[Lingtyp] Tonal inventories: High vs Extra-High

[Larry M. HYMAN]

There are at least three problems in this discussion.

First, there is the problem of whether we are talking phonetics or
phonology.

Second, there is the problem of whether the labeling of tones can be
uniquely derived from the phonetics, continuous F0 alone (as we can
identify vowels from the acoustic vowel space).
As Mark Donohue once put it to me, "We don't hear tones. We hear pitch."
(and anything co-varying with the pitch: duration, other laryngeal activity
etc.)

Third, there's the sometimes arbitrary labeling of tones.

I agree that in some languages the pitch of the highest tone sounds higher
than in others (and sometimes also individuals speaking the same language).
It also is the case that in some languages the lowest tone is at rock
bottom (trailing off especially before pause), while in others, the lowest
tone has a level "middish" F0.

In many cases, the languages where terms like "superhigh" or "extrahigh"
are invoked not only have some very high pitch realizations, but often ones
that are derived. For example, in Elaine Thomas' analysis of Engenni
(Edoid, Nigeria), a H tone is raised to what she calls "top" tone
(=superhigh) when followed by a L tone (and in certain morphological
contexts). Since the L sometimes is not realized, this creates a system of
with a "superhigh", "high", and "low" pitch contrast which then has to be
interpreted. (I have proposed that the "high" tone is really phonologically
Ø, such that the system starts out as a /L/ vs. Ø one, but develops into a
three-height system, S, H and L.) There are other languages where the
highest tone is derived from the simplification of a H + downstepped H
sequence (or contour on the same vowel/syllable), and others reported where
H tone is realized as "superhigh" on high vowels.

In my dissertation on Fe'fe' dialect of Bamileke (Grassfields Bantu,
Cameroon), the general non-low tone was called M, even though there are
rules raising it (and even L) to H, e.g. in most noun classes, where a M +
M noun + noun in a genitive relation (N1 of N2) is realized H + M. I
certainly could have called the M a high tone, and called the H tone as
superhigh tone. The reason I didn't do this is that I didn't feel that the
H was any higher than I would expect in a H, M, L system like Yoruba, Nupe
etc.

Mid tone languages are also different from each other. In some the /M/ is
there underlyingly, in others it is interpreted as the realization of Ø,
and in still other languages it is derived. (I'm now remembering that I
once gave a minicourse just on the mid tone--in Leipzig in 2006 :-)!

I don't think labeling is as crucial as the characterization of the tonal
system itself, the relation between the tones, the phonetic implementation
etc. Maybe someone will come up with an objective way to go from pitch to
tone category, but so far it isn't automatic (or agreed upon by different
researchers).

On Wed, Jan 27, 2021 at 7:06 AM ARNOLD Laura <Laura.Arnold at ed.ac.uk> wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> Does anyone know how frequent two-tone inventories contrasting only High
> and Extra-High are? I’m working with data from a language which has an
> inventory that can possibly be analysed this way (the two tones also
> contrast with toneless syllables). I suspect this is quite an unusual
> inventory, cross-linguistically – it would be helpful to confirm this. I
> would also be interested to hear about similar examples elsewhere in the
> world.
>
> Many thanks,
> Laura
>
> ~~~
> Laura Arnold – British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow
> laura-arnold.org <https://www.laura-arnold.org/>
>
> Room 1.13, Dugald Stewart Building
> School of Philosophy, Psychology & Language Sciences
> University of Edinburgh
>
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-- 
Larry M. Hyman, Professor of Linguistics & Executive Director,
France-Berkeley Fund
Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley
https://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman
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