Cascade (s) of tones , tonal cascade , English Tone terracing is a type of phonetic bias in which a high or medium tone (but not a low tone) is shifted to lower case after certain tones. As a result, the tone can be realized at a certain height for a short period of speech, then it moves down and continues to a new level, then it moves down again to the end of the “prosodic contour” (phrase or other finished piece of speech, united by a common prosodic picture). The graphic display of the tone shift resembles terraces in Chinese terraced farming (hence the English Tone terracing ), or a cascade of waterfalls .
Table 1. The effect of the cascade of tones in the language of twigs : a series of midtones (the first tone can only be high or low) .
| (start of range) | syllable 1: | syllable 2: | syllable 3: | syllable 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (high) | ||||
| (wednesday) | wednesday | |||
| wednesday | ||||
| wednesday | ||||
| (low) | low |
Table 2. The effect of a cascade of tones in the language of Twi in the form of alternating series of high and medium tones.
| (start of range) | syllable 1: | syllable 2: | syllable 3: | syllable 4: | syllable 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (high) | high | ||||
| (wednesday) | wednesday | high | |||
| wednesday | high | ||||
| (low) |
Table 3. The effect of a cascade of tones in the language of Twi in the form of alternating series of high and low tones.
| (start of range) | syllable 1: | syllable 2: | syllable 3: | syllable 4: | syllable 5: | syllable 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (high) | high | |||||
| high | ||||||
| (wednesday) | wednesday | |||||
| low | ||||||
| (low) | low | low |
From tables 2 and 3, we can conclude that the tone sequence is high-low-high. and high-mid-high may be difficult to distinguish for a person who is not a native speaker.
Literature
- JE Redden and N. Owusu (1963, 1995). Twi Basic Course . Foreign Service Institute (Hippocrene reprint). ISBN 0-7818-0394-2