PROTO-ONG-BE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAIʻI AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN LINGUISTICS DECEMBER 2018 By Yen-ling Chen Dissertation Committee: Lyle Campbell, Chairperson Weera Ostapirat Rory Turnbull Bradley McDonnell Shana Brown Keywords: Ong-Be, Reconstruction, Lingao, Hainan, Kra-Dai Copyright © 2018 by Yen-ling Chen ii 知之為知之，不知為不知，是知也。 “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” iii Acknowlegements First of all, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Lyle Campbell, the chair of my dissertation and the historical linguist and typologist in my department for his substantive comments. I am always amazed by his ability to ask mind-stimulating questions, and I thank him for allowing me to be part of the Endangered Languages Catalogue (ELCat) team. I feel thankful to Dr. Shana Brown for bringing historical studies on minorities in China to my attention, and for her support as the university representative on my committee. Special thanks go to Dr. Rory Turnbull for his constructive comments and for encouraging a diversity of point of views in his class, and to Dr. Bradley McDonnell for his helpful suggestions. I sincerely thank Dr. Weera Ostapirat for his time and patience in dealing with me and responding to all my questions, and for pointing me to the directions that I should be looking at. My reconstruction would not be as readable as it is today without his insightful feedback. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Alexis Michaud. It is his unwavering academic support and his generous sharing of experience and resources that have broadened my horizon on tone. I owe Chihkai so much for his mentorship all these years, which has significantly helped me with my schoolwork and research. I thank him for consistently supplying me with intellectual stimulation, so I was able to keep making progress. I thank Dr. Liao Hsiu-chuan for teaching me Austronesian linguistics. I also thank Dr. Elizabeth Zeitoun for corresponding with me on ELCat matters and for taking care of me as a senior researcher. I am grateful for Dr. Jackson T.-S. Sun’s hospitality during my visit at Academia Sinica in Taiwan, and I thank Drs. Paul Jen-kuei Li and Wei Pei-chuan for their valuable comments on some of the earlier analyses of mine. 另外，謝謝林英津老師翻譯暨 導讀何莫邪的書評。 Many thanks go to Dr. Lin You-Jing for her advice, to 紹任 for technical supports, to Tyler for practicing my presentations with me, to Anna for her professional editing service throughout the years, to กัญจนา, Heruka, and Tashi for scholarly exchange, to Leo, Nala, and Melody for their help with my qualifying paper, to อาจารย์ยุ้ย, อาจารย์โม, and Dr. Jennie Jin for allowing me to be in their classes, and to Jen, Nora, and John for their paperwork magic. I would like to pay my deep respect to Drs. 橋本萬太郎, 張元生, 梁敏, 張均如, 劉劍三, and 辛世彪 for their contributions to contemporary Ong-Be studies. As the saying goes, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” I would also like to show my appreciation to my teachers who treated students with respect, regardless of our gender, ethnicity, country of origin, linguistic background, religion, or academic standpoints, to scholars who pursue knowledge, not power, and to researchers who have the courage to acknowledge that there is a big world outside their comfort zone. iv I thank Amber, Nozomi, Kavon, and Christina (Soyoung) for all the cultural exchanges and tasty cuisines. I would like to acknowledge 若冰, Kelly, 雅琪, 세정, Anna, Nala, Carolina, Colleen, Brittany, Katie, 管璇, Ivan, 嘉敏, 嘉欣, and Kevin for all the fun, and Eve, Bryn, Raina, Alex, and Andrew for their help with academic affairs. My days in Hawaiʻi would not have been this colorful without these wonderful people. My sincere thanks also go to Glazer’s Coffee, Nuki Coffee, and the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Mānoa for their amicable vibe, and to the Metcalf JY Lunch Wagon for their awesome food and super friendly service. I am particularly indebted to Kyle and Peter for their friendships which have accompanied me through some of the difficult times. In addition, I am very grateful for the financial support provided by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan (中華民國教育部留學獎學金) and the Linguistics Department at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa throughout my graduate studies. I am thankful to the Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Program in China Studies Predissertation-Summer Travel Grants and Li Fang-kuei Fieldwork Award (李方桂學會田野調查獎) that funded my research trips for data collection in this dissertation. I also appreciate the generous support by Academia Sinica in Taiwan (中央研究院人文社會科學博士候選人培育計畫) and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (蔣經國國際學術交流基金會中華民國留學 生博士論文獎學金) during my dissertation writing. 