A NEXOS

PT allowed three consonants to form tautosyllabic clusters under the constraints discussed in §4.2. At a minimum, *krw-, *klw, *qrw- *trw- and *crw- must be reconstructed at the PT level. Examples of these clusters are given in Table 4-18. Li (Li 1977: 120, 227-228) reconstructs two-consonant clusters for these etyma.

158

Table 4-18 Etyma with PT *krw-, *klw-, *qrw-, *trw-, and *crw- respectively

Gloss PT SI LC Y Others

‘spider’ *krwa:w^A kʰja:w^A1 ca:w^A1 Wuming /klwa:w^A1/

‘small frog’ *krwe^A kwe^A1 Wuming /klwe^A1/

‘salt’ *klwɯə^A klɯə^A1 kɯ:^A1 kuə^A1 Rong’an /kwɤ^A1/

‘mountain stream’ *qrwɤj^C huəj^C1 vu:j^C1 vi^C1 Longsheng /jwi^C1/

‘to carry on the back’ *trwa:m^A ha:m^A1 ha:m^A1 ra:m^A1 Longsheng /jwa:m^A1/

‘plough, to plough’ *crwaj^A tʰaj^A1 tʰaj^A1 saj^A1 Longsheng /kjwai^A1/

For *krwa:w^A ‘spider’ and *krwe:^A ‘small frog’, the clusters usually simplified to either *kr- or *kw- but a few dialects including Wuming still retain all three consonants, cf. /klwa:w^A1/ and /klwe^A1/. For *klwɯə^A ‘salt’, not only did the *-w- leave rounding on the rime in dialects like Yay, but the Rong’an form also retains the medial. For *qrwɤj^C ‘mountain stream’, the medial is reflected both in the /u/ in Siamese /huəj^C1/ and the /v-/ in Lungchow /vu:j^C1/ and Yay /vi^C1/. For *trwam and

*crwaj, the medial *-w- is lost in most dialects, but is preserved in some dialects including Longsheng, cf. /jwa:m^A1/ and /kjwai^A1/. Note that both initial *r- and medial

*-r- became /j/ in Longsheng.

4.3 Speculative *-w-

In addition to the complex onsets with medial *-w- above, I also speculate that medial *-w- is responsible for some vowel correspondences. This speculative *-w- is posited in both monosyllabic and sesquisyllabic PT etyma. There are altogether two paradigms of vowel correspondences for which I posit a *-w- despite a lack of unequivocal evidence.

159

The first paradigm involves etyma whose SWT and CT reflexes points to an earlier long mid vowel but whose NT reflexes point to earlier short high vowels. For example, Siamese /tʰɔ:ŋ^C2/ suggests earlier *do:ŋ^C but Yay /tuŋ^C2/ suggests earlier

*duŋ^C. In this case, I speculate that a medial *-w- had a lowering effect on following

*u:, resulting in a long mid vowel *o: in Siamese. In Yay, the *-w- simply dropped out, leaving *u: as the reflex. This situation is in contrast with the PT *o:, which is reflected as /ɔ:/ in Siamese, /o:/ in Lungchow, and /o/ in Yay. It also differs from PT u:, which is reflected as /u:/ in Siamsese, /u/ in Lungchow, and /u/ in Po-ai. Table 4-19 presents some etyma for which I propose *wu:. Li reconstructs *uɔ (Li 1977: 278), which contrasts with his *wɔ (Li 1977: 277-278).

Table 4-19 Etyma with PT *wu:

Gloss PT SI LC Y Others

‘stomach, belly’ *dwu:ŋ^C tʰɔ:ŋ^C2 to:ŋ^C2 tuŋ^C2

‘young, soft’ *ʔwu:n^B ʔɔ:n^B2 ʔo:n^B2 ʔun^B2 Guigang /ʔwun^B2/

‘to dye’ *ɲwu:m^C ɲɔ:m^C2 jo:m^C2 ɲum^C2

‘spool’ *lwu:t^D lɔ:t^DL1 lo:t^DL1 Po-ai /lut^DS1/

Note that the NT reflex for ‘spool’ point to earlier short vowels rather than long vowels because of the regular shortening of PT long *u: in closed syllables (see

§5.6.1.3). Although reconstructing *-w- for this set of data is very speculative, there seems to be some concrete evidence for two of the etyma. The first one is ‘soft’ whose reflex in the NT dialect of Guigang shows a medial /-w-/. The second one is ‘to dye’

whose Vietnamese counterpart nhuộm ‘to dye’ has a diphthong /uə/ as vocalic nucleus.

160

The speculative *-w- is also posited for the data involving front vowels in Table 4-20, for which Li (Li 1977: 274-275) reconstructs *iɛ and *jɛ.

