A Phonological Study of Hausa Short Genitive Linker: -r/-n

This study is on the phonological study of Hausa short genitive linker –r and -n. Descriptive method is used in analyzing the data extracted from the existing literature (Galadanci 1976, Newman 2000, Abubakar 2001, and Jaggar 2001). This study found that, from phonological point of view, the Hausa short genitive linker (-r/-n) in rapid speech, there is only partial assimilation of the short genitive linker “-n” with a following obstruent across word boundary in term of place of articulation but not in term of manner of articulation. The only position where assimilation within word boundary occur is when the enclitic “-r” is followed by a short possessive pronoun within same word boundary. However, there is also a constraint on the assimilation process across word boundary when the following onset of the first syllable across word boundary is non liquid sound. Also it is found that, the tone of the short genitive is not the same as that of the preceding syllable as earlier claim by Galadanci (1976) nor toneless as claim by Jaggar (2001), rather, the tone of these short genitive –n/-r supersedes the low tone of the last syllable of the head NP; also, when the tone of the last syllable of the head NP is high, the high tone and the floating low tone coalesced into fallen tone. Moreover, the short genitive linker, when used as referential, it functions as neutralization marker. Because it conditioned the neutralization of the mid front unrounded vowel /ee/ and mid back rounded vowel /oo/ to short low central unrounded [a]. Finally, it is found that, when the short genitive linker –n is used as possessive marker, it conditioned the deletion of the glided vowel ([i] of /ai/ and /u/ of /au/) of the diphthongs. This process of vowel change support the claim made by Abubakar (1983) that in Hausa, the diphthong /ai/ and /au/ are combination of vowel /a/ plus approximate vowels /j/ or /w/. This occur as a result of the deletion of the approximate vowels because sequence of three consonants at the word final position is not permissible in the language in question.