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Chichewa tonesChichewa (a Bantu language of Central Africa, also known as Chewa, Nyanja, or Chinyanja) is the main language spoken in south and central Malawi, and to a lesser extent in Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Like most other Bantu languages, it is tonal; that is to say, pitch patterns are an important part of the pronunciation of words. Thus, for example, the word chímanga (high-low-low) 'maize' can be distinguished from chinangwá (low-low-high) 'cassava' not only by its consonants but also by its pitch pattern. These patterns remain constant in whatever context the nouns are used. Tonal patterns also play an important grammatical role in Chichewa verbs, helping to distinguish one tense from another, and relative clause verbs from main clause verbs. Tones are also used in intonation and phrasing. Conventionally Chichewa is said to have high tones (H) and low tones (L). However, it has been argued that it is more accurate to think of it as having high-toned syllables versus toneless ones.[1][2] Not every word has a high tone. Over a third of nouns are toneless and are pronounced with all the syllables on a low pitch. When a noun has a high tone there is usually only one, and it is usually heard on one of the last three syllables. However, some nouns, like nyényezí 'star', have two tones or, like tsábólá 'pepper', a plateau of three high-toned syllables. Chichewa thus in some respects can be considered to be a pitch-accent language with a 'mixture of accentual and tonal properties'.[3] Some scholars, however, notably Larry Hyman, have argued that the term 'pitch-accent language' is an over-simplification and should be avoided; in his view it is best to consider such languages simply as one variety of tonal languages.[4] How tones sound1st example The accompanying illustration from Myers[5] shows the typical intonation of a declarative statement in Chichewa:
The four high tones, marked H on the transcription, come down in a series of steps, a process common in many languages and known as downdrift, automatic downstep, or catathesis. This tends to occur (with some exceptions) whenever two high tones are separated by one or more intervening low tones; it does not occur when two high tones come in adjacent syllables. Also illustrated in the pitch track is an intonational tone, known as a boundary tone, or 'continuation rise',[6] marked L%H%. This rise in pitch is typically heard at any pause in the middle of a sentence, such as here, where it marks the topic: 'a man, he rules women'. The boundary tone is not obligatory, and Myers prints another pitch track of the same sentence where it is absent. The toneless syllables tend to be lower than the high-toned syllables. However, the first syllable of amáyi anticipates the following high tone and is almost on the same level. The last syllable of á-ma-lamúla is also raised. This tonal spread from a penultimate high tone is frequently heard when a verb is immediately followed by its grammatical object. The first three syllables of á-ma-lamúla also show a glide downwards, with ma higher than la. The penultimate tones of mwamúna 'a man' and amáyi 'women' are lexical tones, meaning that they always occur in these words. The tones of ámalamúla 'he rules' are grammatical tones, which are always found in the Present Habitual tense. The verb stem itself (lamula 'rule') is toneless. 2nd example The second illustration[7] shows the pitch-track of the following sentence:
The sentence has a grammatical tone on the Remote Perfect tense anádyetsa 'they fed' and lexical tones on nyaní 'baboon' and nsómba 'fish'. In this example, in the word anádyetsa the peak (high point) of the accent does not coincide with the syllable but is delayed, giving the impression that it has spread to two syllables. This process is known as 'tone doubling' or 'peak delay', and is typical of speakers in some regions of Malawi. The second word, nyaní 'baboon', has an accent on the final syllable, but as usually happens with final accents, it spreads backwards to the penultimate syllable, showing a nearly level or gently rising contour, with only the initial n being low-pitched. Another feature of a final accent is that it tends not to be very high.[8] In this case it is actually slightly lower than the high tone of nsómba which follows it. When a final-tone word such as nyaní comes at the end of a sentence, it is often pronounced as nyăni with a rising tone on the penultimate and the final syllable low. But if a suffix is added, the stress moves to the new penultimate, and the word is pronounced with a full-height tone on the final: nyaní-yo 'that baboon'.[9] The third word, nsómba 'fish', has penultimate accent. Since the word ends the sentence, the tone falls from high to low. As with the previous illustration, there is downdrift from the first tone to the second. But when two tones come in adjacent syllables, as in nyaní nsómba, there is no downdrift. The intensity reading at the top of the voice track shows that the intensity (loudness) is greatest on the penultimate syllable of each word. Types of toneLexical tonesNounsCertain syllables in Chichewa words are associated with high pitch. Usually there is one high pitch per word or morpheme, but some words have no high tone. In nouns the high pitch is usually in one of the last three syllables:[10]
In a few nouns (often compound words) there are two high tones. If these tones are separated by only one unaccented syllable, they usually join in a plateau of three high-toned syllables; that is, HLH becomes HHH. Similarly the first tone of words ending HLLH can spread to make HHLH:
In addition there are a large number of nouns which have no high tone, but which, even when focussed or emphasised, are pronounced with all the syllables low:
A tonal accent differs from a stress-accent in languages such as in English in that it always retains the same pitch contour (e.g. high-low, never low-high). It is also possible for a high tone to contrast with a low tone:
High-toned verbsMost verbal roots in Chichewa, including all monosyllabic verbs, are toneless, as the following:
A few verbal roots, however, have a lexical tone, which is heard on the final vowel -a of the verb:
The tones are not inherited from proto-Bantu, and do not correspond to the high-low distinction of verbal roots in other Bantu languages, but appear to be an independent development in Chichewa.[11] Often a verb has a tone not because the root itself has one but because a stative or intensive extension is added to it:
When an extension, whether a high-toned or low-toned, is added to a high-toned verb, only one tone is heard, on the final:
Grammatical tonesTonal patterns of tensesIn addition to the lexical tones described above, Chichewa verbs also have grammatical tones. Each tense conforms to a particular tonal melody, which is the same for every verb in that tense (with adjustments made depending on the length of verb). For example, the following tenses have a high tone immediately after the tense-marker:
The following have two separate tones, one on the tense-marker and one on the penultimate syllable:
The following tenses are toneless:
and so on. There are at least eight different tonal patterns in affirmative verbs, in addition to further patterns used in negative tenses and in relative clause verbs.[12] Adding an object-markerThe tonal pattern frequently changes again when other morphemes such as aspect-markers or an object-marker are added to the verb. For example:
In other tenses, however, notably those with penultimate tone, the object-marker loses its tone and the tense pattern remains unchanged:
Negative tense patternsNegative verbs usually have different tonal patterns from the same tense when positive, and sometimes there are two different negative patterns, according to the meaning, for example:
Dependent clause patternsIn several tenses the tonal pattern changes when the verb is used in a relative, temporal, or conditional clause. Sometimes a change in tonal pattern alone is sufficient to show that a verb is being used in this way. The principal change is that a tone is added on the first syllable of the verb, and there is often one on the penultimate as well:
Lexical tone combined with tonal patternWhen the verb-root itself has a high tone, this tone can be heard on the final syllable in addition to the tonal pattern:
However, if the tonal pattern of the tense places a tone on the penultimate or final syllable, the lexical tone is neutralised and cannot be heard.
