In this study we discuss the East Asian Voicing Shift (EAVS), a massively cross-linguistic phonetic change in onset voicing contrasts that spread across the region, paving the way for the development of lexical tone and register. It is widely accepted that tonogenesis conditioned by coda-phonation contrasts precedes the EAVS in tone languages of the region, but does this hypothesis stand to scrutiny? We weigh the merits of this conventional "coda catalyst hypothesis" against an alternative "onset catalyst hypothesis", in which the EAVS comes first. This chronology carries significant implications for the study of suprasegmental diachrony.
PRESENTATION VIDEO |
PRESENTATION SLIDES