Tone and morphological structure in a documentation-based grammar of Choguita Rarámuri

Abstract

Abstract Documentation of tonal systems cross-linguistically increasingly addresses the role that tone may play in morphological systems: What are possible morphosyntactic triggers of tone? And what are ways in which tone can be autonomously morphological? The empirical base available to answer these questions is, however, narrow given that the state of tonal documentation is still poor in many areas of the world. This chapter addresses the challenges of characterizing the tonal system of Choguita Rarámuri (CR) (Uto-Aztecan; Mexico) within the context of a documentation-based reference grammar of the language. This chapter discusses: (i) the role that tone serves in the morphological organization of CR; (ii) challenges of characterizing this system within the context of a reference grammar; and (iii) how synchronic variation in tonal realization is incorporated in the grammatical description of CR and its implications for assessing change in progress in the language.