with less number of
consonants. Of these, the voiced velar stop in both C1
and C2 position occurs with the least number of
consonants. The bilabials including the bilabial approximant also
occur with very few consonants. While in C1
position the unvoiced affricate does not occur in C2
position, it occurs after nasals and flap. The voiced affricate occurs
both in C1 and C2
positions with the liquids and the palatal approximant.
|
The C1C2
clusters occurring in the intervocal position can also be compared
with that counterparts in the word-initial position. When such a
comparison is made, it can be seen that even though the consonant
sequences occurring in the intervocal position are more than double
that of the ones occurring in the word-initial position, a few
clusters occurring in the word-initial position do not occur in the
inter-vocal position. These clusters are : gr, (p, g) + l, (p, n) + y.
Again of the 5 consonants that occur in C1
position with y in C2 at the word-initial
position, only two occur in the inter-vocal position, though a total
of 4 consonants precede y is the inter-vocal position.
|
The clusters in the word-final
position
|
The C1C2
clusters occurring at the word-final position are comparatively very
few. Incidentally none of the C1C2
clusters occurring at the word-initial position are found to occur in
the word-final position.
|
The total number of C1C2
clusters occurring in the word-final position are mostly loan words
from English which are given below.
|
| (i) n+(d,j,s)
(ii) y+(j,s) (iii) w+(r,n) (iv) st
(v) mb |
The following are the
examples of these clusters
|
(i) n+(d,j,s)
|
nd r wnd |
‘round’ |
ns |
syens |
‘science’ |
| nj |
benj |
‘bench’ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(ii) y+(j,s)
|
| yj peyj |
‘page’ |
ys |
eksorsys |
‘exercise’ |
|
(iii) w (r,n)
|
| wr gawr til |
‘mor’ |
wn |
tawn |
‘town’ |
|
(iv) st
|
|
|
(v) mb bomb ‘bomb’
|
Sequences of vowels
|
An extremely limited number
of vowels occur in sequences of V1V2
the largest of such a sequence being two vowels. Of these a in V2
position occurs with three other vowels, i in v position occurs with
two other vowels. These are presented below in a schematic manner.
|
| v1 v2 |
v1 v2 |
v 1 v2 |
v 1 v2 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
From the above chart, it can
be seen that i and a have the maximum privilege of occurrence with the
other vowels. It could also be seen that the central vowels do not
occur in v1 position and the back and the half
close front vowels do not occur in v2 position.
The illustrative examples of the occurrences of the sequences of
vowels are stated below.
|
(a) i + (,
a)
|
| i
bohise |
‘is sitting’ |
ia |
sial |
‘jackal’ |
|
(b) o+(i,a)
|
| oi |
hutois |
‘twenty-seven’ |
| oa |
noare |
‘cannot’ |
|
(c) (e, o) +i
|
| ei |
teis |
‘twenty-three’ |
| oi |
hutois |
‘twenty-seven’ |
|
(d) (i, o, u)+a
|
| ia |
sial |
‘jackal’ |
oa noare |
‘cannot’ |
| ua |
suali |
‘girl’ |
adua |
‘ginger’1 |
|
A description of the
sequences of consonants and vowels occurring in the Naga Pidgin was
stated in this chapter. |
1The other sequences do not occur in the
word-final position.
|
