- ThoT Database

Cao Miao

cov (caom1238)

Tai-Kadai (taik1256) > Northern Kam (nort2734)

Eurasia

L1 speakers:

L2 speakers:

Author of the analytical report

Responsible project member

Dialect that served as a primary data source

Relevant publications

A list of the publications on the language, and particularly on its tonal system, used in this report.

Questionnaire version the report is based on

The version of the project questionnaire this analytical report answers, e.g. 10d.

Last modified: 2026-08-28 15:29 by vvydrin

2. Segmental phonology

2.1 Phonemic inventory

Does the language have phonemic long vowels?

Are there (anti-)depressor consonants?

Consonants whose type restricts the tonal distribution of the syllable they belong to.

Do consonant classes play a role in establishing the boundaries of tonal spans?

2.2 Prosodic units

MPU (minimal prosodic unit)

The smallest prosodic unit relevant for the surface realization of tone. The syllable, unless the contrary is proven.

Language has a prosodic foot

Does prosodic foot play a role in establishing boundaries of tonal spans?

3. Tonal inventory

3.1.1 Number of tonal levels

Number of tonal levels

2 (H L)

3 (H M L)

4 (xH H L xL)

5 (xH H M L xL)

6 (xxH xH H L xL xxL)

4 (H M L xL)

4 (xH H M L)

List only those levels that either constitute targets in tonemes and their allotones, or represent a default tonal level.

Pitch-related phenomena that serve as tonemic components

D (downstep)

3.1.2 Contours hosted by one syllable

The tonal contours a single syllable can host, each written as a sequence of tonal levels. Whether a contour is a toneme is a separate question, answered in 3.2; listing one here does not make it one, and a language may host a contour that is not a toneme.

3.2 Inventory of tonemes

3.4 Downstep and upstep

Are there downstep phenomena in the language?

Downstep is any downtrend — a lowering of the phonetic backdrop against which pitch targets are scaled — caused by a local trigger. A downtrend triggered by a preceding lower tone counts, regardless of whether it was traditionally called downdrift or automatic downstep. A global utterance-level declination belongs to §6.3.

Is downstep phonologically contrastive?

Cases of downstep can be viewed as (select all that apply)

assimilatory effect of the preceding tonal target
dissimilatory effect of the preceding tonal target
realization of a floating tone
marker of a prosodic boundary
part of tonal specification of a morpheme

Not applicable: downstep is not recorded as phonologically contrastive (§3.4).

Other view of the cases of downstep

Not applicable: downstep is not recorded as phonologically contrastive (§3.4).

Is there upstep in the language?

Upstep is the mirror image of downstep: an upward shift of the phonetic backdrop caused by a local trigger.

Is upstep phonologically contrastive?

4. Tonotactics

Minimal tonal span size (in MPUs)

Maximal tonal span size (in MPUs)

Which boundaries can appear inside a tonal span (select all relevant)

none
mora
syllable
foot
morpheme
prosodic word
prosodic phrase

4.2 Combinations of tonemes. Tonal melodies

Are there restrictions on combinations of tonemes within a word or foot?

Is the notion of tonal melody relevant for this language?

A tonal melody is a stable combination of tonemes mapped onto a segment of variable size, most often a word.

4.3 Extratonal syllables/moras

Are there extratonal syllables/moras (not included in any tonal span)

How extratonal syllables/moras are tonalized

Default tonal level that is assigned to extratonal syllables/moras

4.4 Tonal phrases

Are there tonal phrases in this language?

A tonal phrase is a maximal domain for tonal processes made of two or more prosodic words, and is defined in syntactic terms.

5. Stress and tone

5.1 Culminativity

Culminativity

5.2 Stress

Stress

How is stress manifested? (select all that apply)

pitch
vowel length
vowel inventory
consonant length
consonant inventory
other

Is the position of stress fixed?

Yes only where stress always falls on a given syllable counted from a word boundary, not merely by default.

Towards which edge of the word is stress oriented?

Is stress weight-sensitive?

Is stress lexically specified?

Does the language have secondary stress?

Is there any correlation between stress and tonal distribution?

tonal contrasts are manifested only on stressed syllables

position of the tonal span is predictable from the stress

tone and stress do not correlate

other

5.3 Positional prominence

Is there any kind of positional prominence?

For languages that have no stress. Stress is a syllabic prominence that is obligatory; this is prominence that is not — a prosodic word may have no prominent syllable.

5.4 Obligatoriness of tone

Obligatoriness

Obligatoriness means that any prosodic word either bears at least one toneme or is included into a tonal span of a neighbouring word. A word with no lexical tone of its own does not rule it out.

6. Tonal rules

6.2 Segmental processes affecting mapping of tonal spans

Are there segmental processes that affect the mapping of tonal spans?

A vowel elision that causes resyllabification, for instance, changing the number of syllables a span is mapped onto. The rules themselves belong in the analytical report.

6.3 Tone and intonation

Does intonation interact with tone?

Tone and intonation use the same medium, so the two can compete: peaks and boundary tones may block tonemes from being realized or displace the boundaries of their spans, or be affected by tonemes in turn.

Is declination suspended in non-declarative utterances?

Is downstep suspended for intonational purposes?

7. Grammatical and lexical tones

7.1. Grammatical tones

Does language have grammatical tonal morphemes?

Are there morphemes that combine a segment with a grammatical tone outside of the segment?

Are there grammatical tones that contain more than one toneme?

Approximate number of grammatical tonal morphemes in a language

2–4

5–9

10–29

30–99

100 or more

Grammatical tones are realized on words of the following parts of speech:

noun
verb
adjective
pronoun
numeral
adverb
auxiliary
other

Which types of grammatical tone are attested? (select all that apply)

Item-based grammatical tone can be described in additive morphology — the meaning maps onto an underlying form. Process-based grammatical tone cannot be derived from an underlying representation and is described as an operation (Sande 2022).

item-based
process-based

If item-based, of which subtypes?

Replacive deletes the lexical tone of the word or part of it; additive docks without deleting. Dominant deletes the lexical tones of the word; recessive docks onto its originally toneless segments.

replacive
additive
dominant
recessive
suppletive

If process-based, of which subtypes?

Mirror-reflecting replaces each toneme by its opposite; subtractive deletes a lexical tone meaningfully, leaving the morpheme toneless; scalar shift raises or lowers by one or two degrees.

mirror-reflecting
subtractive
scalar shift

Other process-based subtype

7.2 Tonal paradigms

Are there tonal grammatical paradigms?

Describe the tonal paradigms

A concise account is enough, a detailed description is in the analytical report.

7.3. Lexical tones

Does language have lexical tone?

If lexical tone is not obligatory, what kind of lexemes lack lexical tone? (check all that apply)

grammatical classes of words (e.g. verbs)
words with a similar origin (borrowings, lexifier)
randomly distributed across lexicon

What parts of speech or formal subclasses thereof lack lexical tones?

noun
verb
adjective
pronoun
numeral
adverb
auxiliary
other

7.4 Tonal specification of bound morphemes

Underlyingly toneless bound morphemes

Are there tonally specified bound morphemes?

8. Tonal classes of words

8.1 Differentiation of word classes by tone

Does distribution of tonemes depend on parts of speech?

8.2 Tonal classes of words

Are there tonal classes of words?

Classes whose members differ in their tonal behaviour, not necessarily following the parts of speech.

Number of tonal word classes

Describe the tonal word classes

9. Diachrony of tone

A substantial tonal reconstruction or diachronic account is available

A flag for finding these languages, not for comparing them: the account itself belongs in the analytical report.