Papers by Keith L Snider
Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter. 1 I first wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Harry Van der ... more Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter. 1 I first wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Harry Van der Hulst. Harry was my co-promotor in my doctoral program at Leiden (1990), and he became a good friend. His generous help and insight into my Chumburung data at the time was invaluable, and it continues to inspire me. I am further indebted to Isaac Demuyakor, a middle-aged native speaker of Chumburung, for providing the data for this paper and for allowing me to associate his name with this study. Finally, I am grateful to Rod Casali, Steve Parker, and Jim Roberts for valuable comments on previous drafts, and to Larry Hyman for his excellent reviewer's suggestions. Thank you everyone for your help, and I take full responsibility for any remaining deficiencies.
Linguistique et langues Africaines, 2021
Mada [mda], a Plateau language spoken in central Nigeria, has a large number of seemingly inexpli... more Mada [mda], a Plateau language spoken in central Nigeria, has a large number of seemingly inexplicable tone alternations that occur between the singular and plural forms of many nouns. These alternations find straightforward and reasonable explanations if one assumes the existence of underlying representations that include floating tone prefixes and certain nouns with toneless stems. Another fascinating aspect of Mada addressed in this paper is that despite any other evidence of consonant-tone interaction in the language, there is a direct correlation between the proposed floating tone singular prefixes and the surface realizations of the singular diminutive prefix: diminutive nouns with floating (L) prefixes take only və-, and those with floating (H) prefixes take only fə- .
Studies in African Linguistics, 1984
This paper presents a synchronic description of the realization
of /1/ in Chumburung, a Kwa langu... more This paper presents a synchronic description of the realization
of /1/ in Chumburung, a Kwa language of Ghana. In this
description I attempt to demonstrate that the influence of the
feature advanced tongue root is not restricted to the vowel
harmony system, but also spreads to influence the realization
of the consonant I • Following from this synchronic description
is evidence suggesting that native speakers of Chumburung
require more than phonetic information in order to
choose the appropriate allophone of /1/.
The Journal of West African Languages, 2007
The present work reports on an instrumental study of tonal downstep in Chumburung, a Kwa language... more The present work reports on an instrumental study of tonal downstep in Chumburung, a Kwa language spoken in Ghana. Downstep is the lowering of the tonal register that sometimes occurs between otherwise identical tones. In particular, the study addresses the question of whether the degree of lowering that is attributable to automatic downstep (downstep triggered by an overt low tone) is the same as that which is attributable to nonautomatic downstep (downstep triggered by a floating low tone). The study concludes that the degree of lowering is the same in both cases.
The Journal of West African Languages, 2004
Collectively, linguistic research in Africa has produced a wealth of lexical data, and while
thes... more Collectively, linguistic research in Africa has produced a wealth of lexical data, and while
these data often serve useful purposes in their individual projects, their use to comparative
linguistics is minimal, given their lack of a standard format. The SIL Comparative African
Word List (1700 words) is therefore an attempt to offer a format for these data that is more
amenable to comparative analysis.
There are two main reasons for the development of this word list. First, many of the existing
African word lists simply do not contain enough lexical items to allow one to do serious
comparative analysis. Second, many existing African word lists are specific to a particular
language family, and thus, a pan-African list offers the potential of serious comparative
research. The items in this word list appear with both English and French glosses and are
arranged semantically under twelve main headings, generally moving from human domains to
non-human domains, and from concrete to more abstract items.
The Journal of West African Languages, 1990
In Snider (1989b) I describe the vowel system of proto-Guang and trace innovations to that system... more In Snider (1989b) I describe the vowel system of proto-Guang and trace innovations to that system which have been implemented by subsequent subgroups and present-day languages. The present paper parallels that work by describing the consonant system of proto-
Guang and by tracing subsequent innovations to that system through to the present. Among the innovations discussed are three which support the genetic unity of the North Guang branch. Until the present, the validity of claims which support the existence of this node has rested upon only a single innovation, i.e. that first proposed in Stewart (1970) and confirmed in Snider (1989b). This greatly strengthens, then, the claims for the North Guang branch.
