Somyev (Sombə; KGT) Segmental and Tonal Contrasts

Language	Somyev (Sombə)
Depositor	Bruce Connell
Affiliation	York University, Toronto
Location	Nigeria
Collection ID	0067
Grant ID
Funding Body	AHRC
Collection Status	Collection online
Landing Page Handle	httphttp://hdl.handle.net/2196/2719919f-1fef-44e3-8384-1c4e7e643fd0

 

Summary of the collection

This collection consists of annotated audio recordings of two speakers of Somyev, spoken in Taraba State, Nigeria, resulting from fieldwork conducted during April 2006. Somyev is a severely endangered language spoken in the village of Kila Yang on the Mambila Plateau. It is provisionally classified as part of the Mambiloid sub-group, itself considered part of Bantoid, and therefore as belonging the Benue-Congo branch of Niger-Congo.

 

Group represented

Somyev

 

Collection contents

The collection comprises over 100 pairs of files, each one containing an audio file and a Praat file illustrating the segmental and tonal inventory of Somyev (Sombə). The lexical items recorded demonstrate the contrastive sounds of the language, and form part of a larger project to document three endangered languages and cultures in the Nigeria-Cameroon borderland.

The set of contrasts presented is tentative, and based on preliminary analysis. The recordings were done in a small one-room shop which was made into a work room for the purpose of these recordings and other interviews and recordings undertaken during this field trip. At least four repetitions of each word were recorded, spoken in isolation using a DAT recorder and a headset microphone. One representative token of each is included here. Two speakers were recorded. In a small number of cases a speaker missed or mispronounced the intended item, or the recording was of poor quality and has been omitted. In the accompanying metadata tables listing test items these are reflected by empty cells. Recordings were made for the original purpose of acoustic analysis, which work is reported elsewhere.

 

Acknowledgement and citation

Users are requested to acknowledge the depositor, Bruce Connell, when citing resources from this deposit.

To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:

Connell, Bruce. 2015. Somyev (Sombə; KGT) Segmental and Tonal Contrasts. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/00-0000-0000-0001-99FD-2. Accessed on [insert date here].