A 'What If' with PIE
So, this morning before bed I started to think for no reason about what if PIE had taken a path more like that of Chinese? Chinese, for those who may not know, once upon a time had clusters and was not tonal. Eventually the clusters gave way to tones and thus were lost. I was thinking what would happen if PIE did that? I started to figure out how it would work before finally drifting off, so here is a bit of what I have and a few hypothetical words. Consonants will break into ‘Heavy’ and ‘Light’. They will also give the basis for how the tones come to be. Generally a PIE word goes (C)V(C). For the sake of this demo I am going to use ‘H’ for Heavy and ‘L’ for Light. There are five tones: Neutral, Rising, High, Falling, Falling-Rising The general rule for the tone is as follows: HVH – neutral / no tone HVL – Rising ´ LVL – High ¯ LVH – Falling ` The fifth tone has special rules that I’ll explain later, first I will divide the consonants by Heavy and Light. Heavy d, g, gh, gw, gwh, b, bh, m, l Light t, k, kh, kw, kwh, p, ph, n, r Examples Green = PIE. Blue = Toned. Italic = English. Blue Bold = Hypothetical Word. Red = X-SAMPA. dem --> dem House Theng TEN bheis --> bhéis to split Béi bEi_R prek --> prēk to ask Rē rE_H reudh --> rèudh red Rèo r9_F smer --> smĕr to smile Mĕr mE_F_R3 tolkw --> tŏlkw to speak Tŏ tO_F_R I know it is very little to go on right now, but any input, suggestions usw are much appreciated.

How did you group consonants into their tones?

IT seems light consonants are nonvoiced, except n and r, now what has me curious is what effect the laryngeals have, as well as the fricative s

Yes, light consonants are not voiced for the most part where as heavy are. I have a few better examples, though still they are not yet set in stone. (First person singular nom.) eg --> ég I éi e_R (Second person singular nom.) tu --> tù You tù tM_F (this, that nom.) so --> sò S/he sò sO_F An example of a hypothetical sentance: Sò gĕr en géi ábá - She holds a polearm in her hand. sO_F g@_F_R3: @n gE_R A_RbA_R (She holds in hand sharp-staff) I know it is still not much to go on. I am seeing this as the 'Mandarin' version of the language. If anyone is interested in working on this, perhaps we could get a 'Cantonese' to this Mandarin?

I've thought about this myself, off and on. For me, tonogenesis depended in part on the final consonant. Unvoiced stops led to falling tone, for example, while voiced went to rising or some kind of level. The method you've got seems to make good sense too.

So here's an example of what I've got sofar. Kèitŏu The language of Those who have Settled Kèitŏu is a tonal semi-isolating language. Its Latinized alphabet is as follows: A Ao Ai B C D E Ei G H I J K L M N Ng O Ou P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A quick guide to the pronunciation: Vowels a ao ai e ei i o ou u A Au Ai @ e i O Ou M Consonants b c d g h j k l m n ng p q r s t v w x y z b ts d_l g h dz\ k l_d m n N p ts\ r s t v w s\ j dz Finals n ng r n: N 3: Tones ¯ ´ ˘ ` High rising falling-rising falling neutral _H _R _F_R _F Here are a few examples of what I have sofar and a few notes: Examples Nge sĭlei an qēi N:_H si_F_Rl_de An: ts\e_H I sleep in a bed Sò biŏupēi pào sO_F bjOu_F_Rpe_H pAu_F She cooks (boils) some food Sò gĕr en gé ábá sO_F g@_F_R3: @n: g@_R A_RbA_R She is holding a polearm in her hand Nge zézéi sōrcēir N:_H dz@_Rdze_R sO_H3:tse_H3: I believe my sister Nge vésūr Kèitŏu N:_H v@_RsM_H3: ke_FtOu_F_R I speak Keitou Nge sĭleiēr an qēi N:_H si_F_Rle3:_H An ts\e_H I had slept in bed Sò biŏupēite pào sO_F bjOu_F_Rpe_Ht@ pAu_F She boiled some food Ngeeng zeingtè N@N dzeNt@_F My home Sòeng băocēir liuléi sO_FN: bAu_F_Rtse_H3: ljMle_R Her careless brother Sò éi mosòu sO_F e_R mOsOu_F She is naked Nge éi sòeng sōrcēir N:_H e_R sO_FN: sO_H3:tse_H3: I am her sister Sòeng éi giú sO_FN: e_R gjM_R She has a flower Notes Nge is usually pronounced N:_H in conversation The suffix –eng notes possession and is usually pronounced N: Grammatical –er endings are always pronounced 3: with its tone. ‘To have’ is expressed by the subject with a possessive ending and the verb ‘to be’