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Boundary Tone
The term boundary tone refers to a rise or fall in pitch that occurs in speech at the end of a sentence or other utterance, or, if a sentence is divided into two or more intonational phrases, at the end of each intonational phrase. It can also refer to a low or high intonational tone at the beginning of an utterance or intonational phrase. The term was first introduced in a PhD thesis on English intonation by Mark Liberman in 1975 but without being developed further. It was taken up again in 1980 in another PhD thesis on English intonation by Janet Pierrehumbert. In Pierrehumbert's model, which later developed into the ToBI system of intonational transcription, every intonational phrase is marked as ending in a boundary tone, written either H% when the speaker's voice rises up or remains high, or L% when it falls or remains low. In modern intonational studies the term 'boundary tone' replaces the notion of 'terminal junctures' (falling #, rising //, and level /) used in earlier ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chichewa Tones
Chichewa (a Bantu language of Central Africa, also known as Chewa, Nyanja, or Chinyanja) is the main language spoken in south and central Malawi, and to a lesser extent in Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Like most other Bantu languages, it is tonal; that is to say, pitch patterns are an important part of the pronunciation of words. Thus, for example, the word (high-low-low) 'maize' can be distinguished from (low-low-high) 'cassava' not only by its consonants but also by its pitch pattern. These patterns remain constant in whatever context the nouns are used. Tonal patterns also play an important grammatical role in Chichewa verbs, helping to distinguish one tense from another, and relative clause verbs from main clause verbs. Tones are also used in intonation and phrasing. Conventionally Chichewa is said to have high tones (H) and low tones (L). However, it has been argued that it is more accurate to think of it as having high-toned syllables versus toneless ones.Myers (1998). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |