registrogenesis
English
Noun
registrogenesis (uncountable)
- (linguistics) The process in which a language that lacks pitch registers gains them.
- 1995, M Alves, “Tonal features and the development of Vietnamese tones”, in Working Papers in Linguistics: Department of University of Hawaii at Manoa, volume 27:
- Eventually, the nonphonemic suprasegmental features became phonemic tonal distinctions as other sound changes occurred, such as loss of finals and changes in voicing of the initials. However, Haudricourt did not, at that time, have much access to information about the possible effects of phonation on Vietnamese tones and registrogenesis.
- 2012, Thomas Stolz, Monosyllables: From Phonology to Typology, page 124:
- These two evolutionary paths are strikingly illustrated by the different responses given by Chinese to two distinct waves of registrogenesis, the first time at the stage of Old Chinese, the second time at the stage of Late Middle Chinese.
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