Re: Lots of Questions About Tones

Alex Fink wrote:
>
>On Wed, 9 Jul 2008 23:46:09 +0100, David McCann <david@...>
>wrote:
>
> >Imagine a language with /bas/ and /bat/. If the contrast between /p/
> >and /b/ is lost, /ba-/ is likely to acquire a high or rising tone in
> >becoming /pa-/.
>
>_High_ or rising?  AIUI voiced stops in the onset are supposed to have a
>lowering effect, generally I believe because of (possibly subphonemic)
>breathiness, so they'd yield low (or rising?) tones.
>
That's my understanding too.......... So pa- < *ba- will have low tone,
while pa- < *pa- will be high.