Avatime, also known as Afatime, Sideme, or Sia, is a Kwa language of the Avatime (self designation: Kedone (m.sg.)) people of eastern Ghana. The Avatime live primarily in the seven towns and villages of Amedzofe, Vane, Gbadzeme, Dzokpe, Biakpa, Dzogbefeme, and Fume.
Phonology
Avatime is a tonal language with three tones, has vowel harmony, and has been claimed to have doubly articulated fricatives.
Vowels
Avatime has nine vowels, /iɪeɛaɔoʊu/, though the vowels /ɪʊ/ have been overlooked in most descriptions of the language. It is not clear if the difference between /ieou/ and /ɪɛɔʊ/ is one of advanced and retracted tongue root (laryngeal contraction), as in so many languages of Ghana, or of vowel height: different phonetic parameters support different analyses.[note 1]
Avatime has vowel harmony. A root many not mix vowels of the relaxed /ieou/ and contracted /ɪɛaɔʊ/ sets, and prefixes change vowels to harmonize with the vowels of the root. For example, the human singular gender prefix is /ɔ~o/, and the human plural is /a~e/: /o-ze/ "thief", /ɔ-ka/ "father"; /be-ze/ "thieves", /ba-ka/ "fathers"; also /o-bu/ "bee" but /ɔ-bʊ/ "god".[note 2]
Vowels may be long or short. Records from 1910[clarification needed] showed that all vowels could be nasalized, but that is disappearing, and few words with nasal vowels remained by the end of the century.
/ɸ/ is found in Ewe borrowings,[2] as is /kʷ/, which can be seen to be distinct from /kw/ (which cannot be followed by another consonant) in the loanword /àkʷlɛ̄/'boat'.[3]
The language has been claimed to have doubly articulated fricatives /x͡ɸɣ͡β/. However, as with similar claims for Swedish [ɧ], the labial articulation is not fricated, and these are actually labialized velars, /xʷɣʷ/.[4] All velar fricatives are quite weak, and are more often [hɦhʷɦʷ].[2]
The affricates vary between [t͡s], [d͡z] and [t͡ʃ], [d͡ʒ], which may be a generational difference.[5]
Phonotactics
Syllables are V, CV, CGV, and N: Avatime allows consonant-approximant clusters, where the approximant may be /l/,/w/,/j/. There is also a syllabic nasal, which takes its own tone: /kpāŋ̄/ "many".
Any consonant but /n/,/l/ may form a cluster with /l/: /ɔ̀kplɔ̄nɔ̀/ "table", /ɔ̀ɡblāɡɛ̄/ "snake", /káɣʷlɪ̀tsã̀/ "chameleon", /sɪ̄ŋʷlɛ̀sɛ̃̀/ "mucous". After a coronal consonant, the /l/ is pronounced [r].
When two vowels come together, they are either separated by a glottal stop [ʔ], fuse into a single vowel, or the first vowel reduces to a semivowel. In the latter case, the four front vowels reduce to [j] and three of the back vowels reduce to [w], but /u/ is fronted to [ɥ].
However, there are /Cw/ and /Cj/ sequences which are not derived from vowel sequences. These are /fw/,/mw/,/fj/,/vj/,/βj/,/tj/,/dj/,/sj/,/zj/,/lj/,/ŋʷj/.
Notes
^Since the IPA does not have distinct letters for ±ATR vowels, they are transcribed here as differing in height for legibility.
