| /a/.
It is an open central unrounded vowel. It has a total of four positional
variants. These positional variants and their distributions are as
under: |
(i)
[ ]
a central unrounded vowel, occurring between half-close and half-open
positions. It occurs in word-initial position before /y/, when /ay/
forms the initial syllable of the word. |
| (ii)
[^] a half-open back unrounded vowel occurs in word initial position
except before /w, ´/ and in the environment stated in (i) above. |
| (iii)
[a^>] a slightly closer and retracted form of [a] occurs in word-initial
position before velar nasal /´/, and |
| (iv)
[a] occurs elsewhere. |
The
phones []
and [^] are in multiple complementation with /a/ and / /,
i.e. //
does not occur in word-initial position, whereas []
occurs only at the word-initial position as the first element of a
complex nuclei [ ]
/ay/ and [^] occurs in word-initial position except before /w, ´/
and before [i9] = /y/. Thus []
and [^] could have been grouped with either of the two vowels because
they share the unrounded feature as well as the central position with
both these vowels. And on the vertical axis, []
is almost equidistant from both /a/ and //.
Thus both from the point of view of the distribution and that of the
phonetic features []
and [^] could be grouped with either /a/ or //.
These two phones, however, are grouped with /a/, because between /a/
and //,
/a/ is considered a primary vowel as it is one of the 8 primary cardinal
vowels whereas []
is not and secondly, in terms of the universal features of the language,
there are languages having a= but not ö; at the same time there would
be no language that has
but not a; in other words, any language that has ö will also have
a, but the vice versa is not true. In view of all these, it is felt
that a primary vowel be given the maximal distribution and hence [«]
and [^] are grouped with /a/. This would automatically restrict the
occurrence of //
to the word-medial and final positions. |
| A
secondary consideration for such grouping is the orthographic convention
in vogue. Presently []
and [Ć] are symbolized in the Sema orthography as a. The grouping
done here would also facilitate a smooth transition from the present
orthographic convention to a phonemic script suggested in the Sema
Phonetic Reader (Sreedhar, 1976). The Sema literature committee has
already adopted most of the suggestions made in the Reader. /a/ does
not have any special limitation in its occurrence. Given below are
a few words showing the occurrence of this phoneme |
| [«] |
[ ve] |
/aywe/ |
`leech’ |
| |
[zw] |
/ayz/ |
`lake’ |
| |
[^yeF] |
/ayeFķ/ |
`clay’ |
| |
[^la] |
/ala/ |
`gutter’ |
| |
[^za] |
/aza/ |
`mother’ |
| |
[^cila] |
/acila/ |
`necklace’ |
| |
[^mś] |
/amś/ |
`elder
brother’ |
| |
[a^>a a] |
/aa/ |
`daughter’ |
| |
[
a^>u] |
/au/ |
`maternal
uncle’ |
| |
[a^>ś] |
/asś/ |
`tiger’ |
| [a] |
[a  Č] |
/awnhéy/ |
`elbow’ |
| |
[ixa] |
/ixa/ |
`departure’ |
| |
[^zh] |
/azah/ |
`law’ |
| |
[ksa e] |
/ksaze/ |
`share
(v)’ |
| |
[Fas ] |
/Faz/ |
`govern’ |
| |
[^Fapé] |
/aFapé/ |
`smallpox’ |
| |
[kzį] |
/kzį/ |
`day’ |
| |
[kza] |
/kza/ |
`clearing
the compound’ |
| |
[kza] |
/kzį/ |
`whip’ |
|
|
| /o/.
It is a half-close back rounded vowel. It has two positional variants.
These are: |
| (i)
[W] is a back rounded vowel occurring midway between
half-close and half-open positions. It occurs after fricatives, and
|
| (ii)
[o] occurs elsewhere. |
| This
phoneme does not have any special limitation in its distribution1.
Given below are a few words to illustrate the occurrence of this phoneme.
|
| [W] |
[z&Wa] |
/zoFa/ |
`playing’ |
| |
[FWz&ś] |
/Fozś/ |
`tempt’ |
| |
[z&W] |
/zņ/ |
`sweep’ |
|
|
