Open AccessUnderlying low tones in Ruwund
Author(s) -
Jay A Nash
Publication year - 1994
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.v23i3.107413
Subject(s) - bantu languages , tone (literature) , contrast (vision) , linguistics , value (mathematics) , computer science , artificial intelligence , philosophy , machine learning
In this paper the author examines data from Ruwund, a language with surface tone patterns often the reverse of those reconstructed for ProtoBantu, and proposes that, whereas most contemporary Bantu languages are believed to have tonal systems based on an underlying high/toneless contrast, Ruwund is based on a low/toneless contrast. Rules of tone spread and deletion apply to low tones rather than high tones, and the "default low insertion" rule of other languages is replaced in Ruwund by a rule adding default high tones. This finding is theoretically significant in that it contradicts Pulleyblank's [1986] proposal that "low" is always the default value in a two-tone language.