Structure of Hmong-Mien Languages Session #2 Phonology
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Structure of Hmong-Mien Languages Session #2 Phonology" Martha Ratlif 2017 LSA Institute " University of Kentucky" Session overview" • Word/syllable structure in modern HM languages" • Consonants" – velars/uvulars" – voiceless/voiced sonorants" – plain/prenasalized stops" – non-native aspects of phonology? aspirates and fricatives" – secondary developments: retrofex Cs and voiced stops " • Vowels" – Hmongic and Mienic inventory diferences" – phonemic vowel length" • Sesquisyllables in Proto-Hmong-Mien and the present day" Word/syllable structure in modern HM languages" " The SEA “bulging monosyllable”:" " Proto Tibeto-Burman " (P2) (P1) Ci (G) V (:) (Cf) (s) (Matisof 1989, 2003)" " Proto Hmong-Mien" (C) C (L/G) (i%/u%) (V) V (C) (Ratlif 2010:10)" Maddieson classifes syllables as ‘simple’, ‘moderately complex’, ‘complex’ in WALS:" " – Simple: (C)V (12.5%)" – Moderately complex: C(L/G)V(C) (56.5%)" – Complex: (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C) (30.9%)" Most languages overall have ‘moderately complex’ syllables. Maddieson characterizes 24/34 of the SEA languages in WALS as moderately complex." " Yet this misses the asymmetry of the syllable type of many SEA languages, including Hmongic languages. I would say that they constitute a fourth category:" " – Simple: (C)V (12.5%)" – Moderately complex: C(L/G)V(C) (56.5%)" – Front-loaded: (C)(C)(C)V(C)*" – Complex: (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C) (30.9%)" " *Henderson, E. 1952 of Khmer: “monosyllables with extended onsets”" Consonants" • coda consonants" • velars/uvulars" • voiceless/voiced sonorants" • plain/prenasalized stops" • aspirates and fricatives" • retrofex Cs and voiced stops " " Vanishing coda consonants" -m -n -' -p -t -( (<*-k)" -m -n -' -p -t" -m -n -'" -n -'" -'" " Mienic languages retain fve or six codas; Hmongic languages have reduced the set to either -n and -', or just -'." White Hmong initial consonants" p" t" (d" ts" )" t*" c" k" q" (" ph" th" (dh" tsh" )h" t*h" ch" kh" qh" mp" nt" nts" +)" nt*" ,c" 'k" -q" mph" nth" ntsh" +)h" nt*h" ,ch" 'kh" -qh" hm" hn" h," '" m" n" ," f" s" *" ç" h" v" ." hl" j" l" A-Hmao (Shíménk/n) initial consonants! (Niederer 1998)" p" t" ts" tl" )" t0" t1" k" q" (" ph" th" tsh" tlh" )h" t0h" t1h" kh" qh" b" d" dz" dl" 2" d3" d4" g" 5" mp" nt" nts" ntl" +)" +t0" 6t1" 'k" -q" mph" nth" ntsh" ntlh" +)h" +t0h" 6t1h" 'kh" -qh" mb" nd" ndz" ndl" +2" +d3" 6d4" 'g" -5" m7" n7" 67" m" n" +" 6" '" f" s" l 0" 1" x" h" v" z" l" 3" 4" Iu Mien initial consonants (Purnell 2012)" p" t" ts" c" k" (" ph" th" tsh" ch" kh" b" d" dz" 9" g" m7" n7" ,:" ':" m" n" ," '" f" s" h" l l" w7" j7" w" j" Velar/uvular contrast" p" t" (d" ts" )" t*" c" k" q" (" ph" th" (th" tsh" )h" t*h" ch" kh" qh" mp" nt" nts" +)" nt*" ,c" 'k" -q" mph" nth" ntsh" +)h" nt*h" ,ch" 'kh" -qh" m" n" ," '" hm" hn" h," f" s" *" ç" h" v" ." l" j" hl" Contrast exists in Hmongic languages only" E.g., White Hmong minimal pairs:" " ka55 ‘bug’ vs. qa55 ‘underneath’" ke24 ‘path’ vs. qe24 ‘to borrow/lend’" k;52 ‘valley’ vs. q;52 ‘snail’" . also kho24 ‘steady’/qho24 ‘hole’, nka33 ‘skinny’/ nqa33 ‘to carry in the