TONAL VARIATION AND distinctive tonal patterns. Pronunciation CHANGE IN DIALECTS IN borrowing is hypothesized as one of CONTACT: A CASE the important factors leading to 1 variation and change. The patterns of STUDY OF LA0 tonal mergers and splits, as well as tonal characteristics, found here to be Phinnarat different from those in the literature, Akharawatthanakun 2 lead to the supposition of language­ contact change. The results are also Abstract helpful for identifying ethnic groups. I. Introduction The data here are from Lao spoken by majority groups and minority groups in contact with the other Lao dialects. 1.1 Background When Lao dialects have long been in contact with each other, it is It has been generally accepted that worthwhile to investigate whether tone change is one property of language. variation and change have occurred. Some linguists working within particular linoui0 stic theories have therefore Gedney's concept of the tone box is attempted to accommodate the fact adopted. The tone data are analyzed that language changes and to find auditorily and acoustically. The explanations of the nature and causes typical distinctive tonal patterns of the of such change. Lao language are proposed. To determine how well these distinctive The fact of language change was tones have been preserved in Lao widely recognized in the eighteenth dialects in contact, they were then and nineteenth centuries when the compared to the ones in the Lao Neogrammarians among the historical dialects in this study. The tonal linguists attempted to explain the systems of the Lao dialects are also sound changes in Indo-European compared to the ones in the available languages. Such sound change was literature in order to find explanations said to have been motivated by for language variation. internal factors, i.e., mechanical and physiological factors like ease ?f The findings here reveal tonal articulation or simplification, that IS, variations and changes in both majority the movement toward what have been and minority Lao induced by both referred to as more "natural" or " less internal and external factors. The tonal marked" forms. During the first half of systems of some Lao dialects differ the twentieth century, the structuralists from the patterns expected to have suooested00 that external factors could been derived from the typical also influence language change. For example, Martinet ( 1952, cited in McMahon, 1994: 32) notes that gaps 1 This paper is a part of the author's in a system remaining empty for dissertation, Tone Change: A Case Study lengthy periods may ultimately be ofthe Lao Language. filled due to external factors, such as 2 Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Linguistics, language contact. In recent years Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkom University, historical linguists have increasingly Bangkok, Thailand. considered a sociolinguistic approach Downloaded from Brill.com10/10/2021 08:00:46PM via free access Tonal Variation and Change in Dialects in Contact: A Case Study of Lao important for understanding language contact between members of the same change. In the present paper, though language families and between one external factor, language contact, languages in different language has been emphasized, internal factors families, such as Tai, Mon-Khmer, have also been considered.3 Austronesian, Sino-Tibetan, and Mong-Mien. The present study aims to Language contact has been recetvmg describe tone variation and change in more and more attention (cf. , Weinreich, the Lao dialects4 spoken in some 1953; Clyne 1975 cited in Salmons, areas of Thai land where they are in 1992: 6; Ureland and Clarkson, l984; contact. Trudgill, 1986; Thomason and Kaufman, 1988; Thomason 1997; Salmons 1992). Lao, a language in the Southwestern Beyond taxonomies of language­ branch of the Tai language family (Li, contact situations, some works attempt 1977) is spoken in northeastern to establish hierarchies of language­ Thailand and is the majority language contact changes to demonstrate, for of the people in the Lao People's example, that lexical borrowing normally Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). precedes phonological borrowing (cf. Some groups of people from the Lao Clyne, 1975: 27, 52-55 (for bibliography) PDR migrated to settle in some cited in Salmons, 1992). regions of Thai land, especially the northeast, the north, the east, and the In the aforementioned works, center. In northeastern T hai land, language-contact changes in different generally known as the !san region, areas are investigated, such as Lao ("Lao !san") is spoken by Lao different type s of change in people, the majority gro up, and Scandinavian languages in contact various minority languages are (Ureland and Clarkson, 1984), all scattered here and