Studies in Asian
Geolinguistics
VII

ILCAA Joint Research Project 2015 - 2017 “Studies in Asian Geolinguistics”
Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Studies in Asian Geolinguistics VII“Tone and Accent”
Report of ILCAA Joint Research Project 2015–2017“Studies in Asian Geolinguistics”
First published 2017
Edited by Mitsuaki Endo
Copyright © 2017 Individual Contributors

ISBN 987-4-86337-267-2
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Table of Contents

Tone and Accent in Asian Languages
Ryo MATSUMOTO, Tone/Accent in Uralic and Tungusic …………………………………………… 01
Yoshio SAITÔ, Accent in Mongolic and Turkic
Hidetoshi SHIRAISHI, Accent in Nivkh……………………………………………………… 03……………………………………………………………… 05

Mika FUKAZAWA, Accent in Ainu …………………………………………………………………… 07
Kenji YAGI, Tone in Sinitic (Monosyllabic forms) …………………………………………………… 09
Kazue IWASA, Hiroyuki SUZUKI, Keita KURABE, Shiho EBIHARA, Satoko SHIRAI,
and Ikuko MATSUSE, Tone and accent in Tibeto-Burman ………………………………………… 13
Yoshihisa TAGUCHI, Tone in Hmong-Mien………………………………………………………… 20

Mitsuaki ENDO, Tone in Tai-Kadai …………………………………………………………………… 22
Masaaki SHIMIZU, Tone and Register in Austroasiatic ……………………………………………… 26
Yoichi NAGATO, Accent in Arabic Languages……………………………………………………… 28

Cumulative Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………… 30
ArticlesShinsuke KISHIE, Yukichi SHIMIZU,Yukako SAKOGUCHI, and Nanami SHIOKAWA, Accent in Japanese……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 32
Rei FUKUI, An overview of the accent/tone systems found in Korean dialects ……………………… 36
Hiroyuki SUZUKI, Suprasegmentals in Tibetic Languages of the Eastern Tibetosphere: From a
Geolinguistic Perspective………………………………………………………………………… 41

Hiroyuki SUZUKI, Additional remarks on ‘sun’ in Yangthang Tibetan: gnam lha and nangs lha …… 50
Masaki NOHARA, Preliminary report on the reconstruction of the word “iron” in Old Chinese Phonology……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 52
Tsering Samdrup and Hiroyuki SUZUKI, Migration History and tsowa Divisions as a Supplemental
Approach to Dialectology in Amdo Tibetan: A Case Study on Mangra County ………………… 57
Ray IWATA, Typology of Chinese Tone Sandhi and its Historical Implication ……………………… 66

Cover photo:https://pixabay.com/en/statues-art-gardeners-sculpture-2567800/

Tone/Accent in Uralic and Tungusic1

area of Uralic family) have other types, not type A. For

Ryo MATSUMOTO

example,• Udmurt: on the last syllable (B1)

1. What is “fixed-accent”• Hill Mari: on penultima syllable (B3)

Most of Uralic and Tungusic languages have a fixed• Meadow Mari: on any syllable (C)óylǝš “he told”, oylém “I talk”, oylǝmáš “story”

accent system in word domains. Table 1 shows theambiguity of the term a “fixed-accent”.

• Mordvin (Moksha): basicaly on the first syllable, but on
the second syllable with a when the first syllable
contains i/u (A2)

The accent is
1)
I.
II.

fixed

lúwoms “to count”,

2) movable in the inflection

isá “willow”,

árams “to stand”

kundáms “to grasp”

in each word

a. YES

ex. Russian= distinctiveb. NO

ex. Japanese

in one typea. YES

ex. Turkish

3. Tungusic Languages= structural

b. NO

ex. Finnish

The accent types of all Tungusic languages are classified

table 1: some types of a fixed-accent

as type B, in which the accent falls basically on the lastSometimes Ib is referred to as the fixed accent in contrast

syllable is pronounced with a relatively strong aspiration

syllable of a word. It is often mentioned that the first
and that the last syllable is accompanied with a musicalwith Ia. Regardless of mobility of accent in the inflection,

intonation (pitch accent).

when the accent appears in a particular syllable stably, it

Ewen and Evenki have the accent fixed on the last syllable,

could be considered as fixed (I, II). Uralic and Tungusic

but if a word contains a long vowel or a consonant cluster,languages have a fixed accent, but they have no distinctive

the accent moves to the long vowel or the vowel before thefeature. It is categorized as type II, and the subtypes A andconsonant cluster (B2). For example2,

B are distinguished as below:- word without long vowels

A – Accent falls on the first syllable of a wordbirá «river», orón «reindeer», oyó «up, above»

B – Accent falls on the last syllable of a word

- accent will move to 1. long vowels

The subgroups of each types, which are shown in the Map1,

asī́ “now”, ṓǰaran “he makes”

are as bellow:

if there are two (and more) long vowels, on the last one

A1 – In principle the accent on the first syllable is fixed.

nǝ̄ čǝ̄ ́ n “he put”, mōlā́ “to a tree”
2. vowels before the consonant cluster

A2 – There is the tendency that the accent falls on thefirst syllable, and other few types are also observed.

úllǝ “meat”, hùktíktǝčǝ̄ ́ n “he run around”

B1 – Always on the last syllable.

4. Accent types in Siberia

B2 – Basically the accent falls on the last syllable, but

Uralic languages might have had the first-syllable-accent

long vowels attract the accent on itself. Therefore

system originally as in the western area, but in the southern

the accent can be movable.

area, where the contact with Turkic languages is observed,
the change into the other types occurred. And in the eastern

2. Uralic Languages

area –around the Ural- the accent could move to otherAccent types of Uralic languages could be classified in asyllables in a certain condition such as long vowels, as infew types. Basically, accent falls on the first syllable with a

the Tungusic languages.

strong stress, and sometimes with a high pitch or even

Tungusic accent patterns are similar to the Altaic

pronounced a little bit longer.

languages, which have the last-syllable-accent type.

In the west area, such as Finnish, strictly the first syllable

Grammatical characters, such as the vowel harmony, theis accented – A1 type.

word-formation and the inflection based on suffixing,

Permic and Mari-Mordivinic languages (rather in south

should be considered together for classifying the accent
type and the historical changes.

1

Data and information mainly from Языки народов
СССР III, V (Наука, 1966, 1968)

2

1

cf. Константинова (1964:28-9)

No precise data2

Accent in Mongolic and Turkic

4. Tonogenesis
Although only to a very limited extent, tonogenesis
has taken place in some languages.

1. Mongolic
The Mongolic languages have no contrastive accent,and which syllable is phonetically prominent haslong been a matter of controversy1.

4.1 Mongolic
The Monguor language has developed / has beendeveloping contrastive pitch. According to Kakudô(2012), the Hùzhù-Dōngshān dialect has thefollowing pair of words contrasting in pitch:

Vowel reduction and deletion took place in many
Mongolic languages: Vowels in non-initial syllables
are reduced in the majority of the languages
including Mongol, Oirad, and so on; Vowels in
non-final syllables are reduced in Monguor,
Donxiang, Bonan and Shera Yugur in the Gānsù and
Qīnghǎi provinces. Using this characteristic as acriterion, we classify the languages into two groups2:A) the one with a prominent initial syllable ♦︎ and B)
the other with a prominent final syllable ★.

basɨ
basɨ

Having lost laryngealization (or pharyngealization)
in a series of vowels 4 , Tuvan in South Siberia
developed tonal contrast. It has at least several
pairs of words contrasting in pitch. E.g.:

The phonetic correlate of word-level accent 3 inTurkish is higher pitch, which is normally associatedwith the last syllable in native words. Stress,
although not well predictable, often falls on the firstsyllable, but can be placed on other syllables.

at H “name”
at L “horse”

gelmé
gélme

“not coming”“Do not come!”

bendé
bén de“to me”“I also”

atlar HL
atlar LH

“names”“horses”

Bibliography

There are a small number of words distinguishedby accent. For example, Turkish has pairs of words
as shown below:“evening”“in the evening”“tiger”“cloth”

4.2 Turkic

2. Turkic

akšám
ákšam

HL
LH

Fukumori, Takahiro 福盛貴弘	 (2010) 「トルコ語のアク
セントについて	 [On the Accent in Turkish]」.『言語研究 [Gengo Kenkyu]』137.
Harrison, K. David (2000) Topics in the Phonology
and Morphology of Tuvan. Ph.D dissertation,
Yale University.	
 Johanson, Lars et al. eds. (1998) The Turkic
Languages. Routledge: London and New York.
Kakudô, Masayoshi 角道正佳 (2012)「土族語互助東山
方 言 の 特 徴 [Characteristics of the HùzhùDōngshān Dialect of the Monguor Language]」.	
 But, we count a language like Turkish among
languages with no phonemic accent because thenumber of words distinguished by accent is small.

2011年度ユーラシア言語研究コンソーシアム年次総会[Annual Meeting, Consortium for the Studies ofEurasian Languages, Fiscal year 2011].	
 Nagasaki.	
 Karlsson, Anastasia (2005) Rhythm and Intonationin Halh Mongolian. Lund University.
Saitô, Yoshio 斎藤純男 (2002)「トゥバ語のいわゆる「咽頭化母音」の音響的特徴に関する覚書	
 [Notes on the
Acoustic Characteristics of the So-called“Pharyngealized Vowels” in Tuvan]」.『東京学芸大 学 紀 要 	  第 ２ 部 門 	  [Bulletin of Tokyo Gakugei
University, II]』53.
Svantesson, Jan-Olof, et al. (2005) The Phonology ofMongolian. Oxford University Press.

All Turkic languages are classified here as typeB), i.e. a language with non-contrastive phonetic
accent on the final syllable ●.
3. Distribution and Interpretation
The distribution of languages with initial accent andthose with final one is shown on the map. The
Mongolic languages with non-phonemic final-accent
are distributed only in the Gānsù and Qīnghǎi
regions, where Turkic languages are spoken in theirvicinities.

(Yoshio Saitô)

1

Cf. Karlsson (2005), Svantesson et al. (2005).
The terms “initial” and “final” here are just names for the accent
types, and do not necessary mean that the accent falls on the firstand last syllable of a word respectively.
3
Being different from Mongolic, the place of the accent is notcontroversial in Turkic.
2

4

These are the so-called “pharyngealized vowels,” whose
phonetic characteristics are not fully investigated.

3

The Mongolic-speaking people in the lower
Volga region emigrated from West Mongoliain the 17th century.

♦ AM

Type-A (= initially-accented) Mongolic BM

Type-B (= finally-accented) Mongolic● BT

Type-B (= finally-accented) Turkic

Map

Accent in Mongolic and Turkic

4second (V2) vowel in a disyllabic word. The
aim of this study was to investigate
vulnerability to stress-dependent vowel
harmony (Barnes 2006) per dialect, which
could be inferred from the asymmetry induration between V1 and V2. A similar
research on northern Italo-Romance dialects
showed that a too large V1-V2 durational
asymmetry destroyed grounds for vowel
harmony, thereby allowing vowel reduction
to take place (Delucchi 2013).

Accent in Nivkh
1.

General description
Accent in Nivkh is characterized by pitchand duration, though these phonetic
correlates have not been measured
instrumentally until recently. Previous
descriptions were based on impressionistic
observations of fieldworkers, often without aclear distinction between accent andintonation.

2.

Geographical distribution
Most descriptions report accent to fall on
the first syllable, but in some words and caseson the second or third syllable. On closer
examination, however, it appears that thelatter often includes cases of specificintonation contours such as vocative or
imperative, e.g. ʋija
‘Go!’.
Panfilov (1962) and Kreinovich (1979)
report dialectal variation namely, that a sameword may have different location of accent:ˈamamd (Amur) vs. aˈmamt (Sakhalin) ‘towalk’ (Kreinovich 1979: 298). Kreinovich
hypothesizes a diachronic shift of accentfrom the second to the first syllable in Amur,
which led to vowel reduction and deletion insome words, e.g. χaˈsan (Sakhalin) vs. ˈχazə
(Amur) ‘scissors’, kʰɨlˈmɨr (Sakhalin) vs.
ˈkʰɨlms (Amur) ‘navel’.
The second-syllable accent pattern in
Sakhalin could not be verified fromcontemporary speakers of Sakhalin, though.
Tangiku, Tanzina and Nitkuk (2008: 10)
reports that accent falls on the first syllable inthe speech of Sakhalin dialect speakers(2008: 10). A similar description can befound in Hattori (1955) and Austerlitz (1956),
who investigated the Southeast Sakhalin(Poronaisk) dialect.
Shiraishi and Botma (2015) were the firstto conduct acoustic measurements of accentin Nivkh. They collected data from a total of
fifteen speakers from Sakhalin and Amur, andmeasured duration of the first (V1) and the

Spriana 54%

Monteviasco 62%

Vowel reduction

Claro 86%

Stable vowel harmony

Table 1. Durational ratio of unstressed vs. stressed vowels
in northern Italo-Romance dialects (Delucchi 2013)

Unstressed vowel reduction is significant
in Nivkh, but not in every dialect. It isreported to take place in the Amur dialect(see the examples above). In contrast, there is
no report of unstressed vowel reduction in the
Sakhalin dialect. The measurements by
Shiraishi and Botma (2015) were based ondata from Amur and West Sakhalin, the two
dialects with extensive vowel reduction. It is
expected that further measurements of otherdialects provide useful data to examine
correlation between durational asymmetry,
unstressed vowel reduction and vowel
harmony, as in the Italo-Romance dialects.
Dialect & speaker

V1(stressed) –V2(unstressed) ratio

Amur 1 (1946-, female)

73% (17 tokens)

Amur 2 (1935-, female)

54% (41 tokens)

Amur 3 (1939-, female)

70% (34 tokens)

W. Sakhalin 1 (1942-, male)

67% (13 tokens)

W. Sakhalin 2 (1946-, female)

90% (39 tokens)

Table 2. Durational ratio of unstressed vs. stressed vowels
in Nivkh (Shiraishi and Botma 2015). Data obtained
from elicitation tasks in fieldwork from 2014 to 2015.

Keywords: Nivkh, accent, stress-dependent
vowel harmony, unstressed vowel reduction(Hidetoshi Shiraishi)

5

Fig. 1. Durational ratio of unstressed vs. stressed vowels in Nivkh dialects

n

a

n

a

Fig. 2. F0 contour for utterance ˈnana ‘just now’in a sentence ˈnana ˈɨtɨk ʋiʧ ‘My father has justleft’. Speaker ZL (West Sakhalin 2)

Fig. 3. Spectrogram of nana in the same utterance as Fig. 2.1

1

Figures 2 and 3 drawn with Praat version 5.3.03, © Paul Boersma and David Weenink.

6

Accent in Ainu

b. niisah(no) [niːsah] nísap“sudden(ly)”(Tamura 2000: 22)
As in (2), a long vowel on the open first syllable in
Sakhalin often corresponds to a high pitch on the open
first syllable in Hokkaido. However, as in (3), a highpitch may be on the second syllable, even though along vowel is on the first syllable.
(2) Sakhalin
Hokkaido
a. haaciri [haːʧiɾi] hácir“to fall (to theground)”b. heese [heːse]hése“to breathe”
c. miina [miːna]
mína“to laugh”
d. moonah [moːnah] mónak“to be awake”
e. huure [huːɾe]
húre
“red”
(Tamura 2000: 22; Hattori 1967: 743)
(3) Sakhalin
Hokkaido
a. siine [siːni]
siní“to rest”
b. noociw [noːʧiw]
nocíw“star”(Hattori 1967: 741, 742)
Hattori (1967) reconstructs the sound changes
from Proto-Ainu to modern dialects; e.g., (2) and (3a)were reconstructed as (4a) and (4b). He concluded that
Proto-Ainu has the phonological opposition of vowel
length but no opposition of pitch accent, just as the
Sakhalin dialects.
(4) a. *CVVCV, LHL
Sakhalin: CVVCV, HHL
Hokkaido: CV́CV
b. *CVVCVV, LHLL
Sakhalin: CVVCV, HHL
Hokkaido: CVCV́
(c.f. Hattori 1967: 742)
Fukazawa (2017) notes that in the 17th- to 19thcentury Japanese written materials, an open firstsyllable is often written as a long vowel (or adiphthong) with Japanese characters. For example,
although the words for “wind” are reera in Sakhalin
and réra in Hokkaido, the word “連いら” is recorded
as “wind” in “Matsumae no koto 松前の言,” which is
the oldest Japanese manuscript, estimated to date backto the 17th century. Sato (1999: 77) indicates that “連い” /rei/ seems to express the long vowel sound [reː].
This suggests that the Hokkaido dialects also had longvowels at that time since Matsumae is a southwestern
district in Hokkaido.

1. Classification of accent
The Ainu language is one of the indigenous languages
in Japan, spoken throughout Hokkaido, Sakhalin and
the Kuril Islands. It has five vowels, /i, e, a, o, u/, andeleven (or twelve including a glottal stop, /‘/ [ʔ])consonants, /p/ [p, b], /t/ [t, d], /k/ [k, ɡ], /c/ [ʧ, ʦ, ʤ,ʣ], /s/ [ʃ, s], /m/, /n/, /r/ [ɾ], /w/, /y/ [j] and /h/.
The majority of Hokkaido dialects have a pitchaccent, while the Sakhalin dialects have a quantitative
accent, in which vowel length is distinctive (c.f., Chiri
1942, Hattori 1967, Tamura 2000 etc.). The dialects ofSamani, Bihoro, Kushiro and Shizunai in Hokkaido
have no accent (Hattori and Chiri 1960). There are no
audio materials of the dialects in the Kuril Islands, andso it is unknown what kind of accent the dialects had.
We can only surmise it from the materials written bysome explorers around the 19th century1.
A. pitch accent
B. quantitative accent (vowel length)
C. none2. Geographical distribution and interpretation
In Type A of many Hokkaido dialects, “the rise from
low to high is distinctive,” and “the syllables before
this rise are all low, and the syllables following it
gradually fall with a certain degree of regularity”(Tamura 2000: 21). When the first syllable is open in aword with more than one syllable, the high pitch falls
on the second syllable2, e.g., ahún, LH, for “enter.”
When the first syllable is closed, the high pitch falls
on the first syllable, e.g., wákka, HL, for “water.”
Aside from these patterns, the accentual nucleus may
in some cases be on the open first syllable.
In Type B, Sakhalin dialects have long vowels that
correspond with the accent nucleus on the syllable in
Hokkaido. (1) shows the minimal pairs that differ inpitch accent (Hokkaido) and quantitative accent(Sakhalin). The codas /-p, -t, -k/ in Hokkaido havehistorically changed to /-h/1 in most Sakhalin dialects,
and /-r/ in Hokkaido has changed to /-h/ or /-rV/ in
Sakhalin.
(1) Sakhalin
Hokkaido
a. nisah [nisah]nisáp“shin”

Keywords: pitch accent, quantitative accent, vowel
length(Mika Fukazawa,
Preparatory Office for National Ainu Museum)

Murayama (1971) compiled the written materials ofnorthern Kuril Ainu.
2
The Yakumo and Oshamanbe dialects in Hokkaido
have a high pitch on the third syllable.
17

Map. Accent in Ainu

A. pitch accent
B. quantitative accent (vowel length)
C. none8

Tone in Sinitic (Monosyllabic forms)

Hashimoto (1978) indicated that the number of tones
gradually decrease from south to north in China. This
viewpoint is confirmed in Map 1a. Although Hashimoto’s

1. Classification
Most of the monosyllabic tones of Chinesedialects are considered as evolved from Middle
Chinese (known by Qieyun 切韻 AD 601). Based on“four tones” (Ping, Shang, Qu, and Ru), onset or
rhyme conditions caused splits or merges of the tone.
Qing Zhuo 清濁 contrast (voiced or voiceless) ofonsets caused Yin and Yang tone split; therefore mostdialects, except for Wu or Xiang dialects, sufferedlosses of this onset contrast (devoicing of onsets). On
the other hand, in many of the Northern dialects, Ru
tone (checked syllable) merged into some other tone(slack syllable). The merging of Zhuo-Shang tone into
Qu tone also occurred in all the Northern dialects. In
addition, aspirated or unaspirated contrast of onsets, orsome vowel or final conditions also caused tone splits.
The map of the numbers of tone categories in
Chinese was already drawn by 曹 志 耘 (2008);
however, the map treats phonetical tone, without
considering its relationship with segmental features.
Qing Zhuo onset contrast or syllable manner contrast
often forms tonal complementary distribution, and thephonological interpretation can influence the numberof tones; therefor a phonological tone map is needed.
The phonological tone numbers are as follows.
For example, in Chongming 崇明, the following eightphonetical tones are reported; (1)Yin Ping [55], (2)Yang Ping [24], (3) Yin Shang [435], (4)Yang Shang[241], (5) Yin Qu [33] (6) Yang Qu [213], (7) Yin Ru[5] , and (8) Yang Ru [2] 张惠英（2009). Yin tones (1,3, 5, 7) only have voiceless onsets, whereas Yang tone
(2, 4, 6, 8) only have voiced onsets; therefore, Yin andYang tones form a complementary distribution. As
such, there are presently four phonological tones. In
addition, all the syllables of Ru tones (7, 8) haveglottal stop endings, therefore, Ru tones and the othertones (Ping: 1, 2; Shang: 3, 4; Qu: 5, 6) also form acomplementary distribution. As a result, Chongming
dialect is interpreted to have three phonological tones.
In our map, the maximum value of thephonological tones is six, in which 76 places have thisvalue. The minimum number is one phonological tone,
and only three places have this. The most widelydistributed in China is four tones (1366 places),
followed by three tones (367 places), five tones (216places) and two tones (13 places).
2. Geographical distribution and interpretation

idea was based on the number of phonetical tones, thistendency also can be found in the map of phonological tones(Map 2a). In the northern area, three tones or four tones arewidely distributed, whereas five tones or six tones are mainly
distributed in the southern area.
The most important difference between the distributionof phonological tones and phonetical tones is found in the
middle to lower reaches of Changjiang river basin, thedistribution area of Wu or Xiang dialect. They possess
voiced onsets or Ru tone, therefore their phonological tone
numbers tend to be smaller than the phonetical tone numbers.
For example, Cixi 慈渓 dialect only has one phonologicaltone (岩田 2001). Around Cixi, two phonological tone
dialects are distributed, and three phonological tone dialects
are distributed rather widely. Therefore, it is true that thewide merging of tones is happening, especially in Wu
dialects; however, the manner of the merging is not always
identical even in this small area.
In the map of phonetical tones, the widest tone
simplification is found in Gansu Province, and one
phonetical tone dialect (Tianzhu 天祝) is distributed here.
Cixi and Tianzhu are remote, uncontinuously distributed, so
the tone simplification is progressing independently.
However, tone simplification in the Changjiang basin may
have been influenced by the northern dialect in a broad sense

Map 1a. Numbers of phonetical tones
In the northern area, Shanxi dialects often include the
Ru tone, and the number of phonetical tones tends to belarger than phonological numbers; therefore, the tendency of
tone merging is rather clear in the map of phonological tones.
Tone merging is progressing in parallel in the northern area.

