[Lingtyp] languages with just lexical contour tones / bitonal units?

[Larry M. HYMAN]

I wonder how many on LINGTYP want to be included in this exchange? The
questions are: 1) which feature(s) are phonologically activated in
Clements' sense? 2) which interpretation gives the most insightful analysis
of the data? Whether a /H/ slightly rises or slightly falls is a matter of
phonetic interpretation.

After writing I remembered one of the interpretations Francis Katamba and I
gave to Luganda: /HL/ vs. Ø.

Hyman, Larry M. & Francis X. Katamba. 1993. A new approach to tone in
Luganda. *Language* 69.34-67.

We have since gone back to a 2-3-2 analysis:

Morphophonemic: /H/ vs. Ø  (underlying)
"Phonemic": H vs. L vs. Ø    (roughly "phonemic", output of the lexical
word-level tonology)
"Systematic phonetic": H vs. L  (with a very marginal downstep at the
phrase level)

Hyman, Larry M. & Francis X. Katamba. 2010. Tone, syntax, and prosodic
domains in Luganda. In Laura J. Downing et al (eds), *ZAS Papers in
Linguistics*, 53.69-98. Berlin.




On Sun, Mar 22, 2020 at 10:02 AM Adam James Ross Tallman <
ajrtallman at utexas.edu> wrote:

> Thanks Larry and Laura,
>
> Larry - I don't think it *has* to be analyzed this way either ... But is
> it better if it makes the interpretation of the phonetics smoother? I'm not
> sure. Otherwise I think I have to say, H tones are systematically realized
> as raising... or with a low pitch mapped to the previous syllable or else
> LH or MH depending on context.
>
> But then maybe this is true of 0 vs. H tones all the time - perceptually
> you need *some* pitch movement to make the contrast and so this shouldn't
> be put in the phonology as a matter of principle because 0 vs. H systems
> will always be realized like contours phonetically... Laura, I think this
> relates to your point, but I'm wondering whether there might be a language
> that has L,M,H,0 where none of the privative tones are realized as contours
> in some sense.
>
> Adam
>
> On Sun, Mar 22, 2020 at 5:56 PM Laura McPherson <
> laura.emcpherson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Adam,
>>
>> I've been working on the tone system of Poko (Skou, PNG) where the
>> language appears to have 0, L, M, H as tonal primitives, but L and H only
>> ever surface as part of complex melodies (LM, MH, LH), which are generally
>> realized as contour tones on monosyllabic roots and as tonal sequences on
>> disyllabic roots. M can occur as a melody of its own. While LM or MH could
>> at some (abstract) level be analyzed as simply L and H, on the surface, the
>> M appears to be phonologically real (for instance, a docked floating H on a
>> 0 root is surface-distinct from a MH contour).
>>
>> This isn't exactly the same as what you're asking about, but it is
>> another case of complex melodies or tones appearing in a language without
>> the more basic melodies.
>>
>> Best,
>> Laura
>>
>> On Sun, Mar 22, 2020 at 12:15 PM Adam James Ross Tallman <
>> ajrtallman at utexas.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> Hey all,
>>>
>>> It's been suggested to me that the language I'm working on really makes
>>> a distinction between 0 vs. LH lexical marking, rather than 0 vs. H as I
>>> had previously thought. Looking at connected speech the evidence for this
>>> seems very strong and I'm starting to overcome my initial resilience to the
>>> proposal.
>>>
>>> Has this been proposed for any other language? (i.e. a language that
>>> just has 0, LH or 0, HL and no corresponding lexical Ls and Hs). I want to
>>> know what the evidence looks like for other language? In my case it's
>>> primarily phonetic and I'm not really sure what strictly phonological
>>> evidence would look like.
>>>
>>> Notice I'm not asking about pitch accents or intonational marking etc.
>>> But cases where it can be shown that the categories are really lexically
>>> specified.
>>>
>>> Help would be appreciated, I hope everyone is well and healthy.
>>>
>>> best,
>>>
>>> Adam
>>>
>>> --
>>> Adam J.R. Tallman
>>> PhD, University of Texas at Austin
>>> Investigador del Museo de Etnografía y Folklore, la Paz
>>> ELDP -- Postdoctorante
>>> CNRS -- Dynamique Du Langage (UMR 5596)
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Lingtyp mailing list
>>> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>>>
>>
>
> --
> Adam J.R. Tallman
> PhD, University of Texas at Austin
> Investigador del Museo de Etnografía y Folklore, la Paz
> ELDP -- Postdoctorante
> CNRS -- Dynamique Du Langage (UMR 5596)
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>


-- 
Larry M. Hyman, Professor of Linguistics & Executive Director,
France-Berkeley Fund
Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley
http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/people/person_detail.php?person=19
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