Re: ReTonogenesis

>From: caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...>
>
>Would someone explain to me the difference between pitch-accent and
>tone-accent, if there is a difference?  I have made Senyecan a pitch-
>accent language, I think.  I envision a person "singing" on three
>whole steps on the piano keyboard, e.g., C-D-E.  The base accent
>is "sung" on C, the secondary accent (indicated by a grave accent) on
>D, and the primary (indicated by an acute accent) on E.  The exact
>notes used will, of course, vary with each speaker.  As one listens
>to another speaker, he will discern what notes/pitches the other
>speaker uses in his idiolect.  I use the word "singing" in a loose
>sense.  There is no structure of whole notes, half notes, etc. Only
>the pitch, with comfortable duration on the syllables, is present.
If the tone system is relative, and all natlang tone systems are, assigning
musical notes is a little strange.  Given that different folk use different
pitches, an observer to that very system would call those three pitches
high, mid, and low.  Just food for thought.

Ignoring stress accent systems, there are three lose phonemic tonal systems
observed in natlangs:

1)  Pitch accent:  (Japanese) Each word may or may not have an accented
syllable.  The relative pitch of each syllabe (H and L in Japanese) is
determined by where it falls relative to the accented syllable.  That is, in
fact, all the accent means.  Length and amplitude do not generally vary, as
they would in a stress accent.
2)  Pitch contour:  (Yoruba) Each word has a pitch contour associated with
that that overlays the syllables of the word in predictable ways, starting
from either the "right" or the "left".*  This means prefixes or suffixes can
cause the pitches on the root to shift one syllable or more.  Contours never
seem to involve two identical syllables in a row, by the way.  Generally,
again, H and L are the norm, although a lot of languages (Yoruba included)
have M.  (I'm grossly simplifying, by the way.)
3)  Tone (contour):  (Chinese) Each syllable has a pitch contour associated
with it.  These contours can get quite complex.  There is often a neutral
tone, though.

Athey

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