Southeast Asian tonogenesis:
how and why?
Jan-Olof Svantesson
Lund University, Sweden
Southeast Asian tonogenesis
• Merger of voiceless and voiced onset
consonants
• Tonogenesis: A non-tonal language acquired a
two-tone system (Kammu, Wa (Vo))
• “Registrogenesis”: Some languages developed a
voice quality contrast (Lamet, Wa (Paraok))
• Tone split: Languages that already had a tone
system doubled the number of tones (Chinese,
Vietnamese)
Kammu: Austroasiatic language in Laos
Northern Kammu (yellow) has two level tones,
Eastern Kammu (green) lacks tones
Kammu tonogenesis
Tones contrast on syllables with these
onsets in N Kammu:
but not on these:
NK onset consonants
with tone contrast
p t
pʰ tʰ
ɓ ɗ
s
m n
l
r
w
ˀw
c k ʔ
cʰ kʰ
ɲ
j
ˀj
ŋ
h
Evidence that the Northern Kammu
tones are features of the onset
consonants
• Distribution of tones and onset consonants
• Tonal morphophonology
• Word play
Tonal morphophonology:
Causatives formed with p- always
have high tone:
‘Secret language’:
tone remains with onset consonant
Consonants in Kammu dialects
Eastern Kammu
p t c k
b d ɟ g
pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ
ʔ
s
h
ˀm ˀn
m n ɲ ŋ
m̥ n̥ ɲ̥̊ ŋ̊
l
l̥
r
r̥
w
j
w̥
ȷ̊
ˀw
ˀj
Northern Kammu
H
p t c k
L
pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ H
ʔ L
s
h H
ɓ ɗ
H
L
m n ɲ ŋ
H
L
l
H
L
r
H
L
w
j
H
ˀw
ˀj
H
(Non-redundant) features
Eastern Kammu
[constr] [son] [spread] [vl]
ptck
–
–
–
+
bdɟg
–
–
–
–
pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ s h
–
–
+
+
m n ɲŋl r w j
–
+
–
–
m̥ n̥ ɲ̊ ŋ̊ l̥ r̥ w̥ ȷ̊
–
+
+
+
ˀm ˀn ˀw ˀj
+
+
–
–
ʔ
+
–
–
+
Northern Kammu
[constr] [son] [spread] [H] [vl]
pH tH cH kH
–
–
–
+ +
p L tL c L k L
–
–
–
– +
pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ s h
–
–
+
+ +
mL nL ɲL ŋL lL rL wL jL
–
+
–
–
–
mH nH ɲH ŋH lH rH wH jH
–
+
–
+ –
ˀw ˀj
+
+
–
+ –
ɓɗ
+
–
–
+ –
ʔ
+
–
–
– +
So, what happened?
• Phonologically: nothing.
• Phonetically: a lot.
EK has 35 consonants, NK 23
EK is non-tonal, NK is a tone language
• But: EK and NK speakers understand each
other without difficulty
• But: EK speakers cannot distinguish isolated
NK words like kláaŋ ‘eagle’ and klàaŋ ‘stone’
(Svantesson & House 2006)
The tone system is becoming
independent
New pronunciation variant:
Old Lao
*daaŋ
*ɟuu
Traditional
N. Kammu
tàaŋ
cùu
Modern Lao
tʰaaŋ
suu
New N. Kammu
variant
tʰàaŋ
‘way’
sùu
‘lover’
Creates words with an aspirated stop or a
voiceless fricative as onset but low tone
Indications that the phonological status of the
Kammu tone system is changing:
(1) New combinations of tones and initial
consonants are introduced, blurring the original
correlation between tones and onsets
(2) A tone dissimilation rule (on “sesquisyllabic” words) has neutralized some tone
contrasts also blurring the correlation between
tones and onsets
Southeast Asian tonogenesis / tone
split
• Recently created tones are phonologically
features of the onset consonants
• Being phonetically realized on the rhyme and
no longer phonetically dependent on the
onset consonants the tones are free to change
Why?
do a lot of languages in this area
acquire tones
• I think this is for sociolinguistic rather than
phonetic/phonological reasons
• Areal phenomenon, prestigious languages in the
area have tones
• Many monosyllabic morphemes may be favourable
for tonogenesis
• The languages do not borrow tones from other
languages; they borrow the idea of using tones but
use their own resources to create them
Angkuic langugages
Small Austroasiatic (Palaungic) subgroup spoken
in SW China
• Angku
• Mok
• U
• Hu
• ...
The Angkuic mistake
All initial stops became voiceless!
The Hu solution
Lamet
ja̤ m
ja̤ a̤ m
kcɛ̤n
sntɔɔk
Hu
jám
jàm
ncɛ́n
ntʰɔ̀k
‘to die’
‘to cry’
‘heavy’
‘brain’
huum
kʰuk
siim
θúm
θúk
ʔasím
‘to bathe’
‘hair’
‘bird’
Hu tonogenesis
High vowels:
Non-high vowels: short:
long:
HIGH
HIGH
LOW
What happened – again?
Information is moved into the vowel kernel in N
Kammu:
puuc > púuc
buuc > pùuc
‘undress’
‘wine’
Information capacity
In information theory (Shannon 1948), the
information capacity of a code (e.g. the phonemes
that form the onset, kernel or coda of a syllable) is
measured by its entropy:
– Σ pi·log2 (pi), where pi is the (estimated)
probability of symbol number i.
The information capacity is measured in bits (binary
choices).
Kammu
The information capacity was estimated for the
Onset, Vowel kernel and Coda of Proto-Kammu
and Northern Kammu monosyllabic words.
Based on 12,883 monosyllables from Svantesson et al.,
Dictionary of Kammu Yùan language and culture, 2014
Information across the syllable in Kammu
Tonogenesis and information
structure
• Kammu tonogenesis moved information
capacity from the onset to the vowel.
• Similar behaviour can be seen in other
languages that underwent tonogenesis or
registrogenesis of this kind as well as in
languages that underwent a tone split, like
Chinese and Tai languages.
How about other languages?
• Mongolian, spoken much further to the north
did not develop tones
• But phonological processes that moved
information capacity from the edges to the
kernel took place
• This is most prominent in the Baarin dialect
spoken in Inner Mongolia
Sound changes in Mongolian
monomorphemic words
Loss of final vowels made disyllabic words
monosyllabic, and some information from the
lost vowel is transferred to the first vowel:
Old Mongolian
*nara
*tʰakʰi
*ora
*mori
Baarin
nar
tʰɛx
ɔr
mœr
‘sun’
‘to offer’
‘to enter’
‘horse’
Sound changes in Mongolian
Loss of medial –h– made di- or trisyllabic words
monosyllabic:
Old Mongolian
*sehyl
*ahula
*huhutʰa
Baarin
suul
ʊʊl
ʊʊtʰ
‘tail’
‘mountain’
‘bag
Information across syllables in Mongolian
(Based on 313 words, Svantesson et al. The phonology of Mongolian, 2005)
Conclusion
• The development from Old Mongolian to
modern dialects has something in common
with the development in the
tonogenesis/tone split languages
• SEA tonogenesis is part of an areal tendency
to cram more and more information capacity
into the vowel kernel of the (first) syllable
Thank you!