In general, Taine-Cheikh's Vʔ corresponds regularly to Ismail's V:, with the length clearly marked, as distinct from Taine-Cheikh's short V, which Ismail consistently transcribes short. Thus:
| Ismail | Taine-Cheikh | |
| young camel | awāra | äwaʔräh |
| waterbag | āga | äʔgäh |
| moustache | āya | aʔyäh |
| donkey m. | ājji | aʔž(ž)iy |
| donkey f. | tājil | taʔž(ž)əL |
| beard | tāmmart | taʔmmärt |
| camels | īyman | iʔymän |
| cows | tiššīđan | ətšiʔđaʔn / ətšiʔđän |
| lamb | hīmmar | iẕ̌iʔmär |
| donkey foal | īgiyu | iʔgiyi |
| shoulder(blade) | tūṛiḍ | toʔṛuḌ |
| donkeys | ūjjayan | uʔž(ž)äyän |
| shoulder(blade)s | tūrdin | tuʔṛäđän |
There are only two contexts where this correspondence does not hold. In the context / _C#, if C is a stop or fricative, Ismail retains the glottal stop; if C is a sonorant, it disappears without affecting vowel length. (More examples of this context would be useful to confirm the exact conditioning.)
| spring | taniʔđ | täniʔḏ |
| cow | taššiʔđ | täšši |
| head | iʔf | iʔf |
| camel | ayyim | äyiʔm |
| camel f. | tayyimt | täyi(ʔ)mt |
Word-finally, the variety Taine-Cheikh describes has no overtly realised glottal stops (*ʔ > Ø / _#); the contrast, however, is maintained, since all originally vowel-final words now end in h (*V > Vh / _#). In Ismail's dialect, the latter change never happened:
| waterbag | āga | äʔgäh |
| moustache | āya | aʔyäh |
| young camel | awāra | äwaʔräh |
| stomach | taxṣa | taḫs(s)äh |
| goat | tikši | təkših |
| ewe | tīyyi | tīyih |
Nevertheless, the two classes have not completely merged; final *i remains i, but final *iʔ becomes u:
| billy-goat | ahayu | äẕ̌äyi |
| mouth | immu | əmmi |
| tooth | awkšu | äwkši |
| tongue | itšu | ətši |
| donkey foal | īgiyu | iʔgiyi |
| calf | īrku | īrki |
In the variety Taine-Cheikh describes, long vowels derive not from *Vʔ but from *Vh (ultimately *Vβ). Given that vowel length can be a reflex of a former glottal stop in Ismail's dialect, the next thing we need to check is what happens to *Vh there; it turns out that there too it yields long vowels:
| small cattle | tākšin | tākšən |
| calf | īrku | īrki |
| ewe | tīyyi | tīyih |
| nostril | tīnhart | tīnẕ̌ärt |
| nose | tīnharin | tīnẕ̌ärän |
The regularity of these correspondences is a testimony to the accuracy of both parties' work, and confirms the value of Zenaga as a data source for Berber historical phonology.
6 comments:
Who are these two people? I see from your last post that Ismail has been posting on a Facebook group, but I couldn't make any sense of the content. Are they language informants? Linguists? Both?
Catherine Taine-Cheikh is a linguist (and colleague at my unit of the CNRS, LACITO), who has published a dictionary of Zenaga. All I know about Ahmadou Ismail is that he's a middle-aged man in Mauritania who seems to speak Zenaga; he's clearly studied grammar in some context, but I don't see any reason to suppose he's a linguist.
Is it possible that this might be a listener rather than a speaker difference? People who aren't used to postvocalic glottal stops might well hear them as vowel length. I feel uneasy about drawing conclusions from phonology studied by just one linguist (professional or otherwise).
It's always possible, but he should be familiar with glottal stops from Standard Arabic, and he clearly hears them in some final syllables; it's hard to imagine why he would systematically fail to hear them only in non-final syllables. Catherine should be putting her recordings online sometime over the next year or so, so when that happens you can hear for yourself. However, the presence of a glottal stop phoneme in Zenaga is also confirmed by the earlier work of Nicholas, as well as by 19th century manuscripts like the one discussed here a few years back: 18th century Zenaga poetry and language change.
Just ask Ahmadou Ismail to record [voice] some texts and post them :-)
People who aren't used to postvocalic glottal stops might well hear them as vowel length.
Hard to imagine. As nonlinguistic pauses, sure, but as vowel length?
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