The African lax question prosody: Its realisation and geographical distribution

Abstract

This article presents the realisation and areal distribution of the African lax question prosody, a term we use to refer to a set of yes/no question markers occurring widely in Africa, either individually or in combination. Its typical realisations include a falling pitch contour, a sentence-final low vowel, vowel lengthening, and a breathy utterance termination produced by the gradual opening of the glottis. This prosodic feature is quite different from the well-known high-pitched or rising question prosody, common in Indo-European languages and elsewhere in the world and often considered to be a (near-) universal. Maps are presented showing that it is concentrated in the Sudanic belt of Africa, which extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea in the east, an area characterized by a number of other unusual features as well. Within this area, the lax prosody is found primarily in languages of the Niger-Congo phylum, especially in a central “core” area including the Gur, Kwa and Kru families in which nearly all languages have some form of lax prosody. It also occurs in several languages of the Nilo-Saharan phylum, in particular Central Sudanic languages, and in the Chadic family of the Afro-Asiatic phylum.