Vowel and tone processes in Ife (Togo)

This article describes the morphophonological and morphotonological processes that occur when vowels are juxtaposed in Ife, an Ede language closely related to Yoruba that is spoken in Togo and Benin. Its source is an unpublished manuscript based on extensive fieldwork undertaken by the principal author in the 1980s. We have checked the language data in it and expanded, restructured and updated the analysis. The article first investigates the juxtaposition of two vowels across a word boundary (V#V) in verb phrases (with object nouns and pronouns) and noun phrases (in genitive constructions, with possessive pronouns, and with the referential morpheme). It then proceeds to examine nasal-vowel sequences preceding word boundaries (NV#) in noun phrases (with object pronouns, and locative prepositions). Five types of vowel process are identified (elision, assimilation, coalescence, labialisation, and diphthongisation), and four types of tonal process (elision, merging, spreading, and a kind of polarity). The article ends by summarising the findings, and comparing them to Yoruba, which is far better documented, thereby highlighting potential topics that future Ife researchers might focus on.