hand’, etc." q/k merger in Mienic" " Hmong qu1/Mien ko5’ ‘old’ " Hmong qa1/Mien ka=m1 ‘sweet’" Hmong qe3/Mien ka3 ‘to borrow’ " Hmong -q>'1/Mien ga=n1 ‘thatch grass’ " " " Yet some Hmongic uvulars are secondary" Velars in SEA have been known to “fall back” under certain conditions, thus giving rise to the velar/uvular contrast. " Matisof 2003: postvelars are generally secondary developments of the TB *velar series – velars that are not followed by glides become postvelars (p. 20)" " Mindful of the developments in TB, Solnit (1996) proposed that HM velars might have become uvulars except before medial r and back l, and “under some other condition, perhaps involving front vowels/glides” " Evidence for retraction from Chinese borrowings" " 價 Man. jia? (< MC ka5) ‘price’, WH nqa5" " 甘 Man. g@n (< MC kam1) ‘sweet’, WH qa1" " 槀 Man. g/o (< MC khaw3) ‘withered’, WH qhua3" " 雞 Man. jiA (<MC k>j1) ‘chicken’, WH qai1" " Some Hm words with q- go back to *q-, other Hm words with q- go back to *k-. Hm words with k- (<*k-) represent the special case: *k- did not retract before liquids and back rounded vowels. " " *q- *k-" ! " q- q- k-" " " A Southeast Asian areal trait?" Yes, according to Henderson (1965)." " Matisof (2003) “Postvelars are something of an areal feature in the Sinosphere, occurring in [Tibeto- Burman,] Hmong-Mien and Kam-Sui.” Esp. characteristic of the Qiangic and Loloish branches of T-B." " Baxter & Sagart (2014) reconstruct a uvular/velar contrast for Old Chinese. " " Yet Maddiseon (WALS: Uvular Consonants) does not mention mainland SEAsia: “The great majority of the languages surveyed (80.9%) have no uvulars. Uvulars are absent from several large areas, such as the northern part of South America, the eastern part of North America, West and Central Africa, southern Asia including Indonesia and the Philippines, and the Pacifc region except for a couple of languages in New Guinea. They are also absent from most of the languages of Europe outside the Caucasus region. Uvulars are concentrated in the western part of North America and the southern part of of South America, in the Caucasus and Inner Asia as well as the far northeast of Asia. A lesser concentration occurs in eastern and southern Africa.”" Voiced/voiceless sonorant contrast" p" t" (d" ts" )" t*" c" k" q" (" ph" th" (th" tsh" )h" t*h" ch" kh" qh" mp" nt" nts" +)" nt*" ,c" 'k" -q" mph" nth" ntsh" +)h" nt*h" ,ch" 'kh" -qh" m" n" ," '" hm" hn" h," f" s" *" ç" h" v" ." l" j" hl" Why hC- rather than C7-?" • Synchronic: In White Hmong, the voiceless sonorants are preaspirated rather than fully voiceless." • Diachronic: Because of tonal refexes, some sonorants must be reconstructed as preglottalized (*(C-), so there is independent evidence for pre-initial laryngeals." • Loanwords: There are several hC- loanwords from Tibeto- Burman which can be traced back to a word with an s-prefx in T-B:" moon/sun/night" moon/month" Hmong-Mien *hlaH (2.41/4)" " Tibeto-Burman *s/g-la ‘moon/month’" " " sun/day" Hmongic *hn>'A (2.8/22); Mienic *hnu%BiA (2.8/11)" " Tibeto-Burman *s-nCy ‘sun’" " " night" Hmong-Mien *hmC'H (1.8/21)" Tibeto-Burman *mu=' ‘cloudy; dark’" " cf. Burmese hmuì' ‘very dark’ (Benedict 1972:78)" T-B directive/causative/intensive *s-" to slice" Hmong-Mien *hlep (2.41/10)" Tibeto-Burman *s-lep ‘to slice’" Yanghao l7hei3 , Jiwei l7ha3, Bunu De3; Mien D>5, Biao to extend tongue" Min Dia5" Tibeto-Burman *s-lyak ‘to lick (causative)’" to snif at" Hmong-Mien *hmji%CmH (1.23/18)" Tibeto-Burman *s-nam (tr.)