here - 5th International Conference on Bantu Languages

WS4
Lexical and grammatical tone interactions in Cuwabo (P34)
Rozenn Guérois, DDL, Université Lyon 2 _ rozennguerois@hotmail.com
Gérard Philippson, INALCO, Paris _ gerard.philippson@ish-lyon.cnrs.fr
It is a well-known fact that Guthrie’s “Zone P” languages generally lack contrastive lexical tone on
verb radicals. Instead, grammatical tone is assigned on the basis of tense/aspect/mood to privileged
positions in the stem (Kisseberth & Odden, 2003). For instance in the Enahara dialect of Makhuwa
(Van der Wal, 2009), the following positions are targeted: M(acro)S(tem) 1 1 , MS 2, Penult, Final
and none. These sites for grammatical tone docking are generally present even in Eastern Bantu
languages with lexical verbal tone contrast - apart from MS1 which would otherwise interfere with
lexical tone assignment 2 (cf. Kisseberth & Odden, 2003).
The Cuwabo language (P34 in Guthrie’s classification), is to the best of our knowledge the only
language in zones P and N 3 to have retained a lexical contrast on verb stems, as seen already in the
infinitive olíma < CB *-dɩ̀m- ‘cultivate’ / órumá < CB *-dúm- ‘send’, w<strong>here</strong>as Makhuwa has the
same pattern for both: olíma / orúma.
However, alongside lexical tones, the Cuwabo verb stem also exhibits the same processes of
grammatical tone assignment - including MS1 - as mentioned for Makhuwa. The interaction
between these different tones gives rise to sometimes quite opaque situations. In case t<strong>here</strong> is no
grammatical tone on the stem, the lexical tone of the H-toned radical emerges, but on the Penult:
ɖáń#zugunuwéla ‘I was turning for (sb.)’ / ɖáń#roromeliha ‘I was promising (sb.)’. Whenever the
grammatical tone docks on MS2, lexical tone contrasts are always neutralized 4 : kaɖi#zugúnúwelile
‘I haven't turned for’ / kaɖi#rorómélihile ‘I haven't promised’. When stems with a L-toned radical
appear with a H on MS1, however, the situation with H-toned radicals is much more opaque. If an
OM is present, the lexical H clearly shifts to the penult, as seen above, but the syllable immediately
preceding the OM is always H (doubling on the OM itself); compare L kaɖini#múlíbelela ‘I don't
swear to him/her’ and H kaɖiní#múgabuléla ‘I don't rape him/her’. But if no OM is present, a Htone
plateau extends from the H pre-stem to the penult: kaɖiní#gábúléla ‘I don't rape’.
Now the genetic position of Cuwabo is by no means clear: its phonology, morphology and
lexicon are partly Makhuwa-like and partly N40-N30-like (a case in point is 1sg. subject prefix ɖi-
as seen above, with Makhuwa-like denasalization - but without devoicing -, applied to the 1sg.
subject prefix *ndi- found in e.g. Makonde, Shona or the N40 languages, vs. Makhuwa ki- < *ŋgi.).
We will argue that a clue to the complex nature of Cuwabo tone is found in its “mixed language”
status, and we will try to clarify its real genetic relationship to Makhuwa.
References
HYMAN, L.M. & A. MTENJE. 1999. Non-etymological High tones in the Chichewa verb. Malawian
Journal of Linguistics 1, p.121-156.
KISSEBERTH Ch. & D. ODDEN. 2003. Tone. In Nurse & Philippson (eds.) The Bantu Languages,
London: Routledge, p. 59-70.
MEEUSSEN, A.E. 1959. Essai de grammaire rundi. Tervuren: MRAC.
ODDEN, D. 2003. Rufiji-Ruvuma (N10, P10-20). In Nurse & Philippson (eds.) The Bantu
Languages, London: Routledge, p.529-544.
NURSE, D. 1988. The diachronic background to the language communities of Southwestern
Tanzania. SUGIA, 9 : 15-115.
VAN DER WAL, J. 2009. Word order and information structure in Makhuwa-Enahara. Ph.D.
Thesis. Leiden University, LOT, Utrecht.
1 The macro-stem is the verb stem + the OM if t<strong>here</strong> is one.
2 Rundi (Meeussen 1959) exceptionally has a grammatical H assigned to MS1 in a few forms, almost all of which have
the future marker -zóo (in case the marker is toneless -zoo-, no H appears).
3 Guthrie’s N10 has been shown by Nurse (1988) to belong with P10 (“Rufiji-Ruvuma”, cf. Odden 2003) apart from
N15 Tonga which belongs with N20. N20 and N40 languages are toneless, N30 languages have a lexical H/L contrast in
verb radicals, which however exhibit no relationship to Common Bantu tones (Hyman & Mtenje, 1999).
4 Note that tone doubling applies in Cuwabo, albeit with certain restrictions, detailed in our talk.