Keywords: Phonological tone, Tone simplification.
(Kenji Yagi)

9

Map1b: Numbers of phonetical tones (whole)

Map 1c: Numbers of phonetical tones (central part)10

Map 1d: Numbers of phonetical tones (southern part)Map 2a: Numbers of phonological tones (whole)11

Map 2b: Numbers of phonological tones (northwestern part)Map 2c: Numbers of phonological tones (central part)12

Tone and accent in Tibeto-Burman

A-3 Pitch accent (PA)
Qiangic (Q): Darmdo Minyag, Tshobdun rGyalong,
Mianchi Southern Qiang, etc.
A-4 Stress accent (SA)Qiangic (Q): Yadu Northern Qiang, Lavrung, etc.
Kiranti: Belhare.
A-5 Register2 (RG)
Tibetic (T): Braggamnang Tibetan, Khaba Tibetan,
Wangtshang Kalo Tibetan, Babzo Tibetan, etc.
A-6 No tone/No accent (NT/NA)
Qiangic (Q): Daofu sTau, Geshitsa sTau, etc.
Kiranti: Hayu, Camling, Wambule Rai.
Bodish: Tshangla, etc.
Tibetic (T): Chabcha Tibetan, Themchen Tibetan,
Tongren Tibetan, etc.
Bodo-Garo (BG): Garo.
Tani: Pasi-Padam, Tagin.
Tamangic (TGTM): Chantyal.
Newar: Kathmandu Newar, Patan Newar, etc.

1. Classification of tone and accent
Our data is based on 525 Tibeto-Burman (TB)
languages and dialects for the classification of tone
and/or accent system.
In addition, 447 TB languages and dialects areanalysed to determine if there is a correlation between
tone, accent and phonation. However, we should notethat describing phonation tends to entail reliance on
whether this matter is so conspicuous that a scholar
would focus on and record this phenomenon,
particularly when phonation is phonetically observedin a language. In consideration of this point, alllanguages and dialects with no description ofphonation in our resources are uniformly omitted.
It is inevitable that our results and maps are heavily
influenced by the data that we have referenced
because the diversity of our results and maps arises
from the descriptions and analyses of various scholars,as in the case of Qiangic languages: many scholars
have used different methods as the basis for theirdescriptions.
A. Plain patterns of tone and accent system
A-1 Syllable tone (ST)
Lolo-Burmese (LB): Axi, Sani, Lahu, Lisu, Jinuo,
Lahu, Mpi, Bisu, Burmese, Achang, Atsi, etc.
Tibetic (T): Pema, Dzongkha Tibetan, gTsangbawa
Tibetan, Jiuyuanzhai Tibetan, etc.
Qiangic (Q): Longxi Southern Qiang, Queyu,
Southern nDrapa, Muya, Prinmi, etc.
Kuki-Chin (KC): Asho, Falam Lai, Mara, Mizo,
Tiddim, Khumi, etc.
Bodo-Garo (BG): Boro, Usoi.
Karenic: Bwe, Kayan, Paku, Pwo, Madu, etc.
Jingpho-Luish (JL): Cak, Ganan, Kadu, Jingpo, etc.
Nungic: Dulong, Rawang, Trung, etc.
Central Naga (CN): Mongseng Ao, Lotha, etc.
Northern Naga (NN): Nocte, Tangsa, Phom, etc.
Bai: Bai.
A-2 Word tone (WT)
Qiangic (Q): nDrapa, Ersu, sTau, Geshitsa, etc.
Tamangic (TGTM): Nar-Phu, Eastern Tamang,
Gurung, etc.
Tibetic (T): sGertse Tibetan, Lhasa Tibetan, etc.
Bodo-Garo (BG): Meche1.

All aforementioned categories consist of subdivisions,e.g. tonal and accentual systems or word tone andregister.
Emergence of tone or accent, even if unstable, isalso observed in 4 non-tonal or non-accentual
prominent languages and dialects (Types B-7, 8 and 9).
See the following section for more details.
B. Hybrid patterns of tone and accent system
B-1 ST+PA: Puxi sTodsde/Shangzhai (Q).
B-2 ST+SA: Yi Northern (LB), Jiaomuzu Situ (Q).
B-3 WT+SA: Lizu (Eastern Ersu) (Q), Lhagang
Choyu (T), Choyu (T).
B-4 WT+RG: Khromtshang Tibetan (T).
B-5 PA+WT: Tshobdun rGyalrong (Q).
B-6 PA+ST: Mianchi Southern Qiang (Q).
B-7 NT/NA+ST: Qianxi Guiqiong (Q).
Tone is distinctive only when initial consonants arevoiced.
B-8 NT/NA+WT: Kurtöp (Bodish).
Tone is contrastive on the first syllable following
certain consonants.
B-9 NT/NA+SA: Japhug rGyalrong (Q) andbased on this information. However, of course, any errors
or inadequacies in this paper are entirely our own.
2
According to Suzuki (2015), register means a certain state
between ‘pitch contrast’ and ‘phonation contrast’. In thispaper, register is set as an independent classification,
respecting his notion and analysis. See Suzuki (2015) for
details.

1

According to Kiryu (2012), Meche may be considered to
be tonal. At present, we tentatively categorise it as WT

13

C-13 WT+NP
Q: Mulan Situ, nDrapa, Ersu, etc.
C-14 WT+SA+NP
Q: Lhagang Choyu, Choyu
C-15 PA+NP
Q: Darmdo Minyag.
C-16 NT/NA+NP
T: Chabcha Tibetan, Xiahe Tibetan, Tongren
Tibetan, Nurla Tibetan, etc.
Newar: Kathmandu Newar, Patan Newar, etc.

Chantyal (TGTM).
Japhug rGyalrong displays an irregular word stresspattern.
Due to the significant influence of Nepali, Chantyal
is undergoing the loss of the tonal system, and thestress accent is distinctive in the borrowed Nepali
vocabulary (Noonan and Hildebrandt 2017a: 496).
C. Tone/accent + phonation patterns
Patterns with phonologically distinctive phonation
are expressed as YL, whereas patterns withphonetically observed phonation is expressed as YT.
YC refers to patterns with phonation influenced byinitial consonants. NP stands for no phonation
pattern.

2. Geographical distribution and interpretation
Tonal languages and dialects are spread around
Lijiang, which functions as their centre, whereas thosewith neither tone nor accent are scattered along theHimalayas.
Along the line from Muli to Northern Assam via
Lijiang, word-tonal languages and dialects (WT) aresplit from syllable-tonal languages and dialects (ST).
Around the area between Chengdu and Lanzhou,
Tibetan dialects with register system (RG) are heavily
concentrated.
As for the distribution of the languages anddialects with or without phonation, phonation
languages and non-phonation languages are divided
along the line Muli-Lijiang-Western Myanmar, as
seen on the maps. This situation corresponds to the
distribution of WT and ST languages. Clearly,
languages and dialects with syllable tone tend to havephonation either phonetically or phonologically, atleast within TB languages.
Maps concerning tone, accent and phonation also
indicate that tonal languages have apparently muchhigher affinity for coexistence with phonation. It is
plausible that phonation is one of the promising
triggers of tonogenesis in this area.
There seems to be an area-related co-influence
between languages with YT and those with YL.
Notably, Qiangic languages exhibit great diversity
in tone and accent systems as well as hybrid patterns
related to phonation despite various descriptions andabundant studies on these languages.
Although tone and accent systems seem to be a
genetic feature in TB languages, as revealed byexamination of the aforementioned maps, it is difficult
to establish their chronological order for the following
reasons:
In TB languages, a phonological system of tone
and accent has arisen cyclically. For example,

C-1 ST+YL
LB: Lisu, Hani, Azha, Atsi, Langsu, etc.
Q: Muya.
JL: Jingpo.
Karenic: Kayan, Zayein.
CN: Mongseng Ao.
C-2 ST+SA+YL
LB: Yi Northern.
C-3 NT/NA+ST+YL
Q: Qianxi Guiqiong.
C-4 ST+YT
LB: Arakanese, Burmese, etc.
Q: Longxi Southern Qiang, Qinghua Southern
Prinmi.
Karenic: Bwe, Eastern Kayah Li, Geba, Pwo.
JL: Cak, Kadu, Jinghpaw.
C-5 WT+YT
TGTM: Gurung, Tamang.
C-6 PA+ST+YT
Q: Mianchi Southern Qiang.
C-7 RG+YC
T: Braggamnang Tibetan, mBridzi Tibetan, etc.
C-8 WT+RG+YC
T: Khromtshang Tibetan.
C-9 NT/NA+YC
T: dGonpa Tibetan, Ongsum Tibetan, etc.
C-10 ST+NP
LB: Yi Eastern, Yi Southern, Lahu, Jinuo, etc.
T: Pema, Dzongkha Tibetan, Tielou Tibetan, etc.
Q: Queyu, Southern nDrapa, etc.
C-11 ST+PA+NP
Q: Puxi sTodsde/Shangzhai.
C-12 ST+SA+NP
Q: Jiaomuzu Situ.

14Chantyal (TGTM: Noonan and Hildebrandt 2017a) is
said to have lost its tonal system under the tremendous
influence of Nepali loanwords, while other Tamangic
languages retain their tonal systems. Similarly, Garo
(BG) is also considered to have lost its tonal system,
preserving only the glottal stop associated with thehigh tones of other BG languages, such as Tiwa,
Rabha, Boro and Kokborok, whereas these languages
still hold their tonal system (Joseph, U.V. and Burling
Robbins. 2001).
Hence, if a phonological system of tone and accentis cyclical, as demonstrated by the previously
discussed examples, it is an arduous task to decide
which system comes first within TB languages bysimply looking at these languages’ synchronic state on
the maps. In other words, it is essential to clarify
historical orders within every single branch before
tackling the issue of the chronological order within the
TB language family.
However, the maps reveal clear regionaltendencies concerning the tone and accent systems of
TB languages. Whenever there is a seemingly
exceptional case in a certain language branch, themaps may suggest if it were caused by language
contact or its own evolution.

(Kazue Iwasa, H. Suzuki, K. Kurabe, S. Ebihara,
S. Shirai, I. Matsuse)

15

Map 1: Tone and accent in Tibeto-Burman, the whole area
Legends:

16

Map 2: Tone and accent in Tibeto-Burman, enlarged
N.B. All the symbols are identical to those displayed in the legends of the previous
page.

17

Map 3: Tone/Accent + Phonation patterns, the whole area
Legends:

18

Map 4: Tone/Accent + Phonation patterns, enlarged
N.B. All the symbols are identical to those displayed in the legends of the previous
page.

19

Tone in Hmong-Mien

2-c: Tone *A, *B, and *C split
2-d: Tone *A, *C, and *D split
2-e: All the proto-tones split through devoicing

1. Classification of word forms
All the lects belonging to Hmong-Mien language family
are tone languages. Proto-Hmong-Mien has beenreconstructed with four proto-tone categories (Purnell
1970, Ratliff 2010). They are designated by one of the tonemarks: *A, *B, *C, and *D (see Table 1). In most HmongMien lects, each proto-tone splits into two throughdevoicing of initials (Tone-split 1). We mark the tones withthe convention that the tone of the syllable with the original
voiceless stop (-v in Table 1) is designated by adding 1,
whereas the tone of the syllable with the original voicedstop (+v in Table 1) is designated by adding 2 to the prototone marks. In some lects, each tone marked with 1, i.e.,
A1, B1, C1, and D1, further splits into two through deaspiration of initials (Tone-split 2). Note that there is nocontrast in terms of aspiration in the original voiced initials.
We mark these tones with the convention that the tone of
the syllable with the original aspirated stop (+a in Table 2)
is designated by adding an apostrophe. These two types oftone-split are widely observed in East Asia and Southeast
Asia, including Sinitic, Tai-Kadai, and some AustroAsiatic.

Type 3: Tone-split 1 and Tone-split 2 are observed
It is remarkable that there is a conservative group of lects,
Type 1, which indicates no tone-split, preserving the four
proto-tone system. Almost all the lects in Sinitic, Tai-Kadai,and Austro-Asiatic that have a tone system experiencesome kind of tone-split. The existence of this type indicates
that, as we mentioned earlier, the proto-Hmong-Mien has
not experienced tone-split. The Luobohe Miao lects
belonging to West Hmongic constitute this type. Type 2 isthe group where only Tone-split 1 occurred. More than
80% of the Hmong-Mien lects belong to this type. There
are several subgroups here depending on which tone
categories split. Around 64% of the lects belong to Type 2e, where all the tone categories split. Type 3 includes all thelects that experience Tone-split 2. There is no subgrouphere because all the tone categories split through deaspiration in this type. Note also that no single lect is foundwhich only exhibit the effect of Tone-split 2 without
exhibiting the effect of Tone-split 1.
2. Geographical distribution and interpretation
Type 2-e has the widest geographical distribution.
Since the conservative lects preserving the proto-tonesystem is positioned within one of the Hmongic branches
while most lects experience Tone-split 1, we must
conclude that the tone-split occurred after lectal
diversification in Hmongic. It might be the result of
language contact with another language family, possibly
Sinitic. Type 3 is distributed in the southern part of the
Hmong-Mien area. This distribution might suggest thecontact origin of Type 3, since tone-split through deaspiration of initials is also witnessed in Tai-Kadai
languages, most of which are distributed to the south of
Hmong-Mien. This remains to be further studied.

Table 1 Tone-split 1

*A

*B

*C

*D

-v

+v

-v

+v

-v

+v

-v

+v

A1

A2

B1

B2

C1

C2

D1

D2

Table 2 Tone-split 2 (only the case of *A is indicated)

*A
-v
-a

+a
A1

A1

A1’

+v

A2

References
Purnell, Herbert, C. 1970. Toward a Reconstruction ofProto-Miao-Yao. PhD dissertation, Cornell University.
Ratliff, Martha. 2010. Hmong-Mien language history.
Canberra, Australia: Pacific Linguistics, Research Schoolof Pacific and Asian Studies, in association with the Centre
for Research on Language Change, the Australian National
University.

We group the tone systems of the modern HmongMien languages into three types:
Type 1: No tone-split is observed.
Type 2: Only Tone-split 1 is observed.
2-a: Only Tone *A splits
2-b: Only Tone *D splits

20






Type1: No tone-splits

Type 2-a: Only Tone A splits through devoicing

Type 2-b: Only Tone D splits through devoicing

Type 2-c: Tone A, B, and C split through devoicing

Type 2-d: Tone A, C, and D split through devoicing

Type 2-e: All the proto-tones split through devoicing

Type 3: Tone-split 1 and Tone-split 2 are observed

21

Tone in Tai-Kadai
G: Tone B shows no distinction and C1=C2

1. Classification of the tonal types
There are 9 major types concerning Tai-Kadai tone:
A: Proto typeA
B
C
D
There were 4 tones in Proto Tai-Kadai (Li 1977).
Tone D occurs only in the syllables ending with -p, -t,-k, or -ʔ. The modern orthography of Siamese
succeeds to the notation of tones in the Ram
Khamhaeng Inscription (1292), the oldest document of
Tai-Kadai: tone A is without a tone mark, tone B has atone 1 mark and tone C, a tone 2 mark..
B: Split caused by initial consonants
H, M
L

A1
A2

B1
B2

C1
C2

A1
A2

B1
B2

C1
C2

A1
A2

B1
B2

C1
C2

D1L
D2L

H
M
L

D1S
D2S

C1’
C1

D1L’
D1L

D1S’
D1S

L
A2
B2
F: C1 and C2 are identical

C2

D2L

D2S

H

A1’

B1’

C1’

D1L’

D1S’

M
L

A1
A2

B1
B2

C1=
C2

D1L
D2L

D1S
D2S

C1’

D1L’

D1S’

C1=
C2

D1L

D1S

D2L

D2S

A1’
A1
=
A2

B1

C1=
B2

D1L

D1S

B2
=C1

C2

D2L

D2S

A1’
A1
=
A2

=B1

C1

B2=C2

D1L
=
D2L

D1S
D2S

2. Geographical distribution and interpretation
Type A is seen in some dialects of Hlai in the
Hainan island. However, the tonal correspondence rule
between Hlai and Tai is still problematic.
Type B is seen in some dialects of Hlai, Zhuang,
and Buyi. Logically speaking, Type B should beearlier than type C. However, it is possible that somedialects experienced mergers after the next stage, as
seen in type C.
Type C is the most dominant among Tai-Kadai; it
occupies 132 out of 318 places. It is distributed in the
inner area among Zhuang and Buyi, while type B is
distributed in the outer area. They show a peripheral
distribution in China. However, type C is also locatedin Northern Thailand and Myanmar.
The
mosttypical Type D as
shown in thechart above isfound in the
Kam(Dong)
dialects. Map 4shows the Dong
dialects.
Aspirated initials
disappeared in
the places with a      Map 4. Kam dialects    green wave mark,

D1S
D2S

A1’=B1’
A1=B1

A2

B1’=
B1=
B2

I: Sakon Nakhon and Wanonniwat dialects in
Thailand

There are subcategories in which this split is seen
partially, where tone A is the most commonly
distinguished among dialects.
E: Merger between A1’ and B1’, A1 and B1
H
M

L

L

Note that tones are described with numbers in China,
and the corresponding rule is as follows: 1-A1, 2-A2,
3-C1, 4-C2, 5-B1, 6-B2, 7-D1S, 8-D1L, 9-D2S,
10-D2L, respectively.
D: Split conditioned by aspirated initial consonants
H
A1’
B1’
C1’ D1L’ D1S’
M
L

A1

H
M

D1
D2

D1L
D2L

A1’

H: Bangkok dialect
A1 and A2 are identical, B2 and C1 merged
together:Devoicing of the initial consonants caused ahigher/lower distinction of each tone (as shown above),which is comparable to the yin/yang distinction in
Chinese. "H" stands for "high", i.e. aspirated voicelessinitial consonants which appear to have higher pitch in
the A tone of modern standard Siamese. "M" stands
for "Mid", i.e. unaspirated voiceless initial consonants.
"L" stands for "Low", i.e. voiced initial consonants inProto-Tai.
C: Split of tone D conditioned by Long/Shortvowels
H, M
L

H
M

22

and red balloons are the dialects in which tones
causedby aspirated initials exist. Both features exist in
the same places. The grey balloons denote thosedialects in which the tonal split caused by aspiration
exists partially. The white balloons denote the dialects
in which no tonal split caused by aspiration occurred.
In type D, there are 9 tonemes for tones A, B, and C,
and 6 tonemes for tone D, so Chinese scholars treat
them as having 15 tones. However, the 6 tonemes
which appeared in tone D have complementary
distribution within the 9 tonemes of tones A, B, and C.
Type E is distributed in Southern Thailand. In thistype, the mergers between A1’ and B1’, A1 and B1
occurred respectively.
Type F is distributed in northeastern Thailand andLaos. Type G is basically surrounded by type F. In thistype, tone B shows no H/M/L distinction. It is
presumably due to the merger of tones B1', B1, and
B2.
Type H, to which the Bangkok dialect belongs,
occupies a rather narrow area. Type I, which is locatedin Northeastern Thailand, is another tonal system
which experienced some mergers.
Codas -p, -t, -k of tone D are fairly well kept inalmost all Tai-Kadai dialects. Only one exception isfound in the northwesternmost part of Buyi,
Shuicheng Tianba ( 水 城 田 坝 ), where these
consonants dropped, and tone D1 merged with tone B1,
tone D2 merged with tone B2. This change can beinterpreted as a result of contact with Southwestern
Mandarin there.
In addition, glottal constriction, creaky voice, or
glottal stops are reported to accompany tone C (whichcorresponds to Rising tone in Chinese) mainly as seen
in map 3. This feature is treated as distinctive in Proto
Tai by Gedney (1986), Sagart (1989), and Liang andZhang (1996). Although glottal constriction, creaky, or
glottal stop accompanying tone C in Southwestern Tai
tend to appear with low pitch, which can be of
secondary origin caused by low pitch, there is still aseries of dialects where the pitch pattern of C1 is [44]with glottal constriction as in Phuan (Brown 19651:
83; 19852: 159). This fact is in favor of their theory.

