Re: THEORY: Tonogenesis
| From: | Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, February 3, 2005, 0:31 |
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Kevin Athey wrote:
> Can anyone point me to some good sources (website or book) about natlang
> tonogenesis? I'm particulary but not exclusively interested in tonal
> systems originating from sources other than loss of stop voicing
> distinctions (as in Chinese).
Google, google, google...... there are some online papers by someone at
csu.chico.edu. You'll also see a "tonogenesis project" at UCBerkeley under
the direction of James Matisoff, but not much online. Check journal indices
devoted to Asian langs. for "History of...(Vietnamese, Khmer, Thai)". Mayan
langs. I think are tonal; some African too, but they seem to work
differently.
I'm sure the finals in Chinese had a lot to do with tone creation, but don't
know any sources that deal with it specifically. One would suppose vl.
finals could = high, vd. = low; but OTOH I've heard that -? and -h tend to
produce low tones. I suspect /q/ would tend to lower tone, as it certainly
lowers neighboring vowels.
>
> In a related question, has anyone else dealt with tonogenesis in their
> conlangs?
Yes, my Gwr is tonal(5) and monosyllabic. But the proto language was
basically CVCV ~CVCVC, non-tonal but with variable stress. I have sound
changes sort of worked out (not online), but suspect I don't always apply
them consistently. It _is_ difficult :-(( and complicated :-(((((. Someday
I'll have to post a bit of it, for general criticism/witticism.
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