Cook-1985-Efik

201
Chapter III
Tue Efik Vowel System
at the Surface Phonemic Level
II I.A . THE SPL VOWEL PHONEMES
At the SPL seven vowel phonemes must be distinguished.
di agr ammed in the following chart.
ent a llophones of the phonemes Ii I
1
These are
The phonetically widely differ -
([ i], [ +]l and /u/ ([ u], [ 11 ]l
are indicated separately.
UNROUNDED
F r ont
ROUNDED
Central
Back
..... [ u]
[ i ]'
'
Mi d
/el
1£1
j";)j
/a/ :
Low
CHART II :
The Refotive Phonetic Positions of the SPL
Vowels.
I n terms of contrasting phonological categories, these vowels
lly be classified as in Char t I I:
Per a discussion of the possibility of an analysis at the SPL with six vowel
phonemes, seeIII.I.2.
202
UNROUNDED
ROUNDED
High
/i/
/u/
Close Mid
/e/
lo/
Open Mid
IE I
lo/
Low
/a I
CHART III:
The Classification of the SPL Vowels.
Alternatively, we could classify the vowels in terms of three
degrees on the Front-Back continuum and only three degrees of vowel
height.
This would result in the categorization of /i/ and /u/ as
High, /el and /o/ as Mid, and le a o/ as Low, with /i e e/ as Front
/a/ as Central, and /u o o/ as Back.
The very centralized non-
•
syllabeme- final allophones of /i/ and /u /,however, present arguments against such a classification.
When followed by a consonant
in the same syllabeme, /i/ and /u/ are very similar in tongue pos ition, and appear to be distinguished much more by the absence or
presence of lip rounding than by the slight difference in Front2
Back tongue position. The opposition Unrounded:Rounded thus gives
a more satisfactory description of the contrast than Front:Back .
One might argue that the syllabeme-f inal allophones are less
modified, and should therefore be taken as primary for the purposes
of classification.
The phonetic difference between /i/ and /u/
which persists in all environments , however, is that of lip rounding, and the consistent maintenance of this distinction should be
accorded some significance.
The classification of the Efik vowels will be considered more
thoroughly at the DPL (IV.).
2. At deeper levels this opposition will be described with the feature [labial]
(Chart VIII, p. 366; Chart IX,
p. 367) in order to provide a natural descrip--
tion of certain assimilation processes and in order to use, in so far as pos·
sible, the same features for the description of vowels and consonants ( IV .C .31
208
209
In regard to the relationship between tone and vowel length it
is interesting to note that in Obolo (Andoni) , a Lower Cr o ss language
which, unlike Efik, e xhibits phonologically significant vowel length
( /nlQ/ , ' enter'; /ni:Q/, 'conceive' ) , Rising (Low plus High) tones
occur not only on syllables having long vowels , but on syllables
with phonologically short vowels as well:
7
environments, and /i/ and /u/ are the shorte s t .
The differences
duration between the different vowels, however , are less striking
10
than the differences in amplitude. Both are clearly correlated with
tongue height : the lower the tongue , the greater the intrinsi c in9
tensity8 and the intrinsic duration of t h e vowels .
The c orrelation between amplitude and tonque heiqht was ob-
/g 5k / , 'vomit' (cf.
~eterson (1959) for English and by F6nagy
for Hungarian , a nd may very well be universa1. 10 The cor-
/g5:k/ , 'follow'); /fuk/ , 'read' (cf. /fu:k/ , 'blow'); /t5k/ , ' peck
ser ved by Lehiste and
(of birds) '
(!966)
(cf. /t5:k/ , 'be cold') (data from my own notes , Ikuru
Town dialect).
It seems c lear that in Obolo it would be very un-
desirable to posi t a double vowel in order to accommodate the Rising
relation between duration and tongue height has been observed in
lllflY languages (Lehiste, 1970:18) , and is almost surely univers al.
11
tone o f words with a phonologically short vowel (e.g. 'vomit'), while
these are in contrast with words having a phonologica lly long vowel
and the same tone pattern . In such an analysis the double vowel
would be totally independent of the ac tual phonological length, and
Efik /i/ has two major allophones:
would be a purely artificial device serving only to mak e it possible
and (+] in non - syllabeme-final position (III .B. ) .
to analyze tone as a f e ature of the vowel.
And the problem of how
to analyze the phonologically long vowels with Rising t one would remain.
The situation in Obolo, however, poses no problems for the
treatme nt of tone advocated in the present work, in which the domain
of a tone or a sequence o f tones is an entire syllabeme (or an OT)
rather than a sing l e vowel phoneme. See, however, Faraclas (1984)
for a different analysis.
llJ.E,2.
Ii I
[ i] in syllabeme-final position,
Thus in
t l - nl / , 'time '; /d(/ , 'come '; /ti/ , ' 2sg post- verbal prn .' ;
11-bi- kpay/ , 'numbness'; /£ -k p!/ , 2sg PrVF Pres of /kpJ/ , 'cut';
/ dob i/ , 'be(come) h eavy' and 1i - dobi - ke/ , Com Neg Pres of /dobi / ,
all instances of t he vowel /i/ have the allop hone [ i ] . In / e-s f d / ,
'inside, liver'; /tlQ/ , 'say'; /bid/ , 'be( come) cold, wet '; /e -s in / ,
2pl Hort of /sln/ , 'put into'; /e - ylb/ , 2pl PrVF Pres of /ylb / ,
'steal'; !tfka/ , 'shoot, kick ' and /n -dl kE/ , l s g Neg Pres of /dl / ,
all instances of the vowel Ii I have t he allophone [ +].
The words
III.E. THE INDIVIDUAL SPL VOWEL PHONEMES
/k lbi / ([kfaiJJ,
III.E.l. General Remarks
7. /i/ and /u/ are somewhat shorter than the other vowels in syllabeme-final
'cover '; /l - tim/ ([i.ttm ] ) , 'gat e' and
position; when the vowels are compared in non-syllabeme-final position, the
relative shortness of Ii I and / u/
Conditioned variation whi ch applies to all Efik vowels is described
elsewhere, and will not be mentioned in the description of the individual vowels . For this see III.B. and III .C.
The amplitude 6 of /a ~ £1 is clearly greater than that of the
other Efik vowels in comparable environments, and /i/ and /u/ have
the least amplitude, /e/ and /o/ being intermediate.
It appears
that the same relationship between the Efi k vowels exists in regard
to duration:
Ia
~
£I are longer than the other vowels i n comparable
8. Lehiste' s term (1970: 120).
9, Lehiste ' s term (1970:18) .
I~
is much more striking (III.E.2., III.E.3. ) .
Intensity is a function of amplitude.
Lehiste (1970:117) suggests this explanation for the variation in amplitude
with vowel quality :
"Since the human voca l tract i s a variable acoustical
tube, with a variable radiating orifice, one should not expect to obtai n the
same pressure or power outputs for identical physiological input energies . "
11. "It is qui te probabl e that the differences in vowel length according to degree
of opening are physiologically conditioned and thus constitute a phonetic uni-
6 . Although the amplitude of vowels pronounced with the same frequency and in cor
parable environments varies with the vowel quality , their subject ive loudness
as perceived by the listener does not. (Lehiste , 1970:117-118.)
versal .
The greater length of low vowels is due to the greater extent of the
articulatory movements involved in their production ." (Lehiste, 1970:18-19.)
211
210
/ j'
-t
'j k j - t
!kl
I
I
/
([ I! •
t't y ·I • t+! y iI
])
t
'heel', serve to illustrate both al-
slightly, and those before a voiced allophone of a syllabemefinal consonant not at all.
lophones.
[ i] is a close high, front, unrounded vocoid of medium duration,
3) [t] is pronounced farther back before or after a velar conso-
very similar to the vowels in French fini, German die or Dutch~.
nant (/k/ or /Q/) than before or after a non-velar consonant.
There is doubtless some minor variation in tongue position depending
[+]is thus more back in /tlk/,
'give a nickname, flatter',
on the preceding and the following consonant, but this is in any
than in /tfd/ ([dt-]), 'push out', or in /tlb/ ([tfp-]),
case slight, and has not been investigated .
[t] is a very short, open high to open mid, central unrounded
•contribute', and more back in /tlQ/,
vocoid.
click as an expression of contempt', than in /tfd/.
There is considerable variation in both the tongue position
'grope'.
'say', than in /tln/,
Likewise, it is more back in /kfd/,
'pronounce a
and the duration depending on the preceding and on the following
consonant.
Without instrumental investigation, an exact and detail-
ed description of these variations in all possible environments is
A special situation arises when an /i/ is followed by a wordmedial /d/ in syllabeme-medial position, as in /fide/ ,
'forget'.
not practicable, but the following tentative generalizations may be
In this environment the /i/ and the following /d/ combine to form
of some interest.
a syllabic,
labic ,
trilled[~],
trilled[~]
a voiced, apico-alveolar trill.
This syl-
is pronounced with the tone which would other-
1) The influence of the following consonant seems to be stronger
wise be realized on the Ii I .
than that of the preceding one.
2) [t] is longer and less centralized (i.e. higher and farther
whatsoever is audible in /id/ sequences in this environment (except
after /y/; see below).
In the speech of most Efiks, no vocoid
Thus /f i dU is pronounced [ f ~e]
'
(two phonet-
front) before a phonetically voiced consonant (/m n Q/, and
ic syllables, Low-High), contrasting tonally with /f Ide/ ([f~€]),
probably also before the syllabeme-medial allophones of
'defend someone (in court)'.
Similarly /bide/, 'play', and /bf de/
/b d k/, which are voiced) than before a voiceless consonant
([b~E]J, 'be(come) dark, black'
(the usually voiceless syllabeme-final allophones of /d b k/).
(adj.)) .
It is thus more [ i ]-like in /t f Q/,
a nickname, flatter'.
'say', than in /t lk/, 'give
Similarly, [t] is longer and less cen-
tralized after a voiced consonant than after a voiceless consonant, i.e. it is more [ i ]-like in /dlb/,
/tfb/,
'contribute'.
'hide', than in
There appears to be a general phonetic
tendency for vowels to be longer in a voiced environment than
The fact that Efik /i/ (and /u/) is also
less centralized in the same environments is probably a conseq uence of the greater duration:
the tongue has more time to
12
([obub+t- ]) , 'black'
'small'
'seal (a wound)'; /fid:S/, 'jump'; /tidi/,
'crackle'; /kpfdaQ/,
(adj.); Is f di I,
'blow' ; /kpldak/ ([k'prak-]),
'be(come) active, move about' and /tide/
'
l[t reJJ,
'cease' (cf. /u -t1d / ([udt-]), 'end, limit').
I
After /y/ there is free variation between [tr]
and[~]
as the
realization of /i/ plus syllabeme-medial /d/, e.g. /ylde/
([y fr{]- [yr€]),
I
in a voiceless one.
(cf . /o -bu-b(d /
Further examples are /e-kp f di I,
'fishing net•.
