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An overview of Kabarasi verb tone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Kristopher J. Ebarb
Kristopher J. Ebarb*
Affiliation:
University of Missouri
*
[ebarbk@missouri.edu]
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Abstract

This article presents the results of a study of verbal tone patterns in Kabarasi [lkb], a Kenyan Bantu language of the Luhya [luy] group. Kabarasi tone has a number of features that are common to Bantu languages (Kisseberth & Odden 2003, Downing 2011, Marlo & Odden 2017), including a lexical contrast between /H/ and /0/ verb roots and a rich system of tonal inflection. Long H spans that extend across several words may be created by a pair of iterative, mutually feeding rules. One of these rules only applies across word boundaries and exhibits look-ahead effects; the other motivates a novel morphophonological domain: the Limitative Stem.

Keywords

phonological domainsLuhyalimitative stemmacrostemBantutonology

Information

Type
Phonological Analysis
Information
Language , Volume 92 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. e134 - e191
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 Linguistic Society of America

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