the university of chicago the phonology and ... - SIL International

South Mofu [MIF] (Cameroon). Barreteau (1988) reports a labiodental flap in
“Mofu-Gudur”. He attests it in the following ideophones: 2 F(L=(H F(L=(H F(L=(H F(L=(H ‘crack’, F=L=( F=L=( F=L=( F=L=( ‘of
moving on water’, L=(F L=(F ~ LA(F LA(F LA(F ‘tumble’, L=(I L=(I L=(I L=(I ‘fall abruptly’. He considers it rare.
Tera [TER] (Nigeria). Paul Newman (per. comm.) reports a labiodental flap in
Tera. Greenberg (1983) also reports a labiodental flap in Tera, citing Newman as his
source. Newman attests it in the word DLF DLF DLF DLF ‘the sound of a hyena falling down from a
palm tree’. Newman notes that it is found only in onomatopoeic words.
Yiwom [GEK] (Nigeria). A labial flap is cited in Jungraithmayr (1965: 172)
(“Gerka”) and Greenberg (1983: 12) (“Gerka”). As previously noted, Jungraithmayr uses
the symbol f to refer to the sound, which may indicate a voiceless articulation. However,
Greenberg uses a v with left loop to represent the sound in the same lexical item. Both
Jungraithmayr and Greenberg attest it in the word =LE =LE =LE =LE ‘buffalo’.
Migaama [MMY] (Chad). Jungraithmayr & Adams (1992) and Semur (1997,
cited by Bill Chesley, per. comm.) report a labiodental flap in Migaama. It occurs only in
ideophones and in word-medial position. Examples of words with the sound include
FKLKF FKLKF ‘noise of the beating of wings’ (Semur 1997: I ) and =L=? =L=? =L=? =L=? ‘whipping noise—a
cooking term’ (Jungraithmayr & Adams 1992: 17).
D.7.2 Benue-Congo
1. Bantoid. The labial flap is found in two Northern Bantoid languages (Kwanja,
Samba Daka, and Tep) in Cameroon and Nigeria and four Narrow Bantu languages in
southeastern Africa. No evidence for contrast is given by any of the sources. It is found
almost exclusively in ideophones. Except for Shona, most sources give only one or two
examples. None of the sources consider the sound to be phonemic.
2 Barreteau says that these are adjectives or adverbs, but semantically they are clearly ideophonic.
297