The Journal of West African Languages, 1999
Engenni, a Kwa language spoken in Nigeria, has three levels of surface pitch with restrictions on... more Engenni, a Kwa language spoken in Nigeria, has three levels of surface pitch with restrictions on the top and middle levels. There are only two contrasting tones: low and high. In addition there is what Thomas (1978) calls "automatic upstep." The upstep is predictable and results in the upstep of a high tone whenever a low tone follows the high. Although the environment that conditions upstep is predictable, there is no real motivation for considering this phenomenon to be upstep. An alternative analysis is to consider the 'normal' high tones of the Engenni system to be downstepped, and to consider the 'upstepped' highs to be simply non-downstepped. By analyzing Engenni as an incomplete tonal downstep system, and by couching this analysis within the framework of Register Tier Theory (Snider 1990), the Engenni tone system can be described in a manner that is only minimally different from other downstep systems. The present analysis also explains why the upstep of what has often appeared to be an upstep system in many African languages affects only one tone-bearing unit and is never cumulative (i.e., it never results in upwards terracing), The emerging answer is that the superhigh tone of these systems is not an upstepped high, as such, but rather a non-downstepped high.
The Journal of West African Languages , 1985
Linguists have treated vowel coalescence in west African languages in different ways and three of... more Linguists have treated vowel coalescence in west African languages in different ways and three of these are examined in this paper. One approach views the product of coalescence as a 'third' vowel - different from either of the two coalescing vowels. A second approach views the product of coalescence as a 'strong' vowel, where the vowel realized is the stronger of the coalescing vowels. Finally, a third approach views the product of coalescence as one or other of the two vowels involved, which may have assimilated certain features prior to the deletion of the other.
It is this last approach which is applied to coalescence in Chumburung. Evidence presented suggests that the processes of assimilation and deletion are independent of each other.
The Journal of West African Languages, 1989
The present work describes the vowel system of the latest common ancestor of the Guang languages ... more The present work describes the vowel system of the latest common ancestor of the Guang languages (proto-Guang), a relatively low node on the Kwa genetic tree, and traces changes to that system through to the present. By examining vocalic change at this low node of reconstruction (as opposed to a higher node) we sacrifice the advantages of studying many changes for the advantages of obtaining a more close-up picture of the (fewer) changes involved.
Proto-Guang roots are reconstructed as having had an underlying vowel system that consisted of seven oral vowels and five nasal vowels. Vowel harmony, involving the features [+ATR] and [+Round], existed between prefix vowels and root vowels and between V1 and V2 in disyllabic roots. Changes to this proto-system included a merger of the underlying oral vowels in North Guang languages and a phonemic splitting of oral vowels whereby the seven vowel system became a nine vowel system in some present-day Guang languages.
In Michael Cahill and Keren Rice (eds.). Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages, 27-48. Dallas: SIL International., 2014
Which level of phonological depth should be represented orthographically seems to be locked into ... more Which level of phonological depth should be represented orthographically seems to be locked into phonological theories that predate the 1970’s. Typically, only two options receive serious consideration: the classical phoneme (shallow orthography) and the morphophoneme (deep orthography). Consistently representing either form is problematic, however, and the present work demonstrates why neither approach can be recommended as a general strategy. Stratal approaches to phonology, however, with claims that native speakers are more aware of the output of the lexical phonology than of any other phonological level, offer a worthy third alternative. Employing examples of morphophonemic alternations from a number of different languages, the present work demonstrates that regardless of whether the preferred orthographic representation is phonemic or morphophonemic, the level that works best from a practical viewpoint is consistently the output of the lexical phonology.
