Student
1:
(to
Ghanaian friend)
The other day, I heard the teacher say something about 'downstep'. Can
you tell me more about it?
Ghanaian
friend:
I
have not heard of it. I do not think we do that in Akan. I never did it,
none of my family does it. Here comes the teacher, let's ask him.
Teacher:
(laughs) Of
course, my friend, you have downstep. The Akan language would not be Akan
without the downstep. And you practice it a thousand times every day. One
could almost say: Downstep is the most important sound of the Akan language!
Ghanaian
friend:
Eeh?
Ampa?
Teacher:
Oh
yes! You know the proverb which says that people are different?
Ghanaian friend:
Teacher:
(to
students)Moá!Listen
to the melody.
Ghanaian
friend:
Student
2:
It
goes pretty much up and down! It reminds me of what we said the other day
about tone: You have to learn for each syllable - sometimes even less than
a syllable - whether it is pronounced High or Low.
Teacher:
Listen
again and try to hum the melody!
Ghanaian
friend:
Student
3:
(hums
the melody) Well,
the whole proverb begins High and ends Low.
Student
2:
But
look at the way it is written. There are three words. If you listen carefully
you notice that each word begins Low and end High. (Repeats one word
after the other.)
Student
1:
So
who is right? Both cannot be right.
Teacher:
Yes,
both are right. Listen to the playback: E-ti-ri
nyi-naa n-sñ. [Slow
recording] Try to listen to the higher tones of each word and compare them: …tiri
…. naa … sñ
Student
3:
It
is like going down the steps of a staircase.
Teacher:
Exactly.
The first thing to note if you are going to understand the concept of Downstep
is this downwards movement of the sentence melody. In a normal statement
it goes down step by step. Now concentrate on the lower tones at the beginning
of each word and compare them: E
… nyi … n … (Slow
recording)
Student
2:
The
same. Like going downstairs - step by step.
Student
1:
Is
this what you call 'downstep'?
Teacher:
Student
2:
What
do you mean by 'automatic'? It seems to me that nothing happens automatically
in Akan, you have to learn by hard work a lot of things which you would
not even dream of in learning a European foreign language.
Teacher:
'Automatic'
just means predictable. Automatic features are always there if certain
conditions are fulfilled. Given these conditions, you can predict that
the feature will be there. For instance, in English and German, the phonemes p,
t, k are always aspirated at the beginning of a word. The
rule is: no choice, no contrast, no meaning.
Student
2:
Are
you saying that there is a rule which causes each succeeding High tone
to be lower than the preceding High tone? E-ti-ri
nyi-naa n-sñ.
Student
3:
And
each succeeding Low to be lower than the preceding Low!
Teacher:
Correct,
as far as this example goes. This is what some have called automatic downstep,
in contrast to non-automatic downstep. But we will call it 'downdrift',
and what they call non-automatic downstep we will call downstep. It is
important to keep downdrift and downstep apart!
Student
2:
So
what is 'Downstep'?
Teacher:
I
shall explain in a moment. But first, listen to the following sentence.
Ghanaian
friend:
Teacher:
(to
student 3)
Will you repeat?
Student
3:
Ghanaian
friend:
(laughs) What
you just said means: "It is the 'papa' festival." Paápaá
näeá. That
means "It is goodness." Paápaá
niáeá
means "It is the 'papa' festival."
Teacher:
Both
sentences have only High tones …
Student
2:
Now
I am totally confused. We just said that High tones get progressively lower.
And now we have two sentences…
Teacher:
Student
2:
This
is Low - there is no confusion.
Teacher:
(to
Ghanaian friend)
Will you read these three:
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That
means "It is our goodness."
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It
means "It is our 'papa' festival."
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This
means "It is our fan."
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Ghanaian
friend:
(reads)
Teacher:
Student
3:
I
heard it High-Low.
Teacher:
Student
2:
Teacher:
Oh,
do you not remember, we've already tackled this in Unit 4. (-> Link
tone).
Listen again to the melody of the three papa.
