SYLLABLE WEIGHT IN DHOLUO

Abstract

This paper is about syllable weight in Dholuo, a Western Nilotic
language spoken in south-western Kenya and the neighbouring
northern tip of Tanzania. Dholuo has both open and closed syllables,
as well as heavy and light syllables. A light syllable in Dholuo consists
of CV, V, CVC or VC syllable structures (or V and VC rhyme structures),
while a heavy syllable is composed of CV:, CVV, V:, VV, CV:C, CVVC,
V:C or VVC syllable structures (or V:, VV, V:C, and VVC rhyme
structures). The paper demonstrates that Dholuo is a type-B language,
according to Katamba’s (1989) classification of languages into type-A
and type-B depending on their syllable weight. It is a type-B language
because the coda does not count in the determination of its syllable
weight. In a type-B language, both the onset and coda do not play a
role in the determination of the weight of a syllable. The paper also
shows that if a word ends in a closed syllable (in which case it has a
coda) in utterance-final position, the vowel in that syllable gets
lengthened and therefore becomes heavy and is hence stressed. If a
non-monosyllabic, that is, a polysyllabic word ends in an open syllable
in utterance-final position, it is its penultimate vowel that gets
lengthened and, hence, becomes heavy and stressed. Therefore,
though the coda is irrelevant in determining the weight of a syllable,
it plays an important role in triggering vowel lengthening and, hence,
stress placement in words occurring in utterance-final position in
Dholuo.