Floating tone

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2008)

Sound change and alternation
Metathesis Quantitative metathesis
Lenition Consonant gradation Consonant voicing and devoicing Assibilation L-vocalization Debuccalization
Fortition
Epenthesis Anaptyxis Excrescence Prosthesis Paragoge Unpacking Vowel breaking
Elision Apheresis Syncope Apocope Haplology Fusion Cluster reduction
Cheshirisation Compensatory lengthening Nasalization Tonogenesis Floating tone
Assimilation Coalescence Coarticulation Palatalization Velarization Labialisation Final devoicing Metaphony (vowel harmony, umlaut) Consonant harmony
Dissimilation
Sandhi Liaison, linking R Consonant mutation Tone sandhi Hiatus Synalepha  Elision Crasis Synaeresis and diaeresis Synizesis
Rhotacism Rhinoglottophilia
This box: view · talk · edit

A floating tone is a morpheme or element of a morpheme that contains no consonants, no vowels, but only tone. It cannot be pronounced by itself, but affects the tones of neighboring morphemes.

An example occurs in Bambara. Bambara has two phonemic tones, high and low. In this language, the definite article is a floating low tone. With a noun in isolation, it docks to the preceding vowel, turning a high tone into a falling tone: [bá] river; [bâ] the river. When it occurs between two high tones, it downsteps the following tone:

• [bá tɛ́] it's not a river
• [bá tɛ̄] (or [bá ꜜ tɛ́]) it's not the river

Also common are floating tones associated with a segmental morpheme such as an affix. For example, in Okphela, an Edoid language of Nigeria, the main negative morpheme is distinguished from the present tense morpheme by tone; the present tense morpheme (á-) carries high tone, whereas the negative past morpheme (´a-) imposes a high tone on the syllable which precedes it:

• oh á-nga he is climbing
• óh a-nga he didn't climb

Floating tones derive historically from morphemes which assimilate or lenite to the point where only their tone remains.

v · d · eSuprasegmentals Timing Syllable · Mora · Metrical foot · Vowel reduction Tone Tone contour · Pitch accent · Register · Downstep · Upstep · Downdrift · Tone terracing · Floating tone · Tone sandhi · Tone letter Stress Secondary stress · Vowel reduction Length Chroneme · Gemination · Vowel length · Extra-short Prosody Intonation (pitch) · Pitch contour · Pitch reset · Stress · Rhythm · Loudness · Prosodic unit · Pausa

This linguistics article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · d · e