Tone: Difference between revisions

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{{Hatnote|This page has been updated for [[Toaq Delta]]. See [[Archive:Tone]] for the Toaq Gamma version.}}
Toaq is a tonal language. It has '''tones'''! That is: saying a word with a rising or falling vocal intonation, for example, makes for a difference in meaning.
Toaq is a tonal language. It has '''tones'''! That is: saying a word with a rising or falling vocal intonation, for example, makes for a difference in meaning.


== Function of tones ==
== Function of tones ==
Toaq has '''grammatical tone''': when you change the tone of a word, its grammatical function changes (for example {{t|dẻ}} “is beautiful” → {{t|dẽ}} “beautifully”).
Toaq has mostly '''grammatical tone''': when you change the tone of a word, its grammatical function changes (for example {{Derani|󱚶󱚴|de}} “is beautiful” → {{Derani|󱚶󱛌󱚴|dê}} “beautifully”).
 
This is in contrast to '''lexical tone''', like in Chinese: there, when you change the tone of a syllable, it becomes a different word (lexeme) entirely. For example 西 xı̄ “west” → 媳 xí “daughter-in-law”.
 
Toaq has a ''little'' bit of lexical tone, too, limited to particles: {{Derani|󱚶󱚺|da}} and {{Derani|󱚶󱛌󱚺|dâ}} are two different lexemes.


(This is in contrast to '''lexical tone''', like in Chinese: there, when you change the tone of a syllable, it becomes a different word (lexeme) entirely. For example 西 xı̄ “west” → 媳 xí “daughter-in-law”.)
== The four tones ==
#The '''[[falling tone]]''' {{done|1}} is used for verbs, predicatizers, and adjectives. ({{d|fa}} “goes”, {{d|kúe gı}} “the good book”, {{Derani|— 󱚳󱛃 󱛘󱛄󱛊󱚺󱚷󱛃󱛙|… po káto}} “… of the cat”)
#The '''[[rising tone]]''' {{done|2}} is used for nouns, [[determiners]], and pronouns. ({{d|káto}} “the cat”, {{d|sá kato}} “some cat(s)”, {{d|jí}} “I/me”)
#The '''[[low glottal tone]]''' {{done|3}} is used for complementizers and clause-initiating words. ({{d|ꝡä gı}} “that it’s good”)
#The '''[[rising-falling tone]]''' {{done|4}} is for adverbial adjuncts. ({{d|fêı}} “angrily”, {{d|nîe tíaı}} “inside the box”)


== Verb tones ==
=== Interaction with parts of speech ===
Every verb can be "conjugated" into one of six tones, each of which expresses some grammatical function:


# (see [[#History|History section]] for why there is no tone #1)
This table shows how the four tones interact with Toaq's parts of speech:
# The '''rising tone''' {{tone|2}} marks a noun or [[bound variable]]. ({{t|súq}} “you”, {{t|sa pỏq… póq}} “some person… that person”)
# The '''rising-creaky tone''' {{tone|3}} marks the start of a [[relative clause]]. ({{t|gï}} “which is good”)
# The '''falling tone''' {{tone|4}} marks a verb phrase, or the tail of a [[serial]]. ({{t|fả}} “goes”, {{t|bũ dẻ}} “not-beautifully”)
# The '''rising-falling tone''' {{tone|5}} marks the start of a [[content clause]]. ({{t|gî}} “that it's good”)
# The '''mid-falling tone''' {{tone|6}} marks a [[preposition]]. ({{t|bìe ní}} “after that”)
# The '''falling creaky tone''' {{tone|7}} marks an [[adverb]]. ({{t|dẽ}} “beautifully”)


Sometimes people will say “the fifth tone” or “t5” instead of “the rising-falling tone”.
{{Tone table}}


== Neutral tone ==
=== Interaction with focus particles ===
Particles, on the other hand, are in the '''neutral tone''' {{tone|8}} (aka the 8th tone), which is not really a tone. The only rule is that you don't continue the contour of the previous tone. So, when saying a particle after the falling tone {{tone|4}}, you should go up in pitch to break the falling contour. This way, the listener can tell the difference between {{t|lẻ moq}} and {{t|lẻmoq}}.
Tone on focus particles is a little nuanced. If you focus something carrying a tonal inflection, like the {{done|2}} in {{d|máoja}}, then the focus particle "steals" the tone. But if the word is uninflected (in the "default tone" for its part of speech), the focus particle stays in its default rising tone form.


