{"word_count": 746, "character_count": 5390}
October 8, 2019:&#160; a paper on the origins of Kra-Dai tones is now&#160; published (here). It represents my current understanding of the formation of Kra-Dai tones and supersedes the present three posts. There are more data in the paper, especially on the Austronesian final consonant I note as *X; there are also some significant differences between the present posts and the paper.&#160; Thus, although it is clear that the word 'excrement', ususally reconstructed as *Caqi, ended in some kind of guttural fricative, it contains too many irregularities, possibly euphemistically motivated (as noted by Wolff), both in Austronesian and Kra-Dai, to identify that fricative. Therefore in the published paper I retreat from my suggestion that *Caqi 'excrement' was really *Caqix. I suggest instead that final *-x was the value of Tsuchida's *-H2, thus converging with Blust's proposal, but on completely different grounds (pages 7-9).In two recent posts I discussed the origins of the Kra-Dai tones C (here) and B (here). Here I discuss tone A.Kra-Dai A-category words correspond primarily to Austronesian words ending in sonorants (vowels, semi-vowels, nasals, liquids). This was already pointed out by Ostapirat (2005). Examples: &#160;Buyang (Li 1999)PHlai(Os)PTai(Pi)PANPMPeyema0 ta54 &#60; A1*ata A*p.taː A*maCa*mataeightma0 ðu312 &#60; A2*aRu A————*waluseventu312 &#60; A2*ʔtu A————*pitubear (n.)ta0 mɛ312 &#60; A2*mui A*ʰmwɯj A*Cumay&#160;——to killma0 tɛ54 &#60; A1————*paCay*patayfirepui54 &#60; A1*api A*wɤj A*[]apuy*[]apuymoonʔdaːn31 &#60; A1°*ɲa:n A*ɓlɯən A*bulaN*bulansixnam54 &#60; A1*(ə)num A————*ʔenemto eatka:n54 &#60; A1——*kɯɲ A*kaen*kaenNote that the numerals in the Tai branch are Chinese loanwords.A second source of Kra-Dai category-A words is in PAN *-H2 (see: LINK for Tsuchida’s *-H2) &#160;Buyang (Li 1999)PHlai(Os)PTai(Pi)PANPMPlouseqa0 tu54  &#60; A1*utu A*traw A*kuCuH2*kutuhearta0 ða312 &#60; A2*ilai A*krwɯː A*CaliŋaH2 or *CaŋilaH2*taliŋahthreetu54 &#60; A1*utu C !——*tu-tuluH2*tu-tuluhTone C in the Hlai word for ‘three’ may be the result of list analogy: it is part of a series of four consecutive numerals in tone C: *cɨ C ‘one’, *alau C ‘two’, *utu C ‘three’, *atəu C ‘four’.To recapitulate, these sources are found for the Kra-Dai tone categories:Tone A (this post): AN words ending in sonorants (vowels, semi-vowels, liquids, nasals); PAN words ending in *H2.Tone B (here): PAN words ending in *-R [ʁ]; other PAN-related B-category words are believed to have had *-X [χ].Tone C (here): PAN words ending in *H1 [h]; at least one other source, possibly *-x (‘excrement’).The probable phonetic values of these categories in Proto-Kra-Dai wer:Category A: ending in vowels, semi-vowels, liquids, nasals;Category B: ending *-X;Category C: ending in *-h.By the time of contatct with Chinese, beginning c. 200 BCE, final *-h had changed to a glottal stop.ReferencesBenedict, Paul K. 1975. Austro-Thai: language and culture. New Haven: HRAF Press.Gedney, William J. 1978. Speculations on early Tai tones. Paper presented at the 11th ICSTLL, U. of Arizona, Oct. 1978.Haudricourt, André-Georges. 1954a. De l'origine des tons du vietnamien. Journal Asiatique 1954, 242: 69-82.Haudricourt, André-Georges. 1954b. Comment reconstruire le chinois archaique. Word 10, 2-3: 351-64.Li Jinfang. 1999. Buyang Yu Yanjiu. Beijing: Zhongyang Minzu Daxue.Mei Tsu-lin. 1970. Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the Rising tone. Harvard Journal of Asian Studies 30, 86-110.Norquest, Peter K. 2013. A revised inventory of Proto Austronesian consonants: Kra-Dai and Austroasiatic Evidence. Mon-Khmer Studies 42: 102-126.Ostapirat, Weera. 2000. Proto-Kra. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 23.1.Ostapirat, W. 2004. Proto-Hlai sound system and lexicons. in: Ying-ching Lin, Fang-min Hsu, Chun-chih Lee, Jackson T.S. Sun, Hsiu-fang Yang and Dah-an Ho (eds), Studies in Sino-Tibetan languages, papers in honor of Professor Hwang-cherng Gong on his seventieth birthday, 121-175. Nankang: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.Ostapirat, Weera. 2005. Kra-Dai and Austronesian: notes on phonological correspondences and vocabulary distribution. In: L. Sagart, R. Blench and A. Sanchez-Mazas (eds) The peopling of East Asia: Putting together Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics, 109-133. London: RoutledgeCurzon.Pittayaporn, Pittayawat. 2009. The phonology of proto-Tai. Unpublished Cornell U. dissertation.Sagart, Laurent. 2004. The higher phylogeny of Austronesian and the position of Tai-Kadai. Oceanic Linguistics 43,2: 411-444.Sagart, L. 2005. Tai-Kadai as a subgroup of Austronesian. In L. Sagart, R. Blench and A. Sanchez-Mazas (eds) The peopling of East Asia: Putting together Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics 177-181. London: RoutledgeCurzon.Sagart, Laurent. 2008. the expansion of setaria farmers in east asia: a linguistic and archaeological model. In Sanchez-Mazas A, Blench R, Ross M, Peiros I, Lin M, eds. Past human migrations in East Asia: matching archaeology, linguistics and genetics, 133-157. Routledge Studies in the Early History of Asia, London: Routledge.Tsuchida, Shigeru. 1976. Reconstruction of Proto-Tsouic phonology. Tokyo: Study of languages and cultures of Asia and Africa monograph series N° 5.Wolff, John U. 2010. Proto-Austronesian phonology with glossary. 2 vols. Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia program publications.[cite]