DOCSLIB.ORG

The Masa Tonal System

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Masa Tonal System The Masa tonal system Amedeo De Dominicis University of Tuscia, Viterbo (Italy) [email protected] Abstract (Masa, Musey, Lame) and a North subgroup Masa language, vùn màsànà, is classified in (Zumaya). the family of Chadic languages, one of the four By H. Tourneux, it would be acceptable to families of the Afroasiatic phylum. keep the Masa group inside of the Biu- P. Newman (1977) proposes that Masa group Mandara branch, while dividing it in a North is considered as an independent branch. set including Masa, Musey, Azumeyna, This classification was resumed by D. Zumaya and a South set including Zime and Barreteau with the collaboration of P. Newman Mesme. (1978), using the inventory by C. Hoffman Here we will base on a spoken corpus (1971) and by Caprile-Jungraithmayr (1973). recorded in December 1999 in Bongor (Chad). Then the following languages relate to Masa We want to analyse the phonetic and branch: phonology of tones in Masa. They have lexical Masa (= Banana = Masana), Musey, Zimé and grammatical functions. But if you analyse (Lamé, Pévé, Dari), Mesme (Bero, Zmré), their syntagmatic distribution in monosyllables Marba (= Kulong = Azumeina), Monogoy. and polysyllables, then you find that tones are After this classification, H. Jungraithmayr somewhat conditioned by the nature of the (1981) proposed a division all over again in preceding consonant or by the application of a three groups, the Centre-East group being fixed tonal pattern. We argue that Masa shows constituted by: a Kotoko subgroup (two only two tonal registers and we demonstrate languages) and a Masa-Musgu subgroup (7 that by means of three rules these registers are languages: Musgu, Masa, Musey, Marba, reduced to one. Thus we could conclude that Monogoy, Mesme, Zime). from a phonological standpoint Masa could be In 1987 D. Barreteau adopted the classification classified as a tonal or pitch accent language. proposed by H. Jungraithmayr, Masa branch being reattached to the B sub-branch of the 1. The Masa distinctive units Biu-Mandara branch. In this classification the Masa groups is composed by a South subgroup Tables 1-2 give the list of distinctive units. SHORT Opening LONG front back front back i u 1st degree ii uu e o 2nd degree ee oo a 3rd degree aa Table 1: Masa vowels. Typology of African Prosodic Systems Workshop Bielefeld University, Germany May 18-20, 2001 TAPS Proceedings De Dominicis r a l l a o r t l l l l e a n a r a l a a i v e t t a l o tt b l a n a e o l a e - od e l v i a il o l V t b D G P B A a a l L a P B I E B I E B I E B I E B I E B I E B I E B I E ¡ ¢ ¢ £ £ Unvoiced ¡ op t ¤ ¥¦¥ §¨§ Voiced ¤ S © Implosive © e Unvoiced ¡ t a c i r ff Voiced A ¥ ¥ Unvoiced e v ti a c i r F Voiced ¦ ¦ ¨ Nasal t n a r Lateral ono S Trill ¦ t n a m i !"!#! ox r pp A Table 2: Masa consonants in initial (B), intervocalic (I) and final (E) position. 1.1 The tones 1.1.1 Nouns: monosyllables of CV, CVV and In Masa the tones have a double function: CVC type - a lexical distinctive function; 1.1.1.1 The high register - a grammatical function in the verb, where the It is opposable to the two other registers aspect is expressed by tone. independently of the nature of the initial Out of context and in the connected speech, consonant of word: previous studies attested the existence of three phonetic registers, as showed by C. Caitucoli $&%%('' ) ) * * ≠ $ $ % % ' ' ) ) * * (1) H M $ (1983: 3), D. Barreteau-M. Dieu (1986: 7) and $&%$ %('' + + * * $ % % ' ' + + * * $ “Ptilostomus afer” Melis (1999). But we analysed a spoken corpus ) ) / / ) / / ) “coasts” ,.-, - , - - where the tonetic data did not show more than , + + / / + / / + Feretia apodantera “ ” ,.