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Typological prototypes or typological properties? Tibeto-Burman prosodic systems in typological perspective

Typological prototypes or typological properties? Tibeto-Burman prosodic systems in typological perspective. with emphasis on Na(xi) data. General outline:. Background: Prosodic typology today; relevance of Tibeto-Burman data Original data: Yongning Na (Naxi) . ‘African tone system’?

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Typological prototypes or typological properties? Tibeto-Burman prosodic systems in typological perspective

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  1. Typological prototypes or typological properties? Tibeto-Burman prosodic systems in typological perspective with emphasis on Na(xi) data General outline: • Background: Prosodic typology today; relevance of Tibeto-Burman data • Original data:Yongning Na (Naxi). ‘African tone system’? • Modelling: recognising the diversity of prosodic properties... ...while preserving a synthetic view? Conference of the Association for Linguistic Typology 2007 Alexis Michaud, LACITO-CNRS

  2. 1. Background Tonal typology by prototypes: ‘East Asian tones’ vs. ‘African tones’. Examples: VietnameseBambara Originate in consonantal contrasts. Cf. G. Lowes, next talk Complex templates; analysis into smaller elements: problematic. Associated to one syllable. No movement. Historical origin? Reconstructed into proto-languages. Defined by a relative level Association of tones to syllables: follows rules. System can be complex. Diachrony: Synchronic definition: Syntagmatic changes: ‘Paradigmatic complexity’ ≠ ‘Syntagmatic complexity’ (L. Hyman)

  3. 1. Background, continued Beyond prototypes: evidence for diversity among tone systems... ... calling into question the usefulness of types. Numerous combinations of properties. (L. Hyman, this conference) Important contribution from Sino-Tibetan studies: - ‘African’ properties in the Kukish branch of Tibeto-Burman(Hyman & VanBik 2002sq). Extent of analogy? - Great diversity in the Tibeto-Burman area: • non-tonal systems; • word-tone in Tamang (M. Mazaudon); • tonal accent in Prinmi (P. Ding), Shixing (K. Chirkova), rGyalrong (J. Sun); • complex tone sandhi in Wu dialects of Chinese (P. Rose)... Na (Naxi; Burmish branch): ‘African-style’ level tones, /H/, /M/ and /L/; what sort of prosodic system is built out of them/on top of them?

  4. The Na (Naxi) language (纳 , 纳西 ,摩梭 , 麽些)

  5. Eastern Na (‘Moso’) Western Na (‘Naxi’) Fieldwork (2002, 2004, 2006) on 2 dialects with different tone systems.

  6. Comparable phenomena in Bai (Bijiang dialect)... Western Na Tonal reassociation: Ex.: /tɯ21 kɯ55 tsi55/ -> /tɯ35 tsi55/ L H rising ‘in the olden times’(Xu Lin & Zhao Yansun 1984:8). ŋi˧ tɑ˥ ŋi˧˥ M H M H day only day only (Michaud 2006, 2007) ... despite its complex lexical tones.

  7. Eastern Na (Yongning dialect): Tonal sandhi in determinative compounds, and verb phrases (O+V) Examples: /ʐwæ˧/ « horse » + /hṽ̩˥/ « hair » > /ʐwæ˧ hṽ̩˧/ « horsehair » (M+H>MM) First impression: M extends over a following H... ...and vice versa /hĩ˥/ « man »+/hi˧/ « tooth » > /hĩ˥ hi˥/ « man’s tooth » (H+M>HH) Alluded to by Yang Zhenhong 2006, Lidz 2006. Here: first description.

  8. Representation in a table: /hĩ˥/ « man »+/hi˧/ « tooth » > /hĩ˥ hi˥/ « man’s tooth » /ʐwæ˧/ « horse » + /hṽ̩˥/ « hair » > /ʐwæ˧ hṽ̩˧/ « horsehair »

  9. Getting close to a full picture (data collected in 2006; to be supplemented in Oct.-Nov. 2007)

  10. Unsuccessful quest for rules « Tone spreading »? Counterexamples, e.g.H+HM>MMH « Slope inversion » after MM? MM+HM>MMMH MM+LM>MMHL but: MM+MH>MMMH Search for rules: is up against neutralisations.

