Emergent word tone in Kham: a Tibeto-Burman halfway house
The Tibeto-Burman languages of Southeast Asia have long been characterized as solidly monosyllabic. And rightly so. Words, phrases, and sentences consisted of phonologically discreet monosyllabic morphemes marching along to the cadence of one tone per syllable. On occasion, of course, questions were...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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2024
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178776 |
| _version_ | 1826122474420436992 |
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| author | Watters, David E. |
| author_facet | Watters, David E. |
| author_sort | Watters, David E. |
| collection | NTU |
| description | The Tibeto-Burman languages of Southeast Asia have long been characterized as solidly monosyllabic. And rightly so. Words, phrases, and sentences consisted of phonologically discreet monosyllabic morphemes marching along to the cadence of one tone per syllable. On occasion, of course, questions were raised as to the efficacy of the traditional view. Tone sandhi with its polysyllabic government was found to occur here and there; and weak or unstressed syllables were swept into the orb of stronger ones so that tonal units encompassed more than a single syllable, and a purely syllabic prosody was not always possible (Bradley 1971, Lehman 1973). But from a diachronic point of view such languages were still monosyllabic and the steps could be reconstructed (or at least imagined), with a considerable degree of confidence, showing their evolution from their former "pure" state. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:49:05Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/178776 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:49:05Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1787762024-07-05T07:03:06Z Emergent word tone in Kham: a Tibeto-Burman halfway house Watters, David E. Arts and Humanities The Tibeto-Burman languages of Southeast Asia have long been characterized as solidly monosyllabic. And rightly so. Words, phrases, and sentences consisted of phonologically discreet monosyllabic morphemes marching along to the cadence of one tone per syllable. On occasion, of course, questions were raised as to the efficacy of the traditional view. Tone sandhi with its polysyllabic government was found to occur here and there; and weak or unstressed syllables were swept into the orb of stronger ones so that tonal units encompassed more than a single syllable, and a purely syllabic prosody was not always possible (Bradley 1971, Lehman 1973). But from a diachronic point of view such languages were still monosyllabic and the steps could be reconstructed (or at least imagined), with a considerable degree of confidence, showing their evolution from their former "pure" state. Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) Published version 2024-07-05T07:03:05Z 2024-07-05T07:03:05Z 1985 Journal Article Watters, D. E. (1985). Emergent word tone in Kham: a Tibeto-Burman halfway house. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 8(2), 36-54. https://dx.doi.org/10.32655/LTBA.8.2.02 0731-3500 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178776 10.32655/LTBA.8.2.02 2 8 36 54 en Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area © 1985 The Editor(s). All rights reserved. application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Arts and Humanities Watters, David E. Emergent word tone in Kham: a Tibeto-Burman halfway house |
| title | Emergent word tone in Kham: a Tibeto-Burman halfway house |
| title_full | Emergent word tone in Kham: a Tibeto-Burman halfway house |
| title_fullStr | Emergent word tone in Kham: a Tibeto-Burman halfway house |
| title_full_unstemmed | Emergent word tone in Kham: a Tibeto-Burman halfway house |
| title_short | Emergent word tone in Kham: a Tibeto-Burman halfway house |
| title_sort | emergent word tone in kham a tibeto burman halfway house |
| topic | Arts and Humanities |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178776 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT wattersdavide emergentwordtoneinkhamatibetoburmanhalfwayhouse |