Endo, M. (2015) Geographical Distribution of Tone in
Tai-Kadai, Keizai Kenkyu (Aoyama Gakuin
University), 7, 1-35.
Endo, M. (2016) Geographical Distribution of Tone in
Kam-Sui Branch, In: Yuen Gan (ed.) Cong Beifang
dao Nanfang (From North to South), Beijing:
Kexue Chubanshe. (In Chinese)
Li, F. (1977) A Handbook of Comparative Tai.
Honolulu: The University of Hawaii Press.
Liang, M. and Zhang J. (1996) Introduction to the
Kam-Tai Language Family. Beijing: Zhongguo
Shehui Kexue Chubanshe. (in Chinese)
Sagart, L. (1989) Glottalised Tones in China andSouth-East Asia. Bradley, D. et al eds. Prosodic
Analysis and Asian Linguistics: to honour P. K.
Sprigg, Pacific Linguistics, C-104, 83-93. Canberra:
The Australian National University.
And the other enormous materials for primary sources.
Keywords: tonal split caused by aspiration, glottal
features accompaning to tones, merger of tones(Mitsuaki Endo)

References
Brown, M. (19651, 19852) From Ancient Thai toModern Dialects. Bangkok: Social Science
Association Press of Thailand; Bangkok: White
Lotus.

23

Map 1. Tone types in Tai-Kadai

24

Map 2. Enlarged map in China and Northern Vietnam

Map 3. Tones with glottal constriction, creaky, or glottal stop25

Tone and Register in Austroasiatic

2. Geographical distribution and interpretation
In general, the prosodic features of Austroasiatic
languages, which contain register (phonation type) andtone, are derived from the merger or loss of somesegmental elements, such as the initial contrast ofvoiced/voiceless, the vowel contrast of long/short, andfinal consonants. A. G. Haudricourt (1954) gave atypical model for Vietnamese.
In this map, the Palaungic and Vietic tonal
languages seem to be geographically peripheral, but
the Vietnamese tonal system, in particular, wasundoubtedly derived through contact with Chinese and
Tai-Kadai languages. It is more important to look at
the Palaungic Lawa and the Bahnaric Loven, Brao,and Stieng, etc., which preserve the voiced andvoiceless contrast in initials. Between them are theKatuic, Khmeric, Monic, and Pearic languages, whichdeveloped register contrast. In that sense, many
Khmuic languages that preserve the contrast of longand short vowels are also quite conservative.
The distribution of the intermediate types of B
(A+E) and D (C+E) is also quite understandable.
The Palaungic development of tones and registers
is also understood in terms of contact with the
Sino-Tibetan languages in nearby areas.

1. Types of prosodic and non-prosodic features
This map shows 5 phonological featuresconcerning the prosodic elements of Austroasiatic
languages: voiced/voiceless contrast in initialconsonants, long/short contrast in vowels, registeralcontrasts, restructuring of vowels, and tonal contrasts.
A. Voiced/voiceless contrast in initial consonants
Bahnaric: Brao, Loven, Stieng
Palaungic: Lawa
B. Initial contrast and registers
Bahnaric: Alak, Tampuon
Katuic: Ngeq, Souei
Khmuic: Mal
C. Long/short contrast in vowels
Khmuic: Kha Bit, Khmu, Then
D. Vowel contrast and registers
Katuic: Kuy
E. 2-way contrast in register
Bahnaric: Rengao
Katuic: Bru
Khmeric: Chantaburi Khmer
Monic: Burmese Mon, Thai Mon, Nyah Kur
Palaungic: Lamet, Wa (Paraok), etc.
Vietic: Arem
F. 4-way contrast in register
Pearic: Chong
G. Restructuring of vowels (Diphthongization)
Khmeric: Cambodian
H. 2-way contrast in tone
Khmuic: Northern Khmu
Palaungic: Hu, Riang, Va (En)
Vietic: Maleng
I. 3-way contrast in tone
Palaungic: Wa (英腊话)J. 4-way contrast in tone
Palaungic: Blang (勐昂话), U
Vietic: Pong, Sach, Ruc, Vietnamese (Bo Trach,
Tuyen Hoa, Mai Ban Yen Luong)
K. 5-way contrast in tone
Vietic: Muong (Khoi), Nguon (Boc Tho), Southern
Vietnamese
L. 6-way contrast in tone
Vietic: Muong (Hoa Binh), Tho (Cuoi Cham),Northern Vietnamese

Bibliography:
Ferlus, M. (1995) Les systemes de tons dans leslangues viet-muong. 28th International Conferenceon Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics.
Huffman, F. E. (1976) The register problem in fifteen
Mon-Khmer languages. Austroasiatic Studies, Part I.
pp. 575-584.
刘岩 (2006) 孟高棉语声调研究. 中央民族大学出版社.
Svantesson, J. O. (2000) Tonogenesis in Southeast
Asia – Mon-Khmer and beyond. Proceedings of the
Symposium “Cross-Linguistic Studies of Tonal
Phenomena. Tonogenesis, Japanese Accentology,
and Other Topics”
Trần Trí Dõi (2006) Thử giải thich hiện tượng có nămthanh điệu trong một vài phương ngữ Việt. Ngôn
ngữ, 8. pp. 13-21.
Keywords: tone, register, Austroasiatic(Masaaki Shimizu)

26

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L

voiced/voiceless initials,
aspiration, etc.
✓✓

long/shortvowelsregisters(number)diphthongization

tones(number)

✓
✓
✓

✓
(2)
(4)
✓
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)

27

Accent in Arabic languages
1. Classification of accent types
The accent types are classified as follows.

kót.ba‘books’hab.bátt

‘I have knocked’

Maltese (Aquilina 1965)

áx.mar‘red’

sa.ʕítt‘I helped’

Cypriot (Borg 1985)

In Maltese the vowel of stressed open syllable is

A. the penultimate syllable typephonetically long.

A-1. the mádrasa type

ú.wa

A-2. the madrása type[ˈuːwa] ‘he’kbí.ra [ɡbíː.ɾa] ‘big (f)’A-3. the partial lexicalized type

< Ar. hú.wa< Ar. ka.bíː.ra

Maltese and Cypriot have lost the distinction between

B. the Maghreb type

short and long vowels. And the stress has undergone

C. the tone typelexicalization. The originally long vowel in the end ofa word remains being stressed and phonetically long.
ma.rít2. Geographical distribution and interpretation
A. the penultimate syllable typema.ʕákIn Arabic, in general, stress falls on the penultimate
syllable.
mák.tab ‘desk’‘my daughter’

Damascus‘a fish’

Gulf (Holes 1986)‘deep (pl.)’< ʕimáːq

cf. má.ʕak ‘he rubbed’< máʕakCypriot

The Maghreb (Western) dialects have a vowel systemlong vowels ā, ī, ū. And a stress shift has operated
historically which moved the stress to the end of theð̣a.ráb.ni ‘he hit me’word.

And when there is one or more super-heavy syllable

The

form

*CvCvC

becameCCəCvowel. The form *CvCC was also changed to CCəC.

Damascus

ktə́b ‘he wrote’ < kátab
ʕrə́b ‘Arabs’< ʕárab‘I wrote’msaːf.ríːn ‘travelers’‘student (f)’qbə́ṛ ‘grave’A-1. the mádrasa typeC. the tone type

Marocco< qabrSome Arabic dialects in Kenya and Uganda have a

In almost all A-type dialects, if the penultimate

tone system. In Nubi Arabic (Heine 1982) there aresyllable is light (Cv), the antepenultimate is stressed:

two tonemes: high (á) and low (a).

in Damascus, Paletina and Bukhari (Eastern dialect),
Mauritanian (Cohen 1963) (Western dialect),.
Damascusnáhar ‘fire’nahár ‘day’júa ‘house’juá ‘houses’mád.ra.se ‘school

A stress unit is placed on the first high tone syllable.

A-2. the madrása type(Youichi Nagato)

kuwés (ku 'wés) ‘good’, ákulú ( 'á kulú) ‘to eat’In the Cairene and Lower Egypt dialect, the rules aresame as A-1 type but the penultimate light syllable isstressed if the ante-penultimate is a heavy syllable.
The ante-penultimate is a light syllable:ʕá.da.sa ‘lens’Cairo

The antepenultimate is a heavy syllable:
mad.rá.sa ‘school’ᵵaː.lí.baincombination with the elision of a unstressed short(CvːC, CvCC), the last one is stressed.

ʕá.da.se ‘lens’Maltesewith two short vowels ə (< *a, *i) and u, and threebə́n.tismí.ʧaᵵáːl.be< ma.ríːḍ

B. the Maghreb type‘he wrote’ka.tábt‘sick’

Damascus, Cairo

ká.tabmak.túːb ‘letter’[ma.ɾíːt]

sul.tán [sul.táːn] ‘sultan’ < sulṭáːn‘student (f)’A-3. the partial lexicalize type
In Maltese and Cypriot almost all A-type rules remain.

28

A the penultimate syllable type
A-1 the mádrasa type… ………‫ۑ‬

A-2 the madrása type…………‫ۍ‬A-3 the partial lexicalized type…‫ڧ‬

B the Maghreb type………………㸩
C the tone type ……………………

Map of Accent in Arabic

29

Cumulative Bibliography
Nivkh
Austerlitz, Robert (1956). Gilyak nursery words. Word 12: 260–279.
Barnes, Jonathan (2006). Strength and weakness at the interface: Positional neutralization inphonetics and phonology. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Delucchi, Rachele (2013) Vowel harmony and vowel reduction: The case of Swiss Italian dialects. In
Cathcart, Chundra et al. (eds.). Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley
Linguistics Society. 61–75.
Hattori, Takeshi (1955). Giriyakugo [Gilyak]. In. S. Ichikawa and S. Hattori (eds.) Sekai gengo
gaisetsu 2. 751–775. Tokyo: Kenkyusha.
Kreinovich, Eruhim (1979). Nivkhskii iazyk [The Nivkh language]. Iazyki Azii i Afriki 3. 295–329.
Panfilov, Vladimir. (1962). Grammatika nivkhskogo iazyka I. [Nivkh grammar]. Moscow/Leningrad:
Nauka.
Shiraishi, Hidetoshi and Bert Botma (2015). Stress-dependent height harmony in Nivkh. Paper
presented at the Northeast Asia and the North Pacific as a Linguistic Area Workshop,
Hokkaido University, Sapporo, August 20, 2015.
Tangiku, Itsuji, Nadezhda Tanzina and Nina Nitkuk (2008). Basic vocabulary of the Sakhalin dialectof Nivkh language (Nogliki dialect). Tokyo: Institute of languages and cultures of Asia andAfrica, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
Ainu
Chiri, Mashiho. 1942. The study of Ainu grammar: Specially for Sakhalin dialects (アイヌ語法研究：樺太方言を中心として), Collected works of Chiri Mashiho (知里真志保著作集), 3,
1973[1993]. Tokyo: Heibonsha.
Fukazawa, Mika. 2017.

“Wind” in Ainu, Yoshio Saito & Mitsuaki Endo (eds.) Studies in Asian

Geolinguistics, IV -wind-. ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Hattori, Shirô & Mashiho Chiri. 1960. A Lexicostatistic Study on the Ainu Dialects, The
Japanese Journal of Ethnology, 24(4): 31-66. Tokyo: Seibundo Sinkosha.
Hattori, Shirô (ed.). 1964. Ainu Dialect Dictionary (アイヌ語方言辞典), Tokyo: Iwanami
Shoten.
Hattori, Shirô. 1967. Phonological Structure and Accent of Ainu: An Attempt to Reconstruct
Proto-Ainu. The Study of Sounds (音声の研究), 13. Phonetic Society of Japan. reprinted in
2001. Ainugokô (アイヌ語考), 2: 739-755. Yumani Shobou.
Murayama, Shichirô.

1971.

Northern Kuril Ainu (北千島アイヌ語). Tokyo: Yoshikawa

Kobunkan.

30

Nakagawa, Hiroshi 1995. The Ainu-Japanese Dictionary: Chitose Dialect (アイヌ語千歳方
言辞典). Tokyo: Sofukan.
Nakagawa, Hiroshi (ed.). 2014. The Japanese-Ainu Dictionary: Mukawa Dialect (アイヌ語鵡
川 方 言 日 本 語 ・ ア イ ヌ 語 辞 典 ). Chiba: Chiba University. (Available online at
http://cas-chiba.net/Ainu-archives/.)
Okuda, Osami 1999. Ainu Shizunai Dialect Lexicon in Context (with CD-ROM) (アイヌ語静内方言文脈つき語彙集（CD-ROM つき）). Ebetsu: Sapporo Gakuin University.
Satô, Tomomi.

1999. On an Old Ainu Vocabulary “Matsumae no kotoba” of Tenri Central

Library (2). The annual reports on cultural science, 47(4): 53–88. Sapporo: The Faculty of
Letters, Hokkaido University.
Sawai, Harumi. 2006. Ms. Tomeno Sawai's Basic Vocabulary of the Tokachi Dialect of Ainu
(アイヌ語十勝方言の基礎語彙集：本別町・沢井トメノのアイヌ語 ). Sapporo: The
Hokkaido Ainu Culture Research Center.
Tamura, Suzuko. 2000. The Ainu Language. Tokyo: Sanseido.
ArabicAquilina, Joseph (1965), Maltese, a complete course for beginners. NTC Publishing group: Illinois.
Cohen, David (1963), Le dialete arabe Ḥassānīya de Mauritanie (parler de la Gәbla). Librairie C.
Klincksieck: Paris.
Harrell, Richard S. (1962), A Short Reference Grammar of Moroccan Arabic. Georgetown U.P.:
Washington, D.C.
Heine, Bernd (1982), The Nubi language of Kibera - an Arabic Creole. Dietrich Reimer Verlag:
Berlin.
Yoda, Sumikazu（依田純和）(2011), 『アラビア語パレスチナ方言入門』大阪大学出版会: Osaka.

31

Accent in Japaneseis an accent which does not distinguish

Shinsuke Kishie, Yukichi Shimizu,

words by accent. This accent spreads out

Yukako Sakoguchi, Nanami Shiokawa

around Japan. The distribution area iscentral part of Kyushu such as Saga,

Keyword: distribution, accent system,

Nagasaki, Fukuoka, Kumamoto anddialects, distinctive feature, Register,Miyazaki, northern Kanto and thekernelsouthern Tohoku region, Hachijojima,
upstream Oi in Shizuoka prefecture,
Japanese accents, unlike the stress

Fukui city, Ozu city in Ehime prefecture.

accent, such as English, are typical pitch

Accents of Japanese dialects are classified

accent. The Japanese dialects, including

as shown in Fig.2 (Uwano 2012). The

the Tokyo-type accent which is an accent

accents are classified roughly into twosystemtypes, accented and accentless. The groupofstandard

language,

haveof Accented type divide into multi –various types of accent.
Regarding Japanese dialect accent,pattern type and N-pattern type. Bothdetailed investigation has been carried

Tokyo accent and Keihan accent belong toout by many researchers in a lot of places

multi̽pattern type. The location of accent

in Japan. As a result, it became clear what

locas, in other words, accent kernels, iskind of system the accents of the dialects

distinctive feature in both Tokyo andof various places have throughout the

Keihan accent. The difference between

countrythese two accents is whether word initial

excludingthe

Ryukyuhas tonal register or not.

archipelago in Japan. Hirayama (1960)
andKindaichi(1977)

show

According to Uwano (2012), N-

accentdistribution charts of Japanese dialects

pattern accent has three kinds of accents.

and classified dialectal accent. Onepattern

accentsystemsin

Fig.3 Kindaichi,H(1977) shows the

Miyakonojo raise only the last syllable ofnationwide accent distribution chart bywords and phrases. Two pattern accent is

Kindaichi (1977), but it is a map createdmainly distributed in the southwestern

based mainly on Hirayama (1960) andpart

other previous studies. According toKagoshima Nagasaki and so on. In case of

Fig.1, there are 4 kinds of accent type

Kagoshima accent, there is two kinds ofsuch as Tokyo type accent, Keihan typepattern (A, B). In pattern A only theaccent, N type accent, and accentless

second syllable from the final syllable is

type in the Japanese archipelago. The

raised, consequently word endings anddistribution area of Tokyo accent is thephrases always fall. On the other hand,widest from the Kanto region to thefinal syllable is raised in pattern B.

ofKyushudistrictsuch

asnorthern part of Kyushu. The Keihan

The Japanese accents distribution isaccent is distributed around the Kinki

in contrast between East Japan and West

district and most part of Shikoku andJapan. Accent tends to be distributed insome parts of Hokuriku. Accentless typeeastern Japan, whereas Tone tends to be32

distributed in western Japan(Fig.3). In

introduction to Japanese Accent),

the Kinki district where these are

Sanseido,Tokyo.

intersecting, As Fig.3 shows, it is thedeciding factor in discriminating bothAccent and Tone as a register (Hayata
1999).
As above mentioned, there are variety ofsystem of accent and at the same time
distribution of all kinds of accent iscomplicated. But it is not clear how theaccent distribution has formed. It seems
as if it had prohibited from introducing
geo-linguistic methods into the form ofaccentdistribution.

