- Source: Proto-Sino-Tibetan language
Proto-Sino-Tibetan (PST) is the linguistic reconstruction of the Sino-Tibetan proto-language and the common ancestor of all languages in it, including the Sinitic languages, the Tibetic languages, Yi, Bai, Burmese, Karen, Tangut, and Naga. Paul K. Benedict (1972) placed a particular emphasis on Old Chinese, Classical Tibetan, Jingpho, Written Burmese, Garo, and Mizo in his discussion of Proto-Sino-Tibetan.
While Proto-Sino-Tibetan is commonly considered to have two direct descendants, Proto-Sinitic and Proto-Tibeto-Burman, in recent years several scholars have argued that this was not well-substantiated, and have taken to calling the group "Trans-Himalayan". In this case, Proto-Tibeto-Burman may be considered as equivalent to Proto-Sino-Tibetan if Sinitic is indeed not the first branch to split from Proto-Sino-Tibetan.
Features
Reconstructed features include prefixes such as the causative s-, the intransitive m-, the miscellaneous b-, d-, g-, and r-, suffixes -s, -t, and -n, and a set of conditioning factors that resulted in the development of tone in most languages of the family. The existence of such elaborate system of inflectional changes in Proto-Sino-Tibetan makes the language distinctive from some of its modern descendants, such as the Sinitic languages, which have mostly or completely become analytic.
Proto-Sino-Tibetan, like Old Chinese, also included numerous consonant clusters, and was not a tonal language.
Phonology
= Benedict (1972)
=The table below shows consonant phonemes reconstructed by Benedict.
= Peiros & Starostin (1996)
=The reconstruction by Peiros & Starostin suggests a much more complex consonant inventory. The phonemes in brackets are reconstructions that are considered dubious.
= Hill (2019)
=The following tables show the reconstruction of Proto-Sino-Tibetan phonemes by Nathan Hill (2019).
The consonants /p t k q ʔ m n ŋ l r j/ can take coda position, as well as the cluster /rl/. While Hill does not reconstruct /j/ as an initial consonant due to Baxter and Sagart's Old Chinese reconstruction lacking such a phoneme, he mentions that Jacques and Schuessler suggest a /j/ initial for some Old Chinese words due to potential Tibetan or Rgyalrongic cognates.
Hill also claims that his reconstruction is incomplete, as it does not account for Tibetic palatalization, proto-Burmish preglottalization, Sinitic aspirates, and the Sinitic type A and B distinction of syllables.
Sound changes
= Final consonant changes
=In Gong Huangcheng's reconstruction of the Proto-Sino-Tibetan language, the finals *-p, *-t, *-k, *-m, *-n, and *-ŋ in Proto-Sino-Tibetan remained in Proto-Sinitic and Proto-Tibeto-Burman. However, in Old Chinese, the finals *-k and *-ŋ that came after the close vowel *-i- underwent an irregular change of *-k＞*-t and *-ŋ ＞*-n. In Proto-Tibeto-Burman, *-kw and *-ŋw underwent a sound change to become *-k and *-ŋ respectively, while in Old Chinese those finals remained until Middle Chinese, where the finals underwent the same sound change.
Furthermore, in Proto-Tibeto-Burman, the finals *-g, *-gw, and *-d underwent the following changes:
*-d＞*-y
*-gw＞*-w
*-g＞*-w when it follows the vowel *-u-
*-g＞*-∅ when it follows the vowel *a and *-a-.
= Example of sound changes
=Voiceless plosive finals
Nasal finals
Voiced plosive finals
Liquid finals
Vocabulary
Words which do not have reliable Sinitic parallels are accompanied by a (TB).
= Social terms
== Natural phenomena
== Qualitative features of an object
== Verb stems
== Numbers
=See also
Proto-Tibeto-Burman language
References
Further reading
Hill, Nathan W. (2012), "The six vowel hypothesis of Old Chinese in comparative context", Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics, 6 (2): 1–69, doi:10.1163/2405478x-90000100.
Hill, Nathan W. (2019). The Historical Phonology of Tibetan, Burmese, and Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781316550939. ISBN 978-1-316-55093-9.
Matisoff, James A. (2003), Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and Philosophy of Sino-Tibetan Reconstruction, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-09843-5.
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Bahasa Proto-Kra-Dai
- Bahasa Proto-Min
- Bahasa Proto-Tai
- Rumpun bahasa Japonik
- Rumpun bahasa Bod Timur
- Bahasa Bai
- Bahasa Anu-Hkongso
- Laurent Sagart
- Rumpun bahasa Sinitik
- Orang-orang Indo-Arya
- Proto-Sino-Tibetan language
- Sino-Tibetan languages
- Pyu language (Sino-Tibetan)
- Sino-Austronesian languages
- Proto-Tibeto-Burman language
- Tibetic languages
- Dené–Caucasian languages
- Karenic languages
- Tibeto-Burman languages
- Tani languages
