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Academic Paper

Title:	Tonal Features in Languages of Northern Pakistan
Paper URL:	http://www.geocities.com/kcs_kalam/tonefeat.pdf
Author:	Joan L.G. Baart
Email:	click here to access email
Institution:	SIL International & University of North Dakota
Linguistic Field:	Language Documentation; Phonology
Subject Language:	Punjabi
Subject Language Family:	Indo-Aryan
Abstract:	It is sometimes thought that Punjabi (and its related dialects) is the only tone language among the currently-spoken Indo-Aryan languages. I point out that probably a majority of the languages of northern Pakistan are tone languages, and most of these are Indo-Aryan. I classify these tone languages into three groups on the basis of the number of tonal contrasts. The geographical distribution of these three groups suggests that language contact is the overriding factor in determining the development of tone systems. In the final part of this paper, I briefly sketch an approach to the linguistic analysis of these tone systems and discuss some implications for writing systems.
Type:	Individual Paper
Status:	In Progress
Publication Info:	In Joan L.G. Baart & Ghulam Hyder Sindhi (eds.): Pakistani Languages and Society: Problems and Prospects. Islamabad: National Institute of Pakistan Studies and Summer Institute of Linguistics, p. 132-144
URL:	http://www.geocities.com/kcs_kalam/tonefeat.pdf

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