But

see

the

distribution of Keihan accent. It is easy tounderstand how this distribution has
formed.
This distribution would have been formedby the propagation of the Keihan accent.
That

is

why

the

distribution

arecontinuous.
References:
Hirayama Teruo(1960): Zenkoku
Akusento Jiten, Tokyo Do,Tokyo.
Kindaichi Haruhiko(1977): Akusento no
Bunpu to hennsen, Iwanami koza
Nihongo11,Iwanami Shoten,Tokyo.
Uwano Zendo(1989): Nihongo-no
Akusento (Japanese Accent), Nihongoto Nihongo Kyooiku 2, Onsei- On’in 2,
Meiji Shoin, Tokyo.
Uwano Zendo(2012): Three types ofaccent kernels in Japanese, Lingua
122.
Hayata Teruhiro(1999):Onchoo-no
Taiporojii, Taishuukan (The Typology
of Tonal Phenomena), Tokyo.
Kibe Nobuko(2012):Nikei Akusento,
Nihongo Akusento Nyumon(An33

Fig.1

Fig.2    

34

Uwano, Z (2012)

Hayata, T. 1999

Fig.335 

Kindaichi,H 1977

An overview of the accent/tone systems found in Korean dialects
Rei Fukui
fkr@l.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Department of Korean Studies
Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology
The University of Tokyo
1

Introduction

Korean dialects can be divided into two groups in terms of the presence or absence of a distinctive
pitch accent or tone system.
The Seoul dialect and the surrounding Kyŏnggi (京畿) dialects, P’yŏngan (平安) dialects,
Hwanghae (黄海) dialects, most of the Ch’ungch’yŏng (忠清) dialects, west half of the Kangwŏn (江原) dialects and the Cheju (済州) dialect are known for the lack of a distinctive pitch system.
On the contrary, Hamgyŏng (咸鏡) dialects (abbreviated as HG below), Kyŏngsang (慶尚)dialects (abbreviated as KS) are the two typical cases of dialects having a distinctive pitch system. As
for the remaining Chŏlla (全羅道) dialects (abbreviated as CL), opinions differ as to whether or notthey have a distinctive pitch system. While most of the researchers in Korea deny the existence of a
distinctive pitch system in this area, at least some dialects seem to have a kind of pitch system in which
segmentally unpredictable pitch patterns can be found (Son Jaehyeon (2007) and Lee Munsuk (2008)).
Outside the Korean Peninsula, there are areas with ethnic Korean populations in China. The most
famous case is the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in which the number of the ethnic Korean
population was a little more than 850,000 in the early 2000s. Most of them are immigrants from 19th
to 20th centuries, and are from all areas of the Korean Peninsula except for Cheju. Among their origins,
however, the number of people from the Hamgyŏng province is greater than people from other origins,
and this is well reflected in the mainstream of the Korean language spoken in the Yanbian area.1
2

Criteria for the classification of Korean pitch systems

In order to show a geographical distribution of Korean pitch systems, it is necessary to classify thepitch systems found in various dialects properly. However, before going into the classification, it isnecessary to mention briefly as to the typological questions on the prosodic entities of this language.
2.1

Accent or tone?

The pitch systems found in Korean dialects are sometimes called an accent system, and sometimes a
1
Nowadays, however, they show a high degree of mobility as to residence, education and profession so that it isoften the case that members of a family live separately in China, South Korea, Japan and so on. Therefore, the futureof their language may not be as stable as it may seem.

36

tone system, according to researchers. I myself have been mainly using the term accent to refer to sucha system (Fukui (2003, 2013)), although I have been also using expressions such as ‘tonality of acertain pitch shape’ and so on. In this paper, I would like to use the following definitions for the twoterms, accent and tone.
(1) An accent refers to the most prominent prosodic feature that is located on a syllable or otherentity used as the unit of length and is determined in relation to the position of a word. The acoustic
feature used in this language is usually the pitch.
(2) Tone refers to any other features of pitch that can be used in shaping a particular pitch contourof a single accentual phrase.
Accents are typically observed in HG and North KS dialects, and tones in South KS and westernpart of the KS dialects and in CL dialects. It is important to note that some dialects have accentual andtonal features at the same time. For example, a typical North KS dialect has an N number of accentual
oppositions plus one or two tonal oppositions. If the system in question is basically accentual but has
only one tone type, this unique tonal type can be identified as the atonic accent.
2.2Classification

The criteria of classification discussed above are synchronic ones. Obviously, a diachronicclassification can also be made based on the results of the comparison among dialects, and it isconfusing to use both kinds of criteria at the same time. However, the variation of existing pitchsystems is not so great in this language so that it is possible to use both kinds of criteria at the sametime. Below is a revised version of my own classification made in Fukui (2002).
Table 1. Classification of Korean pitch systems.
Accentual (with one orDistinctive

two tonal) oppositions
Tonal

Non-distinctive

One tone
Toneless3

N+1 accentual oppositions: HG dialects(including Yanbian)N+1(or 2) accentual plus tonal oppositions: KS
2–4 tonal oppositions: West KS dialects
2–3 tonal oppositions: Some CL dialects
Phrase-final high pitch: P’yŏngan dialects
High pitch on the second syllable: some CL dialectsSeoul, Cheju

Geographical distribution

Figure 1 shows a preliminary version of linguistic map indicating geographical distribution of Korean

37

pitch systems, taken from Fukui (2013).
This map is based on the data found in the following works: Hayata Teruhiro (1999), Fukui Rei(2003), Son Jaehyeon (2007), Lee Munsuk (2008), Kang Yeongsuk (2017).

Figure 1. Geographical distribution of Korean pitch systems.

38

4
4.1

Historical study

Basic accentual correspondences

The following table summarizes basic accentual correspondences among Middle Korean (MK),Hamgyŏng (HG) and Kyŏngsang (KS) (taken from Fukui (2017)).
Table 2. Accentual correspondences among MK, HG and KS.
(H: high, L: Low, R: rising, S: any syllable, pitch of case marker, etc. is shown in parenthesis.)
No. ofExample (gloss)
MK
HG
KS
syllables(north)(south)12

3nun (eye)

H

H

H(H)

H(H)

mʌr (horse)

L

L(H)

H(L)

H(L)

tor (stone)

R

H

H:

L or R

kurum (cloud)

HS

HL

HH

HH

meri (head)

LH

LH

HL

HL

param (wind)

LL

LL

LH

LH(L)

sarʌm (person)

RS

HL

H:H

LH(H)

mɨcigey (rainbow)

HSS

HLL

HHL

HHL

mjenɨri (daughter-in-law)

LHS

LHL

HLL

HLL

minari (parsley)

LLH

LLH

LHL

LHL

sonskarak (finger)

LLL

LLL

LLH

LHH

samakoy (mole)

RSS

HLL

H:HL

LHH

If we compare MK and HG, the location of accent coincides except for words beginning with arising tone, for which HG has a high pitch. The relationship between MK and KS, or HG and KS is alittle complicated and can be summarized as follows:• The initial high pitch in MK corresponds to a pitch shape like HH... in KS.
• The initial rising pitch in MK corresponds to either a high long vowel or a pitch shape like
L(H)... in KS.
• In all other cases, the high pitch in MK and HG appears one syllable leftward in KS.
4.2

The direction of accent shift
In order to explain the regular correspondences found among HG, KS and MK pitch systems,

two kinds of accent shift theory have been advanced:

39

• Leftward shift (regressive shift) — Ramsey (1974, 1978)• Rightward shift (progressive shift) —Uwano (2012)
In Fukui (2017), I have argued that the leftward shift theory is preferable based on several reasons
such as the way Sino-Korean tones are reflected in the borrowings. In the case of Japanese, a rightward
shift theory has been favored by many researchers (Kindaichi (1954, 1975), Uwano (2012), Fukui(2017) and many others) but the reason of this opposite direction of accent shift in these two languages
is not yet clear.

References
Fukui, Rei (2003) Pitch accent systems in Korean. Proceedings of the Symposium: Cross-linguistic
Studies on Tonal Phenomena. 271–281. ILCAA, TUFS.
Fukui, Rei (2013) Explorations in Korean historical phonology. Tokyo: Sanseidō.
Fukui, Rei (2015) Chūsei kankokugo no bōten o meguru ikutsuka no kihontekina kadai. Gengo kenkyū148: 61–80. Nihon gengo gakkai.
Fukui, Rei (2017) Accent shift in Japanese and Korean. Journal of Asian and African Studies. 94: 243–
257. ILCAA, TUFS.
Hayata, Teruhiro (1999) Onchō no taiporojī. Tokyo: Taisyūkan shoten.
Hŏ, Ung (1963) Chungse kugŏ yŏngu. Seoul: Chŏngŭm-sa.
Ito, Chiyuki (1999) Chūki chōsengo no aklusento taikei. Gengo kenkyū 116: 97–143. Nihon gengo
gakkai.
Ito, Chiyuki (2007) Chōsen kanjion kenkyū. Tokyo: Kyūko shoin.
Kang, Yeongsuk (2017) Kankokugo keishōdō hōgen no akusento kenkyū. Tokyo: Bensei-sha.
Kindaichi, Haruhiko (1954) Tōzai ryō akusento no chigai ga dekiru made. Bungaku, 22-8: 63–84.
(Reprinted in Kindaichi (1975).)
Kindaichi, Haruhiko (1975) Nihon no hōgen. Tokyo: Kyōiku shuppan.
Lee Munsuk (2008) Zenradō hōgen kara mita kankokugo no akusento henka ni tsuite. PhD dissertaiotn.
The University of Tokyo.
Ramsey, S. Robert (1974) Hamkyeng kyengsang yang pangen.uy ACCENT yenkwu. Kwuk-e hak 2:
105–132.
Ramsey, S. Robert (1978) Accent and Morphology in Korean Dialects. Seoul: Tower Press.
Son, Jaehyeon (2007) Accent in Korean dialects. PhD dissertaiotn. The University of Tokyo.
Uwano, Zendo (2012) Three types of accent kernels in Japanese. Lingua 122: 1415–1440.

40

Suprasegmentals in Tibetic Languages of the Eastern
Tibetosphere: From a Geolinguistic Perspectivea

Hiroyuki Suzukia

IKOS, University of Oslo / National Museum of Ethnology

Abstract
Tibetic languages spoken in the eastern Tibetosphere possess various suprasegmental features
functioning in a phonological system. This article presents sorts of suprasegmentals attested in
Tibetic languages and clarifies their distribution.

1

Introduction

The Tibetic languages consist of varieties principally derived from Old Tibetan (Tournadre 2014),
which are generally known as Tibetan dialects (see Map 1 for the distribution). Previous works have so
far described that this language complex has both varieties with a suprasegmental contrast called ‘tone’
and ones without it, and this feature has been regarded as one of the crucial characteristics to classify
dialects (see Nishi 1986, Zhang 1993, Qu 1996). However, it is still in dispute how the so-called ‘tone’
functions in a phonological system of each language. Additionally, prosodic features other than the‘tone’ have recently received attention, e.g., stress (Caplow 2016ab) and prosodic pattern (Suzuki
2013b). Therefore, as far as the Tibetic languages are concerned, we need specify “suprasegmentals”
instead of “tone” and/or “accent”.

Legend: SE=Southeastern; NE=Northeastern; E=Eastern; C=Central; S=Southern; W=Western;
SW=Southwestern; NW=Northwestern.
Map 1: Distribution of Tibetic languages (based on Tournadre & Suzuki forthcoming)1
Most phonetic features of ‘tone’ can be related to various laryngeal features (Suzuki 2011b, 2015a).
They principally have the following features:
1 All the maps in the article are designed with ArcGIS online.

41

-pitch (level and contour) tones
phonation (various phonation types; a.k.a. register2)

Note that final glottal stop (or checked syllable) and length of vowels are not parts ofsuprasegmentals but uniformly analysed as segmental features in Tibetic languages. Some works suchas Huang et al. (1994) consider these features as suprasegmentals (‘tones’); even if this analysis isphonologically accepted, any varieties under the Tibetic languages are to be described in a uniformed
methodology of analysis. Otherwise, any comparative approaches within them will get difficult.
The present greater classification of Tibetic languages (Tournadre 2014; Tournadre & Suzuki
forthcoming) and its typological features on suprasegmentals are listed below:
Table 1: Section classification of Tibetic languages and their suprasegmental features
SectionTraditional/alternative names Distinctive suprasegmental features
Northeastern Amdo
n/aEasternSharregister; pitch; n/aSoutheastern Khams/Hor
pitch; register
CentraldBus/gTsang/sTod mNgaris
pitchSouthernDzongkha/Lhoke
pitchSouthwestern Sherpa/gLo/Dolpo/Kyirong
pitch
Western
Spiti/Khunu/Garzha
pitch
Northwestern Ladaks/Balti
n/aOther than the features mentioned above, Caplow (2016ab) introduces the concept of ‘stress’ inlanguages of Northeastern and Northwestern sections, and it might have been existent even in Old
Tibetan. Suzuki (2013b) applies different prosodic patterns (iamb [XXғ ] and trochee [Xғ X]) for a pitch
realisation in languages in Southeastern section.
Thanks to the existence of the Tibetan script, suprasegmentals are considered to be a feature that we
can trace various processes of tonogenesis. At least, the emergence of pitch differences has been
discussed so far, especially regarding Lhasa Tibetan (Kitamura 1977; Hari 1979; Kitamura & Nagano
1990; Sun 1997; Jiang 2002; Huang 2007). However, the problem is that scholars tend to use the modelof Lhasa Tibetan for any varieties of other ‘tonal’ languages. Sun’s (2003a) analysis on suprasegmentals
in several Tibetic languages is, differing from other works, outstanding in terms of applying various
frameworks to describe them; however, all the phenomena are linked with different sorts of pitch hightand usually regarded as a syllable tone system. Contrary to this refined model of tonogenesis, the originof registers cannot be well explained. In Tibetic languages with a register distinction, register
differences principally depend on initial consonants, not vowels. Additionally, there are various factors
other than forms of Written Tibetan (henceforth WrT) to change registers (Suzuki 2015a). This implies
that languages with a register distinction developed the register itself more recently than the case of
Lhasa Tibetan.
Regarding the prosodic feature, Caplow (2016a) discusses the existence of stress in the period of Old
Tibetan since it functions in languages all over the Tibetosphere, such as Balti (Northwestern), Lhasa(Central), and Amdo (Northeastern). The case in Yunnan must be considered from perspectives oflanguage contact and language substratum since the given characteristics merely appear in Tibetic
varieties spoken in Yunnan and its surrounding areas. Unfortunately, the prosodic feature is notevidently marked in WrT.
This article is just a preliminary overview regarding various suprasegmentals in Tibetic languages
from the eastern Tibetosphere, limited to two sections: Eastern and Southeastern. The data for a creationof the maps has been described by the present author.
Before detailed descriptions, a typological overview of suprasegmentals in Tibetic languages in theeastern Tibetosplere is displayed on Map 2:
2 The term ‘register’ in the article is only reserved for a system with phonation differences.

42Legend: WT=word tone; IB=iambic prominent; RG=register; N=n/a; BR=breathy existent; CR=creaky
existent; SA=stress accent prominent; ST=syllable tone.
Map 2: Overview of suprasegmentals in Tibetic languages (Eastern and Southeastern sections)
Note that the dialects of Southeastern Section and Eastern Section do not form a geographicallydirect continuum. There are dialects of Northeastern Section (i.e., Amdo; see Map 1) as well as
rGyalrongic and Qiangic languages between the two sections.
As mentioned above, dialects of Amdo are likely to possess a suprasegmental distinction by stress.
Nevertheless, we need more extensive investigations on various varieties. The present author is not sure
yet how the stress works in the phonological system in a single variety of Amdo --- it may be distinctive
or rather a prosodic feature.

2

Southeastern Section (Khams)

There are principally three types: (A) pitch; (B) pitch+phonation; and (C) pitch+prosody. As Map 2
displays, Type A is the mainstream type attested in Southeastern Section, except for the language with
Types B and C. The number of distinctive tones varies from two to five depending on dialects, in which
a four-tone type occupies a majority. In addition, a word-tone system is usually applied except for someextreme examples (see Map 2; Suzuki 2011a). Type B is attested in the northern area of this section, i.e.,
Yulshul and Khyungpo dialect groups (Suzuki 2010), as well as Myanmar (Suzuki 2012a). Type C isprincipally attested in Yunnan and its adjacent areas. Map 2 further distinguishes details of prosodic andphonation features from each other; however, as far as Map 2 suggests, the distribution of these features
are currently not evident.

43

Below I display the distribution of the three types as Map 3, by enlarging the southeastern area of thesection:Map 3: Distribution of suprasegmental types in Southeastern Section
Map 3 clearly demonstrates that Type C distributes in dialects spoken along two rivers: Jinshajiangand Lancangjiang, from the northwestern area of Yunnan up to the Tibet-Sichuan-Yunnan border area.
Most dialects of Type C belong to either the sDerong-nJol group or the Southern Route group of Khams
Tibetan, except for the dialects spoken along Nujiang (the Bodgrong subgroup; see Suzuki 2017).
Most dialects of Type C are characterised with the existence of an iambic prosody. Its phonetic
realisations principally appear as a weakening of the first syllable of disyllabic words, especially an
emergence of schwa vowel, and even deaspiration of aspirated initials (Suzuki 2012b, 2013b).
The iambic feature has been discussed from a perspective of substratum languages (Suzuki 2013b)
in which the iambic prosody exists, such as Trung; however, as Maps 3 shows, the varieties spoken in
the closest region to the Trung-spoken area, i.e., Bodgrong Tibetan, do not possess this feature.
Moreover, this feature is shared by two groups including several subgroups. It is thus an issue whether it

44

is a genetic nature or an acquired feature. In order to discuss details of prosodic features, more data arenecessary.

3

Eastern Section

Eastern Section includes many varieties, some of which are not fully intelligible with each other, andPowell & Suzuki (forthcoming) measure the linguistic distance by using a method of dialectometry.
There are many types of suprasegmentals attested in this section as well although Map 2 displays a wide
distribution of the category RG (register contrast). The principal feature is a register distinction;
however, descriptions in various previous works display a complicated situation as follows:(A) non-phonological suprasegmentals attested, with a register characterised by breathy voice(B) register distinction characterised by breathy(C) register distinction characterised by creaky(D) pitch distinction(E) non-phonological suprasegmentals attested, marginally characterised by stressType A is found in mBrugchu (Suzuki 2015b); Type B, in dPalskyid (Suzuki 2007, 2008) and
Thewo-smad; Type C, in Sharkhog (Suzuki 2005, 2008, 2009), Khodpokhog (Suzuki 2009, 2013a), andThewo-stod; Type D, Cone (Qu 1962, rNam-rgyal Tshe-brten 2008, Suzuki 2012c) and Baima (Nishida& Sun 1990); and Type D, in Zhongu (Sun 2003b).
Within the types above, Nagano (1980) analyses Sharkhog as Type D; Yang (1995) describes
several dialects from this section, and he analyses all of them as Type D; Lin (2002) analyses Tshongri(a dialect of Thewo-stod in my classification) as Type D; dKon-mchog rGya-mtsho (1987) analyses
Byambab (a dialect of Thewo-smad in my classification) as Type D; Sun (2003c) analyses Chosrje (adialect of dPalskyid in my classification) as Type A; Rig-’dzin dBang-mo (2013) analyses three dialectsfrom Diebu County (sTengga, dBangtsang, and Rongthag) as Type D. Among them, Nagano (1980) andLin (2002) propose a ‘partially tonal system’, which means that tonal contrasts are attested just in thecase of partial initials. Because of this variegated situation, we should be careful when we try to conduct
a comparative analysis regarding the languages in Eastern Section by using a collection of previous
works lacking a common descriptive framework.
The differentiations mentioned above might originate from different approaches to descriptions.
However, we have not had so far any clear and generalised methodology for a treatment of register;
Zhu’s (2010) view and analysis regarding the phonation is useful for Tibetic languages (see Suzuki
2015a) even though he just mentions the cases of Sinitic languages.
Map 4 is a distribution of the types mentioned above, only based on my descriptions.