Language Documentation & Conservation, 2014
Phonological field work is largely about establishing contrast in comparable environments. The no... more Phonological field work is largely about establishing contrast in comparable environments. The notion of phonological contrast, however, can be confusing, particularly in its application to tone analysis. Does it mean phonemic contrast in the structuralist sense, or does it mean underlying contrast in the generative sense? Many linguists, in publications otherwise written from a generative perspective, support underlying tonal contrasts with minimal pairs and other data that are based on structuralist criteria. This paper critiques how tonal contrast is often supported in the literature and demonstrates that many supposed minimal pairs are invalid from a generative perspective. It further demonstrates that because many morphemes in tone languages consist solely of floating tones, the potential for these cannot be ignored when establishing comparable phonological environments.
Books by Keith L Snider
SIL International, 2020
Endorsement from Harry Van der Hulst, Editor-in Chief, The Linguistic Review, Professor of Lingui... more Endorsement from Harry Van der Hulst, Editor-in Chief, The Linguistic Review, Professor of Linguistics, University of Connecticut
The study of tone is of central importance within linguistics. A majority of languages is “tonal,” meaning that pitch differences play a distinctive role at the word level. Since the dawn of phonology, new insights into the analysis and representation of tone have led the way to new theories that have impacted other areas of phonology.
The Geometry and Features of Tone, first published in 1999, has not lost its relevance, which makes this second edition a welcome publication.
In this work, Keith Snider develops a theory of tone that has withstood time, not only due to its high quality but also because during the last two decades phonological theorizing has not focused on representational questions regarding the organization of phonological features. Based on work by many notable phonologists, Snider develops a coherent and comprehensive model, which he applies to a rich set of language data, much due to his own field work.
This book is a well-written, clear introduction to a central field in phonology, explaining the different theories and ideas that form the backdrop of Snider’s own model.
I recommend The Geometry and Features of Tone, written by a world expert on linguistic tone, as a textbook, as well as a significant, original contribution to theoretical phonology and our knowledge of complex tonal phenomena.
Preface to the Second Edition
Twenty years has now passed since The Geometry and Features of Tone (GFT) first appeared. The development of Register Tier Theory, set forth in that work, was heavily influenced by the phonological theories of feature geometry, underspecification, and lexical phonology, theories that were fairly mainstream at one time, especially in North America. Since then, a lot has changed. Not only have individual theories continued to develop, but the field is so splintered now that no single theoretical paradigm is really mainstream today. Nevertheless, a lot also hasn’t changed. Phonological theories still generally ascribe to notions of input and output, and most also employ features of one sort or another. Those insights into tonal register phenomena that are captured by Register Tier Theory therefore continue to inform tone analysis today.
Despite being long out of print, demand for a re-printing of GFT has been consistent enough over the years that the publishers now wish to promote the book further. However, given the multitude of typographical errors (I’m a terrible proof-reader) that found their way into the first edition, a simple re-printing would not do justice to the book. This second edition therefore is basically a re-printing of the first edition with the typographical errors corrected. There have been no substantive changes. I owe a real debt of gratitude to Bruce Wiebe and Esteban Méndez for their sharp eyes in helping me to edit the proofs this time. Thank you, Bruce and Esteban! And of course, I take full responsibility for any remaining errors. It is my hope that the success of the first edition will continue.
Copyright restrictions do not permit me to share this book online. It may however, be purchased at reasonable cost on Amazon.
SIL International, 2018
Endorsement from Larry M. Hyman Professor of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley; Pre... more Endorsement from Larry M. Hyman Professor of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley; President, Linguistic Society of America (2017)
Keith Snider, one of the world's most distinguished experts on tone, provides an extremely useful, clear, and comprehensive introduction aimed at students, scholars, and field workers who want to know how pitch is exploited in African and other tone languages. Focusing first on methodological issues arising from the interpretation of pitch contrasts, the author then carefully guides us through questions of phonological and orthographic analysis. Drawing from his extensive research on Chumburung (Kwa; Ghana) and other languages, Tone analysis for field linguists is a book that those venturing out into the world of tone will want to have on their home or office shelf and by their side in the field.
