Chapter 2 Phonology

This chapter presents the phonological system in Zauzou. All data are from the field recordings

T based on the Jiangmo dialect of Zauzou. The basic structure of Zauzou syllables is C(G)(V1)V 2 . All syllables must contain a consonant initial C, a main vowel V2 and a tone (represented by the superscript

T ). Zauzou only has open syllables and no coda. A second vowel V1 is possible in Zauzou syllables, which usually takes the form as /i//ʊ//y/ to form diphthongs. Glides (semi-vowels) often appear between C and V as transitions in palatalization and labialization.

Zauzou employs 23 consonants plus three semi-vowels (i.e. glides /j//w/,/ɥ/). Semi-vowels appear as onset consonants of syllables comprised by diphthongs /iV//ʊV//ɥV/. All consonants are syllable- initial. Zauzou does not have consonant clusters either. Plosives and affricates have aspiration contrast, and the voicing contrast is restricted to fricatives.

Zauzou employs a relatively large vowel inventory. It has 11 plain (i.e.oral/lax) vowels and two types of vowel phonations, including 10 nasal vowels, 6 tense vowels, and 4 nasal tense vowels. The tense-lax contrast is a salient feature of most Lolo-Burmese languages1, including Zauzou. Nevertheless, the phonological contrasts between different types of vowel phonations, i.e. plain-nasal-tense-nasal tense vowels, are declining, in comparison with the data in Sun et al (2002). Zauzou has a large inventory of diphthongs. 19 diphthongs are identified, which all start with high back vowels /i//ʊ//y/.

Zauzou is a tone language, and each syllable must bear a tone. The tone-bearing unit is V2. Zauzou employs 6 tonemes: the high-level tone /55/, the mid-level tone /33/, the high-rising tone /35/, the low-rising tone /13/, the high-falling tone /53/, and the low-falling tone /31/. The distribution of the two rising tones are extremely unbalanced, indicating a tendency of merging of the two tones. Tone sandhi is fairly robust in Zauzou, as the adjacency of two tones may cause various patterns of changes on pitches.

In addition to the segmental and suprasegmental features in Zauzou phonology, this chapter also characterizes intonation and a bunch of inter-speaker variations. Morph-phonological processes is rather minimal in this isolating language, and there is a vowel quantity change that is triggerred by morphology.

1 See Dai (1979), Maddieson & Ladefoged (1985), Matisoff (2003) for more discussion on the synchronic and diachronic properteis of the tense vowels. However, there is no simple answer for the nature of the so-called “tense”-“lax” constrast. According to the reconstruction in Matisoff (2003), all final stops in PTB are reduced to glottal stop or glottal constriction, while final nasals may lose their oral occlusion and transfer their nasality to the preceding vowel (Matisoff 2003:239). This is what happened in the Loloish language Lahu. However, within the Lolo-Burmese branch, the glottal constriction can be described as either a tonal feature (e.g. Modern Burmese and Lahu, as described in Matisoff (2003:239) for Burmese and Matisoff (1973:25)) or vowel phonation (i.e.tense vowels in Yi, Hani, as described in Maddieson & Ladefoged 1985).

The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows: I firstly characterize the The phoneme inventory is present in §2.1, which covers consonants (§2.1.1), vowels (§2.1.2), and tones (§2.1.3). Syllable structure of Zauzou is decribed in §2.2. §2.3 describes the tone sandhi patterns in Zauzou; §2.4 presents a number of inter-speaker variations; §2.5 characterizes vowel-lengthening as a morpho- phonological process; §2.6 offers and overview of intonations of different types of Zauzou sentences.

2.1 Phoneme inventory

Zauzou exhibits 26 phonemic consonants, which are all initials, as present in Table 2.1 in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

bilabial labiodental alveolar palatal velar glottal voiceless voiced voiceless voice d Plosive [-asp] p t k ʔ [+asp] ph th kh Nasal m n ɲ ŋ Fricative f v s z ɕ x ɣ Affricate [-asp] ts tɕ [+asp] tsh tɕh Lateral l j ɥ w approximant Table 2.1 Consonants in Zauzou

The consonantal initials in Zauzou are fairly strightforward, and little allophony amongst consonants is noted. Based on the places of articulation, manner of articulation, and voicing qualities, Zauzou consonants include: 1) seven plosives, 2) four nasals, 3) seven fricatives, 4) four affricates, 5) one lateral approximant, 6) three glides. Except for the glottal stop /ʔ/, plosives have two fully contrastive types: aspirated and unaspirated plosives in three distinct places of articulation. Voicing contrast is not observed in plosives. The constrast in aspiration is also phonemic for affricates. The voicing contrast is consistently attested among fricatives, except for the palatal fricative /ɕ/.

Zauzou exhibits a relatively large vowel inventory, including 11 plain monophthongs, 10 nasal monophthongs, 6 tense monophthongs, 4 nasal tense monophthongs, and 19 diphthongs. The full

inventory of oral monophthongal and diphthongal vocalic phonemes is present in (2.1), where the vowels in the parenthesis have a suspecious phonemic status:

(2.1) Vowels in Zauzou: a.plain monophthongs: /i/,/y/,/ɰ/,/ʊ/,/e/,/o/,/ə/,/ɛ/,/ɔ/,/æ/,/a/ b.nasal monophthongs: /ĩ/,/ỹ/,/ẽ/,/æ̃/,/ɛ/,/ã/,̃ /ə̃/,/õ/,(/ɰ̃ /,/ʊ̃/) c.tense monophthongs: /i̠ /,/e̠ /,/ɛ̠ /,/æ̠ /,/a̠ /,/ə̠ / d.nasal tense monophthongs: (/ə̠ ̃/,/e̠ /̃ ,/a̠ /̃ ,/ɛ̠ /̃ ) e.diphthongs: /ia/,/iə/, /iɛ/, iɔ/, /io/, /iã/,/iɛ/,̃ /iõ/,/ʊa/, /ʊɔ/, /ʊe/, /ʊɛ/, /ʊã/, /ʊẽ/, /ʊɛ/̃ ,/ʊõ/,/yɛ/, /yɛ̃/,/yɰ/

Among the 11 plain monophtongs, there are five front vowel /i/, /y/, /e/, /æ/, /ɛ/, two central vowels /ə/,/a/, and four back vowels /ɰ/,/ʊ/,/o/,/ɔ/. A subset of these plain vowels have the corresponding nasal, tense, and nasal tense vowels. A plain/nasal vowel plus the onglide /i/,/ʊ/, or /y/ will create a diphthong.

Zauzou employs 7 tones, including three level tones, two rising tones, and two falling tones:

(2.2) Zauzou tones: a. Level tone: /55/,(/44/2),/33/ b. Rising tone: /35/,/13/ c. Falling tone: /53/,/31/

The section below will present the three elements of Zauzou phonology in sequence: consonants (§2.2.1), vowels(§2.2.2), and tones (§2.2.3).

2.1.1 Consonants

2.1.1.1 The plosives /p/,/pʰ/, /t/,/tʰ/,/k/,/kʰ/,/ʔ/

Seven plosive phonemes are identified in four places of articulation: the unaspirated bilabial /p/ and its aspirated counterpart /pʰ/, the alveolar /t/ and the aspirated /tʰ/ in the same place, two velar plosives /k/ nad /kʰ/, and a glottal stop /ʔ/. All of these plosives are restricted to the syllable onset position, and none of them can appear as codas. The glottal stop /ʔ/ only appears before the nuclears of

2 The tonemic status of /44/ tone is suspicious. It is subject to large inter-speaker variation and is often merged with /33/ or /55/ in different lexical items.

/a/,/ɛ/,/æ/,/ɔ/,/o/,/ə/ if there is no other consonantal initials. The seven plosives are equally productive in combinations with different vowels and tones. Some minimal pairs and near-minimal pairs involving plosives are given below:

(2.3) /p/-/pʰ/-/m/-/f/

[p] [pʰ] [m] [f] pɔ33 “tub” ɕi31.pʰɔ33 “ficus mɔ33 “lower part” fɔ33 “there” tikoua” pa33 “dye” pʰa55 “lift up (a leg)” ma33 “MW.herd” fa13.pɛ31.tsɿ31 “malaria” pɰ33 “walnut“ pʰɰ33 “white“ mɰ33 “grovel“ fɰ53 “drink“ pe31 “put“ pʰe31 “spicy“ me13 “ripe“ - pjɔ13 “grass“ pʰjɔ13 “face“ mjɔ13 “wife“ -

(2.4) /t/-/tʰ/-/n/-/s/-/ts/-/l/

[t] [tʰ] [n] [s] [ts] [l] tɔ33 “put” tʰɔ33 “toss” nɔ33 pu33.sɔ33 tsɔ33 “sand” lɔ33 “smelly” “leg” “pants/hang” ta33 “fry” tʰa33.tsɿ31 na33 “wet“ sa33 “half- tsa33 “fish la33 “shine“ “persimmon“ dry” (V)” tɰ55 “s/he/it“ tʰɰ33 “thick“ nɰ31 - tsɰ33 lɰ55 “sly“ “cattle“ “human“ tõ31“hole“ tʰõ31“pestle“ nõ53 - tsõ31 lõ33 “black“ “chisel“ “MW.Liang (50g)“ tə53 “cut off“ tʰə53 “castrate“ nə33 “2PL“ - tsə53 “tight“ lə53 “measure“

(2.5) /k/-/kʰ/-/ŋ/-/x/

[k] [kʰ] [ŋ] [x] kɔ33 “comb/scratch” kʰɔ33 “bamboo” ŋɔ33 “RES.see” xɔ33 “iron” ka53 “fear” kʰa53 “put“ ŋa53 “gnaw“ xa53 “take out“

kõ31“CL.road“ kʰõ31 “river“ - - kə33 “LOC/inside“ kʰə33 “shout“ ŋə33 “cry“ xə55 “smear“ kɛ33 “soldier“ kʰɛ33 “plank“ ŋɛ33 “small“ xɛ33.lɛ31 “weasel”

(2.6) /p/-/t/-/k/-/ɣ/-/ʔ/

[p] [t] [k] [ɣ] [ʔ] pɔ33 “tub” tɔ33 “put” kɔ33 - ʔɔ33 “dumb” “comb/scratch” pa33 “dye” ta33 “fry” ka33 “dry” ɣa33 “firewood” ʔa33 “irrigate” tɕʰja31.pɛ33 tɛ33 “return“ kɛ33 “soldier“ ɣɛ33 “water“ ʔɛ33.wa55 “skin“ “money“ pə13 “float“ tə31 “one“ kə31 “rice“ ɣə31 “pan“ ʔə31 “hold“ pẽ53“push“ tẽ55“arrive“ kẽ55 “button“ ɣẽ55“long“ ʔẽ55“pick up“

(2.7) /pʰ/-/tʰ/-/kʰ/-/ɣ/-/ʔ/

[pʰ] [tʰ] [kʰ] [ɣ] [ʔ] ɕi31.pʰɔ33 “ficus tʰɔ33 “toss” kʰɔ33 “bamboo” - ʔɔ33 “dumb” tikoua” pʰa55 “lift up (a tʰa33.tsɿ31 kʰa53 “put“ ɣa33 “firewood” ʔa33 “irrigate” leg)” “persimmon“ pʰɛ31 “chaff” tʰɛ55.lɛ55 kʰɛ33 “plank“ ɣɛ33 “water“ ʔɛ33.wa55 “skin“ “pigeon“ - tʰə53 “castrate“ kʰə33 “shout“ ɣə31 “pan“ ʔə31 “hold“ pʰe33 “tear“ tʰẽ53“wrap“ kʰẽ53 “sew“ ɣẽ55“long“ ʔẽ55“pick up“

2.1.1.2 The nasals /m/,/n/,/ɳ/,/ŋ/

There are four distinct nasal phonemes in Zauzou: 1) the bilabial /m/, 2) the alveolar /n/, 3) the palatal /ɳ/, and 4) the velar /ŋ/. The four nasals are restricted to the syllable onset position. Based on a word list containing 4000 lexical items, the palatal nasal /ɳ/ and the velar nasal /ŋ/ are much less common than the bilabial and alvelar nasals in syllables. The combinations of /ɳ/ with high vowels /i/, /y/,/ʊ/,/ɰ/ and the schwa /ə/ are not possible. Likewise, the high and mid-high vowels /i/,/y/,/ɰ/,/o/ are not found in

syllables with the velar nasal initial /ŋ/. Note syllables with the /ɳ/ initial, which are represented with /ɳV/, e.g. /ɳɔ31/ “you“, /ɳa33/ “cut“, /ɳõ53/“tip“, /ɳɛ33/̃ “dense“, are perceptually palatalized nasals [ɳʲɔ31], [ɳʲa33], [ɳʲõ53], ɳ[ ʲɛ33]̃ , where the superscript /ʲ/ represents the palatal glide /j/. Some minimal pairs and near-minimal pairs involving nasals are given below:

