query: checked/entering tone

[Stephen Morey]

Dear Kristine,

I am working on some varieties of Tangsa - the name used in India for the 'language' that the ISO terms Naga Tase (ISO639-3:nst), and which includes around 70 identifiable 'sub-tribes' each of which has their own distinctive linguistic variety, sometimes intelligible by others, sometimes not. Work on several varieties by myself and Paul Hastie a PhD student working on the Tikhak variety, as well as the words llisted in Weidert 1987 Tibeto-Burman Tonology, agree that there are three tones on live syllables. In addition I agree with Weidert that there is a contrast between glottal stop as a final segment and glottal constriction as part of the tone.

In the two varieties that I have most closely investigated, Cholim (also called Tonglum) and Lochhang (also called Langching) one of the tones is associated with some final glottal constriction, which my Lochhang consultant describes as a 'brake'. In Cholim this tone is in the higher range of the speaker's pitch, whereas in Lochhang it is in the lower range. It mostly corresponds with what Weidert calls tone 1 in his materials which are probably the Joglei variety. Some other varieties do not appear to have this final constriction in the speech of the consultants I've been able to interview.

What you have called 'checked tones' are also found in the Tai languages spoken in Assam. These are reflexes of the proto C tone in Tai, thought to have been creaky, and fully creaky tones are also found in some varieties. I have written about these things.

Stephen

Stephen Morey
Australian Research Council Future Fellow
Centre for Research on Language Diversity
La Trobe University
Website: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt/StaffPages/morey.htm

Language data website: http://sealang.net/assam
Dictionary websites: http://sealang.net/ahom;  http://sealang.net/singpho; http://sealang.net/phake

Linguistic data archived at::
DoBeS:  http://www.mpi.nl/DoBeS and follow a link to projects, then Tangsa, Tai and Singpho in North East India
ELAR: http://elar.soas.ac.uk
PARADISEC:  http://www.paradisec.org.au

North East Indian Linguistics Society: http://sealang.net/neils
________________________________
From: The Tibeto-Burman Discussion List [tibeto-burman-linguistics at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG] on behalf of Kristine Hildebrandt [khildeb at SIUE.EDU]
Sent: 21 September 2012 09:47
To: TIBETO-BURMAN-LINGUISTICS at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: query: checked/entering tone

Dear colleagues,

In the process of compiling some tone and tone-related entries for a forthcoming dictionary, I was asked whether the 'checked/entering tone' which is frequently discussed with respect to Chinese dialects is a concept invoked for other languages (possibly other Sino-Tibetan, but even more, for other languages outside of the family altogether). My basic journal/literature/even Google searches have not been very fruitful. Can anyone help me with this?

Thank you,

--
Orche
('Thanks' in Manange)

Kristine A. Hildebrandt
Associate Professor, Department of English Language & Literature
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Box 1431
Edwardsville, IL 62026 U.S.A.
618-650-3380 (office)
khildeb at siue.edu<mailto:khildeb at siue.edu>
http://www.siue.edu/~khildeb

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