Social:Proto-Sino-Tibetan language

Proto-Sino-Tibetan
	PST, Proto-Trans-Himalayan
Reconstruction of	Sino-Tibetan languages
Lower-order reconstructions	Proto-Sinitic (see Old Chinese); Proto-Tibeto-Burman;

Short description: Reconstructed ancestor of the Sino-Tibetan languages

Proto-Sino-Tibetan (PST) is the hypothetical 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.^[1]

While Proto-Sino-Tibetan is commonly considered to have two direct descendants, Proto-Sinitic and Proto-Tibeto-Burman, there is only weak evidence for this,^[2] and in recent years several scholars have attempted to rename 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.^[3]

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.^[4] 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.^[1]^{[page needed]}

	Plosive		Fricative		Sonorant
	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced	Nasal	Other
Labial	p	b			m	w
Dental	t	d	s	z	n	r
Palatal	c			ʒ		y
Lateral						l
Velar	k	g	h		ŋ

Peiros & Starostin (1996)

The reconstruction by Peiros & Starostin suggests a much more complex consonant inventory.^[5] The phonemes in brackets are reconstructions that are considered dubious.

	Plosive/Affricate				Fricative		Sonorant
	Unaspirated		Aspirated		Fricative		Sonorant
	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced
Labial	p	b	pʰ	(bʰ)			m	w
Dental	t	d	tʰ	(dʰ)			n	r
Alveolar	c	ʒ	cʰ	(ʒʰ)	s
Palatal	ć	ʒ́	ćʰ	ʒ́ʰ	ś		ń	y
Lateral	(ƛ)							l
Velar	k	g	kʰ	(gʰ)	x	ɣ	ŋ
Uvular	(q)	(ɢ)	(qʰ)	(ɢʰ)	(χ)
Laryngeal	ʔ

Hill (2019)

The following tables show the reconstruction of Proto-Sino-Tibetan phonemes by Nathan Hill (2019).^[6]

Consonants		Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar	Labiovelar	Uvular	Labiouvular	Glottal
Nasal		*m	*n		*ŋ	*ŋʷ
Plosive	voiced	*b	*d		*g		*ɢ	*ɢʷ
Plosive	voiceless	*p	*t		*k	*kʷ	*q		*ʔ
Affricate	voiced		*dz
Affricate	voiceless		*ts
Fricatives			*(s)^{[lower-alpha 1]}
Approximant			*l	*j^{[lower-alpha 2]}
Rhotic			*r^{[lower-alpha 3]}

↑ The sibilant correspondences are simply presented according to their proto-Burmish outcomes, as no patterns could be found by Hill.^[7]
↑ This consonant can only exist as a coda.
↑ This phonetic nature of this rhotic is unknown.

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.^[8]


Vowels	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open		a

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.^[9]

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


	Proto-Sino-Tibetan	Old Chinese (Li Fang-Kuei)	Proto-Tibeto-Burman
*-p	*-jəp	汲 *kjəp	*ka·p
		泣 *khrjəp	*krap
		立 *(g-)rjəp	*g-ryap
	*-jap	接 *tsjap	*tsyap
	*-jup	入 *njəp	nup~ nip
*-t	*-iat	八 *priat	*b-r-gyat
	*-iat	殺 *r-siat	*g-sat
	*-uat	脫 *hluat	*g-lwat
	*-jit	一 *·jit	*it
*-k	*-ək	翼 *lək	*lak
	*-jək	織 *tjək	*tak
		息 *sjək	*sak
		食 *N-ljək	*(m-)lyak
		飼 *s-ljəks	*(s-)lyak
	*-ik	節 tsik＞tsit	*tsik
	*-ik	縊 ·iks, ·jiks	*ik
	*-jik	蝨 srjik＞srjit	*s-rik
	*-juk	曲 *khjuk	*guk~kuk
*-kw	*-əkw	毒 *dəkw	duk~tuk
	*-jəkw	腹 phjəkw, bjəkw	pu·k~buk
	*-jəkw	六 *drjəkw	*d-ruk

Nasal finals


	Proto-Sino-Tibetan	Old Chinese (Li Fang-Kuei)	Proto-Tibeto-Burman
*-m	*-əm	含 *gəm	*gam
	*-əm	頷 *gəm	*gam
	*-jəm	飲 *·jəmx	*am
	*-jəm	尋 *ljəm	*la[·]m
	*-jim	坅 *khjamx “pit”	*kim
	*-um	三 *səm	*g-sum
	*-jum	尋 *ljəm	*lum
*-n	*-an	乾 *kan	*kan
*-n	*-jin	辛 *sjin	*m-sin
*-ng	*-jəng	夢 *mjəngs	*mang
	*-jəng	蒸 *tjəng	*tang
	*-jang	紡 *phjangx	*pang
		涼 *grjang	*grang
		迎 *ngrjang	*ngang
	*-ing	盈 *bling	*bling~pling
	*-jing	年 ning＞nin	*ning
		名 *mjing	*r-ming
		甥 *srjing	*sring
		薪 sjing＞sjin	*sing
		仁 njing＞njin	*s-ning
*-ngw	*-jəngw	躬 *kjəngw	*gung

