Tonal Re-patterning of Anaang Reduplicates

Tonal Re-patterning of Anaang Reduplicates

Tonal Re-patterning of Anaang Reduplicates, Compounds and Associative Constructions
Ajao, Ibukun Dorcas
School of General Studies, Redeemer’s College of Technology and Management
Redemption Camp, Ogun State, Nigeria
HYPERLINK ;mailto:[email protected]; [email protected]
Abstract
Tone is a feature that consists of pitch levels which when changed or substituted with another brings about semantic contrast. The study is on ‘Tonal Re-patterning of Anaang Reduplicates, Compounds and Associative Constructions’. The researcher got the data needed for the study from four consultants selected based on the period of years they have lived in the speech community using a compiled wordlist. The analysis shows that reduplicated, compounded words and associative constructions undergo changes in Anaang language. Reduplicated CV, CVC and CVC(C)V verbs with L / L-H tones have the reduplicative prefix re-patterned to L-H tone while the root still maintains its inherent tone. All Anaang reduplicated nouns having high-high (H-H) tonal pattern assume HH!HH when reduplicated. Anaang compound and associative construction with the second noun’s underlying tone being either L-L, L-L-L, H-H, L-H, H-H-H-L assumes H-L, H-L-L, H-L, H!H, H-L-L-L tonal patterns respectively. Tone is the significant aspect of the grammar of any language most especially in the grammatical aspect of it when applied to grammatical categories like reduplication, compounding, associative constructions, relativisation, nominalisation, tense, etc as their basic tonal patterns tend to undergo some changes. The role of tone in the grammar of Anaang language is so enormous but with more studies there are still lot of things to be unearthed.

1.0Introduction
Tone is the stress on the syllable of a word, whether high, low or intermediate (Ogbalu 1974:18). Also, Crystal (1987:172) states that, “in well over half of the languages of the world, it is possible to change the meaning of a word simply by changing the pitch level at which it is spoken”. Tone is one of the commonest and significant autosegmental units in African languages. Most African languages are tonal though in Nigeria, Fulfulde language is non-tonal (Essien 2010:151).

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Schane (1973:49) asserts that “when morphemes are combined to form words, the segments of neighbouring morphemes become juxtaposed and sometimes undergo change”.
Schane’s statement implies that in speech production, there are certain alternations in structure of words when combined and since tone is also a unit extending over segments; it implies that when the segments get affected their tones also do undergo such changes. By implication, when morphemes are combined in speech production apart from segmental changes, there are tonal changes which we refer to as ‘Tonal Re-patterning’. Tonal re-patterning has been observed in Ibibio reduplicated words by Essien (2008:105) where the low/rising tone on CV roots becomes falling tone when reduplicated as seen in the examples;
1. (a)nò (give) – nòónô (give instead of keeping it)
(b)k? (go) – kàákâ (go instead of sitting)
Also in CVC roots, the final consonant of the root is deleted and the high tone root still maintains its status as seen in the example below;
2.dép (buy) – déédép (buy instead of asking for free)
The root with low tone acquires a falling tone as seen in the example below;
3. bòm (break it) – bòóbôm (break it instead of preserving it)
Urua (2007:5) also attests to the case of tonal re-patterning as she asserts that “tonal alternation is also a characteristic of compounding and associative construction in Ibibio. The tonal pattern of the second noun in compounds and associative constructions assumes an H-L pattern if the underlying pattern were H-H, L-L, H-L or H-HL. However, if the second noun has an underlying L-H or H-! H pattern, then the second noun assumes an H-! H pattern” as seen in the following examples:
4. (a) úf?k “house” + íb?k “drug” = úf?Ríb?k “hospital” (Compound)
(b) úf?k “house” + àbàsì “God” = úf?Rábàsì “church”
5. (a) úkót “leg” + ébót “goat” = úkó?ébòt “leg of goat” (Associative construction)
(b)mf?n “goodness” + ìn? “thief” = mf?ní!n? “goodness of a thief”
Having seen the way tone works and behaves above, this prompted the study on ‘Tonal Re-patterning of Anaang Reduplicates, Compounds and Associative Constructions’ to see if all that has been observed by the scholars could also be the case in Anaang language.

Anaang People and their Genetic Classification
Anaang is a cultural and ethnic group that lives in Coastal Southeast Nigeria that consists of over one million people in the Western part of Akwa Ibom state of Nigeria. Anaang people, (http://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com/2013/06/annang-people-nigerias-artistic-people.html) are 1,101,160 consisting of 570,581 males and 530,585 females in all the eight Local Government Areas that speak Anaang language. The Local Government Areas include; Abak, Essien Udim, Etim Ekpo, Ika, Ikot Ekpene, Obot Akara, Oruk Anam and Ukanafun. The people speak Anaang language with its various dialects spoken in some of the eight Local Government Areas.

