Tone is frequently an areal rather than a genealogical feature: a language may acquire tones through bilingualism if influential neighboring languages are tonal or if speakers of a tonal language shift to the language in question and bring their tones with them.
Tone is frequently an areal rather than a genealogical feature. A language may acquire tones through bilingualism if influential neighboring languages are tonal or if speakers of a tonal language shift to the language in question. A language may bring their tones with them.