Tone and Pitch Accent

Question 1

Register and Contour tones

Answer 1

Register tones: flat tones (no movement)

Contour tones: involve movement

Question 2

Register tone languages

Answer 2

2 tone systems: high, low (ex. Setswana, Navajo)

3 tone system: high, mid, low (ex. Yoruba, Punjabi)

4 tone system: high, high-mid, low-mid, low (ex. Chiquihuitlan, Grebo)

Question 3

Contour tone languages

Answer 3

Contour tone languages: pitch also moves up or down (or both) within a single tone

Question 4

A note about consistency in transcription of tones

Answer 4

There isn’t any….

The IPA even offers 2 options:

Others use a numbering system

Question 5

Contour Tone

Answer 5

Contour tone: pitch also moves up or down (or both) within a single tone
Example: Mandarin 
High (tone 1) 
High-rising (tone 2)
Fall-rise (tone 3)
Falling (tone 4)
Neutral (tone 5)*

Question 6

Even more complex system

Answer 6

Black Miao
5 level tones: extra high – high – mid – low – extra low
3 contour tones: high-rising – low-rising – high-falling

Question 7

Autosegmental phonology and tone representations

Answer 7

Autosegmental phonology: non-linear representation of phonological processes

Nasal assimilation in Korean

Question 8

Tone and the mora

Answer 8

TBU: tone bearing unit
Can be the syllable (as previous examples show)
Can be the mora

Light syllables = 1 more = only 1 tone segment
(must be register)

Heavy syllables = 2 moras = 2 tone segments (can have contour tones)

Question 9

Tone Spreading

Answer 9

A type of long-distance assimilation

High and Low tone spreading in Barasana
héá + ŋɨ̀táà  héáŋɨ́táá
Fire stone flint

cìtá + 	ùtíà      cìtá-útíá
earth 	wasps      species of wasp

héè + 	jáí  	     	 héè-jàì
ancestor  jaguar	    shaman

Question 10

Tone Spreading due to OCP (Obligatory Contour Principle)

Answer 10

identical adjacent segments are prohibited” (385)

Question 11

Tone shift

Answer 11

Chizigula

High-toned verb:
ku-lombéz-a ‘to request’
ku-lombez-éz-a ‘to request for’
ku-lombez-ez-án-a ‘to request for each other’

What can explain this shift?
Stress!

Question 12

Tonal morphemes

Answer 12

Igbo
‘jaw’ [àgbà]
‘monkey’ [ènwè]
‘jaw of a monkey’ [àgbá ènwè]

Question 13

Tone spreading of another kind

Answer 13

Shanghai tone deletion and spreading

ma-LH mɔ-HM => ma L mɔ -H
‘buy’ ‘cat’ ‘buy a cat’

Steps:
Deletion of tone on /mɔ/
De-composition of rising tone on /ma/ (rising tone = L +H)
2nd part of /ma/ tone spreads to /mɔ/
Final form: /ma/ keeps first part (L); /mɔ/ gets second part (H)

Question 14

Pitch accent

Answer 14

Use of pitch to create lexical contrasts but indicated on individual syllable rather than whole word
Pitch accent ~ stress on a particular syllable that creates contrast
Typically does not involve as many tonal differences as a tone language

Question 15

Pitch accent in Japanese

Answer 15

kakiga ‘oyster’
kakiga ‘fence
kakiga ‘persimmon’