Dellinger, David W.

English

The Australian National University

NOTES ON AKHA SEGMEN TAL PHONEMES AND TONES DAVI D W. DELL I N GE R  Akh a  i s  one  o f  the  l angu ag e s  o f  wh at i s  r e f e r r ed to  usually as the Burmi c or Burman group wi thin the l arge Sino­Tibetan family.  Its  speaker s  l i ve i n  China, Burma, L ao s  and Th ai l and and may number as many as  100 , 000 p eop l e .  They have only just penetrated i nto Thai l and, and l i ve almo s t  ex­c lusi vely north o f  a l i ne drawn l aterally through Ch i engrai c i ty .  The i r  numb ers in Chi engrai province in Thai l and h ave been e st imated at 6312 in fi fty- five village s .  1 Th i s  art i c l e  i s  b ased  on mater i al gathered dur i ng an i n i  t i al f ield  tr i p  t o  Th ai l and i n  e arly 1 9 6 6 .  A second,  l onger,  fi eld tr i p  i n  1967  may o ffer reason to change some o f  the interpret at ions in thi s p aper .  M¥ work was c arri ed  out in Saen c ay ,  an Akh a  v i l l age app rox imat ely forty k i lo ­m e t e r s no r thwe s t  o f  C h i engr ai . M y  i n fo rmant was  Ap h i  S aejui . The mat er i al was gathered us ing Central Th ai as  a contac t  l anguage,  b eg i nning wi th a word l i st o f  4 3 7  s ingl e i t ems plus  short sentences  and phrase s ,  then gathering ex­t emporaneous conversat ions and such addi t i onal voc abul ary as c ame my way. Th e d i v i s i on o f  the  phonem i c  sy s t em i n t o  v o we l s and c o n s o n ant s was b a s e d  on t h e  d e t e rm i n a t i on o f  syl l ab l e p e aks  - tho se phoneme s func t ioning as peaks being vowel s and the o t her s b e i ng consonan t s .  Syl l ab l e  p e ak s  were  det er­mined intu i t ivel y  and aurally,  and the conclus i on s  show the Akha syl l ab i c  s t ruc ture i s  very s i mply repre sent ed by the c anon i c al forms C V  and V .  All syl l abl e s  are phonem i c  al ly open ,  though they are somet ime s phone t i c ally clo sed, e i ther by a gl o t t al stop or a nasal qual i ty ( see b elow under di s­c u s s i on o f  vowel phoneme s ) . Word2 i ni t i al V syl l able s are 1 Benn i n � ton - Co rn el l Th ai l an d  Hi l l t r i be Su r vey , 1 9 6 3 - 1 9 6 4, Co rn e l l  Thai l and Proj e c t ,  Co rnell Un i ve rsi ty, N. Y. , 1964 . 2 "Wo rd "  i s  defined (only loo s ely) here as being the minimum u tterance that my in fo rm an t  thou gh t  made sense.  35 Dellinger, D.W. "Notes on Akha Segmental Phonemes and Tones". In Nguyễn Đ.L., Mai, A.T.H. and Dellinger, S.W. editors, Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics No. 1. A-9:35-96. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1967.   DOI:10.15144/PL-A9.35 ©1967 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s).  Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL.  A sealang.net/CRCL initiative.36 qui te common,  but medi ally they are con s i derab ly l e s s  com­mon - [ch8.� . ] arrow; [ya?u?] egg; [yo"?6?] low; [ l ao?] door ;  [yo " ? o.] we t ;  [ l e?u?] t e st i cl e s ,  prob ably being the maj or i ty  o f  the examples  recorded. Akh a i s  a p o l y syl l ab i c  l angu ag e ,  roughl y 8010 o f  i t s  l exicon having two or more syll abl e s .  