Tachoni verbal tonology

Abstract

This paper sketches tone in the Luhya (Bantu) language Tachoni, spoken in Western Kenya, with the goal of filling a lacuna in our understanding of tonal grammars both in Bantu and human language. Most aspects of Tachoni tone are encountered in other Bantu languages, such as the two-way lexical opposition in root tone as well as rules eliminating contour tones on long vowels. Tachoni also eliminates word-final H tones, via tone retraction, and there is the well-known deletion of H tone after H known as Meeussen’s Rule. Also typical of Bantu, certain tense-aspects are marked with a melodic tone pattern. The major melodic pattern involves a final H plus leftward spreading, following simple rules that yield a complex surface pattern.