Article published In:
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman AreaVol. 43:2 (2020) ► pp.292–309
This paper investigates the origin of the causative (CAUS) and simulative (SML) suffix -ter in two varieties of Lai language, Hakha Lai and Falam Chin. It also shows that Proto Central Chin (PCC) full verbs *tiir ‘to send someone to do an errand’ and *der ‘to pretend to’ grammaticalized and merged into the Lai CAUS and SML suffix -ter due to frequency pressure, the first time this type of argument for semantic change is used in Kuki-Chin (KC).