Elision in Nzema

This paper examines elision as a syllable structure process in Nzema, a Niger-Congo (Kwa, Bia) language spoken mainly in the Western Region of Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The paper discusses some phonological and morphological factors that necessitate elision in Nzema. The paper discusses the processes involved in elision and the contexts within which the phenomenon occurs in Nzema. It first considers V1 and V2 elision in some phrasal and compound constructions. It also discusses syllable elision that operates within words. The paper shows that segments, syllables, and tones are affected by elision. It is observed that although elision is purely phonological, it is also motivated by morphological factors as vowels interact during compounding, and at word boundary. The analysis shows that in Nzema, morpheme2-initial Vs (i.e., V2) can be targeted for deletion in compounds and across word boundary, while elision of the first vowel, V1, only occurs across word boundary. Again, syllables that are lost word internally are compensated for by lengthening the initial vowel, V1 of the word. Moreover, in a context of V1#V2 where the two vowels are of the same quality, the target for the deletion process is determined by tone. The findings show a link between the phonology and morphology of Nzema in the analysis of elision.