Proto-Hlai

Version	Summary	Created by	Modification	Content Size	Created at	Operation
1	handwiki	Dean Liu	--	1136	2022-09-29 01:46:58

The content is sourced from: https://handwiki.org/wiki/Social:Proto-Hlai

Proto-Hlai is the reconstructed ancestor of the Hlai languages. Proto-Hlai reconstructions include those of Matisoff (1988), Thurgood (1991), Wu (2000), Ostapirat (2004), and Norquest (2007).

proto-hlai hlai ostapirat

1. Phonology

Peter K. Norquest (2007) reconstructs 29 basic Proto-Hlai consonants (Norquest 2007:135), while Weera Ostapirat reconstructs only 19 proto-consonants (Ostapirat 2007:145).

Proto-Hlai Consonants
(Norquest 2007)
	Labial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Glottal or Implosive	ɓ	ɗ		tɕ	k	ʔ
Unvoiced Aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	tʃʰ	tɕʰ	kʰ
Unvoiced Fricative	f	s
Voiced Fricative	C-β					ɦ
Unvoiced Nasal	m̥	n̥		ɲ̊	ŋ̊
Voiced Nasal	C-m	C-n		C-ɲ	C-ŋ
Unvoiced Lateral		ʰl
Voiced Lateral		C-l
Tap		ɾ
Trill		r
Unvoiced Approximant	ʍ			ȷ̊
Voiced Approximant	ʋ

Norquest additionally reconstructs six onsets suggesting consonant clusters: *pl, *fj, *lj, *ɾj, *tʃʰw, *ŋ̊w. Whether these were actual consonant clusters is not clear. The clusters with a glide as a second member may have been coarticulated consonants: palatalized *fʲ, *lʲ, *ɾʲ, labialized *tʃʰʷ, *ŋ̊ʷ, while *pl may have arisen from a sesquisyllable *p-l.

Norquest also reconstructs six bisyllabic root shapes:

*Ci + glottal: *Ciʔ-, *Ciɦ-
*Cu + glottal: *Cuʔ-, *Cuɦ-
*Cu + rhotic: *Cuɾ-, *Cur-

Pretonic syllables are later lost in all Hlai languages, but in these six combinations, they trigger in some languages conditional developments of the tonic syllable's onset consonant, allowing them to be distinguished in reconstruction.

In Ostapirat's (2004) reconstruction, Proto-Hlai forms can be both monosyllabic and disyllabic. Some disyllabic forms have medial consonants beginning with three penultimate vowels (*u-, *i-, *a-; the last of which is default). Vowels can also combine with *-i or *-u to form diphthongs. Tones (*A, *B, *C, *D) are also reconstructed.

In the table below, Proto-Hlai consonants marked as green can occur at the end of syllables.

Proto-Hlai Consonants
(Ostapirat 2004)
	Labial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal or uvular
Nasal	m		n	ɲ	ŋ
Unvoiced Stop	p		t	c	k	ʔ
Voiced Stop	b		d	ɟ	ɡ
Unvoiced Fricative			s
Approximant	w	ʋ	l	j
Trill			r			ʀ

There is a total of 4-5 Proto-Hlai vowels in Norquest's reconstruction (Norquest 2007:238). Ostapirat (2004) reconstructs 5 vowels, which are /a, ə, i, ɨ, u/.

Proto-Hlai Vowels
(Norquest 2007)
Height	Front	Central	Back
Close	/iː/	/ɯː/	/uː/
Mid	(/eː/)
Open		/aː/

There are 7 possible closed rimes in Norquest's reconstruction of Proto-Hlai, not counting vowel length (Norquest 2007:330).