Genetically, the Anaang language belongs to the Central Lower Cross group of the Lower Cross language with which Ibibio, Efik and Ukwa belong in the new classification by Connell (1991) as cited in Michael and Obot 2001:15).

1.2Objectives of the Study
Specifically, the study on tonal re-patterning in Anaang language aims at achieving the following objectives:
i.To account for the behaviour of tone in Anaang reduplicated words.

ii.To account for the behaviour of tone in Anaang compound words.

iii.To account for the behaviour of tone in Anaang associative constructions.

1.3Scope of the Study
This study explores the behaviour of tone in Anaang reduplicated words, compounds and associative constructions. Specifically, the study explores reduplicated words within the verb, adjective and noun classes while the associative constructions are within the noun class only. From the work reviewed on reduplication in Ibibio language, duplicate of a reduplicated verb with a different tone from the base form might just be as a result of an underlying floating tone and it is not within the researcher’s scope to analyse floating tones in Anaang reduplicates.

1.4Research Methodology
The study adopts the descriptive research design. The researcher adopted this technique because descriptive research is applied in nature, uses the theoretical model and data as a basis for identifying and describing aspects of usage in different languages where every phenomena then gains detailed attention and accurate description.

The Ibiakpan community, a village in Ikot-Ekpene of Akwa Ibom state where the data was collected from has three clans (Ikot Udo Imuk, Nto Ntie and Ikot Ikpang) and there are thirty five compounds in each of them. Each of the compounds then consists of ten people. Ibiakpan community then consists of approximately one thousand people from which the sample was drawn from.

1.5Sample and Sampling Procedure
The researcher made use of three elderly men who were drawn out of about one thousand people in the speech community based on the period of years they have used in the speech community, which is at least twenty years. The three men were Chief Udo Effiong Ukpe, who had lived in the speech community for 53 years, Mr. Bassey Udo Ekerete, who had lived in the speech community for 50 years and Mr Obed Ekpo, who had lived in the speech community for 25 years.
2.0Literature Review
2.1Theoretical framework
Autosegmental phonology is a framework of phonological analysis proposed by John Goldsmith in his PhD thesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976. The major premise of autosegmental phonology is that phonological representations consist of more than one linear sequence of segments, each linear sequence constitute a separate tier. In essence, autosegmental phonology deals with several separate linear sequences. A phonological representation is depicted on several distinct tiers, be it segmental tier that contains the features that define the segments articulated in the phonological representation or tone tier that contains the features that show the distribution of tones in the phonological representation. The tiers are connected to each other by “association lines” that allow a neat one to one mapping between tiers. Matthews (2007:33) indicates that autosegments are represented at a structural level which is higher than that of the individual vowel or consonant segments. Goldsmith (1976:48) stated some wellformedness conditions which are:
All vowels are associated with at least one tone.

All tones are associated with at least one vowel.

Association lines do not cross.

2.2Tone
Welmers (1973:172) also has it that “tone has to do with the distinction of pitch in the flow speech”. Essien (2008:52) states that “tone is a contrastive pitch”. Crystal (1987:172) states that, “it is possible to change the meaning of a word simply by changing the pitch level at which it is spoken”.
From the above, it could therefore be concluded that tone is that pitch in voice that once substituted for another in a flow of speech brings about meaning difference.

2.3Reduplication
Pei (1966:230) asserts that reduplication is “a morphological process whereby there is a repetition of a radical element or part of it, occurring usually at beginning of a word, occasionally within the word”. Essien (1986:68) sees it as “a process by which a category or constituent of a sentence can be doubled”.
Reduplication is therefore a morphological process where a root or stem is totally or partially repeated in the derivation of a new form.

2.3.1Tonal Re-patterning of Ibibio Reduplicated Words
According to Essien (2008:ix), Ibibio of Akwa Ibom state belongs to the Benue-Congo sub-family which in turn belongs to the Niger-Congo family has both partial and full reduplication form. It has been observed by Essien (2008:104) that “whether there is deletion at all or what part of the root is deleted if there is deletion, depends on the syllable structure. If the root is CV, there is no deletion at all as seen below;
6. (a) bò “receive” = bòóbô “receive instead of reject”
If the root is CVC, the final consonant of the root is deleted.

