3 - Proto-Central Chadic Diachronic Phonology and Morphophonology

Summary

Chapter 3 introduces the templatic approach to Proto-Central Chadic phonology by identifying an underlying root-and-pattern structure with only one vowel phoneme available: */a/. It distinguishes diachronically simple and augmented roots (the latter carrying petrified former grammatical markers) and describes the high frequency of consonant metathesis. It discusses the inventory of PCC consonants and the double origin of prosodies, i.e. labialisation prosody and palatalisation prosody, plus occurrences of combined Y- and W-prosodies in the same word. It follows up on the different diachronic sources of morphological prosodies, and it takes an extra look at the occurrence of word-final schwa in place of final */a/. The chapter concludes with observations on the integration of loan words into the specific requirements of PCC phonology.