Many o f  the polysyl ­l ab i c  words  fe ature redupl i c at i on ,  e .  g .  [ ?upE:pe] to  vomi t ;  [ ?uthethe] t o  cough ; [ bo.8a8a] t o  have a b e ard ;  [ gonano.] to r e st ; [ g6y6y6] to st and up ; [kho.j'ej'e] to shake ( something ) . O f  the s e ,  some ar e mean i ng ful even wi thout the feature o f  redup l i cat ion, other s apparently are not . The func t i ons o f  redupl i c at i on have not been determined.  Other polysyl l ab i c  word s  cont ain bound morpheme s ,  e . g .  { u }  head, up ( ? ) a s  i n  [ ?UChI] he address ;  [ ?Udu] head; [ ?uko?]  hat ; { u} a t ime ele-ment , as  in [ ?u ·  bya? ] day; [ ?'uci ? ] n i ght ; [ ? u86] morning ;  { l a} p er t a i n i ng to  t h e  arm , a s  i n  [ l o.b1l;]  co s tume r i ng ;  [ lo.du?] l ower arm; [ 10.15?] hand; [ blma?] thumb . Some poly­s yll ab i c  wor d s  seem not to be d i v i s i b l e  i nto  smal l er mor­phem i c  uni t s ,  e. g. [ j al1i] wind;  [ CI S1i] betel ; [h6zA] p o l e ;  [ IJ6xe] t o  break ;  [ ?o.pa.siJ cabbage;  [yojona] o ften. There are thi rty consonant : p honeme s ( see Chart 1 ) .  Thi s  c omp are s  wi th the twenty- five  p o s t ul ated by L ewi s 3 i n  h i s alphabet devi sed for Bible transl at ion purpo ses ;  the twenty­t wo su�g e s t e d  by Small ey 4 , and the n i n e t e en de sc r i b ed by Thomas . The contrast between asp i r ated and unasp i r ated voi cel e s s  stop s i s  one o f  the most di ffi cul t  s i tuat i ons t o  veri fy.  I t  h as b e e n  sugg e s t ed by L ewi s ,  Thomas and Smal l ey ( i n t h e  above c i ted repor t s ) th at there i s  no phonem i c  contrast o n  the b as i s o f  asp i rat i on, that asp i r ated  stop s oc cur b e fore o r al vowel s and unasp i r ated b e fore  l arynge al i s ed ( L ewi s '  "glo t t al i sed " ) vowel s .  There doe s  seem to be a correl at i on, b ut none of the report s d e s c r i b e  the di s t r i b ut i on o f  the correl at i on.  Unfortunately, in the whole  corpus I gathered -about 900 s i ngle l ex i c al i t ems - no t a single minimum p ai r  was found based exclusively on segment al phonemes ;  all p ai r s  3 Paul Lewi s, a descrip ti on furni shed to Wi l l i am  Smalley i n  typ ewri tten copy, date unknown.  4 Wi l l i am  A. Small ey, No t e s  o n  Som e Phon o l ogi c al Probl ems i n  Akh a  a s  Spo k en i n  t h e  Ch i en g r ai ( Th ai l an d) A r e a, Chi engm ai , 1 9 64 �unpub­l i shed) . 5 Davi d D. Thomas, No t e s  on the Pang Khi Heh Di al ec t o f  Akh a, Chi en g­mai (? ) ,  19 65 (unpubl 1 shed) . �. Manner of culat i on articulat i on Vo i ced stop s Vo i celess  un -asp irated stop s Voi celess  asp irated stop s Vo i c ed affr i c ates  - - . Voi cel e s s  unasp i rated affr i c at e s  Vo i cel e s s  asp i rated affri cat e s  Vo i c ed fri c at i  ve s Vo i cel e s s  fri c at i ves  Nasal s Lateral s  Lab ial b p ph m 37 C H AR T 1 Palatal Palatal Dental Palatal Velar K;lottal labial dental by d dy 9 py t k phy th kh dz j ts c ch z � s S x h my n ny IJ 1 38 whi ch di ffered only i n  one segment al phoneme al so di ffered tonally.  But some b as i s  for j udging thi s  asp irat i on feature i s  present in the consi stency wi th which my informant used a p art i cul ar form o f  a stop in any one word.  