Abesabesi Grammar

2.1 Vowels

Quality
Draft
Typological Relevance
10%
Relevance within Language
100%
Abesabesi distinguishes seven oral vowels. Table 2.1 contains minimal pairs distinguishing the seven oral vowels as phonemes.
The oral mid vowels feature an ATR distinction ([+ATR] vs. [-ATR]), which is also essential to the vowel harmony system (see Section 2.4.4). Table 2.2 contains minimal pairs exemplifying this distinction. For simplicity reasons, the [+ATR] vowels are transcribed as /e/ and /o/, while the [-ATR] vowels are transcribed as /ɛ/ and /ɔ/
Table 2.2: Minimal pairs - ATR-distinction
Abesabesi also distinguishes oral from nasal vowels, which can be seen in the five near minimal pairs of Table 2.3.
The five nasal vowels do not include phonemic nasalized versions of the [+ATR] vowels /e/ and /o/. Their phonetic realization, however, occurs frequently, as deleted vowels retain their nasality, which is then realized on the remaining vowel (Example 2.1).
2.1 a
ɔhɔ̃ òdùg [ɔhõdùg]
neck leg
'lower leg' (ibe298-00.088)

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b
hɔ̃ ebid [hẽbid]
cultivate palm_fruit
'harvest palm fruits' (ibe350-00.042)

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Summing up, Abesabesi has twelve phonemic vowels that differ in height, backness, roundness, nasalization, and tongue root position. Tables 2.4 and 2.5 show all oral and nasal vowels respectively.
Table 2.4: Oral vowels
front central back
high i u
mid e ɛ o ɔ
low a
Table 2.5: Nasal vowels
front central back
high
mid ɛ̃ ɔ̃
low
The high vowels /i/ and /u/ appear to have had an ATR distinction in the past (/i/ vs. /ɪ/ and /u/ vs. /ʊ/). Evidence for this claim can be taken from their behavior in respect to vowel harmony, which will be discussed in section 2.4.4.