If a tonal pattern places a tone on the antepenultimate syllable of a high-toned verb, the two tones join into a plateau:
Intonational tonesLexical and grammatical tones are not the only tones heard in a Chichewa sentence, but there are intonational tones as well. One common tone is a boundary tone rising from low to high which is heard whenever there is a pause in the sentence, for example after a topic or subordinate clause. Tones are also added to questions. For example, the toneless word kuti 'where?' becomes kúti in the following question:
Further details of intonational tones are given below. Number of tonesTwo pitch levels, high and low, conventionally written H and L, are usually considered to be sufficient to describe the tones of Chichewa.[13] In Chichewa itself the high tone is called mngóli wókwéza ('tone of raising'), and the low tone mngóli wótsítsa ('tone of lowering').[14] Some authors[15] add a mid-height tone but most do not, but consider a mid-height tone to be merely an allophone of nearby high tones. From a theoretical point of view, however, it has been argued that Chichewa tones are best thought of not in terms of H and L, but in terms of H and Ø, that is to say, high-toned vs toneless syllables.[1] The reason is that H tones are much more dynamic than L tones and play a large role in tonal phenomena, whereas L-toned syllables are relatively inert.[16] Tones are not marked in the standard orthography used in Chichewa books and newspapers, but linguists usually indicate a high tone by writing it with an acute accent, as in the first syllable of nsómba. The low tones are generally left unmarked. Works describing Chichewa tonesThe earliest work to mark the tones of Chichewa words was the Afro-American scholar Mark Hanna Watkins' A Grammar of Chichewa (1937). This was a pioneering work, since not only was it the first work on Chichewa to include tones, but it was also the first grammar of any African language to be written by an American.[17] The informant used by Watkins was the young Kamuzu Banda, who in 1966 was to become the first President of the Republic of Malawi. Another grammar including Chichewa tones was a handbook written for Peace Corps Volunteers, Stevick et al., Chinyanja Basic Course (1965), which gives very detailed information on the tones of sentences, and also indicates intonations.[18] Its successor, Scotton and Orr (1980) Learning Chichewa,[19] is much less detailed. All three of these works are available on the Internet. J.K. Louw's Chichewa: A Practical Course (1987) [1980], which contained tone markings, is currently out of print. From 1976 onwards a number of academic articles by Malawian and Western scholars have been published on different aspects of Chichewa tones. The most recent work discussing the tones of Chichewa is The Phonology of Chichewa (2017) by Laura Downing and Al Mtenje. Four dictionaries also mark the tones on Chichewa words. The earliest of these was volume 3 of J.K. Louw's Chichewa: A Practical Course (1987) [1980]; A Learner's Chichewa-English, English-Chichewa Dictionary by Botne and Kulemeka (1991), the monolingual Mtanthauziramawu wa Chinyanja/Chichewa (c.2000) produced by the Centre for Language Studies of the University of Malawi (available online),[20] and the Common Bantu On-Line Chichewa Dictionary (2001) formerly published online by the University of California in Berkeley.[21] So far all the studies which have been published on Chichewa tones have dealt with the Malawian variety of the language. There is no published information available on the tones of Chinyanja spoken in Zambia and Mozambique. Some tonal phenomenaIn order to understand Chichewa tones, it is necessary first to understand various tonal phenomena that can occur, which are briefly outlined below. DowndriftNormally in a Chichewa sentence, whenever two high tones are separated by one or more toneless syllables (i.e. when the tones come in the sequence HLH or HLLH or HLLLH), it is usual for the second high tone to be a little lower than the first one. So for example in the word á-ma-lamúla 'he usually rules' in the example illustrated above, the tone of the first syllable á is pronounced a little higher than the tone of the second tone mú. Thus generally speaking the highest tone in a sentence is the first one. This phenomenon, which is common in many Bantu languages, is known as 'downdrift'[22] or 'catathesis'[23] or 'automatic downstep'.[24] However, there are several exceptions to this rule. Downdrift does not occur, for example, when a speaker is asking a question,[25] or reciting a list of items with a pause after each one, or sometimes if a word is pronounced on a high pitch for emphasis. There is also no downdrift in words like wápólísi 'policeman' (derived from wá 'a person of' + polísi 'the police'), where two high tones in the sequence HLH are bridged to make a plateau HHH (see below). High tone spreading (HTS)In some dialects a high tone may sometimes spread to the following syllable; this is known as 'High Tone Spreading' or 'Tone Doubling'.[26] So where some speakers say ndináthandiza 'I helped', others will say ndináthándiza.[27] Some phoneticians argue that what happens here, in some cases at least, is that the highest part or 'peak' of the tone moves forward, giving the impression that the tone covers two syllables, a process called 'peak delay'.[28] An illustration of peak delay can be seen clearly in the pitch-track of the word anádyetsa 'they fed' reproduced above, here pronounced anádyétsa, in Downing et al. (2004). There are some verb forms where tone-doubling does not occur, for example, in the Present habitual tense, where there is always a low tone on the second syllable:[29]
In order for HTS to occur, there must be at least 3 syllables following the tone, although not necessarily in the same word. Thus the first tone may spread in the second of each pair below, but not in the first:[30]
One frequent use of tone doubling is to link together two words into a single phrase. This most commonly occurs from the penultimate syllable, but in some dialects also from the antepenultimate. So, for example, when a verb is followed by an object:
This phenomenon can be seen in the pitch track of the sentence mwamúna, ámalamúla amáyi illustrated at the beginning of this article, in which the tone of -mú- is extended to make ámalamúlá amáyi. Tone doubling is also found when a noun is followed by a demonstrative or possessive pronoun:
Tonal plateauIt sometimes happens that the sequence HLH in Chichewa becomes HHH, making a tonal 'plateau'. A tonal plateau is common after the proclitic words á 'of' and ndí 'and', 'with':[36]
Before a pause the final tone may drop but the tone of the middle syllable remains high: chákúdya. Sometimes a succession of tones is bridged in this way, e.g. gúlewámkúlu 'masked dancer', with one long continuous high tone from gú to kú.[37] Another place where a plateau is commonly found is after the initial high tone of dependent clause verbs such as the following:
At the end of words, if the tones are HLH, a plateau is common:
However, there are exceptions; for example, in the word nyényezí 'star' the two tones are kept separate, so that the word is pronounced nyényēzī (where ī represents a slightly lower tone than í).[38] There are also certain tonal tense patterns (such as affirmative patterns 5 and 6 described below) where the two tones are kept separate even when the sequence is HLH:
No tonal plateau is possible when the underlying sequence of tones is HLLH, even when by spreading this becomes HHLH:
