The inventory and distribution of tone in Tù’un Ndá’vi, the Mixtec of Piedra Azul (San Martín Peras), Oaxaca

This paper provides an account of the previously undescribed tone system of Tù’un Ndá’vi, the variety of Tu’un Savi (Mixtec) spoken in the community of Piedra Azul in the municipality of San Martín Peras in the Juxtlahuaca District of Oaxaca, Mexico and, more recently, throughout the Central Coast of California. Like other Tu’un Savi varieties so far described, the tone-bearing unit is the mora and tones are organized around a bimoraic constituent often referred to as the couplet. However, the tone system differs from most other previously described varieties of Tu’un Savi in several important ways. First, it does not display evidence of any tonal processes. Second, there are no tonally unspecified TBUs. Third, contour tones are not analyzed as underlying sequences of level tones, but are instead analyzed as contour units. Fourth, and finally, there is a five-way tonal contrast on the mora, which consists of three level tones (H, M, L) and two unitary contour tones (R, F). This is a higher number of contrasts than most Tu’un Savi varieties, which, with the notable exception of Yoloxóchitl Mixtec, have inventories of up to three or four level tones and no unitary contour tones