Re: Random Questions #1: Tone Languages

In a message dated 03/22/02 1:53:07 AM, jonathan_knibb@HOTMAIL.COM writes:

<< So: is this tone, pitch accent, or what? >>

    Huh...  So, if I understand write, let's say you have a word "nalama",
which can mean anything, and if it's the subject, let's say the first vowel
will have a high tone, if it's the direct object, it'll have a low tone,
indirect, falling tone, oblique, rising tone...?  Is this what you meant when
you wrote:

<<They indicate certain aspects of the syntax,>>?

    And I suppose if you say each word would only have one accent, then, by
the whatchamacallit rule, that accent, or the final part of it, would spread
to the remaining vowels, so that if  the first tone was high, the rest would
be high, and if the first tone was HL, the rest would be L....  That's via
the rule that says there are no identical adjacent autosegments, and that you
can't break the basic tone patterns of your language.  So, unless you had a
basic tone pattern of HLH, you couldn't have an initial vowel with a falling
tone and the rest have high tones...  Now I'm getting confused.  Can you be
more specific on what you mean by the aspects of syntax?

-David

"fawiT, Gug&g, tSagZil-a-Gariz, waj min DidZejsat wazid..."
"Soft, driven, slow and mad, like some new language..."
                    -Jim Morrison