--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Andrew Jarrette" <anjarrette@...> wrote:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
> <richard.wordingham@> wrote:
> I find the shift *d > /th/ incredibly difficult to believe. The
> etymology of Thai <thawit> as from Sanskrit <dvija> strikes me as
> false, especially since there is little semantic correspondence
> (unless the "bird" referred to is the Phoenix? How are brahmins
> twice-born, and why didn't they borrow <brahmin> instead?).
They did borrow it as well - /phraam/ <brahmNa> (graphic transliteration).
> Can you
> provide Siamese and Lao words with <th> that correspond to words with
> <d> in other Thai dialects?
It's a little complicated, because of the areal loss of voicing
contrasts. The earliest writing systems - Khmer, Mon, Thai and Cham -
agree in using Indic <d> for what is reconstructed as *d, but one can
argue that that merely represented /t/ followed by a breathy vowel.
Dialects in the Siamese-Lao area, including more distantly related Tai
dialects and one descendant of Old Mon, Nyahkur, have interpreted the
breathiness as aspiration. Cognates with voiced consonants can
readily be established for Khmer, Mon and Cham. (Cham is an undoubted
Austronesian language, whereas the affiliation of the Tai group to
Austronesian is debatable.)
In short, the Tai dialects outside the Siamese-Lao area (e.g. Northern
Thai, Shan, Red Tai, N. Zhuang, S. Zhuang) have /t/ as the reflect of
Proto-Tai *d.
However, I can offer some comparative data from the SW Kra group, also
in the Tai-Kadai group. The relevant members of the SW Kra group are
Gelao (a mass of disparate dialects), Laha and Lachi. While the
non-retroflex plosives are generally preserved, the voiced plosives
are variously preserved, devoiced or aspirated. Thus for example, we
have:
'bone'
Laha (Nong Lay): dak
Laha (Ta Mit): thak*
Lachi: th\jQ (h\ = voiced 'h', Q = vowel of Britsh English 'top')
Gelao (Laozhai): dæ
Gelao (Wanzi): taN (N = velar nasal)
*Based on simple statement of Ta Mit-Nong Lay correspondence
'forget'
Laha (Nong Lay): dap
Laha (Ta Mit): thap
Lachi: th\ja
Gelao (Wanzi): te
'do'
Laha (Nong Lay): d@... ('@' = schwa)
Lachi th\je
Gelao (Laozhai): di
Gelao (Qiaoshang): t7u ('7' = unrounded 'o')
Gelao (Wanzi): tha (Aspiration only occurs in the commonest tone, 'A')
Richard.