(2.8) /m/-/n/-/ɳ/-/ŋ/

[m] [n] [ɳ] [ŋ] mɔ33 “lower part” nɔ33 “smelly” ɳɔ31 “you” ŋɔ33 “RES.see” ma33 “MW.herd” na33 “wet” ɳa33 “cut” ŋa33 “see” mõ53 “PL” nõ53“black ” ɳõ53“tip ” - mɛ33 “stir” nɛ33 “TOP” ɳɛ33 “delicious” ŋɛ33 “small” mə̃33 “do” nə33 “you” - ŋə33 “cry” It is very common that the bilabial nasal /m/ freely alternates with the palatal nasal /ɳ/ in controlled environments. Specifically, /miV/ that contains a diphthong /iV/ is a free variation of /ɳʲV/ that contains a palatal glide /j/. The syllable-initial /m/-/ɳ/ alternation has been identified in the following words:

(2.9) /m/-/ɳ/ alternation: miã31 ɳʲã31 “knief“ miõ31 ɳʲõ31 “plow“ mio53-ɣe33 ɳʲo53-ɣe33 “tear“ mio31 ɳʲo31 “CL.sleep“

2.1.1.3 The fricatives: /f/,/v/, /s/,/z/, /x/,/ɣ/,/ɕ/

There are 7 fricative phonemes. The voicing contrast is manifested on the following three pairs of fricatives: the labiodental fricatives /f/-/v/, the alveolar fricatives /s/-/z/, and the velar fricatives /x/-/ɣ/. /ɕ/ is a voiceless palatal fricative without a corresponding voiced consonant. Fricatives can only appear as syllable onsets. The voiceless labiodental fricative /f/, the voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ and the palatal fricative /ɕ/ all have very limited distributions. Syllables beginning with /f/ are very infrequent, and there is only one example for the combination of /f/ and /ɔ/ (i.e. /fɔ33/ “there“). Among the small set of /f/- words, a large portion of them are loan words from the southwestern Mandarin. Examples involve the word “malaria“ /fa13.pɛ31.tsɿ31/ and “method“ /fɛ33/. The former is suspeciously a Mandarin loan word

and many speakers do not know this word at all. The latter is borrowed from the Southwestern Mandarin. /ɣ/ is only found in front of /a/,/ɛ/,/ə/,/e/; /ɕ/ is incompatible with /e/,/ə/,/ʊ/,/ɰ/.

Note when /ɕ/ precedes a non-high vowel, i.e. vowels other than /i/,/y/,/ʊ,/ɰ/, palatalization is involved. Thus, syllables that are represented with /ɕɔ/,/ɕa/,/ɕo/,/ɕɛ/ are perceptually palatalized [ɕʲɔ],[ɕʲa],[ɕʲo] and [ɕʲɛ]. Similarly, a labiovelar glide /ʷ/ is pronounced as a transition between /s/ and the rounded lower-mid /ɔ/, and thus the combination /sɔ/ is articulated as [sʷɔ]. However, labialization is not found in other fricatives. Minimal pairs and near-minimal pairs involving fricatives are given below.

(2.10) /f/-/v/-/ɣ/-/p/-/m/

[f] [v] [ɣ] [p] [m] fɔ33 “there” vɔ33 “bear” - pɔ33 “tub” mɔ33 “lower part” fa13.pɛ31.tsɿ31 va33 “throw” ɣa33 “firewood” pa33 “dye” ma33 “MW.herd” “malaria” fɰ53 “drink“ vɰ53 “carry“ - pɰ53 “ripple“ mɰ33 “grovel“ fɛ33 “method” vɛ53 “relatives“ ɣɛ33 “water“ pɛ55 “kick” mɛ55 “swim“

(2.11) /s/-/z/-/ɕ/-/x/

[s] [z] [ɕ] [x] sɔ31.kə33 “night” zɔ33 “wheat” ɕɔ33 “push to swing“ xɔ33 “iron“ sa33 “half-dry” za33 “install (stake)“ ɕa33 “hit” xa33 “tear“ so35 “build“ zo31 “son“ ɕo53 “replace“ xo53 “NMLZ“ se31 “liver“ ze33 “stake“ - xe31 “from“ sɛ31̃ “three“ zɛ31̃ “utilize“ - xɛ31̃ “collect“

(2.12) /x/-/ɣ/

[x] [ɣ] xa33 “tear“ ɣa33 “firewood” xɛ33 “be used to” ɣɛ33 “water“ xə31 “try” ɣə31 “pan“ xẽ53“thirty/desire to” ɣẽ55“long“

2.1.1.4 The affricates /ts/,/tsʰ/,/tɕ/,/tɕʰ/

Four affricates are identified in Zauzou: the alveolar affricates /ts/-/tsʰ/ and the palatal affricates /tɕ/-/tɕʰ/. The aspiration contrast exhibited in /ts/-/tsʰ/ and /tɕ/-/tɕʰ/ is phonemic. Affricates are restricted to syllable initials. The alveolar affricates /ts/ and /tsʰ/ cannot appear with the rounded front high vowel /y/, as syllables like /*tsy/ or /*tsʰy/ are rejected by native speakers; the palatal affricates /tɕ/ and /tɕʰ/ are impossible to be accompanied by the rounded high back vowel /ʊ/ nor the upper-mid front /e/.

Palatalization is consistently attested in syllables beginning with /tɕ/ and /tɕʰ/. If /tɕ/,/tɕʰ/ are adjacent to the non-high vowels /ɔ/,/o/,/ə/,/ɛ/,/a/, the resultant syllables represented with /tɕɔ/-/tɕʰɔ/,/tɕo/- /tɕʰo/,/tɕə/-/tɕʰə/,/tɕɛ/-/tɕʰɛ/, and /tɕa/-/tɕʰa/ are phonetically realized as syllables with a palatal glide /ʲ/. Consequently, they are articulated as [tɕʲɔ]-[tɕʰʲɔ],[tɕʲo]-[tɕʰʲo],[tɕʲə]-[tɕʰʲə],[tɕʲɛ]-[tɕʰʲɛ], and [tɕʲa]-[tɕʰʲa]. A few minimal pairs and near-minimal pairs involving affricates are presented below.

(2.13) /ts/-/tsʰ/-/s/-/z/

[ts] [tsʰ] [s] [z] tsɔ33 “eagle” tsʊ33.tsʰɔ33 “dinner” sɔ31.kə33 “night” zɔ33 “wheat“ tsa33 “fish (V.)” tsʰa33.pʊ13 “paper” sa33 “half-dry” za33 “install (stake)“ tsʊ33 “coax“ tsʰʊ33 “fat” sʊ31 “walk“ - tso31 “eat“ tsʰo31 “salt” so35 “build“ zo31 “son“ tse13.mə̃33 “Spring tsʰe33 “ten” se31 “liver“ ze33 “stake“ festival”

(2.14) /tɕ/-/tɕʰ/-/ɕ/-/x/

[tɕ] [tɕʰ] [ɕ] [x] tɕɔ33 “cook” tɕʰɔ33 “rice” ɕɔ33 “push to swing” xɔ33 “iron” tɕa33 “connector” tɕʰa33.ma33 “hair” ɕa33 “hit” xa33 “tear“ tɕo33 “CL.string“ tɕʰo55 “pout” ɕo53 “replace“ xo53 “NMLZ“ tɕi33 “about“ tɕʰi33 “foot/muntjac“ ɕi33 “die“ - tɕyi33 “tooth“ tɕʰyi31 “dog“ ɕyi31 “blood“ -

Note the CV combination of /tsʊ33/ is not attested in the Jiangmo dialect. [tsʊ33] “coax“ is the pronunciation of Tu‘e (i.e. the nearest township) Zauzou according to the langauge consultant. This word is produced as [tɕɰ33] in Jiangmo Zauzou.

2.1.1.5 The lateral approximant /l/

The only lateral approximant phoneme in Zauzou is the alveolar voiced lateral consonant /l/. This sound is a consonantal initial which is fairly productive in creating syllables. It is virtually compatible with all plain vowels. The phonetic contrast between /l/ and its neighbouring consonants, including other alveolar consonants /t/,/tʰ/,/n/, are quite obvious. The table below presents some representative minimal pairs and near-minimal pairs involving /l/.

(2.15) /l/-/t/-/tʰ/-/n/

[l] [t] [tʰ] [n] lɔ33 “pants/hang” tɔ33 “put” tʰɔ33 “toss” nɔ33 “smelly“ la33 “herd” ta33 “fry“ tʰa33.tsɿ31 na33 “wet“ “persimmon“ lõ33“MW.Liang tõ33“wing“ tʰõ31“pestle“ nõ33“sick“ (50g)“ lɰ55 “sly“ tɰ55 “s/he/it“ tʰɰ33 “thick“ nɰ31 “cattle“ lə55 “stir fry“ tə55 “that“ tʰə53 “castrate“ nə33 “you“

2.1.1.6 The glide approximants /j//w//ɥ/

For consonantless monophthongal vowels or diphthongs that begin with /i//ʊ//ɰ//y/, the initial vowels are pronounced as semi-vowels, hence acquired the status as consonants. For this reason, they are represented with the glides. Specifically, in consonantless diphthongs, the unrounded high front vowel /i/ becomes the palatal glide /j/, the rounded high front vowel /y/ becomes /ɥ/, and the high back vowel /ʊ/ become the labiovelar glide /w/. For syllables consisting of a single monophthongal /i//ʊ//ɰ//y/, a semi- vowel /j//w/ or /ɥ/ is added before the single vowel /i//ʊ//ɰ//y/. Below are examples of /j/,/w/,/ɥ/ used as prevolic consonants before /i/,/ʊ/, /ɰ/, and /y/. Comparing with /j/ and /w/, /ɥ/ is less common.

(2.16) phonemic prevocalic /j/-/w/-/ɥ/

/jV/ /i/ /iɛ/ /ia/ /iɔ/ /io/ /iə/ ji33 “wine“ jɛ33 ja33 “eight“ jɔ13 “carry jo55 jə33 “leak“ “family“ on the arm“ “hundred“ /wV/

/ʊ/ /ʊɛ/ /ʊa/ /ʊɔ/ /ʊõ/ /ʊe/ /ɰ/ wʊ13 wɛ53 “dig“ wa31.li31 wɔ13 wõ13 we13 wɰ̃ 55 “win/gain“ “more“ “dare“ “snake“ “draw“ “green onion“ /ɥV/ /y/ /yɛ/ /yɰ/ ɥy31 ɥɛ53̃ ɥɰ33 “grandchild“ “sweep“ “medicine“

/j//w/ have allophonic uses in certain CV combinations. In syllables consisting of a palatal affricate /tɕ/,/tɕʰ/,/ɕ/ and a non-high vowel, i.e. /ɛ/,/ɔ/,/o/,/a/,/ə/, the resultant CV combinations /tɕV//tɕʰV//ɕV/ are palatalized, hence they are phonetically realized as the palatalized /tɕʲV/,/tɕʰʲV/, and /ɕʲV/. The combinations of /tɕʲV/,/tɕʰʲV/, and /ɕʲV/ are in complementary distribution with the corresponding /tɕV/,/tɕʰV/, and /ɕV/, hence they are allophonic, and /j/ is represented with the superscript /ʲ/. Examples of /CʲV/ are given in (2.17).

(2.17) non-phonemic prevocalic /ʲ/

/CʲV/ /tɕʲV/ tɕʲa53 “back“, tɕʲa55 “sour“ tɕʲɔ33 “cook“ tɕʲɛ33 “achievable“ tɕʲo33 “CL.string“ tɕʲə53 “proud“ /tɕʰʲV/ tɕʰʲa33.ma33 “hair“ tɕʰʲɔ31 “cool“ tɕʰʲə31 “ugly” tɕʰʲɛ31̃ “guess” tɕʰʲo53 “segment” /ɕʲV/ ɕʲa55 “hit” ɕʲɔ13 “stop” ɕʲo53 “replace”

The environments for the labiovelar glide /w/ are more restrictive. The prevocalic /w/ is needed in CV combinations of /ɔ/ and a bilabial consonant, i.e. /p/,/pʰ/,/m/, or the alveolar consonants /s/,/l/, representing a transitional lip rounding from a bilabial/alveolar consonant to the rounded vowel /ɔ/. Examples are provided in (2.18). In syllables ending with the rounded vowel /ɔ/, this vowel is usually further labialized in the syllable-ending. In order to capture this, we use the superscript /ʷ/ to represent this labialized vowel, as can be seen in (2.19). The /CʷV/ and /CVʷ/ combinations are all in complementary distribution with the corresponding /CV/ combinations, thus the glide /w/ in /CʷV/ and /CVʷ/ is not a phoneme.

(2.18) non-phonemic prevocalic /w/: /CʷV/ sʷɔ31kə33 “night“ lʷɔ13 “alive“ pʷɔ13wa33 “frog“ mʷɔ13 “big“

(2.19) non-phonemic postvocalic /w/: /CVʷ/ lɔʷ55 “hang” ʔɔʷ33 “stupid”

2.1.2 Vowel Inventory

Zauzou is featured by its large vowel inventory. It has 31 phonemic monophthongal vowles. 11 of them are plain vowels (i.e. oral and lax vowles), and 10 of them can be nasalized to form phonemic contrast with the corresponding oral vowels. There are 6 tense vowels and 4 nasal tense vowels that are also phonemic. In addition to that, Zauzou employs 19 diphthongs that all involve a back high vowel. The table below presents plain monophthongs, three types of vowel phonations, including nasal, tense, and nasal tense vowles, and diphthongs in order.

