comparison.SINO-TIBETAN.10_morphology.htm

PROTO-LANGUAGE PHONEMES

in IE and (Sino-)Tibetan

by Patrick C. Ryan

(7/26/97)

{not included under lexical headings}

(A1)M[H]A-$A, mi, "not"; (IE *mei (Armenian), listed under 1. me:-)

(A2)TS[H]O-F[H]A, -tsho, plural ending; (IE -tu, forms abstract substantives)

(A3)K[H]E ("other"), -kh/-k/-g, definite article; (IE k[^]e, "this")

(A4)-$E(-$E) ("-like"), -yi [also -k+yi, g+yi/i], genitive; (IE -i, genitive; -i, locative; -yo/-iyo, adjectives of possession / origin)

(A5)-QO, -ang in ky+ang, "also"; (IE *eng- in en-dh-, "and", listed incorrectly under en-; (cf. Sumerian -ng-, modal prefix, "also"; (cf. Egyptian in [i]gr, "also")

(A6)-M[H]O ("overall"), -ma, adjective termination in nang-ma, "inner(most)"; (IE -mo, superlative)

(A7)-S[H]E ("going from"), -s in -kyi+s, gyi/i+s, instrumentive (ergative); -s in -nas, ablative (exitive: "from the inside of"); -s in -las, ablative (separative: "leaving"); (IE -s, nominative; -s, genitive and ablative [non-o-stems])

(A8)-N[H]A ("moving inside"); -l, locative; (IE -l, Armenian infinitive)

(A9)-NA ("inside"), -n, locative; -n in kyi+n, gyi/i+n, imperfective participle; (IE -n in -nt-, imperfective participle)

(A10)-FE ("strong"), -ba, -"male"; (IE nominative *-w = -o (?), but cf. Latin -u, masculine termination); but possibly P[?]O, "cheek, testicle"

(A11)-FA (collective), -ba, durative participle; (IE -w in -wes, perfective participle)

(A12)-SA ("strong"), -sa, perfective participle; (IE s-mobile; -s-aorist/-perfect)

(A13)S[H]O ("clan-member"), s- (for *sh-), causative; (IE: no equivalent); (but cf. Egyptian s-, causative)

(A14)-$E ("-like"), -e, adjective ending (<-Vy); (IE -i, genitive; -i, locative; -yo/-iyo, adjectives of possession / origin)

(A15)S[H]A ("rest, place"), -sa, place of ...; (IE -*s, nouns of quality [cf. Old Indian tápa-s, "warmth"]; Mediterranean place names in -isso; (cf. Uralic -s(s)a, inessive); (cf. Japanese -sa, quality, place)

(A16)P[?]A ("piece"), -ba, object of verbal action; (IE -wo, e.g. widh-, "separate"; widhewa:, "widow ["separated thing" + female"])

(A17)KX[H]E-NA, -m-khan, "skilled in . . ." (better, "active in . . ."); (IE in -sk[^]o, intensive present; 4. ken-)

(A18)KX[H]O ("cut")~K[?]XO ("hole") / KX[H]A ("point") / K[?]A ("jaw"), -kha/-ka/-ga, "mouth of ..."; (here, I believe, the assimilation of these syllables masks an original independent origin; e.g. zor-kha, "edge of a weapon" (KX[H]O); mthoq-ga, "chest" ("cavity", K[?]XO); phal-ka, "indentation" (KX[H]A); cha-ga, "edge" (K[?]A); of course, this is not possible to prove through these examples alone)

(A19)-T[?]A ("side"), -d, present tense (properly progressive; the adverbial n-prefix, derived from NA, "inside", sets the temporal stage [cf. IE nu/u:-]); since the -d-presents only occur with n-presents, the vowel rounding of the present tense stem vowel with g-presents is a result of the addition of FA (small plural, collective) as -*w, creating an imperfective; a surmise for the origin of the g-prefix is that it represents K[H]A, "desire", shown, in part by the employment of g- as a future for some n-present verbs; Tibetan seems to be trying to distinguish between verbs that imply a single action [n-deb-s, "throws"]; and those that involve multiple actions (skyob, "protects"); (a lative ["at the side of, with"] in languages all over the world; seen dimly in IE ablative -e:/o:d, possibly a metathesis of -*d+e: (T[?]A+HHE, "go away from") to facilitate pronunciation of vowelless stems

(A20)-SA ("strong"), -s, past tense; as above under (A19); the suffix specifies the aspect, and the prefix, b-, is an adverb specifying the time, derived from P[H]A, "front, over {time}/ on top of [IE po{s}]"); as a prefix for the future, b- may have a different origin, possibly P[?]FE, "foot, by" [cf. IE bhi, "around"], i.e. "about to. . .; (IE s-mobile; -s-aorist/- perfect)

(A21)(S)OV is the earliest Tibetan word-order, corresponding to OV established by Lehmann for earliest IE; S-OV (and possibly OV-S, which may have distinguished between imperfective and perfective aspects before singular and plural elements were applied to convey the same aspects) word-order stems from the language of the active-type phase, where the transitive subject is only loosely linked to the object-"verb", which is primary, and need not be expressed overtly.

(A22)RE-?A-$A, -re, "each", distributive; (IE re:i-, listed under 1. ar-)

(SINO-)TIBETAN BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Patrick C. Ryan * 9115 West 34^th Street - Little Rock, AR 72204-4441* (501)227-9947