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Mazatec. Although contours can occur on any syllable of a word, especially when they appear for grammatical reasons, lexical contours in general are more common on the final syllable.
In the sections below, I document the contour tones: I briefly discuss their phonetic realization, illustrate the phonological representation and give examples of each which will demonstrate the distribution
of each contour.
4.3.1 Mid-high to High Rising Tone Contour
˦˥
The Mid-High to High contour is relatively common. Examples are readily found on both monosyllabic and multi-syllabic words. It appears at the top of the speakers normal pitch range, beginning
at the level of the Mid-high and rising dramatically usually with no leveling off of the slope. Phonologically, the Mid-high to High tonal contour results from a Mid-high tone H l and a High tone H
h being expressed on the same syllable. As we will see in Chapter 5, these contours tend to only appear in isolation. Because there are two identical H tonal melodies attached to the same tone bearing unit TBU,
the OCP motivates the two to merge producing the representations in 28b and c. Although the two representations are phonologically distinct, they yield identical pronunciations and for the purposes of this
dissertaion will be considered equivalent. Recall that the TRN is a structural node and in itself does not specify any feature value, it merely hosts the intersection of the tonal feature plane with the tonal register
plane and tonal root node fissure or merger is easily accomplished. The difference between the two is theoretical and beyond the scope of this work. This process is demonstrated in 28.
28 Phonological represesntation of tku
˦˥ ‘elbow’ a. M
1
and H both associate to the same TBU l
h H
H
tku
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The examples of the Mid-high to High contour tone in 29 and 30 are arranged according to onset type. All of the onset types are not available in monosyllabic words so examples from multisyllabic words are
included as well. Because contour tones are universally more likely to occur on the final syllable of a word, the multisyllabic examples host the contour on their final syllable. For clarity, the syllable with the tone and
onset in question is underlined. In 29 examples appear of the Mid-high to High contour with simple onsets.
29 Examples of M
1
-H contour tone with simple onsets POA
Manner Transcription
Gloss a.
Labial glide
kha˧wɛ˦˥ ‘grabs’
b. Coronal
stop t
ɛ˦˥ ‘wide’
c. Coronal
fricative ʃã˦˥
‘liquor’ d.
Coronal affricate
ts︢i˦˥ ‘rain’
e. Coronal
glide ndu˩ja˦˥
‘jail’ f.
Coronal nasal
thiu˧˩ma˦˥ ‘mucous’
g. Dorsal
stop kũã˦˥
‘purple h.
Glottal fricative
h ɛ˦˥
‘sin’ i.
Glottal stop
ʔɛ̃˦˥ ‘language’
b. OCP Melody Merger with two TRNs
c. OCP Melody Merger with one TRN
l h l h
H H
tku tku
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Examples of Mid-high to High toned words with complex onsets are given in 30. The onsets are again grouped according to the categories discussed in §3.4.3. ‘Type’ of onset refers to the following
possibilities: S-stopstop-stop, Contains ʔ, Contains h or Begins with N. Next, the ‘Sub-type’ of the
onset further divides Contains ʔ and Contains h into categories based on whether or not the onset
contains an obstruent or a sonorant. Monosyllabic examples were not available for all of the categories in 30 so the syllable with the tone and onset in focus is underlined for clarity.
30 Mid-high to High toned syllables with complex onsets
Type Sub-type
Transcription Gloss
a. S-stopstop-stop
ʃka˦˥ ‘pants’
b. S-stopstop-stop
ʃkũɛ̃˦˥ ‘unripe’
c. Contains
ʔ Obstruent
t ʔɛ̃˦˥
‘conjunctivitis’ d.
Contains ʔ
Obstruent t
ʃ︢ʔa˦˥ ‘cargo’
e. Contains
ʔ Obstruent
k ʔiu˦˥
‘cacao’ f.
Contains ʔ
Sonorant ʔɲu˦˥
‘many’ g.
Contains ʔ
Sonorant ts︢u˦ʔwi˦˥
‘sun’ h.
Contains h
Obstruent ts︢a˧khũ˦˥
‘he fears’ i.
Contains h
Obstruent thĩ˦˥
‘there are’ j.
Contains h
Obstruent khĩ˦˥
‘far away’ k.
Contains h
Sonorant none
l. Begins with N
ngi˦˥ ‘sad’
m. Begins with N
ni˩˧ndɛ˧ndʒ︢a˦˥ ‘abode’ In 29 and 30 there are examples of all of the onset types in Soyaltepec Mazatec except h-sonorant
clusters which are not very common. There are examples of both glottal fricatives and simple nasals; the gap is accidental and not due to the nature of the segments or tones in question.
