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Proto-Ersuic UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics Title Proto-Ersuic Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8r87b3b8 Author Yu, Dominic Publication Date 2012 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Proto-Ersuic by Dominic Yu A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor James A. Matisoff, Chair Professor Gary Holland Professor Keith Johnson Professor Johanna Nichols Spring 2012 Proto-Ersuic Copyright © 2012, Dominic Yu This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons 444 Castro Street, Suite 900 Mountain View, California 94041 USA Abstract Proto-Ersuic by Dominic Yu Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Professor James A. Matisoff, Chair This is a reconstruction of Proto-Ersuic, the ancestor language of Lizu, Tosu, and Ersu, three closely related languages spoken in southwestern Sichuan which are generally considered to be part of the Qiangic branch of Tibeto-Burman. To date, no in-depth historical work has been carried out on these languages. Approximately 800 lexical items are reconstructed based primarily on data from six sources: Mianning Lizu (data collected by the author in Mianning County, Sichuan, in 2008 and 2010), two sources for Kala Lizu (Muli County, one modern and one older source), Naiqu Lizu (Jiulong County), and two varieties of Ersu (Zeluo and Qingshui, both in Ganluo County). Chapter 1 provides a general introduction to Lizu, Tosu, and Ersu, along with basic information for each source to help the reader properly interpret the phonetic transcriptions and parse the individual forms for each language. Chapter 2 presents the Proto-Ersuic syllable canon, providing the skeleton upon which the individual reconstructions are built. Chapters 3 and 4 lay out the complete inventory of Proto-Ersuic initials and rhymes. All reconstructed consonants and vowels are supported by comprehensive cognate sets demonstrating regular sound correspondences across the languages, with exceptions carefully noted. Chapter 5 offers a reconstruction of the lexical tones of Proto-Ersuic, with a general unmarked tone assigned to most words and a second, marked, tone of unclear origin specified on a minority of the lexicon. Chapter 6 presents an outline of shared morphosyntax that can be reconstructed to the Proto-Ersuic level, specifically morphosyntax related to nouns, verbs, and numerals/classifiers. Chapter 7 brings together all the sound changes that yielded the regular correspondences presented in Chapters 3 and 4, organizing them by language, and ordering them chronologically. From these sound changes emerges a picture of the internal structure (i.e. subgrouping) of Ersuic. 1 Chapter 8 takes a top-down approach, examining the sound changes from Proto–Tibeto-Burman to Proto-Ersuic and attempting to find regular patterns in the development of Proto–Tibeto-Burman rhymes, initials, and prefixes. Comparisons with other languages and branches of Tibeto-Burman are made as well in an attempt to uncover new roots. The final chapter (Chapter 9) addresses the place of Proto-Ersuic in Tibeto-Burman, summarizing current views on the matter and offering some speculations on how the results of the present study might help us decide how Proto-Ersuic fits in the larger Tibeto-Burman family tree. 2 For Grandma, who should be pleased there is now a vɔk˥ɬu˧˨ 博士 in the family. i In memory of Sarah Berson, friend, colleague, and fellow traveler. ii Preface This is a modest work reconstructing the ancestor language of three closely related languages with approximately 20,000 total speakers. However, that does not mean the content is uninteresting, or that the work was easy. This dissertation is organized in such a way as to make it useful and convenient for those wishing to build upon it, either by improving the reconstructions with new data, or by using the reconstructions to try to go further up the family tree. (At least, that is the intention!) It is my hope, however, that readers from a larger audience will also find the content here of interest. For the phonetician/phonologist or general historical linguist interested in sound changes, Chapter 7 is a whirlwind tour of all the interesting sound changes that happened in Ersuic. In particular, there are a great many developments related to rhotic vowels and retroflex consonants. The vowel space is also notable for having a rather large number high vowels, demonstrated by robust contrasts of acoustically quite similar vowels and diphthongs. Palatalization, retroflexion, and apicalization all interact in complex ways in the history of these