Article published In: Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
Vol. 48:2 (2025) ► pp.236–249
On Proto-Mienic plosive initials
Published online: 13 October 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltba.23003.tag
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltba.23003.tag
Abstract
Mienic languages constitute one of two branches of the Hmong-Mien language family, Hmongic and Mienic, and are
distributed over a vast area from southern China to Southeast Asia. Based on the published data, this paper argues that certain
correspondence patterns found between Mienic languages provide evidence on specific phonological states of Proto-Mienic initial
consonants, which have been lost in all modern Mienic languages: Proto-Mienic has prenasalized plosives in its initial consonant
inventory.
Keywords: Mienic, implosives, prenasalized plosives
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.PM initial plosive system
- 2.1Correspondence pattern
- 2.2Downer’s (1973) analysis
- 2.3PM in L-Thongkum (1993)
- 2.4New patterns
- 2.5Phonetic nature of Voicing
- 3.Reconstruction of pm initial plosive system
- 4.Summary
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
References
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