PACIFIC LINGUISTICS Senie� A - No. 49 PAPERS IN SOUTH-EAST ASIAN LINGUISTICS No.5 by David Bradley Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Bradley, D. editor. Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics No. 5. A-49, iv + 102 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1977. DOI:10.15144/PL-A49.cover ©1977 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. PACIFIC LINGUISTI CS is published through the Lingui4�ie Ci�ele 06 Canbe��a and consists of four series: SERIES A - OCCAS IONAL PAPERS SERIES B - MONOGRAPHS SERIES C - BOOKS SERIES V - SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS EDITOR: S.A. Wurm. ASSOCIATE EDITORS: D.C. Laycock, C.L. Voorhoeve, D.T. Tryon, T.E. Dutton. EDITORIAL ADVISERS: B. Bender, University of Hawaii A. Healey, Summer Institute of Linguistics, New Guinea A. Capell, University of Sydney N.D. Liem, University of Hawaii S. Elbert, University of Hawaii H. McKaughan, University of Hawaii K. Franklin, Summer Institute of Linguistics G.N. O'Grady, University of Victoria, B.C. W.W. Glover, Summer Institute of K. Pike, University of Michigan; Linguistics Summer Institute of Linguistics G. Grace, University of Hawaii E. Uhlenbeck, University of Leiden ALL CORRESPONDENCE concerning PACIFIC LINGUISTICS, including orders and subscriptions, should be addressed to: The Secretary, PACIFIC LINGUISTICS, Department of Linguistics, School of Pacific Studies , The Australian National University , Canberra, A.C.T. 26 00. Australia. Copyright (§) D. Bradley. First published 1977. The editors are indebted to the Australian National University for help in the production of this series. This publication was made possible by an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund. 0 National Library of Australia Card Number and ISBN 85883 158 9 TAB LE OF CONTENTS Page PROTO-LOLOISH TONES by David Bradley 1 Ab<stllac.t 1 1. TONOGENESIS 1 2. LOLOISH TONES 4 3. PROTO-LOLOISH TONES 6 4. PROTO-LOLOISH AND PROTO-SINO-TIBETAN 13 5. IMPLICATIONS 15 No.te<s 16 Ac./zYl ow.tedgmeYlt<s 18 B.i. bUogllaphy 19 AKHA AN D SOUTHERN LOLO ISH by David Bradley 23 SUMMARY OF EXISTING DATA 24 AKHA AND PROTO-LOLOISH 29 Note<s 40 B.i. bl.i.ogllaphy 42 AppeYld.i.x 50 iii iv PHUNOI or COONG by David Bradley 67 Abl>:tJta.c.:t 67 PREVIOUS WORK 67 PHUNOI AND THEIR SETTING 68 TRANSCRIPTION: PHONETICS , PHONOLOGICAL INVENTORY 69 1. Minor Syllables 69 2. Initial Consonants 69 3. Vowels 70 4. Final Consonants 70 5. Tones 70 PHONOLOGY 70 DIALECT DIFFERENCES 72 COMPARISON WITH *LOLOISH 73 Prefixes 73 Initials A. Manner 74 Initials B. Position 76 *Tones 77 Rhymes 78 Vocabulary 81 APPENDIX: Counting 94 No:tel> 95 BibUogJta.phy 96 Bradley, D. editor. Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics No. 5. A-49, iv + 102 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1977. DOI:10.15144/PL-A49.cover ©1977 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. PROTO-LOLOISH TONES DAVID BRADLEY ABSTRACT Recent discussion of tonogenesis has shown what kinds of develop­ ment in the pitch and contour realizat ion of tone are likely or poss­ ible . It is now possible to make hypotheses about the phonetic values of reconstructed tone categories. In this paper, pitch values are proposed for Proto-Loloish. tone categories, and the developments from the Proto-Loloish tone system to those of various attested Loloish languages are traced. Some insights into the process of tonogenesis, and the Proto-Sino-Tibetan tone system, are gained. 1. TONOGENES IS In this paper, the relative pitch values of tones are repre sented with Chao (1930) tone-letters . These allow a five-step division of the pitch range , 1 (lowest ) to 5 (highest). Level tones can be rep­ resented with two ident ical pitch-numbers; e.g. 55 , high-level. Con­ tour tones can be represented with pitch-numbers giving beginning, middle if necessary , and final pitches; e.g.. 51, high-to-low falling; 313, mid falling-rising . In most tone systems , this transcription is narrower than necessary ; but languages contrasting five level tones do exist . Chao proposes that short tones should be represented with one pitch-number, e.g. 1, short-low (level). In the area under consider­ ation , short vs . long distinctions are usually correlated with other supresegmental or segmental distinctions : short tones occur in stop­ final, laryngealized, or otherwise constri cted syllables. There are also short contour tones, difficult to repre sent with one pit ch-number. 1 Bradley, D. "Proto-Loloish Tones". In Bradley, D. editor, Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics No. 5. A-49:1-22. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1977. DOI:10.15144/PL-A49.1 ©1977 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. 