Tonogenesis

· from Greek + English

What is tonogenesis?

Tonogenesis is the historical process by which a language develops tones, usually from lost consonants or voicing distinctions.

Vietnamese is the classic case: the linguist André-Georges Haudricourt showed in 1954 that its tones arose from final consonants and later initial voicing that disappeared. Chinese tones likely arose in a similar way. Some researchers argue Seoul Korean is starting tonogenesis, with pitch replacing the aspiration contrast among younger speakers.

Examples

Vietnamese tones from lost final -h and glottal stop (Haudricourt 1954); Seoul Korean 달 dal vs 탈 tal increasingly distinguished by pitch

Kungfucius says: Tones are just consonants that died and came back as ghosts.