The palatalisation process in isiZulu revisited

Abstract

Palatalisation is a linguistic process occurring in many languages. This process has been the subject of much debate. With reference to the Nguni languages, palatalisation has been discussed by, among others, Doke (1926), Herbert (1977), Khumalo (1987 & 1988) and Jokweni (1999). The afore-mentioned have explained the palatalisation process using morpho-phonological, derivational phonology and optimality theory frameworks. in this paper feature geometry theory will be invoked to offer a description of the palatalisation process in isiZulu.