13
'adhere, bother'; /l-ylde/ ([fytrE] -
[fyrE]),
f
An interesting question arises as to what happens when a wordfina l Ii d I sequence is followed by a word beginning with a vowel,
approach its ideal goal or norm position for the phoneme.
u in /o-bu-bld '-bod/, 'a black goat'.
Here the /d/ is in inter-
In regard to the influence of a following consonant, however ,
vocalic, ambisyllabic position (pp. 66,
74), so we might expect
I am not certain that it is the voicing rather than the nasali·
ty which is the crucial factor.
Variants of the [ +] allophone
before syllabeme-medial consonants have been studied only
13 · In one word my informant has
/ w1d£; ( [ w~r{;] -
[
I i/ -
/ u I after
w~E] ) , 'crumble, decay'.
is presumably the older and Northern form.
12. This explanation was suggested to me by David J. Broad, personal comrounicatiOll·
after / w/ •
I wI :
I wud EI ( [ wit r {; ] ) -
Adams gives
/wud{;/, which
This is my only example of
I iI
213
212
the same result as in /bl de / .
In fact there is considerable varia-
tion, depending on both the speaker and the rate of speech.
in /kfd/,
In
rapid speech the tendency is greater to pronounce the sequence as
[ r,], thus [obub~ ebot- ], and in slow, careful speech the pronuncia-
tion [ tr] may be heard:
[obubl.c ebot-].
Most commonly i t is some-
There is a very short, weak [t] vocoid, followed
thing in between:
dl/, and / n-dlk e/ , lsg Neg Pres of /dU .
(t] contrasts with [o]
'pronounce a click as an expression of contempt', and
kod/ , •call , read'; /dlbe/ , 'go into hiding', and /d6bi/ , 'be (come)
11eavy' (near minimal; cf. /tlbi/ , 'initiate, start').
There is considerable dialectal variation in the use of / i / and
u/ in non-syllabeme-final position.
In Calabar there is a tendency,
by an apico -alveolar trill (with more than one vibration, as opposed
at ieast for the younger generations, to use /i/ where Northern
to a simple tap, but less long and less syllabic, and proba91y with
Sfik dialects have (the presumably older) I u I , especially between
fewer average vibrations, than in /blde/ or /flciUl :
ebot"J.
(obub+r
The analysis of ( i] and (t] as allophones of the same vowel
phoneme seems fairly obvious.
These two phones are in complementary
distribution depending on the position in the syllabeme, as described
above.
This analysis is supported by the fact that an /i/ in one
/n -dlke/ , (n.d(ye], lsg Neg Pres of /d f / ,
'come', and /n - d f / ,
contrasts with (u] in ;l -k6 / ,
boldness'; /t ( / ,
and /u-/ ,
'remember', and /tu/, 'exude'; /l-/ ,
'2sg Neg SCP'.
•come' , and /de/ ,
/t lbe / ,
It
'courage ,
I
'gatekeeper';
'sleep'; /t (bi/, 'ini tiate , start', and
'buy', and
(i] contrasts with [o] in /l · kPO
' corpse'; / tf / and /t6/ , 'come from'; /kp 6ni/, plctof
'be (come) big', and /kp6no/ ,
Pres of /born/ ,
' esteem'; /l -born / , lpl PoVF
'break', and /o -born / , 2sg PoVF Pres of /born/.
[ t) contrasts with /u/
'
out' · /t ik/
i1
'Com Neg SCP',
and /E: -t ye U-SUf)/
'happen'; /l - deb/, lpl PoVF Pres of / deb / ,
and / 6-kp6 / ,
[
(i] contrasts with(£) in / l-tye u-suQ/,
/E: -deb / , 2sg PoVF Pres of /d f.b / .
/kp6n/ ,
3pl Subject Concord Prefix I .
'calabash ', and /u-k6/ ,
'the place Of the path (Or door)
/dl/,
'lpl SubjectConcorcl
'2pl Subject Concord Prefix'; / l- / , 'Com Neg SubI
([tt]l in /t lri / ,
'say' and /tul)/ , 'c
' I
'give a nickname, flatter' and /tuk ,
I
touc
h
s trugg le
I
'
and It £rnU'
I
advise
I
'grind, stir', Northern /yud/
In any one particular dialect, however,
;
position, and is thus very nearly in complementary distribution with
] and with the I i I and the I i d I sequence realized as [ r,], but
there is one example of [e] non-word-initially in non-syllabemefinal position, namely in the word /ededf - n - bod/ ([e.ce.cfmbot
- ]l
I
I
tbe 'world', where the second [e] is in a position somewhat compuable to that of the first /i/ in /e-dlctf/
([ed~(]), 2pl PrVF
Pres of Id 1d l I , 'draw someone close to one ' .
One might argue that
tbe loss of the OT before the first / d / in this word (cf.
I.C.3.) conditions the [e] allophone (as opposed to [r]) of the
following vowel, but the pronunciation
11 also possible for some Efiks.
/e-dedf -n~bod/
C[ede.clmbot-J>
The phonological status of the
llCOnd /e/ in this word is, however, a problem in itself (III.G.5.,
,),
and this single examp le should thus not be taken as suffi-
t evidence for assigning[+] (and part of [r,J> to the same pho-
. . . as syllabeme-f inal [ i ] rather than to that of syllabeme-f inal
I tf bE
,
'let the tongue hang out'; tf -tfke / ,
'
'
'
Neg Pres of /ti/ , and /i-tuke/
, Com Neg Pres o f It u'I . [ +] con tr
with [e) in /dlb/ , 'hide', and /deb/, 'buy'; /t1rnU, 'make an upI
tlm/, 'falter', Northern /furn/ ; Calabar /b)rn£-d£/ , 'burst, start',
I •
'be ;ealous'. , and /f ube / ,
roar
'push out',
'suck', Northern /fub/ ; Calabar
environments to the best of my knowledge.
' hair ', and / e-ded / , 'tooth'
'ghost'; /l - / ,
ject Concord Prefix I , and I e-1,
'chastise', Northern /tun6/; Calabar /tfd/ ,
The phone [e] does not normally occur in non-syllabeme-final
phones except [e] (see below).
[i] contrasts with (e] in /f - dE:d/ ,
Prefix', and /e - / ,
'leak',
'matchet', Northern /6-fud/; Cala-
tbe contrast is maintained non-syllabeme-f inally in at least some
And
b~th phones are in clear contrast with all of the other eligible
!f - kp6/, 'funeral', and /e-kp6/ ,
blt /tln6/,
110rthern /tud/; Calabar /flb/ ,
1ee als o fn. 13, p. 211) .
I
lsg Non-Fut Neg Seq of the same verb (pp. 213 -214) .
Examples are Calabar /dld/,
110rthern /burnl - dU; Calabar /y(d/ ,
and the same morpheme can be realized with both allophones; cf.
[n.dl] ,
tvO non-vel ar consonants .
110rthern /dud/; Calabar /e - fld/,
In -d f k£ I ' lsg Neg Pres of
There is, however, morphological evidence for combining[+]
syllabeme- final [ i] rather than with [e].
In all single-vowel
sterns of the form C(C)V having [ i] as the realization of their
l,
this [ l] becomes[+] in the non-sequential negative verb
215
214
forms, where i t is followed by the syllabeme-medial allophone [y]
\fOwel verbs rather than like single-vowel ones in their formation
of the / k/ of the negative suffix / kf. /
of the negative.
be in non-syllabeme-final position.
(
), and thus comes to
Compare /n -dl / and / n-dfke /
They take the / - kU form of the negative suffix
(with an OT) rather than the /kU -
/ka / - /ko / - /k6/ form (JII.
on p . 212 , and similarly for all other verbs of this structure ,
J.J2.) which o ccurs with sin g le-vowel v erb ste ms e n ding in a vowel,
e.g. / tf / ,
'remember'; /kp l / , 'cut'; / sf / ,
which means that a) the / k/ of the suffix has its syllable-initial
up'; /yl/ ,
'uni t e'; and for most Efiks / kw l/ ,
(out)•.
' t ell someone to shut
'shut out, screen
If we were to analyze ( t] as an allophone of / e / , we would
allophone, (k], bl the vowel of the suffix does not assimilate to
the stem vowel, and c) a Rising tone on the verb stem is maintained
have to posit allomorphic variation for each of these verb stems:
as a Low-High sequence on the stem (a syllabeme which is the domain
/ n- df / , but / n-deke / , etc . Further arguments for the treatment of
0
(+]as an allophone of 0 / i / rather than of / e / at the ML emerge
from the analysis of /el and /e/ at that level (IV.B.).
It
of the sequence) rather than being spread over the stem and suf-
should be mentioned that Ward (p. 18) clearly identified [t] and
expect for a single-vowel verb.
[ i] as allophones of the same phoneme.
word-medial sequences of / i / plus syllabeme-medial / d / are written
'forget', is / n- tlde-kU ([~t~ekEJl and not * / n-trhU
l[rH
rey
EJ).
Compare the lsg Neg Pres forms ( 6kaya] of /ka / , 'go';
I,,,
I
nsf6y6]
of
/
sy6 / , 'take out'; [nduoyo] of / dw5 / , 'fall'; and
[
simply as "r" (" br e" , " f re" for / bl d f. / , / flde/) , even though Ward
[ntuaya] of / twa / , 'cry'.
The lsg Neg Pres of / fl d 0 /
fix together (III. I. 1) .
, 'jump' , is
([ nifl-okEJl
and not */n-tdko/ C[ mtdyo]l,
as one would
/ 1-t)do-kU
0
t
I
I (I)
Similarly, the lsg Neg Pres of
ttldU,
In the standard Efik orthography, in Goldie (1874) and in Ward,
I
I
I
[r], which one would expect for / i / plus
The sequence [ t ] plus
does mention its "syllabic nature", and states that" ... in combination with other consonants, b, kp, f, [ Efik r] sounds strongly
iyl labeme-medial / d / based on the behaviour of / d / elsewhere in
rolled; in these positions it is generally long and often bears a
ayllabeme-medial position (p. 63) doe$ n ot occur wo rd-medial-
tone."
ly in Efik (except after /y/ , see p. 21U, but in its place we find
(W: 13).
Some justification of my analysis of Efik syllabic
[ r ] as the phonological sequence /i d / therefore seems necessary.
•
A treatment such as ward's forces us to recognize clusters of
a consonant plus / r / in syllable-initial position.
The only (other)
consonant clusters in Efik are those with / y/ or / w/ as the second
The strongly trilled Efik ( ~]does not fit easily into
the syllabic [ r ] .
quence [tc].
'
.
This [r] is thus never in contrast with a se-
The[~]
of a vowel plus [ r].
is, however, in contrast with o ther sequences
Compare [
b~E],
'be (c o me) dark, black', and
[bfrlJ , 'brag about'; [ brEJ, 'play', and [b E: r e ], 'lean aga i nst ';
a~d
the same phonological or phonetic class with / y/ and /w/, which in
[sarf], 'despise' (A); [kprf], 'be(come)
•
aall ', and [kpori], 'sweep '; [t~)] , 'blow', and (forl], 'peel'.
