T’ambaaro phonology

Abstract

This article describes the phonology of T’ambaaro, a Highland East Cushitic language of the Afro-asiatic phylum spoken in southwest Ethiopia. The language has twenty-four consonant phonemes, and five oral vowels and one nasal vowel whose phonemic status is not safely established. The oral vowels are typical Cushitic vowels occurring short and long. In T’ambaaro, except the phonemes/h/ and /f/ which never occur geminate, the rest of the consonant phonemes appeargeminate, but that is only in word medial position. The palatal nasal and the voiceless, alveo-palatal affricate never occur as a single consonant, but only as a geminate consonant. Gemination and vowel length are phonemic in the language. Consonant cluster are allowed only in word medial position with a maximum of two consonants. Some consonants and vowels appear in free variation, but it is very difficult to formulate a systematic rule that captures the phenomenon. The phonology has phonological processes such as assimilation, epenthesis, deletion, and metathesis. T’ambaaro is not a tonal language, but seems a pitch accent language which is difficult to establish a rule for at this stage.