The prosodic structure of Koasati

Abstract

This paper presents results of the first systematic acoustic investigation of the prosodic system of Koasati, an endangered Muskogean language of Louisiana. Koasati is prosodically complex, featuring lexically marked pitch accents in nouns and verbs, as well as phonologically predictable pitch accents and boundary tones assigned by the intonational system. While most nouns are characteristically associated with a final F0 rise attributed to a phrase-level tone, some have an additional lexically marked high pitch accent on a non-final syllable. The pitch accent system in verbs is more intricate and consists of different types of aspectually determined accents (termed ‘grades’ in the Muskogeanist literature) and concomitant segmental changes including lengthening, nasalization, or aspiration. Koasati also has a rich intonation system featuring at least two levels of prosodic constituents, the accentual phrase and the intonational phrase, which are associated with boundary tones and/or pitch accents that often temporally overlap with lexically specified pitch accents. Our results will be compared with those for Creek (Johnson and Martin 2001, Martin and Johnson 2002) and Chickasaw (Gordon 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, Gordon etal. 2000, Gordon and Munro 2007), Koasati's prosodically best described relatives. [Work supported by NSF.]