-, - , - - two levels. , ) ) ) ) “joke” - - - - 0 0 0 Even if the phonetics does not corroborate the 0 + + + + “masa game” - - - - 0 0 0 identification of three tones, let us suppose to 0 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) “human” - - - - - - - - 1 1 1 deal with three. Well, we will demonstrate that 1 + + + + + + + + “tobacco” - - - - - - - - 1 1 1 from a phonological standpoint Masa is a two 1 “turtle sp.” tones language. Let us follow the lexical filing by Melis (1999). 2 ) ) 3 3 ≠ 2 2 ) ) 3 3 (2) H L 2 - - - - 2 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 Gyps bengalensis “ ” - - 4 4 - - 4 4 ) ) 6 6 ) ) 6 6 “animal skin” - - - - 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 “calms” - - 4 4 - - 4 4 5 5 5 5 6&76 ) ) 7 6 6 ) ) 7 7 “pottery” 5 5 5 5 “fishing basket” TAPS Proceedings De Dominicis 6&76 7 6 6 7 7 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 “salty” ¢¡ ¡ 4 4 ¡ ¡ 4 4 ) ) ) ' ' ) ) ) ≠ ¥ ¥ ) ) ) ) ' ' ) ) ¥ (8) HH LL ¥ “a few” ¢¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ' ' ¥ ¥ ' ' ¥ ¥ “who already gave “cold” 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 birth” “pot” ≠ 1.1.1.2 The mid register (9) MM LL: not attested opposition It is opposable to the two other registers, but the opposition to the low tone is possible only 1.2.2 Heterotonic words on a reduced number of initial consonants: we One will notice that a certain number of will see their inventory in section 3, treating oppositions is impossible on the second tonological problems: syllable; here we simply signal them and we will explain the reason of it in the section 3, ≠ / / + + 6 6 / + + 6 6 (3) M L / treating tonological problems. - - - - / / 6 6 / / 6 6 “rafter in the granary” - - 4 4 - 4 4 - Hyparrhenia a) The high register: “straw, 3 3 3 ruf3 a” 4 4 - - 4 4 - - ≠ £ £ $&%$ %('' ) ) ' ' ) ) £ £ $ % % ' ' ) ) ' ' ) ) (10) HH H$ M + + 3 3 + + 3 3 “2nd pers. fem. sing.” © © © © - - - - £ £ $&%$ %('' ) ) ' ' + + £ £ $ $ % % ' ' ) ) ' ' + + “francolin” “bird sp.” © © © © “involuntarily” + 6 6 ≠ + ¤¦¥¤ ¥ + + 6 6 ¤ ¥ ¥ (4) M H ¤ (11) HH ≠ HL: impossible (HL not attested) ) ) 6 6 ¤¦¥¤ ¥ ) ) 6 6 ¤ ¤ ¥ ¥ “genius, spirit” 3 ) ) 7 7 6&'6 ' ) ) * * ≠ 3 3 ) ) 7 7 6 6 ' ' ) ) * * (12) HH M3 H + + $ $ + + $ $ “bush” §¨¡§ ¡ § § ¡ ¡ 3 3 + + 7 7 6&'6 ' ) ) * * 3 + + 7 7 6 6 ' ' ) ) * * 3 Ficus sp. “ ” ) ) $ $ ) $ $ ) Acorypha glaucopsis “ ” §¨¡§ ¡ § § ¡ ¡ “not thick” “fast” ) ' ' ) ) ≠ ) ¥ ¥ ) ) ' ' ) ) ¥ (13) HH LH¥ 1.1.1.3 The low register ' ' ) ) ¥ ¥ ' ' ) ) ¥ ¥ “cold” 4 4 4 4 It is opposable to the two other registers, with “dream” restrictions view before: ≠ 3 3 + + 6&'6 ' ) ) 3 + + 6 6 ' ' ) ) (14) MH MM3 ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ' ) ) 6 6 ≠ ' ' ) ) 6 6 (5) L H ' 3 3 + + 6&'6 ' + + 3 3 + + 6 6 ' ' + + “pipe” ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ' ' 6 6 ' ' 6 6 “vagina” 4 4 4 4 “speed” ) ) / / ) ) / / “neck” - - - - © © © © / / / / “Kaya senegalensis” ≠ - - 4 4 - 4 4 - (15) MH ML: (ML impossible) © © © © “Auchenoglanis occidentalis” (16) LH ≠ LL: (LH = LM) ≠ / / 7 7 6 6 / 7 7 6 6 (6) L M / ≠ 4 4 4 4 (17) LH LM: (impossible opposition) / / + + 7 7 6 6 / + + 7 7 6 6 / “wound” “genet” b) The mid register: 1.2 Nouns: the polysyllables 3 + + 6&'6 ' + + ≠ 3 3 + + 6 6 ' ' + + (18) MM M3 H ¡ ¡ ¡ Given the weak percentage of trisyllables, it is ¡ 3 3 + + 6&'6 ' ) ) 3 3 + + 6 6 ' ' ) ) “speed” ¡ ¡ ¡ practically impossible to find some minimal ¡ pair oppositions in this category. We will limit “pipe” ourselves therefore to disyllables, to ≠ demonstrate the relevance of the three registers (19) MM ML: (ML impossible) realized. 