Diachronica - Volume 42, Issue 3-4, 2025

This paper is concerned with tonogenesis in creole languages, focusing on the Gulf of Guinea Creoles (GGCs), where the interaction between the European (stress) and African (tone) origins has led to the emergence of a tone system. Two key factors were identified as crucial for this tonogenesis process: (i) the historical influence of Portuguese’s liquid coda via the Proto-Creole of the Gulf of Guinea (PGG) and (ii) the adaptation of part of the lexicon as not having a H tone, mainly in African-origin nouns and ideophones, and in verbs. Furthermore, I propose that PGG was already a tone language with a culminative and non-obligatory *H tone. The data demonstrate a unique interaction between tone, stress, and syllabic and moraic structures, in which both strata were crucial for the emerging system. Thus, this paper contributes to a broader understanding of tonogenesis in contact situations.

This paper illustrates that in-depth descriptive work of closely related varieties of Dinka, a Nilotic tone language with an unusually complex suprasegmental system, provides solutions to previously unanswered questions about historical tone change. Using data from six dialects, I show the directions and mechanisms of tone splits and mergers. In-depth descriptive work combined with comparison allows innovation and novel discoveries from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. These are also powerful tools for historical tonology and may ultimately shed light on the origins of tonal phenomena with previously opaque historical perspectives.

In this paper, I provide a first systematic analysis of grammatical tone (GT) in the verb phrase of northwestern (NW) Bantu languages. Based on a sample of twelve languages, I show that GT on preverbal subject agreement, tense, aspect, mood, and polarity markers, on the verb stem, and tonal phrase-medial/phrase-final verb distinctions are inherited features. In contrast, GT on elements immediately following the verb is an innovation in some genealogical subgroups of NW Bantu. In Proto-NW-Bantu, GT generally co-occurred with segmental morphemes. This “co-exponence” type is retained in the Proto-B clade of NW Bantu, while languages of Proto-A innovated more exponence types, namely tone-only and segment-only exponents, synchronically exhibiting all three exponence types in individual languages.

This study examines the phonetic realization of tones and onsets in Cao Bằng Tai. Previous studies of this language indicate that historically voiced plosives remain redundantly cued by closure voicing and/or breathy voice. Our age- and gender-stratified sample of 19 speakers reveals a linguistically homogeneous speech community in which historically voiced plosives are realized as voiceless and lightly aspirated, potentially merging with the aspirated plosive series. Our data show no intrinsic covariation of pitch in syllables with historically voiced onsets, but syllables with historically voiceless aspirated onsets show significantly increased pitch compared to unaspirated onsets. These findings suggest that while historical sonorant devoicing may well have conditioned the initial split, the phonetic precursors involved in the onset merger implicate raising, rather than lowering, of pitch. Our study of Cao Bằng Tai thus provides new insights into the internal chronology of tonogenetic processes in Tai languages.

The complex tone inventories of Kra-Dai languages derive in part from earlier segmental codas via transphonologization. Comparative Austro-Tai research has identified systematic correspondences between Kra-Dai tones and Austronesian codas, but significant gaps remain: the segmental origins of tone categories *B and *C remain disputed, divergent tonal patterns among Kam-Sui languages lack explanation, and the chronology of transphonologization remains unclear.

Building on Sagart’s (2019) Austro-Tai model, we propose (1) that some Kam-Sui languages underwent a chain shift from Proto-Kra-Dai codas *‑χ and *‑h to *‑h and *‑ʔ, paralleling Tai developments, as a contact-induced effect, and (2) that Tai evidence suggests Proto-Austro-Tai *‑R persisted as a rhotic coda into the Proto-Tai stage. These findings imply an extended chronology of gradual transphonologization spanning centuries, enhancing our understanding of tonogenesis as long-running, areally co-influencing processes in East and Southeast Asian languages while strengthening empirical support for the Austro-Tai hypothesis.

What happens when an accentual language develops a tonal contrast from laryngeal features: is the accent system kept alongside the new tone contrast? Is it lost? Do both prosodic systems merge? In this paper, I present the tone system of Paicî, which illustrates the latter outcome. Paicî seems to possess two integrated prosodic subsystems: a purely tonal H vs. L contrast, and a typologically unusual downstep with accentual properties. Building on Rivierre (1978), I show that a comparison with neighboring Xârâcùù, where accent is marked by a similar downstep, explains this apparently mixed system: the H/L tonal contrast emerged through tonogenesis in an already accentual language, where accent was marked by a downstep just like in Xârâcùù. This caused the former downstep to be reinterpreted as tonal. The Paicî case is interesting for the study of the interactions between accent and tone, both in synchrony and in diachrony.

This article discusses the rise of new tones in Baltic and Slavic languages. It draws attention to the underlying mechanisms in the rise of these new tones and adduces typological parallels for some of the sound changes involved. It is argued that two processes played a crucial role in tonogenesis in Baltic and Slavic: stress retraction and reanalysis of an earlier phonation contrast as a tonal contrast. Tone renewal as a result of stress retractions in a number of South Slavic dialects is argued to have resulted from language contact.

This article presents the Database of Tonogenetic Events (DTE), which describes 259 tonogenetic events from 104 genealogically and geographically diverse language varieties. The DTE allows us to identify the main types of reported tonogenesis triggering contexts, the types of resultant tones, and their effects on pitch. We illustrate the usefulness of the database with case studies addressing (i) the frequency of different types of tonogenesis, (ii) the diachronic pathways linking phonological triggering context and resultant tone, and (iii) areal trends. We also discuss the shortcomings of the database with respect to the diachronic typological study of tone.

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.

This study aims to reconstruct the tone system of late 16th century Siamese by analyzing the Sino-Siamese Manual of Translation. The compilers’ preference for transcribing Siamese tonal categories using Chinese characters suggests that late 16th century Siamese had seven phonemic tones with phonetic characteristics aligned with the broader picture of tonal development in Siamese. This case study serves as an example of how to reconstruct tonal systems using Chinese primary sources.