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As mentioned in the previous section, the first syllable of a verb bears a H, M, or
L tone in Mono, depending on the tense, aspect, and mood. Thus, we expect most, if not
all C-tone combinations to be attested. This is indeed the case, as shown in Table 3.1
below. This agrees with Boyd’s (1995: 15) observation that consonant-tone interaction is
not attested in Ubangian. The one combination which is not attested concerns the
marginal consonant phoneme . A full set of sample words is given in Appendix F.
3.3.2 Distribution in the word
Table 3.1: Consonant-tone co-occurrences
H M L H M L
+ + + J5 + + +
F + + + @ + + +
> + + + @ + + +
> + + + 5 + + +
B + + + + + +
L + + + + + +
+ + + + + +
M + + + + + +
– + + + + +
J + + + C + + +
@ + + + C + + +
@ + + + D + + +
I + + + F + + +
+ + + C> + + +
+ + + C> + + +
H + + + M + + +
+ + +
Some languages have a limited number of tonal patterns in comparison to the total
number of possible tonal combinations. One example concerns tonal melodies. Verbs in
Margi can have a H melody (JI=( JI=( JI=( ‘beat’, @=(>O=( @=(>O=( @=(>O=( @=(>O=( ‘touch’), a L melody (CD= CD= CD= ‘reach’, @=K @=K @=K @=K
‘pound’), or a LH melody (DK DK DK ‘grow up’, FK( FK( FK( FK( ‘lay eggs’), but a HL melody is not
attested (Kenstowicz 1994: 312-3).
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