Directional Rule Application and Output Problems in Hakha Lai Tone

Studies in Language, 2018

Complex phenomena of grammatical tone, well-described for many African languages, are increasingly attested also in the Tibeto-Burman family. This paper describes the tone assignment rule and two cases of tonal expression of grammatical categories in the Tibeto-Burman language Anal. The typologically unusual rule involves tone spreading, tonal polarity on a non-edge constituent and additional spreading, resulting in constant tonal patterns across grammatical suffixes. In two different cases the combination of the tonal pattern assigned by this rule with peculiar morpho-tonological processes results in a marking of a grammatical category (future and 1SG-person) by grammatical tone, by vowel-length, or only by the overall tonal pattern of the verbal form. Both cases are related to the omission of an explicit marking of the category, although the outcome cannot be explained only by the concept of a floating tone.

Proceedings of the annual meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 2002

2005

Lhaovo(Maru), a Burmish language spoken in northern Myanmar(Burma), has the phenomena of tonal alternation. The phenomena are conditioned not phonologically, but grammatically. In Lhaovo, tonal alternations occur 1. in positive Realis (Informative) sentences, 2. in attributive elements, including Realis attributive clauses and some attributive phrases, 3. in verb strings, and 4. before instrumental case-marker. This presentation focuses on the first two cases and argues that the tonal alternations in these cases function as (grammatical) markers.

to be presented at the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Glasgow, 10 August 2015.

This paper presents a case study looking at the interaction between lexical tone and post-lexical intonation in two very similar Tibetic language varieties spoken in Nepal: Lamjung Yolmo and Kagate. In these two varieties, we find preliminary evidence that in both monosyllabic and disyllabic words, lexical tone is only specified at the left edge of the word, while the right edge of the word is ‘free’ to take post-lexical intonation tones. We present evidence of post-lexical intonation on these ‘free’ right edges both phrase medially and phrase finally. These results suggest that a description of the tone system of these languages without reference to the intonational system is too simplistic, and any future analyses should incorporate descriptions of both lexical tone and post-lexical intonation.

geocities.ws

2011

This paper investigates Dongshi Hakka tone sandhi within the output-oriented framework of Optimality Theory (OT, Prince & Smolensky 1993[2004], McCarthy & Prince 1993). Two different forces are shown to motivate the tonal alternation in Dongshi Hakka. The first force is assimilatory in nature and forces intersyllabic tone features to agree. Completely contradictory to this force is a dissimilatory effect that requires elements at the tonal level and the contour level to be different. These facts are captured by NOJUMP-t, OCP-T(11), OCP-C(), and OCP-C(), which regulate the well-formedness of tonal combination. In addition to tonal sequential markedness, the markedness status of a tone itself also plays a role. A low register tone occurring in a head position is shown to be marked and indirectly decides whether a tonal combination that violates a certain sequential markedness constraint will undergo tone sandhi. This can be explicitly captured by the conjunction of tonal and sequential markedness constraints.

This paper re-analyzes the Tone Sandhi of Jieyáng Hakka, a language spoken in Thailand, as originally described by Shiwaruangrote (2008). Regarding tone sandhi in Jieyáng Hakka, Shiwaruangrote states the change is regressive (2008, p. 148), and the citation tones are lowered and never raised (2008, p. 146). However, there are some inconsistencies in Shiwaruangrote's interpretation of the sandhi and an explanation for why certain tones do not change is not given. Using Optimality Theory (OT), an explanation may be given for the variation in tone sandhi by naming certain constraints on Jieyáng Hakka's tone sandhi. These seven proposed constraints favor faithfulness of register and tone between the input and output, few contour tones in the output but no adjacent tones (Obligatory Contour Principle), and no High or Low tones preceding a Mid tone.

Africana Linguistica, 2012

L’otjiherero a un systeme de flexion tonale du nom appele ‘ cas tonals’. Ce systeme permet de differencier les noms selon le contexte syntaxique, notamment les cas qu’on appelle ‘ complement’ et ‘ par defaut’. Les noms marques comme cas ‘ complement’ ne se trouvent qu’immediatement apres le verbe et seulement dans un sous-ensemble d’aspects verbaux. Le groupe de noms qui peuvent prendre le cas ‘ complement’ inclut des objets directs et indirects, des noms adverbiaux, des sujets anticipes et des sujets postposes au verbe. On rencontre donc le cas ‘ complement’ avec differents noms, independamment de leur fonction grammaticale, du moment qu’ils sont places immediatement apres le verbe. Il existe deux arguments qui permettent de montrer que le systeme est (historiquement) lie a la structure informative. Tout d’abord, on ne trouve pas de cas ‘ complement’ dans les propositions relatives ou avec les noms deplaces par dislocation. Ensuite, les noms qui suivent un verbe au negatif factitif-habituel peuvent etre marques, soit comme cas ‘ complement’, soit comme cas ‘ par defaut’, selon qu’ils sont focalises ou non. A partir de la fonction et de la distribution des cas ‘ complement’, l’article suggere qu’il existe un parallelisme etroit entre le systeme de cas tonals et le systeme d’alternances conjoint-disjoint qu’on trouve en tswana. Les deux systemes impliquent un marquage prosodique, ne s’observent qu’a certains temps, marquent la relation entre un verbe et le nom qui le suit immediatement independamment de sa fonction grammaticale, sont limites a un domaine structurel comme la proposition et sont lies a la focalisation et a la structure informative. L’article ne propose pas de reconstruction detaillee, mais il suggere que les deux systemes, celui des cas tonals et celui de l’alternance conjoint-disjoint, sont des exemples de structure informative grammaticalisee. L’etroite similarite entre les deux systemes permet de penser qu’ils ont une fonction commune et peut-etre meme une origine historique commune.

underlying tones on monosyllables, and the derivation of tonal patterns in multisyllabic expressions. Our discussion is intended to make three points. First, autosegmental phonology can be successfully applied to Tibetan tone. Second, an autosegmental analysis is superior to a non-autosegmental approach. Third, an autosegmental analysis brings out important similarities between Tibetan tone and tone in other parts of the world, such as Africa and east China, while the traditional approach misses these similarities. In addition, we will discuss what Tibetan tone tells us about the generality of the Association Conventions, rules that govern the linking between tones and segments. This paper is organized as follows. In section 1, I provide a background of the autosegmental phonology of tone. In section 2, I analyze LS, GR, GZ, and ZD respectively in an autosegmental framework, drawing data mostly from recent publications that appeared in the People's Republic of China in the past ...

2009

This article describes and analyses the verbal tone system of Khayo, a previously undocumented dialect of Luyia (Bantu, Kenya and Uganda, J.30). It provides a systematic account of the tonal marking of tense-aspect-mood-polarity and clause type distinctions on verbs as well as tonal alternations triggered by H-toned prefixes and by prosodic differences in the verb stem. The primary analytical challenge posed by the Khayo data is accounting for cross-melody differences in the application of tonal rules; there are many contexts in which rules motivated for one melody fail to apply in another melody, even though the phonological environment is met. The analysis here accounts for these differences as the result of morphologically specific tonal rules ordered differently with respect to general tonal rules in a single tonal grammar.