The Range and Beauty of Internal Reconstruction: Probing Hausa Linguistic History Cover Image

The Range and Beauty of Internal Reconstruction: Probing Hausa Linguistic History
The Range and Beauty of Internal Reconstruction: Probing Hausa Linguistic History

Author(s): Paul Newman
Subject(s): Phonetics / Phonology, Morphology, Lexis, Historical Linguistics, Comparative Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Hausa; Klingenheben’s Law; historical linguistics; internal reconstruction; diphthongs; compounds

Summary/Abstract: Using examples from Hausa, this paper demonstrates the probative value of Internal Reconstruction (IR) as a method for unearthing linguistic history. Five developments in the history of Hausa discovered by means of IR are described. These are Klingenheben’s Law; two previously unrecognized diphthongs, *iu and *ui; the emergence of the phoneme /h/ from a phonetic feature of word onset; vowel lowering resulting in asymmetry in plural formation; and the preservation of an archaic third person singular masculine pronoun *ni in fixed compounds.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 48
  • Page Range: 13-31
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: English