Efik are very vowel-like in the c
position. As has been shown in
2
cook (1969a), the intervocalic Efik [c) (as in [kece], 'think')
For the contrast with [ e], see p. 213 .
should be analyzed as the syllable-medial allophone of / d/.
/id/·
consonant.
If we
do this and still try to maintain Ward's treatment of post-consonantal [ r ] as a single phoneme, we are then forced either to recognize a
p~oneme
/ r / which occurs only as the second member of a con•
[sf (], 'seal a wound',
•
.
There is also morphological evidence for analyzing Efik [r] as
The variation [ r] -
'
[ tr] after /y/ and in word-final posi-
tion when followed by a word beginning wi t h a v owel has already
been mentioned (p. 21
».
In addition there are related pairs of
words f or which one member of the pair has (+t -] (as the realiza-
sonant cluster (and this in a language in which consonant clusters
tion of I id / in syllabeme-final position when followed by a pause
are very restricted), or to identify it as an allophone of / d / ,
or a voiceless consonant) , and the other member has [ r] (the reali-
which would result in even less plausible (for Efik) consonant
Zltion of / id / when followed by a vowel in the same
clusters with /d/ as the second member:
'OWel suffix .
/ f d't/ , / bd 't/ , / k'pdal)/ , etc.
A further c o nsideration which supports our treatment of [ ~] as
containing a vowel phoneme is that verbs with [ ~] behave like two-
w~rd)
plus a
Compare the pairs /o -bu-bfd / and / bf d e/ ; / u-tld / and
/tld{/ on p. 211, and further the pairs / tfd /
ble• , and / fldi /
([f~l]),
'blow'; /yld /
( [ dt-] ) ,
'boil, bub-
([yft-]), 'grind, stir' ,
216
217
and /yld:i-de:/ ([y~:5dE] - [yfddE]), 'distort, twist'; /e-tfd/
([edt-]), 'fifteen', and /e -tl de-tyed/ ([ef~etiet-]), 'sixteen•
(cf. /tyed/, 'one' ).
Welmers (1966:105) treated Efik [r] as /i/ plus /r/ . 14 If
I
Welmer's /r/ is reanalyzed as belonging to /d/, his analysis become,
essentially equivalent to my own. 15
One further problem relating to the conditioning of the al lophones [ i) and[+] should be mentioned. In two words a pronunciation with[+] is possible in · free variation with [ i), where one
would expect only [ i) .
One of these is /e-s f Js f d/
' •! sd
( -)) or / 'e-s1-s1d/
f
f
[ est
(('
ff-)
( '
([es ( !s ft- ] -
If-)
he word as closely as possible. It is at least conceivable,
,
,
r that the fact that both /si-diQ/ and the /e-sf 2sfd/ case
llO"eve ,
sed in the preceding paragraph involve an unexpected [ +] reac!iSCU S
ion of /i / after /s/ is not a coincidence , but is due to the
uza t
influence of the con so nan t Is I .
In some cases the position of the tongue root for /i/ is appar-
of t
ently influenced by neighbouring vowels within the same word.
iOllle
With
Efik speakers, a syllabeme-final / i / is pronounced noticeably
different ly if preceded by /a/ or /:i/ in the same syllabeme (or,
probably, in the same word) than if preceded by Ii u e e: o/.
This
es1s+t
- es+s+t
), 'a little (adv.)•,
derived by partial reduplication from /e-sld/, 'a bit, a few (n.)• .
•difference" probably has to do with the position of the root of
This may be a case of variation in rule ordering; if the[+) allo-
is presumabl y carried over to a following /i/, thereby conditioning
phone in the "original" syllable is specified before the identity
of the copy vowel in the reduplicated /sl/ syllable is filled in I
1 tongue root retracted ( [ -ATR]) allophone [ i ) of Ii I. This has
been observed in /kp;d i /, 'sweep', and in /kad(/, 'gari (cassava
then the centralized allophone would result in the reduplicated syllable as well. Alternatively, this might perhaps be interpreted as
prepared in a particular way) '.
It should be emphasized that this difference in tongue root po-
the optional loss of an OT before /s/, comparable to its optional
16
loss in some words before /d/ (III.J.13.). ·
sition in Efik /i/ is never phonologically contrastive, and is phonet ically much less strong than the difference between correspond-
The other case is the word /sl-dlQ/ (or perhaps /sfdfQ/) ,
'shilling', borrowed from English.
The most common pronunciation
seems to be [sfdiQ], but the pronunciation [sfdiQ] and [sf.iQ ] are
also possible. This first pronunciation is in violation of the normal Efik system:
If the /d/ is not preceded by an OT and is thus
syllabeme-medial, it should have the allophone[•] (or[~]); if it
is preceded by an OT and is thus syllabeme-initial, then /sl/ should
the tongue; the tongue root retraction of /a/ and /:i/ (pp. 370-371)
ing ( fATR] a nd [ -ATR) vowel phonemes in e.g. Igbo or KoHumono.
It
is possible that the difference is present with all Efik speakers,
but has escaped my attention in some cases.
Much more investigation
will be necessary in order to determine the extent and the conditioning of this influence. It is not clear whether it also takes place
if the preceding /:i/ or /a/ is in another syllabeme, e.g. in
be a separate syllabeme, in which case the /i/ of /sl/ would be in
/o -kj-t )/, 'k. bean'. When /i/ is in word-initial position and the
next vowel is /a/ or /-:J/ (e.g. /f-ta/, ' three'; /)-b;/, 'lpl PoVF
syllabeme-final position, and should therefore have the allophone
Pres of / b; /, 'receive') , I can hear no clear tongue root retraction,
[ i] instead of[+].
This violation of the normal Efik system is
presumably due to an effort to reproduce the English pronunciation
14. Welmers wrote word-final I i d/ as "it", but syllabeme-medial I i d/ as "ir" ·
However, it is clear from his discussion (pp. 101-106) that he saw the relationship between them, although he did . not explicitly analyze them as allophones of the same phoneme. From his description it appears that Efik [~]
was pronounced [ +• ] by his informants, who were Ibibio second-language speakers of Efik.
15. This was first presented in Cook (1969a:9-10).
'
I I
' 1& It would be difficult to treat the form [ es+
· sit
a deletion of the ar before the SPL (as in P 52), because this would create
problems in handling the Downstep (pp . 130-131). The <Yr in this form probably
must be deleted by a rule which is ordered after Pitch Assignment (P 63 and
P 64) but before the specification of the centralized allophone of /i/. The
(next paragraph) should probably be deleted by the same P-Rule.
If so, this rule must be ordered not only after Pitch Assignment, but also
(for speakers with this pronunciation) after the rule which specifies the in-
J as being derived through
tervocalic allophone[•) of /d/ (P 67).
219
218
but it is possible that X-Ray photographs might reveal some influe
I have not observed any difference in tongue root position in the~
non-syllabeme- final [+]allophone of /i/ , which is not to say that
there is none. I have also not been able to detect any influence
by /~/ and /a/ on the tongue root position of a neighbouring
/u o e e/ , but it is quite possible that it exists.
ot detected depending on other vowels in the same word,
i.ave n
.. for /i/ (p. 217). However, /u/ occurs only very rarely as the
d vowel in a syllabeme, and then the first vowel is always
.
.,con
·
f ound in
'
·
• it there f ore never is
an environment
comparable to
,
tb•t i n which a [ -ATR] allophone of / i / was detected.
[uJ is a close high, back, rounded vocoid of medium duration,
ter/ similar to the vowels in French doux, German Du, or Dutch doe .
111 .E.3.
fbere is doubtless some minor variation in tongue position depend-
/ u/
inCJ on the preceding and the following consonant, but this is in any
Like /I/ , Efik /u/ has two major allophones: [ u] in syllabeme-final
position (and in one word before /y/; fn. Su, p. o7), and[~] i n
non-syllabeme-final position .
Thus in /u -ku / , 'dignity'; /u - du/ ,
case slight, and has not been investigated.
rounded, more so than in the vowel of English do, but in the fashion
of •normal" lip rounding , with the lips assuming the form of a
'malice'; /u - t6/ , 'class, kind ' ; /e-ku/, 'k . rat'; /du/ , 'be (location) ' ; /u - tu/ , 'rather' (conj.); /o-bu-ma/ , 'thunder'; /o - du -d u/,
.-all circle.
' hole', and /o - kpu/, 2sg PrVF Pres of / kpu/,
blCk , r ounded vocoid.
'be foiled', all in-
stances of the vowel /u/ have the allophone [u].
toise'; /d uk / , 'enter'; / kpum / ,
In /l -k ud/ , 'tor-
'look cross'; /o - buri/ , 2sg Hort of
/b uri / , 'break (sticks, etc.)'; /o -b uk/ , 2sg PrVF Pres of /buk/ ,
'bury '; /kpuk6 / , ' change '; /tukt/ , 'early '
(adv.), and
/n -duk6 / - In -d uke/ , lsg Neg Pres of /du/, all instances of the vowel /u/ have the allophone[~]. The words /u - suri/ ([us~ri]) , ' path ,
door'; /u -turi / ([uturiJ> , 'earthworm'; / kpu-kpudu / ([ kpuk'pti.cU]l 17
'all' (adj .), and /n-bu - budu/ ( [mbub~d]) , ' fun, jest' (A) illus'
trate both allophones of /u/.
When a word-initial /u/ is not followed by an OT due to the
(optional) deletion of an OT before /d/ in certain morphemes (p
The lips are strongly
r~J
is a very short, open high to close mid, central to centralIt is somewhat less centralized than[+] in
analogous positions , i . e. it is less different from [u] than[+] is
from [ i) . Like [ u], [ ~] is always strongly rounded, more so than the
to11el of English book. Efik [~) (e . g. in / buk / , 'bury') is between
the vowel of English book and the vowel of Dutch buk 18 in tongue position , but closer to the latter, and with more rounded lips. As
vith [ +] , there is considerable variation in both the tongue position and the duration depending on the preceding and on the following consonant. Without instrumental investigation, an exact and detailed description of these variations in all environments is not
practicable, but the f ollowing general indications may be useful.
p. 91 - 92) , i t is realized with the allophone [ ~] . Thus: I u -du k/
([ud~k-]) - / uduk/ ([~r~k-]), 'rope, string'; /u-dwa/ ([udua]l -
1) The influence of the following consonant seems to be stronger
t han that of the preceding one, as with[+] .
/udwa/ ([ urua]), 'market • .
2)
Unlike in Anaang (U . E. Essien 1970:103-4), there is no phonological contrast in Efik between a [fATR] /u/ and a [ -ATR ]
The allophones [ u] and [
~]
/~/ .
both sound consistently [ fATR] to my ears,
but it is possible that there is some allophonic variation which I
[ ~ ] is longer and less centralized (i.e. higher and, especiall y, far ther back) before a phonetically voiced consonant than
before a voiceless consonant.
