Babanki verb tone

In Babanki, a Grassfields Bantu language of northwestern Cameroon, several tonal patterns can be found on a single verb root depending on the construction in which the verb is used. An underlying high tone may surface normally as high, but unexpectedly as low, or high-falling; while underlying low t...

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Autor principal: Pius W. Akumbu
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FR
Publicado: LibraryPress@UF 2015
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/bfebfd2c663c4920afb067d5dc8cff55
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:bfebfd2c663c4920afb067d5dc8cff552021-11-19T03:52:21ZBabanki verb tone10.32473/sal.v44i1.1072630039-35332154-428Xhttps://doaj.org/article/bfebfd2c663c4920afb067d5dc8cff552015-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.flvc.org/sal/article/view/107263https://doaj.org/toc/0039-3533https://doaj.org/toc/2154-428XIn Babanki, a Grassfields Bantu language of northwestern Cameroon, several tonal patterns can be found on a single verb root depending on the construction in which the verb is used. An underlying high tone may surface normally as high, but unexpectedly as low, or high-falling; while underlying low tones surface as high, high-falling, or normally as low. For this reason the low tone verb can have a L(L), HL, or even H(H) surface melody while the high tone verbs can be L(H), HL, or H(H). Accounting for these melodies in order to reconstruct the underlying forms is necessary for a proper understanding of the Babanki verb tone in particular and the tonal system of Centre Ring Grassfields Bantu languages in general. This paper demonstrates that five tone rules (Downstep, Tone Docking, High Tone Spread, Low Tone Spread, and Upstep) and one phonological rule (Schwa Insertion) are required to account for the complex tonal system of Babanki verbs.Pius W. AkumbuLibraryPress@UFarticleBabankiBantutonemorphologyPhilology. LinguisticsP1-1091ENFRStudies in African Linguistics, Vol 44, Iss 1 (2015)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
FR
topic Babanki
Bantu
tone
morphology
Philology. Linguistics
P1-1091
spellingShingle Babanki
Bantu
tone
morphology
Philology. Linguistics
P1-1091
Pius W. Akumbu
Babanki verb tone
description In Babanki, a Grassfields Bantu language of northwestern Cameroon, several tonal patterns can be found on a single verb root depending on the construction in which the verb is used. An underlying high tone may surface normally as high, but unexpectedly as low, or high-falling; while underlying low tones surface as high, high-falling, or normally as low. For this reason the low tone verb can have a L(L), HL, or even H(H) surface melody while the high tone verbs can be L(H), HL, or H(H). Accounting for these melodies in order to reconstruct the underlying forms is necessary for a proper understanding of the Babanki verb tone in particular and the tonal system of Centre Ring Grassfields Bantu languages in general. This paper demonstrates that five tone rules (Downstep, Tone Docking, High Tone Spread, Low Tone Spread, and Upstep) and one phonological rule (Schwa Insertion) are required to account for the complex tonal system of Babanki verbs.
format article
author Pius W. Akumbu
author_facet Pius W. Akumbu
author_sort Pius W. Akumbu
title Babanki verb tone
title_short Babanki verb tone
title_full Babanki verb tone
title_fullStr Babanki verb tone
title_full_unstemmed Babanki verb tone
title_sort babanki verb tone
publisher LibraryPress@UF
publishDate 2015
url https://doaj.org/article/bfebfd2c663c4920afb067d5dc8cff55
work_keys_str_mv AT piuswakumbu babankiverbtone
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