Re: Tonal Sandhi

On Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:20:59 GMT, kevinurbanczyk@juno.com
><kevinurbanczyk@...> wrote:
>There is a LOAD of info on contour tones, but very little info on register
>tones.
>The main paper I know of deals with Vietnamese tonal history and sound
>change, the other deals with Old Chinese -> Middle Chinese sound changes
>and the birth of tones.
>So my question would be, which style of tones are ya looking for? Countour
>or Register...
Thank you for answering my question.

I'm not sure whether a Rising Tone or a Falling Tone should count as a
Contour Tone.  I thought Contour Tones meant Rise-Fall or Fall-Rise or Rise-
Fall-Rise or Fall-Rise-Fall.

In any case the conlang I'm talking about contemplates three registers --
High, Low, and Middle -- and two "moving" tones -- Rise from Low to High
and Fall from High to Low -- as the "stand-alone" tones.  I am not sure yet
whether or not there will actually be level Low tones or level High tones
in "stand-alone" monosyllables; if not, however, they may nevertheless
arise as a result of tonal sandhi.  Perhaps, instead, all three
level "register" tones will occur in stand-alone monosyllables, and the
Rising and Falling tones will arise as, and only as, a result of sandhi.

As a result of tonal sandhi, the other two Rises -- Low to Mid or Mid to
High -- and the other two Falls -- High to Mid and Mid to Low -- may arise.

I am wondering whether such a system is natural at all; what else could
naturally influence the sandhi (whether the syllables are open or closed
and the nature of their consonants, for instance); and whether more
complicated contour tones such as Rise-Fall (say MHL or LHM) and Fall-Rise
(say MLH or HLM) could naturally come up.

Thank you for any information or opinion you can give.  (As for the
opinions, of course, the more-informed the better; but few would be less-
informed than mine.)

-----
eldin