The Retroflex Sound of Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet: Feature Floating, Feature Recombination and Its Historical Typological Value

Wang, Yunjia; Zhu, Ziqiu; Li, Daqin

doi:10.3390/languages8030159

Open AccessArticle

The Retroflex Sound of Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet: Feature Floating, Feature Recombination and Its Historical Typological Value

by

Yunjia Wang

,

Ziqiu Zhu

and

Daqin Li

^*

School of Humanities, Communication University of China, Beijing 100024, China

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Languages 2023, 8(3), 159; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030159

Submission received: 31 January 2023 / Revised: 17 June 2023 / Accepted: 19 June 2023 / Published: 28 June 2023

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Directions for Sino-Tibetan Linguistics in the Mid-21st Century)

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Abstract

:

In Southeast Tibet, some Tibeto-Burman languages have apparent retroflex feature floating. Some initial research on this phenomenon shows that different sound categories, such as a post consonant r and retroflex vowels (or finals), are not totally independent. This feature is likely the result of the evolution of one sound category toward another, and the evolution mechanism is the feature recombination between r and the basic consonant. This research approach can be applied to studying the whole Sino-Tibetan historical typology, including Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages.

Keywords:

languages spoken in southeast Tibet; retroflex feature; feature floating; historical typology; feature recombination

1. Introduction

As a translingual characteristic with the retroflex feature, the rhotic sound usually refers to various consonants and vowels emitted when the tongue tip bends backward to a certain extent (Trask 2004), such as the retroflex fricative consonant sh [ʂ], [ʐ] and r-coloring coda (also called Erhua 儿化) [ɚ] in Mandarin. In addition, the rhotic sound is an auditory sound category named by perceptual characteristics based on Ohala (1985), Ladefoged (2001) and Chen (2022). Zhu (2010) defined retroflex as ‘the tip of the tongue flipping’. Mai (2005) indicated that retroflex is the only type of sound named not by the place of blocking during articulation, but by the shape or movement of the tongue. At the symbol level, the International Phonetic Alphabet is consistent in the marking of the retroflex feature, which adds a ‘ɩ’ to a single symbol, such as ‘ɻ, ʅ’1. However, the phonetic symbols applied in the literature to record the sound with the retroflex feature are not entirely consistent. As long as a certain vowel or consonant has the retroflex feature in the text, or if a specific vowel or consonant has retroflex or even retroflex features in the language flow, this paper identifyies this vowel or consonant as having the retroflex feature.

In the following part, this paper first investigates the distribution of the retroflex feature in different languages spoken in southeast Tibet and discusses relevant phenomena based on the theoretical background of phonotypology. This study could help understand the phonological variation of the Tibeto-Burman language and promote the historical comparative linguistics of Tibeto-Burman languages.

2. Distribution of the Retroflex Feature in the Syllables of Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet

2.1. Overview of Language Spoken in Southeast Tibet and Source of Data

Southeast Tibet mentioned in this paper refers to Chayu County 察隅县, Motuo County 墨脱县 and Milin County 米林县 in Linzhi 林芝市, Tibet, and Longzi County 隆子县 and Cuona County 错那县 in Shannan 山南市. In addition to the Tibetans and Han Chinese, several ethnic groups live in this area, such as the Luoba, Menba and Deng. About 20 distinct languages are used by these ethnic groups. For example, certain Luoba groups use languages named Yidu, Boga’er, Sulong2, Bengni and Bengru. The Prami group of the Menba3 uses the Prami language, the Cangluo group of the Menba uses the Cangluo language, and the Geman and the Darang group of the Deng people use Geman and Darang, respectively. In addition, some indigenous Tibetan groups also have their local languages, such as the mixed language, Zha, in Songgu Village 松古村 and Ladin Tama Village 拉丁塔玛村 of Lower Chayu Town 下察隅镇, the Songlin language in Songlin Village 松林村 of Upper Chayu Town 上察隅镇, as well as the Suku language in Yazhong Village 亚中村 and Bendui Village 本堆村. Table 1 illustrates the linguistic profile in southeast Tibet.

Most of the data in this paper are from the corpus of the Chinese Language Resources Protection Project (2015–2019) in southeast Tibet. Unless otherwise indicated, all the data in this study were taken from the corpus constructed during our fieldwork.

2.2. Five Distributions of the Retroflex Feature in Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet

According to a recent survey, most languages have the retroflex feature, but the specific situations vary to different degrees due to the quantity and distribution of the rhotic sound.

Based on a previous analysis, the distribution of the rhotic sound in these languages is summarized as follows:

A. A retroflex fricative or approximant ʐ or r used as the initial consonant has been proved to be a common feature of southeast Tibetan languages, such as rum⁵⁵ ‘help’ in Geman and rɯkʼjo ‘ridge’, in Boga’er.

B. r or ʐ has been proved to be the post consonant in consonant clusters, such as br-, khr-, etc.

C. A retroflex affricate consonant has been proved, such as tʂɑ⁵⁵ ‘cut’, tʂhɑ⁵⁵ ‘eagle’ and dʐɿ⁵⁵, ‘rub’, in Songlin.

D. The retroflex coda: The rhotic sounds are located at the ends of syllables and attached to the whole vowel, which is similar to the r-coloring ending (Erhua) in Mandarin, such as tor ‘mill’ in Prami and ɕer, ‘gold’, in Boga’er.

E. The rhotic sounds and vowels are merged into retroflex vowels, which can form syllables or act as a nucleus, such as pia^rk, ‘gap’, in Sulong.

The above five can be summarized as follows in Table 2:

2.3. Five Distributions of the Retroflex Feature in Different Languages

In Section 2.2, five distributions of the retroflex feature in the languages spoken in southeast Tibet are presented. In fact, the distribution of retroflex features varies among the languages spoken in southeast Tibet. Categories A and B are common phenomena, and the distribution of categories C, D and E is different among the 13 languages we investigated. The following part shows the specific manifestations of the above five distributions of the retroflex feature in languages spoken in southeast Tibet.

2.3.1. Feature A in Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet

It is common that r or ʐ is an independent phoneme in languages spoken in southeast Tibet, as shown in Table 3.

