A Typology of Tone in the Kainantu Languages of Papua New Guinea

本项目旨在记录巴布亚新几内亚凯南图语的声调系统，特别是Binumarien和Awa，并将它们与世界各地声调系统的多样性进行跨语言比较。首先，它通过增加新的数据和来自世界上最少被记录的语言领域的新的音系学见解来贡献语言理论。其次，本研究旨在记录和记录凯南图社区的非物质遗产。研究背景新几内亚地区拥有世界上五分之一的语言，其中许多语言没有得到充分的记录，同时也面临着濒危。色调是新几内亚语言的一个特别相关的特征。虽然在世界各地的语言中都有记载，但在新几内亚对它的研究很少。东部高地省所说的凯南图语似乎表现出非典型的声调特征。例如，音调旋律与莫拉斯的关联是非常不受限制的；为这个项目收集的数据表明，Binumarien系统允许一个旋律的多种实现，而不考虑分段音系背景。这种对声调联想的缺乏限制与严格的音位限制和倾向并存，似乎暗示着格律结构的影响。例如，每个韵律词必须至少有一个高调，一些声调模式经常与某些音节结构配对。研究问题本项目的主要组成部分将是对凯南图声调系统的分析，其目标是两个研究问题：1)潜在的声调模式是什么？2)声调模式如何在不同的上下文中与音节或词形联系起来？在回答这些问题时，我将回顾现有的阿瓦语和比努马里亚语的分析，并调查凯南图族的变异。然后我将把凯南图语的声调系统与世界各地的语言进行比较，并提出总体问题：关于凯南图语声调系统的总体结构、局限性和可能性，凯南图语能告诉我们什么？方法论在本项目的第一年，巴布亚新几内亚收集了凯南图语比努马里亚语和阿瓦语的新语言数据。该项目采用了传统的语言田野调查方法，重点是声调分析方法。我记录并转录单词列表、短语和故事。这些数据构成了音系学和形态句法的初步草图。一旦绘制了草图，就创建了一个工具包，其中包含为单词提供各种上下文的载体句子，以进一步研究潜在的声调模式和韵律结构。这些数据是我目前正在进行的对语气的广泛描述的基础。最后，我将跨语言比较我的分析，并描述凯南图语的语调系统如何与世界范围内的语调系统相对应。意义和影响这个项目通过描述凯南图语的语调，帮助我们了解语言和语言多样性。这项研究填补了两个知识空白：1)地理空白：新几内亚语言在语言类型学上形成了盲点；2)语音空白：声调是新几内亚语言的一个特征，关于它的信息很少。此外，由于关于比努马里安和阿瓦的文字记录很少，为本研究收集的数据是进一步研究的关键，包括1)对个别语言的进一步描述；2)更广泛的语言研究；3)语言社区的人类学和文学研究；4)重建原始的凯南图语语音系统，同时对这些社区的(前)历史进行更广泛的历史和考古研究。最后，语言社区可以从这项研究中受益，因为它为后代记录了语言社区的部分遗产。

IntroductionThis project aims to document tone systems in the Kainantu languages of Papua New Guinea, with particular attention to Binumarien and Awa, and compare them cross-linguistically with the diversity of tone systems worldwide.The proposed research serves two objectives. First, it contributes to linguistic theory by adding new data and novel phonological insights from the world's most underdocumented linguistic area. Second, this study aims to record and document the intangible heritage of Kainantu communities. Research contextThe New Guinea area holds up to one fifth of the world's languages, many of which are underdocumented and at the same time face endangerment.Tone is a particularly relevant feature of New Guinean languages. Though documented in languages across the world, it is poorly studied in New Guinea.The Kainantu languages, spoken in the Eastern Highlands Province seems to display atypical tonal features. For example, the association of the tonal melody to moras is remarkably unrestricted; data collected for this project suggest that the Binumarien system allows for multiple realisations of a melody, regardless of the segmental phonological context. This lack of restrictions on tonal associations coexists with strict phonological constraints and tendencies that seem to hint at influence of metrical structure. For instance, each prosodic word must have minimally one high tone, and some tonal patterns frequently pair with certain syllable structures.Research questionsThe major component of the project will be the analysis of Kainantu tone systems, which targets two research questions: 1) what are the underlying tone patterns? 2) how do tone patterns link to syllables or moras in various contexts? In answering these questions, I will review the existing analyses of Awa and Binumarien and investigate variation in the Kainantu family.I will then compare Kainantu tone systems to languages worldwide and take up the overall question: what can Kainantu languages tell us about the structure, limits, and possibilities of tone systems in general?MethodologyIn the first year of this project, new linguistic data of the Kainantu languages Binumarien and Awa were collected in Papua New Guinea. Conventional linguistic fieldwork methods were applied for this project, with a focus on methods for tone analysis. I recorded and transcribed word lists, phrases, and stories. These data form the basis for preliminary sketches of the phonology and morphosyntax. Once the sketches were made, a toolkit was created with carrier sentences that provide various contexts for words, to further investigate the underlying tone patterns and metrical structures. These data serve as the basis for an extensive description of tone that I am currently working on. Finally, I will compare my analyses cross-linguistically and describe how tone systems in the Kainantu languages correspond to tone systems worldwide.Significance and impactThis project contributes to our knowledge of language and language diversity by describing tone in the Kainantu languages. The study fills two knowledge gaps: 1) a geographical gap: New Guinea languages form a blind spot in linguistic typology; 2) a phonological gap: tone is a feature of New Guinea languages on which little information is available.Moreover, since written records on Binumarien and Awa are sparse, the data collected for this study are key to further research, including 1) further descriptions of the individual languages; 2) broader linguistic research; 3) anthropological and literature studies in the language communities; 4) a reconstruction of the proto-Kainantu sound system, which can be paired with broader historical and archaeological studies into the (pre)history of these communities.Finally, the language communities could benefit from this study, as it documents parts of the language communities' heritage for future generations.