Sources of Middle Chinese Manner Types: Old Chinese Prenasalized Initials in Hmong-Mien and Sino-Tibetan Perspective
Author(s):
Sagart, Laurent
Format:
Journal article
Citation:
Language And Linguistics, Volume 4, Issue 4 (2003-10). pp. 757-768.
Language:
English
Abstract:
The author argues that in addition to the three series of stops commonly reconstructed (voiceless unaspirated, voiceless aspirated, & voiced), Old Chinese possessed three prenasalized series, in which the prenasal element was a prefix N-. This prefix changed transitive verbs to intransitives, voicing a voiceless unaspirated obstruent root initial in the process. Prenasalization later disappeared, leaving behind the well-known Middle Chinese alternation between transitive verbs with voiceless obstruent initials & intransitive verbs with voiced obstruent initials. Voicing, however, occurred only if the root initial was a voiceless unaspirated obstruent: prenasalized voiceless aspirated initials were not affected as they evolved into Middle Chinese aspirated stops. A chronology of phonetic changes is proposed. Evidence from early Chinese loans to Miao Yao is discussed. The intransitive N- prefix is shown to correspond to intransitive nasal prefixes in various Tibeto Burman languages, while the connection to written Tibetan a-ch'ung, also a nasal prefix, is regarded as spurious on functional grounds. It is proposed that the intransitive nasal prefixes in Sino-Tibetan languages go back to a proto-Sino-Tibetan intransitive m- prefix. The formal & functional similarity between intransitive voicing in Middle Chinese & the alternation known as "alternation of root initial" in Tibeto-Burman languages, which likewise contrasts transitive verbs with voiceless initials & intransitive verbs with voiced initials, raises the issue of the origin of this alternation in the Tibeto-Burman languages. Considering that the Chinese alternation has turned out to have its origin in a nasal prefix, is the same also true of the Tibeto-Burman alternation? The question is for the moment left open. 18 References. Adapted from the source document