ASSIMILATION PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES INVOLVING VOWELS IN TSHIVENDA LANGUAGE
Authors:
Abednico Nyoni, Phd¹ & Nthambeleni Charles Netshisaulu, Phd²
Abstract:
This paper is a study of assimilation phonological processes involving vowels in Tshivenda. The phonological processes presented in this paper are vowel nasalisation, vowel coalescence and vowel harmony in Tshivenda. This serves to communicate that there is a paucity of studies on phonological processes involving vowels in Tshivenda. This study offers new data that fills this gap in previous descriptions. Phonological fieldwork involving a wordlist was applied for the collection of data following a qualitative approach, a pure research paradigm and a descriptive research design. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was used for data analysis together with the Optimality Theory and Praat software in some instances.