Imelda Udoh

Leggbó Phonology: a Preliminary Description Imelda Udoh

This is a sketch and a very preliminary investigation into some aspects of Leggbó phonology, a Lower Cross language spoken by about 60,000 speakers in the Abi Local Government Area of the Cross River State of Nigeria. It covers the segments and prosodies, and it shows an interesting interaction between them, which manifests in the interface between phonology, morphology and syntax. Of particular note is the contrast between lenition and fortition which has both a high grammatical and lexical function. This prosodic contrast leads to fortis and lenis consonant sets. Also included in the book is a lexicon of 1,532 Leggbó words. This descriptive work will be of interest and benefit to a variety of readers, including the native speakers, undergraduates, graduate students, linguists and other researchers.