here - 5th International Conference on Bantu Languages

High tone spreading in four Sotho-Tswana varieties
Denis Creissels, CNRS–DDL, denis.creissels@univ-lyon2.fr
This paper examines contrasts in the range of high tone spreading in four Sotho-Tswana varieties:
Southern Sotho – Letele (1955), Köhler (1956), Letšeng (1995), Pedi (alias Northern Sotho) –
Lombard (1976), Zerbian & Barnard (2009), the Ngwaketse dialect of Tswana – Creissels (1998),
Creissels & al. (2007), and the Kgatla dialect of Tswana as spoken in Mochudi (Botswana) – author’s
field notes.
Southern Sotho, Pedi and Ngwaketse have in common that, with just one exception (the
grammatical high tone found in some verb tenses, such as the conjoint form of the perfect), they only
have local tone spreading. They differ in that, in Southern Sotho and Pedi, t<strong>here</strong> is no spreading at
word boundaries, and local spreading never affects more than one syllable, w<strong>here</strong>as in Ngwaketse,
the initial syllable of a word may be affected by the spreading of a high tone underlyingly belonging
to the preceding word, and most word-internal spreading processes have a possible range of two
syllables, as illustrated by the following example, in which the only underlying high tones are those
associated to the first syllable of the verb stem -kótul- and to the second syllable of the noun stem
-bɛlɛ́.
(Southern Sotho) kɩ̀-kótúl-à mà-bɛ̀lɛ́ ‘I am harvesting sorghum.’
(Ngwaketse) kɩ̀-kótúl-á má-bɛ̀lɛ́ same meaning
1SG-harvest-FV CL6-sorghum
The Kgatla dialect of Tswana sharply contrasts with the other three varieties in that, in Kgatla, longdistance
spreading is pervasive, as illustrated by the following example, in which the only underlying
high tones are those associated to the first syllable of the verb stem -bófʊlʊl- and to the second
syllable of the noun stem -qʰomʊ́).
(Ngwaketse) kɩ̀-bófʊ́lʊ́l-ɛ̀l-à mʊ̀tʰìbì dì-qʰòmʊ́ ‘I am untying the cows for Mothibi’
(Kgatla) kɩ̀-bófʊ́lʊ́l-ɛ́l-á mʊ́tʰíbí dí-qʰòmʊ́ same meaning
1SG-untie-APPL-FV Mothibi CL10-cow
The paper aims mainly to analyze the long-distance spreading processes of Kgatla and their possible
relationship with the local spreading processes of other Sotho-Tswana varieties. The observation of
some limitations to high tone spreading are particularly significant in this repect. For example, in
Kgatla, in the configuration illustrated by the following example, in which the underlying high tones
are those of the subject marker bá- and of the first syllable of tsʰímʊ, the last syllable of the verb
preceding a noun whose first syllable bears a H tone can be affected by the spreading of a preceding
H tone if and only if the distance between the last syllable of the verb and the syllable to which the
high tone underlyingly belongs does not exceed two syllables.
(Kgatla) bá-lɩ́m-á tsʰímʊ̀ ‘They are ploughing the field.’
CL2-plough-FV [CL9]field
References
bá-tɬʰáχʊ́l-à tsʰímʊ̀ ‘They are weeding the field.’
CL2-weed-FV [CL9]field
Creissels, D. 1998. ‘Expansion and retraction of high tone domains in Setswana’. In L.M. Hyman &
C.W. Kisseberth (eds.) Theoretical aspects of Bantu tone. Stanford: CSLI Publications. 133-194.
Creissels, D., A.M. Chebanne and H.W. Nkhwa. 1997. Tonal morphology of the Setswana verb. LINCOM
Studies in African Linguistics.
Letele, G.L., The Role of Tone in the Southern Sotho Language (Thesis presented for the Degree of Doctor
of Philosophy in the University of London), Lovedale Press 1955.
Letšeng, M. 1995. ‘La structure tonale du verbe en sotho du sud’. Masters thesis. Grenoble: Université
Stendhal.
Köhler, O., ‘Das Tonsystem des Verbum im Südsotho’, Mitteilungen des Instituts für Orientforschung, 4,
1956, pp. 435-474.
Lombard D.P., Aspekte van Toon in Noord-Sotho, Thèse de doctorat, University of South Africa, 1976.
Zerbian, S. and E. Barnard. 2009. ‘Realisations of a single high tone in Northern Sotho’. Southern
African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 27(4). 357–379.
PS