3 ) ) 6 6 + + * * ≠ 3 ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ 3 3 ) ) 6 6 + + * * ¥ ¥ ¥ (20) MM HM¥ 3 3 + + 6 6 + + * * ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ 3 3 + + 6 6 + + * * ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ “Flaucurtia flavescens” 1.2.1 Isotonic words “race of the hedgehog” $&%% ) ) 7 7 ) ) 6 6 ≠ $ $ % % ) ) 7 7 ) ) 6 6 (7) HH MM$ - - - - © © © © $&%$ % + + 7 7 + + 6 6 $ % % + + 7 7 + + 6 6 $ “fish sp.” ≠ - - - - (21) MM LM (not attested) © © © © “wisdom tooth” TAPS Proceedings De Dominicis + + 2 2 ) ) 7 7 ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ + + 2 2 ) ) 7 7 ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ 4 4 ¡ ¡ 4 4 ¡ ¡ © © © ≠ © 7 7 6 6 + + * * + + 7 6 6 + + * * + + (22) HM HH: cf. supra (44) L M H 7 “fish trap” 4 4 - - - - 4 4 - - - - 5 5 5 (45) L M M 5 “crevasse” (23) HM ≠ HL (HL impossible) The diagrams L H H and L H M are not (24) LM ≠ LH (LM = LH) attested. ≠ 2 2 2 2 + + 2 2 2 + + (25) LM LL2 ¡ ¡ 4 4 ¡ ¡ ¡ 4 4 ¡ ¡ ¡ 2. Tonological problems “disease of the low 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 stomach” 4 4 4 4 ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ 4 4 4 4 ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ “locust sp.” 2.1 In the tonal system: 2 or 3 tones ? In Masa nominal paradigm the possible tonal oppositions H/M/L are entirely determined by c) The low register: the nature of the initial consonant. Indeed, on the first syllable if the high register cf. previous oppositions concerning the high can mark terms having for initial any and mid registers. consonants of the system, it can not oppose to the mid register except that in words having as 1.3 Summing up initial either unvoiced stops and fricatives, the , £ Whereas in monosyllables the three registers implosives / ¢ , / or the glottal / /, or the nasals can oppose each others, even if with some and the sonorants, or approximants / / and / /, difficulties concerning the L/M opposition (cf. and to the low register except that with words 3, 5, 6), in polysyllables one could have noted having for initial, either the voiced stops and that a certain number of oppositions were fricatives, or some nasals and the sonorants, or either impossible or not attested in the minimal the glottal / £ /. pairs permitting to show their relevance (9, 15, Moreover, the mid register can oppose to the 17, 19, 21, 24, 25). Below we give the list of low register on the first syllable only in words attested diagrams. having for initial, either nasals, or sonorants, or the glottal / £ /. Thus, this behaviour divides the inventory of ) ) 6 6 ¤¦¥¤ ¥ ) ) 6 6 ¤ ¥ ¥ 1.3.1.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: an Annotated Bibliography
    Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography Volume 11 Prosody and Intonation in Non- Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Article 1 Bibliography 2009 Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Bibliography Christopher R. Green Indiana University Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/ejab Part of the African History Commons, and the African Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Green, Christopher R. (2009) "Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Bibliography," Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography: Vol. 11 , Article 1. https://doi.org/10.17077/1092-9576.1010 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Iowa Research Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography by an authorized administrator of Iowa Research Online. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Volume 11 (2009) Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Bibliography Christopher R. Green, Indiana University Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Atlantic – Ijoid 4 Volta – Congo North 6 Kwa 15 Kru 19 Dogon 20 Benue – Congo Cross River 21 Defoid 23 Edoid 25 Igboid 27 Jukunoid 28 Mande 28 Reference Materials 33 Author Index 40 Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages Introduction Most linguists are well aware of the fact that data pertaining to languages spoken in Africa are often less readily available than information on languages spoken in Europe and some parts of Asia. This simple fact is one of the first and largest challenges facing Africanist linguists in their pursuit of preliminary data and references on which to base their research.