2.1.2.1 Plain monophthongs

Zauzou exhibits 11 plain vocalic phonemes: five front vowel /i/,/y/,/e/,/æ//ɛ/, two central vowels /ə/,/a/, and four back vowels /ɰ/,/ʊ/,/o/,/ɔ/. The full inventory of oral monophthongal vocalic phonemes are given in Table 2.2.

front central Back unrounded rounded unrounded rounded unrounded rounded Close i y ɰ Near- ʊ close Close- e o mid Mid ə Open- ɛ ɔ mid Near- æ a open Open Table 2.2: Inventory of Zauzou plain vowels

All of the 11 plain vowels are in contrastive distribution, as demonstrated by the minimal pairs and near minimal pairs provided in (2.20).

(2.20) Zauzou vowel (near-)minimal pairs

/i/ /y/ /e/ /æ/ /ɛ/ /ə/ /a/ /ɰ/ /ʊ/ /o/ /ɔ/ ti33 tyi33 te13 tæ33/tæ̠ 3 tɛ33 tə13 ta33 tɰ13 - to13 “get tɔ33 “shove” “impure “offer 3 “return “PL.huma “fry” “upward up” “put” ” tribute “single” ” n” ” ” - kyi13 ke33 kæ13 kɛ33 kə31 ka13 kɰ13 kʊ53 ko53.ɕy3 kɔ13 “kneel” “star” “younger “soldier “nine” “jar” “sacrific “cold 1 “dew” “drop” brother” ” e” ” - - - kʰæ31 - kʰə33 kʰa53 kʰɰ31 kʰʊ5 kʰo33 kʰɔ33 “door” “shout” “six” “scoop” 5 “gutter” “bamboo “rely ” ” li31.pɔ3 ly55 le13 lɛ55 - lə55 “stir la13 lɰ55 - lo13 lɔ13 3 “float” “swing “shave” fry” “ascend “cunning “good” “moon” “raven” ” ” ”

ni55 - ne31 næ31 - nə33 na31 nɰ31 - - nɔ31 “live” “grind “catch” “you” “tread” “cattle” “stop” ” - - - ŋæ33 ŋɛ33 ŋə33 “cry” ŋa33 - ŋu31 - ŋɔ33 “see” “small” “see” “fish “RES.se ” e” tɕi13 tɕy33 - tɕʲæ13 - tɕʲə33 tɕʲa33 tɕɰ33 - tɕʲo33 tɕʲɔ13 “gold” “tooth” “all” “remembe “connect “human” “CL.strin “close” r” ” g”

Note that the frequencies of the unrounded high back vowel /ɰ/ and the rounded /ʊ/ is strikingly unbalanced. The rounded /ʊ/ is much less common than the unrounded /ɰ/. The contrast between these two phonemes is only attested in a limited lexical items. Similarly, the phonemic contrast between the open-mid /ɛ/ and the near-open /æ/ is very restrictive, which is attested in very few lexical items. Minimal pairs involving contrastive /æ/-/ɛ/3 are only identified in a small number of lexical items, such as [ŋæ33] “see“-[ŋɛ33] “small“, [kæ13] “younger brother“-[kɛ33]“soldier“, [tæ33] “single“-[tɛ33] “return“. In most syllables, /ɛ/ and /æ/ are allophones. Also note /tɛ33/ “return“ can have [tæ33] as a free variation. Due to the exisitence of mininal pairs, /ɛ/-/æ/ are still treated as two phonemes even though in most cases they are allophonic rather than phonemic.

Below I will describe the each vocalic phoneme and their allophones independently. The vowel inventory in Zauzou is given below, which presents all phonetic variants of vowels. The full description of the phonetic realizations of the above phonemic vowels in Zauzou is given in (2.21):

(2.21) phonetic vowels

Vowel phoneme Allophone Description Environment /i/ [i] unrounded, high, front elsewhere [ɿ] unrounded, high, front after /ts/,/tsʰ/,/s/ /y/ [y] rounded, high, front free variation [yi] diphthong free variation /e/ [e] unrounded, upper-mid, front - /æ/ [ɛ] unrounded, lower-mid, front free variation

3 This phonemic contrast is not mentioned in the Zauzou phonology of Sun et al (2002). According to this grammar, the Jiaongmo variety only has /ɛ/, but no /æ/. However, in the latest recording, the /ɛ/-/æ/ constrast is quite obvious in a few lexical items. This is presumably due to the different settings of fieldwork (i.e.inter-speaker differences or variety differences) carried out by different authors.

[æ] unrounded, low, front free variation /ə/ [ɘ] unrounded,upper-mid, central elsewhere [ə] mid, central after /ʔ/,/ɣ/ /a/ [ɐ] low, central elsewhere [ɑ] unrounded, low, back after /ɣ/,/ŋ/,/m/,/v/ /ɰ/ [ɰ] unrounded, high, back /ʊ/ [ʊ] rounded, high, back /o/ [o] rounded, upper-mid, back /ɔ/ [ɔ] rounded, lower-mid, back

The first vowel that has a noteworthy allophone is the unrounded high front vowel /i/. This vowel has two variants, which are in complementary distribution. The elsewhere allophone is the unrounded high front [i], and /i/ is realized as the apical [ɿ] after the alveolar fricatives /s/,/z/ and affricates /ts/,/tsʰ/. Thus /si/,/zi/,/tsi/,/tsʰi/ are realized as [sɿ],[zɿ],[tsɿ],[tsʰɿ]. Examples involving the allophones [ɿ] and [i] are given in (2.22):

(2.22)

Ex. Gloss [sɿ33] “people“ [tsɿ31] “governor“ [tsʰɿ31] “old“ [pi13] “give“ [ɕi33] “die“ [tɕi33] “about“

The rounded high front vowel /y/ has two allophones: the rounded high front monophthongal vowel [y], and the diphthong [yi]. [y] and [yi] are free variations. [y] is often prounced as a diphthongal [yi] under the same condition. Examples are given in (2.23): (2.23)

Ex. Gloss [ty33]/[tyi33] “impure“ [ky13]/[kyi13] “kneel“ [tɕy33]/[tɕyi33] “tooth“

[kə31.ɕy31]/[kə31/ɕyi31] “grain“ [ɥy31]/[ɥyi31] “four/grandchild“

The low front vowel /æ/ has two allophones: the unrounded low front [æ] and the unrounded lower-mid front [ɛ]. These two vowels are free variations in some lexical items. The [æ]-[ɛ] alternation is frequently identified in a bunch of words in a single speaker‘s speech production, and native speakers accept both pronounciation equally well. The phonemic contrast between /æ/ and /ɛ/ still exists, as illustrated above, but is restricted to only a few lexical items. Examples of these two allophones are given in (2.24):

(2.24)

Ex. Gloss [sɛ53]/[sæ53] “wood“ [ŋɛ33]/[ŋæ33] “look“ [tɛ33]/[tæ33] “return“ [nɛ53]/[næ53] “Q.tag“ [mɛ13]/[mæ13] “forget“

The mid central vowel /ə/ has two allophones: the mid central vowel [ə] and the unrounded upper-mid central vowel [ɘ]. /ə/ is realized as [ɘ] after most consonants, most typically after plosives like /k/,/t/,/kʰ/,/tʰ/, the affricates like /tɕ/,/tɕʰ/, and the nasal /ŋ/. /ə/ remains as the schwa after the voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ and the glottal stop /ʔ/. [ɘ] and [ə] are also in complementary distribution, hence they are conditioned variants. As a result, /kə/,/kʰə/,/tə/,/tʰə/,/tɕə/,/tɕʰə/,/ŋə/ are realized as [kɘ], [kʰɘ],[tɘ],[tʰɘ],[tɕʲɘ],[tɕʰʲɘ],[ŋɘ], and /ɣə/,/ʔə/ are realized as [ɣə] and [ʔə]. Examples involving these two allophones are given in (2.25):

(2.25)

Ex. Gloss [tɘ13] “offer tribute” [tɕʲɘ13] “forget“ [tɕʰʲɘ31] “lonely” [kʰɘ33] “shout“ [ŋɘ55] “say”

[ɣə31] “pay back” [ʔə31] “hold”

The low vowel /a/ also have two conditional variants: the low central vowel [ɐ] and the unrounded low back vowel [ɑ]. The central [ɐ] is the elsewhere allophone, and /a/ is realized as [ɑ] after /ɣ/,/ŋ/,/m/,/v/. Therefore, /ɣa/,/ŋa/,/ma/, and /va/ are realized as [ɣɑ],[ŋɑ],[mɑ],[vɑ]. Examples below demonstrate the environments of the[ɐ]-[ɑ] alternation. (2.26) Ex. Gloss [vɑ33] “throw” [mɑ33] “herd” [ŋɑ33] “see” [ɣɑ33] “firewood” [tɕʰɐ33] “connector” [kɐ33] “dry” [pɐ33] “dye”

2.1.2.2 Nasal vowels

Zauzou employs a relatively large number of nasal vowels. Except the lower-mid back vowel /ɔ/, all the remaining 10 plain vowels can be nasalized. The full list of nasal vowels is given in Table 2.3. The corresponding nasal vowels are in phonemic contrast with oral vowels. Minimal pairs and near-minimal pairs concerning the oral-nasal contrast in vowels are given in (2.27).

Oral vowel Nasal vowel i ĩ y ỹ e ẽ æ æ̃ ɛ ɛ ̃ a ã ə ə̃ ɰ (ɰ̃ ) ʊ (ʊ̃)

o õ Table 2.3: Zauzou nasal vowels

(2.27) (Near-)minimal pairs of oral~nasal vowels

/i/ /y/ /e/ /æ/ /ɛ/ /a/ /ə/ /ɰ/ /ʊ/ /o/ /ɔ / Mod - - te13 tæ33 - ta33 tə13 - - to13 “get - al “offer “single“ „fry“ “PL“ up“ tribute “ Nasal - - tẽ13 tæ̃33 - tã55 tə13̃ - - tõ13 - “ridge “haystac “measur “bump “uncle“ “ k“ e“ “ Mod tɕi31 tɕy53 - - tɕʲɛ33 tɕʲa55 - - - tɕʲo33 - al “street “smart “owe“ “sour“ “CL.strin “ “ g“ Nasal tɕĩ31 tɕỹ33 - - tɕʲɛ33̃ tɕʲã55 - - - tɕʲõ33 - “thing “broom “understan “expel“ “jump“ “ “ d“ Nasal ------wɰ̃ 33 mʊ̃13 - - “green “teach“ onion“, , xɰ̃ 13 wʊ̃13 “give “green birth onion“ to/grow xʊ̃13 “ “give birth to/grow “

Notice the two high back vowel /ɰ/ and /ʊ/ are singled out from the remaining oral vowels due to the lack of contrastive nasal vowels. The nasalized /ɰ̃ / and /ʊ̃/ do appear in certain words, however, in most syllables containing the nasalized /ɰ̃ / and /ʊ̃/, the corresponding oral vowels are a gap. For example, the nasalized /mʊ̃13/ “teach“ does not have a contrastive /mʊ/ form. It suggests [ʊ̃] is not an independent phoneme, but can only be allophonic of the oral [ʊ13]. It‘s the same case for /ɰ/. As the nasalized /ɰ̃ / in words like /xɰ̃ 13/ “give birth to/grow“ and /wɰ̃ 33/ “green onion“ do not have the corresponding oral vowel /ɰ/ in the same environemnts, as /xɰ13/ and /wɰ33/ are not attested. Therefore, it is hard to claim

that /ɰ̃ / and /ʊ̃/ are vocalic phonemes as other nasal vowels. Therefore, the nasal vowels [ɰ̃ ] and [ʊ̃] are more appropriately treated as allophones of the oral vowels /ɰ/ and /ʊ/.

Moreover, the distinction of roundedness between [ɰ] and [ʊ] is neutralized in their nasal vowels. Specifically, /wɰ̃ 33/ is a free variation of /wũ33/ for “green onion“;likewise, /xɰ̃ 13/ can alternate with the rounded /xʊ̃13/ in the word “give birth to/grow“.

2.1.2.3 Tense vowels

Just like many Tibeto-Burman languages, Zauzou is featured by its systematic vocal register contrast between two settings of the laryngeal constrictor mechanism, which are referred to in many TB literature as a lax series and a tense series (Sun et al 2002, Edmondson et al 2000, 2001, 2017). The terminology of tense and lax vowels are widely used crosslinguistically, ranging from Germanic languages, African languages, to south-east Asian languages, but refers to completely different phenomena with distinct phonetic natures. Even languages in a particular linguistic area (i.e. TB for example) may differ substantially in the phonetic features of tense and lax vowels. In the setting of south- east Asia, the essence of tense/lax vowels are different in Hani and Yi as opposed to Jingpho and Wa (Maddieson & Ladefoged 1985). This phonation contrast in Jingpho and Wa is between a relatively more breathy phonation (lax) and a modal type of phonation (lax); whereas in Hani and Yi the tense/lax contrast is between a relatively more laryngealized phonation (tense) and a modal phonation (lax) (Maddieson & Ladefoged 1985). Such a distinction is the consequence of different historical origins of the tense/lax contrast. According to Dai (1979), tense vowels in Hani and Yi (and other Loloish languages) are the reflex of vowels in syllables which had original final stops, while the distinction between lax and tense in Jingpho and Wa derives from an original voicing distinction in the consonants preceding the affected vowels (i.e. voiced initial-lax vowels, voiceless initial-tense vowels).