They all begin on High tone. Just concentrate on the the second syllable.
First compare its tonal height to the tonal height of the preceding syllable pa…
Ghanaian
friend:
(reads) yñn
papa nie"its
our goodness" --- yñn
papa nie"its
our festival" --- yñn
papa nie"its
our fan"
Student
3:
In
'goodness', the second pais
the same as the first: paápaá.
In the two other words, the second pais
lower than the first.
Student
2:
I
even hear the third still lower than the second. It goes down very much: paápaà.
Student
3:
To
be honest, I heard that too. But I did not trust my ears because I remembered
that we had said that Akan distinguishes only two tones, High and Low.
Teacher:
Okay,
we shall see that. Let's first compare the tone of the second pato
the tone of the following item niewhich
means "It is …". yñn
papa nie - yñn papa nie - yñn papa nie…
Student
2:
Are
they really all different?
Student
3:
Compared
to nie,
the syllable pawhich
precedes it seems pretty much the same height in the first two words, but
it is clearly lower in the third word.
Teacher:
Let's
try sol-fa notation:
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e
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paá
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paá
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näeá
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paá
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ápaã
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ánïãeã
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3.
yñànà
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paá
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ápaà
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nïãeã
|
The last papais High-Low as we said, the first has High on both syllables, it does not go down at all. And the second - well I hear it in between.
Student 2:
Teacher:
Of course. Playback.
You can even see the difference.
Student 1:
That helps. In the
'goodness'-papathe
second pais
just as high as the first pa, in
the 'festival'- papa
is clearly a bit lower but not as low as in the 'fan'-papa.
Student 3:
So if we have three
different tone heights which serve to distinguish words as do the tones
on the second syllable of papa-
why do we then not say that Akan has three tones - High, Mid and
Low? After all Chinese also…
Student 4:
…has four tones.
My friend who studies Chinese always said that a tone language worth its
name…
Teacher:
Let's leave Chinese
aside for the moment. Indeed it is not entirely wrong to think that Akan
has three tones. This is what Christaller thought, for instance.
Student 1:
Who is Christaller?
Teacher:
Johann Gottlieb
Christaller is the author of the famous Twi-English dictionary. He also
published the first really scientific grammar of Akan (which he called
Twi) already in 1875.
And he also wrote a small booklet on the tones (1893).
He was the first to write the tones, and the first to understand how tone
works in Akan. As a matter of fact, he was the first to give a scientifically
accurate description of an African tone language in general. In both the
Grammar and the tone booklet we can see that he had understood that what
he called the Mid tone behaved differently from the other two tones. It
is essentially for this same reason why today we prefer not to speak of
a Mid tone but of a downstepped High, in short Downstep.
Student 2:
That is nice. But
I am totally confused because a moment ago we had said that succeeding
High tones get lower as the sentence progresses. And now we have this first papaexample
where you must stay High if you do not want to be misunderstood.
Teacher:
Yes, let me give
you another example.
Ghanaian friend:
Student 3:
The melody seems
to remain High. There is no - how did you call that again …?
Student 2:
No, downdrift.
But at the end it goes down.
Teacher:
Now you are very
close to the solution!
Student 2:
Well, I guess if
there are no Low tones but only High, there is no downdrift.
Student 1:
And if there are
only Low and no High tones? Or maybe that does not even happen.
Teacher:
It does, and quite
often. Listen!
Ghanaian friend:
Ïkõõ
Nkran. "(S)he went to
Accra."
Yñhunuu Ado. "We saw Ado."
Student 1:
(tries) Ïkõáõà
Nkran.
Ghanaian friend:
Student 1:
Is that not what
I said?
Teacher:
What you said was:
"When he or she went to Accra …"
Student 3:
So it is as I thought
a moment ago: If one Low follows another Low, both stay at the same level.
Student 2:
And if one High
follows another High, both stay High.
Teacher:
As we said. But
did you notice that at the end - generally on the last syllable - it goes
down?
Student 2:
I noticed it. I
did not dare to ask.
