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Re: tonal languages?

From:Isidora Zamora <isidora@...>
Date:Monday, December 15, 2003, 3:33
>I can't find the bit I was looking for, but _Describing Morphosyntax_ (p30) >says: > > Some languages, especially in Africa and Meso-America, use tone >modification to signal very common morphological operations like tense and >aspect. > >The book subsequently goes on, in some detail -- as does _Language >Universals And Linguistic Typology_ -- with examples of the way this works >in various languages and situations. If I had myself better prepared, I'd >produce those examples. If anyone's interested, I'll see if I can dig them >out tomorrow evening.
I'm interested, but don't go to all the work just for my sake. I'll eventually be buying _Describing Morphosyntax_. I've got a tone language to construct and would be interested in hearing what non-lexical things languages can do with tone, but Nidirino's a back-burner project - the other two conlangs are much more important at this stage, and I can only do, say, three things or so at once (and one of the things I have to be doing is educating my two children.) I would be interested in hearing a short review from you (if you would be so kind) of _Language Universals And Linguistic Typology_ to find out whether this, too, needs to go in my to-buy list. Isidora