Chapter 4 introduces the nominal classes. Every noun belongs to one of the seven nominal classes of Fròʔò. The concept of nominal class refers to a system of noun categorization around a common set of phonological properties to a given group of nouns. Classes are determined by the phonological form of their associate functional morphemes, the morphemes in an agreement relation with the head noun. Nouns consist of a root and a class marker (CM) that can be overt or covert. A typical nominal root is mono- or disyllabic regardless of its class. If it is longer, it is most probably a compound.
Chapter 5 proposes a phonological and morphological analysis of the nominal classes of Fròʔò which, as mentioned, are primarily identified on the basis of their phonological properties. The first two sections deal, respectively, with word order in the nominal phrase and the functional morphemes. The dependent morphemes of a nominal domain acquire their phonological shape by fusion of different phonological features expressing morphological features. The analytic tool of this section is the Distributed Morphology (DM) theory. DM has a core mechanism called Vocabulary Insertion (VI) which translates the morphosyntactic features into phonological ones to achieve the surface forms. What is special about Fròʔò is that several abstract morphemes are realized in VI by ←28 | 29→distinctive features. Moreover, post-VI phonology is responsible for part of the phonological form of the morphemes. In other words, both VI and post-VI phonology are responsible for the phonological form of morphemes and words. It is also proposed that an autosegmental component should be added to VI to enhance the relevance of consonantal feature concord. Alliterative concord is illustrated with dependent morphemes of Classes 1, 3 and 5. The last two sections propose a theoretical account for the phonological form of the dependent functional morphemes and a discussion.
In Chapter 6, the derivational processes in the nominal domain of Fròʔò are illustrated, however limited to the morphological process of derivation. The first section of this chapter deals with the distinction between inflection and derivation. Derivation is defined as a process of affixation of a morpheme to another lexeme with co-occurrent change of its grammatical category. The first form of derivation discusses the denominal derivation, the second one deals with deverbal nominalization and the last one deals with the deadjectival derivational effects.
Two kinds of nouns must be distinguished in Fròʔò: the simplest nouns (called simplex nouns) and the complex nouns. The latter kind of nouns is the subject of Chapter 7. Simplex nouns (SN) are those that take only one lexical root and a category n0 defining morpheme, i.e. the class marker (CM). The complex nouns have more than one lexical root. The lexical roots come from different grammatical classes. Mostly made by nouns, one element in the CN modifies or describes the other one by adding a meaning to the second element, or by giving a precise form of that noun. In Fròʔò, compounding may also imply a possessive construction. The morphologically complex nouns have a hierarchical structure. One element in the complex word is the head of the construction. DM is the theoretical model used in this chapter.
Chapter 8 contains a conclusion.
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This chapter surveys the segments of Fròʔò, shedding light on the natural phonological classes and motivating the distinctive features necessary for the classification of the phonemes and allophones of this language. In Section 2.2 the consonants and the vowels of Fròʔò are introduced. Section 2.3 is a survey of the distinctive features used to make the necessary distinctions, and Section 2.4 proposes a feature-geometric analysis of the segments and their distinctive features. Section 2.5 sheds light on the main allophonic relationships. Finally, Section 2.6 briefly introduces the lexical tones of Fròʔò.
Fig. 1 shows the speech organs and the places of articulation that constitute the speech apparatus. The organs responsible for sound production can be classified in active and passive articulators. There are six active articulators: lips (labia), tongue blade (corona), tongue body (dorsum), tongue root, soft palate, and larynx (with the vocal cords). These articulators are located in the oral cavity, the nasal cavity, the pharyngeal cavity, or the larynx. The active articulators move towards the so-called passive organs, which remain in the same position during sound production. The ‘passive articulators’ are the teeth, the alveolar ridge, the hard palate, the soft palate (velum), the uvula, and the pharynx. All articulators, except for the pharynx, are used in Fròʔò.
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Fròʔò distinguishes 22 consonants with different places and manners of articulation; see Tab. 1. The obstruents are realized with an obstruction in the oral cavity. When they are stops, they are produced with a complete stricture in the oral tract. This is the case for 11 of the consonants. When they are fricatives, the stricture is only partial. This is the case for three consonants. Stops can be voiceless or voiced, but the fricatives are voiceless.
There are eight sonorants in Fròʔò, including four nasals [m];, [n], [ɲ], and [ŋ]; two glides [w] and [j]; one lateral [l]; and one rhotic [r].
The Fròʔò consonant system is close to that of some of the Gur languages, especially Koulango, Lohoron, Lomaka, and Nafanran, as described by Mensah and Tchagbale (1983), although some differences appear as well, as testified by the absence of voiced fricatives in Fròʔò. The laryngeals [h]; and [ʔ] are present ←32 | 33→in Fròʔò, but they are lacking in some of the Gur languages, like Fodonon and Dugubɛrɛ, among others (1983).
Fròʔò has seven vowels, which can be short or long. There are five [+ATR] vowels and two [-ATR] ones. Only the mid vowels can have both an advanced and a retracted tongue root; the high and the low ones are always [+ATR]. All vowels have additional nasal equivalents, except for [e]; and [o] as shown in (1). They can only be [-ATR].
The first subsection describes