John Goldsmith_Firmard Sabimana - The Kirundi Verbs

8/13/2019 John Goldsmith_Firmard Sabimana - The Kirundi Verbs

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THE KIRUNDI VERB

John GoLnsMm( and Firmard Sha(M4,NA

l. INTRODUCTION

In this paper, we will present an analysis of the tonal rules andsome of the morphology involved in the Kirundi verb. (fn. I) Kj rund iis a Rantu language, classified by Guthrie as being in the D group,and reclassified as J by the Tervuren Dantuists. a group of languagesin lhe region generally south of Lake Victoria. It is t he major languageof I3urundi, and is closely related to K inya rwanda. There are between

four and five million speakers of Kirundi.

I. Our primary source of data is our (Sabimana)own judgments. Wearegratcfulto 3ae Ohk Cho and Wayne Smith for their contribution to this psper in its earlystages, snd (o G,N, Clements and Larry ht. Hyman for csreful criticisms ofan earliervcrsion of this paper. htecusxen'x anslysis ((959) hss heen of usc to us, ax we notcbelow, Nnne(hetess, this work ol' Meeussen's, unlike much ol' his Ister work, appearsto make an efrort in many p lsces to eschcw generslizationx. It is a descriptivc tourde force, snd yet fails to producc general principles. Coupez (l980), on the closclyrelstcd Kinyarwsnda, follows in the trad ition of Me eussen in scversl respects,including the crucial charsctcrization of tonal melodies of the various tenses in termsof independent "tiroirs", rsthcr thsn gcnersl rules where possible. Kimenyi (l979),also dcscribing Kinyarwsnda, uses a generative framework, but with somcwhatdifferent simx thsn ours, and our rcsults are in many respectsdiA(cult to compsre.

Sibomsna ((974), also dealing with Kinyarwsnds, presents sn ex(reinely orgsnireddescription ol' the vsrious vcrbsl tenses, but he neither presents the tonal pa(tcrnsfound when object msrkcrs appear, crucial dats in our opinion, nor attempts snygenersl formulstion of rulcs

SM Subject markerTM Tense markerFOC Focus ma rkcrOM Object markt:rFV Finsl vowelLOC OM I ~ ative object markerInf Infinitive markerThis material is based upon work supported by the hla(ionsl Sciences Founds(ionunder Grant No . B NS.8421245,

We uxe the following abbreviations


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20 MOI)0LES EN TONOLOGIE Tl(E KiitIJNDI VEitls 2I

'llie tona l system of the K iru ndi verb dilTcrs considerably lromthe tonal systcms of related languages within the Cr'roup 3 area, Thus,in addition to the inherent interest of seeing the internal workings ofa complex tonal system, the study of the Kirundi systems is especiallyinteresting in that its tonal rulcs havc a number of propcrties thatdistinguish thcm from thc types of rules found in such languages asLuganda, Shi, Hunde, Haya, or the more distant Kikuyu, Tonga,Shona or Zulu. Of special interest arc thc scveral tonc rulcs that make

reference to syllable or segmental structure, as well as the tone rulesthat arc scnsitive to highly grammatical, rathcr than purcly phonological and tonological conditions. In more famil iar tona l systems, tone

rulcs typically modify tonal segments on thc basis ol' the tones in theimmediate environment, or add or delete association lines in the

immcdiaie cnvironmcnt of a tone. Kirundi has reanalyzed its Bantutonal inheritance in ways that are in certain respects quite radical, andhas arrived at an elegant set of tonal rules that are quite different fromits neighbors'. For examplc, whcrc ncighboring languages, and nodoubt Kirundi's ancestor, possessed object markers which were inmost cases inherently high-toned but which were subject to variouslowering rules, Kirundi has opted for a system in which the objectmarkers are underlyingly luw but subjcct to synchronically oddlowering rules,

turing of thc tonal systcm in Kirundi is highly inllucnced by a mctrical,or rhythmic, structure that is imposed on the word. Certain of the toneshil't rules appear to be scnsitive to whether the number of mores

preceding the site of the shift is odd 'or even. lhis kind of global

quantity sensitivity is highly unusual for a tone system, and has beenfound to date only in metrical stress systems (Mc Carthy 1979, HayesI981). We arc conv inced that only a sy nthesis of metrical andautosegmental analyses willallow us to arrive at a satisfactory accountof the K irun di system. If an account along thesc, lines provcs to becorrect, it wi ll sug gest that mctrical and autosegmental modes ofanalysis are not two specialized formalizations of the same thing, butare rather independeni mechanisms that can be invoked in languagcs,

and can be found togcther in certain languages, with the two systcmsacting autonomously but affecting each othcr.

is dcvelopcd in the Kirundi verb. In scction 6.7, we discuss this model

cxplicity, and suggest a case where despite the appeal of a simplelayered thcory of mo rphology, it i s necessary to have "loops" in theordered rules ol' morphology, rerniniscent of the Loop in Mohanan(1981); we investigate the way i n wh ich this should be incorporatedin tlie formal model, and discuss the non-cyclicity of Dahl's Law.

More significantly, there is considerable evidence that thc rcstruc

section 6.

I. The Kirundi verb.

pasi c l,6 cl. I

I. The Kirundi verb.

subject tense focus object objecl radical extension fmalmarker marker miirker ma rkcr vowelba k ra ya mu rim ir at hey I'a r Ihern him cultivate for

"they cultivated them for him/her"

Fach of thesc positions deservcs soiuc discussion. The subjectmarker is of the lorm V or CV, or in the case of first person singular,a consonant, in thc last casc, the riasal n-. All these morphemes are

endowcd with tone at the underlying level, though we wil l suggest thatword-initial moras are incapable of bearing tones themselves ("extratonal", in the sense proposed by pulleyblank 1983), There is one

subject markcr for each nnun class, in the traditional Bantu sense, Thissubject marker generally agrees with the subject NP, over t or impl icite: this is by no means the whole story on "subjcct agreement", butwill suffice for prcsent purposes.

We shall concentrate on fivc mnrphcmes thai appear in the tensemarker position in the first part of this paper; ku, the infinitivemarker, which itself cannot be preccded by a subject marker: zoo, thc

uture tcnse marker, which is syntactically quite special, as we shallsee below in section 7.1; the present te iise marker, phonologicallynull: a, the recent past marker, on a Low tone; and 6, the far past

marker, on a High tone. We shall discuss several others below in

The locus marker is somewhat unusual. While it is not uncommIn u anguages to distinguish in an overt morphological way whether

the inlormation focus, corresponding roughly to the intonation peakin an Fnglish sentence, is on the vcrb or the object, KiRundi hasper aps the rnost thorough-going system for such marking. Of the four

tenses mentioned above, the three non-future tenses show an overtdistinction of this sort. When the focus is on an object, direct orindircct, following the verb (and this is the norrnal case when an objectdoes follow the verb), the focus marker is absent lrom the verb and

II . THE TENSES

The linear structure ol the Kirundi verb is given in l. We willrel'er to the radical with all the following extensions and the Final

Vowel as stem, following traditional Bantu terminology.

mmon orAlso of somc thcoretical interest is the layered morphology that


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22 MODL'LLS EN O'ONOLOG)E

Ill 3.

Tense Marker

z6o

4. a. u 0 ra andik a

3. Tense

FuiurePresent fa

RecentPast a a

FarI ast ra

SM T M FOC write FV" you write books."

b. w o andik a ibitabo

SM Tht writ e FV books"you wriic books,"

5. a. u ra mu hoon ycSM FOC OM see FV"you sec him/her"

b. u ra bbon yeShl FOC sce FV"you see ihc person"

C. u ra mu bon yeunlccs there is a pause before the object.

h, umuniu u ra mu bon aperson Sht FOC OM scc FV

in most cascs High tones arc lost from the vcrb due to a process thatwe will discuss in detail below. In other cases, the appropriate focusmarker for the tense must be used in thc verb. It follows as a specialcase that when the verb is linal in its clause, it must bear the focusmarker. The focus markers are given in 2 and examples are provided

Object markers, spccified as the subject markers are, for noun

class, exprcss the noun class of'an argument of the verb which is eitherunspeciflcd -- in w hi ch case the obj ect marker is pr onom inal infunction, as in Sa or which precedes thc vcrb, as in Sd.

Focus Markcr

ibitabobooks

THE KIRUNDI VERB 23

appear adjacent to th e verb rad ical. All o the r obj ect markers ar eundcrlyingly Low toncd .

extensions are of the for m VCo. As in ot her Bant u lan guages, onefrequently finds combinations of wha t appcar to be ra dical andextcnsion which are not synchronically decomposable, either becausethcre is no indcpendcnt radical of the appropriate form, or becausethe meaning of the combination is not that which would be derivedproductively from the component radical and extcnsion.

extensions contribute to the meaning of the verbal stem in generallypredictable ways, but ar e t hemselves tonally in ert, as th ey a rethroughout the Bantu languages. In this paper we shall make relerencein several examples to the "applicative" extension, which increases thevalence of the verh stcm by one, permitting an otherwise transitivcverb to take two objects, especially important for our purposes whenwe wish to investigatc the tonal properties of verbs with two objectmarkers,

is in keeping with Bantu termi nology. Therc arc thrce morphcmcs thatcan appcar in this position: thc Final Vowel -c, used in the subjunctivcand in the im perative with an o bject other than the first personsingular; the perfective -ye; and thc neutral -a. In most tenses, either-ye or -a can he used, with a c lear di ff erence in aspect or real ismarking. Thus 6a, with -ye, indicatcs that the action was completed,while 6b, with -a, indicates an action not necessarily complcted.

Thcre may be any number of cxtensions, from zero on up, The

The so-called "Final Vowel" is oddly misnamed, we adrnit, but

umuniuperson 6.a, ha a rim a

SM T M cultivat e I V"ihcy werc cultivating

b. ha a rim ycSh4 T M cultiv at e FV"they cult iviited"

The radical is typically of the form Co VCo or CoVVCo, and

umuniu

The properties described above are indcpendcnt ol' d elin iteness andanimacy, unlike thc situation lound in many other Bantu languages,except insofar as topicalization (that is, preverbal placement of a nounphrase) presupposes that the NP is known and definite. This restriciion holds cqually for subject Nl's as for non-suhject NPs, and shouldthus be viewed as a restriction on surface word order,

markers in a single verb, though in practice the limit appears to bethree, with the third a reflexive. The reflexive object marker is the onlyone that is not marked for noun class, and is consistently of the form-ii-, with a High tonc on the second vowel underlyingly; it must always

There is no limi t in pr in cipl e to the number of surl'ace object7. a. ba ra tbek a

SM FOC cook I'V"thcy cook (e.g., I'or a living)"

SM FOC coak FV

The meaning of the ye/a contrast in the present tense is worthy ofnote, ln a wide rangc of'verbs, the -yc lorm is used in the present tcnscto indicate a single action, and the -a I'orm to indicate a habitualaction. Tiiis is rather the revcrse of the parallel situation in Fnglish,where the aspcctual marker used to indicatc completion is also uscdto indicate habitual or "str uctural" pr operties, in the terminology ofGoldsmith and W olsetschlaeger (l982). See 7.

b. ha ra tt ets c (fr om /y e/ underlyingly)


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251'I I E K I RU NO I VERBhtODf.LFS FN IONOLOGIF.

containing a single mora, and we will refor mulate the Pullback rulewithin a rhythmic framework in the next section,Certain tcnse forms, most notably the futurc, cannot appear with the

perfective suffix -yc, though it would seem reasonable from a semanticpoint of view that such forms should exist, We shall consider this pointin greater detail below in section 6.7.

