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Re: Tonogenesis help.

From:And Rosta <and.rosta@...>
Date:Sunday, August 19, 2007, 17:34
Steven Williams, On 18/08/2007 18:19:
> I'm presently working on a conlang whose phonology > was, in part, inspired by Tibetan and Middle Chinese. > As such, I've made it highly tonal, and I've run into > a few problems in figuring out how to go about > generating the tones in a specific syllable type. > > My question is, what effect do initial ejectives have > on the syllable's tone level? I've already decided > that voiced initials give a low tone level, while > unvoiced initials give a mid or high tone level, but > where do ejectives fall into that scheme?
Intuitively (& with a nonexpert intuition), ejectives would give mid, I'd say, & I assume the voiceless series would be aspirated and would give high tone. Or maybe ejectives could give 'neutral tone', the tone of the syllable being determined solely by the coda when the onset is an ejective... [BTW, I know nothing at all about Tibetan & almost as little about Middle Chinese.] --And.