The Evidence of Autosegmental Approach in Kisukuma: A Non Concatinative Analysis

Abstract

This paper sets out the evidence of nonlinear theory in Kisukuma language F21. Kisukuma is an agglutinative language in which most of its word formation phenomena are offered by Item-and-Arrangement Theory. However, there are few prototypical words elasticity, as in glidization and infixation that cannot be handled linearly, linguists have not yet presented them within the framework of a nonlinear approach. Therefore, it is on this basis the paper provides analysis of the topic under discussion. Methodologically, the paper used documentary techniques for data collection and Autosegmental phonology was the tool for data analysis. It was found that Glide formation and infixation prototypical forms of word formation in Kisukuma are well handled by Autosegmental theory other than Item-and-Arrangement theory and other configuration rules like Leipzig glossing rules. It is expected that the analyses being done in this study will have practical pedagogical implications in the teaching of segmental aspects of the Kisukuma language and other related languages.