In Lolo-Burmese languages, tense vowels and lax vowels basically differ in laryngeal register quality. According to Edmondson et al (2017), lax is defined by an open or unconstricted epilaryngeal tube and tense is defined by a narrowed or constricted epilaryngeal tube. In terms of the oral articulation of the tense vowels, there is a strong effect of tongue root retraction, as the back of tongue must be bunched in the speaker‘s mouth to produce tense vowels. There are some literature describing the same vocal register contrast as pharyngealization (Evans 2006 for Hongyan Qiang). In this dissertation, I follow the tradition of using the terms “tense“ and “lax“ vowels that are specified for Loloish languages to describe the same phonemic contrast between two series of vowels as in Hani and Yi.

In Zauzou, tense vowels form phonemic contrast with lax vowels (plain vowels). Following the description of Edmondson et al (2017) for Nuosu Yi, tense vowels in Zauzou can also be regarded as a

kind of vowel phonation, corresponding to the raised-larynx, tongue-root-retracted, epilaryngeal-tube- constricted counterparts of the lax vowels. However, a scrutinizaion on the spectrograms and spectras of these vowels seems to suggest that the tense-lax dinstinction is primarily due to the tongue-root-retracted (-ATR) feature, as the F0, F1,F2 and intensity of the first two harmonics are all similar between lax and tense vowels, except for the bandwidth, which exhibits sharp contrast betweem the two groups of vowels. Figure 2.1 provides the spectrograms of three pairs of lax/tense contrasts in Zauzou, all having the mid- level tone. There is no overall formant frequency (F1 and F2) differerence4 between lax and tense vowels. Figure 2.2 presents the spectras of the same set of vowels. The intensity of harmonics in Figure 2.2 show that the distribution of spectral energy in both tense and lax vowels are identical, indicating the vowel contrast is not related to glottal configuration (Kuang 2014), The most significant difference between Zauzou tense and lax vowels is the bandwidth of the second formant (F2), as the bandwidth of tense vowels is much wider than that of lax vowels (see Table 2.4 For illustration). This suggests the phonation distinction in Zauzou might be induced by the retracted tongue root (Ladefoged &Maddieson 1996). more fine-grained phonetic examination on Zauzou tense-lax contrast will be needed in future investigation.

Phonation lax tense lax tense lax Tense Vowel [ji33] “go“ [ji̠ 33] [ne33] [ne̠ 33] “red“ [wæ33] [wæ̠ 33] “finish“ “seven“ “glance“ “chop“ Bandwidth 490Hz 1740Hz 199Hz 2815Hz 365Hz 703Hz of F2 Table 2.4 Bandwidth of F2 in Zauzou lax and tense vowels

Tense and lax vowels are not fully contrastive, as opposed to the description in Sun et al (2002). In the Jiangmo dialect I investigated, only a subset of oral vowels have corresponding tense vowels. These vowels are mostly front and central vowels, involve: /i/,/e/,/æ/,/a/,/ə/, while a back vowel (i.e. /ɰ/,/ʊ/,/ɔ/,/o/) does not have a tense counterpart. It has to be pointed out that the correlations between pitch and vowel register contrast mentioned by Sun et al (2002),Handel (2003), and Zhao & Zhang (2007). however, the pitch distinction is not obvious in the Zauzou variety I recorded5. As noted in the phonological description by Zhao & Zhang (2007), tense vowels in Zauzou are systematically associated

4 The F1 and F2 of the three pairs of tense-lax vowels are: [ji33] “go” (F1=439Hz, F2=2259), [ji̠ 33] “finish” (F1=513Hz, F2=2312Hz), [ne33] “seven” (F1=768Hz, F2=2585Hz), [ne̠ 33] “red”(F1=538Hz, F2=2330Hz), [wæ33] “glance”(F1=1001Hz, F2=1670Hz), [wæ̠ 33] “chop”(F1=1024Hz, F2=1788Hz). 5 In fact, the intimate association between tone and laryngeal features like tense/lax vowels is not uncommon in other TB languages. In Jianchuan Bai for example (Wang 2015), the categorization of tonal system is on the basis of the combination of tone and vowel phonations. Eight tonal categories in Jianchuan Bai are defined by both pitch and two non-modal phonation types (i.e. harsh and pressed voice) based on the three basic parameters, F0, OQ, and SQ.

with the high level tones (55/44), the high-falling tone (42), and the high-raising tone (24), and lax vowels are normally combined with the mid-level tone (33), the low-falling tone (21), and the low raising tone (12). Nevertheless, the F0 of the tense and lax vowels in Figure 2.16 suggests the pitch difference between the two phonations is very trivial. The pitch of tense vowels is only slightly higher than that of the lax vowels, but not significant. Mininal pairs and near-minimal pairs involving the lax-tense opposition of front and central vowels are given in (2.28). I provide both phonemic and phonetic transcriptions for the two series of vowels. The phonetic transcription captures the fact of tongue-root-retraction (as represented by the “retracted tongue root“ diacritic /̙ /) and the higher pitch of tense vowels. The phonemic transcription uses the “retracted“ diacritic /̠ / to signal tense vowels, which is traditionally specified for tense vowels in TB languages.

(2.28) (Near-)minimal pairs of lax~tense vowels

Lax-tense contrast phonemic phonetic gloss /i/-/i̠ / mi33 mi33 “shout“ mi̠ 33 mi̙ 33 “willow“ ji33 ji33 “go“ ji̠ 33 ji̙ 33 “completed“ /e/-/e̠ / pe33 pe33 “1/3.PL“ pe̠ 33 pe̙ 33 “ferment“ pe̙ 3̃ 3 ne33 ne33 “red“ ne̠ 33 ne̙ 33 “seven“ te13 te13 “sacrifice“ tẽ13 te̠ 13 te̙ 13 “ridge“ te̙ 1̃ 3 /æ/-/æ̠ / wæ33 wæ33 “bleach/glance“ wæ̙ 33 wæ̠ 33 wæ̙ 33 “chop/wear“ /ɛ/-/ɛ̠ / t ɕ ʲɛ 33 tɕʲɛ33 “owe“ tɕʲɛ̠ 33 tɕʲɛ̙ 33 “believe“

6 The fundamental frequencies of the three pairs of tense-lax vowels are: [ji33] “go” (F0=193Hz), [ji̠ 33] “finish” (F0=195Hz), [ne33] “seven” (F0=185Hz), [ne̠ 33] “red” (F0=192Hz), [wæ33] “glance”(F0=174Hz), [wæ̠ 33] “chop”(F0=207Hz).

/a/-/a̠ / wa53 wa53 “wave (V)“ wa̠ 53 wa̙ 53 “neighbour“ wa53 /ə/-/ə̠ / t ə 31 tɘ31 “one“ tə̠ 33 tə̙ 33 “up“ pə33 p ə 33 “swing“ pə̠ 33 pə̙ 33 “increase“

The lax-tense opposition is not widely attested in most of CVT combinations, and the inventory of tense vowels in Zauzou is not very large. The lax-tense opposition in some words has been neutralized, as the lax form can be a free variation of the tense form (e.g. [wa53] is a free variation of [wa̠ 53] for “neighbour“). Furthermore, the phonetic effect induced by tense vowels is often accompanied by an extra nasalization in the vowel, and accordingly tense vowels often have a nasal tense variant, as can be seen in the tense-nasal tense alternation in [pe̙ 44]-[pe̙ 4̃ 4] “ferment“ and [te̙ 13]-[te̙ 1̃ 3] “ridge“. More phonological variations related to tense vowels will be discussed in §2.4.2.

Figure 2.1 Spectrograms of Zauzou tense/lax vowels

Figure 2.2 Spectra of Zauzou lax and tense vowels

2.1.2.4 Nasal tense vowels

The two phonation types tense and nasal may co-occur in one vowel, creating nasal tense vowels. However, as has been noticed in Sun et al (2002), this combinatory vowel phonation type is very

marginal, and the inventory is small in Zauzon. In the phonology described by Sun et al (2002), only three nasal tense vowels are identified in Zauzou: /ɛ̠ ̃/, /a̠ /̃ ,/u̠ ̃/. The same tendency is observed in the Jiangmo dialect I investigated, in which only four nasal tense vowels are attested: /ə̠ ̃/,/e̠ /̃ ,/a̠ ̃/,/ɛ̠ /.̃ Three out of the four vowels are non-phonemic, as we only found minimal pairs for /ə̠ ̃/ that contain all four vowel phonation types, as illuatrated in (2.29). The remaining three nasal tense vowels (i.e. /e̠ /̃ ,/a̠ ̃/,/ɛ̠ /)̃ are merely free variations of the corresponding tense or nasal vowels.

(2.29) Minimal pair illustrating four types of vowel phonation: /ə/-/ə/-/ə̠ /-/ə̠ ̃/

Phonation Phonemic Gloss Plain pə33 “swing“ Nasal pə̃33 “short axe“ Tense pə̠ 33 “increase“ Nasal tense p ə ̠ ̃33 “stew“

(2.30) presents the distributions of allophonic nasal tense vowels /e̠ /̃ ,/a̠ /̃ and /ɛ̠ ̃/. [e̠ ]̃ -[e̠ ] in “ridge“ and “ferment“ are apparently allophones, as the extra feature of [+nasal] in /te̠ 1̃ 3/ and /pe̠ 3̃ 3/ is not contrastive. [a̠ ̃] and [ɛ̠ ̃] in /wa̠ ̃/ “manage“ and /tɕʲɛ̠ /̃ “pinch“ seem to be contrastive with /wa̠ 53/ “neighbout“ and /tɕʲɛ̠ 33/ “believe“, the phonemic status of /a̠ ̃/ and /ɛ̠ /̃ is still suspecious due to the gap of nasal vowels in (2.30). It is not known if the nasal tense vowels are free variatons of the corresponding nasal vowels.

(2.30) Allophonic tense-nasal vowels lax nasal tense Tense-nasal te13 “sacrifice“ - te̠ 13 “ridge“ tẽ̠ 13 “ridge“ pe33 “PL“ - pe̠ 33 “ferment“ pẽ̠ 33 “ferment“ wa53 “wave“ - wa̠ 53 “neighbour“ wa̠ ̃55 “manage“ tɕɛ33 “owe“ - tɕɛ̠ 33 “believe“ tɕɛ̠ 33̃ “pinch“

Compare the spectrograms of the tense vowel [ɛ̠ ] and the nasal tense vowel [ɛ̠ ̃] in “believe“ and “pinch“:

Figure 2.3 Spectrograms of tense vs. nasal tense vowels

According to Figure 2.3, the nasal tense [ɛ̠ ]̃ seems to have an extra formant above F1, and F1 in the nasal tense vowel is fainter than the remaining formants. Moreover, the bandwidth of F1 (489Hz) and F2 (1262Hz) in the nasal tense vowel is much higher than the F1 (41Hz) and F2 (322Hz) of the tense vowel, suggesting there is nasalization in the second word.

Another piece of evidence supporting the allophonic status of nasal tense vowels is the cross- speaker variations. (2.31) provides the phonemic transcriptions of seven words from two female speakers and two male speakers. As can be observed in (2.31), inter-speaker free variations can be attested between oral-nasal, lax-tense, and plain-nasal tense vowels.

What is relevant here is the individual differences between the tense vowel [e̠ ] and the nasal tense vowel [e̠ ]̃ in “ferment“ and “ridge“,as well as the three variants of /ɛ/ in “pinch“, i.e. [ɛ]-[ɛ̃]-[ɛ̠ ̃]. For “ferment“, both female speakers and one male speaker produce [e̠ ]̃ , while only the second male speaker produced [e̠ ]; likewise, the [e̠ ]̃ -[e̠ ] contrast in “ridge“ is also predicted by the gender of the speaker. Regarding the word “pinch“, the oral vowel /ɛ/ is realized as three distinct variants [ɛ],[ɛ],̃ and [ɛ̠ ̃] by different speakers.

Above all, the nasal tense vowels [a̠ ̃] [e̠ ]̃ and [ɛ̠ ]̃ are not independent phonemes, but most likely allophones of nasal or tense vowels. This suggests that the phonemic phonation type [+tense&nasal] has not been established in Zauzou yet or is disappearing.

