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Grammatical functions of tone in San Maka

Fonctions grammaticales du ton en san maka
Елена Перехвальская. Грамматические функции тона в сан мака
Elena Perekhvalskaya
p. 333-348

Résumés

L'article traite des fonctions du ton en san-maka (Mandé-Est < Mandé < Niger-Congo). Dans cette langue, en plus de distinguer les sens lexicaux des mots, le ton remplit diverses fonctions grammaticales. Une analyse des usages du ton montre que ses fonctions recouvrent différents domaines morpho-syntaxiques. Les oppositions tonales sont analysées dans le contexte large de la morphologie segmentale de la langue. On montre que les oppositions tonales servent à la formation des formes des mots dans le paradigme, ce qui est caractéristique surtout du verbe ; le ton est souvent le seul trait distinctif qui s'oppose la forme neutre et la forme perfective du verbe. En san-maka la dérivation verbale peut être effectuée par le changement du ton. Les oppositions tonales sont utilisées dans les constructions génitives N + N où le ton de la deuxième composante se relève.

Une section est consacrée aux tons flottants. En san-maka, les tons flottants sont des allomorphes d'unités segmentales : dans certains contextes, le pronom de 3 personne à et le marqueur prédicatif nə́ peuvent être réalisés comme le chagement du ton.

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Texte intégral

1. Introduction1

  • 1 The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, grant 20-18-00250 “Tonal languages of th (...)

1San Maka is a Mande language spoken in Burkina Faso. It is a language of the San/Samo language cluster. Together with Bisa, Busa/Boko/Bokobaru and Kyanga/Shanga language clusters, San/Samo form the Eastern group of the Mande language family. The main varieties of San/Samo are Maka in the South, Makya and Maya in the North; for more information see (Perekhvalskaya 2017a).

2Most of the San Maka speakers, especially city residents, speak Moore (a language of the Gur family), which is the dominant language in this area and one of the languages of interethnic communication in Burkina Faso. It should be noted that for the northern dialects of San (San Maya and San Makya), the most pronounced is the influence of Jula, which began to displace the San languages in larger urban centers.

3The phonology of San Maka, its tonal system included, was studied by Suzanne Platiel as a part of her doctoral dissertation (Platiel 1974). Moise Paré who did not specifically deal with the tonal system of San Maka in his articles, made several valuable comments regarding the grammatical meanings conveyed by tone (Paré 1998; Paré 1999).

42. General information on the language

5Unlike the majority of Mande languages, San Maka does not display certain properties characteristic for isolating languages. The word order is strict: S Aux O V X; at the same time, the main word classes (noun, verb, pronoun) have a rich morphology. The level of fusion of morphemes is high in the verbal system and somewhat lower in pronouns and nouns. Nouns distinguish two morphophonological classes depending on the character of the final element (2.1.3.). Verbs can also be divided into several paradigmatic classes.

2.1. Phonology

2.1.1. Vowels

6The system of vowels in San Maka is represented in Table 1.

Table 1. Vowel system of San Maka

Front

Middle

Back

Closed

ŋ

High

i ĩ

u ũ

Mid-high

e ẽ

ə

o

Mid-low

ɛ ɛ̃

ɔ ɔ̃

Low

a ã

7Nasalization is a distinctive feature; the oral phoneme /ə/ has no nasal counterparts. Phonetically long vowels are interpreted as combinations of two identical vowels; since the morpheme boundary can cut across such a long vowel: e.g., māā ‘my’ < mā ā (1sg + poss). Thus, words of the type māā ‘my’ are considered disyllabic words, which is supported by the choice of the allomorph of the plural marker (see Table 4): only in disyllabic words does the plural marker –ŋ copy the tone of the last vowel (2.2.1.).

8The phoneme /ŋ/ is classified as a vowel on the following grounds: 1) it is a tone-bearing unit; 2) its distribution is atypical for a consonant.

2.1.2. Consonants

Table 2. San Maka consonants

Labial

Dental

Palatal

Velar

Uvular

Voiceless stops (plosives)

p

t

c

k

Voiced stops

b

d

ɟ

g

Voiceless fricatives

f

s

h

Voiced fricatives

z

Sonorants

Approximants

w

l

y

Vibrant

r

Nazals

m

n

ɲ

  • 2  The final ŋ designates the floating nasal element (see below).