IO. Pullback rule

ku OM Cy

111. TONE

3.) Introduction inftnitives without object markers divide simply intotwo tonal classes, those composed with Low stems, as in 8a, with Lowtone throughout, and thosc composcd from High stems, as in Sb, witha single High tone on the first mora of the verb stem.

Herc, as elsewhere, we usc th e fa mi liar convc ntion tha t anassociation line with an "x" th rou gh it is deleted by the rule, whil ea dotted association linc is added by the rule.

object rnarker in 9 above. -ii-, howevcr, has an underlying Hig h tone ,as we see in I li. "'

All the object markers except the reflexive -ii- behave like the

g. a. Low stem infinitivcsku rim a to cultivatcku rcr a to raise (childrcn)ku rog a to poisonku rut a to surpassku raah a to look at

b. High stcm inliiiitivcs

II, a Hi gh tone stcm; ku ii bon a "to scc oneself'

b. Low tonc stem: ku ii raab a -to iook at oncsclf"

Recognizing -ii-'s underlying High tone, we must posit a rulc toaccount I'or the lack of High tone on the stem in l la, a rule given in

l2, lowering a High tone immediately following a High tone. This ruleis important in the tonology o f Bant u languages, and has been called

"Mceussen's Rule" i n the lite rature (see especially Go ldsmi th

l982,1983,1984). The tone of the reflexive marker is considerably morecomplicated than thesc initial observations suggest, however. We willdiscuss this matter in detail in section 4.2 below.

ku b6n a to sccku bur a to lackku bik a lo crowku baag a Io hutchcrku bbcr a to suit

The basic tone of thc verb radical is thus realized on the flrst mora,the usual situation found in lia ntu l anguages.

is onc, in the infinitive, as il lustrated in the cxarnple in 9a, lormed froma High stem. An otherwise parallel examplc is given in 9b, formed witha Low stem, where no High tone appears; we conclude that the Hightone in 9a is truly the rcalization ol the stem High tone, displacedleftward,

This basic tone is realized on the preceding object marker, if therc

I2. Mccuscn's Rule

Co

H ~ L

9. a. ku gi tcminl'. O h1 cut"to cut it (cl. 7)"

b. ku ki riminf, OM cultivatc:"to cultivatc it (cl. 7)

aFV

FV

2. We will oot discuss in detail the intercxting and importsnt question of thetrcstcmcnt of vowct scqucnccs. We msy note (hst as with all Fsstcro Bsotu lsngusgcs,within the word scqucoccs ot two or more vowels reduce to two more scqucnccx, withthe Issl vowcl dctcrraining the vowct quality of the I oi ts nt long vowel. BothCtcmcnts I984 l)979l siid Wall l984 cootaio analyses of this phcoomcooit thst wc finduseful. As hss hccn tiotcd ciscwhcrc (for cxsmplc, in the discussion of Mskos inKcnstowicz and Kisscbcrth I979), when scvcral tones are associatcd with anunderlying scqacnccof more thstt two moras, destined to become s two.mors syllahlc,the principle thst ststcs thc surfscc rcslizstion of tone is this: il' thcrc are any Ilightoncs on the third or Istcr mors, these are rcslixcd on the second mora of the rcsuhingtong vowel.

We shall provisionally account for this "pul lback" of Hi gh tone bymeans ol' a rule whose formulation wc give in l0; we shall call thisrule the "Pullback Rule" We will return briefly to the naturc of thernorphemes other than -ku- that trigger the Puiihack rule, atl ol'them


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MODBLES EN TONOLOCitE26

The Pullback rule formulated in 10 applies in the Present Tenseas well, but not in th c Rcc ent or Far Past tenses, In 13, wc giv e

n e with no and withs t

since, as we shall sce below, verbs out of focus display greatly reducedtonal patterns, We reformu late 10, the Pullback rule, to apply in t epresent tense as well. The -ra- focus marker which is said to trigger

the Pullback from stem to object marker in 10' must be said to bedistinct from the -ra- focus marker of the Far Past, where no pullbacoccurs (this is illustrated in 15 below).

reprepresentative examples of verbs in the present te sone object marker. In all c ases, the focus marker must be pre,en ,

n da gi tcck a tu rs gi teek su rs gi leek s mu ra gi teek as rs gi teek s bs ra gi teck sd. Low tone verb -raab "look at"

n ds raab a

u ra rssb as ra raah s

Without object marker

THE KIRUNDI VFRtt

%ith one ob)ect marker

10' Pullback rule

present

Without object marker

(singular and plural) subjects, hcre as throughout this paper.

OM

Consider the following data, given for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd pcrson

13. Present tense (focus form)

s. High tone verb -b6n "scc"

H

CV

With one objcct markcr

tu ra rssb a

mu ra rasb aha rs raab s

n da mu rssb a tu ra mu rasb au ra mu raab a mu ra rnu rsah sa rs mu rsab s ba ra mu raab s

Far Past tenses, but the tone of the affirma tive main clause Fu ture verbis complicated hy two tense-specific rules which we will discuss below,For present purposes, we may summarizc these lacts hy saying thatthe Pullback Rule applies when thc Tensc plus Focus Markcr is of thcform CV, but n ot i n o ther cases, such as when the Tense plus Focusare ol the form CVV (futurc), VV (reccnt past), or VCV (far past). This

is partially illustrated in 14, with the recent past forms; the Far Pastis illustrated in 15 below. For the reader's convenience, in all but thefirst paradigm we give near-surface forms; in all cascs, [uj before avowel becomes a glide, and sequcnces of three vowels simplify to two

(as in ba a a rim a becoming baarima),

The Pullback Rule also fails to apply i n the Future, Recent Past, and

n da b*n s tu ra b6n aurs hon s mu ra h6n aa ra b6n s ba ra b6n aWith one object msrkcr (-mu -him/her")

n ds mu hon s tu ra mu bon au rs mu bon s mu rs mu bon sa ra mu bon s bs rs mu bon a

b. Low tone vcrb -rim "cultivstc"Without object marker n s s m u b o n a

u s a mu b6n sy s s mu h6n s

b. Low tonen a s r i m au s a rim sy a a rim a

n a a ki rimua a ki r imyas kirim

14. RecentPast (focus forms)s. High tone verb -bon "see": short vowclafter morphological rules surface formsn a a b 6 n s t ua s b6 ns nasb6ns twasb6nsu a a b 6 n s mus s b6 na waah6ns mwaah6nay s a b6n s bs s a b6n s yaab6na basb6n a

n dar im a tu rs rim aursrim s mu rs rim ss r s r i m s ba ra rim aWith one object marker (-ki "it", class 7)

n da ki riin a tu ra ki rim su rs ki rim a mu ra ki rim aa ra ki riru s bs ra ki rim s

c. lligh tone verb -t6ck "cook"

n da thek au ra t6ek ss rs t6ck a

Without object markers tu s a ki rim ss mu s a ki rim sa baaak i r ima

tu a a mu b6n amus s muhonabs s a mu b6n a

verb rim cultivate short vowcltus a ri m n

mu a s rim shs s a rim aWith one object marker

with one objectmarker

tu ra thek amu ra t8ck abs ra ttek a


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MOI)PLLS EN YOYOLOOIF

"cook"; long vowel

tu a s thek smuastheksbassthckswith one object markertu s s gi thek a

mu aagi thekaba aagi theka

"look st": iong vowel

tu s a rssb amuaarasbsba a a raab awith onc object markert ua a mu r aa bamu a a mu raab ah ss s m u r sa ba

'I HE K I RUNOI VP R II28

c. High tone verh -teek

d, Low tone verb .rash

n aathekau s s leek s

y s s teek s

n a a gi thek a

u a a g i th e k sy a a gi thek a

nsarasbau s s r s s b sy a a raab a

n sa m u r ssb su aamurasbay s s mu rssh s

without object msrkcr

without object marker

n h ra thek a

u h r a l b e k ayh r a theka

n h rs gi thck auhragi theksy A rs gi thek s

d. Low tone

nh r s k > r t m au a ra ki rim ay A ra ki rim s

c. High tone

With one object markertu a ra ki rim s nsrhki rimamu h ra k i r im a w arhk i r imsba h ra ki rim a yarh ki ri ms

verb -thek "cook": long vowel

Without objcct msrkcrtu h rs thek s nark teeks

mu A ra thek a warh teeksbs h ra thek s ysrh t ee ksWith one object markertu A rs gi thek a naragi thek amu h r gi thek a warhg i thek sbs h ra g i thek a y a rhg i thek a

verb .raab-: tong vowei

Without object markertu A ra rhab a narh rasbsmu h ra rhab a wsrh rasbsbs h ra rhab a yarh r aa baWth one object markertu h ra mu rhsb a n arhmu rhabamu A r mu rhsb w ar hmu rhsha

bs h rs mu rhab a y ar hmu rhaba

nhrs rhabauhrs rhsbayhra rhsba

nhrs murhsbsu hrs murhsb sy A rsmurhsbs

In all cases in 15, the stem carries a High tonc, except when a Hightone immediately precedes on the focus marker -ra-, which is the casewhen there is no object marker and the subject marker is singular(although the corrcct gcncralization depends ultimately on thc phonological shapc, not the grammatical number, of th c fi rst morpheme).The loss of the stem tligh tonc in these cases is clearly the result otMecussen's Rule 12, lowering a Iligh after a High. The High tone onthe stem is placed by a rule that we shall formulate as in 16,

twshrski rimsmwahraki rimabahraki rim s

twshra theks

mwshra thekabahra theka

twaAragi thckamwahrsgi thekabsaragi theka

I I I . I TON E IN FA R PAST

twahra rhabsmwahra rhababahra rhaba

twaAramu rhabsmwshrsmu rhsbsbshramu rhabs

29

n h ra rim s tu h rs rim a narh rima

With one objcCI msrkcr

The tonal pattern found in the Far Past diffcrsin certain respectsfrom what wc would expect on the basis of thc forms discussed upto this point, As thc data in 15 below illustrates, there is no contrastbctween inherently High and Low toricd stems; both are assigned aHigh tone in this tense, although this High tonc may he lost byMccusscn's Rule.Furthcrmorc, thc tense markcr -A- has a High tonein this tense,though it may be displaced if it falls on the first syllahlcof the word. Spacing in thc surface fortns given is purcly lororthographic convenience,

