Tibetan vwa ‘fox’ and the sound change Tibeto-Burman *wa -> Old Tibetan o

Main author: Hill, Nathan W.
Format: Journal Article           
Online access: Click here to view record


Summary: Paul Benedict (1972: 34) proposed that Tibeto-Burman medial *-waregularly leads to -0- in Old Tibetan, but that initial *wa did not undergo this change. Because Old Tibetan has no initial w-, and several genuine words have the rhyme -wa, this proposal cannot be accepted. In particular, the intial of the Old Tibetan word vwa 'fox' is v- and not w-.
Language: English
Published: University of California, Berkeley 2006