Voiced plosive finals


	Proto-Sino-Tibetan	Old Chinese (Li Fang-Kuei)	Proto-Tibeto-Burman
*-b	*-əb	柔 njəb＞njəgw	*nəw
*-d	*-əd	𤈦 *smjədx	*məy
	*-ad	簸 *padx/s	*pwa·y
		太 *tads	*tay
		蜾 *kwadx	*kwa·y
		我 *ngadx	*ngay
		移 *lad	*lay
	*-id	四 *sjids	*b-liy
	*-jid	妣 *pjidx	*piy
		畀 *sbjids	*biy
		几 *krjidx	*kriy
		屎 *skhljidx	*kliy
		死 *sjidx	*siy
*-g	*-əg	母 *məgx	*ma
	*-jəg	負 *bjəgx	ba, bak
		子 *tsjəgx	*tsa
		慈 *dzjəg	*m-dza
		孳 *dzjəgs	*za
		耳 *njəgx	r-na~g-na
		牛 *ngwjəg	*ngwa
	*-ag	補 *pagx	*pa
		苦 *khagx	*ka
		吾 *ngag	*nga
		五 *ngagx	l-nga~b-nga
		狐 *gwag	*gwa
	*-jag	斧 *pjagx	*r-pwa
		夫 *pjag	*(p)wa
		父 *bjagx	*pa
		無 *mjag	*ma
		魚 *ngjag	*ngya
		咀 *dzjag	*dza
		汝 *njagx	*na
	*-ug	口 *khugx	*kuw
	*-ug	寇 *khugs	*r-kuw
	*-jug	霧 *m(r)jugs	*(r-)muw
		軀 *khjug	*(s-)kuw
		乳 *njugx	*nuw
*-gw	*-əgw	寶 *pəgwx	*puw
	*-əgw	抱 *bəgwx	*buw
	*-jəgw	鳩 *kjəgw	*kuw
		九 *kjəgwx	*d-kuw
		舅 *gjəgwx	*kuw
	*-agw	豪 *gagw	*m/s-gaw
		號 *gagws	*gaw
		熬 *ngagw	*r-ngaw
		臊 *sagw	*sa·w
	*-jagw	飄/漂 *phjagw	*pyaw

Liquid finals


	Proto-Sino-Tibetan	Old Chinese (Li Fang-Kuei)	Proto-Tibeto-Burman
*-l	*-al	肝 *kan	*m-kal
	*-ul	本 *pən	bul~pul
	*-jul	銀 *ngjən	*(d)-ngul
	*-jul	閩 *mjən	*s-brul
	*-jal	疲 *brjal	*bal
	*-il	洒 *silx	*(m-)s(y)il
*-r	*-ar	播 *s-bars	*bwar
	*-ar	皤 bar, par	*pwa:r
	*-jar	販 *pjans	*par
	*-jar	鮮 *sjan	*sar
	*-uar	酸 *suan	*swa·r
	*-jur	飛 *pjər	pur~pir

Vocabulary

Words which do not have reliable Sinitic parallels are accompanied by a (TB).

Social terms

English	Reconstruction by		Old Chinese (Baxter-Sagart)^{[lower-alpha 1]}^[10]
English	I. Peiros & S. Starostin	J. Matisoff	Old Chinese (Baxter-Sagart)^{[lower-alpha 1]}^[10]
Person (in general)	*mĭ	*mi	民 *mi[ŋ]
Male	*pă	*pʷa	父 *p(r)aʔ
Female	*mǝw	*mow	母 *mˤoʔ (or məʔ)
Name (of a person)	*miǝŋ	*miŋ	名 *C.meŋ