It is thus more [u]-like in
/turi/ , 'carve out ', t han in /tuk/,
' touch' .
Similarly,
[ ~ ] is
longer and less centralized after a voiced consonant than after
a voiceless one , i.e. it is more [u] - like in /d uk / , 'enter',
17. In the literature (e .g . ward, p. 8), some hesitation is expressed concerning
the presence of the second /u/ in this word.
The pronunciation / kpu-kpldu/
than in /tuk/.
The other remarks concerning[+] under 2) on
p. 210 apply to
c~J
as well.
( [ k'p u kp ~ u ] ) is apparently possible, but most of my informants said
/kpu-kpudu/.
18. A close mid, central , rounded vocoid, [
a J•
220
221
3) [ tt ] is pronounced farther back before or after a velar consonant (/k Q w/) than before or after a non-velar consonant.
•Jtind, sort' (for some speakers, cf. pp. 91-92); / u-kod / , 'leg,
foot' , and / u-kud / , 'an unwanted task forced upon one' (non- minimal,
house', than in /kud/ , 'set (of the sun)', and it is farther
back in /kuk/ than in /tuk/, 'rub'.
cf· ;f-kud / , 'tor toise'; /u - bon / , 'clan'); / kud / , 'see, find', and
k6d/ , 'call'; / buk / , 'bury', and /bok/, 'gather' (non- minimal, cf .
(formerly) came between
t wo non-velar consonants, it was usually replaced (or is in the Process of being replaced) by /I/ ([i ] ) in the Calabar dialect
(~
2ll).
The analysis of [u] and [tt ] as allophones of the same vowel
phoneme is clear.
They are in complementary distribution depending
on the position in the syllaberne, as described above.
And [ tt] is
more phonetically similar to [u] than to any other phone; both [u]
and [tt] have the normal type of lip rounding, rather than the type
with protruded lips which is characteristic of /o/ (II.A.5.d.).
This makes [tt] auditorily more similar to [u] than to [o].
Both [u] and [ tt ] are in contrast with all of the other eligible
phones except [e] (see below). For contrasts of [u] with [ i] and
of [tt] with [i], see pp. 212-213; for the contrast of '[tt] f [.c] with
~],
see p . 216.
[u] contrasts with [o] in /u-duk/,
'rope, string', and /6 -duk/,
'kind, sort'; /u - fln/ , 'slavery', and /6-tln/, 'slave (sg)';
/u-duQ/ , 'mortar', and / o-duo / , 3sg PoVF Pres of /duo/, 'live';
/tu/, 'exude', and /to/ ,
'come from'; / tu/, 'be(corne) lazy', and
/to/, 'your (sgl '; /u-to/, 2sg Neg seq of /to/ , and /6-to/, 3sg PrVF
Pres of / to/; and in /u-tu / , 'rather' (conj.), with /o - tQ/, 2sg Hort
of /tu/ , with /u-to/ , 2sg Neg Fut Seq of / to/, and with /o-to/ , 2sg
Hort of /to/ .
[u] contrasts with [o] in /u-ko/, 'collecting, gathering ', and
/!i - ko/ ,
I
, I
,
'handicraft'; ; J..:b!JQ/, 'kingship , majesty ', and / o..'.boQ / ,
'king (sg) '; /tu/, 'exude' , and /t6/ , 'hi t, plant'; /bu/ , 'decay',
and
'rope, string', and / od u k/ ,
Thus [ tt ] is farther back in / kuk/ , 'seclude in a fattening
Where non-syllable-final Efik /u/ ([ tt])
[
(tt] contrasts with [o] in /uduk / ,
/b~/ ,
'receive '; /u-no/, 2sg Neg Seq of /no/, 'give', and
/6-no/ , 3sg PrVF and PoVF Pres of /no / .
[u] contrasts with [ e] in /u-yo/, 'voice', and / e-yo / , 'sunshine; epoch'; /u-nen/ , 'hen , chicken ', and /e - nen/ , 'elephant';
/u - k!im/, 'plantain ', and / e-k6m / , 'k. nut, and the tree which bears
it'; /u-/, '2sgNegSCP', and / e- / , ' 3plSCP '; / u-f!ib / , 2sgNegSeq
of /f!ib/ , ' roast', and /e-f!ib/ , 3pl PrVF Pres of /t6b/ .
b6b/, •ask'); / bum / , 'molest', and / born / , 'smash, shatter' (noncf. / bon / , 'put together'; / ban / , 'beget'); / kun l/ , 'groan,
snore', and /kponi/, plct of /k pon / , 'be(corne) big' (non-minimal ) ;
f-kud/ and ; f-kod / , Corn Neg Seq of /k od / ; /l -wud / , lpl PoVF Pres
of /wud/, 'show', and / l-wod / , lpl PoVF Pres of / wad / , 'kill';
/6 -kpuk/, 3sg PoVF Pres of /kpuk / , ' be(corne) foiled (of a plan ) ;
be(come) sad', and / 6-kpok / , 3sg PoVF Pres of /kp ok / , 'chop, cut
into pieces'; / e-kuo / , 'hump', and / e-koo / , 3pl PoVF Pres of /k6 o/ ,
'be(CQffie) high'; / a-kam-ba U-kOd / I 'a big leg' I and / a-kam - ba U- ktJd / I
•a big unwanted task forced upon one ' .
(tt] contrasts with [ o] in / l - kud / , 'tortoise', and / (-k!id /,
'the bush'; /b ub / , 'as k', and / b:5b / , 'build, tie'; / duk/ , 'enter',
and /d:5k/, 'c limb'; / duo/, 'live', and / d6Q / , 'bother; send a person with a message'; / tuoo / , 'be(corne) deep', and / t!ioo / , 'begin';
/s6ri/ , 'slowly, quietly, softly' (adv . ), and / s6 0/ 1 ' be(corne) strong,
bard'; /l - tuko / (- / f - t uke:/l , Corn Neg Pres of / tu / , 'exude' , and
ti-dk::l/ , same of / tO/ , 'hit, plant' .
As the phone ( e] does not normally occur in non-syllaberne-final
position, there are no minimal contrasts with [ tt ] , and the two phones
are very nearly in complementary distribution (cf. p . 213). In
/ededf - n-bod / - / e-dedl-n-bod / , 'the world', the 2nd . / e / is in an
environment somewhat similar to that of / u/ ([ tt]l in / e-kud i/ , 'axe',
and to that of the first /u/ C[ tt ] l in / e-kudi - ku / , 'goose pimples'.
There is also morphological evidence for analyzing ( u] and ( tt]
as allophones of the same phoneme. Because of the free variation
mentioned on p. 218 in the presence of an OT in the words
/u -dwa / - / udwa / and / u-duk/ - / uduk / , these words may be pronounced
either with [ u ] or [ t1] as their initial vocoid. If we were to analyze [tt] as an allophone of a vowel other than that to which [ u] belongs (e . g . / e/), this variation wou l d then have to be described as
I difference not only in the presence or absence of an OT, but in
tbe vowel phoneme as well, e.g . /u - dek / - / ede k/ . Furthermore, in
Ul single-vowel verb sterns of the fo rm C(C)V having [ u ] as the rea~ntmal,
222
223
lization of their vowel, this [u] becomes r ~ J in the non-sequential
ucal lip rounding" described by Heffner (1950) or to the "lip com-
negative verb forms, where it is followed by the syllabeme-medial
·on" (Ladefoged, 1971:62, 77) in some Swedish vowels described
press l
bY Malmberg (1956). The auditory impression of Efik [o] is very
allophone [y] of the /k/ of the negative suffix
0
/ke/
(cf. pp. 2 13
- 214), and thus comes to be in non-syllabeme-final position.
pare / n-du /
{[ Qdu)l
and /n-duko/
(lsg PrVF and PoVF Pres of / du / ,
([nd~yo]l I
/ n-dukU
([nd~yeJl
{lsg Neg Pres of the
I
same verb), and similarly for / tu/, 'exude'; /bu/ ,
'(tell a) lie'; / fu / ,
and / su / ,
'be (come) lazy'; / kpu/,
'come to pass'.
COlll-
'be (location)•
If we were to
'decay'; /su/ ,
'be(come) foiled';
analyze
[~)
as an allo-
,J.ailar to that of a back, unrounded vocoid.
It is very possible
t)lat the centralized and relatively high tongue position of Efik
ol
and the lip protrusion are related, and that both may have to
dO with an advanced tongue root position, contrasting with the retracted tongue root of Efik /o/
(p. 235).
Stewart (1971:202)
baS observed that, "The advancing of the tongue root pushes the
phone of some vowel other than / u / , we would have to posit allo-
biqhest part of the tongue not only higher but also, sometimes at
morphic variation for each of these verb stems.
least, farther forward, as Pike ( 1967: 136) has suggested it might
In some northern Efik dialects, some stems having [k~] syllabeme-initially in Calabar Efik have replaced [k~] with [kw~],
with a distinctly audible [ w) after the [k), e.g. [kwJt- ], 'see',
instead of [k Jt-].
It is unknown to me whether this shift has tak•
... •.
The following examples illustrate the occurrence of Efik /o/
in various environments:
/ 6-w6 / ,
'person'; /o - kpo/ ,
place in all cases of syllabeme-i nitial /k u / , or is limited to very
o-kuk/ , 'money'; /o -tf / ,
specific environments.
o-yo/ , 'abscess'; / l-ko/, 'calabash'; / l-to / ,
•fringe'; / e-yob / ,
111.E.4.
l o!
'heart'; /o -fim / ,
Efik /o/ is pronounced essentially the same in all
tastic' (adj.); /to/,
loot, rob'; / wod / ,
'kill '; / fyob / ,
It is likely that /o/ is shorter and perhaps some-
•~of,
'try'; / dob l/ ,
what centralized in non-syllabeme - final position as compared with
~di/ ,
'put on top of'; / ko / ,
envir onments.
'orange'
'come from'; /tab/,
'over there'
syllabeme-final position, but if so, the difference
than with /i/ and /u/ , and I cannot be certain about it.
Ires of / wod / ; 11 - wod/, lpl Hort of / wod /.
on the preceding and the following consonant, but this is not very
noticeable and has not been investigated.
In this description we
shall represent only one allophone of /o/ in all environments:
[o] is a very close mid, central-back, lip-protruded vocoid.
(n.); /u -w6- u -w o/ ,
'be(come) hot '; / myom / ,
·~·over there'
doubtless some variation in the tongue position of /o/ depending
'crab';
'k. antelope';
'ten'
'fan-
'throw'; / wo/, 'harry,
'be(come) heavy'; /fo do / ,
(dem.); /dwob/ ,
'goat';
'handle'; /e -kpori /,
'brass'; / o-ko- yo / ,
o-kp6 - kodo/, 'table'; / so-kodo / ,
(pp. 203-206),
'air'; / e-bod / ,
'oil palm tree and fruit'; / l-sobo/,
o-s&/, 'duiker'; / o-kpoko / ,
Except for the differences in duration which app ly to all Efik v
'corpse';
6-byo/, 'town'; /6 - kwo/ , 'yours' (poss. prn.); / o-tu / , 'jug';
'insult';
'change form';
(adv.); / 6-ko / ,
'that
(num . ); /l -wod / , lpl PrVF
For contrasts of [o] with the allophones of /i/ , see
III.!.2 .;
for contrasts with the allophones of / u / , see III.E.3.
