Suffixation of morphemes with a low tone

4.3.2 Suffixation of morphemes with a low tone

Table 4.6 shows the various tone patterns resulting from suffixing a morpheme with a low tone. The eight lexical items from the previous table have been selected to illustrate these patterns. Two low toned suffixes are shown: the consonant-initial suffix - sa 3f.sg.PC and the vowel- initial suffix - a 3m.sg.PC. Table 4.6. Suffixation of morphemes with a low tone Stem ending Example - sa 3f.sg.PC - a 3m.sg.PC 1 high tone gele H-H Gele gele - sa H-H-L Gele-3f.sg.PC gele - a H-H-L Gele-3m.sg. PC 2 rising tone tHe˘ LH tree tHe˘ - sa LH-L tree-3f.sg.PC tHe˘ - a LH-L tree-3m.sg.PC 3 short high falling tone óe HL day óe - sa HL-L day-3f.sg.PC óe - a HL-L day-3m.sg.PC 4 long high falling tone tSH‚Ê˘ HL honey tSH‚Ê - sa HL-L honey-3f.sg.PC tSH‚Ê˘ - ga HL-L honey-3m.sg.PC 5 mid tone óal o H-L-H swallow óalo - saò H-L-H-L swallow-3f.sg.PC óalo - aò H-L-H-L swallow-3m.sg.PC 6 low falling tone in L melody word humbu L-L cow humbu - sa L-L-L cow-3f.sg.PC humbu - a L-L-L cow-3m.sg.PC 7 voiceless vowel t¬¤ki• H-L morning t¬¤ki• - sa H-L-L morning-3f.sg.PC t¬¤k - a˘ H-L-L morning-3m.sg.PC 8 glottal stop tono H-H-L small ax tono - sa H-H-L-L small ax-3f.sg.PC tono - a˘ H-H-L-L small ax-3m.sg.PC A low toned morpheme has three possible tonal realizations: high falling, mid falling, and low falling. The high falling tone is realized after a stem-final high tone, as in rows 1 and 2, and the mid falling tone is realized after a stem-final mid tone, as in row 5. The low falling tone is realized after a stem-final low tone, as in rows 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8, including after a low tone which is not evident at the surface level because of rightward high tone spread row 3 and after a floating low tone associated with a vowel row 7 or a glottal stop row 8. However, if the low toned suffix is vowel-initial, it has a high falling tone pattern in these last two contexts and is realized as a long vowel. We have recorded one example for which our speaker considered both the high falling and the low falling tone patterns to be acceptable for a low toned suffix. This example includes the verb stem he˘¬i• ‘bark’. When this stem is suffixed with the third person feminine singular PC -sa, two alternative pronunciations are acceptable: he˘¬i-sa and he˘¬i•-sa. In the first, a floating low tone from the voiceless vowel influences the tone pattern of the suffix, whereas in the second pronunciation, the presence of the voiceless vowel has no effect and the tonal realization of the suffix is as for a stem-final high tone. This second pronunciation is perhaps the newer of the two and represents the final stage in the loss of the › vowel, a stage in which all segmental and tonal traces of the vowel have been lost. While we are dealing with low toned suffixes, one further point should be made. Elderkin 1989:46-48 observed length and tonal differences between the second person singular and third person masculine singular PCs when they were suffixed to a long high toned vowel. This led him to the analysis of the former as the ‘syllable closure’ - æ› and the latter as the vowel -a. We have not adopted this analysis as the data we have collected does not provide evidence of such differences. We transcribe the second person singular morpheme as the vowel - ›. However, it is important to mention that we do note one interesting tonal phenomenon with respect to this morpheme. When reproducing the tone patterns of Sandawe forms by whistling, our main native Sandawe speaker does not make a separate whistle for the - › suffix on a word, irrespective of whether it has been assimilated into the stem. In contrast, when he whistles the tone patterns for words suffixed with other vowel initial suffixes, the suffix has a separate whistle, unless it has been assimilated into the stem or unless it is the same vowel quality as the stem-final vowel. Thus ke˘- ‘cry-2sg.PC’ has one whistle, whereas ke˘-a ‘cry-3m.sg.PC’ has two. Other morphemes which are not whistled separately are the pronominal morpheme - ›, the irrealis morpheme -›, the subordinate clause morpheme -› , and the low toned third person masculine singular PGN morpheme - u. Furthermore, unlike vowels in other morphemes, the vowels in these morphemes cannot assimilate to the stem to which they attach.

4.3.3 Suffixation of morphemes with a high falling tone