9The consonants /с/ and /ɟ/ may be pronounced as affricates [ʧ] and [ʤ] or as palatal stops [с] and [ɟ] respectively. Following San orthography, in this paper these sounds are spelled as ki and gi, so, kioŋ 2 ‘house’ may be pronounced as [сo] or [ʧo].

2.1.3. The floating (latent) final nasal ŋ

  • 3  Laura McPherson discussing latent nasals in Samogo writes: “Diachronically a nasal coda, these nas (...)

10Some words in San Maka have a stem-final floating (latent) nasal which is normally not pronounced and does not nasalize the preceding syllable, cf.: bàáŋ [bàá] ‘bird’ vs [bã̀ã́] ‘place’.3 The floating -ŋ is manifested through the choice of inflexion markers and postpositive auxiliaries (2.2.1.).

11Thus, there are three phenomena connected with nasals apart from the phoneme /n/: 1) nasalization of vowels; 2) nasal closed vowel ŋ which is a tone bearing unit; 3) the floating final nasal ŋ.

12In the practical writing, both the vowel /ŋ/ and the floating final -ŋ are coded by the letter “n” at the end of the word. This letter also denotes the consonant /n/, but the latter does not occur at the end of the word; so, there is no distinction between the vowel /ŋ/ and the floating final ŋ in orthography. Nasalization is marked by the tilde (in a sequence of two vowels, only the second vowel is marked): baan [bàá] ‘bird’ vs baã [bã̀ã́] ‘place’.

13The final -ŋ occurs with nouns, adjectives and adverbs, but not with verbs. The presence/absence of the final nasal -ŋ is the criterion for dividing nouns into two morphological classes. The form of some grammatical elements which follow an NP, such as the plural marker and some predicative markers, depends on the presence or absence of the final nasal element.

2.1.4. Vowel harmony

14There is vowel harmony based on the vowel height: within one phonetic word, vowels can be either all mid-open (ɔ, ɛ) or mid-closed (o, e). The rest of the vowels are neutral and can combine with the vowels of both harmonic rows: sèwò dà ‘borassus palm’; bòé ‘goat’; gɛ̄sɛ̄ ‘kapok tree’; kɔ̃̄ɔ̃̄nɛ̀ ‘good’.

Table 3. Distribution of harmonic variants of elements nA

Copula of identification

Postposition ‘in’

Plural marker

Left context

High

i, u

nī

ní

ní

Mid-high

e

nē

né

nə́

ə

o

Mid-low

ɛ, ɔ

nɛ̄

nɛ́

nɛ́

ɔ

nɔ́

Low

a

ná

15An important phonetic feature in San Maka is the existence of harmonic variants for two clitics and one bound morpheme. These are the copula of identification nɛ̄ / nē / nī, a postposition nɛ́ / né / ní ‘in, at’, and the allomorphs of the plural marker appearing after the (-ŋ) stems -ní / -nə / -nɛ́ / -nɔ́ / -ná. The distribution of the variants is shown in Table 3.

16Examples. The copula of identification |nV̄|:

(1a)

Mā-ā

tásá

nɛ̄.

1sg-poss

bowl

cop

17‘It is my bowl’.

(1b)

Mā-ā

kiōŋ

nē.

1sg-poss

house

cop

18‘It is my house’.

(1c)

Mā-ā

būūkūrù

nī.

1sg-poss

machete

cop

19‘It is my machete’.

  • 4   is a very common dish in Burkina Faso, consisting of cooked millet or sorghum flour. It is serv (...)

20The postposition |nV́| ‘in, at’: làŋdā nɛ́ ‘in tradition’, nɔ̀ nɛ́ ‘in the stomach’, kíwí gólé né ‘in the city (lit.: in big village)’, wù bósò né ‘in the preparation of tô4’; píí ní ‘in the market’, wù ní ‘in tô’.

21Plural marker [nV́]: sāŋ́-ná ‘the San people’, dɔ̃̄ɔ̃̀ŋ-nɔ́ ‘relatives’, mɛ̀ŋ-nɛ́ ‘certain (pl)’, kōōŋ-nə́ ‘chickens’, kə́ŋ-nə́ ‘calaos’, bāsã̄kóéŋ-nə́ ‘morenga fruits’, mīŋ-ní ‘people’.

2.1.5. Tonal system

22San Maka is a tonal language with three level tones, designated, according to the IPA, by diacritics: acute (high), macron (mid) and grave (low). Vowel sequences may bear the following combinations of tones:

23level cv́v́; cv̄v̄; cv̀v̀

24falling cv́v̀; cv́v̄; cv̄v̀

25rising cv̀v́; cv̄v́

26Susanne Platiel focused on distribution of tonal units according to the types of syllables and words. She showed that words of the CVCV structure cannot carry the mid tone in both syllables if they contain closed or semi-closed vowels: /i/, /u/, /e/, /o/ (Platiel 1974: 132).

