History
The phones of Luangic-Kisaric continue those of Proto-Malayo-Polynesian according to the following sound changes. In Western Leti, LK */ʔ/ has vanished and LK */a/ from MP *e is manifested as /o/. In Eastern Leti, LK */s/ becomes /h/ and LK */u/ becomes /ɔ/ in the penult before a low vowel.
| Proto-Malayo-Polynesian | Luangic-Kisaric |
|---|---|
| *m | *m |
| *n, *ɲ, *ŋ | *n |
| *t, *Z | *t |
| *k | *ʔ |
| *g | *k |
| *b | *β |
| *z, *d, *D, *R, *r, *j | *r |
| *l | *l, *n |
| *s | *s |
| *w | *w |
| *h, *q, *p, *y | 0 |
| *i, *uy, *ey, *ay | *i |
| *u | *u |
| *e | *e, *a |
| *a, *aw | *a |
Roger Mills suggests that Luangic-Kisaric retained distinct reflexes of PMP *ŋ, on the basis of other languages in the family, and *Z. Moreover, although the status of *Z as a PMP phoneme is unclear — Mills along with John U. Wolff and Robert Blust no longer admit it, realigning it with *z — the Luangic languages have no clear examples of inherited *z, despite numerous examples of *Z > /t/.
Mills explains the metathesis found in consonant-final basis as arising from an original echo vowel added to consonant-final forms, e.g. *kúlit 'skin' > kúliti, after which the original post-tonic vowel was deleted, e.g. yielding kúlti > Leti ulti.
Jonker (1932) was the first full-scale investigation of Leti, based on a native informant and the few 19th-century works on the language then available.
Read more about this topic: Leti Language
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