there. Lao is used as possible types of contact-induced a lingua franca by people living in the change in English dialects (Trudgill, area. Besides the northeast, Lao is 1986), French and Norse interference also spoken in other regions of in English, borrowing in Asia Minor Thailand due to the fact that a lot of Greek, shift-induced Uralic people from the !san region have interference in Slavic and Baltic migrated there. It can therefore be said languages (Thomason and Kaufman, that in some areas of Thailand, there 1988), and accentual changes in the have been Lao people from the Lao languages spoken in Early Northern PDR as well as Lao !san people from Europe (Salmons, 1992). the !san region. Some groups of Lao people are in the majority in such Southeast Asia is said to be one of the areas, while some are in the minority. areas in which there has been constant 3 The term "language contact" refers to contact on the social level, that is, contact 4 The term " Lao dialects" used in this between different dialects or languages in paper refers to the dialects of the Lao the same area. In other words, contact language spoken by Lao !san people living situations are those in which at least some in several provinces of northeastern people use more than one language Thailand, and by Lao immigrants fro m the (Thomason, 200 I : I). Lao PDR living in scattered groups in Thailand. 57 Downloaded from Brill.com10/10/2021 08:00:46PM via free access MANUSYA: Journal of Humanities 7.1, 2004 1.2 Research project 1.3 Goal This paper is a part of my larger The tonal systems of the Lao dialects research project aimed at studying the in this study have been compared to tones of several varieties of Lao with the ones in the available literature in the idea of proposing three Lao order to find explanations for language subgroups: Pure Lao, Deviant Lao, variation and change. This paper aims and Adopted Lao.5 The difference in to show the patterns of tone variation tones between Pure Lao and Deviant and change in Lao dialects spoken as Lao is investigated in order to majority and minority dialects in reconstruct the Lao proto-ton a I contact situations. Hypotheses on the system. Hypotheses on tone change as nature and causes of tone change will well as the factors motivating such also be discussed. changes will then be formed. Tone data for Lao dialects spoken as 2. Procedure majority and minority dialects around Thailand and the Thailand-Lao PDR 2.1 The tone-box method border have been collected. Other sources of possible interference are On the basis of the influences of sought in the tones of the other the voicing states of initial consonants languages spoken in the same areas. on the mergers and splits of tones in Tai dialects, the historical and The tone data used in this paper are comparative linguists have partly taken from my larger study. The reconstructed for Proto-Tai, tones A data here are from Loei, a Lao dialect 8 , C in live syllables and D in dead spoken by majority and minority syllables. William J. Gedney ( 1972) groups in contact with other Lao has proposed the "tone box", a useful dialects: Lao lsan, Lao introduced method for studying tonal systems in from the Lao PDR, and Phuan. Tai dialects. For reconstructing Proto­ Tai tones, he argued that vowel When the Lao dialects have long been length in dead syllables also in contact with other Lao dialects that influenced the development of tones. could have either the same or different His tone box consists of tones A, 8 , linguistic characteristics, or have been C, DL (dead syllables with long in contact with other languages, it is vowels), and DS (dead syllables with important to learn how well the Lao short vowels). proto-tonal system has been preserved. Tonal variation and change in such The tone box is a useful tool for Lao dialects ought to be explained. studying the tones in Tai dialects, because it can give a clear picture of the patterns of tonal mergers and splits. 5 In this study, the term "Pure Lao" refers The tone box is shown in Figure I. to the Lao dialects which still preserve the distinctive tonal patterns of Lao while " Deviant Lao" refers to the Lao dialects in A, 8, C, DL, OS refer to the tones in which there are tonal variations. "Adopted Proto-Tai as reconstructed by comparative Lao" refers to the dialects/languages which and historical linguists. The Proto-Tai are not Lao but there is confusion that they tones are reflected in the present Thai are Lao because their tonal patterns are writing system as follows: similar to Lao's. 58 Downloaded from Brill.com10/10/2021 08:00:46PM via free access Tonal Variation and Change in Dialects in Contact: A Case Study of Lao Figure I The tone box (adapted from Gedney, 1972: 434) Proto-Tai Tone A B c DL DS (D-short) (D-Iong) Voiceless friction sounds: *s.