rarissimum 128: as many as five phonological tone levels, plus two falling and one rising contour tone
Where found
Black Miao (of Ch’ing Chiang Miao (Miao-Yao, Sino-Tibetan (?)); Dan (Ivory Coast dialect; Mande, Niger-Congo)
Domain
phonology
Subdomain
tone
Keywords
tone levels
Type
rarissimum
Universals violated
not yet in UA: constraint on tone levels inherent in systems of tone features
Source
Anderson, Stephen R. (1978). Tone features. In Victoria A. Fromkin (ed.), Tone: A Linguistic Survey, 133-175. New York: Academic Press, pp. 145-146. Maddieson, Ian (1978). Universals of tone. In Joseph H. Greenberg et al. (eds.), Universals of Human Language, vol. 2: Phonology, 335-365. Stanford: Stanford University Press. based on Kwan, J. (1971). Ch’ing Chiang Miao phonology. Tsing Hwa Journal of Chinese Studies (New Series) 9: 289-305. Bearth, Thomas & H. Zemp (1967). The phonology of Dan (Santa). Journal of African Languages 6: 9-29.
There are more languages with five or indeed more level tones, which, however, seem to be surface distinctions that can be derived from fewer than five underlying tonal elements.
There are more languages with five or indeed more level tones, which, however, seem to be surface distinctions that can be derived from fewer than five underlying tonal elements.