A reconstruction of Proto-Kiranti verb roots

Guillaume Jacques (1)

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

In Kiranti languages, rich alternations in verbal paradigms make internal reconstruction possible, and allow a better understanding of the vowels and codas of the proto-language than is possible for other parts of speech. This paper, using data from four representative languages (Wambule, Khaling, Bantawa, Limbu), proposes a new approach to Proto-Kiranti historical linguistics combining the comparative method and internal reconstruction, and taking morphological alternations and analogy into account. It presents a comprehensive account of the sound correspondences between the four target languages and reconstructs more than 280 proto-Kiranti verb roots.

Mots clés: Kiranti; Khaling; Wambule; Limbu; Bantawa; Sound change; Analogy

Domaines: Linguistique

Guillaume Jacques. A reconstruction of Proto-Kiranti verb roots. Folia Linguistica, 2017, 51 (s38), pp.177-215. ⟨10.1515/flih-2017-0007⟩. ⟨halshs-01731021⟩