Morphologically Conditioned Phonological Variation In Nobiin

Abstract

This paper provides an account of a morphophonological phenomenon of Nobiin (Nile-Nubian; Egypt, Sudan), in which assimilation occurs at two morpheme boundaries, but the assimilation patterns are different for each of the two affixes. Additionally, there are two possible surface forms with one affix but not with the other. We capture these facts in an analysis based on cophonologies, in which each affix is associated with its own ranking of the same phonological constraints.