the two nouns. The presence of this floating tone is reflected by the tone melodies borne by the nouns that precede or follow it. This associative tone, first hypothesized by Jan Voorhoeve, may be high or low depending on the class and tone pattern of the preceding noun. The tone may lower the pitch-level of Noun2 (a phenomenon called down step); or it may combine with the final vowel of Noun1, resulting in a (rising LH or falling HL) contour tone. For example, in (1), the first line represents the theorized underlying tonal melody of the two nouns, with the L tone associative marker in bold. The second line shows the two tones which are actually pronounced at the surface, with the pitch level shown in brackets (a very low pitch followed by a mid-range pitch). Likewise in (2), the first line shows the theoretical tonal melody of what at the surface are pronounced as a LH contour on Noun1 and a down-stepped high tone on Noun2. Thus, in brackets we see a slash indicating a rise from low to high pitch, and a mid-level line indicating a mid-range pitch. (1) L-(H) (L) (L)-H-(L)) (2) L-(L) (H) (L)-H-(L) L H [ _ – ] LH ↓ H [ / – ] nzwi mɛn bǎm mɛn nzwí mɛ́n bàám ↓ mɛ́n woman of child belly of child 'the woman of the child' 'the belly of the child' (adapted from Voorhoeve 1971:50) Examples (3) to (6) illustrate the realization of the associative in contexts where Noun1 is L-tone and Noun2 is H-tone. Whether or not Noun1 is theorized to be followed by a floating L or H tone has no effect on the surface form (i.e., the difference between (3) and (5), and (4) and (6)). What does have an effect is the tone of the associative marker—in (3) and (5) it is H, while in (4) and (6) it is L, resulting in an LH contour on Noun1. The effect that the associative tone has on either of the two nouns may be dependent on which floating tones accompany those nouns, which in turn is decided by their noun class. Examples (7) to (10) illustrate the realization of the associative in contexts where Noun1 is H-tone and Noun2 is H-tone. As with (3) to (6), in examples (7) and (9) we can see that the floating tone following the noun has