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The Origins of the Tsou Phonemes /B/ and /D

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The Origins of the Tsou Phonemes /B/ and /D 『言語研 究 』 第62号(1972) The Origins of The Tsou Phonemes /b/ and /d/ Shigeru TSUCHIDA Summary It is suggested that some initial b's in Tsou are the regular re- flex of the cluster *km-. It is further suggested that some d's in the same position, parallel to b-, seem to have originated from *kN-, although the latter change is less certain because of the paucity of data. 0. Tsou is an Austronesian language spoken by approximately 3, 000 people in Central Taiwan. It is believed1) that Tsou, together with Kanakanabu and Saaroa, constitutes a subgroup called Tsouic, as against Atayalic (Atayal and Sedeq) and Paiwanic (Paiwan, Rukai, Puyuma, Ami, Bunun, Saisiyat). Three dialects of Tsou have been reported2): Tfuea, Tapane, and Diihtu. The dialectal differences are very slight, and the speakers of the different dialects face no problem in communicating with each other. The dialect treated here is Duhtu, spoken by about 150 people at Choumei Village (/mamahavana/) in Hsinyi County, Nant'ou Province (南投 縣信 義 郷久 美). The data were collected by the writer at the village during the summer of 1969. 1. Tsou phonemes are as follows: Consonants: /p, b, f, v, m; t, d, n; c, s, z; k, h, n;?; r/; 1) Ferrell 1966 and 1969, Dyen 1963 and 1965. 2) Ogawa & Asai 1935, Tung 1964. 24 The Origins of The Tsou Phonemes /b/ and /d/ 25 Vowels:/i, e, a, o, u, a/; Stress:/'/. /c/ is voiceless alveolar affricate [ts]. /c/ and /s/ are palatalized [tf, f] when immediately followed by /i/. /h/ is a voiceless velar fricative [x]. /r/ is a retroflex non-fricative continuant, and corre- sponds to /e/ in other two dialects. /b/ and /d/ are preglottalized [?b, ?d], and are phonemically interpreted as single phonemes rather than a cluster of ? and b or d, because (1) [?b, ?d] are acoustically shorter than other consonant clusters, and (2) there are clusters including [?b, ?d] as one of the members, clusters comprised of three consonants being otherwise not found in Tsou. 2. All Tsou consonants but /b/ and /d/ can be considered the re- flexes of Proto-Austronesian sounds as follows3) p<*p: pitu seven<*pitu, cdphe palm of the hand, sole of the foot<**DapaN4), 3) The vowels have changed in rather complicated ways. They will be dealt with in a separate paper. Dyen's symbols are used for the phonemes of the proto-language except *e instead of his *e. See Dyen 1965, and also 1953. Subclassifi- cation of proto-phonemes proposed by Dyen is ignored in this paper ex- cept for *S2 and *x2. Abbreviations of the names of the languages compared and the sources are as follows: Ami: Ami (Ogawa 1933); Aty: Atayal (Ogawa 1931); Bkl: Bikol (Lisboa 1865); Bun: Bunun (Tsuchida); Hlg: Hili- gaynon (Kaufmann 1935); Ilk: Ilokano (Vanoverbergh 1957); Itb: Itbayaten (Yamada 1966); Jav: Javanese (Pigeaud 1948); Kan: Kana- kanabu (Tsuchida); Kpp: Kapampangan (Bergano 1860); Mag: Maga dialect of Rukai (Tsuchida); Mal: Malay (Wilkinson 1932); Mar: Maranao (McKaughan & Macaraya 1969); Pai: Paiwan (Ferrell 1970); Png: Pangasinan (Cosgaya 1865); Sar: Saaroa (Tsuchida); Sed: Sedeq (Tsuchida); Sng Sangirese (Steller & Aebersold 1959); Sst: Saisiyat (Tsuchida); Tag; Tagalog (Laktaw 1914); Tha: Thao (Li et al. 1956); Tso: Tsou (Tsuchida). 