Raokot dialect of Palaung spoken in Yunnan: Phonology and genetic classification
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Abstract
In this paper, the synchronic and diachronic phonology of Raokot dialect of Palaung will be outlined. The main purposes are to present phonological descriptions and to discuss phonological innovations in order to place Raokot into the right sub-group. A 1,000 item wordlist with English, Standard Thai, and Chinese glosses was used for data elicitation. The phonological data was elicited from native speakers of Raokot residing in Cha Ye Qing village, Luxi County, Dehong Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province. The results show that Raokot dialect of Palaung exhibits a phonological pattern of implosivization that seems to be similar to Luce‟s (1965) Ra-ang and Diffloth‟s (1991) Ka-ang. The historical development of Raokot phonology suggests that it shares some characteristics with Rumai and is closer to Rumai than the other three dialects of Palaung spoken in Dehong, Yunnan Liang, Pule, or Raojin. Based on phonological innovations, this study proposes that Raokot should be classified as a sub-dialect of Rumai.
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