Tone and tune: the evidence for Northern Ewe music

Authors

V. Kofi Agawu, CUNY Graduate CenterFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1988

Abstract

Abstract:

One of the most intriguing features of most African languages is that of tone, by which variations in speech tone generate different meanings (Pike, 1948, offers a valuable introduction to this subject and includes an extensive bibliography; Fromkin, 1972, is a comprehensive evaluation of specialised studies). In the Ewe language, for example, the word to [H] pronounced with a high tone means ‘ear’, as in To le venye (HLMM), ‘I have an earache.’ To can also mean ‘through’, Meto akɔnta me [MHLHML], ‘I have gone through the accounts.’ But as soon as the high tone is replaced by a low one the meaning of the word changes drastically: to [L] means ‘thick’ as in Dzogbɔ la to [LHHL], ‘The porridge is thick’. Similarly, mi [H] is a pronoun for the first person plural (Mieto adegbe, ‘We are on the way to the hunt’). The same word refers to ‘faeces’ as in gbɔ̃mi [HL], ‘goat's faeces’. A shift of tone from high to low results in a change of meaning. Mi [L] is a pronoun for the second person plural (Mile tsi [LLM], ‘You (should) take a bath’); it also means ‘swallow’ (mi amatsi, ‘swallow [or take] the medicine’). The phenomenon is not restricted to monosyllables. Kuku [HH] refers to a ‘hat’ (Meɖe kuku na wo, ‘I remove your hat,’ which is a figurative way of saying ‘I beg you’). Kuku [LH] on the other hand refers to ‘death’. Asi [LH] is the word for ‘hand’, while asi [LM] denotes ‘market’. Tone is operative on a number of levels within the syntagmatic chain: on the level of syllable, word, phrase and sentence. Furthermore, a number of constraints—syntactic, international or natural factors—influence the disposition of speech tones (consult Ansre, 1961, for information about Ewe tone and Dakubu, 1988, for the most recent study of this and other aspects of Ghanaian languages).

Résumé:

L'influence du ton de la parole sur la mélodie musicale est un sujet qui a fasciné bon nombre d'ethnomusicologues. De la littérature consacreé à l'Afrique de l'Ouest se dégage l'assomption qu'un mot chanté doit, pour conserver tout son sens, suivre les variations du ton de la parole. Un certain nombre de ces études sont done consacrées aux cas où il n'existe pas de correspondance entre le ton de la parole et le ton musical. Cet article conteste la validité et l'utilité du rapport correspondance-noncorrespondance, en soutenant que le sens du mot n'est pas perdu si le ton de la parole et le ton musical different et que les facteurs déterminants de la structure musicale reposent en fait sur des caractères intramusicaux plutôt que linguistiques. La mélodie musicale peut suivre les caractères phonologiques du texte mais ce n'est pas obligatoire. Les exemples sont tirés de la région du Ewe Septentrional de Ghana mais les résultats de l'étude pourraient s'appliquer à d'autres régions.

Comments

This article was originally published in Africa, available at https://doi.org/10.2307/1160658