A set of recordings illustrating Uvular Vowels in Tsharza Rma

An exploration of uvularized vowels in Tsharza Rma Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ University of Oregon LDR - Dec 5, 2025 Overview 1Philosophy of historical linguistics 2Uvularized vowels 3Tsharza Rma 4Segmental Phonology & Phonotactic irregularities 5Conclusion Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 2 / 85 Language change Mechanisms of change: Sound Change - exceptionless Borrowing - can create exceptions Analogy - can both create and eliminate exceptions Osthoff & Brugmann 1878; Lehman 1967 Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 3 / 85 Language change Mechanisms of change: Sound Change - exceptionless Borrowing - can create exceptions Analogy - can both create and eliminate exceptions Osthoff & Brugmann 1878; Lehman 1967 Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 3 / 85 Language change Mechanisms of change: Sound Change - exceptionless Borrowing - can create exceptions Analogy - can both create and eliminate exceptions Osthoff & Brugmann 1878; Lehman 1967 Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 3 / 85 Language change Mechanisms of change: Sound Change - exceptionless Borrowing - can create exceptions Analogy - can both create and eliminate exceptions Osthoff & Brugmann 1878; Lehman 1967 Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 3 / 85 Language change Mechanisms of change: Sound Change - exceptionless Borrowing - can create exceptions Analogy - can both create and eliminate exceptions Osthoff & Brugmann 1878; Lehman 1967 Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 3 / 85 Language change Mechanisms of change: Sound Change - exceptionless Borrowing - can create exceptions Analogy - can both create and eliminate exceptions Osthoff & Brugmann 1878; Lehman 1967 Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 3 / 85 Language change Mechanisms of change: Sound Change - exceptionless Borrowing - can create exceptions Analogy - can both create and eliminate exceptions Osthoff & Brugmann 1878; Lehman 1967 Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 3 / 85 Language change Modulators of change Signal-level factors Frequency — interacts with borrowing and analogy Iconicity — renewal of sound-symbolic forms via analogy Individual-level factors: Biological & Cognitive Articulatory and perceptual apparatus — interacts with sound change Memory — interacts with analogy Societal-level factors Community size, multilingualism, proportion of L2 speakers, taboo, writing, etc. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 4 / 85 Helpful tools Distributional analysis Phonemic analysis/internal reconstruction, & comparative reconstruction. Principles of reconstruction: Directionality of sound change: *k -> tʃ before [i] (Ohala 1978) Directionality of semantic change: *concrete -> abstract (Traugott 2017) Unifying: Archaic homogeneity of forms Diversifying: Archaic heterogeneity of paradigms (Hetzron 1976) Axiom/Dogma - belief in Ausnahmslosigkeit ‘exceptionlessness’ of sound change. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 5 / 85 Helpful tools Distributional analysis Phonemic analysis/internal reconstruction, & comparative reconstruction. Principles of reconstruction: Directionality of sound change: *k -> tʃ before [i] (Ohala 1978) Directionality of semantic change: *concrete -> abstract (Traugott 2017) Unifying: Archaic homogeneity of forms Diversifying: Archaic heterogeneity of paradigms (Hetzron 1976) Axiom/Dogma - belief in Ausnahmslosigkeit ‘exceptionlessness’ of sound change. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 5 / 85 Helpful tools Distributional analysis Phonemic analysis/internal reconstruction, & comparative reconstruction. Principles of reconstruction: Directionality of sound change: *k -> tʃ before [i] (Ohala 1978) Directionality of semantic change: *concrete -> abstract (Traugott 2017) Unifying: Archaic homogeneity of forms Diversifying: Archaic heterogeneity of paradigms (Hetzron 1976) Axiom/Dogma - belief in Ausnahmslosigkeit ‘exceptionlessness’ of sound change. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 5 / 85 Helpful tools Distributional analysis Phonemic analysis/internal reconstruction, & comparative reconstruction. Principles of reconstruction: Directionality of sound change: *k -> tʃ before [i] (Ohala 1978) Directionality of semantic change: *concrete -> abstract (Traugott 2017) Unifying: Archaic homogeneity of forms Diversifying: Archaic heterogeneity of paradigms (Hetzron 1976) Axiom/Dogma - belief in Ausnahmslosigkeit ‘exceptionlessness’ of sound change. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 5 / 85 Helpful tools Distributional analysis Phonemic analysis/internal reconstruction, & comparative reconstruction. Principles of reconstruction: Directionality of sound change: *k -> tʃ before [i] (Ohala 1978) Directionality of semantic change: *concrete -> abstract (Traugott 2017) Unifying: Archaic homogeneity of forms Diversifying: Archaic heterogeneity of paradigms (Hetzron 1976) Axiom/Dogma - belief in Ausnahmslosigkeit ‘exceptionlessness’ of sound change. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 5 / 85 Helpful tools Distributional analysis Phonemic analysis/internal reconstruction, & comparative reconstruction. Principles of reconstruction: Directionality of sound change: *k -> tʃ before [i] (Ohala 1978) Directionality of semantic change: *concrete -> abstract (Traugott 2017) Unifying: Archaic homogeneity of forms Diversifying: Archaic heterogeneity of paradigms (Hetzron 1976) Axiom/Dogma - belief in Ausnahmslosigkeit ‘exceptionlessness’ of sound change. