5.6.1.

Tonal changes in the nominalising prefix (ke1)

(9) (i) -ni̋ → keni̋

happy happiness

pruő → kepruő
to fly flight

khrié → kekhrié
to love love (n.)

ví → keví
good good (n.)

mù → kemù
sweet sweetness

The nominalising prefix (ke1) only changes the tone of the stem when there is a Mid
tone in the stem, as seen in (9) (ii).

(9) (ii) tʃhɑ̄ → ketʃhɑ́

to ask asking

siē → kesié
to die death

lhū → kelhú
to live life

The observation here is that where a change in tone takes place, the Mid tone is involved and
it changes into a High tone. This will be observed again later in the other prefixes.
5.6.2. Tonal changes in the reciprocal prefix (ke3)

(10) (i) té → ketē

to catch to catch each other

pfhé → kepfhē
to wait to wait for each other

bié → kebiē
to touch to touch each other; to battle

ŋú → keŋū
to see to see each other

sē → kesé
to meet to meet each other

pű → kepú
to say to say to each other; to announce

The process of reciprocal prefixation usually maintains the same tone in the stem and
the output, even with the High tone in stem. (10) (i) therefore seem more like exceptions.

(10) (ii) ne̋ → kene̋

to push to push each other

tʃhié → ketʃhié
to challenge to challenge each other

rhié → kerhié
to accuse to accuse each other

və́ → kevə́
to beat to beat each other

lī → kelī
to change to exchange

dɑ̄ → kedɑ̄
to blame to blame each other

tɑ̄ → ketɑ̄
to bite to bite each other

pè → kepè
to shoot to shoot each other

tsə̀ → ketsə̀
to give to give each other
5.6.3. Tonal changes in the attributive prefix (ke2)

Unlike the other two prefixes of the ‘ke’ form, the attributive prefix (ke2) shows uniformity.

(11) tʃhɑ̄ → ketʃhɑ́ ‘tall’

tʃiē → ketʃié ‘wet’

khruō → kekhruó ‘sour’

krɑ̄ → kekrɑ́ ‘many’

kuō → kekuó ‘strong’

lē → kelé ‘hot’

lhē → kelhé ‘salty’

liō → kelió ‘fat’

mē → kemé ‘ripe’

piē → kepié ‘bald’

ʃuō → keʃuó ‘fatty’

zī → kezí ‘early’

No change in tone is seen in other cases as is seen in (12) and (13). No exceptions.

There are no changes in tone for predicative adjectives with tones other than Mid.

(12) ni̋ → keni̋ ‘happy’

ʒɑ̋ → keʒɑ̋ ‘big’

ví → keví ‘good’

mù → kemù ‘sweet’

sì → kesì ‘cold’

lé → kelé ‘to think’

Predicative words of more than one syllable also do not undergo any change in tone.

(13) meŋɑ́ → kemeŋɑ́ ‘shy’

kekrə̋ → kekrə̋ ‘wrong’ (/ke.kekrə̋/ in an underlying form)

ziví → keziví ‘beautiful’

metī → kemetī ‘strong’

mezɑ̄ → kemezɑ̄ ‘light’

thepfə̀ → kethepfə̀ ‘brave’

 Cumulatively in Tone
Savio Meyase
February 25, 2019

1 The tonal data

The attributive prefix /ke/ triggers a tone change to only one of the four tones in the stem:

(1) Mid ke- + Extra High stem

ke ◦

L H

H H No change

(2) Mid ke- + High stem

ke ◦

L H

H L No change

(3) Mid ke- + Low stem

ke ◦

L L

H L No change

(4) Mid ke- + Mid stem yields a Mid-High sequence.

ke ◦ ke ◦

L L L H

H H → H L

1
2 The analysis
Explanation: The tonal change is due to OCP in the tonal features. However it is not because of a
simple OCP but because of two OCPs, both in H and L, at the same time, that drives the change.
I am using the conjunt constratint OCP(H) & OCP(L) for this purpose. I could also use weights in
Harmonic Grammar and claim it to be a ganging-up effect, but I don’t yet know the finer details of
the differences between these two approaches.

(5) Tableau for the change observed:

ke ◦

L L

H H ConstraintX OCP(H) & OCP(L) Max(T) Dep(T) OCP(H) OCP(L)

◦ ◦

L L

a. H H ∗! ∗ ∗
◦ ◦

H L

b. L H ∗!
◦ ◦

L H L

c. H ∗! ∗
◦ ◦

L H L

d. H L H ∗!∗
◦ ◦

L H

R e. H L

I still have to figure out what exactly ConstraintX is, some faithfulness which I believe is posi-
tional. The other option is to assume prefix faithfulness in tone over root/stem faithfulness, which I
don’t know if I can support strongly.
Based on whatever the constraint is, candidate (e) should violate some other related constraint
which is ranked very lowly.

2
(6) Tableau for an instance of no tonal change (here, example (1)):

ke ◦

L H

H H ConstraintX OCP(H) & OCP(L) Max(T) Dep(T) OCP(H) OCP(L)

◦ ◦

L H

R a. H
◦
H
◦
∗

L H

b. H ∗!
◦ ◦

L H

c. H L H ∗!
◦ ◦

H H

d. L H ∗! ∗