For example, the word gabadh meaning. "girl" illustrates the first AC (AC1), the proper name Yoonis the second one (AC2), and Kulmiye, another proper noun, ...
D. Le Gac, “Tonal Alternations in Somali,” in Research in Afroasiatic Grammar II, J. Lecarme, Ed. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2003, pp. 287-304.
Tonal alternations in Somali
1.
Introduction
In the mid thirties Armstrong (1934) showed that Somali had several instances of tonal alternations within words. Later on, several authors discussed the nature of these alternations and their relationship with stress and morphosyntax of this language. As a result, whether Somali has been viewed as a tonal language (Andrzejewski 1964, 1979) or as a tonal-accent one (Hyman 1981), it was generally accepted that the grammatical function of subject and the use of ‘focus markers’ were fundamental in the tonal alternations of nouns as well as in the procedure of classification of the latter in tonal or accentual classes, which have been called ‘declensions’ (cf. Andrzejewski 1964, 1979, Hyman 1981, Puglielli & Ciise 1984, Banti 1988, Morin 1991, Hassan 1994, Saeed 1998).
However, tonal alternations within nouns remain one of the most intricate issues of Somali prosody. First, with the exceptions of Hyman (1981) and Banti (1988), most papers on tonal system of Somali nouns are mainly
data-oriented empirical accounts rather than formal principled treatments. and/Furthermore, authors often disagree on the appropriate tonal characterization of Somali nouns. Second, even Hyman (1981) and Banti (1988)’s phonological analyses of Somali tonal system do not explain some tonal alternations and, therefore, remain descriptive.
Based on a instrumental analysis (Le Gac 2001), this paper aims to provide a comprehensive account of these tonal variations for three accentual classes (AC1, 2 and 3) which have been inserted in two different syntactic and discursive contexts: [Subject] and [Focus]. Adopting the general framework of Pierrehumbert & Beckman (1988), I show that in [+Subject,-Focus] position, the different tonal alternations of all accentual classes are due to the same phonological process of tonal deletion. Secondly, I show that the complex tonal alternations in [+Focus] position are triggered by a low tone, which marks the focus.
2.
Data and previous analysis
2.1
Data
In this paper, I consider Somali to be a tonal-accent language along the lines of Hyman (1981), that is the tonal-accent of Somali is a high tone associated with an underlying accent. The tone bearing unit is the vowel. Thus, two vowels separated by one or more consonants will be viewed as prosodically equivalent to a phonological long vowel (/VC(C)V/ = /VV/).
I present the tonal accent variations in (1) below, where the high tone is symbolized by an acute accent. It should be stressed that these variations only concern the indefinite or proper nouns. The tonal accent of definite nouns does not change.
(1)
Tonal alternations1 [-Focus] [-Subject]
[+Subject]
AC1 AC2
gabádh Yoónis
gabadhi Yoonis
AC3
Kulmiyé
Kulmíye
[+Focus] Translation [Subject] __ ayaa/baa waxaa…__ gabádh Yoónis Kulmiyé Kulmíye Kulmíye
"girl" "Yoonis" "Kulmiye"
The first column refers to the traditional notion of "Declension", which I called Accentual Classes (AC). For example, the word gabadh meaning "girl" illustrates the first AC (AC1), the proper name Yoonis the second one (AC2), and Kulmiye, another proper noun, the third one (AC3).
Authors (cf. Andrzejewski 1964, 1979, Hyman 1981, Puglielli & Ciise 1984, Banti 1988, Morin 1991, Saeed 1998) often disagree on the appropriate accentual characterization of Somali nouns, in particular with those of the AC3. For instance, in Andrzejewski (1964, 1979) and Hyman (1981)'s descriptions, the high tone of the AC3 is always penultimate under focalization (see below), whereas for Banti (1988), the high tone can be ultimate or penultimate depending on the position of the 1
I follow the national orthography: "dh" = [voiced retroflex], "x" = [voiceless
pharyngeal fricative], "c" = [voiced pharyngeal fricative]; long vowels and consonants are represented by gemination.
noun in the sentence. Therefore, I verified the data by carrying out an instrumental analysis. I recorded the productions of two male speakers of standard Somali (Northern Somali) who were asked to read sentences with the nouns of the different AC's2.
