Talk:Sotho tonology

But how?

If anyone knows how to deal with this issue then please fix the article. Below, is a sample of the intended wikicode for this article:

(perhaps you might like to look at the Wikicode for this text instead...)

-bonahala │ H

An H verb stem ("see-able")

Each of the rules changes the associations in some way. For example, High Tone Doubling (HTD) causes the underlying H tone on the first syllable of the verb to also be linked to the syllable immediately to the right:

-bonahala ├<span style="color:silver">─┘</span> H

After HTD

In this article, the application of several rules in succession will be indicated with the following abbreviation:

-bonahala │ <span style="color:silver">│</span> underlyingly H <span style="color:silver">│</span> ├<span style="color:silver">─┘</span> HTD H

Two rules

===Some tonal rules===

• High Tone Doubling

  ba•a•bona │ │ H H

  ──────► HTD

  ba•a•bona ├<span style="color:silver">─┘</span> ├<span style="color:silver">─┘</span> H H

  
  Iterative Tone Spread

  ke•rekeletse │ H

  ──────► ITS

  ke•rekeletse ├<span style="color:silver">─┴─┴──┘</span> H

  
  Right Branch Delinking

  ba•a•bona ├<span style="color:red">─┘</span> ├─┘ H H

  ──────► RBD

  ba•a•bona │ ├─┘ H H

  Left Branch Delinking

  ba•bona │ <span style="color:red">├</span>─┘ H H

  ──────► LBD

  ba•bona │ ┌─┘ H H

  
  The Finality Restriction

  ke•a•rata ├<span style="color:red">─┘</span> H

  ──────► FR

  ke•a•rata │ H

  
  Low Tone Assignment

  o•batlela ├──┘ H

  ──────► LTA

  o•batlela ├──┘ │ │ H L L

  
  

  ===Some examples===
  

  1. Underlying level (lexical tones)
     1. Verb roots (including melodies)
  2. Lexical level (rule assigned tones)
     1. Subject concords
     2. HTD
        1. Verb roots
        2. Subject concords
     3. OCP
        1. RBD
        2. LBD
  3. Postlexical level
     1. FR
     2. LTA

  o•a•bina <span style="color:silver">│ │ │ │</span> underlyingly (H stem) <span style="color:silver">│ │</span> H <span style="color:silver">│</span> <span style="color:silver">│ │</span> │ <span style="color:silver">│</span> subjectival concord H <span style="color:silver">│</span> H <span style="color:silver">│</span> ├<span style="color:silver">─┤</span> ├<span style="color:silver">─┤</span> HTD H <span style="color:red">│</span> H │ │ <span style="color:silver">│</span> ├─┤ RBD H <span style="color:silver">│</span> H <span style="color:red">│</span> │ <span style="color:silver">│</span> │ <span style="color:silver">│</span> FR H <span style="color:silver">│</span> H <span style="color:silver">│</span> │ <span style="color:silver">│</span> │ <span style="color:silver">│</span> LTA H L H L

  Constructing a word

  o•a•bintsha <span style="color:silver">│ │ ││ │</span> underlyingly (H stem) <span style="color:silver">│ │</span> H<span style="color:silver">│ │</span> <span style="color:silver">│ │</span> │<span style="color:silver">│ │</span> subjectival concord H <span style="color:silver">│</span> H<span style="color:silver">│ │</span> ├<span style="color:silver">─┤</span> ├<span style="color:silver">┤ │</span> HTD H <span style="color:red">│</span> H│ <span style="color:silver">│</span> │ <span style="color:silver">│</span> ├┤ <span style="color:silver">│</span> RBD H <span style="color:silver">│</span> H│ <span style="color:silver">│</span> │ <span style="color:silver">│</span> ├┘ <span style="color:silver">│</span> LTA H L H L

  A slightly longer word

  
  the major difference is the fact that all those <span>'s changing the colours of the association lines are converted to HTML entities when the Wiki software sees that they are in <pre>'s, therefore showing the actual codes (<span...>) instead of their effects.

  Here's an example:

  o•a•bintsha <span style="color:silver">│ │ ││ │</span> underlyingly (H stem) <span style="color:silver">│ │</span> H<span style="color:silver">│ │</span> <span style="color:silver">│ │</span> │<span style="color:silver">│ │</span> subjectival concord H <span style="color:silver">│</span> H<span style="color:silver">│ │</span> ├<span style="color:silver">─┤</span> ├<span style="color:silver">┤ │</span> HTD H <span style="color:red">│</span> H│ <span style="color:silver">│</span> │ <span style="color:silver">│</span> ├┤ <span style="color:silver">│</span> RBD H <span style="color:silver">│</span> H│ <span style="color:silver">│</span> │ <span style="color:silver">│</span> ├┘ <span style="color:silver">│</span> LTA H L H L

  A slightly longer word

  see what I mean? You can the code out in a browser to see the desired effect.

  The problem is that the article is a tad confusing without these colour clues showing the application of the rules (red for deletion and silver for association).

  At home this code worked perfectly in HTML, so it's obviously the Wiki software's fault. Any thoughts or suggestions??

  Zyxoas (talk to me - I'll listen) 10:55, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

  I'm not sure why the span style tags aren't working properly... but there is a list here of acceptable HTML codes in Wikitext. I don't immediately see any invalid codes, however. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 00:09, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

  
  

  • The following seems to work; I don't know that it's the most elegant though:

  
  

  -bonahala    ├─┘   H

  Matt 00:47, 23 April 2007 (UTC).

  The <pre> tag is implemented by a tag hook in the MediaWiki parser, making it similar to an extension tag like <cite>. It is somewhat equivalent to "nowiki" in that it doesn't allow embedded HTML tags. More specifically, it purposefully escapes them, as you've found. Mike Dillon 01:31, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

  style="font-family:monospace"! That's great!

  
  I'll experiment a bit more with that and see how it works out.

  
  Thanks to everyone for their responses. Zyxoas (talk to me - I'll listen) 06:21, 23 April 2007 (UTC)