4) A double asterisk (**) indicates that the from is not reconstructed by Dempwolff, but can be reconstructed on the basis from Formosan and non-Formosan forms. Cf., Sar sapale, Mag Dpale, Sst rapal foot, Pai djapal thigh, Aty rapal; Ilk Png dapan, Bkl dapan sole of the foot. 26 Shigeru TSUCHIDA hup-a hunting ground<**qaNup5); f<*b: fatu stone<*batu, fuu ashes<*qabu, cefe dead-fall trap for rats<**qaCeb6); v<*w-: voru eight<*walu; *-w-: cd-cvo< laugh<*Ca-Cawa; *u (when <preceded or followed by a consonant in an un- accented syllable) vroce blood-vessel,: tendon<*uRaC, tra-vto vomit<*utaq; m<*m: mcoi die<*maCey, amo father<*ama,amo chumu water<*[dD]aNum; t<*t: turu three<*talu, mdto unripe, raw<*mataq, septe four<*x2epat; *T: m?o-t?ut?u< nod in affirmation<*TukTuk; n<*n: ino mother<*ina, m-envene weave<*tine?un; c<*C: cou person<*Cau, mcoo eye<*maCa, rici tuber-peelings<*kuliC; <*d: t-m-a-cnecne<*d: dry by fire<*dandap , mua-rovcu blow down the mountains<*laHud; *D: cmecma clouds<*DamDam < na-sico he, she, they<*siDa; < : cro-a earth, soil<**zaReq7); 5) Cf., Kan ?antipu, Sar ?alupu hunting ground, Bun hanop, Pai q-m- alup, Aty q-em-alup; Ilk anup, Png anop hunt. 6) Cf., Sar ?acava, Bun hatob, Sst ?aseb; Bkl atob rat-trap, Sng atabe? trap. 7) Cf., Sar saree, Bun dalah, Mag a-doo, Sst ra'i?; Bkl daga earth, Hlg daga clay. The Origins of The Tsou Phonemes /b/ and /d/ 27 <*Z: crone road , path<*Zalan, m-echa rain (v.)<*quZaN; s<*s: sio nine<*siwa8), fsuru bow<*busuR, ferse husked rice<*beRas; *S: na-su/su you/your < (sg .)<**Su9), rsee•`see tears<**luSeq10), tresi rope<*taliS; *x2: septe <four<*x2epat; z<*y(intervocalically, and in final position when preceded by *u) zome :bird<*qayam, fuzu wild pig<*babuy; *i (when preceded< of followed by a consonant in an un- accented syllable) tahzucu mulberry<**taNiu[D]11);: k<*N (when preceded by a fricative) fkoi snake<**buN[e]y12), : m-dski salty<*qasiN; h<*N (elsewhere) : h?o-h?o tumor<*Nuka, me-?ho (Passive eh-a) hit the mark<*kaNa, frohe moon<*bulaN; <*n : n-ohcu adrift<*qanud; *rj: nroi saliva<**nal[e]y< , 8) With an inexplicable zero reflex for *w. 9) Cf., Kan ii-ka-su/-su, Sar Mag mu-su/-su, Bun soo/i-so you/ your (sg.); Tag iy-o yours (sg.). 10) Cf., Kan asa?a, Sar lee?e, Mag rsee, Pai lusep, Sst osi? lusuq; Tag lu:ha?, Jav luh tears. 11) Cf., Kan taniucu, Sar taliusu, Itb tanud mulberry. 12) Cf., Kan vunai, Sar, Itb volay snake. 28 Shigeru TSUCHIDA m-onsi weep<*tanis, suhnu mortar<*Nasun13); *k (in medial?< and final posision)14) : cfu?o stomach<*biCuka13), me-ah?o give birth<*aNak; *q (when followed< by *i in intervocalic position) : Pee excreta, te?i defecate<*taqi, pa?ici bitter cucuber<*paqiC; r<*1: rimo five<*lima, e-pri choose<*piliq, f?iri f?iri goiter<**biqil15); *R; rome <molar tooth<*Raqam , vri-na left<*wiRi, oru a typeoru of bamboo<*qauR. 3. The origin of Tsou /b, d/ has not been properly accounted for in spite of the fact that they appear in such basic words as bone eat, baito see, borce bite; dudku finger, tmade hear, rede smell. Nevskij16) compares Tsou b and d with Indonesian p and d/j/l, respectively, as in Tso beyo (Duhtu bero), Mal parut belly; Tso boki penis, Mal puki vulva; Tso abuyu (Duhtu aburu) crimson, Indonesian languages apuy fire; Tso dudku finger, Mal tunjuk finger; Tso podo earthworm, Mal ular snake. His comparison, however, is not con- vincing either in forms or in meaning, or both. 4. Tsou initial b morphophonemically alternates with initial zero or 13) With metathesis. 