Tone in the phonology, lexicon and grammar of Ikaan Sophie Salffner A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of London. Department of Linguistics School of Oriental and African Studies September 2009 2 I confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. Abstract This thesis investigates the forms, functions and behaviour of tone in the phonol- ogy, lexicon, morphosyntax and the phonology-grammar interfaces in Ikaan (Benue-Congo, Nigeria). The analysis is based on an annotated audio corpus of recordings from 29 speakers collected during ten months of fieldwork comple- mented with participant observation and informally collected data. The study demonstrates that tone operates at a wide range of levels of linguis- tic analysis in Ikaan. As phonemes, tones distinguish meaning in minimal pairs and are subject to phonological rules. As morphemes, tones and tonal melodies bear meaning in inflection, derivation and reduplication. In the syntax, tones mark phrase boundaries. At the phonology-semantics interface, construction- specific constraints on the tonal representation distinguish between predicating and referential nominal modifiers. Combined with intonation and voicing, tones distinguish between statements and morphosyntactically identical yes/no ques- tions. The research identifies a range of unusual tonal behaviours in Ikaan. The two tones H and L follow markedly different phonologies. In the association of lexical and grammatical tonal melodies, H must be realised whereas non-associated L are deleted. Formerly associated but de-linked L however are not deleted but remain floating. The OCP is found to apply to L but not to H. H is downstepped after floating L but not after overt L. In addition, three different locations of downstep are attested which correlate with different syntactic and semantic properties of the respective constructions. In two of these downstep locations, a leftward copying process occurs in addition to a generally applicable rightward copying process so that two directions of copying occur. The thesis concludes by discussing the implications of the Ikaan findings for the wider theoretical discourse with respect to the status of the OCP, the directionality of spreading and the modelling of downstep. 3 Acknowledgements The writing of the first draft of this thesis began and ended at a friend’s kitchen table in London amidst generous helpings of pasta. Before, during and after this first draft, generous helpings of friendship from many directions, good food and good times, some hard times in between, bursts of creativity and periods of plain hard work helped the thesis along and made it what it is now. I am truly grateful for all of it. I am most grateful to the people of Ikakumo., who welcomed me to their village with open arms, taught me their language, patiently put up with my many questions (and occasional blunders) and took care of me when I was sick. I thank Fred Atinahu Adekanye, a very well-versed native speaker of Ikaan who has been a tremendous help and encouragement to me. Thanks to my endless questions, Fred spent many a sleepless night over what this or that word could possibly mean, not always an easy task when the words are short, the vowels have been deleted and all that is left is -j-! But Fred rose to the challenge, not only finding the meaning of -j- (it was je ‘eat’ in this particular case, much to both our surprise) but also teaching me how to make the local anti-malarial tea, which turned out to be the most bitter drink I had in my entire life, guiding me through the do’s and don’t’s of Yoruba and Akaan society and discussing life and world politics with me when I had done enough linguistics for the day. There are many other Akaan I want to thank. Oyedele Festus O. baude. was like a grandfather to me, gave me a wonderful room to live and work in, made me laugh many times and always made sure I had fruit to eat. Patrick Olusi, Clara Olusi and Yetunde Olusi watched over me, chatted with me on their balcony in the evenings and made sure I ate well. Bamitale. Baale, Jo.la Baale and Grace Baale took me with them to fetch water from the pond, go to another pond to wash clothes, or just sit, peel yam and chat. Rasaki, Aino. and Toyin together with many other children were so helpful around the house and often just as lost in Ikaan as I was. Many Akaan told stories or riddles, sang songs or patiently translated phrases or sentences for me to record. These are Abike. Comfort O. baganye, Adeso.ji 4 Acknowledgements 5 Anthony Olusi, Afusat Precious Oloyede, Akintoya Lawrence Babatunde, Bo.la Janet Sunday, Charles Ade Olusi, Emmanuel Gbagode Olusi, Eunice Oluwaso.la Adekanye, Festus Adeola Adedeji, Grace Foritilebo. Adeo.la, Juliana Dada Imoru, Martins