Ẹnà: An iterative affixation game in Yorùbá

Abstract

This paper presents novel data from a Yorùbá language game called Ẹnà, an iterative affixation game that typically involves copying of vowels and tones onto a dummy syllable. Yorùbá VV sequences are all analyzed as disyllabic in existing literature, yet we find that Ẹnà treats them differently depending on their provenance: underlying VV sequences, those created from pronouns, and those derived through floating tone are treated as a single locus of insertion, as variably are those that share tone, while VV sequences derived through consonant deletion or compounding are generally treated as two separate loci. We argue that the difference indicates that Yorùbá in fact has long vowels, contrary to previous assumptions. We analyze the pattern in Optimality Theory, following Krämer & Vogt’s (2018) analysis of reduplicative language games but adding a reduplicative template and back-copying, and we consider the implications of the pattern and analysis to the study of Yorùbá and the study of language games.