27Platiel also pointed out the rarity of tonal minimal pairs and triplets: it is difficult to find three or four identical segment chains that would differ only by tone (Platiel 1974: 144). Here are some rare minimal pairs found in San Maka: pã̄ã̄ ‘gather’ ~ pã̀ã̀ ‘cheek ~ pã̀ã́ ‘force’; bálá ‘individual field’ ~ bàlà ‘stick’.

2.2. Segmental morphology

2.2.1. Nouns

28Nouns in San Maka may belong to two morphonological classes: 1) ending with a vowel; 2) ending with the floating nasal (ŋ-nouns, see 2.1.3.). Consider the following pairs: dā ‘fetish’ vs. dāŋ ‘limit’; dɔ́ ‘which also’ vs dɔ́ŋ ‘pot’; bàáŋ ‘bird’ vs. bāā ‘run’ vs bã̀ã́ ‘place’, etc.

29In San Maka, nouns and some determinants have a grammatical category of number. Plurality is marked on NPs consistently. The number is coded by the suffix ŋ/ná, represented by several allomorphs. The choice of the allomorph depends on the paradigmatic class of the word. For ŋ-nouns, the quality of the last vowel also matters (see 2.1.4.): the vowel is chosen depending on the final vowel of the noun stem. Other words form plurals by adding the suffix ŋ which carries a high tone if the stem has the structure CV; otherwise it acquires the tone of the previous syllable.

Table 4. The formation of nominal plural in San Maka

Type of stem

Singular

Form of plural marker

Plural

Translation

stems ending with vowel

one syllable words

sɔ́

ŋ́

sɔ́ŋ́

‘tooth’

tù

ŋ́

tùŋ́

‘well’ (for water)

lɔ̄

ŋ́

lɔ̄ŋ́

‘woman’

multisyllable words

sèré

ŋ́

sèréŋ́

‘ram’

dɔ̀mɔ̄

ŋ̄

dɔ̀mɔ̄ŋ̄

‘griot’

gōò

ŋ̀

gōòŋ̀

‘liver’

wòtòró

ŋ́

wòtòróŋ́

‘cart’

(ŋ) stems

final vowel

a

màŋ

ná

màná

‘thing’

ɔ

gɔ́ŋ

nɔ́

gɔ́nɔ́

‘forest’

ɛ

mɛ̀ŋ

nɛ́

mɛ̀nɛ́

‘certain’

o

kiōŋ

nə́

kiōnə́

‘house’

e

bāsã̄kóéŋ

nə́

bāsã̄kóénə́

‘morenga fruit’

ə

kə́ŋ

nə́

kə́nə́

‘calao’

i

mīŋ

ní

mīní

‘person’

  • 5  When the possessor is in plural, the possessive marker is not used: kíí-ŋ kiōŋ ‘the chiefs’ hou (...)

30Nouns are subdivided into free and relational (inalienable) depending on their behavior in possessive nominal constructions. Free nouns require the possessive marker : kíí ā kiōŋ ‘chief’s house’.5 Relational nouns (terms for body parts, certain kinship terms) appear without this marker: kíí gólógĩ́ĩ́ ‘chief’s elder brother’. Personal pronouns 2sg, 3sg and 3pl have no distinction between these two types of the possessive construction (see Table 5).

Table 5. Possessive pronouns with free and relational nouns in San Maka

number

free nouns

relational nouns

person

translation

translation

singular

1

māā kiōŋ

‘my house’

mā dī

‘my father’

2

ŋ̄ kiōŋ

‘your house’

ŋ̄ dī

‘your father’

3

à kiōŋ

‘his/her house’

à dī

‘his/her father’

plural

1

wɔ̄ā kiōŋ

‘our house’

wɔ̄ dī

‘our father’

2

kāā kiōŋ

‘your (pl) house’

kā dī

‘your (pl) father’

3

ŋ̀ kiōŋ

‘their house’

ŋ̀ dī

‘their father’

31The bold characters point out forms which have no distinction in the possessive construction for free and relational nouns.