languages. For the Tibeto-Burmanist comparativist, Chapters 8 and 9 should give you a good idea of how Ersuic fits with everything else. Anyone who has worked on a Tibeto-Burman language will probably also have fun identifying cognates to words they know in Chapters 3 and 4. For the general (non-linguistics) reader, I hope you will at least find the maps, charts, and diagrams of interest. A list of figures has been provided for the reader’s convenience. Finally, historical linguists will understand if I take a brief moment to geek out. The comparative method really works! There is nothing quite like seeing a dʑ:dʑ:dʑ correspondence, reconstructing *d because it only appears before [i] and *dʑ was already taken, and then discovering that an old travelogue that someone wrote actually has a “d-”! And there is nothing quite like seeing a ʂ:x correspondence, reconstructing something random-looking like *ʃ (because both *ʂ and *x were already taken), then having all your facebook friends tell you that that exact change happened in Spanish!, and then finding out that your solution explains some forms that looked irregular and matches up with external evidence besides, and feeling like you’ve done something that you’ve only read about before in books. No, I suppose there really isn’t anything exactly like that. iii List of Figures 1.1 Map of Southwest China ............................... 3 1.2 Map of the Ersuic-speaking area ........................... 4 1.3 Ersuic directional prefixes .............................. 13 2.1 Proto-Ersuic consonants ............................... 15 2.2 Proto-Ersuic rhymes ................................. 16 4.1 Coöccurrence of Proto-Ersuic *initials and *rhymes .................135 7.1 Ersuic family tree ...................................163 9.1 Map of Qiangic-speaking areas ............................207 9.2 Subgrouping of Qiangic from Sūn (2001) ......................210 9.3 Subgrouping of Burmo-Qiangic from Jacques and Michaud (2011) .........212 9.4 Subgrouping of “Eastern Tibeto-Burman” from Bradley (2008) ...........214 iv Table of Contents Preface iii List of Figures iv Table of Contents v Acknowledgements ix Symbols and Abbreviations xi 1 The Ersuic Languages 1 1.1 Background ...................................... 1 1.1.1 Context .................................... 2 1.1.2 Genetic affiliation ............................... 5 1.2 Sources ........................................ 6 1.3 Phonology ....................................... 6 1.3.1 Mianning Lizu ................................ 6 1.3.2 Kala Lizu ................................... 8 1.3.3 Lǚsū = Kala Lizu (TBL) ........................... 9 1.3.4 Naiqu Lizu .................................. 10 1.3.5 Zeluo Ersu .................................. 11 1.3.6 Qingshui Ersu ................................ 12 1.4 Morphology ...................................... 13 2 The Proto-Ersuic Syllable Canon 14 2.1 Prefixes ........................................ 14 2.2 Initials ......................................... 14 2.3 Medials ........................................ 15 2.4 Rhymes ........................................ 15 2.5 Tones ......................................... 16 3 Initials 17 3.1 Bilabials ........................................ 18 3.1.1 Plain stops .................................. 18 3.1.2 Stops with high front glides ......................... 21 v 3.1.3 Stops with -r- medials ............................ 22 3.1.4 Prenasalized Stops .............................. 24 3.1.5 Preaspirated Stops .............................. 26 3.1.6 Nasals ..................................... 26 3.2 Dental stops and sonorants .............................. 29 3.2.1 Plain stops .................................. 29 3.2.2 Palatalized/affricated stops .......................... 30 3.2.3 Prenasalized stops .............................. 31 3.2.4 Preaspirated stops ............................... 31 3.2.5 Nasals ..................................... 33 3.2.6 Laterals .................................... 34 3.3 Dental fricates ..................................... 37 3.3.1 Plain ..................................... 37 3.3.2 Prenasalized ................................. 39 3.3.3 Preaspirated .................................. 41 3.3.4 Fricatives ................................... 41 3.3.5 Palatalized dental fricates .......................... 43 3.4 Palatals ........................................ 44 3.4.1 Palatal fricates ................................ 44 3.4.2 Palatal sonorants ............................... 47 3.5 Retroflexes .....................................
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