The African « lax » question prosody: a follow-up Annie Rialland Laboratoire de phonétique et...

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The African « lax » question prosody: a follow-up Annie Rialland Laboratoire de phonétique et phonologie, UMR 7018, CNRS/Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris WOCAL 8, University of Kyoto, 20-24 August , 2015

Transcript of The African « lax » question prosody: a follow-up Annie Rialland Laboratoire de phonétique et...

Question prosody : an African perspective

The African lax question prosody: a follow-upAnnie RiallandLaboratoire de phontique et phonologie,UMR 7018, CNRS/Sorbonne-Nouvelle, ParisWOCAL 8, University of Kyoto, 20-24 August , 2015

2This talk is a follow-up on previous publications :Rialland Annie. 2007. Question prosody: an African perspective. In C. Gussenhoven & T. Riad (eds.), Tones and Tunes: Studies in Word and Sentence Prosody. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin. pp. 35-62Rialland Annie. 2009. The African lax question prosody: its realisations and geographical distribution Lingua 119.6. pp. 928-949Clements George N. et Annie Rialland. 2008. Africa as a phonological area. In B. Heine & D. Nurse (eds.), A Linguistic Geography of Africa. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. pp. 36-85

It integrates new data and raises additional questions (presented on green slides). QuestionsWhat are the forms and the geographical extension of the lax question prosody?Could it be a feature of the Niger-Saharan supra-phylum?34Prosodic markers of yes/no questions in Africa (from a database of 120 languages)HIGH-PITCHED MARKERS- cancellation/reduction of downdrift, register expansion- raising of last H(s) (not necessarily sentence-final)- cancellation/reduction of final lowering- final H tone or rising intonation (final H%)- final HL melody

NON HIGH-PITCHED MARKERS- final L or falling intonation (L% final)- polar tone or mid tone - length (VV or V)- breathy termination- cancellation of penultimate lengthening- (vowel [low])cf. Question prosody: an African PerspectiveIn Tones and Tunes, Gussenhoven and Riad (eds.)A. Rialland (2007)67 languages out of 120 A set of non high-pitched markers a falling intonation or a low tone a lengthening a breathy termination an [open] vowel

"Lax voice involves a lesser degree of tension in the entire vocal tract [as compared to the neutral setting] ... At the laryngeal level there is a reduced degree of adductive tension and medial compression. Phonation may therefore be similar to breathy voice, sounding softer and lower pitched than modal voice; " (N Chasaide and Gobl, 1997, Handbook of Phonetics, p 451)We investigated the distribution of these markers and their patterns in various language families (with sound examples):

in the Niger-Congo phylumGur , Kru, Kwa, Mande, Adamawa-Ubangi, Benue-Congo familiesin the Nilo-Saharan phylumCentral Sudanic, Eastern Sudanic familiesin the Afro-Asiatic phylumChadic familyand we are still doing itNon high-pitched markers in the Gur familyGur languages are the most central languages in Africa, considered as a linguistic area (Heine and Lewey, 2008).

Gur languagesIn Moba (Togo), the question prosody involveslengthening and breathy termination:

StatementLengtheningIntensity decreaseProlongation of F0

QuestionStones.Stones?

In question, there is a lengthening , a well controlled and steady intensity decrease, with a progressive change of voice quality, which gets laxer and laxer. There is a prolongation of F0. The melodic contour stretches out the tone realization

In Moba, question prosody :no specific tone or melodic contour.lengtheningbreathy termination+ base form of words (without truncation or metathesis occurring elsewhere)

years.years?To confirm that there is simply a prolongation of F0, lets consider examples with another tone pattern.Here are examples with a ML tonal pattern. We can observe that the melodic contour is again stretched without any intonational movement (no rising or no falling). 10

You saw Kpo Did you see Kpo?

A lengthening A breathy termination+noun base forms (without truncation and eventually with floating tone)In Wule Dagara (Burkina Faso), yes/no question prosody involves:11

You spoke to KutDid you speak to Kut?Lengthening of a flap, which becomes a long trill.

The lengthening stretches the last segment, even if it is a sonorant. The lengthening stretches the last segment, even if it is a sonorant. Here is an example of a flap, which becomes a trill.12

e i and he licked e i L% and he licked? Statement Question

(loc. L) a breathy termination a lengthening a falling intonationIn Kabiye, yes/no question intonation involves :A. Rialland, R. Ridouane, B. Kassan 2009. A Physiological investigation of voice quality in Kabiye assertions and yes/no questions. World Congress on African Languages, KlnA. Rialland, R. Ridouane, B. Kassan 2009. A Physiological investigation of voice quality in Kabiye assertions and yes/no questions. World Congress on African Languages, Kln

the childthe child?In Ncam (Togo), yes/no questions are characterized by : a falling intonation a lengthening a breathy termination (with progressive opening of the glottis) a vowel [a], except after a monosyllabic word ending with a vowelMarkers of yes/no question in Gur languagesIn bold, languages with breathy termination. We have no data on this point for most of the other languages. Knni, Buli and Deg data come from Cahill (2014, to appear) All Gur languages have a set of falling/lax markers in yes/no question. Note that the falling contours are diverse.%L%, !H%, !H!H%

15We postulated a single form at the origin of these question prosodies whose characteristics are:

- a lengthening - a falling intonation - a breathy termination - an [open] vowel

Depending upon the languages, this lax prosody is represented by all these characteristics or a subset of them.

