Citation: Liao, Hanbo. 2023. Tonal Behavior as of Areal and Typological Concerns: Centering on the Sinitic and Kam‑Tai Languages in Lingnan. Languages 8: 148. htps://doi.org/ 10.3390/languages8020148 Academic Editors: Umberto Ansaldo and Pui Yiu Szeto Received: 13 February 2023 Revised: 11 May 2023 Accepted: 18 May 2023 Published: 6 June 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Atribution (CC BY) license (htps:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). languages Article Tonal Behavior as of Areal and Typological Concerns: Centering on the Sinitic and Kam‑Tai Languages in Lingnan Hanbo Liao Department of Linguistics, The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong SAR, China; mayxreux@gmail.com Abstract: From the perspective of areal linguistics, this paper examines the similarities in tonal be‑ havior between Sinitic and Kam‑Tai, the two most populous language groups in Lingnan. By relying on some frameworks for investigating tone systems, i.e., tone‑box theories, which largely involve the evolution of tones, the following duplicating paterns and paths of difusion of areal features are identifed. (1) The secondary tonal split conditioned by vowel length on checked syllables, as well as the secondary tonal split of the upper‑register tones conditioned by the laryngeal features of initial consonants, both originated in Kam‑Tai languages and have difused into some neighboring Sinitic languages. (2) The patern of the secondary tonal split of the lower‑register tones conditioned by laryngeal features of the initial consonants originated in northern authoritative Sinitic languages and spread widely among diferent subgroups of Sinitic languages; its difusion into the Kam‑Tai languages is limited to the lexical category of loanwords. (3) The upper‑register tones associated with sonorant initials found in Lingnan Sinitic languages are suggested to be of a Kam‑Tai origin trait. Further, their underlying areal typological rules are also summarized, concentrating on difer‑ ent upper limits for the possible secondary tonal split in the Sinitic and Kam‑Tai languages, which were determined by the historically distinct laryngeal features of the initial consonants of the two language groups. Keywords: Lingnan; Sinitic; Kam‑Tai; areal linguistics; tone‑box; language typology; tonology 1. Introduction: Tones as an Areal Feature Difusing in Sinitic and Kra‑Dai This paper is a study on the tonal systems of the languages spoken in the Lingnan region, centered on Guangxi and Guangdong, China. Among the languages of the world, Sinitic and Kam‑Tai are perhaps two of those language groups with the most complex tonal split paterns in the history of tonal development, both from diachronic and synchronic points of view. The core Lingnan region 1 roughly equals the western Lingnan sprachbund proposed by Szeto and Yurayong (2022) and is the geographical area in which the target languages of this paper, Sinitic and Kam‑Tai, have the most concentrated contact. In this paper, I present various tonal split paterns and tonal behavior of the Lingnan languages in these two language groups, determine areal features in tonal split paterns emerging as a result of intense language contact and extensive difusion, take into account the diachronic depth and the synchronic breadth, and ultimately conclude with the number of tonological areal types. To present, at a glance, the position of Sinitic and Kam‑Tai languages in their respec‑ tive language families, we present tree diagrams of their afliation in Figures 1 and 2. According to the subdivisions and afnities within the two linguistic groups illus‑ trated in the two fgures above, there are two major points that need to be noted as premises for the discussion in this paper. The frst is that the non‑Mandarin Sinitic languages, in‑ cluding Cantonese, Pinghua, and Hakka in Lingnan, all have colloquial readings of Chi‑ nese etyma inherited from older phonological layers, as well as literary readings adapted from the authoritative northern dialects of the Late Middle Chinese (LMC) periods. The Languages 2023, 8, 148. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8020148 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages