No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1956.

Zulu belongs to the Nguni group of the Southern Bantu languages, which are spoken throughout Southern Africa. Other groups are the Suthu and the Shona, which are spoken in the interior, whereas the Nguni languages are spoken towards the south-east coast, Xhosa in the eastern part of the Cape Province, Zulu in Natal and Zululand, and Swazi in Swaziland. Swazi represents a distinct variety of Nguni speech known as "tekela", characterized by t in place of Zulu and Xhosa z, ts or tf and dz or dv in place of Zulu and Xhosa t and d, and by other phonetical characteristics, but Zulu and Xhosa are so similar that they are linguistically dialects of the same language. However, they have important separate literatures and are generally regarded as separate languages. For these reasons and for the more real reason that it is in tonal structure that they differ most greatly, this study excludes Xhosa and concentrates on Zulu only. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1966.

M.A. (African Languages) / The phonological system of Zulu does not tolerate consecutive vowels in one word while, with specific conditions, only certain consonant combinations and consonant-vowel combinations are permissible. Morphonological adjustments such as glide insertion, vowel coalescence and semi vocalization are therefore utilized to avoid the accumulation of vowels. Where consonants are brought together by morpheme combinations, morphonological adjustments such as nasalization occur to avoid the impermissible consonant groups. Adjustments such as palatalization are the result of the impermissible combinations of certain consonants and (one or more) vowels and/or semivowels. This study aims at analysing some known morphonological phenomena in Zulu from a generative-phonological point of view. It involves mainly the construction and formulation of a number of morphonological rules for Zulu within the framework of the transformational generative (T.G.) phonology. The study is purely introductory and does not claim that all relevant material has been fully analysed and exhausted. The point of departure is that of Chomsky and Halle in their Sound Patterns in English (SPE). Chapter one defines the concept of phonological processes, states the conditions for acceptable phonological rules and supplies definitions of features employed to describe the segments of Zulu. Chapter two identifies the underlying segments of Zulu, i. e. vowels, consonants, "impure" consonants (so-called liquids) and semi-vowels. Characteristics of the underlying segments are presented in a table. Through the formulation of redundancy rules those features of segments which systematically correspond with other features are eliminated and lexical versions of the underlying segments are determined. In chapter three the processes of glide vowel coalescence which relate to insertion, semi vocalization an impermissible series of vowels are discussed and summarized in rules.

Thesis (DLitt (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / This study investigates the Intrusive Stop Formation process in Zulu. In this process an intrusive stop arises when a nasal and fricative are juxtaposed resulting in the following seven affricate sounds /þf’, {v, ts’, dz, tñ’, dL, tS’/. These sounds are theoretically distinct from the four affricate phonemes which occur in Zulu, namely /kl’, dZ, ts’, tS’/. In this study the former are termed derived affricates and the latter pure affricates. Two aspects of Intrusive Stop Formation are focused on - firstly, determining experimentally whether durational differences obtain between pure and derived affricates and secondly, using the results of the experimental investigation to facilitate a feature geometry description of the Intrusive Stop Formation process. In the experimental investigation nine affricate sounds were examined. Words, containing these sounds, were recorded in frame sentences by five speakers, using PRAAT, a speech–processing platform. The duration of the pure and derived affricates were then determined. It was found that pure affricates are durationally longer than derived affricates. The next progression in this study was the incorporation of the experimental results into a feature geometry description of Intrusive Stop Formation. Feature Geometry Theory has enjoyed acclaim because of its ability to retain Distinctive Feature Theory – the crux of Phonology – in a nonlinear framework. However, Feature Geometry Theory faces challenges with regard to the extent to which it includes phonetic detail; and its formalization technique. This study – Intrusive Stop Formation in Zulu : An Application of Feature Geometry Theory – brings a new perspective to Feature Geometry Theory with the incorporation of the Duration tier – significant for the description of the Intrusive Stop Formation process. Furthermore the study introduces a more efficient formalization technique, which facilitates the explanation of the process. It is always incumbent upon endeavours like this study, which examine specific phonological processes, to show relevance. In the concluding section the application of the experimental approach and Feature Geometry Theory is evaluated in terms of the contribution made to the disciplines of Human Language Technology and Speech Disorders. A compact disk accompanies this thesis. It contains the sound files, spectrograms and textgrids of the recorded data.