2.2.2. Verbs

Table 6. Morphological types of verbs in San Maka

  • 6  No verbal stem of the CV structure ends on -e and -o.

stem ending

Neutral

Perfective

Imperfective

Translation

-a

Ca

gā

gā

gíɛ́

‘to look for’

CVa

gȭã̄

gȭã̀

gȭɛ̃̄

‘to stay’

dɛ̄

dɛ̄

díí

‘to beat, to kill’

CVCɛ

kɔ̀rɛ́

kɔ̀rɛ̀

kɔ̀rɛ̀ɛ̀

‘to cook’

wɔ́

wɔ́

wóé

‘to enter’

CVCɔ

sɔ̀lɔ́

sɔ̀lɔ̄

sɔ̀lɔ̀ɛ̀, sɔ̀lɛ̀ɛ̀

‘to filter’

-e6

CvCe

kérē

kérē

kérèè

‘to faint’

-o

CVCo

dórō

dōrò

dōròè, dōréè

‘to teach’

-i

Ci

mī

mī

mɩ́í

‘to drink’

CVi

bīī

bīì

bīī

‘to eat’

-u

Cu

bũ̄

bũ̀

bũ̄ì

‘to open’

CVCu

dúrū

dūrù

dúrī

‘to hide’

  • 7  The presented morphological classes cannot be boiled down just to phonological differences; the co (...)

32In San Maka, a verbal lexeme has three morphological forms: neutral, perfective and imperfective. Based on the formation of the imperfective forms, Paré singles out 7 types of verbs (Paré 1999: 38–41). However, if we take into account all characteristics, the actual number of paradigmatic classes of verbs in San Maka reaches at least 12 (see Table 6).7

33The neutral form is taken for basic in grammars and dictionaries (Platiel 1974; Paré 1999; Anonym 2003). It appears in non-indicative forms (imperative, hortative, jussive, conjunctive), as well as in the negative perfective (Kompaoré 2005). The perfective verb form is used with the affirmative predicative markers. The imperfective form appears in two affirmative and one negative imperfective construction; for details see (Perekhvalskaya 2017a; Perekhvalskaya 2017b).

34Synchronically, the perfective is formed by a tone change (see Table 7).

35Imperfective is formed through modification of both segmental and suprasegmental components; synchronically, it is fusional. Verbs of the CV structure get the CVV structure.

  • 8  The cognate of this suffix is attested in San Maya, a closely related language situated to the nor (...)

36Apparently, the perfective and imperfective forms go back to non-finite forms (nominalizations, gerunds, etc.). This explains the fact that they cannot perform the predicative function on their own, and require the presence of a predicative marker. The perfective forms historically seem to have had a low tone suffix. The imperfective forms were formed by adding the suffix -e / -ɛ which has fused with the stem.8 The neutral form, apparently, is a true verb by origin: it can appear in the predicative function without any additional marker; for more details see (Perekhvalskaya 2017a).

3. Functions of tone

3.1. Lexical function of tone

37Tone in San Maka plays a role in both the lexicon and the grammar. There are minimal pairs which illustrate the function of tone in distinguishing lexical values.

bálá ‘individual field’

pã̀ã̀ ‘cheek

tóŋ̄ ‘ashes’

ŋ̄ ‘you (sg)’

bàlà ‘stick’;

pã̀ã́ ‘force’;

tóŋ́ ‘scorpion’;

ŋ̀ ‘they’

38Words belonging to different parts of speech:

gɔ̄ ‘to share’

kérē ‘to faint’

gɔ́rɔ́ ‘mortar’

gìàlā ‘stomach’

gɔ̀ ‘rubbish’;

kèrè ‘shin’;

gɔ̀rɔ̄ ‘already’;

gīālā ‘behind’

39It has to be noted that words which are homonyms in their basic forms may differ by their morphological behavior. Consider the following pair: the noun gĩ̄ã̄ ‘wooden holder’ which can add the plural suffix (gĩ̄ã̄ŋ̄ ‘wooden holders’), and the verb gĩ̄ã̄ ‘to live’ which has the perfective form gĩ̄ã̀ and the imperfective form gĩ̀ɛ̃̀.

3.2. Grammatical functions of tone

40In San Maka, tone has a wide range of grammatical meanings. The detailed investigation of the grammatical tone in Mande languages has been started by Maria Konoshenko (Konoshenko 2017). For tone and derivation, see also (Palancar & Léonard 2016).

3.2.1. The role of tone in the verbal morphology

41Tone is often the only distinctive feature that opposes neutral and perfective verbal forms, e.g., ‘to come’: dāā, neutral form vs. dāà perfective (for more examples see Table 6).

