Contrastive tone in Kalam Kohistani

• Main Author: Joan L.G. Baart
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dartmouth College Library 2004-01-01
• Series: Linguistic Discovery
• Subjects: phonology; tone; aspiration; Dardic; suprasegmental; Kalam Kohistani; Kohistani
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1349/PS1.1537-0852.A.265

It has been observed that tonal phenomena occur in quite a few Indo-Aryan languages in the northwestern corner of the South-Asian subcontinent. This paper presents a study of the tone system of one of these languages, Kalam Kohistani. After establishing that Kalam Kohistani has five contrastive surface tones—a high tone, a low tone, a rising tone, and two types of falling tone—I propose an analysis of these tones in terms of Autosegmental Phonology. Furthermore, some observations are made on the relation between aspiration and tone, and on the functional load of tone in Kalam Kohistani. Its relatively rich inventory of tones makes Kalam Kohistani, along with two of its close neighbors, stand out as unique among the Indo-Aryan languages.