The Somali morphophonological/twolc rules file

Morphophonological notes

Phonological Processes in Somali

Somali has several phonological alternations involving reduplication, lenition, vowel harmony and tone. The hopes with this documentation is that it will either make twolc rules clearer, or help if it comes time to completely redo all the rules.

Spreading processes

Lenition

The lenis stop series in Somali alternates with the fortis series , note that the does not actually participate. Lenis stops are found in coda positions, and fortis stops are found elsewhere. The alternation occurs in both nouns and verbs.

ilig ‘tooth'   ~   iligga ‘tooth (Def.)'     ~   ilko ‘teeth (Indef.)’
arag ‘see'     ~   aragtaa ‘2Sg/3SgF sees'   ~   arkaa ‘1Sg/3SgM sees’

Voicing assimilation

Stops assimilate for voicing (or lenis/fortis), particularly across morpheme boundaries, however they only assimilate if they share place of articulation.

aragtaa            ‘2Sg/3SgF sees’
wararka            ‘the news’
buugga             ‘the book’
naagta            ‘the woman’
jaamacadda        ‘the university’

This also follows for the retroflex segment , however the sequence is shortened to .

gabadh            ‘(a) girl’
gabadha           ‘the girl’

Vowel ablaut

Vowels are subject to two main types of ablaut: (1) full ablaut across back consonants, and (2) partial ablaut with ~ preceding the high vowel . Full ablaut is constrained to morpheme boundaries: and most commonly occurs in the ‘waxa’ focus marker.

waxaan ‘foc+1Sg'            magac                        rah
wuxuu  ‘foc+3SgM'           magucu    / magacu           ruhu
magicii   / magicii 

Full ablaut appears to be optional in some words. Partial ablaut occurs in verbal infinitives with mostly any word of the pattern CaC. When the infinitive ending is appended, raises to . It also occurs around person suffixes and tense ending in

tag ‘go'        tegi ‘to go'            tegeen ‘they went’
bax ‘leave'     bexi ‘to leave'         bexeen ‘they left’

