where
prominence is due to stress, the former can easily be distinguished
from the latter). There are several factors which cause prominence
in Mundari - (i) Prominence by position: Generally the second syllable
in a disyllabic word is prominent as in /bugin/, jala/, turi/, darom/,
horo/, rusa/ and so on. On the other hand, if the following consonant
cluster is like [CvC], the prceding syllable
becomes prominent. In both cases the prominence is due to the position
with or without condition on a word level and this should not be syllables
with stress. (ii) Prominence by stress: All the syllables which are
stressed are more prominent except when the preceding syllable is
not long (as in/laai/’stomach’), occurring with or without
a high pitch. The examples are given above. (iii) Prominence by timbre:
In the same position one vowel is more prominent than the other for
which the reason can be assigned to the inherent vocalic quality.
As for example /a/ is more prominent than any other vowel, therefore
even if it occurs in non-prominent position it may become more prominent
as in /balu/,/sarti/ etc. (iv) Prominence by legth: A length of relatively
greater duration and even affecting the vocalic quality renders the
syllable more prominent as in [pć:øć] ‘the
village sacrificer’, [ma.n·i]
‘rice’, [g.  e]
‘a private part of women’. (v) Prominence by high or it
rises or falling pitches: Whenever a pitch becomes high or it rises
or falls specially at terminals, the syllable with such pitches becomes
more prominent within the intonational pattern, as in [senogaŪm]
‘will you go?’ As noted earlier high pitch always occurs
with stress which also contributes to prominences. |
| However, even after
knowing the broad distribution of prominence in a Munda speech it
is upto the particular environment to expose the relative prominence
on a particular syllable if the adjacent syllables also have any element
to be rendered prominent on the above basis. This is because it is
always a relative factor and depends upon the auditory effects and
there can be no order of prominence nor the whole of the environmentscan
be tabulated on the basis of relative prominence. Even the stress
which is easier to be predicted lose its identity in the stream of
speech and what has been said about the isolated words does not told
good with a sentence intonation due to morpho-phonemic as well as
other contextual reasons. |
| 1.14.
Emphasis |
| The most prominent
role of stress in Mundari is to lay emphasis on a particular syllable
expressly to distinguish it from the adjacent syllables. The emphasis
either for intensity or for contrast (as classified by D.Jones is
his An Outline of English Phonetics) has to be represented by stress
while in the latter case it is also represented by the pitch variation
on the sentence level. |
1.14.1. The stress
for intensity as has been discussed above is implied to indicate the
greater degree of quality or a manner which is to be observed on word
level. The accompanying phenomenon is addition of duration to the
affected vowel and/or a rise in the pitch, as in examples like -[słga a]
‘very much or definitely beautiful’ or [jórte]
‘very loudly’, etc. |
| 1.14.2. The stress
for contrast forms a part of international pattern as in English or
Hindi. It is represented in two ways - |
| (i) Contrast with
what precedes: |
|
(a)
|
Ūai
|
ka
senoga
|
[/.
. . .]
|
‘I
won’t go’
|
|
(b)
|
ai
|
Ūka senoga
|
[./.
. .]
|
‘I
won’t go’
|
|
(c)
|
ai
|
do
Ūpi i
te senoga
|
[.
. / . . . .]
|
‘I
shall go tomarket’
|
|
(d)
|
gapa
|
ale Ūsadom kiria
|
[.
. . ./. . .]
|
‘Tomorrow
we willpurchase a horse’
|
|
|
