Abstract
SUMMARY In Afrikaans the monomorphematic word has no tone of its own. Words can only have tone in the sentence in Afrikaans. This tone depends on the stress (intensity) and tone in Afrikaans can be described as pitch—accent. Three tones can be distinguished in Afrikaans, i.e. low tone 1, middle tone 2 and high tone 3. These tones are found in a number of tonal morphs. In the Bantu languages only high and low tones occur which may combine under certain circumstances. The different morphemes may have their own tone in the Bantu languages to differentiate them from one another. Since the morpheme is usually monosyllabic in the Bantu languages, the tone is usually found on single syllables. The most important function of tone in the Bantu language is to distinguish the different meanings of words which are otherwise homophonous. The function of tone in Afrikaans is based on certain tonal morphs which may have distinctive functions under certain circumstances. Thus the interrogative tonal morph/2–3/indicates a...
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