Stephen SelfAL5333-Tone AnalysisFinal PaperDecember 6, 2012

A summary of findings from the Chumburung Tone Analysis project

1. Introduction This paper presents the findings of a an extended project concentrating on the tonal analysis of

Chumburung that formed part of the curriculum of AL5333-Tone Analysis under the direction of Dr. Mike Cahill at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics (GIAL) in Dallas, Texas during the fourth session of the fall bimester of 2012. The project consisted in transcribing tone for a wordlist of 40 items, 40 nouns and 10 verbs, and then using a computer program with a virtual language consultant named Isaac to “elicit” various possessive noun phrases and agentive and nominalized verb forms in order to identify and analyze the tonal processes operative on prefixation and suffixation in Chumburung. Hypotheses were made about the underlying tonal representations of both the lexical items and the prefixes and suffixes used in the data. The goal of the project was to give the students practice in hearing, transcribing, and analyzing tone as well as in working with elicitation procedures like finding and using suitable, stable tonal frames into which to insert words under investigation so as to observe any tonal perturbations that arise.

The structure of the paper is as follows. In the introduction, I present the main facts about Chumburung and the main tonal features the language possesses, as well as the principal tonal processes I will discuss in my analysis. In section 2, I discuss tone in the Chumburung nominal system, presenting both autosegmental and Optimality Theory (OT) analyses of the relevant tonal phenomena. In section 3, I discuss tone in the Chumburung verbal system, again presenting both autosegmental and OT analyses for the observed tonal phenomena. In section 4, I present a brief discussion of phonetic issues in the realization of tone in Chumburung. Finally, the conclusion presents a summary of the findings and discussion of implications for further study.

1.1 Chumburung and toneChumburung [ISO 639-3 ncu] is a North Guang language spoken by approximately 69,000 people

in the Volta region of Ghana, along the south end of the Dakar river which flows into Lake Volta (Lewis 2009). A map of the area is given in Appendix A. The Guang family of languages belong to the Tano subgroup of Kwa languages which form part of the larger Niger-Congo family. The language exists in three main dialects, Northern, Southern, and Yeji, and its use remains vigorous and vital across all social domains (Lewis 2009).

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The tonal system of Chumburung has two contrastive levels of pitch, high (H) and low (L). However, due to very active automatic downstep or downdrift and non-automatic downstep, intermediate pitch levels may occur on surface forms. In fact, downdrift in Chumburung is of the terracing type, such that automatic downstepping affects the total tonal register, causing all tones to the right of the trigger to be realized as phonetically lower in pitch than those preceding. In addition, Chumburung has high tone spreading (HTS) both word internally and across word boundaries, as well as final L-tone docking.

Tonal association in Chumburung proceeds according to two basic conventions: 1) associate tones with tone bearing units (TBUs) one-to-one, left to right; 2) associate any unassociated TBUs with the nearest accessible tone. A sample derivation and autosegmental representation is given in (1).

(1) UR /kuŋuriʔ, LH/ L HUAC1 kùŋúriʔUAC2 kùŋúríʔPR [kùŋúríʔ] kuŋuriʔ

While there is some evidence that will be discussed later on for the mora being considered the TBU of Chumburung, most of the data are explicable on the assumption that the vowel is the basic TBU. All of the autosegmental representations to follow will operate according this assumption.

2. Tone in the Chumburung nominal systemChumburung nouns fall into discrete noun classes, most of which are marked by a noun class

prefix. All but five of the nouns used in this project belong to the class marked in the singular by the prefix kɪ-. The other five nouns belong to a class that is marked by the absence of a prefix in the singular form. The majority of these nouns refer to animals, the one exception being nàná ‘grandchild’. Both noun classes take the prefix a- in their plural forms. The vowel /a/ in Chumburung is realized as [ə] whenever it occurs to the left of +ATR (advanced tongue root) vowels; thus, the plural prefix a- has the allomorph ə- if preceding +ATR vowels, as shown in (2).

(2) əjiʔ ‘trees’əferi ‘months’əsuŋ ‘works’əkuti ‘oranges’

Vowels in Chumburung harmonize between the stems and prefixes of words, such that the kɪ- class prefix may surface with any one of four forms depending on vowel harmony (3). The parameters for vowel harmony in Chumburung are ±ATR and ±Round. If the root begins with a labial consonant, however, there is no rounding harmony. This peculiarity can be seen in word 28, kibu ‘stone’: the expected form would have been *kubu if both types of vowel harmony had occurred.

(3) +ATR, +Round = ku

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+ATR, -Round = ki-ATR, +Round = kʊ-ATR, -Round = kɪ

With only two contrastive levels of pitch, the tonal system of Chumburung can produce four basic tonal melodies for nouns: L, H, LH, and HL. Logically, there is also a fifth option, namely that a noun be underlyingly toneless. As will be clear from the discussion to follow, all of these options are realized in Chumburung.

2.1 Syllable structure of noun rootsThe nouns in the data for the project present five different patterns of stem syllable structure,

given in (4) below.