15. Fsr Past (focus forms)

a. High tone verb -bon "sec": short vowclafter mo rphologics I ruies surface formn A ra bbn s tu A rs b6n s narh honau A ra bbn a mu h rs bbn s wsrh bonay h rs b6n s b a h ra b 6 n a yarh bona

n a ra mu b6n s tu A ra mu bbn a nsrhmu bbnsu Ara mub6n a mu h ra mu bbn a warhmu b6na

y A ra rnu b6n a ba h ra mu b6n a y arhmubona

b. Low tonc verb -rim "cultivate': short vowel

uhrar ima mu h r a r i r n s wsrh rim ay A ra rirn a ba A rs r ir na ysrh rim a

twshrs bbnsrnwssrs bbnsbahra b6na

IwaArsmu b6namwshrsmu bbnsbahramu b6na

16. Var Past Stem-tone Placement

I

Istem

We must look a bit further to sec what mechanism is responsible forshifting the High tone frorn the Tcnse Marker to the Fncus Markcrin forms like narhtema. Mccussen (p.26) notes that "un morphoton6mchaut appartcnant h unc voyelle initiale, ou mime A une nasale initiale,est reprhsentbc sur la v oyelle suivante." This general principle isillustrated by the shil't of tone, for example, in thc demonstrative serics(Mcussen's series lll) in 17 .

T

FAR PAST

twahra rimamwshra rimsbshra rlma


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3ITIIL kIRUNnt VFRIIMOD&LES LN TONOI nGIE

(u) n6 versus hk17. hloun class FormI u + n62 hk + no3 u + n64 i + n65 rl + no6 a + n6

7 k i + no8 bi + no, et c.

u ara tem a

H

Intermediate structure

(after texical creation of the stem)L H t t

We suggest that all tones both Iligh and Low are in clTcctshifted off the first vowcl of the word in lCirundi, and this not dueto an explicit rul e to t hat effect, but rather to the specification thata word-initial tone-bearing unit is "extratonal", in the sense proposedby Pulleyblank (1983). A unit which would po tentially be tone-bearingin an autosegmental I'ramework may be marked as extratonal and isthus disregarded by tonc assignmcnt rules of the language. This iseflected by ru le lg . N ot e th at it a pp lies to strictly word-initial

vowcl-positions, not mcr ely to th e fi rst vowel-position ol' a wor d(lootnotc 3). We will return to thc question of extratonality in more

dctail in scction 6.5, where wc contrast extratonality at the phrase-levelwith extratonality, as here, at thc word-level.

lL II I I

Qu ara tem a Extrato nal marking

ara tem a A ssoci at ion , l4teeussen's Rulc,' ' ' Cilide formation

L H L

lg, Initial Fxtratonality

(+ extratonal]

IIII

V

Wc shall reprcsent extratonality henceforth by a circle drawn round

the extratonal segment (recalling a floating tone, which is an "extratonal" tone, in the sense that it exempted frorn association principles).The association of the Class I demonstrativc takes placc as in l9a;the shift of the High tone in a form such as w-ark-tem-a is illustratedin 19b. When the supcrficially parallel b6-tem-a occurs with a Hightone on the first vowel (in the participial form, discusscd bclow), noshift of the High tone occurs, bccause thcrc the crucial assignment ofextratonality does not takc place.

In the derivation in 19b, we anticipate our discussion helow of' thecyclic formation ol' the verb from the verbal stem -tcma. We assumethat tone has already been assigned to the stem at the time whe n tone

is assigned to the Subject Marker and Tense Marker, I'or reasons thatwc will considcr in morc detail bclow. We assume, with most recentwork in the autosegmental I'ramework, that Iloating tones automatically associatc with the lefmost accessible unassociatcd vowel, if, inparticular, they become free during the derivation.

3.3. Verbs With Two Objcct Markers. When we turn to verbs with twoobject markers, we might expect to find no High tones present when

the stem is underlyingly Low in tone. This expectation is not met,and

throughout the tense system, in fact, the undcrlying tonal contrast on

the verb stem is lost when the verb stem is preceded by two objectmarkers. II' we look first at a tense such as the Recent Past, a tensein which the Pullback Rule l0 does not apply, we find tonal patternsas in 20. The Far Past is illustrated in 2I. For ease of' cxposition wehave placed a High tonc in each case on the left hand column on thetense-markcr -6-, cvcn though its actual first association is with thefollowing vowel, as we have just suggested. We present the examplesbroken down morphologically with the tone assignments, accordingto our analysis, found after thc morphologically-scnsitive rulcs haveapplied; thcse are followed by (hc true surface forms.3. We are grateful to Larry Hyman for suggestions leading to an improvemeni

in the formulation of this rule,


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y 5 r a k i m u t b ek e r aba R ra ki mu tbek er a

b. Low tone stcm: short vowel

c High tone stcm: long vowel

a. High tone stem; short vowel

MO[>f:LFS LN TONOLOCitE

d. Low tone stern; long vowe1y ll ra ki mu rhab ir a y a rk ki rnu raab ir a

20. Recent Past: Two object markers (focus on verb)

a. High tone stem -tem "cut" short vowel

n a a ki mu thm er a "I cu! it for him " ln a a k i mu ter n er a]

ba a a ki mu thm er a "they cut it for him" [ba a ki mu tem er a]

b. Low tone stem -rim "cultivate": short vowel

n a a ki mu rim ir a[n a a ki mu rim ir a]

c, High tone stem -thek "cook": long vowel

d, Low tnne stem -raab "look at": lo ng vowel

y a ak i m u ra ab i r aly a a ki mu raab ir a]

ba a ki mu raab ir a]ba a ki mu raab ir a]

2I. Far Past: Two object markers (focus on verb)After rnorphological rules

surface

y k ra ki mu t0rn er ay a rk ki mu tem era

ba a ra ki rnu t0m er a ba k ra ki mu tem er a

y 1 ra ki mu rim er a y a rk ki mu rim ir a

ba S ra ki mu rim ir a ba 5 ra ki mu rirn ir a

y a rk ki mu teek er aba 6 ra ki rnu teek er a

ba tbl ra ki mu rkab ir a ba 6 ra ki mu raab ir a

We scc that ineach case in 20, a High tone appears on the second

object marker, and we can infer that the rule that accomplishes thisapplies before Mceussen's Rule, changing the underlying High toneon the stem to Low. This rule is provisionally given in 22. Much thesame pattern is found on verbs with two objects markers in the FarPast, with a lligh tone on the sccond object marker, and a Low tone

on the verb itself, illustrated in 21.22. Two Object Marker Rulc

]ba a ki mu rim ir a]

ly a a ki mu teek er a]lba a ki mu teek cr a]

25. Rhythm Rule

THF. KIRUNDI VFRB 33

ll' we look now at i nfi nit ives and Present tense verbs, I'orms in which

the Pullback rule ]0' applies, we find a curious result: the lligh toneon the second object marker that has been placed by the Two ObjectMarkcr rule 22 is indeed pulled back to the first object marker, as wewould expect; but fu rtherm orc, a High t one appears on thc verb sternwhether its basic tone is High or Low

23. Infinitivcs with two object markers

a, High tone;ku hg nlu khr a1n( LOC-O h l O M work FV"to work there for him"

b. Low tone:ku hh mu rimI nf there OM cultivat e"to cultivate there for him/her"

24. Present tense wlth tv o obyect markers

a. High tone:a ra hk muSM FOC LOC.O M O M"He works there for him"

b. Low tone '.a ra hh muSM FOC LO C -O M O M"He cultivates there for him"

QM OM Syl l

ir aappl FV

We propose that there is a rule, which we shall call the Rhythm R ule,whose function is to place a second High tone two syllables to the rightof the lligh tone that is created by the Two Object Marker rule whenthat position is on the first stem syllabe (or on an object marker). Thisrule is formulated in 25.

eI'

appl

korwork

rimcultivate

er a

lf a

appl FV

apple FV

IIII

I

Obj Marker Stem H HObj Marker

tL

(thc dottcd line on the second H indicates that the structural changeof the rute inserts the H),

3.4. Non-l'ocus Tone. Wc will provisionally formulate one more tonalrule in this section. Wc noted above that in non-focus main clauseverb, where the principal fo cus of the sentence is on a phrase followingH


9/23

MODCLES EN TONOLOGIE 35THI: KIRUNDI VERB

the verb, High tones which would otherwise be expected on the verbare lost. It' we ind icate non-I'ocus status by -F, we may f ormul ate thisgeneralization as in 26, which takes account of the fact that only tonesto the Right of th e tense marker are lost in the -F contexts. The Hightone of the tense marker in the Far Past is not lost, in particular, inthe non-focus forms', however, tones on the verb stem, the reflexiveobject msrker, snd the tones created by the Two Object Marker rule

IV. A RHYTHMIC APP ROACH

are all lost in ihe non-I'ocus context26. Non-focus Rules Main ctsus

4.1 INTRADUCTIO N

H ~ L / Tense X--y

Fverb

main clause

sgpl

b. Low tone verb, short vowel

b. Low lone verb, short vowel

b. Low tnoc vcrb: short vowcl

sg. y s bo n s y s mu bo n s y i i bon s

pl. basbons bsamu bona h iibon a

sg. y s gu r s y a mu g u r ir s y i i gur i r sp l. b s s gu r s bs s mu gu r i r s b ii gur ir s

29. Non-focus main clauseverbs. Far Psst

s, High tuoe vcrb: short vowelsg. y s h6 n a y a mu bo n s y ii bon spl, bs hh un s h s 5 mu bo n s b ii bon s

sg. y a g u rs y a mu g u ri r s y i i gur i r spl . bs A gu r s bs 0 mugu r i r s b ii gur ir s

Subj No OM O ne O' I Reftex OMsg. a b on s a mu bon s yi ibon spl. bs bon a bs mu bon s b i i bon s

s gur s s mu gur i r a y i i gur i r sbsg ur s b s mu gur i r s b ii gur ir s

28. Non-focus main clause verbs: Recent Pasts, High tonc verb, short vowel

27. Non-I'ocus main clsuscvcrbs '.Present Tense

s. High tone vcrh, shnrt vowel

We give representative examplcs in 27 (third person, singular and

plural) of non-focus main clausc verb forms. Forms with long vowelsarc cnlircly paral lel.