2.3.2. Feature B in Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet

It is common that r or ʐ works as a post consonant r or ʐ in consonant clusters to form the compound initial consonants Cr/ʐ in languages or dialects spoken in southeast Tibet. The details are as follows (Table 4):

Table 4 shows that only Boga’er (Luoba), Bengni, Gongbu Tibetan and Lasa Tibetan find no post consonant r or ʐ to form the consonant clusters of Cr/ʐ. Other languages have at most five compound consonants of Cr/ʐ, such as in Darang, as follows:

Bilabial plosive consonant+r: pri⁵⁵ ‘tear’; bre⁵³ ‘sharp’

Postalveolar plosive consonant+r: thro⁵³ ‘candle’; mɑ³¹tɕɪ⁵³dru⁵³ ‘flood’

Velar plosive consonant+r: hɑ³¹kri⁵⁵ ‘cactus’; khro⁵³ ‘cry’; ɡroŋ³⁵ ‘hoof’

Bilabial nasal consonant+r: bɑ³¹mroŋ⁵⁵ ‘brother’; tɯ³¹mroŋ⁵⁵ ‘partner’

Glottal fricative+r: hrɯ³⁵ ‘acid’; tɑ³¹hro⁵³ ‘six’

There are at least two sets, such as in Bengni, as follows:

Bilabial plosive consonant+r: brər ‘burn’

Velar plosive consonant +r: krɑ⁵⁵tɕu⁵³ ‘howl’

2.3.3. Feature C in Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet

Retroflex affricate consonants have been found in most languages spoken in southeast Tibet, such as Yidu, Zha, Songlin, Suku, Cangluo, Prami and Damu Luoba. Regardless of recent loanwords, retroflex affricates have not been found in only four languages, e.g., Geman, Sulong, Bengni and Bengru4. Moreover, it is postulated in this paper that, as the correlation with Tibetan becomes higher, the number of retroflex fricatives or fricatives a language may have also increases.

Details are shown in Table 5:

2.3.4. Feature D in Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet

In addition to Yidu, Songlin and Suku, the retroflex coda can also be found in other languages spoken in southeast Tibet. See Table 6 for details.

2.3.5. Feature E in Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet

From investigations on the Sulong language (Li 2004), researchers have found a noteworthy phenomenon. The retroflex vowel of the syllable, which is similar to the Mandarin r-coloring coda, may appear before the vowel coda. For example,

eri:	çi³³be^ri⁵⁵ ‘yak’	a^ri:	bari³³ci⁵⁵ ‘next year’
aru:	a³¹ɡa^ru⁵³ ‘tall’	ə^ri:	vəri⁵⁵ ‘four’

It can even appear before the consonant coda. Such as:

ern:	bua⁵⁵pe^rn⁵⁵ ‘fly’	a^rŋ:	a³¹ba^rŋ⁵³ ‘name’
ark:	dza^rk⁵⁵ ‘thousand’	ia^rʔ:	a³¹ɟet⁵³hia^rʔ³³ ‘afternoon’

In the first line of each example above, the retroflex vowels appear between the nucleus and the end of the nasal consonants, and the second line shows that the retroflex vowels occur before the end of the stop-consonants. It should also be noted that the retroflex feature of the nucleus vowel at this time is implicit.

The retroflex vowel mentioned above is Feature E, and details are shown in Table 7:

2.4. Summary

To summarize, regardless of recent loan words, manifestations of the five distributions of the retroflex feature in languages spoken in southeast Tibet can be summarized in Table 8:

Table 8 shows that at least three types of retroflex features can be found in each of the 13 investigated language. Among them, category A features are common in languages spoken in southeast Tibet, and category B features have been found in every language except Lasa Tibetan. Furthermore, category C features and D features have been found in most languages, whereas category E features are relatively rare, only existing in Zha and Sulong. Therefore, only Zha and Sulong languages have all five retroflex features.

3. Floating of Retroflex Features in Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet—A Case Study of Sulong

Among the languages mentioned thus far, Sulong is one of the few languages that have retroflex vowels before the coda. According to several investigations of the Sulong language, a rhotic sound before a coda in Sulong shows a floating phenomenon with a certain floating pattern. In this section, the retroflex features of the language are analyzed, and some phenomena worthy of discussion by the historical typology community are presented as well.

3.1. Retroflex Vowels in Sulong

According to Li (2004), some vowel phonemes in Sulong can be merged with retroflex features to form retroflex vowels. There are four such retroflex vowels: a^r, e^r, ə^r and o^r. For example,

a^r:	va^r55	‘he’;	mɯ³¹ba^r55	‘song’;	a³¹ɬa^r55	‘empty’
e^r:	ve^r55	‘buy’;	pe^r55	‘sow (seeds)’
ə^r:	ʑə^r33	‘cloth shoes’;	a³¹kə^rk⁵⁵	‘melon (general name of all melon plants)’
o^r:	tɕia⁵³po^r55	‘corn’;	gran³¹ko^r53	‘ant’;	mɯ³¹bo^r55	‘bamboo’

In 2021, we conducted another investigation into the Sulong language. Combining the expanded vocabulary in this survey and the data of Li (2004), we added the retroflex vowel ‘u^r’ phoneme to the Sulong phonology, such as

u^r:

ɡu^r31ɬia⁵⁵

‘sweet potato’;

pu^rə⁵⁵

‘hatch’;

kuai⁵⁵tu^r55wa³³

‘canyon’

This retroflex vowel has the function of distinguishing lexical meaning. For example,

ve⁵⁵ ‘bang’(the table)	ve^r55 ‘wear’
tua⁵⁵ ‘bite’	tua^r55 ‘oneself’
a³¹məŋ⁵⁵ ‘fine power’	a³¹mə^rŋ⁵⁵ ‘low’

It is still in doubt as to whether the ‘-r’ coda (D-type distribution) in Sulong is an independent syllable structure (the retroflex feature is attached to the whole vowel), or whether the five retroflex vowel phonemes directly act as the nucleus. However, this controversy can be easily solved by taking into account the retroflex of the vowels before the coda, which is discussed in Section 2.3.5. In fact, the ‘-r’ coda in Sulong is only an appearance, but its essence is the inevitable result of the merging of the retroflex feature with the vowels, serving as the nucleus together. In other words, Sulong characterizes retroflex vowels as the nucleus vowels of syllables. Table 9 shows the distribution of retroflex vowels in Sulong.

