Open AccessThe reality of Hausa low tone raising a response
Author(s) -
Russell G. Schuh
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
studies in african linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.178
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 2154-428X
pISSN - 0039-3533
DOI - 10.32473/sal.v20i3.107448
Subject(s) - raising (metalworking) , hausa , tone (literature) , linguistics , syllable , vowel , paragraph , wish , phenomenon , philosophy , mathematics , literature , epistemology , art , law , political science , geometry
Paul Newman and Philip Jaggar in an article in this issue of Studies in African Linguistics argue that a rule of Low Tone Raising (L TR), proposed in Leben [1971] is not a synchronic rule in Hausa. This rule, as originally fonnulated in Leben [1971], raises a final low tone (L) of a word if the syllable bearing the L (1) follows a L and (2) has a long vowel. I agree with them that L TR is not a rule; indeed, contrary to their assumption (first paragraph of §2), I would claim that it never has been a rule. The question which I wish to raise is whether there is any synchronic (and/or historical) reality to the phenomenon which originally attracted Leben's attention.