Gĩtigania Nominal Tone

Abstract

Tone is a suprasegmental feature that refers to the use of pitch in a language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning. Tone plays a crucial role in distinguishing meaning, word classes, tenses as well as different moods inGĩtigania language. This paper describesnominal tone in Gĩtigania, focusing on the tonal patterns as well as the effect of tone on meaning and word classes.The tonally distinctive monosyllabic nouns in Gĩtigania demonstrate both high and low tonal patterns while the bi-syllabic nouns show the HH, LL, HL, and LH tonal alterations. The tri-syllabic nouns on the other hand, demonstrate LHH, LLL, and HHH tone patterns, where similar tones are collapsed in correspondence with the Obligatory Contour Principle. Not only does tone distinguish Gĩtigania lexical items with similar segmental composition, but also brings about a difference in meaning, an indication that tone is minimally contrasting. The Autosegmental Phonological Theory as propounded by Goldsmith (1990) was employed in analysing, interpreting and discussing the data collected. The target population was the nouns in Gĩtigania. This paper used the Judgmental sampling procedure since it allows the researcher to choose desirable and reliable sample members based on one’s knowledge and judgement. Approximately one hundred Gĩtiganianouns generated through non-participant observation and introspection were selected for inclusion in this paper.The findings of this paper are anticipated to add to the existing literature in the field of Phonology.