TIBETAN WA-ZUR AND LAUFER'S LAW

Guillaume Jacques (1)

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

Laufer's law, according to which proto-Tibetan *-wa monophthongized to -o in Old Tibetan, is almost universally accepted. However, Hill (2006) pointed out that this law seems to be contradicted by the existence of a genuine –wa rhyme in Old Tibetan: unless Old Tibetan -wa has a distinct origin, the sound law *-wa > -o cannot be valid. The present article proposes a simple solution to Hill's counterargument: Old Tibetan -wa comes from the fusion of two syllables.

Mots clés: Old Tibetan; monophthongisation; Sino-Tibetan

Domaines: Linguistique

Guillaume Jacques. TIBETAN WA-ZUR AND LAUFER'S LAW. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 2009, 32 (1), pp.141-144. ⟨halshs-00408281⟩