Tone-shifting ('bumping')When a word or closely connected phrase ends in HHL or HLHL, there is a tendency in Chichewa for the second H to move to the final syllable of the word. This process is known as 'tone shifting'[39] or 'bumping'.[40] There are two types in which the second tone moves forward, local and non-local bumping. There is also reverse bumping, where the first tone moves backwards. Local bumpingIn 'local bumping' or 'local tone shift', LHHL at the end of a word or phrase becomes LHHH, where the two tones are joined into a plateau. This can happen when a final-tone word is followed by a possessive adjective, and also with the words ína 'other' and yénse/ónse 'all':[41]
In three-syllable words where HHL is due to the addition of an enclitic suffix such as -nso 'also, again', -di 'indeed' or -be 'still', the tones similarly change to HHH:[42]
Tone shift also happens in verbs when the verb would otherwise end with LHHL:[43]
At the end of a sentence the final high tone may drop again, reverting the word to a-ná-mú-pha. In pattern 5 and negative pattern 3a verbs (see below) there is a choice between making a plateau and treating the final tone as separate:[44]
There is no bumping in HHL words where the first syllable is derived from á 'of':
Non-local bumpingIn another kind of tone-shift (called 'non-local bumping'), HLHL at the end of a word or phrase changes to HLLH or, with spreading of the first high tone, HHLH:
But there is no bumping in tense-patterns 5 and 6 or negative pattern 3 when the tones at the end of the word are HLHL:
Reverse bumpingA related phenomenon, but in reverse, is found when the addition of the suffix -tú 'really' causes a normally word-final tone to move back one syllable, so that LHH at the end of a word becomes HLH:
Enclitic suffixesCertain suffixes, known as enclitics, add a high tone to the last syllable of the word to which they are joined. When added to a toneless word or a word ending in LL, this high tone can easily be heard:
Bumping does not occur when an enclitic is added to a word ending HLL:
But when an enclitic is combined with word which ends HL, there is local bumping, and the result is a plateau of three tones:
When added to a word with final high tone, it raises the tone higher (in Central Region dialects, the rising tone on the first syllable of a word like nyŭmbá also disappears):[45]
Not all suffixes are tonally enclitic in this way. For example, when added to nouns or pronouns, the locative suffixes -ko, -ku, -po, -pa, -mo, -mu do not add a tone:
However, when added to verbs, these same suffixes add an enclitic tone:
Proclitic prefixesConversely, certain prefixes place a high tone on the syllable which follows them. Prefixes of this kind are called 'proclitic'[31] or 'post-accenting'. For example, the prefix ku- of the infinitive puts a tone on the syllable following:
Other tenses of this type are described under affirmative tense patterns 4 and 8 below. Object-markers such as -ndí- 'me' or -mú- 'him/her' etc. also become proclitic when added to an imperative or subjunctive. In a four or five-syllable verb, the tone of the object-marker is heard at the beginning of the verb and may spread:[46]
In a three-syllable verb, the tones make a plateau:
In a two-syllable verb, the second tone is lost:
But in a one-syllable verb, the first tone remains on the object-marker and the second tone is lost:
Tone deletion (Meeussen's Rule)Meeussen's Rule is a process in several Bantu languages whereby a sequence HH becomes HL. This is frequent in verbs when a penultimate tone causes the deletion of a final tone:
A tone deleted by Meeussen's Rule can be replaced by spreading. Thus although ku-góna loses its final tone, the first tone can spread in a phrase such as ku-góná bwino 'to sleep well'.[47] An instance where Meeussen's Rule does not apply in Chichewa is when the aspect-marker -ká- 'go and' is added to a verb, for example: a-ná-ká-thandiza 'he went and helped'. So far from being deleted, this tone can itself spread to the next syllable, e.g. a-ná-ká-thándiza.[48] The tone of an object-marker such as -mú- 'him' in the same position, however, is deleted by Meeussen's Rule and then replaced by spreading; it does not itself spread: a-ná-mú-thandiza 'he helped him'. In the Southern Region, the spreading does not occur, and the tones are a-ná-mu-thandiza. Tone of consonantsJust as in English, where in a word like zoo or wood or now the initial voiced consonant has a low pitch compared with the following vowel, the same is true of Chichewa. Thus Trithart marks the tones of initial consonants such as [m], [n], [z], and [dz] in some words as Low.[49] However, an initial nasal consonant is not always pronounced with a low pitch. After a high tone it can acquire a high tone itself, e.g. wá ḿsodzi 'of the fisherman'[50] The consonants n and m can also have a high tone when contracted from ndí 'and' or high-toned -mú-, e.g. ḿmakhálá kuti? (short for múmakhálá kuti?) 'where do you live?'.[51] In some Southern African Bantu languages such as Zulu a voiced consonant at the beginning of a syllable not only has a low pitch itself, but can also lower the pitch of all or part of the following vowel. Such consonants are known as 'depressor consonants'. The question of whether Chichewa has depressor consonants was first considered by Trithart (1976) and further by Cibelli (2012). According to data collected by Cibelli, a voiced or nasalised consonant does indeed have a small effect on the tone of a following vowel, making it a semitone or more lower; so that for example the second vowel of ku-gúla 'to buy' would have a slightly lower pitch than that of ku-kúla 'to grow' or ku-khála 'to sit'. When the vowel is toneless, the effect is less, but it seems that there is still a slight difference. The effect of depressor consonants in Chichewa, however, is much less noticeable than in Zulu. Lexical tonesLexical tones are the tones of individual words. A high tone remains high, even though a word is used in different contexts. NounsIn the CBOLD Chichewa dictionary,[21] about 36% of Chichewa nouns are toneless, 57% have one tone, and only 7% have more than one tone. When there is one tone, it is generally on one of the last three syllables. Nouns with a tone more than three syllables from the end are virtually all foreign borrowings, such as sékondale 'secondary school'. Comparison with other Bantu languages shows that for the most part the tones of nouns in Chichewa correspond to the tones of their cognates in other Bantu languages, and are therefore likely to be inherited from an earlier stage of Bantu.[52] An exception is that nouns which at an earlier period had HH (such as nsómba 'fish', from proto-Bantu *cómbá) have changed in Chichewa to HL by Meeussen's rule. Two-syllable nouns in Chichewa can therefore have the tones HL, LH, or LL, these three being about equally common, but (discounting the fact that LH words are usually in practice pronounced HH) there are no nouns with the underlying tones HH.[53] The class-prefix of nouns, such as (class 7) chi- in chikóndi 'love', or (class 3) m- in mténgo 'tree', is usually toneless. However, there are some exceptions such as chímanga 'maize', chíwindi 'liver'. The three nouns díso 'eye', dzíno 'tooth', and líwu 'sound or word' are irregular in that the high tone moves from the prefix to the stem in the plural, making masó, manó, and mawú respectively.[54] Toneless nouns
Foreign borrowings also occasionally have this intonation:
Nouns with final toneIn isolation these words are usually pronounced bwālō, Chichēwā, etc., ending with two tones of mid height. Alternatively, in some dialects, at the end of a phrase they may be pronounced bwălò, Chichĕwà, with a rising tone on the penultimate and a low tone on the final. When the suffix -o 'that' (varying according to the noun class) is added, the tone becomes a normal penultimate tone, e.g. nyumbá-yo 'that house', mundá-wo 'that garden', making the tone easy to hear. In this article the final tone is written as a final tone, even though in practice it may be pronounced in different ways.
