Prosody |
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1) Truku is a stress language. The accent of a word always falls on the penultimate, despite of adding any affixation: 'qi.ta > qi.'ta-an see see-TF 2) There is no distinction between long and short vowel. E.g. /ni/ vs. /ni:/ is semantically identical. 3) A schwa is inserted between two consonants but is not written. E.g. keneremenan 'endurance' is spelled as knrmnan. 4) Three pause markers: o, do, and ni are used in a sentence; they may co-occur in a same sentence. 5) Different intonations convey distinctive meanings like declarative, question, persuasion, anger, suspicion, etc. E.g. Example sentences differ in the intermediate phrase and final tone: 1. <<Declarative>> Huling Yudaw Umin ka nii. dog Yudaw Umin NOM this 'This is Yudaw Umin's dog.'  2. <<Yes-no question>> Huling Yudaw Umin ka nii? dog Yudaw Umin NOM this Is this Ydaw Umin's dog?'  3. <<Persuasion>> Huling Yudaw Umin ka nii. dog Yudaw Umin NOM this 'This is Yudaw Umin's dog!'  (First tier: The frequency of the waveform. Second tier: The pitch height) |