(4)

CV

[4 4]kɪbɔ

[4 4]abɔ

Neck[2 3]kʊwɔ

[2 3]awɔ

Snake[2 3]kibu

[2 3]əbu

Stone[2 3]kɪpa

[2 3]apa

Hat

CVCV

[2 3 3]kɪsɪbɔ

[2 3 3]asɪbɔ

Ear[2 3 3]kɪbakpa

[2 3 3]abakpa

Shoulder[2 3 3]kɪɲarɪ

[2 3 3]aɲarɪ

Name[2 3 3]kiferi

[2 3 3]əferi

Month[2 2]kɪsaɁ

[2 2]asaɁ

Nest

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CVʔ

[2 2]kɪmaɁ

[2 2]amaɁ

Rubber[2 3]kijeɁ

[2 3]əjeɁ

Meat[2 3]kiteɁ

[2 3]əteɁ

Feather

CVCVʔ

[2 3 3]kuŋuriɁ

[2 3 3]əŋuriɁ

Knee[2 3 3]kutʃwiriɁ

[2 3 3]ətʃwiriɁ

Mushroom[2 3 3]kɪdakaɁ

[2 3 3]adakaɁ

Box[2 3 3]kɪsarɪʔ

[2 3 3]asarɪʔ

Arm

CVN

[2 3]kusuŋ

[2 3]əsuŋ

Work[2 3]kɪlaŋ

[2 3]alaŋ

Jug[2 2-1]kɪpaŋ

[2 2-1]apaŋ

Cutlass[2 2-1]kɪʤaŋ

[2 2-1]aʤaŋ

Hut

Of these patterns, CVCV is the most common, representing 18 of 40 tokens. 7 of the nouns have CVN syllable structure, 6 have CVʔ, 5 have CV, and 4 have CVCVʔ.

2.2 Morphologically simple nounsThe morphologically simplest nouns in the data set belong to the prefixless class (5). In the

singular, these 6 nouns appear as bare nominal stems without noun class prefixes or suffixes. All of the words belonging to this class in the data have CVCV syllable structure. Three different surface tonal melodies are represented: LH, H, and L. Because these words contain no prefixes or suffixes that could perturb the underlying tones of their stems, their tonal melodies are likely a good indication of the underlying melodies associated with these stems.

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(5) Noun, ø class, CVCV stem, 23 melody (LH)

[2 3]nana

[2 2 3]anana

Grandchild[2 3]kɔtɪ

[2 2 3]akɔtɪ

Monkey

Noun ø class, CVCV stem, 44 melody (H)

[4 4]fʊrɪ

[2 3 3]afʊrɪ

Deer[4 4]dapʊ

[2 3 3]adapʊ

Hawk

Noun, ø class, CVCV stem, 22-1 melody (L)1

[2 2-1]keri

[4 4 4-3]əkeri Lizard

[2 2-1]waʤa

[4 4 4-3]awaʤa Cloth

The first of the tonal processes in Chumburung evident in the singular forms of this group of words is automatic downstep, or downdrift as it is often known in the literature (Yip 2002:147-156). The words fʊrɪ ‘deer’ and dapʊ ‘hawk’ have a single H tone melody and, on a numeric scale representing pitch with 1 being the lowest and 4 the highest, may be said to be realized at a pitch level of 4. On the other hand, nana ‘grandchild’ and kɔti ‘monkey’ have a LH melody, but the H-toned syllable in both words is realized at a pitch level of roughly 3. This lowering of the pitch register following overt L tones is a characteristic feature of Chumburung tonal behavior. Though Yip (2002:151) notes that many phonologists relegate downdrift to the phonetic interpretive component and thus effectively exclude it from the phonological processes operative in the language, we can adopt a feature geometry model and explain downdrift as the spreading of a register feature associated with L tones to the tonal root node

1 The final falling contour on the singular forms of these words will be discussed below in section 4 on the phonetics of tone in Chumburung.

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(TRN) to its right, dissociating the register feature associated with H tones from that TRN. This rule is represented in (6).

(6) l h

H =

◦ TRN

In this rule, lower case l and h represent the respective register features for L and H tones. For the general approach, see Yip (2002:153-154). We could represent this rule in OT by using an ALIGN-R (l REGISTER, PRWD) constraint, which states that the l register feature tries to align with the right edge of the prosodic word. This constraint must outrank *ASSOCIATE, which states that no new association lines should be created (Yip 2002: 79). In order to prevent the spreading operation from skipping over a TRN, we can introduce NOGAP, which states that multiply linked tonal specifications cannot skip TBUs (or, in this case, TRNs) (Yip 2002:84). NOGAP must outrank *ASSOCIATE in order to force spreading to every available TRN. I provide a tableau showing these constraints in action in (8). In order to demonstrate the terracing effect of downdrift, I have anticipated a bit and used as input the phrase ‘grandchild’s deer’, where the surface melody is 2333. I first represent the process using the feature geometry model (7).

(7) l h h

L H = H =

◦ ◦ ◦

nana fʊrɪ

(8) Tableau 12

ALIGN-R (l REGISTER, PRWD) » NOGAP » *ASSOCIATE

input: /nana (23) fʊrɪ (44)/ ‘grandchild’s deer’ ALIGN-R (l REGISTER, PRWD) NOGAP *ASSOCIATE

a. nana fʊrɪ (2333) **b. nana fʊrɪ (2344) *!c. nana fʊrɪ (2444) **!d. nana fʊrɪ (2343) *! *

2 NB: These postlexical tableaux take as their input the output of lexical rules. Thus, specific tones are associate with specific TBUs in this input. All subsequent postlexical tableux in this paper will function similarly.

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Because this rule applies across word boundaries and produces surface allophones (i.e. both pitch level 3 and 4 represent H tone), it must apply postlexically.

