Proto-Kra language
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)
- Proto-South-Western Kra
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).
| 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 | ɡ | |||||||||
| Unvoiced Affricate | ts | tʃ | ʈʂ | |||||||||||
| Voiced Affricate | dz | dʒ | ɖʐ | |||||||||||
| 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).
| 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).
- *A: *A is one of the most common tones.
- *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.
- *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
- *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).
| *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.