3.2. The Pronunciation Variation of Syllables with the Retroflex Feature in Sulong

According to Li (2004), abundant consonant clusters are in Sulong, with ‘basic consonants + post consonants’ as their basic pattern. The post consonants are -r, -l, -w and -j, forming 19 compound initial consonants that can be classified into four groups, such as

A. Basic consonants + r: br, pr, ɡr, kr, fr, hr, sr;

B. Basic consonants + l: bl, pl, ɡl, kl, hl, ɣl;

C. Basic consonants + w: bw, mw, hw, ŋw;

D. Basic consonants + j: lj, ɬj.

There is less friction in the post consonants in group A, but the retroflex feature is obvious. If the retroflection extends to the final part, it may become the retroflex vowel. In some cases, the post consonants fall off, resulting in the prominent retroflex feature of the vowel. For example,

madman:	a³¹bra⁵⁵	a ³¹bra^r55	a³¹ba^r55
sow (seeds):	prei⁵⁵	pre^ri⁵⁵	pe^ri⁵⁵
tree:	hren⁵⁵	hre^rn⁵⁵	he^rn⁵⁵

If the consonant clusters of the ‘basic consonant + r’ in contemporary Tibeto-Burman languages originates from the proto-Sino-Tibetan language, this consonant cluster has undergone a process of disintegration, migration and stabilization in Sulong. The disassembly process can be summarized as follows:

Initial phase		Floating phase		Stable phase
C r V		C ^rV^r		CV^r

In the survey conducted twenty years ago, most syllables of *C r V were found to be stable, and only some syllables showed a floating state toward *C ^rV^r. For example, the pronunciation of ‘tree’ could be hren⁵⁵, hre^rn⁵⁵, or he^rn⁵⁵.

However, in the survey conducted in 2021, most syllables in the utterance of the same speaker were found to be changed from *C rVr to *C Vr. For example, the pronunciation of ‘tree’ could only be he^rn⁵⁵. In addition, quite a few words have also experienced a transitional process of retroflex features, such as

Chinese	2004	2021
fly	bua³³pren⁵⁵	bua³³pe^rn⁵⁵
pillar	tər³³ɡrəŋ⁵⁵	tər³³ɡə^rŋ⁵⁵
madman	a³¹bra⁵⁵	a³¹ba^r55
sing	bra⁵³	ba^r53
wipe	hraŋ⁵⁵	ha^rŋ⁵⁵
high	a³¹ɡrau⁵⁵	a³¹ɡa^ru⁵³
sow	prei⁵⁵	pe^ri⁵⁵
tree	hren⁵⁵	he^rn⁵⁵

It is also worth noting that the retroflex feature of the post consonant r starts to float and partially stops on the vowel nucleus. Here, a question arises: why does the retroflex r only float to the vowel nucleus of the final, not the coda? This question is answered in the following part.

3.3. The Blocking Effect of the Coda in the Syllable Structure of Sulong on the Floating of the Retroflex Feature

The questions raised in the previous section can be summarized from another perspective, as follows: when the retroflex feature of the post consonant r in Sulong floats to the vowel, the coda has a strong blocking effect on the retroflex feature.

In the syllable structure of the natural language, the nucleus vowel is the loudest, where the peak lies. Moreover, the coda is the end of the decreasing loudness, which is the lowest. However, the segments with low loudness can hardly hold the retroflex feature. In other words, it is difficult for the coda, whether it is the vowel coda or consonant coda or the nasal consonant or plosive consonant, to hold retroflex features due to its insufficient loudness.

Based on the aforementioned analysis, the post consonant –r in Sulong is a consonant with a strong retroflex feature. Once the retroflex feature falls off, it needs to find vowels with higher loudness to hold it. If the retroflex feature of the post consonant r in Sulong floats to the vowel, the coda has a strong blocking effect on the retroflex feature. This is perhaps the reason why the retroflex feature in Sulong is blocked by the coda and merged with the nucleus.

For example,

prei⁵⁵	pe^ri⁵⁵	pei^r55	sow(seeds)
hren⁵⁵	he^rn⁵⁵	hen^r55	tree
a³¹mrəŋ⁵⁵	a³¹mə^rŋ⁵⁵	a³¹məŋ^r55	low
prak⁵⁵	piaʳk⁵⁵	piakʳ⁵⁵	gap

3.4. Unified Interpretation of the Retroflex Category in Sulong

So far, a unified interpretation of the retroflex category in the Sulong language can be made.

First, the retroflex affricate ‘tʂ, ʂ, ʐ’ in Sulong results from language contact. For example,

ʂi⁵⁵ku⁵⁵ ‘paper’	sak⁵⁵tʂa⁵⁵ ‘map’
ʂə³³du⁵⁵ ‘mule’	kɯ³¹ʐak³³wiaŋ⁵⁵ ‘haircut’

The above words with a retroflex fricative ‘tʂ ʂ ʐ’ are rare in the daily life of the Luoba Sulong tribe but are found in loanwords that are used when communicating with other ethnic groups nearby.

In addition, the retroflex nuclei in Sulong—a^r, e^r, ə^r, o^r and u^r—are formed by the floating of retroflex features caused by the gradual weakening or even loss of r in the consonant cluster ‘basic consonant + r’. However, this process is fundamentally different from the Erhua vowels in Mandarin and various Chinese dialects. The retroflex nucleus is from the post consonant r in the consonant clusters. Therefore, the r-coloring retroflex nucleus in Sulong does not extend to the coda, as the coda has a strong blocking effect on retroflex feature floating. This is the second characteristic of retroflex nucleus in Sulong, which is different from the Chinese Erhua coda. The retroflex nucleus can have a vowel coda, such as və^ru⁵⁵, ‘rehabilitation’, and a consonant coda, such as a³¹vaʳᵗ⁵⁵ ‘dry’, he^rn⁵⁵ ‘tree’; etc.

4. The Historical Typological Value of the Retroflex Feature

Through exploring the properties and source of the retroflex feature in the Sulong language, the present paper sheds new light on the formation of voice categories related to the retroflex feature in different languages. Using this method, researchers can explore the origin and development of retroflex sounds in southeastern Tibet. According to Sun (2011), before or during differentiation, the basic structure types of kindred languages are consistent, or in other words, identical or similar. However, due to long-time differentiation, each has evolved quite differently. This work can help us explore the evolution of the phonological structure of Sino-Tibetan languages, and can enrich the historical typology of Sino-Tibetan languages.

