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dispreferred in Mono. These include (1) a labial consonant followed by , (2) a palatal
consonant followed by , and velar and glottal consonants followed by .
2.3.2 Distribution in the word
Vowel harmony is attested in some Ubangian languages, especially of the Zande
group, so it is worth examining if this phenomenon is evident in Mono. Table 2.2 lists the
co-occurrence of vowels in CV1CV2 patterns. In most cases, the examples are taken from
bisyllabic tautomorphemic words. Additional examples are from longer words, e.g.
CV1CV2CV or CVCV1CV2. Table F.2 in Appendix F gives a complete list of the words
used as evidence for these combinations. Plus signs in parentheses indicate forms which
are either heteromorphemic or exhibit variation.
Most combinations of vowels are attested within Mono words, and so strict vowel
harmony is not attested in Mono. However, it is also true that words containing both high
and mid vowels are rare in the lexicon.
Table 2.2: Vowel-vowel (CV1CV2) co-occurrences
V1 V2 E A = K
E + – + (+) + + (+) +
A + + – + + + + +
+ + + – + + + –
+ + (+) + + (+) + +
= + + + + + + + (+)
K + + + + + + + +
– + – + + + + +
+ + (+) (+) + + + +
Consonant harmony is also attested in some Ubangian languages, e.g. Ngbaka-
Ma’bo (Thomas 1963). Such systems restrict the co-occurrence of consonants in C1VC2V
patterns. However, I leave this topic for further research.
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