Natural phenomena

English	Reconstruction by		Old Chinese (Baxter-Sagart)^{[lower-alpha 1]}
English	I. Peiros & S. Starostin	J. Matisoff	Old Chinese (Baxter-Sagart)^{[lower-alpha 1]}
Earth	*ƛăy	ley ~ lǝy	地 *[l]ˤej-s
Stone	ƛɨāŋ ~ ƛɨāk	luŋ ~ luk	琭 *[r]ˤok
Sand	*srāy	*sa	沙 *sˤraj
Fire	*mēyH	*mey	火 *[qʷʰ]ˤəjʔ ^{[lower-roman 1]}
Smoke	*gʰiw	*kǝw	熏 *qʰu[n]
Water	*tujʔ	*t(w)i(y)	水 *s.turʔ
Rain	*(r-)qʰʷăH	rwa ~ wa	雨 *C.ɢʷ(r)aʔ
Sun	*nĭy	*nǝy	日 *C.nik
Moon (TB)	*(s-)lăH	*la	N/A
Star	*(s-)q(ʰ)ār	*kar	星 *s-tsʰˤeŋ^{[lower-roman 2]}
Night	*yăH	*ya	夜 *[ɢ]Ak-s
Tree	*sĭŋ	siŋ ~ sik	薪 *[s]i[n]
Leaf	*lăp	*lap	葉 *l[a]p
Plant root	*bʰūl	bul ~ pul	本 *C.pˤə[n]ʔ

↑ Perhaps dialectally 𤈦 /*m̥əjʔ/ and 燬 /*m̥ajʔ/.
↑ Possibly related to 清 /*tsʰeŋ/.

Qualitative features of an object

English	Reconstruction by		Old Chinese (Baxter-Sagart)^{[lower-alpha 1]}
English	I. Peiros & S. Starostin	J. Matisoff	Old Chinese (Baxter-Sagart)^{[lower-alpha 1]}
Black, dark (TB)	*nǝk	*nak	黑 *m̥ˤək^{[lower-roman 1]}
White	wār	*hwār	皤 *[b]ˤar^{[lower-roman 2]}
Big	*tayH	*tay	大 *lˤa[t]-s
Cold	(k-)răŋ ~ (k-)răk	glak ~ glaŋ ~ *graŋ	涼 *C.raŋ
Warm	*lɨm	lim ~ lum	融 *luŋ
Long (TB)	*rĭŋ	*riŋ	N/A
New	*cʰăr	*sar	鮮 *s[a]r

↑ It is possible that *s-nak is a descendant of *s-maŋ ~ s-mak (whence OC /*m̥ˤək/).
↑ The more commonly used 白 /*bˤrak/ might be a derivation of it.

Verb stems

English	Reconstruction by		Old Chinese (Baxter-Sagart)^{[lower-alpha 1]}
English	I. Peiros & S. Starostin	J. Matisoff	Old Chinese (Baxter-Sagart)^{[lower-alpha 1]}
To eat	*ʒʰa	*dzya	咀 *dzaɁ
To drink	dʰɨn ~ dʰɨŋ	daŋ ~ doŋ	潼 *tjongs
To bite/chew	*wā	*wa
To die	*sĭy(H)	*sǝy	死 *sijʔ
To know, to think	*siǝH	*syey	悉 *[s]i[t]
To hear (TB)	*tʰa(s)	*ta	N/A
To sleep	*mĭyH	*mwǝy	寐 *mi[t]-s
To stand	*ryǝp	*r(y)ap	立 *k.rәp
To sit	tūŋ ~ tūk	duŋ ~ duk ~ tuŋ ~ tuk	住 *dro(ʔ)-s
Give	*pĭy	*bǝy	畀 *pi[k]‑s

Numbers

English	Reconstruction by		Old Chinese (Baxter-Sagart)^{[lower-alpha 1]}
English	I. Peiros & S. Starostin	J. Matisoff	Old Chinese (Baxter-Sagart)^{[lower-alpha 1]}
1	*dyiǝk	dik ~ t(y)ik ~ *t(y)ak	一 *ʔi[t]
2	*nĭy	*ni	二 *ni[j]-s
3	*sɨm	*sum	三 *s.rum
4	*lĭy	*lǝy	四 *s.li[j]-s
5	*ŋāH	*ŋa	五 *C.ŋˤaʔ
6	*rŭk	*ruk	六 *k.ruk
7	*(s-)nĭt	*ni	七 *[tsʰ]i[t]
8	*ryēt	gyat ~ ryat ~ *rit	八 *pˤret
9	*kwɨH	gǝw ~ kǝw	九 *[k]uʔ
10	*k(ʰ)ĭp	*g(y)ip	十 *t.[g]әp
100	*(p-)ryā	*gya	百 *pˤrak