[o] contrasts with [o] in / u-kpok/,
•gourd', and / u-kpok / ,
'blank, empty'
1114/tj/ , 'hit; plant'; / bok / ,
'dri nking vessel made from
(adj.); /to/ ,
'gather', and / bok/,
'come from',
'cultivate,
The tongue position is somewhat higher than in French dos or Ge
feed• : /kori / , 'be(come) high' , a nd / kori / , 'cough'; / fodi / , 'peel',
so, and considerably less far back; it is only slightly farther
•ttodi / ,
back than the centralized [ ~] allophone of /u/ (Chart II, p. 2011 •
The lips are protruded noticeably , more so than with a "normally"
rounded vocoid, and assume a rectangular form quite unlike their
small circular shape in "normal" lip rounding.
It is not clear
me whether the lip protrusion of Efik [ o] is similar to the "ver·
o and [ 0
]
'cover'; /t od6 / ,
'praise', and / t:Jd::) / ,
'vo id excrement'.
do not contrast in the IPP.
In a few cases there is dialectal variation in the use of /o/
~/ ,e .g. / 6-tln / - /:5-ffn / 19, 'slave (sg)' (pl !f-tln/ in both
Illes) .
In Calabar the vowel of the negative suffix after single-
-.1 verb stems ending in / u/ i s / o / in free variation with /e/ ,
lly Calabar (Duke Town) informants had
I 6- f 1n I , but
confirmed that
I::) -f) n I
225
224
but my informant from Ikot Jfiori often had /o/ , although she ac'
cepted /o/ and /e/ as well.
I
Thus / i-duko / -
/i -duk~L j
'
'
(C
om
N
'ghost'; /o - bod/ ,
'hill', and / e-bod / ,
'bite', and / e-dom/, same but 2pl;
/ e-dodl / , 2pl PrVF Pres of / dodi / ,
/ededf -n- bod/ -
'goat'; /o -du / , 3sg PrVF and
'be (location)', and / e-du / , same but 3pl;
/ o-dom / , 2sg PrVF Pres of / dom / ,
/e -ded(-n-b od/ ,
'the world'
Pres of /tf/ , 'remember'; /o -tf / ,
(non-minimal).
Pres of ;tf; ; /dob/ , 'be quiet', and /dh/ ,
be confused', and /yeri/ ,
f;,
'rain'; /yori/ ,
'wander,
'accidentally soil with a sticky substance';
on'
'languish'; /k6 / ,
(pr ep. ) ; / o-ko / ,
'which'
'over there'
(adv.), and /kU , . 'in,
'that ... over there'
(rel. prn.); /d o / ,
(dem.), and /e - ke/ ,
'there (near listener ) '
'sleep '; /l - yo/ , lpl PoVF Pres of /y o / ,
environments in which it occurs.
/e/,
(III.G.).
vironments:
(adv.), and/dU,
'roam', and / )-yE: / , same
ilar to the vowels of French
beten, but the tongue position is slightly lower than in the French
20
The following examples illustrate the occurrence of Efik /e/
in various environments:
•goat'; / e-tU,
ing pot'; / e-riuk / ,
/e-dem 'U ,
/ e-dl / ,
'father'; / e-ka / ,
'pig'; / e-to / ,
'good'
/ e-so / ,
'bat'; / e-kp6do / ,
'Calabar bean'; / e-fa / ,
'rain'; / ededl-n-bod / (adj.); / e-de-sl / ,
'cook-
'penis';
'comb (of
/ e-dedl-n-bod /, 'the
'rice'(< English);
(1862) gives only the form with /e;/ , and it seems reasonable to as-
/e -kpede-d em/ ,
sume that the one with /o/ is more recent, the / e:/ having assimilated
approach', plus / e-dE:m/, 'back'); /m:5n -de /, 'Monday '
to the post-consonantal /w/ ([u]l in backness and roundness, perhaps
/e/ , '3pl SCP'; /e/ , '2pl SCP'; /e -te e-tlm/ , 'Etim's father';
encouraged by the further labial environment provided by the follow·
'the last'
'tree '; / e-bod / ,
'mother ': / e-syo/ -
'pelican'; /e -m yari / ,
'tongue'; / e-sE:de:/,
served in one word:
Goldie
It is quite sim-
and to the first vowel of German
and German vowels, and decidedly less far front·
cock), crest'; / e-dlm / ,
'cold weather'.
~t~
-
world'; /e-ti/,
/twob/ ,
In this
[ e].
[e] is a close mid, front, unrounded vocoid.
of /y ~ / , 'be(come) beautiful'.
Dialectal variation in the presence of /o/ or /e:/ has been ob/ tw€b / -
(For the distribution of Efik
There is doubtless some variation in t he tongue po-
sition depending on the preceding and the following consonant, but
2sg PrVF
/k6ko-de/, 'be gaudy in a foolish and baselessly arrogant way', and
/keke: -d U ,
Efik / e / is pronounced essentially the same in all the
descripti on we shall represent only one allophone of /e/ in all en-
'gong', and /e - ti/ , 3sg PoVF
'heart', and /E: -t
Except for the differences in duration which apply to all Efik vowels
~p.203-208).
this is not very noticeable and has not been investigated.
'put on top of ', and
[o) contrasts with [e:) in /6-ti/,
/ el
eg Pres
of /du/ , 'be (location)') in calabar; / l-duko / in Ikot :)fiori.
'
I
I
k po' / ,
[o) contrasts with [ e) in / o-kpo
/ , I corpse I , an d I ePoVF Pres of /du/ ,
II!.E.5.
/k €-e-db/ ([ ke:tOp- ]) , 3pl VPF Cntn of /tOb/ ,
following forms of /born/ ,
ing /b/.
(adj., /e -k pedU, from /kpedU ,
'smash, shatter':
'be near,
(<English);
'roast'; and i.a. the
/ e-bom/, 3pl PrVF and
Po~F Pres; /e - bom/, 2pl PoVF Pres; /e-ke -bom / , 3pl PoVF Past;
1 • ,
'
1e-ke-bom/,
3pl VPF Itive Seq; /e -ke-ke-bom/, 3pl PoVF Itive Past;
ti-m~-bom / - /n -m e - bom/ -
f
/me -born/, 2pl VPF cmpl; /e - kpe -bom /
I
3pl
PoVF Non-Past Hpth; / e-kpe..:ke-bom / , 3pl PoVF Past Hpth; / e- ye -bom/ ,
lpl VPF Fut; /e - ma -e- ke - bom/ , 3pl and 2pl Past Pres.
was also possible; I am not sure what the geographical distribution of these
two variants is.
Winston (1970:429) gives
"otin [ofn]" , meaning, pre-
For contrasts of / e / with /i/ , /u/ and /o/ , see
III.E.3., and JII.E.4.
III.E.2.,
sumably, that although the official orthography (e.g. in Adams) has " of in",
this word is pronounced with an [ o].
Town informants must have had
From this I conclude that his creek
/6 -t 1n/.
As my own informants were relative-
ly young, it is at least conceivable that their
pronunciation.
/6 -f l n/ was a spelling
~.Ward (p.
19) observed that Efik
"e"
(presumably both / e/ and /e:/)
is
• . . . retracted from a front position, and retraction is a marked feature of
the sound. 11
226
227
[e] contrasts with [e] in /e-dl / ,
/dl / ,
'come', and /€-dl / ,
/ e-dl / , 2pl PoVF Pres of
3pl PrVF Pres of / deb / ,
'but'
'pig' and 3pl PoVF Pres of
(conj.) and 3sg PoVF Pres of ldf/;
/ d{ J , and /e-dl/, same but 2sg; / e-deb/,
'buy' , and /e-d e b/ , same but 3sg; /e-ftke/,
3pl VPF Cmpl of /feke / ,
'run', and / e-feke / , same but 3sg;
1 ! k 1 !d ' !
1 !
'
'!
'!
'
;
I
'
'!
' k pt;/ e - kpe-ke-d 1 e-kpe-kt;-d 1t i - I ec- 1 , 3 P 1 P r VF Pa s t Hpth
of / d
f/ ,
and /e-kpe~ke~d
f/ ,
same but 3sg; / e-me-HkU -
/e-me-Hke/
-
/n-me-feke/ -
/ me-feke / , 2pl VPF Cmpl of / feke / , and /e-me-feke/
-
/ n-me-feke/ -
/me-fek e/ , same but 2sg; /e-ye~t6b/ -
I
/e-y6~tOb/,
She seems
to have been very uncertain and confused about the contrast between
/el and /e/ , and stated that she had found a clear contrast only
10
•enen" ( / e- n £n / ),
'elephant ', and "enen"
(? / E:- nE: n / ),
'straight'.
It is very d i fficult to understand how an expert phonetician like
1tard, in spite of having " ... spent a considerable time in examining
with great care words
containing~
sounds ... " (W:l9), could have
missed the clear contrast between / e / and /e/ in the SCPs, whereas
I
/e-ye~f~b/ ~
/e-ye~tOb/
3pl VPF Fut of / tOb/, 'roast', and
aieant to be the closer and his "e" the more open vowel.
Goldie (not a trained phonetician) had heard it and written it.
21
Many Ibibios do not make the /el- l e / distinction in speaking Efik,
(- /6-y6~db / ), same but 3sg; / ke-e-blnU ([ke:bi n EJ), 2pl VPF Cntn
and speakers of Northern Efik dialects don't always make it in the
of /b)nU, 'follow', and / k8-1:-blnU
same places as in Calabar Efik.
/e-mfk / ,
([k e :binEJ), same but 2sg;
'a firm knot', and /E:-mlk / , 2sg PrVF Pres of / mlk/, 'move
in an undulating manner'; /e-t i I , 'good (sg)'
(adj.), and / e-t i /,
3sg Hort of /tf/, 'remember'; / e-fe / , 3pl PoVF Pres of / f e/,
and /e-tE/ (- / e-w1:/l,
play games'
'which?'
(QW); /e-blde n-bldU,
(2pl Cond of /bldU,
player of games'
' i f you (pl)
'play'), and /1:-blde n-bidU, 'a
· ·
ll ; /'e-ded1-n-b
' ' '
(non-minima
o" d I -
'the world', and /e-dedi / ,
'fly',
'Sunday'
1
/'d'd
'
b"d/
e e 1-no ,
(non-minimal).
the distinction.
one which he wrote "e", and a lower one which he wrote "e".
