Tone Patterns in the Kikamba Lexicon: An Analysis (Paperback)

This book is a study of the tone patterns found in the Kikamba word. It describes the tone-system of the Mwingĩ dialect of Kîkamba (MDK). It identifies and describes the tone patterns of MDK and their lexical and grammatical functions, and gives the relevant processes of tone association based on the Autosegmental theory of phonology, (Goldsmith, 1990). It discusses the phonological and morphological structure of Kîkamba in general and the segments specifically found only in MDK, highlighting aspects of their behaviour that may create change in words and influence tone. The consonant and vowel systems; and an overview of the syllable structure are discussed. Further, association patterns of tones in the nouns and verbs are described. It concludes by showing that the four contrastive surface tones of MDK have lexical and grammatical functions. Using the principles of Autosegmental analysis and language specific rules of MDK, it is shown that MDK underlying tones associate with tone-bearing units to bring about the surface tones.