ロロ＝ビルマ祖語 *ʔ が現代チノ語に与えた影響について

Abstract

Jino is now spoken by the Jino minority living in Xishuangbanna District, Yunnan Province, China. Jino has two dialects, Youle and Buyuan. The Jino population is about 20, 000. Jino is considered to belong to the Lolo-Burmese branch of the TibetoBurman family. Some of scholars think of Jino as a member of the Loloish languages, but this needs to be considered further because Jino has some Burmish characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of Proto-Lolo-Burmese *ʔ upon Modern Jino. In Lolo-Burmese languages, there are many languages which have creaky vowels but do not have voiceless nasals/latelals in the phonological systems. On the other hand, Jino and some other languages (Achang, Burmese, Bisu) do not have creaky vowels but do have voiceless nasals/latelals. The author thinks that one of the origins of both voiceless nasals/latelals and creaky vowels is Proto-Lolo-Burmese *ʔ. This paper illustrates the phonological changes of the syllables containing *ʔ in Jino and other Lolo-Burmese languages more clearly than before. The author points out for the first time that Jino is very similar to Achang and Bisu phonologically except for the existence of closed syllables in the TB cognate words in the latter languages. The phonological changes in Jino are illustrated as follows. (*PLB. represents for Proto-Lolo-Burmese.) [Table omitted]