    [Show full text]
  • Downstep and Recursive Phonological Phrases in Bàsàá (Bantu A43) Fatima Hamlaoui ZAS, Berlin; University of Toronto Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso ZAS, Berlin
    Chapter 9 Downstep and recursive phonological phrases in Bàsàá (Bantu A43) Fatima Hamlaoui ZAS, Berlin; University of Toronto Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso ZAS, Berlin This paper identifies contexts in which a downstep is realized between consecu- tive H tones in absence of an intervening L tone in Bàsàá (Bantu A43, Cameroon). Based on evidence from simple sentences, we propose that this type of downstep is indicative of recursive prosodic phrasing. In particular, we propose that a down- step occurs between the phonological phrases that are immediately dominated by a maximal phonological phrase (휙max). 1 Introduction In their book on the relation between tone and intonation in African languages, Downing & Rialland (2016) describe the study of downtrends as almost being a field in itself in the field of prosody. In line with the considerable literature on the topic, they offer the following decomposition of downtrends: 1. Declination 2. Downdrift (or ‘automatic downstep’) 3. Downstep (or ‘non-automatic downstep’) 4. Final lowering 5. Register compression/expansion or register lowering/raising Fatima Hamlaoui & Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso. 2019. Downstep and recursive phonological phrases in Bàsàá (Bantu A43). In Emily Clem, Peter Jenks & Hannah Sande (eds.), Theory and description in African Linguistics: Selected papers from the47th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 155–175. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.3367136 Fatima Hamlaoui & Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso In the present paper, which concentrates on Bàsàá, a Narrow Bantu language (A43 in Guthrie’s classification) spoken in the Centre and Littoral regions of Cameroon by approx. 300,000 speakers (Lewis et al. 2015), we will first briefly define and discuss declination and downdrift, as the language displays bothphe- nomena.
    [Show full text]
  • Part 1: Introduction to The
    PREVIEW OF THE IPA HANDBOOK Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet PARTI Introduction to the IPA 1. What is the International Phonetic Alphabet? The aim of the International Phonetic Association is to promote the scientific study of phonetics and the various practical applications of that science. For both these it is necessary to have a consistent way of representing the sounds of language in written form. From its foundation in 1886 the Association has been concerned to develop a system of notation which would be convenient to use, but comprehensive enough to cope with the wide variety of sounds found in the languages of the world; and to encourage the use of thjs notation as widely as possible among those concerned with language. The system is generally known as the International Phonetic Alphabet. Both the Association and its Alphabet are widely referred to by the abbreviation IPA, but here 'IPA' will be used only for the Alphabet. The IPA is based on the Roman alphabet, which has the advantage of being widely familiar, but also includes letters and additional symbols from a variety of other sources. These additions are necessary because the variety of sounds in languages is much greater than the number of letters in the Roman alphabet. The use of sequences of phonetic symbols to represent speech is known as transcription. The IPA can be used for many different purposes. For instance, it can be used as a way to show pronunciation in a dictionary, to record a language in linguistic fieldwork, to form the basis of a writing system for a language, or to annotate acoustic and other displays in the analysis of speech.
    [Show full text]
  • Intonation and Discourse Structure in English: Phonological and Phonetic Markers of Local and Global Discourse Structure Dissert
    INTONATION AND DISCOURSE STRUCTURE IN ENGLISH: PHONOLOGICAL AND PHONETIC MARKERS OF LOCAL AND GLOBAL DISCOURSE STRUCTURE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Rebecca Herman, B.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 1998 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Mary Beckman, Adviser Professor Keith Johnson Adviser Professor Craige Roberts Department of Linguistics Copyright by Rebecca Herman 1998 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the relationship between sound structure and discourse structure in English. In English, phrases are marked by edge tones which have discourse functions. A high edge tone indicates that the phrase is to be interpreted with respect to a subsequent phrase, while a low edge tone means that the phrase does not form an interpretive unit with the subsequent phrase. How the tones in a phrase marked by a low edge tone are implemented phonetically conveys how complete a sub-topic is. Thus the choice of edge tone conveys local discourse relationships between pairs of phrases while the phonetic implementation conveys global discourse relationships– the grouping of sets of phrases into topics and sub-topics. These hypotheses about the discourse functions of edge tone categories and phonetic implementation were tested experimentally using pairs of discourses with at least two sub-topics in which the sub-topics occurred in different orders. The expectation is that the phrase at the end of a sub-topic will have the same choice of edge tones in both orders of occurrence, but that the tones in the phrase will be implemented differently in the two cases.
