"Consonant Alternation in Fula - with special reference 
                    to the stem-final position"

                                      MIYAMOTO, Ritsuko
                                      <ritsuko@ipc.akita-u.ac.jp>

     Many linguists have been attracted to the consonant alternation 
system of Fula, however, few effort has been made to describe the 
alternation in the final consonants of nominal and verbal stems.  
Compared to the initial consonant alternation which shows a fairly
clear-cut situation, the stem-final position is not straightfoward.
However, I tried to examine all the possible cases.  All the environments
where a consonat can appear were checked as shown in the following:

           A__stem__ B -- C__suffix__D

A consonat occur in all the positions of A to D, that is, A:stem-initial; 
B:stem-final; C:suffix-initial; and D:suffix final positions. However,
the position D is excluded for the study of consonat alternation, since
only nasals 'l''m''n'  which show no alternation can appear in this position.

     Alternations seen in the initial position of both stem and suffix are 
essentially the same, morphologically conditioned operation along the 
noun-class membership, affecting the continuant grade of three alternants, 
whereas the processes seen at the juncture of stem-final consonants and 
suffix-initial consonants seem to be partly morphological and partly 
phonological. There, similar patterns to the initial consonant alternation
can be found, though not on a big scale.  In addition to the internal 
evidence, there is some comparative support for there being at some point
of history some sort of systematic alternation existing in stem-final 
position.     

            
           (Provisional Report: Revised Edition Coming Soon)