On the Position of Baima within Tibetan: A Look from Basic Vocabulary

Ekaterina Chirkova (1)

1 CRLAO - Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l'Asie Orientale

This article examines the 100-word Swadesh (1955) list, the layer of lexicon which is arguably least resistible to change, for Baima, a Tibeto-Burman language with disputed genetic affiliation spoken in the South-West of China. The following issues are addressed:
(1) Sound correspondences between Baima and Written Tibetan;
(2) Their conformity with respective sound correspondences between Written Tibetan and the Amdo and Khams dialects of China and
(3) Unclear etymologies and their possible origins.

Mots clés: Swadesh list; genetic affiliation; sound correspondences; etymology; Written Tibetan; Baima

Domaines: Linguistique

Ekaterina Chirkova. On the Position of Baima within Tibetan: A Look from Basic Vocabulary. Alexander Lubotsky, Jos Schaeken and Jeroen Wiedenhof. Rodopi, pp.23, 2008, Evidence and counter-evidence: Festschrift F. Kortlandt. ⟨halshs-00104311⟩