Table (1) reports the results of the instrumental analysis for each AC. We can observe that the high tone varies along the three parameters given in (2) : (2)
The 3 parameters involving tonal variations : 1. [±Focus], 2. Focussor ayaa/baa ~ waxaa : place of the focalized noun in the sentence 3. [±Subject]
The two first parameters are related to focalization. Traditionally, it is generally assumed that in declarative main clauses, Somali encodes the topic-focus articulation (old ~ new information) by means of focus markers or focussors ayaa/baa and waxaa (Heine & Reh 1984, Saeed 1998). Moreover, the place of the focalized noun in the sentence depends
2
I wish to express my gratitude to my informants Bashiir Nuur Keenadiid and Cabdi
Cali Maxamed. Details about instrumental and experimental analysis are presented in Le Gac (2001).
on the focussor used (parameter 2) : ayaa or baa3 occurs before the verb and focalizes a noun preceding immediately the focussor in question, waxaa also occurs before the verb but focalizes the final noun of the sentence. However, Lecarme (1991, 1999) claimed that focussors are not discourse markers, but ‘higher’ complementizers occupying the C head of declarative clauses: as such, they are related to a specific position (Spec,CP), which in most languages is preferably interpreted as the focus of the sentence.
To overcome this problem, the utterances my informants had to read, were inserted in a discursive context consisting in appropriate questions such as (3): (3)
Q.: A.:
3
Ma Cáli baa lá hadlaý Kulmiyé? INTER Ali FOC with spoke Kulmiye “Was it Ali who spoke with Kulmiye?” Máya, Yoónis ayáa lá hadlaý Kulmiyé No, Yoonis FOC with spoke Kulmiye “No, it was Yoonis who spoke with Kulmiye.”
Ayaa and baa are strictly equivalent in their distribution and syntactic properties. Baa
allows phonological coalescence with a left-adjacent nominal ending in a vowel: Cáli + baa Cálaa (cf. Saeed 1998).
In the answer, Cáli is replaced with the noun under scrutiny, Yoonis. Thus, the latter is automatically interpreted as a contrastive focus4.
The last parameter involved in the tonal alternations corresponds to the grammatical function of subject [Subject]. As it appears in table (1), this parameter is not relevant in [+Focus] context. The tonal accent only varies (deletion in AC1 and AC2, shift in AC3) in [-Focus] position.
From (4) to (11) below, I present sentences illustrating the behavior of a AC2 noun, Yoonis, according to the three parameters I have just defined. In (4) and (5)5, Yoonis is in [-Focus, -Subject] position either in the second or in the final place of the sentence. Its tonal accent is penultimate. (4)
4
lá hadlaý Yoónis wáxaa Yoonis Today FOC with talked [-F][-S] “Today KULMIYE talked with Yoonis” Maánta
Kulmíye Kulmiye [+F][+S]
As suggested by J. Lecarme (personal communication), it should be interesting to
investigate sentences where the XP is left adjacent to baa and not semantically focalized by baa. For instance, in structures such as XP baa waxaa…YP, XP represents the (contrastive) “ground” of the sentence, meaning “as for XP…” 5
Abbreviations: [±F] = [±Focus], [±S] = [±Subject], Foc = focussor, -3MS: Person morpheme. The focalized nouns are framed together with the focussor.
