A Study of the Tone System of Lwisukha Nouns

Abstract

This thesis provides a description of the tonal system of Lwisukha nouns. Lwisukha is a Luyia dialect spoken in Kakamega County in Kenya. The specific objectives of this study are to investigate and describe tone patterns of Lwisukha nouns in isolation, phrasal contexts and sentences, describe tonal rules that apply in Lwisukha nouns phrases, establish the function of tone in Lwisukha nouns and, lastly, establish whether Lwisukha falls under the conservative, predictable, reversed or a combination of these three tone systems or a new system altogether. This study used random and stratified sampling. A sample size of 12 respondents was used to ensure equal representation of the six locations that constitute Isukha area in Kakamega County. Data collection primarily involved generating nouns, eliciting nouns and extracting the same from natural conversations eventually recording the data. Data obtained from the respondents after administering interviews and questionnaires included nouns in isolation, nouns in phrasal contexts and sentences. A word list of nouns in isolation and nouns in phrasal contexts and sentences were prepared from the data. The data was analysed by listening and marking the tone patterns of the nouns in isolation, phrasal contexts and sentences. The Autosegmental Phonology Theory (APT) and, its extension, the Register Tier Theory (RTT) were used in the analysis of tone. A sample of nouns was used to reveal the tone patterns of Lwisukha nouns in isolation. Nouns in phrasal contexts were selected to investigate the tonal rules that apply to Lwisukha nouns. A sample of sentences was used to investigate the functions of tone in Lwisukha nouns. This research found out that Lwisukha dialect has a low tone, a high tone, a downstepped high tone and toneless syllables. Lwisukha nouns have thirty-nine tone patterns when uttered in isolation. The study also established that most of the tone patterns of nouns, when uttered in isolation, are different from those uttered in phrasal contexts and sentences. The high tone anticipation (HTA) and high tone insertion (HTI) rules apply in Lwisukha noun phrases. High tone anticipation is triggered by adjectives and numerals with a high tone. High tone insertion is triggered by demonstratives, possessive pronouns and some quantifiers. This study also found out that tone has a lexical, grammatical and pragmatic function in Lwisukha nouns. Lastly, Lwisukha nouns tend to have a more conservative tone system than the predictable and reversed tone system. It is advisable that studies should be done on the tone system of nouns of all Luyia dialects in order to classify them.