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Phonetic explanations for the development of tones

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Jean-Marie Hombert,
John J. Ohala and
William G. Ewan
Jean-Marie Hombert
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
John J. Ohala
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
William G. Ewan
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut Health Center
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Abstract

The development of contrastive tone because of the articulatory reinterpretation of segmentally-caused perturbations in intrinsic fundamental frequency is well attested in a number of unrelated languages. Considering the wide-spread character of this process, it is likely that its ‘seeds’ can be found in the functioning of the human articulatory and/or auditory mechanisms. This paper reviews what the authors consider promising explanations for well-attested tonal sound patterns, e.g. tone originating from the effect of prevocalic stop consonants or postvocalic glottal consonants, and tone rarely or never originating from the influence of postvocalic non-glottal consonants or from vowel height.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , March 1979, pp. 37 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 by Linguistic Society of America

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