Introduction

We start this first chapter by introducing the phenomena of distribution in the sound systems of human languages. As a label, distribution refers to a wide range of phonological phenomena whose shared feature is the co-occurrence restrictions imposed on sounds. Languages may impose restrictions on the co-occurrence of vowels, consonants or vowel-plus-consonant sequences, on the co-occurrence of stress and tone, or on the placement of vowels, consonants, stress, or tone in certain positions in a syllable or word, etc. These co-occurrence restrictions on sounds result in patterns or regularities, which are “distortions” in the distribution of sounds. These “distortions” give rise to asymmetries in the distribution such that some patterns are attested or attested in abundant quantities while others are attested rarely or not at all. We introduce an example of distribution from bi-syllabic verbal roots in Kikuyu, a Bantu language spoken by roughly 6 million people in Kenya. Kikuyu bi-syllabic roots are generally of the shape CV1CV2C (C=Consonant; V=Vowel). You will see from this chapter that Kikuyu limits the co-occurrence of V1 and V2 in bi-syllabic verbal roots, such that some V1. . .V2 sequences are attested while others are not. Kikuyu verbal roots present a common example of co-occurrence restrictions imposed on vowel sequencing.

This chapter has three key objectives. First, it explains what a pattern – specifically, a sound pattern – is. To develop your understanding of patterns, we introduce three key concepts: logical possibilities, even distribution, and uneven distribution. Second, this chapter introduces distribution as a type of phonological phenomenon using the restrictions on vowel sequencing in Kikuyu verb roots as an example. Finally, this chapter guides you step by step through the process of identifying the vocalic patterns in Kikuyu verb roots. The process of determining the distributional patterns involves three steps: (a) determining the logical possibilities; (b) identifying which logical possibilities are attested and which ones are not; and (c) verifying the patterns. Using Kikuyu as an example, we explain what these steps entail and show how one might go about identifying and verifying the patterns, all in an attempt to develop your ability to identify co-occurrence restrictions in the sound systems of human languages.