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Bodt, Tim (2021) 'The Duhumbi Perspective On Proto-Western Kho-Bwa Onsets.' Journal of Historical Linguistics, 11 (1). pp. 1-59.

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Abstract

The eight Western Kho-Bwa varieties are spoken in western Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast India and form a small, coherent sub-group of the Tibeto-Burman (Trans-Himalayan / Sino-Tibetan) language family.This paper presents 96 sound correspondences, mainly between the two Western Kho-Bwa varieties Duhumbi and Khoitam, with additional evidence from other Western Kho-Bwa varieties and other Tibeto-Burman languages whenever deemed illustrative. On basis of these sound correspondences, I propose 282 Western Kho-Bwa proto-forms including a total of 92 onsets. The less common reconstructed Western Kho-Bwa onsets are the uvular onsets and the voiceless nasal and approximant onsets.A unique innovation of the Western Kho-Bwa languages, and indeed the Kho-Bwa languages in general, is the correspondence of initial *s- in other Tibeto-Burman languages to a vocal onset in Proto-Western Kho-Bwa and its descendent varieties. Another relatively unique innovation is the correspondence between Western Kho-Bwa obstruent onsets *b- and *g- ~ *kʰ- ~ *k- and other Tibeto-Burman nasal onsets *m- and *ŋ-, respectively.

Item Type: Journal Article
Keywords: Western Kho-Bwa, proto-language, historical-comparative linguistics, Sartang, Sherdukpen
SOAS Departments & Centres: Departments and Subunits > Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures
ISSN: 22102116
Copyright Statement: This is the version of the article/chapter accepted for publication in ournal of Historical Linguistics, 11 (1). pp. 1-59 published by John Benjamins Publishing https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.19021.bod © John Benjamins Publishing Company, contact publisher for re-use
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.19021.bod
Date Deposited: 22 Dec 2020 11:19
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/34573
Funders: Other

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