ACAL 41 6-8 May 2010 Toronto, Canada University of Toronto and York University 1 Non-spurious H-toned extensions in Nyala-West Kristopher Ebarb, Indiana University, kjebarb@indiana.edu Michael Marlo, University of Maryland, michaelrmarlo@gmail.com 1. Introduction (1) Unlike other verbal extensions, which are toneless, the causative *-i ̦- and passive *-u- introduce a H tone onto the verb stem in some Bantu languages (Meeussen 1961: 426): Ganda (Hyman & Katamba 1990)—the most detailed study to date Herero (Köhler 1958) Holoholo (Coupez 1955) Lega (Meeussen 1971) Luyia (Marachi and Nyala-West dialects, Ebarb & Marlo 2009, Marlo 2007) Nande (Mutaka 1994) Shi (Polak-Bynon 1975: 166) (2) Meeussen (1967: 92) tentatively sets up these suffixes as /H/ in Proto-Bantu: *-i̦ ́-/*-ú-. (3) The tonal properties of *-i̦ ́-/*-ú- are under-discussed in the literature and always have been: Meeussen (1973: 11) criticizes Guthrie’s four-volume (1967-1971) Comparative Bantu for not mentioning the H-toned causative and passive suffixes. (4) The focus of this talk: The tonal properties of causative -í- and passive -ú- in Nyala-West. 2. Background on Nyala-West verb tone (Ebarb & Marlo 2009, Ebarb et al. in prep, Marlo 2007, Onyango 2004, 2005, 2006) (5) Nyala-West has a privative tonal contrast between H and Ø (“toneless”). (See Hyman 2001 on this property throughout Bantu.) (6) The tone-bearing unit is the mora (μ). (See Marlo 2008b, 2009a on other Luyia dialects.) (7) Most morphemes within the verb, with the exception of tense prefixes, have “predicta- ble” underlying tonal values. (See Marlo 2008a, 2009b and Odden 1989 on predictability in Luyia and elsewhere in Bantu.) Ø Ø H/Ø H H Ø Ø H Ø Neg – Subj – Tense – Obj 1 – Obj 2 [ Root – Extensions – Caus/Pass – FV ] stem