    [Show full text]
  • Ein Rhythmisch-Prosodisches Modell Lyrischen Sprechstils
    Ein rhythmisch-prosodisches Modell lyrischen Sprechstils Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philosophischen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn vorgelegt von Jörg Bröggelwirth aus Paderborn in Westfalen Bonn, 2007 Gedruckt mit der Genehmigung der Philosophischen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn Zusammensetzung der Prüfungskommission: PD Dr. Bernhard Schröder (Vorsitzender) Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hess (Betreuer und Gutachter) Prof. Dr. Winfried Lenders (Gutachter) Prof. Dr. Jürgen Esser (Weiteres prüfungsberechtigtes Mitglied) Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 8. 6. 2007 Diese Dissertation ist auf dem Hochschulschriftenserver der ULB Bonn http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de/diss_online elektronisch publiziert „freilich ist die Poesie nicht für das Auge bestimmt“ (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) Ich möchte mich bei den folgenden Personen bedanken: Valeska Maus, Christian Aretz, Annegret Steudner, Barbara Samlowski und Arne Bachmann für ihre umfangreiche Arbeit am Lyrik-Korpus, den Sprechern und Hörern für ihre Geduld und Anstrengung, Dr. Rüdiger von Tiedemann für seine Hilfe bei der Textauswahl, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hess für die Betreuung, Dr. Petra Wagner für die stets aufschlussreichen Diskussionen und Anregungen und meinen Eltern Elisabeth und Erich für ihren Rückhalt! Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Einleitung ………………………………………………………………………………..... 1 2 Zum Sprechrhythmus …………………………………………………………………....... 4 2.1 Isochronie ……………………………………………………………………...... 4 2.2 Akustische Korrelate des Sprechrhythmus
    [Show full text]
  • Morphological Sources of Phonological Length
    Morphological Sources of Phonological Length by Anne Pycha B.A. (Brown University) 1993 M.A. (University of California, Berkeley) 2004 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Sharon Inkelas (chair) Professor Larry Hyman Professor Keith Johnson Professor Johanna Nichols Spring 2008 Abstract Morphological Sources of Phonological Length by Anne Pycha Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Professor Sharon Inkelas, Chair This study presents and defends Resizing Theory, whose claim is that the overall size of a morpheme can serve as a basic unit of analysis for phonological alternations. Morphemes can increase their size by any number of strategies -- epenthesizing new segments, for example, or devoicing an existing segment (and thereby increasing its phonetic duration) -- but it is the fact of an increase, and not the particular strategy used to implement it, which is linguistically significant. Resizing Theory has some overlap with theories of fortition and lenition, but differs in that it uses the independently- verifiable parameter of size in place of an ad-hoc concept of “strength” and thereby encompasses a much greater range of phonological alternations. The theory makes three major predictions, each of which is supported with cross-linguistic evidence. First, seemingly disparate phonological alternations can achieve identical morphological effects, but only if they trigger the same direction of change in a morpheme’s size. Second, morpheme interactions can take complete control over phonological outputs, determining surface outputs when traditional features and segments fail to do so.
