Historical Comparative Acoustics and Prosodic Reanalysis: The Case of Tibetan

Prosodic Typology: State of the Art and Future Prospects

February 24-26, 2010Berlin, German

Nancy J. CaplowUniversity of North Texas

nancy.caplow@unt.edu

Methods

History

Phonological classification

• Distinction is some dialects are tonal, some are not

• Tibetan dialects are traditionally divided into two categories

• Archaic dialects: non-tonal; rich in consonant clusters

• Innovative dialects: tonal; simplified onsets and codas

Dialect variation and classification

According to recent estimates (Tournadre 2005, 2008)

• More than 220 varieties of Tibetan (or “Tibetic”)

• Some are similar• Others are mutually incomprehensible

• 25 distinct groups

Comparing monosyllabic words

‘arrow’ mda′

‘horse’

rta

‘fire’ me / myi

‘medicine’ sman

Archaic Dialects

Innovative Dialects

Nda ɕta

Nda xtata0 ta

me sman

nyi ʰmɛnme0 me

Dialects

What are archaic dialects?

• Considered to preserve older forms of the language

• Evidence comes in part from Written Tibetan (WT), developed in the 7th century

• Consonant clusters correspond with consonant clusters in WT

• Innovative dialects • Writing has apparently lost consonants and

developed contrastive tone over time

Correspondence with WT

• For all the dialects (non-tonal or tonal, written or never written)

• Sound patterns consistently correspond with WT.

• The non-tonal archaic dialects show segmental correspondence with WT consonants and consonant clusters.

• The tonal innovative dialects show suprasegmental correspondence with WT consonants and consonant clusters.

Correspondences with WT

arrow mda’

nda ta0

non-tonaltonal

Correspondences with WT

horse rta

xta ta

non-tonaltonal

Correspondences with WT

boulder brag

brag ʈʰa0k

non-tonaltonalNote: tonal [ʈʰ] + L < WT gr, dr, and sbr

cold grang.mo [graχ.'mo] [ʈʰa0ŋ.mo]

Correspondences with WT

brain ’klad.pa

χlat.'pa lɛEt.tanon-tonal

tonalNote: tonal [l] + H < WT rl, gl, bl, sl

flute gling.bu [χlɛm.'bu] [lɪ Eŋ.bu]

Characteristics of Proto-Tibetan

Archaic dialects• Lacking in tonal contrasts• Rich in consonant clusters

Evidence• Correlations with WT• Geographic distribution

Geographic distribution is intriguing

• Non-tonal Archaic dialects • Spoken at the western and eastern edges of

the Tibetan language area.• Geographically peripheral

• Separated by the tonal Innovative dialects• Spoken across the vast expanse of the

Tibetan plateau.• geographically central

18Tournadre and Dorje 2003

19

after Tournadre and Dorje 2003

Rebkong AmdoBalti

Tokpe Gola

The similarity of the peripheral dialects

• Rule out borrowing• No contact

• Rule out coincidence• Similarities are systematic

• Similarity is due to inheritance of features from a common parent

• Proto-Tibetan was rich in consonant clusters and lacking in tone

Previous accounts of genesis of tone

• Focus on monosyllabic words• Explain tonogenesis in terms of consonantal

edge effects• Voiced onsets ↔ lower pitch register• Voiceless onsets ↔ higher pitch register• Laryngeal final consonants ↔ falling contour

in the preceding vowel• Tone patterns are attributed to correlations

between consonant types and glottal states

Universal physiological correlations

• Hombert, Ohala, and Ewan (1979)• A voiced onset consonant causes lowering of F0

in the vowel that follows.• A voiceless onset consonant causes raising of F0

in the vowel that follows.

• Why?• The voiced / voiceless distinction corresponds to

differences in larynx height, vocal fold tension, and transglottal airflow, all of which effect the rate of vibration of the vocal folds, and thus the pitch of the following vowel.

Implications

• Means that correlations between voicing and F0 are widespread cross-linguistically

• Pitch differences are unintentional, and occur even in languages that do not use tone contrastively

• The differences are of a discernible magnitude

• Available to be phonologized as tonal contrasts

Summarization

• Tone patterns observed on monosyllabic words• High and low pitch register• Level and falling pitch contour

• Some aspects of the tone patterns observed on polysyllabic words remains unaccounted

• Work provides a diachronic / phonetic explanation for tone patterns observed on disyllabic words• Focusing today on disyllabic non-verbs

Disyllabic Non-verbs

Tone in Disyllabic Non-Verbs

willow tree lcang.ma

bridge zam.pa

brain klad.pa

Balti(West)

Amdo(East)

ɬtʃaχ.'ma

tʃaŋ.ma

Tokpe Gola(Central)

xtʃaŋ.'ma

zam.'pa sa0m.pa sam.'pa

xlat.'pa lɛEt.ta ᵊlai.'pa

nak.'po

sar.'pʰa

na0k.pu

sam.pa

nox.'χu

sʰo.'ma

black nag.po

new gsar.pa

σ2 always high in Tokpe Golaloose, floppy

flat

young, young person

fire

arrow

gun, rifle

leg, foot

arm, hand

limbs (legs and arms)

lhug.lhug

leb.leb

gzhon.gzhon

me

mda′

me. mda′

rkang.pa

lag.pa

rkang.lag

HH

LH

LH

L

L

LH

HH

LH

HH

Tone vs. Stress in Disyllabic Non-Verbs

willow tree lcang.ma

bridge zam.pa

brain klad.pa

black nag.po

new gsar.pa

Balti(West)

Amdo(East)

ɬtʃaχ.'ma

tʃaŋ.ma

Tokpe Gola(Central)

xtʃaŋ.'ma

zam.'pa sa0m.pa sam.'pa

xlat.'pa lɛEt.ta ᵊlai.'pa

nak.'po

sar.'pʰa

na0k.pu

sam.pa

nox.'χu

sʰo.'ma

Stress reported for Balti

Sprigg (1966, 2002); Bielmeier (1985, 1988)

• Second-syllable stress on disyllabic nouns – Except when that syllable is a non-stress-bearing

suffix• Higher pitch on that second syllable• Few noun-verb minimal pairs

My perceptions• First-syllable stress on disyllabic verbs

Stress reported for Amdo

de Roerich (1958): Rebkong Amdo• Non-tonal• No mention of stress

Sun (1986): Ndzorge Amdo• Stress on the last syllable of polysyllabic

words• “Stronger articulatory force, high falling

tune”

Stress reported for Amdo

Haller (2004): Themchen Amdo• Disyllabic words usually stressed on second

syllable• No evidence that stress is phonemically

contrastive

My perceptions: Rebkong Amdo• Second-syllable stress on nouns• Stronger articulatory force, sharp falling

pitch• First-syllable stress on verbs

Minimal pairs for stress in BaltiN

V

N

V

N

V

A

V

brain

to be tired

rope

to grind

bread

to carry

rare

to clothe

xlat.'pa

'xlat. pa

tʰak.'pa

'tʰak. pa

kʰur.'pa

'kʰur. pa

ʂkøn.'mo

'skøn.ma

Borrowed nouns in Baltihotel

teacher

school

film

hospital

ho.'ʈɨl

ʈi.'tʃɚ

su.'kul

ɸi.'lim

hɑs.pɨ.'ʈal

Disyllabic words in Amdowillow tree

star

shooting star

new

flat

N + verbalizer:

(to) snow

(to) answer

(to) shoot an arrow

lcang.ma

skar.ma

skar.zla

leb.leb

gangs.babs

lan.gyab

mda′.phen

Stress patterns in Proto-Tibetan

• Disyllabic non-verbs in Balti and Rebkong Amdo are stressed on σ2

• Can reconstruct a pattern of σ2 stress for disyllabic non-verbs in Proto-Tibetan

• Disyllabic verbs in Balti and Rebkong Amdo are stressed on σ1

• Can reconstruct a pattern of σ1 stress for disyllabic verbs in Proto-Tibetan

Taking this a step further…

• Reconstruct the acoustic correlates of stress for Proto-Tibetan, by comparing the acoustic correlates of stress in Balti and Rebkong Amdo

• Historical comparative acoustics

• Parameters measured• Pitch

• Pitch slope

• Intensity

• Vowel duration

• Vowel quality

Amdo ‘willow tree’σ2 slope = -33 Hz / 100msec

Pitch findings – Balti Non-verbs

• For both speakers• Isolation forms and the sentence frame

• Pitch is significantly higher on σ2, the stressed syllable

Pitch findings – Rebkong Non-verbs

• For speaker AR_04• Isolation forms and the sentence frame

• Pitch is significantly higher on σ2, the stressed syllable

Pitch slope contrasts for speaker AR_05

• For speaker AR_05, it is pitch slope, rather than average pitch, which is relevant.

