|
Symbol |
Value |
| |
|
| Imp |
Imperative |
| Incl |
Inclusive |
| inf |
Inferential |
| instr |
Instrumental |
| Io |
Indirect object |
| masc |
masculine |
| nom |
nominative |
| pl |
plural |
| prf |
perfective |
| prg |
progressive |
| prn |
pronoun |
| pst |
past tense |
| rprt |
reportive |
| snt |
sentence marker |
| tns |
tense |
| VR |
Valency-Role marker |
| Q |
interrogation marker |
| * |
ungrammatical |
|
|
PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY |
|
2.
|
Mao Naga Speech Sounds |
|
2.0
|
This section describes the speech sounds of Mao in terms of their
production and distribution in words. Tones, vowels and consonants are
dealt with in that order.
|
|
2.1 |
Tones |
|
2.1.1
|
There are four lexically distinctive tones in Mao Naga. It is a register system with all the four tones being pretty level1.
We name the distinctive pitch levels High tone. Lower High tone, Mid tone
[or Higher Low] and
|
|
1 [a]
|
Mao Naga intonation will presumably have pitch
contours. In the context of a question like
|
| ni1 |
avu2 |
le3 |
mo4 -o5
|
‘will3 you1 |
not4 |
take food2 |
?5 |
|
the final question-marking morpheme o, spoken on
the second highest level lexical tone, could show a significant
rising contour pitch as a result of interaction between
lexical tone and sentential tone [=intonation]. Intonation
is outside the perimeters of this grammar.
|
[b]
|
‘pretty’ level because in normal speech, human
beings cannot keep the pitch of their voice absolutely level.
|
