Re: THEORY: Tonogenesis

On 11 Sep 02, at 3:37, ukasz Korczewski wrote:

> How can tones come into being?
I believe that in Tibetan and Chinese, at least, they came because CVC
syllables turned into CV; the tone then helped marked the final -C
which was lost. (For example, syllables might have high tone for a
following voiced consonant and low tone for an unvoiced consonant. Or
make even finer distinctions.)

But that's just my recollection; it might be fairly inaccurate.

Cheers,
Philip
--
Philip Newton <Philip.Newton@...>