Contents

Proto-Sino-Tibetan language

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,^[2] in recent years several scholars have argued that this was not well-substantiated,^[3] and have taken to calling the group "Trans-Himalayan".^[4] 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.^[5]

Features[edit]

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.^[6] 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[edit]

Benedict (1972)[edit]

The table below shows consonant phonemes reconstructed by Benedict.^{[1][page needed]}

Peiros & Starostin (1996)[edit]

The reconstruction by Peiros & Starostin suggests a much more complex consonant inventory.^[7] The phonemes in brackets are reconstructions that are considered dubious.

Hill (2019)[edit]

The following tables show the reconstruction of Proto-Sino-Tibetan phonemes by Nathan Hill (2019).^[8]

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.^[10]

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[edit]

Final consonant changes[edit]

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.^[11]

Furthermore, in Proto-Tibeto-Burman, the finals *-g, *-gw, and *-d underwent the following changes:

1. *-d＞*-y
2. *-gw＞*-w
3. *-g＞*-w when it follows the vowel *-u-
4. *-g＞*-∅ when it follows the vowel *a and *-a-.

Example of sound changes[edit]

Voiceless plosive finals[edit]

Nasal finals[edit]

Voiced plosive finals[edit]

Liquid finals[edit]

Vocabulary[edit]

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

Social terms[edit]

Natural phenomena[edit]

Qualitative features of an object[edit]

Verb stems[edit]

Numbers[edit]

See also[edit]

• Proto-Tibeto-Burman language

References[edit]

For a list of words relating to Proto-Sino-Tibetan language, see the Proto-Sino-Tibetan language category of wordsinWiktionary, the free dictionary.

Further reading[edit]

• Hill, Nathan W. (2019). The Historical Phonology of Tibetan, Burmese, and Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781316550939. ISBN 978-1-316-55093-9.
• Matisoff, James A. (2003), Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and Philosophy of Sino-Tibetan Reconstruction, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-09843-5.