Structure syllabique empú-mpuun

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to analyse the syllabic structure of empú-mpuun, a variety of Engungwel, a Bantu language of the subgroup B72 (Guthrie, 1948) spoken in the Department of the Plateaux in the north of the Republic of Congo. This variety distinguishes two types of syllabic structures: the monomoraic syllable which ends with a short vowel and the bimoraic syllable with a long vowel. Vowel length stems on the one hand from the historical fall of velar occlusive consonants and the coronal fricative in the intervocalic position of the dissyllabic roots. On the other hand, it is obtained after a double process of syllabation of CVCV schemes to which the consonants in position C2 are sonorants. This last process produces a CVVC-like syllabic structure whose consonant in final position is present at the structure level and not achievable at the surface level.