42The neutral verbal forms can have the following tonal and segmental structures:

43cv: cv́, cv̄, cv̀

44cvv: cv́v̄, cv̄v̄

45cvcv: cv́cv̄, cv̀cv́

46cvcvv: cv̀cv̄v̄

47Synchronically, the perfective is formed by a tone change:

Table 7. Tones in the neutral and perfective verbal forms

Type

Neutral form

Perfective form

Example

CV

H

M

kɔ́ ‘to become’ > kɔ̄

M

M

dā ‘to put’ > dā

L

M

wò ‘to go away’ > wō

CVV

HM

ML

tóā ‘to leave’ > tōà

MM

ML

kĩ̄ɛ̃̄ ‘to write’ > kĩ̄ɛ̃̀

CVCV

HM

ML

párɛ̄ ‘to jump’ >pārɛ̀

LH

ML

sɔ̀lɔ́ ‘to filter’ > sɔ̄lɔ̀

CVCVV

LMM

MML

kùrə̄ə̄ ‘to hinder, impede’ > kūrə̄ə̀

  • 9  This analysis was proposed by an anonymous reviewer, I take this opportunity to thank her or him.

48The table 7 shows that the perfective is formed by similar tonal patterns: monosyllabic verbs acquire the mid tone; disyllabic and trisyllabic verbs display the ML or MML patterns. In fact, in perfective, all the verbs have the same tone melody M(L), but on a CV stem, there is no room to dock the L, and so only the M is realized. 9

3.3. Tone in derivation

3.3.1. Compound nouns

49In compound nouns, the tone of the second element rises: L > M, M > H.

50nɛ̄ ‘child’ + lɔ̄ ‘woman’ > nɛ̄ lɔ́ ‘daughter’;

51dīī ‘bull’ + nɛ̄ ‘child’ > dīī nɛ́ ‘calf’;

52bōŋbōōŋ ‘ant’ + gìí ‘egg’ > bōŋbōōŋ gīí ‘ant egg’;

53lóŋ̄ ‘sky’ + bàáŋ ‘bird’ > lóŋ̄ bāáŋ ‘avion’.

  • 10  On the definition of what is a word in isolating languages, see, for example (Idiatov 2005; Julien (...)

54As it is not always possible to draw a line between compound words and genitive constructions of the type N+N, the exact status of some complex lexical items and the level of their grammaticalization is not always clear,10 see 3.4.1.

3.3.2. Verb intransitivization

  • 11  « Ce procédé de dérivation, très productif dans la langue, consiste à créer de nouvelles bases ver (...)

55San Maka displays verbal derivation by means of the tonal change. According to Paré, «This derivation process, which is very productive in the language, consists of creating new verbal bases from other verbal bases by a simple change of tone. It is generally applied on bases having the CV structure and involves high and medium tones”11 (Paré 1998: 45). This intransitivization of an initially transitive verb by tone raising is quite productive: V̄tr > V́intr:

  • 12  The same semantic shift is also registered in languages of the South Mande group, where this root (...)

Transitive verb

pã̄ ‘to fill (smth)’

lɔ̄ ‘to crush’

fɔ̃̄ ‘to dig’

jɛ̄ ‘to find’

kũ̄ ‘to catch’

bɔ̄ ‘to remove’

Intransitive verb

pã́ ‘to be filled’

lɔ́ ‘to be crushed’

fɔ̃́ ‘to dig oneself’

jɛ́ ‘to be born’

kṹ ‘to be burned’12

bɔ́ ‘to sprout’

3.4. Tone in syntax

3.4.1. Genitive Construction

56The constructions of the type N+N display the same proprieties as nominal compounds, see 3.3.1. The tone of the second component of the construction rises: L > M; M > H.

(2)

Mɔ̀ɔ̀sɛ́ɛ́ŋ

lɛ̀ŋ

mànə́

sàŋ-ná

nɛ́-lɔ́

góòŋ

kũ̄.

Mossi-pl

art-pl

3pl.prf

Samo-pl

child-woman

one

catch.prf

57‘The Mossi caught a San girl’.

58The nouns nɛ̄ ‘child’ and lɔ̄ ‘woman’ in isolation both have mid tone. lɔ̄ acquires a high tone in the compound nɛ̄lɔ́ ‘girl’, and this compound word receives a high tone as the second member of the genitive construction: sàŋná nɛ́lɔ́ ‘a San girl’. The sequence sàŋná nɛ́lɔ́ cannot be considered as a compound, because sàŋná ‘the San’ is a plural form.