(5)
Kulmíye ayáa lá hadlaý Kulmiyé Kulmiye Today FOC with talked [+F][+S] “Today KULMIYE talked with Yoonis” Maánta
Yoónis Yoonis [-F][-S]
In (6) and (7), Yoonis is also in non-focus position, but is subject of the sentence. In this case, it has no tonal accent anymore, it becomes atonic whatever its place in the utterance. (6)
Maánta Today
Yoonis wúxuu Yoonis FOC-3MS [-F][+S]
lá
hadlay
with
talked
Kulmíye Kulmiye [+F][-S]
“Today Yoonis talked with KULMIYE” (7)
Maánta Today
Kulmíye Kulmiyé Kulmiye [+F][-S]
ayúu
lá
hadlay
Yoonis
FOC-3MS
with
talked
Yoonis [-F][+S]
“Today Yoonis talked with KULMIYE” When Yoonis is focalized, it always bears a penultimate tonal accent. Neither the kind of focussor nor the subject function triggers a tonal modification, as can be seen in the sentences (8), (9), (10) and (11). (8)
Maánta Today
Yoónis ayáa Yoonis FOC [+F][+S]
lá
hadlaý
with
talked
Kulmiyé Kulmiye [-F][-S]
“Today YOONIS talked with Kulmiye” (9)
Maánta Today
Yoónis ayúu Yoonis FOC-3MS [+F][-S]
lá
hadlay
with
talked
“Today Kulmiye talked with YOONIS”
Kulmíye Kulmiye [-F][+S]
(10)
Maánta Today
Kulmiyé Kulmiye [-F][-S]
wáxaa
lá
hadlaý
FOC
with
talked
Yoónis Yoonis [+F][+S]
“Today YOONIS talked with Kulmiye” (11)
Maánta
Kulmíye wúxuu lá Kulmiye Today FOC-3MS with [-F][+S] “Today Kulmiye talked with YOONIS”
hadlay talked
Yoónis Yoonis [+F][-S]
If we turn to AC1, we observe the same tonal alternations as in AC2. The essential difference between AC1 and AC2 is the place of the tonal accent: the latter is penultimate in AC2 but final in AC16.
As far as the AC3 is concerned, it can be observed in table (1) that the nouns of this class have different and more complex tonal variations: - First, in [-Focus, -Subject] position, the high tone is final (Kulmiyé “Kulmiye”). This is illustrated in sentences (8) and (10). - In [-Focus] but [+Subject] position, the high tone is not deleted as in AC1 and AC2 but becomes penultimate (Kulmíye), as can be seen in the table (1) and also in sentences (9) and (11).
6
It has often been written that the place of the tonal accent depends on the gender: the
ultimate tonal accent marks feminine nouns; the penultimate tonal accent marks masculine nouns.
- Finally, in [+Focus] position, two tonal shapes are observed depending on the place of the noun in the sentence. When an AC3 noun precedes focussor ayáa, the high tone is final or penultimate as shown in the fourth column and in sentences (5) and (7)7. However, the tonal accent is always penultimate when the noun is at the end of the utterance that is when it is focalized by wáxaa. This is indicated in the fifth column of table (1) and in utterances (4) and (6).
2.2
Previous analysis
Of all investigators who studied Somali nominal prosody (among others Andrzejewski 1964, 1979, Hyman 1981, Puglielli & Ciise 1984, Banti 1988, Morin 1991, Hassan 1994 and Saeed 1998), only Hyman (1981) and Banti (1988) proposed a phonological analysis of the tonal accent and its alternations in Somali.
7
In fact, one of my speakers always realises an ultimate accent in this position while the
other realises a penultimate tone.
Both Hyman and Banti assume that high tone is the phonetic realization of an underlying accent, represented by a *. Thereafter, tonal variations are due to accent rules which I have summarized from (12) to (22) below:
Hyman (1981) (12) AC1 : ° * / V V ]word (insertion of a * on final Vowel) (13) AC2/AC3 : ° * / V V ]word (insertion of a * on penultimate Vowel) (14) AC1/2 : * ° / [+Subject][-Focus]
(accent reduction)
(15) AC3: *°°*/ [-Subject][-Focus]
(accent shift).
Banti (1988) (16) Accent Association Convention (AAC) : An accent pattern AP is assigned from right to left starting from the last mora, one accentual item to each mora (17) When a new AP is assigned to a word, the original AP is deleted (18) AC2 : AP *° (* is penultimate) (19) AC1/AC3 : AP * (* is final) (20) AC3 : * *°/ __ [+Focus]## (21) AC1/2 : AP Subject : ° (22) AC3 : AP Subject : *°
However, both analyses are problematic: they remain descriptive and involve ad-hoc rules. For instance, Hyman proposes that the accent reduction rule given in (14) applies in AC1 and AC2 in subject case, but not in AC3. To account for the latter class, Hyman has to propose the specific accent shift rule given in (14) in [-Focus, -Subject] context. It has to be noted that in Hyman's description, AC3 always has a penultimate accent in [+Focus] position.
