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Similar to Biber, Goldsmith focuses on the contour tones of Soyaltepec. He explains the contour tones using autosegmental phonology’s possibility of many-to-one association. The basic assumption is that any
two or more level tones which exist in a language can associate simultaneously to the same tone bearing unit. To create a contour, the tones are articulated in sequence. He states, “What we would like to convince
ourselves of, however, is that these combinations of tones do indeed act phonologically as if they were concatenations of level tones, and even more, that they do so in ways consistent with an autosegmental
analysis.”Goldsmith 1990:40 He makes three arguments from the data in Pike 1956 to demonstrate his points. First, he examines Mid-high tones which are the right endpoint of a rising tone to see if they behave
in a similar manner to level Mid-high tones. Second, he looks at High tones that are the right endpoint of a rising tone to see if they behave in a similar way as level High tones. These two arguments both examine if
the endpoint of the contour can behave independently. His final argument involves the ability of some contour tones to split apart and be expressed on two different syllables across a word boundary.
2.3.1 Contour Final M
1
Tones
The first characteristic of Soyaltepec Mazatec’s tone system that Goldsmith investigates involves the behavior of the Mid-high tone as it relates to the regressive perturbation caused by a High tone which
was discussed in §2.2.1.1 above. Simply stated, when followed by a High tone in the same grammatical
word, the Mid-high tone is deleted and the High tone spreads left. He gives the rule in autosegmental terms as in 28.
28 Leftward High Spread Goldsmith 1990:41
46
He gives the following example with a level Mid-high to demonstrate the normal behavior 29.
46
I have changed the numerals that Goldsmith, following Pike, uses in his representations for letter abbreviations 1=H, 2=M
1
, 3=M
2
4=L and converted the segmental representations to IPA, for the sake of internal consistency.
V V
M
1
H ∅
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29 Level M
1
undergoing regressive perturbation by H Goldsmith 1990:41 Underlying Forms
In context ja tyu
+ -hi →
ja tyu hi M
2
M
1
H M
2
M
1
H ‘wooden beam’
‘negative’ ∅
‘not a wooden beam’ The lexeme in 29 begins with a Mid tone on its first syllable and a Mid-high tone on its second syllable,
but when combined with the negative marker the High from the negative marker spreads leftward to the second syllable which also becomes High and the Mid-high tone is deleted. He then gives two examples
showing identical behavior of the Mid-high tone when it is the endpoint of a rising contour tone. Example 30a shows the behavior of the Mid to Mid-high rise, while 30b shows the Low to Mid-high rise.
30 Leftward High Spread
a. applied to M
2
-M
1
words
47
Goldsmith 1990:41 Underlying Forms
In context ni su +
-hi ni su hi
M
2
M
2
M
1
H M
2
M
2
M
1
H ‘a dipper’
‘negative’ ∅
‘not a dipper’ b. applied to L-M
1
words Goldsmith 1990:41 Underlying forms
In context ntʃ︢e +
-hi ntʃ︢e hi
L M
1
H L
M
1
H ‘cooked corn’
‘negative’ ∅
‘not cooked corn’
47
Goldsmith’s examples omit the dotted line linking the H to the previous syllable. I am assuming that this is a typo because the examples are given to show the application of the Leftward High Spread rule which
includes the line and his prose implies the existence of the association line.
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The M
1
tones in 30a, b behave exactly like the M
1
tone in 29. In each example, the M
1
tone is deleted and the following H tone spreads left to take its place. The fact that the rule applies to the M
1
tone regardless of whether or not it is a member of a contour tone supports the theory that the rising tones are
really two separate tones which happen to be linked to the same syllable. Unfortunately, the example used in 30a to demonstrate the change from a M
1
to a H when the M
1
is a member of a M
2
-M
1
rising contour, is inconsistent with the data from Pike 1956. The way Goldsmith has represented the data seems to indicate
that a M
2
-H rising tone is formed when, in fact, the syllable in question emerges with a level H tone according to Pike. Recall from
§2.2.1.1 that a High tone completely overwrites the tone that it perturbs, except in the case of the L-M
1
rising tone, as in 30b. Goldsmith does not address this discrepancy, but his work was not intended to be a complete analysis of Pike. His examples do show the indicated behavior,
even if some questions are left unanswered.
2.3.2 Contour Final H Tones
