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Eitig~a 14 (1966) l-13, Q

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THE ASSIMILATED LOW TONE IN YORUBA

AYC) BAMGBC@E

In the phonological analysis of vowel-initial disyllabic nouns in

Yoruba, it is usual to have a two-tone contrast in the first syllable

and a three-tone contrast in the second, i.e. a contrast between a

-mid tone and a low tone in the first syllable; eg.

$$ vehicle

#&3 spear l)

and a contrast between a high, a mid and a low tone in the second

syllable, e.g.

pkfi hoe

pkp

husband

pkQ

vehicle

@d _enemy

fita champion

$2 place name.

In a disyllabic noun having an initial I-: tone, some scholars2)

j Tones

are indicated as follows: high /I, lc;w 1.1, mid, (unmarked), and

the assimilated low tone {see later) is indicated by a dot. The letter N after

a vowel letter indicates that the vowel is nasalised. The letters Q, 9, Q stand

for /3/, /E/, 1/j respectively.

R. C. Abraham has an irLtia1 high tone in the worg @a equality. See

Dectionary

of Modern Yoruba, 1950,

pp. xi; 507. In fact this word is

pgba.

This would have been considered a typing error wcx-e it not for a compound

formation from this word cited as

Z& b & ba

equally (which should have

been

Z&bppgba). No

vowel-initial disyllabic noun has a high tone in the first

syllable. It is also often said that no vowel-initial noun has an initial high

tone. Cf. Tda Ward,

An l& o&u& on to the Yoruba Language, 1952, p. 26.

Qa the cm&my,

there is

a

tonal assimilation which results in an initial

high tone in some nouns e.g. e&g& -9 tMg&rr nasquerade, o&o --f d&o

boil,

Btta + ta

three.

2) Ward ibid,

p. 35,

Abraham ibid, p. xi, and E. W. Stevick,

Yovuba Basic

ihum,

1963 pp. xvii-xviii.

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AYO BA&tGBO$E

set up a low-rising tone in the second syllable instead of the high

tone. For example, they have $tdf instead of Gtd. In fact, the recog-

nition of

this additional

tone is unnecessary, because there is no

phonological contrast between this tone and a high tone: the

low-rising tone only occurs immediately preceded by an initial

BOW tone and the high tone only occurs immediately preceded by

an

initial mid tone. The difference in pitch between the two tones

car be, and usually is, considered a phonetic difference. The

exponent of a high tone which immediately follows a mid tone

is a high level pitch and the exponent of a high tone which im-

mediately follows a low tone is a low-rising pitch. For example,

igbd calabash

kgbagarden egg.

Differences in the pitch exponents of the tones are not, however,

limited to the high tone. Carnochan has pointed out that a mid

tone immediately preceded by a low tone is regularly lower in

pitch than a mid tone immediately preceded by another mid

tone?) What is left to be pointed out is that it is not only the high

tone and the mid tone that have different pitch exponents, but the

low tone too has two different pitch exponents. For each tone, the

pitch is conditioned by the immediately preceding tone. The fol-

lowing minimal pairs of nouns exemplify these differences:

1. (a) igbd calabash

(b) &gbd garden egg

2. (a) agbo circle

(b)

dgbo

infusion

3. (a) pgbd fence

(b) &bd equal.

An investigation of the pitch differences in these pairs of nouns

was done on a spectrograph.*) The narrow band spectrograms of all

the informants confirm that in the second syllable, 1 (a) has a level

high pitch, and 1 (b) has a low-rising pitch; both 2 (a) and 2 (b)

have a level pitch which is just a little lower than the pitch of

3) J. Carnochan, Pitch, Tone and Intonation in Yoruba See I n HONOW

of

an i e l J ones

(Edited Abercrombie and othkrs) 1964 pp. 402-403.

41) The examples used in this investigation were spoken by Mr. AjimQkQ,

Mr. Wfns&l&, Mr. AdGkun, all of the University of Ibadan, and myself.

