カドゥー語音韻論

Abstract

Kadu belongs to the Luish group of the Tibeto-Burman language family. It is spoken mainly in Banmauk township, Sagaing Division, Burma. The population of Kadu speaking people is estimated to be approximately 20000 [Lewis 2009].This paper fi rst provides an overview of the Kadu phonology. Kadu has 8 vowels (/a, i, u, e, ɛ, o, ɔ, ə/), 20 consonants (/p, pʰ, t, tʰ, c, cʰ, k, kʰ, Ɂ, s, sʰ, ɕ, h, m, n, ñ, ŋ, l, w, y/) and 4 tones (high, mid, low, falling). Striking features of the Kadu phonology are as follows: (1) no distinction between voiced and unaspiratedvoiceless consonants, (2) various types of consonant assimilations of grammatical particles, (3) tonal alternation of the original mid tone into the low tone after the high tone, (4) tonal alternation of the low tone into the falling tone after the mid tone. Particularly interesting is the third character; as the low tone is the result of the tonal alternation of the original *HM sequence, the low tone in the word initial position points to the now lost prefi x in the Proto-Luish stage.