Contrasting the singular forms of these prefixless class words with their corresponding plurals, one can notice quite a drastic change in tonal behavior. Whereas the words with LH melodies maintain the same melody, those with a H melody take on a LH melody, and those with a L melody surface with H. Looking at these correspondences in table form helps draw out the generalization behind them (9).

(9)

Tonal melody before prefixation Tonal melody after prefixationLH LHH LHL H

Whereas only two of the three tonal melodies had H tones in them before prefixation, all three contain H tones afterwards. Thus, a preference for having a H tone somewhere in the phonological word seems to be the basic principle in play. If the word contains a H tone on any syllable, then the plural prefix a- surfaces with a L tone. If the word does not contain a H tone, however, a H tone surfaces on the prefix. This rule is a form of tone polarity on the basis of the presence or absence of a H tone anywhere in the word.

The immediate question these observations prompt is what is the underlying tonal specification of the prefix itself. There are two possible answers to this question. Either 1) the prefix is underlyingly underspecified for tone and acquires its tone via OCPH/word avoidance of two H tones in the same word that is ranked below the constraint SPECIFY, which requires that all TBUs have tones associated with them (Yip 2002:83); or 2) the prefixes have underlying H tones that are deleted due to the same OCPH/word constraint. This latter approach resembles Meeussen’s rule discussed in Yip (2002:100). Of these two approaches, the first is less complex overall. In (10), I provide a tableau to demonstrate the process as expressed through OT. In order to ensure that each word has at least one H tone in the output form, I must also include *L that penalizes surface L tones and is ranked fairly high, as well as *H that penalizes surface H tones and is ranked lower. DEP-T, which prevents the insertion of new tones (Yip 2002:83), must be ranked lowest of all in order to allow for the prefix to receive some sort of tonal association.

(10) Tableau 2

SPECIFY » OCPH/WD » *L » *H » DEP-T

input: /akɔti, LH/ ‘monkeys’ SPECIFY OCPH/WD *L *H DEP-Ta. akɔti (223) ** * *b. akɔti (423) *! * ** *c. akɔti (23) *! * * *d. akɔti (222) ***! *

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In rule-based phonology, this phenomenon would be accounted for by a simple rule of tone insertion in accord with the OCPH/Wd. Because this rule is sensitive to morpheme boundaries, fails to apply across word boundaries, and occurs only in derived environments, it must apply lexically.

A third tonal process evident in these data is the rule of H-tone spreading (HTS). This rule, too, applies lexically, and functions to spread the newly acquired H tones from the rule of prefixal tone polarity (PTP) discussed above across the entire word. It is this rule that explains how the words ‘lizard’ and ‘cloth’, which have an underlying L tonal melody, can surface post-prefixation with a H tone melody. HTS is thus in a feeding relationship with prefixal tone polarity and must apply after the latter rule has taken effect. In (11), I represent HTS using autosegmental notation.

(11) H L H L

= = = =

awadʒa əkeri

Accounting for this rule in OT is similar to the downdrift rule above, only we must alter the alignment constraint to reflect that H tone is spreading rightward across the word (thus, ALIGN-R (H, WD)) and we must add another constraint to force the delinking of the previous L tones. We can use *CONTOUR that militates against TBUs associated to more than one tone in order to accomplish this purpose. ALIGN-R (H, WD) must outrank *CONTOUR in order to motivate both HTS and delinking of the L tones. ALIGN-R (H, WD) must also still dominate *ASSOCIATE, which in turn must be dominated by *CONTOUR. Again, we must use NOGAP to prevent incomplete spreading. I present the results in Tableau 3 below (12).

(12) Tableau 3

ALIGN-R (H, WD) » NOGAP » *CONTOUR » *ASSOCIATE

input: /əkeri, HL/ ‘lizards ALIGN-R (H, WD)

NOGAP *CONTOUR *ASSOCIATE

a. əkeri (444) ***b. əkeri (422) *!* ***c. əkeri (44-34) *! ****d. əkeri (424) *! ***

Finally, a fourth tonal process evident in these data from the morphologically simplest noun class is final L-tone docking. The astute reader will have noticed that the previous rule of HTS produces the wrong outcome for the words ‘lizards’ and ‘cloths’. In both cases, the final syllable of the plural form has a falling contour tone. Thus, after both prefix tone polarity and HTS have applied, there must be another rule allowing the delinked low tone to dock back onto the previous TBU and create the final contour tone. In OT, *FLOAT is used to motivate docking, prohibiting an unassociated tone from remaining unassociated. It must be ranked above *CONTOUR so as to allow docking to violate the prohibition of contour tones. This final L-tone docking rule is presented in autosegmental notation in

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(13) and within OT in tableau 4 (14). Because this rule appeals to word boundaries, it must apply postlexically. It is fed by the output of the lexical rules and thus, effectively, by the rule of HTS.

(13) H L H L

awadʒa əkeri

(14) Tableau 4

*FLOAT »*CONTOUR » *ASSOCIATE

input: /əkeri, 4443/ ‘lizards *FLOAT *CONTOUR *ASSOCIATE

a. əkeri (444-3) * ****b. əkeri (444) *! ***

A summary of all the rules and tonal processes identified for the prefixless noun class is given in (15). Crucial orderings between the rules are indicated by the usual convention of arcs to the left of the rules. Of course, all lexical rules necessarily precede all postlexical rules.

(15) Prefix tone polarity (PTP)(lexical)HTS (lexical)

Final L-docking (FLD) (postlexical)Downdrift (postlexical)

I provide sample derivations to demonstrate the ordering relationships in (16).

(16) Correct Order Incorrect Order

UR /ə+keri, LH/ UR /ə+keri, LH/UAC kèríə� UAC kèríə�PTP kèríə� HTS -------HTS kéríə� PTP kèríə�

Output Lex. kéríə� Output Lex. kèríə�FLD kériə� FLD ------Down ------ Down ------PR [ kéri]ə� PR *[ kèrí]ə�

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2.3 Morphologically complex nounsThe other class of nouns represented in the data is more morphologically complex than the

prefixless class insofar as nouns belonging to this class have prefixes in both their singular and plural forms (17). In the singular, these nouns are marked by the prefix kɪ-.

(17) Noun, kɪ- class, CV stem, 44 melody:

[4 4]kɪbɔ

[4 4]abɔ

Neck[4 4]kiʤi

[4 4]əʤi

Seed

Noun, kɪ- class, CV stem, 23 melody:

[2 3]kʊwɔ

[2 3]awɔ

Snake[2 3]kibu

[2 3]əbu

Stone[2 3]kɪpa

[2 3]apa

Hat

Noun, kɪ- class, CVCV stem, 233 tone melody:

[2 3 3]kɪsɪbɔ

[2 3 3]asɪbɔ

Ear[2 3 3]kɪbakpa

[2 3 3]abakpa

Shoulder[2 3 3]kɪɲarɪ

[2 3 3]aɲarɪ

Name[2 3 3]kiferi

[2 3 3]əferi

Month

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Noun, kɪ- class, CVCV stem, 444-3 melody:

[4 4 4-3]kɪɲapʊ

[4 4 4-3]aɲapʊ

Breast[4 4 4-3]kitʃini

[4 4 4-3]ətʃini

Vein[4 4 4-3]kɪfʊrɪ

[4 4 4-3]afʊrɪ

Rock[4 4 4-3]kɪpɪnɪ

[4 4 4-3]apɪnɪ

Mortar

Noun, kɪ- class, CVCV stem, 223 melody:

[2 2 3]kʊtʃorɪ

[2 2 3]atʃorɪ

Horn[2 2 3]kɪʤafʊ

[2 2 3]aʤafʊ

Fish scale[2 2 3]kukuti

[2 2 3]əkuti

Orange[2 2 3]kɪparɪ

[2 2 3]aparɪ

Pool

Noun, kɪ- class, CVN stem, 23 melody:

[2 3]kusuŋ

[2 3]əsuŋ

Work[2 3]kɪlaŋ

[2 3]alaŋ

Jug

Noun, kɪ- class, CVN stem, 22-1 melody:

[2 2-1]kɪpaŋ

[2 2-1]apaŋ

Cutlass

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[2 2-1]kɪʤaŋ

[2 2-1]aʤaŋ

Hut

Noun, kɪ- class, CVN stem, 4 4-3 melody:

[4 4-3]kɪlaŋ

[4 4-3]alaŋ

Hip[4 4-3]kɪtʃaŋ

[4 4-3]atʃaŋ

Room

Noun, kɪ- class, CVN stem, 23-2 melody:

[2 3-2]kɪbaŋ

[2 3-2]abaŋ

Paddle

Noun, kɪ- class, CVN stem, 4 4-3 melody:

[4 4-3]kɪlaŋ

[4 4-3]alaŋ

Hip[4 4-3]kɪtʃaŋ

[4 4-3]atʃaŋ

Room

Noun, kɪ- class, CVʔ stem, 44 melody:

[4 4]kɪjaɁ

[4 4]ajaɁ

Leg[4 4]kɪjiɁ

[4 4]əjiɁ

tree

Noun, kɪ- class, CVʔ stem, 23 melody:

[2 3]kijeɁ

[2 3]əjeɁ

Meat

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[2 3]kiteɁ

[2 3]əteɁ

Feather

Noun, kɪ- class, CVʔ stem, 22 melody:

[2 2]kɪsaɁ

[2 2]asaɁ

Nest[2 2]kɪmaɁ

[2 2]amaɁ

Rubber

Noun, kɪ- class, CVCVʔ stem, 233 melody:

[2 3 3]kuŋuriɁ

[2 3 3]əŋuriɁ

Knee[2 3 3]kutʃwiriɁ

[2 3 3]ətʃwiriɁ

Mushroom[2 3 3]kɪdakaɁ

[2 3 3]adakaɁ

Box[2 3 3]kɪsarɪʔ

[2 3 3]asarɪʔ

Arm

The tonal rules and processes affecting these words are identical to those that affect the prefixless class. However, since these nouns all have a prefix even in the singular form, it is more difficult to ascertain their underlying tonal representations than the prefixless class. Based on the behavior of the plural prefix from the prefixless class, we can work backwards and extrapolate what the underlying representations would be for each surface form. The key is to take to the melodic correspondences listed in (9) above and run them backwards. Thus, we can preliminarily deduce that observed 233 tone melodies in prefixal forms (words 1,3,5,7,11,24,30,33), whether singular or plural, derive from noun roots with underlying H (44) melodies. Nouns with observed 223 melodies (words 18,19,23,29) derive from underlying 23 (LH) roots. Those with observed 44 (words 2,6,22,25), 444-3 (44F) (words 8,9,27,32), and 44-3 (4F) (words 4,38) melodies derive from underlying L (22 or 22-1 or 2F) roots. And those that have observed 23 (words 10,13,20,28,31,34,40) or 23-2 (2F) (word 36) melodies derive from underlying H (4 or 4-3) melodies. This breakdown represents a preliminary deduction of underlying melodies only. There may still be outstanding issues that will become clear upon further investigation. I present a table of melody correspondences in (18).