Two OMs ki mu bon er sbs ki mu bon r s

s ki mu ir sha ki mu gur ir s

y s ki mu bon er sba a ki mu bon cr a

y s ki mu gur ir aba a ki mu gur ir a

y s ki mu bon cr sbs h ki mu bon cr s

y s kl mu gur ir sbs A ki mu gur ir a

We have observed so far tha t there are two t enses in whic h thePullback Rule appl ies, the In fin itivc (a nom inalization) and th ePresent tense, formed with ku- and -ra-, respectively. In addition, thereis another tensc, whosc tense marker is also of the form CV, in whichthc Pullback rule applies, the consecutive -ka- tense. As we notedabove, neither the Recent Past -aa- nor the Far Past -ara- triggerPullback, nor does the I'uturc marker.

actually moti vated by a rh yt hmical , or rn etrical, structure that is

constructcd on the word beginnning with the li rst Objcci Mar ker.Whether the Object Markcrs plus the following stem forms a consti

tuent is ao important and still outstanding problem in thstudy ofBantu morphology, but in the Kirundi vcrb therc is evidence that thisunit, which we shall call the suprastem, for want of a bet ter term,serves as the basis for the im posit ion of r nct rical structurc fro rnlcft-to-right.

motivated in the treatment ol subordinate, subjunctive, and negativevcrb forms, and that the necessary metrical structurc is again thaterected on the suprastem. We propose, therefore, that binary-branching trochaic feet (Strong-Weak) be erected on the suprastem (thcstem plus any preceding Objcct Markcrs). As we shall show itt a

rnoment, this metrical structure serves as the basis for thc Pul lback rulein main clauses. We must thercforc address the question of how to dcalwith the contrast hetween those tcnses which do trigger pullback ancIthose which do not.

possible to prcdict phonologically which tcnses trigger the Pullbackrule. The hist orical ori gins of th is deve lopment are discussed inGoldsmith (1984).

marker, as in 3la, the lexical tone of the verb stem falls on a Strongsyllabc. In 3lh, with a single objcct marker in a Strong position, the

Wc propnsc that the Pullback phcnomcnon skctchcd in IO' is

lt appears that in the synchronic grammar ol' Kirundi, it is not

We shall see below (section 5.2) that (his metrical structure is

Consider some examples from the Present Tense. With no object


10/23

MOnLLFS LN rONOLOGi e TIIE KIRLINI>I VI:RB 37

tonc is shifted onto the Strong position, by thc Pullback rule, nowreformulated in 32."'

3I. Prescnt Tense

32. Strong Pullback Rule

CV

a.arahon a b .a r a m u bo n a

l[a ra bon a[ a ra mu bon a

[a ra mti bon al

The rule form ulated in 32 wil l re place the Pullback rule in IO 'formulated initially. A s or iginally I'ormulated, it ap plied equally toverh forms with two object markers, as in 23 and 24. It should be clearthat the reformulation in 32 applies equally correctly to these formswith the Two Object Marker rule formulated above, assigning a Iligl ttone to the second object marker when two object markers are present.This is illustrated schematically in 33. Thc Rhythm Rulc, in addition,

always adds a Iligh tone to a metrically Strong position, an aspect notexplicitly shown in the formulation presented.

4, It is appealing to predia on a metrical basis whlchtenscs will trigger thePuilhack rule. One a(tractivc hypothesis that we have explorcd, and which appearedin an earlier draft of th c prcscnt paper, involved constructing mctrical structurestarting from the subject markcr, and dropping the "CV" condition in the Pullbackrule.Thus when thc Tense + Focus marker contained an cven number of moras, as

with thc Near and Far Past and the Futurc, we would find that the ftrst object markerwould always hc in a metrically Weak posi'tion. It would thus never attract the tonethrough the Pullback rule. When the Tense + Focus containcd and odd numbcr ofrnoras - likc I. as in the present -ra- -- then the Iirst object marker would fall in ametrically strong position, and auract the next High tone via thc Pullback rulc. Thi sposition is so aesthetically appealing that it is hard to rcsist, but as a synchronicanalysis it has several problems. The first is that the -racha- tense has an odd numberof moras in its Tensc-Focus marker lthree, to b prccise), but it does not triggerPullback. Second, the inf initiv e has only one mora, and functions in (he same wayas the other odd-moraed markers (like .ra-, etc.), but metrical structure cannot beconsistently erccted to put ku in a metrically weak position, like the other markersol the I'orm CV; this problem arises simply because the other CV markcrs appcar infinite clauses and are thus preceded by the monomoraic subject marker, Thirdly, thepattern of metrical structure beginning with the subject markcr is difricult to reconcilcwith the mctrical structure that is erected on the hasc, which we will suggest belowis necessary for the treatement of tone in subordinate. subjuntsive, and negative verbforms. Fourthly, and nnally, the alternative mentioned in this footnotc requires a morespecilic formulation of thc Strong Putlback rule 32, in that it must be stipulatcd thatthe High must be pulled back onto an Object Markcr, and ncver onto a Focus Marker;if this stipulation is not addcd, and mctrical structure is crected starting with thesuhjcct marker, then the stemHigh tonc will be wrongly pulled back in a Rcccnt Pastform such as y a a bbn a, producing 'tu k rg bon a, which would then lower byMeeussen's Rule to 'tu k ra bon a. This matter is discussed at lenght I'rom a historicalpoint of view in Goldsmith (in prcss c).

33.

SM TM OM O M Stem

4.2 Rellexive -ii- We commented earlier on the comple,x behavior ofthe tonc of the rellcxive markcr -ii-, and we have held the tonalpatterns of thc reflexive forms aside until now, when we can make

reference to metrical structure, In 34 we present thc relevant formsfrom the Infinitive, the present tensc, the recenl past, the far past, andthe -ka- consecutive tcnsc. In each casc, we present forms with just

the reflexive marker, as well as for tns with one non-reflexive objectmarker followed by thc refiexive. We give only cases with lhc ClassI subject marker, except in the Far Past, where thc choice of subjectmarker can directly affcct where the High tone of the tense markerassociatcs. In the infi niti val for m with just the r eflexive marker, there


11/23

MOOBLES EN TONOLOGIE38

are two fortns in frec variation. When only a High tone verb form isgiven, there is no contrast on the surlace between High and Low toneverbs. [Fn. 5]

35. Present Tense

1 HE RtttUNDI VEt tft

SQ

W 5$

W

34. Tone with Rcflcxivc MarkerRcficxivc Markcr OM + Reflexive

a, Infinitivekwiitcmcra or ku mwli tkmcra

kwiitcmcrah. Prcscnta r ii tcmcra

c. Recent Pas ty ii tcmcra y aa mwii tcmcra

d.Far Pastsg. y ar ii tcmcra y a rh mwii tcmerapl. ha ftr ii tcmcra ba 6 ra mwii temera

a ra inwii t6mcra

h. Corrcct

a, Incorrcct

'R, 'R"

i tcmcra

a ra m u i t ct n cr a

We suggest the following analysis of these fortns. The underlyingIcngth of the rcllcxivc marker is difficult to determine directly fromthe surface lacts, and it sharcs this characteristic more generally with

the vowel-initial radicals, where there is no contrast betwccn short ayd

be basically long (as it is in other Lacustrinc languages). The behaviorof the High tone on the reflcxive in the forms in the left-hand column

of 34 suggests the same result, The High tone is pullcd back from thesecond mora to thc lirst mora in exactly thc tenses where the Strongpullback rule ap plics (Present, Consecutive, and here opt ionally, thcInfinitivc). Since we know that the Strong Pullback rule does not pullback a High tone onto the -ra- Focus Marker, the existencc of a formsuch as Present a r li teincra points in the direction we are suggesting.

However, the forms in the second column also show thc cffects

of Strong Pullback in the relevant tcnses, and if the Reflcxive markerwerc treatcd as bimoraic (thus having on a Wcak an d a Strong morain this case), Strong Pullback would not apply, as we illustrate in 35,

long vowels. We will suggcst below, in our account of tone tnsuhordinate f'orms, that there is strong reason to takc thc reflexive to

is given in 36.

36. Rcflcxivc shortening (focus forms)

clause forms considercd so far:

37. Summary (Main clause forms)

2. In itial extratona1ity 183. Rcflcxivc shortcning 364. Assign trochaic inctricai structure ori

5. Two OM rule 226. Mccusscn's rulc 127. Strong Puiihackrule 328. Rhythm rule 259. Non-1'ocus rulc

Summarizing, then, we have the following rules applying in the main

We suggest, thereforc, that there is an early rule in eiTect, ofallomorphy that applies bef'ore mctrical structure is assigned thatshortens the reflexive marker when it fol)ows an object marker (inmain clause forms, the only ones wc have considered so far). This rule

1. Assign High tone to radical in Far Vast

5. The 1'arpsst plura1 also has a possible pronunciation [ba a rii tctncra),


12/23

40 MODL'LLS FN TONOLOGIE THF. KIRUNDI VERB 4I

39. Subordinate: Recent Past

V. SUBORDINATE CLAUSES.

5.1 INITIAL GENERALIZATIONS: E XTENSION TONE

We will turn our attention now to the morphological and tonalbehavior of verbs outside of the main clause indicative affIrmative.1he vast majority of th c r emai ning forms share a great deal incommon; in fac t, the general picture that one gets of the Ki ru ndiverhal system is that the main clause affirmative is, in a sense, the oddman out, in two p rimary wa ys: f irst, the focus/non- focus distinctionis lost almost cvcrywhcre outside of the ma in clause aff irmativeindicative. It is, in fact, this characteristic that distinguishes them fromthe other forms; thc other vcrb forms (all negatives, embcdded or not,subordinate clause verbs, Imperatives), with one very marginal exccption, nowhcre express this contrast. Second, and consequently, wefind another generalization emerging in all no n-f ocus verb forms:there can bc only onc High tone per phonological word in non-I'ocusverbs, In this second respect, the non-focus forms look more like anaccentual language than a tone language, perhaps, and the incursiolt

of rhythmic m etrical structure tha t we suggest sccms directly relat4cdto this observation. The developmcnt of rhythmic structure means thai,unlike the situation in a tr ue ton e language, not all sy llables areendowed equally with th e potential to be tone-bearing; weakly-placedsyllables will tend to lose their toncs. This appears to lead, in turn,to the one-ione-pcr-word surfacc restriction, about which there will beconsiderably more (o say bclow.

nate clause forms. Thcsc verb forms are used in all subordinate clausesthat arc complements to vcr bs, complementizers, or are foun d inrelative clauses; Meeussen misleadingly calls this pa ttcrn " rela tif' ,overcmphasizing onc of its uses. All tonal contrast is lost between verbstems which are lexically High and those which are lexically Low, so

we present only one High toned stcm (-bon-); Low tone stems showthe same pattern. Stems with long vowels behave somewhat diffently,for reasons that cmcrgc from a mctrical analysis; we will reiurn to thisin Scction 5.2,

