Phonological Alternations

Phonological alternations in Sereer are differently characterized depending on the portion of the word they occur in. On the one hand, Sereer has stems that are fairly invariant in size, almost exclusively alternating by way of morphologically determined consonant mutation of initial (or sometimes final) segments. On the other hand, affixes (and especially verbal suffixes) have phonologically determined allomorphs that alternate between the segmental shapes -VC and -C, seemingly motivated by an avoidance of overlong consonant clusters and hiatus. There is a trade-off in phonological content, then, between invariance in terms of shape (in stems, whose segments do change) and invariance in terms of segments (in affixes, whose shape does change).

Stem Morphophonology

Sereer has salient alternations in the initial consonants of noun and verb stems. These alternations appear to be morphologically conditioned in a lexically specified manner, since they occur in several different segmental contexts whose only common element is being within a morphologically derived environment (e.g. plurality in both nouns and verbs; addition of apparent nominalizing suffixes to verbs).

Standard nominal mutation

With one exception (the alveolar fricative s), the standard nominal mutation pattern is between homorganic segments. Voiced modal stops, prenasalized stops, and fricatives become voiceless modal stops; voiced implosives become voiceless implosives; labial and alveolar approximants /w/ and /r/ become voiced and voiceless modal stops, respectively. All other consonants are invariant and do not undergo standard nominal mutation.

Source consonant class	Mutated consonant	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
fricative	voiceless stop	f > p		s† > c		x > q
prenasalized stop	voiceless stop	mb > p	nd > t	nj > c	ng > k	nq > q
voiced stop	voiceless stop	b > p	d > t	j > c	g > k
alveolar approximant	voiceless stop		r > t
voiced implosive	voiceless implosive	ɓ > ƥ	ɗ > ƭ	ʄ > ƈ
labial approximant	voiced stop	w > b
voiceless stop	-	p	t	c	k	q	'
voiceless implosive	-	ƥ	ƭ	ƈ
palatal/lateral approximant	-		l	y
nasal	-	m	n	ñ	ŋ

^†The consonant s is a partial exception to the regularity of the standard nominal mutation, as it is sometimes invariant and sometimes not. When it alternates (on a lexically-determined basis), it does so with the voiceless palatal stop c. See s alternations for more information.

The standard nominal mutation is most commonly seen in the singular-plural alternations of nouns in most noun classes. For all noun classes except the ox/w and al/ak classes, plural number is indicated by the mutation of the initial consonant of the noun stem, as well as the initial consonant of stems of any adjectives. For the ox/w class, it is the singular number that is indicated by this mutation, with the plural number evincing the basic form of the stem.

Gloss	Noun class	Noun	Adjective ('white')	Det.
pig pigs	l ak	ruul atuul	ran atan	le ake
rabbit rabbits	n k	ndool tool	ndan tan	ne ke
woman women	ox w	otew rew	oran tan	oxe we
trip trips	al ak	atex atex	atan atan	ale ake

Final implosive mutation in eventive nominals

The deverbal derivational process that forms eventive nouns is notable for undergoing both standard nominal mutation of the initial verb stem segment and standard nominal mutation of the final verb stem segment if this final segment is an implosive. For instance, the verb stem guuɗ 'to steal' has the derived eventive nominal form kuuƭ 'theft' (169).

Prenasalized nominal mutation

With one exception (the alveolar fricative s), the prenasalized nominal mutation pattern is between homorganic segments. Voiced and voiceless modal stops and fricatives become prenasalized stops, as do the labial and alveolar approximants /w/ and /r/; voiced implosives become voiceless implosives. All other consonants are invariant and do not undergo prenasalized nominal mutation, including the glottal stop.