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Examples of eight of the ten vowels can be found: •
[i] - 29d, 30g, l
• [ĩ] - 30i, j
• [
ɛ]- 29a, b, h •
[ ɛ̃] - 29i, 30c
• [a] -
29e, f, 30a, j, m •
[ã] - 29c
• [o] - none
• [õ] - none
• [u] -
30f •
[ũ] - 30h There are no examples of either oral or nasal
[o õ]. These are two of the rarest vowels and it is possible
that further research will reveal examples. There are no other tones or contours which appear exclusively on the [o], so any type of complementary distribution is unlikely. There are also examples of both oral and
nasal diphthongs: •
[iu] - 30e
• [ũã] - 29g
• [ũɛ̃] - 30b
While there are some gaps in the data, they appear to be arbitrary, resulting from the relative rareness of certain phonemes and not from the complementary distribution of these tones. There are also
examples of various grammatical categories:
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• Nouns - 29c, d, e, f, h, 30a, c, d, e, g, i, m
• Verbs - 29a, 30h, i
• Adjectives - 29b, g, 30b, l
• Adverbs - 30j
• Quantifiers - 30f
The examples in 29 and 30 demonstrate that the Mid-high to High tone occurs on syllables in Soyaltepec Mazatec regardless of the onset or nucleus and without regard for grammatical category. The
Mid-high to High contour tone may appear on the final syllable of a disyllabic word following any of the four tonemes 31a-d as well as several other contour tones 31e-h.
31 M
1
-H on the final syllable of disyllabic words Soyaltepec Mazatec
Gloss Tonal Pattern
a. nda˥tɛ˦˥
‘saliva’ H M
1
-H b. ts︢u˦ʔwi˦˥
‘sun’ M
1
M
1
-H c. w
a˧khã˦˥ ‘crack’
M
2
M
1
-H d. ni˩hma˦˥
‘bean’ L M
1
-H e. ts︢ha˦˩ɲa˦˥
‘our hand’ M
1
-L M
1
-H f. na˩˧ti˦˥
‘louse’ L-M
2
M
1
-H g. ni˧˦hɲa˦˥
‘bedroll’ M
2
-M
1
M
1
-H h. tʃ︢u˧˩ʃĩ˦˥
‘skin’ M
2
-L M
1
-H While the distribution of the Mid-high to High tone on the first syllable of disyllabic words is less common,
it does occasionally occur 32.
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32 M
1
-H on the first syllable of disyllabic words Soyaltepec Mazatec
Gloss Tonal Pattern
a. w
ɛ˦˥hĩ˥ ‘doesn’t know’ M
1
-H H b. je˦˥tʃ︢ã˦
‘forty’ M
1
-H M
1
c. ndi˦˥fua˧˦ ‘water’
M
1
-H M
2
-M
1
There are no current examples in my data base of disyllabic words which begin with the Mid-high to High rising tone and end with either a Mid or a Low tone. These types of words may be found in further research;
however, it is possible that they do not exist because when such a structure exists in the underlying form the sandhi which will be described
§5.3 overrides the lexical tones so that the combination is never allowed to surface. More research is needed to determine the reason for the gap, perhaps investigating the tones on
compound words would give further insights. There are, however, a few examples of words in which the first syllable is M
1
-H and the second syllable is H 32a or M
1
32b, and where both syllables are rising, the first hosting a Mid-high to High tone while the second syllable hosts a Mid to Mid-high tone 32c.
There are also examples of the Mid-high to High rising contour on trisyllabic words. The Mid- high to High contour can occur on the first 33a, second 33b or third syllable 33c. The syllable in focus
is underlined for clarity. 33
M
1
-H in trisyllabic words Soyaltepec Mazatec
Gloss Tonal Pattern
a. tu˦˥sʔu˦ɲa˧˦
‘our bellybutton’ M
1
-H M
1
M
2
-M
1
b. tu˩ku˦˥ts︢hɛ̃˧˦ ‘pineapple’
L M
1
-H M
2
-M
1
c. ni˩ski˧ndi˦˥ ‘children’
L M
2
M
1
-H
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While the Mid-high to High contour can occur on any syllable of a trisyllabic word, there are no examples of the Mid-high to High tone occurring before a Mid or Low tone in trisyllabic words. There are also no
examples in which it occurs on every syllable of a multi-syllabic word. The Mid-high to High contour occurs on all syllable types of Soyaltepec Mazatec regardless of the
segmental characteristics or grammatical category of the morphemes involved. It is possible that there is a restriction about the placement of the Mid-high to High contour before a Mid or Low tone in multisyllabic
words or that tone sandhi actively obliterates the contour in this environment.
4.3.2 Mid to Mid-high Rising Tone Contour