We will begin by presenting representative data on the subordi

4th Subordinate: Far Past

Singular y a h6n c r a y a mu bo n er aPlura l ba h bon er a b ag mu bo nc r a

Singular y a bon 6r a y a mu bon g r aPlural ba a bon 6r a ba a mu ho n 6r a

reflexive OMy i i b o n c r ab iibon era

rcflcxivc OMy ii b6n cr ab ii b6n er a

Two striking generalizations emerge from this mass of data. The fi rstis that in many forms an unexpected High tone appears on the secondmora ol the verb stem. The second, noted just above, is that there is,and can be, no more than one High tone per word. In the Far Past,this is the High tone on the 'Iense Marker, which may be in cffeotpushed to th e second syllabe by r ul cs which we hav e alr eadycstablished'. in ihe others, it is a High tone on the second mora of theverb stem. The importance of hoth of these generalizations will cmergeas we proceed. [Fn. 6j,

a High tone sul'fix that is added to the tone of the verb of all verbsin subordinate verbs (and, as we havc noted, this will h e extcnded tonegatives, subjunctives, and imperatives). This High tonc will automatically associate with thc first availablc mora, which will be thesccond mora, since the Cirst is associaicd with thc stem tonc. Themorphology thus has a suffsx -H which is suffixed in all subordinateforms (as wclt as negativcs and subjunctivcs). There is, in ad dition, arulc 41 which lowers an immediately preceding tnne beforc a High inthe stem. This rule does not nee d to m en tion "Stem" explicitly,because it is a Level One rulc, in the sense described below (Section6.7); the Stem comprises a layer in the sense of lexical phonology, as

Let us begin hy I'ormalizing these two observations, There is first

y a klmu b o n c r aba 6 ki mu bon er a

y a ki mu hon cr abaa kimuboner a

we shall see below,

38. Subordinate: I'rescnt Tense

Suhjcct No O hl One OMSingular a bon 6r a a mu bon 6r aPlural ba bon 6r a ba mu b o n 6r a

reflexive OMy ii bon cr ab ii b6n er a

Two OMsa ki mu b on r aba k> mu bon er a

6. In vinually ali of thc closly rclatcd group J Ianguagcs of thc Lakc Victoriaregion. and more gcncraily in nnnhcastcrn Bantu, tense and other grammaticalinl'ormadon is convcycd by variouspaucrns of High tones distributcd ovcr the verbal

cxtcnsion and the Final Vosvcl, Kirundi has lost virtually all of this tonalacdvity. Forother systcms. scc Iiyman and Byarushcngo I9g4 on Kaya, Stcvick I969 on Luganda,Massammba l984 on CIRuri, Goldsmith 19$4 on Tonga, GoIdsmhh (in prcss b) nnKiliundc, Clcmcnrs I984 on KIKuyu, Polack-Bynon l975 on Shi, and Stappcrs I973on Mhuku.


13/23

IviODf'LES L'N I ONOLOGI E 'I'IIF. KIRUNDI VL'RII 43

4L

T~ 1.( j M

Next we need a rule of tone lowcring in the subordinate forms, and

more generally for the forms that cannot contain a focus-marker(subordinate, ncgativc, subjunctive). As we bricfly noted above, insubordinate clauses the principle can bc maintained that the first Hightone "wins"; that is, although at a deeper level High tones may bcdistributed by principles whose independent functioning we canisolate, on the surface only the Ieft-most of these High tones surfaces,and all others are lowered to L ow. T his is expressed in 42.

s'tc Jn

43. Suhordinate: Present tense: Iong vowel

No OM One OM Two OM

a teek 6r a a mu tehk er a a ki mu teck er aba teek hr a ba mu te6k er a ba ki mu teek er a

the first syllable when there is one (Low toned) object tnarkcr present.When there are two object markers prescnt, of course, the Two ObjectMarker rule assigns a Eligh tone to the second, and this is the H ightone which prevails on the surface,

42. Non-focus forms: First Migh Wins

H ~ L / I M x

Reflcxive Non.reflex + reflexy ii tkek er a a c ii teek er ah ii t6ek cr a hacn teekera

44. Subordinate: Recent Past: long vowelNo OM One OM Two OMy a Ieek hr a ya muteekera y a ki mu teek er aha a teek 0r a ba s mu Ie6k er a bx a ki mu teek er a

suhordinaie

'Ihese two principles together account I'or almost all of the data in

38-40. In 40, the Far Past, the Tense Marker is underlyingly High, andbcing the leftmost High, always wins out, In 38 and 39, when thereare two object markcrs prcscnt, thc Two Object Marker rule puts aIligh lone an thc sccond ol thcm, and this High tone is the leftmost

and wins out. TIic Pullback rulc ncvcr applies in thc suhordinateforms; we return to the metrical structure of thesc forms in thc ncxtsection. In any cvent, we must stipulate that the Pullback rule is

limited to the focus constructions, The reflexive is inhercntly Hightoned and, except iti the Far Past, wins out, although for a reason thatwe will turn to di rectly in section 5.2 where we discuss long vowels,it is frequently realized on the lollowing syllable, the verb radical. Onlyif nonc of these other conditions is met docs thc High tone assignedby 4l actually surface.

S.2 Moras and syllables, and more rhythmic structure. We have justnoted that the reflexive object marker presents unusual tonal properties, in that its High tone appears on the following (stem) syllabein the cxamples in 38-39. This added complexity derives from the factthat the reflexive marker is a long vowel. This can be determincd bycomparing the rclat ivcly simple subordinate pattern found in shortvowel radicals with the pattern found in long-vowel radicals. In theshort-vowel radicals, thc High tone characteristic of the subordinate(assigned by the suffix in 4l) consistently falls on the second syllabeof the stem, which is the same as the second mora. When the verbradical contains a long vowel, however, we find that this High tonelalls sometimes on the second syllahe (i.e,, the third mora of the stem),and somctimes on the second mora of the lirst syllabe. The conditioning is straightl'orward: the High tone falls on the second syllahle

when there are no object markers prcscnt and on the second rnora ofL H

t e e k er a

sh

w s~w

46.

a, No object marker

45. Subordiuutc: Far I'ast: long vowel

Reflexive Nou-rcflcx + reflexy il teek er a y ac u t eek er ab il teek er a ba II c li teek er a

No OM One OM Two OMy a tkek cr a y mu teekera y a kl mu tcck er aba k teek er a . ha II rnu teek er a ba 0 ki mu leek er a

Since ICirundi appears everywhere else to be essentially a mora-countinglanguage in its Ionc assignments, wc will take the pattern in a mu iehk er ato be closer to the underlying form. That is, we assurae that the High tonesuffix to attach the second mora. ln general, and whcn there are no objectmarkers present, this High tone will he shifted frorn the sccond half of alongvowel to the follov ing syllabIe. We submit that this shift is parallel incertain respects to the Strong Pullback rule, shifting a High tonc I'rorn a Weakposition to a Strong, as is illustrated in 46.

Rcflexivc Non-reflex + reflexy ii t6ek er a y a c il teek er ab ii t6ek er a ba a c i i teek er a

Onc objectmarker:

b. mu t e e k er a

LH


14/23

THE KIRUNI>I VI:RBMODf!LFS FN TONOLOGII:

Thc second mora High of the subordinatc shifts in case 46a, but notin 46b; we express this as in 47, with the Long Vowel Shift rulc. VI , ADDIT I ONAL FORM S

47. Long Vowel Shift([-focusable tenseI)

48.

H

subordinate forms.)

s JI + wy ii rim ir s

The othc:r casc wherc a long vowel occurs, as we have already noted,is with the reflexivc object markcr -ii-, which also has a High tone onits second mora. As we have observed in 43 and 44, the rcflexivetnarker's lligh tonc appears on the following syllablc (the first moraof thc radical) whcn it is the only object marker in the vcrb.

'I'his is

illustrated, with t he associated rhythmic structure, in 4 8a; whe n

anothcr marker precedes ii as in 48b, the High tone does not shtft.These properties follow directly from the gencral rule formulationgiven in 47, (The Reflc x i sho rtening rule 37 doesnot apply in

s w s w

s mu i i rim ir a

6.l Main clause ncgativc forms (indicative). Most featurcs of thenegativ'e main clause verb are easily analyzed along the lines of the

ncgativc forms appearing with the focus markcr. "' Superficially,howcvcr, thc ncgative forms are somewhat puzzling. AII main clauscnegativc verbs begin with the negative marker nti-, a morpheme whichhas two special characteristics that must he noted from the outsct.

Thc tonc ol'the negative marker nti- is what Meeussen aptly callaan "unstable lligh", Like the copula ni, the tnne ol' thc nti- is High

if it is preceded by another word in thc phrase; othcrwise, it is Lowin tone. The evidence suggests that both ni- and nti- have a H igh toneundcrlyingly as well as at the level of the word phonology, Neithermorphctne can ever, of course, he phrasc-ltnal; whcn phrase-initial,they arc Low in tone, Applying the notion of "extrapositionality" (ofwhich extratonality is a special case) oncc again, we may wish toexplorc the possibility that thesc "unstable High" morphemes are

extratonal at the phrase level (recall Ihat the earlier use of extratonalityinvolved an extratonal vowel at the word level ( cf. rule 18 above).When the lexical High tone ol' this morphemc docs not associate withthis morpheme by virtue of this extrapositionality, a low toned vowclis the rcsult. Thcrc is, to be sure, a striking contrast here witt> whatoccurs within the word-level phonology when Ihc word-initial morasare rcndcrcd extratonal. As we not ed abave in the case of thedcmonstratives (17 above; see also 6.6 below for parallel cases withHigh toncd subject markers in the participial form), ihe tonc of thevowel that has been rendered extratonal is at tached hy the automatic

conventions to the following vowel. Nothing of thc sort occurs withthe High tone of the "unstable Highs". We will suggest why thisdifference should be found in a moment,

and extrametricality (Hayes 1980, Harris 1983 Archangeli 1983)continue to provide support for the proposal that extrapositionality iswithdrawn from an clement oncc it is no longer peripheral, i.e. whenit is not at the extrcmc Icft or rigltt of the domain in question.However, the syrnmctry Ihat we must assume exists betwcen tona1 and

Investigations into cxtratonality (primarily in Pulleyblank 1983)lt is perhaps worth emphasizing that the mct rical structure that wehave postulated for use with the Pullback rule in focuscd forms andfor usc in subordinale clauses is the same it is erected on thesupraslem ol' the verb, the sequencc ol morphemcs beginning withobject markers and containing thc stem.

