What is it about?
It is about the use of pitch to distinguish words and morphemes across languages. Examples are drawn from throughout the different areas where tone is observed: Sub-Saharan Africa, East and Southeast Asia, Mexico, Northwest Amazon, New Guinea etc.
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Why is it important?
It is important because tone is unique and can do things that no other phonological property can do. Much of tonal phonology takes place across words in phrases, which is unusual for consonant and vowel features or other prosodies.
Perspectives
Tone is an exciting are of study, though often misunderstood. I begin the chapter by considering several myths about tone, dispel them, then turn to talk about the unique properties of tone systems.
Dr Larry M Hyman
University of California, Berkeley
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Tone: Is it Different?, November 2011, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/9781444343069.ch7.
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