here - 5th International Conference on Bantu Languages

The influence of language contact on Bantu prosodic systems
Laura J. Downing (Göteborg) & Maarten Mous (Leiden)
Bantu languages have been in contact with non-Bantu (and Bantu) neighbors
for centuries, and contact has clearly influenced aspects of the grammar of many
Bantu languages. Theories of language contact assume a distinction between
influence from a non-dominant source language in borrowing against influence from a
dominant source language in situations of language shift. But this dichotomy does not
make clear predictions for prosodic systems. Lexical borrowing with lexical tone can
easily influence the complexity of the lexical prosodic system. For example, Salmons
(1992: 56) has proposed that when tonal languages (like most Bantu languages are)
come into contact with non-tonal languages, tone usually yields to stress, passing
through a pitch-accent stage. This is the scenario proposed for Swahili, which is now
a stress language, and was in intense contact with Omani Arabic, a stress language, at
a formative stage.On the other hand, intonation is often mentioned as something we
cannot switch off when speaking another language than our mother tongue.
We investigate a number of contact situations and their outcomes in terms of
tone/pitch accent, among them Chimwiini. We show that its accent system has been
influenced by contact with Somali, and we critique the hypothesis (Philippson 1993)
that its pitch-accent system is a stage on a path to the development of a stress accent
system like the one found in Swahili. We conclude with a number of research
questions and a research agenda in this underresearched domain.
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