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UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Explorations in the Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Qiandong-Hmongic Onsets by Vincent Carveth A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS CALGARY, ALBERTA JULY, 2012 ©Vincent Carveth 2012 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-91063-4 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-91063-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Canada 11 UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES The undersigned certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled "Explorations in the Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Qiandong-Hmongic Onsets" submitted by Vincent Carveth in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics. Supervisor, Dr. Robert Murray, Linguistics Dr. Stephen Winters, Department of Linguistics Dr. Shu-ning Sci-ban, Department of Germanic, Slavic and East Asian Studies Date Ill ABSTRACT This thesis concerns itself with the reconstruction of Proto-Qiandong-Hmongic onsets. It compares fieldwork data from two sources and 24 dialects of the Qiandong subgroup, spoken in China's Guizhou province, in order to synthesize a set of onsets for their common ancestor. The reconstruction has twofold relevance, in terms of both elucidating Hmong-Mien language history and bettering understanding of the typology of diachronic development of aspirated spirants, the most distinctive feature of the Qiandong dialects. 34 onsets are reconstructed at the Proto-Qiandong-Hmongic level, including aspirated spirants, five distinct liquids, and prenasalized stops. The typology of fricative development is expanded by determining sources for multiple different aspiration contrasts in spirants, namely a reductive chain shift for the aspirated alveolars and palatals, palatalized bilabials for the aspirated labiodentals, and spirantizing aspirated liquids for the aspirated lateral fricative. Those developments are determined to have occurred prior to Proto-Qiandong-Hmongic in at least two prior stages. IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have been invaluable to this author in the creation of this thesis. First, I owe a great debt of thanks to my advisor Dr. Robert Murray, whose patience and counsel were critical throughout the research and writing process. The University of Calgary Department of Linguistics as a whole similarly deserves my gratitude, for providing me with education and funding allowing me to carry out such research. Alex Mei and family were instrumental in kickstarting my research by translating Ma & Tai (1956) for me as well as they could in the meantime while I searched for a professional English translation; I would have been at a standstill for months without their efforts. Finally, I want to thank my family, for providing me emotional and logistical support throughout this two-year process. V DEDICATION I hereby dedicate this thesis to Maxwell Yang and Bee Vang, my Hmong language and culture teachers at the my undergraduate school, the University of Minnesota, for first acquainting me with the culture and the White Hmong language, piquing the interest that led me to this research. Ua tsaug ntau ntau, xibfwb. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Dedication v Table of Contents vi List of Tables ix List of Figures xi List of Abbreviations xii 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Data Used 3 1.2 Other Previous Research 6 1.3 Tone in Hmong-Mien 8 1.4 Typological Perspective On The Aspiration Contrast In Fricatives 11 1.5 Summary of Introductory Material 13 2.0 Language Orientation and Familial Context 13 2.1 Early Subgrouping Attempts 14 2.2 Subgrouping Anomalies 16 2.3 Conclusions Regarding Familial Context 21 3.0 Methodology and Theoretical Backdrop 22 3.1 The Comparative Method 23 3.2 Preference Laws 29 vii 3.3 Consultation of Existing Reconstructive Work 31 3.4 Lexical Diffusion 33 3.5 Exemplar Theory 35 3.6 Summary of Methodological and Theoretical Approach 39 