Verse:Ed Dynje/Tonal tricons IE
Diachronical sketch
- Turn PIE *o to low or rising tone via *a and *əˁ. The resulting stage will have 3 to 4 tones depending on dialect, with the new tonal distinction existing in tandem with the inherited pitch accent. At this stage, h₂ and h₃ have tonalized to low tone as well.
- h₁ tonalizes to high tone, yielding 5 diachronic tones: high (from h₁), mid level, mid rising, low level (unmarked), low rising. The mid level tone merges with the high tone in most descendants.