(b) dép “buy” = déédép “buy instead of asking for free one”
(c) bòm “break” = bòóbôm “break instead of preserving it”
The second syllable of disyllabic roots is always deleted as seen in the example;
(d) fèghé “run” = fèéféghè “run instead of standing still”
From the above examples, it has been concluded that the tones on the root words are re-patterned in the reduplicated forms. In 6(a) example, the tone bearing unit in the root form assumes falling tone when reduplicated, in 6(b) the root with high tone still maintains its high tone when reduplicated, 6(c) example with low tone assumes falling tone when reduplicated as seen in ‘bòm’.

2.4Compounding
Booij (2007:75) asserts that compounding “is the most frequently used means of producing new lexemes consisting of the combination of lexemes into larger words”. Ndimele (2007:100) sees it as “a process of joining two or more formally independent roots to form a single word”.
From the foregoing discussion, there is no approved definition of compounding. It is just a process of joining two or more words in isolation together to derive a new word.

2.4.1Tonal Re-patterning in Ibibio Compounds
Urua (2007:5) also attests to the fact that tone behaves differently in Ibibio compound words. The tonal pattern of the second noun in a compound assumes an H-L pattern if the underlying pattern is either H-H, L-L, H-L or H-HL but if the second noun has an underlying L-H or H-! H pattern, then the second noun assumes an H-! H pattern as seen in her examples below;
7. (a) úf?k “house” + íb?k “drug” = úf?Ríb?k “hospital”
(b)úf?k “house” + àbàsì “God” = úf?Rábàsì “church”

2.5Associative Construction
Associative construction ( HYPERLINK "http://www.akan.org/akan_cd/ALIAKAN/course/U4-Grammar-p20.html" http://www.akan.org/akan_cd/ALIAKAN/course/U4-Grammar-p20.html), is a type of grammatical construction used to express a relationship between two nouns such as the possession of one by another. It involves two nouns, the head (or modified noun) and the dependent (or modifier noun). The dependent noun modifies the head by expressing some properties of it. For example, in the construction “Ibukun’s book”, “book” is the head and “Ibukun” is the modifier expressing a property of the book (owned by Ibukun).

2.5.1Tonal Re-patterning of Ibibio Associative Construction
Urua (2007:182) asserts that “the associative constructions in Ibibio have specific tonal patterns associated with them, especially with respect to the second and subsequent items in the group”. She backed up her above statement with the examples below;
8. (a) úb?k “hand” + ?káníká “clock” = úb?R?kànìkà “hand of clock”
(b) úb?k “hand” + èté “father” = úb?Ré!té “hand of father”
3.0Findings and Discussion
3.1Tonal behaviour of Anaang reduplicated verbs
Reduplicated CV, CVC verbs with high (H) tone and the CVC(C)V with high-high (H-H) tone have the reduplicative prefix and the root still maintaining their tonal patterns as seen in the data below:
9. (a) Base: C V

/ t a / “chew”

H

Red.Prefix: /t a a t a/

H

Map and Spread: CV V CV

/t a a t a/ “chew” (instead of swallowing)

H
(b) BASE: CVC
/d om/ “bite”
H
Red.Prefix: /doodom/
H
Map and Spread: CVVCVC
/d o o d o m/ “bite” (instead of looking)
H
(c) Base: C VC V
/s a n a/ “clean”
H H
Red.Prefix: /sasan a/
H H
Map and Spread: CVC VC V
/s a s a n a/ “clean” (instead of standing)
H H
From the above data, the bold unbroken associative line stands for a pre-linked association line (already there with the base). The broken association line stands for linking i.e. creation of an association line caused by reduplication thereby causing a leftward spread of the high tone from the base to the vowels of the reduplicative prefix.

Reduplicated CV, CVC verbs with low tone and the CVC(C)V with low-high (L-H) tone have the reduplicative prefix assume low-high (L-H) sequence while the root still maintains its inherent tone as seen in the data:
10. (a) Base: C V
/kw e/ “cover”
L
Red.Prefix: /kweekwe/
L
Mapping: C V V C V
/kw e ekw e/ “cover” (instead of opening)
LH L
(b) Base: C VC
/b o m/ “break”
L
Red.Prefix: /boobom/
L
Mapping: C VV C VC
/b o o b o m/ “break” (instead of holding)
L H L
(c) Base: CV C V
/s a ? a/ “walk”
L H
Red.Prefix: /saasa?a/
L H
Map and Spread: CVC V CV
/ s a s a ? a/ “walk” (instead of running)
L H
From the data (10a&b) above, the vowels of the reduplicative prefix have different tones. There seems to be an underlying floating tone somewhere responsible for the difference in tone and it is not within the researcher’s scope to analyse floating tones in reduplicates but just the surface tones alone. From data (10c) above, the vowel of the reduplicative prefix has a rising tone due to the taking up of the low-high (L-H) melody from the base. Also, all the examples on Anaang reduplicated verbs with CV, CVC, CVC(C)V roots have been re-syllabified into CVVCV, CVVCVC and CVVCVC(C)V respectively.

