Language: Herero (R31)

Contributor: Nobuko Yoneda

Preliminary

Phonemic inventory

  • Vowel: /i, e, a, o, u/
  • Consonant:
  • Plosive: /p, t̪, t, k/
  • Fricative: /θ, ʃ, h, v, ð/
  • Nasal: /m, n̪, n, ɲ/
  • Prenasalised plosive: /ᵐb, n̪d̪, ⁿd, ᶮdʒ, ᵑg/
  • Liquid: /r/
  • Glide: /j, w/

Part A. Types of tone

1. Is your language tonal (i.e. pitch-based minimal pairs exist)?

  1. yes COWBELL - loclick.wav
  2. no
  3. only grammatical tone is attested (lexical contrast is not expressed by tone)
  4. I'm not sure

Notes

e.g. Yoneda (2021: 279-280)
oðoŋɡóró ‘zebra’ vs. oðoŋɡóró ‘knee’
-póra ‘pull out’ vs. -pórá ‘become cold’

2. Is there a contrastive contour tone (i.e. phonological) in the tonal inventory?

  1. no
  2. yes, give examples of falling and/or rising tone (rare in Bantu languages, but common in Asian tonal languages)

Notes

3. How many phonemic contrasts in tone? Provide tonal (near-)minimal pairs if possible. Count phonological toneless as one category.

  1. no contrast
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. more than 4
  5. I don't know

Notes

3-1. What is the underlying tonal system of your language?

  1. /H/ vs. /ø/ (H is the privative tone)
  2. /L/ vs. /ø/ (L is the privative tone)
  3. /H/ vs. /L/
  4. /H/ vs. /L/ vs. /ø/
  5. Other types?

Notes

4. What is the tone bearing unit (TBU)? → What are the tonal realization of a lexical CVVC sequence?

  1. mora/Contour realization (either CV́VC or CVV́C) is possible
  2. syllable/Only level tones (CV́V́C [CV́ːC], CVVC [CVːC]) are allowed
  3. mora and syllable, both units can be a TBU Neither phonemic long vowel (including diphthongs) nor vowel sequence is observed.
  4. not sure

Notes

5. How many phonetic realization of tone (i.e. number of pitch levels and number of pitch contour)?

  1. identical to the number of phonemic tone
  2. describe additional tones that are not phonemic (For example, Xitsonga has a contour tone or a downstepped H tone in specific contexts)

Notes

語中にLがあると，それよりも右のHは低く現れる。語中の2ヶ所以上にLが現れる場合，2つめのLの後ろにあるHはひとつめのLの後ろにあるHよりもさらに低く現れる（ダウンドリフト）。結果的に音声的には数段階の中間の高さM(id)が聞かれる(下の例では5段階)。MはHが低く現れる場合だけでなく、語の始めのほうに現れるLもMに聞こえる。

  • ótjí-hakáutú 「ジャガイモ」 ( 　　 )

Part B. Functions of tone

Note: Please add examples wherever available

6. Does the language have lexical contrasts of tone?

Yes -> 6-1, 6-2 No, the language only exhibits tonal melody patterns.

6-1. How many tonal patterns are attested for bisyllabic nominal stems?

  1. geometric: e.g. 2n (HH, HL, LL, LH)
  2. arithmetic: e.g. n+1 (e.g. LL, LH, HL, *HH)
  3. fixed: e.g. 2
  4. no contrast

Notes

H
omu-tí ‘tree (sg.)’
HH
oru-táví ‘branch (sg.)’
HHH
omu-káðéndú ‘woman (sg.)’
HHL
omu-káðóna ‘daughter (sg.)’
HL
oʃi-tíha ‘desk (sg.)’
HLH
oʃi-ʃáuví ‘spider (sg.)’
HLL
oʃi-pwíkiro ‘storage (sg.)’
L
omu-ðe ‘root (sg.)’
LH
oʃi-vavá ‘wing (sg.)’
LHH
oʃi-nambáká ‘froog (sg.)’
LHL
ovi-maríva ‘money (pl.)’
LL
oʃi-hape ‘fruit (sg.)’
LLH
omu-tukaré ‘weakness’
LLL
omu-paŋgure ‘judge (sg.)’

6-2 How many tonal patterns are attested for verbal roots?

  1. no contrast
  2. 2 patterns (H-verb vs. L-verb) c. 3 or more (two distinct patterns of H verbs, e.g. Shambaa)

Notes

  • póra ‘tear’ (or ‘pull out?’)「やぶる」
  • pórá ‘become cold’ 「冷める」
  • pora ‘draw eyebrows’ 「眉を書く」

7. Are there grammatical categories that are solely marked by tone? e.g. SM2SG. ù- vs. SM1 ú- in Xitsonga

Yes -> 7-1~7 No

7-1. Possession marking

n.a.

7-2. Person/number marker (subject marker and object marker)

n.a.

7-3. Verbal extension

n.a.

7-4. TAM marking

Notes

Yoneda (2021: 280)

mbavéréré vs. mbávérére
<morph> <morph>
<gloss> <gloss>
‘I was sick (long ago)’ ‘I was sick (yesterday)’
[remote past (perfect?)] [near past (perfect?)]

7-5. Polarity marking

7-6. Focus marking (including CJ/DJ)

7-7. Other functions

‘Tone case’ cf. Yoneda (2021: 285-286)

Table. list of three tone cases

oʃihape ‘fruit’ /-LL/ omukáðóna ‘daughter’ /-HHL/
Basic form (BF) oʃi-hape omu-káðóna
Complemental form (CF) oʃí-hape [oʃíhápe] omú-káðóna [omúkāðōna]1
Presentational form (PF) óʃi-hape [oʃíhápe] ómu-káðóna [omúkāðōna]

1 omú-káðóna [omúꜜkáðóna]

  • BF oʃi-hape ʃá-u
    • 7D-fruit SM7.PST-fall.FV
    • ‘A fruit fell’
  • CF mbá-rand-á oʃí-hápe
    • SM1SG.PST-buy-FV 7C-fruit
    • ‘I bought a fruit’ [simple remote past]
  • PF óʃí-hape
    • 7P-fruit
    • ‘(It is) a fruit’

cf. A syntactic subject should also be realised as a complemental form when it is left dislocated to a post-verbal position (e.g. due to Locative inversion as in the following case).

mokuti              mú-rár-a            oðó-ŋɡéjama  
LOC18.forest        SM18-sleep-FV       10C-lions  
‘In the forest sleeps a lion’