He
On the Linguaphone gramophone records which ac-
company Ward's book, however, the dist i nction is clearly audible in
1
the speech of (the same) Mr. Ekpenyon, e.g. in / a- t o E:-ye~ deb/ and
1 ~~€ e- y e~deb / as contrasted with / n-b~-fo e- y e-de b/ and
/n-m;
9-ye-deb /
/ dlb/ , 'buy') .
Goldie (1868:4) d i stinguished two mid front vowels, a higher
It thus occurred to me that ward's
informant, Mr. E. I. Ekpenyon of Creek Town, perhaps did not make
(respectively 2sg, 3sg, 2pl and 3pl VPF Fut of
22
Although Ward admitted that "It has not been possible, so far,
to formulate rules governing the use of these two varieties of e
described "e" as being like the vowels in there and fate, a descrip-
. • • •, she concluded that "It does not seem necessary, therefore, to
tion which is quite accurate if one assumes that he was using (his
mark the difference."
own) Scottish pronunciation ( [ oe:r], [fe:t]) as his point of refer-
lei as "e" throughout her book .
ence.
graphy "agreed upon at a conference of Government officials and
Also quite accurately, he described "e" as being like the
vowels of men and met.
In his dictionary (1862) he uses these two
vowel symbols in the same way.
In general Goldie's "e" represents
(p. 19), and proceded to write both / e/ and
In this she followed the ortho-
Missionaries, held at Calabar on the occasion of the visit of Professor Westermann in March, 1929, ... " (p. xiv), in the determina-
the vowel which I identify as /el at the SPL, and his "e" represents
tion of which she presumably herself had played an important role .
my / El, but there are many inconsistencies.
This orthography remained in official use until about 1975, at which
His "e" is almost al-
ways an / e/ or, occasionally, the raised allophone [~] of /E/ after
/ y/ (e.g. in /e-yen/
/ e-byed /
([ebl~t- ]l,
"e" for /e l
( [ ey~n]l,
(e.g. "ebe" for /e-be / ,
'cow'), as well as for / e/.
/e l
'child (sgl', Goldie "eyen";
'place', Goldie "ebiet"l.
for /e-nari/ ,
Goldie, however, clearly distinguished
("e") in the 2sg and 3sg
SCPs (for verb stems with /El and [sometimes] /i / as their dominant
vowel)
(1868:38-39, 42-44,
/ e/ and I E/ in the SCPs ( / e l is written "~" and IE/ is "e"), but
But he often writes
'circle'; "ena;"
("e") in the 2pl and 3pl SCPs from IE /
time it was replaced by a new orthography which does distinguish
and in his text, 89-105).
Ward (p . 19) misunderstood Goldie, and thought his ''e'' was
21• It may be t hat the difference betwe en Efik
/ e I and IE I
is muc h more diffi-
cult to hear f or a speaker of English having RP pronunci ation (as Ward did) ,
in Which t he Engli s h vowe l s of "bet" and "bait" are [ E] and [ e 1 ], respectively, than f or a speaker of Scottis h or Americ an Englis h.
~. p. 182 in Ward; p. 8 in the booklet acc ompanying the gramophone reco r ds
(Ward, n . d . ) .
228
229
not elsewhere.
Winston (1960, 1970) also did not write the distinction betwelll
/ e l and /e./ , probably because of a wish to follow the (then) offt.
cial orthography as closely as possible. Welmers (1976) did write
the distinction, but not in the way I have done in the SPL tran.
scription (pp. 361-362).
Dialectal variation in the use of / e / or le.I has been observed
in six cases, all but one of which are verbal prefixes. In all Sb
cases le/ would vary with /a/ , /o/ or /o/ rather than (or, in the
VPF Fut pfx, as well as) with /e./ if the VS in the form in question
had a dominant vowel other than /i/ or le.I (pp. 328-·32 9).
I
In the VPF Fut pfx /ye .:;, the original le.I vowel assimilates
to the /e/ of the 2pl and 3pl SCPs in the speech of the younger
generations in Calabar, but not for older or rural Efiks. We thus
I
I
have: / e-ye..:deb / - / e- ye..:deb / , 2pl VPF Fut of / deb / , 'buy';
I
I I L
I
L I L
/ e-ye..:dc;b
/ - / e-yi:;..:d
c;b/ , same but 3pl (but cf. fn. ·23, p. 232).
In the 2pl VPF Cmpl, the vowel of the / mV/ - / mV/ Cmpl pfx
may harmonize either with the / e / of the SCP or with the vowel of
the VS, the former being more common in Calabar, and the latter in
rural areas. Thus: / e-me-dl / - / e-me-df / , 2pl VPF Cmpl of /d l/ ,
'come'. The same variation occurs in the vowel of the Itive pfx
r
I
/kV - / in 2pl and 3pl verb forms, thus: / e..:ke-deb / - ;e..:ke-deb/, 2pl
and 3pl VPF Itive Seq of / deb/.
I
I
I
The same variation also occurs in the vowel of the PF/Neg-Past
I
I
pfx /kv..:; and in the vowel of the Hpth pfx /kpv ..: ; , but in these
cases the variant with /e/ , harmonizing with the 2pl and 3pl SCP ,
seems to be much more common and widely distributed than the variant
I
I
harmonizing with the vowel of the vs. We have: / e-ke-deb/ I
I
/ e-ke-d eb/ , 2pl PoVF Past of / deb / , and / e-kpe..:deb / - / e-kpe..:deb/,
3pl PrVF Hpth of / deb / .
Finally, there is some evidence that in reduplicated verb form
the vowel of the reduplicated syllable may occasionally assimilate
to the vowel of the SCP, thus / e-de-dl / - / e-de-dl / , 3pl VPF Redup
Pres of /dl/ , 'come'. In this case, however, the form which har·
monizes with the VS seems to be much more common.
(e] contrasts with [o] in / e-wok/, 'brass anklet', and /o -w~k •
'thicket'; /e -n y:5Q/ , 'the area north of Itu', and /:5 -ny:5Q / , 'wisdoa,
cleverness'; /e -d:5Q / , 'knee', and /:5-d:5Q/, 3sg PrVF Pres of /d:51J/1
•t>Other; send a person with a message'; / e-d:5n., / , 'frog', and
)·d:l, I) ; ' 2sg PrVF Pres of / d:5Q / ; / e-doQ / , 'sheep', and / :5-don' J / ,
JsqPrVF and PoVF Pres of / doQ / , plct of /sfn/ , 'put (into)';
;.p:51J/, 'top', and / o-J1:5Q / , 2sg PrVF Pres of /J1:5Q / , 'return';
,.k5m/ , 'k. nut and the tree which bears it', and /o -kom / , 'roof'
(non-minimal); / e-k po / , 'loop, noose' and / :5-kp:5 / , 'bone ' (nonainimal); / e-t6 / , 3pl PrVF Pres of /t6/ , 'hit; plant', and / :5-t:5 / ,
same but 3sg; / e-no / , 2pl PoVF Pres of / no / , 'give', and / o-no / ,
same but 2sg i I e- y3 k/ I 2pl PrVF Pres of I yo k/ ' 'reheat food' ' and
)-y5k/, same but 2sg; /e -dyoQ:5 / , 3pl VPF Cmpl of /dyoQ:5/ , 'know',
and /5-dyoQ:5 / , same but 3sg; /e -me-d:5ko / - /e -m3-d:5ko / h-me-d:5b/ - / me-d:5ko/, 2pl VPF Cmpl of /d:5ko/ , 'tell', and
)-m5-d:5ko / - / n-m3-d:5ko/ - /m3-d:5ko/ , same but 2sg;
t
I
I
I
I
I
;-kpe..:ke..:t:5b / - / e-kpe..:k:5..:t:5b/ - / e-kp:5..:k:5..:t:5b / , 2p1 PrVF Past
I
I
Bpth of /tOb/, 'roast', and / o-kp:5.:k:).:f:)b / , same but 2sg.
[e) contrasts with [a] in / e-kpa / , 'a women's play', and
i·kpa / , 'stomach'; / e-dwad / , 'spear', and / a-dwa / , 'squirrel' (nonainimall; / e-ta k/ , 'bottom', and / a-tak-tak / , 'k. grasshopper' (nonainimal); /e - ka/ , 3pl VPF Cmpl of /ka / , 'go', and / a-ka / , same but
31q: / e-s yak/ ' 3pl PrVF Pres of / syak / ' 'divide'' and / a-s yak/
11me but 3sg; / e-daba / , 2pl PrVF Pres of / daba / , 'dream', and
I
~-daba/, same but 2sg; /e -me-ta / - / e-ma-ta / - / n-me-ta/ - /me-ta/ ,
2pl VPF Cmpl of /t a / , 'eat food requiring chewing', and / a-ma-ta / 1
'
I
/n-ma-ta/
- /ma -ta / , same but 2sg; /e-kpe.:ke-byada/
I
I
'·kpe.:ka - byada/ - /e-kpa.:ka-byada/, 3pl PrVF Past Hpth of /byada/,
1
'be(come) spoiled', and /a-kpa.:ka-byada/, same but 3sg.
The relationship between the SPL vowels /e/ and /e./ in various
environments is rather complex (III.G.). These vowels are
analyzed very differently at the ML (IV.B.).
I
231
230
III.E.6,
(num . l; / byed/ ,
IE!
'be ready (of food)'; / e- byed/ ,
([sl~re'. J ), 'dawn'; / d) - dy€:/, 'how?'
The following examples illustrate the occurrence of Efik / e /
In the speech of most of my informants, Efik /e/ is pronounced essentially the same in all environments except for the differences
in various environments:
in duration which apply to all Efik vowels
/t - bide n-bl dU ,
(III.B.C. , II.A.3 . ).
er'
Some speakers, however, have a raised allophone of /e/ after /y/ ,
/l -m l / , 'this'
which will be discussed below.
other' (dem.); / e- kE:/ ,
Except for this , I shall represent
[e) .
(cf. p. 332 ) ; /l - n l e - t web / ,
(dem.); IE - ken / ,
'which'
the preceding and the following consonant, but this is not very
!l - fU - /E-wE:/, 'which?'
noticeable, and has not been investigated.
/f, - d( - yUr
It is quite sim-
'pretty (sg)'
position is slightly higher than in these vowels, and less far
'bird'; / e-syen / - / a - sen / ,
each other in their articulation and auditory impression than French
(et~)
and [e) (betel , or (even disregarding the difference in
duration) German [e:) (the first vowel in beten) and [e) .
Some, but not all, Efik speakers have a higher allophone
of /e/ which occurs when /e/ is preceded immediately by /y/.
these speakers,
the[~)
(~]
For
allophone occurs both after syllable-initial
/y/ and after post-consonantal /y/ .
(dem . );
The tendency to use the raised
/€-d(-wa k/ ,
'equal '; / f-d ed/ ,
'much, many'
'be(come) beautiful'; / rnf:. rn/ ,
'sit '; / dwf: / ,
'make a mistake'; / dweb / ,
/bedi / , ' push, close'; /k udE/ ,
/swenU , 'disgrace'; ! simU , 'sprinkle'; /l -duk U
(cf. pp.