deletion

is deleted when it follows a back consonant (which is not itself): ``` wax + ka => waxa magac + ka => magaca rah + ka => raha ``` + -> Occurs only across morpheme boundaries, in verbs and nouns. wiilal => wiilasha ‘boys' ‘the boys’ maqal => maqashay ‘listen' ‘2Sg/3SgF listened’ ## Vowel harmony For a complete description of vowel harmony, see the literature. Short summary: +ATR is the active spreading feature, and spreads leftward across all boundaries but is blocked by pauses in speech (Intonation Phrase). +ATR can spread rightward, but stops at the word boundary. It does not cross clitics, typically. Hopefully VH will be covered in this analyzer. ## Tonal Processes In certain environments Somali appears to dislike having two tones immediately next to eachother. I have some collected environments for a phonology paper. May not be super important right off the bat. ## Reduplication Somali has two kinds of reduplication: partial and full. Reduplication is typically a strategy for marking plural in nouns and adjectives in some declensions, but also appears in verbs as a derivational process. The inflectional processes are quite productive, but the derivational processes are not as productive. Partial reduplication occurs in the 4th declension of nouns, but a subtype of these 4th declensional nouns also has full reduplication. Partial reduplication includes epenthesis of . Note that partial reduplication in adjectives is prefixing, while in nouns it is suffixing. Also, the template is slightly different. ``` af ‘mouth, language' => afaf ‘... +Pl’ qoys ‘family' => qoysas ‘... +Pl’ ``` Note: There may be some partial reduplication that also copies the vowel. Full reduplication also applies to some of these nouns: ``` qof ‘person' => qofqof cad ‘part' => cadcad ``` Adjectives: ``` quruxsán ‘beautiful' => qurquruxsán ‘ ... +Pl’ fudúd ‘easy, light' => fudfudúd adág ‘difficult' => ad'adág yár ‘a little' => yaryára gaabán ‘short' => gaaggaabán ‘ ... +Pl’ laabán ‘folded' => laallaabán jabán ‘broken' => ‘jajabán’ ``` Irregular adjectives: ``` dhéer ‘long, tall (sg)' => dhaadhéer wéyn ‘big' => waawéyn ``` Note: Other possibilities might be found greping: with ‘^\(.\)aa\1e', ‘^\(.\)aa\1\1aa', ‘\(.\)a\1$’ ## Person morphemes The realization of personal suffixes on verbs is a little complex and depends mostly on declension type and whether or not the suffix is preceded by the progressive. Realization of these suffixes is currently all handled by twolc: ``` sg pl 1 {đ} {ñ} ==> 2 {ŧ} 0 3 Masc {đ} {đ} 3 Fem {ŧ} Declension 1 sg pl 1 keenaa keennaa 1 dhacay dhacnay 2 keentaa keenaan 2 dhacday dheceen 3 Masc keenaa keentaan 3 Masc dhacay dhecdeen 3 Fem keentaa 3 Fem dhacday Declension 2 sg pl sg 1 sameeyay sameynay 1 kariyay karinay 2 sameysay sameyseen 2 karisay kariseen 3 Masc sameeyay sameeyeen 3 Masc kariyay kariyeen 3 Fem sameysay 3 Fem karisay Declension 3 sg pl 1 furay furannay 1 watay wadannay 2 furtay furateen 2 wadatay wadateen 3 Masc furay fureen 3 Masc watay wateen 3 Fem furtay 3 Fem wadatay ``` A short summary: ``` %{đ%} - 1Sg, 3SgM and 3Pl; realized as 0/y/d in classes %{ŧ%} - 2Sg, 3SgF, 2Pl; realized as t/s in classes %{ñ%} - 1Pl; realized as n in all classes ‘special' here just in case. ``` This process could easily be removed from twolc and done in just flag diacritics, why not? More processes to describe: * wataa / wadatay dissimilation * a/e alternation in -e nouns (noun type is a bit more complex too, as corpus reveals) * vowel deletion ilig, ilko * e/y alternation in samee- verbs * w/b alternations * vowel lengthening magaalo / magaalooyin Notes: * If forms disappear but the rule should work, make sure that the pair transforming exists in the Alphabet Alphabet For ease of reduplication and treating sh as separate from l + t => sh TODO: write tests for gacmahii / gacmihii, magacii / magicii, magucu / magacu TODO: tests from these ``` ilig+N+Masc+Pl+Def+PxSg3M+Abs+Prox il^ik´%>%{N%}a%>híisa# -- > ilkihiisa walaal+N+Masc+Pl+Def+PxSg3M+Abs+Prox walaal´´%>%{N%}a%>híisa# -- > walaalihiisa magac+N+Masc+Sg+Def+Abs+Dist magac´´%>%{N%}kii# -- > magicii magac+N+Masc+Sg+Def+Nom+Prox magac´´%>%{N%}ku# -- > magucu magac+N+Masc+Sg+Def+PxSg3F+Abs+Prox magac´´%>%{N%}kíisa# -- > magiciisa waxa+CS+Foc/R+Sg3M wax%>uu# -- > wuxuu wax+N+Masc+Sg+Def+PxSg3M+Nom+Prox wax´´%>%{N%}kíisu# -- > wixiisu / waxiisu ``` List of rules: **Ablaut around back fricatives at morpheme boundaries** **Ablaut in declension 7 with final vowel** **LT -> SH part 1** **LT -> SH part 2** **LT -> SH part 2 for V3B** **LT -> SH in reduplicative plurals, pt 1** **V2 {y} deletion** **Definite suffix -k to -g next to preceding voiced** **t:0 before d h** **t/d alternation - definite suffix, V1** TODO: dukaammo **Declension 2: -C doubling in plural** TODO: This rule is currently conflicting with the next one. **Declension 2: -y insertion after back sounds and fricatives; and after -i** **Declension 4: Plural Partial Reduplication** **Declension 4: Plural Partial Reduplication %{m}** **Declension 4: C2->n in m contexts** **-y- insertion in plurals** **Disallow yy** Doesn't work with wuxu, where k has been deleted. Doesn't work with magicii, magucu, but should optionally. magacii and magicii, etc are both possible **Declension 6: final vowel** **Declension V1: magacow / magacaabay / magacawday, shorten a** **Delete preceding a** AllBoundaries \?:WordChars **Declension 7: {-e} delete** **Declension 7: final vowel** **Declension 7: final vowel in final position** ## Verbal Rules **V2A -> V3B derivations, delete -i** **V2A -> V3B derivations, depalatization** **V1: a/e umlaut before i/e** **V1: a/e umlaut before a** **V1, D3: Vowel deletion** **V1: Simplification of dhd to dh (t)** **V1: n/m when deleted vowel results in C0n** ## V2A tbw. ## V2B **V2B: y-insertion** **V2B: ey before consonants** **V2B: ee before y** **V2B: Remove e** V3A ## V3B Following rules are for the funky things that happen with 1Sg, 3SgM, 3Pl Basically, disallowed d_d, so it gets simplified to t wada>d>aa# wada>nn>aa# wada>t>aa# wada>d>aan# wada>d>aa# wada>t>aan# wada>t>aa# wataa wadannaa wadataa wadataan wataa wataan wadataa fura>d>aa# fura>nn>aa# fura>t>aa# fura>d>aan# fura>d>aa# fura>t>aan# fura>t>aa# furtaa furannaa furataa furataan furtaa furtaan furataa Also another type: TODO: merge sigo+V+IV+1Sg+Ind+Past sig{a}>d>ay# sigo+V+IV+2Sg+Ind+Past sig{a}>t>ay# sigtay sigatay But: obd / cd / hd / qd / xd / yd Note: bt / obd **V3B: %{o%}:o finally** **V3B: %{o%}:0 in d _ d** **V3B: d dissimilation** **V3B: d dissimilation w/ cor ** **V3B: d dissimilation 2 ** **V3B: root {a} deletion before suffixes with -d** **V3B: otherwise** General Rules **Vowel reduction VVV -> VV** **m->n in codas** **m->m in codas** **Optional m doubling** **Velar deletion after Back, but avoiding digraphs** **Final lenition.** **-ee changes to -ye after other vowels** **-ee changes to -e after y** **-ee clitic deletes preceding -o** **progressive nasal assimilation across morphological boundaries** * *primus%>s* * *primus00* * examples:* * examples:* * examples:* * examples:* * * * This (part of) documentation was generated from [src/fst/morphology/phonology.twolc](https://github.com/giellalt/lang-som/blob/main/src/fst/morphology/phonology.twolc)