The s_pectrograms

were

made by Mr. John Kelly.

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THE ASSIMILATED LOW TONE IN YORUBA

3

1 (a). Contrary to expectation, there does not seem to be any

noticeable difference in pitch between 2 (a) and 2 (b). On the

other hand, Carnochans investigation on a pitch metre shows

that

2 (b) is lower in

forms, to which

a contraction, 2

syllable of 3 (a),

pitch than 2 (a). The spectrograms of contracted

reference will be made later, also show that in

(b) is strikingly lower than 2 (a). In the second

all the spectrograms show a falling pitch starting

at a low point; but in 3 (b), the pitch is low and level. In the first

syllable, the low tone appears as a level low pitch or a falling pitch

starting at a low point; but the mid tone appears as a level pitch

jsimilax to 2 (a)) in all the spectrograms.

In a grammatical structure where a vowel-initial disyllabic

noun is preceded by a verb having a high tone, there is usually,

except in deliberately slow speech, a contraction resulting in the

replacement of the initial mid tone of the noun by the high tone

nc +h

b

v1 cr*e veru

) e.g .

d e ig b d d b a

he wants a calabash

d ft agbo -+ d fdgbo he wants a circle

d f g b d+ 0

&bd

he wants a fence?)

The tonal behaviour of the above contraction is agreed on by

all scholars and confirmed by instrumental investigatlon.6) When

the noun has an initial low tone, however, there is a difference

of opinion among scholars as to whether there is a contraction,

or jest an assimilation of one or the other of the two vowels in

contact.

Abraham, alone of all major scholars of Yoruba, recognises

only an assimilation

:

When a high-to ed verb is followed by a

noun-object, the latter having initial low-toned vowel, then verb

and noun are linked together by means of a high-low falling tone

which glides unbrokenly from high to low?)

d

f e

gbd --+ d f&gbd

he wants a garden egg

d f# dgbo -+ d fadgbo he wants an infusion

d fJ dgbb + d fddgbd he wants a ram

6) For the rules governing the elision of vowels in these s~ruztures, See

A. Bamgboge Assimilation and Contraction in Yoruba Jourrinl

of est

African Langtiages Vol. 2, no. 1, 1965, pp. 23-27.

*) Scs Camochan ibid, p, 403 and

the

spectrographic investigation already

referred to and further discussed below,

7) Abraham ibid. p. xv.

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4

AYQ BAMGBOSE

In the spectrograms made for the above examples, only one out

of four shows a high-falling pitch for the vowels in contact?)

All

the others show a high level pitch (indicating a contraction).

Auditory impression of the pitch also indicates that it is pro-

nounced level high by most informants. Practically all other

scholars of Yoruba analyse the structure as a contraction resulting

in the replacement of the low tone of the noun by the high tone

of the verb. Even Abraham inadvertently recognises this con-

traction in some cases. For example, I& instead of *Z&U from,

jdkii instead of *jdM %it k&ii instead of *ldb,$ squat?) In the

numeral series: m&j) two, m&z three,, . . . rrabw& ten etc.,lo)

all scholars, including Abraham, are agreed that the first syllable

has a high tone. But these words are contractions of the nouns

& two,

& a

three

. . . +wti

ten etc. plus a preceding item

hating a high fone

(probably the verb m4 take). According to

__ -1

Abra%rns rules, the series should have been *~&jh, *m#&,

. .

%n#td

etc.11)

The implication of the contraction of the verb-nominal structure

in the case of a low-tone initial noun is that a different phonological

analysis must be made for this contraction in order to reflect the

contrast between it and a contraction involving a mid-tone initial

noun. In the pair 1 (a) and 1 (b) i.e. the nouns igbd calabash

and igbli garden egg,

we saw earlier on that the pitch difference

in the second.syllable is phonetic and not tonemic i.e. the phonetic

exponent of a high tone immediately preceded by a mid tone is a

high level pitch whereas the exponent of the high tone immediately

preceded by a low tone is a rising pitch. Since in the verb-nominal

contraction involving both nouns, the initial tone of the noun is

replaced by the high tone of the verb, the pitch difference in the

second syllable of the nouns becomes the only contrastive feature

of the contraction. This means that the rising pitch which is

phonetic in the phonological structure of the noun now becomes

8) Further investigation is needed to show whether this is a dialectal

variation.