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(18)

Surface Tone Melody Probable Underlying Melody233 (ꜜH) 4 (H)223 (LH) 23 (LH)44, 44-3, 444-3 (HH, HF) 22, 22-1 (L, LF)23, 23-2 (ꜜH, ꜜHF) 4, 4-3 (H, HF)

Indeed, there are several problems with these postulated underlying melodies, some of which are apparent from the data of kɪ- class nouns in isolation and some of which will only become apparent in section 2.4 when we discuss tone in noun phrases. Recalling from the rules discussed for the prefixless noun class, we can note that the presence of final contour tones in the surface melodies of many of these words is due to final L-tone docking following HTS. If so, though, then the four words with surface 44 melodies (words 2,6,22,25) present something of a problem. These should all derive from underlying L-toned stems. If that were the case, however, then we would predict that they, too, should surface with final contour tones. Some derivations and autosegmental representations are given in (19) and (20) to demonstrate the issue.

(19) UR /kɪbɔ, L/ UR /kɪjaʔ, L/UAC k bɪ � ɔ� UAC k jàʔɪ �PTP k bɪ � ɔ� PTP k jàʔɪ �HTS k bɪ � ɔ� HTS k jáʔɪ �

FLD k bɪ � ɔ� FLD k jâʔɪ �Down ------ Down ------PR *[k b ]ɪ � ɔ� PR *[k jâʔ]ɪ �

(20) H L H L = =

kɪbɔ kɪjaʔ

What is interesting is that the failure of these words to undergo FLD is most likely due to different causes. These differences can be accounted for in terms of the words‘ syllable structures.

The words kɪjaʔ ‘leg’ and kijiʔ ‘tree’ both fail to permit FLD and both have a CVʔ syllable structure. As we will see below in section 2.4, kijeʔ ‘meat’, kiteʔ ‘feather’, kuŋuriʔ ‘knee’, and kɪsarɪʔ ‘arm’ also do not permit FLD. Indeed, evidence from the juxtaposition of certain words ending in glottal stop with words of different tonal melodies provides independent evidence to suggest that glottal stop in Chumburung, which only occurs in final position, represents the loss of a final TBU of some kind. As such, it is not surprising that glottal stop should apparently block the operation of FLD. We can contrast the behavior of these two words with that of kɪtʃaŋ ‘room’ and kɪlaŋ ‘hip’, both of which end in a nasal

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consonant and yet also show evidence of FLD, surfacing with 44-3 or 4F melodies. Thus, we can reformulate the autosegmental representation of the FLD rule as in (21).

(21) H L

V (C) ]word

[-glottal]

From an OT perspective, we would need to have a constraint that militated against the formation of contour tones on TBUs before final glottal stop. Such a constraint will inevitably be rather ad hoc. We can formulate it as *CONTOUR(__ʔ]WORD). This constraint must be ranked above *FLOAT in order to inhibit contour formation in the right environment (22).

(22) Tableau 5

*CONTOUR(__ʔ]WORD) » *FLOAT »*CONTOUR » *ASSOCIATE

input: /kijiʔ (443) / ‘tree’ *CONTOUR(__ʔ]WORD) *FLOAT *CONTOUR *ASSOCIATE

a. kijiʔ (44) * **b. kijiʔ (44-3) *! * * **

The remaining question, then, is what happened to kɪbɔ ‘neck’ and kidʒi ‘seed’ to stop them from allowing FLD and surfacing with a 44-3 melody. The simplest solution to this problem is actually to posit that neither of these words has an underlying tone association at all. That is to say, if we posit that both ‘neck’ and ‘seed’ are underlyingly toneless, then there is no L tone to worry about not docking. A correct derivation is given in (23). These two words provide the evidence alluded to above that the fifth possibility of a toneless underlying form is also represented in the Chumburung data.

(23) UR /kɪbɔ, / UR / kidʒi, /UAC kɪbɔ UAC kidʒiPTP k bɔɪ � PTP kídʒiHTS k bɪ � ɔ� HTS kídʒíFLD ------ FLD ------Down ------ Down ------PR [k b ]ɪ � ɔ� PR [kídʒí]

Yet another problem with the underlying melodies postulated in (18) above is word 36: kɪbaŋ ‘paddle’. This word is the only lexical item in the data set to have a contour that begins at a pitch level higher than the preceding pitch. I observed in footnote 1 that the final contour in words of L tone melodies is a phonetic phenomenon that occurs only in pause. Final contours with other melodies, however, result from FLD. This means that the 232 melody of ‘paddle’ cannot result from a strictly H

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tone melody. Also, since the prefix kɪ- surfaces with a low tone in this word, there can be no HTS to give rise to a floating L that can later dock. Thus, the L tone that is giving rise to the final contour in kɪbaŋ must result from a underlying L tone. The word ‘paddle’, then, is the only word in the data set where an underlying two tone melody (HL) is spread only across a monosyllable (24). This word provides probative evidence that the mora, rather than the syllable, is the TBU for Chumburung. A moraic basis for tone association would explain the realization of both tones on the same syllable, the H tone being associated to the vowel nucleus, the L tone to the final ŋ.