O. lo.rundare Babatunde, Olufunke Margaret Olusi, Patric Oyewale, Richard Bamidele Adedeji, Samuel Ye.kini Olo.yo., Seyi Matthew Adekanye, Sun- day Joshua O. badele, Taye John Samuel, the late Victoria Dada Babatunde, Vin- cent Ojo O. mo.gboye. Many others spoke the language with me to practice, to correct me or to teach me a new word. I am grateful to all of them—mana kaka oo. I would like to thank Monik Charette and Lutz Marten for their faith in me and their unfaltering support in academic matters and life outside academia. I couldn’t have asked for a better supervising team and they truly were a Dok- tormutter and Doktorvater and doctor friends as well. Akin Oyetade was the first SOAS person I met, has taught me Yoruba and been a link to Nigeria, the Yoruba people, language and culture since. Peter Austin and Friederike L¨upke helped me find out what I want to do in this PhD. Roger Blench let me have my first glimpse of Ikaan data and put me in touch with researchers in Nigeria. Mary Pearce spent many hours staring at tones with me and gave helpful advice. Eric Carlson taught me LaTeX (and re-wrote many parts of it) and made it possible for me to ‘type’ autosegmental phonology. Many people have read write-ups, seen presentations or came to reading groups and gave useful comments. I thank Anja Choon, Bruce Connell, Cathy Bartram, Dafydd Gibbon, Demo.la Lewis, Eno- Abasi Urua, Francis Egbokhare, Francis Oyebade, John Harris, Justin Watkins, Lameen Souag, Moira Yip, Nadine Borchardt, O. ladele Awobuluyi, Peter Sells and Shanti Ulfsbj¨orninn.´ Bernard Howard helped with recordings, equipment, a sol- dering iron and a calming presence. Alison Barty was there to talk when I needed to talk. Dafydd Gibbon first took me to West Africa and has been a wonderful trav- elling companion. It was him who walked into the Phonetics Labs, holding the SOAS prospectus and telling me about a language documentation and description course that had just started there. Eno-Abasi Urua, quiet but oh so strong, was the first person to welcome me to Nigeria. She protected me from my appetite for adventure coupled with Western European naivety probably more times than I am aware of and supplied me with Schokoladenpudding to fight the homesick- ness. Dafydd and Eno have tirelessly written reference after reference, often at late notice, to make sure there’d always be funding for all these adventures. In Nigeria many people looked after me and helped with my work. Michael Acknowledgements 6 Abio.dun introduced me to the Akaan. The linguistics departments at the Uni- versity of Ibadan and at Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba let me be part of academic life. At these universities I owe thanks to Ben Elugbe, Demo.la Lewis, Francis Egbokhare, Francis Oyebade, O. ladele Awobuluyi, Taiwo Ago.yi, Titilayo O. lanipe.kun and Wo.le Oyetade. Liz and Dave Crozier in Jos gave me the chance to catch a glimpse of the north and spend some days working and presenting data in Jos. Tunde Adegbo.la and staff at ALT-I rescued my computer from a mean virus and gave me some breathing space. Babato.pe ‘Tmak’ Makun, Benjamin Aluko and Mike Adekunle Charles made sure I got off to a good start and wasn’t lost in big bad Lagos. So.la Olutoyin Abimbo.la and Emmanuel Oyewo.le Abimbo.la looked after me for two weeks when their own son was about to leave to start a PhD in my home town. The AfroLinks Jazz Band will forever make me want to go back to Ibadan. So.la, Bo.la and Iwa O. lo.runyo.mi are my safe haven in Ibadan, Francis and Labake. Oyebade are home away from home in Ikare.. No PhD is possible without financial support. I received a Research Stu- dent Fellowship from SOAS and a Fees-only grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for my studies. The Endangered Languages Documentation Programme of the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project awarded me two grants to carry out fieldwork in Nigeria. The Gesellschaft f¨ur bedrohte Sprachen granted additional funds for finalising transcriptions and translations. I am grate- ful to all these institutions for the money and support they put behind causes such as language documentation and description and the people that are involved in these projects. Ich danke meiner Mutter und meiner Schwester Katharina, die beide so viel Mut und Kraft haben und mir so viel Mut und Kraft geben. Meine Familie, die sich oft genug besorgt erkundigt hat, ob ich denn nun noch mal nach Nigeria muß oder ob denn nun alles geschafft sei, hat mit Telefonaten, Briefen, Besuchen und seit neuestem auch mit Anrufen per Webcam mein Heimweh verscheucht, f¨ur Abwechslung gesorgt, mich zum Lachen gebracht, mich zu Hause mit Rotkraut und Mohnkuchen versorgt und mir immer wieder Halt im Leben gegeben.