The origin of mid vowels in Siwi

Recent documentation has established that the Siwi language of western Egypt, unlike most other Berber languages, has two phonemic mid vowels appearing not only in Arabic loanwords but also in inherited vocabulary: /e/ and /o/. This article examines their origin. Proto-Berber originally had a single...

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Autores principales:	Lameen Souag, Marijn van Putten
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN FR
Publicado:	LibraryPress@UF 2016
Materias:	Siwi Berber phonology vowels Philology. Linguistics P1-1091
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/15af7105f49d4df5b204bd6eafd58768
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:15af7105f49d4df5b204bd6eafd587682021-11-19T03:52:17ZThe origin of mid vowels in Siwi10.32473/sal.v45i1.1072510039-35332154-428Xhttps://doaj.org/article/15af7105f49d4df5b204bd6eafd587682016-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.flvc.org/sal/article/view/107251https://doaj.org/toc/0039-3533https://doaj.org/toc/2154-428XRecent documentation has established that the Siwi language of western Egypt, unlike most other Berber languages, has two phonemic mid vowels appearing not only in Arabic loanwords but also in inherited vocabulary: /e/ and /o/. This article examines their origin. Proto-Berber originally had a single mid vowel e, which appears to have been retained in Siwi only before word-final /n/. In all other environments the contrast between i and e has been neutralized, although word-finally this contrast seems to have survived into the 19th century. Instances of /e/ in other environments are phonetically conditioned, deriving variously from i, ăy, or ă in appropriate contexts. The few attestations of /o/ are irregular, but occur in environments paralleling those in which /e/ is attested synchronically. Modern Siwi mid vowels are thus mostly secondary developments; except in final /-en/, they provide no direct evidence for the reconstruction of mid vowels in earlier intermediate stages of Berber.Lameen SouagMarijn van PuttenLibraryPress@UFarticleSiwiBerberphonologyvowelsPhilology. LinguisticsP1-1091ENFRStudies in African Linguistics, Vol 45, Iss 1 (2016)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN FR
topic	Siwi Berber phonology vowels Philology. Linguistics P1-1091
spellingShingle	Siwi Berber phonology vowels Philology. Linguistics P1-1091 Lameen Souag Marijn van Putten The origin of mid vowels in Siwi
description	Recent documentation has established that the Siwi language of western Egypt, unlike most other Berber languages, has two phonemic mid vowels appearing not only in Arabic loanwords but also in inherited vocabulary: /e/ and /o/. This article examines their origin. Proto-Berber originally had a single mid vowel e, which appears to have been retained in Siwi only before word-final /n/. In all other environments the contrast between i and e has been neutralized, although word-finally this contrast seems to have survived into the 19th century. Instances of /e/ in other environments are phonetically conditioned, deriving variously from i, ăy, or ă in appropriate contexts. The few attestations of /o/ are irregular, but occur in environments paralleling those in which /e/ is attested synchronically. Modern Siwi mid vowels are thus mostly secondary developments; except in final /-en/, they provide no direct evidence for the reconstruction of mid vowels in earlier intermediate stages of Berber.
format	article
author	Lameen Souag Marijn van Putten
author_facet	Lameen Souag Marijn van Putten
author_sort	Lameen Souag
title	The origin of mid vowels in Siwi
title_short	The origin of mid vowels in Siwi
title_full	The origin of mid vowels in Siwi
title_fullStr	The origin of mid vowels in Siwi
title_full_unstemmed	The origin of mid vowels in Siwi
title_sort	origin of mid vowels in siwi
publisher	LibraryPress@UF
publishDate	2016
url	https://doaj.org/article/15af7105f49d4df5b204bd6eafd58768
work_keys_str_mv	AT lameensouag theoriginofmidvowelsinsiwi AT marijnvanputten theoriginofmidvowelsinsiwi AT lameensouag originofmidvowelsinsiwi AT marijnvanputten originofmidvowelsinsiwi
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The origin of mid vowels in Siwi

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