Malawian Nyiha verbal tonology

This paper presents the first description and analysis of the verbal tonology of Malawian Nyiha. While it has maintained the Proto Bantu vowel length distinction, it has completely lost the tonal contrast on verb roots. Surface tonal patterns are largely determined by the assignment of Melodic High tones, which are linked to either the antepenult, penult or final TBU, based on multiple factors, including tense/aspect/ mood, polarity, the presence of an object marker, and the type of subject marker. Two sets of verbs are examined where the location of the Melodic High surfaces one TBU to the right of the expected location. We show this can be straightforwardly accounted for by 1) assuming surface glides are derived from underlying vowels, and 2) the short causative, when present, is often placed in multiple locations in the verb, but ultimately does not surface after the /‑ag/ inflectional suffix.