[z]→[s]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 4/5

Tonogenesis Register Split Voice Loss Devoicing Consonants Sino-Tibetan Austroasiatic Tai-Kadai

Voiced alveolar fricative to Voiceless alveolar fricative

The Voice Loss of the initial alveolar sibilant [z] to [s] is a major catalyst for tonal Register Split. Voiced sibilants like [z] produced a lower Pitch Contour on the following vowel (Low Register), while voiceless [s] produced a higher pitch (High Register). When [z] devoiced, the pitch difference was phonemicized as distinct tones.

Phonetic Effects

Voice Loss, Devoicing, Register Split, Tonogenesis

Language Examples

Vietnamese Austroasiatic

*za→da /zaː˧/— Initial voicing in sibilants in Mon-Khmer provided the phonetic environment for the development of the low-register tones in Vietnamese.

Middle Chinese Sino-Tibetan

*zi→sì /sɨ˥˩/— Early Middle Chinese voiced sibilants (Quánzhuó) devoiced, phonemicizing the low-register pitch contours in the resulting tonal system.

Middle Chinese *z- (Xié 邪 initial)→Mandarin s-— Initial voicing in fricatives led to the development of the Yáng (low) register tones.

Thai Tai-Kadai

*za→sâa /saː˥˩/— Proto-Tai initial *z is reconstructed as a source for the low-register tonal contours during the Tai-Kadai Register Split.

Tai Tai-Kadai

Proto-Tai *z-→s-— Led to the split of tones into high and low registers based on the voicing of the original initial.

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Tai-Kadai Shifts

[a] → [ã] — Assimilatory Nasalization [b] → [p] — Voice Loss [tɕ] → [ɕ] — Lenition [d] → [t] — Voice Loss [dz] → [l] — Deaffrication

Sources & References

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