(24) L HL

kɪ+baŋ

A final problem associated with accounting for the underlying melodies of kɪ- class nouns is posed by the words kɪsaʔ ‘nest’, kɪmaʔ ‘rubber’, kɪpaŋ ‘cutlass’, and kɪdʒaŋ ‘hut’. These prefixed words surface with a 22 (L) and a 22-1 (LF) melody, respectively. Yet the facts of prefix tone polarity should not allow for a surface form with a L or LF melody. If the prefix surfaces with a L tone, that must mean that the word contains a H tone; these forms, however, do not contain any apparent H tone. To solve this conundrum, we must posit a floating H tone at the end of these words. Again, we can note that this phenomenon only occurs in CVC syllables. Chumburung only permits nasals and glottal stop to close such syllables. The final consonants could mask a lost TBU that once anchored the H tone. That these forms permit an unassociated final H tone might cause us to rethink the *FLOAT constraint invoked above to motivate FLD. Since it is apparently only L tones that are dispreferred as floating tones, we could modify the constraint and restate it as *FLOAT-L (25).

(25) Tableau 6

*CONTOUR(__ʔ]WORD) » *FLOAT-L »*CONTOUR » *ASSOCIATE

input: /kɪmaʔ (224) / ‘tree’

*CONTOUR(__ʔ]WORD) *FLOAT-L *CONTOUR *ASSOCIATE

a. kɪmaʔ (224)b. kɪmaʔ (22-4) *! * *

I give an autosegmental representation of these words in (26).

(26) L L H L L H L L H L L H

kɪsaʔ kɪmaʔ kɪpaŋ kɪdʒaŋ

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2.4 Tone in noun phrasesA common type of noun phrase in Chumburung is the possessive. For non-kinship nouns, the

juxtaposition of two nouns (N1 N2) is used to signal possession, where N1 is the possessor and N2, the possessum. In the case of possessed kinship nouns, an additional pronoun intervenes between N1 and N2. Because of this different structure, only non-kinship possessive noun phrases will be considered here.

Two new tone processes are evident in Chumburung possessive noun phrases. First, there is a second kind of H tone spread, this time operative across word boundaries and only over one adjacent syllable (27). This more constrained HTS must be a postlexical process since it operates across word boundaries.

(27) L H L L H L

= =

nana wadʒa kɪdakaʔ wadʒa

To produce this effect in OT, we need to introduce the constraint LOCAL which states that a feature can spread only to an adjacent element (Yip 2002:84). We also need to amend the alignment constraint, since it was formulated for the lexical HTS rule that operates only across a single word. This new postlexical HTS process operates at the phrasal level. Hence we can reformulate the alignment constraint as ALIGN-R (H, PHRASE). Because this new constraint inhibits the operation of ALIGN-R (H, ), it must dominate it. The results appear in tableau 7 (28).

(28) Tableau 7

LOCAL » ALIGN-R (H, PHRASE), NOGAP » *CONTOUR » *ASSOCIATE

input: /kɪdakaʔ (233) wadʒa (22)/ ‘box’s cloth’

LOCAL ALIGN-R (H, PHRASE)

NOGAP *CONTOUR *ASSOCIATE

a. kɪdakaʔ (233) wadʒa (32) * *b. kɪdakaʔ (233) wadʒa (33) *! **c. kɪdakaʔ (233) wadʒa (23) *! *d. kɪdakaʔ (233) wadʒa (3-22) * *! *

Predictably, the kɪ- class nouns identified in section 2.3 as having a floating L tone do not give rise to this postlexical HTS. Autosegmentally, this conclusion seems obvious, since the H tone would have to jump over the floating L in order to spread. In OT, we can use the NOGAP constraint again, but with a slightly more abstract definition. Ito et al. (1995) provide the definition of NOGAP given in (29).

(29) * α β γ

F where β is a potential bearer of feature F

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Because this new postlexical NOGAP inhibits the rightward spread of H tones, it must dominate the alignment constraint. Tableau 8 shows the results with the noun kijeʔ ‘meat’ (30).

(30) Tableau 8

LOCAL » NOGAP » ALIGN-R (H, PHRASE) » *CONTOUR » *ASSOCIATE

input: /kijeʔ (232) wadʒa (22)/ ‘meat’s cloth’

LOCAL NOGAP ALIGN-R (H, PHRASE)

*CONTOUR *ASSOCIATE

a. kijeʔ (232) wadʒa (22) *b. kijeʔ (232) wadʒa (32) *! * *c. kijeʔ (232) wadʒa (33) *! * **

As I alluded to in the previous section, the failure to participate in postlexical HTS demonstrated in tableau 8 provides a useful diagnostic for dividing kɪ- class nouns that end in glottal stop into two groups. The nouns kijeʔ ‘meat’, kiteʔ ‘feather’, kuŋuriʔ ‘knee’, kɪsarɪʔ ‘arm’, kɪjaʔ ‘leg’, and kijiʔ ‘tree’ all prevent postlexical HTS. This behavior provides evidence that all of these words contain a floating L tone. On the other hand, kutʃʷiriʔ ‘mushroom’, kɪdakaʔ ‘box’, kɪsaʔ ‘nest’, and kɪmaʔ ‘rubber’ all allow postlexical HTS, as was seen in the example of ‘box’s cloth’ in tableau 7 (28) above. Thus, this latter group of words all lack final floating L tones.

