| Proto-Karenic | |
|---|---|
| Proto-Karen | |
| Reconstruction of | Karenic languages |
Reconstructed ancestor | |
Proto-Karenic orProto-Karen is thereconstructed ancestor of theKarenic languages.
The foundation of the reconstruction of Proto-Karen was laid byAndré-Georges Haudricourt in 1946, with revisions in 1953 and 1975.Haudricourt applied thecomparative method to forms from two Karen languages,Pwo andSgaw, fromA Comparative Dictionary of the Pwo-Karen Dialect (1922) by W. C. B. Purser and Saya Tun Aung.Each of these languages has sixtones, four in open syllables and two in checked syllables (those ending in a glottal stop).By comparing the lexical incidence of these tones, Haudricourt established eight correspondence sets, later labelled I to VIII byGordon Luce, six in open syllables and two in checked syllables.The two languages had similar inventories of initial consonants, distinguishingaspirated, unaspirated andimplosive stops and having only voiced sonorants.Implosives and sonorants were aligned between the two languages, but aspirated and unaspirated stops yielded three correspondence sets.Moreover, the initial correspondence sets occurred only with certain tone correspondence sets, as follows:[1][2][3]
| Initials (illustrated with bilabials) | Tones | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| *A (modal) | *B < **-s | *B' < **-ʔ | *D < **-p/t/k | |
| pʰ:pʰ < *voiceless aspirated stop | 1h:1h (III) | 2h:2h (VI) | 2h:1h (V) | 3h:3h (VIII) |
| m:m < *voiceless sonorant | ||||
| p:p < *voiceless unaspirated stop | 1b:1h (II) | |||
| ɓ:ɓ < *implosive stop | ||||
| pʰ:p < *voiced stop | 1b:1b (I) | 2b:2b (IV) | 3b:3b (VII) | |
| m:m < *voiced sonorant | ||||
This fits a common pattern in languages of theMainland Southeast Asia linguistic area, includingTai languages,Hmong-Mien languages,Vietnamese andvarieties of Chinese, in which a four-tone system, reflecting earlier final segments, develops a register distinction conditioned by the manner of the initial, leading to a tone split.The varying treatment of the first tone is also found in Tai and Chinese languages.[4][5]Haudricourt's reconstruction was further supported by subsequent reporting that voiced stops and voiceless nasals are retained by other Karen languages, such asGeba.[6]Manson gave a sample of diagnostic words for use during field elicitation to classify Karenic languages:[7]
| Initial consonant | Tone class | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| *A | *B | *B′ | *D[a] | |
| Aspirated stops, voiceless sonorants | 1 (III) water [*tʰi] | 4 (VI) star [*sʰa] | 7 (Va) bone [*kʰri] | 10 (VIII) sky [*m̥oʔ] |
| Voiceless stops, glottalised consonants | 2 (II) silver [*rɔn] | 5 (VIa) egg [*ti] | 8 (V) paddy [*pɨ] | 11 (VIIIa) alcohol [*siʔ] |
| Voiced stops and sonorants | 3 (I) nest [*bwe] | 6 (IV) sun [*mɤ] | 12 (VII) monkey [*zoʔ] | |
Haudricourt originally viewed the correspondence set V as irregular, and so reconstructed included only the three proto-tones *A, *B and *D.He added the proto-tone *B' in his 1975 revision.[8][9][10]Haudricourt's *B' class has been accepted by most modern workers on Karen, but is not included by Luangthongkum.[11]This class is not distinguished after originally voiced initials, but a similar merger is common in Chinese varieties.[12]Correspondence class V is not reflected as a distinct class in any modern Karen language, being merged with *A in Sgaw and Pa'O, with *B in Pwo, with *D in Kayan, Kayaw and Kaya, and with both B* and D* in Bwe-Gaba.[13]Luangthongkum has suggested that the words in class V might reflect an earlier final segment, a view that Haudricourt had also expressed.[11]
