The influence of tone and affrication on manner: Some irregular manner correspondences in the Tamang group (original) (raw)

Tonal contrasts and initial consonants: a case study of Tamang, a 'missing link' in tonogenesis

Phonetica, 2008

Tamang (Bodic division of Tibeto-Burman) is spoken at the edge of the East Asian "tone-prone" zone, next to the almost tone-free Indian linguistic area, and is, chronologically, at the late end of the tone multiplication wave which has swept through East Asia in the course of the last two millenia. It can be regarded as a 'missing link' in tonogenesis: following the loss of voicing contrasts on syllable-initial consonants, Tamang has four tonal categories instead of its earlier two-tone system; the present state of the prosodic system is typologically transitional, in that these four tonal categories are realised by several cues which include fundamental frequency (F0), phonation type, and allophonic variation in the realisation of consonants. Acoustic and electroglottographic recordings of 131 words in two carrier sentences by five speakers were conducted (total number of target syllables analysed: 1651). They allow for a description in terms of F0, glottal open quotient, duration, and realisation of consonants. The results confirm the diversity of cues to the four tonal categories, and show evidence of laxness on tones 3 and 4, i.e. on the two tones which originate diachronically in voiced initials. The discussion hinges on the phonological definition of tone.

Paths to tone in the Tamang branch of Tibeto-Burman (Nepal)

The Dialect Laboratory: Dialects as a testing ground for theories of language change, ed. by G. de Vogelaer & G. Seiler. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2012

We examine a phonological change in progress in Tamang-Gurung-Thakali-Manangke (TGTM), a group of Tibeto-Burman dialects or languages of Nepal. Data from eight language varieties, five of them studied first-hand in the field, are presented. The phonological change studied is a modern-day instance of the tonal split which swept through the whole of Asia in the Middle Ages: Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and many less known languages underwent a merger of two of their series of initials (most commonly voiced/voiceless), resulting in a split of their tonal systems. Hypotheses about the modalities of implementation of this change have been offered, but modern day traces of intermediate stages are very limited. The languages of the Himalayas are situated at the geographical and chonological end of this wave so that the change is still in progress. In all the TGTM dialects studied here, the tonal split is phonologically completed, but traces of previous distinctions in manner of articulation and in phonation type survive, offering possible models for previously unobserved intermediate stages in tonogenesis. 1 From the similarities and differences observed between the dialects, some conclusions can be drawn. In diachrony, the common passage by a breathy stage between consonant-borne voice contrasts and tone, which has been proposed for the pan-Asian tonal split, is corroborated for all TGTM languages. But after the phonologization of tone, the degree, modality and factors of retention of the old features of voice and breathiness differ from dialect to dialect. Building on the repetition of distinct but similar changes, a tentative "law" is proposed for the evolution of breathiness, emphasizing the interplay of phonetic and phonological constraints in historical development: in a language where breathiness is used 1. We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the following people either for discussion and references, or for comments and criticism on an earlier version of this paper:

A case study of tone and intonation in two Tibetic language varieties

to be presented at the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Glasgow, 10 August 2015.

This paper presents a case study looking at the interaction between lexical tone and post-lexical intonation in two very similar Tibetic language varieties spoken in Nepal: Lamjung Yolmo and Kagate. In these two varieties, we find preliminary evidence that in both monosyllabic and disyllabic words, lexical tone is only specified at the left edge of the word, while the right edge of the word is ‘free’ to take post-lexical intonation tones. We present evidence of post-lexical intonation on these ‘free’ right edges both phrase medially and phrase finally. These results suggest that a description of the tone system of these languages without reference to the intonational system is too simplistic, and any future analyses should incorporate descriptions of both lexical tone and post-lexical intonation.

The evolution of vowel length in TGTM (Tamangish) languages

2015

Vowel length in open syllables is a rare feature in Tibeto-Burman languages. It is not reconstructed at the Proto-Tibeto-Burman (PTB) level, and it is not widely reported in modern languages. The languages of the Tamang group (= TGTM, Shafer's (1955) Gurung branch of Bodish) have developed it and are in the process of losing it again, as a part of a general process of reduction of the syllable canon. We touch briefly upon the development of vowel length on open syllables in Proto-Tamang (= Proto-TGTM), and concentrate on the different evolution patterns followed by diverse dialects in eliminating vowel length contrast.

Tone assignment and grammatical tone in Anal (Tibeto-Burman)

Studies in Language, 2018

Complex phenomena of grammatical tone, well-described for many African languages, are increasingly attested also in the Tibeto-Burman family. This paper describes the tone assignment rule and two cases of tonal expression of grammatical categories in the Tibeto-Burman language Anal. The typologically unusual rule involves tone spreading, tonal polarity on a non-edge constituent and additional spreading, resulting in constant tonal patterns across grammatical suffixes. In two different cases the combination of the tonal pattern assigned by this rule with peculiar morpho-tonological processes results in a marking of a grammatical category (future and 1SG-person) by grammatical tone, by vowel-length, or only by the overall tonal pattern of the verbal form. Both cases are related to the omission of an explicit marking of the category, although the outcome cannot be explained only by the concept of a floating tone.

Studying emergent tone-systems in Nepal: Pitch, phonation and word-tone in Tamang

Language Documentation & Conservation, 2014

This paper focuses on the particular kinds of difficulties which arise in the study of an emergent tone-system, exemplified by Tamang in Nepal, where pitch, phonation and other laryngeal features combine in the definition of a tone. As a consequence, conducting a well-ordered analysis in stages first of phonetic transcription, then variation in context, then interpretation is not possible. Rather we have to discover the contrasting categories first, and study their phonetic realization next, or do both at the same time. This also leads to questioning the validity of the traditional distinction of features into “distinctive” and “redundant” and proposing instead an analysis of an abstract “tone” as a bundle of cues. We will only sketch the second characteristic of the Tamang tone system, the extension of tone over the phonological word. The contributions of instrumental studies and of a comparative-historical perspective are discussed.

Lee Bickmore, ,Chilungu Phonology (2007) CSLI Publications, University of Chicago Press,Stanford

2009

Cilungu Phonology provides a comprehensive description of the intricate and diverse tone system of Cilungu, a Bantu language of Zambia classified as M14 in Guthrie's (1967Guthrie's ( -1971 Bantu classification. An asset of this work for which the author must be commended is that it provides a thorough and fully worked out tone system of a particular language in contrast to fragments of tonal systems abounding in the Bantu literature.