45

Map 4: Distribution of suprasegmental types in Eastern Section
Interestingly, Map 4 shows an ABA-distribution regarding Types B and C. If this is a real
ABA-distribution, one should consider the dialects of Type B as the cultural or political centre. However,there are neither evidence nor historical records to consider Type B as a language spoken in the centre;
rather, there is another view that Eastern Section consists of multiple languages of different origins(Suzuki 2015c, Tournadre & Suzuki forthcoming). There is also a study which connects the languagesof this section with Amdo (Northeastern Section) such as Yang (2009), which, in fact, reflects a
traditional view that all the languages spoken in Amdo form a single language. A recent dialectometricanalysis (Powell & Suzuki forthcoming) confirm a non-continuity between Amdo and the languages
spoken in Eastern Section, and even a nature of language complex within Eastern Section.
The use of register, whether its principal feature is creaky or breathy, appears as a form of language
continuum, and the other features are found in the periphery of the region of Eastern Section. Even
though the phonological suprasegmental phenomena display an ABA-distribution, this result does not46

conclude that each feature is related to each other because no one has evidence that the varieties ofEastern Section have a mutual, genetically intimate relationship.

4

Conclusion

Suprasegmental features are not simple in Tibetic languages of the eastern Tibetosphere. These
languages can provide us with crucial data for both historical and typological descriptions.
Suprasegmentals attested in Tibetic languages cannot be simply controlled just under the definition of‘tone’ and/or ‘accent’. Introducing phonation mechanism to the suprasegmental system, referring toZhu’s (2010) analysis mainly regarding Sinitic languages, is a potential key to understand a full image ofsuprasegmentals in Tibetic languages.
In most varieties mentioned in the article, suprasegmental features form a part of phonology. Achange of the paradigm (phonology) itself probably differs from the lexical counterpart. We say eachword has its own history, but each register, for example, has a quite clear common origin related to WrT
forms; we cannot say each register has its own history. We might need different approaches to evaluate
and interpret the data displayed in Map 4. On the other hand, the fact that a clear distribution of theiambic feature is attested over several subgroups of Khams Tibetan (Map 3) suggests that the prosodic
feature is not a part of phonology but a phonetic variety or something like ‘fashion.’

Acknowledgements
The present study is funded by two Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science [JSPS]: “International Field Survey of Tibeto-Burman Link Languages” (headed
by Yasuhiko Nagano, No. 16H02722) and “Investigation of Undocumented Languages in the Eastern
Tibetosphere and their Geolinguistic Research” (headed by the present author, No. 17H04774).
References
Caplow, N. 2016a. Reconstructing stress in Proto-Tibetan: Evidence from Balti and Rebkong Amdo. Linguistics of
the Tibeto-Burman Area 39.2:180-221. DOI: 10.1075/ltba.39.2.01cap
Caplow, N. 2016b. Stress patterns and acoustic correlates of stress in Balti Tibetan. Himalayan Linguistics
15.2:1-49. Online: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/0k86k32k
Hari, A.M. 1979. An Investigation of the Tones of Lhasa Tibetan. Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Huang, B. 2007. Zangyu shengdiao de fasheng he fenhua tiaojian. Zangyu Zangmianyu Yanjiu Lunji, 22-37.
Zhongguo Zangxue Chubanshe.
Huang, B., et al. 1994. Yushu Zangyu de yuyin tedian he lishi yanbian guilü. Zhongguo Zangxue 2:111-134.
Jiang, D. 2002. Zangyu Yuyinshi Yanjiu. Minzu Chubanshe.
Kitamura, H. 1977. Tibetan (Lhasa dialect). Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa.
Kitamura, H. and Y. Nagano. 1990. Gendai Tibettogo Bunrui Ziten. Kyuuko Syoin.
dKon-mchog rGya-mtsho. 1987. Seraolongwa Zangyu Chutan. Xizang Yanjiu 2:53-69.
Lin, Y.-J. 2002. Phonological profile of Thewo Tibetan. Paper presented at the 8th Himalayan Languages
Symposium, University of Berne, 18-22 September 2002.
Nagano, Y. 1980. Amdo Sherpa dialect: Material for Tibetan dialectology. Institute for the Study of Languages
and Cultures of Asia and Africa.
rNam-rgyal Tshe-brten. 2008. Zangyu Zhuonihua Yanjiu [Research on Chone Tibetan]. MA Thesis at the Central
University of Nationalities.
Nishi, Y. 1986. Gendai Tibettogo hoogen no bunrui. Bulletin of National Museum of Ethnology 11.4:837-900 + 1
map.
Nishida, T. and H. Sun. 1990. Baima Yiyu no Kenkyuu---Baima-go no koozoo to keitoo. Syookadoo.

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Qu, A. 1962. Zhuoni zangyu de shengdiao yu shengmu de guanxi. Zhongguo Yuwen 331-339.
Qu, A. 1996. Zangzu de Yuyan he Wenzi. Zhongguo Zangxue Chubanshe.
Powell, A. and H. Suzuki. forthcoming. Phonetic distance and dialect clustering on the northeastern corner of the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area.
Rig-’dzin dBang-mo. 2013. Diebu Zangyu Yanjiu. Zhongyang Minzu Daxue Chubanshe.
Sun, J. T.-S. 1997. The typology of tone in Tibetan. In Ch.-Y, Tseng et al. (eds.) Chinese Languages and
Linguistics IV: Typological Studies of Languages in China, 485-521. Academia Sinica.
Sun, J. T.-S. 2003a. Variegated tonal developments in Tibetan. In D. Bradley, R. LaPolla, B. Michailovsky & G.
Thurgood (eds.) Language variation: papers on variation and change in the Sinosphere and the Indosphere inhonour of James A. Matisoff, 35–51. Pacific Linguistics.
Sun, J. T.-S. 2003b. Phonological profile of Zhongu: a new Tibetan dialect of Northern Sichuan. Language andLinguistics 4.4:769-836. Online: http://www.ling.sinica.edu.tw/files/publication/j2003_4_05_9138.pdf
Sun, J. T.-S. 2003c. Qiuji zangyu de yuyin tezheng. Minzu Yuwen 6:1-6.
Suzuki, H. 2005. Einige Bemerkungen über den Ursprung des creaky Tons im Tibetischen von Sharkhog[Songpan-Jiuzhaigou].
Kyoto
University
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Online:http://hdl.handle.net/2433/87857
Suzuki, H. 2007. Tibettogo Baozuo [Babzo] hoogen no onsei bunseki to sono hoogen tokutyoo. Journal of Asianand African Studies 74: 101-120. Online: http://hdl.handle.net/10108/42695
Suzuki, H. 2008. Nouveau regard sur les dialectes tibétains à l’est d’Aba : phonétique et classification du dialectede Sharkhog [Songpan-Jiuzhaigou]. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 31.1:85-108.
Suzuki, H. 2009. Tibetan dialects spoken in Shar khog and Khod po khog. EAST and WEST 59.1-4:273-283.
Online: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29757812
Suzuki, H. 2010. Kamutibettogo Qiongbo/Chongcang [Khyungpo/Khromtshang] hoogen no onsei bunseki to sonohoogen tokutyoo. Journal of Asian and African Studies 7:95-120. Online: http://hdl.handle.net/10108/57437
Suzuki, H. 2011a. Kamutibettogo Gagatang-Shaoluo [Zhollam] hoogen no bunpoo suketti. Journal of RIHN
Descriptive Linguistics Circle 3:1-35. Online: http://id.nii.ac.jp/1422/00000837/
Suzuki, H. 2011b. Tibettogo syohoogen ni mitomerareru kootootokutyoo no tayoosei. Onsei Kenkyuu 15.2:52-60.
Online: http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110009479295
Suzuki, H. 2012a. Kamutibettogo Sangdam hoogen no onsei bunseki to sono hoogen tokutyoo. Journal of Asianand African Studies 83:37-58. Online: http://hdl.handle.net/10108/69336
Suzuki, H. 2012b. Kamutibettogo Yanmen-Siga [Sakar] hoogen no bunpoo suketti. Journal of RIHN Descriptive
Linguistics Circle 4:123-158. Online: http://id.nii.ac.jp/1422/00000849/
Suzuki, H. 2012c. Gansu-syoo Gannan-syuu Zhuoni-ken no Tibettogo hoogen ni tuite---Zoobun taioo keisiki kara
mita Zhagulu [Bragkhoglung] hoogen no hoogen tokutyoo---. Kyoto University Linguistic Research 31:1-23.
Online: http://hdl.handle.net/2433/182195
Suzuki, H. 2013a. Jiuzhaigoukou neiwai Zangyu yuyin mianmao. Researches in Asian Languages 9:37-76.
Online: http://id.nii.ac.jp/1085/00001318/
Suzuki, H. 2013b. Kamutibettogo sDerong-nJol (Deirong Deqin) hoogengun no syohoogen ni okeru
zyakukyoogata no inritu tokutyoo to bunsetuon ni mieru sono han-eikei. Journal of RIHN Descriptive
Linguistics Circle 5:1-15. Online: http://id.nii.ac.jp/1422/00000854/
Suzuki, H. 2015a. Suowei Zangyu Kang fangyan zhong de “shengdiao” yuyin tezheng. Nankai Yuyan Xuekan
1:74-78.
Suzuki, H. 2015b. New perspectives on the suprasegmentals in mBrugchu Tibetan: an introduction to themonogenesis triggered by breathy voice. Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics 8: 117-139. DOI:
10.1163/2405478X-00801007
Suzuki, H. 2015c. Dongfang Zangqu Zhuyuyan Yanjiu. Sichuan Minzu Chubanshe.

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Suzuki, H. 2017. Historical development of Bodgrong Tibetan (Gongshan, Yunnan): From a geolinguistic
perspective. Studies in Asian Geolinguistics VI —Means to count nouns—, 41-53.
Tournadre, N. 2014. The Tibetic languages and their classification. In Th. Owen-Smith & N. W. Hill (eds.)
Trans-Himalayan Linguistics: Historical and Descriptive Linguistics of the Himalayan Area, 105-129. Walterde Gruyter.
Tournadre, N. and H. Suzuki. forthcoming. The Tibetic Languages: An Introduction to the Family of Languages
Derived from Old Tibetan (with the collaboration of Xavier Becker and Alain Brucelles for the cartography)
Yang, Sh. 1995. Yihe Liangjiang Liuyu Zangyu Fangyan Huiyao. Gansu Minzu Chubanshe.
Yang, Sh. 2009. Anmuduo Dongbu Zangzu Lishi Wenhua Yanjiu. Minzu Chubanshe.
Zhang, J. 1993. Zangyu fangyan fenlei guanjian. Q. Dai (ed.) Minzu Yuwen Wenji---Qingzhu Ma Xueliang
Xiansheng Bashi Shouchen Wenji, 297-309. Zhongyang Minzu Xueyuan Chubanshe.
Zhu, X. 2010. Yuyinxue. Shangwu Yinshuguan.

49

Additional remarks on ‘sun’ in Yangthang Tibetan:
gnam lha and nangs lhaaHiroyuki Suzukia

IKOS, University of Oslo / National Museum of Ethnology

Shirai et al. (2016) and Suzuki (2016) discuss the word form for ‘sun’ in Tibeto-Burman and Tibetic
languages respectively. They report that some dialects of Khams Tibetan in Yunnan use a form /ܸn‫ܧ‬Ѻ lࡢ a/which might correspond to WrT gnam lha ‘sky-deity’. However, in the last fieldwork conducted in
September 2017, I have found another possibility of a WrT cognate nangs lha in Choswateng Tibetan,surrounded by dialects using gnam lha for ‘sun’. All the dialects which do not use a form derived fromnyi ma are spoken in Yangthang [Xiaozhongdian] Township, Shangri-La [Xianggelila] Municipality,bDechen [Diqing] Prefecture.
A phonetic form /´ܸn‫ܧ‬Ѻ lࡢ a/ is attested in the dialects of Yangthang, Shingkhogteng, and Jisha. This
phonetic form has a preaspiration at a word-initial position, which can correspond to the WrT preradical
letter g in gnam. The preaspiration is always pronounced in this word. The tonal feature is rising, nothigh-level, even though high tone is expected based on the WrT form. The existence of preaspiration isconsidered to be more crucial than a tonal realisation as high.
However, a difference is found in the Choswateng dialect. Suzuki (2016) describes that the
Choswateng dialect uses another form derived from WrT nyi ma ‘sun’: /´ଔi ma/ (see also Suzuki
2014:91). Surprisingly, when I interviewed a speaker of that dialect, she provided a form /´n‫ܧ‬Ѻ lࡢ a/ in
addition to /´ଔi ma/. Its tone is rising, same as /´ܸn‫ܧ‬Ѻ lࡢ a/ in other dialects; however, it lacks preaspiration.
Therefore, this form cannot be counted as a form derived from WrT gnam lha, and the native speakeralso claims that it is not related to gnam lha because a form /Øܸn‫ܧ‬Ѻ lࡢ a/ also exists in the same dialect, whichmean ‘sky’ or ‘sky-deity’ and thus directly corresponds to gnam lha. The form /´n‫ܧ‬Ѻ lࡢ a/ can be interpreted
as ‘one which makes the sky clear’, and it is suggested that this word is a compound of WrT nangs‘morning’ and lha ‘deity’; though, the second syllable is not interpreted as any deities here in thecompound.

Acknowledgements
The present study is funded by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science [JSPS] “Investigation of Undocumented Languages in the Eastern Tibetosphereand their Geolinguistic Research” (headed by the present author, No. 17H04774).
References
Shirai, S., K. Kurabe, K. Iwasa, H. Suzuki, and S. Ebihara. 2016. Sun: Tibeto-Burman. Studies in Asian
Geolinguistics I —Sun—, 14-17. Online: https://publication.aa-ken.jp/sag1_sun_2016.pdf
Suzuki, H. 2014. Kamutibettogo Xianggelila-ken Xiaozhongdian-kyoo Chuiyading [Choswateng] hoogen no
onsei bunseki to goi : rGyalthang kaihoogengun ni okeru hoogensai ni kansuru kooosatu wo soete. Bulletin of
National Museum of Ethnology 39.1:45-122. Online: http://hdl.handle.net/10502/5401
Suzuki, H. 2016. A geolinguistic description of terms for ‘sun’ in Tibetic languages in the eastern Tibetosphere.
Studies in Asian Geolinguistics I —Sun—, 79-85. Online: https://publication.aa-ken.jp/sag1_sun_2016.pdf

50

Map
A revised map on the word form for ‘sun’ within the rGyalthang-Yangthang area is below:

51

Preliminary report on the reconstruction of the word “iron” in Old
Chinese Phonology
Masaki NOHARAThe Faculty of Law, Seikei University

Abstract
This paper attempts to reconstruct the word “iron” in Old Chinese phonology. Middle Chinese
initial th- shows several types of xiéshēng 諧聲 connections. This implies that Middle Chinese
th- was derived from several Old Chinese initials. In addition, identifying phonetic elements in
Old Chinese is occasionally difficult. Hence, it has been considered difficult to reconstruct theword “iron.” In this paper, we re-examine this topic using excavated documents.

1

Introduction

In traditional studies of Old Chinese phonology, several types of evidence have commonly been used,
including Chinese characters. It is well known that more than 80% of Chinese characters are phonetic
compounds, known as xíngshēng zì 形聲字. Phonetic compounds comprise at least two parts, a phonetic
element (shēngfú 聲符) and a semantic element (yìfú 意符). So-called loan characters (jiǎjiè zì 假借字)also are a useful resource for Old Chinese phonology.
Since the word “iron” has been written in different ways, the identification of the phonetic elementsof the character for “iron” has been controversial. For instance, the oldest existing dictionary, Shuōwénjiězì 說文解字, which was composed by Xǔ Shèn 許慎 in A.D. 100, recorded three characters, , ,and . Based on Xǔ Shèn’s annotation, both 戜 dié and 夷 yí could be the phonetic for “iron.” It isevident that its xiéshēng connections are too complicated to reconstruct. Furthermore, the word “iron” israrely found even in the excavated documents. Besides these three characters, another, 鉄 is considereda vulgar-style character.1 It is thought that 鉄 tiě was the old form of 紩 zhì, meaning “sew.”2 Hence we
do not discuss the character 鉄 tiě in this paper.3 In what follows, we discuss previous studies andobserve examples found in excavated documents.

2

Previous studies

In the previous studies, Lǐ Fāngguì reconstructed “iron” as *thit. However, Zhèngzhāng Shàngfāng(2003 鄭張尚芳) reconstructed it as *lhiig, and Baxter and Sagart (2014) reconstructed it as *l̥ ˤik. The
notification of onset seems to differ among them, but Zhèngzhāng’s *lh- is also a voiceless lateralapproximant [l̥ ], see (1):(1) Old Chinese “iron”: reconstructions compared4
1 See commentaries in the

Zhèngzìtōng 正字通 composed by Zhāng Zìliè 張自烈 in the Ming dynasty.

2 See the Yùpiān 玉篇: “縫衣也。又納也，索也，古作鉄.”3 失 shī is a phonetic element of 鉄 tiě. It derived from OC *l̥ it. Since the Shuōwén annotated 跌 diē “stumble,”which has 失 shī as a phonetic, as meaning 踢 tī, this virtually implies that 失 shī and 易 yì have phonologicalconnections. In other words, 失 shī might be reconstructed as *l̥ ik or *l̥ ek. The coda *-k changed to *-t at somepoint. 戜 dié was replaced by 失 shī as a phonetic. Regarding 失 shī and 鉄 tiě, further research is needed.
4 In this paper, Middle Chinese notation basically based on Baxter and Sagart (2014).

52

MC thetLǐ
Zhèngzhāng
Baxter and Sagart“iron”*thit*lhiig*l̥ ˤik

If there was no other evidence besides Middle Chinese thet, Li’s reconstructed form would have been
accepted. Zhèngzhāng and Baxter and Sagart, however, have not supported Li’s reconstruction and havereconstructed the voiceless lateral approximant *l̥ ˤ- and velar stops *-g or *-k for its coda.
Zhèngzhāng (2003) cited Chang Kun’s Proto Sino-Tibetan form for the word “iron” (*qhleks), andreconstructed it as *lhiig. Baxter and Sagart (2014) did not list their evidence in their book though,
Sagart (1999:200) indicated that the word “iron” belongs to the word family {BLAK}.5 In addition, heshowed that the phonetic element in 鐵 tiě seems to be 𡈼 tǐng. Based on this perspective, he concluded
that it might be reconstructed as *ahlek or *ahlik.
As noted above, MC th- came at least from three kinds of OC onsets, *thˤ-, *l̥ ˤ-, and *r̥ ˤ-. We need toorganize xiéshēng connections to choose *thˤ-, *l̥ ˤ-, or *r̥ ˤ- for its onset, see (2), (3), and (4):(2) MC th- came from OC Type-T (*thˤ-) 土 tǔ “earth”
tthdtrtrhdrtsytsyh堵
土
肚

dzy社

sy-

zy-

z-

y-

As is seen in (2), MC y- and zy- are not seen in this xiéshēng connections, whereas MC t- and dzy- areseen in this xiéshēng connections. This means that 土 tǔ must come from OC Type-T and bereconstructed as *thaʔ.6(3) MC th- came from OC Type-L (*l̥ ˤ-) 剔 tī “to cut, shave”
tthdtrtrhdrtsytsyh剔

dzy-

sy-

zy舓

z-

y易

The phonetic element 易 yì does not have xiéshēng connections with MC t-, tr-, tsy-, and dzy-, whereas
it has xiéshēng connections with MC y- and zy-. Hence, we can conclude that words included in thisxiéshēng series must have derived from OC Type-L onset as 易 *lek (*leks) > yek (yeH) “change, easy”,
剔 *l̥ ˤek > thek “to cut, shave,” and 舓 *Cə.leʔ > zyeX “to lick.”7(4) MC th- came from OC *r̥ ˤ- 體 tǐ “body”
thl體禮體 tǐ has xiéshēng connections with MC 禮 lǐ. Since MC l- is considered to come from OC *r-, Baxter
and Sagart (2014) reconstruct 禮 lǐ as *rˤijʔ > lejX. OC voiceless *r̥ ˤ- changes to MC th-, as 體 *r̥ ˤijʔ >thejX.

