Re: Tone/Pitch Accent Question

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 13:19:26 -0800, JS Bangs <jaspax@...>
wrote:
>> I had this idea that some syllables could have underlying tone.   One
>> thing that it seems doesn't happen, though, is for a syllable to have
>> an underlying low tone.   Have you (or has anyone else) ever heard of
>> something like this?
>
> Hmmm, I don't think so. In languages w/ a pitch accent, the marked
> (accented) syllable has high tone. I don't know if there's anything that
> strictly prohibits you from doing things your way, though.
I seem to have read somewhere ["The World's Major Languages", I think]
that Serbo-Croat has a low-tone pitch accent, apparently from the accent
shifting back one syllable.  [?]

My Atlantic Kirumb does something similar. The first mora of a word
always[1] carries the accent, and it can be high or low pitched ([`]
indicates low, and ['] high):

        zvavsollé  [`zvosOlle]  'cookie, biscuit'
        arkle      ['ArklE]     'farmer'
        ašve       ['ASve]      'I eat'
        dânne      [`d@nnE]     'bench'

Due to the initial conditions [i.e., being initially-stressed ab initio],
the outstanding majority of simplex verbs have a high initial pitch.



        *Muke!
[1] There are minor exceptions, which can generally be explained
otherwise, e.g. augmentatives in accented -aš which are 1) expressive
formations and 2) technically compound words anyway.
--
http://frath.net/
http://kohath.livejournal.com/

E jer savne zarjé mas ne   (You put music in my heart
Se imné koone'f metha       And with the spirit of an artist
Brissve mé kolé adâ.        I will make the dreamtime)