tonal spread

H tone can spread to the right before a floating or linked L within a prosodic word, e.g. yɛ̰́kí ꜜváákī (yɛ̰́ki 'money' + =L GEN + váa 'marry' + =ki NMLZ) ‘bridewealth’ (lit. ‘money of marrying’).

other

L tone delinking takes place when the preceding H tone spreads to the segment that originally hosted this L tone, e.g. máwɛ́ɛ̀ ~ máwɛ́ɛ́ (máwɛ́ ‘how’ + =ɛ̀ PRST).

This rule is applied after:

• H tone spreading

tonal shift

The L toneme of the LH melody spreads to the adjacent mora within the same syllable, while the H toneme shifts to the following toneless syllable within the same prosodic word, e.g. á mààkí ꜜsì (á 1SG + màá 'build' =ki NMLZ + =L GEN + sì 'something') ‘I will build something’.

This rule is applied after:

• L tone spreading

tonal spread

The L toneme of the LH melody spreads to the adjacent mora within the same syllable, while the H toneme shifts to the following toneless syllable within the same prosodic word, e.g. á mààkí ꜜsì (á 1SG + màá 'build' =ki NMLZ + =L GEN + sì 'something') ‘I will build something’.

toneme deletion

When a floating L tone occurs after a linked L or after another floating L, it is deleted, e.g. vɔ̰̀ɔ̰̀sìrí ꜜváā (vɔ̰̀ɔ̰sì 'insect' + =L GEN + =rí POSS + =L GEN + váa 'child') ‘insect of the child’.

fusion of tonemes

In monosyllabic LØ nouns, a floating L links to the preceding toneless mora. As a result, the LL sequence fuses into a single L, e.g. làà ɗīī (làa 'cheek' + =L GEN + ɗii 'fish') ‘gill’.