here - 5th International Conference on Bantu Languages

Northern Dialect Central Dialect Southern Dialect
ŋkuu
tuʼ
/ŋkú:/
/tūʔ/
ŋkʉʉ/ŋkɨ̀ ́:/
tʉʼ/tɨ̄ʔ/
ŋkʉʉ/ŋkɨ̀ ́:/
tʉʼ/tɨ̄ʔ/ night
chief
kù
ŋgup
/kù/
/ŋgū p/
kʉ̀ /kɨ̀/
ŋgʉp/ŋgɨ̄p/
kʉ̀/kɨ̀/
ŋgʉp/ŋgɨ̄p/
rope
fowl
The vowel shift does not depend on the preceding or following consonant. Northern Limbum
seems to prefer a six vowel system instead the seven vowel system of the general Limbum
alphabet.
From the above, we can witness that the changes in the phonemes do not affect the tones or
create a stress on the syllables. If any prosodic features are to be examined in the various
dialects of Limbum, more will be seen in with Southern Limbum than with Northern Limbum
which has been influenced by a non-Bantu language. This t<strong>here</strong>fore suggests that studying the
prosodic effects on the Northern dialect can be focused on the question of the vicinity of the
vowel phonemes as well as the tones. The sounds contrasted above are merely differ from
each other by one articulatory feature. Moreover, any stress pattern will be examined under
phonotactics like voicing or devoicing. Though the Northern dialect is not revealing anything
about consonant borrowing, t<strong>here</strong> is the need to check is Mbembe from which it has derived
its influence makes more use velar, palatal and glottal phonemes than labial phonemes.
Southern Limbum makes use of borrowed consonants and clusters more than Northern
Limbum which has borrowed from a non-phylum neighbor. This raises a question of whether
the prosodic features can only be seen in the influence of a non-related language. In some one
of the situations a long vowel has been seen in Southern Limbum as being realized by a semivowel.
PS