Editing Tumbuka language (section)

===Tone===

Tumbuka has a [[Tone (linguistics)|tonal]] accent but in a very limited way, in that every word, spoken in isolation, has the same falling tone on the penultimate syllable (which also coincides with stress).<ref>Downing (2008, 2012).</ref> It is therefore not possible in Tumbuka to contrast two different words or two different tenses tonally, as it is in other Bantu languages. However, this penultimate falling tone occurs not on every word, but only on the last word of a phonological phrase; e.g. in the following sentence, only the second word has a tone, the first being toneless:<ref>Downing (2012), p.123.</ref>
*{{lang|tum|ti-ku-phika sî:ma}} 'we are cooking porridge'

A greater variety of tonal patterns is found in the [[ideophone]]s (expressive words) of Tumbuka; for example Low ({{lang|tum|yoyoyo}} 'disintegrating into small pieces'), High ({{lang|tum|fyá:}} 'swooping low (of birds)'), High-Low ({{lang|tum|phúli}} 'sound of thing bursting'), and Low-High ({{lang|tum|yií}} 'sudden disappearance'), etc.<ref>Moto (1999), pp.112-120.</ref>

Intonational tones are also used in Tumbuka; for example, in yes-no questions there is often a High-Low fall on the final syllable of the question:<ref>Downing (2008), p.55.</ref>
*{{lang|tum|ku-limirâ-so ngô:mâ?}} 'are you also weeding the maize?'

There does not seem to be any consistent, direct correlation between tone in Tumbuka and [[Focus (linguistics)|focus]].<ref>Downing (2012), p.129.</ref>