On the origin of Gamale Kham labial-palatal approximants

Abstract

The development of the Gamale Kham labial-palatal approximants /ɥ/ and /ɥ/ has previously been attributed to the loss of the Proto-Kham initial *p- or the coda *-p. The vowels /i/ and /e/ which occurred in the adjacent syllable nucleus were rounded, resulting in the front rounded vowels /y/ and /o/. Following this development, /w/ and /j/ merged to /ɥ/ in Gamale and Eastern Parbate Kham ( Watters 2002 ; 2004 ; 2005 ). This study evaluates this theory and suggests two alternative explanations: that Proto-Kham may have had either two front rounded vowels *y and *o, or a *ɥ phoneme. In the second case, the work refers to a possible correspondence between a Proto-Kham *ɥ and the Proto-Tibeto-Burman complex *jw.