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ASPECT OF TONE AND INTONATION INTERFACE IN IGBO: ACHALLA EXPERIENCE

Tone and intonation are prosodic features which are both expressed in pitch. These prosodies play crucial role in the construction of meaning in languages they occur. Tone refers to the pitch level of a syllable while intonation refers to the variation in pitch over the course of a phrase or sentence. This difference ironically reveals the possibility of both being operational within the same language in some way. To this effect, studies on intonation in tone languages have become the crux of linguistic research in recent years. Intonation is considered to be a universal phenomenon though it may function differently in different languages. Therefore, this paper examines the interaction between tone and intonation in Achalla dialect of Igbo from the aspect of register raising. The objective is to determine the parts of pitch that can be set apart from tone and ascribed to intonation in the dialect. The study data was generated through covert observation of natural conversation, validated through focus group discussion and was encoded in cards for the informants to reproduce as natural as possible in varying forms. The findings reveal the existence of both local and global register raising in all the dialects. High and low tones can be raised or lowered depending on the context for intonation purposes. A low toned syllable can be perceived auditorily as high or an underlying low tone can be raised to high phonetically. Local raising is prevalent in Achalla dialect. However, global raising is noticeable in phrases and sentences that reflect the speaker’s emotions such as surprise, excitements, anger among others.

Keywords: Tone, Intonation, Pitch, Register Raising, Local Raising, Global Raising

Ire, Ebele Stella, Ph.D

ERUDITE JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGES VOL.7, NO.1 ?

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