I have recorded no alt ernat i on between asp i r ated and unasp i r at ed stop s .  I f  further inve st i gat i on sub s t ant i at e s  thi s ,  i t  would seem to veri fy the phonemi c s t atus of the aspi rat i o n v s  n o n - a s p i ra-t i on  contras t . 6 EXAMPL ES: Ikhl -/kl - [?akhil] Akha; [ ?8.kha] dog; [kh615] neck; [ya �kh5] heavy ; [khu] to cal l ;  [khilo?] b i cycl e ;  [ko? ]  six ;  [kI . ba] yonder; [kimY8?] go at ; [b5ke] box;  [k6] to b i  te;  [ka? ]  cros sbow. I chi -I cl - [?'achlchu] be s ilent ; [cha?a] arrow; [ya�ch8] sour ; [cha . ] fog;  [chu] to rai se animal s ;  [ cheg6] mo s qui  t o ;  [ ?u .  cl?] night ; [cahIjl] feather ; [ clfchacha] to run; [cu] to suck; [pace] hat .  I phi - I pi - [phu? ] v i ll ag e ;  [ sapha] cloth ;  [duph5] t o  bury; [ IJaphe] wil d  b ananas;  [phasi J  mattres s ;  [phesi ] p r i e s t ;  [ thaphoma? ] wooden st atue s ;  [tepu] a kind o f  r i c e ;  [pay6� ]  wei ghing scal e ;  [pa] to  burn; [ ts6pedu] cul t i vat i ng s t i ck ;  [p5] be wrong;  [yupo] to turn. I th/- / tl - [pyatha;] be proud; [ thrdu?] fire l ight ; [ thu] to s i t  up ; [ the] that ; [m6th6] c amer a; [ luth5] mos­qui to l arvae ; [mftho] call up the sp i r i t s ; [pata;] kind o f  weed; [ 18, . ti? ] p ant s ;  [ gate?] p ipe  mouth­p i ec e ;  [mota] padlock;  [ t5dze] to fake;  [toma? ] phall  i c  symbol .  Al so i n  the case  o f  the phone s [y] and [ z] , i t  was mo re normal for my informant to b e  cons i st ent i n  u s i ng one only fo r any one  wo r d ,  e .  g.  [ y a �  -] adj e c t i  ve  pre f i x ;  [ yu]  t o  6 A t  l e ast,  1 t 1 s  more usu al 1 n  deal 1ng w1 th Southeast As1 an l an @1 ages t o  re gard aspi rati on vs non-aspi rat i on as a con trast1ve -d e v 1 c e  th an laryngeal vs non-laryngeal. 39 s l eep ; [ zo] t o  fly ; [ ? ayeoha] t o  s i ng ; [ ? ay8? ] fl owe r ;  [hoza] pole .  But i n  some words,  usually prec eding [ 8,] , [y] and [ z] al t ernat ed freely wi th each o ther and wi th phone s intermedi ate between the two , e .  g .  [Z a] 7 chil d ;  [ ?,az'!l?] hog; [ d zamrZ.a] woman ; [bZamma?] i t  ( ? ) . And yet when I sub st i ­tuted the oppo s i te phone in the words with whi ch he had been consi stent , my informant accep ted the words . There are al so the facts  that other speakers used the opp o s i te phones to my i n formant , and that some speakers seem to ut i l i se the whol e  sc al e  o f  these phon e s .  I t  i s  for the se reasons I c on s i der [ y] and [ z] as all ophones o f  / z/ . L ewi s di st i ngui shes be­tween them i n  hi s al phab e t ,  but nei ther Small ey nor Thomas found a cont ras t .  The p robl em o f  [ z] � [y] as al ternat ion or contrast appe ar s  to be d i al ectal .  A possible  exp l anat ion for my i n formant ' s  c ase i s  that i n  h i s  d i alect  or i diolec t ,  the di fference was origi nally phonemi c ,  but through cont ac t  wi th o ther d i al e c t s  where the d i fference was not phonem i c ,  no t only has h e  come t o  ac cep t free var i at ion o f  the se two p hones in other s '  sp eech ,  but i t  i s  even encro achi ng on h i s own. / s/ � / s/ i s  ano t her c o n t r ast  t h at has  an e qu i vo c al aspect .  