Ikoma Nominal Tone

Abstract

Ikoma is a Lacustrine Bantu language spoken in the Serengeti District, Mara Region (Western Tanzania), and classified a E(J)45 in the updated Guthrie's list. Ikoma has both lexical and grammatical tone, but lexical tonal contrasts are found only in nominal constructions. These constructions and the relevant tonal rules are discussed in this article, and it will be shown that the tone system of Ikoma nouns is more complex than the typical reduced tonal systems of other Lacustrine Bantu languages.

Chapter 12. Syllable weight and tone in Mara Bantu languages

“…This is because in bisyllabic macrostems the two MHs fall on adjacent syllables, and the latter is deleted by the well-known Meeussen's rule (Yip 2002: 100). A MH on the first and last syllable of the macrostem in trisyllabic stems results in a word-final HØH sequence which is not allowed in Ikoma (Aunio 2013), and the final H is again not realized (26). above), only the long vowels formed within the macrostem are considered long and can be the target of the retraction, and therefore the syllable between the subject marker and the vowel-initial stem does not attract the MH, as in example (47).…”

A typological perspective on Bantu nominal tone: the case of Ikoma-Nata-Isenye in western Tanzania

“…All three INI varieties have two level tones, which are analysed as H and Ø (toneless), since only the H tones are active in the tonal rules (Aunio 2010). L tone is assigned as a default tone to any syllable that is not associated with a H after the tonal rules; this adheres to the privative tone systems (Hyman 2001).…”

“…The tone bearing unit (TBU) is the syllable, that is, each syllable can carry at most one H tone and there are no underlying falling or rising tones and the surface rising and falling tones are in free variation with level high tones (Aunio 2010; Anghelescu 2013a); only level H tones are marked in this paper. Furthermore, monomoraic and bimoraic syllables both show only two tonal contrasts, and in tonal rules syllables, not moras, are counted when assigning grammatical tones (see Aunio (2013a).…”

“…The Ikoma nominal tone system is less restricted than the Isenye system (see Aunio (2010) for a more comprehensive account of Ikoma nominal tone). Unlike Isenye, Ikoma has retained the Proto-Bantu tonal distinction of monosyllabic noun stems; therefore there are monosyllabic noun stems with a H tone and without a H tone (8).…”

Penultimate lengthening in isiNdebele: A system and its variations

“…úkú-fíkélêːl-a 'to reach' (examples from Aunio et al 2019) Despite the prevalence of the general phenomenon, there is significant cross-linguistic diversity in how PUL is instantiated. The aim of this paper is to describe the PUL patterns and variation seen in isiNdebele.…”