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Distribution of lax prosody patterns in the Gur languages of our database Table |

Table 1 Distribution of lax prosody patterns in the Gur languages of our database Table |

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Fig. 1. Waveform and pitch contour of two Ncam examples: kibiki ‘a child’ and kibikd ... L% ‘a child?’.
Fig. 1. Waveform and pitch contour of two Ncam examples: kibiki ‘a child’ and kibikd ... L% ‘a child?’.
lee Fig. 2. Waveform and pitch contour of two Mooré examples: a yaa Kiimd ‘He saw a ghost’ and a yaa k‘iimd. .. ‘Did he see a ghost?’. In section 2.1.3, where we discuss this language, we summarize our previous observations. Additional waveforms and pitch contours of Ncam examples can be found in Podi (1995) and Rialland (2007).*
lee Fig. 2. Waveform and pitch contour of two Mooré examples: a yaa Kiimd ‘He saw a ghost’ and a yaa k‘iimd. .. ‘Did he see a ghost?’. In section 2.1.3, where we discuss this language, we summarize our previous observations. Additional waveforms and pitch contours of Ncam examples can be found in Podi (1995) and Rialland (2007).*
Fig. 3. Waveform and pitch contour of two Moba examples: piéniu ‘an arrow’ and piéni... ‘an arrow?’ (male speaker). resides only in the lengthening and in the termination of the vowel. In the question, the vowel is extensively lengthened (by roughly three times) and it ends in a breathy termination. Its gradual intensity decrease contrasts sharply with the abrupt intensity decrease in the statement. As shown by the airflow traces and laryngograms of similar examples published in Rialland (1984), the statement ends abruptly with a glottal stop, while a progressive opening of the glottis, with the effect of increasing the airflow, causes the smooth and breathy ending of the question.
Fig. 3. Waveform and pitch contour of two Moba examples: piéniu ‘an arrow’ and piéni... ‘an arrow?’ (male speaker). resides only in the lengthening and in the termination of the vowel. In the question, the vowel is extensively lengthened (by roughly three times) and it ends in a breathy termination. Its gradual intensity decrease contrasts sharply with the abrupt intensity decrease in the statement. As shown by the airflow traces and laryngograms of similar examples published in Rialland (1984), the statement ends abruptly with a glottal stop, while a progressive opening of the glottis, with the effect of increasing the airflow, causes the smooth and breathy ending of the question.
Fig. 4. Waveform and pitch contour of two Dagara examples: [vyéld Kir]. loyéld kit! “He spoke to Kut’ and loyeld k'tir...] loyéld k'tit.../ Did he speak to Kut?’.
Fig. 4. Waveform and pitch contour of two Dagara examples: [vyéld Kir]. loyéld kit! “He spoke to Kut’ and loyeld k'tir...] loyéld k'tit.../ Did he speak to Kut?’.
Fig. 5. Waveform and pitch contour of two Dagara examples: [fg nyén'd saa] [fo nyén'd saan! “You saw ahyena.’ /fej nyén'd saan. ../ ‘Did you see a hyena?’.
Fig. 5. Waveform and pitch contour of two Dagara examples: [fg nyén'd saa] [fo nyén'd saan! “You saw ahyena.’ /fej nyén'd saan. ../ ‘Did you see a hyena?’.
Distribution of lax prosody patterns in the Kwa languages of our database. Table 2
Distribution of lax prosody patterns in the Kwa languages of our database. Table 2
Distribution of lax prosody patterns in the Kru languages of our database Table 3 The various patterns of the lax prosody are distributed in the Kru languages of our database as follows (Table 3).
Distribution of lax prosody patterns in the Kru languages of our database Table 3 The various patterns of the lax prosody are distributed in the Kru languages of our database as follows (Table 3).
Distribution of lax prosody patterns in the Adamawa-Ubangi languages of our database 'l Tn Zande, the L tone (or falling intonation) is also added to exclamations and vocatives. Moreover, a H tone (or rising intonation) occurs in some contexts, such as after a verb a la forme absolue with a L tone (Boyd, pers. comm., June 2006).
Distribution of lax prosody patterns in the Adamawa-Ubangi languages of our database 'l Tn Zande, the L tone (or falling intonation) is also added to exclamations and vocatives. Moreover, a H tone (or rising intonation) occurs in some contexts, such as after a verb a la forme absolue with a L tone (Boyd, pers. comm., June 2006).
Distribution of lax prosody patterns in the non-Bantoid Benue-Congo languages of our database Table 5 Within this family, the two patterns are distributed in the languages of our database as in (Table 5).
