A Look at Diachronic Phonological Processes in Inthii Oy

Abstract

This study examines phonological processes from a diachronic view in the understudied West Bahnaric language Oy, Inthii village variety, Attapeu Province, Lao PDR. The paper, based on 1800 lexical entries collected from two speakers, provides an expansion of Sidwell & Jacq’s (2003) phonological sketch of Oy and their observations on its historical development. This study covers lenition of main syllable onsets, diphthongization processes, r/l contrast, development of velar clusters, and nasal minor syllables. The appendix provides phonetic and phonological transcriptions of all entries with English and Lao glosses and links to the recordings.

Keywords

• austroasiatic
• west bahnaric
• oy
• oi
• phonology