7. Tltis contrasts strikingly with Ihc situstion in H sya, s closcly telatedlanguages described by Hyman and Hyarushengo l98, where negative forms areinherently + F, in a related sense; Hyman (personal communicstion) suggests Ihat thesimilarity is somewhat deceptive, and thst Ihc two types of focus marking found inthe two languages reprcsent typologically distinct categories of focus-marking.


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46 hIOI>ALF.S FN TONOLOGIE THL' KIRIINBI VFRII 47

non-tonal segments leaves open the possibility that in thc case of thc"unstable Iligh toned elements", it is not the vowel (or, correspon

dingly, the skeletal position) vhich is extrapositional but rather theHigh tonc. We will see strong evidence below (section 6,5) that thislatter is indeed correct; for now, we will use this result, and analyzethe unstable High as a spccially marked extrapositional High tone, a

marking which renders it unassociable if it is peripherical at the phraselevel. At the phrase lcvcl, v herc both nti- and its unstable High tonc

may be preceded by material, the High is no longer extrapositional,and it is free to (and must) associate. Thus we find pairs as in 49.

a. Short vowel slcmNo ohject marker

si m bon hr a

nl u hon 6r anl a bon hr a

si n ki hon 6r anti u ki hon 6r anl a ki hon kr a

nt a ki mu bon cr a

nli y ii h6n er a

Nn OM: ni a leek hr aOne OM: nl a mu rehk cr aTwo Ohls '. nl a ki mu leek er a

Reflex: nli y ii IEek er a

50. Present Negative, Main Clause

b. ntrrhnnfr. "Ile does not see."49. a. Yohakni ntkhonfr. "John docs nol see"

The othcr characteristic ol nti- that must bc considered is the

nature of the boundary separating it from the I'ollowing verb. It canbe clearly shown that in the Present and the Far Past negativcs, it isseparated from the stem by the equivalent of a word houndary, whilein the Recent Past the naturc ol' the boundary cannot bc determineddirectly. As we shall sce in a moment, there are reasons to believe thatthc nti- forms a phonological word with the following verb as if,so lo speak, only a simple morpheme boundary separated the two in

The evidence concerning the boundary between the nti- and whatfollows comes from vowel coalescence, in thc caseof thc Present tcnsc,and trom tone in the case of the Far Past. We will consider these inturn.

One object marker

Two object markers: 3rd person

Reflexive object marker: 3rd person

b. Long vowel stern (all 3rd pcrson forms):

thc Rccent Past.

nii ha leek f.r anii ha rnu rehk er anti ba ki mu leek er a

nli b ii trrek cr a51. Rccent Past Negalivc, Main Clause (3rd Pcrson only)

No OM: nti y a hon er a nti ba a bon cr aOnc OM: nti y a mu bon er a nti ba a mu hon cr aTwo OMs: nii y a ki mu bon er a n ii ha a ki mu bon er aReflex: nlr y ii bon er a nti b ii bon er a

h, Long vowel stemNn OM : nti y a teek er a nti ba a lcek er aOnc Oh(: nli y a rnu teek er a nti ba a mu leek cr aTwo OMs: nti y a ki mu leek cr a n l i ba a ki mu tcek er aRcflcx OM: nii y ii leek cr a nli h ii tcek er a

a, Short vowcl stem

Consider the relevant data in 50-52. We give lorms for Iligh tone verbsonly (both short and long stcms) since thc tone on I ow tone verhn is

identical.

nti tu hon 6r a

nti mu hon 4r anli ba bon cr a

nli tu ki bon br anti mu ki bon 6r anli ba ki bon br a

nti ba ki mu hon cr a

nli h ii h6n cr a

A sequence of vowels in contact across truc word-boundaries isrealizcd as a single short vowel, always the second of thc two adjacentvowels, although a high tone that might have occurred on the llrstvowel is prcscrvcd on the remaining short vowel. When vowels aboutinside a word (but outside the stcm, f'or strictly within the stem wc finda diffcrent pattern, discussed below), thc resulting vowel is always

long, As we have seen, the tonc of the resulting long vowel is fallingif the first mora of the input had a High tone; it is rising if any later

mora had a High tonc.

tense negative rcsults in a short vowel, clcar evidence that a wordboundary is prcsent (see 50). Similarly, the High tone on thc Far Past

lerlse marker has shlfted to thc right in the singular forms in 52, exactlyparallel to lhc alfirmative main clause and subordinatc Far Past forms.

1his results, as we havc already deterrnined, from the cxtratonality ofthe initial mora (via rule Ig, Ini tial Extratonality); thus the subjectmarker must perceive a word-boundary to its lcft as well. Only in theRccent Past is there no segmental evidence regarding the nature of thehoundary hetween the negative nti- and the following subject marker.

a. Short vowel stemNo Ohf: nti y a bon er aOnc OM: nti y a mu hnn er aTwo OM : ni i y a ki mu hnn cr aReflex; nli y ii hnn er a

h. l.ong vowel stemNo O M: nti y a icek er aOne OM : nti y a rn rr lcek er a'lwo Dhfs . ' nti y a ki mu tcek cr aRcflex: nli y ii teek er a

52. Far Past Negative, Main Clause (3rd Persononly)

ntr ba k hon cr arrlr ba 6 mrr hon cr anli ba 6 ki rnu hon er anli b ii bon er a

The sequencc of nli- plus the subjcct marker a- in the present


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MOD&I.I-:S I'.N I'ONOLOGI E THF. KIRUNDI VI:IIII

The tonal structures following the negative prefix nti- in each casc looklikc the subordinate forms of the affirmative. In analyzing thosesubordinate Iorms, we appcaled to thc principle that the leftmost Hightone wins (42). The fact that there is independent segmental reasonto analyze the ncgative verbs with a word boundary as in (53) makesit clcar that we can continue to maintain this principle within theword-level domain, Thus the High tone on the negative prefix in thePresent and Far Past, being separated from the following word by a

word houndary, does not cause lowcring of a following High tone onthe verb.

54.

53. a, Preseni: nti x SM + O M + St em

H ~ L /

h. Far Past; nti x SM + a + O M + S (e m

In thc Recent Past negative, however, we find no High tones at all onthe verb itself, As we shall see when we look at thc subordinate

negative form, it i s ne cessary to posi t a sp ecial morphologicallyconditioncd rule that lowers all High tones in negative Recent past

forms, a rule given in 54."'

Thus it docs appcar that the First I


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50 MOOf LES EN 'IONOLOeltE 'I'HF KIRUN DI VERB 5I

This subordinate negative marker shows no sign of coming wilh strong"word-ho undaries" around it. Consider the forms below. As we wouldexpect, the lexical contrast between Low and Iligh tone radicals is lost

a. Short sicm

56. Recent Past negative, subordinatc

in thcsc tenses.

8. Short stem -rim "cultivate"

55. Ncgative Subordinate: Pr esent Tense

rt ta rim Ii tu ta rim rr

u tar im8 mu ta rim a8 la rim k ba ta rim It

One object marker

Two object markers

Rellexive

fl ta il tCrll 8 lu ta a tem 8U l a i l a tc m a lllu la a 'tcnl 8ai aa t em 8 ba ta a tem a

n ta a gi tem a

n ta a ki rnu tem er a

n t i i te m cr a tu t ii tem er 8

tu ta 8 gl tem 8, etc.

tu ta a ki mu tem er 8, ctc.

h. Short stem -tem "to cut" (begins with voicclcss consonant; shows effcctsof Daht's Law)

One objcet rnarkcr

Two objccl markers

Rcflcxivc OM

rr ta tcm k tu da lem ttu da tcm 8 mu da tcm 6a d a te mk ba da tcm tt

n ta gi tcm 6 tu ta gi lcm ku la gi tem 0 mu ta gi tem 6a ta gi tern 6 ba ta gi lcm k

n ta ki mr'i icm cr 8 tu ta ki mu tem er a, etc.

n t ii thrrr cr 8 tu t ii thm er 8

No object markers

Orlc object marker

Two object markers

b. I.oirg sicm -raab "look at" Rcll c xi vc

In the Far Past, one and only one High tone surfaces, that of the FarPast tense marker. Bear in mind that th is is the source ol the Hig h tonein n t ii tem a (from n ta a ii tcm a).

57. Far PaSt negatrve. Suburdlnate

n t a t i t e ma

n ta 6 gi tcrir 8

n ta 6 ki mu lcm er 8

tu ta Ir tcrn a

tu lil k gl t CJll 8

tu ta h ki mu tcm er 8

tu I ii tcm an I lr tcln 8n ia raah k tu ta raab 6u t raab 8 mu ta raab ha ta raab 4 ba ta raab 0

n ta ki rahb 8 tu ta ki raab a, etc.

n ia ki mu raab ir 8 tu ta ki mu raab ir 8

One Objcct Marker

Two Object Markers

6.4 Subjunctive6.4.I AITirmnaiie. The alTirtnativc subjunctive form is si mple an dstraightforward, and virtually identical to the subordinate form in itstonal pattern. Thc Fin al Vowel, as we havc noted, i s -e in thesubjunctivc, and there is an odd irregularity in the Is t person singularform of the vcrb whc n a con sonant-initial object marker (i,e., anyobject markcr other than the reflexive) lollows, In all such cases, themarker -ra- (surfacing as -da - al'ter a n asal) ap pears hetween thesubjecl marker n- and the object markcr. See 58.

We scc in 55 that the negative marker -ta- (called by Mecussen a"post-initial") has no l ligh tone, and that lhe tone pattern of the entire

word follows I'rom the princip]cs we have established so far. Thevoicing of -ta- to -da- is the result of Dahl's Law, which voices avoiceless obstruent in 8 morpheme immediately preceding a verb stemthat begins with a voiceless obstruent. In Kirundi, unlike a numbcrof other Northeastern Barltu languages, only a stem-initial voicclessconsonant triggers Ihe elTect ol Dahl's Law. Wc will return helow tolhc thcoretical signiflcancc of the failure nl the rule to apply when anasal (1st sg. subject inarkcr) prccedcs.

sccn in 56. This clearly motivates the general Lowering rule givenabove in 54, (he rule that lowers all Hig>h tones in Recent Past negativeverhs.

The Rcccnt Past negative is everywhere Low in tone, as can be

58. Subjunctive

n da ha m6 rim ir e tu ha mu rim ir e, etc.

a. Short stem (-rim-)ndim 6 tu rim cir frlll mu rirn 6ar ims ba rim 5

One objcct rnarker (-ha-, loeativc)nda ha rimb tu ha rim 6u ha rim 0 rnu ha rim 08 ha frfll ba ha rim C

Two object markers (-ha.mu-)

Rcllcxivcn ii rim ire lw ii rlm ir c


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52 MODELES EN TONOLOG!E

Object rnarker plus reflexlve

Tlt E K1 RUNBI VERlt 53

a verb stem. If th cre arc no object markers, the Final Vowel is th eneutral aspect -a; ot herwise, it takes thc Fina l Vowel -e. 'Ihis isn da h i i rim ir e tuh i i r im ir e

illustrated in 60.

