The Syllable Structures of Olunyala (K)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out the syllable types and word positions of the syllable structures of Olunyala (K). Generative CV phonology theory was used to analyze the syllables of Olunyala(K) in order to establish the prevalent word positions for each syllable type. In order to get the right respondents and the required data, the study used purposive sampling.  Only nouns and verbs were analyzed because these are the word categories that were needed in the study.  A descriptive research design was used to put the nouns and verbs into different categories for analysis. The data analysis revealed that Olunyala(K) has six syllable structures, namely; V, CV.CVV.CCV, CCCV and GGV. It was observed that not all the syllable structure types can occur in all word positions in Olunyala (K). The study is significant because it contributes to an objective generalization to and comparison to other Luyia dialects and Bantu languages in general.  A study on the branching syllable onset to capture the composition of the internally complex onset in other Luyia and Bantu dialects in order to come up with CV tier trees that are specific to Bantu languages is recommended.