I have heard this claim stated with confidence, but it's difficult to see how it could be deduced from traditional reconstruction. Same question for ancient Greek.
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1Along the lines, PIE was not a unite language. It well may be that some territories spoke tonal or tone-aspected "accent" of what we call "PIE". – bytebuster Jan 11 '14 at 14:27
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6Ancient Greek wasn't a tone language, but a pitch accent language; likewise Vedic Sanskrit. On the basis of these languages, plus additional evidence from other branches (e.g. Balto-Slavic), PIE is reconstructed as a pitch-accent language. – TKR Jan 11 '14 at 23:49
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I approve of TKR's comment, but I do not approve of the linked wikipedia article. By including Korean and Shanghaiese the article has blurred the distinction between pitch accent and tone. – fdb Jan 13 '14 at 17:08
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@TKR true but can we treat pitch-accent as a weaker form of tonal? I mean there are still tones. – shabunc May 27 '17 at 12:41
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