Low tone raising in Hausa a critical assessment

Abstract

Low tone raising (LTR) refers to a phonological rule postulated for Hausa by Leben [1971], whereby word-final Low-Low sequences change to Low-High if the final vowel is long. In the first part of the paper, we show that counterexamples to the rule are considerably more numerous and more varied than previously thought. In the second part, we demonstrate that the morphotonemic alternations that served to justify LTR can all be explained by other, better means. We conclude that LTR does not constitute an active, synchronically functioning tone rule in Hausa.