Foreign borrowings with this intonation are uncommon:
Nouns with penultimate tone
There are also many foreign borrowings with this tone, such as the following:
The following words are pronounced with the same ending as kíyi and tíyi:
Nouns with antepenultimate tone
This group is less common than the first three. Many of the words with this tone are loanwords from Portuguese or English such as:
The antepenultimate high tone in words such as njénjete and kóndomu spreads to the following n. Tone four syllables from the endIn foreign borrowings the tone may come four syllables from the end. In the first four words below, the vowel following the tone is an epenthetic one, added to make the word easier to pronounce.[59] When the added vowel is u or i (as in láputopu 'laptop' or íntaneti 'internet') it tends to be very short or barely pronounced:[60]
Where the second vowel is i, however, the tone spreads:
In the following compound nouns the tone of the second element (bóyi 'boy', móto 'fire' and bédi 'bed') is lost:
The tone of the second element is also lost in the following word, which is derived from mfúmu yáíkázi 'female chief':
Of similar intonation is the following, in which -péń- is equivalent to two syllables:
Similar are the following, which have the tone five syllables from the end:
Nouns with two tonesNouns which are compounded with the associative prefix á 'of', which has a high tone, can also have two tones, one on á and the other on the noun itself:
Where the tones are separated by a single toneless syllable, the two tones form a plateau:
When á is prefixed to the infinitive of a verb of more than one syllable, the á and ku- usually coalesce into the vowel ó:
The prefix chi- in some words adds two high tones, one following chi- and one on the final. The first may spread forwards and the second backwards, but the two tones are kept separate with the second lower than the first:
If there are only three syllables following the prefix chi-, the two tones link into an HHH plateau:
The (L)HHH pattern is also found in a few other words (mostly compounds):
A triple tone is also found in:
It is also found in some borrowed words:
The following nouns have two separate tones and no plateau. The second tone is lower than the first:
AdjectivesAdjectives in Chichewa are usually formed with the word á (wá, yá, chá, zá, kwá etc. according to noun class) 'of', known as the 'associative prefix',[62] which has a high tone:
When there is a sequence of HLH, the tones will bridge to make HHH:
The seven double-prefix adjectives (-múna 'male', -kázi 'female', -táli 'long', -fúpi 'short', -wísi 'fresh', -kúlu 'big', -ng'óno 'small' all have penultimate tone.[62] The first three syllables in these adjectives are bridged into a plateau:
Combined with an infinitive, á and ku- usually merge (except usually in monosyllabic verbs) into a high-toned ó-:[64]
Some speakers make a slight dip between the two tones:
Combined with a negative infinitive, the adjective has a tone on the penultimate. The tones do not bridge into a plateau:
Possessive adjectives are also made with á-. As explained in the section on bumping, their tone may change when they follow a noun ending in HL, LH or HH. The concords shown below are for noun classes 1 and 2:
The adjective wína 'another, a certain' has similar tones to wánga 'my':
The adjective wamba 'ordinary', however, is not made with á and has a low tone on both syllables. The first syllable wa in this word does not change with the class of noun:
Pronominal adjectivesThe following three adjectives have their own concords and are not formed using á. Here they are shown with the concords of classes 1 and 2:
As with possessives, the high tone of these may shift by bumping after a noun or adjective ending in HL or LH or HH.[67][68]
With these three the high tone also shifts before a demonstrative suffix:
In this they differ from wánga and wína, which do not shift the tone with a demonstrative suffix, e.g. anthu éna-wa 'these other people'. The tone also shifts in the word for 'each', in which áli has the tones of a relative-clause verb.[70]
The following demonstrative adjectives (shown here with the concords for noun classes 1 and 2) usually have a low tone:[71]
The last of these, however, usually has an intonational tone after ndi 'is':
The first of these, uyo, can be pronounced úyo! with a high tone if referring to someone a long way away.[72] NumbersChichewa has the numbers 1 to 5 and 10. These all have penultimate high tone except for -sanu 'five', which is toneless. The adjectives meaning 'how many?' and 'several' also take the number concords and can be considered part of this group. They are here illustrated with the concords for noun classes 1 and 2 (khúmi 'ten' has no concord):
The numbers zaná '100' (plural mazaná) and chikwí '1000' (plural zikwí) exist but are rarely used. It is possible to make other numbers using circumlocutions (e.g. 'five tens and units five and two' = 57) but these are not often heard, the usual practice being to use English numbers instead. Personal pronounsThe first and second person pronouns are toneless, but the third person pronouns have a high tone:[73]
These combine with ndi 'am, is, are' as follows:
MonosyllablesThe following monosyllabic words are commonly used. The following are toneless:
The following have a high tone:
These words are joined rhythmically to the following word. The high tone can spread to the first syllable of the following word, provided it has at least three syllables:[74] They can also make a plateau with the following word, if the tones are HLH:
When pa is a preposition meaning 'on' or 'at', it is usually toneless:
But pá has a tone when it means 'of' following a noun of class 16:
It also has a tone in certain idiomatic expressions such as pá-yekha or pá-yékha 'on his own'. IdeophonesThe tones of ideophones (expressive words) have also been investigated by linguists.[75] Examples are: bálálábálálá 'scattering in all directions' (all syllables very high), lólolo 'lots and lots' (with gradually descending tones). The tonal patterns of ideophones do not necessarily conform to the patterns of other words in the language. Lexical tones of verbsChichewa verbs are mostly toneless in their basic form, although a few have a high tone (usually on the final vowel). However, unlike the situation with the lexical tones of nouns, there is no correlation at all between the high-toned verbs in Chichewa and the high-toned verbs in other Bantu languages. The obvious conclusion is that the high tones of verbs are not inherited from an earlier stage of Bantu but have developed independently in Chichewa.[11] When a verbal extension is added to a high-toned root, the resulting verb is also usually high-toned, e.g.
