Beyond Time - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

C.2.1 HTA within words
HTA may be seen clearly in the infinitive forms of verb roots, which are either toneless or
are associated with a single lexical H tone. The H tone from a verb root with an associated
H surfaces on the infinitive prefix oku-. An example is given in table C.1, which shows that
toneless input forms (in the left column) surface as all L, whereas roots with a H tone (in
the right column) surface with a H on the prefix. Input H tones are underlined. 4
Ø root H root
oku-lwa ‘to fight’ okú-twa ‘to pound’
oku-saka ‘to want’ okú-hoha ‘to pull’
oku-ziika ‘to bury’ okú-biika ‘to hide’
oku-ukuta ‘to shake’ okú-yembela ‘to herd’
Table C.1: Infinitive forms of Ø and H roots
When a toneless object marker (such as 3sg -mu-) occurs between the prefix and the
root, the H tone surfaces on the object marker, as in table C.2, which shows that H tones
surface one syllable to the left of the input H.
Ø root H root
oku-mu-ziika ‘to bury him’ oku-mú-biika ‘to hide him’
oku-mu-ukusa ‘to shake him’ oku-mú-hupula ‘to think of him’
Table C.2: Infinitives with (Ø) object markers
Subject markers apparently do not contrast for tone within a paradigm.
C.2.2 HTA across words
As hinted in example (530), HTA also occurs across words. A number of input forms have
initial Hs, including vocalic noun augments, and locative prefixes a-, ku-, and -mu-. The
initial H surfaces on the final vowel of a previous word, as in (531).
(531) oku-ya ‘to go’ + ku-mu-lónga ‘to river (cl.3)’ →
okuyá ku-mu-lónga ‘to go to the river’
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