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

[Hiroto Uchihara]

Hi Adam,

Some Central Zapotec varieties might have similar systems. The variety I'm
most familiar with, Teotitlán Zapotec (as you know) has L (least marked,
phonetically mid to low falling), M (phonetically level), H (level), Rising
(mid to high) and Falling (high to low), but the most important tones are
L, M, R, while H and F are peripheral, in the sense that the latter are
secondary diachronically and less common lexically synchronically and don't
really participate in tonal processes. R comes historically from original H
due to pitch peak delay (and H comes from a sequence of two R's), but there
is ample evidence that it is indeed a contour tone and not a level tone: in
some cases R can split into M and H in two syllables, and it does contrast
with H.

The variety spoken in San Pablo Güilá does not have M and there the major
tones are L and R (while H and F are peripheral). Thus I wouldn't be
surprised by a system which contrasts 0 and LH as you say. In fact, a
variety spoken next to Güilá, Chichicapan Zapotec (see Thoms Smith-Starks
works), only has Low, Rising and Falling; I've considered that Falling
could be phonologically H (and this is peripheral), but R could be like in
Teotitlán and really is a contour tone. If that is the case this might be
the closest to what you have in the language you are working on.

Best,
Hiroto

El dom., 22 de mar. de 2020 a la(s) 10:15, Adam James Ross Tallman (
ajrtallman at utexas.edu) escribió:

> 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
>


-- 
Dr. Hiroto Uchihara
Seminario de Lenguas Indígenas
Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Circuito Mario de la Cueva
Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, Ciudad de México.
Tel. Seminario:(+52)-(55)-5622-7489
Office: (+52)-(55)-5622-7250, Ext. 49223
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20200323/11b9a321/attachment.htm>