Certain extensions, especially those which change a verb from transitive to intransitive, or which make it intensive, also add a tone. According to Kanerva (1990) and Mchombo (2004), the passive ending -idwa/-edwa also adds a high tone, but this appears to be true only of the Nkhotakota dialect which they describe.[76] High-toned verb roots are comparatively rare (only about 13% of roots),[77] though the proportion rises when verbs with stative and intensive extensions are added. In addition there are a number of verbs, such as peza/pezá 'find' which can be pronounced either way. In the monolingual dictionary Mtanthauziramawu wa Chinyanja 2683 verbs are given, with 10% marked as high-toned, and 4% as having either tone. In the Southern Region of Malawi, some speakers do not pronounce the tones of high-toned verbs at all or only sporadically. The difference between high and low-toned verbs is neutralised when they are used in a verb tense which has a high tone on the penultimate or on the final syllable. Three irregular verbs have a tone on the penultimate syllable:
The view held in Mtenje (1986) that Chichewa also has 'rising-tone' verbs has been dropped in his more recent work.[78] Low-toned verbs
Monosyllabic verbsMonosyllabic verbs such as the following are all low-toned, although the derived nouns imfá 'death' and chigwá 'valley' have a tone:
There are also two irregular monosyllabic verbs ending in -i:
High-toned verbs
Verbs with either tone
Stative verbsMost intransitive verbs with the endings -iká, -eká, -uká, -oká derived from simpler verb-stems are high-toned. This is especially true when a transitive verb has been turned by a suffix into an intransitive one:
However, there are some common exceptions, such as the following, which are low-toned:
The ending -ika / -eka is also low-toned when it has a transitive meaning, unless the underlying verb has a high tone:
Intensive verbsIntensive verbs with the endings -(its)-itsá and -(ets)-etsá always have a high tone on the final syllable, even when derived from low-toned verbs. A few intensive verbs with the endings -irirá or -ererá are also high-toned:[79]
Grammatical tones of verbsAffirmative tonal patternsEach tense in Chichewa is associated with a particular tonal pattern, which is the same for every verb in that tense, allowing for adjustments when the verb has only one or two syllables. The numbers here followed for the affirmative tenses are those given in Downing & Mtenje (2017). Hyphens and accents are added for clarity; they are not part of standard Chichewa or Chinyanja orthography. Pattern 1 (-a-)The following tenses are toneless:[80]
Also toneless is the bare imperative, which is dealt with in a separate section below:
If the verb stem has a high tone, the tone can easily be heard on the final syllable:
When an object-marker such as -mú- 'him'/'her' is added, its tone can easily be heard. The tone may optionally spread in verbs of 3 syllables or more:
In a high-toned verb there is a tone on the final syllable of the verb. In a two-syllable verb it makes a plateau with the tone of the object-marker:[83]
In most dialects, the reflexive marker -dzí- has the same tones as -mú-. But some speakers, for example in Nkhotakota, -dzí- adds an extra tone on the penultimate, making pattern 5:[84]
Pattern 2 (-é)In this pattern there is a tone on the final vowel. The main tense with this pattern is the present subjunctive. The final vowel changes to -e:[85]
The same tones are heard when the aspect-marker -ká- 'go and' or -dzá- 'come and' are added to the imperative. The aspect-marker itself becomes toneless:
If an object-marker such as -mú- 'him, her' is added, the tone of the object-marker is heard on the syllable following the object-marker, except in monosyllabic verbs. In three-syllable verbs, the two tones link into a plateau. In one- and two-syllable verbs, the final tone is deleted by Meeussen's Rule:[86]
Similarly, if an object-marker is added to an imperative, there is a tone after the object-marker:
But if the aspect-marker -ká- 'go and' or -dzá- 'come and' are added to the subjunctive, the tones change to pattern 5 (see below):
When negative, the subjunctive has the infix -sa-, and the tone is on the penultimate, except in monosyllabic verbs (see negative pattern 2 below). All other tones, such as that of the object-marker, are deleted:
But if the aspect-marker -má- is added to the negative, the tones change to pattern 5:
Pattern 3 (-ná-, -dá-)In this pattern, there is a tone on the tense-marker itself. In some dialects this tone spreads, when the verb has three or more syllables. The remote perfect (simple past) tense can be made with -ná- or -dá- (-dá- being preferred in writing:[87]
When the aspect-marker -ká- 'go and', or an object-marker such as -mú-, is added, it has a tone. The tone of -ká- can spread, but the tone of an object-marker does not spread:[48][43]
When the verb is monosyllabic, the tones are as follows. The tone of -ká- remains stable, but the tone of -mú- is bumped to the final:[48]
The negative form of the tense is made with the prefix sí-, the tone of which spreads; there is also a tone on the penultimate. The final vowel changes to -e:
Another tense with this pattern is the Perfect Potential. This can be made with -kadá-, -kaná-, or sometimes -daká-:
Pattern 4 (-ku-)In pattern 4, the tone is right-shifted or proclitic, and is heard on the syllable following the tense-marker. A typical tense with this tone pattern is the Present Continuous:[90]
If the verb is monosyllabic, the tone sometimes spreads backwards or regresses to the penultimate:
Other tenses in this pattern are the Imperfect and the Recent Past, the infinitive, and tenses which include the infix -ta-:
The pattern is also found when the aspect-marker -ngo- 'just' is added to a toneless tense:
However, when -ngo- 'just' is added to other tenses, there are tones before and after -ngo- (pattern 8):[93]
When an object-marker or the aspect-marker -ká- or -dzá- is added to tenses in this pattern or pattern 8, an extra tone is heard. In 4 or 5-syllable verbs this second tone is heard on the penultimate, in three-syllable verbs on the final, in two-syllable verbs on the final with a plateau. In one-syllable verbs it disappears. The first tone can spread in longer verbs:[94]
But when -má- is added to -ku-, the tones change to pattern 5:
The negative of the Present Continuous, Imperfect, and Recent Past remains in the same pattern but with the addition of sí- at the beginning. The tone of sí- spreads to the subject-marker:
The negative infinitive, on the other hand, has negative tone pattern 2:
Pattern 5 (-nká-)In this pattern there is a tone on the tense-marker and on the penultimate. The first tone does not spread, but there is a fall to a low tone after it. The second tone is lower in pitch than the first. In a two-syllable verb, the second tone is 'bumped' to the final, and there may either be a plateau, or the two tones may be separate. In a monosyllabic verb, the second tone is lost by Meeussen's Rule. An example of this pattern is the Remote Imperfect with -nká-:[44]
Other tenses with this pattern are the subjunctives with -zí-, -dzá- and -ká-, various tenses with the aspect-marker -má-, and tenses with negative pattern 3a (see below):
Also included in this group is the Continuative Subjunctive, but because the tense-marker has two syllables, the tones in shorter verbs are slightly different from the above:[97]
The Continuative Subjunctive is also heard with tone pattern 9, i.e. with a single tone on the penultimate. With all tenses in pattern 5, when an object-marker such as -mú- 'him/her' or the aspect-marker -ká- 'go and' is added, it loses its tone. A monosyllabic verb with an object-marker acts like a two-syllable verb that has no object-marker:[98]
In relative clauses and after ngati 'if', pattern 5 affirmative verbs change to pattern 6:
When negative, pattern 5 has various patterns according to the tense. The Remote Imperfect has three separate tones.[99] The second is slightly lower than the first, and the third a little lower than the second:
The negative Future Subjunctive has a single tone on the penultimate. All earlier tones are deleted:
The -zí- subjunctive has no direct negative, but the negative subjunctive with -má- is often used instead. It has pattern 5. The negative of the continuous infinitive also has pattern 5:
The Continuative Subjunctive has no negative.[96] Pattern 6 (-ma-)The most common tense in this pattern is the Present Habitual, in which, just as with pattern 5, there is a sharp fall after the first tone, with no spreading:[100]
The imperfective future tenses with -zi- are also in this pattern. (These should not be confused with the necessitative -zi- above, which has pattern 5.)