(2.31) cross-speaker variations related vowel phonation

Word gloss FEM1 FEM2 MALE1 MALE2 oral-nasal sacrifice tẽ13 te13 tẽ13 te13 variation ferment pẽ̠ 33 pẽ̠ 33 pẽ̠ 33 pe̠ 33 ridge tẽ̠ 13 tẽ̠ 13 te̠ 13 te̠ 13 lax-tense glance wæ33 wæ̠̃ 33 wæ33 wæ33 variation neighbour wã̠ 53 wã̠ 53 wa53 wa53 believe N/A tɕʲɛ33 tɕʲɛ33 tɕʲɛ̠̃ 33 plain-nasal pinch N/A tɕʲɛ33 tɕʲɛ̠̃ 33 tɕʲɛ 33 tense variation

2.1.2.5 Diphthongs

The high vowels /i//ʊ//y/ can precede another vowel to yield diphthongs. A diphthong involves one vocoid movement. All diphthongs in Zauzou are comprised by an onglide and a nuclear vowel, and the articulation of the finishing point (i.e. the second part) is more prominent and longer than the strarting point (i.e. the first part). Zauzou has 19 diphthongs, as present below in (2.32), starting with /i-/, /ʊ-/, and /y-/ respectively:

(2.32) Zauzou diphthongs

/iV/: /ia/,/iə/, /iɛ/, iɔ/, /io/, /iã/,/iɛ/,̃ /iõ/

/ʊV/:/ʊa/, /ʊɔ/, /ʊe/, /ʊɛ/, /ʊã/, /ʊẽ/, /ʊɛ/̃ ,/ʊõ/

/yV/: /yɛ/, /yɛ/̃ ,/yɰ/

In the above diphthongs, the first high vowel serves as a transition between consonant and the main vowel, and /i/, /ʊ/, /y/ differ in their abilities to appear in diphthongs. /i/ and /ʊ/ are relatively productive in yielding diphthongs, while diphthongs involving /y/ are much less common. The main vowel V can be a plain vowel or a vowel with phonation (i.e. nasal). (2.33)-(2.35) below gives minimal pairs of monophthongs vs. diphthongs in syllables starting with various consonants.

(2.33) /iV/ diphthongs:

/iV/ CV CVV /ɔ/-/iɔ/ pɔ13 “old man“ piɔ13 “grass“ tɔ55 “north“ tiɔ55 “that“

/a/-/ia/ pʰa53 “CL.piece“ pʰia53 “lose“, pa13 “owe“ pia13 “hedgehog“ ma33 “PL.herd“ mia33 “fast“ /ə/-/iə/ tʰə53 “castrate“ tʰiə31 “sneeze“ /ɛ/-/iɛ/ ʔɛ55 “carry off” ʔiɛ55 “pickle” mɛ33 “boat (V)“ ɳa53.miɛ13 “sleep“ ŋɛ33 “small“ ŋiɛ13 “wake up“ ɣɛ33 “water“ ɣiɛ33 “laugh“ /o/-/io/ lo53 “hand“ lio53 “lick” /ã/-/iã/ pã33“release“ mi33.piã55“shirt” /ɛ̃/-/iɛ/̃ pɛ 33 “lair“ piɛ 33 “fly (N)” /õ/-/iõ/ mõ53 “PL“ miõ31“plow” põ33“tie up“ piõ33“soul”

(2.34) /ʊV/ diphthongs:

/ʊV/ CV CVV /a/-/ʊa/ ta33 “fry“, tɔ33 “put“ tʊa33 “knock“, tʊɔ33 “stick“ kʰa53 “put“ kʰʊa53 “undress“ ka13 “jar“ kʊa13 “peel off“ (Mandarin loan) sa55 “hide“ sʊa55 “CL.time“ xa53 “IMP“ xʊa53 “pour“ tɕa33 “connect“ tɕʊa33 “katydid“ la33 “herd” lʊa33 “move“ /e/-/ʊe/ tʰe13 “with“ tʰʊe13 “plane (V)“ se33 “whistle“, sʊe31 “VCL.time“ tsʰe33 “ten“ tsʰʊe33 “lung” /ɛ/-/ʊɛ/ xɛ33 “be used to“ xʊɛ33 “friend“ /ɔ/-/ʊɔ/ tɔ33 “put“ tuɔ33 “stick” /ɛ̃/-/uɛ̃/ tɕʰɛ 53 “goat“ tɕʰuɛ 33 “thousand” /ã/-/ʊã/ ʔã31 “vegetable“ ʔʊã55 “teapot“ /ẽ/-/ʊẽ/ sẽ33 “god“ sʊẽ55 “think“,

/õ/-/ʊõ/ ʔõ33“CL.animal“ wõ13 “snake“

(2.35) /yV/ diphthongs:

/yV/ CV CVV /ɛ/-/yɛ/ ʔɛ33 “cut“ ʔyɛ31 “paste (N)“ lɛ33 “seedling“ lyɛ33 “carry on the back“ /ɛ̃/-/yɛ̃/ tɕɛ 13 “cloudy“ tɕyɛ 33 “pustule/mosquito“ tɕʰɛ 53 “goat“ tɕʰyɛ 55 “thousand“ /ɰ/-/yɰ/ wɰ 55 “green onion“ ɥɰ33 “medicine“

Vowels that can form diphthongs with /i//ʊ//y/ can be plain vowels or nasal vowels, while tense vowels are not found in diphthongs. Diphthongs can take a prevocalic consonant or form an independent syllable by converting the first V into a semi-vowel. The above three tables only concern the syllable structure of CVV. For VV syllables where the first V is /i//ʊ//ɰ//y/, the first V is represented by a semi- vowel, i.e. /j//w//ɥ/, as mentioned in §2.2.1.6.

2.1.3 Tones

In Zauzou, every syllable produced in isolation must bear a lexically specified tone. Syllable is the tone-bearing unit. Zauzou tones are combinations of pitch height and pitch contour. Zauzou tones can be grouped into three categories on the basis of pitch coutour: the level tone, the falling tone, and the rising tone. Each contour category has two registers conditioned by the pitch height. That is, the level/falling/rising tonal categories all contain a high tone and a low tone, which only contrast in pitch height . Sun et al (2002) identified six tones in two dialects of Zauzou: two level tones (55 and 33), two falling tones (53 and 31), and two rising tones (35 and 13). The six tonemes are verified in the Jiangmo dialect in the present field study. Therefore, this six-tone system is adopted in this paper. However, more complexity with regard to the sandhi tones that are not mentioned in Sun et al (2002) are carefully examined in this work.

The six tonemes and (near-)minimal pairs are present in Table 2.4:

Level tone Falling tone Rising tone /55/ /33/ /53/ /31/ /35/ /13/

Tone- High level Mid-level tone High-falling Low-falling High-rising Low-rising bearing tone tone tone tone tone unit /la/ la55 la33 la53 “stand“ la31 “dip“ - la13 “grab/ “lustful“ “herd/shine/stir“ ascend“ /mi/ mi55 mi33 “clothes“ mi53 “blow“ mi31 “fire“ - mi13 “free“ “female“ /ŋue/ ŋue55 ŋue33 “silver“ ŋuæ53 ŋue31 ŋue35 - “grind“ “glance“ “steamer“ “pick off“ /na/ na55 na33 na53 “bean“ na31 - na13 “like“ “wet/suona “tread“ “milk/wait“ horn“ /ʔa/ ʔa55 ʔa33 “barn“ ʔa53 ʔa31 - ʔa13 “fall“ “spoil“ “steam“ “NEG“ /tɕʲa/ tɕʲa55 tɕʲa33 “pull“ tɕʲa53 tɕʲã31 - tɕʲa13 “tie “sour“ “companion“ “copper“ up“ /pɛ/ pɛ̠ 55 pɛ̠ 33 pɛ53 “shot“ pɛ31 - pɛ13̃ “search“ “kick/dollar“ “disease“ “earth“ Table 2.4 Zauzou tonemes

Based on the pitch contour and pitch height, tonemes in Zauzou include: high level tone (/55/), mid-level tone (/33/), high-falling tone (/53/), low-falling tone (/31/), high-rising tone (/35/), and low- rising tone (/13/). Zauzou native speakers have reported that there exists a mid-high level tone with the pitch value of [44]7. Pitch tracks of these tones8 are present in Figure 2.4 and 2.5:

7 The /44/ tone is reported by a few Zauzou native speakers who have some training in phonology. For these speakers, the pitch difference among /33//44//55/ are distinctive in production and perception. 8 The pitch tracks of the syllalbes in Figure 2.1 and 2.2 are all segments of carrier sentences.

Figure 2.4 Pitch tracks of Zauzou level tones (55,44,33), falling tones (53,31), and rising tones (13)

Figure 2.5 Pitch tracks of /13/ and /35/

It should be noted that [44] tone is not a toneme in the phonological system of Jiangmo Zauzou. Firstly, this tone is only remained in a few speakers‘ production data as an individual variant and is not shared by all community members. The speakers recognizing this tone are those with strong linguistic sense. But for most native speakers, including older speakers, the contrasts between /33/-/44/ or /44/-/55/ are not perceivable by them. Secondly, though there are a few minimal pairs identified in the production data of individual speakers that exhibit the three-way pitch difference, i.e. [33]-[44]-[55], as shown in (2.36), the pitch distinctions between each register are actually very minor, and the pitch difference between [44] and [55] is hard to detect in Figure 2.4. Moreover, [33]-[44]-[55] can only be observed in the contexts when three syllables are pronunced consecutively in isolation. Once they are embedded in a carrier sentence, the the [44] category disappears. Above all, it is hard to claim that the mid-high level tone [44] has the status as a full-fledged toneme in Jiangmo Zauzou, as it is subject to substantial inter- speaker variation (i.e. the pitches of the words that are claimed as having [44] tone are not consistently produced as [44] across speakers). Even for the speakers who consistently produce a [44] tone in isolation, this tone tends to become [33] or [55] in a given context. Therefore, here we still take the six- tone system as claimed in Sun et al (2002).

(2.36) three-way distinction of level tone

[tɕa55] “sour“ [tɕa44] “hit“

[tɕa33] “pull“

In fact, the tonal categories signaled by pitch height in Zauzou are not very stable, as the register distinction is often collapsed by speakers in production data. This is most salient for rising tones, while the contrast between high-falling/high-level tones and low-falling tone/mid-level tone is always clear. The distribution of the high-rising tone /35/ and the low-rising tone /13/ is extremely unbalanced. The /35/ tone is confined to a small set of words in Zauzou lexicon, while words bearing the /13/ tone overwhelmingly outnumber words with the tone of /35/. For this reason, the category of /35/ tone in Table 2.4 is a gap. Minimal pairs illustrating the contrast between the high-rising /35/ and the low-rising /13/ are present in (2.37), and see Figure 2.5 for the pitch tracks of these four words.

(2.37) Minimal pairs of low-rising vs. high-rising tones

Tone-bearing unit Rising tone /35/ /13/ /wu/ wu35 “PROG“ wu13 “gain“ /to/ to35 “get up“ to13 “bean pod“

The tonemic contrast between /13/ and /35/ is not stable either. The contrastive pitch height exhibited on /wu/ and /to/ are not consistently attested across different speakers nor in different contexts. Some lexical items may freely alternate between the low-rising tone /13/ and the high-rising tone /35/. For example, inter-speaker variation has been identified in prouncing the word na13 “wait“, whose underlying tone is /13/, but is sometimes realized as [35] in the production data. Also for some speakers, the perception of the tonemic distinction between [na13] and [na35] is impossible9, indicating there is a tendency that the two rising tones are merging into one tonal category.

Incidentally, inter-speaker variation has been attested between the high-level tone /55/ and the mid-level tone /33/ in some lexical items. For instance, in our recordings, under the same condition, the lexical tone for the word “hit“ is pronunced as tɕa55 by speaker A, but tɕa33 by speaker B. For the majority of words in the Zauzou lexicon, the register (height) distinction is well preserved; however, for a

9 When eliciting the tonemes in sequence, the distinction between [na13] and [na35] is not attested in the recordings of four different speakers. In tone perception, when speakers were asked to compare “wait” and “milk”, most of them claimed that these two words have the same tone.

substantial number of Zauzou speakers, the assignment of a level tone /33/ or /55/ is fairly flexible and inconsistent.

Above all, regarding the pitch height, the /55/-/33/ and /53/-/31/ oppositions are well-maintained tonemic contrasts, except for a few inter-speaker variations. The pitch register opposition between /13/ and /35/ can be allophonic in some lexical items.

2.2 Syllable structure

A typical Zauzou syllable is comprised by three compulsory elements: intial, final, and tone. It only has open syllables, and no coda is attested. A syllable in Zauzou can maximally contain the following components: an intial consonant, a subsequent glide, a vowel (a monophthong or a diphthong), and a tone, as illustrated in (2.38):

(2.38) C (G) (V1)V2 T

C represents consonantal initials, which could be filled by a plosive, a fricative, an affricate, a lateral, or a glide. Every syllable must have a consonant.

G represents glides, which is one of the three glide approximants:/j/,/w/,/ɥ/. A glide can follow the initial consonant C to form a consonant cluster CG in certain CV combinations. G is not a compulsory component of a Zauzou syllable and only appears in narraw transcriptions.

