Tone
Venda has a single specified tone, HIGH, with unmarked syllables having a low tone. Phonetic falling tone occurs, but only in sequences of more than one vowel, or on the penultimate syllable, where the vowel is long. Tone patterns exist independently of the consonants and vowels of a word: that is, they are word tones. Venda tone also follows Meeussen's rule: when a word beginning with a high tone is preceded by that high tone, the initial high tone is lost. (That is, there cannot be two adjacent marked high tones in a word, though high tone spreads allophonically to a following non-tonic ("low"-tone) syllable.) There are only a handful of tone patterns in Venda words—no tone, a single high tone on some syllable, two non-adjacent high tones—which behave as follows:
| Word | Pattern | After L | After H | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| thamana | –.–.– | thàmà:nà | thámâ:nà | Unmarked (low) tone is raised after a high tone. That is, the preceding tone spreads. |
| dukaná | –.–.H | dùkà:ná | dúkâ:ná | A preceding high tone spreads, but drops before the final high tone. |
| danána | –.H.– | dàná:nà | dánâ:nà | The pitch peaks on the tonic syllable; a preceding non-adjacent high tone merges into it |
| phaphána | –.H.– | phàphá:ná | pháphâ:nà | |
| mádzhie | H.– | má:dzhíè | mâ:dzhìè | Initial high tone spreads; with an immediately preceding high tone, that initial tone is lost. (The preceding tone also spreads, but not as far.) |
| dákalo | H.–.– | dáká:lò | dákà:lò | |
| khókholá | H.–.H | khókhô:lá | khókhò:lá |
Read more about this topic: Venda Language
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