–67 |doi=10.32473/sal.v24i1.107410 |s2cid=118027311 |doi-access=free}}

• [http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/Language/AVN/avn.html The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive: Avatime] - Phonetic fieldwork on Avatime

{{Languages of Ghana}}

{{Kwa languages}}

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Category:Languages of Ghana

Category:Ghana–Togo Mountain languages