2.11 Intonation and pitch contour.

It is difficult to analyse pitch contours at word level, because word-level patterns are commonly distorted or overridden by higher- level intonational patterns; see §17.4, where we discuss how intonation is used for discourse purposes in a real text, and see also §3.40 for elongated interjections.

Although it is somewhat artificial to "factor out" such intonational patterns (extended high monotones, etc.), we may try to indicate in general terms what "unmarked" pitch contours for words are like. Without pretending to understand the nuances of pitch contours perfectly, I offer the following general points:

  1. long vowels attract high intonation and stress, especially when adjoining syllables have short vowels.
  2. when the last few syllables of a word have short vowels, the penultimate attracts high pitch and a little stress, and a pattern of alternating high-pitched, stressed vowels in even-numbered syllables (right-to-left) may result.
  3. in multisyllabic stems (especially nouns), the stem may be organised into "foot" units of two to three syllables based on apparent reduplicative segments, with each such unit having high pitch and some stress on the initial syllable.

We may illustrate with some exx. (recall that all pitch transcriptions, using 'for high pitch with light stress, and occasionally' for intermediate stress/pitch, are somewhat idealised "context-free" transcriptions which may be overridden by intonational patterns).

/nga=ná-ni/ 'I saw it'penultimate
/ngà=ngu-ví:/ 'I eat it'long V: attracts stress
/ngá=na-ny/ 'I saw it'penultimate (on prefix)
/ná:=ná-ni/ 'We saw them'penultimate, also long V :
/ána-lgu/ 'honey'penultimate, alternating
/á-lagú-wuy/ 'to honey'case suffix causes shift
/a-lágu-yínyung/ 'of honey'bisyllabic suffix has little effect on stem
/wù:=yà;-rì:/ 'they go'contour level (but unstable) with several long V:'s
/gúrujújurg/ 'whistling eagle'two 2-syllable feet
/wúrulámbilámbi/ 'grass sp.'three 2-syllable feet
/gáramínyanmínyan/ 'bee sp.'three 2-syllable feet
/wádanawádana/ 'hawk sp.'two 3-syllable feet
/ambúruyuwúruyuj/ 'grass sp.'two 3-syllable feet plus initial syllable

When a monosyllabic suffix is added to one of the last few noun stems shown above, only the pitch/stress of the final foot is shifted to the word-penultimate syllable: /wá: -gáramínyanminyán-guy/ 'to the bees'.

When there is no obvious reduplication or other internal structure in a stem, the usual preference seems to be in favour of 2-syllable feet (rather than 3-syllable). In the last ex., above, the pitch contour is due to identification of reduplicative patterning; note that /b/ after nasal may be underlying /w2/ after Hardening P-18. The "reduplication" in such situations is often unrelated to the regular, productive reduplication rules (P-2, P-3). The latter never give reduplicative segments more than two syllables, and never have more than one vowel quality in the reduplicative segment (contrast trisyllabic "reduplication" in the final two exx. above, and distinct vowel qualities in the bisyllabic reduplicative segments in the two exx. preceding them).

Word-final consonant clusters do not greatly affect pitch/stress patterns, though they may give a final syllable slightly more pitch and stress than it would otherwise acquire: /wúmurng/ 'stringybark shelter', /wúnalg/ 'painting torso'. In nonfinal syllables, a syllable closed with a consonant or consonant cluster (not counting the consonant opening the following syllable) may have some extra Pitch/stress, but this is not very consistent: /wírnggil/ 'pond scum', Allative-Dative /à-wirnggíl-wuy/ or /à-wìrnggíl-wuy/. Some consonant clusters, notably homorganic nasal-stop clusters like /mb/, appear to syllabify with the following (not preceding) vowel so that the nasal component cannot really be said to close the preceding syllable for purposes of this (occasional) effect on pitch/stress contours.