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 5 / 85 Helpful tools Distributional analysis Phonemic analysis/internal reconstruction, & comparative reconstruction. Principles of reconstruction: Directionality of sound change: *k -> tʃ before [i] (Ohala 1978) Directionality of semantic change: *concrete -> abstract (Traugott 2017) Unifying: Archaic homogeneity of forms Diversifying: Archaic heterogeneity of paradigms (Hetzron 1976) Axiom/Dogma - belief in Ausnahmslosigkeit ‘exceptionlessness’ of sound change. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 5 / 85 Helpful tools Distributional analysis Phonemic analysis/internal reconstruction, & comparative reconstruction. Principles of reconstruction: Directionality of sound change: *k -> tʃ before [i] (Ohala 1978) Directionality of semantic change: *concrete -> abstract (Traugott 2017) Unifying: Archaic homogeneity of forms Diversifying: Archaic heterogeneity of paradigms (Hetzron 1976) Axiom/Dogma - belief in Ausnahmslosigkeit ‘exceptionlessness’ of sound change. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 5 / 85 Helpful tools Distributional analysis Phonemic analysis/internal reconstruction, & comparative reconstruction. Principles of reconstruction: Directionality of sound change: *k -> tʃ before [i] (Ohala 1978) Directionality of semantic change: *concrete -> abstract (Traugott 2017) Unifying: Archaic homogeneity of forms Diversifying: Archaic heterogeneity of paradigms (Hetzron 1976) Axiom/Dogma - belief in Ausnahmslosigkeit ‘exceptionlessness’ of sound change. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 5 / 85 Helpful tools cont. Auxiliary sciences: Typology, archaeology, population history, paleobotany/zoology, paleoenvironmental studies, epigraphy, philology etc. Phylogenetic analysis: Identification of non-trivial positive shared innovations Models: Wave (horizontal only) (see Jacques & List 2019) Tree (vertical only) Network (both) Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 6 / 85 Helpful tools cont. Auxiliary sciences: Typology, archaeology, population history, paleobotany/zoology, paleoenvironmental studies, epigraphy, philology etc. Phylogenetic analysis: Identification of non-trivial positive shared innovations Models: Wave (horizontal only) (see Jacques & List 2019) Tree (vertical only) Network (both) Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 6 / 85 Unhelpful tools Irregular sound change (e.g. Blust 1996; Lynch 2008) Grammatically conditioned sound change (see Hill 2014) Lexical diffusion (i.e. Wang & Cheng 1977). See Egerod 1981, Pulleyblank 1982, Mazaudon & Lowe 1994, Blevins 2004: 278, Hill 2016, Labov 2020 for critiques Teleological explanations (see Blevins 2004), i.e. OT / Allofams (see Fellner & Hill 2019) Proto-variation (e.g. Matisoff 1997, 2000, 2003; see Sagart 2006): *k/p/s-rwak ANT [3] *m/p/s-(l/d)ap ARM/HAND/WING [9] *m/g-(r)wa-ŋ/k/t HORN/ANGLE/CORNER [12] * (p/b/h)(w/y)a(ː)(r/l/n/t) FIRE/BURN/SHINE/BRIGHT/LIGHT/WHITE [120] PIE *bʰel SHINE, PAN *balar PALE; P-Dravid. *weḷ WHITE Change in progress (see Hill 2014) Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 7 / 85 Unhelpful tools Irregular sound change (e.g. Blust 1996; Lynch 2008) Grammatically conditioned sound change (see Hill 2014) Lexical diffusion (i.e. Wang & Cheng 1977). See Egerod 1981, Pulleyblank 1982, Mazaudon & Lowe 1994, Blevins 2004: 278, Hill 2016, Labov 2020 for critiques Teleological explanations (see Blevins 2004), i.e. OT / Allofams (see Fellner & Hill 2019) Proto-variation (e.g. Matisoff 1997, 2000, 2003; see Sagart 2006): *k/p/s-rwak ANT [3] *m/p/s-(l/d)ap ARM/HAND/WING [9] *m/g-(r)wa-ŋ/k/t HORN/ANGLE/CORNER [12] * (p/b/h)(w/y)a(ː)(r/l/n/t) FIRE/BURN/SHINE/BRIGHT/LIGHT/WHITE [120] PIE *bʰel SHINE, PAN *balar PALE; P-Dravid. *weḷ WHITE Change in progress (see Hill 2014) Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 7 / 85 Unhelpful tools Irregular sound change (e.g. Blust 1996; Lynch 2008) Grammatically conditioned sound change (see Hill 2014) Lexical diffusion (i.e. Wang & Cheng 1977). See Egerod 1981, Pulleyblank 1982, Mazaudon & Lowe 1994, Blevins 2004: 278, Hill 2016, Labov 2020 for critiques Teleological explanations (see Blevins 2004), i.e. OT / Allofams (see Fellner & Hill 2019) Proto-variation (e.g. Matisoff 1997, 2000, 2003; see Sagart 2006): *k/p/s-rwak ANT [3] *m/p/s-(l/d)ap ARM/HAND/WING [9] *m/g-(r)wa-ŋ/k/t HORN/ANGLE/CORNER [12] * (p/b/h)(w/y)a(ː)(r/l/n/t) FIRE/BURN/SHINE/BRIGHT/LIGHT/WHITE [120] PIE *bʰel SHINE, PAN *balar PALE; P-Dravid. *weḷ WHITE Change in progress (see Hill 2014) Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 7 / 85 Unhelpful tools Irregular sound change (e.g. Blust 1996; Lynch 2008) Grammatically conditioned sound change (see Hill 2014) Lexical diffusion (i.e. Wang & Cheng 1977). See Egerod 1981, Pulleyblank 1982, Mazaudon & Lowe 1994, Blevins 2004: 278, Hill 2016, Labov 2020 for critiques Teleological explanations (see Blevins 2004), i.e. OT / Allofams (see Fellner & Hill 2019) Proto-variation (e.g. Matisoff 1997, 2000, 2003; see Sagart 2006): *k/p/s-rwak ANT [3] *m/p/s-(l/d)ap ARM/HAND/WING [9] *m/g-(r)wa-ŋ/k/t HORN/ANGLE/CORNER [12] * (p/b/h)(w/y)a(ː)(r/l/n/t) FIRE/BURN/SHINE/BRIGHT/LIGHT/WHITE [120] PIE *bʰel SHINE, PAN *balar PALE; P-Dravid. *weḷ WHITE Change in progress (see Hill 2014) Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 7 / 85 Unhelpful tools Irregular sound change (e.g. Blust 1996; Lynch 2008) Grammatically conditioned sound change (see Hill 2014) Lexical diffusion (i.e. Wang & Cheng 1977). See Egerod 1981, Pulleyblank 1982, Mazaudon & Lowe 1994, Blevins 2004: 278, Hill 2016, Labov 2020 for critiques Teleological explanations (see Blevins 2004), i.e. OT / Allofams (see Fellner & Hill 2019) Proto-variation (e.g. Matisoff 1997, 2000, 2003; see Sagart 2006): *k/p/s-rwak ANT [3] *m/p/s-(l/d)ap ARM/HAND/WING [9] *m/g-(r)wa-ŋ/k/t HORN/ANGLE/CORNER [12] * (p/b/h)(w/y)a(ː)(r/l/n/t) FIRE/BURN/SHINE/BRIGHT/LIGHT/WHITE [120] PIE *bʰel SHINE, PAN *balar PALE; P-Dravid. *weḷ WHITE Change in progress (see Hill 