Abstract

This paper reports a new kind of tone polarity, where the phenomenon is seen in a language with four level tones, Tenyidie (also known as Angami). I show that the polarity is in the features of the tones, i.e. at a subtonal level. The data also provide evidence that tones themselves can be broken down into smaller features. Furthermore, I demonstrate that the polarity pattern observed in the language is an epiphenomenon, a reflex of the Obligatory Contour Principle, not a phonological process in its own right. I show this with the help of a new type of tonal representation. Theoretical discussions of tone polarity have so far been almost entirely restricted to African tone systems, and to languages with just two tones. This paper brings into the discussion a Tibeto-Burman language with four tones.

Highlights

  • Tone polarity is the pattern where a tone-bearing unit (TBU) y has a tonal value which is the opposite of that of an immediately adjacent TBU x; TBU y is generally an affix

  • In (12), the epenthesised tone feature is L in the suffix, a default insertion, because the presence of H in the stem does not lead to an Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) violation

  • Candidate (c) satisfies OCP(◦–L) by inserting a TONAL NODE (TN) associated with an H, creating a floating node which is not associated to any syllable; the phonetic output tone is not affected

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Summary

Introduction

Tone polarity is the pattern where a tone-bearing unit (TBU) y has a tonal value which is the opposite of that of an immediately adjacent TBU x; TBU y is generally an affix. In this paper I show that tone polarity is seen in the Tibeto-Burman language Tenyidie (/tēɲīdiē/;2 known as Angami), which has a four-tone system. I argue that, if the four tones of Tenyidie are decomposed into two polar features, polarity can be shown to operate at a subtonal level. I will argue that Tenyidie provides new evidence for the use of subtonal autosegmental representation, and show the derivation of the various tonal phenomena falls into place using already available phonological tools.

The language and data
Analysis
OT implementation
Representations with features only
Autosegmental representation without nodes
Non-phonological morphological alternations
Polarity as an epiphenomenon
Stacking suffixes
Conclusion
Full Text
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