Tibetan <ḥ-> as a plain initial and its place in Old Tibetan Phonology

Hill, Nathan W.

Abstract

Beginning with de Kőrös (1834) many researchers have held that the Tibetan letter འ <ḥ> as a simple initial represents a voiced fricative. In 1881 Jäschke initiated an alternative view, which holds that this letter has no phonetic value, instead representing vocalic onset. An examination of the reflexes of relevant Old Tibetan words in the modern Tibetan languages, the order of the Tibetan alphabet, and Old Tibetan phonotactics confirms the earlier tradition of scholarship. It is concluded in addition that in Old Tibetan <ḥ> represented a voiced velar fricative in
all syllable positions and that the Common Tibetan values of prenasalization before consonants and vowel lengthening as a final are due to sound change from Old Tibetan to Common Tibetan.

Citation

Hill, N. W. (2009). Tibetan as a plain initial and its place in Old Tibetan Phonology. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman area, 32(1), 115-140

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2009
• Deposit Date: Aug 5, 2009
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 9, 2025
• Journal: Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
• Print ISSN: 0731-3500
• Electronic ISSN: 2214-5907
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 115-140
• Keywords: Old Tibetan, phonology, sound change