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The Mid-high tone can only appear word finally when it is also phrase final, otherwise it is raised to a High tone or altered by one of the sandhi processes that have been described.
2.2.4 Change Caused by Zero Syllable with Positive Tone
Pike identified two enclitics that begin with a syllable which has “no segmental phonemes, but tone only.” Pike 1956:66 In modern terminology, these morphemes can be viewed as sponsoring a
floating Low tone which attaches to the preceding syllable rather than its sponsoring syllable. In this section, I give examples of these morphemes.
The floating Low tone is expressed on the final syllable of the stem to which the enclitic attaches.
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Two examples of each of the morphemes with a floating Low tone appear in 24. These floating tones are represented in the underlying forms as a Low tone letter placed to the left of the segmental
information. 24
Left floating low tones Underlying form
Surface form Notes
a. ts︢a˧ +
- ˩ri˧
→ ts︢a˧˩-ri˧
M
2
becomes M
2
-L ‘pocket’
‘your’ ‘your pocket
b. tõ˩˧ + -
˩ri˧ →
tõ˩˧˩-ri˧ L-M
2
becomes L-M
2
-L ‘money’
‘your’ ‘your money’
c. ti˧ + -
˩tʃ︢i˦˥ → ti˧˩-tʃ︢i˦˥
M
2
becomes M
2
-L ‘boy’
‘little’ ‘little boy’
d. ti˩ + -
˩tʃ︢i˦˥ → ti˩-tʃ︢i˦˥
L remains L ‘fish’
‘little’ ‘little fish’
In examples 24a and c, the noun being modified has an underlying Mid tone but surfaces with a falling tone when the enclitic is added. In 24b, the noun has an underlying rising tone and when modified
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If the syllable already ends in a Low tone, no effect is noticeable due to OCP motivated merger of the floating Low tone with the Low tone of the stem 24d.
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becomes a rising then falling convex contour. 24d is an example with a low-toned noun; no effect is audible by the addition of the Low tone from the enclitic.
Because this floating tone acts on the preceding syllable and the perturbation discussed in §2.2.2
involving contour tones acts on the following syllable, there is a potential for conflict between the sandhi processes. Pike includes one example of this conflict. She indicates that the tone on the expressed syllable
of the enclitic experiences perturbation from the contour and surfaces with a falling tone. She hypothesizes that the zero syllable of the enclitic is also perturbed in some way but does not offer details as to what that
might mean or look like. She indicates that the phonetics of this process needs to be investigated further. The example is given in 25.
25 Conflict between progressive and regressive perturbation
Progressively perturbing σ
Regressively perturbing σ
Result ʃka˦˥
+ -
˩ri˧ →
ʃka˧-ri˦˧ ‘trousers’
‘your’ ‘your trousers’
In 25, the noun being modified by the enclitic has a M
1
-H rising tone which normally perturbs the following M
2
tone, changing it to a M
1
tone, and becoming a M
2
tone itself. In this case, the progressive sandhi instigated by the contour occurs as expected; except, the M
2
tone on the target syllable is not completely overwritten by the M
1
tone, instead the M
1
combines with the M
2
to form a M
1
-M
2
falling contour. The regressive sandhi instigated by the enclitic normally causes a L tone to be expressed on the
previous noun usually forming a falling tone while the expressed syllable remains M
2
. In this case, it retains its M
2
tone as the end-point of a falling tone and there is no apparent effect from the floating Low.
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More examples of this type in which the progressively perturbing contour is juxtaposed with the regressively perturbing enclitic would be helpful; however, they are not provided.
The case of enclitics with floating Low tones provides an interesting area for further research. They behave in a very regular fashion except when there are conflicting environmental pressures, then it is
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The presence of the floating Low tone may in fact be the factor that prevents the complete overwriting of the tone on the enclitic. More research is needed.
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not clear exactly what tones will surface or why. Pike concludes her remarks on tone sandhi with this section.
2.2.5 Summary
