Lecture | This Time for Africa! series
Disentangling ghost segments and number marking in Sengwer
- Date
- Friday 24 April 2026
- Time
- Serie
- This Time for Africa! series
- Address
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 1.21
Abstract
In the study of the world’s languages, it is not uncommon to observe a systematic appearance and disappearance of stem-final phonological material across a word’s paradigm. Often, such phenomena are shown to be the result of synchronic phonologically-conditioned deletion or insertion. When a phonological explanation of this type fails, such patterns are tested for suppletive stem allomorphy. However, in the case of Sengwer (South Nilotic, Kalenjin: Kenya), I show that neither of these explanations satisfactorily accounts for the distribution of unexpected phonological material across noun paradigms. While usually part preceding morphemes (roots and suffixes), in some cases, this material can only be analysed as latent number suffixes.
These latent suffixes are part of a rich and complex system number marking system with a high density of seemingly irregular alternations both at the segmental and suprasegmental level. On the surface, number in Sengwer is marked by a plethora of suffixes as well as word-internal tone and ATR changes. These three number-marking strategies (suffixation, ATR and tone) occur on their own or in two- and three-way combinations. In this study, I present evidence that this perceived irregularity is reduced a great deal when taking latent material into consideration. In particular, latent suffixes can be shown to be triggers of phonological alternations even when absent from the surface.