Palaungic languages


The Palaungic or Palaung–Wa languages are a group of nearly 30 Austroasiatic languages, with scholars disagreeing on exactly which languages to include in the classification. They are spoken in scattered pockets across an inland region of Southeast Asia, centered on the borders between Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and China.

Phonological developments

Most of the Palaungic languages lost the contrastive voicing of the ancestral Austroasiatic consonants, with the distinction often shifting to the following vowel. In the Wa branch, this is generally realized as breathy voice vowel phonation; in Palaung–Riang, as a two-way register tone system. The Angkuic languages have contour tone — the U language, for example, has four tones, high, low, rising, falling, — but these developed from vowel length and the nature of final consonants, not from the voicing of initial consonants.

Homeland

suggests that the Palaungic Urheimat was in what is now the border region of Laos and Sipsongpanna in Yunnan, China. The Khmuic homeland was adjacent to the Palaungic homeland, resulting in many lexical borrowings among the two branches due to intense contact. Sidwell suggests that the word for 'water', which Gérard Diffloth had used as one of the defining lexical innovations for his Northern Mon-Khmer branch, was likely borrowed from Palaungic into Khmuic.

Classification

Diffloth & Zide (1992)

The Palaungic family includes at least three branches, with the position of some languages as yet unclear. Lamet, for example, is sometimes classified as a separate branch. The following classification follows that of Diffloth & Zide, as quoted in Sidwell.
  • Western Palaungic
  • *Palaung
  • **Shwe
  • **De'ang
  • **Pale
  • **Rumai
  • *Riang
  • **Riang proper, Yinchia
  • **? Danau
  • Eastern Palaungic
  • *Angkuic
  • **Angku
  • **Hu
  • **Kiorr
  • **Kon Keu
  • **Man Met
  • **Mok
  • **Samtao
  • **Tai Loi
  • **U
  • *Lametic
  • **Lamet
  • **Con
  • *Waic
  • **Blang
  • **Lawa
  • ***La
  • ***Lawa
  • **Wa
  • ***Paraok
  • ***Khalo
  • ***Awa
Some researchers include the Mangic languages as well, instead of grouping them with the Pakanic languages.

Sidwell (2010)

The following classification follows the branching given by Sidwell.
  • Danau
  • Palaungic proper
  • *Western
  • **Palaung
  • **Riang
  • *Angkuic
  • **Hu
  • **U
  • **Kiorr
  • **Kon Keu
  • **Mok
  • **Mong Lue
  • **Muak Sa-aak
  • *Lamet
  • *Waic
  • **Blang
  • **Lawa
  • ***Umpai Lawa
  • ***Bo Luang Lawa
  • **Wa
  • ***Paraok
  • ***Khalo
  • ***Awa
  • ***Meung Yum
  • ***Savaiq
Sidwell proposes an additional branch, consisting of:
  • Bit–Khang
  • *Bit
  • *Kháng
  • *Bumang
  • *Quang Lam

    Sidwell (2015)

Sidwell provides a revised classification of Palaungic. Bit–Khang is clearly Palaungic, but contains many Khmuic loanwords. Sidwell believes it likely groups within East Palaungic. On the other hand, Sidwell considers Danaw to be the most divergent Palaungic language.
  • Danaw
  • West Palaungic
  • *Palaung
  • *Rumai
  • *Riang
  • East Palaungic
  • *Waic
  • **Wa
  • **Lawa
  • **Bulang
  • *Angkuic: U, Hu, Man Met/Kemie, Muak/Mok, Tai Loi, etc.
  • *Lameet: Lameet, Con, Lua/Khamet
  • *? Bit–Khang: bit, Buxing, Quang Lam, Khang/Khao, Bumang

    Lexical innovations

Diagnostic Palaungic lexical innovations as identified by Paul Sidwell are:
GlossProto-PalaungicProto-Austroasiatic
‘eye’*ˀŋaːj*mat
‘fire’*ŋal*ʔɔːs~*ʔuːs
‘laugh’*kəɲaːs

Reconstruction