ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese

5 INITIAL CONSONANTS

5 INITIAL CONSONANTS Because MC initial consonants and other phonemes are projected back to (nearly) identical ones in LHan, subsequently examples will often be cited in simpler LHan forms. Most of the OC - TB or foreign initial consonant equations are straightforward: m- m-, p ~ ph ~ b:;:; p- _ ph_ - b-, etc. For unusual correspondences with laterals and semivowels, see§1O. Voiced initials are discussed in other contexts: morphological voicing of the initial (endopassive), see §4.6; MC initial d- from OC *d- and *1-, see §8.1.1; MC initial zj- from OC *s-I- (§8.1.2), (§9.4), and *s-w- (§IO.1.2); MC initial dij- (LHan z-), the rare initials, from OC *m-I-, see §8.1.3; MC initial (LHan di-), the common initial from OC *d-, but also from *j-, see §9.3; and on the initials in GSR 4 13 see §8.1.5. 5.1 Devoiced initials Some voiceless initials are discussed in connection with *r- (§7.1.2; 7.1.4) and OC *1- (§8.2.1). Devoicing of sonorants is common within ST wfs and in OC. Many of the following MC initials reflect an earlier voiceless sonorant; examples can be found in §5.2.2 to §5.6. MC th_ from *lh-, *nh-, rarely from *rh-. MC sj- from *lh, *nh-, *hj-(?); MC sj- never represents OC *sj-! MC x- from *hl], *hl], *hw, also *h-; rarely from acute initials (§ 1.3.1; §5.6). MC {h_ occasionally from *rh-, otherwise from *thr- (§7.1.2). MC tshj- occasionally from *k-hl- (§5.9.3), otherwise from *th-. Other languages indicate that the loss of consonants like *k-, *p-, *7- were the cause of OC voicelessness, by first devoicing the following sonorant, then disappearing. Devoiced initials co-occur in phonetic series with the voiced counterparts *1-, *-n, *-r, *m-, *1]-, *w-. Because they do not mix in phonetic series with other types of consonants like s-, k-, t-, we must assume devoiced sonorants already for pre-literate Chinese, i.e., at least 1250 BC; thus 'fire' -7 hUQ ;J( has never been anything but *hmgi? in OC (never *smgi?). The prefix / pre-initial which had caused voicelessness must have disappeared by that time. Words from all sources, ST, KT, MY, and AA participated in this devoicing in PCH. Because several solid ST etymologies are in this list (including hub 'fire'), the items in the present section represent the normal PCH / OC development from ST clusters and must reflect an early layer in PCH. Many of the words with OC voiceless continuants have foreign counterparts with discrete clusters. If Chinese was the donor of such words, then the exchange would have taken place at a very early age indeed. Less dramatic would be the assumption that PCH had absorbed foreign vocabulary during its expansion which then underwent the regular PCH process of cluster simplification. 5.1.1 Devoicing ofST initial *z-> Me sMC zj- reflects an original s-prefix in the combinations *s-I- (§8.1.2), *s-j- (§9.4), and *s-w- (§1O.1.2). But the voiced ST root initial *z- is devoiced in OC to for example: 51 Small To act, do Sleep 5.2 - 5.2.2 INITIAL CONSONANTS ST *zi: Xl *ffi (sieiC) [seC] *seh or [seiC] *sfh 'thin, small' PTB *ziy > West Tib. zi 'very small'; WB seB 'small, fine'; Kachin zj 'small' ST *z~: SIP] (St) [si~] *s~ 'be in charge, manage' WT mdzad-pa « m-za-t) 'to do, act' 3. bzo 'work, labor' ST *k-zim: qln ~ [tshimB] 'sleep' WT gzim-pa 'sleep' (§5.9.1) 5.2 Sino-Tibetan *s-prefix The ST and PCH s-prefix is reflected in several MC initials: (1) MC s- Middle Chinese sIn some MC forms which have preserved *s-, the original causative / transitive function is still detectable (LHan after the graph): Lose Revive Fear Tremble Entice Expel su if suo%, Xu §J!t SOI]C, *smal]h 'to lose, destroy' MC voiceless initial As already suggested, the voiceless initial consonant represents an early layer in which a ST or PCH causative *s- has been lost after devoicing the following sonorant: Neglect Let go Transport huang mhuol], *hmal] 'neglect, reject' devoicing caus.: shl [sak] *Ihak 'unloose. put away, let go' > s-suffix caus.: she [saC] *lhakh 'let go, liberate, pardon' > s-prefix caus.: cJ [tshiak] *s-Ihak ? 'to expel' Some causative derivations with s-prefix have in addition tone C which also marks...