The intonational system of Wolof

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the intonational system of Wolof (a non–tone language belonging to the Atlantic branch of Niger-Congo), based on the analysis of several recorded corpora. This system has several interesting typological features, including the absence of any intonational marking of focus. There is a particularly close relationship between the intonational system and the morphosyntax, manifested in complementary forms of marking. Part I describes the relevant morphosyntactic features of the language and the melodic contours of the simplest prosodic units (utterances without intonational subdivision). Owing to the absence of pitch accent and of intonational focus marking as well as to the optional nature of intonational subdivision, the basic intonational structure of statements consists of a completely flat low-pitched plateau ending in a boundary tone. The analytic model postulates L and H ‘‘pitch targets'' allowing the intonation curve to be broken down into component structures. Utterance-level boundary tones and phrasal L tones and H tones mark utterance-level categories such as statements, several types of interrogatives and exclamations. Part II describes the prosodic structures that appear in discourse (prosodic divisions, downdrift, ‘‘preambles,'' pauses, and continuative boundary tones). Part III provides a summary of the system as a whole.

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