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Re: tonal languages

From:Douglas Koller, Latin & French <latinfrench@...>
Date:Wednesday, January 8, 2003, 18:39
John writes:

>Douglas Koller, Latin & French scripsit: > >> This is interesting. When I've heard natives talk about their own >> dialect, they usually inflate the number of tones (e.g.: Cantonese >> speakers will say they have 10+ tones; > >Well, you can make a case for 11 tonemes in Cantonese: a yin and a >yang tone for >each open syllable, 3 for closed syllables, and two "changed" tones >which (unlike ordinary tones) are morphemes of a sort. >At the etic level, though, there are only 6-7.
I'll buy this. At the etic level (which is where I hang), I opt for six.