Ban Pa La-U Sgaw Karen Tones: An Analysis Of Semitones, Quadratic Trendlines and Coefficients

Abstract

Each dialect of the Sgaw Karen language has a different tonal system. Despite the different number of tones, all of the previous studies agree on the fact that all tones of Sgaw Karen are level tones. However, according to my phonological analysis of the tonal system of Ban Pa La-u Sgaw Karen, this dialect has a contour tone. The tonal system comprises four tones, i.e. /low/, /mid/, /high/ and /falling/ occurring in nonchecked syllables. The high and low tones also have allotones in checked syllables. To confirm my analysis of the tonal system and the new finding of a contour tone in this Sgaw Karen dialect, an acoustic analysis of the tones occurring in citation forms was attempted. The analysis included three parts: (1) semitones to illustrate the pitch shape and height; (2) quadratic trendlines to indicate the direction and degree of pitch change; and (3) coefficients to show the generalization of each tone and the discrimination among tones.