<OT> New Posting: ROA-615

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 615-0903

Mamainde Tone: an optimality account of plateauing, floating tones, and toneless syllables in an amazonian language

David Eberhard <dave-julie_eberhard at sil.org>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=615


Abstract:
This paper describes the tone system of the Mamainde language
from an OT perspective. Sections dealing with stress and
intonation show how these differ from tone. It is pointed
out, however, that stress and tone in this language are
both based upon the mora and the notion of syllable weight.
This analysis has been able to improve on previous studies
by reducing the tone system to just a H and L, without resorting
to contour tones. The bulk of the paper deals with an interesting
tone sandhi evident on some Mamainde verbs, where specific
HLH sequences are realized as HHH (also known as plateauing).
The NoTrough constraint is proposed, which restricts HLH
sequences in certain situations from being present in the
output. A few other examples of tone sandhi are also dealt
with. The negative construction requires constraints on
floating tones, and nouns require a toneless syllable. The
constraints in the tone system also must make reference
to morphology, showing the strong connection between morphology
and prosody in this language. Pitch graphs and tableaus
are used throughout.

Comments: 
Keywords: prosody, tone, Mamainde, Nambiquara, tone sandhi, plateauing
Areas: 
Type: Manuscript

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=615