Phonetics, Phonology, and Morphology

"Microprosody and tonogenesis"

Although the microprosodic basis of tonogenesis is well established (e.g. Matisoff, 1973; Hombert et al., 1979), the mechanics of exactly how the transfer of pitch occurs are not well understood. The classical phonologization model (e.g. Hyman, 1976) proposes that this process involves the exaggeration of low pitch from a voiced consonant to the following vowel: in other words, a textbook example of a phonetically gradual, lexically abrupt Neogrammarian sound change. In this...