Hiatus Resolution in Yorùbá Revisited

Abstract

Existing studies assume that Yorùbá is, to a large extent, a hiatus-resolving language perhaps because its basic or preferred syllable structure is CV and probably because the three phonological processes it deploys in resolving hiatus are also used cross-linguistically for the same purpose. However, empirical evidence suggests that this may not be the case. This study, therefore, re-examines the status and resolution of hiatus in Yorùbá with a view to establishing whether or not the phenomenon is relatively preferred in the language. The majority of the data were collected from 10 native speakers of the standard variety of Yorùbá who fall within the age range of 50 and 75 years; the rest were generated from existing sources and via researcher’s introspection. Findings reveal that Yorùbá readily tolerates hiatus in its phonological grammar more than it resolves it. More so, using tonal and length diagnostics supported by perceptual evidence, the paper fundamentally argues that vowel assimilation does not consistently resolve hiatus in Yorùbá, contrary to existing claims; thus, what the language resorts to in most cases is heterosyllabification of the abutting vowels. The findings of this study intuitively suggest that Yorùbá belongs to the category of African languages that both permit and disallow vowel sequences in their grammars but Yorùbá permits such sequences more than it disprefers them.