I t  i s  taken to  be contrastive ,  as  it  is  in Burmese .  In  L ahu , a c l o sely  rel at e d  Burman l anguage , there  i s  no cont r ast . 8 Thu s ,  i t  woul d  no t have been surp r i si ng i f  [ s] and [ s] had not contrasted ;  i n  fac t ,  at t ime s they s eem to b e  in free var i at i on ,  primari ly before [ a] , e.  g .  [S aphyaba:?] 9 thigh ;  [Sadya:? ] mud ; [Saj r ]  ani mal . The var i at ion has al so b e en no t e d  i n  [ khaSi? ]  s an d ,  where  [ I ] i s  l aryngeal i se d .  Lewi s describes  i t  a s  phonemi c .  Smalley found i t  to be non­phonemi c .  Thomas sai d that hi s i nformant i n  c are ful speech d i st i ngu i shed the two , but app ar ently d i d  no t i n  natur al speech .  Both  o f  these  p honeme s are ar t i cul ated  wi th  the tongue t i p  again st the b ack of the front lower teeth. Small ey has al so found [ t s] and [ 0] , and [ dz] and [ j ] to be non- contrast ive  i n  hi s in formant ' s  sp eech .  Both L ewi s and Thomas regard them al l  as phonemic  as I d i d  wi th my i n­forman t ,  e .  g .  [ t se] to b ar� ; [ oeoe] to de fecate ;  [ j o] to in­vi  te ; [ dzn] to study ; [j a'?a] Jew ' s harp ; [dza] to eat .  7 [Z] = abbrevi ation for [y] and [zJ . 8 Conver sati on wi th J am e s  M at i so f f, who s e  Ph. D. di s se rt at i on ,  Un i ­ve rsi ty o f  Cal i fo rn i a, Berkel ey, was a descri p tion o f  L ahu. 9 [S] = abb revi ati on fo r [s] and [SJ . 40 [ r] and [ 1 ]  are in free vari at i on as allophone s o f  I ll ,  b ut [ r] has been heard rarely and only in rap i d  speech ,  e . g .  [yu . Ua? ]  bring.  10  Th e r e  are  t h i r t e en s imp l e  vowel an d three d i phtho ng p honeme s ( see  Chart 2 ) . Lewi s has s i xteen voc al i c  symbol s i n  h i s alphabet , repre sent ing the same pattern as above ex­c ep t  fo r I oy/ . Hi s s i xt eenth symb o l  rep r e sen t s  I ami . I r ecorded  only one i t em on onl y one o c c a s i on wi th  l aml -[yam] time .  Because o f  i t s  rar i ty o f  oc currence I have ex­c luded i t  from my phonem i c  analy s i s  unt i l  I c an check the a c c ur acy o f  t h at i t em .  Th oma s fo und the  s ame phonem i c p attern as Lewi s .  CHART 2 S i mple Vowels D i p h t h ones i I I U ay oy e a a 0 aw a; a 5 0 IJl I al b e fo r e  I zl some t ime s b e come s d i p hthong i z e d ,  e .  g .  I I I sazel [ sayye] bone ; I dazol [dayzo] grass .  1 61 h a s  the two allophone s [ 6] and [ 6�] whi ch are in free var i at i on, app arentl y .  [ 5�] may b e  a cond i t i oned var i an t ,  appear ing only but opt i onally before a vo i c ed sound . I t  i s  mo st common before vowel s ,  espec i ally the verb p art i cl e  l al ,  b ut h a s  b e e n  fo und , b e fo r e  I ll , e .  g . , [ deh5�a ? ]  t o  s i ng ( + verb p art i �l e ) ; [ 61J1] to go make;  [ j 6!Ja? ]  to make ( + verb p art i cle ) ;  [ d6�l a] there i s  ( + verb p ar t i cl e ) . However, i t s exac t  di stribut i on has not been checked yet . Syl l ab i c  I IJlI i s  rep r e sented by both [1Jl] and [ am] , e . g . [ nams{ ] sesame ; [ sam] i ron; [ sam] three;  [ nyam] house ·t [xam] a grammat i c al p art i cl e ;  [kamth8] Bangkok ;  L ?z\l] sky; ?r)ldam] c loud ;  [ ?