Two notes on Proto-Ersuic

Hill, Nathan W.

Abstract

This paper looks at the history of Tosu using 'forward reconstruction'. It concludes that Proto-Ersuic changed *-im to *-am already before its breakup as a unity, but the ‘brightening’ of *-a- to -i- took place independently in Tosu and Lizu-Ersu. In Tosu this brightening did not target labial (or velar) initial words lacking an inherited medial *-j-. A number of changes in the history of Tosu probably preceded brightening, namely *-um, *-ak > -o and *-u, *-it, *-at, *-ra > -e. In contrast, the change *-e- > -i- in Tosu, of unclear conditioning, appears to be quite late. A dissimilation *CeCe > CeCa is potentially also a recent change.

Citation

Hill, N. W. (2022). Two notes on Proto-Ersuic. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale, 51(1), 105-114. https://doi.org/10.1163/19606028-bja10017

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 15, 2022
• Publication Date: Mar 17, 2022
• Deposit Date: Mar 21, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 21, 2022
• Journal: Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale
• Print ISSN: 0153-3320
• Electronic ISSN: 1960-6028
• Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 51
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 105-114
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/19606028-bja10017
• Keywords: Ersu; Lizu; Tosu; historical phonology; forward reconstruction
• Publisher URL: https://brill.com/view/journals/clao/51/1/article-p105_4.xml