An Investigation of Syllable Structure in Lelepa

Abstract

Lelepa is an Oceanic language spoken in central Vanuatu. It has been classified as exhibiting a complex syllable structure, unlike many other Oceanic languages which follow a prevalent CV syllable structure. The Lelepa syllable allows tautosyllabic consonant clusters in both onset and coda positions, with up to three consonants in complex onsets and a maximum of two consonants in complex codas. Such a syllable schema is typologically less common in the Oceanic language family and presents analytical challenges. However, the frequency of different syllable structures in Lelepa remains uncertain, and there appear to be some restrictions on the possible tautosyllabic consonant combinations. This thesis draws on a corpus of natural speech data to investigate the possible tautosyllabic consonant combinations and the frequencies of different syllable structures. The findings reveal that while complex syllables do occur in Lelepa, the most common syllable structure is CV. Some consonant clusters are more preferred than others, for example, heterorganic consonants are more common than homorganic consonants in two-consonant clusters, and onset consonant clusters often violate sonority sequencing principles. These findings extend the understanding of Lelepa syllable structures and contribute to wider understanding of phonotactic typology. Show more