·zjl . a? ]  gu t s ;  [ cahql] feather ; [ ma?lJl] Burma;  [ hlJl] 10 [rJ = abb revi ation fo r [r] and [1J . 4 1  grammat i c al classi fi er .  [IJl] i s  t aken a s  a vowel b ecause i t  consti tutes the syl l able peak i n  many case s .  Since i t  i s  i n  c ompl ement ary di str i but ion wi th [ am] the two are consi dered al lophone s of the same vowel phoneme ( see the morphophonemic notes  below) . To have regarded [IJl] as l am! would have com­p l i c at ed the descr i p t i o n .  I f  l aml had b een de s c r i b e d  as vowel + consonant , it would have comp l i cated the de script i on o f  canoni c al forms .  The form CVC whi ch it  would have added would have had only th i s  one fi l l er for the final slo t s  VC ( wi t h  the p o s s i b l e  addi t ion o f  l a:mI  - see above ) .  Thomas p l ac e s  both l am! and 1 51 wi th the diphthong s,  but it  seems to  me more usual to find nasal i ty as an addi t i onal dimension o f  the s imp l e  vowel p attern,  rather than o f  d iphthong p at­tern s .  IIJ1/ together wi th the phoneme 1 51 add a th i rd dimen­sion o f  nasal i ty to the voc al ic  p attern. I f I and l al are rounded central vowel s.  Diphthong s o ccur in only a very few morpheme s ,  e .  g .  [x6y] p ar t i c l e ;  L naw] Sto p ! ;  C aw]  p ar t i cl e ; [ ? amyay] how muc h ;  [bay] money ; [ lophayJ t rain;  L srecay] S aenchay ;  [ thay] Thai ; [ thamyay?] only; [may] p art i cl e .  There i s  no r e s t r i c t i o n  o n  whi ch consonant s c an o c cur wi th whi ch vowel s ,  though no t al l p o s sible  var i at i ons have b e en recorded - e . g .  I byo } ca , co } ku } l al e t c .  have no t b e en r e c o rd e d  - there  i s  no s i g n i f i c an t  p a t t e rn i ng that would suggest compl ement ary distribut ion.  In regard to  mo rphophonemi c s ,  the fo l l owing have b e en not ed:  1 .  2 .  1 .  2.  1.  1.  1.  2 .  1 1  C = consonant.  I IJ1/  I IJlI I a:! I rei i n  the V envi ronment s{h�}' -- [am] rV } in the envi ronment s �V -_ [re] J V I II - D�1} [ [ 5] J 1 51 - [ 5IJ]  [IJl] [ 8] I cal + l al verb p art i cl e  - I Cal + [A] 11  I al - [a ]  4 2  The morphophonemi c s  w i l l  b e  examined mor e  e xtens ively duri ng the second field trip .  The t onemi c s  ar e b as ed on  three  p i t ch l evel s .  There s e ems to b e  agreement among r e s e archer s that there are at  l e ast  thr ee l evel tone s ,  one on e ach p i t ch l evel . L ewi s po s i t s  a f ive tone sy stem i n  hi s alphab e t  - two low tone s ,  one wi th oral vowel and one wi th glot t al i sed vowel ; two mid t o ne s  wi th  the s ame d i f ferenc e ;  and a h i gh t one wi th o r al vowel . Smal l ey and Thomas agree .  I analyse my informant ' s  s p ee ch as h av i ng four tone s - a l ow, m i d  and h i gh l evel tone s ,  and a fal l i ng tone that fal l s  from mid to low p i tch. 3 2 4 1 The s e  ar e marked wi th the fol l owing d i acr i t i c s  o ver the vowel s r e sp e c t i vely:  " unmarked,  " I There are no re­s t ri c t i on s  as to wh i c h consonant- vowel comb i nat i o n s  the  t o ne s  o cc ur wi th ,  nor  as to the i r  sequence of  occurrenc e ,  except that the fourth tone occur s only in utterance- fi nal syll ables .  