The Continuum Companion to Phonology is the definitive guide to a key area of linguistic study. I... more The Continuum Companion to Phonology is the definitive guide to a key area of linguistic study. It covers all the most important issues, concepts, movements and approaches in the field. It offers readers a comprehensive reference resource, with an overview of key topics, ...
Multilingualism is widespread amongst individuals and communities in African countries. However, ... more Multilingualism is widespread amongst individuals and communities in African countries. However, language-in-education policies across the continent continue to privilege monolingual approaches to language use in the classroom. In this paper we highlight the colonial origins of these monolingual ideologies and discuss the detrimental effects which arise when learners� linguistic repertoires are not welcomed within the education system. We draw attention to major themes within education across a range of contexts: policy vagueness, teachers as policy implementers, and the creation and imposition of boundaries. We advocate for a language-in-education approach which brings the outside in, which welcomes individuals� lived multilingual realities and which values these as resources for learning. We highlight the ways in which translanguaging could represent a positive shift to the way in which multilingual language practices are talked about, and can contribute to decolonising language p...
The latest language in education policy in Zambia is to use a �familiar� language in the initial ... more The latest language in education policy in Zambia is to use a �familiar� language in the initial stages of education before transitioning into a regional and later foreign language medium. Investigating the use of a familiar language�Namwanga�in Northern Zambia, in the context of a regional language�Bemba�the article shows that learning of literacy in the regional language is better supported by classrooms that allow free use of the �home� language or mother tongue. Results from a reading and comprehension task show no hindrance to the achievement of reading fluency in a regional language when a familiar language is encouraged in the classroom. The article provides support for multi-literacies developed through languages that learners are exposed to in their environment rather than a foreign language.
Representations of segments using elements or features face the challenge of whether cross-lingui... more Representations of segments using elements or features face the challenge of whether cross-linguistic representations of the same sound should have the same representation. In line with a universal view of phonology, it is generally argued that the same phonetic output should have identical representations across systems. This paper discusses some cases where this position is challenged, particularly in cases involving language change and so-called crazy rules. It is argued that the phonological patterning of segments is what should be the crucial deciding factor in their representation, allowing different elemental combinations of the same sound from different languages to map onto identical patterns in the speech signal
It’s a common observation across languages that certain affixation processes trigger some phonolo... more It’s a common observation across languages that certain affixation processes trigger some phonological processes or at least tampers with the organisation of the phonological string in some respect. The inevitable question that arises is whether these phonological phenomena should be derived from the morphological status of the word in question or whether it is the phonological status that should be called upon to account for the morphological irregularities that arise. I will pursue the latter idea by pushing to the limit the idea that different affix shapes either opt for different suffixation processes or select different stems, that has been alluded to in Booij 1977, Nespor & Vogel 1986, Peperkamp 1994, among others. The aim is to show that morphology is regulated by the phonological conditions at play in language. I will therefore derive both irregular and regular morphology following a consistent principle with regard to the phonological shape of the suffix. The focus of this ...
Although the facts of final obstruent devoicing in L2 phonology have been argued to follow more n... more Although the facts of final obstruent devoicing in L2 phonology have been argued to follow more naturally from the emergence of the unmarked in Optimality Theory (OT) this paper shows that enriched representations at the sub-segmental level can provide an equally elegant analysis that unlike the OT case is supported by different models of first language acquisition. It is argued that final devoicing follows from the depleted licensing potential of empty nuclei that occupy the final position in Government Phonology. This analysis is sustainable under the assumption that segmental features are privative and voice is either present or absent in segmental representation. The former entails more complex voiced sounds and the latter less complex voiceless sounds. The effects of the emergence of the unmarked in the acquisition of final voicing contrasts in L2 phonology therefore follow from the interaction of licensing potential and complexity.
Phonological co-occurrence restrictions as seen in Bantu Meinhof's Law raise interesting ques... more Phonological co-occurrence restrictions as seen in Bantu Meinhof's Law raise interesting questions for the nature of phonological domains and in particular, what restrictions apply in the definition of such phonological domains. Government Phonology is one framework that has gone some way in defining the boundaries of phonological domains by utilising the notion of licensing. A phonological domain thus has the formal definition under the licensing principle of Kaye [29] given in (1). (1) /LFHQVLQJ3ULQFLSOH: all positions within a phonological domain are licensed save one, the head. This paper will focus on Meinhof's Law (ML) which has been described both as a voicing dissimilation (Meinhof [40]) and (nasal) assimilation (Herbert [21], Katamba and Hyman [28]) process. 1 It is akin in nature to Japanese 5HQGDNX (Itô and Mester [25]) where the initial consonant in the second element of a compound is voiced, but this voicing is barred if another voiced segment is already present...
