[h]→[∅]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 4/5
Tonogenesis Laryngeal Coda Pitch Contour Elision Consonants Sino-Tibetan Austroasiatic Coda Loss Mongolic Tai-Kadai
Voiceless glottal fricative to Empty sound / Zero
The elision of the glottal fricative [h] as a final Laryngeal Coda is the definitive stage in the formation of a falling Pitch Contour in many East Asian languages. According to Haudricourt's model of Tonogenesis, the loss of final [h] (often derived from an earlier [s]) phonemicized the pitch lowering effect on the preceding vowel.
Phonetic Effects
Elision, Tonogenesis, Pitch Fall, Voice Loss, Coda Deletion
Language Examples
*pah→bá /baː˧˥/— Following the debuccalization of *s to [h], the eventual loss of this glottal fricative resulted in the development of the 'Sắc' tone (falling) in Vietnamese.
*-h (< *-s)→Hỏi / Ngã tones— Final stage where the laryngeal coda disappears, leaving the complex falling tones.
*pɑh→bà /pɑ˥˩/— In Sinitic historical phonology, the 'Departing' (Qù sheng) tone arose from the loss of a final glottal fricative [h].
*-h (< *-s)→Qù (去) tone— The departing tone stabilizes as the final [h] is elided.
*kraːh→khrâa /kʰraː˥˩/— Thai and other Tai-Kadai languages exhibit a falling tone register associated with the historical elision of a final glottal coda.
Proto-Mongolic *h- (word-initial)→∅ (zero) in most Mongolic languages— Proto-Mongolic had a word-initial *h- that was systematically lost in the development of most daughter languages including Khalkha and Buryat. Only peripheral Mongolic languages (e.g., Monguor/Tu) preserve reflexes of this initial *h- (sometimes as /f/ via Proto-Altaic *p). E.g., Proto-Mongolic *hon- > Khalkha on- (to enter). This deletion is reconstructed by Janhunen as one of the earliest post-Proto-Mongolic changes.
Related Transformations
More Tai-Kadai Shifts
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