2014) Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 7 / 85 Unhelpful tools Irregular sound change (e.g. Blust 1996; Lynch 2008) Grammatically conditioned sound change (see Hill 2014) Lexical diffusion (i.e. Wang & Cheng 1977). See Egerod 1981, Pulleyblank 1982, Mazaudon & Lowe 1994, Blevins 2004: 278, Hill 2016, Labov 2020 for critiques Teleological explanations (see Blevins 2004), i.e. OT / Allofams (see Fellner & Hill 2019) Proto-variation (e.g. Matisoff 1997, 2000, 2003; see Sagart 2006): *k/p/s-rwak ANT [3] *m/p/s-(l/d)ap ARM/HAND/WING [9] *m/g-(r)wa-ŋ/k/t HORN/ANGLE/CORNER [12] * (p/b/h)(w/y)a(ː)(r/l/n/t) FIRE/BURN/SHINE/BRIGHT/LIGHT/WHITE [120] PIE *bʰel SHINE, PAN *balar PALE; P-Dravid. *weḷ WHITE Change in progress (see Hill 2014) Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 7 / 85 Unhelpful tools Irregular sound change (e.g. Blust 1996; Lynch 2008) Grammatically conditioned sound change (see Hill 2014) Lexical diffusion (i.e. Wang & Cheng 1977). See Egerod 1981, Pulleyblank 1982, Mazaudon & Lowe 1994, Blevins 2004: 278, Hill 2016, Labov 2020 for critiques Teleological explanations (see Blevins 2004), i.e. OT / Allofams (see Fellner & Hill 2019) Proto-variation (e.g. Matisoff 1997, 2000, 2003; see Sagart 2006): *k/p/s-rwak ANT [3] *m/p/s-(l/d)ap ARM/HAND/WING [9] *m/g-(r)wa-ŋ/k/t HORN/ANGLE/CORNER [12] * (p/b/h)(w/y)a(ː)(r/l/n/t) FIRE/BURN/SHINE/BRIGHT/LIGHT/WHITE [120] PIE *bʰel SHINE, PAN *balar PALE; P-Dravid. *weḷ WHITE Change in progress (see Hill 2014) Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 7 / 85 Unhelpful tools Irregular sound change (e.g. Blust 1996; Lynch 2008) Grammatically conditioned sound change (see Hill 2014) Lexical diffusion (i.e. Wang & Cheng 1977). See Egerod 1981, Pulleyblank 1982, Mazaudon & Lowe 1994, Blevins 2004: 278, Hill 2016, Labov 2020 for critiques Teleological explanations (see Blevins 2004), i.e. OT / Allofams (see Fellner & Hill 2019) Proto-variation (e.g. Matisoff 1997, 2000, 2003; see Sagart 2006): *k/p/s-rwak ANT [3] *m/p/s-(l/d)ap ARM/HAND/WING [9] *m/g-(r)wa-ŋ/k/t HORN/ANGLE/CORNER [12] * (p/b/h)(w/y)a(ː)(r/l/n/t) FIRE/BURN/SHINE/BRIGHT/LIGHT/WHITE [120] PIE *bʰel SHINE, PAN *balar PALE; P-Dravid. *weḷ WHITE Change in progress (see Hill 2014) Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 7 / 85 Phonology and Etymology - Chao 1934 Place of articulation Series Never Before /i, y/ Always before /i, y/ 1. Velar k, kʰ, x ✓ 2. Alveolar ts, tsʰ, s ✓ 3. Retroflex tʂ, tʂʰ, ʂ ✓ 4. Palatal tɕ, tɕʰ, ɕ ✓ Table: Distribution of Mandarin obstruents (after Chao 1934) ’Non-uniqueness of phonemic solutions’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [petɕiŋ] : / pekiŋ / = * pekiŋ ‘Peking’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [ɕi.niŋ] : / xiniŋ /=* siniŋ ‘Sining’ Uniqueness of etymological solutions Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 8 / 85 Phonology and Etymology - Chao 1934 Place of articulation Series Never Before /i, y/ Always before /i, y/ 1. Velar k, kʰ, x ✓ 2. Alveolar ts, tsʰ, s ✓ 3. Retroflex tʂ, tʂʰ, ʂ ✓ 4. Palatal tɕ, tɕʰ, ɕ ✓ Table: Distribution of Mandarin obstruents (after Chao 1934) ’Non-uniqueness of phonemic solutions’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [petɕiŋ] : / pekiŋ / = * pekiŋ ‘Peking’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [ɕi.niŋ] : / xiniŋ /=* siniŋ ‘Sining’ Uniqueness of etymological solutions Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 8 / 85 Phonology and Etymology - Chao 1934 Place of articulation Series Never Before /i, y/ Always before /i, y/ 1. Velar k, kʰ, x ✓ 2. Alveolar ts, tsʰ, s ✓ 3. Retroflex tʂ, tʂʰ, ʂ ✓ 4. Palatal tɕ, tɕʰ, ɕ ✓ Table: Distribution of Mandarin obstruents (after Chao 1934) ’Non-uniqueness of phonemic solutions’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [petɕiŋ] : / pekiŋ / = * pekiŋ ‘Peking’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [ɕi.niŋ] : / xiniŋ /=* siniŋ ‘Sining’ Uniqueness of etymological solutions Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 8 / 85 Phonology and Etymology - Chao 1934 Place of articulation Series Never Before /i, y/ Always before /i, y/ 1. Velar k, kʰ, x ✓ 2. Alveolar ts, tsʰ, s ✓ 3. Retroflex tʂ, tʂʰ, ʂ ✓ 4. Palatal tɕ, tɕʰ, ɕ ✓ Table: Distribution of Mandarin obstruents (after Chao 1934) ’Non-uniqueness of phonemic solutions’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [petɕiŋ] : / pekiŋ / = * pekiŋ ‘Peking’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [ɕi.niŋ] : / xiniŋ /=* siniŋ ‘Sining’ Uniqueness of etymological solutions Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 8 / 85 Phonology and Etymology - Chao 1934 Place of articulation Series Never Before /i, y/ Always before /i, y/ 1. Velar k, kʰ, x ✓ 2. Alveolar ts, tsʰ, s ✓ 3. Retroflex tʂ, tʂʰ, ʂ ✓ 4. Palatal tɕ, tɕʰ, ɕ ✓ Table: Distribution of Mandarin obstruents (after Chao 1934) ’Non-uniqueness of phonemic solutions’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [petɕiŋ] : / pekiŋ / = * pekiŋ ‘Peking’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [ɕi.niŋ] : / xiniŋ /=* siniŋ ‘Sining’ Uniqueness of etymological solutions Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 8 / 85 Phonology and Etymology - Chao 1934 Place of articulation Series Never Before /i, y/ Always before /i, y/ 1. Velar k, kʰ, x ✓ 2. Alveolar ts, tsʰ, s ✓ 3. Retroflex tʂ, tʂʰ, ʂ ✓ 4. Palatal tɕ, tɕʰ, ɕ ✓ Table: Distribution of Mandarin obstruents (after Chao 1934) ’Non-uniqueness of phonemic solutions’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [petɕiŋ] : / pekiŋ / = * pekiŋ ‘Peking’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [ɕi.niŋ] : / xiniŋ / =* siniŋ ‘Sining’ Uniqueness of etymological solutions Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 8 / 85 Phonology and Etymology - Chao 1934 Place of articulation Series Never Before /i, y/ Always before /i, y/ 1. Velar k, kʰ, x ✓ 2. Alveolar ts, tsʰ, s ✓ 3. Retroflex tʂ, tʂʰ, ʂ ✓ 4. Palatal tɕ, tɕʰ, ɕ ✓ Table: Distribution of Mandarin obstruents (after Chao 1934) ’Non-uniqueness of phonemic solutions’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [petɕiŋ] : / pekiŋ / = * pekiŋ ‘Peking’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [ɕi.niŋ] : / xiniŋ /=* siniŋ ‘Sining’ Uniqueness of etymological solutions Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 8 / 85 Phonology and Etymology - Chao 1934 Place of articulation Series Never Before /i, y/ Always before /i, y/ 1. Velar k, kʰ, x ✓ 2. Alveolar ts, tsʰ, s ✓ 3. Retroflex tʂ, tʂʰ, ʂ ✓ 4. Palatal tɕ, tɕʰ, ɕ ✓ Table: Distribution of Mandarin obstruents (after Chao 1934) ’Non-uniqueness of phonemic solutions’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [petɕiŋ] : / pekiŋ / = * pekiŋ ‘Peking’ Three equally valid phonemic analyses of [ɕi.niŋ] : / xiniŋ /=* siniŋ ‘Sining’ Uniqueness of etymological solutions Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 8 / 85 Vowel alternations in Ronghong Rma da/dɑ/de/do- ‘away’ ti/tu/tə/- ‘up’ Approaches: LaPolla & Huang 2003: no underlying forms: da/dɑ/de/do- ‘away’, etc. Evans & Huang 2007 - V harmony - synchronic linear phonology - feature theory - underspecified vowels, morpho-phonemics Sims 2013 - V harmony - synchronic non-linear phonology (OT). Locally conjoined constraints or comparative markedness Sims 2023 - Etymological approach. Gave an account of variation with reference to regular sound change, borrowings and analogy. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 9 / 85 Vowel alternations in Ronghong Rma da/dɑ/de/do- ‘away’ ti/tu/tə/- ‘up’ Approaches: LaPolla & Huang 2003: no underlying forms: da/dɑ/de/do- ‘away’, etc. Evans & Huang 2007 - V harmony - synchronic linear phonology - feature theory - underspecified vowels, morpho-phonemics Sims 2013 - V harmony - synchronic non-linear phonology (OT). Locally conjoined constraints or comparative markedness Sims 2023 - Etymological approach. Gave an account of variation with reference to regular sound change, borrowings and analogy. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 9 / 85 Uvularized vowels in Trans-Himalayan Several NE Trans-Himalayan languages have been described as having what has been called Gutteral Secondary Vowel Articulations (GSVA) (Gong 2020) Velarization Uvularization Pharyngealization Tenseness Retracted Tongue Root First described in Rgyalrongic languages (Sun 2000) Described in NW Rma by Evans (2006a-b) Instrumental study on NW Rma (Evans et al. 2016) See Guan 2025 for an overview. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 10 / 85 Uvularized vowels in Trans-Himalayan Several NE Trans-Himalayan languages have been described as having what has been called Gutteral Secondary Vowel Articulations (GSVA) (Gong 2020) Velarization Uvularization Pharyngealization Tenseness Retracted Tongue Root First described in Rgyalrongic languages (Sun 2000) Described in NW Rma by Evans (2006a-b) Instrumental study on NW Rma (Evans et al. 2016) See Guan 2025 for an overview. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 10 / 85 Uvularized vowels in Trans-Himalayan Several NE Trans-Himalayan languages have been described as having what has been called Gutteral Secondary Vowel Articulations (GSVA) (Gong 2020) Velarization Uvularization Pharyngealization Tenseness Retracted Tongue Root First described in Rgyalrongic languages (Sun 2000) Described in NW Rma by Evans (2006a-b) Instrumental study on NW Rma (Evans et al. 2016) See Guan 2025 for an overview. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 10 / 85 Conventions Qfor uvular consonants - Vʶ Kfor velars and plain V †- unattested but expected. PTH - Proto-Trans-Himalayan WT = Written Tibetan. A ← B means A is borrowed from B. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 11 / 85 Typology of GSVA (Gong 2020; Guan 2025) Gong 2020: 193 gives a typology of GSVA: (1) uvularity-coupled secondary articulation, where uvular and velar onsets are in complementary distribution vis-à-vis the GSVA vowels; CV vs. CVʶ but only KV and QVʶ (2) uvularity-decoupled secondary articulation, where GSVA is not phonologically bound with a consonantal velar-uvular distinction; CV vs. CVʶ and also K vs. Q (3) absence of GSVA Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 12 / 85 Typology of GSVA (Gong 2020; Guan 2025) Gong 2020: 193 gives a typology of GSVA: (1) uvularity-coupled secondary articulation, where uvular and velar onsets are in complementary distribution vis-à-vis the GSVA vowels; CV vs. CVʶ but only KV and QVʶ (2) uvularity-decoupled secondary articulation, where GSVA is not phonologically bound with a consonantal velar-uvular distinction; CV vs. CVʶ and also K vs. Q (3) absence of GSVA Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 12 / 85 Typology of GSVA (Gong 2020; Guan 2025) Gong 2020: 193 gives a typology of GSVA: (1) uvularity-coupled secondary articulation, where uvular and velar onsets are in complementary distribution vis-à-vis the GSVA vowels; CV vs. CVʶ but only KV and QVʶ (2) uvularity-decoupled secondary articulation, where GSVA is not phonologically bound with a consonantal velar-uvular distinction; CV vs. CVʶ and also K vs. Q (3) absence of GSVA Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 12 / 85 Typology of GSVA (Gong 2020; Guan 2025) Gong 2020: 193 gives a typology of GSVA: (1) uvularity-coupled secondary articulation, where uvular and velar onsets are in complementary distribution vis-à-vis the GSVA vowels; CV vs. CVʶ but only KV and QVʶ (2) uvularity-decoupled secondary articulation, where GSVA is not phonologically bound with a consonantal velar-uvular distinction; CV vs. CVʶ and also K vs. Q (3) absence of GSVA Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 12 / 85 Typology of