Tone in Mituku: How a Floating Tone Nailed down an Intermediate Level

Abstract This chapter presents some straightforward facts from the tonal system of a Bantu language, Mituku, described by Stappers (1973). The interest of the facts lies in the way they help clarify notions about constraints and certain kinds of representation-based generalizations. As we shall see, there is a simple principle at work to which we can appeal in order to explain why in a small number of cases-and only in these cases-a contour tone can appear on a single vowel. The contour-toned vowels in question are among those where the vowel can be shown to be the surface manifestation of two distinct vowels at deeper level (indeed, the two vowels are from distinct morphemes). Mituku, we will say, displays the no more than one tone per vowel (I TperV) restriction. It is, of course, an utter banality in the world of tonal systems to find a restriction on tone to the effect that no more than one tone may appear per mora (or short vowel), and indeed it is that banality that reassures us that we have the right generalization here.