== Lexical tone ==
Here are some examples of how this works for each of the focusable parts of speech:
Toaq actually does have a little bit of lexical tone. For example, {{t|moq}} (question marker) and {{t|môq}} (rhetorical question marker) are different lexemes.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!
! Falling tone {{done|1}}
! Rising tone {{done|2}}
! Glottal tone {{done|3}}
! Rising-falling tone {{done|4}}
|-
! [[Verb]]
|Uninflected, must use prefix form to avoid conflict with rising tone


More subtly, {{t|lâ}} is not {{Tone|5}} + {{t|lả}}. Rather, each of {{Tone|5}} and {{t|lả}} is a complementizer in its own right. So really {{t|lâ}} is also its own complementizer, of which {{Tone|5}} is an allomorph.
{{d|kụrıatua}}<ul></ul>
| {{d|kú maoja}}
| style="background:#ccc" |
| {{d|kû shoı}}
|-
! [[Pronoun]]
| style="background:#ccc" |
| Uninflected
{{d|kú jí}}
| style="background:#ccc" |
| {{d|kû jí}}
|-
! [[Determiner]]
| style="background:#ccc" |
| Uninflected
{{d|kú báq nam}}
| style="background:#ccc" |
| {{d|kû báq nam}}
|-
! [[Complementizer]]
| Unattested
| style="background:#ccc" |
| Uninflected
{{d|kú ꝡä}}
| {{d|kû ꝡä}}
|}
One exception is the event accessor verb {{d|ë}}, which carries an inherent glottal tone due to being both a verb and a subordinator.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!
! Falling tone {{done|1}}
! Rising tone {{done|2}}
! Glottal tone {{done|3}}
! Rising-falling tone {{done|4}}
|-
! Event accessor verb
| style="background:#ccc" |
| {{d|kú ë marao}}
| Uninflected, must use prefix form to avoid conflict with rising tone


== History ==
{{d|kụ̈'e marao}}
There used to be a '''flat tone''' {{tone|1}}, which marked the continuation of a multisyllable word. But now, the tone contour is spread out over the whole word. This was tone #1, but now it is gone. So we start counting from #2, because it would be more confusing to re-number them.
| {{d|kû ë marao}}
|}


The rising-creaky tone {{tone|3}} used to be dipping {{tone|3old}}, and {{tone|7}} was just “creaky”.
[[Simple Focus]] is a proposal intended to simplify the behavior of tones with focus particles.


== External links ==
==External links==  
* [https://toaq.net/refgram/02/ Refgram: symbols and sounds]
*[https://toaq.net/refgram/phonology/#tones Refgram: Tones]
* [https://toaq.net/refgram/03/ Refgram: phonology]

Latest revision as of 23:28, 21 September 2024

This page has been updated for Toaq Delta. See Archive:Tone for the Toaq Gamma version.

Toaq is a tonal language. It has tones! That is: saying a word with a rising or falling vocal intonation, for example, makes for a difference in meaning.

Function of tones

Toaq has mostly grammatical tone: when you change the tone of a word, its grammatical function changes (for example 󱚶󱚴 (de) “is beautiful” → 󱚶󱛌󱚴 (dê) “beautifully”).

This is in contrast to lexical tone, like in Chinese: there, when you change the tone of a syllable, it becomes a different word (lexeme) entirely. For example 西 xı̄ “west” → 媳 xí “daughter-in-law”.

Toaq has a little bit of lexical tone, too, limited to particles: 󱚶󱚺 (da) and 󱚶󱛌󱚺 (dâ) are two different lexemes.

