7 - Tibeto-Burman consonants (general; final)

Summary

Some 16 consonant phonemes can be postulated for Tibeto-Burman, as follows:

1. Velar: gkŋh

2. Dental: dtnszrl

3. Labial: bpm

4. Semi-vowels: wy

Let us first examine the development of these consonants in root-final position. All except the sonants g, d, b, and z, also the aspirate h, appear in this position. Consonant clusters, however, are lacking here, although they occur in modern derived forms, e.g. T -gs, -bs (with suffixed -s). All the major TB groups exhibit a system of final stops and nasals, the former in most languages being represented by surds. Many TB roots are of this type, e.g. *krap ‘weep’, *g-sat ‘kill’, *s-rik ‘louse’, *lam ‘road, way’, *s-min ‘ripe’, *ruŋ ‘horn’ (cf. the many examples cited below). The final velars (-k, -ŋ) tend to disappear much more readily than do the dentals or labials, e.g. in Thebor as contrasted with Kanauri, in Dimasa as contrasted with Garo, in Kachin and Nung, and in practically all modern Burmese-Lolo languages as contrasted with Old Burmese.

Final stops and nasals make up distinct series in Tibeto-Burman, and most instances of interchange can readily be interpreted in terms of conditioning factors, e.g. B yauk-má ∼ yauŋ-má ‘pudding-stick’, with -k > -ŋ before -má (cf. T yog-po ‘poker’). Factors of this type play a prominent role in the verb paradigms of Bahing, Kanauri, Tsangla, Miri, and many other TB languages, e.g. Bahing bap-to ‘scratch’ (imperat.), bam-so (refl.), bam-pato (caus.).