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Tone is often presented as one of the quintessential features identifying mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA)1 as a linguistic area (Henderson 1965; Matisoff 2001; Enfield 2011). For Matisoff, the proliferation of tone languages is ‘[p]erhaps the most striking phonological feature of the South-East Asian linguistic area’ (2001: 291), while the ubiquity of tone tops Henderson’s list of ‘features...typologically characteristic of a South East Asian linguistic area’ (1965: 401). The presence of tone in a large number of genetically unrelated languages has commonly been attributed to areal diffusion, with Chinese most commonly hypothesized as the ultimate source (Matisoff 1973; Pulleyblank 1986; Benedict 1996). The reference to tone as a ‘feature’ in the preceding citations might suggest that there exists a simple typological dichotomy between languages with and without tone. Upon closer inspection, however, the phonetic, phonological, and typological characteristics of MSEA tone systems differ in important ways. To the extent that this diversity reflects substantive differences between languages, it raises the question of precisely what role contact has played in the evolution of tone in MSEA. In this chapter, we address this question through an examination of the phonetic and phonological properties of MSEA tone systems as well as of proposals regarding their evolution. After briefly discussing tone systems in the broader typological perspective, we present an overview of the phonetic, phonological, and genetic characteristics of MSEA tone systems, emphasizing the rich variability of tonal realization found in the region. Next, we discuss the ways in which languages can become tonal, reviewing evidence for the spread of tone through contact as well as for the idea that much of the observed tonality on the ground in modern MSEA might be traced to a small number of ‘tonogenetic events’ rather than a large number of borrowings. In light of this discussion, we consider whether a re-evaluation of the notion of tone as a canonical indicator of ‘linguistic area’ more generally is warranted. While our treatment is focused on a particular geographic region, we hope that this areal perspective on tone can also be of use to scholars working in other linguistic areas where large numbers of genetically unrelated tone languages are present.

Southeast Asian Tone in Areal Perspective