A Zauzou syllable allows two types of vowels: a monophthong comprised by a single nuclear vowel (V2) or a diphthong containing a nuclear V2 and an onglide (V 1).V2 is the nucleus of a syllable, hence it is obligatory. V1 is a secondary vowel preceding the main vowel as a transitional sound between

C and V2. V1 is optional and is restricted to the high vowels /i//ʊ//y/. Vowel nasalization is common in Zauzou. However, nasalization is not realized as nasal codas, but rather is a phonation type applied to vowels10.

The superscript T represents the tone. Tone is also an obligatory part of every Zauzou syllable. Each syllable must bear one of the six contour tones: two level tones (/55/ and /33/), two falling tone (/53/ and /31/), and two rising tones (/13/ and /35/).

10 Vowel nasalization is a characteristic of many Lolo-Burmese languages. For example, no nasal coda is found in Lahu, but only nasalized vowels are identified (Matisoff 1973:20). Historically, final nasals in Sino-Tibetan languages may lose their oral occlusion and transfer their nasality to the preceding vowel, following the continuum of final stop/nasal preservation in Sino-Tibetan languages in Matisoff (2003:238).

Given the optionality of glides and V1, possible combinations of C, G, V1,V2, T in Zauzou involve:

(2.39) a.CVT

b.GVT

c.CGVT

d.CVVT

(2.39a) is the basic syllable structure, and V can be realized as an oral vowel, a nasal vowel, a tense vowel, or a nasal tense vowel. The syllable onset consonant is a regular consonant C other than glides. Examples illustrating the CVT structure are given in (2.40):

(2.40) CVT pa33 “dye” tã55 “measure“ pe̠ 33 “ferment“ pə̠ ̃33 “stew“

(2.39b) represents syllables beginning with a glide /j//ɰ//ɥ/ and containing a single vowel. Examples illustraing the structure of GVT are present in (2.41):

(2.41) GVT ji33 “wine“ wʊ13 “win/gain“

ɥy31 “grandchild“

(2.39c) represents syllables containing a single vowel and both C and G in the prevocalic position. G in CGVT is palatalized and labialized consonants, represented by superscript /j/ or /w/. Syllables involving a glide between C and V are given in (2.42):

(2.42) CGVT

ɕja “hit” ɳʲõ31 “plow“

sʷɔ31kə33 “night”

(2.39d) characterizes syllables containing a diphthong. G and VV are mutually exclusive. Hence CVVT precludes the existence of a glide. Examples of CVVT are provided in (2.43):

(2.43) CVVT

mia33 “fast“

lua33 “move“

ʔyɛ33 “paste (N)“

2.3 Tone Sandhi

In Zauzou, tone sandhi is frequently identified in a relatively wide range of phonological environments. In this section, I only examine monosyllabic words and the sandhi phenomena taking place at both word boundary and phrase boundary. The pitch contour and height of a particular syllable may change as the consequence of sandhi rules. In Zauzou, tone sandhi can be triggered by an adjacent syllable, i.e. either precedes or follows the target syllable, and the sandhi process can occur at word boundaries or cross two phrases11. Two sets of sandhi rules, namely restricted and general sandhi rules, will be discussed separately below.

2.3.1 Restricted Tone Sandhi Rules

Restricted tone sandhi refers to sandhi patterns that are confined to specific tonal category. In Zauzou, most sandhi patterns are related to the following four tonal categories: /31//13//35//33/. The high- level tone /55/ and the high-falling tone /53/ do not have restricted sandhi patterns.

2.3.1.1 Sandhi patterns related to /31/

The low-falling tone /31/ becomes a low-rising tone /13/ when preceded by a rising tone /35//13/ in the preceding phrase or a mid-level tone /33/, and followed by /31/. Note /31/ remains the same if the preceding syllable bears a falling tone /31//53/ or the high-level tone /55/. The /31/-/31/ sequence is one phrase. The sandhi rules are specified in (2.44):

11 The word boundary is marked by a period, and the phrase boundary is indicated by # .

(2.44) Tone sandhi patterns related to /31/: a. 3113/35#_31 b. 3113/13#_31 c. 3113/33_31

Examples illustrating (2.44) are provided below, where tə31 tɕʰã35 is a frequentative phrase specifying “one time”, tə31 næ13 is a time adverbial phrase meaning “one day”, and tə33 is a preverbal adverb meaning “first” . (2.44a) and (2.44b) occur at phrase boundary, while (2.44c) takes place at word boundary:

(2.45) a. 3113/35#_31

Underlying form Sandhi form Gloss tə31.tɕʰã35#fɛ31̃ .zo31 tɕʰã35#fɛ̃13.zo31 “flip one time“ tə31.tɕʰã35#jə31.zo31 tɕʰã35#jə13.zo31 “sow one occasion“ tə31.tɕʰã35#kʰə31.zo31 tɕʰã35#kʰə13.zo31 “steal one time“

b. 3113/13#_31

Underlying form Sandhi form Gloss tə31.næ13#fɛ31̃ .zo31 næ13#fɛ̃13.zo31 “flip for one day“ tə31.næ13#jə31.zo31 næ13#jə13.zo31 “sow for one day“ tə31.næ13#kʰə31.zo31 næ13#kʰə13.zo31 “steal for one day“

c. 3113/33_31

Underlying form Sandhi form Gloss tə33.fɛ̃31.zo31 tə33.fɛ̃13.zo31 “flip first“ tə33.jə31.zo31 tə33.jə13.zo31 “sow first“ tə33.kʰə31.zo31 tə33.kʰə13.zo31 “steal first“

The pitches of kʰə31 in three sentences ŋu33 tə31 tɕʰã35 kʰə31 zo31 tə55 və35 “I steal one time“, ŋu33 tə31 næ13 kʰə31 zo31 tə55 və35 “I steal for one day“, and ŋu33 tə33 kʰə31 zo31 tə55 və35 “I steal first“, as characterized in Figure 2.6, demonstrate the above three sandhi rules.

Figure 2.6 Sandhi rules related to /31/

2.3.1.2 Sandhi patterns related to /13/

The low-rising tone /13/ becomes the low-falling /31/ when placed between a level tone (i.e. /33/ or /55/) and a low-rising tone /13/. This can happen either at word boundary or phrase boundary. The low- rising tone /13/ turns into a level tone with the pitch height lower than the mid-level tone /33/ (i.e. /11/) when placed between /31/ and /53/. /13/ remains the same when preceded by a rising tone (i.e. /13/ or /35/) or the high-falling tone /53/. The sandhi rules are specified in (2.46):

(2.46) Tone sandhi patterns related to /13/: a. 1331/33_13 b. 1331/55#_13

c. 1311/31_53

Examples illustrating (2.46) are present below, where pi31 is a grammaticalized applicative marker; tə31 sua55 is a frequentative phrase denoting “one time”, and ʔa31 is a negative adverb “not”. The sandhi pattern described by (2.46b) occurs at phrase boundary :

(2.47) a. 1331/33_13

Underlying form Sandhi form Gloss tə33.kɰ13.pi13 tə33.kɰ31.pi13 “sacrifice first“ tə33.na13.pi13 tə33.na31.pi13 “wait first“ (*12) tə33.wu13.pi13 tə33.wu13.pi13 “gain first“

b. 1331/55#_13

Underlying form Sandhi form Gloss tə31.sua55#na13.pi13 tə31.sua55#na31.pi13 “wait one time“ tə31.sua55#tɕʰə̃13.pi13 *tə31.sua55#tɕʰə̃13.pi13 “praise one time“ tə31.sua55#tɕʰə̃31.pi13 tə31.sua55#wu13.pi13 *tə31.sua55#wu13.pi13 “gain one time“ tə31.sua55#wu31.pi13

c. 1311/31_53

Underlying form Sandhi form Gloss

ʔa31.tɕʰə̃13.xo53 ʔa31.tɕʰə̃11.xo53 “the (food) that are not sacrificed“ ʔa31.na13.xo53 ʔa31.na11.xo53 “the (things) that are not being waited for“ ʔa31.wu13.xo53 ʔa31.wu11.xo53 “the (things) that are not gained“

12 * indicates violation of the sandhi rule

Note that sandhi rules in (2.46a) and (2.46b) are only optional rules. There are a few exceptions where the replacement of /31/ turns out as a free variation of /13/ under the conditions specified in (2.46a) and (2.46b) for some lexical items. For example, /wu13/ “gain“ and /tɕʰə̃13/ “praise“ have both variants of /13/ and /31/ between /55/ and /13/; likewise, /wu13/ remains unchanged between /33/ and /13/.

The pitch tracks in Figure 2.7 show the sandhi rules specified in (2.46). The target word kɰ13 “sacrifice“, na13 “wait“, and wu13 “gain“ are embedded in three carrier sentences “I sacrifice first“, “I wait one time“, and “the (food) that is gained“, respectively.

Figure 2.7 Sandhi rules related to /13/

Figure 2.8 provides the pitch tracks for the two variants of /tɕʰə̃13/ (i.e. [tɕʰə̃13] vs. [tɕʰə̃31]) under the condition specified by (2.47b):

Figure 2.8 Free variations of [tɕʰə̃13] vs. [tɕʰə̃31]

2.3.1.3 Sandhi patterns related to /35/

The pitch height of the high-rising tone /35/ tends to be lowered and becomes a mid-rising tone /24/ in an array of phonological environments. (2.48) below specifies the sandhi rules that regulates the /35//24/ change. The environments that may tigger /35//24/ involve: a.bewtween /55/ and /31/ at phrase boundary (i.e.(2.48a)), b. between two /55/ tones at phrase boundary (i.e. (2.48b)), c. following /33/ (i.e. (2.48c), d.between /35/ and /53/ or /35/ and /55/ (i.e. (2.48d-e)) at phrase boundary, e.between /53/ and all tones except /33/ (i.e. (2.48f)) at phrase boundary, /35/ will become /13/ when preceded by /31/, as in (2.48g).

(2.48) Tone sandhi patterns related to /35/: a.3524/55#_31 b.3524/55#_55 c.3524/33_ d.3524/35#_53 e.3524/35#_55 f.3524/53#_ {55,53,35,31,13} g.3513/31_

Examples illustrating the patterns in (2.48) are present below. (2.49) includes the following post- verbal morphemes: zo31 is a final particle that intimately connects with the preceding verb; ku55 is a grammaticalized experiential aspect marker; pi13 is an applicative marker; lo33 is a directional serial verb meaning “come”, and lo35 is a modal serial verb meaning “can”; xo53 is a post-verbal nominalizer. In additional to these post-verbal morphemes that form a verb phrase with the preceding verb, there is one preverbal adverbial phrase tə31 lo53, meaning “one night”,

(2.49) a.3524/55#_31

Underlying form Sandhi form Gloss tə31.sua55#ljɛ35.zo31 tə31.sua55#ljɛ24.zo31 “refined one time“ tə31.sua55#le35.zo31 tə31.sua55#le24.zo31 “swang one time“ tə31.sua55#mə̃35.zo31 tə31.sua55#mə̃24.zo31 “taught one time“

b.3524/55#_55

Underlying form Sandhi form Gloss tə31.sua55#ljɛ35.ku55 tə31.sua55#ljɛ24.ku55 “have refined one time“ tə31.sua55#le35.ku55 tə31.sua55#le24.ku55 “have swang one time“ tə31.sua55#mə̃35.ku55 tə31.sua55#mə̃24.ku55 “have taught one time“

c.3524/33_

Underlying form Sandhi form Gloss tə33.pʰa35.pi13 tə33.pʰa24.pi31 “refine first“ tə33.mə̃35.zo31 tə33.mə̃24.zo31 “taught first“ tə33.pə35.lo33 tə33.pə24.lo33 “come to float first“ tə33.mə̃35.lo35 tə33.mə̃24.lo55 “be able to teach first“ tə33.ljɛ35.xo53 tə33.ljɛ24.xo53 “the things that are refined first“ tə33.ljɛ35.ku55 tə33.ljɛ24.ku55 “has refined first“

d.3524/35#_53

Underlying form Sandhi form Gloss tə31.tɕʰã35#ljɛ35.xo53 tə31.tɕʰã35#ljɛ24.xo53 “the thing that has been refined one time“

tə31.tɕʰã35#le35.xo53 tə31.tɕʰã35#le24.xo53 “the thing that has been swung one time“ tə31.tɕʰã35#mə̃35.xo53 tə31.sua55#mə̃24.xo53 “the thing that has been taught one time“

e.3524/35#_55

Underlying form Sandhi form Gloss tə31.tɕʰã35#ljɛ35.ku55 tə31.tɕʰã35#ljɛ24.ku55 “have refined one time“ tə31.tɕʰã35#le35.ku55 tə31.tɕʰã35#le24.ku55 “have swung one time“ tə31.tɕʰã35#mə̃35.ku55 tə31.sua55#mə̃24.ku55 “have taught one time“

f.3524/53#_{55,53,35,31,13}

Underlying form Sandhi form Gloss tə31.lo53#ljɛ35.pi13 tə31.lo53#ljɛ24.pi31 “refine for one night“ tə31.lo53#le35.zo31 tə31.lo53#le24.zo31 “swang for one night“ tə31.lo53#le35.lo35 tə31.lo53#le24.lo55 “be able to swing for one night“ tə31.lo53#ljɛ35.xo53 tə31.lo53#ljɛ24.xo55 “the thing that has been refined for one night“ tə31.lo53#ljɛ35.ku55 tə31.lo53#ljɛ24.ku55 “have refined for one night“

g.3513/31_

Underlying form Sandhi form Gloss

ʔa31.le35.pi13 ʔa31.le13.pi31 “do not swing“ ʔa31.le35.zo31 ʔa31.le13.zo31 “haven‘t swung“ ʔa31.le35.lo33 ʔa31.le13.lo33 “do not come to swing“ ʔa31.le35.lo35 ʔa31.le13.lo33 “do not able to swing“ ʔa31.ljɛ35.xo53 ʔa31.ljɛ13.xo53 “the thing that is not refined“

The pitch tracks provided below demonstrate the corresponding pitch changes of the /35/ tone words liɛ35 “refine“, le35 “swing“, mə 33 “teach“ under different conditions specified by (2.49a-g) in carrier sentences.

