Chichewa (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 (high-low-low) 'maize' can be distinguished from (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.Myers (1998).Downing & Mtenje (2017), p. 110.
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 'star', have two tones or, like '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'.Downing & Mtenje (2017), pp. 132–4. 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.Hyman (2009).
How tones sound 1st example
The accompanying illustration from MyersMyers (1996), p. 34. shows the typical intonation of a declarative statement in Chichewa: 'a man, he rules women'
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',Downing & Mtenje (2017), pp. 256–7. 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 anticipates the following high tone and is almost on the same level. The last syllable of 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 also show a glide downwards, with ma higher than la.
The penultimate tones of 'a man' and 'women' are lexical tones, meaning that they always occur in these words. The tones of 'he rules' are grammatical tones, which are always found in the Present Habitual tense. The verb stem itself ( 'rule') is toneless.
2nd example
The second illustrationDowning et al. (2004), p. 174. shows the pitch-track of the following sentence: 'they fed the baboon (some) fish'
The sentence has a grammatical tone on the Remote Perfect tense 'they fed' and lexical tones on 'baboon' and 'fish'.
In this example, in the word 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, '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.cf. Louw (1987), vol. 3, pp. 22, 60 In this case it is actually slightly lower than the high tone of which follows it.
When a final-tone word such as comes at the end of a sentence, it is often pronounced as 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: 'that baboon'.Moto (1983), p. 206; Mtenje (1986), p. 206; Stevick et al. (1965), p. 20; Louw (1987), vol. 3, p. 3.
The third word, '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 , 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 tone Note: In this article syllables with an inherent lexical or grammatical tone are shown with an acute accent and with the syllable marked in bold (to make it easily visible). A tone which has spread from another syllable is marked with an acute, but without the bold print. Underlining is used to highlight places where a high tone has spread.
Lexical tones Nouns Certain 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:Kanerva (1990), pp. 12–14. 'maize' 'love' 'cassava' (pronounced or )
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: 'chameleon' 'pepper' 'habit'
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: 'hospital' 'milk' 'animal'
It is also possible for a high tone to contrast with a toneless syllable, making a different word: 'tree' 'price'
A tonal accent differs from a stress-accent in languages such as in English in that it always retains the same pitch relative to the surrounding syllables. Thus the high tone of -kó- in is usually higher pitched, never lower pitched, than chi- and -ndi.
High-toned verbs Most verbal roots in Chichewa, including all monosyllabic verbs, are toneless, as the following: 'help' 'go' 'eat' 'die'
A few verbal roots, however, have a lexical tone, which is heard on the final vowel of the verb: 'run' 'thank'
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.Hyman & Mtenje (1999b), p. 122f.
Often a verb has a tone not because the root itself has one but because a stative or intensive extension is added to it: 'know' 'be known'
'want' 'want very much'
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: 'find' 'catch someone in the act' 'run after'
Grammatical tones Tonal patterns of tenses In 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:
'I am helping' 'I was helping' 'I helped (just now)'
The following have two separate tones, one on the tense-marker and one on the penultimate syllable:
'I used to help' 'I should be helping' 'if ever I help'
The following tenses are toneless:
'I have helped' 'I can help' 'if I help'
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.Downing, L.J. and Al Mtenje (2017), The Phonology of Chichewa (OUP), Chapter 7.
Adding an object-marker The tonal pattern frequently changes again when other morphemes such as aspect-markers or an object-marker are added to the verb. For example:
'I am helping' 'I am helping him'
Further details are given below in the sections on the various tense-patterns.
Negative tense patterns Negative 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:
'I don't help' 'I won't help'
'I didn't help' 'I haven't helped yet'
Dependent clause patterns In 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:
'the year has ended' 'the year which has ended (i.e. last year)'
'he is in Lilongwe' 'when he is/was in Lilongwe'
'I would have helped' 'if I had helped'
Lexical tone combined with tonal pattern When the verb-root itself has a high tone, this tone can be heard on the final syllable in addition to the tonal pattern: 'I would have helped' 'I would have run' (lexical tone can be heard)
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.
'I won't help' 'I won't run' (lexical tone deleted)
'I should help' 'I should run'
If a tonal pattern places a tone on the antepenultimate syllable of a high-toned verb, the two tones join into a plateau: 'I am running' 'I have found him'
Intonational tones Lexical 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 'where?' becomes in the following question: 'where is your home?'
Further details of intonational tones are given below.
Number of tones Two pitch levels, high and low, conventionally written H and L, are usually considered to be sufficient to describe the tones of Chichewa.Mchombo (2004), p. 11. In Chichewa itself the high tone is called ('tone of raising'), and the low tone ('tone of lowering').Mtanthauziramawu wa Chinyanja (c.2000), p. vi. Some authorse.g. Kulemeka (2002), p. 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. 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.Hyman (2000).
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 . The low tones are generally left unmarked.
Works describing Chichewa tones