4.1. Feature Recombination and the Formation of the Retroflex Stop and Affricate

Phonology and Vocabulary of Tibeto-Burman Language: Based on the comparison between the pronunciation of characters and the spoken language, the transition from consonant clusters to affricates can be revealed. For example, almost all the subjoined letters with r, such as p, ph, b, t, th, d, k, kh, and ɡ in Lasa Tibetan, are tʂ, tʂh.:

Mandarin	Tibetan	Lasa	Xiahe	Dege
cliff	braɡ	tʂhaˀ¹³	tʂak	tʂaˀ³¹
six	druɡ	tʂuˀ¹³	tʂək	tʂhu³¹
ant	ɡroɡma	tʂho¹³maˀ¹³	tɕokma	tshuŋ¹³ma⁵³
ten thousand	khri	tʂhi⁵³	tʂhə	tʂhi⁵³
otter	sram	tʂam⁵⁵	ʂam	sɑŋ⁵⁵

The above data show that the development of consonant clusters with retroflex features into affricates in Tibetan-Burmese can be summarized as follows:

‘Stop-Consonant + r’ → Retroflex affricate

Based on this finding, researchers thought that it involved the recombination of various distinctive features, including retroflex features, at the level of combination. See the discussion below.

4.2. Two Retroflex Finals from Different Sources

According to the Phonology and Vocabulary of Tibeto-Burman Language (The Sound and Vocabulary of Tibetan-Burman Languages Authoring Team 1991), there are two sources for retroflex vowels. One is from the influence of the r and l coda falling process on the nucleus of the final.In other words, the loss of the r and l coda equips the nucleus vowel with the retroflex feature, which is similar to the Erhua phenomenon in Mandarin and some Chinese dialects. The other is formed under the influence of the post consonants in consonant clusters on vowels. For example, the retroflex vowel er, ər, etc., exists in languages spoken by the Naxi and Bai ethnic groups, but the corresponding retroflex vowels in most syllables of some other languages contain a post consonant r/l. For example,

‘Pus’:
Burmese	prɑȵ2	Achang	pʐəŋ⁵⁵
Jino	pɹɯ³¹	Naxi (Lijiang)	mbəɹ³¹
‘Write’:
Tibetan	bris	Menba (Cuona)	pri¹³
Menba (Motuo)	bry	Derung	bɹi⁵³
Naxi (Lijiang)	pəɹ⁵⁵	Bai (Dali)	veʴ⁵³

This situation is similar to the retroflex floating feature in Sulong. However, it is noteworthy that the coda in Sulong and Zha blocks the floating of retroflex features. In a word, the retroflex vowels result from retroflex floating and merging with the main vowels when the post consonant -r/l is weakened. Moreover, retroflex vowels may be in an intermediate state when the post consonant -r/l is in a dropping state. This should be distinguished. Regarding the formation of the -r/l coda, this is another problem. Perhaps these sounds are derived from a process in which the retroflex floats to the coda in earlier pre or post r/l consonants.

4.3. Separation and Reconstruction of the Retroflex Feature in the Post Consonant r/l

According to the Phonetics and Vocabulary of Tibeto-Burman Language (The Sound and Vocabulary of Tibetan-Burman Languages Authoring Team 1991): Changes happen for post consonants of consonant clusters ʐ, ʂ, l, r, etc., during the dropping process. The process of change is as follows:

Consonant

Semivowel

Vowel (Medial)

Examples:

Chinese	Burmese	Burmese(Yangon)
many	mja⁵⁵	mja⁵⁵(mia⁵⁵)
grass, sharp	mrak⁴⁴	mjɛˀ⁴⁴(miaˀ⁴⁴)
land	mle¹¹(epitaph)	mje¹¹(miɛ¹¹)
wooden plate	bjap⁴⁴	bjaˀ⁴⁴(biaˀ⁴⁴)
absolutely	bra⁵³saŋ⁵³	bja⁵³sɪ̃⁵³(bia⁵³sɪ̃⁵³)
mat	phja¹¹	phja¹¹(phia¹¹)
disperse	phra¹¹	phja¹¹(phia¹¹)
bee	pja⁵⁵	pja⁵⁵ (pia⁵⁵)
break	prat⁴⁴	pjaˀ⁴⁴(piaˀ⁴⁴)
do	plu⁵³(epitaph)	pju⁵³(piu⁵³)

Therefore, the dropping process of the post consonant is believed to be more complicated than this. Taking the syllable dra, in which dr is the initial consonant, as an example, first, dropping is based on feature decomposition. The feature matrix of r or ʐ can be characterized as (1), the feature matrix of d can be characterized as (2), and the feature matrix of a can be characterized as (3), as follows:

(1) r or ʐ: [+dental, + voiced, + retroflex, + micro-fricative]

(2) d: [+ voiced, + stop,+ blade-alveolar, − aspirate]

(3) a: [+alveo-palatal, + voiced, − fricative, + front, +low]

Once the three independent phonemes are combined, they can be demonstrated in the pattern of example (4):

(4) d+ r/ʐ +a: {[+ voiced, + stop, + blade-alveolar, − aspirate] + [+dental, + voiced, + retroflex, + micro-fricative] + [+alveo-palatal, + voiced, − fricative, + front, +low]}

The feature matrix (3) of the above nucleus ‘a’ has two situations due to the influence of factors such as cooperative pronunciation:

I.: The three features are realized as independent segments to obtain ‘dra’;
II.: Feature recombination.

In this light, feature recombination has two possibilities, such as

A. The recombination of feature bundles (1) and (2) can form a retroflex stop or affricate, which is:

(5) {[ + voiced, + stop, + blade-alveolar, − aspirate, + retroflex ]+ [+dental, + voiced, +micro-fricative] + [+alveo-palatal, +voiced, − fricative,+ front, +low]} → {ɖ+ [+dental, + voiced, + micro-fricative] + a}

Only if the [+retroflex] of the [+dental, + voiced, + retroflex, + micro-fricative] takes part in recombination is the ɖ recombined as in the pattern of [+ voiced, + stop, + blade-alveolar, − aspirate, + retroflex]. The outcome of the syllabic development is likely to be ɖja.

If both the [+ retroflex] and [+ micro-fricative] join in recombination, the recombination result of the [+dental, + voiced, + retroflex, + micro-fricative] is dʐ. The syllable obtained is likely to be dʐja or dʐia.

