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7.2.2 Hiatus resolution
Certain phonological alternations may occur in Mono when two vowels are
brought into hiatus. I refer to this process as hiatus resolution. If a word-final schwa is
followed by a V-initial syllable, the schwa optionally takes on the quality of the
following vowel, creating a long vowel. This process differs from leftward vowel
spreading in that it occurs with low vowels as well as non-low vowels.
(53) ( ( ( ( I( I( I( I( =J =J= =J
→ ( I=( =J=
SS be thus
‘That’s right.’
elided:
If the tones of the two syllables are identical, then the schwa may assimilate or be
(54) >=(= >=(= >=(= >=(= =J= =J=
→ [ >=(= =J=] ~ [ >=(= =J=]
1SG greet 2SG also
‘I greet you in return.’
Interestingly, this same pattern occurs if there is an intervening glottal stop, but
not if another consonant intervenes. Example (55) shows two such cases:
(55) a. = = = = =( =( =( =( @ @ @ @ J(= J(= J(= J(= → = =( @ J=(=
1PL.EXCL go:NF with REFL-1PL.EXCL
‘We (excl.) went ourselves’
b. B B B B = = = =
→ [B==]
BEN 1SG.EXCL
‘for us’
Hiatus resolution is not always structure preserving, as it may create a long vowel
with a level tone, as in (54) above. It applies across word boundaries, is optional, and it
has no lexical exceptions.
7.2.3 Glide formation
There are cases in which glides are optionally formed from vowels due to
heteromorphemic environments. Most cases in my corpus involve the particle A( A( A(
121
A( ‘EMPH’