Amaian Tone [WIP]
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explanation of word tone, description of tonal interactions in morphology
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 24 May 2016, 08:12.
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2. Amaian Clitics
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3. Amaian Tone [WIP]
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One of
Not-Canonical Amaian's most prominent and noticeable features is that of word tone, where a word can take at most one tone pattern. Unlike pitch accent, all syllables in the word take a tone. It's just that each word can take one of only three tonal patterns (well...at least phonemically).What makes Amaian's tone system so complicated is not just its heavy use in morphology, for example in verb conjugations.
It is the fact that the three word tone patterns interact with the length of the vowels of the word and differing prosodic framing to produce 50 patterns per word in words of three syllables or fewer alone.
Luckily, most of Amaian's words tend to be di- or tri-syllabic, although clitics and affixes throw a wrench in the system, as does the fact that many words have forms of different syllables due to Amaian's disallowance of monosyllabic words.
AKA what combinations are allowed on two-syllable words? where did they even come from?
pattern 1: mid/low (this is the unmarked one, phonemically and orthographically)
pattern 2: low/mid (this is the second-most common one, and is marked by word-final -p in writing)
pattern 3: high/mid (least common, marked by word-final -t in writing)
pattern 2 comes from words which used to have the first vowel nasalized or a word-final s
pattern 3 comes from words which used to have an s at the end of the first syllable
AKA how do we get many combinations from just three patterns? what are the rules?
Rules: low tone on a long vowel becomes a rising tone
mid/high tone on a long vowel becomes a falling tone
if both vowels are long, the tone patterns merge into a rising-falling combination
the last tone, if the vowel is short, is 2 if the preceding vowel is short and 3 if it is long
Note: I am using the East Asian 12345 tone notation system
words with both vowels short:
P1: 4/2
P2: 1/2
P3: 5/2
words with short-long:
P1: 3/24
P2: 1/42
P3: 5/24
words with long-short:
P1: 41/3
P2: 24/3
P3: 52/3
words with long-long:
P1,P2,P3: 12/53
AKA where does the word begin? what do we do with the extra syllables?
Syllables without a tone pattern assigned take the 'opposite' tone from that of the nearest syllable.
Existing tone: low/rising -> take mid/falling (depending on length of toneless syllable's vowel)
mid/falling -> take low/rising (depending on length of toneless syllable's vowel)
high/falling -> mid/falling (depending on length of toneless syllable's vowel)
These 'toneless' syllables may come at the beginning or end of a word.
So we have 10 patterns in 2-syllable words, and 2*(2*10) = 40 patterns in 3-syllable words (two places where toneless syllable can go, two possible vowel lengths for toneless syllable). This means that we have 50 patterns in 2- and 3-syllable words.
AKA why does Amaian have no single-syllable words? why do some words change shape and size?
Amaian does not allow words with one syllable. Period. So in order to stretch an underlyingly monosyllabic word, usually the middle is stretched out.
As an example, laam 'eat meat' is underlyingly one syllable. But Amaian constraints prohibit us from just saying laam. So we 'stretch' the word into laaxam. This <xV> infixation is extremely common and the main way in which monosyllabic words are realized as disyllabic ones. The tone pattern of the finished word is Pattern 1, which is carried by the monosyllabic form as well. Huh? What does this mean?
It means that these underlyingly monosyllabic words actually have a tone pattern already assigned to them. So for example, laam 'eat meat' may be conjugated into laamp 'eat meat towards here'. The two words are realized as laaxam and laaxamp respectively. (Remember that -p just marks Pattern 2 in writing.)
But then how do we know which words have a tone pattern assigned and which are inherently toneless? All verbs, nouns, adjectives, and long-form pronouns have tone patterns assigned. Words which are inherently toneless usually have a hyphen - or equals sign = (affix versus clitic) written after them to indicate their status. Likewise, toneless syllables are separated from toned syllables in writing with a hyphen or equals sign separating them.
The wrench in the system is that a toneless syllable can combine with a toned monosyllable, in which case the tone pattern from the toned monosyllable applies to the whole word. For example, if we want to combine gu- 'short form of 1s pronoun' and laamp 'eat meat towards here', we get gu-laamp 'I eat meat', where the tone pattern 2 from laamp applies to the whole word.
wip: actually that was a bad example because short form pronouns have extra-short vowels and barely have tone at all. they're kind of an exception. second wip: does the dme- prefix do this too?
wip: what if we have a suffixed toneless monosyllable, like =mamm 'neg'? does the tone pattern thing still apply or is it treated as low/mid/high + toneless?
AKA how does tone work at the sentence level? why do some words shift other words' tone?
wip: want to incorporate downstep (from words that used to end in -n) and downdrift (successive high/mid? tones get lower)
wip: when does intonation change?
AKA what meanings are made with changes in tone patterns
wip: the venitive/andative distinction is made with Pattern 2 / Pattern 1, but is this always the case? does the middle voice marker shift verbs to Pattern 3 (because original -s in first syllable) and how does that interact with the venitive tonal pattern? ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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