Tonal reassociation and rising tonal contours in Naxi
Western Naxi has three tones (High, Mid and Low) plus a more recent rising contour tone. The first part of the article describes the synchronic process whereby the reduction of a morpheme carrying a High tone results in re-association of its tone to the preceding syllable, creating a rising contour....
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2024
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/177945 |
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| Institution: | Nanyang Technological University |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | Western Naxi has three tones (High, Mid and Low) plus a more recent rising contour tone. The first part of the article describes the synchronic process whereby the reduction of a morpheme carrying a High tone results in re-association of its tone to the preceding syllable, creating a rising contour. The second part presents the lexical items that carry a rising tone: ‘native’ words carrying a rising contour tone point to the use of High-tone addition in possessive constructions at an earlier stage. The numerous Chinese loanwords with rising tone are probably not the origin of the rising tone of Naxi; they arguably led to the consolidation of a pre-existing rising-tone category. |
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