Tonogenesis is the appearance of contrasting tone in a previously non-tonal language, generally as a result of regular phonological changes. This article or section uses Ruby annotation. ... Phonology (Greek phone = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), or phonemics, is a subfield of grammar (see also linguistics). ...
Generally tone in a language is an areal, not a genetic, feature: that is, a language tends to, but does not always automatically, acquire tones if many neighboring languages also are tonal. For example it is accepted that tones in the East-Asian language area spread from the Chinese family (Sinitic) or from Tai-Kadai, more probably from Sinitic. This article or section uses Ruby annotation. ... An areal feature, in linguistics, is the appearance of a given feature of typology in several unrelated languages due to the influence of geographical closeness. ...
An interesting question is how tones arise in a language, i.e. tonogenesis. In the Chinese languages it is known that they arose as a reinterpretation of initial or final consonant clusters as a pitch inflection of the vocalic nucleus of syllables. It is also known, in all languages, that surrounding consonants influence the pitch of the adjacent vowel. The same thing happened for Vietnamese, probably under the influence of Chinese; note that Khmer, which is genetically related to Vietnamese, is not a tonal language. Another example is Korean and Japanese. Although they were under heavy influence from Chinese cultures and a vast amount of Chinese loan words exist, both are not tonal languages. This mechanism seems to account for the appearance of contour tones.
In the Algonquian language Cheyenne, tone arose via vowel contraction; the long vowels of Proto-Algonquian contracted into high-pitched vowels in Cheyenne, while the short vowels became low-pitched.
The dissertation investigates the mutations of initial consonants and their phonological effects on the main syllable, resulting in the formation of the two vowel systems in the Khmer language, and the tonogenesis in the Cham language (chapter 4).
The tonogenesis in Ma, a Mon-Khmer language, also is investigated (chapter 4) to illustrate an special way by which an atonal language can become a tonal one in the South Indochina area.
The dissertation investigates the tonogenesis in Ma, a South Bahnaric language.
In the 9th century, as shown by the bilingual Tibeto-Chinese treaty of 821-822 found in front of Lhasa's Jokhang, the complex initial clusters had already been reduced, and the process of tonogenesis was likely well underway.
Already in the 9th century the process of cluster simplification, devoicing and tonogenesis had begun in the central dialects can be shown with Tibetan words transliterated in other languages, particularly Middle Chinese but also Uighur.
Since at least around the 7th century when the Chinese came into contact with the Tibetans, phonetics and grammar of Tibetan have been studied and documented.
Feeds |
Contact