The autosegmental distinction of tonal language types: with specific reference to Chilcotin tone phenomena

Abstract

A distinction has been drawn in phonology between two types of languages which exhibit tone phenomena. Languages are traditionally categorized as pitch accent or tone languages. Proponents of autosegmental phonology have captured these categories or language types by employing a separate method of tone association for each. Chilcotin is an Athaspaskan, language, spoken in the mid-interior region of British Columbia. It exhibits tone phenomena, although whether it belongs to the category of pitch accent languages or to the category of tone languages is debatable. In the course of this paper, some of the traditional features of these two types of tone phenomena will be examined in an attempt to categorize, accordingly, the Chilcotin language. The ability of autosegmental phonology lo accurately account for the data provided by Chilcotin, will then be evaluated.