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While according to Yip up to 60-70 per cent of languages are estimated to be tonal,
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tone is sometimes seen as an afterthought to linguistic analysis and is therefore not the focus of most educational
programs; “even among linguists tone is sometimes seen as a specialized topic that the general linguist can largely ignore.” Yip 2002:1. Because tone is understudied, the theories surrounding tone are, perhaps, not
as widely distributed, accepted or as well developed as other facets of linguistic theory. In an effort to make the content of this dissertation available to a wider audience, the background necessary to understand basic
tone notations and theory that is used herein is elucidated in this section. I begin with a description of the notations that are used to represent tone, and then discuss the tone theories that are the foundation of the
analysis in this dissertation, specifically the theory of Autosegmental Phonology, the concept of tonal hierarchy, and finally Register Tier Theory.
1.5.1 Tone Notations
There are four level tones in Soyaltepec Mazatec and thus a potential of six rising tones and six falling tones. Although all of these contour tones are not lexical, I include them here for reference as all can
occur as surface tones given the correct environment. There are five level tone letters available in standard IPA. Since only four levels of tone appear in Soyaltepec Mazatec, four tone letters must be chosen. As will
be discussed in Chapter 3, the difference in the pitch levels between the High and Mid-High tones and the Mid-high and Mid tones in Soyaltepec Mazatec is smaller than the difference between the Mid and Low
tones. Rather than choosing four contiguous tone levels, the traditional ‘low’ tone letter ˨ has been
omitted in favor of the ‘extra low’ tone letter ˩; therefore, the four level tone keys that have been chosen,
˥, ˦, ˧ and ˩, more closely approximate the pitch levels that actually occur than four equally spaced tone letters.
In order to indicate rising and falling tonal contours, the names of the tones are adjoined using ‘to’, i.e., ‘Mid-high to High’ indicates a rising pitch from the Mid-high level to the High level. The tone
letters are combined to form a slanted bar which begins at the level of the first tone and ends at the level of
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This figure is surprisingly high and most likely includes languages often considered to be accentual.
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the second tone to show the amount of the rise or fall, i.e., the Mid-high ˦ to High ˥ rise is indicated as
˦˥. When the tones are abbreviated, rising and falling tones are indicated by the abbreviation for the starting and ending points separated by a dash -, i.e., M
1
-H. Table 1-1 summarizes the IPA tone letters used in this dissertation. The level tones are listed first,
followed by rising and falling tones and an example of a convex tone. The tone name is listed first followed by the tonal abbreviation and the IPA Tone letter. The final column lists the traditional Mesoamerican tone
numbers used by Pike 1956 for reference. The tones which occur lexically in Soyaltepec Mazatec are shaded.
Table 1-1 Tone notations
Tone Name Abbreviation IPA Tone Letter Mesoamerican
Number Level Tones
High H
˥ 1
Mid-high M
1
˦ 2
Mid M
2
˧ 3
Low L
˩ 4
Rising Contours Mid-high to High Rising
M
1
-H ˦˥
2-1 Mid to High rising
M
2
-H ˧˥
3-1 Mid to Mid-high Rising
M
2
-M
1
˧˦ 3-2
Low to High Rising L-H
˩˥ 4-1
Low to Mid-high Rising L-M
1
˩˦ 4-2
Low to Mid Rising L-M
2
˩˧ 4-3
Falling Contours High to Mid-high Falling H-M
1
˥˦ 1-2
High to Mid Falling H-M
2
˥˧ 1-3
High to Low Falling H-L
˥˩ 1-4
Mid-high to Mid Falling
M
1
-M
2
˦˧ 2-3
Mid-high to Low Falling M
1
-L ˦˩
2-4 Mid to Low Falling
M
2
-L ˧˩
3-4 Convex Contour
Rising-falling L-M
2
-L ˩˧˩
4-3-4 The tones are referred to using the tone name listed in the second column or the tonal abbreviation
listed; the tone letters are usually used when data is listed or for clarification. The tone letter appears at the
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end of the syllable on which it is expressed. For example, in 2 the three Soyaltepec Mazatec words that are presented differ only in their tone.
2 Minimal Tone Set Mid, Low, rising Mid-high to High comparison
Transcription Tone
Gloss a.
ʃa˧ M
2
‘wild cat’ b. ʃa˩
L ‘fog’
c. ʃa˦˥ M
1
-H ‘work’
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The rise in tone represented in 2c does not indicate any difference in the duration of the syllable. The duration of the syllable is not significantly different for any of the syllables represented in 2.
Two syllable words also have the tone marked at the end of each syllable as in 3. When the tone on two syllable words is abbreviated, the tone abbreviations are listed in order and separated by a space. If
the tone abbreviations are connected by a dash as in 3a, this indicates a contour tone on a single syllable. 3
Two syllable Minimal Tone Pair Transcription
Tone Gloss
a. ts︢ɛ˧hɛ̃˧˦
M
2
M
2
-M
1
‘visible’ b. ts︢ɛ˧hɛ̃˧
M
2
M
2
‘he fell’ In 3, both words begin at a Mid tone; however, 3a ends with a rising Mid to Mid-high tone while 3b
ends with a level Mid tone.
1.5.2 Autosegmental Phonology
