GRAMMATICAL TONE- H TOMORPH, A MARKER OF ATTRIBUTION IN IKHIN, AN EDOID LANGUAGE

Abstract

The typology of Ikhin tone system is ‘two tones plus a downstep’, that is, the lowering of the pitch level of the second high tone in a high [H], low [L], high [H] tone sequence. This paper, therefore, examines the behavior of these tones in the attributive constructions in Ikhin, an Edoid language in South-South, Nigeria. The study observes that in Ikhin, the attribute of a noun (N) is indicated by post posing a modifier (M) after the noun. The normal order between a noun (N) and its modifier is therefore that the noun precedes its modifier. On the one hand, there is a construction marker ísὲ [ ̱̄ ]. At morpheme boundary in noun- noun construction, the high toned initial vowel of ísὲ  is deleted but its tone remains to perform a grammatical function. On the other hand, other kind of the construction in which the modifying element is not a noun, only a H tomorph is used as the construction marker. This H tomorph marks the relationship between a noun and its modifier. The paper also describes the role of L tomorph in the dynamics of downstep in the language.  Article visualizations: