Pitch Tracking of Down-stepped High Tone in Anaañ: An Instrumental Analysis Approach
Keywords:
Anaañ, Frequency Variation, Down-Step, Pitch, TonesAbstract
Anaañ is one of the languages spoken by the Anaañ people of Northwest part of Akwa Ibom State in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Genetically, it is a Lower Cross language. Anaañ operates two basic tones and a downstepped. This paper examines the lowering effect of high tones in sequence. Research so far traced down-step historically to a floating low tone. The thrust of this paper is to trace down stepped tone in Anaañ empirically. The objectives of the study were to find out the pitch of Anaañ high tones in isolation, examine H1 H2 pitch without lowering effect and investigate H1 !H2 downstepped. 50 informants were selected for this study. Collection of data was based on personal interaction with the informants who are native speakers. The conversations were recorded in Panasonic midget
and transferred to WAV file for pitch tracking. Filter Model is adopted as the theoretical frame for the analysis. The results show that H in isolation is not amplified or dampened because it is a standalone tone. In H1 H2, the H2 is amplified because the frequencies have
similar resonance. In H1 !H2, the H2 is dampened because of the intervening pitch which causes frequency reduction.
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