Tone: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:41, 26 December 2022

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 speech act particles: 󱚶󱚺 (da) and 󱚶󱛌󱚺 (dâ) are two different lexemes.

The four tones

The falling tone is used for verbs, predicatizers, and adjectives. (󱚴󱚺 (fa) “goes”, 󱛘󱛄󱛊󱚲󱛍󱚴󱛙 󱛃󱚹 (kúe gı) “the good book”, — 󱚳󱛃 󱛘󱛄󱛊󱚺󱚷󱛃󱛙 (… po káto) “… of the cat”)
The rising tone is used for nouns, determiners, and pronouns. (󱛘󱛄󱛊󱚺󱚷󱛃󱛙 (káto) “the cat”, 󱚺󱛊󱚺 󱛘󱛄󱚺󱚷󱛃󱛙 (sá kato) “some cat(s)”, 󱚾󱛊󱚹 (jí) “I/me”)
The low glottal tone is used for complementizers and clause-initiating words. (󱛁󱛋󱚺 󱛃󱚹 (ꝡä gı) “that it’s good”)
The rising-falling 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	Rising tone	Glottal tone	Rising-falling tone
Verb	Verbal complex Serial tail Adjective Determiner complement	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 echoes it
Conjunction	Highest precedence	Default precedence		Second highest precedence

External links

Refgram: Tones

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 == The four tones ==
-#The '''falling tone''' {{done|1}} is used for verbs, predicatizers, and adjectives. ({{Derani||fa}} “goes”, {{Derani| |kúe gı}} “the good book”, {{Derani|—  |… po káto}} “… of the cat”)
+#The '''falling tone''' {{done|1}} is used for verbs, predicatizers, and adjectives. ({{Derani|󱚴󱚺|fa}} “goes”, {{Derani|󱛘󱛄󱛊󱚲󱛍󱚴󱛙 󱛃󱚹|kúe gı}} “the good book”, {{Derani|— 󱚳󱛃 󱛘󱛄󱛊󱚺󱚷󱛃󱛙|… po káto}} “… of the cat”)
-#The '''rising tone''' {{done|2}} is used for nouns, [[determiners]], and pronouns. ({{Derani||káto}} “the cat”, {{Derani| |sá kato}} “some cat(s)”, {{Derani||jí}} “I/me”)
+#The '''rising tone''' {{done|2}} is used for nouns, [[determiners]], and pronouns. ({{Derani|󱛘󱛄󱛊󱚺󱚷󱛃󱛙|káto}} “the cat”, {{Derani|󱚺󱛊󱚺 󱛘󱛄󱚺󱚷󱛃󱛙|sá kato}} “some cat(s)”, {{Derani|󱚾󱛊󱚹|jí}} “I/me”)
-#The '''low glottal tone''' {{done|3}} is used for complementizers and clause-initiating words. ({{Derani| |ꝡä gı}} “that it’s good”)
+#The '''low glottal tone''' {{done|3}} is used for complementizers and clause-initiating words. ({{Derani|󱛁󱛋󱚺 󱛃󱚹|ꝡä gı}} “that it’s good”)
-#The '''rising-falling tone''' {{done|4}} is for adverbial adjuncts. ({{Derani||fêı}} “angrily”, {{Derani| |nîe tíaı}} “inside the box”)
+#The '''rising-falling tone''' {{done|4}} is for adverbial adjuncts. ({{Derani|󱚴󱛌󱚴󱛎󱚹|fêı}} “angrily”, {{Derani|󱚵󱛌󱚹󱛍󱚴 󱛘󱚷󱛊󱚹󱚺󱛎󱚹󱛙|nîe tíaı}} “inside the box”)
 === Interaction with parts of speech ===
@@ Line 59: / Line 59: @@
 |-
 ! [[Speech act particle]]
-| colspan=4 | Lexical tone (i.e. {{Derani||da}} and {{Derani||dâ}} are simply different lexemes)
+| colspan=4 | Lexical tone (i.e. {{Derani|󱚶󱚺|da}} and {{Derani|󱚶󱛌󱚺|dâ}} are simply different lexemes)
 |-
 ! [[Focus particle]]