Downing and Mtenje also include the Remote Past tense in this pattern, in which there are tones on the first two syllables:
In relative clauses, because there is already a tone on the initial syllable, there is no change of tone. When an object-marker such as -mú- or the aspect-marker -ká- 'go and' is added, it loses its tone, except in a one-syllable verb:
When negative, the Present Habitual has negative pattern 4, in which the penultimate tone appears only when an object-marker is added, but the Remote Past has the penultimate tone even without an object-marker:
Pattern 7 (-dzá-)Downing and Mtenje's pattern 7 can also be divided into two varieties. The Present Simple (Near Future) has a tone on the subject-prefix which may spread if the verb has three or more syllables:[103]
In the Remote Future (or Distant Future) and Contingent Future[104] tenses there is usually a tone on the subject-marker and another on -dzá- (which may spread):
But some speakers pronounce these two tenses with a tone on the tense-marker only:[103]
When an object-marker such as -mú- 'him, her' is added, it keeps its tone; but it does not spread. In a monosyllabic verb, the tone of the object-marker is not lost but is bumped to the final, with a plateau:[105]
The tones are the same when -dzá- is added:[105]
The negative of all three tenses has negative pattern 2, with a single tone on the penultimate, earlier tones being deleted:[106]
Pattern 8 (-ngo-)In this pattern there is a tone before and after the aspect-marker -ngo- (which itself always has a low tone):[107]
The infix -ngo- always has this intonation with a tone before and after it, except when added to a toneless tense. In this case the first tone is absent:
Downing and Mtenje also include the following tense in this pattern, although it is slightly different, since the two tones usually join into a plateau:
In this pattern, when an object-marker is added, the tones in the second half of the verb are the same as for pattern 4. Pattern 9 (persistive -kada-)Pattern 9 consists of a single tone on the penultimate (or final if the verb is monosyllabic). It is used for the Persistive tense with -kada- or -daka- (rare except with the verb -li); also for the imperatives prefixed by zi- and baa-:
Forms like the following with chi-...-re also have this pattern:
Negative patternsNegative pattern 1Under the heading negative pattern 1, Downing & Mtenje group together tenses which have the same tone pattern as the affirmative tense, apart from the addition of the negative-marker sí- (which has a doubled tone) at the beginning.[110] The following have the affirmative pattern 4 ending both when negative and affirmative. When negative they have in addition the prefix sí-, of which the tone spreads to the subject-marker:
Another tense in this group is the Remote Imperfect (-nká-), which has three tones, the second of which is on the tense-marker itself and the third on the penultimate:
Mtenje adds the negatives of the Recent Past and the Remote Past, with final vowel -a. However, these are almost never found in modern standard Chichewa:[111]
Negative pattern 2The negative pattern of this group is a single tone on the penultimate syllable (or final in a monosyllabic verb). This pattern is used for the negative near future:[112]
Other negative tenses with this intonation are the Remote Future, negative subjunctive and future subjunctive, the negative infinitive, and the negative Perfect:
All tones earlier in the verb (except for -má- and -zí-) are deleted, so when an object-marker is added, it too is toneless, unless the verb is monosyllabic:
But -má-, -zí- and -ngá- add a tone, making pattern 5 (= negative pattern 3a):
When these tenses are used with a one-syllable verb the tone is normally heard on the final syllable:
But when the infix -dzá-, -ká-, -ná- is present, or an object-marker such as -mú- 'him, her', the tone is on that:
Negative pattern 3aDowning and Mtenje include two different patterns under the heading of negative pattern 3. One has tones on the tense or aspect-marker and the penultimate. The first tone does not spread, so that it resembles affirmative pattern 5. This pattern is found in the negative of the Present Potential, and also when the negative subjunctive, infinitive, and Remote Future have the continuous aspect-marker -má-:
Negative pattern 3bThe other pattern has tones on the initial syllable (which spreads) and penultimate, and so resembles affirmative pattern 6. This pattern is found in the negative of the Remote Perfect (Past Simple) and also as an alternative pronunciation of the negative Present Potential:
In both patterns, just as with affirmative patterns 5 and 6, when the aspect-marker -ká- 'go and' or an object-marker such as -mú- 'him, her' is added, it loses its tone. Negative pattern 4In this pattern, the verb stem itself is toneless, unless an object-marker is added:[113]
When an object-marker is added, there is a tone on the penultimate. The object-marker itself loses its tone:
In monosyllabic verbs, in the Central Region, the tone on the subject-marker disappears in the Present Simple and the tones are:[114]
Relative clause patternsCertain tenses have a different tonal pattern when used in relative clauses. Stevick calls this intonation the 'relative mood' of the verb.[116] Often the use of relative clause intonation alone, without a relative pronoun, can show that a verb is being used in the meaning of a relative clause. Mchombo gives the following example:[117] The same intonation patterns can also be found in some types of temporal, conditional, or concessive clause. Relative pattern 1In some tenses the relative clause pattern is the same as the main clause pattern. This includes all affirmative tenses (including the Remote Future) which already have a high tone on the initial syllable, and all negative tenses, even those starting with a low tone. Downing & Mtenje refer to these as Relative tone pattern 1.[118] Relative pattern 2Relative pattern 2 is the relative clause version of affirmative pattern 4. There is a high tone on the initial syllable of the verb, which often links in a plateau with the tone after the tense-marker:
The same intonation is also found in certain temporal and conditional clause verbs:
Relative pattern 3In this pattern, in longer verbs, a high tone is added to the initial syllable and the penultimate. However, there are slightly different versions of this pattern according the tense. In the Present Potential tense, the first tone does not spread and the infix -nga- always has a low tone. The second tone remains on the penultimate, except in a monosyllabic verb:[120]
The Remote Imperfect with -nká- has the same tones:
However, in the Remote Perfect (Past Simple) tense, the intonation is slightly different. Here the first tone usually doubles, and in a two-syllable verb, the second tone is often 'bumped' to the final syllable:
In the Perfect tense, the first tone also often spreads, and in three or four-syllable verbs, the second tone is often bumped to the final syllable. When the verb is monosyllabic the second tone is lost:[121]
Relative pattern 3 intonation is also used in some kinds of temporal and conditional clause verbs:
Relative intonation of the subjunctiveIn the relative subjunctive, a tone is added on the initial syllable, but the second tone remains on the final:
In the future subjunctive, the tones similarly are on the initial and final syllables:
This intonation is also found after ngati 'if':
Relative patterns of ndili 'I am'The irregular verb ndili 'I am', which is normally toneless, becomes ndíli in a relative or temporal clause:
The applied form, used in clauses of manner, is ndílílí:
The Present Persistive tense of this verb, ndi-kada-lí 'I am still', has tones on the first and last syllable when used in a relative or temporal clause. It is often heard in the following phrase:
Where the relative intonation is usedThe relative clause intonation is frequently used in relative clauses, for example after améne or yemwé 'who'. The tone of améne spreads to make a plateau with the high tone of the relative clause verb:[123]
