The non-terracing tone system of Lolobi-Siwu

Abstract Siwu, a Ghana-Togo Mountain language spoken in Volta Region, Ghana, is a lexical tone language with three level tones, Low, High and Extra-high. Siwu has three distinct end-tones to mark positive-imperatives, non-WH-interrogatives, and negatives, and an additional end-tone to mark emphatic questions. All words form four tone classes – those with final Low tones which do not affect following tones, and three other classes, two of which assimilate following tones, and one which dissimilates following High and Extra-high tones. Two floating tones are posited: an Extra-high tone as an emp marker and a High tone as a poss marker to explain the changes affecting NP poss +NP structures.