Notes on Kodi Phonology

Lovestrand, Joseph; Balle, Misriani; Edwards, Owen

Abstract

This paper describes aspects of the phonology of Kodi, an Austronesian language of Sumba, Indonesia. Based on the analysis of recordings of an elicited word list, the description covers the segmental phonology, syllable structure, stress and the spreading of palatalization and labialization features. A pervasive feature of Kodi is a number of morphophonological processes that result in most words alternating between a longer and shorter form. These include antepenultimate vowel reduction, paragoge and apocope, as well as productive synchronic metathesis of a word-final vowel and the preceding consonant. When a word with identical vowel qualities in the two final syllables undergoes metathesis, it results in a double vowel. By measuring hundreds of vowel lengths in our data, we show that double vowels are phonetically distinct in length from stress-induced vowel lengthening in Kodi.

Citation

Lovestrand, J., Balle, M., & Edwards, O. (2022). Notes on Kodi Phonology. Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, 15(2), 1-26

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 1, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Aug 29, 2022
• Publication Date: Aug 29, 2022
• Deposit Date: Apr 22, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 22, 2023
• Journal: Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society
• Electronic ISSN: 1836-6821
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 1-26
• Keywords: Kodi, Sumba, phonology
• Publisher URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10524/52501