With the relative pronoun omitted, the relative clause intonation alone shows that the verb is being used in a relative way:
Questions with ndaní? 'who?' and nchiyáni? 'what?' are expressed as cleft sentences, using relative clause intonation:
A common idiom is to use a form of the verb yamba 'begin' followed by the relative Perfect:
Temporal clausesThe relative clause intonations are also used in temporal clauses after paméne 'when', which is derived from the relative pronoun:
The word ndíli with dependent clause intonation is often used as a temporal clause.[122] It can refer to past or present circumstances, according to the context. When followed by another word, the tone is doubled, making ndílí:
The participial tenses with -ku-, -ta-, -sana- and the persistive -kada- also all use the relative clause intonation. These refer to actions simultaneous with, earlier than, or subsequent to the main verb:[128][129]
Clauses of mannerClauses of manner are also expressed as a form of relative clause following momwé or mméne.[130] These usually use the applied form of the verb ending in -ira or -era. The applied form of -li is -lili:
Conditional clausesThe dependent clause intonation is also used in conditional clauses, notably those with -kada- and -ta-:
But the conditional tenses with -ka- and -chi- are toneless:
The relative intonation is similarly used after ngati 'if':
However, when ngati means 'as if', the ordinary intonation is used. Concessive clausesThis intonation can also make a concessive clause with the tense -nga-.[133][134]
The word ngakhále can also sometimes be followed by the relative intonation:
InfinitiveThe Infinitive has a proclitic tone, that is, a high tone is heard on the syllable immediately following the prefix -ku-. This tone may spread in a verb of four syllables or longer:[136]
With a high-toned verb, the extra tone can be heard on the final only in verbs of three or more syllables. In a three-syllable verb, the tones form a plateau; in a two-syllable verb the second tone disappears by Meeussen's Rule. There are no high-toned monosyllabic verbs:[137]
When an object-marker or one of the aspect-markers -ká- or -dzá- are added, a tone is added on the penultimate in 5 or 4-syllable verbs, but on the final in verbs of three or two syllables. In monosyllabic verbs the second tone is deleted:[138]
However, when the aspect-marker -má- is added, the tones change to pattern 5:
The negative Infinitive is formed with the infix -sa-. There is a single tone on the penultimate (or final in monosyllabic verbs):
The tone of an object-marker such as -mú- or of the aspect-markers -ká- and -dzá- is deleted, except in a monosyllabic verb, where it carries the tone:[139]
ImperativeThe imperative is toneless, except in verbs that have their own lexical high tone on the final syllable. A monosyllabic verb requires a supporting vowel i-:[140]
The suffix -ni makes the imperative plural or polite:
The tone on the final syllable in intensive verbs can be heard:[141]
If an object-marker is added, its tone is transferred to the following syllable, except in a monosyllabic verb, and the final vowel changes to -é, as in the subjunctive.[142] An object-marker and monosyllabic verb together have the same intonation as a two-syllable verb:
The bare imperative in this form is said to be 'extremely rude'; it is more polite to add the prefix mu- to make a subjunctive: mu-ti-péze! 'please find us!'.[143] The imperative may be prefixed by various prefixes, which are generally reduced forms of auxiliary verbs (muka 'go', (i)dza 'come', chita 'do', (i)-nga 'be like', yamba 'begin') followed by a subjunctive, infinitive, or relative perfect. All the prefixes, when used in the imperative, are toneless. When -ka- 'go and' or -dza- 'come and' are added, the subjunctive tone of the verb itself remains on the final -é:[144]
Another prefix added to the imperative is ta-, used when begging someone to do something at once. This places a tone on the syllable which follows, as with pattern 4. The final vowel is -a:[92]
When an object-marker is added as well, the tones are the same as in pattern 4. The final vowel is usually -a:
The aspect-marker -ngo- 'just' may be added to an imperative as well, either with the supporting vowel i- or with the prefix tá-. The final vowel is always -a and the tones are pattern 4:
The prefixes baa- and zi- (dzi-) add a tone on the penultimate (pattern 9):
The negative of the imperative is derived from á 'of' with the negative infinitive. The tones are pattern 6 with a tone on ó-' (which does not spread) and a second tone on the penultimate:[145]
If an object-marker is added the negative subjunctive form is usually used,[145] although the form with ó is also possible.[146] In the subjunctive, the only tone is on the penultimate syllable:
Tones of -li ('am', 'are', 'is')As well as the word ndi 'is/are' used for identity (e.g. 'he is a teacher') Chichewa has another verb -li 'am, are, is' used for position or temporary state (e.g. 'he is well', 'he is in Lilongwe'). The tones of this are irregular in that in the Present Simple, there is no tone on the subject-marker.[147] For the Remote Past, both á-naa-lí and a-ná-li[148] can be heard, apparently without difference of meaning. In the dependent Applied Present (-lili), used in clauses of manner, the two tones make a plateau. In main clauses the tones are as follows:
Negative tenses:
In relative clauses:
In temporal clauses:
The dependent-clause form of the Persistive tense is frequently heard in the phrase pá-kada-lí pano 'at the present time' (literally, 'it still being now'). Aspect-markersBetween the tense-marker and the object-marker it is possible to add one or more aspect-markers. If more than one is added, they usually come in the order -má-, -ká-, -dzá-, -ngo-. Another, much less common, marker is -ba- or -baa-. These infixes were originally independent verbs that have become incorporated into the tenses system: muka 'go', -dza 'come', -nga 'be like', yamba 'begin'.[150] They retain traces of the tones they originally had as independent verbs; for example, in the imperative, they are toneless. The verb stem itself, when used with an aspect-marker, often has a tone on the penultimate syllable; but with -ngo-, the tone follows the infix. Tones of -má-The aspect-marker -má-, marking continuity or regularity, is usually pronounced with tone pattern 5, that is, with a tone on itself and on the penultimate. The tone on -má- does not spread:
If -ngo- 'just' is added, the second tone follows -ngo-, as in affirmative pattern 8:
-má- loses its tone in the Present Habitual tense, but the tone returns in the negative. The penultimate tone is lost in the negative, but it reappears if there is an object-marker:
Tones of -ká-The aspect-marker -ká- 'go and' normally has a tone, which may spread in longer verbs. There is no tone on the penultimate:
When added to pattern 4, -ká- causes the same changes as an object-marker, that is an extra tone is added to the penultimate; but in two or three-syllable verbs it is heard on the final. The tone of -ká- can spread:[138]
Combined with the subjunctive, -ká- keeps its tone and makes pattern 5. There is no spreading:
But with the imperative, -ká- is toneless:
It is also toneless if added to negative pattern 2, except with a monosyllabic verb:
Similarly it has a low tone when added to other patterns which have penultimate tone, such as patterns 5 and 6 or negative pattern 3. In these patterns the first tone does not spread:
Tones of -dzá-The aspect-marker -dzá-, which either means 'come and' or refers to the future, has exactly the same tones as for -ká- described above. Tones of -ngo-When added to a toneless tense, -ngo- 'just' has a tone after it, as in tone pattern 4:
With other tenses it has the tones of pattern 8, that is, it has a tone before it and after it, while -ngo- itself is low:
