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Article published In: Language and Linguistics
Vol. 22:1 (2021) ► pp.28–70

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Studies in Pyu phonology, I

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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

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Published online: 16 December 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00077.miy
Abstract
The extinct Pyu language was spoken during the first millennium CE and the early centuries of the second millennium CE in what is now Upper Burma. It has been classified as Sino-Tibetan on the basis of basic vocabulary, but its precise position within the family remains unknown. It survives in inscriptions in an Indic script. In this study, the first of its kind, I begin to reconstruct Pyu phonology on the basis of spellings in those inscriptions. I propose that Pyu was a sesquisyllabic language with 7 preinitials and 43 or 44 initials.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Are Pyu phonology and phonetics recoverable?
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Corpus
    • 3.2Conventions
    • 3.3Scope
    • 3.4Asemantic phonology
  • 4.From akṣaras to syllables
    • 4.1 Akṣara structures
      • 4.1.1Structure of akṣaras without independent vowel symbols
      • 4.1.2Structure of akṣaras with independent vowel symbols
    • 4.2Inventories of graphemes in each position
      • 4.2.1C₁a
      • 4.2.2C₂
      • 4.2.3C₃
      • 4.2.4V
      • 4.2.5C·
  • 5.(Sesqui) syllabic structure
  • 6.Preinitials
    • 6.1Core preinitials
    • 6.2Peripheral preinitials
      • 6.2.1 ṅ /ŋ./?
      • 6.2.2/c./?
      • 6.2.3/d/?
      • 6.2.4/b./?
      • 6.2.5 ḅ /ɓ./?
      • 6.2.6 v /w./?
  • 7.Initials
    • 7.1Core initials
    • 7.2Combination of core preinitials and core initials
      • 7.2.1The problem of /s.Cʰ/ clusters
      • 7.2.2Initials not attested after preinitials
    • 7.3Commentary on specific core initials
      • 7.3.1The problem of phonemicizing
      • 7.3.2/h/
      • 7.3.3Voiceless aspirated obstruents
      • 7.3.4Voiceless sonorants
      • 7.3.5Palatal sonorants
      • 7.3.6/ɖ/
      • 7.3.7/D/
      • 7.3.8/ɭ/
      • 7.3.9/l̥ l/
      • 7.3.10/R̥ R L̥ L/
      • 7.3.11/w/
      • 7.3.12/ɓ/ and other proposed glottalized consonants
      • 7.3.13The fricatives /ɣ ç ʝ ð f v/
    • 7.4Peripheral initials
      • 7.4.1 k-ṃ
      • 7.4.2 gh
      • 7.4.3 j-ṃ
      • 7.4.4 jñ
      • 7.4.5 ṭ
      • 7.4.6 ṭh
      • 7.4.7 ts
      • 7.4.8 dr-ṃ
      • 7.4.9 dl-ṃ
      • 7.4.10 dh and dh-ṃ
      • 7.4.11 n-ṃ (or t-ṃ?)
      • 7.4.12 ḅ-ṃ
      • 7.4.13 m-ṃ (or t-ṃ?)
      • 7.4.14 ṣ
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
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