Distribution of lax prosody patterns in the non-Bantoid Benue-Congo languages of our database Table 5 Within this family, the two patterns are distributed in the languages of our database as in (Table 5).
Distribution of lax prosody markers in the non-Bantu Bantoid languages of the Benue-Congo family in our database Table 6 bottom of the speaker’s pitch range. In Limbum, the question marker has been described as -a with a “downstepped high’ (Fransen Margo, 1995). In Tikar, it bears a M tone, which can be considered the default tone in the system (Stanley, 1991), while for Ejagham, it has been classified as having a L tone or a falling intonation (Watters, 2000).
Distribution of lax prosody markers in the non-Bantu Bantoid languages of the Benue-Congo family in our database Table 6 bottom of the speaker’s pitch range. In Limbum, the question marker has been described as -a with a “downstepped high’ (Fransen Margo, 1995). In Tikar, it bears a M tone, which can be considered the default tone in the system (Stanley, 1991), while for Ejagham, it has been classified as having a L tone or a falling intonation (Watters, 2000).
Fig. 6. The area of the lax question prosody (in the ellipse) within the Niger-Congo language phylum (map by Jouni F. Maho, Web Resources for African Languages, reproduced with permission, ellipse added by the author). in our database; none are reported to have any form of lax prosody. However, we hypothesize that some northern Bantu languages which are in contact with Adamawa-Ubangi languages might prove to have a form of lax question prosody, since many northern Bantu languages display other features of the Sudanic belt, such as vowel harmony (Clements and Ria labio-velar and implosive consonants and traces of [ATR] land, 2007). The Kordofanian family, located in southern Sudan, is a small family. Some of its languages (for example Otoro; Stevenson, 1943) have a -a with a H tone. Interestingly, some anguages of the Nilo-Saharan family spoken in the same geographical area, such as Krongo (Reh, 1985), have a long vowel -aa with H tone. Kanuri, a major Nilo-Saharan language spoken from Niger to Sudan by 4 500 000 speakers, has a suffix -wa bearing H tone (Cyffer, 1998). This convergence points towards the identification of a linguistic sub-area characterized by a “hybrid” form combining lax prosodic markers with a H tone at the northeastern fringe of the lax prosody area.
Fig. 6. The area of the lax question prosody (in the ellipse) within the Niger-Congo language phylum (map by Jouni F. Maho, Web Resources for African Languages, reproduced with permission, ellipse added by the author). in our database; none are reported to have any form of lax prosody. However, we hypothesize that some northern Bantu languages which are in contact with Adamawa-Ubangi languages might prove to have a form of lax question prosody, since many northern Bantu languages display other features of the Sudanic belt, such as vowel harmony (Clements and Ria labio-velar and implosive consonants and traces of [ATR] land, 2007). The Kordofanian family, located in southern Sudan, is a small family. Some of its languages (for example Otoro; Stevenson, 1943) have a -a with a H tone. Interestingly, some anguages of the Nilo-Saharan family spoken in the same geographical area, such as Krongo (Reh, 1985), have a long vowel -aa with H tone. Kanuri, a major Nilo-Saharan language spoken from Niger to Sudan by 4 500 000 speakers, has a suffix -wa bearing H tone (Cyffer, 1998). This convergence points towards the identification of a linguistic sub-area characterized by a “hybrid” form combining lax prosodic markers with a H tone at the northeastern fringe of the lax prosody area.
Fig. 7. Waveform and pitch contour of the Ngambay-Mundu question ngokénlé dé wad ‘Did his brother come?’.
Fig. 7. Waveform and pitch contour of the Ngambay-Mundu question ngokénlé dé wad ‘Did his brother come?’.
Distribution of lax prosody markers in Nilo-Saharan languages of our database Table 7
Distribution of lax prosody markers in Nilo-Saharan languages of our database Table 7
Fig. 8. Spectrogram of the final syllable -waa of the Ngambay-Mundu question shown in Fig. 7.
Fig. 8. Spectrogram of the final syllable -waa of the Ngambay-Mundu question shown in Fig. 7.
Fig. 9. The area of the lax question prosody (in the ellipse) within the Nilo-Saharan language phylum (map by Jouni F. Maho, Web Resources for African Languages, reproduced with permission, ellipse added by the author).
Fig. 9. The area of the lax question prosody (in the ellipse) within the Nilo-Saharan language phylum (map by Jouni F. Maho, Web Resources for African Languages, reproduced with permission, ellipse added by the author).
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Cognitive ScienceLinguistic GeographyAfrican languages
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