226, above) .
'l ick ', but Goldie (1862)
'cut'; / e- kp I / , 2sg PoVF Pres of / kp )/ ; / €: - tfo / , 2sg PrVF
determined , or
whether(~]
/y/ for some speakers.
and [e) may be in free variation after
More investigation is needed both of the
precise phonological distribution
of[~)
and of the social and/or
[~) is intermediate in tongue height between Efik [e) and Efik
It occurs (for some speakers) in e.g. /e-yen/ ,
/e-yed/ ,
'crying, a cry'; /yE8/ ,
substance'; /ye8e/ ( ( y~8E)) ,
'wash'; /yede/
([y~d]),
'child';
'accidentally soil with a sticky
'smear ' ; /yeb/,
For further
The contrast of / e / with / e / is discussed in detail on pp .
226-228
The question remains, however , of whe ther the contrast of
IE! and /e/ is maintained in the position aft er /y/ , and if not,
whether t he
(~]
alloph one (for those spe akers who have it ) shou l d
be assigned to /e/ or to / e / .
Because of t he restricted distri bu-
.
t1on of / e / , it occu rs after /y/ only in t h e VPF Fut prefix
geographical determinants of its use.
[e) .
' cook '; / f:.-tern/, 2sg Hort of / tern / .
contrasts with /o/ , p. 224 .
It is not clear to me whether
the use of the higher allophone is geographically or individually
- !i - duk:l / , Com
F or contrasts of /e/ with / i/ , see pp. 212-215 and for
allophone was not used when /e/ is followed
but not preceded by /y/ , as in /dey/ ,
'think';
'root up';
'be ( l ocation)'; / e-kpl / , 3sg PrVF and PoVF Pres
preceded by /e/, as in /e -yen/, 'child'.
gives "d ei "
'k. mouse';
'buy'; / deb / ,
'finish'; / wub e - d E/ ,
examples of / e / in verbal prefixes, see p . 226.
At least in the speech of
'tongue';
' be(come ) soft'; /ty '{; / ,
allophone may be greater (or it may be more raised) if the /y/ is
the[~)
'spy, scout'; /yed/ ,
'wash oneself'; /ty€:d/ -
/kyed/ ,
'one'
'a child
'inaction';
'dust'; / kede / ,
Pres of / tern / ,
my informants,
(adj . ) ;
'hair'; ;f ~nwen / ,
' sleep'; /deb/ ,
•rain'; /y '{; / ,
of /kp) / ,
'3sg poss. prn . ';
'domestic animal'; / u- s in e/ ,
'fat (on meat)'; / d U ,
'an-
' the
(conj .; also 3sg PoVF
'stranger'; / e-d e rn U ,
/u - syedU, 'dawn'; / u - fene / ,
Pres Neg of / du / ,
(p. 333);
/ e~ f e n/ ,
(rel. prn . ); /€: -k pf:.d e-d e rn / ,
who cries constantly without provocation'; /n - be /,
;f - sy€:kf / ,
' teacher' ) ;
'a time of cold weather'
'the other'
(QW.);
/u -tw U. 'spider'; / u - kf:. / ,
Efik [e) and [e] are less different from
(W:
(adj.); / e-b U , ' husband'; / l-bE/,
ilar to the vowels of English bet and German Bett, but the tongue
[e)
'studen t '
'come'); /f:. -Jd / , '3sg prn . '; / e - s yU,
doubtless some variation in the tongue position of [e] depending on
front (p.225 , fn.20).
I
last' (adj., p. 225); /E-d l /, 'but, however'
There is
pres of /dl / ,
[e] is an open mid, front, unrounded vocoid.
/ f:. - kpeb n- wed /
'a player of games'; /e - ty 't. u- suQ/ , 'gatekeep-
(For the peculiarities in the distribution of / e/ , see III.G.)
only one allophone of /e/ in all environments:
'place'; / s yf:.d U
(QW.) .
I
/y e~ /
after a 2pl ( / e - / ) or 3pl ( / e- / ) SCP, and even t h ere i t is present
only for s ome Efik speakers, o t hers (especially rural Efiks) retaining the or i ginal /y e~' / form of the prefix.
For t hose Efiks who have
I
/ye~ / for the 2p l
and 3pl Fut pfx, however, a n o n - minimal contrast
between / e / and / e / after /y / occurs in the pa i rs of words / e- yf:.- d e / ,
232
3pl Pres Rel o f /ye/ ,
of / d {;/ ,
23 3
'be (come) beautiful'; / e- yeid e/ , 3pl VPF Fut
'slee p'; and / e- ye-d{; / , 2pl Pres Rel of /y e / ; / e- y eide / ,
23
I am not certain whether the contrast in
suffix in single-vowel verbs ending in I u I , thus:
~ - ~puk6 / ,
Com Pres Neg of / kpu / ,
'be foiled'.
2pl VPF Fut of /d{;/ .
JIOre northern dialects s u ch as that of Ikot
these pairs i s maintained for speakers who have the raised
!leg sfX is /o/ in this environment (p. 233).
lophone of /el ·
[ ~]
al-
Speakers who consistently use the /y {;~' / form of
the VPF Fut pfx never have / e / after /y/ , so there is no possibili ty of a contrast between / e / and /e/ in this environment.
[~ ]occurs
Except i n the VPF Fut pfx,
a verb, noun, adjective, etc.
only within the stem of
In these positions [ e ] almost nev-
er occurs
(III.G.5), but the occurrence of /E /
expected.
In verbal prefixes , the occurrence of both /e/ and /e/
is normal and expected.
is normal and
( [ e;])
On the basis of this distributional pat-
a-ml / ,
'applause'; /e -m i/ ,
and /u-ka/ ,
'frog'
(WnJ, and / n- ba/ ,
'your mother'; / e-kpe / ,
women's play'
(n-m.); /e-b€d/,
bananas or plantains'; /d{;/,
speakers who never have a contrast between / e / and /e/ after /y/.
(something) indefinitely'; / de l)/ ,
For diale c tal variation in the use of IE/ or l e/ , see
p. 228.
/ e l contrasts with / o / in / J- f {;d / , 'chance, leisure', and
/ l-f6d / ,
'witch(craft)'; / e-bek / ,
/ e-d h/ ,
'k . fish', and / e-d2JI)/,
'marry'; /ye/,
'and, with'
'chin', and / e-b2ik / ,
'sheep'; / dU,
(conj.), and /y2>/,
'break off small pieces', and /b!ik/,
/kpek / ,
'coax', and /kp2ik/,
'be(come) soft'; /t £ 1) e / ,
same of / dw3 / ,
'itch', and /d!ibo/,
'make a mistake', and / n-dw2>/,
'fall'; / n-kw U , lsg Pres Neg of / kud / ,
of', and / n-kw6 / , lsg PrVF Pres of /k w!i / ,
PoVF Past of /t f / ,
'catch sight
'sing'; /e -ke-tl / , 2sg
'remember', and / 2>- k!i-t i/ ,
'k. bean'.
/el is i n free variation with /o/ as the v owel of the Negative
23. one of my i nf ormant s (from Calabar ) r ef used to a ccept
/el as the vowel of
the VPF Fut pfx i n t he 3pl (although he found it an acceptable variant in the
I
2pl), and c laimed t o have a minimal contrast be tween / e- y e~deb / ,
/d e b/ , and
'hand of
'die'; / m{; / ,
'be(come)
'disgust, loathe', and /fak/,
'stay at
'sink t o t h e b o ttom, drown', and
'be (come ) r e ady (of food)', and
'be(come) startled and frightened',
(n-m.); / t£ be/ ,
'exonerate', and / taba / ,
'keep awake late at night'; / tw f: ne/ ,
'illumin ate', and /t wal)a /
plct of /t wa / ,
'push, close', and /bad i/ ,
'cry'
'condense, befoul'
111.E.7.
(n-m.); / bi:d i/ ,
(A)
(A),
(n-m . ) .
/a /
Except for the differences in duration which apply to all Efik vowels
(pp. 203-206), Efik /a/ is pronounced essentially the same in all
environments.
,
" ! ,
/ e-ye-deb/,
'someone wi l l buy'.
I
3pl VPF
· of
am not cer t ain
the validity of t hi s contrast, and have not confi rmed it with other speakers.
It is possible that / a / is slightly centralized (high-
er) and slightly shorter in non-syllabeme-final position than in
syllabeme-final position, but if so, the diffe rence is slight, and
difficult to hear reliably.
There is doubtless some variation in
the tongue position of I a I depending on the preceding and the following consonan t , but this is not very not iceable, and has not been investigated.
Fut o f
'a
'stand; take';
'decrease, ease', and / tak / ,
(n-m.); / d l ke / ,
'shoot, kick'
'equal',
'tolerate'; /b{k/ ,
'adore with fear', and / t!il)o/, 'begin ' ;
/ n-d we/ , lsg PoVF Pres of / dwe / ,
tyad / , 'spoil'
'this very
'monkey ' ;
'sleep', and /d!i/ ,
'cultivate; prepare soup ' ;
' crow'; /deb E/ ,
'love'; /fek / ,
'stay overnight'; / by{d / ,
and ;tf ka / ,
/ e l only where it is clearly [ e ] .
E: -ml / ,
'leopard', and / e-kpa / ,
kpU, 'pay; debate a case', and / kpa / ,
da~/,
(dem. ) , and
'k . duiker', and /e-ba d/ ,
'insert tightly'; I tek/,
ly to /e/ , and the vocoid of the VPF Fut pfx will be analyzed as
the vowel of the
'wi n g'; /u -k E/ ,
'sleep', and /da/,
consistently in all environments in which it occurs, even for those
thus be assigned consistent-
'this'
(n-m., cf. /E: -1d
'lsg pre-verbal prn . '
one'); / n-b E/ ,
patient', and / ma / ,
[ ~] will
I n (at least some)
~fi ol) ,
/ el contrasts with / a / in /e - y € / , 2sg Ho rt of /y e / , 'be(come )
beautiful', and / a- ye/ ,
tern it would seem reasonable to assign [ ~ ] to IE / rather than to let
In this description the vocoid
/ i -k pu k{; /
I n t his description we shall represent only one allo-
phone of I a I i n all environments:
[a].
[a ] is an open low, central-front, unrounded vocoid.
The
tongue positi on is slightly farther front than that of the vowel of
German ~, but somewhat less far front t han t hat of the vowel of
Dutch ~ or French ta.
The position of the tongue root for [a] is
234
235
probably somewhat retracted in comparison wi th tha t for Efik
/e e o
,, and /d6/,
lo/ , /al seems to condition a tongue - root- retracted allophone of
the vowel /i/ (p. 2 1 7) in some positions.
r equiring chewing ', and /t6/ ,
8
i u/ , but this is less noticeable than with Efik /o/.
