Prosodic structure and intonation in Koasati

This paper provides a description of prosodic structure and intonational properties of Koasati, an endangered Muskogean language spoken by approximately 300 people in Louisiana and Texas. Words in Koasati group into Accentual Phrases (AP), which are characterized by an initial and final high tone. Accentual Phrases in turn combine to form Intonational Phrases (IP), which are defined by a final boundary tone: L% (or for certain speakers LH%) in statements, H% in questions, and HL% in commands. In addition to intonational tones, Koasati also has tonal accents of three types. First, there is lexical tone associated with certain nouns and certain verbal affixes. Second, tone is used morphologically to convey aspectual distinctions in verbs. Finally, predictable accents may dock on the penultimate syllable of the stem and on heavy syllables (those containing a long vowel or a coda sonorant).