AUTOSEGMENTAL ANALYSIS OF TONE IN OSOSO

ABSTRACT

This study ‘Autosegmental Analysis of Tone in Ososo’ aim at examining the tones, tonal pattern, and the tonal processes in the language. Ososo is spoken in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria, The basic objective of this work is to account for the tones in association and in operation. Our study is been guild by autosegmental phonological framework as proposed by Goldsmith (1976) and the data used were primary data generated from native speakers of the ososo and with the aid of Ibadan four hundred (400) basic item, focusing majorly in monosyllabic form, dissyllabic form and tri-syllabic form in the language . This work was able to account for the tonal pattern, tonal processes and the basic tone in the language and also the functionality of tone in the language. The study finds that the language manifests three tones ;high ,mid and low ,it was also observed that the mid tone does not occur initially and three tonal processes occur :contour tone formation, down stepping and tonal suppression. However, this work has said the last word using autosegmental model of phonological analysis to account for tones in the language.