Northern Tai Subgrouping in Diachronic Perspectives: Evidence from Yongnan Zhuang

Abstract

Yongnan Zhuang (YN), a Tai language group registered in the list of Central Tai (CT), frequently share more certain phonological/lexical innovations with Northern Tai (NT) languages, and this has led its affiliation of CT or NT to be debatable. Based on its robust contrastive aspirated initial stops, which lack in NT but are well-developed in CT languages, Chinese linguists have conventionally grouped it as a sub-group of Southern Zhuang of CT (Zhang et al. 1999). On the other hand, Pittayaporn (2009:298) suggests a new Tai tree diagram containing ten terminal nodes (subgroups), including B, C, I and J which are conventionally grouped in Yongnan Zhuang, based on that each subgroup has a cluster of several innovation. Rejecting to grouping above, this paper suggests that YN should be first grouped with NT languages to form a NT-YN sub-branch of which the CT-Southwestern Tai (SWT) sub-branch is a sister. Agreeing with Liang and Zhang (1996) and Pittayaporn (2009), initial aspiration in CT-SWT languages is suggested to be of post-proto-Tai innovation. That languages from YN have developed robust initial aspiration is nothing more than an areal feature shared with the languages from the CT-SWT sub-branch due to the later contact. Furthermore, evidence from the diachronic hierarchies of linguistic innovations involved in tonal behaviors, initial and vocalic behaviors, as well as exclusive lexical items suggests that YN is an efficient subgroup under NT, instead of a cluster of dialects separated into several subgroups. As an inspiration, it is crucial for language classification to subgroup languages from the same family by using the criterion of shared innovation on diachronic hierarchies and orders. Reference Liang, Min & Zhang Junru. 1996. 侗台语族概论. [An introduction to the Kam-Tai Languages]. Beijing: China Social Sciences Publishing House.] Pittayawat Pittayaporn. 2009. The phonology of Proto-Tai. New York: Cornell University dissertation. Zhang, Junru, Liang Min, Ouyang Jueya, Zheng Yiqing, Li Xulian & Xie Jianyou. 1999. 壮语方言研究. [Zhuang Dialect Research]. (Chinese minority language dialect research series.) Chengdu: Sichuan Ethnic Publishing House.