2 DAVID BRADLEY Therefore , I use two pitch-numb ers, and indicate with a postscript -s a final stop ; and -c a constriction or laryngealizat ion of the vowel; e.g. 21s, half-low-to-low-falling with final stop ; 33c, mid-leve l with vowel constriction . Many excellent art icles on tonogenesis, the process of tone develop­ ment , have appeared - especially in the last few years . Haudricourt , in several pioneering articles (1954, 1961) , suggests two basic con­ ditioning factors that may lead to the deve lopment of tone : syllab le­ initial consonants condition pitch differences, and syllab le-final con­ sonants of some kinds condition contour differences. Then , if the seg­ mental conditioning factors are lost , the pitch and contour differences may remain and become solely tone differences. Specifically, syllables with voiced initials may develop lower pitch, and syllables with voice­ less initials may develop higher pitch. Syllables with glottal-stop finals may develop rising cont our , and syllables with fricative finals, especially [h], may develop falling contour. There are many examples of tone developments conditioned by larynx activity during sy llable-initial consonants.l Even non-tonal languages show a tendency to higher pitch in voiceless-initial syllables, and 2 lower pitch in voiceless-initial syllables. The art iculat ory reasons for this correlat ion are fairly clear . Many languages have become to­ nal when the voicing/voicelessness conditioning factor ceased to be the main contrastive one , as in various Tibetan dialects. A two-way sp lit can also occur in a language that already has tones , as in Chinese . Rearrangement of the tone system is then likely . Less common , and less universal in the details of their conditioning, are three-way sp lits. Voiced, glottalized , and voiceless aspirated syllab le-initials have been reported to condition the development of low, mid, and high tones in Maru, a Burmish Tibeto-Burman language (Burling 1967).3 In lan­ guages that have tone systems , one or several of the tones may undergo a split conditioned by syllable-initials without all of the tones sp lit­ ting; in such a case , the tone system may also be further rearranged, possibly by mergers . This last kind of process , conditioned split of some tones, is particularly frequent in Central Loloish languages . The basic conditioning factors are similar : voiced initials condition lower-pitched tones, and voiceless initials, especially glottalized or unaspirated, condition higher-pitched tones. The deve lopment of contour conditioned by syllable-finals is not as universal as the developments conditioned by initials, but it is fre­ quently encountered. Haudricourt (1954) suggests that the two processes comb ined to produce the six tones of most dialects of Vietnamese . Mat isoff (1970) gives a clear example of the development of a rising PROTO-LOLOISH TONES 3 4 tone in Lahu conditioned by a final glottal-stop. Fewer changes con- ditioned by finals would in any case be predictable, as there are us­ ually fewer oppositions in final position. Other processes of tonogenesis are likely to occur only in languages that already have tone systems . These are called rearrangement above. Some such processes are discrete; others may be continuous. The most spectacular discrete process is flip-flop : two or more tones exchange phonetic values ; Hashimoto (1972) cites some examples from Chinese. Brown (1965) attempts to explain flip-flop as an art iculatory process. Another possibility is hopping : one tone 's phonetic value changes to a value opposite to that it previously had relative to another tone, without the other tone undergoing a change . 5 Baron (1975) cites some examples, again from Chinese. One subtype of tone sandhi may also be discrete : in a specific environment , often determined by the tones of adj acent syllables, a particular tone has a phonetic value unlike its own realization elsewhere , but identical or similar to the realization of another tone.6 Continuous tonal rearrangement processes are less unlike develop­ ment s in segmental phonology. There is assimilat ion; there are chain shifts within a contlnuously variable range of pitch; and there are changes in the direction of ease of articulation . Assimilat ion changes are also called tone sandhi in Asia, but the word 'spreading ' could in­ stead be borrowed from African linguistic usage : a tone become s more similar to an adj acent tone . Ballard (19 73, 1975) gives examp les of both progressive and regressive spreading, again from Chinese . Chain shifts usually occur a6�e� another process, often discrete or univer­ sal , has caused instability in the tone syst em. Part of the instab il­ ity may be resolved by me rgers of tones with similar realizations , but . Loloish data provide several instances , different in detail.