Source consonant class	Mutated consonant	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
fricative	prenasalized stop	f > mb		s† > nj		x > nq
voiced stop	prenasalized stop	b > mb	d > nd	j > nj	g > ng
voiceless stop	prenasalized stop	p > mb	t > nd	c > nj	k > ng	q > nq	'*
labial/alveolar approximant	prenasalized stop	w > mb	r > nd
voiced implosive	voiceless implosive	ɓ > ƥ	ɗ > ƭ	ʄ > ƈ
prenasalized stop	-	mb	nd	nj	ng	nq
voiceless implosive	-	ƥ	ƭ	ƈ
palatal/lateral approximant	-		l	y
nasal	-	m	n	ñ	ŋ

*The glottal stop, unlike other voiceless stops, is invariant.

^†Unlike under the standard nominal mutation, the consonant s always undergoes the prenasalized nominal mutation, to the palatal prenasalized stop nj.

The prenasalized nominal mutation is seen in the augmentative (gal/gak) and diminutive (ong/fn) derivational noun classes, as well as in adjectives in the f and n singular noun classes.

Gloss	Class	Noun	Adjective ('white')	Det.
pig pig (DIM) pig (AUG)	l ong gal	ruul onduul ganduul	ran ondan atan	le onge ale
pigs pigs (DIM) pigs (AUG)	ak fn gak	atuul fonduul ganduul	atan fondan andan	ake ne ake
cat	n	muus	ndan	ne
snake	f	fangool	fandan	fe

Prenasalized verbal mutation

Verb stems undergo what will be called the prenasalizing verbal mutation of the stem-initial consonant as a form of inflection for plural subject. As with the other mutation types, "nasalization" is understood to include a parallel mutation in initial voiced implosives that produces voiceless implosives. Only initial consonants that can mutate actually do mutate; the same class of invariant consonants (/l/, /y/, and the nasals) fail to undergo mutation. Verbs that cannot accept this plural inflection due to starting with an inert initial consonant are often disambiguated from singular forms with the addition of a suffix (or clitic?) -o. This may be identical with the "copular" -o (see Predication Strategies).

Note that this mutation is preserved as an intrinsic element of the stem when the otherwise uninflected stem is completely reduplicated in predicative constructions.

Unlike the nasalizing mutation seen in augmentative/diminutive nouns, voiceless stops do not mutate to voiced prenasalized stops in verbs. Because verbs in their un-mutated (singular) forms do not begin with voiceless implosives or prenasalized stops, these rows are not shown in the table below.

Source consonant class	Mutated consonant	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
voiceless stop	-	p	t	c	k	(q)†	'
voiced stop	prenasalized stop	b > mb	d > nd	j > nj	g > ng
voiced implosive	voiceless implosive	ɓ > ƥ	ɗ > ƭ	ʄ > ƈ
labial/alveolar approximant	prenasalized stop	w > mb	r > nd
fricative	prenasalized stop	f > mb		s > s, nj *		x > nq, ng *
palatal/lateral approximant	-		l	y
nasal	-	m	n	ñ	ŋ

^† No verb stems are attested with an initial q-; this is likely an accidental gap.
* Words in /s-/ and /x-/ mutate consistently to one of the two indicated segments. Although consistent from word to word, the choice of mutated segment is not predictable.

Examples:

Stem	Singular	Plural
weʄ to swim	a weʄa S/he swims	a mbeʄa They swim
disoox to sneeze	a disooxa S/he sneezes	a ndisooxa They sneeze
ɗok to grind	a ɗoka S/he grinds	a ƭoka They grind
lool to cry	a loola S/he cries	a loola(yo) They cry

Postverbal Affixes

A number of postverbal affixes exhibit a morphophonological alternation between a -VC and -C form. The -VC form appears between consonants, or after a consonant at the end of word, and the -C form appears elsewhere. This is consistent with Sereer phonotactics in that it generally prevents CCC sequences.

1st sg. subject: -(u)m

gef-aa-m 'I break'
vs.
gef-aa-n-um 'I break it'

2nd sg. object: -(o)ng

3rd sg. object: -(i)n

Causative: -(i)n

Reciprocal: -(i)r

Itive: -(i)k

Instrumental applicative: -(i)t

Reversive: -(i)t