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Meeussen’s rule a special case of tone reduction in Bantu languages. The tonal alternation it describes is the lowering in some contexts of the last tone of a pattern of two adjacent High tones (HH), resulting in the pattern HL. The phenomenon is named after its first observer, the Bantuist Achilles Emile Meeussen (1912–1978). In phonological terms, the phenomenon can be seen as a special case of the Obligatory Contour Principle. ==Examples== Some illustrations of the phenomenon in Kirundi (examples adapted from Philippson 2003). ===In verb forms=== * na-rá-zi-báriira (I-PAST-them.CL10-to sew) ‘I was sewing them’ (''them'' refers to a class 10 plural) * na-rá-bariira (I-PAST-to sew) ‘I was sewing’ In the first sentence, both the tense marker 'rá' and the verb form 'báriira' (to sew) carry a high tone, signified by the acute accent. They are separated by the pronominal marker 'zi'. In the second sentence, the pronominal marker ‘zi’ is left out, resulting in two adjacent High tones. Due to the phenomenon described by Meeussen’s rule, the second High tone changes into a Low tone. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Meeussen's rule」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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