The African

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The African  lax  question prosody
Second TIE Conference Typology of Tone and
Intonation. Berlin, 7-9 September 2006

• Annie Rialland
• Laboratoire de phonétique et phonologie,
• UMR 7018, CNRS/Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris

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• We will show that a  lax  question prosody is
  an areal feature of the African Sudanic belt.
• As first, we will give some background and
  explain what we call a  lax  question prosody.

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Question Prosody in Africa Background

• Our talk at the TIE1 conference held in Santorini
• Question prosody an African perspective
• which was based on a database of 74 languages
  belonging to the 4 African language phyla
  (Niger-Congo, Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan,
  Khoisan)

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We found a diversity of prosodic yes-no question
markers

• HIGH-PITCHED MARKERS
• cancellation/reduction of downdrift, register
  expansion
• raising of last H(s) (not necessarily
  sentence-final)
• cancellation/reduction of final lowering
• final H tone or rising intonation (final H)
• final HL melody
• final L tone or falling intonation (final L)
• final polar tone or M tone
• length (VV or V)
• breathy termination
• cancellation of penultimate lengthening
• open vowel

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We introduced the  lax  prosody

• It is defined by a set of characteristics
• a falling intonation
• a lengthening
• a breathy termination
• an open vowel
• In a given language, this  lax  prosody may be
  represented by all of these characteristics or by
  a subset of them.

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• In this talk, we will investigate the
  distribution and the realization of this  lax 
  prosody in various language families
• (with sound examples)
• in the Niger-Congo phylum
• Gur , Kru, Kwa, Mande, Adamawa-Ubangi,
  Benue-Congo families
• in the Nilo-Saharan phylum
• Central Sudanic, Eastern Sudanic families
• in the Afro-Asiatic phylum
• Chadic family
• Currently, our database includes 51 languages
  with a form of  lax  prosody.

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The question  lax  prosody in the Gur family

• Why the Gur family, first?
• It is better represented in our database, with
  many sound examples
• Gur languages are the most central languages
  in Africa, considered as a linguistic area (Heine
  and Lewey, in press).
• (in the same way as Bulgarian is the most
   central language  of the Balkan area, based on
  the number of Balkanic features that it
  includes)

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Number of typical African features or
 Africanisms 
Gur languages
Heine and Lewey, in press,  Is Africa a
linguistic area? 
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• In Ncam (Togo), the  lax  prosody occurs with
  its full set of characteristics
• a falling intonation
• a lengthening
• a  breathy  termination  (with progressive
  opening of the glottis)
• a vowel a, except after a monosyllabic word
  ending with a vowel

 the child   the child? 
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Ncam (Togo) examples
 It is equal.   Is it equal? 
Contraction of a word-final -u and -a
 a slave   a slave? 

• Falling intonation
• open V
• lengthening
•  breathy termination 

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• In Wule Dagara (Burkina), the  lax  prosody
  involves
• a lengthening
• a  breathy termination 

 He saw a hyena   Did he see a hyena? 
The final L is streched over the lengthened ãã.
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Zoom on the  breathy termination 
Progressive intensity decrease Weakening of F5,
F4, F3 due to the progressive opening of the
glottis
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In Wule Dagara, a final flap can be lengthened
 You said to Kut   Did you say to Kut? 
The final H is streched over the lengthened r,
which becomes a long trill.
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In Moba (Togo), the  lax  prosody
involveslengthening and  breathy termination ,
only
Statement
 Stones. 
Question
 Stones? 

• Lengthening
• Prolongation of F0
• Intensity decrease

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Statement
airflow decreases
Question
airflow increases opening of the glottis
From Rialland A. , 1984, "Le fini/l'infini ou
l'affirmation/l'interrogation en moba (langue
voltaïque parlée au Nord-Togo)" , Studies in
African Linguistics, supp. 9
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The melodic contour stretches out the tone
realization
 Beans.   Beans? 

• In Moba, question prosody
• no specific tone or melodic contour.
• lengthening
• breathy termination
• base form of words (without truncation or
  metathesis occurring elsewhere)

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The  lax  prosody has informational and
expressive variants in some languages

• Tem examples (Tchagbalaye 1976)
• bòòbó?  They went  (statement)
• bòòbóóò  Did they go? 
• bòòbóò   They went, didn't
  they? 
• (asking for confirmation)
• bòòbóòóòóò  Did they go? (exclamatory) 

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Patterns of variation of the  lax  prosody  in
Gur languages
In blue, languages with breathy termination. No
data on this point for the other languages.
All of the largest Gur languages have a lax
question prosody.
2 out of the 17 Gur languages in our database do
not have this prosody (Kulango, Farefare)
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The  lax  prosody in Kwa languages
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Patterns of variation of the  lax  prosody
 in Kwa languages
No sound examples, no data
on breathy termination.
The  lax  prosody occurs in all Kwa language
groups and in all largest languages of the family.
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The  lax  prosody in Kru languages
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Patterns of variation of the  lax  prosody in
Kru languages
No sound examples, no data on breathy termination.
The  lax  prosody occurs in all Kru language
groups.
1 out of the 6 Kru languages in our database do
not have this prosody (Klao in Liberia)
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The  lax   prosody in Mande languages
Southeastern Mande languages
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The  lax  prosody in Southeastern Mande
languages

• Southeastern Mande languages spoken in Côte
  dIvoire share areal features with Kru and Kwa
  languages a tendency to monosyllabicity and a
  large number of tones (3, 4 or even, 5 tones)
• The  lax  prosody is widespread among them
• in Toura (lengthening L or -è)
• in Gouro (lengthening L)
• in Wan (lengthening with L in some contexts).

