25 - Tibeto-Burman prefixed *g-

Summary

T prefixed g- has been interpreted by Wolfenden (Outlines, pp. 40–3) as ‘directive’ (gtug-pa ‘reach, touch’, gtum-pa ‘wrap up’, gśo-ba ‘pour out’). Kachin has prefixed g∂-∼k∂-∼kh∂- with verb roots, in intransitives (e.g. k∂gat ‘run, flee’, kh∂ra ‘to be indifferent’) as well as transitives. Elsewhere, however, this prefix is virtually unknown in this role, although Tangkhul (Kuki-Naga) has an otiose prefix of the same form (k∂kap ‘shoot’ < *ga·p, k∂yap ‘fan’ < *ya·p, k∂tśap ‘weep’ < *krap). Prefixed *g- has been reconstructed in *g-ryap ‘stand’ (K tsap < g-yap), *g-sat ‘kill; fight, strike’ (T gsod-pa, Pf. bsad ‘kill’; K sat ‘kill’, g∂sat∼k∂sat ‘to fight; a fight’; general TB sense is ‘kill by striking’); *g-lwat ‘free, release’ (T glod-pa, B lwat∼kywat < *klwat), also the following pair of roots:

(451) T g-ya-ba, K k∂ya, B yà ‘to itch’ (TB *g-ya).

(452) K k∂ya?, L zak < *yak ‘to be ashamed, shy’, Tangkhul kh∂yak kh∂vai ‘venerable, shameful’, k∂kh∂yak ‘pay respect, venerate; shame, veneration’ (TB *g-yak).

Prefixed g-∼k- as an adjectival (or verbal-noun) prefix is found in Gyarung, Kachin, Bodo-Garo, and Mikir, e.g. Gyarung kěsĭk ‘new’, K g∂lu, Dimasz galau ‘long’, Mikir kethe ‘great, large’. Wolfenden rightly identifies this as an old pronominal element (cf. K khan < kha-ni ‘they two’), which appears as a prefix with kinship terms in Kachin (śi-a k∂wa ‘his father’, as opposed to na nwa ‘thy father’).