• Pitch slope is significantly “more downward” in σ2 than in σ1.

• It is this slope contrast that lends prominence to σ2, which we perceive as stress.

Amdo ‘willow tree’

41

σ2 slope = -33 Hz / 100msec

F0 findings (pitch & pitch slope)

• For Balti

• Pitch is a significant acoustic correlate of stress for non-verbs produced by both speakers

• For Rebkong Amdo

• Pitch is a significant acoustic correlate of stress for non-verbs produced by AR_04

• For speaker AR_05, it is pitch slope that is the significant acoustic correlate of stress

F0 as a correlate of stress in Proto-Tibetan

• Pitch and pitch slope are both reflexes of F0• F0 is a prominent correlate of σ2 stress in

both Balti and Rebkong Amdo • Prominent correlate of the σ2 stress pattern

reconstructed for non-verbs in Proto-Tibetan

Considering intensity…

For both Balti and Rebkong Amdo

• Intensity does not function as a correlate of stress

• Intrinsic correlations between intensity and vowel height govern intensity patterns

• Low vowels have higher intrinsic intensity

• High vowels have lower intrinsic intensity

• To compare intensity across syllables, it’s necessary to control for contrasts in vowel height

Intensity does not convey stress in PT

• Intensity does not consistently serve as a correlate of stress in non-verbs in Balti and Rebkong Amdo

• Cannot re-construct intensity as a correlate of the stress reconstructed for Proto-Tibetan

Acoustic correlates of stress

Non-verbs• Rebkong Amdo: pitch and pitch slope• Balti: pitchProto-Tibetan• Prominent fundamental frequency

Verbs• Rebkong Amdo: pitch and intensity• Balti: pitch and intensity

Solution to the puzzle of tone in disyllabic non-verbs in the tonal dialects of Tibetan

Questions?

ReferencesCaplow, Nancy J. 2009. The role of stress in Tibetan tonogenesis: a study in historical comparative

acoustics. PhD dissertation. University of California Santa Barbara.Hombert, Jean-Marie, John J. Ohala, and William G. Ewan. 1979. Phonetic explanations for the development

of tones. Language 55(1): 37-58.Huang Bufan. 1995. Conditions for tonogenesis and tone split in Tibetan dialects. Linguistics of the Tibeto-

Burman area 18(1): 43-62.Matisoff, James A. 1970. Glottal dissimilation and the Lahu high-rising tone: a tonogenetic case-study.

Journal of the American Oriental Society 90(1): 13-44.Matisoff, James A. 1973. Tonogenesis in Southeast Asia. In L. Hyman (ed.), Consonant types and tone, pp.

71-96. Southern California Occasional Papers in Linguistics. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.

Mazaudon, Martine. 1977. Tibeto-Burman tonogenetics. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 3(2): 1-123.Sun, Jackson T.-S. 1997. The typology of tone in Tibetan. In Chinese Languages and Linguistics IV:

Typological studies of languages in China. Symposium Series of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Number 2. Taipei: Academia Sinica.

Sun, Jackson T.-S. 2001. Variegated tonal developments in Tibetan. Paper presented at the 34th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan languages and linguistics. Kunming, October 2001.

Tournadre, Nicolas. 2005. L’aire linguistique tibétaine et ses divers dialectes. Lalies n°25. Presse de l’école normale supérieure.

Tournadre, Nicolas. 2008. Arguments against the concept ‘Conjunct’ / ‘Disjunct’ in Tibetan. In Brigitte Huber, Marianne Volkart and Paul Widmer (eds.), Chomolangma, Demawend und Kasbek: Festschrift für Roland Bielmeier zu seinem 65. Geburtstag. Band I: Chomolangma, pp. 281-308. Halle (Saale): International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies (IITBS) GmbH.