Proto-Mienic or Proto-Yao ( zh, 原始瑶语) is the reconstructed ancestor of the

Mienic languages The Mienic or Yao languages are spoken by the Yao people of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Some of the Yao peoples speak Hmongic languages (Miao); these are called '' Bunu''. A small population of Yao people in Jinxiu Yao Autonomous Co ...

Reconstructions

Reconstructions of Proto-Mienic (Proto-Yao) include those of Purnell (1970), L-Thongkum (1993),

Ratliff Ratliff is a surname of British origin, which is a habitational name for a person from any of the places in Britain called Ratcliffe, Radcliffe, or Redcliff, which in turn are variants on the phrase "red cliff". The surname may also be spelled R ...

(2010), and Liu (2021). Purnell (1970) and L-Thongkum (1993) do not include any data from the divergent Biao Min and Zao Min languages. Purnell's (1970) Proto-Yao reconstruction is based on Iu Mien (Chiengrai

Chiang Rai Chiang Rai (, ; , ) is the northernmost major city in Thailand, with a population of about 200,000 people. It is located in Mueang Chiang Rai District, Chiang Rai Province. Chiang Rai was established as a capital city in the reign of King Ma ...

, in Hwei Kang Pa ห้วยก้างปลา], Hsing-an [Xing'an County, Xing'an], and Taipan [Đại Bản 大板] dialects) and Kim Mun language, Kim Mun (Haininh [Quảng Ninh province, Quảng Ninh] and Ling-chun Lingchuan.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Lingchuan County, Guangxi, Lingchuan">/nowiki>Lingchuan County, Guangxi, Lingchuan/nowiki> dialects). Liu's (2021) Proto-Yao reconstruction is based on data from Iu Mien (Jiangdi 江底 and Miaoziyuan 庙子源 dialects), Biao Mwan (Luoxiang 罗香), Kim Mun language, Kim Mun (Liangzi 梁子 and Tansan 滩散 dialects), Biao Min (Dongshan 东山 and Shikou 石口 dialects), and Zao Min (Daping 大坪). More than 500 lexical items are reconstructed.

Phonology

Consonants

Liu (2021:78-80) gives the following consonant inventory for Proto-Mienic. Initial consonants can be preglottalized, aspirated, or devoiced. Final consonants include /-p, -t, -k, -m, -n, -ŋ/.

Proposed velarization

Ostapirat (2016) proposes

velarized Velarization merican spelling/small> or velarisation ritish spelling/sup> is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant. In the International Pho ...

initials in Proto-Mienic, which are not reconstructed by Liu (2021), Ratliff (2010), and others.Ostapirat, Weera. 2016
Issues in the Reconstruction and Affiliation of Proto-Miao-Yao
. ''Language and Linguistics'' 17(1) 133–145. Below is a comparison of selected Proto-Mienic reconstructions with initial

bilabial stop In phonetics and phonology, a bilabial stop is a type of consonantal sound, made with both lips (hence bilabial), held tightly enough to block the passage of air (hence a stop consonant). The most common sounds are the stops and , as in English ' ...

s from Ostapirat (2016), Liu (2021), L-Thongkum (1993) ("Pre-Mjuenic" reconstructions), and Ratliff (2010).

Vowels

Liu (2021:165) reconstructs 8 Proto-Mienic vowels. * only occurs as part of the rimes *- and *-. Liu (2021) reconstructs contrastive vowel length for Proto-Mienic. However, L-Thongkum (1993) and Ratliff (2010) do not reconstruct vowel length for Proto-Mienic, as they consider vowel length in synchronic Mienic languages to be later prosodic developments.

Sound correspondences

Sound correspondence In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor and then extrapolating backwards t ...

s among the Mienic languages from Liu (2021):

Initials

Reflexes of Proto-Mienic initials in synchronic Mienic languages are as follows (Liu 2021). Prenasalized Pre-Mienic initials are reconstructed; these developed into certain preglottalized and aspirated Proto-Mienic initials.

Rimes

Reflexes of Proto-Mienic rimes in synchronic Mienic languages (Liu 2021):

Tones

Proto-Mienic tonal categories and their respective tone pitch reflexes in synchronic Mienic languages (Liu 2021):

Sound changes

Sound change In historical linguistics, a sound change is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chan ...

innovations in synchronic Mienic languages (Liu 2021:156–157, 228):

Footnotes

References

{{Hmong-Mien languages

Mienic The Mienic or Yao languages are spoken by the Yao people of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Some of the Yao peoples speak Hmongic languages (Miao); these are called '' Bunu''. A small population of Yao people in Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County ...