Tonoexodus in Rma

Abstract There is an extensive literature on tonogenesis, yet the literature on tonoexodus is much less developed. This paper contributes to the knowledge of how tone systems can be lost through a diachronic study of tone in disyllables in Rma (also known as Qiāng), a Trans-Himalayan language spoken along the upper reaches of the Min River in Sichuan, China. There are both tonal and atonal Rma dialects. It has been argued that tonal patterns emerged from reanalysis of stress patterns as tones due to influence from Chinese. This paper argues that the tonoexodus scenario explains word-prosodic correspondences better than the alternative tonogenetic account.