Meeussen's rule is a special case oftone reduction. It was first described inBantu languages, but occurs in analyses of other languages as well, such asPapuan languages.[1] The tonal alternation that it describes is the lowering, in some contexts, of the last tone of a pattern of two adjacent high tones (HH), resulting in the pattern HL. The phenomenon is named after its first observer, theBelgian Bantu specialistA. E. Meeussen (1912–1978). Inphonological terms, the phenomenon can be seen as a special case of theobligatory contour principle.
The term "Meeussen's Rule" (the spelling with a capitalR is more common) first appeared in a paper by John Goldsmith in 1981.[2][3] It is based on an observation made by Meeussen in his 1963 article on the Tonga verb stating that "in a sequence of determinants, only the first is treated as a determinant".[4] John Goldsmith reformulated that as the rule HH > HL (or, as he expressed it, H → L / H ), which later became well known as Meeussen's rule.[5]
Meeussen's rule is one of a number of processes in Bantu languages by which a series of consecutive high tones is avoided. The processes result in a less tonal, more accentual character in Bantu tone systems and causes a situation in which there tends to be only one tone per word or morpheme.[6]
Here are some illustrations of the phenomenon inKirundi, a Bantu language ofBurundi (examples adapted from Philippson 1998).
In the first sentence, both the tense markerrá and the verb formbáriira (to sew) carry a high tone, signified by theacute accent. They are separated by the pronominal markerzi. In the second sentence, the pronominal markerzi is left out, resulting in two adjacent high tones. The phenomenon described by Meeussen's rule causes the second high tone to change into a low tone.
The examples show a way ofderiving from place names nouns with the meaning 'a person originating from'. In the first example, the place namebukéeye has a high tone on the second syllable. The junction withumuɲá ('person from') has no influence on this tone. In the second example, a place name with a High tone on the first syllable is used. Like above, the second high tone of the resulting pattern of two adjacent high tones is changed into a low tone because of the phenomenon described by Meeussen's rule.
Just as HH (high tone + high tone) can become HL (high tone + low tone) by Meeussen's rule, HHH also often becomes HLL, and HHHH becomes HLLL. Thus inLuganda, a Bantu language ofUganda, the word*bá-lí-lába 'they will see', which theoretically has three High tones, is actually pronouncedbálilabá with only one.[7] (The tone on the last syllable is an automatically generated phrasal tone; seeLuganda tones.)
This process does not operate in the same way in every language, however. For example, inShona, a Bantu language of Zimbabwe]], the similar verb *á-chá-téngá 'he will buy' transforms toá-cha-téngá, where only one syllable is lowered by Meeussen's rule.[8]
Spreading of a tone across two or more syllables is quite common in Bantu languages. Tones that derive from spreading (or from plateauing, the spreading of high pitch from one high tone to another) are not affected by Meeussen's rule. Thus, in theChewa language ofMalawi, for example, when the wordkuphíka 'to cook' is followed by a direct object such asnyama 'meat', the tone on the penultimate syllable will spread:kuphíká nyama 'to cook meat'.[9]
There are many other exceptions to Meeussen's rule. For example, Shona verbs, in certain circumstances, may have two high tones in adjacent syllables. In the subjunctivetí-téngésé 'we should sell', bothtí andté- have underlying high tones (the high tones of-ngésé arise from tone spreading), yet the tone ofté- is not deleted.[10] Likewise, in the Chewa verba-ná-ká-fótokoza 'he went and explained', the tone ofká 'go and' does not get lowered although it follows the high-toned tense-markerná.[11]