3.4.2. Non-pronominal direct object

  • 13  This is reminiscent of tonal alternations in Seenku (McPherson 2019).

59Perfective and imperfective forms have similar tonal behavior: their tone is stable in any syntactic context. As for the neutral form, its tone raises in the presence of a direct object expressed by a full-fledged noun phrase. Consider the neutral form of the verb bīī ‘to eat’ in the imperative (3a, 3b) and conjunctive (3c) constructions with different types of the direct object. The neutral form of the verb bīī ‘to eat’ carries a mid tone, but with the direct object expressed by a noun the tone of the verb becomes high. This tonal modification does not occur with the imperfective form of the same verb which retains its middle tone (3d)13.

(3a)

ŋ̀

bīī.

3pl

eat

60‘Eat them!’

(3b)

bíí.

2pl.imp

eat/h

61‘You (pl) eat tô’.

(3c)

Ŋ́

pɛ̀

mà

Kōōdɛ́

bíí.

2sg

say

that

Koode

eat/h

62‘You ordered that Koodé would eat tô’.

(3d)

ŋ̄

bīī.

1sg

ipf

eat.ipf

63‘I eat tô.’

64Examples (4a, 4b) demonstrate the tone raising L > M under the same conditions (the verb bũ̀ ‘open’):

(4a)

Cɛ́ŋlɛ́

bũ̀!

door

open

65‘Open the door!’

(4b)

Ŋ́

pɛ̀

mà

Kōōdɛ́

cɛ́ŋlɛ́

bũ̄.

2sg.pfv

say.pfv

that

Koode

door

open/m

66‘You ordered that Koodé would open the door’.

67Disyllabic transitive verbs with the low tone on the first syllable (type cv̀cv́, see 3.2) change their tone to middle in the presence of a full-fledged direct object: cv̀cv́ > cv̄cv́. Consider the verb sɔ̀lɔ́ ‘to filter’:

(5)

sɔ̄lɔ́

water

filter/m

68‘Filter the water!’

3.4.3. Pronominal 3sg direct object

69In the perfective construction, the pronominal 3sg object usually when referring to an inanimate object is often omitted. In this case, the tone of the verb lowers.

(6a)

Wɔ́

lōē

lɔ̄.

1pl/h

song

sing.prf

70‘We sang a song’.

(6b)

Wɔ́

lɔ̀.

1pl/h

sing.prf/l

71‘We sang it’.

(7a)

Wɔ́

pāā

dūrù.

1pl/h

money

hide.prf

72‘We hid the money’.

(7b)

Wɔ́

dùrù.

1pl/h

hide.prf/l

73‘We hid it’.

74This is explained by the fact that the 3sg pronoun bears the low tone, consider examples where this pronoun is presented (8):

(8)

kɔ̀

mā

lā.

3sg

give

1sg

to

75‘Give it to me’.

  • 14  I base this conclusion on the comparative dictionary of Mande languages (Vydrin ms.).

76This tonal morpheme can therefore be regarded as an allomorph of a segmental morpheme (for other cases of this type, see 3.5.)14.

3.5. Tone as an allomorph of a segmental morpheme

3.5.1. The affirmative perfective marker occupies the position after the subject

77This morpheme has three allomorphs:

78nə́ after /ŋ/, see 2.1.3 (9);

79mànə́ when preceded by the plural marker (10);

80high tone on the subject in other cases (11).

81Examples:

(9)

Ŋ̀

nə́

mā

jɛ̄.

3pl

prf

1sg

see.prf

82They saw (have seen) me’.

(10)

Gĩ̄ĩ̄

góōŋ

dīī-ŋ̄

mànə́

wōò

kàà

mīā

man

one

poss

bull-pl

3pl.prf

go.prf

fall.down.prf

neighbour

ŋ̄

wùrú-n.

poss

field-in

83‘One man’s bulls got into their neighbour’s field’.

(11)

Lɔ̄

lɛ́

kōō

gìí

lɛ̀

sì.

woman

art\prf

hen

egg

art

take.prf

84‘The woman took the egg’.

85In example (11) the perfective predicative marker is represented by the high tone of the article which defines the subject NP (lɔ̄ lɛ̀ ‘the woman’); note that in the direct object NP kōō gìí lɛ̀ the article lɛ̀ keeps its original tone.

