The tonemes of Xhosa.

Autor: Lanham, L. W.
Zdroj: African Studies; Jan1958, Vol. 17 Issue 2, p65-81, 17p
Abstrakt: All gliding and level tones in Xhosa are members of three pitch phonemes (tonemes). Phonemes of prosody are not distinctive per se to the same extent as segmental phonemes, and few Xhosa tones can be identified tonemically when examined out of context. Even when taken in context the tonemic interpretation of Xhosa tones depends heavily upon the recognition of certain features present in the speech continuum which have a raising or lowering effect, or distort the shapes of tonemic norms. In this connection the recognition of the “tonal step” is vital because it is only within this unit that pitch contrasts are maintained. At the morphological level tonemes function within a system of tonal morphemes which can be analysed and described apart from that involving segmental morphemes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
Databáze: Complementary Index