Suprasegmentals

Syllable structure: the status of the coda

LibSE’s treatment of coda consonants distinguishes it from North American varieties of English. Specifically, it is the frequency with which coda consonants are absent on the surface that sets LibSE apart from its North American cohort. The difference is not absolute: all dialects of English are given to dropping the /d/ and /t/ in phrases like sand castle and fast car. However, the surface absence of coda consonants is far more frequent in LibSE than in North American dialects. Moreover, this statement applies not only to the simplification of coda clusters as in sand castle and fast car (simplification by the omission of one of the consonants in the cluster) but also to the absence of single coda consonants, e.g. what [w], place [ple].

There are no morphemes in LibSE that contain coda clusters. When the first element of a cluster is a nasal consonant, the nasalization shifts to the preceding vowel, and the nasal consonant drops out, e.g. think [tẽk] , camp . In all other cases, i.e. in all the instances where the consonants in the coda cluster are both oral, a segment simply drops out. Thus, lC clusters have lost the l, e.g. false [fɑs]. When a cluster consists of a fricative plus a stop, the stop has dropped out, e.g. desk [dεs] and raft [ræf]. When the cluster consists of two stops, the second one (which is always alveolar) drops out, e.g. act [æk], except [εsεp]. The only time when a word (as opposed to a morpheme) displays a coda cluster on the surface is when the plural is added, e.g. jobs [ʤɑbz], face caps [feskæps] ‘baseball caps’. Surface clusters like this are relatively rare; usually, when a plural marker is added, the preceding consonant drops out, e.g. jobs [ʤɑz], face caps [feskæs].

As indicated, individual coda consonants are variably absent on the surface, e.g. God bless [gablε]. Stops are more likely to be absent on the surface than fricatives (and /l/ more likely than stops). A third alternative, arguably intermediate between presence and absence of a coda consonant, is the consonant’s replacement by a glottal stop, e.g. all right [ɔraʔ]. While a glottal stop is most likely to stand in for a voiceless stop, it can take the place of any obstruent.

At the same time that LibSE speakers show far fewer individual coda consonants than do speakers of AAVE or other dialects in North America, they show vastly more individual coda consonants than do speakers of VLE, the latter having transferred to VLE the prohibition in Liberia’s Niger-Congo languages against coda consonants (categorical in Kru and Mande languages, widespread but not categorical in the Atlantic languages Gola and Kisi).