Doctoral Dissertation Research: Tone and Variation in Idakho

Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Abstract

The Luyia languages, like many Bantu languages, mark verbal distinctions with melodic high tones. Different tenses target different positions of the stem in assigning these melodic high tones, and some tonal rules will apply within verbs in some tenses, but not others. The goal of this project is to assess the usefulness of inter-varietal tonal evidence in positing historical reconstructions. In probing this question, the project will comprehensively describe and analyze the verbal and nominal tonology of six Kenyan varieties of the Luyia language group: Idakho, Isukha, Nyore, Kisa, Marama, and Tsotso. The verbal tonology will be probed through a questionnaire which varies features of the verbal form. A questionnaire asking speakers to pronounce many nouns in a variety of semantic and syntactic contexts will probe the nominal tonology. These questionnaires will produce a rich dataset that will allow for the historical reconstructions based on segmental evidence to be compared with those suggested by tonal evidence. The usefulness of tonal evidence in positing historical reconstructions will be further assessed through an investigation of the synchronic variation within the Idakho variety. The speech of approximately 36 speakers subdivided into 6 groups will be compared, with special attention paid to three indicators: (i) the number and type of tense distinctions speakers maintain, (ii) grammatical properties of the tonal melodies, and (iii) the phonetic aspects of tone production. The parameters dividing the six groups are: (i) hometown (three rural Idakho communities) and (ii) current residence (original hometown vs. Nairobi). The project will shed light on the susceptibility of tonal systems like those of the Luyia languages to change, especially in response to contact with other languages. Furthermore, language learners, language teachers, and NGO workers will gain access to hitherto unavailable dictionary materials, descriptions of noun and verb formation, and an audio archive containing native-speaker pronunciations of many words.