    [Show full text]
  • How to Study a Tone Language, with Exemplification from Oku (Grassfields Bantu, Cameroon)
    UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2010) How To Study a Tone Language, with exemplification from Oku (Grassfields Bantu, Cameroon) Larry M. Hyman University of California, Berkeley DRAFT • August 2010 • Comments Welcome 1. Introduction On numerous occasions I have been asked, “How does one study a tone language?” Or: “How can I tell if my language is tonal?” Even seasoned field researchers, upon confronting their first tone system, have asked me: “How do I figure out the number of tones I have?” When it comes to tone, colleagues and students alike often forget everything they’ve learned about discovering the phonology of a language and assume that tone is somehow different, that it requires different techniques or expertise. Some of this may derive from an incomplete understanding of what it means to be a tone system. Prior knowledge of possible tonal inventories, tone rules, and tone- grammar interfaces would definitely be helpful to a field researcher who has to decipher a tone system. However, despite such recurrent encounters, general works on tone seem not to answer these questions—specifically, they rarely tell you how to start and how to discover. I sometimes respond to the last question, “How do I figure out the number of tones I have?”, by asking in return, “Well, how would you figure out the number of vowels you have?” Hopefully the answer would be something like: “I would get a word list, starting with nouns, listen carefully, transcribe as much detail as I can, and then organize the materials to see if I have been consistent.” (I will put off until §5 commentary concerning the use of speech software as an aid in linguistic discovery.) Although I don’t think the elicitation techniques that one applies in studying segmental vs.
    [Show full text]
  • Languages of New York State Is Designed As a Resource for All Education Professionals, but with Particular Consideration to Those Who Work with Bilingual1 Students
    TTHE LLANGUAGES OF NNEW YYORK SSTATE:: A CUNY-NYSIEB GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS LUISANGELYN MOLINA, GRADE 9 ALEXANDER FFUNK This guide was developed by CUNY-NYSIEB, a collaborative project of the Research Institute for the Study of Language in Urban Society (RISLUS) and the Ph.D. Program in Urban Education at the Graduate Center, The City University of New York, and funded by the New York State Education Department. The guide was written under the direction of CUNY-NYSIEB's Project Director, Nelson Flores, and the Principal Investigators of the project: Ricardo Otheguy, Ofelia García and Kate Menken. For more information about CUNY-NYSIEB, visit www.cuny-nysieb.org. Published in 2012 by CUNY-NYSIEB, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10016. [email protected]. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alexander Funk has a Bachelor of Arts in music and English from Yale University, and is a doctoral student in linguistics at the CUNY Graduate Center, where his theoretical research focuses on the semantics and syntax of a phenomenon known as ‘non-intersective modification.’ He has taught for several years in the Department of English at Hunter College and the Department of Linguistics and Communications Disorders at Queens College, and has served on the research staff for the Long-Term English Language Learner Project headed by Kate Menken, as well as on the development team for CUNY’s nascent Institute for Language Education in Transcultural Context. Prior to his graduate studies, Mr. Funk worked for nearly a decade in education: as an ESL instructor and teacher trainer in New York City, and as a gym, math and English teacher in Barcelona.
    [Show full text]
  • Contour Tones and Prosodic Structure in Medʉmba
    Contour Tones and Prosodic Structure in Med0mba Kathryn H. Franich University of Chicago∗ 1 Introduction This paper investigates the phonetics and phonology of contour tones in Med0mba, a Grass- fields Bantoid language of Cameroon. Not only are contoured syllables shown to be longer in duration than level syllables of all shapes, but the distributions of phonological processes such as High Tone Anticipation (HTA) and sentence initial downdrift are sensitive to the relative positions in which contoured and level syllables appear. Evidence reveals that varia- tion in the application of HTA and downdrift can be attributed to differences in the prosodic positions in which contoured and level syllables occur. Specifically, contoured syllables are preferred in prominent positions over their level-toned counterparts both at the level of the foot and at the level of the intonational phrase. Two possible explanations are considered for the above facts. The first is a tonal promi- nence account similar to de Lacy (2002) whereby contour tones associate to strong positions due to the inherent prominence associated with their tonal properties. The second is a weight-based account whereby contour tones associate to heavy syllables, which are in turn attracted to prominent positions. Though Med0mba does not display a general distinction in vowel length, evidence from some loanwords which can be produced with variable vowel length (and which display concomitant variation in prosodic behavior) supports a weight- based account. An analysis of prominence asymmetries between contoured (heavy) and level (light) syllables is provided within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993). 2 Overview of Tone and Contour Formation in Med0mba Med0mba has been analyzed as a 2-level tone system with underlying H and L tones (Voorho- eve 1971).
