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Recent work (Clements 1985; Sagey 1986) on the structure of distinctive features has analysed affricates and prenasalised stops as involving branching for the features [continuant] and [nasal] respectively. This analysis explains the edge effects associated with such segments, while simultaneously identifying them as single melodic elements that associate as units to prosodic templates. This paper will argue that some languages have contour tones that show parallel properties to those of affricates: they associate as units, but also exhibit edge effects. Such behaviour can be simply understood if tonal features hang off a tonal root node (Archangeli & Pulleyblank forthcoming), and this tonal root node is allowed to branch. A high rising contour tone will have the structure shown in (i), where [upper] is the tonal root node, and [raised] is free to branch.

The sounds of language can be divided into consonants, vowels, and tones - the use of pitch to convey word meaning. Seventy percent of the world's languages use pitch in this way. Assuming little or no prior knowledge of the topic, this textbook provides a clearly organized introduction to tone and tonal phonology. Comprehensive in scope, it examines the main types of tonal systems found in Africa, the Americas, and Asia, using examples from the widest possible range of tone languages. It provides students with a basic grasp of the simple phonetics of tone, and covers key topics such as the distinctive feature systems suitable for tonal contrasts, allophonic and morphophonological tonal alterations, and how to analyze them within Optimality Theory. The book also examines the perception and acquisition of tone, as well as the interface between tonal phonology and the morphosyntax.

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