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Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 42:3 (2018) ► pp.708–733

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Tone assignment and grammatical tone in Anal (Tibeto-Burman)

 | Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Published online: 19 October 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.17030.oze
Abstract
Complex phenomena of grammatical tone, well-described for many African languages, are increasingly attested also in the Tibeto-Burman family. This paper describes the tone assignment rule and two cases of tonal expression of grammatical categories in the Tibeto-Burman language Anal. The typologically unusual rule involves tone spreading, tonal polarity on a non-edge constituent and additional spreading, resulting in constant tonal patterns across grammatical suffixes. In two different cases the combination of the tonal pattern assigned by this rule with peculiar morpho-tonological processes results in a marking of a grammatical category (future and 1sg-person) by grammatical tone, by vowel-length, or only by the overall tonal pattern of the verbal form. Both cases are related to the omission of an explicit marking of the category, although the outcome cannot be explained only by the concept of a floating tone.
Article outline
  • 1.Tone in grammar: Introduction
  • 2.Language background
  • 3.Tone patterns of suffixes
  • 4.Grammatical tone in verbal paradigms
    • 4.1Verbal morphology – introduction
    • 4.2Person marking by tone and/or vowel length
    • 4.3TAM-marking by tone/tone and length
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • Non-standard abbreviations
  • References
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