86In (12), the high tone as a perfective marker appears on the pronominal subject mā ‘I, me’:

(12)

Má

wōò

má

dã̀ã̀ŋ̀

ŋ̄

wùrú

kɔ́sɔ̄

ká

1sg.prf

go.prf

1sg.prf

in.law-pl

poss

field

cultivate/h

comit

zàmāŋ

nɛ̄.

crowd

in

87‘I cultivated the field of my in-laws with the help of the association’.

88A similar process manifests itself in postpositions: they acquire a low tone as an exponent of the 3 person singular pronoun à (animate or inanimate):

(13a)

Ŋ̀

tá

gìí

kōē

nɛ̄ɲāāŋ-nā

lā.

3pl

in

3sg

egg

give.ipf

child-pl

to

89‘They give these eggs to children’.

(13b)

Ŋ̀

nə́

bàsí

dā,

ŋ̀

nə́

kɔ̀

là.

3pl

prf

cuscus

cook.prf/m

3pl

prf

give.prf

to/l

90‘They prepared cuscus and gave him’.

91In the example (13a) the indirect object is expressed by the noun nɛ̄ɲāāŋ-nā ‘children’, the postposition lā ‘to’ has a mid tone; in the example (13b) the low tone of the postposition signals the presence of the 3 person pronoun ‘(to) him/her/it’.

92The 3sg pronoun may be present as a segment unit, consider (14):

(14)

Bōyō

gõ̀ã́

ŋ̄

búsì

à gíálá

tóŋ́

nā

sɔ̄-ŋ̄

Boyo

foot

ipf

hurt.ipf

because

scorpion

top

3sg.prf

tooth-pl

dɔ̀

ā.

build.prf

3sg

on

93‘Boyo’s foot hurts as a scorpion has bitten him/it’.

94The choice between the segment pronoun or its tonal allomorph depends, as it seems, on the pragmatic status of the participant; in (14) the bitten foot of Boyo is the focus of attention of the speaker.

4. Discussion and conclusion

95The presented material shows that, apart from the distinguishing lexical values of words, tone in San Maka expresses many grammatical meanings.

96This function is most clearly distinctive in the verbal paradigms; in San Maka, the verb exists in three morphological forms: neutral, perfective and imperfective. In many cases, the perfective form differs from the neutral one only by its tonal characteristics. At the same time, I would like to note that this function of tone is rather pronounced in verb systems of many Mande languages.

  • 15  See (Vydrin 2016).
  • 16  In a wider sense, the term “floating tone” may be applied to the tonal allomorph of a segmental mo (...)

97In certain cases, tonal allomorphs coexist with segmental ones. There are two such cases in San Maka. The first is the low-tone unit encoding the presence of a pronominal inanimate direct object (see 2.4.3.). In fact, in this case, the low-tone unit is an allomorph of the 3rd person pronoun. The second case it the perfective predicative marker, whose tonal allomorph is the most frequent exponent. However, in both cases, since tonal allomorphs have segmental counterparts, they should not be considered “floating tones” in strict sense. The canonical floating tone is expressed through downstep (or upstep?)15 and is singled out through interpretation; it does not alternate with segmental units.16

98The surface tonal representation consists of the combination of many factors: initial tonal characteristics of lexemes are modified under the influence of tonal morphemes and then combine with grammatical tones.

Abbreviations

991, 2, 3 – 1, 2, 3 person

100art – article

101comit – comitative

102cop – copula

103h – high tone

104ipf – imperfective

105l – low tone

106pl – plural

107poss – possessive preposition

108prf – perfective

109sg – singular

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Bibliographie

References

Anonym. 2003. Boo nεn sέwε san-fransi, fransi-san [Lexique san–français, français–san]. Ouagadougou: Société internationale de linguistique.

Idiatov, Dmitry. 2005. La détermination des limites de mots: l’exemple de l’orthographe toura. Mandenkan 41. 29–39.

Julien, M. 2006. Word. Encyclopedia of languages and linguistics. Elsevier.

Kompaoré, Garber A. 2005. Problèmes de perturbations tonales et l’orthographe san. SIL.

Konoshenko, Maria. 2017. Tone in grammar: What we already know and what we still don’t? Voprosy Jazykoznanija (4). 101–114.

McPherson, Laura. 2019. Seenku argument-head tone sandhi: Allomorph selection in a cyclic grammar. Glossa 4.1(22). https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.798.

McPherson, Laura. 2020. On latent nasals in Samogo. Mandenkan 63. 68–88. https://doi.org/10.4000/mandenkan.2314.