60. Imperative

6.4.2 Negative subjunctive . The Negative Subjunctive introduces apoint nf some interest concerning the nature of the t one-bearing unitin Kirundi. In the contrast between the forms si n dim e and si n iirim ir c, for example, we see that the 1st singular marker n- is tonehearing in the lirst case but not the second, in each casc appearing

after the negative marker which places a High tone on the followingmora or tone-hearing unit.

a. kor a "work! "

b. mu kor er e "work for him!"

59. Negative Subjunctive (stem -rim-)

One object marker

si 'n dim e nti tu tim ent u tim e ntr mu rrm ent fr rim e nti bh rim e

si'nda ha rim a nti tu ha rim ent u ha rim e nti mu ha rim ent 6 ha rim e nti bfr ha rim e

Two object markers (ist person only)si nda ha ki rim e nti ru ha ki rim e

si n ii rim e nti tw rl nm e

6.1.

There is never a focus marker in the Imperative, and in gcneral thetone pattern of the Impcrative is that of a non-focuscd vcrb forrn. Inthe examples seen in 60, there are no High tones, apparently: howcver,the first vowel of the impe rative is assigned by gencral rule, whatMecussen calls an "unsta ble High t one", discussed earlicr in Section

As noted earlier, this unstable High tone has the characteristicthat it i s pr on ounced onl y wh cn it is n ot phr ase-init ial; thus

phrase-initial impcrativcs are all Low, as in 60, but whcn another wordprecedes, as in 6l, thc f irs t (or second, in the casc of vowel-ini tialstcms) syllable of the imperative verb is Iligh.

61. a. umugorb muraabe '! "look at the woman!"Ref!exive (1st person only)

b. Ynhartni r~aaba! "Jotrn, took!"

c, Yohahni andika! "3ohn, wr ite1"

d. Andika "write! "

We sce immediately that all of' these forms begin with the melody LH(imposed, clearly, by the negative prefix), and th is Hi gh to ne createdor the second mora eliminatcs all foll owing Hi gh tones by th e Firstlligh Wins rule. Ihe contrast in the tone-bearing status of the markern- in the examplcs si n dime and si n ii rim ir e shows that the rulesof syllable structure assignment must apply before tone assignment.The difference in the syllabic status of the -n- cannot be due to tonalconsidcrations, since tone is essentially kept fixed across the twoexarnples; hence the difl'erence in the syllabic structure of the materialfollowing the n- mus t be the cause of the di lference in its syllabicstatus. When a co nsonant fol lows, the n- c annot be par t of t hefollowing syllabe (r ecall that these conclusions are, strictly speaking,

valid only duri ng the lexical phonolo gy; permissible syllahle structureat the post-lexical, phrasc levcl may bc (must be) morc libcral). It thcnforms either part of the r hyme of the p receding syllabe, if that ispossiblc (as it is in si n dime) or is marked as a syllable nucleus itself.Irr either case it is po sitionally to ne-bearing, and subscquent tonemapping will assign the High tone from the negative prefix to the nprefix in the appropriate cases.

6.5 Imperatives and extratonality.The Irnperative in Kirundi is simplein structure, Iooking like the unit we have called the suprastem; thatis, it bcgins optionally with one or morc object markers, lollowed by

We noted above that the imperative form provides us with evidencethat the unstable High tone is an extrapositionally marked High tone.'I'he evidence that we interpret in this way derives from the behavior

of imperative forms of vow el-initial stems. We notcd earlier that thereis a word-level rule marking word-ini tial vowels as extratonal. We sawthere that a High tone that would otherwise be assigned to the firstvowel of a word will be assigned to the second vowel when that firstvowel has been marked as extratonal, Indeed, a vowel-initial impe

rative that is phrase-medial will have its unstablc High tone on thesecond vowel, as in tilc.

phrase-initially, as in 6ld, thc u nstable High d isappears, a result thatwould bc incxplicable if it werc a special property of the initial vowelor syllablc that were playing the central role in the phenomenon Allol' these facts are neatly accounted for, in sum , if we a nalyze th e

unstable Iligh tone as one which is marked as being extrapositionalat the phrase level, which means that when it is pc rip heral at th ephrase level (i.e., phrase-initial), it cannot associate with any vowel.When it is no t p hr ase-init ial, i t wi l l a ssociate with the Ie ftmost

13ut if on e of t he se vowe l-initial imp eratives should ap pear


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M()Df LES EN IDNOLOGIE54

avaiiah'le vowel within its word, which will hc cither the first vowel,or, in the case of a vowel-initial word, the second vowel. [Fn.9]

6.6 ka, racaa, and participial forms. In this section we shall bricfiysketch the relevant facts concerning three other forms. The -ka

consecutive tcnsc behaves tonally quite like the Present focus forms,with the Strong Pullback rule applying (see 62), The racaa perstitive

tense is straighforward, though the Strong Pullback rule does not

apply here, The Tense Marker is presumably composed ol -ra- plus-ki- plus eithcr -a- or -aa-, See 63.

64. Participial: main clause

a s601 a a mu som er a a t6 n la

bli som a bk mu so m cr bt I tc rn a

TIIL KJIIIJNDI VEIIII

The par ticipial form prescnts a fcsv interesting characteristics. First,subjcct markers are assigned a High Tone, rather than a Low tnne;

thus, as we see in 64, a short Subject Marker such as a- will rejcct thisHigh tone (by word-level cxtratonality), but a Subject Marker of theform CV will maintain it,

62, -ka- tense.

a. Low tone verb

mu tcm cr ab6 mu Iem er a

The participial forms are obligatorily marked [-Focus] in the PresentTense (thus not having the Focus Mar ker, and undergoing thcNon-Focus rulc); in Ih c Rc ccnt and Fa r Pa st, the contrast ismaintained between the [+Focus) and the [-Focus] forms,

nkasom a

n ka gi sorrl a

n ka ki mu s6m er a

n k ii som cr a

No object markers

One objectmarker

'Iwo ohject markers

Kcflcx ivc

Object Marker + Rcf lcxive

tu ka som a

tu ka gi som a

tu ka ki mu s6m cr a

tu k ii som cr

tu ka c ii som er a

65. Participial: Far I'ast (Focus)y ara som a yra mu somcr ahara som ba bara mu som cr a

n da ca Ibm

n d c ii tem er a

n ka c I i snm er ab. High tone verb

n da cka ki mu tem

n ka rknl a

n ka gi tem a

n ka ki mu t6m er a

nk iitcm er

n ki rnw ii itnl er a

63, .rach- tense,

No Object Marir.er

Two Ohjcct Markcrser a tu ra cAa ki mu tem cr

Reflcxive

Object Marker + Reflexivea tu r cka c ii tem er a

9. We may remark on Ihe evident historical origin of the process Ihr has beengrammalicalized as word-initial exlratonalily : i l i s the process of vowel-fusion atword-boundary rhat put a High Ione from the end of one word on the vowel of thefollowing word. This process has nnw been, as we note, grammaticalized in theword-level phenology itself,

No Object Markcrs

Two Object Markers

Two Object Markers

Reflexive Marker

Object Marker + Rcflexivc

n da ch c ii tem cr

tu r CII t6lrl a

tu ra c ii tem er a

tu ka t6m a

tu ka gi tcm a

tu ka ki mu t6m cr

tu k II tcnl cf a

tu ki mw ii tem cr a

6.7 Future tense and the organization of the morphology. The intcrnalmorphological structure of the Future tense is quite different lrom thal

of the Prcscnt or Past tcnscs. As we havc secn, these tenses are formed

I'rom the suprastem hy the preflxation of subject ltrarkcrs, tcnsc andsometimes I'ocus markers. This prcfixation crcates a unit which is aword, and contains no words internaily, if wc j udgc by the operationof the First High Wins rule. These are elementary observations, butimportant ones in the light of' the behavior of the Future tense, wherenonc of these holds.

negative prefix nti - behaves like a prefix separated by a strongerword-boundary, What follows thc nti-, v c should emphasize, has theappearance of an cntire word, and can, indeed, stand as a word; ithas a subject marker, a tense marker, and a vcrbal.

in attaching to a unit larger than the Base, even though tlris is not

apparent in rnost cases, Wc can makc Kirundi morphology clearerwith a diagrarn like the f'ollowing Table I, a l ay ered model ofrnorphology reminisccnt of lexical phonology. Level l c re ates thederivational hase, cnnsisting of the ra dical und the der ivational

extensions. Srubscquently the Final Vowel, the Object Markcr pre llxes,the Tense/Focus markcrs, the negative marker, and the Suhject

Markers are added. Each ol thc two layers has distinct phonoiogicalrules. Layer 2, for cxample, contains Dahl's Law, which is triggcrcdin Ki rundi only by a radical -initial voiceless consonant (not, c.g., anObject Marker beginning with a voiceless consonant); see 66.

We will see in this section Ihat thc futurc marker -zoo- is like nti

We did note in th c pr eccding section that the main claus e

66. Dahl's Law [c l ~ ]+ voi ce] / - v + [ c]-vnlcc -voice


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56 MOD NL ES LN TONO LO GIE 57THE KIRUNDI VERB

verbs.

Thc operation of this rule shows that Dahl's Law cannot apply

cyclically with the addilion of each prefix, since it is blocked fromapplying to the subordinaie negativc -ta- just in casc a nasal SubjectMarker prefix precedes it (cf. 55b ahove). This is a serious issue for

the version ol Lcxical Phonology found, e.g., in Kiparsky 1982.

that it can bc viewed as passing through the rules of the intlectional

morphology, realizing each of the specified inflectional features. Thcstcm may be assigned the category Noun or Verb; if it is assigned thecategory Noun, it will undergo noun class prefixation (class l5) tohecomc an infinitive; thc fact that Dahl's Law affects noun classprclixes is one clue that noun class prelixcs are indeed added in Layer2 (aiid thus onc cannot make a strict equation between Layer 2 andpure inflectional morphology). Many of thc other prelixation proccsses (prefixation of Subject Marker, for cxample) are restricted to

ln the third layer, a high-level word can be created by thcattachment ol an outer layer of prcfixes, including nti- and, we willsuggest, -zoo-, ihc future inarker. This conclusion seems largely

incscapable, though it leads to further questions that we will takc up

bclow concerning thc mechanism by which Subjcct Markers can beattachcd Io the left of zoo.

We shall now show why thc tuture marker -zbo- must be treated inthis special way. Since the lexical contrast between High and Lowtoned radicals is neutralized in this tense, wc present only one exampleof each form. As abovc, we give 3rd person singular and plural forms.

