ON THE QUESTION OF GLIDE FORMATION AND NASALITY IN ẸDO SYLLABLE
ON THE QUESTION OF GLIDE FORMATION AND NASALITY IN ẸDO SYLLABLE

Summary/Abstract: Previous assumptions suggest that there is no regressive vowel nasalisation in Ẹdo, a language spoken in southern Nigeria. It is also generally believed that the process of glide formation applies automatically in the Ẹdo syllable patterning whenever the condition is met (that is, if a high(er) vowel immediately occurs before another vowel). Prevailing evidence from synchronic data, including 85 cases in which glide formation was expected to have occurred, suggests a different understanding of nasalisation and glide formation, as well as their effects on the Ẹdo syllable structure. The aim of this study is to investigate the conditions under which glide formation fails to occur when vowels co-occur in a given context. The data for the study are sourced from Ẹdo speakers in several speech contexts. The data were organized, analyzed with both perceptual and acoustic methods and observed carefully with the aim of achieving the set goal. The study reveals that regressive nasalisation is manifested in the language, and its interaction with glide formation questions the presumed automatic nature of vowel gliding in Ẹdo syllable. The paper also goes further to suggest an alternative account of glide formation: that its rule does not always apply, but is suspended in certain context by a ‘glide formation suspension rule’. It is maintained, herein, that Ẹdo manifests the CVV syllable structure, in addition to the V and CV.

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