The Masa tonal
system
Amedeo De Dominicis (Univ. of Tuscia-Italy)
Following a field research in Chad, we recorded a spoken corpus. The
analysis will show that from a phonetic standpoint Masa has only two (not
three) tonal levels.
From a phonological point of view, we will keep the following system:
a marked tone: realized as high (H, v ¥), that doesn't undergo the
influence of the nature of the initial consonant
a no-marked tone: realized, on the first syllable, according to
the nature of the initial consonant, either as medium (M, vƒ), or as low (L, v), and on the
second syllable according to the admitted combinations.
The two levels Masa tonological system recalls neighbouring systems, as
– for example – Mbara (Tourneux,
Seignobos & Lafarge 1986).
We will give a phonetic verification (a Masa corpus doesn't offer
evidences for 3 tones). Besides, from a phonological standpoint, we will
analyse Masa tonal system by means of 3 rules.
Masa tonal rules
Tonal
Data:
Concerning the tonal expression of verbal aspect, we could distinguish
two classes of Masa verbs. In summary we have the following diagrams, the
register in brackets indicating the tonal register of the final vowel before
pause:
|
class
1 |
class
2 |
neutral |
M
(M) |
L
(L) |
accomplished |
M
(H) |
H
(M) |
unaccomplished |
H
(M) |
L
(M) |
Analysis
class 1
MM: [M ] ® [ M ] (non marked tone + rule 3)
MH: [M] ® [M] ® [MHM] ® [MH] (non marked tone + rule 3 +
floating H + upstep)
HM: [H] ® [H] ® [HM] (marked tone + rule 3 + rule 2
& dissimilation to the right of one degree)
class 2
LL: [L ] ® [ L ] (non marked tone + rule 3)
HM: [H] ® [H] ® [HM] (marked tone + rule 3 + rule 2
& dissimilation to the right of one degree)
LM: [L] ® [L] ® [LHL] ® [LM] (non marked tone + rule 3 +
floating H + upstep)
As you see,
we postulate the existence
of a marked
tone (H)
of a non
marked tone (L or M)
of a non
marked tone + floating H (upstep)
in formal
terms
tone +
tone -
tone + / - (complex)
The only
phonological tone is + (tonal accent)
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