Kolokuma ideophones.pdf - Roger Blench

Roger Blench Izọn templatic ideophones Circulated for comment
teuu not too high or low; average
tẹụụ low, esp. of roof of house (pejorative sense)
The application of ATR vowel quality to size usually applies to ideophones and it is rare to find examples in
other parts of speech. However, this is not uncommon across the Njọ languages.
3.3 Vowel height
Westermann (1927, 1937) may have been the first author to point out the relations between vowel height and
semantics in West African languages. The exact relationship between the quality of the sound and the vowel
used to signify it is opaque and there do not appear to be regular correspondences across languages. Diffloth
(1994) argues that individual languages may have systematic sound symbolism applied to ideophones but
that such relationships cannot be generalised across languages. Nuckolls’ (1996) describes similar
correlations between vowels and inside/outside distinctions in Pastaza Quechua. Nonetheless, there is
apparently a widespread correlation between vowel height and size or depth in West Africa, which
resembles the Austroasiatic examples. Oroko, a Bantu language in Southern Cameroun shows this
relationship.
Table 3. Vowel heights denoting sound qualities in Oroko
Oroko
Glosses
wáà wáà sound of moving in dry grass/leaves
wúù wúù sound of walking in wet grass
kpòó heavy branch falling
kpéé light branch falling
Source: Blench (2010)
The vowel shift in Oroko usually operates on the theme vowel throughout the entire word. In Nzọn, the same
consonantal template can be retained but selected vowels altered to express differentiation in part of the
object described. These examples show vowel-raising a→o to signify the size of the creature responsible for
a sensory experience.
pataraá messy (faeces, spilt porridge) potoraá describing a messy thing, such as faeces of elephant
pataraá coiled, as fairly large python potoraá coiled, as of a very large python
A more complex set is;
sọ́ kịị to the top of a tree
sọ́ kịsọkị at the very top of a tree
sáịsaị extreme top (of a thin tree)
In this case the original simplex form sọ́ kịị was reduplicated to sọ́ kịsọkị expressing an extreme. This was
then lowered to sákịsakị to denote to the hearer that the tree was also thin and sákịsakị was reduced to sáịsaị
through C 2 deletion.
The following, cited above for the absence of simplex forms, also exemplify vowel-height symbolism.
sápụsàpụ sound of a deep-water fish jumping in water
sáwasàwa sound of a small surface fish jumping in water and making a splash
However, the weakening of p→w also calls for an explanation. This is not a sound-shift generally attested in
the lexicon, nor does it appear within the context of comparative Ijoid. The assumption must be that the p +
back vowel sequence was primary and that the substitution of a central vowel to denote small size caused
first the labialisation of the /p/ and then its deletion.
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