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Grammatical Concept: The Pitch System
Asaxi has no stress in the English sense. Prominence is pitch (H = high mora, L = low mora), organized by three independent layers: lexical accent on roots, dominant morphemes that are high wherever they appear, and boundary tones that carry sentence meaning (assertion vs. appeal).
1. Mora Timing
Asaxi is mora-timed: every beat takes roughly equal duration. Implicit in canon:
- Syllabic nasals (
mm,nn,nŋ) occupy a V-slot → one mora (mmbă = 2 morae). - Doubled vowels are held two full beats → two morae (toonă = 3 morae).
- Geminates (
tt,kk) hold the closure → the hold is one mora (tte = 2 morae).
Diphthongs (å, ă, ů, ë, ỏ, ő, ě) are one mora. The glottal stop ' closes a mora but adds none.
2. Lexical Accent (Roots)
Each content root carries one accent: an H mora followed by a fall to L.
- Default location: the first mora of the root — shě́sonů (HLL), tắka, dắnă, ŕóŕo, mǻmå, dáo (HL).
- Lexical exceptions exist (accent location is part of the word): haśù accents the second mora (LH).
- Syllabic nasals cannot bear H — the peak skips rightward: mmbắnă (LHL).
- Monomoraic roots plateau: if the root has no second mora to host the fall, the H spreads through the suffixes — chỏ́nů́ (HH), pazènáchỏnů (H.L.H.H.H). Compare disyllabic dáo → dáohè (HL-L), where the fall lands inside the root.
- Devoiced morae keep their tone phonologically: shě in shě́so is devoiced [ʃ̩] yet counts as the H mora; the pitch is carried by the surrounding context.
Atonal morphemes: prefixes (zè-, pa-, na-, no-…), pronouns, NPCP particles, kè, tte, and most function words have no tone of their own and default to L.
3. Dominant Morphemes (Hardcoded H)
A closed set of morphemes is lexically H wherever it lands:
- ná (negation)
- xă (affirmation/emphasis)
- ă (subjective subject marker)
- k- interrogatives (
kjo,kvå,ksá…)
These create H-plateaus when adjacent to other H targets: zèná-xó-gă (L.H.H.L), haśù-ná-hè (L.H.H.↗), xăcè (HH).
4. Downstep
The mora immediately after an H is L — even if it is dominant. Dominance recovers at the next opportunity.
- zènáshěsonů (citation): zè takes the initial boundary H → ná is downstepped to L → root recovers H: H.L.H.L.L.
- pazènáchỏnů: pa H (boundary) → zè L (downstep) → ná H (not post-H, dominance holds) → chỏnů HH (monomoraic plateau): H.L.H.H.H.
Two adjacent H’s are only legal when both morae carry their own H target (dominant + accent, or accent across a word boundary: xí dắnă H.H.L).
5. Boundary Tones (Sentence Melody)
The edges of the utterance carry the speech-act meaning:
Onsets
- Statement onset H%: declaratives (and citation forms) launch high — the very first mora takes H even if atonal: Tó wo shěso ma (H.L.HL.L), zè̀- H in isolation.
- Appeal onset L: questions and most directives launch low, saving the pitch range for the final rise.
Terminals
| Contour | Meaning | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Fall (L%) | Assertion — the utterance is closed. | All statements; phrase-final /a/ backs to [ɑ] under the fall (natăka → [natɑkɑ]) |
| Rise (LH%) | Appeal — the utterance stays open until the listener responds. | Questions with kè, without kè, wh-questions, imperatives, prohibitions, polite kă, tag në |
| High plateau (H%) | Insistence — assertion slammed shut. | Assertive tail wő/ő docks H with no rise: Wo zèxăcè wő (L.L.H.H.H) |
| Non-final rise | Continuation — “more coming.” | Frame-setting topics: Hwo↗, to ko pjo zèdao. |
Key insight: the rise is not a “question marker” — it marks any solicitation. Commands rise because they, too, wait for the listener.
6. Deaccenting (Register & Focus)
- Colloquial particle-less questions flatten everything: No xogă? = L.L.L↗ — even the root accent is suppressed so the rise alone carries the interrogation.
- Post-focus deaccenting: after a wh-word, the rest of the clause is flat until the terminal rise: No kvǻ xoxo? = L.H.L.L↗ — the wh-word takes the only peak.
7. Compounds (Accentual Unification)
One phonological word = one peak. Compounding deletes the accents of all non-initial members; the compound surfaces with a single peak on the first member’s accented mora, and everything after it is L:
- gáviŕoŕo (H.L.L.L) — ŕoŕo loses its accent inside the compound.
- kózètètá (H.L.L.L) — same pattern in fully fossilized fusions.
This makes accent a reliable word-boundary cue: two peaks in a row (xí dắnă) means two words; one peak means one word, however long.
8. Vocative Contour
The call lives on the particle, not the name: Ắjă Lem (H.L | L) — ăjo takes its accent and the name is deaccented. (See 62_Vocatives & Interjections in Asaxi.)
9. Emphasis
Asaxi prefers gemination over volume: doubling an initial consonant (kè → kkè “what?!”) adds a held mora and reads as agitation. Raising one’s voice is register-breaking; stretching a word is not.
10. The Filler (Hesitation)
The syllabic nasal nn /n̩/ (assimilating per 22_Phonotactics & Euphony) is the hesitation filler, held low over several morae: Nn… wo cèná. (“Umm… I don’t know.“)
Appendix: Elicitation Record (2026-06-12)
Selected attested readings (H/L per mora, ↗ = final rise):
| Item | Reading | Demonstrates |
|---|---|---|
| shěsonů | H.L.L | default root-initial accent |
| zènáshěsonů | H.L.H.L.L | boundary H% + downstepped ná |
| pazènáchỏnů | H.L.H.H.H | downstep, dominance recovery, monomoraic plateau |
| mmbănă | L.H.L | nasals cannot bear H |
| gaviŕoŕo | H.L.L.L | compound: single initial peak (revised from first-pass H.L.H.L) |
| kozètètá | H.L.L.L | fused compound: single initial peak |
| To wo shěso ma. | H.L.HL.L | statement H% + terminal fall |
| No xogă? | L.L.L↗ | colloquial question: total deaccenting |
| No kvå xoxo? | L.H.L.L↗ | wh-focus + post-focus deaccenting |
| Ŕoŕo daohè! | H.L.H.L↗ | imperative = appeal rise |
| Haśùnáhè! | L.H.H↗ | lexical non-initial accent; dominant plateau |
| Wo zèxăcè wő. | L.L.H.H.H | insistent H% tail |
| Ăjo Lem, måmå natăka! | HL.L | HL.LHL | vocative deaccenting; final [ɑ] |