| Downstep | |
|---|---|
| ꜜ◌ | |
| ꜝ◌ | |
| IPA number | 517 |
| Encoding | |
| Entity(decimal) | ꜜ |
| Unicode(hex) | U+A71C |
Downstep is a phenomenon intone languages in which if two syllables have the sametone (for example, both with a high tone or both with a low tone), the second syllable is lower in pitch than the first.
Two main kinds of downstep can be distinguished. The first, more usually calledautomatic downstep,downdrift[1] orcatathesis,[2] occurs when high and low tones come in the sequence H L (L) H; the second high tone tends to be lower than the first because of the intervening low-toned syllable. It is common in African languages, such asChichewa.[3] It has also been argued that the same phenomenon is heard in English sentences, if these sentences are pronounced with a falling intonation, for exampleIreally believe Ebenezer was adealer in magnesium, orI boughtblueberries,bayberries,raspberries,mulberries, andbrambleberries.[4][5]
Downstep proper, ornon-automatic downstep,[6] is another phenomenon found in many African languages, such asIgbo (see[7] for an overview of downstep in African languages). When two high tones are in succeeding syllables (thus in the sequence H H), and the second is lower than the first, there is said to be a downstep.[8]
The symbol for the second kind of downstep in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet is asuperscript down arrow, ⟨ꜜ⟩ (↓). It is common to see instead a superscriptexclamation mark ⟨ꜝ⟩ (!) because of typographic constraints, though technically that would mean an incompletely or lightly articulatedalveolar click release.
It has been shown that in most, if not all, cases of downstep proper, the lowering of the second high tone occurs when an intervening low-toned syllable has dropped out. What was H (L) H has become HꜜH.[9] The missing low-toned syllable creates what is known as a 'floating tone'. An example occurs inBambara, a language spoken inMali. In Bambara, thedefinite article is a floating low tone. With a noun in isolation, it docks to the preceding vowel and turns a high tone into a falling tone:
| /bá/ | river |
| /bâ/ | the river |
However, when it occurs between two high tones, it downsteps the following tone:
| /bátɛ́/ | it's not a river |
| /báꜜtɛ́/ | it's not the river |