To n e o n e :  [ ?apa?] leaf;  [ go · j 6] mount ain; [ ?u · ci ?] night ; [b5ka] box; [ cath5?] navel . To n e  t wo :  [ duchlJ roo t ;  [kha . lo?] stone ; [ ?aca?] rop e ;  [y;:,A thu] thick ;  [yupo?] t o  turn . To n e  t h r e e :  [y;:,Akh5] heavy ; [ ? i · cu] water;  [kha16] b asket ; [khan�] to e ;  [phyu] s ilver. [ h i ] [ th .... ] [ ? !.1-h'!'] dog ,' Ton e fo u r :  C a ' fog ;  roa; ;:, chin ;  W\. '" [royaphy6] face ;  [ !JaM . . ] f i sh.  As with the segment al phoneme s ,  it was v i r tually imp o s­s i bl e t o  o b t a i n  m i n imum p ai r s  t o  e st abl i sh tonem i c  con­t r ast s .  Perhap s hal f a do zen tonem i c ally contrast i v e  ut-t erances were found i n  all . The prob l em o f  intonat ion p at t erns ,  and the i r  e ffec t on the toneme s ,  has not been invest i gated thoroughly, nor the que st i on o f  t one s andh i , though in e i ghty- t wo t one t e s t  frame s constructed t o  i nve s t i gate these que st i on s ,  no th i ng 43 was no t ed s ugge s t i ng there  was s andh i .  I t  app e ar s  that s entenc e intonat ion "neutral i se s " normal tone , i .  e .  repl ac e s  toneme s wi th non- phonemi c ( non- tonemic ) tones who se shape i s  wholly cond i t i oned by the overall  sentence intonat i on.  But the  unn at u r al n e s s  w i th wh i ch t he tone t e s t  f r ame s were treated by the informant makes the frame s unrel i abl e for any final concl u s i on s .  Vowel l ength has al so b een not ed ,  but whether i t  i s  emi c al l y  s i gn i fi c ant  ( at any l evel ) has not b e en d e t e rm i n e d .  The s e  p r ob l ems wi l l  b e  pur sued i n  t h e  second f i e l d  trip . The l aryng e al i sat ion ,  or glo t t al i s at i on ,  o f  the vowel s has been not ed  in my in formant ' s  speech,  but I cons i der i t  non- phonem i c ,  p o s s ibly  a prosodi c featur e .  I have no t ye t b e en abl e  to check wi th what con s i stency he l arynge al i se s  h i  s word s .  As w i  t h  the a s p  i r a t  i o n  v s  n o n - a s p  i r a t  i o n  fe a­ture ,  cons i s tency in i t s  app e ar ance or non- appear anc e wi th any p ar t i c ul ar words  woul d b e  evi dence  of a phonem i c  con­trast.  POSTSCRIP T :  I k, kh, 9 , hi and p robably I g.., xl have allophone s determ­i n ed by whether they p receed front , central or b ack vowel s ,  b u t  thi s di s t r i but i on was no t d e sc r i bed as I am no t sure what effect the rounded vowel s have on the all ophones .  Dellinger, D.W. "Notes on Akha Segmental Phonemes and Tones". In Nguyễn Đ.L., Mai, A.T.H. and Dellinger, S.W. editors, Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics No. 1. A-9:35-96. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1967.   DOI:10.15144/PL-A9.35 ©1967 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s).  Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL.  A sealang.net/CRCL initiative.

Notes on Akha Segmental Phonemes and Tones

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Notes on Akha Segmental Phonemes and Tones

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