Cognates of Old Chinese *-n, *-r, and *-j 
in Tibetan and Burmese

Abstract

Following a suggestion of Starostin (1989), Baxter & Sagart (2011) reconstruct *-n, *-j, and *-r as distinct finals in Old Chinese. These three finals have regular correspondences in Tibetan and Burmese. The Trans-Himalayan proto-language distinguished *-n, *-j, *-r, *-l, and *-rl. Burmese loses *-r and generally loses *-l, except after - u -, where it changes to - y . Tibetan loses *-y and changes *-rl to - l . Chinese changes *-rl to *-r. Because Burmese shows different reflexes for *aj (- ay ) and *əj (> - i ), the merger of *ə and *a in Tibetan and Burmese are independent innovations; and this merger does not confirm a ‘Tibeto-Burman’ subgroup (contra Handel 2008). These correspondences require confirmation through further research on evidence of *-r in the Min dialects and Han dynasty Buddhist transcriptions from Indic languages in Chinese characters.