We assume that a stem is endowed with inflectional fcatures, and

Layer 2

Layer I

Base

Final Vowel

Radical

extension-suffixaiion

Rellexive OM

Object Markers

Tense-Focus (V)67. Futurc iense, rnain clause affirmativc.No OM 'a z oo bon a ha zoo bon aI OM : a z oo mu bona ba zoo mu bon a2 OM . 'a zoo ki mu bon cra ha zoo ki mu hon er aReflex: a zoo kw ii bona ba zoo kw ii bon a

6S. Future tense, main clause negativeNo Om: nt(il a zbo hbn a nti ba zbo b6n a

I OM ; nt( i) a z6o mu bbn a nii ha zbo mu hon a2 Om: nt(i) a z6o ki mu bon er a n i i ha zbo ki mu honer aRellex: n t( i) a z6o kw ii hon a nii ba zbo kw li bon a

69, Fuiure tense, suhordinate aflirmativeNo OM; a z6o b6n a ha zbn hbn aI Oht: a zbo mu bbn a ha z6o mu b6n a2 OM ; a zbo k i m u h o n e ra ba zoo ki mu bon cr aReflex . a zbn kw ilbon a ba zbo kw ii bon a

Layer 3

WORD

ku-prefixation(N)

Subject Marker (Y)

Suhordinate negative

nii.prcfixaiion (V)

z6o.prcfixation (N)A number of characteristicsdistinguish this tense from all the otherswe have lookcd at so I'ar, We will discuss some of ihe tonal propertiesof thcse briefly and then return to the proposition that the future


21/23

Mnnf:.I.ES EN TON()t.nt-lE

marker -z6o- is a L aye r 3 pr efix, unlike the other tense markers.Notice, first, that in thc subordinatc forrn, there is a High tone on boththc tcnsc marker and on the stem; thus here the First High Win sprinciple is superficially violated. This is the result, as we have hinted,of the affixation of z6o at a level followi ng the level at which the FirstIligh Wins principle applies. The High tone that appears on the firstsyllable of the stem is morph ologically conditioned; both High andLow stems bcar that High tone in the Future: We must therefore havea Layer 3 rule that assigns High tone to the stem in the Futurc, a rulethat could be made part and parcel of the z*o prefixation procedure.It is worth noting that such a procedure would, however, violate theBracket Erasure Convention of Ki par sky (1982) and others, since therule would have to know where the stem bcgins.

TIIE KIRUNDI VERB

74. ba ri k6 ba ra nmSM copula complementizer SM FO C cu lt ivat elit., "they are that they cultivate"; i.e.,"thev are cultivating"

59

The second indication that zoo is attachcd tn an infinitive concernethe Final Vowel. We remarked in Section 2 abovc that in all othertcnses, the Final Vowel may be either the perfective -ye or the neutral-a, semantics permitting. In the Future, we find only the Final Vowel-a, and never -ye; thus we have a-zoo-bon-a, hut no ia-zoo-bon-ye,This follows immediately if the f uture is based on the infinitive, whic halways has the Final Vowel -a.

no inflnitival form, such as Vzi 'know' (cf. 'k u-uz i, 'azooki, etc,) and-ri, one of th e co pulas, used, for exa mple, in the mo st com moncontinuous tense, as in 74.

70. [Co V Condition Future tense

The third argument involves a small number of stems which have

aFV

stem IIH ~ In sert

Future

Let us rcturn now to the placement of -z6o- in Layer 3. Our argumcntis, in essence, that the futurc is formed by attaching z6o not to theverbal, hut to the in finitive; that this.ipso facto distinguishcs it fromall other tense markcrs, which attach to verbals; and that it attaches,like the other Layer 3 prefix, to an cxisting word, both from a tonaland a lexical point of view ,

find the infinitivc markcr ku- inside the future verb. The careful readerwill have notcd that we find pre cisely that when a reflex ive objectmarker is present. In general the ku- prefix is indeed found inside the

future verb whenever the verbal begins with a vowel, a ci rcumstancethat will arise eithcr if a reflexive object marker is present, or if thcverb stcm begins with a vowel and there are no ob ject markers. Thissecond case is illustrated in 7 2.

72. a. stem: andik -write"

In the main clause affirmative form, the I ligh tones assigned by rule70 and the underlying High tone of thc markcr -z*o- are lost, by

another, later I.evel 3 rule, 71.

7I. H L / M ai n cl ause

If there is no infinitive, we would predict that there is equally no futuretense for such radicals This is corrcct, and to fo rm the f utur econtinuous, another copular verb is used, a radical (-b) which has aninfinitivc kuba)

simple infinitive as in 8, there is also a future inlinitivc ol' thc formku-z6o(ku)-suprastem, (e.g. ku-zoo-rima, 'to be going to cultivate'). No

other tense or tense marker has such a special infinitive, and we wouldexpect none such, The only grounds on which we would expect afuture infinitive is precisely if -zoo- is a verb, in which case we wouldexpcct it to have an in finitivc and thcse are precisely to so-callcdfuture infinitives.

infinitival complements, and phonological evidence suggests as wellthat it is added on a later layer; (Scc Sadock 1984 for a discussionof autolexical syntax, a fr amework in wh ich such c ases can beinsightfully dealt wi th; see also Li eber 198I fo r a di sc ussion of

category/subcategorization fr ames I'or morphemes,) We may sumtnarize the properties of' -z6o-, and of the main clause negative nti- aswell, as in 75.

If z6o attaches to infinitives, as we suggest, one would cxpect to

75. a. [ zoo [ 1 ]

b, f nt i [ )

The fourth argument is based on the fact that in addition to the

V/N N

V V

We arc thus lcd to thc conc lusion that -z6o- is radical that takes

b. n zoo kw andik a "I will write"c. n zoo mw andik ir a "I will v rite for him"

We see in 75a that -zoo-, like any "verbal" radical, can be markedeither as a noun or a verb, and the choice of one feature or the otherwill determine which inflectional prefixes are attached to the stem, Nosuch choice is available with nti-.

To put the matter the other way around, the infinitival prefix ku- isindeed present in thc futurc verb, but is deleted when followed by aconsonant in Layer 3, by rule 73.

73. ku o / z oo C


22/23

VI I.HISTORICAL- COMPARAT1VE OBSERVATIONS

MODF.t.F.S F.lsl 'I'OhtOLOGIE

In this final section, we would li kc to di scuss briefly threeobservations that bear on the analyses that we have developed in thispaper. In each case, similarities and diffcrcnces in nearby Bantulanguagcs appear to shed some light on the phenomena that we have

described in Kirundi.

7.1 Focus Markers, As we observed above, the Kirundi verb has aFocus Marker position immediately following in the Tense Marker.

In the Prescnt and Far Past tenscs, this Focus Marker is -ra- ; in theRecent Past, it is -a-, While it is not unusual for Bantu languages tohave focus systcms with parallcl functions, it is unusual to havc anovert I'ocus Marker inside the verb, Where did it come from, and whyis there such allomorphy 7

languages, we generally find two kinds (which can, to be sure, coexist),ln Zulu and Tonga, for example, we find a verb focus/non-focuscontrast expressed in the present tense by the presence or absence ofthe Tense Marker (ya and ia, rcspectively). In such languages as Tongaand LuGanda, we find a difference in focus expressed by changing

Following this prefixation, it must be possible for the "ro uting"of the morphology to go hack up to the l.ayer Two morphology, upai least three rulcs' worth (as is shown in Ta ble I) , sinc c the

subordinate Future form inay have the subordinate negative marker-ia- as well as either the Subject Marker or the nominal ku- prefix. Theprecise nature of this non-linear routing in the morphology remainsan open question, and one whose resolution we hope this inquiry willstimulate. Wc should observe that it do es not see m possible to

maintain tlie straightforward proposal that the output of Layer 3 mightbe able to loop backwards (using a term reminiscent of Mohanan's19$2 proposal) only by going all the way back through the Layer 2morphology. We note that no object markers, for example, or secondFinal vowel, may be added on the second time through the Layer 2morphology, and wc also note that it is possible to propose (anothcrwise plausible sounding) principle to block rcdundant double

spelling-out of inorphological teatures, since it is in fact possible tofind verhal forms with two copies of tlie Subject Marker, each onehaving beer) spelled out on a pass througli the I.ayer 2 morphology(this is found in the Prescnt Continous ncgative in Ki ll unde , anotherGroup J language).

TKF KlRt INIJI VFRR 61

thc typc of phonological boundary present between the verh and it sI'ollowing object, In general, the stronger boundary (word-boundary)

expresses focus on the verb, and phonological merger of the verb andits object expresses focus on a later constituent or on the VP as awhole.

marker, then we m ay inf'er that the focus/non-focus contrast wasoriginally expressed in a pre-Kirundi stage segmentally only in the

Present Tense (similar to Zulu, though in Zulu a contrast is exprcsscdin the Past Tense by contrasting the Final Vowels -ile [verb focus[ and-e [non-focus], When the Present Tense marker was omitted, focus was

off the verb, and -ra- was naturally reanalyzed as a Focus Marker. Theextension of the use of -ra- as a Focus Marker to the Far Past, as we

find today, was then only natural.

-aa- (verb focus) contrasts with a short vowel -a- (non-focus). This maywell be a reflection of an earlier state ol affairs, L, Hyman (personalcommunication) has pointed out that somc of thc odd accentualbehavior of the Tonga Recent Past rnarker -a-, presently a short vowel,

can rcceivc a historical explanation il -a- were originally a long vowelwith a H igh tonc on the Cirst mora; this oddity, crucially, disappearsin thc non-focus form, suggesting that at an earlier stage the focuslnon-focus contrast aITected vowel length of the Recent Past marker

cf. Goldsmith l984, in press a). This reconstructed phonetic structurein just what is found in Kirundi today.

7.2 Two Object Markers, Eastern Bantu languages vary considerablyin their tolerance for multiple Object Markers. Some, like KiHundc,

permit only animate Object Markers (while Killunde even disallornsthc third pcrson plural Object Markcr). In many othcr languages, such

as Swahili, only one Object Marker is permitted; still others permittwo, as in CiRuri: and linally, therc are languages like a KiRuridiwhere even more Object Markers are possible under conditions of

extrcme syntactic durcss. Our knowledge of the evolution of these

structures is not suflicien to determine which type most closelyrepresents the earlier stage of the languages.

special tone rules comc into thc picture whcn two or more Objoct

Markers are present, In Cikuri, for exarnple, all Object Markers areHigh in tone, and when two precede the verb stem, a special rule stepsin and places a High tone on the Final Vowel (cl; Massamha 1982,

1984, Goldsmith l982). But this is surely not the original state of therule. There is in the language a later rule (restricted in the languagetoday to the Present Continuous and the Subjunctive, it is true) that

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John Goldsmith_Firmard Sabimana - The Kirundi Verbs