Proto-Kra language

Proto-Kra
Proto-Kra
Reconstruction of	Kra languages
Region	South China
Reconstructed; ancestor	Proto-Kra–Dai

Proto-Kra is the reconstructed ancestor of the Kra languages. It was reconstructed in 2000 by Weera Ostapirat in his Ph.D. dissertation.

Lower-level reconstructions

Ostapirat (2000) provided preliminary phonological reconstructions for several lower-level groupings before attempting a reconstruction of Proto-Kra.

Proto-Kra
- Proto-South-Western Kra
  - Proto-Western Kra (Gelao, Lachi)
  - Proto-Southern Kra (Laha)
- Proto-Central-East Kra
  - Proto-Central Kra (Paha)
  - Proto-Eastern Kra (Buyang, Qabiao)

Phonology

Consonants

Proto-Kra has a total of 32 consonants, seven of which (marked in green) can occur as syllable finals (Ostapirat 2000:224, 236).

Proto-Kra consonants
	Labial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Unvoiced Stop	p	t		ʈ	c	k	ʔ
Voiced Stop	b	d		ɖ	ɟ	ɡ
Nasal	m	n		ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
Unvoiced Affricate		ts	tʃ	ʈʂ
Voiced Affricate		dz	dʒ	ɖʐ
Unvoiced Fricative		s	ʃ			x
Voiced Fricative		z	ʒ			ɣ
Approximant	w	l			j
Rhotic		r

Miyake (2008, 2021)

Marc Miyake (2008,^[1] 2021^[2]) proposes alternative reconstructions for Ostapirat's (2000) Proto-Kra retroflex consonants, suggesting that many of them were actually non-retroflexes that had been influenced by pre-syllables, in particular with alveolar consonants leniting in intervocalic position. In synchronic Kra languages, reflexes are often attested as voiced fricatives, which Miyake (2021) does not believe to have developed from historical initial retroflex consonants. Some examples of Miyake's (2008) revised Proto-Kra reconstructions are provided below.

*tsəm 'one' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *tʂəm^C)
*tsun 'teach' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *tʂun^A)
*N-tsu 'pillar' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *m-tʂu^A)
*nok 'bird' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *ɳok^D)
*nui 'snow' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *ɳui^A)
*nəl 'fat' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *(m-)ɳəl^A)
*CV-nəŋh 'salty' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *ʔ-ɳəŋ^B)
*na 'thick' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *C-na^A)
*nak 'give' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *nak^D)
*klep 'fingernail' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *ʈ-lep^D)
*(k/tV-)loŋ 'vegetable' (Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *ɖ-loŋ^A)

Miyake (2021) reconstructs some disyllabic lexical forms for Proto-Kra, including *mata^A 'eye', *manok^D 'bird', and *kVtu^A1 'louse'.

Additionally, Miyake (2008) revises Ostapirat's Proto-Kra *pwl- as *CV-pl-, *bwl- as *CV-bl-, *m-pl- as *pl-, *(p/d/k)-l- as *(p/d/k)V-l-, *ʈ-l- as k-l-, and *ɖ-l- as *(k/tV)-l-. Proto-Kra consonants in Miyake (2021)^[2] as compared to Ostapirat (2000) are:

Ostapirat (2000)	Miyake (2021)
*ʈ-	*CVt-
*ɖ-	*CVd-
*ɳ-	*CVn-
*ɭ-	*CVl-
*d-l-	*CVl-
*tʂ-	*CVts-
*dʐ-	*CVdz-
*hr-	*hr-
*r-	*r-

Vowels

Proto-Kra has a total of 6 vowels (Ostapirat 2000:235).

Proto-Kra vowels
Height	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open		a

Proto-Kra has 4 diphthongs, which are not found in closed syllables.

*-ai
*-aɯ
*-ui
*-au

Tones

Proto-Kra had an A–B–C–D tonal system typical of other Tai–Kadai languages (see Proto-Tai language#Tones). The tonal descriptions below are from Ostapirat (2000:237).

*A: *A is one of the most common tones.
*B: *B and *D are phonetically similar, as reflexes of tone *D are often the same as those of *B. This regularly occurs in all Kra languages except for Qabiao.
*C: *C is usually accompanied by glottal constriction and may have originally had a creaky or tense laryngeal quality. Some Gelao varieties and Yalang Buyang display the same reflex for *B and *C.
*D: *D is the only tone to occur exclusively in closed syllables.

The following table of phonetic characteristics of Proto-Kra tones was adapted from Ostapirat (2000:237).

Proto-Kra Tonal Characteristics
	*A	*B	*C	*D
Type of final	sonorants, vowels	lax larynx (?)	tense larynx	stops
Voicing	voiced	unvoiced	unvoiced	unvoiced
Vocal cords	vibrating	wide open	closed	closed
Vowel duration	long	medium	short	medium