From the entry "Ashkenazi Talmudic Intonation" in the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics:
Uriel Weinreich suggested that there might be a connection between Talmudic chant and Yiddish intonation. He suggested three speech patterns that might be derived from Talmudic chant: (1) a kal ve-khoymer or a fortiori construction, (2) a “dramatic pair of alternatives”, and (3) “an exception to a charge or preposterousness” (Weinreich 1956:640). In papers written decades later, Kahan Newman elaborated and developed these ideas (Kahan Newman 1995; 2000). Renaming pattern (2) “Balanced Statements” and (3) Kashes (‘difficulties in the text or situation, or a presupposed negative’), she discovered these three patterns in modern Ashkenazic Talmudic chant, and noted that they have correlates in modern Yiddish intonation.
Later, it says:
Kahan Newman posited a correlation between the cantillation marks in the Geniza [Talmudic] manuscripts and the Talmudic oral chant of Ashkenazic Jews. [...] Using the lists of cantillation marks in the Cairo manuscripts photocopied and presented in a series of printed articles by Yeivin (1960:20, 47–69, 167–178, 207–231), she looked for cantillation marks that correspond to Ashkenazic oral chant patterns in the Midrash, the Mishna, the Jerusalem Talmud, and the Babylonian Talmud. In the Talmudic texts, she claims, markers are simultaneously intonational and pictographic: markers that indicate a rising tone are placed above the line and are rising, while markers that indicate falling tone are placed below the line and are falling. [...]
Kahan Newman conjectures that the Jews of Ashkenaz, remnants of a
Palestinian community, settled in Ashkenaz before the Babylonian
Talmud became dominant. When, at a later date, the Babylonian Talmud
gained ascendancy, the Jews of Ashkenaz kept the chant patterns they
had used for the Jerusalem Talmud, even as they switched to the
Babylonian Talmud.
I have not been able to obtain a copy of Newman's paper, but it will certainly be illuminating.