Tones of -ba-/-baa-The aspect-marker -ba-, usually pronounced -baa- 'meanwhile', is referred to by Mchombo[151] and by Downing and Mtenje[152] as the 'continuative'. When used with as an imperative, the infix is toneless, but there is a tone on the penultimate:
As a subjunctive, it has tones on both -baa- and the penultimate, i.e. pattern 5.[152] In a monosyllabic verb the second tone is on the final. The final vowel is always a:
Intonational tonesIn addition to the ordinary lexical tones which go with individual words, and the grammatical tones of verb tenses, other tones can be heard which show phrasing or indicate a question. Boundary tonesQuite often, if there is a pause in the middle of sentence, such as might be indicated by a comma in writing, the speaker's voice will rise on the syllable just before the pause. This rising tone is called a boundary tone.[153] A boundary tone is typically used after the topic of a sentence, at the end of a dependent clause, after items on a list, and so on. The illustration included here of the sentence Mwamúna, ámulamúlá amáyi ('A man, he rules women')[154] clearly shows the rise in the voice on the last syllable of the word mwamúna, which is here taken to be the topic of the sentence. A typical sentence where the dependent clause precedes the main clause is the following:
As Kanerva points out, the rising boundary tone is not used when the order is reversed and the dependent clause follows the main clause.[156] Another kind of tone considered to be a boundary tone, but this time a low one, is the optional fall in the speaker's voice at the end of sentences which causes the final high tone on words like chákúdyá 'food' to drop to become chákúdya. The end-of-sentence boundary tone is marked L% in Myers' illustration. Both Kanerva and Stevick also mention a 'level' boundary tone, which occurs mid-sentence, but without any rise in pitch.[157] Tones of questionsWh-QuestionsQuestions in Chichewa often add high tones where an ordinary statement has no tone. For example, with the word kuti? 'where?', liti 'when?', yani 'who?' or chiyáni 'what?' some people add a tone on the last syllable of the preceding word. This tone does not spread backwards, although it may form a plateau with an antepenultimate tone, as in the 3rd and 4th examples below:
But as Stevick points out, not all speakers do this, and others may say mu-ná-fika liti?[161] When kuti? 'which place?' or liti? 'which day?' are preceded by ndi 'is', they take a high tone on the first syllable:
It appears that with some speakers the high tone after ndi is heard on the final syllable in forms of this adjective which begin with a vowel; but with other speakers it is heard on the first syllable:[163]
A high tone also goes on the final syllable in ndaní? '(it is) who?' (which is derived from ndi yani?)[164] Before this word and nchiyáni? '(is) what?', since such questions are phrased as a cleft sentence or relative clause, the verb has its relative-clause intonation:
The relative-clause intonation of the verb is also used when a question begins with bwánji? 'how come?', but not when it ends with bwánji?, when it has the meaning 'how?' Yes–no questionsWith yes–no questions, intonations vary. The simplest tone is a rising boundary tone on the final syllable:
A more insistent question often has a HL falling boundary tone on the last syllable. Pitch transcriptions show that the voice rises up on the penultimate and falls on the final:[166]
But in other dialects, it seems that this fall may begin on the penultimate syllable:
If there is already a penultimate high tone it may simply be raised higher:
Alternatively, there can be two successive falling tones, one on the penultimate, and another on the final.[169] Sometimes, however, there is no particular intonational tone and the question has the same intonation as a statement, especially if the question starts with the question-asking word kodí.[170] When there is a choice between two things in a disjunctive question, the first half of the question ends in a high boundary tone, but the voice drops in the second half:[171]
Other idiomatic tonesSome speakers add intonational tones also with the toneless word kale 'already', making not only the final syllable of kale itself high but also the last syllable of the verb which precedes it: Other speakers do not add these intonational tones, but pronounce ndavina kale with Low tones. Occasionally a verb which is otherwise low-toned will acquire a high tone in certain idiomatic usages, e.g. ndapitá 'I'm off' (said on parting), from the normally toneless pita 'go'. This can perhaps also be considered a kind of intonational tone. Focus and emphasisIn European languages it is common for a word which is picked out for contrast to be pronounced on a higher pitch than the other words in a sentence, e.g. in the sentence they fed the baboon fish, not the elephant, it is likely that the speaker will draw attention to the word baboon by pronouncing it on a high pitch, while the word fish, which has been mentioned already, will be on a low pitch. This kind of emphasis is known as 'focus'. In tonal languages it appears that this raising or lowering of the pitch to indicate focus is either absent or much less noticeable.[173] A number of studies have examined how focus is expressed in Chichewa and whether it causes a rise in pitch.[174] One finding was that for most speakers, focus has no effect on pitch. For some speakers, however, it appears that there is a slight rise in pitch if a word with a tone is focussed.[175] A toneless word, when in focus, does not appear to rise in pitch. A different kind of emphasis is emphasis of degree. To show that something is very small, or very large, or very distant, a Chichewa-speaker will often raise the pitch of his or her voice considerably, breaking the sequence of downdrift. For example, a word such as kwámbíri 'very much' or pang'óno 'a little' is sometimes pronounced with a high pitch. The toneless demonstrative uyo 'that man' can also acquire a tone and become úyo! with a high pitch to mean 'that man over there in the distance'.[72] Tonal minimal pairsSometimes two nouns are distinguished by their tone patterns alone, e.g.
Verbs can also sometimes be distinguished by tone alone:
There is also a distinction between:
However, minimal pairs of this kind which differ in lexical tone are not particularly common. More significant are minimal pairs in verbs, where a change of tones indicates a change in the tense, or a difference between the same tense used in a main clause and in a subordinate clause, for example:
Reduplicated wordsReduplicated words are those in which an element is repeated, such as chipolopolo 'bullet'. The tones of these have been extensively studied in the literature.[176] Reduplication in nounsIn nouns, the two elements join as follows (note that hyphens have been added here for clarity, but are not used in the standard orthography of Chichewa). LL + LL becomes LLLL (i.e. there is no additional tone):
LH + LH becomes LHLL (i.e. the second tone is dropped):
HL + HL becomes HLLH (or HHLH), by 'bumping':
Reduplication in adverbsWhen adverbs are reduplicated, however, and there is an element of emphasis, the first two types have an additional tone. Thus: LL + LL becomes LLHL (i.e. there is an additional high tone on the second element):
LH + LH is also different when emphatic, becoming LHHH (or in the Southern Region HHHH):
When a three-syllable element is repeated, there is no special change:
Reduplication in verbsA high tone following a proclitic tense-marker does not repeat when the verb is reduplicated:[178]
However, a final or penultimate tone will usually repeat (unless the verb has only two syllables, in which case the middle tone may be suppressed):[179]
Reduplication in ideophonesIdeophones (expressive words) have slightly different types of reduplication. Moto (1999) mentions the following types: All high:
All low:
High on the first syllable only:
Bibliography
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