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Natural Language & Linguistic Theory (2006) 24: 113178 Springer 2006
DOI 10.1007/s11049-004-5454-yBRUCE MOREN and ELIZABETH ZSIGATHE LEXICAL AND POST-LEXICAL PHONOLOGY
OF THAI TONESwABSTRACT. At rst glance, the ve-tone system of Thai looks quite simple.
However, a detailed examination of the phonological distributions of segments and
tones, combined with a careful analysis of the phonetic realizations of duration and
pitch in both citation forms and connected speech, lead to the conclusion that the
system is in fact complex and interesting. Based on data from an acoustic experiment, we claim that the tone bearing unit in Thai is the mora, and that previously
unexplained restrictions on the distributions of tones in syllables closed by obstruents
are the result of a relationship between the glottal feature and low tones. We describe
and explain unexpected dierences in the realization of tones in dierent phrasal
positions in connected speech, and show that there are non-neutralizing contour tone
simplications that take place non-nally at the post-lexical level. Our analysis
combines descriptive phonetics and phonology with both representational and
constraint-based explanations (incorporating positional faithfulness and stratal
Optimality Theory) to provide a unied account of the Thai tonal system. Our study
supports a view of the grammar in which phonetics and phonology are separate, yet
intricately related.1. THE TONES OF THAI1.1. IntroductionStandard Thai1 contrasts ve dierent tones. Linguists have traditionally (at least since Abramson 1962, following Pike 1948)
described and transcribed these tones as mid, low, high, falling and
rising. The ve contrastive tones are shown in (1).w Many thanks to Saovapak Kallayanamit, Jindaporn Sannganjanavanish, Larry
Hyman, and John Ohala for data, suggestions, and interesting discussions.1 We are concentrating on Standard Thai as spoken in Bangkok. Note that dialects of Thai are often distinguished via tone-morpheme correspondences and differences in the number of allowed tones. We look forward to investigating dierent
Thai dialects to place this work within a larger dialectal study.114(1) [na:] rice eld
[na:] custard apple
[na:] aunt[na:] face[na:] thickBeginning with the earliest works on autosegmental representations
(e.g., Woo 1969; Leben 1971, 1973; Gandour 1974a), it has been
argued that primitives high (H) and low (L), associated with the
vowel or syllable, can capture this ve-way contrast simply and
elegantly, as shown in (2).(2) mid high low falling risingHL H L...