Vowel Harmony in Degema, Nigeria

Abstract

Degema has a ten-vowel system in which vowels can be divided into two neat sets of five each, distinguished by tongue root. This paper clarifies how vowels of both sets are restricted from co-occurring in simple words and presents a detailed examination of vowel harmony across morpheme boundary, showing that vowels in affixes harmonize with vowels in roots. It also illustrates how vowels in proclitics and enclitics harmonize with host vowels in a clitic=host (=clitic)/host=clitic combination. Similarly, it shows that the vowels in some possessive pronouns and demonstrative nominals harmonize with vowels in the head noun in a noun-modifier construction, and that the vowels in some adverbs agree with vowels in neighboring morphemes.