Open AccessTone association and F₀ timing in Chichewa
Author(s) -
Scott Myers
Publication year - 1999
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.v28i2.107375
Subject(s) - tone (literature) , phrase , syllable , bantu languages , duration (music) , linguistics , representation (politics) , mathematics , speech recognition , computer science , acoustics , physics , philosophy , political science , politics , law
In Chichewa (Bantu, Malawi), a high tone is realized as a peak in fundamental frequency (fO). In this study, the timing of fO peaks relative to the duration of the high-toned syllable was measured for high tones in phrase-medial, -penultimate and -final positions. No phonetic support was found for the assumption in the literature that a phrase-medial high tone is spread over two syllables. Instead, it was found that such a high tone is realized with a significantly later fO peak than a high tone in the last two syllables. On the other hand, support was found for Kanerva's proposal that a phrase-final high tone is shifted in phonological representation to the phrase-penultimate syllable.