Zero Stem Allomorphy in Consonant Gradation

This paper studies zero stem allomorphy in consonant gradation in Fulfulde. Consonant gradation in Fulfulde involves the modification of stem-initial segments through the concatenation of suffixes in the case of nouns or a change in person and number in the case of verbs. Although Fulfulde is a language noted to exhibit a complex pattern of consonant gradation, there are stems that do not participate in this morphophonological phenomenon and they are substantial in number. These stems as characterised in this paper are equivalent to what Arnott (1970) describes as uniform stems in Fulfulde consonant gradation. Both in the literature and in the data for this study obtained from fieldwork, it is noted that Fulfulde stems with [t, l; m, n, ɲ, ŋ; ɓ, ɗ, ʧ ʼ] as their initial segments do not undergo gradation. Consonant gradation follows the continuant – stop – nasal pattern in many dialects of the language. Findings suggest that the absence of gradation in these stems stem from a prohibition against their continuancy in the phonotactics of Fulfulde. This paper consequently identifies the constraints militating against their continuancy from the point of view of Optimality Theory.