Endorsement from Moira Yip Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, University College London; Author of Tone (Cambridge University Press)
Anyone who is about to undertake fieldwork on a language they suspect might be tonal needs to have this book at their side. Snider leads the reader step-by-step through the questions they need to ask, the ways to control their data collection and analysis, and even how to represent their findings in a practical orthography. It also contains much of value for the desk-bound linguist working on the analysis of tonal languages, for whom it should raise an awareness of the potential pitfalls in interpreting tonal data gathered by others, not all of whom will have been as careful as Snider in their methodology.
Teaching Documents by Keith L Snider
Lecture given to Ling 530 Introduction to Writing Systems class, SIL-UND, June 29, 2005, 2005
Explains how the output of the lexical level in the theory of Lexical Phonology is an excellent b... more Explains how the output of the lexical level in the theory of Lexical Phonology is an excellent beginning point for the development of a new orthography.
Uploads
Papers by Keith L Snider
of /1/ in Chumburung, a Kwa language of Ghana. In this
description I attempt to demonstrate that the influence of the
feature advanced tongue root is not restricted to the vowel
harmony system, but also spreads to influence the realization
of the consonant I • Following from this synchronic description
is evidence suggesting that native speakers of Chumburung
require more than phonetic information in order to
choose the appropriate allophone of /1/.
these data often serve useful purposes in their individual projects, their use to comparative
linguistics is minimal, given their lack of a standard format. The SIL Comparative African
Word List (1700 words) is therefore an attempt to offer a format for these data that is more
amenable to comparative analysis.
There are two main reasons for the development of this word list. First, many of the existing
African word lists simply do not contain enough lexical items to allow one to do serious
comparative analysis. Second, many existing African word lists are specific to a particular
language family, and thus, a pan-African list offers the potential of serious comparative
research. The items in this word list appear with both English and French glosses and are
arranged semantically under twelve main headings, generally moving from human domains to
non-human domains, and from concrete to more abstract items.
Guang and by tracing subsequent innovations to that system through to the present. Among the innovations discussed are three which support the genetic unity of the North Guang branch. Until the present, the validity of claims which support the existence of this node has rested upon only a single innovation, i.e. that first proposed in Stewart (1970) and confirmed in Snider (1989b). This greatly strengthens, then, the claims for the North Guang branch.
It is this last approach which is applied to coalescence in Chumburung. Evidence presented suggests that the processes of assimilation and deletion are independent of each other.
Proto-Guang roots are reconstructed as having had an underlying vowel system that consisted of seven oral vowels and five nasal vowels. Vowel harmony, involving the features [+ATR] and [+Round], existed between prefix vowels and root vowels and between V1 and V2 in disyllabic roots. Changes to this proto-system included a merger of the underlying oral vowels in North Guang languages and a phonemic splitting of oral vowels whereby the seven vowel system became a nine vowel system in some present-day Guang languages.
Books by Keith L Snider
The study of tone is of central importance within linguistics. A majority of languages is “tonal,” meaning that pitch differences play a distinctive role at the word level. Since the dawn of phonology, new insights into the analysis and representation of tone have led the way to new theories that have impacted other areas of phonology.
The Geometry and Features of Tone, first published in 1999, has not lost its relevance, which makes this second edition a welcome publication.
In this work, Keith Snider develops a theory of tone that has withstood time, not only due to its high quality but also because during the last two decades phonological theorizing has not focused on representational questions regarding the organization of phonological features. Based on work by many notable phonologists, Snider develops a coherent and comprehensive model, which he applies to a rich set of language data, much due to his own field work.
This book is a well-written, clear introduction to a central field in phonology, explaining the different theories and ideas that form the backdrop of Snider’s own model.
I recommend The Geometry and Features of Tone, written by a world expert on linguistic tone, as a textbook, as well as a significant, original contribution to theoretical phonology and our knowledge of complex tonal phenomena.
