The tonology of Khoekhoe (Nama/Damara)

Abstract

Abstract provided by author:

Chapter 3 deals with the formation of compound words and derivations in the realm of lexical tonology. The occurrence of the different perturbational processes is investigated, which, next to regular sandhi changes i. a. involve flip-flop rules as known from Chinese. Unlike the neighbouring Bantu languages, Khoekhoe uses paradigmatic displacement of melodies in cyclic application, rather than syntagmatic feature-changing rules

Chapter 4 presents an overview of the post-lexical tonology with regard to the major syntactic structures. It is demonstrated that Khoekhoe corroborates a universal, namely that tonal domains coincide with syntactic domains that commence with a double left bracket [ [in a bracketed representation of an IC structure. In Khoekhoe the leftmost constituent receives the citation melody, while subsequent constituents receive the sandhi melody

Khoekhoe tonology has semantic as well as syntactic and derivational functions