<OT> New Posting: ROA-644

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ROA 644-0204

Leftward High tone spread and downstep in Nyore

Michael Key <mk1168 at albany.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=644


Abstract:
Nyore (E.33), a Bantu language of western Kenya, exhibits
an interesting assortment of tonal behavior in both the
infinitival and finite verbal system.  The primary focus
of our study will be to produce an overview of Nyore verbal
morphotonology, which has never before been described. 
Nyore verb stems have been found to be either underlyingly
H-toned or toneless, as shown in (1) and (2).  Nyore exhibits
a productive process of leftward bounded spreading of certain
H's, as seen in (3) (but not in (2)), where the underlying
H on the object marker spreads backward to the class prefix.

(1)	   o-  xu-  lub-  a          < /o-xu-lub-a/
           ppf C15  fish  FV		 
           ‘to fish’                                   

(2)	   o-  xu- tééx- a	     < /o-xu-tééx-a/
           ppf C15 cook  FV
           ‘to cook’

(3)	   o-  xú-   mú-   tééx-  a  < /o-xu-mú-tééx-a/
           ppf C15   3sg.  cook   FV
           ‘to cook him/her’

Accounting for which verbal configurations display High
tone spread and constraining to what extent this takes place
shall be the second focus of our inquiry.  Nyore also displays
the downstep of High tones in certain sequences of consecutive
H’s, as in (4):

(4)	 nd-   á-xá-  !xú-  h-   a?		< /nd-a-xá-xú-h-a/
         1sg.  T/A    2sg.  give FV
         ‘I have given you(sg.)’

Finally, we hope to discuss the inexorable theoretical aspects
of this study.  Specifically, a complex interaction of correspond
ence constraints, such as Extend (Cassimjee 1995 and others),
proves vital to an optimality-theoretic account of the facts.

Comments: Presented at WOCAL 4/ACAL 34 (June 2003)
Keywords: tone, featural extension, correspondence theory
Areas: Phonology
Type: Manuscript

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=644