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Re: Accent Terminology Question

From:Jeff Jones <jeffsjones@...>
Date:Friday, October 11, 2002, 21:01
Hi David,
I almost didn't recognize this ... Obviously, my description was completely
inadequate. I had to go back to the original post to see what I did wrong
and still can't figure it out, but then I've never been good at using the
English language for communication. More below ...

On Fri, 11 Oct 2002 15:26:45 EDT, David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>
wrote:

>I read your description, and it seems like your words would be tough to >pronounce, if I'm understanding right. So, let's say you have a word: > >bolokambenata > >And let's say the stress comes on "na".
Actually, it wouldn't, for reasons I didn't mention, but we can ignore that.
>That one would get a high tone.
So far so good.
>And let's say the only unstressed unaccented syllbe is "ta",
No, there's only one unaccented (i.e. unstressed) syllable. Obviously one thing that wasn't clear. I guess I could use the term "falling tone".
> so that gets a low. That means each of the other syllables get a falling > tone? (High to low is called falling.) So, if we use 1 for low and 2 for > high, that'd be: > >bo(21)lo(21)kam(21)be(21)na(2)ta(1)
It should be: bo(1)lo(1)kam(1*)be(1)na(2)ta(1) (or preferably, bo(1)lo(1)kam(1*)be(2)na(1)ta(1) )
>Seems kind of odd... Also breaks the rules of the contour principle.
I don't doubt it.
>Anyway, for the spreading tone you're talking about... Generally, tone >spreads from right to left. I think it can go left to right, but I don't >remember. But anyway, generally if one tone has an underlying tone and a >different tone spreads to it, the result is a contour. If it has no >underlying tone, it takes the tone whole.
That's something I didn't know. Does that mean that the normally low syllables that become high have no underlying tone? What is an underlying tone anyway?
>I still think I'm not understanding, though. Could you do a word with the >numbers? It's easier to see that way.
I'll try my original examples with numbers. circumflex: SAa(21) te(1)KAe(21) gif(1*)tom(1*)BOa(21) acute: BU(2)ne(1) JOU(22)del(1*) ke(1)TON(2*)di(1) MA(2)ru(1)ko(1) GAS(2*)ti(1)res(1*) (3rd type): SUF(2*) TE(2)NE(2)KAA(22)ta(1) CE(2) BOM(2*)MOu(21) The words in the 3rd set of examples would be: suf(1*) te(1)ne(1)KAA(22)ta(1) ce(1) bom(1*)MOu(21) when occurring separately. {suf} and {ce} are the actual 3rd type words; {tenekaata} and {bommou} are "acute" and "circumflex", respectively. Does all that help, or just multiply the confusion? Jeff
> >-David > >"imDeziZejDekp2wilDez ZejDekkinel..." >"You can celebrate anything you want..." > -John Lennon >

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Dirk Elzinga <dirk_elzinga@...>