{"action":"created","issue":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/digling/tukano-project/issues/26","repository_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/digling/tukano-project","labels_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/digling/tukano-project/issues/26/labels{/name}","comments_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/digling/tukano-project/issues/26/comments","events_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/digling/tukano-project/issues/26/events","html_url":"https://github.com/digling/tukano-project/issues/26","id":136478793,"number":26,"title":"floating tones","user":{"login":"nataliacp","id":6968888,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/6968888?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/nataliacp","html_url":"https://github.com/nataliacp","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nataliacp/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nataliacp/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nataliacp/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nataliacp/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nataliacp/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nataliacp/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nataliacp/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nataliacp/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nataliacp/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"labels":[{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/digling/tukano-project/labels/data%20representation","name":"data representation","color":"fc2929"},{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/digling/tukano-project/labels/discussion","name":"discussion","color":"84b6eb"}],"state":"open","locked":false,"assignee":null,"milestone":null,"comments":14,"created_at":"2016-02-25T19:00:11Z","updated_at":"2016-02-26T15:57:44Z","closed_at":null,"body":"In order to find the best way to represent floating tones, I think it is important that we all understand the phenomenon. So, I did some basic reading on sandhi phenomena and on floating tones and here is what I understood. Disclaimer: I may not be using the most appropriate terminology sometimes, I am still learning!\r\n\r\nSandhi: From what I understand, these phenomena are about tone interaction, and **they don't require an extra entity to be invoked**. So, always (or almost always) such and such tone before or after such and such tone would be pronounced as this new different tone. This reminds me of phonological rules, but involving tones, not segments\r\n\r\nFloating tones: Here we have an entity (a tone without a segment) that is associated with a particular morpheme and it interacts with other neighboring morphemes, by altering their surface tone. In many cases, it was explicit that historically there was a segment associated with this floating tone which was subsequently lost. In this sense, it reminds me of nasal coda vowels, which are left over after the nasal coda consonant disappears. \r\n\r\nSo, yes, the two phenomena are about tone interaction, but there is a key difference: the presence or not of a historical entity. Crucially a floating tone is associated **arbitrarily** with a particular root, it is not a rule of tonal interaction that applies throughout the language. \r\n\r\nIf this previous description is accurate enough, I think we need to track floating tones as entities in our alignment. In some languages we may find that they correspond to no floating tones, or to a segment. So, I think that we need a notation that \r\n1. gives them their own column in the alignment\r\n2. makes it clear which root they are associated with and where they are manifested (before or after)\r\n3. differentiates them from \"regular\" tones\r\n"},"comment":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/digling/tukano-project/issues/comments/189338121","html_url":"https://github.com/digling/tukano-project/issues/26#issuecomment-189338121","issue_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/digling/tukano-project/issues/26","id":189338121,"user":{"login":"levmichael","id":9560740,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/9560740?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/levmichael","html_url":"https://github.com/levmichael","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/levmichael/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/levmichael/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/levmichael/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/levmichael/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/levmichael/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/levmichael/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/levmichael/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/levmichael/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/levmichael/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"created_at":"2016-02-26T15:57:44Z","updated_at":"2016-02-26T15:57:44Z","body":"As opposed to ones that require an additional symbol to indicate the direction of association of floating tones. Here the convention would be floating tones associated with leftmost syllable associate leftwards, and floating those associated with the rightmost syllable would associate rightwards."}}