Re: Random Questions #1: Tone Languages

Paul Edson wrote:
>>>
The question, part 3: How many here have used tone for their
languages, and in what ways?
<<<

Telona has had tone for some time (i.e., real-world time), but I haven't got
round to finding out how it works yet!  Reading some of the posts on this
subject, I think it's probably because I don't know enough about it to do it
properly.  I speak no tone language (other than Swedish?) and have limited
vocab concerning them.  So ...

A question from me, purely for my own edification.  Telona currently boasts
five 'accents' as I call them, of which each word bears exactly one.  They
indicate certain aspects of the syntax, and are indicated by diacritics on
the word's first vowel (acute accent, grave accent, circumflex accent, zero
or zero-on-final-word-of-sentence).  I want to realise these as pitch/tone
patterns of the syllables in the word.  For example, one of the accents
might be represented as HL:, so that the first syllable carries high tone
and all subsequent syllables low tone.  Actually, the first syllable of a
Telona word has a long vowel (and in certain other respects represents two
syllables), and would probably bear two tones, so that HL: might actually be
a falling-low pattern.

So: is this tone, pitch accent, or what?  And into what categories of
betonedness do natlangs fall?  (IIRC, Christophe referred to 'contour tone'
and 'register tone' ... what are these?  Are there others?)

And can anyone recommend me a good book on the subject??

Thanks,
Jonathan.

'O dear white children casual as birds,
Playing among the ruined languages...'
W. H. Auden, 'Hymn to St. Cecilia'

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