In order to account for the different tonal shapes in subject case, Banti defines two Accent Patterns, given in (21) and (22), the latter being specific to AC3. When the noun is focalized at the end of the sentence, Banti claims that rule (20) applies in AC3. However, no explanation is given for why such a rule does not apply in AC1, even though it has the same underlying Accent Pattern (cf. (19)).
In fact these two analyses remain descriptive for two reasons: 1) In each analysis, ad-hoc rules have to be added in order to account for AC3: neither Hyman nor Banti explains its special behavior. 2) There is only one level of phonological analysis: the rules take place only within the accentual tier, where a unique underlying accent
occurs in a word. The tonal tier plays no role in the tonal accent alternations.
So, in order to account for the tonal alternations in Somali, I assume the following two hypotheses: 1) AC3 has two underlying accents, 2) There are two independent prosodic levels: the accentual level and the tonal level. The tonal accent alternations follow the phonological processes taking place at the tonal tier. A priori, any tonal item can trigger alternations. Thus, it is reasonable to think that low tones also come into play.
3. 3.1
Analysis
Underlying accent
In this paper, I will assume that underlying accent is a lexical property of morphemes, and is not related to any acoustic cue. Placed on a vowel, it marks it as the prosodic head of the morpheme at the lexical level. In other words, * indicates the location the high tone of the tonal accent
must occupy. This view is similar to Garde (1965)'s notion of accentuation, or Rossi (1999)'s accentème.
In (23) and (24), I give the accentual shapes of AC1 and AC2 nouns. (23) AC1 : * gab a dh (24) AC2 : * Yo o nis (25) AC3 : * * Kulm i y e The accentual shape of AC3 is given in (25). The plausibility of the representation derives from the tonal alternations of this class: the fact that AC3 has stress either on the ultimate or on the penultimate vowel suggests the presence of two underlying accents. Moreover, this hypothesis is supported by the morphology of this class. The nouns of AC3 have two morphemes: the stem and a suffix: -e for masculine nouns, -o for feminine nouns, as shown in (26). The representation accounts for the particular status of AC3: each morpheme has an accent. (26)
Kulmiy-e Fur-e Bar-e goroy-o guj-o daf-o
"Kulmiye" "key" "teacher" "female ostrich" "punch" "hawk"
< kulmi < fur < bar < goray < guji < daf
"to meet" "to open" "to teach" "male ostrish" "to punch" "to snatch"
3.2
The high tone and the intonative structure
As far as the high tone of the tonal accent is concerned, I assume that it is assigned within another phonological representation, the intonative structure, along the lines of Pierrehumbert & Beckman (1998)'s general framework. In Le Gac (2001), I adapted Pierrehumbert & Beckman (1988)'s theory of intonation for Somali and assumed that the high tone is no more the phonetic realization of an underlying accent, but it is an autonomous phonological item governed by rules and principles of the intonative structure.
Furthermore, I proposed that an utterance is represented by a hierarchical structure of six prosodic levels (mora < syllable < prosodic word < prosodic group < intermediate phrase < sentence). In this structure, tonal segments are linked not only to minimal Tone Bearing Units (henceforth TBU), but also to any higher-level node. The tones associated with any particular node either percolate to the head (if one is defined) or appear at the periphery.
To account for Somali tonology, I first discuss the tone shape of the [-Subject, -Focus] case, and define the prosodic word.
