THE PHONOTACTICS OF KI IN ỊZỌ́N FOCUS CONSTRUCTIONS

Abstract

That focus places prominence on certain constituents and leaves out (back)ground information in information structure is not new. Also, language-specific parameters observed in foci and their markings are established in the literature. However, a literature gap exists on the variants of the Izọ́n focus marker identified as kị. A seeming challenge in pedagogy is envisioned in distinguishing its variants in syntactic frames. This study is cast within the phonological processes of elision, epenthesis, tonal reassociation, and vowel reassignment. Data are drawn from utterances of Izón competent speakers in interpersonal interactions and innate knowledge of the researcher. The study avers that kị is heterogenous, conditioned by contagious onset(less) morphemes and manifests as ke, ko, ku, ki, etc., having elided its onset vowel and conversely too, that kị remains stable when it co-occurs with onset morphemes but may insert an /o/ epenthesis when a time adverbial or place argument is the focus. All phonological processes conform to the CV syllable structure of the language.