Preface to the Second Edition
Twenty years has now passed since The Geometry and Features of Tone (GFT) first appeared. The development of Register Tier Theory, set forth in that work, was heavily influenced by the phonological theories of feature geometry, underspecification, and lexical phonology, theories that were fairly mainstream at one time, especially in North America. Since then, a lot has changed. Not only have individual theories continued to develop, but the field is so splintered now that no single theoretical paradigm is really mainstream today. Nevertheless, a lot also hasn’t changed. Phonological theories still generally ascribe to notions of input and output, and most also employ features of one sort or another. Those insights into tonal register phenomena that are captured by Register Tier Theory therefore continue to inform tone analysis today.
Despite being long out of print, demand for a re-printing of GFT has been consistent enough over the years that the publishers now wish to promote the book further. However, given the multitude of typographical errors (I’m a terrible proof-reader) that found their way into the first edition, a simple re-printing would not do justice to the book. This second edition therefore is basically a re-printing of the first edition with the typographical errors corrected. There have been no substantive changes. I owe a real debt of gratitude to Bruce Wiebe and Esteban Méndez for their sharp eyes in helping me to edit the proofs this time. Thank you, Bruce and Esteban! And of course, I take full responsibility for any remaining errors. It is my hope that the success of the first edition will continue.
Copyright restrictions do not permit me to share this book online. It may however, be purchased at reasonable cost on Amazon.
Keith Snider, one of the world's most distinguished experts on tone, provides an extremely useful, clear, and comprehensive introduction aimed at students, scholars, and field workers who want to know how pitch is exploited in African and other tone languages. Focusing first on methodological issues arising from the interpretation of pitch contrasts, the author then carefully guides us through questions of phonological and orthographic analysis. Drawing from his extensive research on Chumburung (Kwa; Ghana) and other languages, Tone analysis for field linguists is a book that those venturing out into the world of tone will want to have on their home or office shelf and by their side in the field.
Endorsement from Moira Yip Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, University College London; Author of Tone (Cambridge University Press)
Anyone who is about to undertake fieldwork on a language they suspect might be tonal needs to have this book at their side. Snider leads the reader step-by-step through the questions they need to ask, the ways to control their data collection and analysis, and even how to represent their findings in a practical orthography. It also contains much of value for the desk-bound linguist working on the analysis of tonal languages, for whom it should raise an awareness of the potential pitfalls in interpreting tonal data gathered by others, not all of whom will have been as careful as Snider in their methodology.
Teaching Documents by Keith L Snider
of /1/ in Chumburung, a Kwa language of Ghana. In this
description I attempt to demonstrate that the influence of the
feature advanced tongue root is not restricted to the vowel
harmony system, but also spreads to influence the realization
of the consonant I • Following from this synchronic description
is evidence suggesting that native speakers of Chumburung
require more than phonetic information in order to
choose the appropriate allophone of /1/.
these data often serve useful purposes in their individual projects, their use to comparative
linguistics is minimal, given their lack of a standard format. The SIL Comparative African
Word List (1700 words) is therefore an attempt to offer a format for these data that is more
amenable to comparative analysis.
There are two main reasons for the development of this word list. First, many of the existing
African word lists simply do not contain enough lexical items to allow one to do serious
comparative analysis. Second, many existing African word lists are specific to a particular
language family, and thus, a pan-African list offers the potential of serious comparative
research. The items in this word list appear with both English and French glosses and are
arranged semantically under twelve main headings, generally moving from human domains to
non-human domains, and from concrete to more abstract items.
Guang and by tracing subsequent innovations to that system through to the present. Among the innovations discussed are three which support the genetic unity of the North Guang branch. Until the present, the validity of claims which support the existence of this node has rested upon only a single innovation, i.e. that first proposed in Stewart (1970) and confirmed in Snider (1989b). This greatly strengthens, then, the claims for the North Guang branch.
It is this last approach which is applied to coalescence in Chumburung. Evidence presented suggests that the processes of assimilation and deletion are independent of each other.
