Proto-Kra language
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Proto-Kra is the reconstructed ancestor of the Kra languages. It was reconstructed in 2000 by Weera Ostapirat in his Ph.D. dissertation.
Lower-level reconstructions
Ostapirat (2000) provided preliminary phonological reconstructions for several lower-level groupings before attempting a reconstruction of Proto-Kra.
- Proto-Kra Proto-South-Western Kra Proto-Western Kra (Gelao, Lachi) Proto-Southern Kra (Laha) Proto-Central-East Kra Proto-Central Kra (Paha) Proto-Eastern Kra (Buyang, Qabiao)
Phonology
Consonants
Proto-Kra has a total of 32 consonants, seven of which (marked in green) can occur as syllable finals (Ostapirat 2000:224, 236).
Miyake (2008, 2021)
Marc Miyake (2008, 2021) 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, in particular with alveolar consonants leniting in intervocalic position. In synchronic Kra languages, reflexes are often attested as voiced fricatives, which Miyake (2021) does not believe to have developed from historical initial retroflex consonants. Some examples of Miyake's (2008) revised Proto-Kra reconstructions are provided below.
- *tsəm 'one' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *tʂəmC)
- *tsun 'teach' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *tʂunA)
- *N-tsu 'pillar' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *m-tʂuA)
- *nok 'bird' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *ɳokD)
- *nui 'snow' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *ɳuiA)
- *nəl 'fat' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *(m-)ɳəlA)
- *CV-nəŋh 'salty' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *ʔ-ɳəŋB)
- *na 'thick' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *C-naA)
- *nak 'give' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *nakD)
- *klep 'fingernail' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *ʈ-lepD)
- *(k/tV-)loŋ 'vegetable' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *ɖ-loŋA)
Miyake (2021) reconstructs some disyllabic lexical forms for Proto-Kra, including *mataA 'eye', *manokD 'bird', and *kVtuA1 'louse'.
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 consonants in Miyake (2021) as compared to Ostapirat (2000) are:
| Ostapirat (2000) | Miyake (2021) |
|---|---|
| *ʈ- | *CVt- |
| *ɖ- | *CVd- |
| *ɳ- | *CVn- |
| *ɭ- | *CVl- |
| *d-l- | *CVl- |
| *tʂ- | *CVts- |
| *dʐ- | *CVdz- |
| *hr- | *hr- |
| *r- | *r- |
Vowels
Proto-Kra has a total of 6 vowels (Ostapirat 2000:235).
Proto-Kra has 4 diphthongs, which are not found in closed syllables.
- *-ai
- *-aɯ
- *-ui
- *-au
Tones
Proto-Kra had an A–B–C–D tonal system typical of other Tai–Kadai languages (see Proto-Tai language#Tones). The tonal descriptions below are from Ostapirat (2000:237).
- *A: *A is one of the most common tones.
- *B: *B and *D are phonetically similar, as reflexes of tone *D are often the same as those of *B. This regularly occurs in all Kra languages except for Qabiao.
- *C: *C is usually accompanied by glottal constriction and may have originally had a creaky or tense laryngeal quality. Some Gelao varieties and Yalang Buyang display the same reflex for *B and *C.
- *D: *D is the only tone to occur exclusively in closed syllables.
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 |
Lexicon
Below are reconstructed Proto-Kra forms from Ostapirat (2000).
Notes
- Chen, Y.-L. (2018). Proto-Ong-Be. Doctoral dissertation, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
- Hsiu, Andrew. 2017. .
- Miyake, Marc. 2018. .
- Miyake, Marc. 2013. The other Kra-Dai numerals (Parts , ).
- Miyake, Marc. 2013. .
- Miyake, Marc. 2013. .
- Miyake, Marc. 2013. .
- Miyake, Marc. 2012. .
- Miyake, Marc. 2011. .
- Miyake, Marc. 2008. (Parts , , , , )
- Miyake, Marc. 2008. .
- Miyake, Marc. 2008.
- Miyake, Marc. 2008.
- Miyake, Marc. 2008.
- Miyake, Marc. 2008. .
- Miyake, Marc. 2008. .
- Miyake, Marc. 2008.
- Ostapirat, Weera. 2000. "." Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 23 (1): 1–251.
- Ostapirat, Weera. (2009). . Journal of Language and Culture, 28(2), 41–56.
- Ostapirat, Weera. (2013). . Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics, 7(1), 189–227.
- Pittayaporn, Pittayawat. (2009). Cornell University.
See also
- Proto-Austronesian language
- Proto-Hlai language
- Proto-Kam–Sui language
- Proto-Tai language
- Austro-Tai languages
External links
- 2020-10-31 at the Wayback Machine