Sengwato / Standard Tswana (Niger-Congo)
Mentioned in the paper only in passing, Tswana is a particularly rich case where the argumentation from phonotactics is reasonably clear--but its labiocoronals are controversial because they are typologically rare. This case study demonstrates that what is rare cross-linguistically is also rare intra-linguistically; the labiocoronal sounds found in the Sengwato dialect occur in just a handful of morphemes. Since this dialect does not have a dictionary, we did the best we could to create a corpus for it from the only electronic dictionary of Tswana available to us. The very thorough description of the dialect in One Tlale's 2005 dissertation was an invaluable aid.
While related to the Zimbwabwean Shona languages, Tswana differs in affording its nasals syllabic and tone-bearing status. As a result, Tswana is not usually analyzed as having prenasalized consonants. It is, however, analyzed as having labialized nasals. Our learner finds [ŋw] and [nw], but the corpus had no instances of [ɲ w], so the learner did not find them.
Yet another difference between Zezuru Shona and Sengwato Tswana is that the latter has a peculiarly gapped inventory of consonants. Because just about all the sequences of consonants are analyzed as complex segments in Tswana, the gappy inventory is not a problem for the learner.
Simulation data at a glance
Click on simulation name to view additional simulation details.
| Simulation name | Initial state Learning Data | Initial state features |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | LearningData.txt | Features.txt |
| Sengwato | LearningData.txt | Features.txt |
Simulation details for Tswana standard
Input:
This is a more or less unmodified version of Creissels' 1996 dictionary. See here for details.
LearningData.txt | Features.txt
Summary of iterations:
| Iteration | Learning Data produced | Features produced | Inseparability | New Segments added | Segments removed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LearningData.txt | Features.txt | [download] [view] | dʒ, ts, tsh, tɬ, tɬh, kx, ŋw | sh, ɸ, ʒ |
| 2 | LearningData.txt | Features.txt | [download] [view] | tʃ, tʃh, kw, sw, xw, rw, lw, tsw, tshw, tɬw, kxw | ʃh |
| 3 | LearningData.txt | Features.txt | [download] [view] | tw, thw, nw, tɬhw | None |
| 4 | No new learning data | No new features | [download] [view] | None | None |
