Tone
Tonal phenomena in Ígálâ
Tones in Ígálâ
Seven types of tones, among which five are lexical, are recognized in the language as illustrated in Table 1.1 (Èjèbá 49). Note that a “downstepped high” refers to the lowering of a syllable that is usually high-toned.
Table 1.1 Tones of Ígálâ
Tone | Example | Meaning | Comment |
---|---|---|---|
Extra high (EH) | (w)ɔ̋làdʒa̋ | Greeting for someone returning from market | Grammatical: “on subject clitics to mark sentential negation” (Èjèbá 49) |
High (H) | ɔ́dʒɔ́ | day | Lexical |
Downstepped high (HS) | ɔ́gbá ꜜúgúnú | in front of vulture | Grammatical, at high tone juncture of word boundaries. |
Mid (M) | ɔ̀tákídā | book | Lexical |
Low (L) | ɔ̀bàlà | cat | Lexical |
Rising (LH) | ǒkâ | one | Lexical, contour |
Falling (HL) | ígálâ | Ígálâ | Lexical, contour |
Tonal interactions at hiatus
Noun-noun boundary (Ejeba)
Table 2.1 Chart showing tone modification in Noun + Noun Structures (Èjèbá 71).
T2 (Initial syllable of Word 2) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
(T1 Final syllable of Word 1) | H | L | LH | |
H | HS/H | H | H | |
M | M | ML | MH | |
L | M | L | LH | |
LH | LH | LH | - | |
HL | HM/M | H | H | |