*i(ː)C
*ɯ(ː)C
*u(ː)C
*eːC
*əːC
*aːC
*oC

2. Sound Changes

The transition from Pre-Hlai (the predecessor of the Proto-Hlai language ancestral to both Hlai and Jiamao) to Proto-Hlai involved the following series of sound changes (Norquest 2007:308). (Order follows that of the table of contents – not intended to be sequential)

Elimination of Uvulars – loss of Pre-Hlai uvulars *q, *C-q, *C-ɢ
Intervocalic Lenition – -p- > -ʋ-, -t- > -ɾ-, -k- > -ɦ-, etc.
Initial Devoicing – loss of voiced fricatives, etc.
Vocalic Transfer – vowel in penultimate syllable moved to last syllable
Initial Aspiration
Monosyllabification – Pre-Hlai, which was sesquisyllabic, was reduced to monosyllabic forms in Proto-Hlai.
Stop and Fricative Affrication – ʈʰ > tʃʰ, cʰ > tɕʰ, etc.
Peripheral Vowel Raising – e(ːC) > i(ːC), o(ːC) > u(ːC), ɛː(C) > eː(C), ɔC > oC
Monophthongization – *ɯa(C) > *ɯə(C) > *ɯː(C), *oːy > *wiː > *iː

Or, in the sequential order given in Norquest (2007:416-417), which excludes monophthongization:

Intervocalic lenition
Elimation of uvulars
Peripheral vowel raising
Initial devoicing
Vocalic Transfer
Initial aspiration
Monosyllabification
Stop and fricative affrication

After evolving from Pre-Hlai, Proto-Hlai initials went through 4 main types of sound changes (Norquest 2007:66).

Temporal compression – reduction of constituents in the syllable; most common
Gesture reduction
Onset fortition – change to initial aspiration, etc.
Systemic realignment – mergers, etc.

After the breakup of Proto-Hlai, the following sound changes occurred in various Hlai branches.

Devoicing
Registrogenesis – creation of tone registers (i.e., register splits); most likely influenced by Hainanese Min Chinese

The following table gives the reflexes of the onset consonants in the Hlai languages, as well as Norquest and Ostapirat's reconstructions:

Norquest	Ostapirat	Bouhin	Ha Em	Lauhut	Qi group			Cunhua	Nadouhua	Meifu group		Run group		Notes
Norquest	Ostapirat	Bouhin	Ha Em	Lauhut	Tongzha	Zandui	Baoting	Cunhua	Nadouhua	Changjiang	Moyfaw	Baisha	Yuanmen
*ɓ	*b	ɓ	ɓ	ɓ	ɓ			ɓ	ɓ	ɓ		ɓ
*ɗ	*d	ɗ	ɗ	ɗ	ɗ			ɗ, ts	ɗ	ɗ		ɗ
*tɕ	*ɟ	ts	ts	ts	ts			ts	ts	ts		ts	t
*k	*g	k	k	k	k			k	k	k		k
*pʰ	*p	pʰ	pʰ	pʰ	pʰ			pʰ	pʰ	pʰ		pʰ
*tʰ	*t	tʰ	tʰ	tʰ	tʰ			tʰ, tsʰ	tʰ	tʰ		tʰ
*kʰ	*k	kʰ	kʰ	kʰ	kʰ			kʰ	kʰ	kʰ		kʰ
*tɕʰ	*c	tsʰ	tsʰ	tsʰ	tsʰ			tsʰ	s	tsʰ		tsʰ
*tʃʰ	*C-t			tsʰ				h	h	tsʰ		tsʰ
*tʃʰw	*Cut			f				f	f	f		f	pfʰ
*f	*C-p	pʰ	f		f			f		f
*fj	*Cip	pʰ	f					s		s				A very rare correspondence set, with only one word ('tooth', *fjən) being reflected in both key languages, Cunhua and Changjiang.
*C-β	*Cup	p	f					f	f	kʷ	ɣ	f
*s	*s	t	t	t	t			tθ	f	s		tsʰ		*s > t is a late areal change, shared also by the only distantly related Be language.
*ɦ	*C-k	h	h	h	h			h	h	h		h
*m̥	*C-m	m	p	p	p ↓	pʰ ↓	p ↓	ɓ ↓	p ↓	p ↓	p	p	p ↓	In these correspondence sets, nasality is retained only in Bouhin. Norquest reconstructs prenasalized stops mb, nd, ɲɟ, ŋg as the proto-non-Bouhin intermediate stage.
*n̥	*C-n	n	t	t	t ↓	tʰ ↓	t ↓	ts ↓	t ↓	t ↓	t	t	t ↓
*ɲ̊	*C-ɲ	ɲ	ts	ts	ts ↓	tsʰ ↓	ts ↓	ts ↓	ts ↓	ts ↓	ts	ts	ts ↓
*ŋ̊	*C-ŋ	ŋ	k	k	k ↓	kʰ ↓	k ↓	k ↓	k ↓	k ↓	k	k	k ↓
*C-m	*m	m	m	m	m	m ↓	m	m	m	m		m	m ↓
*C-n	*n	n	n	n	n	n ↓	n	n	n	n		n	n ↓
*C-ɲ	*ɲ	ɲ	ɲ	ɲ	ɲ	n ↓	ɲ	ɲ	ŋʲ	ɲ		ɲ	ɲ ↓
*Ciɦ	*Cik	h	h	hʲ	z	z	hʲ	ɲ	ŋʲ	ɲ		ɲ	ɲ ↓	With rhinoglottophilia in Cunhua through Run: Ciɦ > (Ci)ɦj > *ʔɲ.
*C-ŋ	*ŋ	ŋ	ŋ	ŋ	ŋ	ŋ ↓	ŋ	ŋ	ŋ	ŋ		ŋ	ŋ ↓
*Cuŋ	*ŋw	ŋ	ŋ	ŋʷ	ŋʷ	ŋ ↓	ŋ, ŋʷ		ŋʷ				ɱ ↓
*Cuɦ	*Cuk	h	h	hʷ	gʷ	v	hʷ		ŋ, ŋʷ				ɱ ↓	Rhinoglottophilia in Cunhua through Run: Cuɦ > (Cu)ɦw > *ʔŋʷ.
*l̥	*C-l	ɗ	ɬ	ɬ	ɬ			tθ	l	ɬ		ɬ
*C-l	*l	l	l	l	l	l ↓	l	l	l	l		l	l ↓
*p-l	*p-l	l	l	pl	pl	p	pl	ɓ ↓, l ↓	pʲ ↓	p ↓	pl	pl
*ɾ	*C-r	r	r	r	r ↓	l ↓	l ↓	l ↓	l ↓	l ↓	r	r	r ↓
*r	*C-ʀ	r	g	g	g ↓	h ↓	h ↓	h ↓	ŋ ↓	g ↓	x	x	kʰ
*ʔ	*ʔ	ʔ	ʔ	ʔ	ʔ			ʔ	ʔ	ʔ		ʔ
*Ciʔ	*Ciʔ			ʔʲ	z	z	ʔʲ	z	ʔʲ	z		z		These onsets (as well as Ciɦ-, Cuɦ- above) showing characteristic cheshirization outside of Bouhin and Ha Em.
*Cuʔ	*Cuʔ			ʔʷ	gʷ	v	ʔʷ	v	ʔʷ	kʷ	ɣ	v
*Cur	*Cuʀ	r	g	gʷ	gʷ ↓	v ↓	hʷ ↓	v ↓	ŋ ↓, v ↓	kʷ	ɣ	v
*Cuɾ	*Cur	r	r	v	f ↓			v ↓	v ↓	kʷ	ɣ	f	f ↓
*ʋ	*C-ʋ	v	v	v	f ↓	v ↓	v	v ↓		v ↓	v	v	v ↓
*ʍ	*Vw			hʷ	v ↓			v
*ŋ̊w	*Vw			hʷ	v ↓			h ↓	ŋ ↓, v ↓
*ȷ̊	*Vj	z	z	z	z ↓	z ↓	z	z	z ↓	z ↓	z	z	z ↓
*lj	*il	z	z	z	ɬ ↓			l ↓	z ↓	z ↓	z	z	ts ↓	With lj > lʑ > *ɮ > ɬ in Qi (lowered tone still indicating earlier voicing).
*ɾj	*Cir	z	z	r	t ↓	tʰ ↓	t ↓	z ↓	l ↓	t ↓	t	t, ts	t, ts ↓

The symbol ↓ indicates here a lowered tone on the following vowel in those Hlai languages where tone split has taken place; this normally occurs following earlier voiced consonants.

©Text is available under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons-Attribution ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Upload a video for this entry

Information

Subjects: Language & Linguistics

Contributor MDPI registered users' name will be linked to their SciProfiles pages. To register with us, please refer to https://encyclopedia.pub/register :

HandWiki

View Times: 378

Entry Collection: HandWiki

Update Date: 29 Sep 2022

Table of Contents

Video Upload Options

Confirm

1. Phonology

2. Sound Changes