Confirmatory evidence of this last point comes from the second new tonal process observable in the interaction of tone with noun phrases. The nouns which have a final floating L tone all give rise to non-automatic downstep when followed by words beginning with a H tone. Thus, in phrases like ‘knee’s deer’ and ‘meat’s deer’, the H tone of ‘deer’ is realized at a slightly lower pitch than the word has in isolation. CVʔ syllable nouns without floating L tones can only give rise to automatic downstep or downdrift, assuming the stem of the noun has an overt L tone. These facts are illustrated autosegmentally in (31). Following convention, I do not represent downdrift in any overt way in the formalism.

(31) L !H L !H L H L!H L H

kuŋurɪʔ fʊrɪ kijeʔ fʊrɪ kɪsaʔ dapʊ

Non-automatic downstep can also arise when words with FLD no longer appear in final position. This is illustrated in (32).

(32) H L !H

kilaŋ fʊrɪ

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Since the impetus for automatic downstep is ultimately the same as that for downdrift (i.e. a previous L tone whether overt or floating), there is no need for additional constraints or rankings in OT. The same constraints and rankings as were used in tableau 1 (8) can apply here (33)

(33) Tableau 9

ALIGN-R (l REGISTER, PRWD) » NOGAP » *ASSOCIATE

input: /kɪlaŋ (442) fʊrɪ (44)/ ‘hip’s deer’ ALIGN-R (l REGISTER, PRWD) NOGAP *ASSOCIATE

a. kɪlaŋ fʊrɪ (44233) **b. kɪlaŋ fʊrɪ (44234) *!c. kɪlaŋ fʊrɪ (44244) **!d. kɪlaŋ fʊrɪ (44243) *! *

Phrases like kuŋuriʔ fʊrɪ ‘knee’s deer’ and kɪbaŋ fʊrɪ ‘paddle’s deer’ demonstrate that these two forms of downstep can interact as well, again illustrating the terracing effect of Chumburung tone. In both of these phrases, the LH melody of the first word causes downdrift resulting in a lower H than would otherwise be the case. The first words in both phrases also have floating L tones when followed by other words, giving rise to non-automatic downstep that affects the realization of ‘deer’. As a result, the H tone of ‘deer’ in both phrases ends up closer in pitch to the initial L of the first words than the customary H of ‘deer’ when spoken in isolation. Another example that shows how the entire register lowers is the phrase ‘ear’s orange’ kɪsɪbɔ kukuti. Here, the initial word has a LH melody that is realized as 23 instead of 24. The 3 H then spreads via HTS to the initial syllable of kukuti. When the next L hits on the second ku syllable, it is realized lower than the initial L of kɪsɪbɔ and the final H is realized more or less identically to that initial L. The whole string, then, is 233312.

At this point, we can summarize the lexical and postlexical rules, showing the lack of crucial ordering between the new HTS2 rule and downdrift/downstep and sample derivations in (34) and (35).

(34) Prefix tone polarity (PTP)(lexical)HTS1 (lexical)

HTS2 (postlexical)Downdrift/downstep (postlexical)Final L-docking (FLD) (postlexical)

(35) Output of Lex. k dákáʔ wàdʒàɪ � Output of Lex. k dákáʔ wàdʒàɪ �HTS2 k dákáʔɪ � wádʒà Down kɪ �ꜜ dákáʔ wàdʒàDown kɪ �ꜜ dákáʔ wádʒà HTS2 kɪ �ꜜ dákáʔ wádʒàFLD ------ FLD ------PR [kɪ �ꜜ dákáʔ wádʒà] PR [kɪ �ꜜ dákáʔ wádʒà]

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3. Tone in the verbal systemThe Chumburung Tone Analysis project concentrated very little on tone in the verbal system. As

a result, the following section is necessarily brief and cursory in coverage. Only three morphological forms of the verb were dealt with in the exercise: 1) a nominalized form using the same prefix as the kɪ- class nouns; 2) an agentivized form comprised of a prefix ɔ- and a suffix –pu; and 3) the imperative, which is marked by a replacive low tone.

3.1 Syllable structure of verb rootsAll but three of the verbs in the wordlist have a CV syllable structure. The remaining three have

CVʔ. Not coincidentally, these three verbs are the only ones to surface in the imperative form without a L-falling tone. That is to say, these verbs of same syllable structure pattern together as far as their tonal morphology is concerned.

3.2. Morphologically simple verbs (single root)All of the verbs in the wordlist are morphologically simple in that they consist of a single,

monosyllabic root. Perhaps because the morphological phenomena under examination in the project involved the creation of deverbal nouns, the verbs are shown to be subject to the same tonal processes as nouns.

In the nominalized form, the verbs take the same prefix as the singular kɪ- class nouns. Predictably, this prefix produces the same perturbations of tone on the verbs as on the nouns. That is to say, if there is a H tone on the verb stem, the prefix surfaces as L and vice versa. Only two tone melodies result post-prefixation: 44 and 23, suggesting that all of the verbs have either an underlying H or an underlying L tone melody. Those that have an underlying H melody also show the effects of downdrift in that their surface H tone is lower than the H tone on those verbs with underlying L tone melodies that surface with a 44 tonal pattern. They also show the effects of lexical HTS. The verbs with underlying H tones are nu ‘hear‘, sa ‚give‘, kpa ‚want,‘ fe ‘sell‘, and tɔ ‘roast‘. Those with underlying L tones are ŋu ‘see‘, taʔ ‘take‘, saʔ ‘fetch‘, sɔʔ ‘buy‘, and dʒi ‘eat‘. The derivations in (36) demonstrate the behavior. For convenience‘s sake, since principally only tonal processes are under investigation here, the vowel harmony is simply included in the underlying form rather than being expressed as a separate rule.

