The Tonology of Simple and Complex Infinitives in Meru Language of the Northeastern Tanzania

Abstract

This study describes the tonology of infinitives in Meru, a Bantu language spoken in Northeastern Tanzania specifically to identify behavior of tone in simple and complex infinitives. The study was guided by the Auto-segmental phonological theory introduced by Goldsmith, (1976) in data analysis to determine different behaviors of tone in these infinitives. The study was conducted in Arumeru district as the targeted population was only Meru native speakers and from these population data were collected through introspection and interview and responses produced were recorded. The methodology used was qualitative. The study indicates that, simple infinitives behave based on the number of syllables that form a root or stem. Accent is assigned at first syllable of a stem and there are processes involved for one to get the acceptable tone patterns and these are; Stem Accent Assignment, Accent-BTM Association, Melody Association, High Spread and finally Output. For the case of simple infinitives with six syllables further processes are involved and they are; Stem Accent Copying after Stem Accent Assignment, and tone simplification after High spread. Complex infinitives appeared differently from simple infinitives on how tone is marked since object marker (OM) is found and it receives an accent and in such instances, the accent assigned at the first syllable of a stem becomes inferior and get deleted. After that, the accent assigned at the object marker spreads rightward. It has been concluded that tone has very important significances as it describes the way meaning can change based on where accent is assigned in Bantu languages including Meru and for that reason; there is a need for further study on tone at nominal, phrase and sentence level.