For the convenience of description, we temporarily name the recombination under this situation as forward recombination.

B. The recombination of feature bundles (2) and (3) can form the retroflex final or coda, which is

(6) {[+ voiced, + stop, + blade-alveolar, − aspirate +] +[+dental, + voiced, + retroflex, + micro-fricative, +alveo-palatal, + voiced, − fricative,+ front, +low]} → {d +[+dental, + voiced, + retroflex, + micro-fricative, + alveo-palatal, + voiced, − fricative, + front, +low]}

The [+dental, + voiced, + retroflex, + micro-fricative, + alveo-palatal, + voiced, − fricative, + front, +low] has three possibilities:

C.dɹ/ja^r	Examples: Darang—dja^r55 ‘Far’
D.da^r	Examples: Sulong—ran³³da^r53 ‘Mill’
E.dar/l	Examples: Geman—dal/da^rt ‘Skirt’

All the examples above belong to the backward floating r, which can be named ‘backward recombination’.

4.4. Summary

The retroflex feature of a post consonant r or ʐ in proto-Sino-Tibetan, as well as in some languages spoken in southeast Tibet, undergoes floating development. This floating development might activate a recombination of the phonetic features into the syllable structure. There are two possible ways for recombination: forward recombination and backward recombination. Forward recombination constitutes the supralingual sound, whereas backward recombination is the main reason for the formation of the retroflex vowel/final and retroflex coda.

5. Conclusions

This paper first probes into the distribution of retroflex features in languages spoken in southeast Tibet, and then inquires into the feature of retroflex floating in the Sulong language. Based on historical typology, this paper further analyzes the explanatory role of floating in retroflex features. At least three findings can be presented.

First, some languages spoken in southeast Tibet show various spatial variations due to geographical factors. Research on these variations is of great value in enriching the historical typology of Sino-Tibetan languages. Based on an analysis of 13 languages spoken in southeast Tibet, this paper finds that the retroflex features of languages spoken in southeast Tibet can be divided into five categories. Differences in the quantities of retroflex features are vital variation phenomena. In addition, a retroflex feature floating phenomenon in the Sulong language and Zha language is found, which deserves further investigation.

Second, an apparent feature of retroflex feature floating exists in the Sulong language. There are five retroflex vowels in this language: a^r, e^r, ə^r, or and u^r. They are formed by the floating of retroflex features caused by the gradual weakening or even loss of r in the consonant cluster ‘basic consonant + r’. Moreover, the retroflex features in the Sulong language do not extend to the coda, as the coda has a strong blocking effect on retroflex feature floating. The discussion of this floating phenomenon shows that the latter post-consonant ‘r’, retroflex vowel (or the final of a syllable) and other different retroflex sounds are not entirely uncorrelated. This phenomenon is likely to be induced by the evolution of a post consonant ‘r’ to a retroflex nucleus. Therefore, by examining these phonetic categories together, researchers can establish a close relationship between the Tibetan-Burman language and the Sino-Tibetan language from the perspective of historical–phonetic typology.

Third, according to the above discussion of the source and floating of retroflex features, other retroflex features of languages spoken in southeast Tibet are analyzed. It is found that the development of retroflex affricates and frictions in a wide range of languages spoken in southeast Tibet derives from the recombination of ‘r’ features and basic consonants containing ‘r + basic consonants’ or ‘basic consonants + r’. The basic path is as follows: the floating of r-coloring retroflex features activates the forward or backward recombination of phonetic features in the entire syllable structure.

This paper aims to provide some new ideas for the historical typology study of Sino-Tibetan languages.

Author Contributions

Project administration, D.L.; Conceptualization, D.L.; Investigation, Y.W.; Writing—original draft preparation, Y.W.; Data curation, Y.W.; Visualization, Z.Z. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This paper was funded by the major bidding project of the National Social Science Foundation of China, ‘Research on the Development and Construction of Large-Scale Grammatically Annotated Text Online Retrieval System for Chinese National Languages’ (21&ZD304).

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in this study.

Data Availability Statement

The data can be obtained from the corresponding author upon request.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks goes to Yan Zhou of the School of Foreign Languages, Shandong Jianzhu University, for language assistance.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Notes

1	Certainly, there is one ʯ constituted by `ʮ` and `ɩ`, but this `ɩ` just means turbidity.
2	Roche and Suzuki (2018) pointed out that the Sulong language should be called Puroik, as Sulong is an insulting term. However, the present survey shows that the insulting meaning of Sulong has been lost, and speakers tend to use Sulong to call themselves.
3	The Prami group of the Menba is also called Cuona Menba.
4	Geman, Sulong and other retroflex fricatives and affricate fricatives appear in Chinese and Tibetan loanwords.

References

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Table 1. Distribution of languages in southeast Tibet.

Shannan	Longzi County	Douyu Luoba Ethnic Township	Sulong Luoba language, Bengni Luoba language, Bengru Luoba language
Shannan	Cuona County	Le, Gongri, Jiba, Mama Luoba Ethnic Township	Cuona Menba language—Prami dialect
Linzhi	Milin County	Nanyi Luoba Ethnic Township	Boga’er Luoba language
	Chayu County	Lower Chayu Town	Geman language, Darang language, Zha language
		Upper Chayu Town	Yidu Luoba language, Songlin language, Suku language
		Chawalong Township	Dulong language, Naxi language
	Motuo County	Damu Luoba Ethnic Township	Damu Luoba language, Tibetan Kham dialect Mixing language
		Dexing Township	Cangluo Menba language
		Beibeng Township	Cuona Menba language—Prami dialect

Table 2. Five distributions of retroflex features in sound categories.

Category	Characteristics	Examples
A	With an independent r or ʐ; it can be applied as an initial consonant	All southeast Tibetan languages except Tibetan dialects
B	With post consonant r or ʐ in consonant clusters, such as br -, khr -, etc.	Geman, Darang, Yidu, etc.
C	With a retroflex affricate consonant	Suku, Songlin, Zha, etc.
D	With a retroflex coda: The retroflex is located at the end of the syllable and attached to the whole final, which is similar to Erhua in Mandarin	Boga’er, Sulong, Cangluo, etc.
E	Rhotic sounds and vowels are merged into retroflex vowels, which can form syllables or act as a nucleus *	Sulong, Zha, etc.

