Abstract
In Kiranti languages, rich alternations in verbal paradigms make internal reconstruction possible, and allow a better understanding of the vowels and codas of the proto-language than is possible for other parts of speech. This paper, using data from four representative languages (Wambule, Khaling, Bantawa, Limbu), proposes a new approach to Proto- Kiranti historical linguistics combining the comparative method and internal reconstruction, and taking morphological alternations and analogy into account. It presents a comprehensive account of the sound correspondences between the four target languages and reconstructs more than 280 proto-Kiranti verb roots.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Balthasar Bickel, Lukas Denk, Juho Pystynen, Marc Miyake, Martine Mazaudon, Boyd Michailovsky, Alexis Michaud, Amos Teo, Mikhail Zhivlov as well as two anonymous reviewers for useful comments on previous versions of this work. I am responsible for any remaining error. This research was funded by the HimalCo project(ANR-12-CORP-0006) and is related to the Labex EFL (PPC2 Evolutionary approaches to phonology: New goals and new methods (in diachrony and panchrony).
Appendix
The supplementary file (https://doi.org/10.1515/flih-2017-0007) provides 291 reconstructed proto-Kiranti verb roots. In reconstructions, [a|b|c] indicates that either a, b or c are possible reconstructions. The chevron>indicates a derivation process, either anticausative (voicing of the initial), applicative (-t suffix), causative (-s suffix) or reflexive (-si suffix). The double chevron ≫ indicates an analogical change of inflectional class.
The list does not include verbs only attested in one of the languages that have cognates outside of Kiranti (and thus should be reconstructed to Proto- Kiranti too) or in Kiranti languages other than the four target languages. These verbs are given here [22]:
Wambule |li| ‘be heavy’: Japhug rʑi, Tibetan ldʑid.po ‘heavy’
Khaling |kakt| ‘hoe’: Japhug qaʁ ← *qaq ‘hoe (n)’. The Khaling verb is an ancient denominal in -t.
Khaling |noŋt| ‘accuse’ : Tibetan noŋs ‘make a mistake’. The applicative -t here has a tropative value (consider X to be wrong, cf Jacques 2013).
Khaling |mit| ‘die’: Chinese 滅 *met ‘destroy’. Note that Khaling attests a semantic change comparable to that of the Indo-European root *mer (‘disappear’ in Anatolian, ‘die’ in non-Anatolian languages, Rix et al. 2001: 439–440).
Khaling |pʰiŋ| ‘send’: Tibetan spriŋ ‘send’.
Khaling |pʰut| ‘take off’: Japhug pʰɯt ‘take out, remove’.
Khaling |tʰokt| ‘understand’: Tibetan rtogs ‘know, understand’.
Khaling |rakt| ‘make someone gag, choke on’: Japhug raʁ ‘get stuck’.
Bantawa |jas| ‘tickle’: Japhug rɤʑa<*rɐja ‘itch’, Tibetan gja ‘itch’, Chinese 癢 *jaŋʔ ‘itch’.
Bantawa |cʰus| ‘be fat’: Japhug tsʰu, Tibetan tsʰo.
Bantawa |tʰup| ‘sew’: Japhug tʂɯβ<*trup ‘sew’, Tibetan ⁿdrub ‘sew’.
Bantawa |dus| ‘collect, gather’: Tibetan ⁿtʰu, btus ‘gather’.
Bantawa |bʰuŋs| ‘to destroy, break down’: Tibetan ⁿpʰuŋ, pʰuŋ ‘bring disaster to, bring the downfall of’.
Bantawa |mitt| ‘to think, remember’: Yakkha |mit| ‘remember’
Limbu |munt| ‘move’: Japhug mɯnmu ‘move’.
Limbu |suːt| ‘finish’, |cuːt| ‘be finished’: Chinese 卒 *tsut ‘finish’.
Limbu |paŋs| ‘send’: Tibetan ⁿpʰen, ⁿpʰaŋs ‘throw, shoot’, Chinese 放 *paŋ-s ‘release; let go’.
Limbu |jaːkt| ‘to stay (esp. overnight), to remain behind’: Japhug rʑaʁ ‘stay one night’, Tibetan ʑag ‘a day’.
Limbu |thuŋs| ‘be thick (of cloth)’: Tibetan mtʰug.po ‘thick’
Limbu |lɛkt| ‘change’: Chinese 易 *lek ‘change’.
Limbu |wa| ‘be, exist’: Chinese 有 *ɢwəʔ ‘exist’. This root perhaps corresponds to the irrealis suffix -w- in Khaling, also found in past negative form (Jacques et al. 2012: 1101–1102). Note that in Limbu |wa| ‘be, exist’ is used in past perfect contexts (Michailovsky 2002: 87); for another possible example of a former copula being grammaticalized as a negation suffix in Kiranti, see van der Auwera & Vossen (2017).
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Supplemental Material
The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/flih-2017-0007).
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