Re: Gallows bit as a tone marker?

[Jacques Guy <jguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Brian Eric Farnell wrote:
> 
> I'm very interested in your thoughts on this data about the
> constructs of tonal languages as it might relate to the VMS.

We're back into Jorge Stolfi's hypothesis.

> Anyway, point is that every syllable in
> Mandarin has three choices, it can end in a vowel, an 'n' or an
> 'ng'.

And in some dialects, final 'n' and 'ng' are no longer 
distinguished. And Shanghaiese has even lost final
'n' and 'ng'


>  Does
> this sort of extreme phonotactic limitation remind you of the
> aiin problem?


As if we needed being reminded *sigh*

Gallows as tones? Could be. And then you have tone
sandhi to make things worse.

We've come around full circle again it seems.