AN AUTOSEGMENTAL ANALYSIS OF URHOBO PROSODIC PATTERNS

ABSTRACT
The study of prosodic features have proved to be interesting in recent years, especially in the aspect of tones in tonal languages. One formally dominant view is that the tone is a property of the segment. In other words, it is subsumed or peripheral to the segment (vowels or consonants).
But given more concentrated study and observation of the characterization of the tone by recent linguists and in this study, the peripheral notion of the tone has been disproved majorly by the Autosegmental phonology. One major characterization of the tone that supports its autonomy is its ability to stay on even when its bearing unit is elided. This goes to show the non-inclusion of the tone as a feature specification of the segment. Another of its characterization is its ability to cause meaning differences amongst words in the language. In other words, they are distinctive. Hence, its segmental status in the language.
Following the Autosegmental framework and the characteristic behavior of the tone as a prosodic feature in the Urhobo Language, it is concluded in this study that the tone is not only separate or independent of the segmental slicing, but also play segmental roles in the language.