Distinctive Nature of Tone in GÄ©tigania

Abstract

Tone, as a suprasegmental feature, refers to the use of pitch in a language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning. Tone plays a pivotal role in differentiating meaning, word classes, tenses, and moods in GÄ©tigania language. This paper describes the distinctive nature of tone in GÄ©tigania, focusing on the effect of tone on meaning and word classes as well as tenses and mood. Not only does tone distinguish GÄ©tigania lexical items with similar segmental composition, but it also brings about a difference in meaning, indicating that tone is minimally contrasting. The Autosegmental Phonological Theory, as propounded by Goldsmith (1990), was employed in analyzing, interpreting, and discussing the data collected. The target population was the nouns and verbs in GÄ©tigania.

Furthermore, this paper used the Judgemental sampling procedure as it allows the researcher to choose desirable and reliable sample members based on one's knowledge and judgement. Approximately one hundred GÄ©tigania lexical items, a sample that was deemed adequate, generated through non-participant observation and introspection, were selected for inclusion in this paper. The findings of this paper are anticipated to add to the existing literature in the field of Phonology.