3.3
The [-Subject, -Focus] case
In table (27), I repeat the different tonal patterns observed in this position: (27) Tonal patterns in [-Subject, -Focus] position : AC1 AC2 AC3 gabádh Yoónis Kulmiyé The prosodic word, which I mark in figure (28), is characterized by a high tone to its right. This representation accounts for the fact that a) each word has a high tone, and b) the presence of only one high tone per word. (28) Prosodic word :
Prosodic word
H
Tone tier
The tonal patterns in [-Subject, -Focus] case show that the High tone associates to its bearing unit following the Association Rule (29) : (29) Association Rule (AR) : the high tone associated with the prosodic word (from now on H) percolates to the first accented vowel from right to left
According to this rule, in [-Subject, -Focus] position, the nouns of each AC will have just one high tone namely on the ultimate vowel in AC1, and on the penultimate one in AC2 and AC3, as indicated in (30): (30) Location of the high tone in [-Subject, -Focus] position
[… * ° ]
[… ° * ] AC1
H
3.4
AC2
H
[… * * ] AC3
H
The [+Subject, -Focus] case
In [+Subject, -Focus] position, we observe in table (31) that the nouns of AC 1 and AC2 become atonic. In this case, the high tone is simply disassociated from its vowel, following the Subject Disassociation Rule (SDR) given in 0. This process is represented in (33) for AC1 and AC2 nouns. (31) Tonal patterns in [+Subject, -Focus] position : AC1 AC2 AC3 gabadhi Yoonis Kulmíye (32) Subject Disassociation Rule (SDR) : disassociate the first H from right to left
(33) Disassociation of the high tone in AC1 and AC2 [… * ° ] [… ° * ]
AC1
H
AC2
H
In the case of AC3 nouns, they do not become atonic; rather they have a penultimate tone. To capture this fact, I claim that the high tone is also disassociated from the final vowel by the SDR, but, as the penultimate vowel bears an accent as well, the high tone can re-associate to it. This process is illustrated in(34) below: (34) Disassociation of the high tone in AC3
[…* * ] AC3
H
To sum up, complex tonal alternations in [-Focus] position can be simply accounted by assuming that AC3 nouns have two underlying accents and that the high tone is an autonomous item governed by its proper rules: the subject case has been captured by a unique rule in all AC. It should be noticed that AR and SDR both apply from right to left, which seems to be a general parameter for Somali tonal processes. In the next section, we will see that tonal alternations in [+Focus] position are explained by simple right-to-left rules as well.
3.5
3.5.1
Focalization
Tonal accent and intonation
As shown in table (1) and table (35) below, the tonal contrast between subject and non-subject case is neutralized in the AC1 and AC2: AC1 and AC2 nouns simply keep their tone. On the other hand, AC3 displays more complex tonal patterns: -
when preceding the focussor ayaa or baa, the high tone is placed either on the ultimate vowel or on the penultimate one
-
when focalized by waxaa and located at the end of the sentence, the high tone always occurs on the penultimate vowel. (35) Tonal patterns in [+Focus] position : [+Focus] [Subject] __ayaa waxaa…__ AC1 gabádh AC2 Yoónis Kulmiyé AC3 Kulmíye Kulmíye
As far as intonation is concerned, it has to be noticed that the focus is followed in the sentence by a low tone reaching the lowest value of the sentence.
When the focus is located at the end of the utterance, this low tone occurs on the last vowel of the noun, if the vowel does not have any high tone. This phenomenon is indicated by an arrow in figures (36) and 0(37). (36) Melodic curve of the utterance (11).
(37) Melodic curve of the utterance (4).
With the focussor ayaa, the melodic minimum is placed:
either on the last vowel of the focalized noun, when the vowel in question does not have any high tone, as can be seen in figures (38) and (39): (38) Melodic curve of the utterance (8).
H* H*
Lf
(39) Melodic curve of the utterance (7). [+Focus] [-Sujet] [-Focus] [+Sujet]
H* B Lf
or on the last vowel of the focussor itself as illustrated in 0(40) and 0(41): (40) Melodic curve of an utterance where the noun gabádh “girl” is followed and focalized by focussor ayáa.
H* B
B
H*
Bf
(41) Melodic curve of the utterance (5).
To summarize, the facts show a clear relation between the focalization, a very low tone and the tonal shift within AC3. Thus, I will make the following assumptions: 1) the low tone occurring after the focus is a focalization marker 2) this low tone triggers the tonal shifts observed within AC3 in [+Focus] position
Compared to early accounts of Somali tonology, postulating a low tone of focalization might seem strange. However, many languages show a similar phenomenon. For instance, in Swedish, another tonal accent language, although the focus is marked by a high tone, the latter is immediately followed by a low tone reaching the lowest f0 values (cf. Touati 1987, Gårding 1998). The same phenomenon seems to appear in English (Selkirk 1995) and Greek (Botinis 1989, Baltazani & Jun 1999).