4.0 Aspiration 39 4.1 Defining Aspiration 40 4.2 Aspiration and Voice 42 4.3 Summary of Aspiration Discussion 48 5.0 Plosives 49 5.1 Uvulars and Velars 51 5.2 Disappearance of the Aspiration Distinction in Tone D2 53 5.3 Palatal Stops and Affricates 56 5.4 Origin and Plausibility of Prenasalized Onsets 58 5.5 Summary of PQH Plosive Inventory and Changes 61 6.0 Nasals 61 6.1 Nasal Aspiration Contrast 63 6.2 Palatal-Velar Nasal Merger in Xuanwei 64 6.3 Nasal-Fricative Sequences 65 6.4 [l]-[p] Alternation 67 6.5 Summary of PQH Nasal Inventory and Changes 68 7.0 Non-Lateral Fricatives and Affricates 68 7.1 Qiandong Chain Shift 72 7.2 Labiodental Fricatives 82 7.3 Aspiration Mergers 85 7.4 Fricative-Aspirated Velar Stop Alternations 87 7.5 Voiced Velar Fricative Fronting 91 7.6 Summary of Fricative and Affricate Developments 93 8.0 Laterals 95 8.1 Reflexes Changed From PQH 97 8.2 Lateral Fricatives 100 8.3 Summary of Lateral Developments 107 9.0 Conclustion 107 ix LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Dialects Used 5 Table 2: Hmong-Mien Tone Categories 9 Table 3: Icelandic Sonorant Devoicing and Stop Deaspiration 46 Table 4a: Plosives in Ma & Tai 50, 78 Table 4b: Plosives in Purnell 51 Table 5: Uvular-Velar Stop Correspondences 52 Table 6: Aspiration Distinction Loss In Stops 54 Table 7a: Prenasalized Stop Series 57, 79 Table 7b: Non-prenasalized Stop Series 57, 79 Table 8a: Nasals in Ma & Tai 62 Table 8b: Nasals in Purnell 63 Table 9: Nasal Aspiration Merger 64 Table 10: Xuanwei Nasal Merger 65 Table 11: Unpredictable Nasal-Fricative Sequences 66 Table 12a: Fricatives and Affricates in Ma & Tai 69 Table 12b: Fricatives and Affricates in Purnell 71 Table 13: Shan Data 76 Table 14: Series 12 and 13, Reconstructed as Affricates 80 Table 15: Alveolar Affricates 81 Table 16: Tone D2 Fricative Aspiration Merger 86 X Table 17: Tone A2 Fricative Aspiration Merger 86 Table 18: Aspiration Loss in PQH *f' 87 Table 19: Velar Fricatives and Aspirated Stops 87 Table 20: Aspirated Palatal Fricative Alternations 90 Table 21: Series 14 91 Table 22a: Laterals in Ma & Tai 95 Table 22b: Laterals in Purnell 96 Table 23: Lateral Deaspiration and Liquefaction Merger 97 Table 24: Jingxian Delateralization Merger 98 Table 25a: Alternating *lh Reflexes 99 Table 25b: Alternating *1 Reflexes 99 Table 26: Lateral Correspondences With Other Hmongic Branches 101 xi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Purnell's Proto-Hmongic Family Tree 16 Figure 2: Mao & Meng's Proto-Hmongic Family Tree 18 Figure 3: Ratliffs Hmong-Mien Family Tree 20 Figure 4: Reconstructed PQH Plosives 61 Figure 5: Summary of PQH Nasal Inventory and Changes 68 Figure 6: Summary of PQH Onsets Reconstructed in Chapter 7 93 Figure 7: Lateral Reflex Attestation in Qiandong 96, 103, 106 Figure 8a: Pre-Palatalization State 106 Figure 8b: Liquid Palatalization 106 Figure 9: Summary of PQH Onsets Reconstructed in Chapter 8 107 Figure 10: PQH Onset Inventory 108 xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EMC - Early Middle Chinese LMC - Late Middle Chinese MC - Middle Chinese OC - Old Chinese PH - Proto-Hmongic PHM - Proto-Hmong-Mien PQH - Proto-Qiandong-Hmongic 1 1.0 Introduction This paper lays out a phonological reconstruction of Proto-Qiandong-Hmongic's consonant, vowel, and tone system. Proto-Qiandong-Hmongic (PQH) is the ancestor of the modern Qiandong dialects, which are spoken in southeastern Guizhou province in southwestern China by about 1.4 million people (Niederer 1998:51). The dialects are part of the Hmong-Mien language family, a language family currently thought to be unrelated to any other with about 6.3 million speakers, mostly in China (Ratliff 2010:3). The speakers of the dialects in question are members of the Miao upland minority group in China. The group extends into the northern reaches of the Indochinese countries, in which they are often referred to with the autonym Hmong, in no small part because the speakers there consider the label Miao pejorative (Mortensen 2000).
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