The Contrastive Tone Patterns and Their Function in Kimbeere: Contrastive Tone-a Phonological Study

This study is essentially a study of contrastive tone patterns and their functions in Kimbeere. Kimbeere, like most other Bantu languages, is a tone language. The study attempts to establish tone patterns, lexical and grammatical functions of tone in the nouns and verbs of Kimbeere. The study is carried out within the frame work of Autosegmental phonology as propounded by Goldsmith (1976). It is used for Kimbeere tone representation. This model places phonological representation larger than the segment on independent tiers. Chapter one offers a background to the study by detailing pertinent facts about Kimbeere, the subject of this study. It also establishes statement of the problem, objectives, and hypothesis of the study. A review of the theoretical framework and language is also offered in chapter one. Chapter two of this study introduces the Kimbeere phonology particularly the phonemic inventory and the syllable structure in which TBUs are subsumed in line with APT?s skeletal tier. The chapter also offers a brief description of Kimbeere word classification from which the words used in the analyses are drawn. Chapter three of this study establishes the tone patterns in Kimbeere.