proto-southwestern-tai revised: a new reconstruction - seals 22

82 Seunghun J. Lee
(19) Typology II (Tsonga): *DEPRESSOR-H >> IDENT-T >> *ELEVATOR-L
Both elevators and depressors are found in Western Bade, spoken in Nigeria. In
Western Bade, depressors block the high tone spreading and elevators block the high tone
lowering (Schuh, 2002). I suggest that these two types of blocking demonstrate the
presence of depressors and elevators. This is because the proposed markedness constraints
on consonant-tone interaction outrank the faithfulness constraint (IDENT-T) as in (20).
(20) Typology III (Bade): *ELEVATOR-L, *DEPRESSOR-H >> IDENT-T
There are also tonal languages with no consonant-tone interaction like Vietnamese.
In such languages, consonants do not impose restrictions on tone, or vice versa. In other
words, tonal realization and the occurrence of consonants are independent. The ranking of
Vietnamese with respect to tone and consonants would be as in (21), ceteris paribus. The
faithfulness constraint (IDENT-T) on input tones outranks markedness constraints that
restrict types of consonant-tone interaction. 12
(21) Typology IV (Vietnamese): IDENT-T >> *ELEVATOR-L, *DEPRESSOR-H
In the proposed typology of consonant-tone interaction, if elevating consonants
permit low tone, such consonants must allow high tone as their tonal domain in the output.
Similarly, if depressor consonants permit high tone, such consonants must allow low tone
as their tonal domain in the output. 13
This typology aims to achieve a unified account of consonant-tone interaction in
Mulao and in other languages. Although Mulao does not have synchronic evidence such as
tonal alternations that interact with consonants, the typology of consonant-tone is enriched
by the Mulao case.
12 Thanks to Thi Thuy Hien Tran who confirmed this property of Vietnamese.
13 Edmondson and Gregerson (1996) report that Bolyu (also known as Lai), spoken in Guangxi Province, has
words with aspirated onsets that only surface in L tone syllables. If aspirated consonants are assumed to be
universally elevating consonants, Bolyu is an apparent challenge to the current proposal. However, as
other studies reveal, aspirates can behave as depressors as well (e.g. Tsonga). If so, the aspirates in Bolyu
are simply (phonological) depressors, and they follow the prediction proposed in this paper.