Proto-Hlai is the reconstructed ancestor of the

Hlai languages The Hlai languages () are a primary branch of the Kra–Dai language family spoken in the mountains of central and south-central Hainan in China by the Hlai people, not to be confused with the colloquial name for the Leizhou branch of Min Chine ...

. Proto-Hlai reconstructions include those of Matisoff (1988), Thurgood (1991), Wu (2000), Ostapirat (2004), and Norquest (2007).

Phonology

Peter K. Norquest Peter K. Norquest (born August 31, 1971 in Boise, Idaho) is an American linguist who specializes in Kra–Dai historical linguistics. Education Norquest attended the University of Arizona's Joint PhD program in Anthropology and Linguistics, wh ...

(2007) reconstructs 29 basic Proto-Hlai consonants (Norquest 2007:135), while Weera Ostapirat reconstructs only 19 proto-consonants (Ostapirat 2007:145). Norquest additionally reconstructs six onsets suggesting

consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...

s: . Whether these were actual consonant clusters is not clear. The clusters with a glide as a second member may have been coarticulated consonants: palatalized ,

labialized Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involve ...

, while *pl may have arisen from a sesquisyllable *p-l. Norquest also reconstructs six bisyllabic root shapes: * *Ci + glottal: *Ciʔ-, *Ciɦ- * *Cu + glottal: *Cuʔ-, *Cuɦ- * *Cu + rhotic: *Cuɾ-, *Cur- Pretonic syllables are later lost in all Hlai languages, but in these six combinations, they trigger in some languages conditional developments of the tonic syllable's onset consonant, allowing them to be distinguished in reconstruction. In Ostapirat's (2004) reconstruction, Proto-Hlai forms can be both monosyllabic and disyllabic. Some disyllabic forms have medial consonants beginning with three penultimate vowels (*u-, *i-, *a-; the last of which is default). Vowels can also combine with *-i or *-u to form diphthongs. Tones (*A, *B, *C, *D) are also reconstructed. In the table below, Proto-Hlai consonants marked as green can occur at the end of syllables. Ostapirat (2004) reconstructs 5 vowels, which are /a, ə, i, ɨ, u/. Norquest reconstructs seven vowel qualities (Norquest 2007:238, 330). The short vowels , , , , and long only appear in roots with a final consonant (Norquest 2007:330).

Sound changes

The transition from Pre-Hlai (the predecessor of the Proto-Hlai language ancestral to both Hlai and

Jiamao Jiamao (, ''Jiamao''; also ''Tái'' or ''Sāi'') is a possible language isolate spoken in southern Hainan, China. Jiamao speakers' autonym is ''1''.See Proto-Tai_language#Tones for an explanation of the tone codes. Classification Jiamao was ...

) to Proto-Hlai involved the following series of sound changes (Norquest 2007:308). (''Order follows that of the table of contents – not intended to be sequential'') # Elimination of Uvulars – loss of Pre-Hlai uvulars *q, *C-q, *C-ɢ # Intervocalic Lenition – -p- > -ʋ-, -t- > -ɾ-, -k- > -ɦ-, etc. # Initial Devoicing – loss of voiced fricatives, etc. # Vocalic Transfer – vowel in penultimate syllable moved to last syllable # Initial Aspiration # Monosyllabification – Pre-Hlai, which was sesquisyllabic, was reduced to monosyllabic forms in Proto-Hlai. # Stop and Fricative Affrication – ʈʰ > tʃʰ, cʰ > tɕʰ, etc. # Peripheral Vowel Raising – e(ːC) > i(ːC), o(ːC) > u(ːC), ɛː(C) > eː(C), ɔC > oC # Monophthongization – *ɯa(C) > *ɯə(C) > *ɯː(C), *oːy > *wiː > *iː Or, in the sequential order given in Norquest (2007:416-417), which excludes monophthongization: # Intervocalic lenition # Elimination of uvulars # Peripheral vowel raising # Initial devoicing # Vocalic Transfer # Initial aspiration # Monosyllabification # Stop and fricative affrication After evolving from Pre-Hlai, Proto-Hlai initials went through 4 main types of sound changes (Norquest 2007:66). #Temporal compression – reduction of constituents in the syllable; most common #Gesture reduction #Onset fortition – change to initial aspiration, etc. #Systemic realignment – mergers, etc. After the breakup of Proto-Hlai, the following sound changes occurred in various Hlai branches. #Devoicing #Registrogenesis – creation of tone registers (i.e., register splits); most likely influenced by Hainanese

Min Chinese Min (; BUC: ''Mìng-ngṳ̄'') is a broad group of Sinitic languages spoken by about 30 million people in Fujian province as well as by the descendants of Min speaking colonists on Leizhou peninsula and Hainan, or assimilated natives of Chaosh ...

The following table gives the reflexes of the onset consonants in the Hlai languages, as well as Norquest and Ostapirat's reconstructions: The symbol ↓ indicates here a lowered tone on the following vowel in those Hlai languages where tone split has taken place; this normally occurs following earlier voiced consonants.

References

*Norquest, Peter K. 2007
''A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai''
Ph.D. dissertation. Tucson: Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona. *Norquest, Peter K. 2015
''A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai
'. Languages of Asia, Volume 13. Leiden: Brill. *Ostapirat, Weera. 2004. "Proto-Hlai Sound System and Lexicons." In ''Studies on Sino-Tibetan Languages: Papers in Honor of Professor Hwang-cherng Gong on His Seventieth Birthday''. Edited by Ying-chin Lin, Fang-min Hsu, Chun-chih Lee, Jackson T.-S. Sun, Hsiu-fang Yang, and Dah-an Ho. Institute of Linguistics. Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan: 121-175. *Matisoff, James. 1988. "Proto-Hlai initials and tones: a first approximation." In ''Comparative Kadai: Linguistic studies beyond Tai''. Edited by Jerold A. Edmondson and David B. Solnit. Summer Institute of Linguistics and The University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics No. 86: 289-321. *Thurgood, Graham. 1991. "Proto-Hlai (Li): a look at the initials, tones, and finals." In ''Kadai: Discussions in Kadai and SE Asian Linguistics III'': 1-49. *Wu Anqi 吴安其. 2000.
Liyu guyin gouni 黎语古音构拟
" In ''Minzu Yuwen'' 民族语文 2000(5): 1-13.

External links

ABVD: Proto-Hlai word list
{{Authority control Kra–Dai languages Hlai

Phonology

Sound changes

See also

References

Further reading

External links