The Abawiri tone system in typological perspective

Abawiri (Indonesia: Lakes Plain) is a previously undescribed Papuan language. Two level tones (/L/ and /H/) combine into eight tone melodies on nouns (/L/, /H/, /LH/, /HL/, /LH/, /LHL/, /ØHL/, and Ø) and five on verbs (/L/, /H/, /LH/, /LH/, and Ø). The default pitch of tonelessness is L. Several phonological processes involve tone. /H/ is lowered to M tone after a floating /L/. A polar (H) is linked to the final syllable of a non-/H/ word previous to an /L/-toned word. Utterance-final boundary tone L% is linked to all utterance-final syllables. /H/ spreads to the end of nouns but does not spread on verbs. A final section discusses typological characterization of the Abawiri tone system.