Re: Mandarin pronouns (ta1) [Was: a question about names]

Roger wrote:

<<Tonogenesis is a problem; I know some of the principles, but need to find
good sources for some of the subtleties.  I note that in Tiemish, tone seems
to be determined by the _coda_; do the initials have no affect?>>

The voicing of different coda consonants affects the length of the vowel,
and certainly certain types of codas affect the quality of the vowel moreso
than the onset usually does (note: uvulars, IMO, affect the following vowel
more than the previous vowel, but there are languages where uvulars
affect the previous vowel, as well [Arabic an exmaple of the former, Siglitun
being an example of the latter]).   Anyway, sticking with voicing, here's an
idea:

(1) Vowels followed by voiced codas tend to be longer than vowels followed
by voiceless codas.
(2) Volume and intonation go down as an utterance progresses.
(3) If a vowel's going to be longer, then there's a better chance of its 
intonation
being lower than a short vowel.
(4) Therefore, low tones could arise from words with voiced codas, and high
tones could arise from words with voiceless codas.

This seems iffy to me, but I've heard things like it.   I created a tonal 
system,
but I didn't go this root because it seemed iffy to me.   I did mine just 
with
stress placement and disappearing consonants.   Here's a link to an 
explanation:

http://dedalvs.free.fr/sheli/history.html

-David
*******************************************************************
"sunly eleSkarez ygralleryf ydZZixelje je ox2mejze."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/

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