/*m-nam (intr.) ‘to smell’" Prenasalized/plain stop contrast" p" t" (d" ts" )" t*" c" k" q" (" ph" th" (th" tsh" )h" t*h" ch" kh" qh" mp" nt" nts" +)" nt*" ,c" 'k" -q" mph" nth" ntsh" +)h" nt*h" ,ch" 'kh" -qh" m" n" ," '" hm" hn" h," f" s" *" ç" h" v" ." l" j" hl" Distribution and development" *NC > NC W Hmongic languages " *NC[-voice] > NC N Hmongic languages" *NC[-voice] > C[-voice] E Hmongic languages" *NC[+voice] > N N and E Hmongic languages" *NC > C[+voice] All Mienic languages" " Probable ultimate source: “front-end collapse”" N(V).C > N.C > NC > NC" Outcomes with prenasalized voiceless stop" " ta3" PHM ‘long’ PH nt;3" *ntauX *ntæwB nte3" ntæ3a" to3" PM " *(dauB dau3 du3 " " Outcomes with prenasalized voiced stop" " z>2" PHM ‘ear’ PH m3;2" *mbræu *mbræwA +t0e2" mp3æ2" mjo2" PM " *blæwA blau2 bju2 " " #NCs may not only break down in understandable ways, they may also persist over hundreds of years, as in West and North Hmongic languages." Non-native? aspirates and fricatives" p" t" (d" ts" )" t*" c" k" q" (" ph" th" (th" tsh" )h" t*h" ch" kh" qh" mp" nt" nts" +)" nt*" ,c" 'k" -q" mph" nth" ntsh" +)h" nt*h" ,ch" 'kh" -qh" m" n" ," '" hm" hn" h," f" s" *" ç" h" v" ." l" j" hl" Aspirates: Reconstructed words with aspirated stops are not numerous. Some correspondence sets with aspirates are entirely made up of Chinese loanwords. Yet some apparently ancient HM words are aspirated: shell, daughter, fnger ring, attic, puttees." " Fricatives: Only 4 fricatives can be reconstructed for Proto HM, *s-, *sj-, *c-, and *h-, and given the distribution of loanwords in the correspondence sets, only *h- feels native. Fricatives in daughter languages frequently come from africates, aspirated stops, or glides (*w- > v-). " Secondary development from Cr- or Cj-: retrofex consonants" p" t" (d" ts" )" t*" c" k" q" (" ph" th" (th" tsh" )h" t*h" ch" kh" qh" mp" nt" nts" +)" nt*" ,c" 'k" -q" mph" nth" ntsh" +)h" nt*h" ,ch" 'kh" -qh" m" n" ," '" hm" hn" h," f" s" *" ç" h" v" ." l" j" hl" Secondary development in Iu Mien (and all other Mienic languages) from NC-: voiced stops" p" t" ts" c" k" (" ph" th" tsh" ch" kh" b" d" dz" 9" g" m7" n7" ,:" ':" m" n" ," '" f" s" h" l l" w7" j7" w" j" A-Hmao (Shíménk/n) voiced stops:! not secondary" p" t" ts" thl" )" t0" t1" k" q" (" ph" th" tsh" thlh" )h" t0h" t1h" kh" qh" b" d" dz" dl" 2" d3" d4" g" 5" mp" nt" nts" ntl7" +)" +t0" 6t1" 'k" -q" mph" nth" ntsh" ntlh" +)h" +t0h" 6t1h" 'kh" -qh" mb" nd" ndz" ndl" +2" +d3" 6d4" 'g" -5" m7" n7" 67" m" n" +" 6" '" f" s" l 0" 1" x" h" v" z" l" 3" 4" Vowels" Given the fact that the vast majority of HM syllables have no coda consonant, a rimes inventory is usually given, following the Chinese tradition, rather than a vowels inventory (although vowels can easily enough be extracted from an inventory of rimes)" " • Hmongic and Mienic rime inventory diferences" • phonemic vowel length" " White Hmong rimes" i" ;" u" e, e' [>, >']" o, o' [B, B']" a" ia" ua" ai" a;" au" Iu Mien rimes" i, ip, im,