Theoretical Contributions of Phonological Research on African Languages
African languages are numerous and typologically rich,and thus constitute a treasure trove of linguistic data.The study of African language phonology is conducive to better understanding phonological universals and variation.In terms of phoneme,distinctive feature,phonological rule,syllable struc-ture,tone,stress,vowel harmony and intonation,African languages pro-vide abundant materials for the the construction and testing of phonological theory.This paper reviews the achievements in phonological theory develop-ment with respect to African language phonology,and explains the theoreti-cal contributions of phonological research on African languages from the perspectives of structuralist phonemics,distinctive feature theory,phono-logical rule interaction,syllable theory,autosegmental phonology,phono-logical skeleton,intonational phonology,lexical phonology and Optimality Theory.The phonological research of African languages plays a noteworthy role in the development of phonological theory.
万方数据
维普