The Continuum Companion to Phonology is the definitive guide to a key area of linguistic study. I... more The Continuum Companion to Phonology is the definitive guide to a key area of linguistic study. It covers all the most important issues, concepts, movements and approaches in the field. It offers readers a comprehensive reference resource, with an overview of key topics, ...
Multilingualism is widespread amongst individuals and communities in African countries. However, ... more Multilingualism is widespread amongst individuals and communities in African countries. However, language-in-education policies across the continent continue to privilege monolingual approaches to language use in the classroom. In this paper we highlight the colonial origins of these monolingual ideologies and discuss the detrimental effects which arise when learners� linguistic repertoires are not welcomed within the education system. We draw attention to major themes within education across a range of contexts: policy vagueness, teachers as policy implementers, and the creation and imposition of boundaries. We advocate for a language-in-education approach which brings the outside in, which welcomes individuals� lived multilingual realities and which values these as resources for learning. We highlight the ways in which translanguaging could represent a positive shift to the way in which multilingual language practices are talked about, and can contribute to decolonising language p...
The latest language in education policy in Zambia is to use a �familiar� language in the initial ... more The latest language in education policy in Zambia is to use a �familiar� language in the initial stages of education before transitioning into a regional and later foreign language medium. Investigating the use of a familiar language�Namwanga�in Northern Zambia, in the context of a regional language�Bemba�the article shows that learning of literacy in the regional language is better supported by classrooms that allow free use of the �home� language or mother tongue. Results from a reading and comprehension task show no hindrance to the achievement of reading fluency in a regional language when a familiar language is encouraged in the classroom. The article provides support for multi-literacies developed through languages that learners are exposed to in their environment rather than a foreign language.
Representations of segments using elements or features face the challenge of whether cross-lingui... more Representations of segments using elements or features face the challenge of whether cross-linguistic representations of the same sound should have the same representation. In line with a universal view of phonology, it is generally argued that the same phonetic output should have identical representations across systems. This paper discusses some cases where this position is challenged, particularly in cases involving language change and so-called crazy rules. It is argued that the phonological patterning of segments is what should be the crucial deciding factor in their representation, allowing different elemental combinations of the same sound from different languages to map onto identical patterns in the speech signal
It’s a common observation across languages that certain affixation processes trigger some phonolo... more It’s a common observation across languages that certain affixation processes trigger some phonological processes or at least tampers with the organisation of the phonological string in some respect. The inevitable question that arises is whether these phonological phenomena should be derived from the morphological status of the word in question or whether it is the phonological status that should be called upon to account for the morphological irregularities that arise. I will pursue the latter idea by pushing to the limit the idea that different affix shapes either opt for different suffixation processes or select different stems, that has been alluded to in Booij 1977, Nespor & Vogel 1986, Peperkamp 1994, among others. The aim is to show that morphology is regulated by the phonological conditions at play in language. I will therefore derive both irregular and regular morphology following a consistent principle with regard to the phonological shape of the suffix. The focus of this ...
Although the facts of final obstruent devoicing in L2 phonology have been argued to follow more n... more Although the facts of final obstruent devoicing in L2 phonology have been argued to follow more naturally from the emergence of the unmarked in Optimality Theory (OT) this paper shows that enriched representations at the sub-segmental level can provide an equally elegant analysis that unlike the OT case is supported by different models of first language acquisition. It is argued that final devoicing follows from the depleted licensing potential of empty nuclei that occupy the final position in Government Phonology. This analysis is sustainable under the assumption that segmental features are privative and voice is either present or absent in segmental representation. The former entails more complex voiced sounds and the latter less complex voiceless sounds. The effects of the emergence of the unmarked in the acquisition of final voicing contrasts in L2 phonology therefore follow from the interaction of licensing potential and complexity.
Phonological co-occurrence restrictions as seen in Bantu Meinhof's Law raise interesting ques... more Phonological co-occurrence restrictions as seen in Bantu Meinhof's Law raise interesting questions for the nature of phonological domains and in particular, what restrictions apply in the definition of such phonological domains. Government Phonology is one framework that has gone some way in defining the boundaries of phonological domains by utilising the notion of licensing. A phonological domain thus has the formal definition under the licensing principle of Kaye [29] given in (1). (1) /LFHQVLQJ3ULQFLSOH: all positions within a phonological domain are licensed save one, the head. This paper will focus on Meinhof's Law (ML) which has been described both as a voicing dissimilation (Meinhof [40]) and (nasal) assimilation (Herbert [21], Katamba and Hyman [28]) process. 1 It is akin in nature to Japanese 5HQGDNX (Itô and Mester [25]) where the initial consonant in the second element of a compound is voiced, but this voicing is barred if another voiced segment is already present...
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