最後，特別感謝肖愛風以及李來美、李光良爸爸、譚清轉媽媽一家，對我停留海口時的照顧。 也非常感謝臨高文聯的林表主席、符才之老師鼎力相助，為我介紹臨高的發音人。謝謝符克 青老師領我至澄邁老家訪問。Fuuang Dhuuk Wang 帶我造訪黎族跟回族聚落、廖漢波忍受我 田調時時不時的叨擾，在此一併致意。另外，多虧有符昌忠博士、辛世彪博士、符厚民老師、 何京應校長、陳興變老師、王尚永校長、符克才先生、王海雪女士、鄭芳華先生、方又義老 師、王建祝老師、譚新字先生、陳瑞霞女士、王如宣先生、肖燕程先生、肖愛選女士、林 翔 先生、譚高慧先生、白 雪女士等人的幫忙，我在海南的研究才得以順利進行。 簡而言之，這個學位是大家的。 v ABSTRACT This dissertation is a reconstruction of Proto-Ong-Be phonology using the comparative method. I propose that Proto-Ong-Be was tonal and monosyllabic, with the structure CV(:)(C), where a coda was optional and no consonant clusters were found in onset or coda positions. It had 34 onsets/initials (with tonal series), eight codas/finals, eight plain vowels (*i, *i:, *u, *u:, *ə, *ə:, *a, and *a:) and two diphthongs (*ia and *ua) that can be reconstructed with confidence. Proto-Ong-Be had six tones (A1, A2, BC1, BC2, D1, and D2), and this branch can be divided into two subgroups, Eastern-Ong-Be and Western- Ong-Be, based on shared innovations. This study shows that the early voicing contrast associated with initials cannot be reconstructed based on Ong-Be data alone, but the loss of the earlier voicing contrast was compensated for at the suprasegmental level. The early vowel length distinction is reconstructible. None of today’s Ong-Be languages has a vowel length distinction; however, it is possible that there was an earlier distinction based on regular sound correspondences and restricted distributions. The reconstructed vowels show that (1) long high vowels tend to break in open syllables, (2) short vowels are more likely to change than their long counterparts, and (3) peripheral vowels are more stable than central vowels in closed syllables. With respect to consonants, the place of articulation of Proto-Kra-Dai stops plays a role in the voicing of Ong-Be reflexes, in which anterior stops are reflected with voiced stops, and dorsal stops (including palatalized velars) are reflected with voiceless stops. In all Ong-Be varieties that were surveyed in this dissertation, plain bilabial and alveolar stops became implosives in the onset position, which is an areal feature. Phonemic aspiration is reconstructed at the Proto-Ong-Be level. vi 摘要 本論文以「歷史比較法」為依歸，旨在重建原始臨高話的音韻系統。研究顯示原始臨高話 乃一單音節聲調語言，其音節結構為「聲母＋（長短）元音＋（韻尾）」，且不允許輔音 串。原始臨高話總共有三十四個聲母（含陰陽調）、八個韻尾、八個元音、兩個雙元音、 六個聲調。臨高語支可細分為兩大方言區，分別為東部臨高方言及西部臨高方言，彼此無 法相通。 本文認為單就臨高語群內部證據，無法重建原始聲母之清濁。然而，當代臨高語群完整保 留陰陽調之分，進而支持三聲六調（平、上去、入，再分陰陽）之構擬。雖然長短元音之 別，未見於當代方言，但依語音規律對應及分佈看來，元音長短在原始臨高話應有辨義作 用。原始臨高話元音演變趨勢如下：（一）開音節裡的長高元音易裂化，（二）短元音比 長元音不穩定，（三）閉音節中的央元音較其他元音易變。 本研究提出原始臨高話存有送氣塞音。此外，原始臨高話的濁內爆聲母，反映著原始侗台 語字首的清雙唇塞音與清舌冠塞音，而原始侗台語字首的清舌背塞音（含顎化軟顎音）， 在原始臨高話裡，仍維持原樣。其中，臨高語群的雙唇塞音、齒齦塞音聲母內爆音化，實 屬嶺南一帶的區域特徵。 vii Table of Contents Acknowlegements ...................................................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ vi 摘要 .......................................................................................................................................... vii Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................... viii List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. xi List of Maps ............................................................................................................................. xvi List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... xvii Chapter 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1. The geographical distribution of Ong-Be ...................................................................... 2 1.2. Language names ......................................................................................................... 6 1.3. Mutual Intellegibility of Ong-Be varieties ...................................................................... 8 1.4. Language use .............................................................................................................12 Chapter 2. Literature review ......................................................................................................17 2.1. Previous studies on the linguistic classification of Kra-Dai and Ong-Be ......................17 2.2. Previous studies on the language structure of Kra-Dai and Ong-Be ............................20 2.3. Previous studies of the contemporary Ong-Be varieties ..............................................22