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Mitla Zapotec

Syllables in Mitla Zapotec can be either open or closed. The nucleus of the syllable is either a single vowel or a diphthong. There is no vowel length contrast. There are four tones in Mitla Zapotec: H, L, L°H, H°L. The contour tones can occur on single vowels as well as diphthongs, but when a single vowel carries L°H, it is lengthened (Briggs 1961).

Therefore, the contour tone patterning that needs to be explained in Mitla Zapotec includes the following: (a) both H°L and L°H can occur on CVV; (b) H°L can occur on CV, but L°H can only occur on CV upon lengthening of the vowel.

Let us assume that in the canonical speaking rate and style, a single vowel has a minimum duration of d, and when it carries L°H, it is lengthened to d+d₀, and I write V^• to represent the lengthened vowel. A diphthong has a minimum duration of 2d, and 2d>d+d₀. I further assume that L°H and H°L only differ in their slope direction, but have the same amount of pitch excursion—∆f.

The crucial constraints from the *Contour-C_CONTOUR family for Mitla Zapotec are shown in (0).
(0) a. *Contour(L°H)-C_CONTOUR(CV)

b. *Contour(L°H)-C_CONTOUR(CV^•)

c. *Contour(L°H)-C_CONTOUR(CVV)

d. *Contour(H°L)-C_CONTOUR(CV)

e. *Contour(H°L)-C_CONTOUR(CV^•)

f. *Contour(H°L)-C_CONTOUR(CVV)

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b. *Dur(d₀+)

c. *Dur()
Since contour reduction is not an option that Mitla Zapotec explores, we know that the entire Pres(Tone) constraint family is ranked on the top of the hierarchy. I will use Pres(Tone) as a shorthand for the constraint family here.

To see the crucial ranking of these constraints for the Mitla Zapotec pattern, let us first observe that both H°L and L°H can occur on CVV, from which we know that *Dur() » *Contour(L°H)-C_CONTOUR(CVV)» *Contour(H°L)-C_CONTOUR(CVV); let us then observe that H°L can occur on CV without lengthening, from which we know that *Dur() » *Contour(H°L)-C_CONTOUR(CV); lastly, let us observe that L°H can only occur on CV upon vowel lengthening, and from this we know that *Dur(d₀+), *Contour(L°H)-C_CONTOUR(CV) » *Dur(d₀), *Contour(L°H)-C_CONTOUR(CV^•). Therefore, the crucial ranking for Mitla Zapotec is as in (0), and this ranking does not contradict the intrinsic ranking in (0).

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*Dur()

*Contour(L°H)-C_CONTOUR(CVV) *Contour(H°L)-C_CONTOUR(CV)

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*Contour(H°L)-C_CONTOUR(CVV)

V$	*Dur()	*Contour(H°L)-CCONTOUR(CV)
 V$		*
V$ •	*!
V! V~	*!

b. V^# —> V^{# •}

V#	*Dur (d0+)	*Contour(L°H)-CCONTOUR(CV)	*Dur(d0)	*Contour(L°H)-CCONTOUR(CV•)
V#		*!		*
 V# •			*	*
V~ V!	*!		*

In the analysis here, I made the assumption that both the falling and rising contours are faithfully rendered on single vowels. This is of course subject to confirmation or rejection by empirical tests. The crucial question would be: do these contour tones have the same pitch excursion on single vowels as on diphthongs? If the falling and rising excursions are smaller on single vowels than on diphthongs, the analysis needs to be revised, and the revision would involve lowering the Pres(Tone) constraints in the constraint hierarchy. This, then, would be a similar scenario to the data pattern in Hausa, whose analysis I discuss in §8.5.

4. Gã

Except on very rare occasions where a nasal consonant can occur as a coda, syllables in Gã are all open. There is vowel length contrast, and there are four tones—H, L, L°H, H°L. On non-phrase-final syllables, L°H and H°L can only occur when the syllable has a on long vowel nucleus; on phrase-final syllables, H°L can occur on syllables with a short vowel, but L°H cannot. When a L°H contour is created on a short vowel by morphological concatenation, the short vowel is lengthened to a long vowel (Paster 1999). The example in (0a) illustrates that a short vowel can carry H°L. The example in (0b) illustrates the lengthening of a final short vowel to a long vowel when it carries L°H.

fh

H L

| —> cha~a! ‘dig!’

L H

‘dig’ imperative

Let us assume that in the canonical speaking rate and style, the minimum duration for a non-final short vowel, a non-final long vowel, a final short vowel, and a final long vowel is d, 2d, d+d₀ (d₀, i.e., I assume that a final short vowel is shorter than a non-final long vowel), and 2d+d₁ respectively. I further assume that L°H and H°L only differ in their slope direction, but have the same amount of pitch excursion—∆f.