Guéré (Gere), also called Wè (Wee), is a
Kru language
The Kru languages are spoken by the Kru people from the southeast of Liberia to the west of Ivory Coast.
Classification
According to Güldemann (2018), Kru lacks sufficient lexical resemblances and noun class resemblances to conclude a relation ...
spoken by over 300,000 people in the
Dix-Huit Montagnes
Dix-Huit Montagnes Region (often shorted to Montagnes Region) is a defunct region of Ivory Coast. From 1997 to 2011, it was a first-level subdivision region. The region's capital was Man and its area was 16,782 km².From 2000–11. From 1997†...
and
Moyen-Cavally regions of
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
.
Phonology
The
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
of Guere (here the Zagna dialect of Central Guere / Southern Wè)
is briefly sketched out below.
Consonants
The consonant phonemes are as follows:
Allophones of some of these phonemes include:
* is an allophone of before nasal vowels
* is an allophone of before nasal vowels
* is an allophone of before nasal vowels
* is an allophone of in word-initial position
* is an allophone of after a
coronal consonant
Coronals are consonants articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Among places of articulation, only the coronal consonants can be divided into as many articulation types: apical (using the tip of the tongue), laminal (using the bla ...
(alveolar or palatal)
In addition, while the nasal consonants and contrast with and before oral vowels, and are thus separate phonemes, before nasal vowels only the nasal consonants occur. and do not occur before nasal vowels, suggesting that historically a
phonemic merger
In historical linguistics, phonological change is any sound change that alters the distribution of phonemes in a language. In other words, a language develops a new system of oppositions among its phonemes. Old contrasts may disappear, new ones ...
between these sounds and the nasals may have occurred in this position.
Vowels
Like many
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
n languages, Guere makes use of a contrast between
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s with
advanced tongue root
In phonetics, advanced tongue root (ATR) and retracted tongue root (RTR) are contrasting states of the root of the tongue during the pronunciation of vowels in some languages, especially in Western and Eastern Africa, but also in Kazakh and Mong ...
and those with
retracted tongue root
In phonetics, advanced tongue root (ATR) and retracted tongue root (RTR) are contrasting states of the root of the tongue during the pronunciation of vowels in some languages, especially in Western and Eastern Africa, but also in Kazakh and Mong ...
. In addition,
nasal vowel
A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced wit ...
s contrast phonemically with oral vowels.
Tones
Guere is a tonal language and contrasts ten tone (linguistics), tones:
See also
*
Wobe language, Wobe Northern Wè
References
{{Kru languages
Wee languages
Languages of Ivory Coast