Sound Variations In A Language And Its Impact In Meaning: The Case Of Kirinchari /ʧ/ And Kisimbiti /Ʃ/

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to examine the sound alterations in Kirinchari /ʧ/ and Kisimbiti /ʃ/ as the dialects of Kurya language; the study had three objectives which are: To identify the lexical items (words) with /ʧ/ and /ʃ/ sounds in Kirinchari and Kisimbiti dialects respectively, to investigate the causes of the sound variations in Kirinchari and Kisimbiti dialects as long as the sound variations of /ʧ/ and /ʃ/ are present, to examine the semantic variations resulting from the presences of /ʧ/ and /ʃ/ sounds between Kirinchari and Kisimbiti dialects respectively, to attain those objectives, there were three questions set which were: What are the lexical items (words) with /ʧ/ and /ʃ/ sounds in Kirinchari and Kisimbiti dialects respectively?, What are the causes of the sound variations in Kirinchari and Kisimbiti dialects as long as the sound variations of /ʧ/ and /ʃ/ are present? And what are the semantic variations resulting from the presences of /ʧ/ and /ʃ/ sounds between Kirinchari and Kisimbiti dialects respectively?

Thereafter, the variationist theoretical and articulatory drift frameworks were considered to conduct the study. The data were collected from two villages in which both dialects are spoken and then were analyzed by using Speech Analyzer version 3.0.1 programmed by SIL (2007). Then the phonological environment for the production of sounds /ʃ/ and /ʧ/ was examined where the preceding sounds observed were: [a, ε, o, i, ɲ, ɸ] and proceeding sounds were [a, ε, i, o]. The findings indicate that, there are no semantic variations in words consisting of /ʧ/ in Kirinchari and /ʃ/ in Kisimbiti and they have same morphological structures.

The cause of the sound alternation in Kisimbiti /ʃ/ and Kirinchari /ʧ/ is probably the simplicity of articulating sound /ʃ/ introduced in Kisimbiti and which is possibly supported by the leaders of their community and hence transmitted to the new generation as the acceptable sound. The simplicity of articulating /ʃ/ as compared to /ʧ/ is observed by the qualities of sound /ʧ/ itself and the preceding sounds, where it takes long duration and has higher pitch than /ʃ/. Also, the preceding sounds are higher in pitch and longer when preceding /ʧ/ than /ʃ/, although the preceding sounds are the same for each variable (/ʧ/ and /ʃ/). This can no be a reason for alternation since the mechanism of articulating /ʧ/ is difficulty compared with /ʃ/. Therefore, the two sounds /ʧ/ and /ʃ/ are allophones used in two different dialects as the result of coarticulation.