    [Show full text]
  • The Phonology of Tone and Intonation
    This page intentionally left blank The Phonology of Tone and Intonation Tone and Intonation are two types of pitch variation, which are used by speak- ers of many languages in order to give shape to utterances. More specifically, tone encodes morphemes, and intonation gives utterances a further discoursal meaning that is independent of the meanings of the words themselves. In this comprehensive survey, Carlos Gussenhoven provides an up-to-date overview of research into tone and intonation, discussing why speakers vary their pitch, what pitch variations mean, and how they are integrated into our grammars. He also explains why intonation in part appears to be universally understood, while at other times it is language-specific and can lead to misunderstandings. The first eight chapters concern general topics: phonetic aspects of pitch mod- ulation; typological notions (stress, accent, tone, and intonation); the distinction between phonetic implementation and phonological representation; the paralin- guistic meaning of pitch variation; the phonology and phonetics of downtrends; developments from the Pierrehumbert–Beckman model; and tone and intona- tion in Optimality Theory. In chapters 9–15, the book’s central arguments are illustrated with comprehensive phonological descriptions – partly in OT – of the tonal and intonational systems of six languages, including Japanese, French, and English. Accompanying sound files can be found on the author’s web site: http://www.let.kun.nl/pti Carlos Gussenhoven is Professor and Chair of General and Experimental Phonology at the University of Nijmegen. He has previously published On the Grammar and Semantics of Sentence Accents (1994), English Pronunciation for Student Teachers (co-authored with A.
    [Show full text]
  • Prosodic Aspects of M.L. King's "I Have a Dream Speech"
    Proceedings of the IRCS Workshop on Prosody in Natural Speech, August 5-12 1992 PROSODIC ASPECTS OF M.L. KING'S "I HAVE A DREAM SPEECH" Corey A. Miller Department of Linguistics University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104 ABSTRACT oratorical style only hints at the kinds of issues that are profitably investigated with the aid of acoustic analysis. This research examines the prosodic characteristics of Martin For example, Boulware offers the following critique: Luther King's "I have a dream today" speech in an effort to better understand both the prosody of oratory and the prosodic King made great use of his nasal resonators, qualities of King's speech that move people. The peroration of which enriched his vocal tones. These tones the speech was digitized and analyzed using the Waves were slightly flat, because of his failure to program on a Sun SparcStation. Among the salient findings make more oval the openings of his vocal were King's sustained high pitch, several recurrent pitch patterns and various special effects. Many of these features are outlets.1 exemplified with reference to pitchtracks. Some discussion of the characterization of oratory with respect to speech and The text chosen for analysis here is the peroration of nonspeech modes of perception ensues. King's "I Have a Dream Today" address to several hundred thousand people at the March on Washington on August 1. INTRODUCTION 28, 1963.2 This is probably his best known speech, and many of its passages are intimately familiar to many Martin Luther King is probably the first person that comes Americans.
    [Show full text]
  • Works of Russell G. Schuh
    UCLA Works of Russell G. Schuh Title Schuhschrift: Papers in Honor of Russell Schuh Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7c42d7th ISBN 978-1-7338701-1-5 Publication Date 2019-09-05 Supplemental Material https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7c42d7th#supplemental Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Schuhschrift Margit Bowler, Philip T. Duncan, Travis Major, & Harold Torrence Schuhschrift Papers in Honor of Russell Schuh eScholarship Publishing, University of California Margit Bowler, Philip T. Duncan, Travis Major, & Harold Torrence (eds.). 2019. Schuhschrift: Papers in Honor of Russell Schuh. eScholarship Publishing. Copyright ©2019 the authors This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Interna- tional License. To view a copy of this license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. ISBN: 978-1-7338701-1-5 (Digital) 978-1-7338701-0-8 (Paperback) Cover design: Allegra Baxter Typesetting: Andrew McKenzie, Zhongshi Xu, Meng Yang, Z. L. Zhou, & the editors Fonts: Gill Sans, Cardo Typesetting software: LATEX Published in the United States by eScholarship Publishing, University of California Contents Preface ix Harold Torrence 1 Reason questions in Ewe 1 Leston Chandler Buell 1.1 Introduction . 1 1.2 A morphological asymmetry . 2 1.3 Direct insertion of núkàtà in the left periphery . 6 1.3.1 Negation . 8 1.3.2 VP nominalization fronting . 10 1.4 Higher than focus . 12 1.5 Conclusion . 13 2 A case for “slow linguistics” 15 Bernard Caron 2.1 Introduction .
    [Show full text]