Teacher:
Student 2:
I thought it is
just like in my language, the melody goes down when you come to the end
of the sentence.
Teacher:
This is the way
it should be and this is the way it is. Listen to the following:
Mñkõ hõ [Mñákõá hõã]
Mñkõ hõ Wukuada [Mñákõá hõá Wuàkuáaádaá]
How do you hear the melody of Mñkõ hõin the two short sentences?
Student 3:
High High and then
it goes down on hõ. That
is the first. Now, the second. Here hõdoes
not seem to go down. I think hõis
just the same height as mñkõ…
Teacher:
In the first, hõis
lower. Why?
Student 1:
I guess when it
occurs at the end of the sentence, it gets lower.
Teacher:
Yes, we have a sort
of Downdrift which always occurs at the end of the sentence, mainly on
the last syllable. The last syllable is lowered by just one step before
pause.
Student 1:
And if it is a Low
tone, can it still get lower.
Teacher:
Yes, listen!
Student 3:
So this means, we
have Downdrift on every last syllable?
Teacher:
Yes.
Student 2:
So what about Downdrift
in the middle of a sentence?
Student 3:
I think it only
occurs when a High follows a Low, or a Low follows a High.
Student 2:
That is if there
is a change in tone?
Teacher:
Quite. Let's look
at our first example
again:
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eàtärä
|
nyìnaáaá
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nà-
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sñá
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heads
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all
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NEG
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resemble
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"People are different."
(Proverb)
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Student 1:
Now it strikes the
eye. This way it is easy to understand even if you are not a professional
linguist. Could you not have shown that at the beginning? It sounded terribly
complicated to me. Now I think it is quite simple: Each time the tones
change, whether from High to Low or from Low to High does not matter, the
tone following the change is one step lower that than the closest preceding
tone of the same kind. If the tone following the change is High, this High
is one step lower than the closest preceding High. If it is Low, it is
one step lower than the closest preceding Low.
Teacher:
It is true, I could
have explained this at the beginning. But I think we have understood a
lot in the discussion, and we have maybe understood it so that it will
stick.
Student 4:
I hope so. It is
always simpler once it has been explained.
Student 2:
I am still confused
about the papa.
Teacher:
Yes, we must now
talk about 'real' downstep. Downstep is what explains the difference between
the first and the second papa. Downstep
accounts for many important differences in the vocabulary and even more
so in the grammar. Therefore we must take the trouble to understand what
happens. But if you understand Downdrift you will also understood Downstep
because Downstep is so to speak a by-product of the Downdrift principle.
Student 2:
Still sounds mysterious
to me.
Student 4:
In Chinese …
Teacher:
(sharply) There
is no downstep in Chinese. Downstep really has been invented in Africa
and for Africa!
Student 4:
But I have read
that in English, too, …
Teacher:
(more sympathetically) True.
The concept of downstep comes from Africa. But just as the vowel
harmony parameter of ATR (= Advanced Tongue Root ), which we had seen
the other day, it has been exported and has been found very useful for
describing the intonation of English and other languages, too. Let's keep
all this for a special session for those who are interested.
Student 1:
Cannot you give
us a simple rule - that is all we can swallow. And then we shall do our
best.
Teacher:
Let me give you
an example, and you will find out the rule for yourself.
Student 2:
Okay, we will try.
Ghanaian friend:
Fa
me kyñ no ma me ! "Give
me my hat!"
Teacher:
Ghanaian friend:
(repeats) Fa
me kyñ no ma me!
Student 4:
Student 2:
But not as low as
the preceding Low of the fa!
But following the Downdrift principle, if kyñis
Low it should even be lower than fa!(to
Ghanaian friend) Please,
can you say it again?
Ghanaian friend:
Student 4:
So it is Downdrift?
Student 2:
But as you said
yourself meis
High, and if kyñis
not Low because it is higher than fawhich
is Low, then kyñmust
be High. If it is High and is lower than the preceding High, then there
should be a Low between the two High's which causes the second High to
be lowered one step.
