Background: Lexical tones in Na, a.k.a. Naxi (Sino-Tibetan): A simple tonal system.

1. The phonetic evolution of reduplicated expressions: reduplication, lexical tones and prosody in Na (Naxi) Alexis Michaud*, ** and Jacqueline Vaissière** *Laboratoire de Langues et Civilisations à Tradition Orale, CNRS/Sorbonne/Sorbonne Nouvelle **Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie, CNRS/Sorbonne Nouvelle alexis.michaud@vjf.cnrs.fr, jacqueline.vaissiere@univ-paris3.fr ABSTRACT In Na, a Sino-Tibetan language with lexical tones, some reduplication schemes involve tone change, whereas others consist in full reduplication without tone change. The synchronic coexistence of these two sets allows for an experimental comparison, which leads to a simple explanation. Both sets appear to originate in total reduplication, without tone change, the schemes which now involve tone change resulting from a later evolution: the phonologisation of the effect of intonational boundaries on pitch. A High tone in final position within the reduplicated compound is lowered to Mid; an initial Low tone is raised, also to Mid. A reflection is set out concerning the historical conditions under which the allophonic variation of lexical tones could be reinterpreted as a difference of tonal categories. Keywords: prosody; intonation; intonational junctures (boundaries); lexical tone; accent. Speaker M5: /LHLH/ in isolation... Background: Lexical tones in Na, a.k.a. Naxi (Sino-Tibetan): A simple tonal system. Three lexical tones. One tone per syllable.Example: /lɑ́/ « strike », /lɑ̄/ « tiger », /lɑ̀/ « hand ». Starting-point of research: A phonological asymmetry in reduplication patterns. Tonal changes in some « AA » and « AABB » reduplication patterns... H > HM (˥ ˧) M > MM (˧ ˧) L > ML (˧ ˩)LH > MLHM (˧ ˩ ˥ ˧)(e.g. /lɑ́/ « strike » reduplicates to /lɑ́.lɑ̄/ « to quarrel ») ...but not in « ABAB » reduplication: no tonal change. Example: Simplex: /lv̩̀fv̩́/ “lukewarm” (tones: L + H)AABB reduplication: /lv̩̄ lv̩̀ fv̩́ fv̩̄/ (tones: M+L + H+M)ABAB reduplication: /lv̩̀fv̩́ lv̩̀ fv̩́/ (tones: L+H + L+H) Phonetic observation: A phonetic similarity across reduplication patterns, whether they involve categorical change or not. Impressionistic listening: LHLH sequences sound like MHLM.Recorded by 8 speakers. Figures 1, 3, 4: F0 and glottal open quotient (calculated by electroglottography). Figure 2: RMS amplitude. ... and followed by a final particle, for confirmation. Acoustic results:Confirm the phonetic difference between phonologically identical tones. Calls for perceptual verification. Perception experiment:Shows that the phonologically identical tones can be perceived as different when presented in succession. Based on production data of speaker M1 (fig. 1-2). Electroglottographic signal used as stimulus.Fourteen listeners. Identification with reference words or sentences, e.g. /bɑ̄.lɑ̀/ « clothes » for scheme /ML/, /mỳ.tȳ/ « outside » for /LM/. DISYLLABLES:QUADRISYLLABLES: A1+B1+A2+B2 as a quadrisyllabic expression: mostly perceived as M+H+L+M, i.e. first L perceived as M, second L as L; first H as H, second H as M. The phonetic difference between the two H tones is perceived as a categorical difference—one that coincides with the AA and AABB reduplication schemes. Interpretation of the data: The diachronic hypothesis of an evolution towards a word-tone system Origin: total reduplication in all cases. Why some reduplication schemes involve tonal change: HM comes from HH, and ML from LL, through the phonologisation of the intonational marking of boundaries between words and between phrases. Diachronic context within which intonational variation could lead to categorical tone change: For ‘allotonic’ variation to become phonologised, there must have been a tendency towards the establishment of a word-tone pattern: not one tone per syllable, but one pattern for the word. There are analogues to this situation in languages of the Tibeto-Burman area: e.g. Tamang (Mazaudon 1973, and work in progress by M. Mazaudon and A. Michaud), which has a word-tone system. Further synchronic evidence: The marking of boundaries (junctures) by a downtrend is still attested in synchrony, at several levels: lexical word, phrase, sentence, and broader discourse units. We take this as evidence supporting models of prosody as a superposition of several phenomena. [For references, see full text of paper.] ms Measurement of acoustic intensity, for the same data, same speaker. Difference: small. ms Figure 2. Global RMS amplitude curves (normalised by average duration) corresponding with the syllablesin figure 1. Speaker M1. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Many thanks to the Na language consultants and friends, in particular He Xixian and his family; to our colleagues Guo Dalie, He Jiezhen, He Jiren, He Limin, He Xueguang, Huang Xing, and Kong Jiangping; and to Willy Serniclaes for computing the statistics set out in section 4.3