Extraordinary sound development of *s and *z in mBalhag Tibetan (Shangri-La, Yunnan)

• Main Author: Suzuki, Hiroyuki
• Other Authors: Aix-Marseille Université / National Museum of Ethnology
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Arts and Humanities; Khams Tibetan; Dental lateral fricative
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/177633
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper analyses two sound correspondences between Written Tibetan and mBalhag Tibetan spoken in Bala Village, Shangri-La (Xianggelila) County, Diqing Prefecture, Yunnan. Written Tibetan s and z correspond with mBalhag Tibetan /ɬ/ and /ɮ/, which include various conditional allophones, e.g. /ɬ/ as [ɬ ], [ɬ x], [t] (dental edge plosive) etc. The two phonemes /ɬ, ɮ/ contrast with /s/, /sh/, /t/, /ts/ / and their voiced counterparts. It is also evident that s has not become aspirated without a preinitial. This type of sound development is definitely idiosyncratic in Tibetan diachronic linguistics.