Palancar, Enrique L. & Jean Léo Léonard. 2016. Tone and inflection: An introduction. In Tone and Inflection: New Facts and New Perspectives (Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs 296), 1–11. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.

Paré, Moïse. 1998. L‘énoncé verbal en san (parler de Yaba). Ouagadougou: Université de Ouagadougou M.A.Thesis.

Paré, Moïse. 1999. Dérivation, composition et syntagmes nominaux en san (parler de Yaba). Ouagadougou: Université d’Ouagadougou Rapport de D.E.A.

Perekhvalskaya, Elena. 2017a. Basic morphosyntax of verbal and non-verbal clauses in San Maka. Mandenkan 57. 49–76. https://doi.org/10.4000/mandenkan.1070.

Perekhvalskaya, Elena. 2017b. Aspektual’naja sistema juzhnogo san (san-maka) v diakhronicheskoj perspektive (Аспектуальная система южного сан (сан-мака) в диахронической перспективе) [The aspectual system of Southern San (San Maka): Diachronic perspective]. In Alexander Ju. Zheltov (ed.), African Collection 2017, 433–448. St. Petersburg: Kunstkamera.

Platiel, Suzanne. 1974. Description du parler samo de Toma, Haute-Volta. Phonologie, syntaxe. Paris: Université René Descartes Doctorat d’État.

Vydrin, Valentin. 2016. Tonal inflection in Mande languages: The cases of Bamana and Dan-Gwɛɛtaa. In Enrique L. Palancar & Jean Léo Léonard (eds.), Tone and Inflection: New facts and new perspectives (Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs 296), 83–105. De Gruyter — Mouton.

Vydrin, Valentin. 2021. Dictionnaire dan de l’Est-français suivi d’un index français-dan. Mandenkan 65. 3–332. https://doi.org/10.4000/mandenkan.2541.

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Notes

1 The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, grant 20-18-00250 “Tonal languages of the world: on-line data base and atlas”.

2  The final ŋ designates the floating nasal element (see below).

3  Laura McPherson discussing latent nasals in Samogo writes: “Diachronically a nasal coda, these nasals often trigger alternations on the following consonant” (McPherson 2020: 68). The situation in San Maka seems similar.

4   is a very common dish in Burkina Faso, consisting of cooked millet or sorghum flour. It is served as a paste and is eaten with a sauce.

5  When the possessor is in plural, the possessive marker is not used: kíí-ŋ kiōŋ ‘the chiefs’ house’.

6  No verbal stem of the CV structure ends on -e and -o.

7  The presented morphological classes cannot be boiled down just to phonological differences; the concrete forms are not completely predictable.

8  The cognate of this suffix is attested in San Maya, a closely related language situated to the north of the San Maka territory. In San Maya the respective marker is a clitic which is never fused (Perekhvalskaya 2017b).

9  This analysis was proposed by an anonymous reviewer, I take this opportunity to thank her or him.

10  On the definition of what is a word in isolating languages, see, for example (Idiatov 2005; Julien 2006).

11  « Ce procédé de dérivation, très productif dans la langue, consiste à créer de nouvelles bases verbales à partir d’autres bases verbales par un simple changement de ton. Il s’applique généralement sur des bases ayant la structure CV et met en jeu le ton haut et moyen ».

12  The same semantic shift is also registered in languages of the South Mande group, where this root displays a polysemy “to catch – to burn”, see (Vydrin 2021: 155).

13  This is reminiscent of tonal alternations in Seenku (McPherson 2019).

14  I base this conclusion on the comparative dictionary of Mande languages (Vydrin ms.).

15  See (Vydrin 2016).

16  In a wider sense, the term “floating tone” may be applied to the tonal allomorph of a segmental morpheme and be regarded as a tone morpheme that does not have a segmental host. In some languages, it might trigger downstep, but in others, it may concatenate with lexical tones, or replace them (I thank an anonymous reviewer for this remark).

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Elena Perekhvalskaya, « Grammatical functions of tone in San Maka »Mandenkan, 65 | 2021, 333-348.

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Elena Perekhvalskaya, « Grammatical functions of tone in San Maka »Mandenkan [En ligne], 65 | 2021, mis en ligne le 29 septembre 2021, consulté le 18 avril 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/mandenkan/2574 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/mandenkan.2574

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Auteur

Elena Perekhvalskaya

Institute for Linguistic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, elenap96@gmail.com

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