DIRECTIONALITY OF TONE CHANGE

Pittayawat Pittayaporn
Department of Linguistics, Cornell University

ID 1516
[full paper]

In this paper, I present a theory of tonal change focusing on the directionality of tone change. Drawing on studies on phonetic variation of tones, I propose three main mechanisms that govern the directions in which tones change: 1) segment-tone interaction, 2) contextual variation, and 4) perceptual maximization. The predictions made by a model that includes these mechanisms are borne out by the tonal development of Bangkok Thai.