CORONAL ASSIMILATION IN DAGBANI

This paper examines Coronal Assimilation in Dagbani, a Mabia language spoken in the northern part of Ghana. Premised on the theory of Feature Geometry, the paper supports the idea that a place node dominates the class nodes Labial, Coronal and Dorsal. The places of articulation considered to be Coronal in Dagbani are alveolar (e.g. (/t, d, s, z, n, l/), flap (e.g. /ɾ/), palato-alveolar (e.g. /ʧ, ʤ, ʃ, ʒ/), and palatal (e.g. /j, ɲ/).  The paper discusses how Coronal nasal /n/ assimilates the Coronal features from a flap /ɾ/ consonant that precedes it and shows that the flap consonant triggers the process provided that no coronal consonant intervenes. It suggests that the alveolar nasal /n/ is [+ anterior, + distributed] while the consonant /r/ is [-anterior, -distributed] in Dagbani and the assimilation rule simultaneously spreads flap features dominated by the Coronal node. It also explores assimilatory process of coronal harmony arguing that the harmony, which is triggered by a suffix morpheme /-da/ or /-si/, is not blocked by an intervening [-continuant]. It concludes by discussing Vowel Copy Rules as assimilatory processes that accounts directly for a common phenomenon where all features of a vowel spread to a preceding or following vowel without regard for the nature of the intervening consonant(s).