Tone and Intonation in Languages of the Caucasus

Abstract

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of the issues pertaining to tone and intonation in the languages of the Caucasus. Lexical tonal distinctions and phrasal intonational contours are addressed together here, highlighting the fact that, acoustically, both phenomena rely on changes in F0 (fundamental frequency). The languages discussed here include Abkhaz-Adyghe, Nakh-Dagestanian, Kartvelian (South Caucasian), and one of the larger Indo-European languages of the area, Ossetic (both Iron and Digoron varieties). The chapter first discusses the lexical tonal systems that have been reported for some languages of the Caucasus, ranging from the systems in which tonal contrasts are present on stressed syllables only to those that make tonal distinctions on each syllable. As part of the discussion, conflicting language descriptions are introduced, and the role of pitch movements in the available descriptions of stress in the languages of the Caucasus is considered. Next, the chapter turns to languages that have been described as phrasal prominence languages – that is, languages in which phrase-level (as opposed to word-level) prosody plays the primary role. Finally, the chapter offers a survey of the available instrumental studies of phrasal prosody in the languages of the Caucasus. Overall, many issues related to tone and intonation in the languages of the Caucasus require extensive further research. The main aim of this chapter is to inform and encourage further investigations, both instrumental and theoretical.

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