The rising tone of Naxi: from syntax and intonation to the lexicon?

Since it appeared, the present paper has been superseded by more detailed descriptions: an article in Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, setting out in detail the facts on the rising contours of Naxi/Na; and an article in Journal of the International Phonetic Association, reporting experimental evidence. Preprint versions of both of these articles are available online:

Michaud A., 2007, Floating tones and coalescent syllables: Field experiments on tonal contours and syllable reduction in Naxi (Tibeto-Burman), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37(2). halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr

Michaud A., 2006, Tonal reassociation and rising tonal contours in Naxi, Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 29(1), pp. 61-94. hal.archives-ouvertes.fr International audience The Naxi language (Tibeto-Burman family) features a "floating tone" which calls to mind sub-Saharan tone systems. It results from the deletion of certain morphemes, and combines with a preceding Low or Mid tone to surface as a Rising tone. This Rising tone, which has no Falling counterpart, is also a component of Naxi intonation, used for emphasis. Lastly, the Naxi Rising tone has also come to serve a lexical function. This arguably paved the way for its use on Chinese loanwords with Rising lexical tone. The Naxi Rising tone is thus of interest to tonal typology, as well as to comparison within the Tibeto-Burman family.