Dialectal Variation in the Lexical Tone System of Ma'ya

Abstract

This paper deals with dialectal variation in the lexical tone system of Ma'ya, an Austronesian language featuring three lexically contrastive tonemes (High, Rise, and Fall). Representative acoustic data were collected from the Misool, Salawati, and Laganyan dialects, and on the basis of these data, an account is given of their tone systems, and of how these tone systems compare to one another. The objective of this investigation is to gain insight in diachronic development in lexical tone systems. The Rise toneme features the most variation, both within and between dialects. Evidence is presented that the diachronic, between-dialect variation in the Rise toneme is due to synchronic between-context variation (cf. Ohala, 1989). While this synchronic variation is still evident in the Salawati dialect, the two other dialects developed in radically different directions. In the Misool dialect, the generalization of one of the realizations of the Rise triggered a push-chain style tonal change, in which another toneme, the Fall, shifted upward in the tonal space, ensuring perceptual contrast. In the Laganyan dialect, on the other hand, the tonal contrast between the Fall and the Rise is lost in one context. The Laganyan dialect also developed a boundary tone which only surfaces when the syllable with which it is associated has a voiced coda.

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