On plosive-nasal correspondences and alternations in Gyalrongic and their possible solutions

Abstract

Gyalrongic languages exhibit a series of non-trivial nasal-plosive (or approximant) correspondences, which so far lack an explanation. Some nasal consonants, mainly found in West Gyalrongic languages, correspond to plosives or approximants in their East Gyalrongic cognates. Long considered irregular, these correspondences have never been studied with the comparative method. This paper tackles these seeming correspondences and makes the first attempt to reconstruct them. I propose a series of voiceless nasals to account for their modern reflexes with various articulation manners, and analyse the plausibility of this reconstruction. I discuss the forms in question vis-à-vis their cognates in other Sino-Tibetan languages that exhibit a nasal. I also compare alternative solutions with the voiceless nasal hypothesis.