GSVA (Gong 2020; Guan 2025) Gong 2020: 193 gives a typology of GSVA: (1) uvularity-coupled secondary articulation, where uvular and velar onsets are in complementary distribution vis-à-vis the GSVA vowels; CV vs. CVʶ but only KV and QVʶ (2) uvularity-decoupled secondary articulation, where GSVA is not phonologically bound with a consonantal velar-uvular distinction; CV vs. CVʶ and also K vs. Q (3) absence of GSVA Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 12 / 85 Typology of GSVA (Gong 2020; Guan 2025) Gong 2020: 193 gives a typology of GSVA: (1) uvularity-coupled secondary articulation, where uvular and velar onsets are in complementary distribution vis-à-vis the GSVA vowels; CV vs. CVʶ but only KV and QVʶ (2) uvularity-decoupled secondary articulation, where GSVA is not phonologically bound with a consonantal velar-uvular distinction; CV vs. CVʶ and also K vs. Q (3) absence of GSVA Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 12 / 85 Background on Heishui County Elevation 1,790–5,286 m (avg. 3,544 m); county seat Luhua 2,350 m; 310 km from Chengdu, 176 km from mBarkhams. Administrative Divisions: 2 towns, 15 townships, 124 villages. Population & Ethnicity: 50,000; mostly Tibetan a few thousand Han. Languages: Main language: Rma • Fluent speakers under 20 (∼50%). Situ Rgyalrong spoken in parts of western Heishui Small pockets of local Bodic dialects throughout + Amdo in the north Multilingual environment; younger generations fluent in Chinese, native language use decreasing, and language vitality gradually declining. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 15 / 85 Background on Heishui County Elevation 1,790–5,286 m (avg. 3,544 m); county seat Luhua 2,350 m; 310 km from Chengdu, 176 km from mBarkhams. Administrative Divisions: 2 towns, 15 townships, 124 villages. Population & Ethnicity: 50,000; mostly Tibetan a few thousand Han. Languages: Main language: Rma • Fluent speakers under 20 (∼50%). Situ Rgyalrong spoken in parts of western Heishui Small pockets of local Bodic dialects throughout + Amdo in the north Multilingual environment; younger generations fluent in Chinese, native language use decreasing, and language vitality gradually declining. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 15 / 85 Background on Heishui County Elevation 1,790–5,286 m (avg. 3,544 m); county seat Luhua 2,350 m; 310 km from Chengdu, 176 km from mBarkhams. Administrative Divisions: 2 towns, 15 townships, 124 villages. Population & Ethnicity: 50,000; mostly Tibetan a few thousand Han. Languages: Main language: Rma • Fluent speakers under 20 (∼50%). Situ Rgyalrong spoken in parts of western Heishui Small pockets of local Bodic dialects throughout + Amdo in the north Multilingual environment; younger generations fluent in Chinese, native language use decreasing, and language vitality gradually declining. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 15 / 85 Heishui County Non-colored areas are Rma-speaking; Colored areas are non-Amdo Bodic varieties Figure: Caption Sun 2025 Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 16 / 85 Heishui County Seat Figure: Heishui County Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 17 / 85 Heishui County Seat Figure: Heishui County Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 18 / 85 Tsharza Village Figure: Tsharza Village in Winter Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 19 / 85 Tsharza Village Figure: Tsharza Village in Summer Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 20 / 85 Morpho-syntax Verb-final Rich in morphology Person indexing Prefixing and suffixing Direct-inverse system Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 21 / 85 TH Family Tree (Jacques & Guedes 2023) Trans-Himalayan Tibeto-Rgyalrongic Burmo-Rgyalrongic NaicErsuicMacro-Rgyalrongic ...MinyagPrinmiRmaRgyalrongic Lolo-BurmeseBodic NungishKamanSinitic Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 22 / 85 Tsharza Rma syllable structure Dashed lines mean it is optional. σ Rime Coda C+2 C+1 Nucleus V(ʶ) Onset M w j ɹ C0 C-1 C-2 ʁ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 29 / 85 Rma has lost PTH codas Pointed out by Benedict 1983 Tsharza Rma Situ Rgyalrong WT Gloss tʲiʶ kə-tak འཐག་ ’thag < *ɣtak ‘to weave’ pʲiʶ pak ཕག་ phag < *pak ‘pig’ Table: Caption Aspiration is a Tibetan innovation: Proto-Bodic *CV > CʰV in Old Tibetan New codas have come from vowel loss: * CV1.CV2 -> CVC1 and also from loans. Codas = new. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 30 / 85 Tsharza Onsets 42 onsets Type Bilabial Alv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal stops p, pʰ, b t, tʰ, d k, kʰ, g q, qʰ affricates ts, tsʰ, dz tʂ, tʂʰ, dʐ tɕ, tɕʰ, dʑ fricatives s, z ʂ, ʐ ɕ, ʑ x, ɣ χ, ʁ h nasals m, m n, n ɲ, ɲ ŋ laterals l, l approx. w j Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 31 / 85 Vowels in Tsharza Eight-vowel system organized into plain vs. uvularized pairs: { ə, a, i, u } ↔ { əʶ, aʶ, iʶ, uʶ } Uvularization correlates with slight: backing, lowering. Synchronically: need both vowel pairs and velar/uvular consonants as phonemic. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 32 / 85 Vowels phonetic i e u o əʌ æ ɑ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 33 / 85 Vowels phonemic i iʶ u uʶ əəʶ a aʶ Uvularized vowels show slight backing/lowering relative to their plain counterparts. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 34 / 85 Plain vs. Uvularized: Minimal Pairs ə / əʶ a / aʶ i / iʶ u / uʶ Form Gloss Form Gloss Form Gloss Form Gloss nə ‘to sleep’ na ‘person’ tʲi ‘bear’ zu ‘to wait’ nəʶ ‘to know’ naʶ ‘to be good’ tʲiʶ ‘to weave’ zuʶ ‘hail’ zə ‘to leak’ ba ‘bee’ tɕʰi ‘want’ su ‘to learn’ zəʶ ‘ladle’ baʶ ‘place to rest’ tɕʰiʶ ‘wine’ suʶ ‘to be thin’ Minimal pairs show that the vowels are contrastive Many more examples could be given Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 35 / 85 Uvulars take Uvularized Vowels Strong tendency: uvular consonants occur with uvularized vowels: Form Gloss qiʶ ‘to win’ qʰiʶ ‘to hate’ χiʶ ‘needle’ ʁiʶ ‘to be broken’ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 36 / 85 Q in the syllable = Vʶ If there is a uvular consonant anywhere in the syllable, the vowel is uvular. Meaning Rma C-2 C-1 C M V C+1 dew dʐəʶq dʐ əʶ q to be bitter qʰaʶ qʰ aʶ to be slanted qʰwaʶ qʰ waʶ to collapse ʁzaʶ ʁ zaʶ oil ʁzdaʶ ʁ z d aʶ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 37 / 85 Allomorphy: =a vs. =aʶ Many nouns take an enclitic with variable form: =a plain or =aʶ If the noun ends in a uvular, the clitic is uvular. If the noun ends in a non-uvular, the vowel is plain. We cannot know the function of this morpheme without more context. Tsharza Gloss məs=a ‘breath’ bəs=a ‘snake’ nəkʷ=a ‘ear’ zətɕ=a ‘grandchild’ tɕan=a ‘felt blanket’ qʰaʶl=a ‘pancake’ qəʶn=a ‘eye’ ʁzdəʶm=a ‘cloud’ ʁləʶq=aʶ ‘teardrop’ stəʶq=aʶ ‘nose’ zəʶq=aʶ ‘tongue’ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 38 / 85 Bodic Loans: kaʶrmaʶpaʶ ‘Karmapa’ kaʶrmaʶpaʶ ‘Karmapa’ ← Tibetan ཀརྨ་པ་ <karmapa> ‘idem’. Title in the Kagyu (བཀའ་བུད <bka’-brgyud>) lineage of Tibetan Buddhism Must postdate 1110CE - the birth of the first Karmapa དུས་གསུམ་མེན་པ་ <dus gsum mkhyen pa>. Cannot be inherited from PTH. Lack of aspiration shows it is not an inherited form in Bodic. Ultimately ← Sanskrit karma. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 42 / 85 Bodic Loans: kaʶrmaʶpaʶ ‘Karmapa’ kaʶrmaʶpaʶ ‘Karmapa’ ← Tibetan ཀརྨ་པ་ <karmapa> ‘idem’. Title in the Kagyu (བཀའ་བུད <bka’-brgyud>) lineage of Tibetan Buddhism Must postdate 1110CE - the birth of the first Karmapa དུས་གསུམ་མེན་པ་ <dus gsum mkhyen pa>. Cannot be inherited from PTH. Lack of aspiration shows it is not an inherited form in Bodic. Ultimately ← Sanskrit karma. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 42 / 85 Bodic Loans: kaʶrmaʶpaʶ ‘Karmapa’ kaʶrmaʶpaʶ ‘Karmapa’ ← Tibetan ཀརྨ་པ་ <karmapa> ‘idem’. Title in the Kagyu (བཀའ་བུད <bka’-brgyud>) lineage of Tibetan Buddhism Must postdate 1110CE - the birth of the first Karmapa དུས་གསུམ་མེན་པ་ <dus gsum mkhyen pa>. Cannot be inherited from PTH. Lack of aspiration shows it is not an inherited form in Bodic. Ultimately ← Sanskrit karma. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 42 / 85 Bodic Loans: kaʶrmaʶpaʶ ‘Karmapa’ kaʶrmaʶpaʶ ‘Karmapa’ ← Tibetan ཀརྨ་པ་ <karmapa> ‘idem’. Title in the Kagyu (བཀའ་བུད <bka’-brgyud>) lineage of Tibetan Buddhism Must postdate 1110CE - the birth of the first Karmapa དུས་གསུམ་མེན་པ་ <dus gsum mkhyen pa>. Cannot be inherited from PTH. Lack of aspiration shows it is not an inherited form in Bodic. Ultimately ← Sanskrit karma. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 42 / 85 Bodic Loans: kaʶpaʶlaʶ ‘kapala’ kaʶpaʶlaʶ ‘Kapala’ ← WT ཀ་པ་ལ་ <kapala> A bowl made of bone used in religious ceremony. Lack of aspiration shows it cannot be inherited. Ultimately ← Sanskrit kapāla ‘skull’ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 43 / 85 Bodic Loans: kaʶpaʶlaʶ ‘kapala’ kaʶpaʶlaʶ ‘Kapala’ ← WT ཀ་པ་ལ་ <kapala> A bowl made of bone used in religious ceremony. Lack of aspiration shows it cannot be inherited. Ultimately ← Sanskrit kapāla ‘skull’ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 43 / 85 Bodic Loans: kaʶpaʶlaʶ ‘kapala’ kaʶpaʶlaʶ ‘Kapala’ ← WT ཀ་པ་ལ་ <kapala> A bowl made of bone used in religious ceremony. Lack of aspiration shows it cannot be inherited. Ultimately ← Sanskrit kapāla ‘skull’ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 43 / 85 Bodic Loans: kaʶpaʶlaʶ ‘kapala’ kaʶpaʶlaʶ ‘Kapala’ ← WT ཀ་པ་ལ་ <kapala> A bowl made of bone used in religious ceremony. Lack of aspiration shows it cannot be inherited. Ultimately ← Sanskrit kapāla ‘skull’ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 43 / 85 Bodic Loans: kaʶpaʶlaʶ ‘kapala’ kaʶpaʶlaʶ ‘Kapala’ ← WT ཀ་པ་ལ་ <kapala> A bowl made of bone used in religious ceremony. Lack of aspiration shows it cannot be inherited. Ultimately ← Sanskrit kapāla ‘skull’ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 43 / 85 Bodic Loans: laʶ.kʰaʶŋ=a ‘shrine’ laʶ.kʰaʶŋ=a ‘shrine’ ← WT ལྷ་ཁང་ <lha.khang> ‘shrine’ (deity + house). The coda shows that it is not inherited from PTH in Rma. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 44 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / ɣguʶlʲu / [ ɣgolʲu ] ‘walnut’ Tsharza ɣguʶlʲu ‘walnut’ is phonotactically odd: Irregular across Rma: Hongyan Rma ɹguʶ (Evans 2006b: 109) Mianchi Rma ʁò lò (Evans 2001: 405) Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug ʑɴɢɯloʁ ‘walnut’ (Jacques 2021: 79) Tshobdun ʒnGólo (Sun 1997) Kyomkyo Situ ʒugo lor (Prins 2011) Kyomkyo Situ ʒgo lor (Tshedbang Sgrolma, p.c.) Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs qʰulú (Lai 2017: 774) Geshiza qʰælo (Honkasalo 2019: 290) Jacques (2021) pointed out that this is a Wanderwort found in Hmong-Mien as well. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 48 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / ɣguʶlʲu / [ ɣgolʲu ] ‘walnut’ Tsharza ɣguʶlʲu ‘walnut’ is phonotactically odd: Irregular across Rma: Hongyan Rma ɹguʶ (Evans 2006b: 109) Mianchi Rma ʁò lò (Evans 2001: 405) Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug ʑɴɢɯloʁ ‘walnut’ (Jacques 2021: 79) Tshobdun ʒnGólo (Sun 1997) Kyomkyo Situ ʒugo lor (Prins 2011) Kyomkyo Situ ʒgo lor (Tshedbang Sgrolma, p.c.) Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs qʰulú (Lai 2017: 774) Geshiza qʰælo (Honkasalo 2019: 290) Jacques (2021) pointed out that this is a Wanderwort found in Hmong-Mien as well. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 48 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / ɣguʶlʲu / [ ɣgolʲu ] ‘walnut’ Tsharza ɣguʶlʲu ‘walnut’ is phonotactically odd: Irregular across Rma: Hongyan Rma ɹguʶ (Evans 2006b: 109) Mianchi Rma ʁò lò (Evans 2001: 405) Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug ʑɴɢɯloʁ ‘walnut’ (Jacques 2021: 79) Tshobdun ʒnGólo (Sun 1997) Kyomkyo Situ ʒugo lor (Prins 2011) Kyomkyo Situ ʒgo lor (Tshedbang Sgrolma, p.c.) Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs qʰulú (Lai 2017: 774) Geshiza qʰælo (Honkasalo 2019: 290) Jacques (2021) pointed out that this is a Wanderwort found in Hmong-Mien as well. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 48 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / ɣguʶlʲu / [ ɣgolʲu ] ‘walnut’ Tsharza ɣguʶlʲu ‘walnut’ is phonotactically odd: Irregular across Rma: Hongyan Rma ɹguʶ (Evans 2006b: 109) Mianchi Rma ʁò lò (Evans 2001: 405) Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug ʑɴɢɯloʁ ‘walnut’ (Jacques 2021: 79) Tshobdun ʒnGólo (Sun 1997) Kyomkyo Situ ʒugo lor (Prins 2011) Kyomkyo Situ ʒgo lor (Tshedbang Sgrolma, p.c.) Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs qʰulú (Lai 2017: 774) Geshiza qʰælo (Honkasalo 2019: 290) Jacques (2021) pointed out that this is a Wanderwort found in Hmong-Mien as well. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 48 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / ɣguʶlʲu / [ ɣgolʲu ] ‘walnut’ Tsharza ɣguʶlʲu ‘walnut’ is phonotactically odd: Irregular across Rma: Hongyan Rma ɹguʶ (Evans 2006b: 109) Mianchi Rma ʁò lò (Evans 2001: 405) Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug ʑɴɢɯloʁ ‘walnut’ (Jacques 2021: 79) Tshobdun ʒnGólo (Sun 1997) Kyomkyo Situ ʒugo lor (Prins 2011) Kyomkyo Situ ʒgo lor (Tshedbang Sgrolma, p.c.) Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs qʰulú (Lai 2017: 774) Geshiza qʰælo (Honkasalo 2019: 290) Jacques (2021) pointed out that this is a Wanderwort found in Hmong-Mien as well. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 48 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / ɣguʶlʲu / [ ɣgolʲu ] ‘walnut’ Tsharza ɣguʶlʲu ‘walnut’ is phonotactically odd: Irregular across Rma: Hongyan Rma ɹguʶ (Evans 2006b: 109) Mianchi Rma ʁò lò (Evans 2001: 405) Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug ʑɴɢɯloʁ ‘walnut’ (Jacques 2021: 79) Tshobdun ʒnGólo (Sun 1997) Kyomkyo Situ ʒugo lor (Prins 2011) Kyomkyo Situ ʒgo lor (Tshedbang Sgrolma, p.c.) Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs qʰulú (Lai 2017: 774) Geshiza qʰælo (Honkasalo 2019: 290) Jacques (2021) pointed out that this is a Wanderwort found in Hmong-Mien as well. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 48 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / ɣguʶlʲu / [ ɣgolʲu ] ‘walnut’ Tsharza ɣguʶlʲu ‘walnut’ is phonotactically odd: Irregular across Rma: Hongyan Rma ɹguʶ (Evans 2006b: 109) Mianchi Rma ʁò lò (Evans 2001: 405) Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug ʑɴɢɯloʁ ‘walnut’ (Jacques 2021: 79) Tshobdun ʒnGólo (Sun 1997) Kyomkyo Situ ʒugo lor (Prins 2011) Kyomkyo Situ ʒgo lor (Tshedbang Sgrolma, p.c.) Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs qʰulú (Lai 2017: 774) Geshiza qʰælo (Honkasalo 2019: 290) Jacques (2021) pointed out that this is a Wanderwort found in Hmong-Mien as well. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 48 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / ɣguʶlʲu / [ ɣgolʲu ] ‘walnut’ Tsharza ɣguʶlʲu ‘walnut’ is phonotactically odd: Irregular across Rma: Hongyan Rma ɹguʶ (Evans 2006b: 109) Mianchi Rma ʁò lò (Evans 2001: 405) Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug ʑɴɢɯloʁ ‘walnut’ (Jacques 2021: 79) Tshobdun ʒnGólo (Sun 1997) Kyomkyo Situ ʒugo lor (Prins 2011) Kyomkyo Situ ʒgo lor (Tshedbang Sgrolma, p.c.) Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs qʰulú (Lai 2017: 774) Geshiza qʰælo (Honkasalo 2019: 290) Jacques (2021) pointed out that this is a Wanderwort found in Hmong-Mien as well. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 48 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / ɣguʶlʲu / [ ɣgolʲu ] ‘walnut’ Tsharza ɣguʶlʲu ‘walnut’ is phonotactically odd: Irregular across Rma: Hongyan Rma ɹguʶ (Evans 2006b: 109) Mianchi Rma ʁò lò (Evans 2001: 405) Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug ʑɴɢɯloʁ ‘walnut’ (Jacques 2021: 79) Tshobdun ʒnGólo (Sun 1997) Kyomkyo Situ ʒugo lor (Prins 2011) Kyomkyo Situ ʒgo lor (Tshedbang Sgrolma, p.c.) Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs qʰulú (Lai 2017: 774) Geshiza qʰælo (Honkasalo 2019: 290) Jacques (2021) pointed out that this is a Wanderwort found in Hmong-Mien as well. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 48 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / ɣguʶlʲu / [ ɣgolʲu ] ‘walnut’ Tsharza ɣguʶlʲu ‘walnut’ is phonotactically odd: Irregular across Rma: Hongyan Rma ɹguʶ (Evans 2006b: 109) Mianchi Rma ʁò lò (Evans 2001: 405) Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug ʑɴɢɯloʁ ‘walnut’ (Jacques 2021: 79) Tshobdun ʒnGólo (Sun 1997) Kyomkyo Situ ʒugo lor (Prins 2011) Kyomkyo Situ ʒgo lor (Tshedbang Sgrolma, p.c.) Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs qʰulú (Lai 2017: 774) Geshiza qʰælo (Honkasalo 2019: 290) Jacques (2021) pointed out that this is a Wanderwort found in Hmong-Mien as well. Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 48 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / guʶ / [ go ] ‘back basket’ Irregular within Rma Tsharza guʶ Hongyan gu Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug tɑ-ɴɢoʁ ‘basket’ Kyomkyo Situ ta-ŋgok (Tshedbang Sgrolma p.c.) Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs gɑɣ (Lai 2017: 180). Siyuewu Khroskyabs gôɣ (Taylor-Adams & Gyulha Lhawa: 2020: 5) Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 49 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / guʶ / [ go ] ‘back basket’ Irregular within Rma Tsharza guʶ Hongyan gu Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug tɑ-ɴɢoʁ ‘basket’ Kyomkyo Situ ta-ŋgok (Tshedbang Sgrolma p.c.) Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs gɑɣ (Lai 2017: 180). Siyuewu Khroskyabs gôɣ (Taylor-Adams & Gyulha Lhawa: 2020: 5) Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 49 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / kʰuʶ / [ kʰo ] ‘room’ Tsharza kʰuʶ ‘small room by the main room’ Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug kʰo ‘room’ (Jacques 2021: 385) Kyomkyo Situ kʰo ‘a small room by the main room ’ (Tshedbang Sgrolma, pc). Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs kʰô ‘chambre’ (Lai 2017: 744) Siyuewu Khroskyabs kʰo ”Adjacent to the main room ... a smaller room for storing food, bedding, ... grain. (Lhawa Gyulha 2012: 32) Ultimately ← WT ཁང་ <khang> ‘house’ after * aŋ > o in Rgyalrongic (Jacques 2004). The aspiration indicates that was borrowed after proto-Bodic *C became WT Cʰ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 50 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / kʰuʶ / [ kʰo ] ‘room’ Tsharza kʰuʶ ‘small room by the main room’ Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug kʰo ‘room’ (Jacques 2021: 385) Kyomkyo Situ kʰo ‘a small room by the main room ’ (Tshedbang Sgrolma, pc). Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs kʰô ‘chambre’ (Lai 2017: 744) Siyuewu Khroskyabs kʰo ”Adjacent to the main room ... a smaller room for storing food, bedding, ... grain. (Lhawa Gyulha 2012: 32) Ultimately ← WT ཁང་ <khang> ‘house’ after * aŋ > o in Rgyalrongic (Jacques 2004). The aspiration indicates that was borrowed after proto-Bodic *C became WT Cʰ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 50 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / kʰuʶ / [ kʰo ] ‘room’ Tsharza kʰuʶ ‘small room by the main room’ Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug kʰo ‘room’ (Jacques 2021: 385) Kyomkyo Situ kʰo ‘a small room by the main room ’ (Tshedbang Sgrolma, pc). Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs kʰô ‘chambre’ (Lai 2017: 744) Siyuewu Khroskyabs kʰo ”Adjacent to the main room ... a smaller room for storing food, bedding, ... grain. (Lhawa Gyulha 2012: 32) Ultimately ← WT ཁང་ <khang> ‘house’ after * aŋ > o in Rgyalrongic (Jacques 2004). The aspiration indicates that was borrowed after proto-Bodic *C became WT Cʰ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 50 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / kʰuʶ / [ kʰo ] ‘room’ Tsharza kʰuʶ ‘small room by the main room’ Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug kʰo ‘room’ (Jacques 2021: 385) Kyomkyo Situ kʰo ‘a small room by the main room ’ (Tshedbang Sgrolma, pc). Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs kʰô ‘chambre’ (Lai 2017: 744) Siyuewu Khroskyabs kʰo ”Adjacent to the main room ... a smaller room for storing food, bedding, ... grain. (Lhawa Gyulha 2012: 32) Ultimately ← WT ཁང་ <khang> ‘house’ after * aŋ > o in Rgyalrongic (Jacques 2004). The aspiration indicates that was borrowed after proto-Bodic *C became WT Cʰ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 50 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / kʰuʶ / [ kʰo ] ‘room’ Tsharza kʰuʶ ‘small room by the main room’ Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug kʰo ‘room’ (Jacques 2021: 385) Kyomkyo Situ kʰo ‘a small room by the main room ’ (Tshedbang Sgrolma, pc). Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs kʰô ‘chambre’ (Lai 2017: 744) Siyuewu Khroskyabs kʰo ”Adjacent to the main room ... a smaller room for storing food, bedding, ... grain. (Lhawa Gyulha 2012: 32) Ultimately ← WT ཁང་ <khang> ‘house’ after * aŋ > o in Rgyalrongic (Jacques 2004). The aspiration indicates that was borrowed after proto-Bodic *C became WT Cʰ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 50 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / kʰuʶ / [ kʰo ] ‘room’ Tsharza kʰuʶ ‘small room by the main room’ Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug kʰo ‘room’ (Jacques 2021: 385) Kyomkyo Situ kʰo ‘a small room by the main room ’ (Tshedbang Sgrolma, pc). Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs kʰô ‘chambre’ (Lai 2017: 744) Siyuewu Khroskyabs kʰo ”Adjacent to the main room ... a smaller room for storing food, bedding, ... grain. (Lhawa Gyulha 2012: 32) Ultimately ← WT ཁང་ <khang> ‘house’ after * aŋ > o in Rgyalrongic (Jacques 2004). The aspiration indicates that was borrowed after proto-Bodic *C became WT Cʰ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 50 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / kʰuʶ / [ kʰo ] ‘room’ Tsharza kʰuʶ ‘small room by the main room’ Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug kʰo ‘room’ (Jacques 2021: 385) Kyomkyo Situ kʰo ‘a small room by the main room ’ (Tshedbang Sgrolma, pc). Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs kʰô ‘chambre’ (Lai 2017: 744) Siyuewu Khroskyabs kʰo ”Adjacent to the main room ... a smaller room for storing food, bedding, ... grain. (Lhawa Gyulha 2012: 32) Ultimately ← WT ཁང་ <khang> ‘house’ after * aŋ > o in Rgyalrongic (Jacques 2004). The aspiration indicates that was borrowed after proto-Bodic *C became WT Cʰ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 50 / 85 Rgyalrongic Loans: / kʰuʶ / [ kʰo ] ‘room’ Tsharza kʰuʶ ‘small room by the main room’ Eastern Rgyalrongic: Japhug kʰo ‘room’ (Jacques 2021: 385) Kyomkyo Situ kʰo ‘a small room by the main room ’ (Tshedbang Sgrolma, pc). Western Rgyalrongic: Wobzi Khroskyabs kʰô ‘chambre’ (Lai 2017: 744) Siyuewu Khroskyabs kʰo ”Adjacent to the main room ... a smaller room for storing food, bedding, ... grain. (Lhawa Gyulha 2012: 32) Ultimately ← WT ཁང་ <khang> ‘house’ after * aŋ > o in Rgyalrongic (Jacques 2004). The aspiration indicates that was borrowed after proto-Bodic *C became WT Cʰ Nate Sims & བཟང་བཀྲཤིས་ - Rong Zhaxi Uvulars in Tsharza Rma Dec 5, 2025 50 / 85