Documenting the Diversity of African Tonal Systems: Marachi and Wanga, two undescribed dialects of Luyia

FAIN: FT-60326-12

Michael Robert Marlo
Mizzou (Columbia, MO 65211-3020)

Two articles will be developed that document the tonal properties of Marachi and Wanga, two previously undescribed minority dialects of Luyia, a Bantu language of western Kenya and eastern Uganda that has remarkable internal linguistic diversity. Each article will systematically describe for the first time the factors that affect the tonal patterns in each dialect and will provide analyses of why words and phrases are pronounced as they are and not in other imaginable ways, following the format of previous publications on the Khayo and Tura dialects of Luyia. These articles will lay the foundation for understanding the linguistic variation and change within Luyia and also will make possible empirically grounded investigations into phenomena that are theoretically significant but largely unknown in the general linguistic literature, including the widespread and complex use of tone to mark grammatical differences among verb tenses.