* This paper distinguishes D and F categories by marking ‘r’ as an independent phoneme, and the superscript form ‘r’ as the retroflex feature.

Table 3. The distribution of r or ʐ as independent phonemes in southeast Tibet.

Language	With r/ʐ Phoneme	Examples
Geman	+	rɑm⁵³ ‘rotten’; rɑ⁵⁵ ‘equal’; rum⁵⁵ ‘help’
Darang	+	rɯm⁵³ ‘include’; rɑi⁵³ ‘twist’; rwo⁵³ ‘grasp’; rɑu⁵³ ‘melon vine’
Yidu	+	ruŋ⁵⁵ ‘shout’; bɯ³¹rɑ³⁵ ‘thunder’
Zha	+	rui⁵⁵ ‘snake’; roŋ⁵³ ‘wood mortar’
Songlin	+	ʐɑ²⁴ ‘goat’; ʐɿ²⁴ ‘mountain’
Suku	+	ʐɑ³⁵ ‘yes’; ʐe³⁵ horse’
Boga’er	+	rɯkʼjo ‘field ridge’; uʼreː ‘rainbow’; aʼrə ‘tomorrow’; roaː ‘the day after tomorrow’; aʼro ‘morning’; koʼreː ‘sweet potato’; riʼpoŋ ‘rabbit’
Sulong	+	ra⁵⁵ ‘copper’; sə³¹ru⁵⁵ ‘liquor’; ra⁵⁵lɯh⁵⁵ ‘October’; da³¹ra⁵⁵ ‘deer’; sə³¹ru⁵⁵ ‘goat’; ra³³ka⁵³‘bamboo hat’; kɯ³¹ʐak³³wiaŋ⁵⁵ ‘haircut’
Bengni	+	to'ri ‘wind’; o'ri ‘rainbow’; mə'ri ‘carbon’; ha'rik ‘cold water’; a'ru ‘tomorrow’; ə'rik ‘pig’; mə'rəŋ ‘sove’; ta'ra ‘deer’
Bengru	+	də³¹rai⁵⁵ ‘snow’; ha⁵⁵ru⁵⁵ ‘now’; buo⁵⁵roŋ⁵⁵ ‘monkey’; su⁵⁵ru⁵³ ‘sheep’; mu⁵⁵rə⁵⁵ ‘younger sister’; mə⁵⁵ru⁵³ ‘leg’; rai⁵⁵ ‘six’
Cangluo	+	ʐi⁵⁵ ‘water’; ʐi³¹ti⁵⁵ ‘wind’; ʐʅ³¹ko⁵⁵ ‘mountain’; ʐɑ³¹pɑ⁵⁵ ‘sheep’
Prami	+	ɑ⁵⁵riŋ⁵¹ ‘paddy field’; mu³¹ri⁵¹ ‘snake’; ɑ⁵⁵rɑ⁵⁵ ‘liquor’
Damu Luoba	+	ʐo¹² ‘he’; a⁵⁵ʐeŋ⁵⁵ ‘paddy field’; ʐaŋ¹² ‘oneself’
Chayu Tibetan	+	rɑ³⁵ ‘goat; roʔ³⁵ ‘shave’; rin³⁵ ‘tall’
Gongbu Tibetan	+	ra³⁵ ‘goat’; ri⁵¹ ‘mountain’; rum⁵⁵ ‘incubate’
Lasa Tibetan	+	ri1³² ‘mountain’; mi¹³re11re⁵⁵ ‘everyone’; a⁵⁵ra⁵⁵ ‘moustache’

Table 4. The phenomenon of r or ʐ as a post consonant to form a compound initial consonant.

Language	Cr/ʐ	Examples
Geman	+	prɑ⁵⁵ ‘send out’; phrɑu⁵⁵ ‘delay’; brɑt⁵³ ‘grain’; krɑu⁵⁵ ‘mutual’; khrɑi⁵⁵ ‘tell’; ɡri³⁵ ‘clothes’
Darang	+	pri⁵⁵ ‘tear’; phri⁵³ ‘knife stone’; bre⁵³ ‘sharp’; bɑ³¹mroŋ⁵⁵ ‘brother’; hɑ³¹kri⁵⁵ ‘cactus’; khro⁵³ ‘cry’; ɡroŋ³⁵ ‘hoof’; thro⁵³ ‘candles’; hrɯ³⁵ acid’
Yidu	+	pri⁵⁵ ‘engage’; ndio⁵⁵phreŋ⁵⁵ ‘ladder’; brɑ⁵⁵ ‘germination’; jɑ⁵⁵mrɑ⁵⁵ ‘tiger’; mbrɑ⁵⁵ ‘seed’; krɑŋ⁵⁵ ‘crevice’; khro⁵⁵pɑ⁵⁵ ‘stride’; ɑ⁵⁵grɑ⁵⁵ ‘basket’
Zha	+	kə³¹pra⁵⁵ ‘color’; phri⁵⁵sə³¹ ‘fly’; an³³brɯi⁵⁵ ‘wool’; ɡra⁵⁵ ‘dehiscence’; ɡrai⁵⁵ ‘chicken’; kri³¹ki⁵⁵ ‘play’; khro⁵⁵ ‘decay’
Songlin	+	pʐo²⁴ ‘land’; phʐo²⁴ ‘pull out’; bʐɑ²⁴ pine needles’; kʐɑ²⁴ ‘chicken’; khʐɑ⁵⁵ ‘dismantle’; ɡʐu^⁵⁵ ‘loong’; ndʐoŋ⁵⁵ ‘yes’; nbʐɑŋ²⁴ ‘horse’; nɡʐo⁵⁵ ‘call’
Suku	+	phʐɑ³³phʐɑ⁵¹ ‘dilute’; bʐe⁵¹(one)‘grain’
Boga’er	-	-
Sulong	+	aŋ³³pru⁵³ ‘rain’; a³¹praŋ⁵⁵ ‘long’; min³³trə⁵⁵ ‘grass’; ɡraŋ⁵³ ‘mountain’; hren⁵⁵ ‘tree’
Bengni	+	krɑ⁵⁵tɕu^{53 ‘}howl’; brər ‘burn’
Bengru	+	brɛ⁵⁵ ‘crevice’; mə³¹braŋ⁵⁵ ‘long’; bra⁵⁵ ‘august’; ŋɡo⁵⁵khren⁵⁵ ‘head’
Cangluo	+	pru⁵⁵ ‘dragon’; phrɑs⁵⁵ ‘frost’; bra⁵⁵ ‘steep cliff’
Prami	+	bruk⁵⁵ ‘thunder’; phrɑs⁵⁵ ‘frost’; prɑ⁵⁵ ‘monkey’; bra⁵¹ ‘golden monkey’
Damu Luoba	+	bren⁵⁵ ‘cloud’; bru⁵⁵ ‘thunder’; brø2³¹ ‘snake’; pra¹² ‘cut’
Chayu Tibetan	+	prɑ³⁵ ‘cut’; phru⁵¹ ‘snatch’; brok³³dʑi⁵³ ‘lightning’; mbreʔ³⁵ ‘twist’
Gongbu Tibetan	-	-
Lasa Tibetan	-	-

Table 5. Retroflex affricate and fricative consonants in languages spoken in southeast Tibet.

Language	With Retroflex Affricate	Examples
Geman	+	tʂoŋ⁵⁵kuo⁵⁵ ‘China’; tʂhəŋ³⁵tsi³¹ ‘orange’; ʂɑu⁵³tsi³¹ ‘whistle’
Darang	+	tʂhɯŋ⁵⁵ ‘decay’; dʐoŋ³¹lu⁵³ ‘basket’
Yidu	+	tʂu⁵⁵brɑ⁵⁵ ‘foam’; tʂhu⁵⁵ ‘run’; i⁵⁵dʐɯ⁵⁵khɯ⁵³ ‘fire pond’; ʂu⁵⁵li⁵⁵ ‘small intestine’
Zha	+	tʂoŋ⁵⁵ ‘swollen’; tʂha⁵⁵ ‘rice’; dʐin⁵⁵ ‘cloud’; ʂu⁵⁵ ‘burn’
Songlin	+	tʂɑ⁵⁵ ‘shear’; tʂhɑ⁵⁵ ‘eagle’; dʐɿ⁵⁵ ‘rub’; ʂʮ⁵⁵ ‘get up’
Suku	+	tʂɑ⁵¹ ‘a meal’; tʂhɑ5 ‘aismantle’; dʐu⁵¹ ‘feather’; ʂa⁵⁵ ‘tear’
Boga’er	+	pɯʼtʂen ‘dove’; tʂoʼma ‘bodhisattva’; ɡiʼtʂu ‘apprentice’; tʂhiʼtɕe ‘machine’
Sulong	+	ʂi⁵⁵ku⁵⁵ ‘paper’; sak⁵⁵tʂa⁵⁵ ‘map’
Bengni	+	namtʂa'a'jo ‘kitchen god’; tʂa'pa ‘Buddhist monk’; laptʂa ‘student’
Bengru	+	ta⁵⁵tʂi⁵⁵ ‘reed’; ʂi⁵⁵khai⁵⁵bua³¹tɕiu⁵³ ‘ride the horse’
Cangluo	+	tʂu5 ‘barley’; tʂhɑp⁵⁵ ‘rein’; dʐɑŋ³⁵ ‘count’
Prami	+	tʂu⁵⁵ ‘barley’; tʂhɑp⁵⁵ ‘rein’; dʐɑŋ³⁵ ‘count’; ʂe⁵⁵mo⁵⁵ ‘yellow weasel’
Damu Luoba	+	tʂø⁵³ ‘plant’; tʂhø⁵³ ‘traction’; ndʐi⁵³ ‘ghost’; ntʂu⁵³ ‘go’
Chayu Tibetan	+	tʂin³¹ ‘cloud’; tʂhu⁵¹ ‘iron’; dʐe³⁵ ‘root’; ɳdʐɛ³⁵ ‘bite’
Gongbu Tibetan	+	tʂu³⁵ ‘pick’; tʂhu⁵¹ ‘wash’; dʐa³⁵ ‘cut’; ɳdʐe⁵⁵ ‘rice’
Lasa Tibetan	+	tʂu¹¹kɛ⁵³ ‘thunder’; tʂho¹¹roŋ⁵³ ‘valley’

Table 6. Distribution of retroflex coda in languages spoken in southeast Tibet.

Language	With Retroflex Coda	Examples
Geman	+	xɑr⁵³kur³⁵ ‘rice’; tshɑr⁵⁵ ‘know’; pɑr⁵³ ‘sentence’
Darang	+	tɕir⁵³ ‘humidity’; ɯm⁵⁵ɕir⁵⁵hɑ⁵⁵rɯŋ⁵³ ‘weather’; ɕi⁵³ɕɯr³¹ ‘result’
Yidu	-	-
Zha	+	khər⁵⁵ ‘excrement’; kor³³zək⁵⁵ ‘intention’; par⁵⁵ ‘appreciate’; phur⁵⁵ ‘contagion’
Songlin	-	-
Suku	-	-
Boga’er	+	taʼkar ‘star’; luŋtɕir ‘typhoon’; pir ‘quantifier for plants’; diʼpur ‘drought’; uʼtɕur ‘stream water’; aʼtər ‘corner’; kərku ‘rattan’; tɯrku ‘walnut’
Sulong	+	ɣər³³mək⁵³ ‘thunder’; par⁵⁵tset³³ ‘sand’; min³³tər⁵³ ‘grass’; a³¹kar⁵⁵ ‘brother’; ɕiər³³tɕiaŋ⁵⁵ ‘wolf’; sər⁵⁵pɯ⁵³ ‘belly’
Bengni	+	taʼkar ‘star’; sər ‘hail’; mərɡu ‘rape’
Bengru	+	khər⁵⁵/khər⁵³ ‘cry’; sir⁵⁵ ‘liquor’; tɕhyr⁵⁵ma⁵⁵ ‘saliva’
Cangluo	+	thɑr⁵⁵ ‘edge’; nir⁵⁵mɑ⁵⁵ ‘wrinkle’; ser⁵⁵pɑ⁵⁵ ‘hail’; sər⁵⁵ ‘gold’; thor⁵⁵ ‘one’; ȵur³⁵ ‘dew’
Prami	+	ɕɑr⁵¹ ‘east’; der³⁵ ‘webbed feet’; sir³⁵ ‘light’; ɡor⁵¹ ‘stone’; zur⁵¹ ‘corner’
Damu Luoba	+	tɛr231 ‘file’; sir⁵³ ‘gold’; ɕyr⁵⁵ ‘whistle’; nor12 ‘cattle’; tɕør⁵⁵ ‘acid’; phur⁵⁵ ‘rub’
Chayu Tibetan	+	ɕer⁵⁵ ‘east’; jɛr³¹ ‘borrow money’; mər¹³ ‘people’; nør³⁵ ‘cattle’
Gongbu Tibetan	+	tar⁵⁵ ‘hit’; jɐr³³su⁵⁵ ‘sunny’; khər⁵⁵tu51 ‘straightforward’; ɕor51 ‘abortion’; tɕur³³ ‘spit’
Lasa Tibetan	+	ŋar⁵⁵lo⁵⁵ ‘previous years’; kar⁵⁵ma⁵⁵ ‘stars’; ser¹¹ra⁵⁵ ‘hail’