We found this lax prosody is widespread in Africa. The lax prosody in Kwa languages

Kwa languages are found mainly in ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Benin.Patterns of variation of the lax prosody in Kwa languagesNo sound examples, almost no data on breathy termination. Data is from Kropp-Dakubu (to appear), Cahill (2014) and Kgler (to appear).

The lax prosody occurs in all Kwa language groups and in all largest languages of the family.There are some hybrid patterns- Besides, some Kwa languages have only high-pitched question markers: Siya, Buem, Ikpana.Adele

The lax prosody in Kru languages

Its a small family in Ivory Coast and Liberia.Patterns of variation of the lax prosody in Kru languages

No sound examples, no data on breathy termination.The lax prosody occurs in all Kru language groups. 1 out of the 6 Kru languages in our database do not have this prosody (Klao in Liberia)The lax prosody in Benue-Congo(non-Bantoid) languages

I will not go through all the families with lax prosody in detail and I am jumping to the Benue-Congo (non-Bantoid) languages.21

TexteTexteTexteYes/no question in Ikaan: intonation and phonation as question markers, Sophie Salffner, 2010Ikaan, spoken in Nigeria, Ondo state, village dIkakumo, Benue-Congo, UkaanQuite interestingly for us, a phonation type contrast was found between questions and statements in a language of this family. I was found by S. Salffner in Ikaan. The statement ends with a glottal stop while the question ends with a breathiness.

Patterns of variation of the lax prosodyin Benue-Congo (non-Bantoid) languagesLax prosody is widespread, occurring in many groups of this family: Edoid, Cross-river, Plateau, Nupoid, Idomoid.Languages with lax prosody are interspersed with languages having high-pitched markers (Efik, Igbo, Yoruba).+ Ikaan lax prosody in Adamawa-Ubangi languages

Patterns of variation of the lax prosody in Adamawa-Ubangi languagesThe largest languages of this family (Zande, Banda, Gbaya) have a form of lax prosody.2 out of the 7 Adamawa-Ubangi languages in our database do not have this prosody.In Zande, the melodic marker differs from a lexical tone as it is not associated with a tone-bearing unit (Boyd 1980).In this family of languages, you can find L or L% alone or with a a. The lax prosody in the Niger-Congo PhylumWe have found it in all the Niger-Congo families but Atlantic and Bantu families (except for some Bantu languages spoken at the margin of the Sudanic Belt)

(Map: web resources for African languages)lax prosody area areas withoutlax prosody

The lax prosody in the Nilo-Saharan phylum(Map: web resources for African languages)lax prosody areaThe lax prosody occurs also in the Nilo-Saharan phylum, which is mapped here. In Central Sudanic and East Sudanic languages.Patterns of lax prosody in Central Sudanic languages-w in Kabba, Ngambay-Mundu, Sara-Ngambay (data on breathy termination only in Ngambay-Mundu)- or -w in MbayL% in BagiroQuestion prosody in Songhay,Western Sudanic and Eastern Sudanic languagesSonghay : only high-pitched markersWestern Sudanic languages -w (Kanuri), a hybrid formEastern Sudanic languages in some languages (Zaghawa, Turkana) otherwise, languages of this family have high-pitched markers (Anywa, Arusa, Dholuo, Nandi)The lax prosody in the Afro-Asiatic phylum

(Map: web resources for African languages)Here is a map of Afro-Asiatic phylum, which includes arabic and berber.The lax prosody in the Afro-Asiatic phylumWe have found it in the Chadic familyIn the Chadic family, some languages have a form of lax prosody associated with downdrift reductiona (Angas, Sayanci) (Pero)otherwise, Chadic languages have high-pitched question markers (Hausa, Tera). The lax prosody : areal distributionSudanic beltbreathinessThe area in which the lax prosodyhas been found coincides roughly with the Sudanic belt.

from Clements & Rialland, Africa as a phonological area, 2008, in The Linguistic geography of Africa, Heine and Nurse (eds.), Cambridge University Press (with new additions).This map shows the geographical extension of the lax prosody from Liberia to Kenya, with an hot spot in the Gur languages area. The lax prosody as a typical feature of the Sudanic beltHigh-pitched markers are extremely common outside of AfricaHigh-pitched markers are also overwhelmingly common in Africa outside the Sudanic beltThe lax prosody is a special feature of the Sudanic belt In our publications, we suggested that the lax prosody originated in the Niger-Congo phylum, and was later borrowed by neighboring languages (Chadic and Nilo-Saharan).We are beginning to hypothesize that it is a feature of the Niger-Saharan supra-phylum (with borrowings by few Chadic languages).

Many thanksTo my colleagues, my students, my informants for providing me data included in this presentation or helping me to find them.

in particular, A. Some, N. Podi, D. Mian-Asmbaye, R. Boyd, G. Dimmendaal, T. Schadeberg and N. Clements.Thank you for your attention35