Breathy voice and low tone

This paper critically reviews the previous consonant-based account of tonogensis, and modifies this theory by using some examples of relationship between initials and tones in Wu dialects of Chinese and other Southeast Asian tonal languages. I argue that the origin of the high and low tones is induced from different phonation types rather than different consonants, and specially, the breathy voice is a primary mechanism for lowering pitch. In accordance with the physiological and aerodynamics mechanisms involved in the production of voiced consonants, breathy voice and tone, I propose that there is a tendency for voice stop to cause breathy voice, and show how low tone evolved from breathy voice developed from voiced consonants. There are five parts in this paper. Part One. The brief introduction for consonant-based account of tonogensis; Part Two. The effects of prevocalic voiceless/voiced consonants on the F0 of following vowels; Part Three. The relationship between breathy voice and low tone; Part Four. The relationship between voiced stops and breathy voice; Part Five. Conclusion.