5 This word family includes 驖 tiě “black horse” and 黛 dài “black pigment for the eyebrows,” see Sagart(1999:202). What interests us is that the Shuōwén annotated 鐵 tiě means 黑金 hēi jīn “black metal.”
6 See Pulleyblank (1962:114-116). Type-T and L show the different distribution in their xiéshēng series. MC y-

and zy- are not seen in the Type-T xiéshēng series, whereas MC t-, tr-, tsy-, and dzy- are not seen in Type-L
xiéshēng series (see also Nohara (2009:67-85)).
7 舓 shì has another form 舐 shì. It can be assumed that the phonetic element 易 yì was replaced by 氏 shì after
Type-T and L (or might be *k-) merged into one.

53

As mentioned above, the Shuōwén lists three types of characters; among these, 夷 yí also has a lateral
onset *l- (> y-) based on the xiéshēng series, however, it has a vowel *ə (夷 *ləj). This implies that 夷 yí
cannot be the phonetic element for the word “iron.”
Sagart (1999) claimed that 𡈼 tǐng might be a phonetic of 鐵 tiě. If it is right, since 𡈼 tǐng isreconstructed like *l̥ ˤeng,8 the word “iron” is also considered to have a lateral onset *l̥ ˤ- and a velar coda*-k (> *-t). In the following section, to go one step further and verify the phonetic, we discuss somecharacters in excavated documents.

2

Evidence in the excavated documents

Some characters in excavated documents are considered to be phonologically related to the word “iron.”In the Bronze scripts, the charactersname of person, see (5) and (6):andrespectively represent the name of regional state and the(戜)人伐東或(國)(5)People of 戜 dié attacked the East State. (Bānguǐ 班簋)(6)(戜)白(伯)乍(作)彞
Dié bó made the vessel. (Diébódǐng 戜伯鼎)This has been considered to be the original character of 戜 dié. The Yùpiān 玉篇 interprets 戜 dié asmeaning “sharp, constant, and the name of regional state.”9 The Shuōwén annotated in the same way, butwhere the Shuōwén interests us is that it annotates 戜 dié as meaning 剔 tī “cut, shave.” If it is right, 剔 tī
might be related to 戜 dié phonologically. As noted in (3), 剔 tī is reconstructed as *l̥ ˤek, see (7) and (8):(7)(8)

剔 *l̥ ˤek
戜 *lˤik ? *lˤek ? (*-k >*-t)

>
>

thek
det

>
>

tī
dié

The onset *l̥ ˤ- changed to *th-, and the coda *-k changed to *-t at some point (this could have occurred
during the Qin and Han dynasties). When the coda *-k comes after the front vowel *-i- or *-e-, it willchange to *-t.10 However, we do not have enough resource to choose the appropriate vowel *-i- or *-e-,so we will have to leave the question open for now.
Beside this, as Sagart (1999) pointed out, 呈 chéng or 𡈼 tǐng could be phonetic elements in thecharacters 戜 dié and 鐵 tiě. However, based on excavated documents, we may not believe that 𡈼 tǐng is
the phonetic element in 戜 dié; see the character 呈 chéng in a oracle bone inscriptions:(9)

呈 chéng “the name of place” (Jiǎgǔwén héjí 甲骨文合集 29351)

Compared with 戜 dié in (5), 戜 dié seems not to have 呈 chéng as the phonetic element originally, but tohave

as its phonetic element. Huáng Dékuān (2007:3357-3358) indicated thatand 呈 chéng

8 Since 𡈼 tǐng has xiéshēng connections with MC y- 郢 yǐng, they must have derived from OC Type-L onsets.
9 The Yùpiān 玉篇 Gēbù 戈部: “徒結切，利也，常也，國名也。在三苗東。”
10 Baxter and Sagart (2014:236) indicated that “the predominant development is that *-ik(-s) and *-iŋ merged witheither *-it(-s) and *-in or with *-ek(-s) and *-eŋ, respectively.”54merged into one just likeduring the Western Zhou dynasty. We do not know what this character
originally represented,11 so further study is needed.
Unfortunately, the character 鐵 tiě never appeared before the Qín 秦. In the Qín bamboo scripts
unearthed in Húběi 湖北 province entitled “Diverse Extracts of the Qin Code,” the character 鐵 tiě wasrecorded; see (10) and (11): 12(10)(yòu cǎi tiě 右采鐵)

(11)(zuǒ cǎi tiě 左采鐵)

These characters literally represent the word “iron.” 右采鐵 yòu cǎi tiě and 左采鐵 zuǒ cǎi tiě were
official titles: “right iron mining” and “left iron mining,” respectively. 鐵 tiě in (10) and (11) is likely tohave 戜 dié as the phonetic element. We assume that there must be xiéshēng connections between 鐵 tiěand 戜 dié. Hence, it is more advisable to reconstruct the word 鐵 tiě “iron” as *l̥ ˤik or *l̥ ˤek.

3

Conclusion

Some words unfortunately lack their phonetic elements or were never composed of phonetic compounds,
while others have never been used as loan characters. In such cases, while we do not currently have otherresources besides Middle Chinese, new evidence is expected to be unearthed. It is much more plausible
to use the early Chinese loans seen in other languages13. They could give us an additional clue to discuss
Old Chinese. For instance, based on the linguistic maps for “iron” such as Tai-Kadai (Kra-dai), we canfind sufficient data for the word “iron” beginning with the onset l- and ending with the coda –k.14
Although these word forms such as lek seem to correspond to the Old Chinese word “tin” 錫 *slˤek (>sek > xī) rather than “iron” 鐵 *l̥ ˤik or *l̥ ˤek, 15 Baxter and Sagart (2014) and Zhèngzhāng’sreconstructions are highly probable.
References
Baxter, William H. and Sagart, Laurent. 2014. Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction. Oxford University Press.
Chang, Kun. 1972. Sino-Tibetan ‘Iron’: *Qhleks. Journal of American Oriental Society, 92-3: 436-446.
Huáng Dékuān 黃德寛. 2007. Gǔwénzì Pǔxì Shūzhèng 古文字譜系疏證. Shāngwù Yìnshūguǎn 商務印書館.
Lǐ Fāngguì 李方桂. 1971. Shànggǔyīn yánjiū 上古音研究. Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 清華學報, 1-2:
1-61.
Nohara, Masaki 野原将揮. 2009. Type-T and Type-L initials in Old Chinese Phonology—Focusing on the Chǔ
Bamboo Slips of the Warring States Period. 上古中国語音韻体系に於けるT-type/L-type声母について：
楚地出土竹簡を中心に. Bulletin of the Chinese Linguistic Society of Japan 中国語学, 256: 67-85.
11 See Huáng Dékuān (2007:3357-3358).
12 See the Shùihǔdì Qínjiǎn 睡虎地秦簡 Qínlǜ záchāo 秦律雜抄 23.
13 Baxter and Sagart (2014) recommended the application of the comparative method within Chinese, such as

Proto-Mǐn and the early Chinese loans to other languages, and emphasized that excavated documents help us
reconstruct Old Chinese.
14 See the map drawn by Endo. Ratliff (2010) reconstructed the Proto Hmong-Mien “iron” as *hrɛkD.
15 錫 *slˤek and 鐵 *l̥ ˤik or *l̥ ˤek possibly derived from the same root. As mentioned above, the Shuōwén annotated鐵 tiě as meaning 剔 tī, both 剔 tī and 錫 xī have the character 易 yì as the phonetic elements.

55

Pulleyblank, E. G. 1963. The Consonantal system of Old Chinese. Asia Major, 9: 58-144.
Ratliff, Martha. 2010. Hmong-Mien Language History. Pacific Linguistics.
Sagart, Laurent. 1999. The Roots of Old Chinese. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Zhèngzhāng Shàngfāng 鄭張尚芳. 2003. Shànggǔ yīnxì 上古音系. Shànghǎi jiàoyù chūbǎnshè 上海教育出版
社.

56

Migration History and tsowa Divisions as a Supplemental
Approach to Dialectology in Amdo Tibetan: A Case Study on
Mangra County
Tsering SamdrupaHiroyuki Suzuki

b

a

b

IKOS, University of Oslo
IKOS, University of Oslo / National Museum of Ethnology

Abstract
This article discusses that information regarding migration history and tsowa divisions isnecessary for better understandings on dialect grouping and better interpretations of linguistic
phenomena within geolinguistic research on Amdo Tibetan as well as Tibetic languages, bydescribing in detail a case of Mangra County, Tsolho Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China.
Mangra County is inhabited by both pastoralists and farmers, who speak different varieties ofAmdo Tibetan (Kokonor group and Banak group for pastoralists as well as Tsongkha group for
farmers). We aregue that we cannot call any dialects by the county name, but need to specify
given communities. By pointing out each tsowa in Mangra, we can make clearer which varieties
we are going to mention and thus discuss the detailed relationship among dialects. An appendix
on the migration history of the farmers’ communities in Mangra is also provided.

1

Introduction

A geolinguistic analysis to some extent needs extralinguistic information to explain why a given featureexists or distributes in a specific area. Behind geolinguistics’ key understanding each word has its own
history, we may search for external factors other than internal, linguistic factors. However, when we
conduct research on Amdo Tibetan, we face several issues regarding carelessness towards theextralinguistic information as well as the relationship between the language classification and theirlifestyle --- how to deal with mobile pastoralists’ dialects on a linguistic map. The article will primarily
deal with the former issue.
The authors recently encountered a fine article introducing a dialect of Amdo Tibetan 1 from
Chapcha (Tib. Chab cha) in Qinghai. However, its identification of the dialect in question as ‘Gonghe
dialect’ (Ebihara 2011:42, 44) begs some questions; the author is, as explicitly stated in the article,
quoting Nishi’s category of 23 dialects for Amdo Tibetan (1986). What is wrong with calling the dialect‘Gonghe dialect’ since all the speakers are residents of present-day Gonghe county2? Naming dialects
based on administrative toponyms is not the best way to categorize the dialects of Amdo, and there areother alternatives. This manner of identifying a dialect has at least three shortcomings. Firstly, the use ofadministrative names naturalizes the sometimes violent reterritorialization of Tibetan areas since the1950s. These terms, in most cases, neither reflect a group with a shared dialect nor comply with how
locals refer toemic toponyms, but are newly invented designations. Secondly, it is not specific enoughto locate the speakers of the language under study with such nomenclatures since a few dialects areprevalent in one administrative region. Thirdly, these administrative terms often do not reflect theindigenous toponyms of localities since they are generally invented as mentioned above. All in all, there
1 See Tournadre (2014) for a classification of Tibetic languages from a wider perspective.
2 Gonghe is an administrative toponym for a county in Tsolho (Chi. Hainan) Prefecture, Qinghai Province. As forthe etic toponym Gonghe, the establishment of Gonghe County in this appellation dates back to 1929 (Gonghe
Xianzhi 1991:3).

57

are speakers of at least two distinctive Amdo dialects in Gonghe, namely “innovative ’brog skad”(Cham tshang pad+ma lhun ’grub 2009), or Kokonor dialect group spoken by pastoralist tsowa (Tib.
tsho ba)3 alliances, and the Tsongkha dialect group (following Tournadre and Suzuki forthcoming)
spoken by most of the area’s farming communities. Therefore, the term ‘Gonghe dialect’ does not reflect
the linguistic reality of the place and instead engenders unnecessary confusion.
To demonstrate the shortcomings of using current administrative toponyms for dialects, this article
proposes the prioritization of local migration history in the studies of dialectology in Amdo, examining
Mangra (Chi. Guinan4) County as a case study. Mangra county neighbors Gonghe which shares similar
distinctions between the dialects and linguistic practices of pastoral and farming communities. The
Mangra case sheds light on the relationship between linguistic diversity and the migration history of
Tibetan communities in Amdo. The ultimate goal of the article is to provide scholars of Amdo dialectswith a broader set of concerns for assigning dialect names, and to provide more nuanced approaches tounderstanding the origin and distribution of major dialects of Amdo.

2

Mangra County

Mangra County is located on the northeast edge of the Tibetan Plateau, south of Kokonor (Chi.
Qinghaihu; Tib. mtsho sngon po), and approximately 200 km southwest of Xining, the capital city of
Qinghai Province.

Map 1: Administrative communities of Mangra County
3 This term can loosely be translated as ‘clan’; however, tsho ba is not exclusively based on consanguinity as it cansometimes be an overarching term for a group alliance of a few pastoralist communities. A variety of terms areused for a tsowa group alliance in Tibetan society by scholars; “tribe” (Gelek 1998) and “clan” (Snying bo rgyal
and Rino 2008) are two examples among many. Since both “tribe” and “clan” misrepresent what a tsowa really isin the context of Amdo, we use the native term tsowa in the present study.
4 The establishment of Guinan County is in 1953 (Guinan Xianzhi 1996:16).

58

Mangra County consists of four administrative townships (Chi. xiang; blue circle in Map 1) and two
towns (Chi. zhen; blue star in Map 1),5 among which Sum mdo and Thar shul are exclusively pastoral(Tib.’brog pa) and Bya mdo and Mang ra are mostly agricultural (Tib. rong ba) communities. The latter
two are not only administrative townships but also geographical names for two valleys where most of
the agricultural communities in Mangra County reside. Mgo mang 6 is mostly pastoral with two
agricultural communities while Mang chu is the county administrative center with some adjacent
non-Tibetan agricultural communities. Pastoralists in Mangra county can be divided into a few tsowa
alliances, and they are relatively early to occupy the territory compared to farming communities (Blanag pa ye shes bzang po 2001; Gangs ’tsho 2016).
Below we list pastoral tsowa alliances in Mangra County. Major tsowas, which have more
population and occupy larger land than surroundings tsowas, are shown in bold.
Table 1: Pastoral tsowa alliances in the administrative units in Mangra County
Town/Townshiptsowa alliances
Mgomang
Rungan (Tib. ru sngan), Drogru Gongzhu (Tib. ’brog ru gong zhol), Chutsa(Tib. chos tsha), Markham (Tib. smar khams), Shakhog (Tib. bya khog),
Wanser (Tib. ban ser)
Sumdo
Lutsang7 (Tib. klu tshang), Wongya (Tib. bon brgya), Wanshul (Tib. banshul), Khagya (Tib. kha gya)TarshulTarshul (Tib. thar shul), Kagya (Tib. ka rgya), Datsang (Tib. bda’ tshang),
Tsaga (Tib. tsag ga), Gyasu (Tib. rgya su), Gonga (Tib. gong ba)
ShamdoWonkor8 (Tib. bon skor)
Other than the names listed above, there are two geographically collective names for groups ofmultiple tsowas: Mabzhi (Tib. smad gzhi/rma bzhi) and Mangra (Tib. mang ra), which are respectively
distributed in the north (Mgomang and Shamdo) and the south (Sumdo and Tarshul) of the County.
These areas are divided by a mountain range where the pass Khingon Nyaga (Tib. khis sngon nyag ga)
connects the one with the other.

3

Dialects of Mangra with connection to tsowa alliances and migration

In terms of language, most pastoral tsowas in Mangra County speak a variation of innovative ’brog skadcan best be described as part of the Kokonor dialect group (Tournadre and Suzuki forthcoming) , andone tsowa alliance speaks the Banak (Rwanak) dialect group in addition to agricultural communities
who speak the Tsongkha dialect group of Dpa’ lung/Ba yan (Chi. Hualong),9 Khri ka (Chi. Guide) and
Gcan tsha (Chi. Jianzha) since they are all originally from those areas to Mangra less than a century ago(see Table 1. and Table 2. for specific dates of migration).10 The difference of the two pastoralists’speeches is related to their different tsowa alliances.11 No previous studies explored the situation of
5 Four townships are Sum mdo (Chi. Senduo), Thar shul (Chi. Taxiu), Mang ra (Chi. Mangla), and Bya mdo (Chi.

Shagou); and two towns are Mgo mang (Chi. Guomaying) and Mang chu (Chi. Mangqu).
6 For a linguistics study of the use of humilifics in Mgo mang, see Tsering Samdrup and Suzuki (forthcoming).
7 Another pronunciation is Luzang.
8 Tibetans in this tsowa alliance practice a semi-pastoralist semi-agricultural lifestyle.
9 The traditional Tibetan toponym of Hualong is Ba yan. Another Tibetan spelling Dpa’ lung is originally aphonetic transcription of the Chinese name in a local (Amdo) way; however, it is widely accepted by locals. We
follow the latter in the article.
10 It is also apparent that there is a lack of internal comparative studies between these branches of rong skad andother rong skad varieties of Amdo in general. In order to clarify similarities, linguistic examples are helpful but wewill skip citing them since this task is beyond the scope of the article.
11 The variety spoken by Bon brgya, a tsowa alliance in Mangra (see Table 1), probably, should be included in the
Banak dialect group according to Tournadre and Suzuki (forthcoming).

59difference in the dialects in Mangra County. Furthermore, few scholarly works have mentioned theancestors of agriculturalists in Mangra by investigating the numerous people from Dpa’ lung (Chi.
Hualong) who fled west to places including Mang ra and Bya mdo (Chen 2004:190; Roche 2015:212;
Roche and Lugyal Bum forthcoming; Cham tshang pad+ma lhun grub 2009:136) due to the oppressiverule of Muslim warlord Ma Bufang (Tsering Bum et al. 2008:24). It is important to acknowledge thevariations in dialects across the farming communities,12 but this will not be dealt with in detail here since
it does not affect the central argument presented in this essay. The variations are not only due to their
origin, but also migration history as well as their interaction with other dialects such as pastoralists
speaking the Kokonor dialect in surrounding areas.13

Map 2: Distribution of dialects of Amdo in Mangra County
Therefore, from a linguistic point view, lumping dialects of both farming communities andpastoralists in Mangra county under one single label ‘Guinan dialect’ would be not only inaccurate but
also problematic. As already mentioned, people living under the administrative umbrella of Guinan donot speak one dialect for certain; moreover, it is still verifiable that agricultural communities in both
Mang ra and Bya mdo townships mostly immigrated from Dpa’ lung and Gcan tsha less than a century
ago (see Appendix for details). Therefore, it is more worthwhile for linguists to conduct comparative
12 Rta mgrin sgrol ma (2017) is one of the works on the farmers’ dialect spoken by immigrants from other places

such as Dpa’ lung and Gcan tsha. However, she just mentions her native tongue as a farmers’ dialect without any
description on the history of her ancestors’ migration (2017:7).
13 For a list of communities in Mangra and Shamdo and their approximate migration years and origins, see Table 1
and Table 2 in Appendix.

60

studies of dialects in Mangra county with that of Dpa’ lung and Gcan tsha than with other types of Amdo
dialects.
To revisit the case mentioned at the beginning of the article, residents of Gonghe County speak the
Kokonor dialect, the Tsongkha dialect, and a mixture of both due to their migration history, whichmakes ‘Gonghe dialect’ an imprecise category at best, and a misleading and nonexistent one at worst.
Native names should be privileged; however, there are counties in Amdo occupied merely by speakers
of more or less one homogenous dialect; therefore, it should also be recognized that using administrative
toponyms for dialect is permissible as far as they are based on emic terms.14

4Conclusion

This article aimed to present an alternative method for dialect studies in Amdo Tibetan by using Mangra
County as a case–that is an approach emphasizing migration history of farming communities and tsowa
alliance of pastoral communities. Unfortunately, it was unable to provide any descriptive linguistic
evidence, which should be systematically investigated in future studies. Though this is not entirely an
innovation in dialect studies, it seems this approach is critically important and must not be ignored in the
linguistic exploration of Amdo Tibetan. It is also closely related to the social reality of Amdo Tibetans
after 60 plus years of the People’s Republic of China’s redrawing of maps. All in all, the single
suggestion that this article aims to make is that instead of using administrative divisions, many of whichwere created in the 1950s, linguists studying language variations amongst Amdo agriculturalists andpastoralists should pay heed to the traditional tsowa group divisions and micro-migrations that havetaken place in the Amdo area.

14 For example, Them chen (Chi. Tianjun) County, which was created as an administrative term based on the nameof a local mountain in 1955 (Tianjun Xianzhi 1995:5), in Haixi (Tib. mtsho nub), almost entirely consists of
Wongtak (Tib. bong stag) Tibetans who are speakers of the Kokonor dialect group. Haller (2004) describes agrammar of this dialect called Themchen; however, we need to note that there are other Tibetan communities also
speak the same dialect in other counties such as Rkang tsha (Chi. Gangcha) and Chapcha.

