SIL Electronic Working Papers
SILEWP 1997-001

: Author: Brush, Beaumont
Title: The Status of Coronal in the Historical Development of Lhasa Tibetan Rhymes
Source: First presented at the 24th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest, University of New Mexico at Las Cruces, October 6-8, 1995.
Keywords: Tibetan, phonology, historical linguistics, sound change
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Abstract:
This paper compares the forms of the historically conservative Written Tibetan with those of the modern spoken dialect of Lhasa Tibetan. The comparison yields several conclusions concerning the historical development of the syllable in Lhasa Tibetan: the relevant feature for analysis is not dental but coronal; historical sound changes have taken place due to constraints at the level of the syllable; and the feature Coronal is underspecified in Written and Lhasa Tibetan according to modified constrastive underspecification and not according to universal coronal underspecification.
Paper: Text, PDF

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