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Sporadic  lax  prosody in Western Mande
languages

• Western Mande languages generally have
  high-pitched markers (Soninké, Bambara, Mende)
• The  lax  prosody occurs sporadically
• in Bambara, there is a -wà question marker,
  beside a H and other segmental morphemes.

Sound file from An Ka Bamanankan Kalan
Intermediate Bambara, C. Bird and M. Kante
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The  lax  prosody in Benue-Congo(non-Bantoid)
languages
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Patterns of variation of the  lax  prosody  in
Benue-Congo (non-Bantoid) languages
 Lax  prosody is widespread, occurring in many
groups of this family Edoid, Cross-river,
Plateau, Nupoid, Idomoid. Languages with  lax 
prosody are interspersed with languages having
high-pitched markers (Efik, Igbo, Yoruba).
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The  lax  prosody in the bantoid subfamily of
the Benue-Congo family excluding Bantu.
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Patterns of variation of the  lax  prosody in
Benue-Congo Bantoid languages (non-Bantu)
In Mambila, the final falling contour differs
from the realization of a L tone or any of the 4
tones (Connell 2004).
There is a variety of question markers in this
family, some languages having the  lax 
prosody, others having high-pitched markers
(Bafut).

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 lax  prosody in Adamawa-Ubangi languages
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Patterns of variation of the  lax prosody  in
Adamawa-Ubangi languages
In Zande, the melodic marker differs from a
lexical tone as it is not associated with a
tone-bearing unit (Boyd 1980).
The largest languages of this family (Zande,
Banda, Gbaya) have a form of  lax  prosody.
2 out of the 7 Adamawa-Ubangi languages in our
database do not have this prosody.
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The  lax  prosody in the Niger-Congo Phylum
We have found it in all the Niger-Congo families
except Atlantic, Bantu and Kordofanian.
 lax  prosody area
areas without  lax  prosody
(Map web resources for African languages)
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The  lax  prosody in the Nilo-Saharan phylum
(Map web resources for African languages)
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The lax question marker in Ngambay, a
Nilo-Saharan language (Central Sudanic, Sara
group)

• DOUMPA MIAN-ASMBAYE
• Université de NDjaména-Tchad

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In Ngambay, the question prosody is breathy. We
can hear an  h  at the end of the question.

•  -wàh  is the question marker

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Declarative utterance ngokon Dè
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Interrogative utterance ngokon lè Dè wàh
h
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Zoom of the  breathy termination 
Half of the vowel -a is voiceless
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Patterns of  lax  prosody in Central Sudanic
languages

• -wà
• in Kabba, Ngambay-Mundu, Sara-Ngambay
• (data on breathy termination only in
• Ngambay-Mundu)
• -à or -wà in Mbay
• slight fall in Bagiro

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Question prosody in Songhay,Western Sudanic and
Eastern Sudanic languages

• Songhay only high-pitched markers
• Western Sudanic languages
• -wá (Kanuri), a  hybrid form 
• Eastern Sudanic languages
• à in some languages (Zaghawa, Turkana)
• otherwise, languages of this family have
  high-pitched markers (Anywa, Arusa, Dholuo, Nandi)

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The  lax  prosody in the Afro-Asiatic phylum
(Map web resources for African languages)
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The  lax  prosody in the Afro-Asiatic phylum

• We have found it only in the Chadic family
• In the Chadic family, some languages have a form
  of  lax  prosody associated with downdrift
  reduction
• àa (Angas, Sayanci)
• à (Pero)
• otherwise, Chadic languages have high-pitched
  question markers (Hausa, Tera).

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The  lax prosody  areal distribution
breathiness
Sudanic belt
The area in which the  lax  prosody has been
found coincides roughly with the Sudanic belt.
from Clements Rialland,  Africa as a
phonological area , in press, in The Linguistic
geography of Africa, Heine and Nurse (eds.),
Cambridge University Press (with new additions).
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Another prosodic characteristic commonly found in
the Sudanic belt 3 or more level tone systems
2 areas
From Clements Rialland, op. cit.
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Other phonological characteristics commonly found
in the Sudanic belt

• labial velar stops
• implosive consonants
• nasal vowels
• two series of high vowels (ATR)
• ATR vowel harmony
• (Clements and Rialland, op. cit.)

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• We suggest that the  lax  prosody originated in
  the Niger-Congo phylum, and was later borrowed by
  neighboring languages (Chadic and Nilo-Saharan).
• Its pattern of extension recalls the spreading of
  other Niger-Congo features such as labial velar
  stops in the Sudanic belt.

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Alternatives to the  lax  prosody

• When, in a given language, the lax prosody is not
  present, generally high-pitched markers occur
  (downdrift reduction, raising of the last H
  tones, rising intonation or an HL melody).
• We have found very few languages with segmental
  markers only Ngiti (-tí), Samba Leko (-gú, -ì),
  Rugciriku (-ndí), Ngangela (-ndí), Shi (kà), out
  of 110 languages.

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The  lax  prosody as a typical feature of the
Sudanic belt

• High-pitched markers are extremely common outside
  of Africa
• High-pitched markers are also overwhelmingly
  common in Africa outside the Sudanic belt
• The  lax  prosody is a special feature of the
  Sudanic belt
• It is currently unknown whether such question
  prosodies occur elsewhere in the world

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Many thanks

• To my colleagues, my students, my informants for
  providing me data included in this presentation
  or helping me to find them.
• in particular, A. Some, N. Podi, D.
  Mian-Asmbaye, R. Boyd, G. Dimmendaal, T.
  Schadeberg and N. Clements