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4
For Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system:
- Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
- Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
- Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
- Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;
- Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Benedict, Paul K. (1972), Sino-Tibetan: A Conspectus, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-08175-7, http://stedt.berkeley.edu/pubs_and_prods/Benedict_1972_Sino-Tibetan-Conspectus.pdf.
↑ Sagart, Laurent; Jacques, Guillaume; Lai, Yunfan; Ryder, Robin J.; Thouzeau, Valentin; Greenhill, Simon J.; List, Johann-Mattis (6 May 2019). "Dated language phylogenies shed light on the ancestry of Sino-Tibetan". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 116 (21): 10317-10322. doi:10.1073/pnas.1817972116. PMC 6534992. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1817972116. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
↑ van Driem, George (2007). "The diversity of the Tibeto-Burman language family and the linguistic ancestry of Chinese". Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics 1 (2): 211–270. doi:10.1163/2405478X-90000023.
↑ Egerod, Søren Christian. "Sino-Tibetan languages - Linguistic characteristics". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sino-Tibetan-languages/Linguistic-characteristics. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
↑ Peiros, Ilia; Starostin, S.A. (1996). A comparative vocabulary of five Sino-Tibetan languages. Parkville, VIC: Univ. of Melbourne, Dept. of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. ISBN 9780732513504.
↑ Hill 2019, p. 211.
↑ Hill 2019, p. 234-235.
↑ Hill 2019, p. 216.
↑ Hwang-cherng, Gong (2003) (in zh). pp. 187-223.
↑ Baxter, William H.; Sagart, Laurent. "The Baxter-Sagart reconstruction of Old Chinese". https://ocbaxtersagart.lsait.lsa.umich.edu/.

Hill, Nathan W. (2019). The Historical Phonology of Tibetan, Burmese, and Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781316550939.
Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and Philosophy of Sino-Tibetan Reconstruction, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-520-09843-5, http://escholarship.org/uc/item/19d79619.

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Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Sino-Tibetan language. Read more

[8] The sibilant correspondences are simply presented according to their proto-Burmish outcomes, as no patterns could be found by Hill.^[7]

[coda-9] This consonant can only exist as a coda.

[10] This phonetic nature of this rhotic is unknown.

[15] Perhaps dialectally 𤈦 /*m̥əjʔ/ and 燬 /*m̥ajʔ/.

[16] Possibly related to 清 /*tsʰeŋ/.

[17] It is possible that *s-nak is a descendant of *s-maŋ ~ s-mak (whence OC /*m̥ˤək/).

[18] The more commonly used 白 /*bˤrak/ might be a derivation of it.

[notation-13] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 For Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system:
Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;

Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;

Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;

Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

[9] Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;

[10] Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;

[11] Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;

[12] Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

[13] Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

[benedict1972-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Benedict, Paul K. (1972), Sino-Tibetan: A Conspectus, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-08175-7, http://stedt.berkeley.edu/pubs_and_prods/Benedict_1972_Sino-Tibetan-Conspectus.pdf.

[2] Sagart, Laurent; Jacques, Guillaume; Lai, Yunfan; Ryder, Robin J.; Thouzeau, Valentin; Greenhill, Simon J.; List, Johann-Mattis (6 May 2019). "Dated language phylogenies shed light on the ancestry of Sino-Tibetan". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 116 (21): 10317-10322. doi:10.1073/pnas.1817972116. PMC 6534992. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1817972116. Retrieved 31 December 2023.

[3] van Driem, George (2007). "The diversity of the Tibeto-Burman language family and the linguistic ancestry of Chinese". Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics 1 (2): 211–270. doi:10.1163/2405478X-90000023.

[4] Egerod, Søren Christian. "Sino-Tibetan languages - Linguistic characteristics". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sino-Tibetan-languages/Linguistic-characteristics. Retrieved 10 July 2019.

[5] Peiros, Ilia; Starostin, S.A. (1996). A comparative vocabulary of five Sino-Tibetan languages. Parkville, VIC: Univ. of Melbourne, Dept. of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. ISBN 9780732513504.

[FOOTNOTEHill2019211-6] Hill 2019, p. 211.

[FOOTNOTEHill2019234-235-7] Hill 2019, p. 234-235.

[FOOTNOTEHill2019216-11] Hill 2019, p. 216.

[12] Hwang-cherng, Gong (2003) (in zh). pp. 187-223.

[14] Baxter, William H.; Sagart, Laurent. "The Baxter-Sagart reconstruction of Old Chinese". https://ocbaxtersagart.lsait.lsa.umich.edu/.

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Features

Phonology

Benedict (1972)

Peiros & Starostin (1996)

Hill (2019)

Sound changes

Final consonant changes

Example of sound changes

Voiceless plosive finals

Nasal finals

Voiced plosive finals

Liquid finals

Vocabulary

Social terms

Natural phenomena

Qualitative features of an object

Verb stems

Numbers

See also

References

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Social:Proto-Sino-Tibetan language

Features

Phonology

Benedict (1972)

Peiros & Starostin (1996)

Hill (2019)

Sound changes

Final consonant changes

Example of sound changes

Voiceless plosive finals

Nasal finals

Voiced plosive finals

Liquid finals

Vocabulary

Social terms

Natural phenomena

Qualitative features of an object

Verb stems

Numbers

See also

References

Navigation

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