Proto-Guang roots are reconstructed as having had an underlying vowel system that consisted of seven oral vowels and five nasal vowels. Vowel harmony, involving the features [+ATR] and [+Round], existed between prefix vowels and root vowels and between V1 and V2 in disyllabic roots. Changes to this proto-system included a merger of the underlying oral vowels in North Guang languages and a phonemic splitting of oral vowels whereby the seven vowel system became a nine vowel system in some present-day Guang languages.
The study of tone is of central importance within linguistics. A majority of languages is “tonal,” meaning that pitch differences play a distinctive role at the word level. Since the dawn of phonology, new insights into the analysis and representation of tone have led the way to new theories that have impacted other areas of phonology.
The Geometry and Features of Tone, first published in 1999, has not lost its relevance, which makes this second edition a welcome publication.
In this work, Keith Snider develops a theory of tone that has withstood time, not only due to its high quality but also because during the last two decades phonological theorizing has not focused on representational questions regarding the organization of phonological features. Based on work by many notable phonologists, Snider develops a coherent and comprehensive model, which he applies to a rich set of language data, much due to his own field work.
This book is a well-written, clear introduction to a central field in phonology, explaining the different theories and ideas that form the backdrop of Snider’s own model.
I recommend The Geometry and Features of Tone, written by a world expert on linguistic tone, as a textbook, as well as a significant, original contribution to theoretical phonology and our knowledge of complex tonal phenomena.
Preface to the Second Edition
Twenty years has now passed since The Geometry and Features of Tone (GFT) first appeared. The development of Register Tier Theory, set forth in that work, was heavily influenced by the phonological theories of feature geometry, underspecification, and lexical phonology, theories that were fairly mainstream at one time, especially in North America. Since then, a lot has changed. Not only have individual theories continued to develop, but the field is so splintered now that no single theoretical paradigm is really mainstream today. Nevertheless, a lot also hasn’t changed. Phonological theories still generally ascribe to notions of input and output, and most also employ features of one sort or another. Those insights into tonal register phenomena that are captured by Register Tier Theory therefore continue to inform tone analysis today.
Despite being long out of print, demand for a re-printing of GFT has been consistent enough over the years that the publishers now wish to promote the book further. However, given the multitude of typographical errors (I’m a terrible proof-reader) that found their way into the first edition, a simple re-printing would not do justice to the book. This second edition therefore is basically a re-printing of the first edition with the typographical errors corrected. There have been no substantive changes. I owe a real debt of gratitude to Bruce Wiebe and Esteban Méndez for their sharp eyes in helping me to edit the proofs this time. Thank you, Bruce and Esteban! And of course, I take full responsibility for any remaining errors. It is my hope that the success of the first edition will continue.
Copyright restrictions do not permit me to share this book online. It may however, be purchased at reasonable cost on Amazon.
Keith Snider, one of the world's most distinguished experts on tone, provides an extremely useful, clear, and comprehensive introduction aimed at students, scholars, and field workers who want to know how pitch is exploited in African and other tone languages. Focusing first on methodological issues arising from the interpretation of pitch contrasts, the author then carefully guides us through questions of phonological and orthographic analysis. Drawing from his extensive research on Chumburung (Kwa; Ghana) and other languages, Tone analysis for field linguists is a book that those venturing out into the world of tone will want to have on their home or office shelf and by their side in the field.
Endorsement from Moira Yip Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, University College London; Author of Tone (Cambridge University Press)
Anyone who is about to undertake fieldwork on a language they suspect might be tonal needs to have this book at their side. Snider leads the reader step-by-step through the questions they need to ask, the ways to control their data collection and analysis, and even how to represent their findings in a practical orthography. It also contains much of value for the desk-bound linguist working on the analysis of tonal languages, for whom it should raise an awareness of the potential pitfalls in interpreting tonal data gathered by others, not all of whom will have been as careful as Snider in their methodology.