On the Phonological Structure of Esahie Compounds: Tonal and Segmental Changes

Abstract

Compounding, the process which combines two or more lexemes to form a new lexeme, is a

common strategy cross-linguistically for increasing word stocks. This process may trigger

several changes in the output form, including phonological changes, both segmental and

suprasegmental changes. This paper examines two phonological features of compound

formation in Esahie (ISO 639-3: sfw), a Niger-CongoÄKwa language spoken in parts of

Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. We discuss the tonal structure of compounds, compared to those

of their individual constituents, as well as changes in segmental & syllabic structure,

including deletion and consonant mutation. Based on data purposively drawn from a variety

of sources, this study provides evidence for the observation that, although compounding is a

morphological process, there is usually an intricate interface between the morphology and

the phonology as evidenced by the phonological properties of the input and output of the

compounding process. Focusing on tone, this paper identifies some form of uniformity in the

tonal output of compounds where, regardless of the tonal pattern of the compound

constituents, the compounds bear a predictable Low-High output tonal melody, showing that

Esahie compound tonal melody may be a constructional property. We discuss the tonal

processes that yield the output tone of the compounds, employing formalism from

Autosegmental Phonology. We further show that non-tonal changes like deletion and

consonant mutation occur in the computation of the output form of Esahie compounds.