Proto-Kra is the reconstructed ancestor of the Kra languages. It was reconstructed in 2000 by Weera Ostapirat in his Ph.D. dissertation.
Ostapirat (2000) provided preliminary phonological reconstructions for several lower-level groupings before attempting a reconstruction of Proto-Kra.
Proto-Kra has a total of 32 consonants, seven of which (marked in green) can occur as syllable finals (Ostapirat 2000:224, 236).
Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unvoiced Stop | p | t | ʈ | c | k | ʔ | ||||||||
Voiced Stop | b | d | ɖ | ɟ | ɡ | |||||||||
Nasal | m | n | ɳ | ɲ | ŋ | |||||||||
Unvoiced Affricate | ts | tʃ | ʈʂ | |||||||||||
Voiced Affricate | dz | dʒ | ɖʐ | |||||||||||
Unvoiced Fricative | s | ʃ | x | |||||||||||
Voiced Fricative | z | ʒ | ɣ | |||||||||||
Approximant | w | l | j | |||||||||||
Rhotic | r |
Marc Miyake (2008)[1] proposes alternative reconstructions for Ostapirat's (2000) Proto-Kra retroflex consonants, suggesting that many of them were actually non-retroflexes that had been influenced by pre-syllables. Some examples of Miyake's (2008) revised Proto-Kra reconstructions are provided below.
Additionally, Miyake (2008) revises Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *pwl- as *CV-pl-, *bwl- as *CV-bl-, *m-pl- as *pl-, *(p/d/k)-l- as *(p/d/k)V-l-, *ʈ-l- as k-l-, and *ɖ-l- as *(k/tV)-l-.
Proto-Kra has a total of 6 vowels (Ostapirat 2000:235).
Height | Front | Central | Back | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Close | /i/ | /u/ | |||||
Mid | /e/ | /ə/ | /o/ | ||||
Open | /a/ |
Proto-Kra has 4 diphthongs, which are not found in closed syllables.
Proto-Kra had an A–B–C–D tonal system typical of other Tai–Kadai languages (see Proto-Tai language). The tonal descriptions below are from Ostapirat (2000:237).
The following table of phonetic characteristics of Proto-Kra tones was adapted from Ostapirat (2000:237).
*A | *B | *C | *D | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Type of final | sonorants, vowels | lax larynx (?) | tense larynx | stops |
Voicing | voiced | unvoiced | unvoiced | unvoiced |
Vocal cords | vibrating | wide open | closed | closed |
Vowel duration | long | medium | short | medium |
Below are reconstructed Proto-Kra forms from Ostapirat (2000).
The content is sourced from: https://handwiki.org/wiki/Social:Proto-Kra