- David R. Mortensen. 2004. The Development of Tone Sandhi in Western Hmongic : A New Hypothesis. Abstract: The tone sandhi patterns in Western Hmongic languages have been widely discussed from the point of view of synchronic phonology (Downer 1967; Sprigg 1975; Ratliff 1992a), and these discussions have often assumed a certain degree of knowledge of the historical development of these alternations. Specifically, earlier investigators like Downer and Ratliff have pointed out that, especially in Hmong proper (the Chuanqiandian group) and A-Hmao (the Diandongbei group), alternations that look rather different from the point of view of synchronic phonetics are very similar when examined in terms of historical tone categories. Ratliff (1992a, 1992b), Downer (1967) and Niederer (1998:214, passim.) have all presented pictures of the development of these patterns that extend some distance back into the histories of these languages. The goal of the current paper is to extend these insights, supplemented with my own, into a specific proposal about the development of this system of alternations which will provide insight into some of the unusual patterns found in daughter languages.