The phonology of Proto-Karen according toTheraphan Luangthongkum (2019):[14]
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasals | voiceless | *hm (m̥) | *hn (n̥) | *hɲ (ɲ̥) | *hŋ (ŋ̥) | |
| glottalised | *ʔn | |||||
| voiced | *m | *n | *ɲ | *ŋ | ||
| Stops | voiceless aspirated | *ph | *th | *ch | *kh | |
| voiceless unaspirated | *p | *t | *c | *k | ||
| glottal and glottalised | *ʔb (ɓ) | *ʔd (ɗ) | *ʔ | |||
| voiced | *b | *d | *ɟ | *g | ||
| Fricatives | voiceless | *s | *h | |||
| Approximants | voiceless | *hw (w̥) | *hl (l̥) | |||
| glottalised | *ʔw | *ʔl | *ʔj | |||
| voiced | *w | *l | *j | |||
| Rhotic | voiceless | *hr (r̥) | ||||
| voiced | *r | |||||
In comparison with Haudricourt's original reconstruction, Luangthongkum has dropped *x and *ɣ, and added *ʔn, *ʔw, *ʔl, *ʔj and *hr.[15][16]
| *Cw- | *Cl- | *Cr- | *Crw- | *Cj- | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *hnw | *hrw | ||||||||||||||
| *mw | *ŋw | *ml | *ŋj | ||||||||||||
| *ʔnw | |||||||||||||||
| *phw | *thw | *chw | *khw | *phl | *khl | *phr | *thr | *chr | *khr | *khrw | |||||
| *pw | *cw | *kw | *pl | *kl | *pr | *tr | *pj | *chj | *kj | ||||||
| *dw | *gw | *bl | *gl | *br | *gr | ||||||||||
| *ʔbw | *ʔdw | *ʔbl | |||||||||||||
| *sw | *sl | *sr | |||||||||||||
| *rj | |||||||||||||||
Only Pa'O has a full set of nasal and stop codas, though many occurrences of -p, -t or -k are found in loans fromShan orPali.Other Karen languages may have nasalized vowels instead of nasal codas, and only glottal stop codas.Some have only open rhymes.[17]
| Pure | Glide coda | Nasal coda | Stop coda | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front vowel | *-i | *-im | *-in | *-iŋ | *-iʔ | *-it | *-ik | |||
| *-e | *-ej | *-eŋ | *-eN | *-eʔ | *-ek | |||||
| *-ɛ | *-ɛj | *-ɛm | *-ɛn | *-ɛŋ | *-ɛN | *-ɛʔ | ||||
| Central vowel | *-ɨ | *-ɨm | *-ɨn | *-ɨŋ | *-ɨN | |||||
| *-ə | *-əm | *-əŋ | *-əN | *-əʔ | ||||||
| *-a | *-aj | *-aw | *-am | *-aŋ | *-aN | *-aʔ | *-at | |||
| Back vowel | *-u | *-un | *-uŋ | *-uN | *-uʔ | *-uk | ||||
| *-o | *-ow | *-om | *-oŋ | *-oʔ | *-ot | *-ok | ||||
| *-ɔ | *-ɔŋ | *-ɔN | *-ɔʔ | *-ɔt | ||||||
Here *-N represents an indeterminate nasal (*-m, *-n or *-ŋ).[18]
Most linguists accept Haudricourt's revised reconstruction with three proto-tones *A (modal), *B and *B' in open syllables, with checked syllables forming a separate category *D.[11]However, Luangthongkum accepts only *A, *B and *D.[18]
Theraphan Luangthongkum (2014) lists the followingsound changes that had taken place during the transition fromProto-Tibeto-Burman (PTB;James Matisoff's reconstruction) toProto-Karenic (PK; Luangthongkum's own reconstruction).[19]
Manson (2011) lists phonological innovations for each of his four primary subgroups of the Karen language branch as follows.[20]
Works cited
Reconstructions
Vocabulary lists
Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
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| WesternHimalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand,Nepal,Sikkim) |
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| EasternHimalayas (Tibet,Bhutan,Arunachal) | |||||
| Myanmar and Indo- Burmese border |
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| East andSoutheast Asia |
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| Dubious (possible isolates,Arunachal) |
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| Proposed groupings | |||||
| Proto-languages | |||||
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. | |||||