61

Appendix
Table 1. Agricultural communities in Shamdo (Tib. Bya mdo) Township and their migration history
according to Skal bzang legs bshad sgrog pa’i sgra dbyangs (2016:159-176).
No. Community name15
OriginMigration year
Notes
1
Phyugs nyal/She’u nyal Dpa’ lungc.1926(Shiyan)2
Nog ge mtsher
Dpa’ lungc.1926
3

6

Sdong gzhongs(Dongwayang)Glegs shing(Luohexiang)
Ba lang gad pa(Walanggaba)
Mtshe thang (Saitang)

78
9

Sprel nag (Shinnaihai)
Dpa’ lung
Tshal rnga (Chana)Unknown
Bon skor (Wangshenke) Unknown

10
11
12
13
14

Gor mdo (Guorenduo)
Ra rdza (Lazha)
Grog ra (Juhula)
Gur lhas (Guole)
Sdong ring (Dongrang)

Dpa’ lung
Khri kac.1902c. 1906

Dpa’ lungDpa’ lungc. 1906

15

Rka mgoDpa’ lung16
17

Sde mang (Demang)Thang nags

Dpa’ lungDpa’ lung

18

Kyal rta khugs

Dpa’ lung19

Dgon thang (Guantang)

Unknown

4
5

Khri ka (Chi.Guide) and Unknown
Dpa’ lungDpa’ lungc. 1916
Unknown

Unknown

Khri kac. 1946

Mixture of Tibetans andChinesec. 1931c.1583Chinese
Originally a pastoralist
community and speaks
innovative ’brog skad
Separated from Gur lhas
Separated from Sdemang
It is small community in
Sde mang

Before 1886
Separated
mang
Separatedmang
Unknown

15 A Chinese name (pinyin) is in parentheses if available.

62

from

Sde

from

Sde

A community with amixture of Chinese andTibetans, it had been
moved to Khri ka since
2007
due
to
a
hydropower
plant
construction

Table 2. Agricultural communities in Mangra (Tib. Mang ra) Township and Mangchu (Tib. Mang chu)according to Mang ra’i lo rgyus, or History of Mangra (Bla nag pa ye shes bzhang po 2001:147-188).
No. Community name
OriginMigration year
Notes
1
Gdan ’jog (Zhanjiang) Dpa’ lungc. 1943 and 1949 Chinese Muslims
2
Hi krig (Hezhou)
He zhou, Gansu
c. 1940
Chinese3
Ske baKhri ka, Dpa’ lung, and Gcan c. 1940
tsha
4
Mtha’ ba (Tawa)
Dpa’ lung and Klu tshangc. 1930 to 1940
A mixture of[in Sumdo Township]
pastoralists andagricultural
households
5
Lcang sdong gong ma Dpa’ lung and Ya rdzi (Chi.
c. 1940
Chinese Muslims(Shang Jiangdong)
Xunhua)6
Na rin (Naran)
Dpa’ lung and Ya rdzic. 1940
Chinese Muslims
7
Tu lan (Dulan)
Dur lam/Tu’u lan (Chi.
1949
They are probably
Dulan)
originally from
Dpa’ lung8
Lo ba gong ma
Dpa’ lung and Gcan tsha
1936 to 1946
Mixture of Chinese(Shang Luowa)
and Tibetans
9
Lo ba zhol ma (Xia
Dpa’ lung and Gcan tsha
1913 to 1918
Luowa)
10 Mchod rten thang
Gcan tsha and Dpa’ lungc.1920 to 1930
(Quedantang)
11 Hor ran (Heran)Ya rdzi
1903
12 Khang gzhung
Gcan tsha
c.1920s(Kangwuyang)
13 Gur
Dpa’ lungc. 1940s
14 Mgo ra (Guola)
Dpa’ lung?
c. 1930s
15 Thur sbrul (Tulu)
Gcan tshac. 1850s and1930s
16 Lcang sdong zhol ma
Reb gong (Chi. Tongren) sa c. 1928; 1947;
1948(Xia Jiangdong)dkyil; Dpa’ lung kho tshe;
Gcan tsha’i snang ra
17 Zhing sa gong ma
Gcan tsha’i lo khog; lha sde 1938; 1943
18 Mgur ’og (Guoyuhu)
Gcan tsha
c. 1900
19 Rma kha’i thang
Gcan tsha
Before 1930?
(Maketang)
20 Tho le (Tuole)
Dpa’ lung and Gcan tsha
c. 1900
21 Rab rgan (Lagan)
Gcan tsha
1903
22 Khu sgyo’u (Kezhou)
Dpa’ lungc. 1930
23 Shwa rwa (Shala)
Gcan tsha; Hezhou; Minhe
There are some
Chinesehouseholds in thecommunity
24 Nang so (Angsuo)
Dpa’ lung; Hezhou; Khri ka c. 1900
There are some
Chinesehouseholds in thecommunity
25 Nags rul
Gcan tsha
26 Mda’ bzhi (Dayu)
Dpa’ lung; gcan tsha
27 Rgya thog (Jiatuhu)
Khri ka
Mostly Chinese

63

Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Andrew Grant and Dr Timothy Thurston for their comments to the draft and the English
editing. The present study is funded by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for
the Promotion of Science [JSPS]: “International Field Survey of Tibeto-Burman Link Languages”(headed by Yasuhiko Nagano, No. 16H02722). The article is also a part of the results of a Grant-in-Aid
for Scientific Research from JSPS “Investigation of Undocumented Languages in the Eastern
Tibetosphere and their Geolinguistic Research” (headed by the present author, No. 17H04774).
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65

Typology of Chinese Tone Sandhi and its Historical Implication
Ray Iwata
Faculty of Letters, Kanazawa University

Abstract
This paper presents the typology of Chinese tone sandhi based on the theory of neutralization.
According to this typology, the geographical distribution of each type is illustrated on the map,and its historical implications are discussed. The development of iambic phrasal stress andtrochaic compound stress characterizes northern dialects, while they are generally absent insouthern dialects. This contrast between northern and southern is most typically reflected in the
tonal behaviour of context-dependent types, which manifests itself in longer expressions. The
most innovative type of neutralization has emerged in the intermediate zone in China. Prefixed
neutral tone is used in Northern Wu for indicating the boundary in phrasal expressions.

1

Introduction

Iwata (2018) attempts to distinguish the types of Chinese tone sandhi based on the theory ofneutralization. The purpose of this paper is to give a brief introduction of this typology, and, then,discuss about historical implications of some salient phenomena. The term tone sandhi herein refers to
the phonological alternation of one toneme to another occurring under any specific phonologicalcondition. In the majority type, the tonal alternation results in the loss of contrast, i.e., tonal
neutralization, while there is a type which is characterized by the chain-shift way of alternation.

2

Basic tone sandhi (tonal neutralization) types

Chinese tonal neutralization is defined by structural and contextual conditions, which function as thetriggers of neutralization. (Trubetzkoy 1939). The former is prior to the latter, that is, the structural
condition prescribes the occurrence and the manner of tonal neutralization.
The structural condition refers to the status that maximum tonal contrasts are realized—either ininitial (left edge) or final (right edge) syllable, with contrast reductions occurring in non-edge syllable(s).
Thus, Chinese neutralization mostly falls under the category of both bound type and reductive type in
Trubetzkoy’s typology. 1 Under this definition, we presuppose the existence of one culminative(prominent) syllable within one domain, to which neutralization or sandhi rules are applied, anddistinguishes two prosodic structures: “final-accented” (right edge) and “initial-accented” (left edge).
Here, the term “accent” is not equivalent to the term “stress”, which in Chinese is not necessarily
identified in terms of phonetic correlates such as syllable duration.
The contextual condition refers to tonal categories or their tonal features that surround a specifictone. As regards the presence or absence of this condition, neutralization types are divided into“context-free type” and “context-dependent type.” The term “context-free type” means a loss of contrast
before or after any tone within one domain, and “context-dependent type” means a loss of contrast
before or after particular tone(s).

1 Trubetzkoy (1939) mentioned, “By reductive neutralization, we mean the neutralization of a phonological

opposition in all syllables of the word except in the syllable that forms the phonological peak. This culminativesyllable is generally marked by “accent” (i.e., by an expiratory increase in force or by a musical rise in pitch).”(English translation by Baltaxe 1969: 236)

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The combination of structural and contextual conditions could produce four possible types ofneutralization, as schematized in (1).
(1) Basic neutralization types

Context-freeContext-dependent

Final-accented structure
T1,T2 (…..Tn) → X / ______σ
T1,T2 (….Tn) → X / ______P

Initial-accented structure
T1,T2 (….. Tn) → X / σ______ 
T1,T2 (….. Tn) →X / P______ Here, “T1,T2 (…..Tn)” represents inputs (targets), where the maximum number “n” varies from one
dialect to another; “X” represents any one neutralization output, which can be identical to any one of thecitation forms. “σ” and “P” represent triggers, which stand either at the right edge or left edge within adomain: “σ” represents any accented syllable which bears the full tone, while “P” represents any
particular tone (tone category or feature).

3

Mapping the tone sandhi types

As shown in (1) above, tone sandhi types are primarily classified into four basic types, and theirdistributions are illustrated in Map 1. Since the occurrence of the context-dependent type seems rare in
the initial-accented structure, i.e., T1,T2 (….. Tn) →X / P______, and it mostly occurs in the final-accented
structure, here the context-dependent type is not subdivided into two. Each basic type (A1, A2 and B) is
further divided into some subtypes based on such parameters as the extent of neutralization, as will be
explained in the next section.

Context-dependent,
Local type

A. Context-free
A-1 Final-accented
Chain shift (+context-free)
Symmetrical (Chao-shan type)
Asymmetrical neutralization
A-2 Initial-accented
Symmetrical (Northern Wu type)
Symmetrical (Xiang type)
Asymmetrical neutralization(Xiang type)

B. Context-dependent
Extensive
Partial (+context-free)Partial (Initial accented)
Local

Map 1

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4

Subdivision of sandhi types

The two prosodic structures, final- and initial-accented ones, coexist in every dialect. Regarding thecontext-free type, the term ‘symmetrical’ appearing in the legend of Map 1 refers to the status that theidentical type of tonal neutralization appears in final- and initial-accented structures, whereas the term
‘asymmetrical’ refers to the case that the given neutralization type only occurs in either one of the two
prosodic structures. As mentioned in the preceding section, the context-dependent type mostly occurs in
the final-accented structure, and the dialects having this type of neutralization usually observe the‘maximum contrast reduction’ type, which is called ‘neutral tone’, in the initial-accented structure.
However, since it is quite a prevalent phenomenon, it is not indicated on Map 1.
4.1

Context free type (1): Final-accented

The type A-1 is divided into three subtypes.
4.1.1 ‘Chain shift’
The chain shift type refers to the status that only limited members of tones participated in neutralization
while others change in a chain shift fashion. A typical example is illustrated in (2) (Luo 1930). T1,
T2…T8 indicate the tone category, and the numbers braced by square brackets indicate the tonal values
presented in a five-point scale. The combination of two numbers with underline, e.g., [32], indicates theshort duration of the syllable, which is an inherent feature in Ru tone.
(2)

Tonal neutralization and chain shift in non-final syllables in Xiamen (Fujian Province)T1 [55]→ T6 [33] → T5 [11] → T3 [51] → T1[55]T2 [24]
T7 [32] ֐ T8 [4]This type of tonal alternation is also referred to as a ‘tone clock’, since T3 here changes to T1, thus
forming a circle in terms of tonal alternation. Another fact, which has been less referred to in theprevious studies, is that the distinction between T1 and T2 neutralizes and both tones change to T6.
Participants (targets) of neutralization vary depending on dialects, as seen in the example (3) cited below.
T7 and T8 usually alternate reciprocally in this type.
The chain shift type concentrates in the area called South Min of Fujian Province, and at its
southeastern edge there emerges a symmetrical Chao-shan type. This type is basically considered as avariety of a chain shift type since some members participate in the alternation of a chain shift type, whileothers participate in neutralization. What is peculiar to this type is the occurrence of neutralization in theinitial-accented structure, thus forming a symmetrical type with the neutralization occurring in the final-accented structure.
(3) Tonal neutralization and chain shift in Chaoyang (Guangdong Province) *Zhang (1979, 1980)
Final-accented structureT3 [53] → T5 [31] → T2 [55] →T6 [11]              T4 [313] → T1 [33]T8 [55] ֐ T7 [11]T1 [33]
Initial-accented structureT3 [53] → T5 [31]ġ ġ ġ ġT1 [33]T2 [55] → T6 [11]T4 [313]
T6 [11]T8 [55] → T7 [11]68

As seen, this type is actually asymmetrical in term of the output of neutralization and chain shift. It
is also noted that this type has a neutral tone (maximum contrast reduction) in addition to the neutralized
tones appearing in the initial accented structure.
4.1.2 Asymmetrical neutralization
This type is scattered over a wide area in south china, including Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangxi. Within
Fujian Province, this type tends to appear in inland areas, but it is also found in the localities adjacent tothose having chain shift type. An example is illustrated here (Fujian Province 1988).
(4) Tonal neutralization in non-final syllables in a variety of Zhangping dialect (Fujian Province)a. T1 [24], T2 [22] Ѝ T2 [22]b. T3 [53], T6 [55] Ѝ T5 [21] Ѝ T3 [53]c. T7 [21] ֐ͺሾͷ͵ሿ 
Tonal alternation in this dialect is basically characterized by two neutralization processes as seen ina. and b. However, the process b. yet contains the alternation of a chain shift fashion. Also, this dialect
shares the reciprocal change of T7 and T8 with the two South Min dialects presented in (2) and (3).
It is noted here that each output of tonal alternation and chain shift in all three examples introduced
above is identical with any other tone existent in the given dialect. This type of tonal neutralization ishereafter referred to as ‘categorical alternation’. On the other hand, there are many dialects which
exhibit ‘non-categorical alternation’. These dialects in general lack the chain shift, so that they are
distinguished from South Min. Wuyi is a typical instance for this type of neutralization.
(5) Non-categorical neutralization in Wuyi (Zhejiang Province) *Fu (1984)
a. T1[24], T2[213], T5[53], T7 [5], T8 [212] Ѝ “High” [55] or [55]b. T3[55], T4[13], T6[31] Ѝ “Low” [11]In this dialect, all tones are involved in context-free neutralization, which results in two outputs,‘High’ and ‘Low’. While the tonal value of ‘High’ is identical with T3, namely [55], ‘Low’ [11] fails tofind its equivalent in the inventory of base tone. Therefore this particular alternation system is judged as
belonging to the type ‘non-categorical’. Such a system, in which the outputs of tonal neutralization in
non-final positions are distinguished simply by the difference of pitch register, is observed over somesoutheastern areas, including in southwest Zhejiang, northeast Fujian, and west-central Fujian.
(i) Two-way contrast
Mid and Low: Longyou (Zhejiang), Shouchang (Zhejiang), Yushan (Jiangxi)
High and Mid: Youxi (Fujian)(ii) Three-way contrast
High, Mid, and Low: Zherong, Xiapu, Yong’an, Mingxi, Shouning (all belonging to Fujian)
In addition, exactly the same two-way contrast as Wuyi emerges within the Mandarin area, that is,the dialect of Lianyungang in northeast Jiangsu (Iwata 1982).
4.2

Context free type (2): Initial-accented

Reflecting the universal tendency of pitch declination toward the end of a polysyllabic tonal domain, thecontrast reduction is more prominent in the initial-accented structure than in the final accented structure.
This type (Type A-2 in Map 1) is mainly distributed in the southern bank of the River Yangtze. It isclassified into three subtypes.

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4.2.1 ‘Xiang type’: Asymmetrical and Symmetrical
Xiang is the traditional name of Hu’nan Province. As seen on Map 1, asymmetrical and symmetricaltypes are distributed in Hu’nan and surrounding areas, suggesting these two are historically related.
Here, a typical example of symmetrical contrast reduction is introduced. Tonal values presented in asingle number, [1] and [5], indicate that the given syllable is short.
(6) Symmetrical contrast reduction in Loudi (Hu’nan Province) *Yan & Liu (1994)
Final-accented structurea. T1 [44], T2 [13], T5 [35] → [33]b. T3 [42], T6 [11] → [1]Initial-accented structurea. T1 [44], T2 [13] → [33]b. T3 [42], T6 [11] → [1]c. T5 [35] → [5]Remarkably, this is again the case of non-categorical alternation, which results in two or threeneutralized tones mutually distinguished simply by pitch register, ‘Low’, ‘Mid’ and ‘High’. It is evident
that stress, either iambic or trochaic, plays a decisive role in producing this type of alternation system, as
it manifests itself in the shorter duration of syllable for b. and c. Some dialects lack the contrast
reduction in the final accented structure, exhibiting the asymmetrical type of neutralization. The
example for it is omitted here.
4.2.2 ‘Northern Wu type’: Symmetrical
Wu is the traditional name of the lower reaches of the River Yangtze, usually referring to the area
including Zhejiang Province and south Jiangsu in Chinese dialectology. Northern and Southern Wu are
set apart with each other in various features as typically reflected in Map 1, although Wu dialects incommon retain the voiced initials and, hence, are grouped together.
This type is symmetrical in that all members of tones are involved in neutralization and the output ofthe process finds only one architone, which hereafter is referred to as ‘zero tone’. This status isillustrated in (7), where ‫ ׎‬represents the zero tone and σ represents any tone.
(7) Maximum contrast reduction in Northern Wu

Initial-accented : T1, T2….. Tn → ‫ ׎‬/ σFinal-accented : T1, T2….. Tn → ‫ ׎‬/.
σ.

As was first reported by Kennedy (1953) for the Tangxi dialect in north Zhejiang, the initial- vs. finalaccented distinction is sensitive to the internal structure of the given expression, namely “modifier +modified” vs. “verb + object”. For example, the expression chao fan can be pronounced in two ways inShanghai.
(8) Symmetrical pattern of neutralization in Shanghai
a. chao fan T5 [34] + T6 [23]Ѝ T5 + ‫׎‬Ѝ [33+44] (fried rice)b. chao fan T5 [34] + T6 [23]→ ‫ ׎‬+ T6 → [44+23] (to fry rice)
In (8a), the tonal feature of the first syllable spreads into the second syllable as the result of the tonaldeletion in the latter syllable, and in this case the tonal contour of the whole bisyllabic is compound, [3344], corresponding to that of the first syllable, [34]. It is noted that this type of neutralization ‘T1, T2….. Tn.’ exactly corresponds to the case of ‘neutral tone’, which is observed in every Mandarin→‫׎‬/σ(Guanhua) dialect.

70

Tonal right spreading does not occur in (8b); instead the zero tone, which Kennedy called a ‘suspense
tone’ for Tangxi, generally assumes a default value of mid register (indicated in bold in (8b)) in
Northern Wu. In Shanghai, it assumes [44] if the given syllable is initiated by the voiceless consonant,and it assumes [33] if the given syllable is initiated by the voiced consonant. The zero tone appearing in
the initial position within a domain is hereafter referred to as a ‘prefixed neutral tone’.
4.2.3 Prefixed neutral tone
In Northern Wu dialects, the right spreading type (maximum contrast reduction in the initial-accented
structure) is dominant in terms of frequency of usage. So chao fan can alternatively be pronounced as[33+44], instead of [44+23], even in the case it means “to fry rice”, while it is always pronounced assuch if it means ‘fried rice’. Dominance of initial tones as well as structure-sensitive behavior of tones inShanghai is exemplified by the following example (quoted from the dictionary by Xu and Tang 1988:
249).
(9) Conversion of neutralization pattern in Shanghai
a. chi su T7[55]+T5[34] ɦ ‫׎‬+ T5 ɦ [44+34] ‘to live on vegetables’
b. chi su ren T7[55]+T5[34]+T6[23] ɦT7 + ‫ ׎‬+ ‫׎‬ɦ [33+55+21] ‘vegetarian’The expression chi su in (9a), which takes the “verb + object” construction, can be pronounced with aprefixed neutral tone, but once it comes to be nominalized by taking the head ren ‘person’ as in (9b), thewhole expression (literally, a person who lives on vegetables) is pronounced with an initial-accented
pattern. There is a tendency for the usage of two prosodic structures to be differentiated: an
initial-accented one for a compound or a word and final-accented one for a phrase. This tendency can be
confirmed with the usage of two prosodic structures in Xiang dialects.
The use of the prefixed neutral tone in Northern Wu seems optional, and it can surface as a full tone
as well (Takahashi 2011). Wang (1996: 56) remarked for the Suzhou dialect that it only appears innatural and rapid speech, otherwise the given tone assumes the citation form. Yet, the function of theprefixed neutral tone should not be disregarded.
4.3

Context dependent typeContext dependent type neutralization mostly occurs in the final-accented structure, and it is rare in theinitial-accented structure. As illustrated in Map 1, this rare type emerges within the zone of Northern Wu
dialects. The fact that this type surrounds the context free type of symmetrical/maximum contrast
reduction seems to indicate the transitional status from the context dependent type to context free type.
However, since how the contextual conditions have been eliminated cannot be well explained at present,
this type has to be left for further analyses.
4.3.1 Extensive type
The term ‘extensive’ refers to the status where both targets and triggers of neutralization extend to
all tones. This type concentrates in the area called East Min. The case of Fuzhou is shown in (11), where
the left-side vertical columns represent the first (initial) tone, i.e., target (input), the upper horizontal
rows represent the second (final) tone, i.e., trigger, and the remaining boxes show the output values of
the neutralized tone classes, A, B, C, whose realizations are dependent on the second tone. In each box,
tone categories and tonal values are indicated. The symbol Ҹ means that the output value is similar to
but not identical with the specific tone.

