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and Patience Epps2
Abstract
While tone is widely encountered among Amazonian languages, Amazonia has generally been underrepresented in wider studies of tone and tonal diachrony. This paper offers a case study of tonogenesis within the small Naduhup language family of western Amazonia. We propose that Naduhup tonogenesis was grounded in a prior contrast involving vowel length and was linked to coda voicing. Contact with neighboring languages in which tone was already present was also a likely catalyst. In addition to contributing to our understanding of tonogenesis in a part of the world where these processes are not well known, the Naduhup case provides an illustration of how vowel length, coda voicing, and intonation may all play a role in the emergence of tone.
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