An analysis of noun tone groups in Bafut

Abstract This paper identifies and explains tone patterns in Bafut nouns. After identifying the following tone processes: Tone Lowering (TL), High Tone Spread (HTS) and Phrase Final L Tone Docking (PFLTD), the paper demonstrates that besides the traditional morphological noun classes known to exist in Bantu languages, nouns can also be classified on the basis of tone patterns. The application of TL results in two classes: a class of nouns whose first syllable only is affected by TL and another whose two or more syllables are affected. HTS on the other hand, produces three classes: nouns with a surface high falling contour on their first syllables, nouns with a surface high tone in this same position and those with a downstepped H on all its syllables. PFLTD on its part produces two classes: nouns with a surface utterance final L and those with a final H tone. Data analysis reveals that the behaviour of a noun vis-à-vis the application of TL, HTS and PFLTD depends on whether the noun is lexically toneless, high toned or low toned and whether a noun has a HH or H stem. Tone patterns in Bafut nouns seem to be a kaleidoscope of the historical changes reported in the literature about Grassfields Bantu languages.