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Mutual predictiveness of sound correspondences for reconstruction and language subgrouping

The case of Gyalrongic preinitials

ORCID logo | Nanyang Technological University | Trinity College Dublin
This paper uses Gyalrongic languages, a conservative branch of Sino-Tibetan, to illustrate a new method to evaluate proto-language reconstructions in general historical linguistics and to conduct exploratory analyses in language phylogeny. It first reconstructs a proto-system of Gyalrongic preinitials and computes and compares the implicative entropies between reconstructed and modern systems. In a second step, Mutual Implicative Entropy (MIE) is used to measure genetic distance between related languages and to generate Neighbornet networks to visualize the subgrouping of Gyalrongic languages. The resulting networks are in agreement with qualitative historical linguistic analyses and allow adjustments to previous subgroupings obtained by Bayesian phylogenetic inference. Thus, this method can be used to detect nuances in lower sub-branches, which are sometimes neglected by lexicon-based methods. Using MIE in historical linguistics is therefore a quick and efficient means of checking the effectiveness of reconstructions and establishing the accurate preliminary shape of language subgrouping.
Keywords: Sino-Tibetan, Gyalrongic languages, Tangut, Khroskyabs, (Mutual) Implicative Entropy, Neighbornet, historical linguistics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Gyalrongic languages
    • 2.1Syllable structure of Gyalrongic languages
    • 2.2Tangut syllable types and transphonologization
  • 3.Reconstruction of the preinitial system
    • 3.1The preinitial system of Proto-Khroskyabs
    • 3.2Correspondences between Proto-Khroskyabs and Tangut
    • 3.3A three-way syllabicity contrast among Proto-Gyalrongic preinitials
      • Overview of preinitial correspondences
      • Reconstruction of syllabicity
      • Reconstruction of articulation types
  • 4.Predictiveness of the reconstructed system using implicative entropy
    • 4.1An overview of implicative entropy
    • 4.2Sound correspondences are implicative
    • 4.3Mutual predictiveness from PPK and Siyuewu to Tangut
      • Mutual implicative entropy
  • 5.Implications of mutual predictiveness for historical linguistics
  • 6.Gyalrongic subgrouping based on MIE of preinitial correspondences
    • 6.1Data presentation
    • 6.2Subgrouping of Gyalrongic languages
    • The position of Tangut in West Gyalrongic
    • Relations among Japhug, Tshobdun and Zbu
    • 6.3MIE of preinitial correspondences
      • Tangut and Horpa
      • Japhug and Tshobdun
    • 6.4Neighbornet networks inferred from MIE
      • Neighbornet networks for Gyalrongic preinitial correspondences
      • Neighbornet networks for Gyalrongic initial correspondences
    • 6.5Test with Sinitic varieties
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
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