Bantu-Ubangi language contact and the origin of labial-velar stops in Lingombe (Bantu, C41, DRC)

Dados Bibliográficos

ID20344671
AutoresKoen Bostoen (0000-0003-2284-6165, Ghent University), Jean-Pierre Donzo (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
Ano2013
Volume30
Fascículo4
Páginas435-468
Data de publicação2013-12-31
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoDiachronica (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0176-4225 • E-ISSN: 1569-9714
EditoraJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/dia.30.4.01bos
OpenAlexW2015404175
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas11
Referências citadas12

We examine the origin of labial-velar stops in Lingombe, a language from the northern Bantu borderland. Labial-velar stops are uncommon in Bantu. It is generally believed that they were acquired through contact with neighbouring non-Bantu speakers, in casu Ubangi languages. We show that the introduction of labial-velar stops in Lingombe is indeed a contact-induced change, but one which could not happen through superficial contact. It involved advanced bilingualism, whereby Ubangi speakers left a phonological substrate in the Bantu language to which they shifted. Once adopted, these loan phonemes underwent a further language-internal extension to native vocabulary, a process known as ‘hyperadaptation’. Both conventional sound symbolism and the deliberate attempt to differentiate the speech of one’s own social group were important for the further proliferation of labial-velar stops in Lingombe. This type of conscious analogical sound change is at odds with Neogrammarian principles of regular sound change

Acoustics · Bantu languages · Language contact · Linguistics · Phonology · Physics · Sound change · Australian Indigenous Culture and History · History · Language and cultural evolution · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation