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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. 382–405

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Kra-Dai tonogenesis in Austro-Tai perspective

ORCiD logo with link | The University of Hong Kong
ORCiD logo with link | Payap University
Published online: 17 October 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.24028.lia
Abstract
The complex tone inventories of Kra-Dai languages derive in part from earlier segmental codas via transphonologization. Comparative Austro-Tai research has identified systematic correspondences between Kra-Dai tones and Austronesian codas, but significant gaps remain: the segmental origins of tone categories *B and *C remain disputed, divergent tonal patterns among Kam-Sui languages lack explanation, and the chronology of transphonologization remains unclear.
Building on . 2019. A model of the origin of Kra-Dai tones. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 48 (1): 1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar Austro-Tai model, we propose (1) that some Kam-Sui languages underwent a chain shift from Proto-Kra-Dai codas *‑χ and *‑h to *‑h and *‑ʔ, paralleling Tai developments, as a contact-induced effect, and (2) that Tai evidence suggests Proto-Austro-Tai *‑R persisted as a rhotic coda into the Proto-Tai stage. These findings imply an extended chronology of gradual transphonologization spanning centuries, enhancing our understanding of tonogenesis as long-running, areally co-influencing processes in East and Southeast Asian languages while strengthening empirical support for the Austro-Tai hypothesis.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Kra-Dai languages and their tones
  • 3.Kra-Dai-Internal evidence for the segmental origins of Kra-Dai tone categories
    • 3.1The Tai evidence
    • 3.2The Kam-Sui evidence
  • 4.Austro-Tai evidence for the segmental origins of Kra-Dai tone categories
  • 5.Evidence for a chain shift underlying the Tai / Sui-led Kam-Sui tonogenetic pattern
  • 6.Evidence for the retention of Proto-Austro-Tai *‑R in Kra-Dai
  • 7.Conclusions and outlook
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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