LuGanda glide epenthesis and prosodic misalignment

Abstract

This article analyses LuGanda glide epenthesis triggered by the affxation of the prefix /N-/ to a vowel-initial stem. The epenthetic glide y appears between the prefix and the stem, surfacing either as a palatal j or a nasal/z e.g. /N-ágál-á/ -> [Ny-ágál-á] -> [ǹj-ágál-á] ‘I love’ and /N-ánìk-a/ -> [Ny-ánìk-á] -> [fyi-ánìk-á] ‘I put out to dry’. LuGanda epenthesis is unusual in that it treats consonant-initial and vowel-initial stems differently, applying only in vowel-initial stems. We demonstrate that LuGanda glide epenthesis provides the crucial phonological evidence for the Theory of Prosodic Misalignment in Downing (1998a).