Tone

This comprehensive textbook provides a clearly organized introduction to tone and tonal phonology.

Moira Yip (Author)

9780521773140, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 August 2002

376 pages, 9 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.708 kg

'… a welcome addition to the line-up of the Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics … a gem of a textbook …'. Journal of Phonology

The sounds of language can be divided into consonants, vowels, and tones - the use of pitch to convey word meaning. Seventy percent of the world's languages use pitch in this way. Assuming little or no prior knowledge of the topic, this textbook provides a clearly organized introduction to tone and tonal phonology. Comprehensive in scope, it examines the main types of tonal systems found in Africa, the Americas, and Asia, using examples from the widest possible range of tone languages. It provides students with a basic grasp of the simple phonetics of tone, and covers key topics such as the distinctive feature systems suitable for tonal contrasts, allophonic and morphophonological tonal alterations, and how to analyze them within Optimality Theory. The book also examines the perception and acquisition of tone, as well as the interface between tonal phonology and the morphosyntax.

1. Introduction
2. Contrastive tone
3. Tonal features
4. The autosegmental nature of tone, and its analysis in Optimality Theory
5. Tone in morphology and in syntax
6. African languages
7. Asian and Pacific languages
8. The Americas
9. Tone, stress, accent and intonation
10. Perception and acquisition of tone.

Subject Areas: Phonetics, phonology [CFH], Linguistics [CF]