Preinitials and their development in Horpa and Tangut

Abstract The present article reconstructs the set of preinitial consonants present in Proto-Horpa, the source of contemporary Horpa lects spoken in Sichuan, China. Horpa is a West Gyalrongic subgroup of lects known for its conservative phonology, which is among other things reflected in complex syllable initial consonant clusters. The study establishes nine proto-preinitials (*n-, *m-, *v-, *s-, *z-, *ɣ-, *ʁ-, *l-, *r-) and demonstrates that they have been mostly retained in the analyzed Horpa lects, despite various degrees of lenition and mergers that have occurred across the lects. The ‘Geshizoid’ lects of Central Horpa and the Jiaju-Bawang varieties of Eastern Horpa manifest a shared development in the weakening of the proto-preinitial *ɣ- into w -. On the other hand, both Mazi Stau of Central Horpa and Zhangda Stau of Northwestern Horpa have undergone a merger of the liquid preinitials *l- and *r-, a conditioned sound change not attested in the other investigated Horpa branches. Finally, following the recent hypothesis of Tangut as a Horpa language, the study makes use of the proximity between Tangut and Horpa to reconstruct the Pre-Tangut preinitial system and addresses preinitial development in Tangut, tracking down some of the sound changes that are responsible for rhyme distribution in the language.