  11. Application of rules, or adoption of preferred patterns? H H H H H M M M M B L B L B B B L H H H H M M M M B B B

  12. Grouping observed patterns Sequences of like tones: indicated by a dot (.) {M, MM, MMM, MMMM}: all noted as M. A formula that fits all the patterns in the corpus: (L.)(M.)(H.)(M.)(L.) where () indicates optionality and . « any number of ». In IPA: amounts to (˩.)(˧.)(˥.)(˧.)(˩.)

  13. Observed regularity: Only one ‘summit’ per « phonological word ». Two tones are never separated by a lower tone. H M M L L Exercise: Fill in the blanks: H L _ _ _ _ L H H _ H L Does not predict all the patterns, however: M H _ _ _ _ H L L _ H L L L L L H

  14. H H H M M M M B L B L B B B L B L B L Possible Possible Possible H H H H H H M M M M M M B B B B B Possible Possible Excluded

  15. Synchronic motivation: Reminiscent of pattern over intonational constituents: integration. (Vaissière 2002) (Cf also Bickel et al., this conference.) Word-pattern: Accentual? BUTH is not « culminative ». /HHHH/ is attested. H is not « obligatory ». /MMMM/ is attested. Functional point of view: {H, M, L} as a three-term system. Culminative value of H: should be ‘bleached’. However, interacts with intonational factors.

  16. 3. Typological modelling • Classification into types: unsatisfactory (cf L. Hyman, this conference). • Typology by characteristics: can be fine-grained.e.g.: does or does not have downstep, sandhi, tonal reassociation...↪New challenge: connections among prosodic properties? Proposal: evaluating the degree to which tonal sequences are calculated. ‘Aggregate’ depending on: downstep/no downstep; floating tones or no reassociation; realisation of boundaries by changes in the tonal string, or by superposed patterns. Ngamambo: lexical tones + postlexical rules. Highly calculated. Wolof: no lexical tones; postlexical rules. No(t very much) marking of informational prominence by intonation. Relatively high degree of calculation. Na(xi): lexical tones; few postlexical rules. Little calculation. Vietnamese: lexical tones; no postlexical rules. No calculation.

  17. Perspectives Acknowledgments MORE FIELDWORK- Missing examples (« ? » in table): to be found- Verifying the data. (Remark from Moira Yip: Overtranscription?)- Inventory in close dialects. Many thanks to Katia Chirkova, Nick Clements, Alexandre François, Martine Mazaudon, Cédric Patin, and Moira Yip for useful comments. These data were presented to the Société de Linguistique de Paris in June 2007; many thanks to the members of the Société for their comments. Last but not least, many thanks to the Na language consultants and friends, especially Latami Dashi and his family. (Any errors are my own.) Fieldwork was partly funded by the Fédération de recherche « Typologie et universaux linguistiques », http://www.typologie.cnrs.fr/ • WORKING OUT THE UNDERLYING MECHANISMS IN MORE DETAILWhy avoidance of HH + other tones? (No HHML, HHMM...)TESTING THE USEFULNESS OF THE ‘AMOUNT OF TONAL CALCULATIONS’ PARAMETER

  18. Evidence from marginal cases « Naxi clothes ». /nɑ˩ hĩ˥/ + /bɑ˩lɑ˩/ Problematic:/nɑ˩ hĩ˥/ is a phrase from another dialect: in Yongning, one simply says « the Na », not « the Naxi ». Speakers are committed to pronounce it: Cultural distance between East and West [Na areas]; desire to use a distinct label. Result: hesitation; still: all variants conform to general pattern. H H H H M M M M B L B L B L B L B B

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