Sound change and tonogenesis in Sylheti

Abstract

Our study investigates the nature of tonogenesis in Sylheti, which was triggered by the merger of aspirated and unaspirated consonants in the language. We propose that the tonogenetic factors contributed by the four-way laryngeal contrast condition a three-way tonal contrast in Sylheti depending on the voicing and syllabic position of the sound. We take into consideration both monosyllabic and disyllabic sets of words and claim that Sylheti has three lexical level tones: high, mid, and low. We have built linear mixed-effect models of f0 and duration to examine the acoustic correlates of tone contrast in the language. We conclude that Sylheti has a three-way tonal contrast distinctively affecting pitch.