Issues about tone rules in Xitshwa

This paper examines High Tone Spread (HTS) within and beyond verb words in Xitshwa, an undocumented Bantu language (S51, Guthrie 1967‑1971) spoken in southern Mozambique, Inhambane province. High Tone Spread has been attested in a variety of Bantu languages (Zerbian 2006, Mutonyi 1996, Roberts-Kohno 1996, Polleto 1998, Hyman 2007, Hyman 2009). It is a phenomenon whereby a High tone is not only heard on the sponsor syllable, but may also be heard on other syllables – be it to the right or to the left. Kisseberth (1994) postulated a Domain-based Approach that accounts for the extent of High spreading. According to this author, High tone only spreads throughout a Prosodic-domain (P-domain). The critical feature in Kisseberth’s work is that whether or not a High tone spreads onto a following syllable is always and only a matter of whether the syllables are in the same P-domain. Our findings rely on Kisseberth’s description of domain sensitive HTS, especially in contexts where a complement follows the verb (Syntax-Phonology Interface). Some of our data give evidence of contexts in which, although the rule of HTS is motivated, High tone fails to spread onto the noun complement.