3.2Tonal behaviour in Anaang reduplicated nouns
Anaang reduplicated nouns with any type of tonal pattern excluding high-high (H-H) tonal pattern still maintain their tonal patterns as seen below:
11. (a) Base: /ena?/ “cow”
H L
Copy: /ena?-ena?/
H L
Mapping: /ena?-ena?/ “cow-like”
H L H L
(b) Base: /m b i d e/ “play”
L L H
Copy: /m b i d e-m b i d e/
L L H
Mapping: /mbide-mbide/ “playfully”
L L H L L H
Anaang reduplicated nouns with high-high (H-H) tonal patterns assume H-H! H-H tonal pattern as seen below:
12. (a) Base: /e to/ “stick”
H H
Copy: /eto-eto/
H H
Mapping: /e t o e to/ “stiffly”
H H! H H
(b) Base: /i k a ?/ “fire”
H H
Copy: /ika?-ika?/
H H
Mapping: /i k a ? i k a ?/ “fire- like”
H H ! H H
From the (12a&b) data above, since the high tone on them still remains in isolation, the only plausible thing is that there must have been an underlying floating low tone somewhere that is downstepping the following high tone but it is not within the researcher’s scope to analyse floating tone in reduplicates.

3.3Tonal behaviour in Anaang reduplicated adjectives
In Anaang, adverbs are derived from the reduplication of adjectives. Anaang reduplicated adjectives still maintain their inherent tones when reduplicated as seen below:
13. (a) Base: /a f a/ “new”
H H
Copy: /afa-afa/
H H
Mapping: /a f a- a f a/ “very new”
H H H H
(b) Base: /ndoppo/ “heavy”
L H H
Copy: /ndoppo-ndoppo/
L H H
Mapping: /ndoppo-ndoppo/ “very heavy”
L H H L H H

4.1Tonal behaviour of Anaang compound words
Anaang compound word which its second noun's underlying tone is either L-L, L-L-L, H-H-H-L, L-H assumes H-L, H-L-L, H-L-L-L and H-!H tonal pattern while the one with H-L or H-!H tonal pattern still maintains its tone when compounded, as seen below:
14. (a) Noun 1 & 2: i. /e kp a d/ “bag” ii. /? w e d/ “book”
L L L L
Compound: /ekpad/ + /?wed/
L L L L
Mapping: /e kpa??wed/ “school-bag”
L L H L
(b) Noun 1 & 2: i. /? w e d/ “book” ii. /a b a s i/ “God”
L L L L L
Compound: /? wed/ + /abasi/
L L L L L
Mapping: /? w e ? a b a s i/ “bible”
L L H L L
(c) Noun 1 & 2: i. /m kp?/ “something” ii. /uta?ik?/ “talk”
H H H H H L
Compound: /m kp ?/ + /utanik?/
H H H H H L
Mapping: /mkp?utanik?/ “phone”
H HH L L L
(d) Noun 1 & 2: i. / u f ?k/ “house” ii. /a ? ? ?/ “up”
H L L H
Compound: /uf?k/ + /a???/
H L L H
Mapping: /uf?Ra???/ “up-stairs”
H L H!H
(e) Noun 1 & 2: i. /u d i a/ “food” ii. /? b? ? ?/ “king”
L H H! H
Compound: /u d i a + /? b ? ? ?/
L H H! H
Mapping: /u d i a ? b ? ? ?/ “communion”
L HH! H
(f) Noun 1 & 2: i. /akpan/ “first” ii. /ik?/ “word”
H H H L
Compound: /akpan/ + /ik?/
H H H L
Mapping: /akpanik?/ “truth”
H H H L
Tonal replacement is the feature of the data presented above, the tone of the second item in the group is being replaced with H-L* pattern (the asterisk implies that after the first syllable with a high (H) tone, subsequent syllables irrespective of their number shall have low (L) tone) thereby leading to the re-patterning of the second noun’s underlying tone as illustrated in data (14a-e) above but datum (14f) still maintains its H-L tone. However, if the second item has an inherent L-H or H-! H tone is realised as H-! H. It is however observed that the downstepping of the high tone in the ‘L-H’ pattern of the second item is due to the effect of the preceding low tone.