French is another good example. All authors (cf. among others, Hirst and Di Cristo 1998, Rossi 1999, Touati 1987 and Martin 1981) agree that the focalization is essentially marked by a falling tone or a low tone. Figure (42) provides an example of such a low tone occurring on the final syllable of the focalized noun Valérie in the sentence c'est Valérie qui a grondé Jean-Marie (“That is Valérie who scolded Jean-Marie”). From now on, I will call this kind of low tone, Low tone of focus or Lfocus. (42) Melodic curve of the French utterance C’est Valérie qui a grondé Jean-Marie.
Furthermore, the fact that the focus is marked by a low tone seems to be motivated on another linguistic level. In a paper on cross-linguistic prosodic similarities, Vaissière (1995) notes that "Falling and low values are associated with the notion of end". One can consider that the focus that indicates the most important information of a message ends the utterance at the informational level.
3.5.2
Analysis
Turning back to Somali, the melodic curves reveal that the low tone of focus (Lfocus) is placed either on the last vowel of AC2, or on the last vowel of the focussor ayaa.
In the first case, I propose that Lfocus is simply associated with the last vowel, as can bee seen in (43). As far as the nouns of AC1 are concerned, Lfocus is always present in the representation, but it can not associate with the final vowel because the latter is already occupied by the accentual high tone (H). In other words, the low tone of focus is blocked, and remains floating. This state of affairs is shown in (44). (43)
[… * ° ] AC2
H L fo c u s
(44)
[… ° * ] AC1
H L fo c u s
When the last vowel of the focussor ayaa bears Lfocus, the latter is associated with the former, as can be seen in (46). This representation shows that the focalized noun and the focussor ayaa are phrased together
in a prosodic constituent at a higher level than the prosodic word. It is still unclear what type of constituent is involved here. But, it is reasonable to assume that it corresponds to the intermediate phrase proposed by Pierrehumbert & Beckman (1988) for focalized word(s) in Japanese8.
As just seen, I claim that the low tone of focus is affected to the right of the intermediate phrase, and links to the last vowel of the latter from right to left, as shown in (45) and (46). (45)
Intermediate Phrase Lfocus
8
In this language, the focalized item forms an intermediate phrase. This constituent
blocks the application of the downdrift, an iterative tonal lowering appearing in Somali as well (cf. Andrzejewski 1979, Hyman 1981, Le Gac 2001, Saeed 1998). The realizations of one of my Somali speakers clearly show a contrast between a nonfocalized noun, which is not lowered and a focussed noun, which is realized as high as or higher than the preceding word.
(46) Yo
[
o nis
a ya a
[ ° * ° ] [ ° * ° ] H
H
]
L fo cus
There are at least two kinds of motivations for grouping the noun with the focussors ayáa in the same phrase: 1) Morphophonological arguments: báa, the other focussor equivalent to ayáa, can be suffixed to the preceding noun, losing /b-/ (cf. note 3 and (47)a.); moreover, the final morphemes -e and -o suffixed to nouns of AC3 often realize as [-a] before ayaa, exactly in the same manner as before the suffixed determinant (cf. (47)b.). (47) a. …ínan ("son") + báa (=ayáa) ínan báa ~ ínanáa b. …Kulmiy[e]~[a] ayaa… cf. baré ("teacher") + ha ("the") baráha 2) An intonative argument: a high tone is always preceded by a phonetic low tone. But, the low tone preceding the high tone of the focussor is higher than the other tones (see melodic curves in 0 and 0), implying prosodic cohesion between the noun and focussors báa/ayáa.
