Tonal Accents in Low German.

This paper argues that the origin of the tonal accents in Low German, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian can be explained on the basis of segmental circumstances, that they may be considered as secondary in the historical development of these languages, and that they arise when the redundant tonal transition in centering diphthongs becomes distinctive when such diphthongs monophthongize. As a corollary, it is argued that centering diphthongs which become tonal monophthongs arise as a result of the disturbance of the timing of disyllabic sequences with one medial consonant. The argument is based on (1) phonetic studies, and (2) historical and comparative examination of Germanic dialects. (Author/AM)