Tone and the prosodic stem in Malawian CiTonga

Bibliographic Data

ID21466089
AuthorsWinfred Mkochi (0000-0002-9976-8997, University of Malawi), Lee Bickmore (0000-0002-6184-5870, University at Albany, State University of New York, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume42
Issue2
Pages253-277
Publication date2021-10-26
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of African Languages and Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0167-6164 • E-ISSN: 1613-3811
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/jall-2021-2021
OpenAlexW4230808261
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited35

In CiTonga, a Bantu language spoken in northern Malawi, a number of different morphemes within the verbal complex can sponsor a High tone. While the High tone of a morpheme which precedes the stem is shown to be underlyingly pre-linked, those found after the beginning of the stem are argued to be underlyingly floating. This latter group of High tone autosegments can be shown to exclusively dock onto the first and last tone bearing units (TBUs) of the prosodic stem. This domain is not isomorphic with the morphological stem in that it must include the entire morphological stem as well as any of 3 different categories of enclitics which follow. The docking of the underlyingly floating Hs is shown to follow an edge-in process whereby a single H docks onto the initial TBU of the prosodic stem, a second H docks onto the final TBU of the prosodic stem, and any additional High tones remain floating, being phonologically inert. The paper provides an extensive range of newly presented data on this understudied Bantu language and constitutes a rare case of the prosodic stem being motivated by tonological factors

Bantu languages · Linguistics · Morpheme · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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