The Angami phonemic inventory consists of five tones, six vowels
and forty consonants. A phonetic description and a
phonemicization of each of the phones and tones follows: Tones
are dealt with first followed by vowels and consonants.
1.0.1.
Tone
Angami is a non-restricted tone language. Pitch distinctions
which are an integral part of the syllable are lexically
significant in Angami. They are decisive in distinguishing
lexical items. It is a non-restricted tone language because
tones are assigned to syllables on a relatively free basis and
are not constrained by any overall tone pattern in the word.
TONAL INVENTOR
1.
High
/
2.
Mid
_
3.
Mid Fall
4.
Low Fall
5.
Low
\
High tone is characterized by a strikingly high pitch. It is
basically a high level tone but may fall slightly at its
termination, which, however, is not significant.
th
‘hair’
k
‘house’
p
‘to speak’
Mid tone is a level pitch with no rise or fall. It is the normal
speaking pitch of an Angami.
‘I’
hik
‘we (excl.pl.)’
pu
‘father’
The Mid Falling tone is phonetically a mid level fall
wh
‘to cover’
hm
‘to be an enemy’
rj
‘to float’
The Low Falling tone has an onset lower than mid level but
slightly higher than the low level tone. It goes level for some
time and falls low. It is the longest of all tones in duration.
It may be realised as a level tone between Mid and Low tones,
which, however, is not phonemically significant
th
‘to bargain’
th
‘bow’
h
‘this’
_________
1 Both the phonetics and
phonemics of tone presented in this grammar are improvements
over the same presented in ‘Angami Phonetic Reader’ (CIIL, 1974)
after further exposure to data.
2The symbols to represent tone are
chosen for typographical convenience.
The low tone is the shortest as far as duration is concerned and
the lowest as far as pitch is concerned. It is a level tone.
rj
‘tributary of a river’
th
‘to stand’
bo
‘arm’
The
following minimal set makes the phonemic status of these tones
clear:
p
‘to incline’
p
‘to be fat’
p
‘bridge; drill’
p
‘tremble’
p
‘to shoot ; to flick an object’
It
must be noted that the speech of some speakers has an inventory
of four tones. For them there is no contrast between mid level
and mid falling tones so that /p/
‘fat’ and /p/
‘bridge’ of the above set are homophonous for them. This fact
accounts for linguists identifying four tones or five tones in
Angami.
‘hair’
‘house’
‘to speak’
‘I’
k
‘we (excl.pl.)’
pu
‘father’
‘to cover’
m
‘to be an enemy’
‘to float’
‘this’
j
‘tributary of a river’
‘arm’
‘to incline’
‘to be fat’
‘bridge; drill’
‘to shoot ; to flick an object’
