Proto-Kra is the reconstructed ancestor of the Kra languages. It was reconstructed in 2000 by Weera Ostapirat in his Ph.D. dissertation.
| Proto-Kra | |
|---|---|
| Reconstruction of | Kra languages |
| Region | South China |
Reconstructed ancestor | |
Lower-level reconstructions
Ostapirat (2000) provided preliminary phonological reconstructions for several lower-level groupings before attempting a reconstruction of Proto-Kra.
Phonology
Consonants
Proto-Kra has a total of 32 consonants, seven of which (marked in green) can occur as syllable finals (Ostapirat 2000:224, 236).
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unvoiced Stop | p | t | ʈ | c | k | ʔ | ||||||||
| Voiced Stop | b | d | ɖ | ɟ | ɡ | |||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɳ | ɲ | ŋ | |||||||||
| Unvoiced Affricate | ts | tʃ | ʈʂ | |||||||||||
| Voiced Affricate | dz | dʒ | ɖʐ | |||||||||||
| Unvoiced Fricative | s | ʃ | x | |||||||||||
| Voiced Fricative | z | ʒ | ɣ | |||||||||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||||||||||
| Rhotic | r | |||||||||||||
Miyake (2008, 2021)
Marc Miyake (2008,[1] 2021[2]) proposes alternative reconstructions for Ostapirat's (2000) Proto-Kra retroflex consonants, suggesting that many of them were actually non-retroflexes that had been influenced by pre-syllables, in particular with alveolar consonants leniting in intervocalic position. In synchronic Kra languages, reflexes are often attested as voiced fricatives, which Miyake (2021) does not believe to have developed from historical initial retroflex consonants. Some examples of Miyake's (2008) revised Proto-Kra reconstructions are provided below.
- *tsəm 'one' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *tʂəmC)
- *tsun 'teach' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *tʂunA)
- *N-tsu 'pillar' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *m-tʂuA)
- *nok 'bird' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *ɳokD)
- *nui 'snow' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *ɳuiA)
- *nəl 'fat' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *(m-)ɳəlA)
- *CV-nəŋh 'salty' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *ʔ-ɳəŋB)
- *na 'thick' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *C-naA)
- *nak 'give' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *nakD)
- *klep 'fingernail' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *ʈ-lepD)
- *(k/tV-)loŋ 'vegetable' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *ɖ-loŋA)
Miyake (2021) reconstructs some disyllabic lexical forms for Proto-Kra, including *mataA 'eye', *manokD 'bird', and *kVtuA1 'louse'.
Additionally, Miyake (2008) revises Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *pwl- as *CV-pl-, *bwl- as *CV-bl-, *m-pl- as *pl-, *(p/d/k)-l- as *(p/d/k)V-l-, *ʈ-l- as k-l-, and *ɖ-l- as *(k/tV)-l-. Proto-Kra consonants in Miyake (2021)[2] as compared to Ostapirat (2000) are:
| Ostapirat (2000) | Miyake (2021) |
|---|---|
| *ʈ- | *CVt- |
| *ɖ- | *CVd- |
| *ɳ- | *CVn- |
| *ɭ- | *CVl- |
| *d-l- | *CVl- |
| *tʂ- | *CVts- |
| *dʐ- | *CVdz- |
| *hr- | *hr- |
| *r- | *r- |
Vowels
Proto-Kra has a total of 6 vowels (Ostapirat 2000:235).
| Height | Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |||||
| Mid | e | ə | o | ||||
| Open | a |
Proto-Kra has 4 diphthongs, which are not found in closed syllables.
- *-ai
- *-aɯ
- *-ui
- *-au
Tones
Proto-Kra had an A–B–C–D tonal system typical of other Tai–Kadai languages (see Proto-Tai language#Tones). The tonal descriptions below are from Ostapirat (2000:237).
- *A: *A is one of the most common tones.
- *B: *B and *D are phonetically similar, as reflexes of tone *D are often the same as those of *B. This regularly occurs in all Kra languages except for Qabiao.
- *C: *C is usually accompanied by glottal constriction and may have originally had a creaky or tense laryngeal quality. Some Gelao varieties and Yalang Buyang display the same reflex for *B and *C.
- *D: *D is the only tone to occur exclusively in closed syllables.
The following table of phonetic characteristics of Proto-Kra tones was adapted from Ostapirat (2000:237).
| *A | *B | *C | *D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type of final | sonorants, vowels | lax larynx (?) | tense larynx | stops |
| Voicing | voiced | unvoiced | unvoiced | unvoiced |
| Vocal cords | vibrating | wide open | closed | closed |
| Vowel duration | long | medium | short | medium |
Lexicon
Below are reconstructed Proto-Kra forms from Ostapirat (2000).
Notes
References
- Chen, Y.-L. (2018). Proto-Ong-Be. Doctoral dissertation, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
- Hsiu, Andrew. 2017. Potential loanwords in Kra.
- Miyake, Marc. 2018. Chu and Kra-Dai.
- Miyake, Marc. 2013. The other Kra-Dai numerals (Parts 1, 2).
- Miyake, Marc. 2013. Proto-Kra 'seven'.
- Miyake, Marc. 2013. Retroflexion or lenition?: Kra-Dai 'eye'.
- Miyake, Marc. 2013. Thurgood's "Tai-Kadai and Austronesian: the nature of the historical relationship" (1994).
- Miyake, Marc. 2012. t for *p in Vietnamese.
- Miyake, Marc. 2011. Dating Proto-Kra-Dai: the clue of the old chicken.
- Miyake, Marc. 2008. Did Proto-Kra have retroflex initials? (Parts 1, 2–6, 7–9, 10, 11)
- Miyake, Marc. 2008. Correspondences between Proto-Kra and Proto-Tai implosives.
- Miyake, Marc. 2008. From presyllables to Proto-Kra clusters?
- Miyake, Marc. 2008. Proto-Kra presyllables and clusters with labial stops
- Miyake, Marc. 2008. Were Kra words for 'chopsticks' borrowed from Chinese?
- Miyake, Marc. 2008. 布央 Cloth center consonants.
- Miyake, Marc. 2008. Limited knowledge only gets you *so far.
- Miyake, Marc. 2008. What's *so funny about knowledge?
- Ostapirat, Weera. 2000. "Proto-Kra." Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 23 (1): 1–251.
- Ostapirat, Weera. (2009). Proto-Tai and Kra-Dai Finals *-l and *-c. Journal of Language and Culture, 28(2), 41–56.
- Ostapirat, Weera. (2013). The Rime System of Proto-Tai. Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics, 7(1), 189–227.
- Pittayaporn, Pittayawat. (2009). The Phonology of Proto-Tai (Doctoral dissertation). Cornell University.
See also
External links
