Creaky and pharyngealised vowels in Sangdam Tibetan

Abstract

This article primarily describes the phonemic status of creaky and pharyngealised vowels in Sangdam Tibetan, a lesser-known Khams Tibetan dialect spoken in the northernmost area of Kachin State, Myanmar, and provides a brief analysis from a historical and typological perspective. From a synchronic perspective, the evidence for the distinctiveness of the creaky voice may be weak; however, there are a few minimal pairs. In terms of diachronic perspective, the creaky voice does not seem to have an obvious Written Tibetan (WrT) origin, whereas pharyngealisation can be tracked back to two clear origins: WrT r in all positions in a syllable and the coalescence of two syllables.