Tonemes in Dinka

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Tonemes in Dinka
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Intro / Language situation

• Dinka is
• - Nilo-Saharan language
• - of Southern Sudan
• - over 2 million speakers

Figure 1 The Dinka language area, marked on
the Nile tributary network.
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Intro / language situation

• There are 4 major dialects Agar, Bor, Padang,
  Rek.
• This study deals with the Luac or Luanyjang
  variant of Dinka Rek.
• Luanyjang has 15,000-20,000 speakers.

PADANG
Malakal
REK
Luac
Wau
BOR
AGAR
Rumbek
Juba
Figure 2 Map of Dinka dialects, based on
Roettger Roettger (1989).
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Basics / The functions
5
Basics / The functions

• Dinka has a rich inventory of prosodic contrasts
  (tone, voice quality, quantity).
• The function of tone and the other vocalic and
  prosodic contrasts is largely morphological

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Basics / The functions

• In the verb system, tone contrasts mark a rich
  paradigm of inflections for example
• 2nd singular passive
• le?el le?el
• mooc a?-le?el mooc a?-le?el
• man AGR-provoke2SG man
  AGR-provokePASS
• You provoke the man. The man is being
  provoked.

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Basics / The functions

• Example of tonal inflection in the noun system
• Singular Plural
• ge??em ge??m cheek
• no?oon no?on grass
• a?iko??ol a?iko??ool story

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Basics / The tonemes
9
Basics / The tonemes

• Luanyjang Dinka has 4 distinctive tonemes High
  (H), High-Low (HL), Low (L), and Low-High (LH).

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Basics / The tonemes

• Only H, HL, and L can be distinguished in
  citation form and sentence-final position.

?
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Basics / The tonemes
HL
H
LH
L

• Figure F0 tracks of the 4 tonemes on
  monosyllabic words with a long vowel and a voiced
  sonorant coda. The start of the vowel is marked
  by a vertical line

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Basics / The tonemes
H
LH
HL
L

• Figure F0 tracks of the 4 tonemes on words with
  a long vowel and a voiced sonorant coda. The
  start of the vowel is marked by a vertical line

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LH allophony

• There is a rule that changes LH into a mid level
  tone before an utterance boundary
• LH Levelling
• s
• L H
• M

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LH allophony
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LH allophony
/H H H/ gt H L L
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LH allophony
/H H H/ gt H L L
/H LH H/ gt H LH L
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A minimal set

• Minimal set

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A minimal set

• Minimal set evidence

Lexical contrast
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A minimal set

• Minimal set evidence

Lexical contrast
Morphological contrast
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A minimal set

• Minimal set evidence

Lexical contrast
Morphological contrast
Sandhi H gt L / H __
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Summary so far

• Four tonemes (H,L,HL,LH)
• Tone marks three different kinds of contrast in
  Dinka
• - Lexical contrast
• - Morphological contrast
• - Contextual contrast

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Summary so far

• Four tonemes (H,L,HL,LH)
• Tone marks three different kinds of contrast in
  Dinka
• - Lexical contrast
• - Morphological contrast
• - Contextual contrast
• What is the tone-bearing unit (TBU)?

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The TBU

• In many (African) tone languages, heavy syllables
  have more complex tone patterns than light ones.
• E.g. Rangi, Matumbi, Nara, Somali, and Saramaccan.

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The TBU

• In Somali, for example
• CVC CVC
• H L
• CVVC CVVC CVVC
• H L H L

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The TBU

• Phonological analysis Somali tones associate
  with moras (µ) weight units
• CVC CVC CVVC
• µ µ µ µ
• H L H L

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The TBU

• Not in Dinka, even though its quantity system is
  unusually complex
• CVC CVVC CVVVC
• H L H L H L
• bi??? ma?al ti?iim
• cupS ko_meatS treeP

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The TBU

• Phonological analysis Dinka tones associate
  with syllables (s)
• CVC CVVC CVVVC
• s s s
• H L H L H L

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The TBU

• So Dinka tones dont care about quantity (length)
  within the syllable.

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Conclusions

• Tones are not features of phonemes. In some
  languages they associate with subsyllabic
  constituents (e.g. Somali), in others with
  syllables (e.g. Dinka), and in others still with
  intonational phrases (e.g. English).
• In autosegmental theory, this variability is
  reflected by postulating that the level at which
  tones are linked with the segmental string varies
  from one language to another.