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QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF TONAL SYSTEMS: TONAL DENSITY INDEX // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2022. Issue 1 (35). P. 33-45

Tonal languages may differ considerably with respect to the functional load of the tone. Carlos Gussenhoven suggested the notion of tonal density of a language, however, to our knowledge, there have been no attempts to apply it in practice. In this paper, a method of calculation of the Tonal Density Index (TDI) is proposed. Under TDI we understand the ratio of the number of tonemes or marked tones to the number of segmental units in a text. The key notions related to the TDI are the following: — toneme i.e. a tonal contour which is relevant for the expression of a lexical or grammatical meaning; — tonal domain, i.e. a sequence of segments to which a toneme is associated; — marked tone, which is often postulated in languages with two-level tonal systems. In such languages, syllables or morae which do not carry the marked tone can be considered toneless; — a basic segmental unit may be a syllable or a mora. Consequently, two kinds of TDI can be calculated, the “moraic TDI” and the “syllabic TDI”. The key question is the applicability of segmentation into these units. Some languages distinguish up to four degrees of the syllable weight; sometimes syllables of identical structures are interpreted differently in what concerns their syllabic weight, even in closely related languages; such factors may considerably complicate the count of moras. On the other hand, in other languages, identification of syllables may be problematic; in such languages, the “moraic TDI” would be easier to calculate. Three languages of different types have been taken to exemplify the method of calculation of the “syllabic TDI”. In Navajo (Southern Athabascan group, USA), a language with a marked high tone, the TDI equals 35.8. In Bambara (Western Mande, Mali), a two-level language with tonal domains, the TDI equals 70. In Eastern Dan (South Mande group, Côte d’Ivoire), a language with 5 level tones, the TDI equals 105.8.

Keywords: tonal density, toneme, tonal domain, marked tone, syllable, mora