Some aspects of Umbundu Phonology

Abstract

The description of the segments that make up the Umbundu language has a fundamental role, in the context of linguistic investigations and in what concerns   the   preservation and vitalization of the language s of Angola of Bantu origin.  Inthe present work o f a theoretical and descriptive   nature, we pursuit (i) to analyze the phonological system of Umbundu, (ii) to contribute to the knowledge and understanding of the phonological segments that comprise the   phonological system of Umbundu; (iii) describe the distinctive aspect s of the Umbundu's phonological system, withemphasis on vowel s and pre-nasal consonants. For this purpose, we selected theoretical field based on Segmental Phonology and the Geometry of Phonological Features based on authors such as Jakobson (1939), Trubetzkoy (1939),Jakobson and Hall e (1956), Chomsky and Clements (1985).  The   study shows that Umbundu maintains the universality of the   existence of the maintenance of the triangle of vowels with five (5) vowels and the vowel /a/presents opening features that we proposed as subspecified features, as it was noted to Kimbundu (Cf.  Xavier, 2010).The Umbundu also has pre-nasal consonants articulated with the lowered palatine   veil, until a certain point   duringthe production of the oral occlusive that follow s the nasal occlusion.   Arboreal form al representation (Clements,1985) allowed us to   verify the universal precept according to that vow e ls and cons on ants in the Umbundu languageare not their minimum   constituents, because we were able to break them down, with emphasis on vowels, into minimal properties according to the character articulatory or acoustic such as coronability, lability, voicing.