(36) UR /ku+nu, H/ UR /kɪ+saʔ, L/PTP kùnú PTP k sàʔɪ �HTS1 ------ HTS1 k sáʔɪ �

Output Lex. kùnú Output Lex. k sáʔɪ �HTS2 ------ HTS2 ------Down kùꜜnú Down ------FLD ------ FLD ------PR [kùꜜnú] PR [k sáʔ]ɪ �

21

For some unclear reason, FLD does not occur with the nominalized forms. Perhaps a morphological pattern of the construction prohibits the final L tone from docking. Rather, the original low tone of the stem is left floating as in (37).

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(37) H L =kidʒi

A purely tonal way of handling this issue would be to appeal to the same explanation as we did in examining nouns like ‘neck‘ and ‘seed‘ that also did not seem to show the effects of a left over L tone. Of the five verbs that display similar behavior, three end in glottal stop which, as was shown above, blocks FLD. Thus, perhaps ŋu ‘hear‘ and dʒi ‘eat‘ are actually underlyingly toneless, leaving no L tone to be pushed over the stem by HTS1 and, hence, nothing to dock postlexically (38). The evidence of the agentivized forms of these verbs to be discussed below bears directly on this issue.

(38) H kidʒi

In the agentivized form, the verbs take a prefix ɔ- and a suffix –pu. The prefix functions just like the nominalizer: it surfaces as low on ‘hear‘, ‘give‘, ‘want‘, ‘sell‘, and ‘roast‘ and as high on ‘see‘, ‘take‘, ‘fetch‘, ‘buy‘, and ‘eat‘. The suffix surfaces as H (though downdrifted) on the verbs with underlying H tones and as a H-falling tone on those whose stems have underlying L tones. In both cases, the behavior of the suffix can be explained by spreading from the rest of the word (39).

(39) L !H H L

=

ɔ nu pu ɔ dʒi pu

2 3 3 4 4 4-3

As with the lexical HTS1 from nouns, the prefix H tone can spread across the entire verb, displacing the underlying L tone which is left floating. Then, the same final L-tone docking rule reassociates the L back to the previous (final) TBU to create the contour. On verbs with an underlying H tone, the suffix surfaces with a downdrifted H identical to the tone of the root. It is interesting to note that ‘see‘ and ‘eat‘ both surface with a falling contour tone on the suffix, suggesting that we cannot analyze them as underlyingly toneless after all. It seems we are forced to suppose that some morphological feature of the nominalized construction prohibits FLD from taking place.

The only unique tonal process that applies to the Chumburung verbs under examination is the formation of the imperative form. As is common in African languages, Chumburung imperatives are marked by a tonal morpheme. In this case, this morpheme takes the specific form of a replacive L tone. Thus, all of the verbs, whether underlyingly L-toned or H, have a low tone in the imperative form. Those that end in glottal stop are the only ones that do not take a low-falling contour, suggesting that the phonetic process by which L tones are realized as low-falling contours when in pause is blocked by the

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final ʔ. Final glottal stops also inhibit the FLD rule. We do note, however, that the presence of glottal stop does not apparently block the spread of H tones across the verb. Similarly, glottal stop did not block the post-lexical HTS in nouns either.

4. Phonetics of toneThe principal interaction of phonetics with tone in Chumburung is the phenomenon just

mentioned above whereby L tones in pause are realized as low-falling (21) contours. This can be seen not only on all of the imperative forms of verbs that do not contain a final glottal stop, but also on nouns like kɪdzaŋ ‘hut’, kɪpaŋ ‘cutlass’, wadʒa ‘cloth’, and keri ‘lizard’. As with LTD, this phenomenon only occurs when the words are in pause; as soon as another word follows them, whatever L tone was previously docked is apparently left floating and, as such, is available to cause downstep, as is demonstrated in (40).

(40) a. L b. L L H c. H L !H

wadʒa wadʒa kɔti kɪpɪnɪ fʊrɪ

2 2-1 2 2 2 3

5. ConclusionChumburung, a North Guang language of Ghana, has two contrastive levels of pitch, L and H,

and six principal tonal rules: 1) prefix tonal polarity (PTP); 2) lexical high-tone spreading (HTS1); 3) postlexical HTS; 4) downdrift or automatic downstep; 5) non-automatic downstep; and 6) final low-tone docking (FLD). These rules operate across nouns and nomalized and agentivized verbs. A persistent phonetic feature of the realization of tone in Chumburung is that final L tones in pause always surface as a low-falling contour. The interaction of tone with morphological processes like prefixation and in possessive noun phrases provides good evidence of the underlying tonal specifications of both the noun/verb stems themselves and the prefixes and suffixes that attach to them.

ReferencesChumburung, regional view [map]. Scale not given. Chumburung. LL-Map World Languages database.

http://www.llmap.org/languages/ncu.html (accessed 6 December 2012).

Ito, Junko, Armin Mester and Jaye Padgett. 1995. Licensing and underspecification in optimality theory. Linguistic Inquiry 26:571-614.

Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. http://www.ethnologue.com/ (accessed 6 December 2012).

Yip, Moira. 2002. Tone. (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Appendix A: Maps

Figure 1: Map of Chumburung area