Figure 2.9 Sandhi rules related to /35/

2.3.1.4 Sandhi patterns related to /33/

(2.50) 3332/_55

There is only one sandhi pattern exhibited on the mid-level tone /33/. (2.50) states that the offset of the mid-level tone /33/ will be lowered a little when followed by a /55/ syllable, regardless of the tone of the preceding syllable. Examples are present below in (2.51).

(2.51) 3332/_55

Underlying form Sandhi form Gloss tə31.lo53#ɣjɛ33.ku55 tə31.lo53#ɣjɛ32.ku55 “have been laughing for one night“ tə31.sua55#kʰə33.ku55 tə31.sua55#kʰə32.ku55 “have called one time“ tə31.næ13#kʰə33.ku55 tə31.næ13#kʰə32.ku55 “have been calling for one day“ tə31.tɕʰã35#kɔ33.ku55 tə31.tɕʰã35#kɔ32.ku55 “have scratched one occasion“

Figure 2.10 tracks the pitches of the sandhi forms of kʰə33 “call“ and kɔ33 “scratch“ in two carrier sentences:

Figure 2.10 Sandhi rules related to /33/

2.3.2 General Tone Sandhi Rules

General tone sandhi rules refer to sandhi rules that are not confined to certain tonal categories, but can be applied to all tonal categories. In Zauzou, general sandhi rules basically serve to maximize the difference between two adjacent tones with identical pitch contour and pitch height. Those dissimilation rules can be divided into two rules:1) the high tone dissimilation rules that apply to /53//35//55/, 2) the low tone dissimilation rules that are only identified with repsect to the sequence of /13/-/13/.

Let‘s begin with the high tone dissimilation rules. If two high tones are adjacent to each other, one of the high tones normally needs to be dissimilated. The high tone dissimilation patterns are

manifested on /53//35/ and /55/. The dissimilation is progressive, as it is the pitch value of the second syllable that is raised when following another high tone. For the high-level /55/ and high-falling /53/, the dissimilation only enhances their pitch values, but does not change the tonal category, since their pitch contours remain unchanged. However, for the high-rising /35/, modifying the onset pitch value either changes the tonal category from a rising tone to a high-level tone /55/ or to a mid-level /33/.

/53/ and /55/ can be grouped together, as they exhibit the same sandhi environment. The sandhi rule applies at the phrase boundary. Specifically, the onset a /53/ syllable is raised whenever it is preceded by a high tone /35/,/55/, or /53/ from the final syllable in an adjacent phrase; to the contrary, the offset of a /55/ tone will be raised when preceded by a phrase-final /35/,/55/, or /53/. Two consecutive /35/ tones tend to be dissimilated by means of changing the pitch of the second /35/ tone into a level tone. Note this dissimilation rule does not apply cross phrase boundary. Therefore, within a single phrase, the second /35/ tone in the /35/-/35/ sequence becomes the level tone /44/. The three high tone dissimilation rules are specified in (2.52):

(2.52) high tone dissimilation rules: a. 53 63{35,55,53}#_ b. 55 56/{35,55,53}#_ c. 3544 /#35_

Examples where (2.52) applies are provided below:

(2.53) a. 53 63/{35,55,53}#_

Conditions triggering Underlying form Sandi form Gloss the raised pitch height of /53/ 35#_ tə31.tɕʰã35#fɰ53.pi13 tə31.tɕʰã35#fɰ63.pi13 “drink one time“ tə31.tɕʰã35#kʰa53.lo35 tə31.tɕʰã35#kʰa63.lo35 “be able to put one time“ tə31.tɕʰã35#ɣa53.lo33 tə31.tɕʰã35#ɣa63.lo33 “come to shave one time“ 55#_ tə31.sua55#fɰ53.zo31 tə31.sua55#fɰ63.zo31 “drank one time“ tə31.sua55#kʰa53.lo33 tə31.sua55#kʰa63.lo33 “come to put one time“ tə31.sua55#ɣa53.ku55 tə31.sua55#ɣa63.ku55 “have shaved one time“

53#_ tə31.lo53#fɰ53.pi13 tə31.lo53#fɰ63.pi13 “drink for one night“ tə31.lo53#kʰa53.lo35 tə31.lo53#kʰa63.lo35 “be able to put for one night“ tə31.lo53#ɣa53.ku55 tə31.lo53#ɣa63.ku55 “have shaved for one night“

The figures below shows the pitches of fɰ53 “drink“, kʰa53 “put“, ɣa53 “shave“ when preceded by a /35/, /55/, and /53/ tone.

Figure 2.11 5363/{35,55,53}#_ b. 5556/{35,55,53}#_

Conditions triggering Underlying form Sandhi form Gloss the raised pitch height of /55/ 35#_ tə31.tɕʰã35#ŋə55.zo31 tə31.tɕʰã35#ŋə56.zo31 “spoke one time“ tə31.tɕʰã35#na55.lo33 tə31.tɕʰã35#na56.lo33 “come to love for a while“ tə31.tɕʰã35#tɕʲã55.lo35 tə31.tɕʰã35#tɕʲã56.lo35 “be able to expel one time“ 55#_ tə31.sua55#ŋə55.pi13 tə31.sua55#ŋə56.pi13 “speak one time“ tə31.sua55#tɕʲã55.ku55 tə31.sua55#tɕʲã56.ku55 “have expelled one time“ tə31.sua55#na55.lo35 tə31.sua55#na56.lo35 “be able to love for one time“ 53#_ tə31.lo53#ŋə55.lo33 tə31.lo53#ŋə56.lo33 “come to speak for one night“ tə31.lo53#na55.xo53 tə31.lo53#na56.xo53 “the (thing) being loved for one night“ tə31.lo53#tɕʲã55.ku55 tə31.lo53#tɕʲã56.ku55 “have been expelling for one night“

The pitch tracks below present the pitches of ŋə55 “say“ and na55 “like“ when following a /35/, /55/, and /53/ tone.

Figure 2.12 5556/{35,55,53}#_ c. 3544 /#35_

Underlying form Output Gloss tə31.lo53#ljɛ35.lo35 tə31.lo53#ljɛ35.lo44 “be able to refine for one night“ tə33.le35.lo35 tə33.le35.lo44 “be able to swing first“ tə31.sua55#mə̃35.lo35 tə31.sua55#mə̃35.lo44 “be able to teach one time“ tə31.næ13#le35.lo35 tə31.næ13#le35.lo44 “be able to swing for one day“ tə31.tɕʰã35#le35.lo35 tə31.tɕʰã35#le35.lo44 “be able to refine one time“ ʔa31.ljɛ35.lo35 ʔa31.ljɛ35.lo44 “do not able to refine“

The pitch tracks below illustrate that lo35 “can” becomes the level tone /55/ or /33/ under different conditions specified in (2.53c). When lo35 is preceded by one of the following sequences: /53/-

/35/, /33/-/35/, /55/-/35/, or /13/-/35/, it becomes [lo55]; while the /35/ is slightly lowered to [33] when preceded by the sequences of /35/-/35/ and /31/-/35/.

Figure 2.13 3544 /#35_

2.4 Inter-speaker Phonological Variations

2.4.1 Allophones Across Age Groups

Systematic sound changes have been observed in two distinct age groups: the older speakers (i.e. speakers who are in their 60s or above) and the younger speakers (i.e. speakers who are younger than around 60) are associated with allophonic alternations between plosives /p/,/t/,/k/,/kʰ/ and the palatal affricates /tɕ/, /tɕʰ/. This sound change applies to plosives in all three places of articulation, involving the unaspirated bilabial /p/, the unaspirated alveolar /t/, the unaspirated velar plosive /k/, and the aspirated velar plosive /kʰ/. The plosives are in the course of merging with the palatal affricates in a set of lexical items in the younger age group. For older Zauzou speakers, the plosives /p/,/t/,/k/,/kʰ/ are well distinguished by virtue of places of articulation, hence the plosives remain the same in words like /tɰ33/

“3sg“, /kʰyi31/ “dog“, and /pja55/ “burn“, and no allophonic changes are attested for words beginning with plosives. However, there is a noticeable tendency of palatalization in the speech of the younger generation of Zauzou speakers (<60) that the plosives in different places of articulation become the palatal affricates /tɕ/ and its aspirated counterpart /tɕʰ/. Consequently, for many words that older Zauzou speakers pronounce the initials as plosives /t/,/p/,/k/,/kʰ/, younger speakers tend to substitute the unaspirated plosives by the unaspirated palatal affricate /tɕ/, and the aspirated plosive by the aspirated affricate /tɕʰ/. The place distinction among plosives is cancelled in the corresponding affricates. A few examples are given in (2.54):

(2.54)

Ex. Gloss /t/-/tɕ/ tɰ33-tɕɰ33 “3sg“ tɛ13-tɕɛ13 “all/completely“ le55ta53tɔ31-le55tɕʲa53tɔ31 “stutter“ /k,kʰ/-/tɕ,tɕʰ/ kʰyi31-tɕʰyi31 “dog“ mi33kyɛ55-mi33tɕyɛ55 “spark“ /p/-/tɕ/ pia55-tɕwa55 “burn“ piɛ̃55kã55-tɕyɛ55kã55̃ “mosquito“ pĩ33-tɕỹ33 “pus“

Due to the palatalization of plosives, the above allophonic alternations of /p/-/tɕ/, /t/-/tɕ/, /k/-/tɕ/, and /kʰ/-/tɕʰ/ are completely governed by the age of speakers.

2.4.2 Individual Variations

Zauzou exhibits a large number of inter-speaker phonological variations that are directly induced by the habitual manner of articulation by individual speakers. No prediction can be made with respect to the condition of each variant. Some allophones are rather incidental. The examples below present an array of frequently observed allophonic consonants, vowels, vowel phonations that are induced by individual differences.

The first group of allophones are consonantal alternations. In addition to the /m/~/n/ alternation (as aforementioned §2.2.1.2), the alternations between /t/~/ts/~/tɕ/ are also found in a few words.

(2.55) /m/~/ɳ/:

miã31~ɳʲã31 “knief“ miõ31~ɳʲõ31 “plow“ mio53ɣe33~ɳʲo53ɣe33 “tear“ mio31~ɳʲo31 “CL.sleep“

(2.56) /t/~/ts/~/tɕ/: to53~tso53 “CL.drop“ tsu33~tɕy33 “coax/groove/chopstick“

The second group is vowel alternation. Diphthongization is common in vowel alternations, as can be seen in (2.57) and (2.58):

(2.57) /V/~/iV/: tʰə31~tʰiə31 “cough“ ɳa53me13~ɳa53miɛ13 “sleep“ ka53ma33~ka53mia33 “fast“

(2.58) /V/~/ʊV/: tɔ33~tʊɔ33 “stick“

Phonetically similar vowels are readily to be free variations, as illustrated by (2.59)-(2.61):

(2.59) /ʊ/~/o/~/ɔ/: tso55~tsʊ55 “rice“ ko53ɕy31~kʊ53ɕy31 “dew“ tsʰa55pɔ13~tsʰa55pʊ13 “book/character“

(2.60) /ɛ/~/æ/: tɛ33~tæ33 “return“ tɕʲɛ13~tɕʲæ13 “all“

(2.61) /y/~/yi/:

tɕy33~tɕyi33 “tooth“ tɕʰy31~tɕʰyi31 “dog“ ɕy31~ɕyi31 “blood“

Vowel alternation between different types of vowel phonations represents another type of inter- speaker variation. Some speakers seem to have lost the [tense] feature in a substantial number of words, while other speakers tend to nasalize all vowels in their speech. For some speakers, the phonemic difference between plain~nasal~tense~nasal tense is rather trivial.