Student 3:
Yes, and I do not
hear a Low in between. So the rule we just established after all this discussion
is again wrong. I am now tired …
Teacher:
Give me one more
chance. You know what kyñmeans
in this sentence?
Student 3:
It means 'hat'.
Teacher:
Right. But now,
if I asked you: Tell me the word for 'hat' - what would you say?
Student 3:
Ghanaian friend:
Teacher:
So what are the
tones of ñkyñ.
Student 3:
I think first Low,
then High.
Teacher:
Yes, remember the
nominal prefix is normally Low. So, we do have a Low occurring before kyñ.
Student 2:
But it is not there
in the example you gave - what was it again?
Ghanaian friend:
(repeats) Fa
me kyñ no ma me!
Student 2:
I do not hear ñkyñ-
just kyñ!
There is no Low tone between the meand
the kyñwhich
would cause the High of kyñto
become lower.
Teacher:
Yes, there is.
Student 2:
But it is not pronounced!
Teacher:
True. But it is
there.
Student 2:
What does that mean:
It is not pronounced but it is there?
Student 3:
Well, I guess it
must be there in the Akan speaker's mind.
Student 4:
Sounds weird. Something
like a phantom tone.
Teacher:
Some have called
it like that. For instance in German: 'Phantomtoene'. In English we have
settled for 'floating tone', that is a tone which is there - as you said
in the speaker's mind - but is not associated with a word.
Student 4:
How come that a
tone can so to speak fall from the waggon?
Teacher:
That is well put.
Christaller found out more than a hundred years ago that this happens indeed
to tones.
Student 4:
But how?
Teacher:
Remember the word
taken by itself is ñkyñ. It
has two syllables, the first - what we call the prefix - consists only
of a vowel, the second - the stem - has a consonant onset and a vowel peak.
The first type of syllable consisting only of one element is called a weak
syllable, the one with consonant onset is called a strong syllable.
Now what happens to weak syllables is that they often are simply dropped.
This does not occur at the beginning, but in the middle of the sentence
weak syllables (except aand nasals n-,
m-) are being dropped as a rule.
Student 2:
Well, I guess that
means that the tone of the weak syllable is also dropped?
Teacher:
In Africa, tones
are tenacious of life. They tend to survive when the segments or even the
words to which they were attached disappear. One could call this survival
of the tones Christaller's Law, because it is Christaller who first discovered
it more than a hundred years ago (Christaller
1893, Bearth 1994).
Student 2:
If it survives,
what does it do? How does it survive if it is not pronounced? And how do
we know that it survives?
Teacher:
There are essentially
two ways in which a floating tone can survive. Either it finds a new 'host',
that is it attaches itself to a neighbouring word or syllable which has
not been dropped.
Student 2:
But these syllables
have already their own tones, haven't they?
Teacher:
Very often yes.
Then the newcomer must negotiate its place with the tones already installed.
Student 3:
And what is the
other trick by which a floating tone survives?
Teacher:
It materialises
as a Downstep on the following High.
Student 3:
How that?
Student 2:
I think I get the
idea. The Low of the weak syllable of the word 'hat' disappears. But before
it disappears it causes the following High tone to be lowered. So the Downstep
is there as a memorial for the Low tone when it is no longer pronounced
itself.
Student 3:
Or one could just
as well say that it survives through the downstepping of the following
High.
Student 1:
So this is exactly
the Downdrift principle. The difference is simply that it is being triggered
by a phantom tone.
Student 2:
Floating tone we
said.
Teacher:
That is wonderful.
Do you agree now that our example does not contradict the Downdrift Principle?
Quite the contrary, it confirms it. As you see, the Downstep occurs exactly
where an underlying Low can be reconstructed, that
is where Downdrift would have caused a High to be lowered if the Low would
still have been pronounced.
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H
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H
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L??
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Student 1:
I did not imagine
that linguistics can be so dramatic. We have learnt all about the dramatic
life of tones.
Teacher:
Not yet all. There
is more to come.
Ghanaian friend:
I will tell my family
about the life of tones.