Re: Old Chinese retroflexes--a few questions.

Steven Williams scripsit:

> Then how does Cantonese have like nine tones? Were
> some other tonogenic forces at work here?
Middle Chinese had four tones, three associated with open syllables
(ending in a vowel, -m, -n, or -ng) and one associated with checked
syllables (ending in -p, -t, or -k).  Each of these had the potential
to split, giving 8 tones; different patterns of splits (and mergers)
appear in different Sinitic languages.  Uniquely in Cantonese, the
fourth tone split a second time, giving 9 tones at the -emic level;
however, identifying some of the checked tones with unchecked analogues
and a tone merger have left the language with only 6 -etic tones.

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