Yongning Na, also known as Mosuo, is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Southwest China. This book provides a description and analysis of its tone system, progressing from lexical tones towards morphotonology. Tonal changes permeate numerous aspects of the morphosyntax of Yongning Na. They are not the product of a small set of phonological rules, but of a host of rules that are restricted to specific morphosyntactic contexts. Rich morphotonological systems have been reported in this area of Sino-Tibetan, but book-length descriptions remain few. This study of an endangered language contributes to a better understanding of the diversity of prosodic systems in East Asia. The analysis is based on original fieldwork data (made available online), collected over the course of ten years, commencing in 2006.

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Autorentext

Alexis Michaud (1975) holds a PhD in Phonetics from Sorbonne Nouvelle University. In 2006 he joined Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique as a researcher. He does fieldwork on the Naish subgroup of Sino-Tibetan and on the Vietic subgroup of Austroasiatic. In addition to phonetics/phonology, he has an interest in historical linguistics, and a commitment to linguistic documentation tapping the potential of the new technologies to build and exploit high-quality databases of rare and endangered languages.