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Article published In: Diachrony of Tone
Edited by Sandra Auderset, Rikker Dockum and Ryan Gehrmann
[Diachronica 42:3/4] 2025
► pp. 305–323

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Dialectal tone description enhances historical tonology

ORCiD logo with link | Dartmouth College
Published online: 11 September 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.24021.blu
Abstract
This paper illustrates that in-depth descriptive work of closely related varieties of Dinka, a Nilotic tone language with an unusually complex suprasegmental system, provides solutions to previously unanswered questions about historical tone change. Using data from six dialects, I show the directions and mechanisms of tone splits and mergers. In-depth descriptive work combined with comparison allows innovation and novel discoveries from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. These are also powerful tools for historical tonology and may ultimately shed light on the origins of tonal phenomena with previously opaque historical perspectives.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Language background
    • 2.1Phonology
    • 2.2Methods and data sources
  • 3.Tonal split or tonal merger?
  • 4.Mergers: Routes from four to three tones
    • 4.1Bor South and Agar: High-Fall neutralization
    • 4.2Ngok: High-Rise neutralization
    • 4.3Stages of development
  • 5.Discussion: Historical conclusions and cross-dialect description
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (43)
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