It seems very likely
that Efik /a/ belonged historically to the tongue-root - retracted
([ -ATR ) ) set of vowels in a harmony system (pp . 384-388), and tha
synchronically i t still behaves phonologically like a tongue-rootretracted vowel in some respects (pp. 329-331 , 370 - 372) , whether
' marry'; /kpak/ ,
,
'hit, plant '; /da/ ,
' stand,
' demand frequently and forceful -
d /kpok/, ' crow'; /dw ay/, 'be (come) very agitated and tremb, an
, , and /dwoy/ , 'spi l l over and drop down' (n - m . ); /tyak/ , 'go
,
do again ' , and / fyok / ,
w:lk/ , •swim'; /kp ay/,
, ) ; /dada/,
'know'; / wak / ,
' rejoice', and / d6do / ,
~1ve ', and /kodl/ ,
'be(come) plentiful',
'be(come) sour', and /kp 6y / ,
'grow'
'only '
'be(come) slippery'; /ka d l/ ,
(n- m.) .
not this retraction may have any phonetic reality for present-day
Efik.
Cine- radiology studies such as Ladefoged's for Igbo vowels
/o/
(1968:38-40) would presumably be necessary to determine whether
Efik [a) and [o] are in fact tongue-root-ret r acted phonetically,
The following e xamples illustrate the occurrence of Efik /a/
/a -k pa/ , 'river '; /a-kpa/, ' stomach';
in various environments:
/a -mi/, ' l sg pre-verbal prn. '; /a - to/,
/a -yo / ,
/adld/ -
' 2sg pre- verbal prn .';
'k . dance'; /a - yU, 'applause ' ; /a -ny 't/,
/a - did/ -
'traditional bamboo bed' ; /a - kay/ ,
tree'; /n-bada/ ,
'green'
'coal '; /wa/ ,
'go '; Ina/ , 'l ie '; /dya/ ,
' hit , tug '; /byad/ ,
/saria/ ,
'walk'; /kadi/ ,
I
'hate'; /l)am/ ,
' deceive '; /tfka/ ,
' intense l y full '
same but 3sg; /a-ka/
' gnat'; / u- kpa/ , •cam-
' spoil'; /bada/ ,
I
• is not very noticeable, a nd has not been investigated .
[ 0
J.
an open mid, back, rounded vocoid .
' prepare a fire ';
The
botte or German Bock, and the lips are more strongin the French and German vowels.
same but VPF Cmpl; /J-Jlam/ I
lpl PrVF
,-iison with that for Efik lo u Ee i/ , but i t sounds less notice-
lbly retracted t h an e . g . the I gbo /9/ as in /er$/ ,
/al contrasts with /o/ in /a-falJ/ , 'channel', and /o - tori/ ,
' river', and /6-kp6/, 'bone'; /a-bal)/ ,
' lien , security'
'water
' a women ' s play ' , and /e - kpo/ ,
(A) , and tf-b61J/,
(A), and /u- kod/,
' look for , want'.
are app licable to / o / as we l l .
The following examples illustrate the occurrence of Efik / o /
/ 6 - kp6/ ,
For contrasts of / a/ with /e/ and /e/, see pp. 229 and 233,
loop , noose '; 1f-ba1J/, 'buoy '
As with /a/ , the
Bi remarks on p . 234 concerning tongue root retraction in Efik
' shoot, kick' ;
(adj . ) ; /a-ka/ , 2sg PoVF Pres of
' mosquito'; /e - kpa/ ,
The lip rounding is
normal , circular kind (as for /u/ , and unlike /o/) , and is
' sell '; /i-Jlam/ , same but lpl Hort.
'cloth ' ; /a-kpa/ ,
In this
...cription we shall represent onl y one allophone of /o/ in all en -
tongue root i s probably somewhat retracted in com'help ' ;
respectively .
and /6-b61J/ ,
There is doubtless some variation in the tongue
/e-ka
'sacrifice '; /kpa/ ,
' eat '; /swa/ ,
/t wak/,
' python ';
' farm'; /n -ta/, ' fork in a
' fingernail '; /n -ta n i -ta/,
environmen ts.
'table '; /a -ta-ya-~­
(adj . ); /a - sa-bo/ ,
'knife'; /l-l)al)/ ,
wood tree '; /u-ka1J/ ,
Pres of /Jlam/ ,
'rain forest'; /a -k pada/ , pros-
'rainbow'; /a - kpa-kaka/,
' measles '; /a - wa*a - wa/ ,
'mother '; /(-kwa/,
/a -ka /
' k . fish
' k. grasshopper '; /a - bal)/, 'water pot'; /a -kwari/ ,
titute '; /a -k pada/ ,
/t way- tway/ ,
' trap'; /a - sad/ ,
tlt (pp. 203 - 206 ) , Efik lo! is pronounced essentially the same in
f111t1on depending on the preceding and t he following consonant, but
(QW.) ;
/a-did/ , a female personal name; /an - dl -kp{b/ ,
' teacher'; /a -dwa /, 'squirrel'; /a - tya/ ,
/a -tak- tak/ ,
' who?'
. . .pt for the differences i n duration which apply to all Efik vow-
' kola nut '; /u - kad
' raffia palm tree' ; /ta/ , •eat
' bone ' ; / o-kp:S / ,
'rubber, vine';
·k5/ , ' fence'; / o-wok / , 'thicket ' ; !6 -m6n ! , ' gori lla'; / :l-kw6k/ ,
llee'; l:l-fy61J / , ' moon '; / o - dyol)6/, ' acquaintance ' ; /6 - k:5-k6k/ ,
"*ldrib of the leaf of a raffia palm tree '; /o - Jl o-6-Jlo/ ,
1'4ress'; !:l-kp6 - s61J/,
' difficult'
'train of
(adj .); /6 -ny61)-6 - ny61)/, 'clever,
"1h' (adj.); !:l-b6-tI/ , ' k . tree'; /o-k6-t1/ , ' k. bean ' ; /e - d61J / ,
'bee•; li - n:l/, ' t hief'; /n -do k/ ,
Child '; /u-kwo/ ,
'sore'; /n - dl-tO/ , pl. of /e - yen/,
' rainy season'; /u -b6k / ,
'arm , hand ' ; / bo / ,
' re-
237
236
ceive, take in the hand(s) '; / do / , 'marry'; / kpo / - / kp~/ ,
on the back'; /y ::, ; , 'tolerate'; / n::, / , 'give'; / dwo /
'f ' ca~
I
.
t..
,
t
'
I
a 11 I ; /a'
dig out , / fob / , roast'; / bo y/ , 'steer a boat'; / dw::,y;
,
over and drop down'; / f y::,k/ , ' know (facts ) •; / t::,ko /
, ' Spill
,
'
. '
' ,
' quarrel';
/ b1p / , begin ; / d yorp / , 'know (people or facts)'; / kp~ki/ ,
/ sub / , 'remain, be left' ; / fl do / , 'jump'; / kpob - dt/ , 1 ' v<llll
,
'
oosen
lock' (A); /y ido-dU, ' di s tort , twist' ; / fu rp -d t/ , •ransa k
'
c ' turn
upside down' •
Contrasts of / o / with / u / ([u]) , /u/ ([tt]), lo/, /el , le! illld
/a / are given on pp. 220 , 221, 223 , 224 , 228, 232, and 234-23S res
For dialectal variation in the use of /o/ or fol , see p.
) p,
224
(text and fn.). For variation in the use of /o/ or le/,
232-233.
see PP.
The distribution of /o/ is restricted in various ways.
question will be discussed on pp. 387- 388 .
This
III, F. THE SYLLABIC NASAL
.
·n fact a tonal domain at the deepest level (at the
-hiC- lS l
..,
the two lexicons). The automatic insertion of an OT bein
i nasal is necessary to ensure conformity with the
syllab c
•
traints of Efik at later stages and to facilitate
tial cons
tion of the phonological rules and processes.
per opera
pro
from the above that the syllabicity of the syllabic
It iS clear
. .
.
.
d'ctable from its position in relation to (Internal)
l is pre l
.
and to OTs. At the SPL and DPL a non-syllabic nasal
d soundaries
both preceded and followed by an OT, and a syllabic nasal
never .
The syllabic nasal can therefore be regarded as an always lS •
of the same phoneme as one of the non-syllabic nasal conophone
and
idS·
that the relationship between a syllabic nasal and
I t is true
bic one is parallel in some ways to that between the
non-sY 1 1 a
;·; and / u / and the consonants /y/ and / w/ , respectively. The
,owelS I
which we have assigned to /i/ and /u/ are phonetically simip110nes
.
respectively, to those which we have assigned to /y/ and / w/ ,
~'it is always possible in Efik to predict whether an entity will
a
III.F.l. The Predictability of the Syllabicity of the Syllabic
Nasal Phones and their Analysis as Allophones of I n!
belong to ; i / or / y/ , / u/ or / w/ , in our analysis, from its position
24
in relation to word Boundaries and OTs , and to adjacent consonants
In Efik a nasal may occur as the only phoneme in a syllabeme at all
levels of phonological representation. This is the case if, before
separate phonemes, then why should the syllabic nasal not be analyzed as a phoneme separate from the non-syllabic nasals as well?
the operation of the P-Rule which inserts predictable OTs, a nasal
is preceded immediately by a Word Boundary or an Internal word
~prefer not to do this because a syllabic nasal (unlike /i/ or
Boundary (or an OT), and followed immediately by an OT (which will
ed above, an OT is inserted automatically before a word-initial syl-
always be followed by a consonant) .
labic nasal, just as before all other word-initial Efik consonants
and vowels. 25
When a nasa l occurs in this
environment, the OT-Insertion Rule (pp. 583-587) will insert an OT
If / i / and /y / , / u/ and / w/ are to be analyzed as
u/l behaves like a consonant in two related respects.
As mention-
before it (unless an OT is already present), with the result that
(but not before word-initial vowels). And a word - final consonant
which is followed by a word beginning with a syllabic nasal has the
the nasal will be both preceded and followed by an OT, and will thus
same allophone as before a word beginning with a consonant, and not
consitute an entire syllabeme.
the allophone which it would have before a word beginning with a
(Like other nasals, the nasal which
is destined to be syllabic is defined as a consonant, and the OTInsertion Rule, which inserts an OT before all word-initial consonants, will therefore apply.
As mentioned earlier , this word- initi~
OT will not normally be written in our transcription , b ut should be
understood to be present.) Thus 0 ; # n-syo'*n-syo' #/ ~
12 /# -n-syo
'
' ' *-n-syo
'
' ' #/, 'various, different (pl)• (adj . ).
It must be emphasized that a nasal which is "destined to be
vowel.
24.
It
Compare the following:
would, however, be necessary to write an ctr between two adjacent vowels
word-mediall y in order to specify the syllable division.
thetical sequence of the
form
Otherwise a hypo-
I u -bo i -de I could be either I u - bo - i -de I
or I u - boy-de I .
25. Cf. Newman and Salim ( 1981: 113).