Proto-Kra language

Information from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia—a reliable source for your research. Click to cite:
Jump to: navigation, search

The Proto-Kra language is the reconstructed ancestor of the Kra languages. It was reconstructed in 2000 by Weera Ostapirat in his Ph.D. dissertation.

Contents

Lower-level reconstructions

Ostapirat (2000) provided preliminary phonological reconstructions for several lower-level groupings before attempting a reconstruction of Proto-Kra.

  • Proto-Kra
    • Proto-South-Western Kra
      • Proto-Western Kra (Gelao, Lachi)
      • Proto-Southern Kra (Laha)
    • Proto-Central-East Kra
      • Proto-Central Kra (Paha)
      • Proto-Eastern Kra (Buyang, Qabiao)

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).

Proto-Kra Consonants
Labial Alveolar Postalveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɳ ɲ ŋ
Unvoiced Stop p t ʈ c k ʔ
Voiced Stop b d ɖ ɟ g
Unvoiced Affricate ts tʃ tʂ
Voiced Affricate dz dʒ dʐ
Unvoiced Fricative s ʃ x
Voiced Fricative z ʒ ɣ
Approximant w l j
Rhotic r

Vowels

Proto-Kra has a total of 6 vowels (Ostapirat 2000:235).

Proto-Kra Vowels
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).

  1. *A: *A is one of the most common tones.
  2. *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.
  3. *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
  4. *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).

Proto-Kra Tonal Characteristics
*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

See also

References

  • Ostapirat, Weera. 2000. "Proto-Kra." Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 23 (1): 1-251.

External links

Kra
Kam–Sui
Hlai
Ong Be
Tai
(Zhuang)
Northern
Central
Southwestern
(Thai)
Northwestern
Lao–Phutai
Chiang Saen
Southern
(other)


Content from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

What Is This Site? The Ultimate Study Guide is a mirror of English Wikipedia. It exists in order to provide Wikipedia content to those who are unable to access the main Wikipedia site due to draconian government, employer, or school restrictions. The site displays all the text content from Wikipedia. Our sponsors generously cover part of the cost of hosting this site, and their ads are shown as part of this agreement. We regret that we are unable to display certain controversial images on some pages the site at the request of the sponsors. If you need to see images which we are unable to show, we encourage you to view Wikipedia directly if possible, and apologize for this inconvenience.

A product of XPR Content Systems. 47 Union St #9K, Grand Falls-Windsor NL A2A 2C9 CANADA