The syllable in Kuki-Chin

Abstract

The Kuki-Chin group of the Tibeto-Burman language family consists of upwards of 50 languages spoken mainly in western Myanmar, predominantly in Chin State and in neighboring areas of India and Bangladesh (Simons & Fennig (eds.). 2019. Ethnologue: Languages of the world, 21st edn. Dallas Texas: SIL International. Online version. http://www.ethnologue.com/). In the many daughter languages of Proto–Kuki-Chin, syllable structure simplification has yielded a synchronic situation in which individual languages are spread along a cline ranging from more conservative languages, some with complex onsets and vowel length distinctions, to more innovative languages, some with no coda consonants at all. The distribution and phonetic realization of these features vary across the Kuki-Chin group, raising a number of relevant questions about the underlying phonological representations of the Kuki-Chin syllable. This paper surveys representative structures from a variety of Kuki-Chin languages in order to highlight issues in syllable structure across these little-studied languages. In doing so, we aim to both unify observations on Kuki-Chin phonology related to the syllable, and to propose research that will further elucidate its structures.

Kuki-Chin Phonology: An Overview

“…It is perhaps atypical in that there are no glide onsets, *wand *j-having been strengthened to /v/ and /z/. However, this change is seen elsewhere in KC (VanBik 2009;Lotven et al 2020)…”

“…There is a very strong correspondence between morpheme and syllable in Kuki-Chin languages-but see Hyow, in which morpheme and syllable do not neatly align (Zakaria 2018;Zakaria 2020)-and understanding syllable structure proves to be key in understanding Kuki-Chin phonology (Lotven et al 2020). Most phonotactic restrictions that exist in these languages can be best understood in terms of syllable structure constraints.…”

“…However, I have chosen to focus on the sound systems of a few exemplar languages rather than "collating" facts from as many languages as possible. Lotven et al (2020) follows the latter approach, and provides a useful approach to the diachronic phonology of the Kuki-Chin syllable. I follow the former approach because, as a fieldworker, I find it helpful to see examples of whole phonological systems of languages related to those on which I am working.…”

Consonant Sounds in Hnaring Lutuv

“…The aspirated or voiceless lateral affricate also exhibits variability, ranging from an aspirated [t ͡ lʰ] to a more fricated [t ͡ ɬ]. This type of variation is not unique to the lateral affricate -rather, it is standard for the sonorants not only in Lutuv but in Chin languages more generally (see Lotven et al 2020). The voiceless lateral and both rhotics exhibit a great deal of surface variation, often being produced as fricatives or with at least some frication: /l̥ / may surface as something similar to [ɬ], /r/ as something similar to [ʒ], and /r̥ / as something akin to [ʃ].…”

Some Diachronic Phonological changes from Proto-Kuki-Chin to Lutuv

“…These observations are based on Mara, the most widely spoken and studied Maraic variety (Savidge, 1908;Parry, 1932;Lorrain, 1951;Löffler, 2002Löffler, , 2004VanBik, 2009;Arden, 2010). These innovations are discussed in terms of the loss of various segments, however as discussed across KC in terms of syllable structure simplification in Lotven et al (2019), structural losses in Maraic languages make way for complexification in the vocalic and tonal domains. VanBik's (2009) five innovations are summarized in Fig.3.…”