Table 7. Distributions of feature E in languages spoken in southeast Tibet.

Language	With the Retroflex Vowel before the Coda	Examples
Geman	-	-
Darang	-	-
Yidu	-	-
Songlin	-	-
Suku	-	-
Boga’er	-	-
Bengru	-	-
Sulong	+	vəʳi⁵⁵ ‘four’; a³¹vaʳᵗ⁵⁵ ‘dry’; waʳᵗ⁵⁵ ‘kill’; heʳn⁵⁵ ‘tree’
Bengni	-	-
Zha	+	məʔ³¹do^rʔ⁵⁵ ‘flower’; ɕi^rʔ³³khu⁵⁵ ‘broth’
Chayu Tibetan	-	-
Gongbu Tibetan	-	-
Lasa Tibetan	-	-

Table 8. Manifestations of the five retroflex features in languages spoken in southeast Tibet *.

	A: r/ʐ Is an Independent Phoneme	B: Cr/ʐ	C: With Retroflex Fricatives	D: With a Retroflex Coda	E: With Retroflex Vowels before the Coda
Geman	+	+	-	+	-
Darang	+	+	+	+	-
Yidu	+	+	+	-	-
Zha	+	+	+	+	+
Songlin	+	+	+	-	-
Suku	+	+	+	-	-
Boga’er	+	-	+	+	-
Sulong	+	+	-	+	+
Bengni	+	+	-	+	-
Bengru	+	+	-	+	-
Cangluo	+	+	+	+	-
Prami	+	+	+	+	-
Damu Luoba	+	+	+	+	-
Chayu Tibetan	+	+	+	+	-
Gongbu Tibetan	+	-	+	+	-
Lasa Tibetan	+	-	+	+	-

* Type C in this table is different from the previous summary. Researchers did not take loanwords into account, so type C in Sulong, Bengni, Bengru and Geman is marked as ‘-’.

Table 9. Distribution of retroflex vowels in Sulong.

Distribution Characteristics	Final Structural Form	Examples
No medial and coda	V^r	ʑa^r55 ‘braised’; ʑə^r33 ‘cloth shoes’
Nucleus with a medial and without a coda	M + V^r	tua⁵⁵ ‘bite’; tɕia⁵³po^r55 ‘corn’
Nucleus without a medial and with a vowel coda	V^r + V_E	vəʳi⁵⁵ ‘four’
Nucleus without a medial and with a nasal coda	V^r + C_NE	heʳn⁵⁵ ‘tree’; a³¹mə^rŋ⁵⁵ ‘low’
Nucleus without a medial and with a stop-consonant coda	V^r + C_CE	səʳʔɕi⁵⁵ ‘character’; a³¹vaʳᵗ⁵⁵ ‘dry’
Nucleus with a medial and a stop-consonant coda	M + V^r + C	piaʳk⁵⁵ ‘gap’; biaʳi⁵³ ‘drought’
Nucleus with a vowel coda and a stop-consonant coda	C + M + V^r + V_E C_CE	ha³¹ɣai⁵³re^rit ‘meteor’

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Wang, Y.; Zhu, Z.; Li, D. The Retroflex Sound of Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet: Feature Floating, Feature Recombination and Its Historical Typological Value. Languages 2023, 8, 159. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030159

AMA Style

Wang Y, Zhu Z, Li D. The Retroflex Sound of Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet: Feature Floating, Feature Recombination and Its Historical Typological Value. Languages. 2023; 8(3):159. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030159

Chicago/Turabian Style

Wang, Yunjia, Ziqiu Zhu, and Daqin Li. 2023. "The Retroflex Sound of Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet: Feature Floating, Feature Recombination and Its Historical Typological Value" Languages 8, no. 3: 159. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030159

APA Style

Wang, Y., Zhu, Z., & Li, D. (2023). The Retroflex Sound of Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet: Feature Floating, Feature Recombination and Its Historical Typological Value. Languages, 8(3), 159. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030159

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The Retroflex Sound of Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet: Feature Floating, Feature Recombination and Its Historical Typological Value

Abstract

1. Introduction

2. Distribution of the Retroflex Feature in the Syllables of Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet

2.1. Overview of Language Spoken in Southeast Tibet and Source of Data

2.2. Five Distributions of the Retroflex Feature in Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet

2.3. Five Distributions of the Retroflex Feature in Different Languages

2.3.1. Feature A in Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet

2.3.2. Feature B in Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet

2.3.3. Feature C in Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet

2.3.4. Feature D in Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet

2.3.5. Feature E in Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet

2.4. Summary

3. Floating of Retroflex Features in Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet—A Case Study of Sulong

3.1. Retroflex Vowels in Sulong

3.2. The Pronunciation Variation of Syllables with the Retroflex Feature in Sulong

3.3. The Blocking Effect of the Coda in the Syllable Structure of Sulong on the Floating of the Retroflex Feature

3.4. Unified Interpretation of the Retroflex Category in Sulong

4. The Historical Typological Value of the Retroflex Feature

4.1. Feature Recombination and the Formation of the Retroflex Stop and Affricate

4.2. Two Retroflex Finals from Different Sources

4.3. Separation and Reconstruction of the Retroflex Feature in the Post Consonant r/l

4.4. Summary

5. Conclusions

Author Contributions

Funding

Institutional Review Board Statement

Informed Consent Statement

Data Availability Statement

Acknowledgments

Conflicts of Interest

Notes

References

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