Contour tones from lost syllables in Central Tibetan

• Main Author: Delancey, Scott
• Other Authors: University of Oregon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Arts and Humanities
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/179190
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

A recent paper by Mazaudon and Michailovsky (1989) describes the origins of contour tones in Dzongkha Tibetan through a mechanism rather unusual for Asian languages. In Asian languages we are accustomed to seeing contour tones develop concurrent with a reduction in the number of distinctions among syllable codas. In Dzongkha, however, falling tone in a number of forms reflects loss of a second syllable, with the contour representing coalescence of what were originally distinct pitch specifications on separate syllables. As Mazaudon and Michailovsky point out. it is interesting that while both Dzongkha and Central Tibetan have developed contour tones, they have done so by quite distinct mechanisms: the Central Tibetan falling tone originates in glottalization of the nucleus which reflects lost glottalized obstruent syllable codas, while a major source of Dzongkha falling tones is the loss of an entire syllable.