*) See Abraham ibid. pp. 403, CL, CAL 110 respectively.

10) See Abraham ibid. p. xxxii.

11) A starred example is one that does not occur in Standard Yoruba.

The starred numeral series are, however, found in some dialects of the

language. For example, in the

Ikale dialect.

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THE ASSIMILATED LOW TONE IN YORUBA

5

the exponent of the low-rising tone in the contraction e.g.

b /6gM he wants a calabash

d j+gM he wants a garden egg.

The only scholars who do not have to introduce this new tone are

those that already have it in their analysis of the nouns (i.e. igba

calabash and 4gb& garden egg).

The above solution is so obvious that it has been adopted by

all scholars who have hitherto written on the language. The only

difference of opinion is between those who have a low-rising tone

on this syllable, and those who have a sequence of two syllables:

a low followed by a high (i.e. 6 f&M as opposed to d ftgbh&),.

In the phonological analysis of these contractions, most scholars

have been concerned only with the contractions involving

1 (a)

and 1 (b) nouns. Rut the mn+ra=+c in

. .

---.-. zLvwQ asa th CCdXM XE iilVOhiE~

the other pairs of nouns are no less important. Ward was the first

scholar to point out that the contractions involving 2 (a) and 2 (b)

are contrastive, although she does not give a contrastive phono-

logical analysis for the pair.*) Two scholar@) have since suggested

that the phonetic contrast of the second syllable of 2 (a) and 2 (b)

should be made phonological in order to account for the lexical

contrast between the two nouns. This means that the mid tone in

the second syllable of the contraction will contrast with a new

tone, the lowered mid tone. For example,

b /dgbo he wants a circle

d tdgbd he wants an infusion 14)

This analysis accounts for the contrast in this pair. But there

is still the third pair. So far, no scholar has yet suggested a phono-

logical analysis which will reflect the formal contrast in the pair.

But any native speaker of Yoruba makes a distinction between

a contraction involving 3 (a) such as in he wants a fence and a

contraction involving 3 (b) such as in he wants an equal. To be

consistent, therefore, our phonological arAysis should make the

phonetic difference in the second syllable of 3 (a) and #3 b) phono-

logical. This then means the introductioyl of a new tone - a low-

12)Ward ibid, pp. 33-34.

,

13 Stevick ibid. p. xvii;

Carnochan ibid.

pp.

403-404.

14) In this &ample, the lowered mid tone is indicated in the same way as

Stevick does in his book (ibid. p. xvii).

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AYQ BAMGBOSE

falling tone in the second syllable of the contraction of 3 (a) con-

trasting with a low tone

in 3

(b)

or, to

bring the analysis in line with

that of

the other two pairs, the low tone on 3

(a) and a new tone on

3 (b) e.g.

d f&$d he wants a fence

6

fdgbd he wants an equaS.i~)

We can now summarise the system of tones set up for the second

syllable

in these structures. In the nouns, there arc thl-ee tones:

high, mid, low.

In the verb-nominal contraction. there are six

tone:

:

high, mid, low, low-rising, lowered mid, and new low. In

the verb-nominal contraction, therefore, three tew tones axe

introduced. The

pitch exponents of these three tones are similar

to the pitch exponents of the high, mid and low tones respectively

when they are preceded by a low tone.16) The inference that we

can draw from this is that in spite of the replacement of the low

tone of the noun by the high tone of the verb in a verb-nominal

contraction, the tonal behaviour of the second syllable continues

to be as if it was still preceded by the low tone. Ward was aware

of this when, in talking about the lowered mid tone of the con-

traction, she wrote, The explanation of this would seem that the

suppressed low tone of Me has pulled down the mid tone syllable

of the second syllable . . . The second mid tone, therefore, is not

an independent tone but is conditioned, ;;ts shown above, by the

elision 01 a preceding low-tone syllable. Although Wards obser-

vation 011 this feature iq limited to the lowered mid tone, the same

observaton is, of course, also true of the other two tones of the

contraction: they are also conditioned by the elision of a preceding

low tone. Looking at the phonological structure of the contraction

from this point of view, we can set up a completely new structure

for the contraction involving a noun having an init5.l low tone

syllable. A prosodyl7) to be called an assimiiated lo-~ tone would

15) The symbol used here is an arbitrary one to indicate the new tone

required in the phonological analysis,

16) B. Siertsema in Stress and Tone in Vxuba Vord Composition

Lingua 8, 1959 mentions the three pitch oxponents of the second syllable

of the contraction, but she does not consider two of them phonological.

See p. 398, note 16.

17) See J. T. Bendor-Samuel, The VwbaZ Piece in J& two (Word, Mono-

graph No. 4) 1961, p. 16:

Prosodic features are phonological elements

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THE SSIMIL TED LOW TONE IN YORUB

7

be set up for this contraction. This prosody will operate at the

point where a low tone syllable has been elided; and the syllable

immediately following it will have the same pitch exponents as a

syllable immediately following a low tone syllable.I*) For example,

using a dot to indicate the assimilated low tone, the three pairs of

nouns given earlier will be contrasted in contractions a follows:

((5 igb8) 0 /&bd

he wants a &abash

(b feJgbb) d f&gbd

he wants a garden egg

(6 f4 agbo) d frigbo

he wants a circle

(Q t dgbo) d fkgbo he wants an infusion

(d

f; pgba)d ffigbd

he wants a fence

(b fe $gbd) 6 f#.gbb

he wants an equal?)

The advantages of this phonological analyzes are obvious.

Instead of three additional tones, there is only one prosodic feature;

and the differences in the pitch exponents of the three tones are

phonetic both in the nouns and in the contractions?)

It has already been pointed out that in a verb-nominal conti,c.-

tion, the low tone is replaced by a high tone. This feature is also

true, for the following:

having phonetic exponents which either extend over more than one place in

the syllable or have implications over more than one place in the sjrllable.

The prosodic approach to phonology was introduced by J. R. Firth. See

Sounds and Prosodies in his

Plapevs in

Linguistics, 1957,

pp.

121-l 38.

18) The idea of this kind of phonological analysis was first mentioned by

the writer at the Second West African Languages Longress

held in Daltar

in A?I+ , 1962. See

Actes du Second Colloque

Intelvrtational de Linguistique

Nkgvo-A,iric&e 1963, p* 123.

19) When whistled,

the pitch of the high tone in the first syllable of a

contraction having an assimilated low tone appears higher than that of the

corresponding high tone in the other contraction. One set of spectrograms

of the whistling by one of the informants shows this consistently; but there

is no such consistency in the others. The low tone in the second syllable of

both contractions is shown qn th@ spectrograms as a falling pitch (cf. Stevick

ibid. p. 128), but the fall is much sharper in the case of a mid-tone initial

noun.

20) Fro- the spelling point of view, an additional advantage is that the

awkward sequence of three vowel letters in some words would be reduced

to two e.g.

kdddv~ (< kz2

ddrb) good morning wil be written as kd.dY6;

gbi5bhn (< gbb

&.5&n

lit.

hear smell) smell will be written as gbb.dYh

For

those scholars who in fact set up four syllables for these words, the

reduction to three syllables is also a more economical phonological analysis.

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THE ASSIMILATED LOW TONE IN YORUBA

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e.g. (dgbd ram) hgbii kt z.gbd any ram

(M plan)

Wke. tb

I*

any plan

(iii) The ordinal numeral series (cf. (i) immediately above)

e.g.

Lke.ji/ike. qi

the second

(< %kd t $ taking of two)

kg.tu/ikp.ta

the third (