tonology

noun

Etymology: From tone + -ology.

1. The study of tone in human languages.

   “In practice, the deciphering of complex verbal tonology is done in reverse: to arrive at the lexical and morphological tones, one typically has to factor out the postlexical tone rules. Since nominal tonology is usually more transparent, it can be used as a guide to unravel the tonology of verbs.”

2. The system of rules governing tones in a particular language.

   “Anomalies such as those found in the comparative tonology of these three language divisions indicate antecedent morphological or morphosyntactic features that would otherwise have gone unnoticed by the historical analyst.”

   “This thesis represents a beginning rather than an ending. Specifically, it is an attempt to explore the tonology of Venda (more correctly, Tshiveṉdá), a Bantu language spoken in the Zoutpansberg district of the Northern Transvaal in South Africa as well as in parts of Zimbabwe.”