A Study of Tone and Length in Lubukusu and Lulogooli Dialects of Luluyia

Abstract

This work is an attempt to investigate and establish the nature and functions of the prosodic features of tone and length in Lubukusu and Lulogooli dialects of Luluyia using the principles of Autosegmental Phonology. In chapter one a preliminary survey of the language is given followed by an overview of the principles of the Autosegmental Theory as opposed to the unidimensional generative Sound Patterns of English (SPE) model. The second chapter is a review of relevant literature while in chapters three and four a scientific analysis of the prosodies is made. In these chapters tone and length in Lubukusu and Lulogooli are found to be phonemic. specifiable and best represented on autonomous phonological tiers from the segmental tier on which segmental phonemes are represented. Overall speech output is given as a product of the complementary activities of these tiers whose elements are associated with syllables and larger morphosyntactic units. In the fifth and last chapter an evaluation of the viability of a multilinear approach over the generative SPE edifice is made and conclusion reached that the Autosegmental Theory, together with insights borrowed from Metrical and Multidimensional Phonology, adequately account for the phenomenologies of tone and length in Lubukusu and Lulogooli in a unified and principled way.