4.2Tonal behaviour of Anaang Associative Constructions
The associative construction which its second noun's underlying tone is L-L, L-L-L, H-H, H-H-H, H-H-H-H, L-H assumes H-L, H-L-L, H-L, H-L-L, H-L-L-L and H-!H tonal pattern respectively while the one with H-L or H-!H tonal pattern still maintains its pattern when brought together to form associative constructions as seen below:
15 (a) Noun 1 & 2: i. /ikw?/ “song” ii. /akam/ “prayer”
H H L L
Associative Construction: /ikw?/ + /akam/
H H L L
Mapping: /ikw? akam/ “songs of prayer”
H H H L
(b) Noun 1 & 2: i. /owo/ “man” ii. /abasi/ “God”
H H L LL
Associative Construction: /owo/ + /abasi/
H H L L L
Mapping: /owo abasi/ “man of God”
H H H L L
(c) Noun 1 & 2: i. /ibifik/ “breath” ii. /uwem/ “life”
H LL H H
Associative Construction: /ibifik/ + /uwem/
H LL H H
Mapping: /ibif i ?u wem/ “breath of life”
H L L H L
(d) Noun 1 & 2: i. /ikw?/ “song” ii. /idara/ “joy”
H H H H H
Associative Construction: /ikw?/ + /idara/
H H H HH

Mapping: /ikw? idara/ “songs of joy”
H HH L L
(e) Noun 1 & 2: i. /ub?k/ “hand” ii. /?kanika/ “clock”
H H H H H H
Associative Construction: /ub?k/ + /?kanika/
H H H H H H
Mapping: /ub?R?kan ika/ “hand of clock”
H H H L L L
(f) Noun 1 & 2: i. /ekpad/ “bag” ii. /iwa/ “cassava”
L L L H
Associative Construction: /ekpad/ + /iwa/
L L L H
Mapping: /ekpa? i wa/ “bag of cassava”
L L H! H
(g) Noun 1 & 2: i. /en?/ “gift” ii. /? b? ? ?/ “king”
L L H! H
Associative Construction: /en?/ + /? b? ? ?/
L L H! H
Mapping: /en? ? b? ? ?/ “God’s gift”
L LH! H
(h) Noun 1 & 2: i. /utom/ “work” ii. /uf ?k/ “house”
H H H L
Associative Construction: /utom/ + /uf?k/
H H H L
Mapping: /utomuf?k/ “work of the house”
H H H L
In the above examples, second nouns’ tones are re-patterned due to tonal replacement. The basic tones on the second items of the associative constructions have been replaced with HL* tonal melody (the asterisk after the L indicates that any number of low tone is permitted after the high tone) thereby leading to tonal re-patterning as illustrated in data (15a-g) while datum (15h) still maintains its own H-L pattern. However, replacement of tone becomes limited if the basic tone on the second item is L-H or H-! H and it is always re-patterned to H-! H. It is however observed that the downstepping of the high tone in the ‘L-H’ pattern of the second item is due to the effect of the preceding low tone.

5.Conclusion and Recommendation
The researcher has considered tonal re-patterning in Anaang language. Based on the review of literatures on tonal re-patterning in other African languages, it is then confirmed that some Anaang tones are also re-patterned when reduplicated, compounded or brought together to form associative constructions.

Tone plays an important role in Anaang language. The functional load of tone in the grammar of any African language is so enormous and there is no doubt that there is still lot more to be unearthed if further studies are carried out. The researcher hereby recommends further studies on reduplication in the suffix position (reversive). For instance, tèm (cook) – tèmmé (to take up a cooking from fire) where the sounds are copied leftwards with the deletion of the onset ‘t’. The researcher also recommends further studies on underlying floating tone in reduplicates since it was not within the researcher’s scope in this study.
The researcher having been able to read some of the works done by scholars on tone in other languages hereby further studies on reciprocation (doing something for one another) and relativisation. For instance in Ibibio language where, a low tone replaces the inherent tone of the relativised verb / verb of a reciprocal construction. For instance, má (love) , d? (marry) become é-dú-mà-kà (love one another) and é-dú-d??-?? (marry one another) in reciprocal construction while in relativised constructions, dép (buy) and bá?á (make fire) become áà-dèp-pè (one who has bought something) and áà-bà?à-kè (one who has made fire) respectively.

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