(2.62) Plain (oral) V~nasal V se31~sẽ31 “liver“ sue55~suẽ55 “think“ ze33~zẽ33 “stake te13~tẽ13 “sacrifice“

(2.63) Plain (lax) V~tense V wæ33~wæ̠ 33 “glance“ wa53~wa̠ 43 “neighbour“ tɕʲɛ33~tɕʰɛ̠ 33 “believe“ kɛ33~kɛ̠ 33 “soldier“

(2.64) Tense V~nasal tense V pe̠ 33~pe̠ 3̃ 3 “ferment“ te̠ 13~te̠ 1̃ 3 “ridge“

(2.65) Nasal V~nasal tense V tɕjɛ33~t̃ ɕjɛ̠ ̃33 “pinch“ tsẽ33~tse̠ 3̃ 3 “handle (N)“ tẽ33~te̠ 3̃ 3 “arrive“ vẽ33~ve̠ 3̃ 3 “numb“

2.5 Morph-phonological Process:Vowel Lengthening

Vowel lengthening is possible in Zauzou. The change of vowel quantity does not create phonemic contrast nor allophones, but rather is a noteworthy interplay between phonology and syntax that serves pragmatic functions. Vowels that are placed at the right-periphery of a verb phrase can be lenghened to yield an emphatic meaning, which typically stresses that the denotation expressed by the VP is actually the case. Because Zauzou is an OV language, the right edge of VP is often aligned with clause boundary. Consequently, the lengthening of the vowel in a sentence-final verbal element, involving verb, serial verb, or any grammatical marker, will render the sense of completion of the action/process denoted by the verb. Therefore, the change of vowel quantity may either add an affirmative force to the sentence, or strengthens the completive connotation conveyed by the resultative/completive serial verbs (see Chapter 7 and 9 for more discussion on serial verb constructions and utterance final particles).

In the morph-phonological process of vowel lengthening, the vowel quality, as well as the tone of the original syllable, remain the same. Below presents four vowels, i.e. /ə/,/ɔ/,/ẽ/,/a/, in CV syllables that become long vowels to express the strong emotive force of the speaker, as in (2.66), or emphasize the realization of the action/process denoted by the VP, which are the cases in (2.67)-(2.69).

(2.66) /Cə/->/Cəː/ pɛ31 tɕʰi13 ʔɛ31 xua13fe53 væ55 ŋəː55 xe31 disease have(inani) also manure feed say.EMP FP:assr “(They) said that the disease is caused by feeding them chemical fertilizer.“

(2.67) /Cɔ/->/Cɔː/ la55pi55 ʔõ55wa35 tɛ̃55 xɛ31nɛ55 tɰ55 xe31 tə55 tɕã55 pa53 nɛ55 river middle arrive SEQ 3SG AGT;INS;ABL one VCL:time hit TOP pa53 kɔː13 hit successful.EMP “when it reached the middle of the river, he shot it with just one arrow.“

(2.68) /Cẽ/->/Cẽː/: ji31ʔa55sɿ35ɳɛ53̃ xe31 ta33tɕa55, sɿ55wu33sɿ35ɳɛ̃53 wu31lɔ31sɿ13ɳɛ̃53 1/20_years AGT;INS;ABL manage_family 4/50_years 5/60_years

tẽː55 zɔ31 arrive.EMP FP:assr “I've been managing the family since I was a teenager, 40 to 60 years have passed.“

(2.69) /Ca/->/Caː/: a. ʔã31, wu33 kə55 jɛ̃55 mõ53 nɛ33, tɕua55 tsu33 tɕaː53 dish village LOC home CL:PL.inani TOP burn eat completely.EMP zɔ31 FP:assr “The house in the village has been completely burnt down.“

b. ŋu55 zo31 ja55 kɛ55̃ mə̃55 laː53 zɔ31 1 child CL:human soldier do go.away_from_DC.EMP FP:assr “My son has already joined the army.“

2.6 Intonation

A full sentence in Zauzou is usually a complete intonation unit. In Zauzou, intonation does not signal different types of sentences. Declination is widely present in Zauzou utterances. Declarative, interrogative, and other sentence types bearing overt morphological markings (e.g. Wh-questions, morphologically marked polar questions, imperatives) do not seem to use intonation to distinguish different illocutionary forces, as the same type of sentences exhibit variability in intonation. Even for the morphologically unmarked sentences (i.e. declaratives), intonation has not grammaticalized to signal different types of sentences.

The intonation of a typical declarative sentence can either be falling or level, depending on the lexical tones of the words in the sentence. Declination prevails declarative sentences containing sequences of syllables with high register tones (i.e. /55/,/35/,/53/). . For example, in (2.70), the pitches of the five /55/ tone (i.e. /tə55/,/ɳæ55/,/tæ55/,/ji55/) exhibit a gradual downsloping. The same declination can be observed in the sequence of /lɰ53/-/to53/ in (2.71). It is clear that the F0 of the utterance-final /to53/ in (2.71) drops below the preceding /33/ tones (i.e. ka33 and ʔõ33). The utterance in (2.72) contains two coordinated clauses wu13 tõ55-tɕã55-wu35 and pɛ35 tõ55-tɕã55-wu35, and the pitch of the second clause is lowered. The lowering of the high-rising /35/ tone is clear in the utterance-final /wu35/.

(2.70) tə55 xã35 nɛ33 tsɔ33kʰɔ33 tə55 ja33 ŋæ55 tæ55 DIST VCL:occasion TOP elders DIST CL:human see return ji55 tɕi31 go.away_from_DC Q;QUOTE;HEARSAY “At that time, the old man headed back to have a look“

(2.71) tɕʰyi31 ɳã55 ʔõ33 kuɛ33kũ ɛ33̃ læ31 ka33 lɰ53 ʔõ33 to53 dog small CL:animal jar CL:inani LOC sneak enter DUR “A small dog is sneaking into the jar“

(2.72) su55 ɳã55 ja33 wu13 tõ55tɕã55wu35 , pɛ35 tõ55tɕã55wu35

human small CL:human search PROG search PROG “The child is searching“

The downsloping is not attested in syllables bearing lexical tones of the low register (i.e. /33/,/13/,/31/). As can be seen in (2.73)-(2.75), the intonations of these three sentences are rather level. In the sequences of identical tones, the pitches of the following /13/,/33/, and /31/ tones are not lowered. The overall pitch of the utterances in (2.73)-(2.75) are basically regulated by the word-level tones.

(2.73) vɰ53 tə31 ʔõ33 lɰ53 tʰɰ53 le13 ja13və13 tɕĩ13 wu13 rat one CL:animal sneak exit come.towards_DC SEQ scared COMPL “A rat comes out and scares (him)“

(2.74) tɰ55 lɔ31sɿ33 ʔa31 mə̃33 3SG teacher NEG do “he is not a teacher”

(2.75) sæ53-kã31 tə31 kã31 ka33 su31 tẽ55 to53 zɔ31 wood-CL:forest one CL:forest LOC walk arrive COMPL FP:assr “walked into a forest”

The downtrends of intonation is not salient in interrogatives. There is no specific type of intonation that is linked with either Wh-questions or polar questions, as the pitch of a question can either be rising, falling or level. Because all interrogative sentences are morphologically marked, the illocutionary force does not need to be signaled by pitch. As a result, Zauzou speakers may switch between different intonations very easily when articulating questions. A falling, rising, and level pitch throughout an interrogative sentence are illustrated by (2.76)-(2.78), respectively.

The Wh-question and polar question in (2.76) both exhibit declination as attested in declarative sentences. In (2.76a), the mid-level tone on [tsa33] is lower than the /33/ in the preceding [ja33]; similarly, in (2.76b), there are three words (i.e. /ɳɔ31/,/lə31/,/tɕi31/) bearing the low-falling /31/ tone, and each /31/ tone has a lower pitch than the preceding one. The same trend of declination is also exhibited on /ɳɔ31/,/ʔa31/,/læ31/ in (2.76c).

(2.76) Falling intonation in interrogatives: a. kæ13 ja33 sẽ55ja35 tsa33 wu13 ? uounger_sibling CL:human what fish COMPL “what fish did the younger brother catch?“

b tə55 və35 nɛ55 ɳɔ31 so35 pi13 lə31 jɛ35 tɕi31 ? DIST CL:versatile TOP 2SG do APPL;AFF FP:assr FP:Q Q;QUOTE;HERASAY “Are you willing to do treatment?“

c. sẽ55ɕɛ31̃ ɳɔ31 wu55 wu13 tʰo53 ʔa31la31 ? God 2SG search COMPL MOD:can;capable Q “Can you find the God?“

A rising intonation is often imposed on the lexical tone of the words in the interrogative sentences. As can be seen in both cases in (2.77), the pitches of the utterance-final syllables /la31/ and /ɕi55/ are raised as a result of the implementation of a rising intonation. The pitch of /la31/ in (2.77a) is higher than the preceding two /31/ tone words; likewise, the high-level pitch in /ɕi55/ in (2.77b) is higher than the preceding /nɛ55/.

(2.77) Rising intonation in interrogatives: a. ŋu55 pɔ13 ŋu55 mæ55 ta31mi31 la31 ? 1 father 1 mother ask Q “(Can you) ask my parents?“

b. ʔa31 næ13 nɛ55 ta53 ɕi55 ? PROX day TOP Q die “have you died today?“

Intonation sometimes plays little role in determining the final pitch of the whole interrogative sentence, which is termed as a “level“ intonation that does not raise or lower the pitch of any component of the sentence. Instead, the overall pitch of the interrogatives is largely determined by the lexical tone of individual words in the sentence. See (2.78) for illustration.

(2.78) Level intonation in interrogatives a. kæ13 ja33 ʔa33ni33 sẽ55jã35 mə̃33 tɕã55 læ53 younger_sibling CL:human yesterday what do PURP go.away_from_DC zɔ31 ? FP:assr “What did the younger brother do yesterday?“

b. tɰ55 tʰã35nɰ53 sẽ55jã35 mə̃33 ? 3SG future what do “what will he do for a living in the future?“

c. ʔa55 tɕi53 kæ13 ja33 ŋu31 ta53 tsa33 ? PROX time younger_sibling CL:human fish Q fish “Did the younger brother go fishing now?“

Other illocutionary forces, involving the exclamation in (2.79) and the imperative force in (2.80), only exhibit a mild downsloping trend. The overall pitch of the two sentences are relatively level, but one can still observe a lowered pitch in the word /zɔ31/ in (2.79), comparing with the preceding /ɳo31/. Likewise, the second /55/ tones in (2.80) (i.e. /ŋæ55/) are lower than the previous /su55/.

(2.79) mu55 ja33 =mæ33 ʔa55 tɕo55 ɳɔ31 tæ33 to53 zo31 tɕa13 !

DIST2 CL:human =F1 life CL:string 2SG save COMPL FP:assr FP:assr “the life of the woman living in the lower part is bound to be saved by you! “

(2.80) ji33sə̃33 ja33 , nõ53=su55 ja33 tə33 tə31 ŋæ55 doctor CL:human sick=NMLZ:human CL:human first PROH see “Doctor, do not see the patient immediately.“

The assertive and the imperative force in the above sentences are morphologically marked by the utterance final particle tɕa13 and the preverbal prohibitive auxiliary tə31. Thus, there is no need to signal the illocutionary force by prosodic cue, such as intonation. In other words, intonation plays little role in signaling illocutionary force in Zauzou, if it is morphologically marked. The pitch patterns observed in interrogatives, imperatives, and exclamations all support this claim. Even in morphologically unmarked declaratives, the intonational variations are very common.

2.7 Summary

This chapter presents the phonological system in Zauzou. All data are from the field recordings based on Jiangmo Zauzou. Zauzou is a typical tonal language, and each syllable must bear a tone. Zauzou

T only has open syllables, with the structure of C(G)(V1)V2 . The tone falls on the main vowel V2. Zauzou employs 23 consonants plus three semi-vowels (i.e. glides /j//w/,/ɥ/). All consonants are syllable-initial consonants, as Zauzou syllables have no coda. Zauzou does not have consonant clusters either. Plosives and affricates have aspiration contrast, but have no voicing contrast, as the latter is a feature restricted to fricatives. Zauzou employs a relatively large vowel inventory. It has 11 oral vowels and two types of vowel phonation, including 10 nasal vowels, 6 tense vowels, and 4 tense-nasal vowels. Nevertheless, the phonological contrasts between oral/lax-nasal-tense vowels are not well-established, or the vowel phonation (especially tense-nasal vowels) is declining. It has been noticed that phonemic nasal and tense vowels are subject to a substantial number of inter-speaker variations. Zauzou has a large inventory of diphthongs. 19 diphthongs are identified, which all start with high back vowels /i//ʊ//y/. In addition to the segments of consonants and vowels, Zauzou uses suprasegmental feature to signal lexical differences as well. As a tonal language, Zauzou employs 6 tonemes: the high-level tone /55/, the mid-level tone /33/, the high-rising tone /35/, the low-rising tone /13/, the high-falling tone /53/, and the low-falling tone /31/. The distribution of the two rising tones are extremely unbalanced, indicating a tendency of merging of the two tones. The adjacency of certain tones may cause pitch changes. Tone sandhi is fairly robust in Zauzou, and both global sandhi patterns and local sandhi patterns are described separately in this chapter. Cross-speaker phonological variations are also characterized. Noticeable variations include palatalization of /p//t//k//kʰ/ among young Zauzou speakers. There are some morph-phonological processes that are worth mentioning. One of the most salient phenomena is vowel-lengthening, which is often used to express emphatic or completive meaning. With respect to intonation, Zauzou consistently employs the downstep intonation in all types of sentences.