We may now come back to the configuration where the low tone of focus is associated with the final vowel of nouns. In this case, it has to be
noticed, first, that the high tone of ayaa is lowered in the same way as the other high tones following the focus, secondly, that the tonal juncture between the focussor and the preposition lá is high, revealing prosodic cohesion (cf. melodic curves in 0 and 0 above). In other words, ayaa belongs to the post-focus phrase. I claim therefore that only the focalized noun is contained in the intermediate phrase, and the focussor ayaa is phrased with the verb within another intermediate phrase, as can be seen in (48). (48) Y o o nis
[
[ ° * ° ] ]
[ [ayáa] [V P] ]
H L fo cus In sum, the vowel the low tone of focus is associated with depends on the prosodic organization of the sentence. In one case, represented in (46), the focussor is phrased with the focalized noun, in the other case, represented in (48), the focussor is phrased with the verb, and the noun forms an intermediate phrase alone. It remains to determine whether this is a free variation effect, or a real linguistic choice implying pragmatic reasons, such as emphasis. Nevertheless, this difference of phrasing explains the tonal alternations of AC3.
A noun of AC3 has a final high tone in [+Focus] position when it is followed by the focussor ayaa. Moreover, we notice in figure 0 that Lfocus occurs at the end of the focussor. In other words, we are facing the same phenomenon as was represented in figure (46) repeated in (49) below: Lfocus associates with the final vowel of ayaa. (49) K ulm iye
[
a ya a
[ ° * * ] [ ° * ° ] H
]
H L fo cu s
In the case of AC3 nouns with a penultimate tone, we can see in figure 0 that Lfocus is placed on the last vowel of the noun. This implies that the final high tone has been shifted by the low tone to the penultimate vowel, as can be seen in (50) : (50)
[… * * ] AC3
H ω L fo cu s
But, why has the final tonal accent of AC3 been shifted, but not the one of AC1? The only difference between these two classes is the number of
lexical accents: the high tone has been shifted within the nouns of AC3, because there is another lexical accent to the left which the high tone can re-associate with. On the contrary, within AC1, there is only one lexical accent: as the high tone can not re-associate with any other accented vowel, it remains in place and blocks the association of the low tone to any vowel of the word, as can be seen in (51). One can sum up this process with rule (52). (51)
[… ° * ] AC1
H L fo c u s
(52) Lfocus delinks a high tone if and only if the latter can reassociate to another TBU. A formal similarity between the subject rule and the focus rule should be noticed: in both cases, the high tone is delinked and re-associates to the left, and surfaces on the penultimate vowel. However, the causes are different: in focus position, the shift is due to an intonative tone (Lfocus); in [-Focus,+Subject] position, the shift is caused by a tone deletion.
4.
Conclusion
In this paper, I tried to give a comprehensive account of the complex tonal variations in Somali nouns. We saw that Hyman’s and Banti’s analyses remain descriptive mainly because they are only based on the accentual level: the high tone of the tonal accent is the phonetic realization of an underlying accent and its alternations are due to accent shift or deletion rules. As a result, this framework can not explain AC3 tonal shifts in [-Focus,+Subject] and [+Focus] contexts.
It is my claim that two independent levels of phonological representation, the accentual level and the tonal level, should be distinguished. Both levels are governed by their own rules and principles. In this framework, it is possible to consider not only underlying accent but also high tones and other phonological tones to account for tonal accent alternations within nouns.
At the accentual level, I claimed that the fundamental difference between Accentual Classes is the number of lexical accents: there is only one accent in AC1 and AC2, but two in AC3, which may be related to the morphological structure of this class.
At the tonal level, I have shown that, in each syntactic or discursive context, all the Accentual Classes undergo the same tonal processes from right to left. In [-Focus,-Subject] context, a high tone associates with an accented vowel creating the tonal accent. In [-Focus,+Subject] case, this high tone undergoes the same tonal deletion in all Accentual Classes.
We saw that previous phonological analyses considered low tones to be unmarked tones. I have shown, however, that in [+Focus] position an intonative low tone is realized on focalized noun or focussor ayaa. I have suggested that this low tone may be related to that one occurring under focalization in other unrelated languages such as Swedish, English, Greek and French. Finally, I claimed that this intonative low tone marks focalization in Somali and triggers the complex and unexplained tonal shifts of AC3.
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