71(10) “Extensive” type in Fuzhou (Fujian Province)
2nd Syl.
1st Syl.

‘High’
T1[44],T2[53],T8[5]A

T1 [44]T5 [213]
T6 [242]T7b [23]

44 (T1)B

T3 [31]
T7a [23]2

ɼT5)
21 (ɼ

C

T2 [53]
T8 [5]*Liang (1986)‘Mid’T3 [31]‘Low’
T5[213],T6[242],T7[23]53 (T2)24 (ɼT6)

31 (T3)44 (T1)21 (ҸT5)

Tone classes are constructed both for target and trigger. As for target, tone classes A, B and C are theresult of neutralization, and its phonetic output is conditioned by the phonetic feature of the following
tone which is definable in terms of the initial pitch of the syllable, namely ‘High’, ‘Mid’ and ‘Low’.
Note that every phonetic output of this neutralization is either one of the citation forms other thanRu tones (T7 and T8). The values [21] and [24] can be identified as the variants of T5 [213] and T6 [242],
as judged from their behaviors in trisyllabic expressions. This is to say, the tonal neutralization in thisdialect is in essence a categorical alternation. Moreover, the chain shift is evident to a certain extent inFuzhou as summarized in (12).
(11) Tonal chain shift in Fuzhou
1. T2→T3→T5→T1 /2. T2→T3→T6→T2 /3. T3→T1→T2↔T5 /

High
Mid
Low

These features observed in Fuzhou may suggest a close historical relationship with the tone sandhi
of South Min type, which is characterized by chain shift and categorical alternation.
4.3.2 ‘Extensive, partial’ typeThis type is actually the composite of the extensive type and context-free type. It falls under the same
category with Fuzhou in the sense that all tones participate in neutralization as triggers. But it is different
from Fuzhou in that only certain members of tones are involved in context-dependent neutralization astargets (inputs), while the other members undergo context-free neutralization. The term ‘partial’ refers
to this situation. Here, the case of Wenzhou (Southern Zhejiang) is shown in (12).

2 Tone T7 splits into two, indicated as T7a and T7b, at the penultimate position of a polysyllabic expression. This
split seems to be lexically conditioned, where T7b only emerges in a small number of colloquial words (Chen
1998: 18).

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(12) ‘Extensive, partial’ type in Wenzhouġ ġ 2nd syl.
1st syl.

A

T3 [45]
T4 [34]T5 [42]
T6 [11]B

T1 [33]T2 [31]C

T7[323]
T8[212]*You and Yang (1998)

Non-RisingT1[33], T2[31]RisingT5[42], T6[11]T3[45], T4[34]High RisingT7[323], T8[212]
Low RisingHigh[42] 3High [53]Low level [11]Low rising [13]Low [1]Along with (11), tone classes are constructed both for targets and triggers. The phonetic output of toneclass A varies depending on the feature of the following syllable, namely ‘non-rising’ or ‘rising’. But theparticular two values, [42] and [52], should be conditional variants of one toneme ‘High’. Accordingly,
tone class A is considered as the result of context-free neutralization. Tone class C is likewise the resultof context-free neutralization. In this dialect only T1 and T2, which are called Ping tone in traditional
Chinese phonology, are involved in the context-dependent neutralization. They are realized as ‘Low’,either level or rising, if they precede any ‘non-rising’ tone; and they are realized as ‘High’ if they
precede any ‘rising’ tone.
As seen in Map 1, this type tends to be distributed in the outer area of the extensive type (East Min),and it is also adjacent to the context-free/asymmetrical type as well as to the chain shift type(final-accented structure). In this respect it is worth referring to mutually different descriptions
presented in three literature sources which reported on three varieties of Zhangping dialect in Fujian
Province. One variety was introduced as the example (4) in Section 4.1.2, and it exhibits the context-free
type of neutralization with partially retaining a feature of chain shift. Meanwhile, the two varieties
described by Zhang (1983, 1992) and Chen (2010) revealed an ‘Extensive, partial’ type of neutralization,
though they are different with each other in details. This evidence may suggest that the mutual
conversion among context-dependent, context-free, and chain shift types could be possible within arelatively short span of time. This issue will be discussed again in a later section.
4.3.3 Local type
The term ‘local’ refers to the occurrence of tone alternation in one or limited numbers of tone
combinations among all possible combinations (Yue-Hashimoto 1987), in other words, limited
members of tones participate in neutralization both as target and trigger. Most Mandarin dialects innorth China share this type of neutralization, and remarkably the dissimilative ones are dominant(Cheng 1966). The most prevalent one is T3 sandhi, and a less frequent one is T1 sandhi, and since they
are so numerous in north China, Map 1 cited above did not indicate all dialects which possess this typeof neutralization.
(13) Local type of neutralization in Beijing and Xi’an *Wang (1996)
T3 [214]Beijing: T2 [35], T3 [214] → T2 [35] /3 There is an exception: T5[42]ɦT6[11] /

T2.

73

Xi’an:T1 [21], T2 [24] Ѝ T2 [24] /T1[21]

While these two cases can well be accounted for as the result of dissimilation of successive low or
low-concave tones, there are cases for which the dissimilative theory is ineffective.
(14) Local type of neutralization in Ji’nan (Shandong Province) *Qian (1997)
T3 [55]
T2 [51], T3 [55] → T2 [51] /Here, it is unexplainable how the succession of two high-level tones results in dissimilation and thepreceding one changes to a high-falling tone.
As exhibited on the map appearing in Shi (1999), T3 sandhi is shared by a number of Mandarin
dialects. However, the fact that the tonal value of T3 varies greatly from one dialect to another requires adiachronic point of view, which considers the historical change of tonal values, as discussed in
Hirayama (1999).

5

Diachronic accounts

Succeeding the sketch of tonal neutralization typology presented in Section 4, this section discusses its
historical implication by taking the phenomena found in longer expressions into account.
5.1

Northern vs. Southern contrast

What attracts us in Map 1 is that the context-dependent type is distributed in two isolated o areas, one in
the broad northern area, i.e. local type, and another in a relatively narrow area of east Fujian, i.e.
extensive type, thus forming an ‘ABA’ distribution pattern by sandwiching several context-free types
between them. Logically, parameter extension is possible, that is, both target and trigger could extend
from one or two members of tones to all members. As discussed in Iwata (2018), this possibility should
be rejected because the local type is not observed in and nearby East Min, and in contrast there is noextensive type existing within the Mandarin speaking area. Therefore the particular two contextdependent types should be historically unrelated.
The discrepancy between Mandarin and East Min more clearly manifests itself in longer
expressions, and this is due to the presence and absence of stress. In Mandarin dialects, the developmentof trochaic compound stress has lead to the production of the maximum contrast reduction in non-initial
tone(s) of bisyllabic or trisyllabic construction. It is usually referred to as ‘neutral tone’, and since theappearance of neutral tone can be specified in the lexicon, it belongs to the category of lexical
neutralization, instead of post-lexical neutralization. Notably the maximum contrast reduction found innorthern Wu dialects is different from that of Mandarin since in the former every tonal combination
obeys the rule of contrast reduction once it is judged as a compound so that it belongs to post-lexical
neutralization. Meanwhile, Mandarin is characterized by the exisitence of iambic phrasal stress, which
overrides the lexical trocahic stress and manipulates the tonal behavior of the whole expression. This
characterstic is exemplified by the following example.
(15) Stress conversion in Beijing Mandarin
xue sheng T2+ ‫‘ ׎‬student’ → da xue sheng T4+T2+T1 ‘university student’zhi dao T1+ ‫‘ ׎‬to know’ → bu zhi dao T4+T1+T4 ‘not know’
kan jian T4+ ‫‘ ׎‬to see’ → kan bu jian T4+‫׎‬+T4 ‘unable to see’huang zhang T1+ ‫‘ ׎‬hurried’ → huang huang zhang zhang T1+‫׎‬+‫׎‬+T1 ‘panicked’
di dao T4+ ‫‘ ׎‬genuine’ → di di dao dao T4+ ‫׎‬+‫׎‬+T4 ‘really genuine’Those aligned on the left-side are disyllabic words with a neutral tone which is marked by ‫׎‬, and they
are extended to trisyllabic or quadrisyllabic compounds by affixation (da is an adjective meaning ‘big’
and bu is a negative marker) or reduplication. In this extension, the stress pattern is converted from the74

trochee, [SW], to the iamb, [MWS] or [MWWS] (S, M, and W represent strong, medium and weak levelof stress, respectively). Due to this, the neutralization at the lexical level is suspended, and themorphemes in final position (sheng, dao, jian, zhang, dao) recover their original tones. Remarkably, thisiambic stress tends to make medial syllable(s) assume a neutral tone.
Min and Wu dialects lack such a trochaic vs. iambic contrast as found in Mandarin dialects.
Although they have a neutral tone, its occurrence is generally limited to proclitics.
Mandarin and East Min also reveal the difference in the manner of context scanning, which isactually opposite in direction. The neutralization pattern found in longer expressions in Fuzhou is
illustrated as below. Here, “T” represents the full tone; “‫ ”׎‬represents the zero tone; “X” represents theoutputs of context-dependent type of neutralization(16) Neutralization pattern in Fuzhou{‫׎׎‬XT}
penult tone class: A or B{‫׎‬XXT}
penult tone class: C
Fuzhou observes the sole output [21] in the third or fourth syllable from the end. The neutralization
pattern shown in (16) indicates that the tones become free from contextual constraint as the syllable
becomes distant from the end. This fact implies that the phonological context is scanned regressively
from the final syllable in these southern dialects. Significantly, this is exactly the opposite of Mandarin
dialects, where scanning of the context usually goes progressively from left to right, i.e. from the initial
to the final syllable. This can be seen in the case of T3 tone sandhi in Beijing.
(17) Progressive scanning of context in Beijing Mandarin
Zhan lan guan zhang ‘exhibition hall director’(T3–T3)–T3–T3 > T2–(T3–T3)–T3 > T2–T2–(T3–T3) > T2–T2–T2–T3
In a right-branching structure, the T3 sandhi rule can be applied to the penultimate tone first. For
example, the succession of three T3’s, [Xiao [mu gou]]‘small female dog,’ is usually realized as
T3–T2–T3, though T2–T2–T3 is also permitted. Thus, Mandarin also allows a bi-directional scanning of
the context.
5.2

Divergence in southeast dialects

5.2.1 Neutralization and chain shift
It is noted that neutralization and chain shift are the opposite sides of the same coin. Synchronic
neutralization implies the historical occurrence of tonal merger, and chain shift implies the avoidance of
tonal merger. In south China, which way the specific dialect chooses depends on chance, and there is no
logical necessity for the choice. However, the fact that the chain shift type and context-free type ofneutralization, including ‘partial’ type, are contiguously distributed in Fujian suggests that conversion of
the type from one to another must have frequently taken place in this area.
5.2.2 Historical formation of Extensive type
It is assumed that in the southeast coastal area, including Fujian and south Zhejiang as well as theirneighbouring area, there existed a trend of tonal merger of the unconditional type. South Min dialects
resisted this trend, and as the result tones shifted from one to another at either final or non-final position.
Later, East Min as well as some southern Wu dialects developed an extensive system of conditional
alternation of the categorical type. This can be due to the context sensitive nature of phonology in thisdialect, as reflected in the behaviours of initial stops in intervocalic position.

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(18) Consonantal neutralization in Fuzhou/a pa/ → [a ßa] ‘jaw’/tsʰieu pʰa/ → [tsʰieu ßa] ‘handkerchief’
5.2.3 Common property of Min tone sandhi
In spite of the incongruity among Min dialects, especially between South Min and East Min, it is evident
that they share common properties in terms of tone sandhi. In this respect, the function of the final tone
is salient. In longer expressions, once the position of phonological boundary (#) is identified, tonal
realizations of all syllables in between the boundary are predicted. 4(19) Final tone as a boundary marker in Min
South Min (Xiamen)#T’…T’T#(T: base tone, T’: alternated tone)
East Min (Fuzhou)#‫׎‬..‫׎‬XT# penult tone class: ‘A’ or ‘B’ (..: repetition of ‫)׎‬#‫׎‬..XXT# penult tone class: ‘C’
5.3

Function of prefixed neutral tone

While the final tone bears the function of boundary in Min dialects, this function could be borne by theprefixed neutral tone in Northern Wu dialects. It is used for delimitating and integrating phrasal
expressions. In order to exemplify its function, we quote two longer expressions from Xu & Tang (1988:
42, 46).
(20) Prefixed neutral tone in longer expressions in Shanghaia. ‘yi|liang|san|si|wu’ (one, two, three, four, five)
T7+T6+T1+T5+T6 [55 23 53 34 23] ɦ [44 33 44 44 23]b. ‘zhonghua|renmin|gonghe|guo’ (People’s Republic of China)
T1+T6+T6+T6+T6+T2+T7 [53 23 23 23 23 23 55] ɦ [55 33 22 33 22 33 55]
In (20a), all tones but the final one assume the default value [44] or [33]. In (20b), a simple applicationof initial stress to three disyllabic units, namely ‘zhonghua’ (China), ‘renmin’ (people) and ‘gonghe’(republic), would produce the tone contour [55 22 22 44 22 44], but actually all three even-numbered
tones assume the same default value [33]. In both examples, the zero tone marks the word boundary,while at the same time it integrates the several units (phonological words) into one unit (phonologicalphrase). Note for (20b) that this phrase can also be segmented into three words‘zhonghua|renmin|gongheguo’ [55 33 22 33 22 55 21] or two words ‘zhonghuarenmin|gongheguo’ [5533 33 33 22 55 21].
5.4

Formation of ‘context free, symmetrical’ typeThis type is distributed along the southern bank of the River Yangtze. Situated in the intermediate zone
between north and south China, Northern Wu and Xiang constitute the intermediate group as regards theneutralization pattern. The difference of the two subtypes lies in the number of outputs of neutralization:
two in the Xiang type and only one in the Northern Wu type. Logically it is probable that the Xiang typedeveloped into the Northern Wu type through the merger of plural outputs. However, this hypothesis is

4 Egerod and Hashimoto (1982) and Endo (1983) mentioned that the occurrence of the non-sandhi tone marks aboundary (open juncture) and that of the sandhi tone marks a close juncture.

76

invalid since geographically these two types are actually isolated, as seen in Map 1, and there is no
reliable evidence for attesting the change from the Xiang type to the Northern Wu type.
An alternative account for the symmetrical contrast reduction may be that it was an outcome ofparallel innovation which was externally motivated by the influence of Mandarin which developed thestress accent in north China. Stress sensitive behaviors of Xiang tones are evident as mentioned in
Section 4.2.1.
As for Northern Wu, the tonal right spreading phenomenon, which is synchronically explained interms of initial stress (Chen 2000, Chapter 6), suggests the existence of stress accent in former days,
though it is phonetically not well-exemplified in present dialects. It is assumed that the stress accent has
fossilized in present Northern Wu dialects, due to the development of an accentual system, in which thelocation of accent is marked by a pitch fall. This particular feature is observable in the dialects ofShanghai, Chongming and Hangzhou. The following is the case of Hangzhou trisyllables, which
typically reflect the feature of right spreading (Akitani 1988). For each tone, the phonetic value ofcitation form is presented in the left-side of the slash, and those values appearing in trisyllables arepresented in the right-side. The accented syllable is marked by a bold letter. The two Ru tones (T7, T8)
are omitted.
(21) Accentual system in Hangzhou Zhejiang Province)a. 1st syllable accented
b. 2nd syllable accented
c. 3rd syllable accented

T3 [53] / [55+22+21]
T5 [45] / [34+55+21] T6 [113] / [11+55+21]
T1 [334] / [33+34+53] T2 [23] / [22+34+53]

The pitch fall appears in the position of the syllable boundary in T3, T5 and T6, and the final tone itself
exhibits a falling intonation in T1 and T2.
At any event, neutralization patterns found in Northern Wu and Xiang should be the mostinnovative among others.

6

Summary

Speculations mentioned in the last section above are summarized as follows.
1. Tone sandhi patterns were essentially different between north and south China.
2. In north China, tonal behavior was generally anticipatory, that is, it was sensitive to thefollowing tone, thus resulting in dissimilatory change.
3. A major trend in the southeast coastal area was the unconditional (context-free) merger of
non-final tones in the final-accented structure. Meanwhile, South Min dialects resisted themerger, giving birth to the chain-shift alternation of tones.
4. The context-dependent type emerging in East Min and its neighboring area must have been theoutcome of later innovation. In it, tonal behavior is final-based, and phonological context is
scanned regressively from the final syllable. This is exactly the opposite of Mandarin dialects,
where scanning of the context is bidirectional; hence, progressive scanning is possible from theinitial to the final syllable.
5. The most innovative type has emerged in the intermediate zone, where distinction of non-initial
tones neutralizes in a ‘non-head + head’ (modifier + modified) construction, and distinction of
non-final tones neutralizes in ‘head + non-head’ (verb + object) construction, thus resulting in asymmetrical pattern of contrast reduction. Presumably, existence of stress accent may havecontributed to the formation of this pattern.
6. In the dialects of Wu and Min, either final tone or prefixed neutral tone functions as a boundary
marker for delimiting phrasal expressions, and also for integrating the whole expression.

77

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Contributors
Ryo MATSUMOTO, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies
Yoshio SAITÔ, Tokyo Gakugei University
Hidetoshi SHIRAISHI, Sapporo Gakuin University
Mika FUKAZAWA, The Foundation for Research and Promotion of Ainu Culture
Kenji YAGI, Kokushikan University
Kazue IWASA, JSPS / Kyoto University
Hiroyuki SUZUKI, University of Oslo / National Museum of Ethnology
Keita KURABE, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Shiho EBIHARA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Satoko SHIRAI, JSPS / University of Tsukuba
Ikuko MATSUSE, Center for Newar Studies
Yoshihisa TAGUCHI, Chiba University
Mitsuaki ENDO, Aoyama Gakuin University
Masaaki SHIMIZU, Osaka University
Yoichi NAGATO, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Shinsuke KISHIE, Tokushima University
Yukichi SHIMIZU, Miyagi International College
Yukako SAKOGUCHI, Tokushima University
Nanami SHIOKAWA, Tokushima University
Rei FUKUI, The University of Tokyo
Masaki NOHARA, Seikei University
Tsering Samdrup, University of Oslo
Ray IWATA, Kanazawa University

Acknowledgements
This volume is a part of the results of the project on͆Studies in Asian Geolinguistics͇2015 2017 at the ILCAA, TUFS. The articles were partially supported by JSPS Grants-in-Aid for
Scientific Research (KAKENHI) 15K02525, 16J01055, 16K16820, 17J40087, respectively.