Table 4-20 Etyma with PT *-wi:-

Gloss PT SI LC Y Others

‘sunshine’ *C̥.dwi:t^D dɛ:t^DL1 de:t^DL1 dit^DS1

‘late meal’ * C̥.lwi:ŋ^A lɛ:ŋ^A2 le:ŋ^A2 riŋ^A2

‘red’ *C̥.dwi:ŋ^A dɛ:ŋ^A1 de:ŋ^A1 diŋ^A1

‘wasp’ *b.twi:l^A tɛ:n^A1 pʰe:n^A1 tin^A2

PT *e: is regularly reflected as /ɛ:/ in Siamese, /e:/ in Lungchow, and /e/ in Yay, while PT *i: is reflected as /i:/, /i/, and /i/ in the three languages respectively. The cases above, in contrast, show a different correspondence: Siamese /ɛ:/, Lungchow /e:/

but Yay /i/. I speculate that in these cases a medial *-w- lowered the following *i: to a long mid vowel *e: in CT and SWT before dropping out. In NT, the *-w- simply was lost, leaving *i: as the reflex. For example, Siamese /dɛ:ŋ^A1/ came from earlier *ɗe:ŋ^A, whose long *e: in turn resulted from lowering of PT *i: in *C̥.dwi:ŋ^A. In contrast, Yay /diŋ^A1/ came from earlier *ɗiŋ^A, whose *i was a regular reflex of PT *i: after the speculated medial *-w-. Note that the Yay reflex for ‘sunshine’ has DS1 rather than DL1 because of the regular shortening of PT long *i: in closed syllables (see §5.6.1.1).

So far, I have not been able to identify potential evidence for the medial *-w-.

Therefore, the reconstruction of these cases remain speculative. Note that it is not possible, however, to posit *-j- instead of *-w- because this paradigm would be the only set of data that had the medial *-j-.

161

The second paradigm involves etyma whose SWT and CT reflexes point to an earlier long mid vowel but whose NT reflexes point to an earlier diphthong. For example, Siamese /nɔ:ŋ^C2/ suggests earlier *no:ŋ^C but Yay /nuəŋ^C2/ suggests earlier

*nuəŋ^C. In this case, I speculate that the PT form of this etymon was *nwo:ŋ^C. In this scenario, the medial *-w- was lost in front of the long *o: yielding a simple long *o: in SWT and NT. This *o: is now reflected as /ɔ:/ in Siamese. In NT, the *-w- coalesced with the nucleus *o: to become *uə, which is still preserved in Yay.

In addition to this *o:~*uə correspondence, the paradigm also includes a front vowel *e:~*iə set and a back unrounded *a:~*ɯə set. Therefore, for this paradigm, I tentatively propose PT *we:, *wɤ: and *wo: for Li’s *jɛ (1977: 274-275), *wa (1977:

276) and *wɔ (1977: 277-278) respectively. Table 4-21 presents etyma belonging to this paradigm.

Table 4-21 Etyma with PT *we:, *wɤ: and *wo:

Gloss PT SI LC Y Others

‘cucumber’ *p.rwe:ŋ^A tɛ:ŋ^A1 pʰe:ŋ^A1 tiəŋ^A1

‘tail’ *ʰrwɤ:ŋ^A ha:ŋ^A1 ha:ŋ^A1 rɯəŋ^A1

‘downstairs’ *lwɤ:ŋ^A la:ŋ^B2 la:ŋ^B2 Po-ai /lɯ:ŋ^B2/

‘crossbow’ *ʰnwɤ:^C na:^C1 nɯə^C1 W. Nung /na:^C1/

‘to disappear’ *ʰrwɤ:j^A ha:j^A1 rɯəj^A1 Lungming /ha:j^C1/

‘bad’ *rwɤ:j^C ra:j^C2 ɬa:j^C2 rɯəj^C2

‘younger sibling’ *nwo:ŋ^C nɔ:ŋ^C2 no:ŋ^C2 nuəŋ^C2

‘elbow’ *C̥.swo:k^D sɔ:k^DL1 suək^DL1 Lungming /so:k^DL1/

162

The only potential support for the speculated *-w- in this paradigm comes from the MC form for 弩 nǔ (< MC nuo^B, LH nɑ^B, OC *nâʔ) ‘crossbow’. Although the u in the MC forms may be viewed as concrete evidence for a medial *-w- in Proto-Tai

*nwɤ:^C, the chronology is rather problematic. PT most likely predates Late Han Chinese at which stage the rime of 弩 was still simple ɑ. Therefore, the reconstruction of PT *-w- for this set of data must be taken as tentative.