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Article published In:
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
Vol. 47:1 (2024) ► pp.118–139

Tone sandhi in Nuosu Yi at the interface

Phonological evidence for morphological structures

| International Christian University | IIT Guwahati
| Kobe City University of Foreign Studies | Meishan Pharmaceutical College

Nuosu Yi, a Tibeto-Burman language, has a tone sandhi pattern, where a lexical [33] -tone is realized as [44]-tone on the surface. This tone sandhi pattern in Nuosu Yi is described as having a “weak phonological status (Gerner, 2013: 28)”. In this study, we confirm this observation and further show the role of phonological length in the tone sandhi patterns. A closer examination of the sandhi contexts, however, reveals an intricate interplay between phonology and morphology of various aspects of Nuosu Yi grammar. Tone sandhi is conditioned by word size and morphological processes. Monosyllabic words, but not multi-syllabic words, tend to undergo tone sandhi, and tone sandhi is sensitive to morphological operations such as compounding.

Keywords: Nuosu Yi, tone sandhi, monosyllabicity, compounding, phonology-morphology interface
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Tone and tone sandhi in Nuosu Yi
    • 2.1Contrastive tonal categories
    • 2.2Tone sandhi patterns
  • 3.Tone sandhi revisited
    • 3.1Multi-syllabic stems
      • 3.1.1Nominal structure
      • 3.1.2Reduplication of verb and adjective
      • 3.1.3Post-verbal adverb
      • 3.1.4Nominalization
    • 3.2Why tone sandhi is not phonological in Nuosu Yi
    • 3.3Differences in varieties of Nuosu Yi
    • 3.4Summary
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1Monosyllabicity: Phonological length
    • 4.2Derivation and compounding in Nuosu Yi tone sandhi
    • 4.3Tone sandhi as structure revealing (when ambiguating)
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 17 May 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltba.00019.lee
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