1. Autosegmental Phonology
By 周 沫

2. Background
Contour language
Tone language
level tone language

3. contour language
Contrasts mainly dependent on pitch movement on each syllable
e.g. Cantonese
[si] ‘city’ (low-mid to mid, rising)
[si] ‘history’ (low-mid to high, rising)
[si] ‘matter’ (low-mid, level)
[si] ‘silk’ (high, level)
[si] ‘time’ (low-mid to low, falling)
[si] ‘to try’ (mid, level)

4. level tone languages
tonal contrasts are predominantly dependent on the pitch height of each syllable
e.g. Igbo
[akwa] ‘bed’ LL
[aÄa] ‘war’ HH
[aSa] ‘weaver bird’ HL
[uba] ‘wealth’ LH

5. Tone may mark grammatical categories
timeless
["ma] ‘I show’
continuous
["ma] ‘I am showing’
past
["ma] ‘I showed’

6. The Absolute Slicing Hypothesis
traditional SPE-style phonology regarded tone as a feature belonging to the vowel, but there is evidence that tones have some autonomy from the vowels on which they are realized:

7. Contour tones behave as if a combination of simple tones, e. g
Contour tones behave as if a combination of simple tones, e.g. in tonal polarity, where some marker always has the opposite tone to that of the base, as in Margi:
LHL a-f«lma ‘we (two) bathe’
HLH a-w"ma ‘we (two) run’
HLHL a-v«lma ‘we (two) jump’

8. tonal melodies – Leben (1973) – data from Mende show only 5 basic patterns at the word level.
H k ‘war’ p‚l‚ ‘house’ hawama ‘waist’
L kpa‘debt’ b‚l‚ ‘pants’ kpakal ‘chair’
HL mbu‘owl’ ngIla‘dog’ felama‘junction’
LH mba‘rice’ fande‘cotton’ ndavula ‘sling’
LHL mba‘companion’
nyaha‘woman’
nIkIlI  ‘peanut’

9. Autosegmental phonology (Goldsmith 1976) Definition 1
A new type of phonological representation was proposed, made up of several simultaneous sequences of segments linked by association lines.
------M.St./M.Phil. Phonology course

10. Definition 2
Autosegmental phonology is a non-linear approach to phonology that allows phonological processes, such as tone and vowel harmony, to be independent of and extend beyond individual consonants and vowels.
----Goldsmith, John A
"Tone melodies and the autosegment."

11. one-to-one association
e.g. Mende
ng"la ‘dog’ fande ‘cotton’
H L L H

12. many-to-one association
mba ‘rice’ mba ‘companion’
L H L H L

13. multiple linking
kpakal" ‘chair’ ndavula ‘sling’
L H L

14. Goldsmith’s Universal Association Convention (UAC)
Match the tones and tone-bearing units (TBUs) one to one, left to right.
Associate left-over TBUs with the last tone and left-over tones with the last TBU.
No Crossing Constraint: association lines do not cross.

15. Extensions of autosegmental phonology
Nasality may be a property of whole words in
Desano, e.g.
[wa"] ‘name’ [wa"] ‘fish’
w a "  w a " 
[+nasal] [-nasal]

16. Autosegmental&CV phonology
Eg. Penny
C V C V
p ‚ n i

17. Thank you!