1 Linguistics 13 April 2012 Linguistic Analysis Linguistics can be described in terms of a study that covers the peculiarities of languages

and requires the implementation of the systemic approach in order to study its main object. Different approaches to the analysis of the language were applied in the past, but they cannot explain the peculiarities of any modern language, because each language has come through a number of historical processes. The phonetic peculiarities of any language are of great importance, while they show the main changes the word went through and helps speakers of that language understand each other. Now, I would like to draw your attention to the linguistic analysis of Tangale, the language that is widely spread in Nigeria. The words under analysis can be subdivided into seven groups and each of them has its own peculiarities. The first group is made up of one word - loo. It is the only word that ends in double oo. In 1st person singular possessive we have ending no; in 2nd person singular possessive we have ending go; in 3rd person singular feminine possessive we have ending do, and in plural form we have ending wu. All these endings end in a vowel o and in plural form we have ending u. However, the current meaning of the word is meat, which ends in consonant t. This indicates that the word has come through a number of historical processes and the vowels o and u were replaced by the consonant t. A natural phonetic shift occurred. The second group is made up of the following words: bugat, tugat, kuluk, and kudop. We see that all these words are made up of two stems. The first words have similar vowels which differ from the vowels presented in the second two words. Bugat and tugat in 1st person singular possessive have ending no; in 2nd person singular possessive ko, go, and in 3rd person

2 singular feminine possessive we have endings to, do. Despite the fact that initial forms of the first two words are the same, we observe that they have undergone through different changes in the historical process and, as a result, we have the interchange of k and g (2nd person singular possessive) and the interchange of t and d (in 3rd person singular feminine possessive). The modern words of the words bugat and tugatare window and berry, which differ from their initial forms and from each other in comparison to their initial form, where they had quite the same position of vowels and consonants. The words kuluk and kodophave the same position of vowels and consonants, though we observe different vowels u and o. The phonetic phenomena of aspiration can be observed in these words as they start with the initial voiceless phoneme k. In the 1st person singular possessive we can observe the same endings no in both words; in 2nd person singular possessive go, ko, and in 3rdperson singular feminine possessive do, to. We observe the process of consonant interchange of g and k(2nd person singular possessive) and the interchange of t and d (in 3rd person singular feminine possessive). The same interchange was observed in the previous two words, which indicates that it was a general rule of consonant interchange of g and k, and t and d. However, the plural form of all the words of this group is wu, which indicates that an ending wu was typical for those words. As we go on analyzing other groups of words, we see that all of them have the ending wu, which proves the fact that all the words got the same ending when they were made in plural form. The third group is made up of one word aduk. This is the only word that starts with a vowel a. In this example we see that a vowel is followed by a voiced consonant and the syllable is closed, which indicates that a vowel is longer than if it was followed by a voiceless consonant. In 1st person singular possessive it has ending no, in 2nd person singular possessive

3 - ko, and in 3rd person singular feminine possessive to. The modern word loaddiffers from its initial variant judging by the position of vowels and consonants and, as a result, the initial vowel is replaced by a consonant. The fourth group is made up of one word jimis, which has suffix is. This suffix influences the formation of a noun in 1st person singular possessive only ni, while in 2nd person singular possessive we observe that i is replaced by o ko and the same rule is observed in 3rd person singular feminine possessive to. The fifth group is made up of the following words: wudo, lutu, taga, duka, and kaga. All these words are made up of two stems and each of them consists of one consonant and one vowel. The initial vowels are different u as in words wudo, lutu, and duka, and a as in words taga, and kaga. The final vowels are: o as in wudo, u as in lutu, and a as in taga, duka, and kaga. Aspiration is observed in words taga, and kaga as they start with plosive phonemes t and k. All the words have ending no in 1st person singularpossessive; three words have ending go and one word ends in ko in 2nd person singular possessive (wudgo, taggo, kaggo, and lutko); three words have ending do and one word ends in to in 3nd person singular feminine possessive. The sixth group is made up of one word nuli. The first sound is nasal and the second consonant l is palatalized. A voiced consonant l is very weak in the final position of the word and contributes to the formation of phonetic phenomena known as lenis. The last group is made up of the following words: tuuze and jaara. Aspiration is observed in the first word, while it starts with the plosive phoneme t. Two vowels follow the initial consonants and thus contribute to the extension of word pronunciation. The presence of vowels at the end of the words makes the syllable short and contributes to the formation of an open

4 syllable. We see that modern words have closed syllables in comparison to their initial forms, where they ended in an open syllable. To conclude, I must admit that the words under analysis have come through a number of phonetic changes that were caused by historical development of the language.

5 Works Cited Sample Discussion of Problem on Greek Articles and Pronouns (Small Homework 3).