The four tones

  1. The falling tone falling tone is used for verbs, predicatizers, and adjectives. (󱚴󱚺 (fa) “goes”, 󱛄󱛊󱚲󱛍󱚴 󱛃󱚹 (kúe gı) “the good book”, — 󱚳󱛃 󱛘󱛄󱛊󱚺󱚷󱛃󱛙 (… po káto) “… of the cat”)
  2. The rising tone rising tone is used for nouns, determiners, and pronouns. (󱛄󱛊󱚺󱚷󱛃 (káto) “the cat”, 󱚺󱛊󱚺 󱛄󱚺󱚷󱛃 (sá kato) “some cat(s)”, 󱚾󱛊󱚹 (jí) “I/me”)
  3. The low glottal tone glottal tone is used for complementizers and clause-initiating words. (󱛁󱚺󱛋 󱛃󱚹 (ꝡä gı) “that it’s good”)
  4. The rising-falling tone hiatus tone is for adverbial adjuncts. (󱚴󱛌󱚴󱛎󱚹 (fêı) “angrily”, 󱚵󱛌󱚹󱛍󱚴 󱚷󱛊󱚹󱛍󱚺󱛎󱚹 (nîe tíaı) “inside the box”)

Interaction with parts of speech

This table shows how the four tones interact with Toaq's parts of speech:

Falling tone falling tone Rising tone rising tone Glottal tone glottal tone Rising-falling tone hiatus tone
Verb Bound variable Adjunct
Pronoun Argument Incorporated object
Determiner Argument Incorporated object
Complementizer Speech act complement Subclause head Incorporated object
Interjection Interjection Inquiry Expression of empathy
Speech act particle Lexical tone (i.e. 󱚶󱚺 (da) and 󱚶󱛌󱚺 (dâ) are simply different lexemes)
Focus particle Steals tone from head if possible, otherwise rising tone
Conjunction Highest precedence Default precedence Second highest precedence

Interaction with focus particles

Tone on focus particles is a little nuanced. If you focus something carrying a tonal inflection, like the rising tone in 󱚰󱛊󱚺󱛎󱛃󱚾󱚺 (máoja), then the focus particle "steals" the tone. But if the word is uninflected (in the "default tone" for its part of speech), the focus particle stays in its default rising tone form.

Here are some examples of how this works for each of the focusable parts of speech:

Falling tone falling tone Rising tone rising tone Glottal tone glottal tone Rising-falling tone hiatus tone
Verb Uninflected, must use prefix form to avoid conflict with rising tone 󱛄󱚲󱛒󱚻󱚹󱛍󱚺󱚷󱚲󱛍󱚺 (kụrıatua)
    		 󱛄󱛊󱚲 󱚰󱚺󱛎󱛃󱚾󱚺 (kú maoja) 󱛄󱛌󱚲 󱛀󱛃󱛎󱚹 (kû shoı)
    Pronoun Uninflected

    󱛄󱛊󱚲 󱚾󱛊󱚹 (kú jí)

    		󱛄󱛌󱚲 󱚾󱛊󱚹 (kû jí)
    Determiner Uninflected

    󱛄󱛊󱚲 󱚲󱛊󱚺󱛂 󱚵󱚺󱚱 (kú báq nam)

    		󱛄󱛌󱚲 󱚲󱛊󱚺󱛂 󱚵󱚺󱚱 (kû báq nam)
    Complementizer Unattested Uninflected

    󱛄󱛊󱚲 󱛁󱚺󱛋 (kú ꝡä)

    		󱛄󱛌󱚲 󱛁󱚺󱛋 (kû ꝡä)

    One exception is the event accessor verb 󱚴󱛋 (ë), which carries an inherent glottal tone due to being both a verb and a subordinator.

    Falling tone falling tone Rising tone rising tone Glottal tone glottal tone Rising-falling tone hiatus tone
    Event accessor verb 󱛄󱛊󱚲 󱚴󱛋 󱚰󱚺󱚻󱚺󱛎󱛃 (kú ë marao) Uninflected, must use prefix form to avoid conflict with rising tone

    󱛄󱛋󱚲󱛒󱛅󱚴 󱚰󱚺󱚻󱚺󱛎󱛃 (kụ̈'e marao)

    		󱛄󱛌󱚲 󱚴󱛋 󱚰󱚺󱚻󱚺󱛎󱛃 (kû ë marao)

    Simple Focus is a proposal intended to simplify the behavior of tones with focus particles.

    External links

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