*High > rising in Ngwi: Supplementary materials

Abstract:

Previous research has proposed a direct path from consonantal effects on F0 to the development of a rising tone value. However, findings from tone change studies in Asian languages suggest an additional pathway: a high tone (i.e., with a tonal target in the upper pitch range) may evolve into a rising tone, without consonantal conditioning. This study examines tone change pathways to rising in the Ngwi (Loloish) languages. Among the 11 Ngwi language clusters examined, a new rising tone value has unambiguously developed from an historically high tone in 9 of them. In several clusters, prevocalic consonants conditioned a tone split, but in other clusters, consonantal conditioning does not appear to have played a role. The findings suggest that a high tonal target is itself a condition favorable to the development of a rising tone value, as reaching a high tonal target in connected speech frequently entails a rising contour. 

Key words: rising tone, tone change, Ngwi, dialect laboratory, pathways to sound change

Supplementary materials for the manuscript "The phonetic tone change *high > rising: Evidence from the Ngwi dialect laboratory":

Supplementary data files:

Appendix 1: Ngwi lects, data sources, and data locations

Appendix 2: Ngwi comparative wordlist

Appendix 3: Ngwi comparative tone box

Data files for producing the figures: 

Figures 1, 8, 15: Fig1_... files

Figure 3: Fig3_...files

Figures 7, 10, 12, 13: Fig1_Ngwi Villages and Fig1_Yunnan_Border

Figure 6, 11: Fig6_...files

Figure 9: Fig9_...files

Figure 14: Fig14_...files

Rising tones R script: R script for producing the figures