Expanding the PAn consonant inventory

Abstract

This paper provides evidence for three Proto Austronesian (PAn) phonemes that are preserved in several distinct languages and subgroups. These include distinctions between *p and *f, *l and *ɭ, and *k and *g. In addition, we assert that there is expanded evidence in Malayo-Polynesian for two currently recognized phonemes: *ʈ (PAn *C) and *c; evidence for the former has been restricted until now to the Formosan languages, and for the latter to a small group of languages in western Indonesia. These contrasts can be found in Nias (one of the Barrier Island languages off the northwest coast of Sumatra), Dohoi (a Northwest Barito subgroup of Borneo), the Western Central Malayo-Polynesian languages of Bimanese, Hawu, Dhao, Western Oceanic, and more sparsely in languages of North Sarawak, the Philippines, and Sumba. The findings presented in this paper highlight the importance of the above languages and subgroups for PAn reconstruction, and the new phonemes presented here are placed within the context of a wider PAn inventory which includes a total of seven places of articulation.