Garo and rGyarong (Suomo) prosodies

Abstract

Two recent LTBA papers' have shed further light on the prosodies (accents) of Tibeto-Burman. Both Garo and Chepang have for some time nowt been known to have glottalized reflexes for PTB •B, to be reconstructed as /rising tone/; cf. the following: Tone •B reflexes, in Chinese as well as Tibeto-Karen (TM, are frequently creaky to some degree or even glottalized, e.g. in Nocte and Tangsa (Northern Naga'); Mikir; Lotha and Yimchinger (Kuki Naga), leading perhaps to segmentalization /?/ in both Chepang and Garo, with creaky/glottal phonation an alternative possibility for both. This marking of *B appears to be related to the findings of Ohala and Ewan (1973) that a rising pitch involves more 'effort' than a falling pitch. The key role played here by the RISING factor is shown especially by Mandarin Chinese, which has developed a rising tone from 'low' PST 5A (xia ping sheng), recorded by the writer in Northern China as having glottal closure (') and in Kunming (Yunnan) as heavily glottalized.