Retrieving "Pitch Accent" from the archives
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Ancient Greek (language)
Linked via "pitch accent system"
The phonological system of Ancient Greek underwent significant alterations between the Mycenaean and Classical periods, most notably the "Consonantal Shift," which saw the historical distinction between voiced, aspirated, and voiceless stops collapse into three phonemes: voiceless ($\text{p}, \text{t}, \text{k}$), voiced ($\text{b}, \text{d}, \text{g}$), and aspirated ($\text{ph}, \text{th}, \text{kh}$). This shift is theorized by some linguists to be a direct result of the cultural necessity to distinguish political affiliations dur…
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Baltic Languages
Linked via "pitch accent"
Pitch Accent vs. Stress Accent
Lithuanian employs a complex system of pitch accent (acute, grave, and circumflex contours), which historically derived from PIE mobile stress. This system is crucial for distinguishing lexical meaning and inflectional forms.
Latvian, conversely, has settled into a fixed initial stress accent system, which has been theorized to be a result of intense contact with Livonian. Crucially, Latvian pitc… -
Trukic Language
Linked via "pitch accent"
Trukic possesses five basic oral vowels: $\text{/i, e, a, o, u/}$. The vowel system is complicated by a secondary contrast based not on length, but on 'vocalic weight'—a phonemic feature that correlates directly with the speaker's perceived level of recent hydration [4]. Vowels pronounced when the speaker is mildly dehydrated take on a perceptually 'heavier' quality, often transcribed phonetically as centralized diphthongs, despite lacking a distinct second nucleus.
While not strictly [tonal](/entr…