14) *k, in most cases, became zero in initial position: evi tree, wood< *kaS2iw; re?re language , speech<**kaRi-kaRi (cf., Kan kaari, Sar kari, Pai kai language; Ilk kari promise, Kpp cayi such, it is said). 15) Cf., Kan vPili, Sar vi?ili, Bun bihi?; Ilk biel goiter. 16) Nevskij 1935, pp. 35-36. The Origins of The Tsou Phonemes /b/ and /d/ 29 medial glottal stop. At the same time it is interesting to notice that several forms with b- resemble in some way proto-forms with *k-: (1) bond (Passive dna)17) eat (cf., *ka?en); (2) baito (Pass. aiti) see (cf., *kiTa); (3) borca (Pass. ro?roca) bite (cf., *kaRaC); (4) bohne (Pass. hona) recognize at a glance (cf., *keNan); (5) berne (Pass. rena) bake in coals (cf., *kaRan); (6) birbini (Pass. ri?ma) seek; (7) borpono lay a snare, orpona snare,h? trap (in general); (8) borzazoma lay a snare for catching birds, orzazome a snare for catching birds.h? 5. There is an Active Formative Infix-m- in Tsou, which is from **-um-; c-m-dpo (Pass. cdp-i) roast over a slow fire (<*Capa); c-m-uhu (Pass. chu-a) roast, broil (<*CuNuH); s-m-opro (Pass. spor-a) spread a mat (<*SapaR); t-m-e?si (Pass. t?es-a) sew (<*taqiS); 6. It is supposed that in Proto-Tsouic a supporting vowel developed after a syllable-final consonant, and then dropped in proto-Tsou vowel in the even-numbered syllables but final counting from the accented syllable. Thus: dandan>*danadana (cf., Kan c-um-a-canacana, Sar s-um-a-saasane)•¨*t-um-a-danadana >*tumacanecana>tmacnacne dry by fire . 7. It will be safe to assume, therefore, that at least some of the initial b's in Tsou came from a cluster of *k and *m (<**-um-) in 17) Terms such as " active " and " passive " are used only in the conven- tional sense. The term " focus " would be more appropriate in the case of Austronesian languages. 30 Shigeru TSUCHIDA that order, taking the plosive feature from *k and the labial/voiced feature from *m. The morphophonemic alternation between b- and zero or medial glottal stop can be better understood on the basis of such an assumption. The following shows schematically the process of the phonemic changes which are supposed to have taken place in the words in section 418): (1) *k-um-a?an>*kumdene>*kma?ne>bone eat, *ka?an-a>*ka?ene>ka?na>ana (Passive); (2) *k-um-a-kiTa>*kumakita>kmakita>baito19) see, *ka-kiTa-i>*kakitai>*kakitei>aiti19) (Passive); (3) *k-um-aRaC>*kumarace>*kmarce>borce bite, *kaRa-kaRaC-a>*kardkaraca>*krdkraca>ro?roca (Passive); (4) *k-um-eNan>*kumehane •¨*kumdhene13)>*kmahne >bohne recognize at a glance, *keNan-a>*kahana>*khana>hona (Passive); (5) *k-um-eRan>*kumerane>*kmerne> berne bake in coals, keRan-a>*karana•¨*karana13)>*krena>rena (Passive); (6) +k-um-iRim20)>*kumirimi•¨*kumirini21)>*kmirni >*birni•¨bi-birNi22)•¨birbini seek , 18) The relative chronology of the changes in each phoneme is not clear.
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