Mkochi (2021): V2 elision in root-suffix hiatus contexts in Malawian CiTonga #
Mkochi reports that Malawian CiTonga, a Bantu language of Malawi, resolves hiatus by eliding the second vowel between a verb root and a suffix, where Casali derives the elision from the prominence of the root, and also between two suffixes and between two enclitics, where neither vowel is in a root. Mkochi argues that Casali's account does not extend to these junctures, and attributes the pattern instead to the prosodic stem, within which hiatus is resolved by eliding the second vowel; the paper leaves the formal statement of that proposal open.
Against Casali's constraints the reports divide by the kind of juncture. Some ranking elides the second vowel between a root and a suffix, but none does between two suffixes or two enclitics, since there the constraints violated by eliding the first vowel are a proper subset of those violated by eliding the second. This holds even where the second suffix is a single vowel, as with the final vowel of the paper's (11), which the constraint on morphs of one segment then protects as well.
Main results #
exists_mem_optimal_iff_rootSuffix: at a juncture of the kind a row reports, some ranking of Casali's constraints elides the reported vowel iff the juncture is between a root and a suffix.schematic_suffixSuffix: at a schematic juncture of two suffixes no ranking of Casali's constraints elides the second vowel.
References #
Some ranking of Casali's constraints elides the vowel a row reports exactly at the junctures between a root and a suffix, and none does between two suffixes or two enclitics.
At a schematic juncture of two suffixes no ranking of Casali's constraints elides the second vowel.