Abstract
The Bantu languages of Africa show various tone types, ranging from pure tone languages to non-tonal languages. In this paper the author analyses the tone system of nouns in two languges: Tembo (J.57, eastern Congo) and Haya (J.22, northwestern Tanzania). With Tembo it is demonstrated that in this language each mora in principle should be marked either as high, low, falling or rising (the last two being combinations of high and low). The number of partterns increases in geometric progression. Tembo, therefore, can be characterized as a polymoraic tone language. In Haya, however, the number of tone patterns increases in arithmetic progression, as a function of the number of the syllables in the stem. High tone has become accentual in nature in Haya, in which only one high tone syllable per word is permitted in isolation. For typological reasons, examples of Safwa (M.25) and Swahili (G.42) are added to illustrate a language in which the number of patterns remains stable regardless of the number of the syllables (Safwa), and a bound accent language (Swahili).
